Christopher D. O'Connor, PhD

Research Ecologist

Rocky Mountain Research Station

christopher.d.oconnor@usda.gov

Publications & Products
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Education

Treesearch Publications

Shayne Magstadt, Erin J. Belval, Bradley Pietruszka, Yu Wei, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2026. An assessment of aerial firefighting response times between agencies during the 2020 fire season in California
Dung Nguyen, Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Jesse D. Young, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christopher J. Dunn, Dave E. Calkin. 2025. Optimizing fuel break management for core habitat protection against wildfires in the northern Great Basin
Dung Nguyen, Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, Benjamin M. Gannon, Jesse D. Young, Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin. 2024. An optimization model to prioritize fuel treatments within a landscape fuel break network
Jesse D. Young, Erin J. Belval, Benjamin Gannon, Yu Wei, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christopher Dunn, Bradley Pietruszka, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2024. The cost of operational complexity: A causal assessment of pre-fire mitigation and wildfire suppression
Sara H. Brown, Dave E. Calkin, Nehalem C. Clark, Natalie A. Cooper, Greg Dillon, Mark A. Finney, Signe Leirfallom, Christopher D. O'Connor, Tonja Opperman. 2024. Wildfire risk 101
Benjamin Gannon, Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Jesse D. Young, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin, Christopher Dunn. 2023. A quantitative analysis of fuel break effectiveness drivers in Southern California National Forests
Yu Wei, Benjamin Gannon, Jesse D. Young, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin. 2023. Estimating WUI exposure probability to a nearby wildfire
Alexis Neukirch, Dave E. Calkin, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher Dunn, Michael Caggiano. 2023. Embracing PODs: Advancing wildfire response planning
Karin Riley, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2023. Heads up in a dead forest: Using the Snag Hazard map to support safety and strategic planning for fire responders
Christopher H. Guiterman, Ellis Q. Margolis, Christopher I Roos, Thomas W. Swetnam, Nicholas C. Laluk, Kerry F. Thompson, Chris Toya, Calvin A. Farris, Peter Z. Fule, Jose Iniguez, J. Mark Kaib, Christopher D. O'Connor, Lionel Whitehair. 2022. Indigenous fire management and cross-scale fire-climate relationships in the Southwest United States from 1500 to 1900 CE
Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher D. O'Connor, Benjamin M. Gannon, Michael D. Caggiano, Christopher J. Dunn, Courtney A. Schultz, David E. Calkin, Bradley Pietruszka, S. Michelle Greiner, Richard Stratton, Jeffrey T. Morisette. 2022. Potential operational delineations: New horizons for proactive, risk‑informed strategic land and fire management
Karin Riley, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christopher J. Dunn, Jessica R. Haas, Richard D. Stratton, Benjamin Gannon. 2022. A national map of snag hazard to reduce risk to wildland fire responders
David W. Huffman, Jose Iniguez, Kurt F. Kipfmueller, Stanley G. Kitchen, Keith Lombardo, Donald McKenzie, Andrew G. Merschel, Kerry L. Metlen, Jesse Minor, Christopher D. O'Connor, Laura Platt, William J. Platt, Thomas Saladyga, Amanda B. Stan, Scott Stephens, Colleen Sutheimer, Ramzi Touchan, Peter J. Weisberg, Ellis Q. Margolis, Christopher H. Guiterman, Raphael D. Chavardes, Jonathan D. Coop, Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, Denyse A. Dawe, Donald A. Falk, James D. Johnston, Evan Larson, Hang Li, Joseph M. Marschall, Cameron E. Naficy, Adam T. Naito, Marc-Andre Parisien, Sean A. Parks, Jeanne Portier, Helen M. Poulos, Kevin M. Robertson, James H. Speer, Michael Stambaugh, Thomas W. Swetnam, Alan J. Tepley, Ichchha Thapa, Craig D. Allen, Yves Bergeron, Lori D. Daniels, Peter Z. Fule, David Gervais, Martin P. Girardin, Grant L. Harley, Jill E. Harvey, Kira M. Hoffman, Jean M. Huffman, Matthew D. Hurteau, Lane B. Johnson, Charles W. Lafon, Manuel K. Lopez, R. Stockton Maxwell, Jed Meunier, Malcolm P. North, Monica T. Rother, Micah R. Schmidt, Rosemary L. Sherriff, Lauren A. Stachowiak, Alan Taylor, Erana J. Taylor, Valerie Trouet, Miguel L. Villarreal, Larissa L. Yocom, Karen B. Arabas, Alexis H. Arizpe, Dominique Arseneault, Alicia Azpeleta Tarancon, Christopher Baisan, Erica Bigio, Franco Biondi, Gabriel D. Cahalan, Anthony Caprio, Julian Cerano-Paredes, Brandon M. Collins, Daniel C. C. Dey, Igor Drobyshev, Calvin Farris, M. Adele Fenwick, William Flatley, M. Lisa Floyd, Ze'ev Gedalof, Andres Holz, Lauren F. Howard. 2022. The North American tree-ring fire-scar network
