Teaching Duties: Ecology, Principles of Biology: Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity, Botany, Winter Biology

How to Apply to and Get Admitted to Graduate School in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Letters of Recommendation

Research Interests: Plant ecology, paleoecology, historical ecology, and conservation biology

Education:

Trent University - B.Sc. Honors 1986 - Biology
University of Minnesota - Ph.D. 1995 - Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Quaternary Paleoecology

Current Research:

While modern plant communities are largely influenced by ongoing interactions among many species as well as modern climate and soils, these factors are often not sufficient to explain ecological patterns we see today. Historical events and processes have left their marks on the distribution, structure, and composition of many modern ecological communities. In my research I try to understand how the history of a place influences the plant communities that we see today. As a paleoecologist, I search for clues about past environments and plant communities by examining pollen grains, seeds, leaves, insects, and charcoal fragments (indicating past wild fires) preserved in the sediments of lakes, ponds, and bogs.

Fire and vegetation history of the northwest Wisconsin sand plain.

The "pine barrens" of northwestern Wisconsin cover approximately 450,000 hectares of poor, sandy soils where drought and forest fires can occur frequently. Land use changes associated with European settlement have changed the face of the barrens landscape through logging, clearing for agriculture, and fire suppression. Despite these changes there are good opportunities for restoration of pine barrens ecosystems. Federal, state, and county land managers are interested in using prescribed fire to restore vegetation and provide habitat for wildlife species. One challenge to restoration efforts is that we don't know how often the barrens burned in the past, nor do we know how fire and vegetation varied across the region in the past.

The objective of a collaborative research project underway at Luther College, University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin is to better understand the interactions among climate, vegetation, and fire on this landscape. We are using paleoecological methods to reconstruct fire and vegetation history over the past centuries from a network of sites. Knowledge of the behavior of fire and vegetation under past climate regimes will provide realistic guidelines for restoration and will also be important in predicting the behavior of the ecosystem with future climate changes.

This work is funded by grants from the University of Iowa's Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research and the National Science Foundation (DEB-0320575)

Vegetation history of Bark Bay Slough, Wisconsin

Bark Bay Slough <http://www.partment of Natural Resources. It is a prime example of a Great Lakes codnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/publications/coastal_wetlands/LSuperior/Sites/LS28_BarkBay.htm> is a 225 ha wetland complex owned and managed by the Wisconsin Deastal wetland formed behind a barrier beach on the south shore of Lake Superior, and provides habitat for several rare plant and bird species. It also contains patches of a native, but invasive grass, Phragmites australis. Recent work by Kristin Saltonstall, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, shows that a European genotype of this grass has largely replaced native strains in salt marshes on the Atlantic coast, and has been spreading into the Great Lakes regions over the past several decades. For this reason, there is concern that the flora and fauna of Bark Bay Slough may be threatened by Phragmites patches already growing at this site.

Using fossil pollen and plant macrofossils from sediment cores taken from a patch of Phragmites, I have demonstrated that this grass has only recently become established at the site. However, genetic analysis of the grass by Saltonstall shows that this population is a native genotype, not a more invasive genotype thought to have spread from Europe. Its increase at Bark Bay Slough over the past several decades may be a result of human activities in the watershed, and/or changes in the water levels in western Lake Superior due to from changes in the elevation of the outlet of the lake related to isostatic rebound.

This research was funded in large part by the Iowa Science Foundation (ISF-99-03).

Vegetation history in the Wind River Mountains, Wyoming.

In my doctoral work I applied techniques for reconstructing fine-scale vegetation patterns to trace the development of a patchy forest-park vegetation mosaic common in the subalpine zone of the Rocky Mountains. Using pollen and plant macrofossils in sediments of small ponds, I was able to demonstrate that grass and sagebrush park communities developed only within the last 2000 years at Fish Creek Park near Union Pass in the northern Wind River Range. It is likely that beginning about 2000 years ago cooling climate conditions may have prevented reforestation following major disturbance such as forest fire.

