Cochrane, Mark

Professor

Office Phone Number:

605-688-5353

Email:

Mark.Cochrane@sdstate.edu

Research Interests:

Global Climate Change, Fire Ecology, Land Cover Change, Land Cover and Land Use Interactions, Dynamic Systems

Dr. Mark Cochrane conducts interdisciplinary work combining ecology , remote sensing, and other fields of study to provide a landscape perspective of the dynamic processes involved in land-cover change. He is an expert on wildfire, documenting the characteristics, behavior and severe effects of fire in tropical and temperate forests that are inherent to current systems of human land-use and management. His research focuses on understanding spatial patterns, interactions and synergisms between the multiple physical and biological factors that affect ecosystems. Recently published work has emphasized the climate change, human dimensions of land-cover change and the potential for sustainable development. In his ongoing research program, Dr. Cochrane continues to investigate the drivers and effects of disturbance regime changes resulting from various forms of forest degradation, including fire, fragmentation and logging as well as the mitigating effects of forest management. He is currently the principle investigator of over $3.7 million in externally funded research grants designed to quantify fire mitigation effectiveness of billions of dollars of fuel treatment activities across the United States (JFSP), examine climate change and land management effects over the last century on vegetation structure and shifting fire regimes for the United States, Australia and Brazil (NASA), and determine the combined effects of land use change, conservation efforts and forest degradation on biodiversity throughout the Brazilian Amazon (NASA). He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from Pennsylvania State University and a S.B. in Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Filling a critical gap in Indonesia’s national carbon monitoring, reporting, and verification capabilities for supporting REDD+ activities: Incorporating, quantifying and locating fire emissions from within tropical peat-swamp forests

Project Summary: Because of episodic uncontrolled fires within drained peat-swamp forests, Indonesia is ranked the 4^th largest CO₂ emitter over the last half century. The former 1 million hectare Mega Rice Project (MRP), designed to convert extensive peat lands into farm lands, is a major emissions source. Deep organic soils storing vast amounts of carbon are now being lost to decomposition and combustion. The 120,000 ha Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP) Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) project is within the former MRP. In collaboration with the Indonesian government’s Forestry Research and Development Agency (FORDA), we will develop a prototype peat-fire emissions module for KFCP to incorporate into Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) efforts. This capacity will enable annual quantification of fire-related emissions. Our research project will utilize Landsat and MODIS data and products to quantify land cover changes, burned area and estimate the timing of fire activity. We will incorporate TRMM data for relating precipitation history to the timing of observed water table changes that impact peat-fire activity at KFCP. We will integrate satellite data with existing aerial KFCP Lidar (2007 & 2010), and propose a repeat Lidar collection during the study to provide quantified temporal topographic change maps to validate our modeled results of fire-related peat consumption. This project will leverage the extensive and ongoing data collection efforts for hydrology, fuels, land uses and fire occurrence at KFCP, with our initial field work and laboratory testing of regional peat combustion and emission characteristics to provide guided field testing of background and fire-related carbon emission rates and types (e.g. methane, CO₂, CO, particulates, other) during El Nino and non-El Nino years as available. Through groundbreaking emissions field sampling of in-situ smoldering surface, shallow (<20 cm) and deep (>20 cm) peat fires, with on-site gas chromatography for quantifying reactive species, whole air sampling for precise lab measurements of non-reactive gases, and simultaneous filter sampling of particulates, we will create comprehensive and pertinent emissions factors (EFs) that will be critically important for assessing the health impacts and total global warming potential (GWP) of these emissions. In our interdisciplinary research, we will investigate the chains of social and bio-physical events leading to these deep-peat fires, integrating fire scene analyses with social data to describe when, where, how, and under what conditions fires within KFCP have occurred, so that more effective mitigation strategies can be developed in the future. Accurate accounting of peat-fire carbon emissions requires understanding how their presence, depth of burning, and spread rates relate to the interplay of climate, weather, land use, land cover, drainage status, disturbance history, fire type, peat depth and composition. Modeling this phenomenon requires defining 1) the annual surface area burned, 2) the available fuel fraction (burnable) at each location through time, and 3) the amount of fuel consumed per unit area. We will implement a modeling approach that initially uses existing data on the peat hydrology, climate, land cover, burned area, timing of ignitions and fuel loads to stochastically provide peat fire probability and parameterize depth and area burned from the 2007 Lidar data. This initial model will be used to project the expected area, type, and depth of burning from 2007-2011 and then checked against the 2011 Lidar data set to refine calibration of the modeled parameters. The third modeling phase will provide Monte Carlo estimates of type, depth and area of burning, with emissions quantitatively weighted by appropriate EFs derived for surface, shallow and deep peat smoke amounts that will be validated using the proposed third Lidar data collection.

Continuation and expansion to a national-scale of the “Filling a critical gap in Indonesia’s national carbon monitoring, reporting, and verification capabilities for supporting REDD+ activities: Incorporating, quantifying and locating fire emissions from within tropical peat-swamp forests” Project

Project Summary: Indonesia ranks as the 3^rd largest CO₂eq emitting nation, largely due to episodic uncontrolled fires within drained peat-swamp forests. The original project (NNX13AP46G) set out to 1) provide extensive field investigation of land cover, hydrologic, fuel and fire dynamics in a 120,000 ha REDD+ project in Central Kalimantan; 2) Collect a new Lidar dataset to complement our existing 2007 and 2011 coverages; 3) Conduct groundbreaking detailed emissions field sampling of smoldering in-situ peat fires; and 4) Generate a fully parameterized and validated annual emissions model for the study region in support of its REDD+ project. Despite extensive bureaucratic and logistical challenges and delays inherent in working in Indonesia, objectives 1-3 have now been completed and the modeling efforts are ongoing with all necessary data now in hand as we complete the original project time period. However, our recent unprecedented emission findings (Stockwell et al. 2016), gained in situ during the height of the 2015 El Niño, have documented substantial differences between the actual regional peat fire emissions and existing emission factors, indicating regional Indonesian carbon equivalent emissions (100 year) may have been 19% less than current IPCC-based emission factor estimates. The IPCC emission factors are derived from one lab study burning peat from Sumatra (Christian et al. 2003) and considerable variation in emissions may exist between peat fires of Indonesia’s three major peat formations highlighting the need for the additional field emissions measurements we intend to carry out in the continuation of the project proposed here.

