Current Research

As lead research technician and site superintendent at the Silas Little Experimental Forest, my work involves providing a range of technical support for the the Northern Research Station's Climate, Fire, and Carbon Cycle Sciences projects based in the New Jersey Pinelands. These studies are typically focused on the development of techniques to quantify physical and functional impacts of forest disturbances, such as those caused by wildfire and invasive insect outbreaks, and analyze long-term and spatial variability of forest change. Current studies I am involved with include:

-Monitoring recovery of ecosystem function following gypsy-moth caterpillar defoliations
-Long-term monitoring of ecosystem carbon flux with eddy covariance towers and long-term forest census plots
-Evaluation of treatment effectiveness at reducing hazardous fuels
-Assessment of seasonal variation in pitch pine foliage flammability
-Calibration of Landsat imagery to monitor temporal and spatial variation in fire effects in the New Jersey Pinelands
-Development of allometric equations for pitch pine
-Monitoring of hazardous fuel production and vegetation regeneration in stands heavily impacted by southern pine beetle outbreaks
-Assessment of wildfire ember production and ember transport

Research Interests

-Wildland fire effects and risk mitigation
-Remote sensing using LiDAR and Landsat imagery
-Forest fluxes and cycles
-Forest disturbances

Past Research

Before working for the US Forest Service I worked as a technician in the Rutgers Urban Forestry lab in New Brunswick, New Jersey on research related to tree function and structure in urban settings.  My primary focus while in the lab was to conduct a study using MRI imaging software to process sequential imagery of branch cross-sections to quantify decay in urban trees from standard hazard reduction pruning cuts.  I also assisted the lab in comparing birch samara sizes, using spatial analysis software to measure variation in samara surface area at sites with varying degrees of heavy metal contamination.

Why This Research is Important

Studying the effects of disturbances on forests is critically important as climate change, pest outbreaks, and disease increasingly impact the ecological benefits, natural resources, and climate moderating values that our forests provide. By conducting studies that improve our ability to rapidly quantify change in forests and forest function, we are able to inform forest managers and landscape planners of how to best triage and address forest health problems, understand long term tragectories for forest health and function under contrasting management and disturbance scenarios, and adapt their current management strategies to most efficiently manage our forests for sustained ecosystem service and natural resource benefits under challenging future scenarios.

Professional Organizations

• New Jersey Forestry Association, Member (2013 - Current)
• Society of American Foresters, Committee Member (2013 - Current)
  NJ Division Science and Technology Advisory Committee and Programs Committee
• Ecological Society of America, Student Member (2011 - Current)
• International Association of Wildland Fire, Student Member (2011 - Current)

Featured Publications & Products

• Skowronski, Nicholas S.; Clark, Kenneth L.; Gallagher, Michael; Birdsey, Richard A.; Hom, John L. 2014. Airborne laser scanner-assisted estimation of aboveground biomass change in a temperate oak-pine forest.
• Mueller, Eric; Skowronski, Nicholas; Simeoni, Albert; Clark, Kenneth; Kremens, Robert; Mell, William; Gallagher, Michael; Thomas, Jan; Filkov, Alexander; Houssami, Mohamad El; Hom, John; Butler, Bret. 2014. Fuel treatment effectiveness in reducing fire intensity and spread rate - An experimental overview.
• Kiefer, Michael T.; Heilman, Warren E.; Zhong, Shiyuan; Charney, Joseph J.; Bian, Xindi; Skowronski, Nicholas S.; Hom, John L.; Clark, Kenneth L.; Patterson, Matthew; Gallagher, Michael R. 2014. Multiscale simulation of a prescribed fire event in the New Jersey Pine Barrens using ARPS-CANOPY.
• Clark, Kenneth L.; Skowronski, Nicholas; Gallagher, Michael; Renninger, Hedi; Schafer, Karina. 2012. Effects of invasive insects and fire on energy exchange and evapotranspiration in the New Jersey pine lands.
• Kiefer, Michael T.; Heilman, Warren E.; Zhong, Shiyuan; Charney, Joseph J.; Bian, X.; Shadbolt, Ryan P.; Hom, John; Clark, Kenneth; Skowronski, Nicholas; Gallagher, Michael; Patterson, Matthew. 2011. Development of a fine scale smoke dispersion modeling system. Part II: Case study of a prescribed burn in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Publications

