Utah Lake Freeze Core
  • Curator of the Garrett Herbarium, Utah Museum of Natural History
  • Professor, Geography Department

Publications

  • Long, CJ & Power, MJ, and Grigg, LD (2019). A 35,000-year fire history from the Oregon Coast Range, USA,. Geological Society of America Books. Published, 12/31/2019.
    https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/2086/c...
  • de Souza, JG & Robinson, M, Yoshi Maezumi, MS, Capriles, J, Hoggarth, J, Lombardo, U, Novello, V, Apaestegui, J, Whitney, B, Urrego, D, Alves, DT, Rostainm S, Power, MJ, Mayle, F, Cruz, F, Hooghiemstra, H and J Iriarte (2019). Climate change and cultural resilience in late pre-Columbian Amazonia. Nature Ecology and Evolution. Published, 06/17/2019.
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0924-0
  • Mueller, JR & Power, MJ and CJ Long (2019). Climate and human influence on late-Holocene fire regimes in the British Virgin Islands. Quaternary Research. Published, 03/01/2019.
  • Power, MJ & Codding, BF, Taylor, AH, Swetnam, TW, Magargal, KE, Bird, DW and JF O’Connell (2018). Human fire legacies on ecological landscapes. Frontiers in Earth Science. Published, 10/15/2018.
    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart...
  • Carter, VA (2018). A 1500-year synthesis of wildfire activity stratified by elevation from the US Rocky Mountains. Quaternary International. Published, 09/20/2018.
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/...
  • Hawthorne, D & Courtney Mustaphi, CJ, Aleman, JC, Blarquez, O, Colombaroli, D, Daniau A-L, Marlon, JR, Power, MJ, Vanniere, B et al. (2018). A modern global charcoal database (mGCD): examining proxy-fire relationships and spatial patterns of biomass burning. Quaternary International. Published, 09/20/2018.
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/...
  • Heyer, JP & Power, MJ, Field, RD and MJE van Marle (2018). The impacts of recent drought on fire, forest loss, and regional smoke emissions in lowland Bolivia. Biogeosciences. Published, 07/17/2018.
    https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4317-2018
  • Power, MJ & Whitney BS, Mayle FE, Neves DM, de Boer E and KS Maclean (2016). Fire, climate and vegetation linkages in the Bolivian Chiquitano Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest. Philosophical Transactions B of the Royal Society. Published, 06/05/2016.
  • Marlon, J, Kelly, R, Daniau, A-L, Vanniere, B, Power, MJ, Bartlein, P, Higuera, P, Blarquez, O, Brewer, S, Brucher, T, Feurdean, A, Gil-Romera, G, Iglesias, V, Maezumi, SY, Magi, B, Mustraphi, CJC & Zhihai, T (2016). Reconstructions of biomass burning from sediment charcoal records to improve data-model comparisons. Biogeosciences. Published, 06/03/2016.
    https://www.biogeosciences.net/13/3225/2016/bg-13-...
  • Kehrwald N,, Aleman J, , Coughlan, M, Courtney-Mustaphi, C, Githumbi, E, Magi, B, Marlon, J & Power, M (2016). One thousand years of fires: Integrating proxy and model data. Frontiers of Biogeography. Published, 04/26/2016.
    https://doi.org/10.21425/F5FBG29606 Creative Commo...
  • Bush, MB (2015). Anthropogenic influence on Amazonian forests in pre-history: An ecological perspective. Journal of Biogeography. Published, 10/28/2015.
  • Maezumi, Y & Maezumi S, Power MJ, Mayle FE, McLauchlan KK and J Iriarte (2015). Effects of past climate variability on fire and vegetation in the cerrado savanna of the Huanchaca Mesetta, NE Bolivia. Climates of the Past. Published, 06/08/2015.
  • Blarquez O, Vanniere B, Marlon JR, Daniau A-L, Power MJ, Brewer S, Bartlein PJ (2014) Paleofire: an R package to analyse sedimentary charcoal records from the Global charcoal Database to reconstruct past biomass burning. Computers and Geosciences vol 72: 255-261. Published, 12/01/2014.
  • Bush, MB, McMichael, CH, Raczka, MF, de Toledo, MB, Power, MJ, De Oliveira, PE (2014). The Holocene of Amazonia. Book Chapter: In Paleontologia: Cenários de Vida – Paleoclimas. Published, 10/2014.
