IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Cynthia Brewer and others attending The Graduate School in-person commencement ceremonies in Beaver Stadium at University Park on May 7, 2021.
GOOD NEWS
June 2, 2021, Esri’s first Mid-Atlantic Open Hours—an overview and demonstration of ArcGIS Field Maps, Additional topics for this Open Hours session will include general community and technology updates, extended Q&A, and discussion. For more information and to register: https://www.esri.com/en-us/lg/events/mid-atlantic-open-hours
Department associate heads named
Lorraine Dowler will remain as the associate Head for DEI, and Roger Downs will remain as the associate head for the undergraduate program. Trevor Birkenholtz has agreed to be the new associate head for the resident graduate program.
New department graduate representatives elected
To serve from this summer through the following spring, Ruth Buck and Matt Bauerlin will be replacing Chanel Lange-Maney and Hannah Caudill.
Angela Rogers was invited to be a panelist for the May session of the American Association of Geographers Early Career and Department Leadership webinar series
Chanel Lange-Maney has been selected to receive the Nancy Brown Geography Community Service Award from Supporting Women in Geography (SWIG). The award is a SWIG tradition that recognizes students who are involved in service in the department and the community.
NEWS
Getting to Negative: Strategies, Ethics and Co-benefits’ webinar on May 19
Erica Smithwick is the moderator and Jennifer Baka is a panelist
Five Earth and Mineral Sciences students awarded at Graduate Research Exhibition
Amy Farley, a Penn State World Campus master’s student in Geographic Information Systems, earned first place in the engineering category.
EMSAGE laureates make mark at Penn State, look to continue in careers
Geography spring EMSAGE laureates include: Shane Leister and Jenna Pulice
Faculty and student excellence celebrated at EMS virtual awards celebration
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Simulated fire regimes favor oak and pine but affect carbon stocks in mixed oak forests in Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Anthony Zhao, Alan H. Taylor, Erica A.H. Smithwick, Margot Kaye, Lucas B. Harris
Forest Ecology and Management
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119332
Changes in fire regimes can alter patterns of species dominance and forest carbon stocks by amplifying or diminishing fire vegetation feedbacks. The combined influence of 19th century forest harvesting followed by 20th century fire exclusion has caused a shift in species composition in fire adapted mixed oak forests toward fire sensitive shade tolerant hardwoods that reduce flammability of surface fuels. Prescribed fire is a tool with potential to restore fire adapted oak forests with a history of fire exclusion, but outcomes from the practice of prescribed burning are unclear due to a paucity of studies that apply prescribed fire over multi decadal periods. Here we use simulation modeling to investigate how variation in fire frequencies and period of burning influence simulated dominance of oak, pine, and other hardwoods and forest carbon stocks in Pennsylvania mixed oak forests. Single burns had little effect on basal area (BA) or species composition while more frequent burning increased pine BA, especially when pine was initially abundant. Simulated fire regimes with fire intervals of 10–20 years applied for multiple decades maintained high oak BA and reduced fire sensitive hardwoods. Average BA at the end the 60-year simulation period was inversely related to fire frequency and live carbon stocks decreased with more frequent burning. Simulated fire effects suggest implementation of prescribed fire regimes over periods of decades may be a feasible strategy to maintain or increase oak and pine dominance where management objectives are compatible with fire use. Moreover, several simulated fire regimes seem capable of maintaining BA of fire adapted species and maintaining or increasing overall live C stocks providing a range of management options for maintaining oak and pine, and live carbon stocks using prescribed fire.
Prescribed fire and fire suppression operations influence wildfire severity under severe weather in Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA
Harris Lucas B., Drury Stacy A., Farris Calvin A., Taylor Alan H.
International Journal of Wildland Fire
https://doi.org/10.1071/WF20163
Fuels treatments and fire suppression operations during a fire are the two management influences on wildfire severity, yet their influence is rarely quantified in landscape-scale analyses. We leveraged a combination of datasets including custom canopy fuel layers and post-fire field data to analyse drivers of fire severity in a large wildfire in the southern Cascade Range, California, USA. We used a statistical model of tree basal area loss from the fire, factoring in weather, fuels and terrain to quantify the extent to which prescribed burning mitigated wildfire severity by simulating potential wildfire severity without prescribed fire and comparing that with modelled severity from areas burned with prescribed fire. Similarly, using a map of operations intensity, we calculated predicted fire severity under a scenario with no operations and used these predictions to quantify the influence of operations. We found that prescribed fires and operations reduced tree basal area loss from the wildfire by an average of 32% and 22% respectively, and that severity was reduced by 72% in areas with both prescribed fire and operations. Our approach could be applied to other wildfires and regions to better understand the effects of fuel treatments and fire suppression operations on wildfire severity.
Conceptualizing the Remote Site Experience through Immersive Technology: Unraveling the Santa Marta Favela from Students’ Perspectives
Danielle Oprean, Debora Verniz, Jiayan Zhao, Jan Oliver Wallgrün, Timothy Baird, José P. Duarte and Alexander Klippel
Landscape Journal
http://lj.uwpress.org/content/39/2/31.short
As projects become more globally dispersed, site visits and analysis become challenging, often leading to the use of secondary information (e.g., photos, plans, and videos). Immersive technology offers embodied, visual, and spatial perspectives, providing unique information about a site that could be beneficial. Our research examines how virtual environments (VEs) can help landscape architects understand a site by exploring immersive technology for a remote site visit in a joint landscape and architecture studio. Students explored an informal settlement (favela) in Brazil first using a VE through three separate technologies:HTCVive,MobileVR, and WebVR, and then in person. Students’ responses helped identify perceptions toward technology and future improvements to the VE. Therewere four key findings. (1) VE establishes familiarity with a site; (2) VE is used for checking details; (3) walking is desired over realism; and (4) control of the VE experience is enjoyable. The findings suggest that VE cannot replace an in-person experience but provides familiarity when used alongside common secondary materials. Future research is needed to discern what VE features generate site familiarity.
Does the relationship between racial, ethnic, and income diversity and social capital vary across the United States? A county-level analysis using geographically weighted regression
Samantha L. Powers, Stephen A. Matthews, Andrew J. Mowen,
Applied Geography
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102446
Social capital provides important health, economic, and community benefits. While there are several types of social capital, that which is characterized by connections between diverse individuals from different social groups is thought to be particularly valuable. Despite the fact that both socio-demographic diversity and social capital exhibit significant spatial variation across the United States, there remains a lack of research investigating the relationships between these variables at the county level. This study utilized geographically weighted regression to explore the potential non-stationarity of the relationships between racial, ethnic, and income diversity and social capital. Results indicate spatial non-stationary with regard to all three types of diversity, with statistical significance, strength of association, and direction of the relationships varying notably across the United States. These findings underscore the need for more attention to local variation in the relationships between forms of diversity and social capital. The local spatial modeling strategies used here offer a different perspective on these relationships.