Bob Shriver
Plant Ecologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno
- New paper on post-fire seeding led by Martin Genova! Martin was co-advised by @dendromecon27.bsky.social and I.
- Our new MS on post-fire seeding is out! It turns out post-fire seeding at higher rates than typically used, and over multiple years gives a much greater chance of seeing success in dryland areas. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
- Writeup about Daniel and I's new project looking at traits and demography in western forests!
- Congrats to BSA member Daniel Laughlin! UW botany professor awarded NSF grant to study drought and fire in western forests www.thefencepost.com/news/uw-bota...
- Join the Laughlin lab and our new NSF funded project! Awesome opportunity to visit forests across the western US and examine the functional basis of demographic responses to drought and wildfire.
- Great PhD opportunity with an excellent supervisor: Quantify traits of tree species across the western US to determine how tree populations and forest communities will respond to drought and fire. plant-traits.net/lab-openings/
- New paper led by PhD student Elise Pletcher! Forecasts from simple, density-dependent population models are highly transferable to new sites. Adding env. covariates does little to improve prediction in-sample and worsens forecasts out-of-sample. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
- A nice summary from Nevada Today of our recent paper on Pinyon-Juniper woodland dynamics in @pnas.org. Check it out! www.unr.edu/nevada-today...
- Why has woody plant density been increasing in dryland ecosystems? In a new paper in @pnas.org we show that increasing tree density in pinyon-juniper woodlands could largely be a result of long-term population growth, rather than recent anthropogenic effects. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- We use age structure data from PJ populations across the western US. All of these populations are dominated by young trees. But using simple population models, we show that observed increases in tree establishment are highly predictable using pre-1800 tree establishment rates.
- Our results have broader implications for how we interpret forest and woodland histories. Stand age data are the net result of multiple processes: establishment rates, survival rates, and total population size. Interpreting stand histories from these datasets requires accounting for these processes.
- Finally, and importantly, we show the pattern we observe in PJ woodlands does not apply everywhere. Using a dataset from a ponderosa pine ecosystem in AZ, we show that unlike PJ there is clear evidence of increasing establishment rates associated with fire exclusion in this system.
- Our department at the University of Nevada is looking for a Chair to help lead us into the future! We are young and very research active applied ecology and environmental science department. Come join us!
- Realized I somehow forgot to include the link to the position. Here it is: nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UNR-external...
- Research on a Tahoe endemic alpine plant led by M.S. student Sage Ellis was featured in the Sierra Sun. Sage just defended her thesis! Check it out more about her research here: www.sierrasun.com/news/tahoe-d...
- @jblaszczak.bsky.social and I are recruiting a postdoc in quantitative ecology to model the population and community dynamics of benthic algal communities. Come join us in the beautiful eastern Sierra and Great Basin! Please share! More details here: nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UNR-external...
- For folks in the Reno area interested in Pinyon-Juniper, the BLM is holding a workshop on PJ ecology and management in early May. I, along with other researchers, will be presenting. You can register here: www.blm.gov/workshop-man...
- This is coming out of the recent old-growth forest report by the DOI and USDA, which found that PJ was the most widespread remaining old-growth forest type in the US
- @jblaszczak.bsky.social and I are looking for a postdoc to work with us on developing models to predict and explain harmful algal blooms in rivers. Come work with us on developing cool models with diverse datasets! More details here: bit.ly/3MfqY4C
- Reno is a wonderful place to live with an incredible diversity of landscapes very nearby!