We propose expanding to a national level, our successful regional (Kalimantan) CMS project (NNX13AP46G), to better advance Indonesia’s Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) capabilities for peatland carbon emissions and support nationwide Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) efforts. We will implement our standardized field-based analyses of fuels, hydrology, peat burning characteristics and fire emissions, developed from our ongoing work in a 120,000 ha REDD+ project, to regionally parameterize our peatland emissions model for all of Indonesia’s major peatland areas by including three new locations, Riau and Jambi (Sumatra) and Western Papua (Papua), for inclusion within the Indonesian National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS). We will conduct on-site whole air sampling of natural peat smoke plumes in situ for precise measurement of non-reactive greenhouse gases, collect peat samples just in front of these active peat fires, and burn the samples in the US while measuring aerosol mass and optical properties and reactive gases. This will create comprehensive and pertinent emissions factors (EFs) for each study region that will be critically important for assessing health impacts and total global warming potential (GWP) of these emissions. Remotely sensed land cover/change (Landsat) and surface fire ignition timing and locations (MODIS) provide spatial and temporal drivers for the modelled emissions that will now be validated/constrained at a national level using biomass burning emissions estimations derived from Visible/Infrared Imager and Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite and the new Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (Himawari-8). Multiple lidar datasets (2014, 2011, 2007) for Kalimantan are being used to quantify model accuracy, and new work will be undertaken to quantify uncertainty in our most recent lidar-based digital terrain model (DTM), further improving assessments of modelling errors.

Fuel Treatment Effectiveness in the United States

Abstract: The fire situation in the United States is well documented with a growing prevalence of larger and more intense fires that have increasingly severe consequences for affected ecosystems and human health and well being. Wildland fire managers have the task of mitigating the impacts of wildfires that will inevitably occur. Increasingly, fuels management has been put forth and implemented as part of an integral strategy for minimizing fire risk, extreme fire behavior, area affected by wildfire and both the economic and ecological costs of fires. These activities take a multitude of forms, from stand alone prescribed fires to various types of thinning or combinations of treatments. However, managers need to know how cumulative wildland fuels treatments act at the landscape level (Task 2) and, furthermore, how long effective life spans of treatment are (Task 3). The proposed project will quantify the effectiveness of fuel treatments across the nation in terms of their measurable effects on fire severity (site) and fire spread (landscape). To do this, we will capitalize on the fire atlas information from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project, the fuel treatment information from the NFPORS database, and the fuels and topography data from the LANDFIRE project. Initial inference of possible fuel treatments subjected to fire will be derived by intersection of NFPORS spatial information (e.g. centroid or polygon data) with the MTBS fire perimeters. For 2006-2008, all large fires in the continental U.S. (>500 acres east; >1000 acres west of 97 degrees) that meet these criteria will be evaluated in a GIS environment for burn severity (based on dNBR) differences between fuel treatment areas and untreated forests. Fuel treatment type, age, size and configuration and placement on the landscape will be factored into the spatial and statistical analyses. Using the fire atlases for 1984-2005, all large fires with affected treatments in the Northwest and California (MTBS scheduled completion for 2007), and the majority of the Southeast, Southwest and North Central (completion 2009) will be analyzed. It is expected that more than 7,000 MTBS fires will be screened and that several hundred (5-10%) will have fuel treatments affected by fire. Through use of ancillary data from LANDFIRE, all fire-affected forest pixels will be assigned slope, aspect and elevation information in a spatial database that will include treatment type and age information. To assess the landscape level influence of the fuel treatments, we will utilize recorded fire-related data (wind, fuel moisture etc) and the fuels and ancillary data from LANDFIRE to run FARSITE both with and without the fuels treatments. The fuels treatments are not currently reflected in the LANDFIRE data layers. We will adjust the LANDFIRE fuels information to account for fuel treatments and then run FARSITE with adjustments such that the resulting fire extent closely matches the actual fire perimeters from MTBS. We will then substitute the original LANDFIRE fuels data, which does not include any fuels treatments, and run the same fire scenario fuels treatments. Simulated fire extents will then be compared to provide an estimate of the cumulative landscape level effect of the combined treatments at each site. For major ecosystem types and treatments, model runs will be conducted where individual factors are varied (e.g. slope, wind, fuel moisture, treatment age) to provide sensitivity analyses of the conditions under which different treatments effectively mitigate landscape and site level fire extent and behavior. This study will provide wildland fire managers and policy makers with a better understanding of how conditions and location will affect the effectiveness of treatments. It will also supply the tools and data needed to make strategic decisions on planning and implementing fuels treatments and appropriate fuels management policies. This project will also provide an operational test of NFPORS and the LANDFIRE and MTBS deliverables.

This project is funded by the Joint Fire Sciences Program

SDSU/GIScCE -- PI: Cochrane ; CoI: Wimberley

USGS/EROS -- CoI: Zhu, Ohlen

USFS -- CoI: Finney, Reeves

Biodiversity implications of forest disturbance and related landscape dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon

Project Summary

Biodiversity threats are not solely from deforestation. Human land use fragments remaining forests into smaller and smaller pieces. Forest fragments are altered habitats that change community composition and structure. It has not generally been understood that an equal or greater percentage of standing Amazonian forests have been degraded by fire, selective logging and fragmentation than have been deforested. Biodiversity implications of ongoing forest degradation and its relation to human landuse have not been quantified or placed in the spatial context necessary for predicting future landcover and hence biodiversity dynamics.

