Current Position:

Research Scientist, USFS

Description:

I currently work as a scientist for the US Forest Service in Missoula, Montana. I work primarily in the fields of landscape ecology, remote sensing and mountain climatology. Mountains create steep biophysical and climatic gradients that pose unique modeling challenges. My current research focuses on predicting climate to the scale of terrain and using those models to improve our understainding of disturbance and vegetation dynamics. I have a strong interest in  developing models and tools that bridge the gap between research and management. I believe that by integrating research and management we can save taxpayer dollars while improving how we manage natural ecosystems.

Field Of Study:

Ecology, Climate, Climate Change,  Remote Sensing, biogeography, fire ecology

Research Interests:

My research interest span the disciplines of climatology, disturbance ecology micrometeorology, landscape ecology and remote sensing.

 

Education:

Ph.D., University of Idaho, 2008

Affiliations:

I work for the USDA Forest Service in Missoula, MT. I am also a member of the faculty at the  University of Montana and the University of Idaho.

Selected Publications:

Hudak, A. T., I. Rickert, P. Morgan, E. Strand, S. Lewis, P. Robichaud, C. Hoffman, and Z. Holden (2011). A review of fuels treatment effectiveness and a case study in from the 2007 Megafires in Central Idaho, USA. RMRS-GTR-252.

 

Dillon, G., Z. Holden and P. Morgan (2011). Predicting the potential for severe wildfire in the Western United States. Fire Management Today.

  

Dillon, G., Z. Holden and P. Morgan, M. Crimmins, C. Luce and E. Heyerdahl (2011). Both topography and climate affected forest and woodland burn severity in two regions of the western US 1984-2006. Ecosphere 2(12). doi: 10.1890/ES11-00271.1.

                http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/ES11-00271.1

 

Holden, Z.A., P. Morgan, A. Smith and L. Vierling (2010) Beyond Landsat: A multi-sensor assessment of burn severity on the Gila Wilderness, NM. Internatial Journal of Wildland Fire.

 

Holden, Z. A., C. Luce, M. Crimmins and P. Morgan (2011). Fire extent and severity correlated with annual streamflow distribution and timing in the Pacific Northwest (1984-2005). Ecohhydrology 

 

Holden, Z. A. (2011). Empirical downscaling of minimum air temperature at very fine resolutions in complex terrain. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.  

 

Holden, Z. A.,  M. C. Crimmins, S. A.  Cushman and J. Littell, (2011). Empirical modeling of temporal and spatial variation in nocturnal warm season temperature across two North Idaho Mountain ranges, USA. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.   

 

Holden, Z. A., Morgan, P., Hudak, A. T., Morgan, P., (2010) Burn Severity of Areas Reburned by Wildfires  in the Gila Wilderness, New Mexico. Fire Ecology.   

 

Holden, Z. A., Morgan, P. A. and J. S. Evans (2009). An empirical predictive model of burn severity based on 20-Years of burn severity data  in a large Southwestern wilderness area, USA. Forest Ecology and Management.  

 

Holden, Z. A. and J. S. Evans (2010). Empirical Identification of Burn Severity Classes using the Landsat-Derived dNBR, Local Autocorrelation Statistics and a Fuzzy C-means Clustering Algorithm. Int. J. Wild. Fire.  

 

Charlie Luce and Z. A. Holden (2009).  Declining streamflow distributions in the Pacific Northwest (1948-2006). Geophysical Research Letters.    

 

 Holden, Z. A., P. Morgan, M. Crimmins, R. Steinhorst and A. Smith (2007). Fire season precipitation variability influences fire extent and severity in a large southwestern wilderness area, USA. Geophysical Research letters (34)   

 

Holden, Z. A., P. Morgan, M. G. Rollins, and G. R. Wright. (2005) Ponderosa pine snag densities following multiple fires in the Gila Wilderness, NM. Forest Ecology and Management 221:140-146. 

 

Holden, Z. A., A. M. S. Smith, P. Morgan, M. Rollins, and P. Gessler. 2005. Evaluation of novel thermally enhanced spectral indices for mapping fire perimeters and comparison with fire atlas data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 26:4801-4808. 

 

Lentile, L. B., Z. A. Holden, A. M. Smith, M. J. Falkowski, A. T. Hudak, P. Morgan, P. E. Gessler, and N. C. Benson (2006). Remote sensing techniques to assess active and post-fire effects. International Journal of Wildland Fire.26, 319-345. 

 

Smith, A. M. S., N. Drake, M. J. Wooster, A. T. Hudak, and Z. A. Holden. (2007). Production of Landsat ETM+ reference imagery of burned areas within Southern African Savannas: Comparison of methods and application to MODIS. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 28, 2753-2775.   

 

Holden, Z. A., Morgan, P., Rollins, M. G., Kavanagh, K., (2007). Thirty Years of Wildland Fire Use: Effects of Multiple Fires on stand structure in two southwestern wilderness areas. Journal of Fire Ecology Vol. 3 issue 1 pp. 1-14