Tyler Refsland

Michigan State University | MSU · Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences

Herbivory by wild and domestic ungulates can influence tree recruitment and understory forest communities throughout the world. Herbivore‐driven declines in tree recruitment have been observed for quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), a foundation species whose health and management is recognized as a critical priority throughout much of its range....

In recent decades, climate change has disrupted forest functioning by promoting large-scale mortality events, declines in productivity and reduced regeneration. Understanding the temporal dynamics and spatial extent of these changes is critical given the essential ecosystem services provided by forests. As the most widespread tree species in North...

Global change has resulted in chronic shifts in fire regimes. Variability in the sensitivity of tree communities to multi-decadal changes in fire regimes is critical to anticipating shifts in ecosystem structure and function, yet remains poorly understood. Here, we address the overall effects of fire on tree communities and the factors controlling...

Minimizing forest vulnerability to more frequent and severe droughts, as climate models predict, has emerged as a primary goal of forest management. One potential strategy to moderate drought‐induced stress is reducing basal area through the repeat application of prescribed fire. However, use of prescribed fire as a management tool to reduce drough...

Global change has shifted fire regimes, but the long-term consequences for ecosystems are uncertain because of variability in environmental conditions, fire types, and plant composition. We tested how fire-frequency manipulations of 16-64 years affect tree communities and traits using 374 plots from 29 sites on four continents. More frequently burn...

Throughout the world, numerous tree species are reported to be in decline, either due to increased mortality of established trees or reduced recruitment. The situation appears especially acute for oaks, which are dominant features of many landscapes in the northern hemisphere. Although numerous factors have been hypothesized to explain reductions i...

1.Shifts in rainfall patterns due to climate change are expected to increase drought stress and mortality in forests. Natural and anthropogenic fire regimes are also changing, highlighting the need to understand the interactive effects of fire and drought on tree ecophysiological response and growth. 2.Using rainout shelters, we imposed summer drou...

Community-level shifts in the distributions of plant functional traits associated with environmental change are expected to influence ecosystem functioning. However, few studies have identified traits that both respond to environmental change and affect ecosystem properties, thus limiting potential to scale the effects of environmental change throu...

Background/Question/Methods Plant functional traits have been increasingly used to predict shifts in ecological processes with environmental change because of their ability to provide mechanistic insights on the biotic controls of biogeochemical cycles. The utility of traits in predicting the impact of changing land management practices, such as...

Background/Question/Methods Leaf decomposition is a fundamental process in most stream ecosystems, and understanding factors that control rates of decomposition are of critical importance to understanding many ecological processes in streams. This study investigated the effects of flow velocity, suspended nutrients and past intermittent hypoxia e...

Background/Question/Methods Much of the maple-basswood forest type, endemic to south-central Minnesota USA, has been fragmented and degraded due to recent human activity such as logging, agriculture, and development. Data on growth and survival patterns have been collected on over 1,000 trees in a maple-basswood forest restoration project started...

Background/Question/Methods Most of the North American tallgrass prairie ecosystem was lost to farming and development during European settlement of the Midwest. Restoration of previously agricultural fields to native prairies is a current method implemented to increase nutrient retention, create habitat for native species, and re-establish ecosy...