Coburn, Craig

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https://opus.uleth.ca/handle/10133/5616

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    Post-fire vegetation regeneration during abnormally dry years following severe montane fire: southern Alberta, Canada
    (Elsevier, 2025) Aspinall, Jesse; Chasmer, Laura; Coburn Craig; Hopkinson, Christopher
    Fire regimes across montane regions of western Canada are changing resulting in longer fire seasons, higher intensity fires, and shortening fire return intervals. The implications of high severity fire and warmer, drier early post-fire conditions on herbaceous understory vegetation regeneration and seedling recruitment in the southern Canadian Rockies are not well known. The overall objective of this study is to quantify trajectories of vegetation recovery (species, structural characteristics, and biomass) during early years of abnormally warm, dry conditions following a high severity fire in two moisture endmember sites Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada. Here, we compare the within and between year spatial and temporal variability of vegetation growth and species density and how these change over time and across the broader area as an indicator of ecosystem resilience within these endmember sites. Moderate to extreme drought occurred during the years following fire at Waterton, where 2021 was ranked as the 2nd driest year in 26 years. Despite this, the moist site was characterised by greater herbaceous vegetation recovery with few lodgepole pine seedlings (average biomass = 335 g m−2), while a drier site had greater seedling recruitment over a period of 5 years. Variations in site environmental conditions were more impactful than differences between years (drought) on post-fire vegetation recovery. Use of remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) remotely sensed data provided an effective means for quantifying variability in regenerating vegetation height (structure from motion), cover (green chromatic coordinate), and biomass when compared at plot level (R2 = 0.53, 0.53, and 0.30 respectively) using optical photogrammetric methods. The research presented has implications for forest and fuel management in Canada as national parks and forest agencies consider historic use of heterogeneous species patches. High density of lodgepole pine seedling recruitment in mineral soils and under very dry conditions indicate resilience to drought. This will require continued and expanded monitoring as other tree species recruits populate the post-fire environment.
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    Delegate perspectives on transitioning the 41st Canadian Symposium on remote sensing to a virtual event due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
    (Taylor & Francis, 2022) Hopkinson, Christopher; Coburn, Craig A.
    The 41st Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing (CSRS) was a unique event, originally planned to be hosted as an in-person event in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories but ultimately delivered 100% online due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. As the 41st CSRS represented an unprecedented departure from the CRSS-SCT’s long history of annual in-person symposia, this note summarizes the transition from an in-person to an online event. In particular, delegate feedback on some of the challenges encountered, as well as positive and negative perceptions of the event delivery. It is important that a record of these collective experiences is preserved and considered for future symposia, and our experience is shared with the global research community.
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    Educating the next generation of remote sensing specialists: skills and industry needs in a changing world
    (Taylor & Francis, 2021) Chasmer, Laura; Ryerson, Robert A.; Coburn, Craig A.
    The landscape of post-secondary education has experienced a dramatic change in student outcomes over the past 20 years. The expectation for students in advanced education was a career in research and toward gaining employment in either academia or in government science. From our survey of university students and early career professionals, it was clear that there is an expectation gap between desired and probable post-secondary education outcomes. Our survey indicated that the majority of trainees, regardless of level of education, undervalue the importance of written and oral communication skills and overvalue specific methodological understanding relative to those employed in the field. While some of these dichotomies can be explained by the relative lack of experience of students, it also points to the nature of the foci of our training. While we are concerned with the production of the next leaders in remote sensing science, most will have careers that are different from their training. There is an opportunity to optimize the post-secondary education experience (student and faculty) with the inclusion of a broader view toward career outcomes.