The fundamental hypothesis underlying this proposal is that biodiversity levels of Amazonian forests are strongly related to two competing factors: forest disturbance and time since last disturbance.

We will use Landsat and MODIS satellite imagery and derived products to create a 10 year spatial database (2000-2009) of all major forest disturbances (selective logging, fire, fragmentation and deforestation) across the Brazilian Amazon. Integration of Landsat based analyses of forest disturbance with MODIS-derived burned area products will enable us to accurately separate fires into their 3 main types; (1) deforestation fires, where slash is burned, creating relatively hot fires that burn for several hours; 2) maintenance fires, which rapidly burn as narrow fire lines through grass and early second growth; 3) forest fires, escaped fires in standing forests which vary from extremely low intensity in previously undisturbed forests to high intensity in previously burned or logged forests. We will use this database to stratify and interpret extensive field studies designed to investigate the response of 4 major indicator taxa (understorey birds, dung beetles, trees and euglossine bees) as a function of disturbance history and time since last disturbance.

Expected Significance – The proposed project will make use of NASA assets to produce the first complete map of forest disturbance for the Brazilian Amazon, for 10 years (2000-2009). The extents and locations of forest fragmentation, selective logging and forest fires, as well as deforestation, will be determined. By integrating MODIS fire products and Landsat analyses, we will explain all fire occurrence in the Amazon by type, location and timing. These deliverables will be invaluable to the larger science community for improving carbon cycle studies and quantifying MODIS fire product performance in Amazonian forests. The extensive investigation of ecological community responses (based on 4 taxa) to disturbance frequency and post-disturbance recovery will provide key insights into the state of Amazonian biodiversity in millions of hectares of standing, but damaged, forests. Combined with a validated model incorporating economic, land cover and physical-geographic factors affecting fire ignition and spread probability, the deliverables from this project will greatly enhance policy analyses, conservation planning and ability to forecast biodiversity impacts of disturbance for the Brazilian Amazon. The proposed work is directly responsive to two of the World Summit on Sustainable Development’s 2010 Biodiversity Target focal areas; (a) Reducing the rate of loss of the components of biodiversity, including: (i) biomes, habitats and ecosystems; (ii) species and populations; and (c) Addressing the major threats to biodiversity, including those arising from invasive alien species, climate change, pollution, and habitat change.

Shifting Fire Regimes of the United States, Australia and Brazilian Amazonia: The Roles of Climate Change, Land Use, and Mitigation Efforts

Project Summary: Fire is an integral but poorly understood component of the Earth system. Interdisciplinary research is needed to estimate future climate change effects upon the fire environment and resultant feedbacks with human land use and mitigation efforts. To this end, we have assembled a talented multidisciplinary team of scientists to conduct integrated research on fire in the Earth system. Our areas of expertise include quantitative and applied remote sensing, fire and landscape ecology, spatial analysis and statistics, dynamic vegetation and land use modeling, economics, land use and land cover change research, geographic information science, and fire management.

In support of NASA’s Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science emphasizing Integrated Earth System Responses to Extreme Disturbances, we are investigating the propensity for extreme fire occurrence as functions of climate, land cover and land use/management across 3 continents; Australia (entire), North America (lower 48 states U.S.) and South America (Brazilian Amazonia). We will provide comparable tests of hypotheses and estimation of future climate change effects across multiple ecoregions within most of the world’s terrestrial biome types (boreal tundra and taiga will be the only major vegetated biome types not examined). Only through this type of large-scale study, that incorporates many of the world’s ecosystems, land management approaches and climates, will it be possible to provide the context necessary to understand how fire is responding to climate change. We will quantify changes in fire danger since 1901 (since 1948 in Amazonia) as well as fire incidence and fire effects in recent decades. The probability and locations of exacerbated fire regimes under projected future climate scenarios will be investigated.

Expected significance: The project will produce the first multicontinent analyses of fire regime shifts due to climate and land use changes and also estimate the effectiveness of ongoing mitigation efforts. Only through large scale analyses is it possible to determine the degree to which climate may be changing landscape level fire behavior and the propensity for future extreme fire events to occur. Such knowledge is critical for society in order for proper development planning, regional adaptation and mitigation efforts to take place. Our work will:

Characterize the nature, magnitude, and distinguishing attributes of extreme fire events.
Assess many natural (ecological, biogeochemical, climatic, biogeographic) and human (land use, conservation, socio-economic) aspects of extreme fire disturbances.
Quantify the effectiveness of many types of fire mitigation efforts over large regions.
Investigate the Earth system feedbacks among climate and land use changes and the placement, timing and characteristics of extreme fires over time.

By applying what we learn to our analyses of projected future climate changes and simulated increases in climate variability, we will provide a solid understanding of when and in which ecoregions altered fire regimes may pose a risk to both human and natural resources. If largescale, integrated, multidisciplinary research such as this is not conducted, then fire’s function in the Earth system will remain poorly understood and humanity will be left increasingly vulnerable to unforeseen and potentially catastrophic fire regime shifts as the climate continues to change.

Courses Taught

GSE-GEOG-WL-BIOL 767 Fire and Ecosystems, offered Spring 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017

Course Objectives:

A comprehensive understanding of how fuel, topography and weather influence fire behavior.
Detailed information on the tenets of fire ecology and how they relate to plant and animal individuals and populations.
Integrated treatment of fire behavior and ecosystems response so that community composition and ecosystem properties can be understood or predicted.
A synthetic view of how human land use, fire history and biophysical conditions lead to ecosystem development and change over time for regions of interest to the student.

