Lee Ridge Early March
Coleman-Miller Professor
Ph.D. UCLA - 1983
"My
research program has had a continuing focus on biodiversity, and diverse
aspects are linked by a focus on the interaction of spatial pattern and
process. I address how spatial patterns (e.g., fragmentation) and processes
(e.g., dispersal) affect vegetation dynamics in response to human-induced
changes such as climatic change and altered disturbance regimes."
My research integrates fieldwork, including quantitative
vegetation sampling and some tree-ring work, computer simulations, and statistical
analyses. I use simulations to investigate dispersal and plant community
dynamics in fragmented landscapes. Much of my ongoing fieldwork is based
in the northern Rocky Mountains, where I am interested in patterns and processes
at alpine treeline and in montane wetlands. Simulation work has addressed
the spatial configuration of nature reserves.
Recently, I have been directing more attention toward aspects of land-use and land-cover change (LULCC). I am interested in the application of multi-agent simulations and in developing ideas about complex systems in this area. This research ties to my work in biogeography in that it is the dynamics of LULCC that determine the spatial pattern of habitat with which species must cope.
My teaching philosophy arises from a background in liberal arts. My purpose is to have students learn how to think, how to organize information, how to evaluate ideas, and how to present their own ideas. At a graduate level I stress critical analysis through a wide reading of the literature, through a sharper critique of current theory, and finally through bringing new data to bear on what students have defined as an assailable frontier of knowledge.
Graduate students usually work closely with me as a research assistant at an early stage of their program, where they are introduced to the problems and quickly gain experience. This work often leads to co-authored publications. Students doing field work in the Rockies also learn about larger scale teamwork, joining students and faculty from four other universities on projects that involve remote sensing, GIS, microclimatology, and geomorphology in addition to biogeography. It is likely that graduate students working on LULCC in the future will have the opportunity for parallel team experiences working in Mexico, Ecuador, and/or Thailand.
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Theses and Dissertations Supervised:
MA Theses:
- Rex, K.D. 1990. Fractal Analysis of Woodland Patches Along the Iowa and Cedar Rivers.
- Kupfer, J.A. 1991. Structure, Composition, and Successional Dynamics of a Riparian Edge Community
- Craig, M.R. 1992. Colonization on Point Bars by Woody Riparian Species.
- Finley, S.D. 1993. Investigation of Factors Influencing Species Diversity of Remnant Forest Patches in Northeast Iowa.
- Hougen, D. 1994. Effects of Accessibility and Isolation on the Structure and Composition of Lakeshore Forest Sites in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota.
PhD Dissertations:
- Kupfer, J.A. 1995. The Effects of Edge Vegetation on Interior Gap-Successional Processes.
- Liu, Z.J. 1995. Impact of Climate and Management Practices on Nitrate Contamination in Groundwater: Spatial and Temporal Analyses in the Big Spring Basin, Iowa.
- Cairns, D.M. 1995. Carbon Balance Modeling at the Alpine Treeline Ecotone in Glacier National Park, Montana.
- Chen, G. 2001. Relating Landscape Patterns to Hydrological Processes in a Watershed Hierarchy
- Alftine, K.J. 2002. The Relationship Between Tree Establishment Patterns and Positive Feedback at Alpine Treeline.
- Bekker, M. F. 2002. Effects of Biotic Feedback on the Pattern and Rate of Subalpine Forest Advancement.
Current Graduate Students:
Sunday Goshit, Qian Wang, Vineet Yadav, Yu Zeng, Gang Zhong
Undergraduate:
- Biogeography
- Introduction to Earth Systems Science
Upper Division/Graduate:
- Landscape Ecology
- Wetlands: Function, Geography & Management
Graduate:
- Advanced Biogeography
- Advanced Landscape Ecology
- Module in Spatial Modeling & Analysis
- Module in Land Use Land Cover
Research Grants (1994-present):
- 2004-2007 NSF Biocomplexity, Coupled Human and Natural Systems: Feedbacks Among Patterns and Processes of Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon, with S.J. Walsh; $120,000 of $320,000
- 2004-07 NSF Biocomplexity, Coupled Human and Natural Systems: Virtual Watershed: Agricultural Landscape Evolution in an Adaptive Management Framework, subcontract with Jerry Schnoor on grant to Chris Lant; $130,000 of $450,000
- 2004-2009 USGS, Response of Western Mountain Ecosystems to Climatic Variability and Change: The Western Mountain Initiative, with D.R. Butler and S.J. Walsh; $345,000.
