Applied Forest Ecology & Silviculture Lab

EKZ


 

Dr. Eric K. Zenner

 

 

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

Research Interests:

 

I am interested in integrating the 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. and J.E. Peck.  2009.  Characterizing structural conditions in mature managed red pine:  Spatial dependency of metrics and adequacy of plot size.  Forest Ecology and Management 257:311-320.

Kabrick, J.M., E.K. Zenner, D.C. Dey, D. Gwaze, and R.G. Jensen.  2008.  Using ecological land types to examine landscape-scale oak regeneration dynamics.  Forest Ecology and Management 255:3051-3062.

Zenner, E.K., J. T. Fauskee, A.L. Berger, and K.J. Puettmann.  2007.  Impacts of skidding traffic intensity on soil disturbance, soil recovery, and aspen regeneration in north-central Minnesota.  Northern Journal of Applied Forestry 24:177-183.

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.  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.

 

Contact Information:

 

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

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