Fire Ecology Program
Research
The Fire Ecology Program conducts research to understand the natural history, composition, and ecological function of native plant communities with the goal of guiding sustainable land management with an emphasis on the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain. Research includes:
- Effects of fire return interval on plant community composition, plant population dynamics, woody plant resprouting, and soil microbial and chemical composition
- Soil disturbance effects on native plant and microbial communities and their post-disturbance recovery
- Ecosystem services provided by pine savanna restoration
- Plant species composition and classification of Coastal Plain plant communities
- Long-term forest population dynamics, including on the Wade Tract
old-growth longleaf pine preserve and other long-term study sites - Population biology of herbaceous and woody plant species in response to frequent fire
- Remote sensing of burned area and natural community types
- Prescribed fire emissions
- Fire behavior modeling
- History of human and lightning-initiated fire through tree-ring research
Prescribed fire on the Wade Tract old-growth longleaf pine easement.
Interns Jamie Peeler and Michael Porter conducting the biennial Woodyard Hammock old-growth beech-magnolia forest census
Hypoxis juncea (fringed yellow star grass) flowering in response to a prescribed burn on the Wade Tract old-growth longleaf pine forest preserve.
Section of longleaf pine with fire scars showing the history of fire on the Buffer Preserve near the Florida coast. (Photo by Jean Huffman)
