Matt Dannenberg

Matt
Assistant Professor
Education: 
PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Office: 
308 Jessup Hall
Phone: 
3193350160
Office Hours: 
Mondays from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
or by appointment
Curriculum Vitae: 
Research Interests: 
global change ecology, terrestrial carbon and water cycles, climate variability and change, remote sensing, dendrochronology

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_QQj8SAAAAAJ&hl=en 

I study past and present global change and its impacts on Earth’s ecosystems, at scales ranging from the regional (with a focus on dryland ecosystems of the western United States) to the global. The tools I use include remote sensing, dendrochronology (the science of tree rings), and empirical/process-based modeling.

Most of my research investigates the impacts of climate variability/change on the growth, phenology and carbon uptake of terrestrial vegetation. A particular focus is understanding the effects of coupled ocean-atmosphere circulation systems, such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, on the timing and magnitude of vegetation activity, which may allow forecasting of ecological processes months before the growing season even starts. An additional emphasis is understanding how the seasonality and variability of precipitation affects ecosystem processes, particularly in the context of a warmer and more variable hydroclimate.

In addition to my work on climate–ecosystem interactions, I also use and develop methods for monitoring land use and land cover change with remote sensing, with the goal of separating climate influences on ecosystems from the effects of land cover composition. To date, most of this work has focused on the southeastern United States, where ongoing changes in forest cover and composition are rapidly changing the climate, hydrology, and ecosystem services of the region. However, I am also interested in using these methods for other systems and applications, such as monitoring woody encroachment in arid and semiarid regions, modeling health effects of land cover change, and quantifying the impacts of surface mining operations on land-atmosphere CO2 exchange.

Prospective Graduate Students: 

I am looking for MA or PhD students who are interested in global change ecology, dryland or forest ecosystem ecology, and climate variability/change. Other areas of research could include:

  • Assessing responses of carbon and water fluxes to global environmental change (e.g., changes in temperature, soil moisture, vapor pressure deficit, and land use/land cover change)
  • Forecasting primary production, evapotranspiration, and land surface phenology based on ocean-atmosphere circulation systems
  • Developing models of carbon and water fluxes based on remote sensing and/or tree rings
  • Reconstructing past environmental change using long-term tree-ring and climate data networks

In addition to the above research interests, students should have, or be interested in developing, skills in programming/statistical computing (in R, MATLAB, Python, etc.), remote sensing, climate data analysis, or dendrochronology.

Selected Publications: 

Dannenberg, M. P., M. L. Barnes, W. K. Smith, M. R. Johnston, S. K. Meerdink, X. Wang, R. L. Scott, and J. A. Biederman (2023), Upscaling dryland carbon and water fluxes with artificial neural networks of optical, thermal, and microwave satellite remote sensing, Biogeosciences, 20, 383-404. doi:10.5194/bg-20-383-2023.

Au, T. F., J. T. Maxwell, S. M. Robeson, J. Li, S. M. O. Siani, K. Novick, M. P. Dannenberg, R. Phillips, T. Li, Z. Chen, and J. Lenoir (2022), Younger trees in the upper canopy layer are more sensitive but also more resilient to drought, Nature Climate Change, 12, 1168-1174. doi:10.1038/s41558-022-01528-w.

Wise, E. K. and M. P. Dannenberg (2022), Simulating the impacts of changes in precipitation timing and intensity on tree growth, Geophysical Research Letters, 49, e2022GL100863. doi:10.1029/2022GL100863.

Dannenberg, M. P., D. Yan, M. L. Barnes, W. K. Smith, M. R. Johnston, R. L. Scott, J. A. Biederman, J. F. Knowles, X. Wang, T. Duman, M. E. Litvak, J. S. Kimball, A. P. Williams, and Y. Zhang (2022), Exceptional heat and atmospheric dryness amplified losses of primary production during the 2020 U.S. Southwest hot drought, Global Change Biology, 28(16), 4794-4806. doi:10.1111/gcb.16214.