Course Syllabus

GSE-GEOG-NRM 768 Global Climate Change, offered Spring 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016

Course Objectives:

Basic understanding of the underlying physics behind global and regional climate.
Knowledge of various proxy data used for assessing past climates, with particular focus on climate variations.
Integrated and up to date knowledge of the science being developed to explain and understand various components of the Earth’s present climate dynamic.
Information on how natural events/phenomena and anthropogenic activities can influence regional and global climate.
A synthetic view of climate change predictions for the coming century with particular focus on the assumptions and uncertainties inherent in climate modeling and future emissions scenarios as developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Course Syllabus · Course Flyer

GSE 766 Remote Sensing of Fire and other Disturbance, offered Spring 2008

Course Objectives:

Detailed information on the capabilities of multiple remote sensing sensors for detection and monitoring of ecosystem disturbance.
A comprehensive understanding of a variety of applied remote sensing methods for assessing the potential for wildfire, detecting the incidence of fire, and mapping of burned area extent and characteristics.
Experience applying several remote sensing methods for monitoring, detecting and quantifying forest disturbance.
Knowledge of remote sensing land cover products and their application for fire spread modeling simulation and experience using the FARSITE Fire Area Simulator.

Course Syllabus

Curriculum vitae

Mark Cochrane's curriculum vitae.

Selected Publications

Bueno da Costa, O., E.A.T. Matricardi, M.A. Pedlowski, M.A. Cochrane, L.C. Fernandes and H. Angelo. (in press) Land use displacements by soybean plantations in the Western Brazilian Amazon state of Rondônia. Acta Amazonica.

*Stockwell, C.E., T. Jayarathne, M.A. Cochrane, K.C. Ryan. E.I. Putra, B.H. Saharjo, A.D. Nurhayati, I. Albar, D.R. Blake, I.J. Simpson, E.A. Stone and R.J. Yokelson. 2016. Field measurements of trace gases and aerosols emitted by peat fires in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia during the El Niño. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 16: 11711-11732. doi:10.5194/acp-16-11711-2016

*Prior, L.D., B.P, Murphy, G.J. Williamson. M.A. Cochrane, W.M. Jolly and D.M.J.S. Bowman. (in press) Does inherent flammability of grass and litter fuels contribute to continental patterns of landscape fire activity? Journal of Biogeography.

Boer, M.M., D.M.J.S. Bowman, B.P. Murphy, G.J. Cary, M.A. Cochrane, R.J. Fensham, M.A. Krawchuk, O.F. Price, V. Resco de Dios, R.J. Williams, and R.A. Bradstock. 2016. Changes in climate water balance drive transformational shifts in Australian fire regimes. Environmental Research Letters 11(6): 065002.

*Williamson, G.J. L.D. Prior, W.M. Jolly, M.A. Cochrane, B.P. Murphy and D.M.J.S. Bowman. 2016. Measurement of inter- and intra-annual variability of landscape fire activity at a continental scale: the Australian case. Environmental Research Letters 11: 035003 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/3/035003

Smith, A.M.S., C.A. Kolden, T.B. Paveglio, M.A. Cochrane, D.M.J.S. Bowman, M.A. Moritz, A.D. Kliskey, L. Alessa, A.T. Hudak, C.M. Hoffman, J.A. Lutz, L.P. Queen, S.J. Goetz, P.E. Higuera, L. Boschetti, M. Flannigan, K.M. Yedinak, A.C. Watts, E.K. Strand, J.W. van Wagtendonk, J.W. Anderson, B.J. Stocks and J.T. Abatzoglou. 2016. The science of firescapes: achieving fire resilient communities. BioScience 66(2): 130-146.

*Thompson, M.P., P. Freeborn, J.D. Rieck, D.E. Calkin, J.W. Gilbertson-Day, M.A. Cochrane and M.S. Hand. 2016. Quantifying the influence of previously burned areas on suppression effectiveness and avoided exposure: A case study of the Las Conchas fire. International Journal of Wildland Fire 25(2): 167-181.

*Silveira, J.M., J. Louzada, J. Barlow, R. Andrade, L. Mestre, R. Solar, S. Lacau and M.A. Cochrane. 2015. A multi-taxa assessment of biodiversity change after single and recurrent wildfires in a Brazilian Amazon forest. Biotropica DOI: 10.1111/btp.12267

*Jolly, W.M., M.A. Cochrane, P.H. Freeborn, Z.A. Holden, T.J. Brown, G.J. Williamson, and D.M.J.S. Bowman. 2015. Climate-induced variations in global wildfire danger from 1979 to 2013. Nature Communications 6, Article number: 7537. doi:10.1038/ncomms8537

*Murphy, B., M.A. Cochrane, and J. Russell-Smith. 2015. Prescribed burning protects endangered tropical heathlands of the Arnhem Plateau, northern Australia. Journal of Applied Ecology 52(4): 980-991. doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12455

*Freeborn, P.H., M.A. Cochrane and W.M. Jolly. 2015. Relationships between fire danger and the daily growth of active incidents burning in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA. International Journal of Wildland Fire. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF14152

