The following list of research project titles from 2018-2025 illustrates the breadth and depth of research interests represented by the students in our program.
Project Titles
Project Titles
Assessment, Monitoring, and Geospatial Analysis
2024-2025
- Estimating forest area using national forest inventory data, percent forest cover maps, and zero-one-inflated beta regression
- Integrating Remote Sensing Data and Bayesian Hierarchical Spatial Models for Improved Estimation of Above-Ground Biomass in the Lower Mekong Basin
2022-2023
- Investigating the Use of Fallout Radionuclides Beryllium-7 and Excess Lead-210 as Short-Term Stream Sediment Chronometers in the Agricultural Upper Midwest, USA
- Modeling aspen yield, aspen site index, and the effects of sustainable timber harvest on wildlife habitat in Minnesota and the Lake States
- Semi-Automated Detection of Invasive Phragmites australis Using Uncrewed Aircraft Systems
2021-2022
- Characterizing the temporal dynamics of Minnesota wetlands using LandTrendr in Google Earth Engine
- Incorporating remote sensing into forest carbon accounting using model-based and model-assisted estimators
- The need to reconfigure aspen stand management guidelines in the western Great Lakes under climate change
- Predicting forest carbon content and tree canopy cover on Forest Inventory and Analysis plots along a forest-prairie gradient
2020-2021
- Comprehensive review and evaluation of whole stand volume yield models for the aspen forest type in Minnesota, USA
2019-2020
- Advancing estimation of timber products output in the Lake States Region of the northern United States
- Remote sensing-based approaches for large-scale comprehensive assessments of tree cover and windbreaks in the Great Plains region of the United States
- Using single-photon Lidar and multispectral imagery for enhancing forest inventories
2018-2019
- Deriving accurate diameter and height measurements of trees from terrestrial Lidar and unmanned aerial systems
2017-2018
- Making national forest inventory data relevant for local forest management
- Urban tree canopy mapping and measuring using high-resolution remotely sensed data
- The vulnerability of northern high-latitude ecosystems to climate and disturbance-induced change
Economics, Policy, Management, and Society
2024-2025
- Methodology for the Analysis of Rural Economies in the Global South: A Focus on Extractivism in Puerto Gaitán, Colombia
2023-2024
- Identifying the Factors that Constrain and Facilitate the Adoption of Agroforestry Practices by Minnesota and Wisconsin Agricultural Producers
- Using Self Determination Theory to Understand the Motivations of Minnesota Anglers
- Landowner Attitudes Toward Elk in Minnesota: Tolerance, Management Acceptability, and Support for Restoring an Elk Population
2022-2023
- A Model of Risk, Communication, and Environmental Behavior
- Beyond the message: Examining how engaging message mediums impact visitor displacement in emerald ash borer-treated woodlands
- Comparing the impacts of community-based tourism development on local livelihoods and empowerment
- “Visit, Meet, and Walk the Land Together”: A History of US Forest Service and Tribal Nation Relationships in Sacred Sites Management & A Case Study on the Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark
2021-2022
- Building place-based stories about climate change locally: Ecocultural calendars
- Environmental Impact Assessment: Closing the Gap Between Scientists and Practitioners
- A qualitative study of Minnesota forestry based on logger experiences and the development of county land departments
- (Re)Imagining the City: Urban agriculture, policy, and social justice
2020-2021
- Addressing climate change uncertainty in forest planning: A multi-stage optimization model with multiple futures and price sensitive demands
- Comparing urban community gardens in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area
- Ecosystem services and coastal adaptations to climate change: An interdisciplinary science-based application in The Gambia
- From Risk to Resilience: Exploring the potential of ecosystem-based adaptation to deliver social and ecological co-benefits
- Indicators of volunteer retention in environmental stewardship programs
- Land manager decision-making practices when establishing public fruit-bearing plants in Hennepin County municipalities, Minnesota
- Pak Mun Dam and its impact on local residents of Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand: A quantitative analysis
- Strategic sustainability: Leading corporate change for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions through reputation, dynamic capabilities and interorganizational relationships
- Workforce diversity in federal natural resource organizations
2019-2020
- Blooming alleys for better health: Exploring impacts of small-scale greenspaces on neighborhood wellbeing
- Changes in community capitals and understanding factors influencing medicinal plant traditions in rural Tlaxcala, Mexico
- Community forest enterprise governance in the Maya Biosphere Reserve
- Identifying the information and assistance needs of a unique segment of Minnesota's private forest landowners: A focus on landowners who sought professional information from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
- Indigenous phenology: An interdisciplinary case study on Indigenous phenological knowledge on the Menominee Nation Forest
- Predicting local and state-level water risk perceptions in Minnesota
- Barriers to barriers: An exploration of snow fence adoption and ramón seed market potential
- What good are volunteers? Understanding the impact of volunteers on community capacity to manage urban forest resources
- Yards as critical urban green spaces: Understanding resident yardscape uses and preferences through an interdisciplinary lens
2018-2019
- Communicating risk and increasing civic engagement in water protection in Minnesota
- Private landownership and Walk-in Access program enrollment: Motivating factors of landowner attitudes and participatory decision-making
- What is the value of knowing the value of water?