- 2002-03 NSF Geography & Regional Science, SGER: Effects of Avalanches on Local Carbon Budgets and Regional Forest Dynamics, with D.R. Butler, D. Fagre, and S.J. Walsh; $29,512
- 2002-03 National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, Forest Fragmentation, with J.A. Kupfer and S. Franklin; $60,000
- 2002-03 UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, Factors Affecting the Adoption and Conservation Value of Certified Organic Coffee Production in Oaxaca, Mexico, with T. Mutersbaugh, $19,700
- 2000-03 NSF Geography & Regional Science, Uncovering the Spatial Pattern of Feedback Effects at Alpine Treeline; $99,946
- 1999-03 USGS Biological Resources Division, with D.G. Brown, D.R. Butler, D.M. Cairns, D. Fagre, and S.J. Walsh; Invasibility of Alpine Tundra; $416,730
- 1997-99 NSF, Geography & Regional Science, co-PI with D.G. Brown; Pattern and Process at Alpine Treeline; $194,168
- 1997-98 DOE National Institute for Global Environmental Change; Developing rules for transience in DGVMs based on migration rates; $5000
- 1997-98 NASA, CI with M.P. Armstrong (PI), J.R. Brown and G.R. Carmichael; Project LIVE: Laboratory for the Immersive Visualization of the Environment; $230,000
- DOE National Institute for Global Environmental Change, co-PI with M.P. Armstrong; Spatial Scaling and Maintaining Information in Models of Response to Climatic Change; $111,800
Awards and honors:
2004 James J. Parsons Distinguished Career Award, AAG Biogeography Specialty
Group
2003-present Coleman - Miller Professor, University of Iowa
2003 elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Offices held, service (1995-):
- NIH Social Sciences and Population Studies, Study Section (proposal panel), 2005
- National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, research proposals panel, 2004
- National Science Foundation, Biocomplexity: Coupled Human & Natural Systems panel, 2002
- National Academies/National Research Council Committee on Geography at USGS, 2000-02
- National Science Foundation Geography & Regional Science Program panel, 1998-1999
Editorial Service:
Associate Editor: Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research,
2005-present
Other Editorial Boards:
Physical Geography, 1994-present
Geographical & Environmental Modelling, 1996-2002
Landscape Ecology, 1997-2005
Annals, Association of American Geographers, 2000-present
Advances in Water Resources, 2004-present
Research Info:
- Glacier National Park
- Papal Bull (Bibliography)
- Avalance Paths Bibliography
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| Lee Ridge (DOQ
draped DEM) |
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 Matt Bekker… Webpage |
 Steve Walsh : Webpage |
Dan Fagre(No Picture): Webpage |
Office:
-
309 Jessup Hall
Mailing Address:
Department of Geography
316 Jessup Hall
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone: (319) 335-0540
Fax: (319) 335-2725
E-mail: george-malanson@uiowa.edu
Links:
 |
Homepage of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research |
The
Biogeographer, newsletter & the AAG Biogeography Specialty Group
Glacier National Park
USGS Glacier Field Station
Recent Publications (2001-):
Bekker M.F., Malanson, G.P., Alftine, K.J. & Cairns, D.M. 2001. Feedback and pattern in computer simulations of the alpine treeline ecotone. In Millington, A.C., Walsh, S.J. & Osborne, P.E., eds. GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in Biogeography and Ecology. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 123-138.
Malanson, G.P., Xiao, N. & Alftine, K.J. 2001. A simulation test of the resource averaging hypothesis of ecotone formation. Journal of Vegetation Science 12: 743-748.
Malanson, G.P. 2001. Complex responses to global change at alpine treeline. Physical Geography 22: 333-342.
Malanson, G.P.& Butler, D.R. 2002. The Western Cordillera. In Physical Geography of North America, A. Orme, ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 363-379.
Malanson, G.P. 2002. Effects of spatial representation of habitat in competition-colonization models. Geographical Analysis 34: 141-154.
Malanson, G.P. 2002. Extinction debt trajectories and spatial pattern of habitat destruction. Annals, Association of American Geographers 92: 177-188.
Malanson, G.P., Butler, D.R., Cairns, D.M., Welsh, T.E., Resler, L.M. 2002. Variability in a soil depth indicator in alpine tundra. Catena. 49: 203-215.
Cairns, D.M., Butler, D.R. & Malanson, G.P. 2002. Geomorphic and biogeographic setting of the Rocky Mountains. In J.S. Baron, ed. Rocky Mountain Futures. Island Press, Washington, DC, 27-39.
