Matt Turner
University of Wisconsin-Madison · Environment and Resources
Active 1983–2026
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About
Matt Turner is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley, earned in 1992. His research interests encompass environmental governance, political ecology, the politics of conservation and conservation science, savanna and steppe ecology, critical development studies, pastoralism, common property theory, climate change vulnerability, and food security. Turner’s current research areas include the trans-Saharan migration experience and its driving factors in the Sudano-Sahelian region, the social and ecological impacts of dryland afforestation, climate change, resource-related conflict and insurgency in Mali, West Africa, and transborder pastoral movements and conservation zoning in Niger/Benin and Chad/Central Africa Republic. He teaches courses on global poverty, environmental conservation, African geography, and geographical inquiry. Turner has contributed significantly to the understanding of environmental and social issues in West Africa and beyond, with numerous publications and recognition such as the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Research topics
- Environmental science
- Biology
- Ecology
- Environmental resource management
- Geology
- Climatology
- Atmospheric sciences
- Geography
Selected publications
Pervasive shifts in forest dynamics in a changing world
Science · 2020 · 1266 citations
Forest dynamics arise from the interplay of environmental drivers and disturbances with the demographic processes of recruitment, growth, and mortality, subsequently driving biomass and species composition. However, forest disturbances and subsequent recovery are shifting with global changes in climate and land use, altering these dynamics. Changes in environmental drivers, land use, and disturbance regimes are forcing forests toward younger, shorter stands. Rising carbon dioxide, acclimation, a…
Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2020-01-27 · 994 citations
articleOpen accessThe rapid anthropogenic climate change that is being experienced in the early twenty-first century is intimately entwined with the health and functioning of the biosphere. Climate change is impacting ecosystems through changes in mean conditions and in climate variability, coupled with other associated changes such as increased ocean acidification and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. It also interacts with other pressures on ecosystems, including degradation, defaunation and fragmentat…
Climate change, ecosystems and abrupt change: science priorities
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2020 · 369 citations
1st authorCorrespondingEcologists have long studied patterns, directions and tempos of change, but there is a pressing need to extend current understanding to empirical observations of abrupt changes as climate warming accelerates. Abrupt changes in ecological systems (ACES)-changes that are fast in time or fast relative to their drivers-are ubiquitous and increasing in frequency. Powerful theoretical frameworks exist, yet applications in real-world landscapes to detect, explain and anticipate ACES have lagged. We hig…
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023-03-06 · 156 citations
articleOpen accessIncreasing fire severity and warmer, drier postfire conditions are making forests in the western United States (West) vulnerable to ecological transformation. Yet, the relative importance of and interactions between these drivers of forest change remain unresolved, particularly over upcoming decades. Here, we assess how the interactive impacts of changing climate and wildfire activity influenced conifer regeneration after 334 wildfires, using a dataset of postfire conifer regeneration from 10,23…
Novel Disturbance Regimes and Ecological Responses
Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics · 2023-08-04 · 111 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingMany natural disturbances have a strong climate forcing, and concern is rising about how ecosystems will respond to disturbance regimes to which they are not adapted. Novelty can arise either as attributes of the disturbance regime (e.g., frequency, severity, duration) shift beyond their historical ranges of variation or as new disturbance agents not present historically emerge. How much novelty ecological systems can absorb and whether changing disturbance regimes will lead to novel outcomes is…
Recent grants
NSF · $143k · 2017–2019
NSF · $807k · 2020–2027
NSF · $400k · 1998–2002
Frequent coauthors
- 148 shared
William H. Romme
Colorado State University
- 68 shared
Scott M. Pearson
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- 56 shared
Daniel B. Tinker
University of Wyoming
- 51 shared
Robert H. Gardner
- 40 shared
Stephen R. Carpenter
University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 40 shared
Brian J. Harvey
University of Washington
- 38 shared
Erica A. H. Smithwick
Pennsylvania State University
- 35 shared
Daniel C. Donato
Labs
Turner, Matt – Department of Geography – UW–MadisonPI
Education
- 1985
PhD, Ecology
University of Georgia
- 1980
BS, Biology
Fordham University - Rose Hill Campus
Awards & honors
- Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor (2014-)
- Abo S. Sher Faculty Fellow (January 2009-December 2013)
- Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, September…
- Vilas Associate, University of Wisconsin, Madison July 2002-…
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