2017-2018
- Climate Adaptation and Local Narratives: Using qualitative inquiry to inform adaptive management on the North Shore of Lake Superior Minnesota, USA
- Environmental education for forest resources management in Loliondo Area, Northern Tanzania
- Examining collective-efficacy as a framework for watershed scale resource management
- How diets affect human health and environmental sustainability
- Improving performance assessment for technologies of energy transition: Emissions, economics, and policy implications
- Life-cycle assessment of thermally-modified southern pine decking
- Storytelling with data: Designing a map-based website on the global food system
- Volunteer performance in urban forest survey initiatives
Forest Hydrology and Watershed Management
2024-2025
2021-2022
- Analysis of stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces in downtown Minneapolis, MN
- In search of the phosphorus legacy: merging hydrological and biogeochemical approaches to understand phosphorus dynamics in streams.
2020-2021
- Interpretive machine learning to improve predictions of fluvial sediment transport
- Mapping invasive Phragmites australis using unmanned aircraft system imagery, canopy height models, and synthetic aperture radar
2019-2020
- Effect of forest cover change on streamflow in low relief glaciated catchments
- Effect of stream channel incision on the depth to groundwater in riparian corridors across southwestern Minnesota
- Treatment wetland vegetation harvesting for phosphorus removal in Upper Midwest agricultural watersheds
2018-2019
- Assessment of lead and beryllium sorption to exposed stream channel sediment under varying freshwater channel conditions
- Effects of snow cover manipulation and climate factors on the development of soil frost in forested boreal peatlands in Minnesota, USA
- Place-based learning: An integration of stormwater management concepts and monitoring data at Edison High School
- Restored vegetation outcomes in wetland mitigation banks across Minnesota
2017-2018
- Assessment of the impacts of various grazing management strategies on southern Minnesota stream channels
- Effects of simulated emerald ash borer disturbance on carbon and nitrogen cycling in black ash wetland soils in the Great Lakes region, USA
- From skid trail to landscapes: Vegetation is the dominant factor influencing erosion after forest harvest in a low relief, heavily glaciated landscape
- Understanding potential agricultural owner-operator and tenant adoption of saturated buffers in Elm Creek Watershed, Minnesota
- Water quality benefits of a Minnesota floodwater storage impoundment
Forests: Biology, Ecology, Conservation, and Management
2024-2025
- Implications for management of floodplain forests in the northern section of the Upper Mississippi River System in the face of a changing climate
- Adaptive Silviculture in an Urban Floodplain Forest: Exploring Functional Traits and Soil Responses for Climate Ready Forests
- Biochar And Ecosystem Recovery: Evaluating Artificial Regeneration Outcomes And Understory Plant Community Dynamics In Response To Top-Dress Amendments In Northern Minnesota
- Implications for management of eastern larch beetle and emerald ash borer and their impact on lowland forest types across the Great Lakes region
2023-2024
- Stewarding Floodplain Forests in a Changing Climate: Assisted Migration and Spring Tree Phenology in an Urban Climate Change Experiment and Monitoring for Floodplain Tree Regeneration
- Implications for management of eastern larch beetle and emerald ash borer and their impact on lowland forest types across the Great Lakes region
- The resin defenses of eastern larch in response to eastern larch beetle: exploring insect-host dynamics under changing climatic conditions
- Tree canopy cover and phenology affect watershed-level event scale dynamics of stormwater nutrients in Saint Paul, Minnesota
- Tradeoffs for Birdsfoot Trefoil Management in a Tallgrass Prairie: University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Case Study
- Mapping Oak (Quercus spp.) Stewardship Potential Within the Nantahala National Forest
- Forest carbon estimation associated with fire disturbances in the western United States
- Influence of temperature on development of eastern larch beetle Dendroctonus simplex LeConte
and reproductive success in two novel Larix hosts - Stand Dynamics and Stand Development of Conventional and Mixedwood Aspen Systems in Northern Minnesota
- Management and Impacts of Oak Wilt in Lake States Forests
2022-23
- Adaptation to Climate Change: Impacts of Forest Management, Rainfall Reduction, and Warming on Minnesota Tree Species
- Dynamics and Comparisons of Plant Diversity and Aboveground Carbon Storage Between Old-Growth and Second-Growth Maple-Basswood Forests in Southern Minnesota
- Entomological investigations in a novel agroforestry crop to the Midwestern US: Arthropod pests, their damage, distributions, and resistance factors associated with hybrid hazelnuts (Corylus americana x Corylus avellana)
- Multiple Disturbances and the Turbulent Forest
- Restoring Oak Savannas with Multiple Disturbances: Thinning, Burning, and Targeted Cattle Grazing
- The role of temperature in the phenology of temperate and boreal tree species
2021-2022
- Ecological behavior of velvet longhorned beetle Trichoferus campestris (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), including hosts and phenology
