Jacquelyn Shuman

Contact

Work

Areas of expertise:

Vegetation modeling, carbon cycle science, ecosystem function, and the impacts of disturbances on ecosystems and society, specifically fire behavior and effects.

Jacquelyn Shuman (Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia) is a Senior Wildfire Scientist with EDF, with a background in vegetation modeling, carbon cycle science, ecosystem function, and the impacts of disturbances on ecosystems and society with a specialization in capturing fire behavior and effects. Her work at EDF focuses on targeting the science and data needed to enable and accelerate meaningful action on wildland fire at a globally relevant scale.

Background

Dr. Shuman comes to EDF from NASA. During her time at NASA as the Project Scientist for FireSense, Dr. Shuman led the design and implementation of a framework for interdisciplinary teams of researchers and practitioners to co-develop projects to deliver innovative tools and technologies for wildland fire management across the United States. She has experience modifying and applying dynamic vegetation models at local, regional and earth system scales in high-latitude boreal forests, as well as across the tropics with a focus on capturing South American forests and grasslands. As part of work at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), she led model development to improve the simulation of fire vegetation interactions within an earth system model. In 2021 she was the lead for a publication from an NSF-funded multi-disciplinary initiative to outline barriers and opportunities in fire science. Dr. Shuman has been involved with collaborative research as part of the Department of Energy’s NGEE-Tropics (Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment – Tropics) development efforts for FATES (Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator), NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), NASA’s Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) program and the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI).

Education

BS, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana

PhD, University of Virginia

Publications

Watt, M.S., S. Gross, J.K. Difuntorum, J.L. McCarty, H.G. Pearce, J.K. Shuman and M. Yebra. 2025. Monitoring Wildfire Risk with a Near-Real-Time Live Fuel Moisture Content System: A Review and Roadmap for Operational Application in New Zealand. Remote Sensing. 17(21). DOI: 10.3390/rs17213580

Jones, M.W., D.I. Kelley, C. A. Burton, F. Di Giuseppe, M. L. F. Barbosa, E. Brambleby, A. J. Hartley, A. Lombardi, G. Mataveli, J. R. McNorton, F. R. Spuler, J. B. Wessel, J. T. Abatzoglou, L. O. Anderson, N. Andela, S. Archibald, D. Armenteras, E. Burke, R. Carmenta, E. Chuvieco, H. Clarke, S. H. Doerr, P. M. Fernandes, L. Giglio, D. S. Hamilton, S. Hantson, S. Harris, P. Jain, C. A. Kolden, T. Kurvits, S. Lampe, S. Meier, S. New, M. Parrington, M. M. G. Perron, Y. Qu, N. S. Ribeiro, B. H. Saharjo, J. San-Miguel-Ayanz, J. K. Shuman, V. Tanpipat, G. R. van der Werf, S. Veraverbeke, and G. Xanthopoulos. 2024. State of Wildfires 2023–2024. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 16, 3601–3685. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3601-2024

Bonan, G. B., Lucier, O., Coen, D. R., Foster, A. C., Shuman, J. K., Laguë, M. M. et al. 2024. Reimagining Earth in the Earth system. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 16, e2023MS004017. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS004017

Shuman, J.K., R. Fisher, R. Knox, C. Koven, L. Kueppers, and C. Xu. Dynamic ecosystem assembly and escaping the “fire trap” in the tropics: insights from FATES_15.0.0. 2024. GeoSci Model Dev. 17, 4643-4671. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4643-2024

Dickman, L. T., Jonko, A. K., Linn, R. R., Altintas, I., Atchley, A. L., Bär, A., Collins, A. D., Dupuy, J., Gallagher, M. R., Hiers, J. K., Hoffman, C. M., Hood, S. M., Hurteau, M. D., Jolly, W. M., Josephson, A., Loudermilk, E. L., Ma, W., Michaletz, S. T., Nolan, R. H., O’Brien, J. J., Parsons, R. A., Partelli‐Feltrin, R., Pimont, F., Resco de Dios, V., Restaino, J., Robbins, Z. J., Sartor, K. A., Schultz‐Fellenz, E., Serbin, S. P., Sevanto, S., Shuman, J. K., Sieg, C. H., Skowronski, N. S., Weise, D. R., Wright, M., Xu, C., Yebra, M., and Younes, N. 2023. Integrating plant physiology into simulation of fire behavior and effects. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18770

Foster, A.C., Wang, J.A., Frost, G.V., Davidson, S.J., Hoy, E., Turner, K., Sonentag, O., Epstein, H., Berner, L.T., Armstrong, A.H., Kang, M., Rogers, B.M., Campbell, E., Miner, K.R., Orndahl, K.M., Bourgeau-Chavez, L., Lutz, D.A., French, N., Chen, D., Du, J., Shestakova, T.A., Shuman, J.K., Tape, K., Virkkala, A-M, Potter, C., and Goetz, S. 2022. Disturbances in North American boreal forest and tundra: impacts, interactions, and responses. Environ. Res. Lett. 17 113001https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac98d7

Bui, H. X., Timmermann, A., Lee, J.-Y., Maloney, E. D., Li, Y.-X., Kim, J.-E., Shuman, J., Lee, S-S, Weider, W. 2022. Summer midlatitude stationary wave patterns synchronize Northern Hemisphere wildfire occurrence. Geophysical Research Letters, 49. e2022GL099017. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099017

