Latest News:
- The 2nd event in this series was a virtual webinar on May 8th, 2025. Check out the Webinar Recording if you missed it!
- Check out the Workshop 1 Infographic for a summary of the outcomes of the 1st workshop.
Ecological transformations, also known as state changes, regime shifts or vegetation type conversions, can be caused by many different disturbances including wildfire, climate change, and invasive species, as well as interactions between these drivers. This workshop series will focus on transformations of terrestrial vegetation (e.g., forests or shrublands to grasslands).
The goals of these workshops are to 1) identify areas of transformation due to wildfire and grass invasion and 2) evaluate management practices that enhance carbon storage, native biodiversity, and improve resilience, including tradeoffs among priorities.
Who should attend? All are welcome, but we especially encourage you to attend if you are a researcher or manager working on ecological transformations, invasive plant species, wildfire, climate change, biodiversity, or carbon storage.
Timeline of Ecological Transformation Series:
- 1st Event (workshop): explore the concept of ecosystem transformation and identify case studies (held virtually December 7, 2023, 9 am - 12 pm MT)
- 2nd event (webinar): NC RISCC team reports research results on where transformation (forest to grass or forest to shrub) has occurred across the NC region and annual estimates of above ground biomass (held virtually May 8, 2025, 11 am - 12 pm MT)
- 3rd event (workshop): evaluate management practices that enhance carbon storage and improve native resilience and look at a portfolio of management practices that are being used in the region (fall 2025)