TERRA - PNW

The mission of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research and Regional Analysis group (TERRA-PNW) is to quantify and understand the response of terrestrial ecosystems to natural and human-induced changes such as climate, wildfire and land management practices. Our lab has diverse interests that share a common focus: understanding the dynamics of land-based ecological communities. Our insights into climate and disturbance effects on ecological processes and global change are generated primarily by research on forest, woodland and shrubland ecosystems.

LARSE

The Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing in Ecology (LARSE) is a joint research effort of the USDA Forest Service, PNW Research Station, and the OSU College of Forestry's Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. LARSE emerged from an array of related remote sensing research projects focused on terrestrial ecology problems. This activity began in 1989 with a concentration on using digital imagery to characterize forest structure in the Pacific Northwest Douglas-fir/western hemlock zone. Within a few short years, Landsat-based maps of forest structure were being directly incorporated into ecological analyses and models operating at landscape to regional scales. Modeling studies include carbon flux, biodiversity, and spatially-explicit scaling of ecological measurements and knowledge. The scope of activities and data types used continue to expand. LARSE now regularly employs between 10 and 20 scientists in a variety of positions, including permanent staff, postdocs, faculty research assistants, graduate students, student workers, and international scholars. Also, there are a number of full-time scientists not directly supported by the Lab that actively collaborate on LARSE research projects.

Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research

The Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research (CFER) program was developed to facilitate sound management of forest ecosystems, with emphasis on meeting priority research information needs of the Bureau of Land Management and the Oregon Department of Forestry in western Oregon. The CFER program works closely with resource managers, researchers, and decision-makers to develop and convey information needed to successfully implement ecosystem-based management at forest stand and watershed scales, especially on lands dominated by young forests and fragmented by multiple ownership.

H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest

The 16,000-acre H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest on the Willamette National forest is administered by the USDA Forest Service, and research is jointly managed by OSU and the Pacific Northwest Research Station under a National Science Foundation-sponsored long-term agreement. During the last 21 years as a part of the NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, the Andrews Experimental Forest has become a leader in the analysis of forest and stream ecosystem dynamics.  H.J. Andrews webcam