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You are here: NRS Home / Scientists & Staff / John B. Bradford
Scientists & Staff

John B. Bradford

Title: Research Ecologist
Unit: Center for Research on Ecosystem Change
Address: Northern Research Station
1831 Hwy. 169 E
Grand Rapids, MN 55744
Phone: 218-326-7105
E-mail: Contact John B. Bradford

Jump to Publications

Education

  • Colorado State University, Ph.D., Ecology, 2004
  • Cornell University, B.A., Biology, 1996

Civic & Professional Affiliations

  • Ecological Society of America
  • American Geophysical Union

Current Research

I study productivity and carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems.  Specifically, my research addresses contributes to three general questions:

  • How will changing climatic conditions influence plant productivity in terrestrial ecosystems?
  • How might carbon storage and cycling in terrestrial ecosystems be altered in the future, potentially providing a feedback to the global climate system?
  • How do human land use and land management practices influence both productivity and carbon cycling?  

I focus on understanding the large-scale and long-term impact of changing climatic conditions and land management practices on primary production and carbon cycling. My approach combines results from manipulative and observational experiments with simulation modeling, remote sensing and GIS to scale these insights from plots to landscapes and regions.

Why is This Important

Human society relies on services from terrestrial ecosystems both directly, for timber and agricultural products, and indirectly, for carbon storage, water cycling, recreational opportunities, etc. Modifications to either the function or distribution of terrestrial ecosystems could substantially impact the viability and sustainability of these services. Climate change, altered disturbance regimes, land use patterns, and biological invasions are generally accepted as the primary components of global change that will impact terrestrial ecosystems.

The potentially dramatic consequences of global change for terrestrial ecosystems has drawn substantial attention to these processes and lead to a wealth of results from observational and manipulative experiments. However, important challenges remain, including synthesizing results to predict the large-scale and long-term response of terrestrial ecosystems to the combined components of global change, and bridging the gap between measurements that occur at plot scales and policy decisions that are relevant to large areas.

Featured Publications

Additional Online Publications

Other Publications by John B. Bradford *

  • Bradford, J.B., Weishampel, P., Smith, M.L., Kolka, R. K, Birdsey, R.A., Ollinger, S.V. and M.G.Ryan. In press. Carbon pools and fluxes in temperate forests: spatial variability and sampling requirements. Forest Ecology and Management.
  • Lauenroth, W.K. and J.B. Bradford. In Press. Ecohydrology of dry regions of the United States: Precipitation pulses and intraseasonal drought. Ecohydrology.
  • Bradford, J.B. 2009. P. H. Freer-Smith, M. S. J. Broadmeadow and J. M. Lynch (eds): Forestry and Climate Change. Landscape Ecology 24: 297-298.
  • Bradford, J.B., Weishampel, P., Smith, M.L., Kolka, R. K, Birdsey, R.A., Ollinger, S.V. and M.G.Ryan. 2009. Carbon dynamics in temperate forests: the importance of detrital biomass. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39: 802-813.
  • Bradford, J.B., and P.J Palik. 2009. A comparison of thinning methods in red pine: consequences for stand-level growth and tree diameter. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39: 489-496.
  • Bradford, J.B., Birdsey, R. A., Joyce, L. A., and M. G. Ryan. 2008. Tree age, disturbance history, and carbon stocks and fluxes in subalpine Rocky Mountain forests. Global Change Biology 14: 2882-2897.
  • Bradford, J. B. & Ryan, M. G. 2008. Quantifying Soil Respiration at Landscape Scales. Field Measurements for Forest Carbon Monitoring (ed C. M. Hoover), pp. 143-162. Springer, New York, NY.
  • Bradford, J. B., Weishampel, P. A., Smith, M. L., Kolka, R. K., Hollinger, D. Y., Birdsey, R. A., Ollinger, S. V. & Ryan, M. G. 2008. Landscape-Scale Carbon Sampling Strategy - Lessons Learned. Field Measurements for Forest Carbon Monitoring (ed C. M. Hoover), pp. 227-238. Springer, New York, NY.
  • Sherrill, K. R., Lefsky, M. A., Bradford, J. B. & Ryan, M. G. 2008. Forest structure estimation and pattern exploration from discrete-return lidar in subalpine forests of the central Rockies. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38, 2081-2096.
  • Bradford, J.B. and N. T. Hobbs. 2008. Analysis of options for elk population management in Rocky Mountain National Park. Journal of Environmental Management 86:520-528.
  • Bradford, J.B. 2007. Ecology of Hierarchical Landscapes - from Theory to Application, edited by Jiquan Chen, Sari Saunders, Kimberley Brosofske and Thomas Crow. Landscape Ecology (2007) 22:1265-1266.
  • Binkley, D., Kashian, D. M., Boyden, S., Kaye, M. W., Bradford, J. B., Arthur, M. A., Fornwalt, P. J., and M. G. Ryan. 2006. Patterns of Growth Dominance in Forests of the Rocky Mountains, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 236: 193-201.
  • Bradford, J.B. Lauenroth, W.K., Burke, I.C. and J.M. Paruelo. 2006. The influence of climate, soils, weather and land-use on primary production and biomass seasonality in the U.S. Great Plains. Ecosystems 9: 934-950.
  • Bradford, J.B. and W. K. Lauenroth. 2006. Controls over cheatgrass invasion: the importance of climate, soils, disturbance and seed availability. Journal of Vegetation Science 17: 693-704.
  • Lauenroth, W.K. and J.B. Bradford. 2006. Ecohydrology and the Partitioning of AET between transpiration and evaporation in a semiarid steppe. Ecosystems 9: 956-967.
  • Bradford, J.B., Lauenroth, W.K., and I.C. Burke. 2005. The impact of cropping on net primary production in the U.S. Great Plains. Ecology 86(7) 1863-1872.
  • Bradford, J.B., Hicke, J., and W. K. Lauenroth. 2005. The relative importance of light-use efficiency modifications from environmental conditions and cultivation for estimation of large-scale net primary productivity. Remote Sensing of Environment 96(2) 246-255.
  • Hobbs, N.T. and Bradford, J.B. 2004. Contraceptive control of wild horse populations: analysis of options. Bureau of Land Management internal report.
  • Hobbs, N.T. and Bradford, J.B. 2003. Analysis of options for elk population management in Rocky Mountain National Park. National Park Service internal report.
  • Adler, P.B. and J.B. Bradford. 2002. Compensation: an alternative method for analyzing diversity-productivity experiments. Oikos 96: 411-420.

*Due to policy or copyright restrictions, we are unable to provide full-text versions of these publications. Please check with your local library or Contact John B. Bradford to inquire about reprints.

Last Modified: 02/15/2012