Heather Alexander on forest ecology and the danger of simple solutions to complex climate issues

Go Simone

Heather Alexander is an assistant professor in forest ecology in Auburn University, United States. She is an expert in the areas of forest, fire and disturbance ecology. She studies the impacts of changing fire regimes of forest succession, dynamics influence of tree traits on forest flammability and the consequences of changing forest composition on forest ecosystem function.

With Heather, we talked about the impacts of increasing wildfire severity on forests, how the melting permafrost affect them, the Sergei Zimov experiment and the Pleistocene Park project in Siberia, the benefits and cons of reforestation and offsetting programs, "playing God" with the environment and ecosystems, and scientists and the activism dilemma.

References mentioned in this episode:

• Heather Alexander's Profile
• Heather Alexander's Research publications
• Auburn University
• Orcas are not taking nature’s revenge, but we should, ROAR Magazine
• A second Trump term would be “game over” for the climate, says top scientist, The Guardian
• Amazon near tipping point of switching from rainforest to savannah – study, The Guardian
• To save the planet, don’t plant trees, New York Times
• Brainpickings
• Pleistocene Park
• Siberia: the melting permafrost, ARTE documentary
• Sergei Zimov
• Carroll Cloare
• The Memory of Old Jack, Wendell Berry
• The hidden life of trees, Peter Wohlleben

Transcript and references of this episode are available on Go Simone's website.