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Virginia H. Dale

Virginia H. Dale
ORNL Corporate Fellow

Landscape Ecology & Regional Analysis Group
Environmental Sciences Division
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6036
Phone:  (865)576-8043
Fax:  (865)576-8543
dalevh@ornl.gov

Affiliation: Adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee: http://www.bio.utk.edu/eebwebsi.nsf

Research Interests

Virginia H. DaleDr. Virginia H. Dale’s primary research interests are in environmental decision making, forest succession, land-use change, landscape ecology, and ecological modeling. She has worked on developing tools for resource management, vegetation recovery subsequent to disturbances; effects of air pollution and climate change on forests; tropical deforestation; and integrating socioeconomic and ecological models of land-use change. She has published over 150 scientific articles and edited 6 books: Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making (with M.E. English), Effects of Land-Use Change on Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations, Applying Ecological Principles to Land Management (with R. Haeuber), Ecological modeling for resource management, Ecology Responses to the 1980 Eruptions of Mount St. Helens (F.J. Swanson and C. Crisafulli), and Road Ecology: Science and Solutions (with R.T. Forman and others). She was Chair of the US Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape and serves on several National Academy of Sciences committees and on the editorial board for three journals: Landscape Ecology, Ecological Indicators, and Ecological Economics. Dr. Dale is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Environmental Management. She serves on the Environmental Protection Agency's Scientific Advisory Board. She was a member of the "Committee of Scientists" appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture and of the Ecosystems Panel of the National Science Foundation. She has served on the scientific review team for The Nature Conservancy and on the Governing Board of the Ecological Society of America.

Background/Education  [ Top ]

  • B.A. in Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1974 (with honors)
  • M.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Ecology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1975
  • Ph.D. in Mathematical Ecology (a Special Individual Ph.D. Program), University of Washington, Seattle, 1980

Professional Activities  [ Top ]

Service to Professional Societies

  • U.S. Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology: Chair 2000-2002, Nominating Committee 2004
  • Ecological Society of America: Member-at-Large of Governing Board, 1995-1997; Nominating Committee 1997, Finance Committee, 1995-1998; Membership Committee 1995-1998; Land Use Committee, chair, 1996-1999; Program Committee 1998-1999; Board of Professional Certification 1999-2001, Chair 1999-2000; Certified Senior Ecologist 1996-present.
  • Sigma Xi, Oak Ridge Chapter: President, 1996-1997, President-elect, 1995-1996; Treasurer, 1993-1995

Editorial Services

  • Editor-in-Chief, Environmental Management 2001-2006
  • Editorial Board, Ecological Indicators, 2000-present
  • Editorial Board, Ecological Economics, 1999-present
  • Editorial Board, Landscape Ecology, 1998-2001
  • Associate Editor, Ecosystems, 1997-2001
  • Associate Editor, Environmental Reviews, National Research Council of Canada, 1992-1995

Professional Services:

  • National Academy Committee on Ecological Impacts of Road Density, 2001-2004
  • Science Advisory Committee of the US Department of Interior Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, 2000-2004
  • Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Advisory Board: Ecological Processes and Effects Committee, 1992-1997, 2000-present (Chair 2002-2004); Research Strategies Advisory Committee 1995-1997, Executive Committee (2000-present)
  • Scientific Review Committee for The Nature Conservancy, 2000-2001
  • Global Change Subcommittee of the Department of Energy’s Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee, 2001-2003
  • U.S. National Committee on the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), 2000-present
  • National Science Foundation review team member for the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis 2000
  • U.S. National Assessment of Climate Change, Forest Sector, 1999-2001
  • Sustainable Biosphere Initiative, Chair of Advisory Committee for the Land Use Initiative, 1999-2000
  • USDA Committee of Scientists, 1997-1999
  • National Research Council Ecosystems Panel, 1997-2000
  • SERDP (Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program) Ecosystems Management Project of Department of Defense, 1997-1998.
  • National Science Foundation Panel Member - Ecosystems Science, 1997-1999
  • Technical Advisor Group for "Assessment of Military Training and Testing Impacts on Natural and Cultural Resources" USA Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, 1996.
  • Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere: Executive Committee, Policy Team for Southern Appalachian Assessment 1994-1995
  • Science Advisor, The Sand County Foundation, 1992-1994
  • National Science Foundation Panel Member - Human Dimensions of Global Change, 1992-1994
  • Exchange faculty between the University of Amazonas and University of Tennessee, 1993
  • National Research Council review team for Brazilian Institutions, 1992
  • National Science Foundation review panel for the University of Colorado Long Term Ecological Research at Niwot Ridge, Colorado, July 10-12, 1989
  • National Science Foundation, Advisory Committee on Scientific and Technological Planning on Long Term Ecological Research, Washington, D.C., January 25-26, 1988

