Silviculture & Applied Forest Ecology Lab

EKZ


 

Dr. Eric K. Zenner

 

 

I offer challenging courses with real-world field components, actively mentor my graduate students, work to promote interactive intellectual exchange within the School of Forest Resources community and among natural resources professionals throughout the region, and pursue theoretically informed, management-driven research.

Research Interests:

 

I am interested in ecologically based silviculture, which seeks to integrate both ecological and utilitarian values of forests.  My research focuses around understory and overstory dynamics with respect to:

  • forest regeneration

  • partial disturbances

  • post-establishment dynamics

  • uneven-aged management

  • wildlife habitat

  • fire vulnerability of mixed-species stands

  • mimicking late successional forest structural components through partial cuts to create multi-cohort, mixed species stands capable of both natural regeneration and resilience to natural disturbance

  • describing and quantifying forest structure to enable comparisons among different forest ecosystems

  • developing and testing hypotheses about ecological processes related to forest structure in order to develop forest management practices to meet societal goals

I am on the graduate faculty of the Forestry and Ecology programs at Penn State.

Background:

 
Silviculturist 2006 Associate Professor, School of Forestry, Penn State University
Silviculturist 2001 Assistant Professor, Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota
Biometrician 2000 Missouri Department of Conservation
Post-doc 1998 
Abteilung für Forstliche Biometrie, Albert-Ludwigs Universität
    Supervisor:  Dr. Dieter Pelz
Ph.D. 1998 
Quantitative Forest Ecology, Oregon State University
    Advisor:  Dr. David Hibbs
M.S. 1998 
Statistics, Oregon State University
    Advisor:  Dr. Scott Urquhart
M.S. 1995 Forest Science (Soils minor), Oregon State University
    Advisors:  Dr. Bill Emmingham, Dr. Steven Acker
Vordiplom 1992 Ecology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany
B.S. 1990 Diplom Ingenieur, Fachhochschule für Forstwirtschaft, Rottenburg, Germany
Service 1986 262nd Airborne Unit, Merzig/Saar, Germany

Selected Publications:

 

Zenner, E.K.  2008.  Short-term changes in Pinus strobus sapling height-to-diameter ratios following partial release:  testing the acclimative stem-form development hypothesis.  Canadian Journal of Forest Research, in press.

Zenner, E.K., J.M. Kabrick, R.G. Jensen, J.E. Peck, and J.K. Grabner.  2006.  Responses of ground flora to a gradient of harvest intensity in the Missouri Ozarks.  Forest Ecology and Management 222:326-334.

Zenner, E.K.  2005.  Development of tree size distributions in Douglas-fir forests under differing disturbance regimes.  Ecological Applications 15:701-714.

Zenner, E.K.  2005.  Investigating scale-dependent stand heterogeneity with structure-area-curves.  Forest Ecology and Management 209:87-100.

Zenner, E.K.  2004.  Does old-growth condition imply high live-tree structural complexity?  Forest Ecology and Management 195:243-258.

Zenner, E.K.  2000.  Do residual trees increase structural heterogeneity in Pacific Northwest coniferous forests?  Ecological Applications 10(3):800-810.

Zenner, E.K. and D.E. Hibbs.  2000.  A new method for modeling the heterogeneity of forest structure.  Forest Ecology and Management 129:75-87.

 

Contact Information:

 

305 Forest Resources Building
University Park, PA  16802
(814) 865-4574
Eric.Zenner@psu.edu

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