Pacific Southwest Research Station

Education

Ph.D., Botany, 1998. University of Florida, Gainesville FL
M.S., Botany, 1992. University of Florida, Gainesville FL
B.A., Biology, 1988. University of California, Santa Cruz CA
A.S., Nursing, 1983. University of Vermont, Burlington VT

Research Interests/Duties

Apply techniques and theory from ecosystem and community ecology to forest management. My recent work has involved linking nutrient retention to rotation length in tropical tree plantations, and unraveling tree-soil relationships in a system in which tree communities are strongly organized along soil calcium gradients. I currently work in mixed-conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada range, where my collaborators and I are studying the effects of management for fuels reduction and timber production on plant communities. Some planned studies involve 1) describing effects of stand restoration treatments on old-growth structural attributes, 2) assessing the growth response of residual old-growth trees in thinned stands with respect to neighborhood composition, and 3) quantifying regeneration requirements for mixed-conifer species and using them to project responses to alternative silvicultural treatments.

Selected Publications

Bigelow, S. W., J. J. Ewel, and J. P. Haggar. 2004. Enhancing nutrient retention in tropical tree plantations: no short cuts. Ecological Applications 14: 28-46.

Harris, G. P., S. W. Bigelow, et al. 2003. The role of models in ecosystem management. In C. D. Canham, J. J. Cole, and W. K. Lauenroth, editors. The Role of Models in Ecosystem Science. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Strayer, D.L., H.A. Ewing, and S.W. Bigelow. 2003 What kinds of spatial and temporal detail are required in models of heterogeneous systems? Oikos 102: 654-662.

Bigelow, S. W., and C. D. Canham. 2002. Community organization of tree species along soil nutrient gradients in a northeastern USA forest. Journal of Ecology 90:188-200.

Bigelow, S. W. 2001. Evapotranspiration modeled from stands of three broad-leaved tropical trees in Costa Rica. Hydrological Processes 15(14): 2779-2796.