David Cairns receives Barry Bishop Career Achievement Award

May 25, 2016

Congratulations to Dr. David M. Cairns on receiving the Barry Bishop Career Achievement Award from the Mountain Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG).

Dr. Cairns' research concentrates on the impacts of climate change on vegetation at short and long time scales in a variety of environments. 

He has worked extensively at ecotones, the transion zones between different vegetation types. 

Most of Dr. Cairns' work has been accomplished at treelines in the western United States, Alaska and in northern Sweden. 

He also has projects in two other sensitive environments: saltmarshes on the coasts of Denmark and Texas, and in tundra environments on the North Slope of Alaska. 

Dr. Cairns utilizes a variety of methods to answer questions pertinent to the response of these environments to climate change including: population genetics, dendroecological methods and simulation modeling.