Academics

Directory

Alumni and Friends

Outside the Classroom

Research Programs

The Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management conducts research in the following areas: 

Fisheries & Aquatic Ecology Forest Resources Rangeland Ecology & Management Wildlife Ecology & Management

I. Fisheries & Aquatic Ecology

Bill Fisher
Daniel Shoup

  • Ecology of streams and rivers

  • Fisheries science

  • Population and community ecology of riverine fishes

  • Movement patterns and habitat relationships of riverine fishes

  • Management of recreational fisheries

  • Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing applications in fisheries

  • Role of predation risk, competition, and abiotic factors in structuring food webs in aquatic systems

  • How fish optimize their habitat selection and diet in the face of competitive and predatory pressures

  • How changes in habitat selection or diet by a species affects (directly or indirectly)other species in the system

II. Forest Resources

a.) Forest Ecophysiology & Silviculture 

Steve Hallgren
Tom Hennessey
Rod Will 

  • Water relations, carbon and nitrogen metabolism of forest plants

  • Factors controlling vegetation dynamics

  • Water uptake and transfer in trees

  • Relations between root morphology and anatomical structures

  • Hydraulic properties of pine and oak 

  • Effects of environmental stress on tree and forest stand

  • Effects of silivcultural treatments on growth, productivity, and physiology of forest stands

  • Environmental effects on the photosynthesis and respiration of trees

  • Canopy dynamics of forest stands

  • Effects of global climate change on trees and forests

 

b.) Wood Products 

Salim Hiziroglu 

  • Wood composites, wood-moisture relation, mechanical processes of wood products

  • Value-added composite panels from under-utilized species of Oklahoma

  • Evaluation of surface characteristics of wood composites

 

c.) Forest Genetics 

Yinghua Huang
Chuck Tauer 

  • Plant genetics and molecular biology

  • Forest biotechnology, plant functional genomics

  • Use of molecular markers to address population genetic questions in forestry

  • Use of plant gene transformation systems to further study gene regulation and expression in trees

  • Population studies of gene flow

  • Risk associated with release of transgenics

  • Effects of management methods on genetic diversity

  • Tomato as a model system to identify and manipulate drought associated genes

 

d.) Forest Economics & Management 

Difei Zhang

  • Economics of forest management

  • Forest valuation

  • Forests in regional economies

  • Economics of forest management to mitigate global climate change

  • Quantitative decision support tools to aid forest and natural resource management

  • Mathematical models that can quantify and visualize the resource trade-offs and production possibilities between conflicting management objectives

  • Forest management planning: spatially explicit harvest scheduling models, multiple-criteria forest planning

  • Operations research: integer programming, multiple-criteria optimization, multiple-criteria decision support systems

  • The economics of non-timber forest benefits

 

e.) Forest Biometrics 

Tom Lynch 

  • Modeling growth and development of naturally-occurring shortleaf pine forests

  • Sampling and monitoring trees and shrubs in great plains riparian ecosystems

  • Evaluation of restoration of shortleaf pine - bluestem forest type (pre-settlement forest type)

  • Polyareal plot sampling and growth estimation from permanently established sample points

  • Distance sampling for forest inventory

  • Estimation of volume, product yield, weight, center of gravity and moment of inertia for individual tree-length stems and logs

  • Growth and development of intensively managed loblolly pine plantations

 

f.) Forest Hydrology & Watershed Management 

Don Turton 

  • Soil erosion from forest roads

  • Effects of forest management on the quantity (low, peak and flood flows) and quality (sediment, nutrients, chemical and biological properties) of water from forest watersheds

 

g.) Ecohydrology

Chris Zou

  • Plant, soil, and water interactions

  • Soil moisture dynamics and redistribution

  • Woody plant expansion and eco-hydrological impact

  • Coupling of carbon and water cycles

  • Ecosystem fluxes of CO2 and H20

  • Eddy covariance technique

 

III. Rangeland Ecology & Management

Terry Bidwell
Dave Engle
Sam Fuhlendorf
Karen Hickman
Gail Wilson
Chris Zou

  • Ecological restoration

  • Conservation of native plant communities

  • Sustainable use for products and services

  • Landscape ecology

  • Plant-animal interactions

  • Wildlife habitat ecology

  • Community ecology

  • Rangeland monitoring

  • Landscape management

  • Ecological succession

  • Diversity of rangelands

  • Grazing ecology

  • Conservation grazing

  • Rangeland management

  • Invasive plant species (Old World bluestems, tall fescue, Sericea lespedeza)

  • Fire Ecology

  • Grassland ecology

  • Social-ecological resilience

  • Eastern redcedar ecology and management

  • Large-scale conservation

  • Sociology of conservation management

 

IV. Wildlife Ecology and Management

 

a.) Upland Bird Ecology & Management 

Craig Davis
Dwayne Elmore
Chip Leslie
Fred Guthery
Tim O'Connell

  • Large-scale conservation partnerships

  • Wildlife damage management

  • Ecology and management of avian species, with an emphasis on wetland and grassland species

  • Ecology and management of terrestrial invertebrates

  • Grassland bird responses to different grazing practices

  • Ecology and recovery of endangered Ozark big eared bats, interior least terns, and red-cockaded woodpeckers

  • Assessment of the status of lesser prairie-chickens

  • Resource conservation and management in Romania and Poland

  • Effects of habitat alterations on wildlife populations

  • Field studies of breeding songbirds

  • Habitat loss and degradation

  • Landscape ecology

  • Ecology and management of upland game birds

  • Bobwhite thermal ecology, nesting success and behavior, nocturnal ecology

  • Modeling of operative temperatures on landscapes, and response of populations to forest management practices

 

b.) Behavior, Ecology, & Conservation of Large Mammals 

Jim Shaw

  • Red wolves in Texas, giant anteaters in Brazil and American bison

  • Captive mammals, mainly primates, at the Tulsa and Oklahoma City Zoos

  • Analysis of media coverage of environmental issues

 

c.) Reptile Ecotoxicology 

Larry Talent 

  • Effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals and other environmental contaminants on sex determination, morphological development, endocrinology, immunology, reproduction, and behavior of lizards

  • Lizard-egg screening assay for endocrine disrupting chemicals and soil contaminants

  • Lizard reproductive toxicity assay