J.G. Goldammer, S.J. Pyne, T.W. Swetnam, C. Whitlock, B.J. Stocks, M.D. Flannigan, A.I. Sukhinin, E. Ponomarev, L. Hinzman, F.S. Chapin, M. Fukuda, S. Page, J. Rieley, A. Hoscilo, A. Spessa, U. Weber, M.A. Cochrane, J.M. Moreno, V.R. Vallejo, E. Chuvieco, R.J. Williams, R.A. Bradstock, G.J. Cary, L.D. Neal, J. Enright, A.M. Gill, J. Handmer, K.J. Hennessy, A.C. Liedloff, C. Lucas, M.A. Moritz, M.A. Krawchuk, J.E. Keeley, W.S.W. Trollope, C. de Ronde, M.O. Andreae, G. van der Werf, K. Thonicke, J.G. Dans, V. Lehsten, R. Fisher, M. Forrest, L. Gowman, M. Wotton, W.J. de Groot, A. González-Cabán, M. Statheropoulos, S. Karma, W.J. Bond, G.F. Midgley, C.O. Justice, I. Csiszar, L. Boschetti, S. Korontzi, W. Schroeder, L. Giglio, K.P. Vadrevu, and D. Roy. 2015. Vegetation Fires and Global Change. Challenges for Concerted International Action. A White Paper directed to the United Nations and International Organizations. In: Planet@Risk, 3(1): 45-57, Davos: Global Risk Forum GRF Davos.

*Andrade, R.B., J. Barlow, J. Louzada, F.Z. Vaz-de-Mello, J. Silveira and M.A. Cochrane. 2014. Tropical forest fires and biodiversity: Dung beetle community and biomass responses in a northern Brazilian Amazon forest. Journal of Insect Conservation. DOI 10.1007/s10841-014-9719-4

Barber, C.P., M.A. Cochrane, C.M. Souza Jr., & W.F. Laurance. 2014. Roads, deforestation, and the mitigating effect of protected areas in the Amazon. Biological Conservation 177: 203-209.

Freeborn, P.H., M.A. Cochrane & M.J. Wooster. 2014. A Decade Long, Multi-scale Map Comparison of Fire Regime Parameters Derived from Three Publically Available Satellite-based Fire products: A Case Study in the Central African Republic. Remote Sensing 6(5): 4061-4089.

Bowman, D.M.J.S., B.P. Murphy, G.J. Williamson & M.A. Cochrane. 2014. Pyrogeographic models, feedbacks and the future of global fire regimes. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 23, 821-824.

Freeborn, P.H., M.J. Wooster, D.P. Roy & M.A. Cochrane. 2014. Quantification of MODIS fire radiative power (FRP) measurement uncertainty for use in satellite-based active fire characterization and biomass burning estimation. Geophysical Research Letters 41(6): 1988-1994.

Kumar,S., D.P. Roy, M.A. Cochrane, C. Souza Jr.,C.P. Barber, & L. Boschetti. 2014. A quantitative study of the Proximity of Satellite Detected Active Fires to Roads and Rivers in the Brazilian Tropical Moist Forest Biome. International Journal of Wildland Fire 23(4) 532-543.

Roos, C.I. , D.M.J.S. Bowman, J. Balch, P. Artaxo, W.J. Bond, M. Cochrane, C.M. D'Antonio, R. DeFries, F.H. Johnston, M.A. Krawchuk, C.A. Kull, M. Mack, M.A. Moritz, S. Pyne, A.C. Scott & T.W. Swetnam. 2014. Pyrogeography, historical ecology, and the human dimensions of fire regimes. Journal of Biogeography 41(4): 833-836. doi:10.1111/jbi.12285.

Stoker, J.M., M.A. Cochrane, & D.P. Roy. 2014. Integrating disparate lidar data at the National scale to assess the relationships between height above ground, landcover and ecoregions. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing 80(1): 59-70.

Andrade, R.B., J. Barlow, J. Louzada, L. Mestre, J. Silveira, F.Z. Vaz-de-Mello & M.A. Cochrane. 2014. Biotic congruence in humid tropical forests: a multi-taxa examination of spatial distribution and responses to forest disturbance. Ecological Indicators 36: 572-581.

Cochrane, M.A. 2013. Current fire regimes, impacts and the likely changes – V: Tropical South America. Pp 101-114 in J.G. Goldammer ed. Vegetation Fires and Global Change: Challenges for Concerted International Action a White Paper directed to the United Nations and International Organizations, Kessel Publishing House, Remagen, Germany.

Souza, C., J.V. Siqueira, M. Sales, A.V. Fonseca, J. Ribeiro, I. Numata, M.A. Cochrane, C. Barber, D. Roberts & J. Barlow. 2013. 10-year Landsat classification of deforestation and forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon. Remote Sensing 5(11) 5493-5513 doi:10.3390/rs5115493.

Cochrane, M.A. 2013. Introduction to ‘The Disappearance of the Tropical Forests of Africa’. Fire Ecology 9(2): 1-2.

Bowman, D.M.J.S., B.P. Murphy, M.M. Boer, Bradstock, G.J. Cary, M.A. Cochrane, R.J. Fensham, M.A. Krawchuk, O.F. Price & R.J. Williams. 2013. Forest fire management, climate change and the risk of catastrophic carbon losses. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2, 66-68.

Cheng, D., Rogan J., L. Schneider & M.A. Cochrane. 2013. Evaluating MODIS active fire products in subtropical Yucatán forest. Remote Sensing Letters 4(5): 455-464.

Toomey, M., Roberts, D.A., Caviglia-Harris, J., Cochrane, M.A., Dewes, C., Harris, D., Numata, I., Sales, M.H., Souza, C.M. Jr. & E. Sills. 2013. Long-term, high-spatial resolution carbon balance monitoring of the Amazonian frontier: Pre-disturbance and post-disturbance carbon emissions and uptake. Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences 118: 400-411. DOI: 10.1002/jgrg.20033

Mestre, L., M.A. Cochrane & J. Barlow. 2013. Long-term changes in bird communities after wildfires in the Central Brazilian Amazon. Biotropica 45(4): 480-488.