Shuman, J.K., J.K. Balch, R.T. Barnes, P.E. Higuera, C.I. Roos, D.W. Schwilk, E.N. Stavros, T. Banerjee, M.M. Bela, J. Bendix, S. Bertolino, S. Bililign, K.D. Bladon, P. Brando, R.E. Breidenthal, B. Buma, D. Calhoun, L.M.V. Carvalho, M.E. Cattau, K.M. Cawley, S. Chandra, M.L. Chipman, J.Cobian-Iñiguez, E. Conlisk, J.D. Coop, A. Cullen, K.T. Davis, A. Dayalu, F. De Sales, M. Dolman, L.M. Ellsworth, S. Franklin, C.H. Guiterman, M. Hamilton, E.J. Hanan, W.D. Hansen, S. Hantson, B.J. Harvey, A. Holz, T. Huang, M.D. Hurteau, N.T. Ilangakoon, M. Jennings, C. Jones, A. Klimaszewski-Patterson, L.N. Kobziar, J. Kominoski, B. Kosovic, M.A. Krawchuk, P. Laris, J. Leonard, S.M. Loria-Salazar, M.Lucash, H. Mahmoud, E. Margolis, T. Maxwell, J.L. McCarty, D.B. McWethy, R.S. Meyer, J.R. Miesel, W.K. Moser, R.C.Nagy, D. Niyogi, H.M. Palmer, A. Pellegrini, B. Poulter, K. Robertson, A.V. Rocha, M. Sadegh, F. Santos, F. Scordo, J.O. Sexton, A.S. Sharma, A.M.S. Smith, A.J. Soja, C. Still, T. Swetnam, A.D. Syphard, M.W. Tingey, A. Tohidi, A.T. Trugman, M. Turetsky, J.M. Varner, Y. Wang, T. Whitman, S. Yelenik, X. Zhang. 2022. Reimagine Fire Science for the Anthropocence. PNAS Nexus Volume 1, Issue 3, July 2022, pgac115, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac115

Foster, A. C., Shuman, J., Rogers, B., Walker, X., Mack, M., Bourgeau-Chavez, L., Veraverbeke, S. and Goetz, S. 2022. Bottom-up drivers of future fire regimes in western boreal North America. Environ. Res. Lett. 17 025006 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac4c1e

Ma, W., Zhai, L., Pivovaroff, A., Shuman, J., Buotte, P., Ding, J., Christoffersen, B., Knox, R., Moritz, M., Fisher, R. A., Koven, C. D., Kueppers, L., and Xu, C. 2021. Assessing climate change impacts on live fuel moisture and wildfire risk using a hydrodynamic vegetation model, Biogeosciences 18: 4005–4020 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-4005-2021

McLauchlan, K. K., P. E. Higuera, J. Miesel, B. M. Rogers, J. Schweitzer, J. K. Shuman, A. Tepley, J. M. Varner, T. T. Veblen, S. A. Adalsteinsson, J. K. Balch, P. Baker, E. Batllori, E. Bigio, P. Brando, M. Cattau, M. L. Chipman, J. Coen, R. Crandall, L. Daniels, N. Enright, W. S. Gross, B. J. Harvey, J. A. Hatten, S. Hermann, R. E. Hewitt, L. N. Kobziar, J. B. Landesmann, M. M. Loranty, S. Y. Maezumi, L. Mearns, M. Moritz, J. A. Myers, J. G. Pausas, A. F. A. Pellegrini, W. J. Platt, J. Roozeboom, H. Safford, F. Santos, R. M. Scheller, R. L. Sherriff, K. G. Smith, M. D. Smith, and A. C. Watts. 2020. Fire as a fundamental ecological process: research advances and frontiers. Journal of Ecology. 00:1-23 https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13403

Foster, A.C., A. Armstrong, J.K. Shuman, H.H. Shugart, B. Rogers, M. Mack, S. Goetz, and K.J. Ranson. 2019. Importance of tree size and species interactions with wildfire, climate, and soils in interior boreal Alaska: application of a forest gap model at multiple scales. Ecological Modelling 409,108765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108765

Fisher, R.A., Koven, C.D., Anderegg, W.R., Christoffersen, B.O., Dietze, M.C., Farrior, C., Holm, J.A., Hurtt, G., Knox, R.G., Lawrence, P.J. Lichststein, J.W., Longo, M., Matheny, A. M., Medvigy, D., Muller-Landau, H. C., Powell, T. L., Serbin, S. P., Sato, H., Shuman, J., Smith, B., Trugman, A. T., Viskari, T., Verbeeck, H., Weng, E., Xu, C., Xu, X., Zhang, T. and Moorcroft, P. 2017. Vegetation Demographics in Earth System Models: a review of progress and priorities. Global Change Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13910

Shuman, J.K., A.C. Foster, H.H. Shugart, A. Hoffman-Hall, A. Krylov, T. Loboda, D. Ershov, and E. Sochilova. 2017. Fire Disturbance and Climate Change: Implications for Russian Forests. Environmental Research Letters 12 035003. . https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa5eed

Shugart, H.H. G.P. Asner, A. Huth, N. Knapp, T.LeToan and J.K. Shuman. 2015. Computer and remote-sensing infrastructure to enhance large-scale testing of individual-based forest models. Front Ecol Environ. 13 (9):503-511. https://doi.org/10.1890/140327

Shuman, J.K., N. Tchebakova, E. Parfenova, A. Soja, H. Shugart, D. Ershov and K. Holcomb. 2015. Forest Forecasting with Vegetation Models across Russia. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 45:175-184. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2014-0138

Shuman, J.K., H.H. Shugart and O.N. Krankina. 2014. Testing Individual-based Models of Forest Dynamics: Issues and an Example for the Boreal Forests of Russia. Ecological Modelling. 293: 102-110. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.10.028