  • Brücher T, Brovkin V, Kloster S, Marlon JR, Power MJ (2013) Comparing modeled fire dynamics with charcoal records for the Holocene. Climates of the Past, 9, 6429–6458. Published, 11/01/2013.
  • Kehrwald, NM, Whitlock, C, Barbante, C, Brovkin, V, Daniau, A-L, Kaplan, JO, Marlon JR, Power, MJ, Thonicke K, and GR van der Werf (2013) Recent wildfires fuel advancements in fire research. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. Published, 09/01/2013.
  • Aleman, JC, Blarquez, O, Bentaleb, I, Bonté, P, Brossier, B, Carcaillet, C, Gond, V, Gourlet-Fleury, S, Kpolita, A, Lefèvre, I, Oslisly, R, Power, MJ, Yongo, O, Bremond, L, Favier, C (2013). Tracking land-cover changes with sedimentary charcoal in the Afrotropics. The Holocene. Published, 09/01/2013.
  • Power MJ (2013) Biomass burning in the Earth system during the last 21,000 years: A paleofire perspective (Eds. C.Belcher and G.Rein) In Fire Phenomena and the Earth System, Wiley-Blackwell. Accepted, 06/01/2013.
  • Brown, KJ and Power, MJ (in press) Charred Particle Analyses. Invited chapter to Quaternary Science Encyclopedia, 2013. Accepted, 06/01/2013.
  • Power MJ, Mayle, FE, Bartlein, PJ and co-authors (2013) 16th Century burning decline in the Americas: population collapse or climate change? The Holocene 23(1):3-13. Published, 01/01/2013.
  • Morris, J, Brunelle, A, Munson, AS, DeRose, RJ, Seppa, H, Power, MJ, Carter, V, Bares,R. (2012) Using fire regimes to delineate zones in a high resolution lake sediment record. Quaternary Research, 79(1):24-36. Published, 12/2012.
  • Whitlock C, Dean W, Fritz S, Stevens L, Stone JF, Power, MJ, Rosenbaum JR, Pierce KL, and Bracht-Flyr, B (2012) Holocene seasonal variability inferred from multiple proxy records from Crevice Lake, Yellowstone National Park, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Published, 02/29/2012.
  • Power MJ, Whitlock C, Bartlein PJ (2011) Postglacial fire, vegetation, and climate history across an elevational gradient in the Northern Rocky Mountains, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews. Published, 09/01/2011.
  • Long, C and Power, MJ, McDonald, B (2011) Millennial-scale fire and vegetation history from a mesic hardwood forest of southeastern Wisconsin, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science, 26:318-325. Published, 03/2011.
  • Vannière B, Power MJ, Roberts N, Tinner W, Carrión J, Magny M, Bartlein P (2011) Circum-Mediterranean fire activity and climate changes during the mid Holocene environmental transition (8500-2500 cal yr BP). The Holocene, 21:53-73. Published, 02/01/2011.
  • Long, CJ, Power, MJ, Bartlein, PJ (2011) The effects of fire and tephra deposition on forest vegetation in the Central Cascades, Oregon. Quaternary Research 75:151-158. Published, 01/2011.
  • Power, MJ, Bush, M.B., Behling, H., Horn, S.P., Mayle, F.E., and D.H. Urrego (2010) Paleofire activity in tropical America during the last 21 ka. PAGES News, Special Edition: (Eds.) C. Whitlock and W. Tinner, “Fire in the Earth System: A Paleo-perspective”,18(2): 73-75. Published, 08/27/2010.
  • Mayle, FE, Burn, MJ, Power MJ, and Urrego, D (2009) Degetation and fire at the LGM in tropical South America. Chapter in, (eds.) F. Sylvestre and F. Vimeux, Springer Pub. Published, 10/19/2009.
  • Shuman, B, Henderson, A, Colman, SM, Stone, JR, Fritz, SC, Stevens, LR, Power, MJ, Whitlock, C. (2009) Holocene lake-level trends in the Rocky Mountains, U.S.A. Quaternary Science Reviews. Published, 07/07/2009.
  • Marlon, JR, Bartlien, PJ, Walsh, MK, Harrison, SP, Brown, KJ, Edwards, ME, Higuera, PE, Power, MJ, Anderson, RS, Briles, C, Brunelle A, Carcaillet, C, Daniels, M, Hu, FS, Lavoie, M, Long, C, Minkley, T, Richard, PJH, Shafer, DS, Tinner, W, Umbanhowar, CE Jr, Whitlock, C (2009) Wildfire responses to abrupt climate change in North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Published, 01/03/2009.

