Jeffery B. Cannon
Current Research Projects
My resesarch focuses on how disturbances affect southeastern forests. Below is a brief summary of the research I am conducting for my doctoral dissertation as well as past research projects. Click each project to learn more
Interactive effects of wind damage and fire on forest regeneration
Current theory of disturbance interactions predicts that when disturbance occur together, the effect of the disturbances can be amplified by synergistic interactions. In this study, I am examining how experimental windthrow and an experimental fire interactively alter forest regeneration. Will the interactions be mainly synergistic? Or will antagonistic interactions also occur?
Read more detail about how wind danamge and fire effect forest regeneration.
Effects of forest wind damage on fuels and fire behavior
Natural disturbances such as wind damage and fire to are destructive to both life and property as we recently saw with the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona. Because the effect of some disturbances depends on what disturbances occured previously, I am interested in learning how wind damage changes fuel characteristics and the behavior of subsequent fires.
Read more about my research and preliminary findings on the effect of wind damage on fuels and fire behavior.
Landscape patterns of forest tornado damage
Tornado damage to forests creates striking landscape-level patterns. This project uses aerial photographs of tornado damage to measure the extent and pattern of tornado damage. I am also interesting in revealing how tornados interact with topography in mountains terrain—a topic somewhat unclear even to meterologists.
Learn more about my research on the landscape patterns of tornado damage.
Monica G. Turner (2010) Disturbance and landscape dynamics in a changing world. Ecology, 91(10), 2833–2849
"[T}here remains a paucity of empirical information about whether and when a disturbance will amplify or attenuate the effects of another, or change the probability of its occurrence"