LEMMA Team Detail

Kenneth Pierce Jr. Former position: Research Ecologist Ecosystem Processes Program Pacific Northwest Research Station USDA Forest Service

Educational Background

A.A., 1995 (zoology), Fullerton College, Fullerton, CA
B.S., 1997 (biology/ecology, global sustainability), University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA
Ph.D., 2002 (landscape ecology), Duke University Program in Ecology, Durham, NC

Research Interests

Ken's research interests are focused on understanding the spatial distribution of natural habitats and resources in order to increase our knowledgebase and improve our ability to manage natural resources in a long term sustainable manner. As populations expand we will need to more carefully manage our resources and to do this we need the best information possible about the distribution and functioning of those resources. Ken has worked on regional mapping of forest structure and wildland fuels. This research includes the basic premise of mapping but also the quantification on spatial uncertainty at different scales.

Biography

Ken was a postdoctoral researcher with the LEMMA group from 2002 to 2007. He started his career as an ecologist in coastal sage scrub restoration as an undergraduate at UC Irvine. Ken's graduate work at Duke covered multiple locations including southern Appalachian oak/hickory forests and Sierran mixed-conifer forests. His thesis examined interactions at different scales between tree seed dispersal and environmental gradients. As part of the LEMMA group, Ken worked on mapping forest species, structure and wildland fuels and spatial accuaracy assessment.