People - Modeling Invasion Dynamics across Scales (MIDAS) - People

Investigators

Songlin Fei

Songlin Fei (PI) is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Ecology. His research areas includes: (1) mapping and modeling invasive patterns and processes and (2) impact of climate change on forest ecosystems and their feedback.

Qinfeng Guo

Qinfeng Guo is a research ecologist at the USDA Southern Research Station and is currently conducting collaborative research (1) using plant traits in life history and genetics to predict invasiveness of introduced species, and (2) using life history and distribution information from both native and exotic habitats to simulate/predict the spread of invasive species under various climatic scenarios.

Brady Hardiman

Dr. Hardiman's research focuses on understanding the interaction of structure and function in coupled natural and human ecosystems. Specific interests include the role of vegetation in urban carbon cycling and the influence of forest canopy structure on long-term carbon sequestration rates. His research is directed toward improving management strategies for urban and rural forests to optimize provision of ecosystem services such as carbon storage and climate mitigation.

Basil Iannone

My research has historically addressed questions pertaining to ecological restoration and biological invasions within human-dominated ecosystems, and has done so from local to macro-level spatial scales. My research and extension programs utilize geospatial tools and analyses to devise and promote real-world strategies to: (1) mitigate the negative environmental impacts of current and future land development and (2) better manage natural resources within mixed urban, rural, and natural areas associated with current and future land development.

Chris Oswalt

Chris is currently a Research Forester for the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory & Analysis program and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Forestry in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife, & Fisheries at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. He received his Ph.D. from The University of Tennessee in 2008. Chris’s research includes the monitoring and assessment of forest resources at multiple geographic and taxonomic scales. Specifically, Chris's research focuses on the impacts of nonnative plants on forested systems, investigating alternative management strategies for hardwood plantations, and tracking spatial and temporal shifts of forest communities in the United States.

Andrew (“Sandy”) Leibhold

Andrew (“Sandy”) Liebhold is a research entomologist with the US Forest Service Northern Research Station in Morgantown, WV. He is also adjunct faculty with Penn State and West Virginia Universities. His research focuses on invasion biology and various aspects of the population biology and landscape ecology of forest insects. Liebhold is a member of the Editorial Board for the journals Population Ecology, Biological Invasions, and Ecology Letters. Liebhold was elected a fellow of the AAAS in 2016. He has authored over 200 journal papers, largely on the topic of biological invasions, forest insect ecology and quantitative ecology. (see http://www.sandyliebhold.com/pubs/pubs.htm)

Kevin Potter

Kevin Potter is a research associate professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University, serving as a joint venture cooperator with the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC) of the USDA Forest Service. As a landscape ecologist, conservation biologist, and population geneticist, he applies evolutionary ecology tools and concepts to assess and mitigate threats to tree species and to forest communities, particularly across broad scales.

Hao Zhang

Hao Zhang is Professor and Head of Statistics and Professor of Forestry and Natural Resources. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. His main research interest is focused on spatial statistics and its applications in environmental, ecological and agricultural studies. His research in spatial statistics covers theory, methodology and computation.

Robert Haight

I am interested in the optimal control of non-native forest insects and diseases and the assessment of their economic impacts. I have contributed to management programs for emerald ash borer, Asian longhorn beetle, gypsy moth, oak wilt, and heterobasidion root disease. I build and analyze models to help allocate resources among prevention, detection, control, and rehabilitation activities. Please visit my website for news and publications: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/people/Haight

Advisory Members

Rebecca Epanchin-Niell

Becky Epanchin-Niell is a resource economist at Resources for the Future (RFF) – a nonpartisan, objective, science-based research organization addressing environmental policy challenges. Epanchin-Niell’s research draws on bioeconomic modeling and engages stakeholders to inform cost-effective policy design for invasive species management and biological conservation. She received a B.S. in Earth Systems from Stanford University, Masters degrees in Biology and Applied Economics from University of Nevada, Reno, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from University of California, Davis.

Daniel Simberloff

Daniel Simberloff is the Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Tennessee. His publications number ca. 500 and center on ecology, biogeography, evolution, and conservation biology; much of his research focuses on causes and consequences of biological invasions. His research projects are on insects, plants, fungi, birds, and mammals. He is editor-in-chief of Biological Invasions. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Ross Meentemeyer

Dr. Ross Meentemeyer applies tools from geospatial analytics to understand and communicate the vital roles that place, spatial interaction, and perspectives of scale play in models of environmental change and decision-making. He is a professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University and director of the university’s Center for Geospatial Analytics.

Jeffrey Dukes

Jeff Dukes and his research group seek to address environmental challenges through ecological research and outreach. Their research currently focuses on three themes: understanding how ecosystems respond to climate and atmospheric change, understanding and minimizing the impacts of invasive species on ecosystems, and exploring the ecological consequences of switching our energy supply from fossil fuels to biofuels. Dukes has a particular interest in understanding how changes in climate and the atmosphere will affect the success and impact of invasive species.

Postdocs and Students

Gabriela Nunez-Mir

Gabriela Nunez-Mir is a Ph.D. student and NSF PRIDE Fellow at Purdue University. Under advisement of Dr. Songlin Fei, Gabriela is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses on the influence of beta diversity on biotic resistance and the scale-dependency of invasion patterns and processes. Ultimately, Gabriela aims to contribute to current understanding regarding the factors that shape the inconsistent patterns in biotic resistance within and across scales. Furthermore, she seeks to emphasize the role of scale-dependency and aggregation in large-scale studies.

Inju Jo

I am a postdoctoral associate at Songlin Fei's lab. I am interested in plant-soil feedbacks, particularly the impacts of plant invaders on ecosystem processes at local, landscape, and regional scales.