Brian Harvey

CV (pdf)

Position

PhD student

Research Interests

Landscape ecology, biogeography, plant ecology, forest disturbance ecology, fire ecology, vegetation succession, natural resource management, dendroecology, remote sensing, GIS, spatial analysis.

Current Projects

My dissertation research is focused on two major frontiers in disturbance and landscape ecology: changing disturbance regimes and disturbance interactions. Specifically, I am examining how two climate-driven disturbances (native bark beetles and wildfire) may lead to regional changes in western North American forest ecosystems. I am combining empirical field data with remote sensing and spatial analysis to answer the following research questions:

• How does the severity of recent bark beetle outbreaks relate to subsequent forest fire severity in contrasting conifer forests of the Northern Rocky Mountains, USA?
• Do bark beetle outbreaks and fire interact in compound ways to influence postfire tree regeneration, producing alternative succesional trajectories in forest development?
• How are the spatial patterns of wildfire severity changing in the Northern Rockies during a period of warming climate and increasing wildfire? View PDF of research proposal funded by the Joint Fire Science Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) program.
• How will different conifer species of the Northern Rockies vary in their response to changes in spatial heterogeneity of burn severity, and where are transitions to non-forest likely under future climate and disturbance regimes.

This research is part of the following current projects in the Turner Lab

Climate change and disturbance regimes

Bark beetles, fire and salvage logging in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Selected Publications

Harvey, B.J., Donato, D.C., Romme, W.H., Turner, M.G. 2013. Influence of recent bark beetle outbreak on fire severity and post-fire tree regeneration in montane Douglas-fir forests. Ecology (in press).

Donato, D.C., Simard, M., Romme, W.H., Harvey, B.J., Turner, M.G. 2013. Evaluating post-outbreak management effects on future fuel profiles and stand structure in bark beetle-impacted forests of Greater Yellowstone. Forest Ecology and Management (in press).

Harvey, B.J., Holzman, B.A. 2013. Divergent successional pathways of stand development following fire in a California closed-cone pine forest. Journal of Vegetation Science, doi: 10.1111/jvs.12073

Donato, D.C., Harvey, B.J., Romme, W.H., Simard, M., Turner, M.G. 2013. Bark beetle effects on fuel profiles across a range of stand structures in Douglas-fir forests of Greater Yellowstone, USA. Ecological Applications 23(1): 3-20.

Harvey, B.J., Holzman, B.A, Davis, J.D. 2011. Spatial variability in stand structure and density-dependent mortality in newly established post-fire stands of a California closed-cone pine forest. Forest Ecology and Management 262(11): 2042-2051.

Personal Interests

Traveling, hiking, skiing, listening to and playing music, insane road trips, eating (especially Mexican food and PB and J – separately of course!)

Contact Information

434 Birge Hall
430 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Lab phone: (608) 265-8001
e-mail: bjharvey @ wisc.edu