Malanson, G.P. 2003. Habitats, hierarchical scales, and nonlinearities: an ecological perspective on linking household and remotely sensed data on land-use/cover change. In Fox, J. Rindfuss, R.R., Walsh, S.J. and Mishra, V., eds. People and the Environment: Approaches for Linking Household and Community Surveys to Remote Sensing and GIS. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 265-283.
Walsh, S.J., Butler, D.R., Malanson, G.P., Crews-Meyer, K.A., Messina, J.P. & Xiao, N. 2003. Mapping, modeling, and visualization of the influences of geomorphic processes on the alpine treeline ecotone, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. Geomorphology 53: 129-145.
Butler, D.R., Malanson, G.P., Bekker, M.F. and Resler, L.M. 2003. Lithologic, structural, and geomorphic controls on ribbon forest patterns. Geomorphology 55: 203-217.
Butler, D.R., Walsh, S.J. & Malanson, G.P. 2003. Introduction to the special issue: mountain geomorphology – integrating earth systems, Geomorphology 55: 1-4.
Malanson, G.P. 2003. Dispersal across continuous and binary representations of landscapes. Ecological Modelling 169: 17-24.
Alftine, K.J., Malanson, G.P. & Fagre, D.B. 2003. Feedback-driven response to multi-decadal climatic variability at an alpine forest-tundra ecotone. Physical Geography 24: 520-535.
Kupfer, J.A., Malanson, G.P. & Franklin, S.B. 2004. Identifying the Biodiversity Research Needs Related to Forest Fragmentation. National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry (www.ncseonline.org/ewebeditpro/items/O62F3754.pdf)
Alftine, K.J. & Malanson, G.P. 2004. Directional positive feedback and pattern at an alpine tree line. Journal of Vegetation Science 15:3-12.
Malanson, G.P., Butler, D.R. & Walsh, S.J. 2004. Ecological response to global climatic change. In WorldMinds. (D.G. Janelle, B. Warf, & K. Hansen, eds.) Kluwer, Dordrecht, 469-473.
Kupfer, J.A. & Malanson, G.P. 2004. The biodiversity crisis. In WorldMinds. (D.G. Janelle, B. Warf, & K. Hansen, eds.) Kluwer, Dordrecht, 273-277.
Walsh, S.J., Weiss, D.J., Butler, D.R. & Malanson, G.P. 2004. An assessment of snow avalanche paths and forest dynamics using Ikonos satellite data. Geocarto International 19: 85-94.
Marion, D. & Malanson, G.P. 2004. Ordination of woody vegetation in a Ouachita National Forest watershed. US Forest Service General Technical Report SRS-74, pp. 198-204.
Butler, D.R., Malanson, G.P. & Resler, L.M. 2004. Turf-banked terrace treads and risers, turf exfoliation, and possible relationships with advancing treeline. Catena 58: 259-274.
Allen, T.R., Walsh, S.J., Cairns, D.M., Messina, J., Butler, D.R. and Malanson, G.P. 2004. Geostatistics and spatial analysis: characterizing form and pattern at the alpine treeline. In M. Bishop and J. Shroder, eds. Geographic Information Science and Mountain Geomorphology. Springer Verlag-Praxis Scientific, London, 189-214.
Malanson, G.P. & Zeng, Y. 2004. Uncovering spatial feedbacks at alpine treeline using spatial metrics in evolutionary simulations. In GeoDynamics, P.M. Atkinson, G. Foody, S. Darby & F. Wu, eds. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 137-150.
Resler, L.M., Butler, D.R. & Malanson, G.P. 2005.Topographic shelter and conifer establishment and mortality in an alpine environment, Glacier National Park, Montana. Physical Geography 26: 112-125.
Butler, D.R. and Malanson, G.P. 2005. The geomorphic influences of beaver dams and failures of beaver dams. Geomorphology 71: 48-60.
Malanson, G.P., Zeng, Y. & Walsh, S.J.: Complexity at advancing ecotones and frontiers. Environment & Planning A, in press.
Kupfer, JA, Malanson, GP & Franklin, SB: Not seeing the ocean for the islands: The mediating influence of matrix-based processes on forest fragmentation effects. Global Ecology & Biogeography, in press.
Zeng, Y. & Malanson, G.P.: Endogenous fractal dynamics at alpine treeline
ecotones. Geographical Analysis, in press.
