GUEST SPEAKERS

SESSION TWO:
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOLUTIONS

Kevin M. Robertson
Fire Ecology Research Scientist 

Tall Timbers Research Station
13093 Henry Beadel Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32312
Phone: 850-893-4153 x 254
e-mail: krobertson@ttrs.org 
Education
2001    Ph.D. in Plant Biology, University of Illinois
1996    M.S. in Plant Biology, University of Illinois
1993   B.S. in Plant Biology, Louisiana State University
Training and Certification
National Wildfire Coordinating Group S-290 - Prescribed Fire Monitoring and Analysis
National Wildfire Coordinating Group S-300 - Prescribed Fire Burn Boss
National Wildfire Coordinating Group S-390 - Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior
National Wildfire Coordinating Group Rx510 - Advanced Fire Effects
Florida Interagency Prescribed Fire Certification Course
Georgia Forestry Commission Prescribed Burn Certification Course
Mississippi Forestry Commission Prescribed Burn Certification Course
Experience
01/2003-present. Fire Ecology Research Scientist, Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, FL.  Conduct research in the areas of fire ecology, plant ecology, and effects of land management.  Obtain external funding.  Supervise technicians, grad students, and interns on research projects.  Provide extension and education to agencies, land owners, managers, and visitors on topics relating to the use of fire, forestry, and game management.   
07/2001-12/2002. Land Conservation Specialist, Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, FL.  Surveyed property to document high-quality natural resources.  Created maps using GPS and GIS.  Prepared documents to establish conservation easements in the Red Hills Region of southern Georgia and northern Florida.
09/1994-05/2001.  Graduate Student, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL. Advisor: Dr. Carol Augspurger.  Research on spatial patterns of tree species along river point bars in the first stage of primary succession.  Research included forest demographic analyses, GIS analysis of river migration, seedling ecology, and soil analysis, and multi-variate forest community analyses. 
03/1999-09/2000. Land Steward, The Nature Conservancy, Covington, LA. Worked as part of a prescribed burn crew.  Designed and conducted plant ecology research and vegetation monitoring on land preserves. 
01/1997-05/1997.  Map Technician, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL. Dr. Donald Johnson, Soil Geomorphologist.   Interpreted aerial photographs to created soil maps of New Mexico desert landscapes. 
09/1996-12/1996. Research Associate, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL. Faculty associate: Dr. Donald Johnson. Studied the role of crayfish in vertically translocating rock fragments from the glacial outwash into midwestern loess soils.
08/1995-05/1996. Research Assistant, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, Champaign, IL. Composed documents and visited military installations to advise managers on identifying and preserving local species and habitats. 
01/1994-08/1994.  Research Associate, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.    Faculty associate: Dr. William Platt.  Interpreted aerial photographs and satellite images to map vegetation maps for research.  Led field crew to map trees for a long term study of population dynamics of slash pine in Everglades National Park.
03/1992-05/1992 Research Associate, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. Faculty associate: Dr. William Platt.  Mapped tree canopy patterns in a floodplain forest to document changes since a hurricane and to relate species distributions with geomorphic features.
09/1990-08/1991. Research Assistant, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.  Advisor: Dr. Meredith Blackwell.  Investigated the  life histories and interactions of dung beetles, mites attached to them, and fungal parasites on mites. 
07/1990-08/1997.  Research Associate, Everglades National Park, FL and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.  Faculty associate: Dr. William Platt.  Field study in the Florida Everglades to tracking the reproductive response of epiphytic Bromeliads during seven years following a large fire and hurricane.
06/1990-09/1990.  Biological Technician, Everglades National Park, FL. Conducted field work for initial two years of a twenty-year study on the effects of different fire regimes on succession between pinelands and grasslands.
Grants
1996    National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, $4,473. 
2005    Florida Fish and Wildlife Service Non-game Contracted Projects Program (Co-PI: James Cox) $43,600.
2006    Florida Wildlife Conservation Grant, $17,775.   
2006    Joint Fire Science Program Grant, $210,000
Awards and Honorable Memberships
1991                Golden Key National Honor Society
1991                Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society
1992                Botanical Society of America Young Botanist Award
1995                Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
1995                Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
1996                List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, Plant Biology 341, “Field Ecology”
Fall 1996          List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, Plant Biology 381, “Plant Ecology”
Professional Membership
Ecological Society of America
Tall Timbers Research Station
Association for Fire Ecology
Longleaf Alliance
Southwest Georgia Prescribed Fire Council - Steering Committee Member
North Florida Prescribed Fire Council - Steering Committee Alternate
Teaching
Field Ecology,  University of Illinois.  April 1996.  Developed and led a 10-day field trip to teach the ecology, natural history, and geomorphology of southeastern coastal plain habitats.
