DAVID CAIRNS

Associate Professor
Geography

Department of Geography
Texas A&M University
TAMU 3147
College Station, TX 77843-3147
Office: 706A Eller (O&M Building) (map)
Phone: 979.845.2783
Fax: 979.862.4487
E-mail: cairns@tamu.edu
Department Web page

Keywords: vegetation ecology, biogeography, mountain environments, arctic, global change, treeline, ecotones, reindeer, herbivory, landscape ecology

Interests:
My research interests are primarily in landscape ecology and ecosystem modeling. I am particularly interested in the relationships between ecosystem structure and function and how these relationships are mainfest at ecotones, the transition zones between different landscape elements. My approach to understanding these relationships relies heavily on ecosystem modeling and field data collection. To date most of my work has been conducted at the alpine treeline ecotone in Glacier national Park, Montanta where I have investigated the environmental controls of location, gorwth, and pattern within the alpine treeline ecotone.
I am currently involved in projects that investigate the impacts of herbivores at treeline locations in northern Sweden. I am also involved in two projects that focus on modeling the impacts of the southern pine beetle on pine forests in the southeastern U.S. The southern pine beetle studies involve a large interdisciplinary group of researchers and focus on restoration ecology and silvicultural assessment. One additional smaller project focuses on the relationship between geomorphology and vegetation change at a saltmarsh in Denmark.

Selected publications:
Cairns DM (2005) Simulating carbon balance at treeline for krummholz and dwarf tree growth forms. Ecological Modelling 187: 314-328.

Cairns DM, Moen J (2004) Herbivory influences tree lines. Journal of Ecology 92: 1019-1024.

Cairns DM, Waldron JD (2003) Sigmoid wave transitions at alpine treeline. Geografiska Annaler Series A 85: 115-126.

Cairns DM (2001) A comparison of methods for predicting vegetation type. Plant Ecology 156: 3-18.