Constance I. Millar
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Constance I. Millar is an American research ecologist working for the
United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...
at the Pacific Southwest Research Station in Berkeley, California. Her work focuses on the effects of climate change on high-elevation ecosystems in both the past and the present. She has also developed ways to evolve management techniques of forest ecosystems to improve the ability to protect them against climate change.


Early life and education

Millar attended the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
for her undergraduate degree. Here, she received a Bachelor's of Science in Forest Science in 1977. Following this, she earned a Master's Degree in Forest Genetics from the
University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
in 1979. She then earned a Ph.D. in Genetics from UC Berkeley in 1985. Here, at the University of California, Millar formed the California Forest Germplasm Conservation Project in 1985. This project allowed Millar and her peers to conduct research on a range of tree species native to California through grants given by the California State Environmental Protection Program. During her summers off from college, she had worked on the
Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...
as a seasonal wilderness ranger.


Career and research


Positions

In 1987, two years after Millar had completed her Doctoral work, she began working at the Pacific Southwest Research Station where she still works to this day. Millar is also a chair of CIRMOUNT: The Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains. CIRMOUNT is an organization founded by Millar and her colleagues in 2004 which aims to serve as a medium for researchers studying mountains of western North America to collaborate with each other and further scientific understanding of how climate change is affecting their ecosystems. She is also a lead operative of the North American Global Observation Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA)
Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...
Chapter, which she founded in 2004 through her involvement in CIRMOUNT. Through GLORIA Great Basin, Millar researches the climate change-induced movement of Californian and Nevadan alpine plant species in a prescribed manor created by International GLORIA, which is based in
Vienna, Austria Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
.


Research

Millar's research is focused on the effects of climate change and its impact on various aspects of temperate forests and
alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...
ecosystems. Much of her work has been concentrated on
conifers Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...
of the Great Basin, such as ''
Pinus flexilis ''Pinus flexilis'', the limber pine, is a species of pine tree in the family Pinaceae that occurs in the mountains of the Western United States, Mexico, and Canada. It is also called Rocky Mountain white pine. A limber pine in Eagle Cap Wilder ...
,
Juniperus osteosperma ''Juniperus osteosperma'' (Utah juniper; syn. ''J. utahensis'') is a shrub or small tree native to the southwestern United States. Description The plant reaches , rarely to 9 m, tall. The shoots are fairly thick compared to most junipers, i ...
,'' and ''
Pinus longaeva ''Pinus longaeva'' (commonly referred to as the Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine, or western bristlecone pine) is a long-living species of bristlecone pine tree found in the higher mountains of California, Nevada, and ...
,'' and their reactions to changes in climate. Additionally, she has begun innovative research on the
rock glacier Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms that consist either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in between. Rock glaciers are normally found at hi ...
s of the Great basin. Through this work she has quantified the volume of water stored as ice in the Great Basin. Millar frequently conducts research on
American pika The American pika (''Ochotona princeps''), a diurnal species of pika, is found in the mountains of western North America, usually in boulder fields at or above the tree line. They are herbivorous, smaller relatives of rabbits and hares. Pi ...
s (''Ochotona princeps'') and how they adapt to climate change. She has learned that Americans pikas will be able to withstand a wider range of climates than previously thought, by taking advantage of subsurface habitats. In addition, she has identified ways to more effectively manage forests by incorporating the inevitable change of climate into conservation strategies used by forest management teams.


Awards and honors

Through her work, Millar has become well-respected and has won numerous awards from the scientific community, including: *Pew Marine Fellow, Conservation and the Environment, 1991 This fellowship was awarded to Millar to facilitate her ambitions in developing management strategies for forests. *Forest Service Deputy Chief's Distinguished Science award, 2009 Millar was awarded for her work in developing techniques to more effectively manage forest ecosystems to protect them from climate change. *
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...
’s Ambassador Award, 2019 The American Geophysical Union honored Millar for her leadership in the field and the promotion of organizations aimed at preserving the environment.


Notable publications

* Millar, C. I., Stephenson, N. L. and Stephens, S. L. (2007), 'Climate change and forests of the future: managing in the face of uncertainty.' ''Ecological Applications'', 17: 2145-2151. doi:10.1890/06-1715.1 * Constance I. Millar & Robert D. Westfall (2019) Geographic, hydrological, and climatic significance of rock glaciers in the Great Basin, USA, ''Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research'', 51:1, 232-249, DOI: 10.1080/15230430.2019.1618666 *Constance I. Millar, David A. Charlet, Robert D. Westfall, John C. King, Diane L. Delany, Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint. 'Recruitment patterns and growth of high-elevation pines in response to climatic variability (1883–2013), in the western Great Basin, USA.' ''Canadian Journal of Forest Research'', 2018, 48(6): 663-671, doi:10.1139/cjfr-2017-0374 *Millar, Constance I., and Nathan L. Stephenson. 'Temperate Forest Health in an Era of Emerging Megadisturbance.' ''Science'' 21 Aug. 2015: 823–826. *Millar, Constance I., and Wallace B. Woolfenden. 'The Role of Climate Change in Interpreting Historical Variability.' ''Ecological Applications'' 9.4 (1999): 1207–1216.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Millar, Constance Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Washington College of the Environment alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American women ecologists American ecologists American science writers