• Clark, Kenneth L.; Renninger, Heidi J.; Skowronski, Nicholas; Gallagher, Michael; Schäfer, Karina V.R. . 2018. Decadal-Scale Reduction in Forest Net Ecosystem Production Following Insect Defoliation Contrasts with Short-Term Impacts of Prescribed Fires.
• Mueller, Eric V; Skowronski, Nicholas ; Thomas, Jan C.; Clark, Kenneth ; Gallagher, Michael R.; Hadden, Rory ; Mell, William ; Simeoni, Albert . 2018. Local measurements of wildland fire dynamics in a field-scale experiment.
• Simeoni, Albert; Owens, Zachary C.; Christiansen, Erik W.; Kemal, Abid; Gallagher, Michael; Clark, Kenneth L.; Skowronski, Nicholas; Mueller, Eric V.; Thomas, Jan C.; Santamaria, Simon; Hadden, Rory M. 2017. A preliminary study of wildland fire pattern indicator reliability following an experimental fire.
• Heilman, Warren E.; Bian, Xindi; Clark, Kenneth L.; Skowronski, Nicholas S.; Hom, John L.; Gallagher, Michael R. 2017. Atmospheric turbulence observations in the vicinity of surface fires in forested environments.
• Warner, Timothy A.; Skowronski, Nicholas S.; Gallagher, Michael R. 2017. High spatial resolution burn severity mapping of the New Jersey Pine Barrens with WorldView-3 near-infrared and shortwave infrared imagery.
• Thomas, Jan C.; Mueller, Eric V.; Santamaria, Simon; Gallagher, Michael; El Houssami, Mohamad; Filkov, Alexander; Clark, Kenneth; Skowronski, Nicholas; Hadden, Rory M.; Mell, William; Simeoni, Albert. 2017. Investigation of firebrand generation from an experimental fire: Development of a reliable data collection methodology.
• ​Clark, Kenneth L.; Gallagher, Michael; Heilman, Warren E.; Skowronski, Nicholas; Mueller, Eric; Simeoni, Albert. 2017. Relationships between firing pattern, fuel consumption, and turbulence and energy exchange during prescribed fires.
• Mueller, Eric V.; Skowronski, Nicholas; Clark, Kenneth; Gallagher, Michael; Kremens, Robert; Thomas, Jan C.; El Houssami, Mohamad; Filkov, Alexander; Hadden, Rory M.; Mell, William; Simeoni, Albert. 2017. Utilization of remote sensing techniques for the quantification of fire behavior in two pine stands.
• El Houssami, Mohamad; Mueller, Eric; Filkov, Alexander; Thomas, Jan C; Skowronski, Nicholas; Gallagher, Michael R; Clark, Ken; Kremens, Robert; Simeoni, Albert. 2016. Experimental procedures characterizing firebrand generation in wildland fires.
• Clark, Kenneth L.; Skowronski, Nicholas; Gallagher, Michael. 2015. Fire management and carbon sequestration in Pine Barren Forests.
• Mueller, Eric; Skowronski, Nicholas; Clark, Kenneth; Kremens, Robert; Gallagher, Michael; Thomas, Jan; El Houssami, Mohamad; Filkod, Alexander; Butler, Bret; Hom, John; Mell, William; Simeoni, Albert. 2015. Initial results from a field experiment to support the assessment of fuel treatment effectiveness in reducing wildfire intensity and spread rate.
• Skowronski, Nicholas S.; Haag, Scott; Trimble, Jim; Clark, Kenneth L.; Gallagher, Michael R.; Lathrop, Richard G. 2015. Structure-level fuel load assessment in the wildland-urban interface: a fusion of airborne laser scanning and spectral remote-sensing methodologies.
• Clark, K.L.; Skowronski, N.S.; Gallagher, M.R.; Renninger, H.; Schäfer, K.V.R. 2014. Contrasting effects of invasive insects and fire on ecosystem water use efficiency.
• Clark, Kenneth L.; Skowronski, Nicholas; Gallagher, Michael. 2014. The fire research program at the Silas Little Experimental Forest, New Lisbon, New Jersey.

Research Highlights

Highlight	Title	Year
NRS-2011-07	Fireflux Experiments Improve Safety of Prescribed Burns in the New Jersey Pine Barrens Predicting the effects of smoke from low-intensity prescribed fires on local air-quality is being made easier by new tools developed by Forest S ...	2011
NRS-2017-85	New high resolution infrared data aids in the monitoring of fine scale wildland fire effects Wildfires and prescribed fires in the northeastern U.S. are often too small to evaluate using satellite data in the public domain and are too la ...	2017