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Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Lab

Welcome the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Lab at Washington State University! We are a team of researchers that work on questions related to ecosystem dynamics. We aim to further the understanding of ecological processes related to terrestrial ecosystems at local to global scales under global change. Our research focuses on forest and rangeland ecology, forest disturbances (e.g., wildfire and insect outbreaks) and resulting mortality, remote sensing, and carbon cycling. We use satellite and other geospatial data for assessing forest dynamics and aim to both provide tools for professionals to improve management of our natural resources and advance scientific knowledge about fundamental ecological processes. This lab group is led by Arjan Meddens, who started as an Assistant Professor at WSU in the Summer of 2019.

Arjan Meddens PhD

Assistant Professor of Forest Ecology
School of the Environment
Washington State University
PO Box 642812
Pullman, WA 99164-2812
Office: TROY 324
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If you are interested in learning more:

  1. Check out our projects below
  2. Check out the opportunities tab if you’d like to join our lab
  3. Or start a Forest Ecology and Management Degree at WSU!

A few of our current and past research projects include (click on the active links for more information):

  • Management of post-fire landscapes: developing a decision support platform to inform land managers of the appropriate tools and responses to best facilitate ecosystem recovery efforts
  • Investigating the relationship between western redcedar mortality and canopy dieback and climate variables in the Pacific Northwest
  • Identifying and ranking unburned areas‘ (wildfire refugia) importance for resource management
  • Examining trends of resilience of unburned areas across the northwestern United States
  • Describing spatial and temporal patterns of bark beetle-caused tree mortality using aerial surveys in British Columbia and the western United States
  • Detecting mountain pine beetle-caused tree mortality using Landsat time series
  • Using UAV-lidar data for 3-dimensional environmental monitoring
  • Quantifying the effects of forest management practices on resilience to spruce beetle outbreaks in Colorado
  • Quantifying carbon impacts of fire- and insect-caused tree mortality using the Community Land Model (CLM)
  • Assessing topographic and climatic drivers of pinyon pine mortality in northern New Mexico