Does fire beget fire? Nathan Korinek investigates the relationship between fires and previously burned areas in western US forests

Anonymous — Fri, 10 May 2024 16:37:56 +0000

Does fire beget fire? Nathan Korinek investigates the relationship between fires and previously burned areas in western US forests Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/10/2024 - 10:37

My name is Nathan Korinek, and I am finishing my final year as a master’s student in the Geography department. I’ve been working with the Geography department and ��Ƶ’s Earth Lab since 2017. I went from an undergraduate to a research assistant and am now receiving my masters. During my time, I have been working with my amazing advisor, Dr. Jennifer Balch, under an NSF grant focused on compound disturbances (i.e. insect kill, fires, and droughts) in Western US forests. Compound disturbances can have drastic impacts on landscapes and ecosystems, threatening ecosystem changes such as forests dying off or the removal of a species from an ecosystem altogether.

My work for the last few months has studied the effects of compound fires in an area by looking at what happens when a fire burns an area that had been previously burned. Specifically, I was interested in what happens to the fire severity of these reburned areas. Fire severity is a measure for how much change a fire caused in the landscape, ecosystem, and vegetation of a burned area. To quantify this, I used the Composite Burn Index (CBI), which is an on the ground measure of burn severity. CBI data is not widely available and difficult to obtain, so I used a modeled CBI dataset for the Western US developed by Tyler McIntosh at Earth Lab. I combined this with other data sources from FIRED fire boundaries, ERA5 weather data, and more in order to get a complete picture of these reburn events. I found that fires burning in previously burned areas have a lower average severity than fires burning in areas that had not been previously burned.

My thesis work is one small piece of the puzzle when looking at compound disturbances in western US forests. In my time at Earth Lab, I have also contributed to this grant in other ways outside of my thesis. This includes visualizing different disturbances in our study region of the western US, flying drones over burn scars in Colorado in order to help quantify vegetation regrowth, going out into the field and identifying individual plants to label the drone data by plant type, and more. My time at Earth Lab and the Geography department has been filled with amazing colleagues and research opportunities, making it an incredible experience overall. I look forward to continuing my work with Earth Lab this summer!

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Welcome to Our Fall 2022 Graduate Students

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 21:52:27 +0000

Welcome to Our Fall 2022 Graduate Students Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/07/2022 - 14:52

Please join us in welcoming our incoming graduates for Fall 2022!

Back row: Millie Spenser, Priscilla (Pris) Corbett, Drolma Gadou, Briana Prado, Emma Barrett, Denise Mondragon, Mia Murray, Taylor O’Brien, Nathan Korinek, Ethan Carr; Middle row: Alaric Kothapally, Michele Lissoni, Aja Procita, Nic Tarasewicz, Patrick (Pat) Saylor, Isaiah Lyons-Galante; Front row: Sam Fixler, Jiacheng (Raymond) Zhou; Insert: Jill Adler Grano

Featured Updates

Isaiah Lyons-Galante

Originally from Boston, I went to Yale for a bachelor's degree in physics and mechanical engineering. With an interest in sustainable development internationally, I found my way to Kenya where I worked for 6 years with a start-up developing renewable energy projects in rural, off-grid areas. There, I learned about the power of remote sensing, GIS, and machine learning to study remote areas and make data-driven decisions. This brought me to ��Ƶ in the Geography department to dive into geospatial data science, working with Morteza Karimzadeh in his GeoHuman AI Lab. I am interested in finding ways to apply statistics and deep learning models to remotely-sensed data to study remote regions of the world and to understand which factors lead to economic growth and well-being in harmony with the environment.

Nic Tarasewicz

I was raised in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado, which started my interest in alpine environments. I completed my undergraduate degree in Geography from the University of Denver, and my Master’s in Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science at Lund University, Sweden. While there, I developed a novel composite indicator representing the impact of modeled forest management practices on ecosystem services. My research interests center around understanding climate and anthropogenic impacts on mountain ecosystem services through combining empirical measurements and modeling. I am working with Peter Blanken on INSTAAR’s Ecosystem Resilience Project, led by Keith Musselman, aiming to define and project climate-change refugia in the Colorado Front Range. My hobbies include spending time outdoors, performance art, and playing board games with friends.

Ethan Carr

Growing up my greatest memories we’re visiting national parks with my family and learning about plants, animals, and the environment. As I grew up I never lost that passion and knew I wanted to make a career around being outdoors and learning.

I received my Bachelors of Science in Physical Geography from the United States Military Academy, where I was a four year varsity athlete. Upon graduation I was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry. I recently changed career paths and knew that I wanted to make a difference in the world. I decided to combine my passion for nature, especially the Arctic, and my goals to make change and pursue a career in the natural sciences. The ��Ƶ Geography department seemed like the perfect place to begin this journey.

I hope to focus in Glaciology and Climate change specifically in Greenland. Upon finishing my masters I wish to pursue a PhD in a similar field.

Briana Prado

My name is Briana Prado, I am from San Diego, California, and studied Chemistry and Earth Science at UC Santa Cruz. I will be studying geochemistry and chemical weathering in the McMurdo Dry Valleys under Dr. Melissa Diaz. I am super stoked to be in Boulder, CO, and spend time outside hiking and biking and experiencing a true winter.

This past summer I sharpened my U.S geography skills while cycling across the country from Baltimore MD to San Francisco, CA with a group of 23 cyclists to raise funds for a cancer charity. The tour took us through 11 different states and 7 national parks over 70 days. We transverse mountain ranges such as the Appalachians, Rockies, and Sierra Nevada Mountains, and crossed the Mississippi, Missouri, and Colorado Rivers.

Fun Fact: I visited ��Ƶ Boulder for the first time during the bike ride when we had a rest day in Boulder. This was the day before biked before heading into Estes Park through highway 34 and then biking into Rocky Mountain National Park and climbing trail ridge!

I had so much fun that I would 100% do it again. These days you’ll probably catch me riding my red single-speed bike called Tessie around campus.

Photos from Briana's Cross-country Cycling Trip

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