Joy Nystrom Mast, a professor in the department of Geography and Earth Science, was awarded a two-year, $192,000 National Science Foundation grant to research post-crown fire recovery during droughts. Rachel Messenger, ‘09, Alexandra Matzinger, ‘11, Joel Brunner, ‘09, and Matt Oskielunas, ‘08 are assisting Professor Mast with the research this summer. During June the gathered data at the Santa Fe and Gila National Forests in New Mexico. After returning to Carthage, Professor Mast and her students continued the research in the tree ring lab in David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Natural and Social Sciences.

This study advances biogeographical and ecological theory by examining successional dynamics in extreme climate conditions under a human-altered fire regime in ponderosa pine forests of the American Southwest. The research questions whether the regional pine forest can persist in the unprecedented conditions of a novel fire regime combined with extreme climate conditions and focuses on the role of climate in limiting pine recovery after severe fire, by examining tree recruitment after high-severity crown fires that burned New Mexico forests in the drought that prevailed in the 1940-50s. The absence of abundant precipitation during the study period allows us to separate and quantify the influence of the post-fire environment from climate effects, using the tools of tree-ring reconstructed climate and water budget models.

The objectives of this project are to determine whether ponderosa pine trees in the Southwest can successfully recover from anthropogenic high-severity fires during drought conditions; develop a database of post-high-severity fire establishment processes influencing ponderosa pine recruitment during droughts in order to test biogeographical hypotheses; predict post-disturbance forest dynamics under future climate scenarios, including the potential for recovery following high-severity fires during deeper or longer droughts in a warming climate scenario; and provide guidelines for resource managers to improve strategies that can bring an important regional forest within natural ranges of variability.

This work provides critical insights to managing forest recovery after crown fires in future droughts. The project is also designed to train undergraduates from Carthage College, an undergraduate institution, in geographic fieldwork, dendroecology laboratory skills, and climate modeling through direct hands-on experience, class projects, and senior theses.