Selected Publications (from 6 books, > 150 articles)  [ Top ]Publication--Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making

Books:

  • Dale, V.H. (editor). 1994. Effects of Land Use Change on Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations: Southeast Asia as a Case Study. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Dale, V.H. and English, M.R. (editors). 1999. Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Dale, V.H. and Haeuber, R.A. (editors). 2001. Applying Ecological Principles to Land Management. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Dale, V.H. (editor). 2003. Ecological modeling for resource management. New York: Springer-Verlag ( http://www.esd.ornl.gov/programs/SERDP/EcoMod/ ).
  • Dale, V.H., Swanson, F.J., and Crisafulli, C.M. (editors). 2005. Ecology Responses to the 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Forman, RT., V.H. Dale and others. 2003. Road Ecology: Science and Solutions. Island Press.

Articles:

Ecological modeling

  • Dale, V.H., R.H. Gardner, D.L. DeAngelis, C. Eagar, and J.W. Webb. 1991. Elevation-mediated effects of balsam woolly adelgid on southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests. Can. J. For. Res. 21:1639-1648.
  • Dale, V.H. and S. M. Pearson. 1999. Modeling the driving factors and ecological consequences of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. In (D. L. Mladenoff and W. B. Baker, editors) Advances in Spatial Modeling of Forest Landscape Change. Cambridge University Press, pp. 256-276.
  • Dale, V.H. and W. Van Winkle. 1998. Models provide understanding, not belief. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 79(2): 169-170.
  • Van Winkle, W. and V.H. Dale. 1998. Model interactions. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 79(4): 257-259.
  • Dale, V.H., Southworth, F., O'Neill, R.V., Rose, A. and Frohn, R. 1993. Simulating spatial patterns of land-use change in Rondonia, Brazil. Pp. 29-56 In R. H. Gardner (ed.) Some Mathematical Questions in Biology. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society.
  • Dale, V.H., O'Neill, R.V., Southworth, F. and Pedlowski, M.A. 1994. Modeling effects of land management in the Brazilian settlement of Rondônia. Conservation Biology 8:196-206.

Effects of the Eruption and Recovery at Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens

  • Adams, V., and A.B. Adams.  1982.  Initial recovery of the vegetation on Mount St. Helens.  In S. A. C. Keller (ed.), Mount St. Helens:  One Year Later.  Eastern Washington University Press, Cheney, Washington, pp. 105-114.
  • Martin, D., L. Wasserman, and V. Dale.  1986.  Influence of riparian vegetation on posteruptive survival of coho salmon fingerlings on the west-side streams of Mount St. Helens, Washington.  North American Journal of Fisheries Management 6:1-8.
  • Dale, V.H.  1986.  Plant recovery on the debris avalanche at Mount St. Helens.  In S. A. C. Keller (ed.), Mount St. Helens:  Five Years Later.  Eastern Washington University Press, Cheney, Washington.  pp. 208-214.
  • Adams, A.B., V.H. Dale, A.R. Kruckeberg, and E. Smith.  1987.  Plant survival, growth form and regeneration following the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington.  Northwest Science 61:160-170.
  • Adams, A.B., and V.H. Dale.  1987.  Comparisons of vegetative succession following glacial and volcanic disturbances.  In D. E. Bilderback (ed.), Mount St. Helens 1980:  Botanical Consequences of the Explosive Eruptions, University of California Press, Los Angeles.  pp. 70-147.
  • Dale, V.H. 1989. Wind dispersed seeds and plant recovery on the Mount St. Helens debris avalanche. Canadian Journal of Botany 67:1434-1441.
  • Dale, V.H. 1991. The debris avalanche at Mount St. Helens: Vegetation establishment in the ten years since the eruption. National Geographic Research & Exploration 7(3):328-341.
  • Turner, M.G., V.H. Dale, and E.H. Everham. 1997. Crown fires, hurricanes and volcanoes: a comparison among large-scale disturbances. BioScience 47:758-768.
  • Dale, V.H. and W.M. Adams. 2003. Plant establishment 15 years after the debris avalanche at Mount St. Helens, Washington. The Science of the Total Environment 313:101-113.
  • Dale, V.H., C.M. Crisafulli and F.J. Swanson. 2005. 25 years of ecological change at Mount St. Helens. Science 308: 961-962 (Abstract, Full Text).
  • Dale, V. H., J. Delgado-Acevedo, and J. MacMahon. In press. Effects of modern volcanic impacts on Vegetation. In. J. Marti and G. Ernst (editors) Volcanoes and Environment, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Modeling Forest Succession and Effects of Disturbances

  • Dale, V.H., T.W. Doyle, and H.H. Shugart.  1985.  A comparison of tree growth models.  Ecological Modeling 29:145-169.
  • Dale, V., M. Hemstrom, and J. Franklin.  1986.  The long-term effects of disturbances on forest succession on the Olympic Peninsula.  Canadian Journal of Forest Research 16:56-67.
  • Dale, V.H., and T.W. Doyle.  1987.  The role of stand history in assessing forest impacts.  Environmental Management 11(3):351-357.
  • Dale, V., and R. Gardner.  1987.  Assessing regional impacts of growth declines using a forest succession model.  Journal of Environmental Management 24:83-93.
  • Pastor, J., R.H. Gardner, V.H. Dale, and W.M. Post.  1987. Successional changes in nitrogen availability as a potential factor contributing to spruce declines in boreal North America.  Canadian Journal of Forest Research 17:1394-1400.
  • Dale, V.H., H.I. Jager, R.H. Gardner, and A.E. Rosen. 1988. Using sensitivity analysis to improve predictions of broad-scale forest development.  Ecological Modelling 42:165-178.

Decision Analysis

  • Dale, V.H. 1998. Managing forests as ecosystems: A success story or a challenge ahead? Pages 50-68 In (M.L. Pace and P.M. Groffman, editors). Successes, limitations, and Frontiers in Ecosystem Ecology. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Committee of Scientists. 1999. Sustaining the people's lands: recommendations for stewardship of the national forests and grasslands into the next century. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., USA.
  • Johnson, K.N., Agee, J., Beschta, R., Dale, V., Hardesty, L., Long, J., Nielsen, L., Noon, B., Sedjo, R., Shannon, M., Trosper, R., Wilkinson, C. and Wondolleck, J. 1999. Sustaining the people's lands: recommendations for stewardship of the national forests and grasslands into the next century. Journal of Forestry. May: 6-12.
  • Dale, V. H., Agee, J., Long, J, and Noon, B. 1999. Ecological sustainability is fundamental to managing the national forests and grasslands. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America.80(3): 207-209.

Landscape Ecology

  • O'Neill, R.V., J.R. Krummel, R.H. Gardner, G. Sugihara, B. Jackson, D.L. DeAngelis, B.T. Milne, M.G. Turner, B. Zygmnuht, S.W. Christensen, V.H. Dale, and R.L. Graham.  1988.  Indices of landscape pattern.  Landscape Ecology 1:153-162.
  • Turner, M.G., R.H. Gardner, V.H. Dale, and R.V. O'Neill. 1989. Predicting the spread of disturbance across a heterogeneous landscape. Oikos 55:121-129.
  • R.H. Gardner, R.G. O'Neill, M.G. Turner, and V.H. Dale. 1989. Quantifying scale dependent effects of animal movement with simple percolation models. Landscape Ecology 3:217-228.
  • Turner, M.G., R.H. Gardner, and V.H. Dale. 1989. Predicting across scale: theory development and testing. Landscape Ecology 3:245-252.
  • Dale, V.H., R.H. Gardner, and M.G. Turner. 1989. Predicting across scales. Landscape Ecology 3:147-152.
  • Turner, M.G. and Dale, V.H. 1990. Modeling landscape disturbance. In M.G. Turner and R.H. Gardner (ed.) Quantitative Methods in Landscape Ecology. Springer-Verlag, New York. pp. 323-351.
  • Dale, V.H., L.K. Mann, R.J. Olson, D.W. Johnson, and K.C. Dearstone. 1990. The influence of past land use on the Walker Branch forest. Landscape Ecology 4:211-224.
  • Gardner, R.H., V.H. Dale, R.V. O'Neill, and M.G. Turner. 1991. A percolation model of ecological flows. In Landscape Boundaries: Consequences for Biotic Diversity and Ecological Flows, F. di Castri and A.J. Hansen (eds.), Springer-Verlag, N.Y., pp. 259-269.
  • Dale, V.H., Offerman, H., Pearson, S. and O'Neill, R.V. 1994. Effects of forest fragmentation on neotropical fauna. Conservation Biology 8:1027-1036.
  • Dale, V.H., Offerman, H., Frohn, R. and Gardner, R. 1995. Landscape Characterization and Biodiversity Research. In (T.J.B. Boyle and B. Boontawee, ed.) Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity in Tropical and Temperate Forests. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia.
  • Bierregaard, R. and Dale, V.H. 1996. Islands in an everchanging sea: The ecological and socioeconomic dynamics of Amazonian rainforest fragments. Pages 187-204 In (J. Schelhas and R. Greenberg, ed.) Forest Patches in Tropical Landscapes. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
  • Offerman, H., Dale, V., Pearson, S., Bierregaard, R. and O'Neill, R. 1995. Effects of forest fragmentation on neotropical fauna: current research and data availability. Environmental Reviews 3(2): 191-211.

Climate Change

  • Dale, V.H. and J.F. Franklin. 1989. Potential effects of climate change on stand development in the Pacific Northwest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 19:1581-1590.
  • Graham, R.L., M.G. Turner, and V.H. Dale. 1990. Increasing CO2 and climate change: effects on forests. BioScience 40(8): 575-587.
  • Post, W.M., Peng, T.-H., Emanuel, W., King, A.W., Dale, V.H., and DeAngelis, D.L. 1990. The global carbon cycle. American Scientist 78(4): 310-326.
  • Franklin, J.F., F.J. Swanson, M.E. Harmon, D.A. Perry, T.A. Spies, V.H. Dale, A. McKee, W.K. Ferrell, S.V. Gregory, J.D. Lattin, T.D. Schowalter, and D. Larson. 1992. Pp. 244-257 In R.L. Peters and T.E. Lovejoy, ed. Effects of global climatic change on forests in northwestern North America. The Consequences of the Greenhouse Effect for Biological Diversity. Yale University Press.
  • Dale, V.H. and H.M. Rauscher. 1994. Assessing impacts of climate change on forests: the state of biological modeling. Climatic Change 28:65-90.
  • Dale, V.H. 1997. The relationship between land-use change and climate change. Ecological Applications 7:753-769.
  • Dale, V.H., Joyce, L.A., McNulty, S., and Neilson, R.P. 2000. The interplay between climate change, forests, and disturbances. the Science of the Total Environment 262:201-204.
  • Dale, V.H., L.A. Joyce, S. McNulty, R.P. Neilson, M.P. Ayres, M.D. Flannigan, P.J. Hanson, L.C. Irland, A.E. Lugo, C.J. Peterson, D. Simberloff, F.J. Swanson, B.J. Stocks, and B.M. Wotton. 2001. Forest disturbances and climate change. BioScience 51(9):723-734.
  • Hansen, A.J., R.P. Neilson, V.H. Dale, C. Flather, L. Iverson, D.J. Currie, and P. Bartlein. 2001. Global change in forests: responses of species, communities, and biomes. BioScience 51(9):765-779.
  • Hansen, A. and V.H. Dale. 2001 Biodiversity in United States forests under global climate change. Ecosystems 4:161-163.

