Current Research
How climate change, management, and feedbacks influence forest and fire dynamics in the western United States
Catastrophic fire is a growing problem globally and in the continental western U.S. With increasing climate change, the size and severity of western U.S. fire are predicted to also increase. As part of the Western Forest and Fire Resilience Collaborative, I am working to understand how different forest management actions will impact ecosystem processes, fire risk, and biodiversity. Much of this work involves simulation modeling of management scenarios, informed by current on-the-ground management practices, across multiple future climate scenarios at the scale of the continental western U.S., using a dynamically-coupled forest and fire model. Publications from this work: Hall J, Sandor ME, Harvey BJ, Parks S, Trugman A, Williams AP, Hansen WD. Forest carbon storage in the western United States: distribution, drivers, and trends. In review. |
Assessing the implications of changing fuels and fire regimes on management and resiliency in the Sonoran Desert
Numerous threatened and endangered species reside in the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States. The Sonoran Desert is not a fire-adapted system, but recent decades have seen an increase in the frequency and areal extent of fires due to invasion by non-native grasses and forbs and extreme drought caused by climate change. Using an ecological fire risk assessment along with social surveys of public, federal, state, and tribal land managers, I determined how social factors like management practices determine the socio-ecological resilience and adaptive capacity of the Sonoran Desert to fire. I am currently working with an undergraduate student at Columbia University to determine how climatic and socioeconomic factors impact the abundance of buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris), and therefore fire risk, across the Sonoran Desert. |
Publications from this work:
Aslan CE, Sandor ME, Sample M, Stortz S, Souther S, Levine C, Samberg L, Gray M, Dickson B. 2021. Estimating social-ecological fire resilience across an arid region. Ecological Applications. DOI: 10.1002/eap.2303. Popular Press: Tucson Weekly. Beal, M. 2021. “Summer Invaders: Increased fire risk threatens all inhabitants of the Sonoran Desert” Aslan CE, Souther S, Stortz S, Sample M, Sandor ME, Levine C, Samberg L, Gray M, Dickson B. 2020. Land management objectives and activities in the face of projected fire regime change in the Sonoran Desert. Journal of Environmental Management. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111644. |
The impact of non-native predators on pollinators and native plant reproduction in a Hawaiian dryland ecosystem
Hawai’i is home to a diverse array of native and endangered plants. It is also home to many invasive species, among them rats, mice, wasps, and ants, all of which are predators of native and non-native pollinator species. Many Hawaiian plants depend on these pollinators for reproduction, and reduced abundances of pollinators due to increased predation by invasive species could affect plant populations. I modeled the tri-trophic interactions between invasive predator species, pollinators, and native plants as well as the impact of these invasive predator species on pollination networks. |
Publications from this work:
Liang CT, Shiels AB, Haines WP, Sandor ME, Aslan CE. 2022. Invasive predators affect community-wide pollinator visitation. Ecological Applications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2522 |
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Publications from this work:
Sandor ME, Tingley MW, Elphick CS. 2024. The spatial scaling of mutualistic network diversity. Environmental Research: Ecology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/ad1f4a Sandor ME, Elphick CS, Tingley MW. 2022. Extinction of biotic interactions due to habitat loss could accelerate the current biodiversity crisis. Ecological Applications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2608 Sandor ME, Aslan CE, Pejchar L, Bronstein JL. 2021. Predicting the effects of climate change on fruiting phenology. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. DOI: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.752110/full |
Past Research
Resident bird use of fruiting plants through winter in ConnecticutI studied how birds use fruiting plants as food resources through the winter in Connecticut. The goals of this project were to track the resident winter bird use of native berry-producing plants within IBA habitat and determine which plant species are most heavily used by birds. With the results of these objectives, the IBA habitat can be managed by planting native species that attract birds and are favored above invasive species.
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