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Elaine Kennedy Sutherland
Research Biologist and Project Leader
PO Box 8089
Missoula, MT 59807
Ph: 406/542-4169
FAX: 406/543-2663
Email: esutherland@fs.fed.us
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Professional information:
Elaine Kennedy Sutherland has been Project Leader of RM-4151
"Ecology and Management of Northern Rocky Mountain Forests"
since 1999. In her present position she both administers the
research unit and performs research on disturbance history of
riparian vegetation in western Montana.
Research interests:
- Using tree-ring analysis to understand the history of disturbance
- Using tree-ring analysis to understand how disturbance (fire,
air pollution) affects tree biology
- Relationship between disturbance and forest community dynamics
- Adaptations of tree species to disturbance
- Application of prescribed burning in forest community restoration
- Modeling tree regeneration
Education:
PhD. 1989. University
of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, Department of Watershed Management,
and Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.
M.S. 1983. University
of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, Department of Geosciences, and Laboratory
of Tree-Ring Research.
B.A. 1978. University
of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, Department of Environmental
Sciences.
Visiting student, Oct. 1976 - June
1977. Sussex University, Falmer, Sussex, England,
Chemistry Department, Environmental Sciences program.
Professional history:
Sutherland has worked in Southwestern, Intermountain Western,
Northwestern, and Eastern Hardwood forests of North America.
As a graduate student, her research focused on effects of fire
exclusion and prescribed burning on ponderosa pine growth. As
a Postdoctoral Scientist with Native Plants Inc. (Salt Lake City,
Utah), she evaluated long-term physiological and growth effects
of sulphur dioxide pollution on trees. She became a Research
Ecologist in 1992 with the Northeastern Research Station (US
Forest Service) in Delaware, Ohio, developing fire histories
of oaks in southern Ohio, and investigating characteristics of
fire-caused injury in hardwood trees. She accepted her present
position in 1999.
Ongoing projects:
- Characterizing disturbance regimes
in riparian zones of Western Montana. (2000-2004)
Evidence is accumulating that riparian areas and fish habitat
may degrade in the absence of all disturbance, such as fire.
We (Dr. M.K. Young, Dr. E. Heyerdahl, and Sutherland) are evaluating
how disturbance processes and time-since-disturbance alter streamside
and stream characteristics, and ultimately, fish habitat. Sutherland
is developing information on age structure of the riparian forest
and uplands, to evaluate disturbance regimes; she is also leading
the effort to characterize riparian vegetation. This information
will provide the scientific basis for riparian habitat management
plans.
- How do trees resist fire-caused
injury and restore function following injury? (1997-
present) Some trees species are more susceptible to fire-caused
injury than others, but the characteristics of injuries and response
following injury need to be characterized and quantified. We
(Dr. K.T. Smith and Sutherland) are characterizing fire-caused
injuries in eastern hardwood tree species, and plan to continue
this work in the northern Rocky Mountains in 2002.
- Fire histories of oak forests in
southern Ohio. Sutherland collected Crossections from
twelve recently logged sites in southern Ohio, and is evaluating
the history of fire within and among those sites. Indications
are that fire occurred frequently (4-7 year return interval)
and played an important role in community dynamics of oak forests.
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/4153/em/em.html
- Use of prescribed burning to restore
mixed-oak forests of southern Ohio. (1994-present)
Oak forests in eastern North America are fire-dependent. Resistant
to fire effects and resilient to injury and topkill, they are
at a competitive disadvantage when fire is suppressed. Sutherland
led a large interdisciplinary team in designing a prescribed
burning experiment to restore oak compositional and structural
dominance in the understory, and to evaluate those treatments
in the context of the vegetation community, arthropods, birds,
and soil dynamics over the landscape.
- Fire regimes and successional dynamics
of yellow pine (Pinus) stands in the central Appalachian Mountains.
(proposal to Joint Fire Sciences Plan 10/15/01 with Drs. C. Lafon
and H. Grissino-Mayer). There is recent understanding of the
significance of fire as a disturbance process in the central
Appalachians. Regeneration and community stability of yellow
pines are dependent on fire, but there is little information
about the fire regimes of these systems. We propose to perform
fire-scar history analysis yellow pines and oaks in drainage
basins of southwestern Virginia, using a systematic grid sampling
approach.
Publications:
See list
Teaching experience:
Sutherland taught graduate courses at the University of Utah
in Introductory and Advanced Dendrochronology, and Fire Ecology
at Ohio State University and has taught at the North American
Dendroecological Fieldweek four times since 1990. She is affiliate
faculty at the University of Montana. She enjoys teaching children
about tree-ring analysis and fire in occasional environmental
education classes.
Professional affiliations:
Last update: October 25, 2001
RM-4151
"Ecology and Management of Northern Rocky Mountain Forests"