Current work in my lab is focused on understanding changes in climate and plant communities at the end of the late-glacial period near lower treeline in the Wind River Range.

Pollen data from Fish Creek Park are archived in the North American Pollen Database (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/napd.html)

Funded by National Science Foundation (BSR-9112417, ATM-00196539), Geological Society of America, Bell Museum of Natural History.

Publications
 (*= undergraduate collaborator)

Lynch, E.A., S. Hotchkiss, and R. Calcote. (In review) Spatial and temporal variation in late-Holocene fire regimes on a sand plain in northern Wisconsin (USA).  Quaternary Research.

Hotchkiss, S., R. Calcote, E.A. Lynch, C. Yanger* (In review) The paleoecology of landscapes: Using pollen assemblages to reconstruct landscape heterogeneity. The Holocene.

Power, M. with 56 co-authors. (2008). Changes in fire regimes since the Last Glacial Maximum: an assessment based on a global synthesis and analysis of charcoal data. Climate Dynamics 30:887-907.

Hotchkiss, S., R. Calcote, and E.A. Lynch. (2007). Response of vegetation and fire to Little Ice Age climate change: regional continuity and landscape heterogeneity.  Landscape Ecology 22: 25-41.

*Jensen, K., E.A. Lynch, R. Calcote, S. Hotchkiss. (2007). Charcoal morphotypes in sediments from Ferry Lake, Wisconsin (USA): Do different plant fuel sources produce distinctive charcoal morphotypes? The Holocene 17:907-915.

Lynch, E.A., Calcote R., and S. Hotchkiss. 2006. Late-Holocene vegetation and fire history on a Wisconsin sand plain. The Holocene 16:495-504.

Dahms, D.E., R.D. Hall, R.R. Shroba, C.J. Sorenson, E.A. Lynch, M.T. Applegarth, and J. Dillon.  2003. The Rocky Mountain glacial model: The Wind River Range, Wyoming.  In: Easterbrook, D.J., editor, Quaternary Geology of the United States, INQUA 2003 Field Guide Volume. Pp. 345-364.

Lynch, E.A. and K. Salstonstall. 2002. Paleoecological and genetic analyses provide evidence for recent colonization of native Phragmites australis populations in a Lake Superior wetland. Wetlands 22:637-646.

Lynch, E.A. 1998. Holocene vegetation changes in a park-forest vegetation mosaic in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. Ecology 79:1320-1338.

Lynch, E.A. 1996.  The ability of pollen data from small lakes and ponds to sense fine-scale vegetation patterns in the subalpine zone of the central Rocky Mountains.  Review of Paleobotany and Palynology 94:197-210.

Campbell, D.R., N.M. Waser, M.V. Price, E.A. Lynch, R.M. Mitchell. 1991.  Components of phenotypic selection: pollen export and flower corolla width in Ipomopsis aggregata.  Evolution 45:1458-1467.

Presentations

Calcote, R.C., Hotchkiss, S.C., Lynch, E.A,  Mladenoff, D.J., Rhemtulla, J. 2008. Responses of forests on sandy soils to post-European land-use changes. Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Milwaukee, WI.

Lynch, E.A., *Tomscha, S.T., and Schulte, L. 2008. Historic vegetation composition and structure at the prairie-forest border in northeastern Iowa. US-International Association for Landscape Ecology Annual Symposium, April 6-10, 2008, Madison, WI.

Hotchkiss, S., Calcote, R. and Lynch, E.A. 2008. Paleoecological perspective on landscape scale vegetation patterns on the northwestern Wisconsin sand plain: How representative is pre-European settlement vegetation of the last 2000 years?  US-International Association for Landscape Ecology Annual Symposium, April 6-10, 2008, Madison, WI.

Lynch, E.A., Hotchkiss, S. and Calcote, R. 2007. Temporal and spatial variation in fire regimes on a sand plain in northwestern Wisconsin: multivariate analysis of high resolution lacustrine charcoal records. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA.

Hotchkiss, S., Lynch, E.A., Calcote, R. and M. Tweiten. 2007. Paleoecological perspective on restoration goals: vegetation, fire, and climate on the northwestern Wisconsin sand plain. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA.

