“Jobs of the Future” is a series focusing on career paths, local job opportunities, programs, and tales of success that highlight North Bay's diverse job market.
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Since 2008, Dr. Jeff Dech, a professor at Nipissing University’s Faculty of Arts and Science in the department of Biology, Chemistry, and Geography, has been delving into the mysteries of forest growth, quality, and ecology in northern Ontario. Through the Forest Resources Lab he established, Dech’s work has opened windows into forest management by improving our understanding of both the environmental forces shaping forests and the long-term effects of disturbances, like fire.
Dech initially launched the lab as an industrial research chair, tackling the challenges of improving forest resource data and enhancing forest management. “I was really focused on working on forest resource inventory and trying to improve the information that we can get about the forest to assist with management decisions,” he explains. By building relationships between ecological site characteristics—referred to as "ecosites"—and the cellular properties of trees, Dech’s team examined wood quality and density to understand how specific environmental conditions impact the quality of forest resources.
"Ecosite data allowed us to look at factors like the density and fibre length of wood based on the site conditions where trees grow. It turns out, you can make fairly accurate predictions about wood quality under certain conditions, especially with certain species,” he says. This foundational work spurred broader research into forest ecology, examining how growth drivers respond to disturbances like insect outbreaks.
To better understand how events like the spruce budworm outbreaks have shaped Ontario’s forests, Dech’s team employs dendrochronology, or tree-ring analysis. “Tree rings act as records of the past, and we can use them to track historical growth patterns and date outbreaks,” Dech explains. “The idea is to see how these events influence forest growth and whether ecosite differences affect how resilient trees are to outbreaks.”
In recent years, fire has emerged as a primary focus for Dech, as his lab investigates ways to measure and interpret the impacts of historical fires. Fire, he says, is a powerful and often unpredictable disturbance in forests, with consequences for everything from timber quality to ecosystem health. “Fire is essential to the ecosystem, and in forest management, we try to mimic these natural disturbances to sustain ecological balance,” says Dech. To understand fire’s impact more precisely, he partnered with Dr. Elizabeth Webb, an isotope geochemist from Western University, using a unique approach: the chemical analysis of charcoal.
"After a fire, charcoal holds oxygen isotopes that differ depending on burn temperature,” he explains. “Through analyzing these isotopes, we hope to gauge the fire’s intensity even hundreds of years after it occurred.” By examining the ratio of oxygen-18 to oxygen-16 isotopes, the team can determine the relative severity of past fires. Their early research involved charcoal from areas such as Redbridge and Hearst, and the results were promising. “We found that the isotopic ratios in charcoal match up with what we know about fire severity based on the Fire Weather Index, which uses climate data to assess fire intensity,” he says.
A pivotal project for Dech and his students took place after a 2018 fire in River Valley. Over 80 plots were sampled for charcoal from burned trees, and their isotopic data was compared with satellite imagery and field data. “We measured fire severity in two main ways: with satellite data to track vegetation loss and field observations using the Composite Burn Index, a standard for fire
assessment,” Dech shares. Both methods yielded similar patterns, showing that isotopic data is an effective way to measure historical fire severity.
This research carries major implications, particularly for long-term forest management. Traditional satellite or field data assessments must be taken within a year after a fire. In contrast, isotopic data from charcoal can be preserved for centuries, potentially allowing ecologists to model fire disturbances dating back hundreds of years. “Charcoal remains in the soil for a long time, and we believe this technique could become a tool to understand fire severity in historical contexts, far beyond current data limits,” he says.
Looking ahead, Dech sees several applications for this type of research. “The most immediate use is improving our approach to forest management by emulating natural disturbance patterns from centuries or even millennia ago,” he explains. In Ontario, forest management is designed to mimic these historic disturbances, like fire, wind, and insect outbreaks, by using insights from the past to shape harvest methods today.
“Globally, we’re seeing more large fires, but we’ve become quite adept at suppressing and managing fires locally,” Dech notes. “As a result, there’s less natural fire activity on the landscape compared to the past.” His team’s research aims to fill this knowledge gap by providing accurate data on how severe past fires were. “Knowing how intense these fires were enables us to emulate that pattern more effectively when managing today’s forests,” he says.
Additionally, understanding historical fire patterns and severity holds broader significance in today’s changing climate. “As climate and land use evolve, the fire regime could shift significantly,” he adds. “By adding data on past fire severity, we might better predict and prepare for future shifts in fire activity, supporting sustainable forest management practices in the face of these changes.”
This research has also provided valuable opportunities for Nipissing University students to gain hands-on experience in the field. “Our undergraduate and graduate students have been a vital part of these projects,” Dech shares. He credits three graduate students in particular—Tegan McWhirter, Elizabeth McDonald, and Courtney Antram—for making significant contributions. “Each of them has carved out a piece of the project that has helped us build up this research, which is crucial for developing expertise and training students in these areas,” he adds.
These opportunities are part of a long history of collaborations at Nipissing University in forestry and forest ecology. According to Dech, student involvement in such projects doesn’t only support the research but also opens doors to future career paths. “In recent years, we’re seeing people with broader backgrounds in ecology, biology, and environmental science entering the forest industry,” he notes. Students with a mix of forestry knowledge and environmental science are now better positioned to bring a well-rounded perspective to the workforce.
With job roles in the industry expanding, Dech sees this trend as an encouraging sign for students aiming to make an impact. “They’re contributing valuable environmental insights, which I think is great for the industry,” he adds, highlighting the potential for future students to continue building relevant experience and find their place in this evolving field.
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