Geog. 4430 Some potential term paper research topics (these are just a few of many possibilities).

Modeling climate change impacts on future plant and animal distributions and vegetation patterns; how do they take into account disturbances such as fire and insect outbreaks?

Individual based models of population dynamics

Climate envelope models for particular species

Biome models, dynamic vegetation, biogeochemical models

Critically evaluate a particular model for predicting future vegetation (e.g. the Forest Vegetation Simulator used by the USDA Forest Service or the Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model)

Climate change impacts on (direct as well as through habitat change):

Fish

Avifauna

Various wildlife and management groups (game animals, a particular endangered species)

Modeling climate change impacts on key forest insect pests:

Spruce budworm

Spruce beetle

Mountain pine beetle

Interactions of invasive species and climate change

White pine blister rust

Invasive plants (groups or particular species)—how can invasive plant species alter fire regimes?

Interactions of land-use practices and climate change

Land-use effects on dust and dust influences on snowmelt in southwestern Colorado

Warming and water resource/hydrology topics (numerous possibilities but try to relate the topic to terrestrial ecology)

Impacts of bark beetle outbreaks on stream discharge

Broad-scale drivers of snowmelt and stream flow

Fire hazard mitigation topics

Fire behavior modeling

LANDFIRE program—objectives, methods, underlying science

Fuel treatments—thinning and other mechanical treatments (mastication), prescribed fire (air quality aspects)…possibly focus on a particular management unit (e.g. Colo State Parks and Forests, Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, BLM, etc.)

Effects of insect outbreaks on fuel structures; how are these measured and modeled?

Focus on some recent ecological events (consider the underlying scientific understanding of these events as well as implications for management and policy):

Aspen and climate change: sudden aspen decline.

2002 Hayman fire (how effective were pre-fire fuel treatments? Post-fire regeneration?)

2002 Missionary Ridge fire (near Durango)

Topics that might focus more on policy (but relate your paper to the natural science content of the course):

Evaluate how major land management agencies are addressing climate change in their management plans (USDA Forest Service compared to National Park Service, etc.)

Critically evaluate major legislative initiatives (both existing ones and proposed ones; who have been the primary instigators of particular legislative initiatives?):

Healthy Forest Restoration Act

Emergency Beetle Legislation