*Tomscha, S.T. and E.A. Lynch. 2007. Fire and vegetation interactions over the past 3800 years at Lake Elevenses, Northwestern Wisconsin, USA. National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Dominican University of California, San Raphael CA.

Lynch, E.A., S. Hotchkiss, and R. Calcote. 2006. Landscape patterns in response to climate change:  1000 years of vegetation change and fire history on a sand plain. American Quaternary Association Biennial Meeting, Bozeman, MT.

*Sutheimer, C.M., S.C. Hotchkiss, E.A. Lynch, R. Calcote, M.A. Tweiten. 2006. Macrocharcoal morphology as a tool in reconstructing past vegetation. Ecological Society of America. Memphis, TN.

Hotchkiss, S., R. Calcote, E.A. Lynch. 2006. Landscape patterns in response to climatic change: 1000 years of vegetation change and fire history on a sand plain. Ecological Society of America. Memphis, TN.

Lynch, E. A. *K. Jensen, R. Calcote, and S. Hotchkiss. 2005. Morphology of charcoal from lake sediments: a clue to prehistoric fire regimes. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec.

Calcote, R., S. Hotchkiss, and E.A. Lynch. 2005. Pre- and post-settlement vegetation change on a Wisconsin sand plain. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec.

Hotchkiss, S., R. Calcote, E.A. Lynch, C. Yanger. 2005. Circles in the sand: An analysis of presettlement vegetation and pollen assemblages from the northwest Wisconsin sand plain. Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America. Montreal, Quebec.

Lynch, E.A., R. Calcote, S. Hotchkiss. 2004.  Century-scale environmental change on a Wisconsin sand plain. American Quaternary Association Biennial Meeting, Lawrence, KS

Calcote, R., S. Hotchkiss, E.A. Lynch. 2004.  Can fossil pollen resolve landscape heterogeneity in pine- and oak-dominated vegetation? 

Booth, R., S. Hotchkiss, R. Calcote, and E.A. Lynch. 2004.  Late Holocene hydroclimate variability on the northwestern Wisconsin sand plain.  Ecological Society of American Annual Meeting, Portland, OR

*Jensen, K. and E.A. Lynch.  2004.  Is it local?  Macroscopic charcoal in lake sediments as an indicator of forest fire. Grinnell Science Symposium, Grinnell College, IA

*Kee, Y.S., *Dunham, L. and E.A. Lynch. 2004. A 750-year forest fire history from Metzger Lake, WI. Grinnell Science Symposium, Grinnell College, IA

Lynch, E.A. 2003.  Phragmites australis: a native invasive species in Lake Superior wetlands? Invasive Plants of the Upper Midwest Symposium, 30th Natural Areas Conference, Madison, WI (invited symposium speaker)

Lynch, E.A., R. Calcote, S. Hotchkiss. 2003. Late-Holocene fire and vegetation history in the Wisconsin pine barrens.  Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Savannah, GA

*Merten, S. and Lynch E.A. 2002.  Methods for fossil charcoal analysis to reconstruct forest fire history.  PEW Consortium for Science and Math Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL

*Bronson, A. and Lynch E.A. 2002. Morphology of conifer stomata from species native to northwestern Wisconsin. PEW Consortium for Science and Math Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL

Lynch, E. A. 2001. Vegetation history of a Lake Superior coastal wetland.  Iowa Academy of Science Annual Meeting, Des Moines, IA

Lynch, E. A. 1999. Detecting the invasion of giant reed grass, Phragmites australis, in a Lake Superior coastal wetland.  Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting,  Madison, WI

Lynch, E. A. 1997. Preexisting differences in understory species composition within forest stands indicate a need to collect baseline data to assess logging impacts. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM

Lynch, E. A. 1995. Origin of a park-forest vegetation mosaic in the Wind River Range, Wyoming.  Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Knoxville, TN

Lynch, E. A. 1994. Holocene changes in a park-forest vegetation mosaic in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT