Jacquelyn K. Shuman

Affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)

Division: Earth Science Division (SG)

Email: jacquelyn.k.shuman@nasa.gov

Professional Biography

Dr. Shuman is the Project Scientist for NASA FireSense which aims to develop and deliver trailblazing technology and tools for use before, during, and after wildland fire by working together with operational agencies and practitioners. 

Dr. Shuman has more than 15 years of experience in development and application of computer modeling to capture vegetation response to climate and fire disturbance. This research is motivated by an interest in the complex organization of vegetation and feedbacks between the local, regional, and global system. Dr. Shuman has experience in modifying and applying dynamic vegetation demographic models, and has been leading model development to improve the simulation of fire-vegetation interactions and feedbacks at the earth system scale. Past research has explored the impacts of vegetation states on and interactions with fire disturbance, climate, carbon storage, and ecosystem services through analysis of changes in vegetation structure and composition over time. This work has focused on applications across tropical forest and savanna systems and within the boreal forests of Russia and North America, and included development, testing and application of improved representation of fire behavior and effects within dynamic size-structured vegetation models. In 2021 she was a lead for a multi-disciplinary initiative to outline barriers and opportunities in fire science and provide guidance for future research. Current work with FireSense focuses on bringing together researchers and practitioners to address challenges in US wildland fire management and decision making.

Dr. Shuman has been involved with collaborative research as part of the Department of Energy’s NGEE-Tropics (Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment – Tropics) development efforts for FATES (Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator), NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), and the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI).

Education

Ph.D.   Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

B.S.     Biological Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL

Research Interests

Wildland and prescribed fires, ecological modeling, climate change, landcover and land use change, disturbance, carbon storage, natural resource and fire management, terrestrial ecology, resilience, ecosystem services. 

Select Publications

M. W. Jones, D.I. Kelley, C. A. Burton, F. Di Giuseppe, M. L. F. Barbosa, E. Brambleby, A. J. Hartley, A. Lombardi, G. Mataveli, J. R. McNorton, F. R. Spuler, J. B. Wessel, J. T. Abatzoglou, L. O. Anderson, N. Andela, S. Archibald, D. Armenteras, E. Burke, R. Carmenta, E. Chuvieco, H. Clarke, S. H. Doerr, P. M. Fernandes, L. Giglio, D. S. Hamilton, S. Hantson, S. Harris, P. Jain, C. A. Kolden, T. Kurvits, S. Lampe, S. Meier, S. New, M. Parrington, M. M. G. Perron, Y. Qu, N. S. Ribeiro, B. H. Saharjo, J. San-Miguel-Ayanz, J. K. Shuman, V. Tanpipat, G. R. van der Werf, S. Veraverbeke, and G. Xanthopoulos. 2024. State of Wildfires 2023–2024. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 16, 3601–3685. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3601-2024

Bonan, G. B., Lucier, O., Coen, D. R., Foster, A. C., Shuman, J. K., Laguë, M. M. et al. 2024. Reimagining Earth in the Earth system. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 16, e2023MS004017. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS004017

Shuman, J.K., R. Fisher, R. Knox, C. Koven, L. Kueppers, and C. Xu. Dynamic ecosystem assembly and escaping the “fire trap” in the tropics: insights from FATES_15.0.0. 2024. GeoSci Model Dev. 17, 4643-4671. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4643-2024

Dickman, L. T., Jonko, A. K., Linn, R. R., Altintas, I., Atchley, A. L., Bär, A., Collins, A. D., Dupuy, J., Gallagher, M. R., Hiers, J. K., Hoffman, C. M., Hood, S. M., Hurteau, M. D., Jolly, W. M., Josephson, A., Loudermilk, E. L., Ma, W., Michaletz, S. T., Nolan, R. H., O’Brien, J. J., Parsons, R. A., Partelli‐Feltrin, R., Pimont, F., Resco de Dios, V., Restaino, J., Robbins, Z. J., Sartor, K. A., Schultz‐Fellenz, E., Serbin, S. P., Sevanto, S., Shuman, J. K., Sieg, C. H., Skowronski, N. S., Weise, D. R., Wright, M., Xu, C., Yebra, M., and Younes, N. 2023. Integrating plant physiology into simulation of fire behavior and effects. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18770

Foster, A.C., Wang, J.A., Frost, G.V., Davidson, S.J., Hoy, E., Turner, K., Sonentag, O., Epstein, H., Berner, L.T., Armstrong, A.H., Kang, M., Rogers, B.M., Campbell, E., Miner, K.R., Orndahl, K.M., Bourgeau-Chavez, L., Lutz, D.A., French, N., Chen, D., Du, J., Shestakova, T.A., Shuman, J.K., Tape, K., Virkkala, A-M, Potter, C., and Goetz, S. 2022. Disturbances in North American boreal forest and tundra: impacts, interactions, and responses. Environ. Res. Lett. 17 113001https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac98d7

Bui, H. X., Timmermann, A., Lee, J.-Y., Maloney, E. D., Li, Y.-X., Kim, J.-E., Shuman, J., Lee, S-S, Weider, W. 2022. Summer midlatitude stationary wave patterns synchronize Northern Hemisphere wildfire occurrence. Geophysical Research Letters, 49. e2022GL099017.       https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099017

Shuman, J.K., J.K. Balch, R.T. Barnes, P.E. Higuera, C.I. Roos, D.W. Schwilk, E.N. Stavros, T. Banerjee, M.M. Bela, J. Bendix, S. Bertolino, S. Bililign, K.D. Bladon, P. Brando, R.E. Breidenthal, B. Buma, D. Calhoun, L.M.V. Carvalho, M.E. Cattau, K.M. Cawley, S. Chandra, M.L. Chipman, J.Cobian-Iñiguez, E. Conlisk, J.D. Coop, A. Cullen, K.T. Davis, A. Dayalu, F. De Sales, M. Dolman, L.M. Ellsworth, S. Franklin, C.H. Guiterman, M. Hamilton, E.J. Hanan, W.D. Hansen, S. Hantson, B.J. Harvey, A. Holz, T. Huang, M.D. Hurteau, N.T. Ilangakoon, M. Jennings, C. Jones, A. Klimaszewski-Patterson, L.N. Kobziar, J. Kominoski, B. Kosovic, M.A. Krawchuk, P. Laris, J. Leonard, S.M. Loria-Salazar, M.Lucash, H. Mahmoud, E. Margolis, T. Maxwell, J.L. McCarty, D.B. McWethy, R.S. Meyer, J.R. Miesel, W.K. Moser, R.C.Nagy, D. Niyogi, H.M. Palmer, A. Pellegrini, B. Poulter, K. Robertson, A.V. Rocha, M. Sadegh, F. Santos, F. Scordo, J.O. Sexton, A.S. Sharma, A.M.S. Smith, A.J. Soja, C. Still, T. Swetnam, A.D. Syphard, M.W. Tingey, A. Tohidi, A.T. Trugman, M. Turetsky, J.M. Varner, Y. Wang, T. Whitman, S. Yelenik, X. Zhang. 2022. Reimagine Fire Science for the Anthropocence. PNAS Nexus  Volume 1, Issue 3, July 2022, pgac115, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac115

Foster, A. C., Shuman, J., Rogers, B., Walker, X., Mack, M., Bourgeau-Chavez, L., Veraverbeke, S. and Goetz, S. 2022. Bottom-up drivers of future fire regimes in western boreal North America. Environ. Res. Lett. 17 025006 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac4c1e

Ma, W., Zhai, L., Pivovaroff, A., Shuman, J., Buotte, P., Ding, J., Christoffersen, B., Knox, R., Moritz, M., Fisher, R. A., Koven, C. D., Kueppers, L., and Xu, C. 2021. Assessing climate change impacts on live fuel moisture and wildfire risk using a hydrodynamic vegetation model, Biogeosciences 18: 4005–4020 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-4005-2021

McLauchlan, K. K., P. E. Higuera, J. Miesel, B. M. Rogers, J. Schweitzer, J. K. Shuman, A. Tepley, J. M. Varner, T. T. Veblen, S. A. Adalsteinsson, J. K. Balch, P. Baker, E. Batllori, E. Bigio, P. Brando, M. Cattau, M. L. Chipman, J. Coen, R. Crandall, L. Daniels, N. Enright, W. S. Gross, B. J. Harvey, J. A. Hatten, S. Hermann, R. E. Hewitt, L. N. Kobziar, J. B. Landesmann, M. M. Loranty, S. Y. Maezumi, L. Mearns, M. Moritz, J. A. Myers, J. G. Pausas, A. F. A. Pellegrini, W. J. Platt, J. Roozeboom, H. Safford, F. Santos, R. M. Scheller, R. L. Sherriff, K. G. Smith, M. D. Smith, and A. C. Watts. 2020. Fire as a fundamental ecological process: research advances and frontiers. Journal of Ecology. 00:1-23 https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13403

Foster, A.C., A. Armstrong, J.K. Shuman, H.H. Shugart, B. Rogers, M. Mack, S. Goetz, and K.J. Ranson. 2019. Importance of tree size and species interactions with wildfire, climate, and soils in interior boreal Alaska: application of a forest gap model at multiple scales. Ecological Modelling 409,108765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108765

Fisher, R.A., Koven, C.D., Anderegg, W.R., Christoffersen, B.O., Dietze, M.C., Farrior, C., Holm, J.A., Hurtt, G., Knox, R.G., Lawrence, P.J. Lichststein, J.W., Longo, M., Matheny, A. M., Medvigy, D., Muller-Landau, H. C., Powell, T. L., Serbin, S. P., Sato, H., Shuman, J., Smith, B., Trugman, A. T., Viskari, T., Verbeeck, H., Weng, E., Xu, C., Xu, X., Zhang, T. and Moorcroft, P. 2017. Vegetation Demographics in Earth System Models: a review of progress and priorities. Global Change Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13910

Shuman, J.K., A.C. Foster, H.H. Shugart, A. Hoffman-Hall, A. Krylov, T. Loboda, D. Ershov, and E. Sochilova. 2017. Fire Disturbance and Climate Change: Implications for Russian Forests. Environmental Research Letters 12 035003. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa5eed

Shugart, H.H. G.P. Asner, A. Huth, N. Knapp, T.LeToan and J.K. Shuman. 2015. Computer and remote-sensing infrastructure to enhance large-scale testing of individual-based forest models. Front Ecol Environ. 13 (9):503-511. https://doi.org/10.1890/140327

Shuman, J.K., N. Tchebakova, E. Parfenova, A. Soja, H. Shugart, D. Ershov and K. Holcomb. 2015. Forest Forecasting with Vegetation Models across Russia. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 45:175-184. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2014-0138

Shuman, J.K., H.H. Shugart and O.N. Krankina. 2014. Testing Individual-based Models of Forest Dynamics: Issues and an Example for the Boreal Forests of Russia. Ecological Modelling. 293: 102-110. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.10.028

Shuman, J.K., H.H. Shugart and T.L. O’Halloran. 2011. Sensitivity of Siberian larch forests to climate change. Global Change Biology. 17: 2370-2384. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02417.x