Land-use Change

  • Dale, V.H., Houghton, R.A., Hall, C.A.S. 1991. Estimating the effects of land use change on global atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Can. J. For. Res. 21:87-90.
  • Southworth, F., Dale, V.H., O'Neill, R.V. 1991. Contrasting patterns of land use in Rondonia, Brazil: simulating the effects on carbon release. International Social Sciences Journal 130: 681-698.
  • Dale, V.H., Houghton, R.A., Grainger, A., Lugo, A.E., and Brown, S. 1993. Emissions of greenhouse gases from tropical deforestation and subsequent uses of the land. Pp. 215-261 IN Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
  • Dale, V.H., R.V. O'Neill, M.A. Pedlowski, and F. Southworth. 1993. Causes and effects of land-use change in central Rondônia, Brazil. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing 59:997-1005.
  • Pickett, S., Burke, I., Dale, V.H., Gosz, J.R., Lee, R.G., Pacala, S.W., and Shacak, M. 1994. Integrated Regional Models of Forested Regions. Pp. 120-142 In P. Groffman and G. Likens (ed.) Integrated Regional Models. New York: Chapman and Hall.
  • Dale, V.H., Pearson, S.M., Offerman, H.L., and O'Neill, R.V. 1994. Relating patterns of land-use change to faunal biodiversity in the Central Amazon. Conservation Biology 8: 1027-1036.
  • Jones, D., Dale, V.H., Beauchamp, J.J., Pedlowski, M.A., O'Neill, R.V. 1995. Farming in Rondônia. Resource and Energy Economics 17: 155-188.
  • Dale, V.H. and Pearson, S.M. 1997. Quantifying habitat fragmentation due to land-use change in Amazonia. Pp. 400-410 In (W.F. Laurance and R.O. Bierregaard, ed.) Tropical Forest Remnants: Ecology, Management and Conservation of Fragmented Communities. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  • Dale, V.H. 1997. Criteria and indicators for assessing sustainability of forest management: conservation of biodiversity. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 78:291-292.
  • Pedlowski, M.A., V.H. Dale, M.A.T. Matricardi, and E.P. da Silva Filho. 1997. Patterns and impacts of deforestation in Rondônia, Brazil. Landscape and Urban Planning 38: 149-157.
  • Dale, V.H., King, A.W., Mann, L.K., Washington-Allen, R.A., and McCord. R.A. 1998. Assessing land-use impacts on natural resources. Environmental Management 22:203-211.
  • Dale, V.H. and P.D. Parr. 1998. Preserving DOE's research parks. Issues in Science and Technology. XIV(2): 73-77.
  • Turner, M.G. and Dale, V.H. 1998. What have we learned from large, infrequent disturbances? Ecosystems 1:493-496.
  • Dale, V.H., Lugo, A. MacMahon, J. and Pickett, S. 1998. Ecosystem management in the context of large, infrequent disturbances. Ecosystems 1:546-557.
  • Dale,V. H., S. Brown, R.A. Haeuber, N. T. Hobbs, N. Huntly, R. J. Naiman, W. E. Riebsame, M. G. Turner, and T. J. Valone. 2000. Ecological principles and guidelines for managing the use of land. Ecological Applications 10(3):639-670.
  • Mann, L. K., A. W. King, V. H. Dale, W. W. Hargrove, R. Washington-Allen, L. Pounds, T.A. Ashwood. 1999. The role of soil classification in GIS modeling of habitat pattern: Threatened calcareous ecosystems. Ecosystems 2:524-538.
  • Dale, V.H., A.W. King, L.K. Mann, and T.L. Ashwood. 2000. Contributions of spatial information and models to management of rare species. Pp. 159-172 In (M.J. Hill and R.J. Aspinall, Editors) Spatial Information for Land Management, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Dale, V. H., Fortes, D. T., and Ashwood, T. L. In press. A landscape transition matrix approach for land management. In (J. Liu and W. Taylor, ed.) Integrating Landscape Ecology into Natural Resource Management. Cambridge University Press.

