FOREST GEOGRAPHY
Fall 2008
GEOGRAPHY 4371
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: T. VEBLEN
OFFICE: GUGGENHEIM 201
OFFICE HOURS: right after lecture at 1:45-2:30; or by appointment (4928528; email veblen@Colorado.Edu)
TEACHING ASSISTANT: Teresa Chapman
email Teresa.Chapman@colorado.edu
OFFICE HOURS: by appointment.
Lecture: Tu Th 12:30 - 1:45, Guggenheim 205
Required text: Kimmins, J.P. 2003. Forest Ecology. 3rd Edition. Macmillan Publishing, NY.
Class Web Page: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_4371_f08/
Prerequisites: introductory courses in physical geography and biology and general ecology.
Note: if you have not had a general course on ecology you should read chapters 4 and 5 of Kimmins as
soon as possible.
Grading: First in-class test
First writing assignment/take home test
Second in-class test
Second writing assignment/take-home final (due 9 a.m., Dec.15)
20%
20%
30%
30%
Note: Make-up exams are not given. If you have to miss a test for a medical or other valid (and
documented) reason, you will be assigned a grade for that test determined by your average grade from
the other tests.
Field trips: Saturday (8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m.) field trips are scheduled as follows:
Trip 1. Sept. 13 — Subalpine forests in the Front Range
Trip 2. Sept. 27 — Montane forests in the Front Range
Additional field trips may be scheduled
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Lecture and Assigned Reading Schedule
Lecture Topic
Assigned Reading
I. Introduction (8/26)
A. Forest dynamics and forest management (8/28)
Kimmins, Ch. 2 & 3
II. Tree autecology
A. The species as an ecological unit (9/2)
Kimmins, Ch. 16 (omit pp. 444-450)
B. The concept of environment (9/4)
Kimmins, Ch. 6 (omit pp. 142-146, 159-166)
C. Solar radiation (9/9)
Kimmins, Ch. 7 (omit sections on animals)
D. Temperature (9/11)
Kimmins, Ch. 8 (omit pp. 220-226)
E. Wind (9/16)
Kimmins, Ch. 9 (omit section on animals)
F. Water (9/18)
Kimmins, Ch. 10 (omit pp. 275-276)
G. Plant nutrients (9/23, 9/30)
Kimmins, Ch. 5 (pages 72-79 and 87-105
only); and Ch. 11 (omit pp. 307-310)
First test: in-class (9/25)
H. Fire (10/2, 10/7)
Kimmins, Ch. 12 (omit pp. 341-345)
I. Introduction to tree ring formation (10/9)
First writing assignment/take-home test due 10/9
III. Forest synecology
A. Population ecology (10/14, 10/16)
Kimmins, Ch. 14 (omit pages 384-394)
B. Species interactions: herbivory (10/21)
C. Plant community concepts (10/23)
Kimmins, Ch. 13
D. Succession and climax concepts (10/28)
Kimmins, Ch. 15
E. Mechanisms of succession and regeneration
(10/31, 11/4, 11/6)
Kimmins, Ch. 17
F. Methods of studying forest dynamics: stand
structure analysis (11/11)
Veblen 1992, pp. 152-187
Second test: in-class (Nov. 13)
IV. Applications of ecological knowledge to forest management
A. Concepts of ecosystem-based management and
Kimmins, Ch. 18 (omit section 18.5), Ch.
historic range of variability; and methods of
19, and Ch. 20 (omit pages 553-563)
HRV (11/18)
Veblen & Donnegan 2005, Ch. 1 and 2
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B. Montane forests in Colorado: autecology and
stand development Ponderosa pine and
Douglas-fir (11/18)
C. Montane forests: bark beetles, budworm and fire
(11/20)
Fall and Thanksgiving break: 11/24-11/28
D. Subalpine forests in Colorado: autecology and
stand development (12/2)
E. Subalpine forests in Colorado: aspen decline, bark
beetles, blowdown, climate change, and fire (12/2,
12/4, 12/9)
F. Synthesis (12/11)
Romme et al. 2003a,b,c
Veblen & Donnegan 2005, Ch. 5.1 (focus
on montane cover types), Simard et al.
2008.
Veblen & Donnegan 2005, Ch. 5.2 and Ch.