Plant Ecology Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois, September-December 1996.  Lectured, led discussions on primary literature, facilitated cooperative learning activities, organized and taught overnight ecology trips and weekly field excursions, advised and graded students on their independent field ecology research projects. 
Plants, People, and the Environment Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois, January-May 1997 and August-December 1997.  Lectured, led discussions, prepared and administered laboratory experiences, counseled students on group and individual projects, led field trips and visits to professional scientific laboratories.
Fire Effects: Rx510, National Wildfire Coordinating Group, National Advanced Fire Research Institute, Tucson, AZ. 2006. Lectured and led discussions for NWCG training of wildland fire practioners. 
Refereed Publications
Robertson, K.M. and W.J. Platt. 1991. Effects of fire on Bromeliads in tropical hammocks of Everglades National Park, Florida. Selbyana 13:39-49.
Robertson, K.M. and C.K. Augspurger. 1999. Geomorphic processes and pathways of primary succession on the Bogue Chitto River, U.S.A. Journal of Ecology 87:1057-1063.
Robertson, K.M. and W.J. Platt. 2001.  Effects of multiple disturbances (fire, hurricane) on epiphyte-substrate associations in subtropical forests, Everglades National Park, Florida, USA.  Biotropica 33:573-582. 
Robertson, K.M. and T.E. Ostertag. 2004. Problems with the test of effects of prescribed burning on amphibian diversity.  Conservation Biology 18:613. 
Robertson, K.M. and D.L. Johnson.  2004. Vertical redistribution of pebbles in Mollisol catenas of central Illinois, U.S.A.  Soil Science 169:776-786.
Borchert, R., K. Robertson, M. D. Schwartz, and G. Williams-Linera.  2005. Phenology of temperate trees in tropical climates.  International Journal of Biometeorology 50:57-65.  
Robertson, K.M.  2006.  Distributions of tree species along point bars of ten rivers in the southeastern U.S. coastal plain.  Journal of Biogeography 33:121-132. 
Deyle, A.C. and K.M. Robertson. 2006. Distribution of shortleaf pine-oak-hickory (Pinus echinata Miller, Quercus, Carya) versus longleaf pine-wiregrass (P. palustris Miller, Aristida stricta Michx.) natural communities in relation to soil characteristics in southern Georgia and northern Florida, U.S.A.  Natural Areas Journal accepted.   
Robertson, K.M. and T.E. Ostertag. 2006. Effects of land use on fuel characteristics and fire behavior in pinelands of southweast Georgia. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings in press.  
Ostertag, T.E. and K.M. Robertson.  2006.  A comparison of native versus old-field vegation in upland pinelands managed with frequent fire, south Georgia, USA.  Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings in press.   
Non-refereed Publications
Robertson, K.M. and T.E. Ostertag.  2003.  Fuel characteristics and fire behavior predictions in native and old-field pinelands in the Red Hills Region, southwest Georgia.  Proceedings of the 2nd International Wildland Fire and Fire Management Congress, Orlando, FL. http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/67162.pdf (accessed July 17, 2006).
Robertson, K.M. 2004.  Fire in America - the short version of a long story.  Panorama Winter 2004, pg. 10.
Masters, R.E., K.M. Robertson, W.E. Palmer, J. Cox, K. McGorty, L. Green, and C. Ambrose. 2003. Red Hills Forest Stewardship Guide. Tall Timbers Research, Inc., Tallahassee, FL.
Palmer, W.E., K.M. Robertson, and R.E. Masters.  2004.  The culture of fire in the southeast.  Pages 354-368 in: Rahn, J. (ed.).  Transactions of the Sixty-ninth North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference.  March 16-20, 2004, Spokane, WA. Wildlife Management Institute.  Pp. 826.
Robertson, K.M. 2004. Pineland fuels and hardwood resprout mortality.  Covey Rise 1:(11)14. 
Robertson, K.M. 2006.  Letter to Editor: Lightsey was wrong about controlled burns.  Tallahassee Democrat, September 21, 2006. 
Robertson, K.M. 2007. The fire forest: Prescribed fire is a management tool in southern pine forests. Tree Farmer Magazine.  March/April, pp. 6-10. 
