
Erica Smithwick, Distinguished Professor of Geography, is a landscape and ecosystem ecologist. She is the Director of Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI) at Penn State. She is an Associate Director of the Institutes of Energy and Environment (IEE), and former director (2017–2021) of the Ecology Institute, both of which foster interdisciplinary environmental research.
She was also the founding director of the Center for Landscape Dynamics, which connects science to management, and she is Graduate Faculty in the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. Her laboratory group (LEAPS: Landscape Ecology at Penn State) is actively involved in understanding how a wide range of disturbances, especially fire, affect ecosystem function at landscape scales. Current research is focused on the influence of these changes on socio-ecological resilience and sustainability, with special attention to protected area management in Africa and the U.S.
She recently served as a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa at Rhodes University. Dr. Smithwick has received numerous research awards from the NSF, NASA, DOE, NPS, the USGS, and beyond. This work is increasingly focused on problems that require inter- and trans-disciplinary teamwork to address complex environmental challenges. One of these projects, called Visualizing Forest Futures (VIFF), seeks to address how indigenous and western knowledge systems can be best used to address forest sustainability under climate variability, in partnership with the Menominee tribal nation in northern Wisconsin. Another, LandcapeU, is focused on transdisciplinary graduate training at the Food-Energy-Water nexus.
In the News
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Projects
Recent Publications
Public and manager perceptions about prescribed fire in the Mid-Atlantic, United States
Wu, H., Miller, Z. D., Wang, R., Zipp, K. Y., Newman, P., Shr, Y. H., Dems, C. L., Taylor, A., Kaye, M. W. & Smithwick, E. A. H., Nov 15 2022, In: Journal of Environmental Management. 322, 116100.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Prescribed fire alters structure and composition of a mid-Atlantic oak forest up to eight years after burning
Dems, C. L., Taylor, A. H., Smithwick, E. A. H., Kreye, J. K. & Kaye, M. W., Dec 2021, In: Fire Ecology. 17, 1, 10.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Landscape-Scale Forest Reorganization Following Insect Invasion and Harvest Under Future Climate Change Scenarios
Olson, S. K., Smithwick, E. A. H., Lucash, M. S., Scheller, R. M., Nicholas, R. E., Ruckert, K. L. & Caldwell, C. M., Nov 2021, In: Ecosystems. 24, 7, p. 1756-1774 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Interactions between landscape and local factors inform spatial action planning in post-fire forest environments
Peeler, J. L. & Smithwick, E. A. H., Dec 2021, In: Landscape Ecology. 36, 12, p. 3523-3537 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Simulated fire regimes favor oak and pine but affect carbon stocks in mixed oak forests in Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Zhao, A., Taylor, A. H., Smithwick, E. A. H., Kaye, M. & Harris, L. B., Aug 15 2021, In: Forest Ecology and Management. 494, 119332.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Robust paths to net greenhouse gas mitigation and negative emissions via advanced biofuels
Field, J. L., Richard, T. L., Smithwick, E. A. H., Cai, H., Laser, M. S., LeBauer, D. S., Long, S. P., Paustian, K., Qin, Z., Sheehan, J. J., Smith, P., Wang, M. Q. & Lynd, L. R., Sep 8 2020, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 117, 36, p. 21968-21977 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Conceptual links between landscape diversity and diet diversity: A roadmap for transdisciplinary research
Gergel, S. E., Powell, B., Baudron, F., Wood, S. L. R., Rhemtulla, J. M., Kennedy, G., Rasmussen, L. V., Ickowitz, A., Fagan, M. E., Smithwick, E. A. H., Ranieri, J., Wood, S. A., Groot, J. C. J. & Sunderland, T. C. H., Jul 1 2020, In: BioScience. 70, 7, p. 563-575 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Hunter and Non-Hunter Perceptions of Costs, Benefits, and Likelihood of Outcomes of Prescribed Fire in the Mid-Atlantic Region
Miller, Z. D., Wu, H., Zipp, K., Dems, C. L., Smithwick, E., Kaye, M., Newman, P., Zhao, A. & Taylor, A., Oct 2 2020, In: Society and Natural Resources. 33, 10, p. 1321-1327 7 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
Seed source pattern and terrain have scale-dependent effects on post-fire tree recovery
Peeler, J. L. & Smithwick, E. A. H., Sep 1 2020, In: Landscape Ecology. 35, 9, p. 1945-1959 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Forest pattern, not just amount, influences dietary quality in five African countries
Rasmussen, L. V., Fagan, M. E., Ickowitz, A., Wood, S. L. R., Kennedy, G., Powell, B., Baudron, F., Gergel, S., Jung, S., Smithwick, E. A. H., Sunderland, T., Wood, S. & Rhemtulla, J. M., Jun 2020, In: Global Food Security. 25, 100331.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Patch-scale selection patterns of grazing herbivores in the central basalt plains of Kruger National Park
Young, C., Fritz, H., Smithwick, E. A. H. & Venter, J. A., Jul 2 2020, In: African Journal of Range and Forage Science. 37, 3, p. 199-213 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
The landscape-scale drivers of herbivore assemblage distribution on the central basalt plains of Kruger National Park
Young, C., Fritz, H., Smithwick, E. A. H. & Venter, J. A., Jan 1 2020, In: Journal of Tropical Ecology. 36, 1, p. 13-28 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Estimating root zone soil moisture across the Eastern United States with passive microwave satellite data and a simple hydrologic model
Baldwin, D., Manfreda, S., Lin, H. & Smithwick, E. A. H., 2019, In: Remote Sensing. 11, 17, 2013.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
The value of linking paleoecological and neoecological perspectives to understand spatially-explicit ecosystem resilience
Buma, B., Harvey, B. J., Gavin, D. G., Kelly, R., Loboda, T., McNeil, B. E., Marlon, J. R., Meddens, A. J. H., Morris, J. L., Raffa, K. F., Shuman, B., Smithwick, E. A. H. & McLauchlan, K. K., Jan 15 2019, In: Landscape Ecology. 34, 1, p. 17-33 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Correction: Growth and survival relationships of 71 tree species with nitrogen and sulfur deposition across the conterminous U.S. (PLoS ONE (2018) 13: 10 (e0205296) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205296)
Horn, K. J., Quinn Thomas, R., Clark, C. M., Pardo, L. H., Fenn, M. E., Lawrence, G. B., Perakis, S. S., Smithwick, E. A. H., Baldwin, D., Braun, S., Nordin, A., Perry, C. H., Phelan, J. N., Schaberg, P. G., St. Clair, S. B., Warby, R. & Watmough, S., Feb 2019, In: PloS one. 14, 2, e0212984.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review