6 (focus on montane cover types)
Veblen & Donnegan 2005, Ch. 5.1 (focus
on subalpine cover types)
Veblen & Donnegan 2005, Ch. 4, Ch. 5.2
and Ch. 6 (focus on subalpine cover types),
Romme et al. 2006
Veblen & Donnegan 2005, Ch. 7 and Ch. 8
Second writing assignment/take-home final (due 5
p.m., Dec. 13)
Assigned readings:
Romme, W.H. T.T. Veblen, M.R. Kaufmann, R. Sherriff and C.M. Regan. 2003a. Ecological effects of
the Hayman Fire Part1: Historical (Pre-1860) and current (1860-2002) fire regimes. Pages 181-195 in:
Hayman Fire Case Study Analysis. USDA Forest Service Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-114.
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr114.pdf
Romme, W.H., M.R. Kaufmann, T.T. Veblen, R. Sherriff and C.M. Regan. 2003b. Ecological effects of
the Hayman Fire Part 2: Historical (Pre-1860) and current (1860-2002) forest and landscape structure.
Pages 196-203 in: Hayman Fire Case Study Analysis. USDA Forest Service Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR114. http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr114.pdf
Romme, W.H., C.M. Regan, M.R. Kaufmann, L. Huckaby, and T.T. Veblen. 2003c. Forest succession.
Pages 220-227 in: Hayman Fire Case Study Analysis. USDA Forest Service Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR114. http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr114.pdf
Romme, W.H., J. Clement, J. Hicke, D. Kulakowski, L.H. MacDonald, T.L. Schoennagel, and T.T.
Veblen. 2006. Recent forest insect outbreaks and fire risk in Colorado forests: A brief synthesis of
relevant research. Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, Report, 24 pp. Fort Collins, CO.
http://www.cfri.colostate.edu/docs/cfri_insect.pdf
Simard, M., E.N. Powell, J.M. Griffin, K.F. Raffa, and M.G. Turner. 2008. Annotated bibliography for
forest managers on fire bark-beetle interactions. Report to USDA Forest Service Western Wildlands
Environmental Threats Assessment Center.
http://www.fs.fed.us/wwetac/publications/WWETAC_Fire-BB_InterX_25Feb2008.pdf
Veblen, T.T. 1992. Regeneration dynamics. Pp. 152-187 in D.C. Glenn-Lewin, R.K. Peet, and T.T.
Veblen. Plant Succession: Theory and Prediction. Chapman and Hall, London. See class page for pdf.
Veblen, T.T. and J.A. Donnegan (2005). Historical range of variability assessment for forest vegetation
of the national forests of the Colorado Front Range. Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and USDA
Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region. http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/projects/scp/tea/HRVFrontRange.pdf
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Supplemental readings (available through the Science library e-journals):
Baker, W.L., T.T. Veblen and R.L. Sherriff. 2007. Fire, fuels, and restoration of ponderosa pineDouglas-fir forests in the Rocky Mountains, USA. Journal of Biogeography. 34:251-269.
Bebi, P., D. Kulakowski, and T.T. Veblen. 2003. Interactions between fire and spruce beetle in a
subalpine Rocky Mountain forest landscape. Ecology 84:362-371.
Bigler, C., D. Kulakowski, and T. T. Veblen. 2005. Multiple disturbance interactions and
drought influence fire severity in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests. Ecology 86:3018-3029.
Bigler, C., D. G. Gavin, C. Gunning and T. T. Veblen. 2007. Drought induces lagged tree mortality in a
subalpine forest in the Rocky Mountains. Oikos 116:1983-1994.
Kitzberger, T., P. M. Brown, E. K. Heyerdahl, T. W. Swetnam, and T. T. Veblen. 2007.
Contingent Pacific-Atlantic Ocean influence on multi-century wildfire
synchrony over western North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
104:543-548.
Kulakowski, D. and T.T. Veblen. 2002. Influences of fire history and topography on the pattern of a
severe wind blowdown in a Colorado subalpine forest. Journal of Ecology 90:806-819.
Kulakowski, D., T.T. Veblen and S. Drinkwater. 2004. The persistence of quaking aspen (Populus
tremuloides) in the Grand Mesa area, Colorado. Ecological Applications 14: 1603-1614.
