Global Change and Forest Soils Cultivating Stewardship of a Finite Natural Resource

Dr. Busse is a research soil scientist with the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, in Davis, California. Matt received his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in Soil Microbiology and his research for the past 15 years has focused on soil carbon storage and flux, herbicide toxicity to soil organisms, and soil heat transfer in managed forests of North America and Europe. During this time he served as Leader for the Water, Air, and Soil research team. His estimates of soil heating maxima and duration are used by forest managers and fire scientists for predicting changes in soil quality and plant recovery following burning for fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration purposes. He is an active contributor to the North American Long-term Soil Productivity Study, helping increase knowledge of soil carbon and nutrient turnover following forest harvesting. Prior to this, his work focused on symbiotic nitrogen fixation and microbial ecology in agricultural and forested systems. His long-standing interest in human-associated impacts on global forest soils expanded while co-teaching Forests and Society for 10 years with members of the Land, Air, and Water Resources department at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Giardina received his BS in Zoology from Duke University, his MA in Religious Studies from Iliff School of Theology, his MS in Forestry from Colorado State University, and his PhD in Biology from University of Denver. Christian has been a research scientist with the USDA Forest Service since 2002 – serving in Houghton, Michigan where he worked in the belowground processes unit of the Northern Research Station, and then in Hilo, Hawaii, where he continues to work at the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry. His research focuses on carbon cycling in tropical ecosystems, with a focus on understanding the response of tropical forests to disturbance, including fire and invasions, and to climate change, including warming and drought. He also leads research on tropical forest restoration and the development of cost-effective strategies for community based resource stewardship. He led the recently completed Hawaii Carbon Assessment, a statewide effort supporting a congressionally mandated US inventory of current and future ecosystem carbon stocks. He also serves on the Hawaii Greenhouse Gas and Emissions Reductions Task Force, which was established to develop a comprehensive strategy for achieving a carbon neutral Hawaii by 2045.

Dr. Morris received both his BScF and MScF from Lakehead University and his PhD from the University of Guelph in Environmental Biology. Dave has been a research scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry since 1986, and is currently the Stand Ecology Program Leader at the Centre for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research in Thunder Bay, ON. His research program focuses on nutrient cycling in boreal systems, with particular emphasis on evaluating the impacts of forest disturbance, including biomass harvesting systems, on stand structural development, stand nutrition, and productivity. His research has been instrumental in the development of Ontario’s forest management guidelines with respect to biofibre harvest, with ongoing research efforts designed to evaluate the effectiveness of these guidelines within an adaptive management framework.

Dr. Page-Dumroese received her BSc in Natural Resource Management from Grand Valley State University, her MSc in Forest Soils from Michigan Technological University, and her PhD in Forest Soils from the University of Idaho. Debbie has been a Research Soil Scientist with the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station since 1988. She is the lead coordinator for the North American Long-Term Soil Productivity study which integrates forest responses with soil impacts. She also leads a national effort on the use biochar on forest, range, and mine sites to restore soil processes and hydrologic function. Her research on soil disturbance resulted in the development of a soil monitoring protocol now used by Forest Service land managers across the country.