PhD Student

Jen Baron, BSc

Trajectories and drivers of landscape-level fire regime transitions over a century in southeastern British Columbia

PhD Student (Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences),
University of British Columbia, 2019–present

Research Technician, Laboratory for Stable Isotope Science,
University of Western Ontario, 2018–present

BSc (HSp Environmental Science),
University of Western Ontario, 2019

Originally from Winnipeg, I developed an interest in forest ecology while studying environmental science in southern Ontario. Today, I investigate global change impacts on forest structure and function using a systems approach across spatiotemporal scales and am particularly interested in data science, statistics, and modelling.

In my PhD thesis, co-supervised by Dr. Lori Daniels & Dr. Sarah Gergel, I explore 20th century transitions in historically low- and mixed-severity fire regimes in the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench, southeastern British Columbia, and the implications of these transitions for future wildfire. I use fire perimeter records, historical aerial imagery, and simulation modelling informed by fire history reconstructions. These findings will inform wildfire management, conservation, and land-use planning for the next century of wildfire.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Brookes, W., Daniels, L. D., Copes-Gerbitz, K., Baron, J. N., & Carroll, A. L. (2021). A Disrupted Historical Fire Regime in Central British Columbia. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 676961. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.676961

Baron, J. N., & Rubin, B. D. (2021). Secondary invasion? Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) induced ash (Fraxinus spp.) mortality interacts with ecological integrity to facilitate European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 51(3), 455–464. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2020-0134