Robertson, K.M. articles in Tall Timbers Research Notes:  2/03, 4/03, 5/03, 6/03, 8/03, 10/03, 12/03, 2/04, 4/04, 6/04, 8/04, 10/04, 12/04, 2/05, 4/05, 6/05, 8/05, 10/05, 12/05, 2/06, 4/06, 6/06, 8/06
Robertson, K.M. articles in Tall Timbers Annual Report: 7/03, 7/04, 7/05
Robertson, K.M. articles in Tall Timbers News: 7/03, 6/04, 7/05, 5/06 
Meeting Abstracts
Robertson, K.M. and W.J. Platt. 1991. Factors influencing colonization of trees by Bromeliads in Everglades National Park. Program to the Second International Symposium: The Biology and Conservation of Epiphytes. pg. 40. (Sarrasota, Florida).
Robertson, K.M. and W.J. Platt. 1991. Factors influencing colonization of trees by epiphytic Bromeliads in Everglades National Park, Florida. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 72:232. (San Antonio, Texas).
Robertson, K. M. and M. Blackwell. 1992. Laboulbeniales associated with phoretic mites of dung beetles. Inoculum: Newsletter of the Mycological Society of America. 43:48. (Portland, Oregon).
Robertson, K.M. and W.J. Platt. 1993. Effects of fire on the demography of Bromeliads in subtropical hardwood hammocks of Everglades National Park, Florida.  Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 74:413. (Madison, Wisconsin).
Robertson, K.M. and W.J. Platt. 1994. The effects of Hurricane Andrew on the demography of epiphytic Bromeliads in Everglades National Park, Florida.  Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 75:515. (Knoxville, Tennessee).
Robertson, K.M. and W.J. Platt. 1996. Direct effects of Hurricane Andrew on epiphytic bromeliads and their hosts in subtropical hardwood hammocks in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA.  Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 77(3):378. (Providence, Rhode Island, 10-14 August 1996).
Robertson, K.M. and C.K. Augspurger. 1998. Pathways of primary succession and forest structure associated with geomorphology of the Bogue Chitto River, U.S.A.  Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 79:234. (Baltimore, Maryland 2-6 August 1998).
Robertson, K.M. and C.K. Augspurger. 2000.  Patterns of tree species in early succession along point bars of southeastern USA rivers.  Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 81:188. (Snowbird, Utah 6-10 August 2000).  
Robertson, K.M. and C.K. Augspurger. 2003. Spatial segregation of floodplain tree species through differential mortality of seedlings.  Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 84:284. (Savannah, Georgia, 3-8 August 2003).  
Robertson, K.M. and T.E. Ostertag.  2003.  Fuel characteristics and fire behavior predictions in native and old-field pinelands in the Red Hills Region, southwest Georgia.  Proceedings of the 2nd International Wildland Fire and Fire Management Congress, Orlando, FL.  http://ams.confex.com/ams/FIRE2003/techprogram/ meeting_FIRE2003.htm
Palmer, W.E., K.M. Robertson, and R.E. Masters. 2004.  Fire in the Southeast: Past, present, and future. Transactions of the 69th annual North American wildlife and natural resources conference.  The Wildlife Institute, Spokane, WA, March 16-20.  
Robertson, K.M. 2004. Income potential and management of the longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem. Tri-state Longleaf Pine Groundcover Restoration Symposium.  November 17, 2004, Tallahassee, FL. 
Robertson, K.M., W.E. Palmer, and R.E. Masters. 2004. Fire - Use it or lose it!  4th Longleaf Alliance Conference Proceedings, October 15, 2004, Hattiesburg, MS.
Robertson, K.M. and T.E. Ostertag. 2005. Fuel measurement and fire behavior validation in upland pine forests in southern Georgia, U.S.A.  Proceedings of the 23rd Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  October 16, 2005. 
Ostertag, T.E. and K.M. Robertson. 2005.  Native versus old-field vegetation in fire-maintained pinelands of southern Georgia and northern Florida, U.S.A.  Proceedings of the 23rd Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  October 16, 2005. 
Hsieh, Y. P., K. Robertson, and C. Coultas. 2006. Effects of Prescribed Fire Burning on the Nature and Property of Soil Organic Matter as Revealed by a Novel Multi-Elemental Scanning Thermal Analysis.  Proceedings of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America Annual Meeting.  Indianapolis, Indiana, November, 2006. 
Robertson, K.M. and C.W. Wood. 2006. Fire effects on soil carbon and nutrients in a southeastern U.S. pineland. 3rd International Fire Congress, San Diego, CA.
Robertson, K.M., S. Curd-Hetrick, R. Masters, A. Bruce, M. Naito, K. Outcalt, M. Rauscher, Jennifer Pollock, Greg Gollberg. 2006. Southern Fire Portal: Regional fire information system. Fire effects on soil carbon and nutrients in a southeastern U.S. pineland. 3rd International Fire Congress, San Diego, CA, November 13-17.