Kulakowski, D., T.T. Veblen, and B. League. 2006. Influences of infrequent fire, elevation and pre-fire
vegetation on the persistence of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) in the Flat Tops
area, Colorado. Journal of Biogeography 33:1397-1413.
Kulakowski, D. and T.T. Veblen. 2007. Effect of prior disturbances on the extent and severity of a
2002 wildfire in Colorado subalpine forests. Ecology 88:759-69.
Kurzel, B.P., T.T. Veblen and D. Kulakowski. 2007. A typology of stand structure and dynamics of
Quaking aspen in northwestern Colorado. Forest Ecology and Management 252:176-190.
League, K. and T.T. Veblen. 2006. Climatic variability and episodic Pinus ponderosa establishment
along the forest-grassland ecotones of Colorado. Forest Ecology and Management 228:98-107.
Platt, R.V., T.T. Veblen, R.S. Sherriff. 2006. Are wildfire mitigation and restoration of historic forest
structure compatible? A spatial modeling assessment. Annals of the Assoc. of Am.
Geographers96:455-470.
Rebertus, A.J., T.T. Veblen, L.M. Roovers, and J.N. Mast. 1992. Structure and dynamics of old-growth
Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir in Colorado. Pp. 139-153 in USDA For. Serv. GTR RM-213.
Schoennagel, T.L., T.T. Veblen and W.H. Romme. 2004. The interaction of fire, fuels and climate
across Rocky Mountain forests. BioScience 54: 661-676.
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Schoennagel, T.L., T.T. Veblen, W.H. Romme, J.S. Sibold, E.R. Cook. 2005. ENSO and PDO
variability affect drought-induced fire occurrence in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests.
Ecological Applications 15:2000-2014.
Schoennagel, T., T.T. Veblen, D. Kulakowski, and A. Holz. 2007. Multidecadal climate variability and
interactions among Pacific and Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies affect subalpine fire
occurrence, western Colorado (USA). Ecology 88:2891-2902.
Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen. 2006. Ecological effects of changes in fire regimes in Pinus ponderosa
ecosystems in the Colorado Front Range. Journal of Vegetation Science.17:705-718.
Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen. 2007. A spatially-explicit reconstruction of historical fire occurrence in
the ponderosa pine zone of the Colorado Front Range. Ecosystems 9:1342-1347.
Sherriff, R.L. and T.T. Veblen. 2008. Variability in fire-climate relationships in ponderosa pine forests in
the Colorado Front Range. International Journal of Wildland Fire 17:50-59.
Sibold, J.S., T.T. Veblen and M.E. Gonzalez. 2006. Spatial and temporal variation in historic fire
regimes in subalpine forests across the Colorado Front Range in Rocky Mountain National
Park. Journal of Biogeography 32: 631-647.
Sibold, J.S. and T.T. Veblen. 2006. Relationships of subalpine forest fires in the Colorado Front Range
to interannual and multi-decadal scale climatic variation. Journal of Biogeography 33:833-842.
Sibold, J.S., T. T. Veblen, K. Chipko, L. Lawson, E. Mathis, and J. Scott. 2007. Influences of surface
fire, mountain pine beetle, and blowdown on lodgepole pine stand development in the northern
Colorado Front Range. Ecological Applications 17:1638-1655.
Veblen, T.T. 1986. Treefalls and the coexistence of conifers in subalpine forests of the central Rockies.
Ecology 67: 644-649.
Veblen, T.T. 1989. K.S. Hadley, M.S. Reid, A.J. Rebertus. Blowdown and stand development in a
Colorado subalpine forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 19: 1218-25.
Veblen, T.T., K.S. Hadley, M.S. Reid, and A.J. Rebertus. 1991. The response of subalpine forests to
spruce beetle outbreak in Colorado. Ecology 72: 213-231.
Veblen, T.T., K.S. Hadley, E.M. Nel, T. Kitzberger, M. Reid, and R. Villalba. 1994. Disturbance regime
and disturbance interactions in a Rocky Mountain subalpine forest. Journal of Ecology 82:125135.
Veblen, T.T., T. Kitzberger and J. Donnegan. 2000. Climatic and human influences on fire regimes in
ponderosa pine forests in the Colorado Front Range. Ecological Applications 10:1178-1195.
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