- Effects of eastern spruce dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium pusillum Peck) infestation in lowland black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) at multiple scales
- Effects of flooding and light on the performance of potential replacement species in black ash wetland forests
- Effects of throughfall reduction and snow removal on soil physical and biogeochemical properties in aspen forests of northern Minnesota, USA
- Evaluating regeneration and stand dynamics in tamarack stands impacted by eastern larch beetle in northern Minnesota, USA
- Influence of Eastern dwarf mistletoe and fungi on regeneration health and composition in lowland black spruce post-harvest
- Influence of land-use history & jumping worm invasion on species richness & composition of maple-basswood understory plant communities
- A national assessment of states' forest management guidelines and the policy tools used to achieve their implementation
- Using the US National Forest Inventory to model and simulate forest dynamics, composition, and land conversion
2020-2021
- Compaction and case studies: Applied silviculture
- Impacts of prescribed burns and severe weather events on oak wilt transmission in central Minnesota
- The photosynthetic process will shape how tree species from the boreal-temperate ecotone will fare in the future climate
2019-2020
- Analysis of factors influencing mortality of young trees in the Midwest
- Black spruce alternative silvicultural methods and dwarf mistletoe in northern Minnesota, USA
- Lost in the Forest: Seeking the narrative networks, echo-chambers, and boundaries of science in the institution of public resource management in Oregon and Texas
- Vegetation response to adaptive silviculture treatment aimed at climate change in northern Minnesota, USA
2018-2019
- Analysis of future climate-biome envelopes and bur oak succession potential of the Western Great Lake States
- Climate change and future forests of the Boundary Canoe Waters Area Wilderness: An assessment of temperate tree abundance, earthworm invasion and understory regeneration trends
- Controlling reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) and restoring floodplain forest in the Upper Mississippi River Valley
- The effects of biochar, weed control, and irrigation on the growth and survival of jack pine seedlings and native plant communities in northern Minnesota, USA
- The effect of season of prescribed fire on richness and abundance of breeding bird species and vegetation structure in Minnesota lowland brush ecosystems
- Invasion of the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) in Minnesota: The dispersal capacity of late instar larvae and stakeholder perspectives of the gypsy moth issue
- Managing for future oak forests in the hardwood hills of Minnesota – a 20 year journey
- Seasonal prescribed burning impacts to northern Minnesota lowland brush ecosystem plant communities
2017-2018
- Identifying physiological and growth-allocation strategies among varying resource availabilities enabling Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link) dominance in recently clearcut Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii) forests of the western Pacific Northwest
- Impacts of multiple fires and wind disturbance on forest community composition, succession and diversity in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
- Forest restoration in Eastern Madagascar: Post-fire survival of select Malagasy tree species
- Short- and long-term effects of alternative silvicultural systems on stand development of lowland black spruce forests in northern Minnesota, USA
Recreation Resources, Tourism, and Environmental Education
2020-2021
2019-2020
- Being and becoming in nature: Connection to nature in early childhood
- Social media and safety messaging: Needs and opportunities for the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway
2018-2019
- Does awareness-making elicit meaning-making in Bell Museum visitors? A mixed-methods study of a natural history moose exhibit
- Professional interpretive planners provide recommendations for writing engaging text
- Substitution interests among active-sport tourists: The case of a cross-country ski event
2017-2018
Tribal Natural Resources (new track beginning in 2022)
2023-2024
- Handicraft Production Influences on Gender, Livelihoods, and Natural Resources Management in Maya Communities
General program track (new option beginning in 2020)
2023-2024
- Biochar And Ecosystem Recovery: Evaluating Artificial Regeneration Outcomes And Understory Plant Community Dynamics In Response To Top-Dress Amendments In Northern Minnesota
- Exploring the Market Potential of Non-Timber Forest Products in the United States
- Hunting for Hemlock: Locating, restoring, and expanding eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr.) presence in Minnesota
- The resin defenses of eastern larch in response to eastern larch beetle: exploring insect-host dynamics under changing climatic conditions
2022-2023
- Influence of urban canopies on throughfall nutrient composition and DOM optical properties, and the decomposition of urban leaf litter
- Professional Guidelines: Assessing Iowa’s Environmental Educators and Naturalists
- Program Manual for Team Tree: Youth Engagement in Arboriculture
2021-2022