Dr. David M. Cairns

Bio

Dr. Cairns' research concentrates on the impacts of climate change on vegetation at short and long time scales in a variety of environments.  He has worked extensiviely at ecotones, the transion zones between different vegetation types.  Most of his work has been accomplished at treelines in Glacier National Park, Montana, and in northern Sweden.  He has also recently begun working in two other sensitive environments: saltmarshes on the coasts of Denmark and Texas, and in tundra environments on the North Slope of Alaska.  He utilizes a variety of methods to answer questions pertinent to the response of these environments to climate change including: dendroecological methods and simulation modeling. 

Research Projects

• Modeling patch-scale expansion of arctic shrubs
• Influences of herbivory on treeline under changing climate
• The utility of salt marsh vegetation as an indicator of climate change at short and long time scales
• Forest restoration planning and assessment for the southern pine beetle and other invasive pest species
• Applied silvicultural assessment of southern pine beetle stands west of the Mississippi River

Selected Publications

• Kim, D., Cairns, D.M., Bartholdy, J., & Morgan, C.L.S., (Accepted) Scale-dependent correspondence of floristic and edaphic gradients across salt marsh creeks, Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
• Naito, A.T. and Cairns, D.M. (In Press). Patterns and processes of global shrub expansion.Progress in Physical Geography.
• Young, A.B., Cairns, D.M., Lafon, C.W., Moen, J., Martin, L.E. (2011) Dendroclimatic relationships and possible implications for mountain birch and Scots pine at treeline in northern Sweden through the 21^st century.Canadian Journal of Forest Research 41: 450-459.
• Kim, D., Cairns, D.M., and Bartholdy, J. (2011) Wind-driven sea-level variation influences dynamics of salt marsh vegetation.Annals of the Association of American Geographers 101: 231-238.
• Kim, D., Cairns, D.M., and Bartholdy, J. (2010) Environmental controls on multi-scale spatial pattern of salt marsh vegetation.Physical Geography 31: 58-78. DOI: 10.2747/0272-3646.31.1.58