RESEARCH CREW
Primary Investigator
Diana Tomback
Professor, Department of Integrative Biology,
University of Colorado Denver
Professor, Department of Integrative Biology,
University of Colorado Denver
My fields of study include evolutionary ecology, with application to forest ecology and conservation biology. I received my B.A. and M.A. degrees at UCLA in Zoology, and Ph.D. at the University of California Santa Barbara in Biological Sciences. My early studies were of the coevolved, mutualistic interaction between Clark’s nutcracker, a bird of high mountain forests, and several white pine species, particularly whitebark pine. My later work with students and collaborators revealed major ecological and evolutionary consequences to pines from avian seed dispersal, including growth form, population structure, regeneration biology, and the effects of exotic disease and mountain pine beetles on the bird-pine mutualism. Since 2006, we have been investigating the ecological role of whitebark pine in facilitation at treeline in the Rocky Mountains and exploring the impact of white pine blister rust and climate change on treeline community structure and function, supported in part by the National Science Foundation. We have also conducted studies of the relationship between whitebark pine health, cone production, and stand visitation by Clark’s nutcracker in the central and northern Rocky Mountains, including the Crown of the Continent ecosystem, supported by the National Park Service and US Forest Service.
Our 2001 book, Whitebark Pine Communities: Ecology and Restoration, published by Island Press in 2001 has grown in importance, and provided information for the status review of whitebark pine under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Whitebark pine is currently a candidate for listing as an endangered or threatened species. In 2001, several colleagues and I started the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation http://www.whitebarkfound.org, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit based in Missoula, Montana. The WPEF is dedicated to the restoration of whitebark pine ecosystems and educating the public and resource management agencies about the importance of this pine. I have served as volunteer Director of this organization since its inception. Contact: [email protected] |
Graduate Students
Laurel
PhD Candidate
PhD Candidate
My primary doctoral research is on remote sensing applications to discriminating tree species at treeline in Rocky Mountain National Park, with an aim to inform species distribution modeling for limber pine, an ecologically important species in the park that faces encroaching white pine blister rust. I am excited to use NEON AOP hyperspectral and lidar data to extend this project in the near future. I am also studying limber pine seed viability at high elevations in the park, and comparing the structure and species composition of treeline communities dominated by limber pine to those dominated by spruce and fir in RMNP.
Broadly speaking, I am interested in global change ecology, disturbance ecology, and landscape ecology. I obtained her BS in Conservation Biology and BA in Philosophy from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina in 2012. Contact: [email protected] |
Tara Durboraw
PhD Student
PhD Student
I am broadly interested conservation and management of at-risk species and systems. Prior to joining the Tomback Forest Ecology Lab, I earned a BS in Wildlife Ecology and Management from Auburn University and a MS in Natural Resources Management from Texas Tech University where I investigated the impacts of structure-altering disturbances (wildfire and defoliation) on Mexican spotted owl nesting habitat in the Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico. My current dissertation research as an NSF GRFP fellow in the lab focuses on developing a better understanding of the habitat selection and movement ecology of Clark’s nutcrackers, an obligate seed disperser of whitebark pine, within and surrounding Yellowstone National Park in the context of whitebark pine decline in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. I will also be exploring how mountain pine beetle-induced forest gaps may foster natural regeneration of at-risk whitebark pine.
Contact: [email protected] |
Undergraduate Students
Summer Richman
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lucas Rudisill
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Undergraduate Research Assistant
I am a junior pursuing a BA in Geography with an emphasis on environmental science. I had received an AA at Red Rocks community college before transferring to CU Denver to further my education. Growing up in the Rocky Mountains, I was always close to nature which created a strong interest for me in the study of the natural world and how humans interact and alter its various processes in both positive and negative ways. With my experience of 6 years of outdoor mountaineering training with the Colorado Army National Guard combined with a passion for environmental science I joined the Tomback lab as a research assistant to help with data collection on limber pine near and at tree line in Rocky Mountain National Park. I am now studying the possible relationship between seed coat pigment and seed viability in limber pine seeds and if it is determined as a good predictor of viability, determine the practicality of using this method for future viability assessments of the species. I aim to conduct future work on studying human-environment dynamics on a macro scale to further understand how to mitigate and reverse anthropogenic driven climate change.
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