Organizing Science at the
Southern Research Station

Appendix 3 - Original Science Areas

Physical and Biological Disturbances — From fire to nonnative plants to climate change, disturbances are increasingly changing the landscapes of the South, requiring approaches that must be implemented on smaller and smaller parcels of land and on an urbanizing landscape.

Resource Management and Restoration — As the nature of private landownership changes, society’s needs from public lands shift, and species, communities, and ecosystems require restoration, new options will be required for forest and wildlife management. New research will build on long-term, and often place-based studies focused on forest management and ecosystem restoration across the South.

Social and Economic Dimensions — As urbanization and globalization proceed and management becomes focused on a smaller and smaller land base, the Station has begun to build capacity both in the social sciences and in the disciplines that will be needed to help landowners keep “forests in forests” and sustain ecosystem services and help natural resource professionals and communities plan and design productive tree-based conservation options in rural and urban settings.

Centers for Watershed Science — Much of our “place-based” research started with watershed studies yielding long-term data and understanding of forest-soil-water interactions, but more recently has expanded to include multiresource and multidiscipinary studies on issues ranging from forest fragmentation to conversion of agricultural land into forests. Knowledge derived from place-based watershed research provides the underpinnings to expand the range of studies into adjacent landscapes and address more broad-scale water resource issues in the South.

Forest Inventory and Monitoring — The implementation of annualized inventories and incorporation of forest health monitoring data into inventory reports have allowed the Station to provide more and more relevant information faster, strengthening links to other disciplines and partners.

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