Education

B.S., Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO, 1993

M.S., University of Wyoming, 1996

Ph.D., University of Wyoming, 1999

Post-doctoral Research Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999-2000

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geosciences and Natural Resources Management, Western Carolina University, 2000-2002.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Botany, University of Wyoming, 2002-2004

Assistant Professor of Botany, University of Wyoming, 2005-present

 Courses

Forest Ecology, General Biology, ENR Policy Practice (Haub School of the Environment and Natural Resources), Special Topics in Ecology

 Research Emphasis

Much of Dr. Tinker’s research is conducted in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in northwestern Wyoming, and involves ecosystem responses to large, natural disturbances such as fire.  Current projects in the GYE are focused on understanding how the observed variation in post-fire plant communities influences successional processes.  Some of these projects include developing a carbon budget for the forested landscape of Yellowstone National park, an evaluation of the impacts of an invasive thistle on forest understory composition and productivity following fire, and investigating the reciprocal interactions of fire and bark beetles in subalpine forests.  New work is beginning in Glacier National Park that will address how variations in climate affect tree establishment and stand development, and other ongoing work continues to evaluate the potential of different management approaches in Wyoming’s forested lands for sequestering and storing atmospheric carbon.

Representative Publications

Turner, M. G., E. A. H. Smithwick, K. L. Metzger, D. B. Tinker and W. H. Romme.  2007. Inorganic nitrogen availability following severe stand-replacing fire in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:4782-4789.

Turner, M. G., D. M. Turner, W. H. Romme and D. B. Tinker.  2007. Cone production in young post-fire Pinus contorta stands in Greater Yellowstone (USA).  Forest Ecology and Management  242:119-206.

Kashian, D.M., W.H. Romme, D.B. Tinker, M.G. Turner, and M.G. Ryan. 2006. Carbon storage on landscapes with stand-replacing fires. Bioscience. 50(7): 598-606.

Kashian, D.M., D.B. Tinker, F.L.Scarpace, and M.G. Turner. 2004. Mapping the spatial heterogeneity of lodgepole pine sapling densities in Yellowstone National Park following the 1988 fires. Can. J. For. Res. 34: 2263-2276.

Turner, M.G., D.B. Tinker, W.H. Romme, D.M. Kashian, and C.M. Litton. 2004. Landscape patterns of sapling density, leaf area, and aboveground primary production in postfire lodgepole pine forests, Yellowstone National Park. Ecosystems 7: 751-775.

 Tinker, D.B. and D.H. Knight. 2004. Coarse woody debris: an important legacy of forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In: After the Fires: The Ecology of Change in Yellowstone National Park. Linda Wallace, Ed. Yale University Press.

 Romme, W. H., M. G. Turner, D.B. Tinker, and D. H. Knight. 2004. Emulating natural forest disturbances in the wildland-urban interface of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Invited chapter in: Perera, A.H., L.J. Buse, and M.G. Weber, eds. Emulating Natural Forest Landscape Disturbances: Concepts and Applications. Columbia University Press, New York, NY. 

Turner, M.G., W.H. Romme, and D.B. Tinker. 2003. Surprises and Lessons from the 1988 Yellowstone Fires. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1(7): 351-358.

 Tinker, D.B., W.H. Romme, and D.G. Despain. 2003. Historic range of variability in landscape structure in subalpine forests of the Greater Yellowstone Area. Landscape Ecology 18: 427-439.

 Litton, C.M., M.G. Ryan, D.B. Tinker and D.H. Knight. 2003. Below- and aboveground biomass in young post-fire lodgepole pine forests of contrasting tree density. Can. J. For. Res. 33: 351-363.

 Tinker, D.B. and D.H. Knight. 2001. Temporal and spatial dynamics of coarse woody debris in harvested and unharvested lodgepole pine forests. Ecological Modelling 141: 125-149.

 Tinker, D.B. and D.H. Knight. 2000. Coarse Woody Debris Following Fire and Logging

in Wyoming Lodgepole Pine Forests.  Ecosystems 3: 472-483.