Geneva W. Chong, PhD

Expertise:

Landscape, plant (native and non-native species), and fire ecology; Techniques for plant inventory and monitoring for modeling and management; Interdisciplinary approaches to research

Research Interests:

I have gained great experience and enjoyment from recent interdisciplinary research projects in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming, and the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area, Colorado. As the sole representative of the USGS Biology Discipline, and the only person to serve on both research teams, I enjoyed the extra challenges of transferring ecology information within the teams and lessons learned between the teams. As I learned more about geology, hydrology, remote sensing and biogeochemistry, I strove to convey my ecology perspective regarding the roles of vegetation, soil and soil microorganisms as major drivers within the other disciplines (e.g., soil formation, surface flow and erosion, surface reflectance, and nutrient cycling, respectively). In short, interdisciplinary research allows me to use my skills as both a student and a teacher to gather, interpret and communicate information related to our partners’ management questions and our basic research interests.

Current research projects are firmly linked to past research foci on development and testing of inventory and monitoring methods related to landscape-scale assessments of plant diversity (including non-native species) and management and analyses (including spatial modeling) of those data. That work was initiated with Dr. Thomas J. Stohlgren of the USGS Fort Collins Science Center.

Affiliations:

Colorado State University - Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (Scientist)

• Graduate Degree Program in Ecology (Eligible Graduate Student Committee Member)
• Department of Forest, Rangeland & Watershed Stewardship (Affiliate Faculty)