Research Statement

Dr. Power is an Associate Professor of Geography and a Curator of botany at the Garrett Herbarium, Natural History Museum of Utah and studies how climate change in the past is linked to wildfires and hurricanes and how vegetation communities respond to these changes. Through the analysis of biological and non-biological proxies in sediment records, key process and recovery times from past disturbances can be interrogated and better understood, providing a context for what are often described as recent unprecedented natural and anthropogenic changes.

Research Keywords

  • disturbance
  • Vegetation
  • Paleoecology
  • Paleoclimatology

Presentations

  • EcoRe3 PAGES workshop: invited participant Resilience, disturbance and functional traits Salt Lake City, Utah . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/03/2019.
  • Salt Lake City Rotary Club: invited speaker Mega-fires in the West: exploring the history (and causes) of wildfires since the last ice age . Presentation, Presented, 04/23/2019.
  • Utah Wildfire Panel Discussion, Provo, Utah: invited expert: Are Utah Wildfires the New Normal? Panel, Presented, 01/23/2019.
  • Megafires in the Americas: the causes and the consequences presented to University of Franche-Comte, Besancon, France. Presentation, Presented, 10/2014.
  • LOTRED-2014 3rd International Symposium: “Climate Change and Human Impact in Central & South America", Medellin, Colombia . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 07/2014.
  • Utah Valley University, Department of Earth Science Lecture series. Wildfires of the West: climate-fire linkages on multiple time scales. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2014.
  • "Post-1500 AD biomass burning reduction in the Americas: Climate change or population collapse" presented to the National Fire Science Lab, Missoula, Montana. Presentation, Presented, 02/23/2012.
  • Ecological Society of America (ESA): Climatic control of the biomass-burning decline in the Americas after AD 1500. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 08/2011.
  • International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA): Global Paleofire Syntheses: Lessons from the Global Charcoal Database . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 07/2011.
  • Biomass burning in the Americas after 1500AD: European contact or climate? Special Session organized by M. Power at the American Geophysical Union "Meeting of the Americas". Conference Paper, Presented, 08/11/2010.

Research Groups

Grants, Contracts & Research Gifts

  • Uinta Mountains vegetation, disturbance and climate history. PI: M.J. Power. USDA Ashley National Forest, 08/01/2011 - 12/31/2013. Total project budget to date: $30,000.00
  • Great Basin Vegetation and Fire History. PI: M.J. Power. Bureau of Land Management, 06/01/2010 - 12/30/2011. Total project budget to date: $59,000.00
  • French Guiana Fire History. PI: Jose Itiarte. NERC funding to Jose Iriarte, University of Exeter, UK, 05/01/2010 - 09/30/2011. Total project budget to date: $0.00

Languages

  • Spanish, basic.

Geographical Regions of Interest

  • Americas
  • Bolivia
  • Brazil
  • British Virgin Islands
    Beginning paleo-tempestology research.
  • Colombia
  • Ethiopia
  • France
    3 month Invited Professor position Sep-Dec 2014.
  • French Guiana
  • Latin America and the Caribbean
  • South Africa
  • Southern Europe