Ecological Indicators

  • O'Neill, R.V., J.R. Krummel, R.H. Gardner, G. Sugihara, B. Jackson, D.L. DeAngelis, B.T. Milne, M.G. Turner, B. Zygmnuht, S.W. Christensen, V.H. Dale, and R.L. Graham. 1988. Indices of landscape pattern. Landscape Ecology 1:153-162.
  • Russell, C., Dale, V., Lee, J., Jensen, M.H., Kane, M., Gregory, R. 2001. Experimenting with multi-attribute utility survey methods in a multidimensional valuation problem. Ecological Economics 36: 87-108.
  • Dale, V.H and Beyeler, S.C. 2001. Challenges in the development and use of ecological indicators. Ecological Indicators 1(1): 3-10.
  • Schiller, A., C. T. Hunsaker, M. A. Kane, A. K. Wolfe, V. H. Dale, G. W. Suter, C. S. Russell, G. Pion, M. H. Jensen, and V. C. Konar. 2001. Communicating ecological indicators to decision makers and the public. Conservation Ecology 5(1)19. [http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss1/art19]
  • Peacock, A. D., S. J. MacNaughton, J. M. Cantu, V. H. Dale and D. C. White. 2002. Soil microbial biomass and community composition along an anthropogenic disturbance gradient within a longleaf pine habitat. Ecological Indicators 1(2):113-122.
  • Dale, V.H., Beyeler, S.C., and Jackson, B. 2002. Understory indicators of anthropogenic disturbance in longleaf pine forests at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. Ecological Indicators 1(3): 155-170.
  • Garten, C.T., T.L. Ashwood, and V.H. Dale. 2003. Effect of military training on indicators of soil quality at Fort Benning, Georgia. Ecological Indicators 3(3) 171-180.
  • Dale, V H., Mulholland, P., Olsen, L. M., Feminella, J., Maloney, K., White, D. C., Peacock, A., and Foster, T. 2004. “Selecting a Suite of Ecological Indicators for Resource Management,” Landscape Ecology and Wildlife Habitat Evaluation: Critical Information for Ecological Risk Assessment, Land-Use Management Activities and Biodiversity Enhancement Practices, ASTM STP 1458, L. A. Kapustka, H. Gilbraith, M. Luxon, and G. R. Biddinger, Eds., ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA.

Environmental Security

  • King, W.C. and V. Dale. 2003. What in the World Is worth fighting for? Using models for environmental security. Pages 289-309 In Dale, V.H. (editor) Ecological Modeling for Resource Management. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Dale, V.H., S. Bartell, R. Brothers, and J. Sorenson. 2004. Systems approach to environmental security. EcoHealth 1:119-123.

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September 2005

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