The Ecology and Management of Shortleaf Pine Ecosystems

Author Biography

Connor Crouch (Edited By) Dr Connor Crouch is a Forester with the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station in Columbia, Missouri. He received his undergraduate degree in journalism and MS in natural resources from University of Missouri and his PhD in forest science from Northern Arizona University. Connor's research focuses on issues of forest health and the role that silviculture can play in helping forests adapt in an increasingly uncertain future. Daniel C. Dey (Edited By) Daniel C. Dey is an award-winning scientist and Assistant Director for Research at the US Forest Service Northern Research Station. His research evaluates silvicultural practices to manage forests that produce the wide array of goods and services. He specializes in solving forest regeneration issues in hardwood-dominated forests in both uplands and bottomlands. He has done extensive work with collaborators on determining historic fire regimes in oak/pine-dominated ecosystems throughout the Eastern US. This knowledge is the basis for developing management guidelines that combine prescribed fire with thinning and harvesting to restore native forest communities, including woodlands and savannas. He has authored more than 250 scientific and technical publications dealing with these topics, including work in North America, South America and Europe. John M. Kabrick (Edited By) John Kabrick is the unit leader of the US Forest Service research group of the Northern Research Station headquartered in Columbia, Missouri. He is the recipient of prestigious national and regional awards for his work. John has academic degrees in both soil science and forestry, and he teaches a graduate-level course on forest soils. His current research includes management of mixed woods, with particular emphasis on forests that are mixtures of oaks and pines. He also studies carbon dynamics in hardwood and mixed-wood forests with emphasis on understanding the implications for carbon storage and climate change. Additionally, John investigates the effects of prescribed fire and other management practices on the restoration and maintenance of oak savannahs and woodlands. Benjamin Knapp (Edited By) Dr Benjamin Knapp is an Associate Professor of Silviculture and Interim Director of the Center for Agroforestry in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Missouri. He received his BS in forestry at Purdue University and his MS and PhD degrees in forestry at Clemson University. Through understanding ecological processes, his research seeks to refine silvicultural practices to address contemporary issues, often related to restoration or conservation objectives. Specific research topics include tree regeneration, fire ecology and the use of prescribed burning as a silvicultural tool, and understanding how disturbances, through management or natural, affect stand dynamics.