Wang, X., J. A. Biederman, J. F. Knowles, R. L. Scott, A. J. Turner, M. P. Dannenberg, P. Köehler, C. Frankenberg, M. E. Litvak, G. N. Flerchinger, B. E. Law, H. Kwon, S. C. Reed, W. J. Parton, G. A. Barron-Gafford, and W. K. Smith (2022), Satellite solar-induced fluorescence and near-infrared reflectance capture complementary aspects of dryland vegetation dynamics, Remote Sensing of Environment, 270, 112858. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2021.112858

Zhang, Y., C. Song, T. Hwang, K. Novick, J. Coulston, J. Vose, M. P. Dannenberg, C. Hakkenberg, J. Mao, and C. Woodcock (2021), Land cover change-induced decline in terrestrial gross primary production over the conterminous United States from 2001 to 2016, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 308-309, 108609. doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2021.108609.

Dannenberg, M. P. (2021), Modeling tree radial growth in a warming climate: Where, when, and how much do potential evapotranspiration models matter?, Environmental Research Letters, 16, 084017. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac1292.

Dannenberg, M. P., W. K. Smith, Y. Zhang, C. Song, D. N. Huntzinger, and D. J. P. Moore (2021), Large-scale reductions in terrestrial carbon uptake following central Pacific El Niño, Geophysical Research Letters, 48(7), e2020GL092367. doi:10.1029/2020GL092367.

Zhang, F., J. A. Biederman, M. P. Dannenberg, D. Yan, S. Reed, and W. K. Smith (2021), Five decades of observed daily precipitation reveal longer and more variable drought events across much of the western United States, Geophysical Research Letters, 48(7), e2020GL092293. doi:10.1029/2020GL092293.

Dannenberg, M. P., X. Wang, D. Yan, and W. K. Smith (2020), Phenological characteristics of global ecosystems based on optical, fluorescence, and microwave remote sensing (invited), Remote Sensing, 12(4), 671. doi:10.3390/rs12040671.

Dannenberg, M. P., C. Song, E. K. Wise, N. Pederson, and D. A. Bishop (2020), Delineating environmental stresses to primary production of U.S. forests from tree rings: Effects of climate seasonality, soil, and topography, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 125, e2019JG005499. doi:10.1029/2019JG005499.

Smith, W. K.*, M. P. Dannenberg*, D. Yan, S. Herrmann, M. L. Barnes, G. A. Barron-Gafford, J. A. Biederman, S. Ferrenberg, A. M. Fox, A. R. Hudson, J. F. Knowles, N. MacBean, D. J. P. Moore, P. L. Nagler, S. C. Reed, W. A. Rutherford, R. L. Scott, X. Wang, and J. Yang (2019), Remote sensing of dryland ecosystem structure and function: Progress, challenges, and opportunities (invited), Remote Sensing of Environment, 233, 111401. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2019.111401. [*Smith and Dannenberg contributed equally]

Dannenberg, M. P., E. K. Wise, and W. K. Smith (2019), Reduced tree growth in the semiarid United States due to asymmetric responses to intensifying precipitation extremes, Science Advances, 5(10), eaaw0667. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw0667.

Dannenberg, M. P., E. K. Wise, M. Janko, T. Hwang, and W. K. Smith (2018), Atmospheric teleconnection influence on North American land surface phenology, Environmental Research Letters, 13(3), 034029. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aaa85a.

Dannenberg, M. P. and E. K. Wise (2017), Shifting Pacific storm tracks as stressors to ecosystems of western North America, Global Change Biology, 23(11), 4896-4906. doi:10.1111/gcb.13748.

Wise, E. K. and M. P. Dannenberg (2017), Reconstructed storm tracks reveal three centuries of changing moisture delivery to North America, Science Advances, 3, e1602263. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1602263.

Dannenberg, M. P. and E. K. Wise (2016), Seasonal climate signals from multiple tree-ring metrics: a case study of Pinus ponderosa in the upper Columbia River basin, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 121, 1178-1189. doi:10.1002/2015JG003155.

Dannenberg, M. P., C. Song, T. Hwang, and E. K. Wise (2015), Empirical evidence of El Niño—Southern Oscillation influence on land surface phenology and productivity in the western United States, Remote Sensing of Environment, 159, 167-180. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2014.11.026.

Wise, E. K. and M. P. Dannenberg (2014), Persistence of pressure patterns over North America and the North Pacific since AD 1500, Nature Communications, 5, 4912. doi:10.1038/ncomms5912.