Zack holds positions as the Ecosystem Forecasting & Monitoring Lead scientist with Vibrant Planet and as a research ecologist in the Fire Ecology Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. For Vibrant Planet, Zack is working to improve land management decision-making in disturbance-prone and multi-use landscapes. At UC Berkeley, Zack’s research focuses on the consequences of shifting wildfire patterns and efforts to restore ecological process (e.g., through use of managed wildfire) for biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. Some of his past research focused on how wildfire and forest management alter landscape pattern, and influence habitat use of birds and bats in the forests of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.
PhD in Ecology, 2018
University of California, Davis
MSc in Ecology, 2011
University of California, Davis
BA in Biology, 2006
Whitman College
Eavesdropping on bats using acoustic monitoring
Evaluating how bird occurrence and diversity vary across forest landscapes and disturbance gradients
Building web tools to aid post-drought forest management decisions
Investigating the mechanisms of drought-caused tree mortality, and efficacy of forest treatments
Quantifying variation in fire history patterns (pyrodiversity) and assessing changes in wildfire regimes with implications for biodiversity and forest resilience
A full list of articles and reports can be found in my CV