Silveira, J.M., J. Barlow, L.A.M. Mestre, R.B. Andrade, S. Lacau, R. Zanetti, & M.A. Cochrane. 2013. The responses of leaf litter ant communities to wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon: a multi-region assessment. Biodiversity and Conservation. 22: 513-529. DOI 10.1007/s10531-012-0426-8

Murphy, B.P., R.A. Bradstock, M.M. Boer, J. Carter, G.J. Cary, M.A. Cochrane, R.J. Fensham, J. Russell-Smith, G.J. Williamson & D.M.J.S. Bowman. 2013. Fire regimes of Australia, a pyrogeographic model system. Journal of Biogeography 40: 1048-1058.

Cochrane, M.A., C.J. Moran, M.C. Wimberly, A.D. Baer, M.A. Finney, K.L. Beckendorf, J. Eidenshink, & Z. Zhu. 2012. Estimation of wildfire size and risk changes due to fuels treatments. International Journal of Wildland Fire 21(4): 357-367. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF11079.

Silveira, J.M., J. Barlow, R.B. Andrade, L.A.M. Mestre, S. Lacau & M.A. Cochrane. 2012. Responses of leaf-litter ant communities to tropical forest wildfires vary with season. Journal of Tropical Ecology 28: 515-518. doi:10.1017/S02664674120051X.

Numata, I. & M.A. Cochrane. 2012. Forest Fragmentation and its potential implications in the Brazilian Amazon between 2001 and 2010, Open Journal of Forestry. 2(4): 265-271. DOI: 10.4236/ojf.2012.24033

Barber, C.P., M.A. Cochrane, C.M. Souza Jr., & A. Veríssimo. 2012. Dynamic Performance Assessment of Protected Areas. Biological Conservation 149: 6-14 DOI: 10.1016/j.bio.con.2011.08.024.

Fearnside, P.M., W.F. Laurance, M.A. Cochrane, S. Bergen, P.D. Sampaio, C. Barber, S. D’Angelo & T. Fernandes. 2012. O futuro da Amazônia: Modelos para prever as conseqüências da infraestrutura futura nos planos plurianuais. Novos Cadernos NAEA 15(1): 25-52. ISSN: 1516-6481 http://www.periodicos.ufpa.br/index.php/ncn/article/view/865/1331

Barlow, J. L. Parry, T.A. Gardner, J. Ferreira, R. Carmenta, E. Berenguer, I.C.G. Veira, L. Aragao, C. Souza & M.A. Cochrane. 2012. The critical importance of considering fire in REDD+ programs. Biological Conservation. 154(SI): 1-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.03.034

Moran, C.J. & M.A. Cochrane. 2012. Do mountain pine beetle outbreaks change the probability of active crown fire in lodgepole pine forests?: Comment. Ecology 93(4): 939-941.

Barlow, J., G.C. D’Andrea, J.M. Silveira, L.A.M. Mestre, R.B. Andrade, J. Louzada, F.Z. Vaz-de-Mello, S. Lacau & M.A. Cochrane. 2012. Wildfires in bamboo-dominated Amazonian forests: impacts on above-ground biomass and biodiversity. PLoS ONE 7(3) Article number e33373 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033373.

Delamater, P.L., J.P. Messina, J. Qi & M.A. Cochrane. 2012. A hybrid visual estimation method for the collection of ground truth fractional coverage data in a humid tropical environment. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 18: 504-514. doi:10.1016/j.jag.2011.10.005

Bowman, D.M.J.S., Jennifer Balch, J., Artaxo, P., Bond, W.J., Cochrane, M.A., D'Antonio, C.M., DeFries, R. Johnston, F.H., Keeley, J.E., Krawchuk, M.E., Kull, C.A., Mack, M., Moritz, M.A., Pyne, S. Roos, C.I., Scott, A.C., Sodhi, N.S. & Swetnam, T.W. 2011. The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth. Journal of Biogeography. DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02595.x

Andrade, R., J. Barlow & M.A. Cochrane. 2011. Quantifying responses of dung beetles to fire disturbance in tropical forests: the importance of passive and active trapping methods and seasonality. PLoS ONE 6: e26208. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026208

Mestre, L.A.M., J. Rechetelo, J. Barlow & M.A. Cochrane. 2011. Avifaunal inventory of a Southern Amazonian transitional site: the São Luiz” farm, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi 6(2): 147-161.

Numata I., Cochrane M.A. & Galvao L.S., 2011. Analyzing the impacts of frequency and severity of forest fire on the recovery of disturbed forest using Landsat time series and EO-1 Hyperion in the Southern Brazilian Amazon, Earth Interactions, 15:1-17.
DOI

Liu J., Vogelmann J.E., Zhu Z., Key C.H., Sleeter B.M., Price D.T., Chen J.M., Cochrane M.A., Eidenshink J.C., Howard S.M., Bliss N.B. & Jiang H., 2011. Estimating California Ecosystem Carbon Change Using Process Model and Land Cover Disturbance Data: 1951 – 2000, Ecological Modelling, 222:2333-2341.

Cochrane M.A., 2011. The Past, Present and Future Importance of Fire in Tropical Rainforests, In: Tropical Rainforest Responses to Climate Change (2nd edition) (Ed. Bush, M.). Springer.

Numata I., Cochrane M.A., Souza C.M. & Sales M.H., 2011. Carbon emissions from deforestation and forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon, Environmental Research Letters, 6.
DOI

Numata I., Cochrane M.A., Roberts D.A., Soares J.V., Souza C.M. & Sales M.H., 2010. Biomass collapse and carbon emissions from forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon, Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 115.
DOI

Barlow J., Silveira J.M. & Cochrane M.A., 2010. Fire Scars on Amazonian Trees: Exploring the Cryptic Fire History of the Ilha de Maracá, Biotropica, 42:405-409.

Mestre L.A.M., Thom G., Cochrane M.A. & Barlow J., 2010. The birds of Reserva Extractivista Chico Mendes, South Acre, Brazil, Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, 5(3):311-333.

Cochrane M.A. & Barber C.P., 2009. Climate change, human land use and future fires in the Amazon, Global Change Biology, 15(3):601-612.
Abstract PDF DOI

Cochrane M.A. & Ryan K.C., 2009. Fire and fire ecology: Concepts and principles, Pages 25-62, In: Tropical Fire Ecology: Climate Change, Land Use and Ecosystem Dynamics (Ed. Cochrane M.A.). Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany, 645 pages.

Cochrane M.A., 2009. Tropical Fire Ecology: Climate Change, Land Use and Ecosystem Dynamics, Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany, 645 pages.

Numata I., Cochrane M.A., Roberts D.A., Soares J.V. & Souza C.M., 2009. Determining dynamics of spatial and temporal structures of forest edges in South Western Amazonia, Forest Ecology And Management, 258:2547-2555.

Mestre L.A.M., Barlow J., Thom G. & Cochrane M.A., 2009. Burned Forests as a Novel Habitat for the Black-faced Cotinga (Conioptilon mcilhennyi) in the Western Brazilian Amazon, Ornitología Neotropical, 20:467-470.

Cochrane M.A., 2009. Fire in the tropics, Pages 1-23, In: Tropical Fire Ecology: Climate Change, Land Use and Ecosystem Dynamics (Ed. Cochrane M.A.). Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany, 645 pages.

Bowman D.M.J.S., Balch J.K., Artaxo P., Bond W.J., Carlson J.M., Cochrane M.A., D'Antonio C.M., DeFries R.S., Doyle J.C., Harrison S.P., Johnston F.H., Keeley J.E., Krawchuck M.A., Kull C.A., Marston J.B., Moritz M.A., Prentice I.C., Roos C.I., Scott A.C., Swetnam T.W., van der Werf G.R. & Pyne S.J., 2009. Fire in the Earth System, Science, 324:481-484.
PDF

Wimberly M.C., Cochrane M.A., Baer A.D. & Pabst K., 2009. Assessing fuel treatment effectiveness using satellite imagery and spatial statistics, Ecological Applications, 19(6):1377-1384.
Abstract PDF DOI

Cochrane M.A., 2009. Fire, Landuse, Landcover Dynamics and Climate Change in the Brazilian Amazon, In: Tropical Fire Ecology: Climate Change, Land Use and Ecosystem Dynamics (Ed. Cochrane M.A.). Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany, 645 pages.

Kodandapani N., Cochrane M.A. & Sukumar R., 2009. Forest fire regimes and their ecological effects in seasonally dry tropical ecosystems in the Western Ghats, India, In: Tropical Fire Ecology: Climate Change, Land Use and Ecosystem Dynamics (Ed. Cochrane M.A.). Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany, 645 pages.

Loveland T.R., Cochrane M.A. & Henebry G.M., 2008. Landsat still contributing to environmental research - Response, Trends In Ecology & Evolution, 23(4):182-183.
Abstract DOI

Cochrane M.A. & Laurance W.F., 2008. Synergisms among Fire, Land Use, and Climate Change in the Amazon, AMBIO, 37:522-527.
Abstract PDF

Kodandapani N., Cochrane M.A. & Sukumar R., 2008. A comparative analysis of spatial, temporal, and ecological characteristics of forest fires in seasonally dry tropical ecosystems in the Western Ghats, India, Forest Ecology And Management, 256:607-617.

Matricardi E.A., Skole D.L., Cochrane M.A., Pedlowski M. & Chomentowski W., 2007. Multi-temporal assessment of selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon using Landsat data, International Journal Of Remote Sensing, 28(1-2):63-82.
Abstract

Arima E.Y., Simmons C.S., Walker R.T. & Cochrane M.A., 2007. Fire in the Brazilian amazon: A spatially explicit model for policy impact analysis, Journal Of Regional Science, 47(3):541-567.
Abstract

Messina J.P. & Cochrane M.A., 2007. The Forests are Bleeding: How Land Use Change is Creating a New Fire Regime in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Journal of Latin American Geography, 6:85-100.
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Cochrane M.A., 2006. A Changing Landscape: A Geographical Perspective on Tropical Deforestation, In: Exploring Environmental Challenges: A Multidisciplinary Approach - Tropical Deforestation (Eds. Spray S.L. & Moran M.D.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 176 pages.

Matricardi E.A., Skole D.L., Cochrane M.A., Qi J.G. & Chomentowski W., 2005. Monitoring selective logging in tropical evergreen forests using landsat: Multitemporal regional analyses in Mato Grosso, Brazil, Earth Interactions, 9.
Abstract

Souza C.M., Roberts D.A. & Cochrane M.A., 2005. Combining spectral and spatial information to map canopy damage from selective logging and forest fires, Remote Sensing Of Environment, 98(2-3):329-343.
Abstract

Wang C.Z., Qi J.G. & Cochrane M.A., 2005. Assessment of tropical forest degradation with canopy fractional cover from landsat ETM plus and IKONOS imagery, Earth Interactions, 9.
Abstract

Laurance W.F., Bergen S., Cochrane M.A., Fearnside P.M., Delamonica P., D'Angelo S., Barber C.P. & Fernandes T., 2005. The future of the Amazon, Pages 583-609, In: Tropical rainforests: past, present, and future. (Eds. Bermingham E., Dick C. & Moritz C.). University of Chicago, Chicago & London, 745 pages.

Kodandapani N., Cochrane M.A. & Sukumar R., 2004. Conservation threat of increasing fire frequencies in the Western Ghats, India, Conservation Biology, 18(6):1553-1561.
Abstract

Simmons C.S., Walker R.T., Wood C.H., Arima E.Y. & Cochrane M.A., 2004. Wildfires in Amazonia: A pilot study examining the role of farming systems, social capital, and fire contagion, Journal of Latin American Geography, 3:81-96.
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Cochrane M.A., Skole D.L., Matricardi E.A., Barber C. & Chomentowski W., 2004. Selective Logging, Forest Fragmentation and Fire Disturbance: Implications of Interaction and Synergy, In: Working Forests in the Neotropics: Conservation through Sustainable Management? (Eds. Zarin D.J., Alavalapati J.R., Putz F.E. & Schmink M.). Columbia University Press, New York, 437 pages.

Verissimo A. & Cochrane M.A., 2003. A risky forest policy in the Amazon? Response, Science, 299(5614):1843.

Cochrane M.A., 2003. Fire science for rainforests, Nature, 421(6926):913-919.
Abstract

Verissimo A. & Cochrane M.A., 2003. Management and Conservation of Tropical Forests: Brazil’s Bold Initiative in the Amazon, ITTO Tropical Forest Update, 13:4-6.
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Verissimo A., Cochrane M.A., Souza C.M. & Salomao R., 2002. Priority areas for establishing national forests in the Brazilian Amazon, Conservation Ecology, 6(1).
Abstract WWW

Verissimo A., Cochrane M.A. & Souza C.M., 2002. Ecology - National forests in the Amazon, Science, 297(5586):1478.

Cochrane M.A. & Laurance W.F., 2002. Fire as a large-scale edge effect in Amazonian forests, Journal Of Tropical Ecology, 18:311-325.
Abstract

Laurance W.F. & Cochrane M.A., 2001. Special section: Synergistic effects in fragmented landscapes, Conservation Biology, 15(6):1488-1489.

Cochrane M.A., 2001. Synergistic interactions between habitat fragmentation and fire in evergreen tropical forests, Conservation Biology, 15(6):1515-1521.
Abstract

Cochrane M.A., 2001. In the line of fire - Understanding the impacts of tropical forest fires, Environment, 43(8):28-38.

Laurance W.F., Fearnside P.M., Cochrane M.A., D'Angelo S., Bergen S. & Delamonica P., 2001. Development of the Brazilian Amazon - Response, Science, 292(5522):1652-1654.

Laurance W.F., Cochrane M.A., Bergen S., Fearnside P.M., Delamonica P., Barber C., D'Angelo S. & Fernandes T., 2001. Environment - The future of the Brazilian Amazon, Science, 291(5503):438-439.

Cochrane M.A., 2000. Using vegetation reflectance variability for species level classification of hyperspectral data, International Journal Of Remote Sensing, 21(10):2075-2087.
Abstract

Cochrane M.A., 2000. Compreendendo o Significado das Queimadas na Floresta Amazônica, Ciencia Hoje, 27(157):26-31.
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Cochrane M.A., Alencar A., Schulze M.D., Souza C.M., Nepstad D.C., Lefebvre P. & Davidson E.A., 1999. Positive feedbacks in the fire dynamic of closed canopy tropical forests, Science, 284(5421):1832-1835.
Abstract

Cochrane M.A. & Schulze M.D., 1999. Fire as a recurrent event in tropical forests of the eastern Amazon: Effects on forest structure, biomass, and species composition, Biotropica, 31(1):2-16.
Abstract

Nepstad D.C., Verissimo A., Alencar A., Nobre C., Lima E., Lefebvre P., Schlesinger P., Potter C., Moutinho P., Mendoza E., Cochrane M.A. & Brooks V., 1999. Large-scale impoverishment of Amazonian forests by logging and fire, Nature, 398(6727):505-508.
Abstract

Cochrane M.A. & Souza C.M., 1998. Linear mixture model classification of burned forests in the Eastern Amazon, International Journal Of Remote Sensing, 19(17):3433-3440.
Abstract

Cochrane M.A. & Schulze M.D., 1998. Forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon, Conservation Biology, 12(5):948-950.
PDF

Uhl C., Kulakowski D., Gerwing J., Brown M. & Cochrane M.A., 1996. Sustainability: A touchstone concept for university operations, education, and research, Conservation Biology, 10(5):1308-1311.

Graduate Students and Post Doctoral Scientists

Current Graduate Students

Philip Schumacher
pcschumacher89@gmail.com
Ph.D. Geospatial Science & Engineering

Yenni Vetrita
yenni.vetrita@sdstate.edu
Ph.D. Geospatial Science & Engineering

Former Graduate Students

Dr. Christopher Barber
Ph.D. Geospatial Science & Engineering

Kari Pabst
M.S. Geography

Dr. Luiz Mestre
Ph.D. Biology

Dr. Rafael Barreto de Andrade
Ph.D. Biology

Sarah Arnold
M.S. Geography

Christopher Moran
M.S. Biology

Current Post Docs

Dr. Erianto Indra Putra

Former Post Docs

Dr. Christopher Barber

Dr. Patrick Freeborn

Dr. Izaya Numata

Dr. Brett P. Murphy

Map of forests in the Brazilian Amazon which could be designated as National Forests (FLONAS) without conflict with existing conservation lands or human inhabitants

Spatial distribution of fire regimes. Black areas are previously deforested while other colors represent standing forests suffering different levels of fire impact. Forests in red are burning too frequently to persist as tropical evergreen forests and are transitioning to grassland and scrub. Graph shows both cumulative percentage of remaining forests and fire frequency (average return interval in years) as a function of distance from deforested edges in the eastern Amazon.

Last modified:

Jun 22, 2017

Cochrane, Mark

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