Christopher D. O'Connor. 2021. Harbingers of change: Arizona Sky Islands offer unique opportunities to understand climate change, carbon, fire, and ecological transition
Dave E. Calkin, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew P. Thompson, Richard Stratton. 2021. Strategic wildfire response decision support and the risk management assistance program
Gregg Garfin, Donald A. Falk, Christopher D. O'Connor, Katharine Jacobs, Raphael D. Sagarin, Arin C. Haverland, Anna Haworth, Alastair Baglee, Jeremy Weiss, Jonathan Overpeck, Adriana A. Zuñiga-Terán. 2021. A new mission: Mainstreaming climate adaptation in the US Department of Defense
Mike Caggiano, Dan Dallas, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2020. When the fire starts: A science-based framework for risk-based incident response
Yu Wei, Matthew P. Thompson, Erin J. Belval, Benjamin Gannon, Dave E. Calkin, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2020. Comparing contingency fire containment strategies using simulated random scenarios
Christopher D. O'Connor, Donald A. Falk, Gregg M. Garfin. 2020. Projected climate-fire interactions drive forest to shrubland transition on an Arizona Sky Island
Benjamin M. Gannon, Matthew P. Thompson, Kira Z. Deming, Jude Bayham, Yu Wei, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2020. A geospatial framework to assess fireline effectiveness for large wildfires in the western USA
Stefan Klesse, Robert Justin DeRose, Flurin Babst, Bryan A. Black, Leander D. L. Anderegg, Jodi Axelson, Ailene Ettinger, Hardy Griesbauer, Christopher H. Guiterman, Grant Harley, Jill E. Harvey, Yueh-Hsin Lo, Ann M. Lynch, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christina Restaino, Dave Sauchyn, John D. Shaw, Dan J. Smith, Lisa Wood, Jose Villanueva-Díaz, Margaret E. K. Evans. 2020. Continental-scale tree-ring-based projection of Douglas-fir growth: Testing the limits of space-for-time substitution
Christopher J. Dunn, Christopher D. O'Connor, Jesse Abrams, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, James D. Johnston, Rick Stratton, Julie Gilbertson-Day. 2020. Wildfire risk science facilitates adaptation of fire-prone social-ecological systems to the new fire reality
Francisco Rodriguez y Silva, Juan Ramon Molina Martinez, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2020. Landscape and Wildfires Seminary: Diagnosis and suppression, methodological advances
Francisco Rodriguez y Silva, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew P. Thompson, Juan Ramon Molina Martinez, Dave E. Calkin. 2020. Modelling suppression difficulty: Current and future applications
Erin J. Belval, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew P. Thompson, Michael S Hand. 2019. The role of previous fires in the management and expenditures of subsequent large wildfires
Yu Wei, Matthew P. Thompson, Joe H. Scott, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christopher J. Dunn. 2019. Designing operationally relevant daily large fire containment strategies using risk assessment results
Matthew P. Thompson, Yu Wei, Dave E. Calkin, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christopher Dunn, Nathaniel Anderson, John S. Hogland. 2019. Risk management and analytics in wildfire response
Christopher J. Dunn, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew Reilly, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2019. Spatial and temporal assessment of responder exposure to snag hazards in post-fire environments
Karin Riley, A. Park Williams, Shawn P. Urbanski, Dave E. Calkin, Karen C. Short, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2019. Will landscape fire increase in the future? A systems approach to climate, fire, fuel, and human drivers
Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin. 2019. Engaging the fire before it starts: A case study from the 2017 Pinal Fire (Arizona)
Yu Wei, Matthew P. Thompson, Jessica R. Haas, Greg Dillon, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2018. Spatial optimization of operationally relevant large fire confine and point protection strategies: Model development and test cases
Stefan Klesse, R. Justin DeRose, Christopher H. Guiterman, Ann M. Lynch, Christopher D. O'Connor, John D. Shaw, Margaret E. K. Evans. 2018. Sampling bias overestimates climate change impacts on forest growth in the southwestern United States
Irina P. Panyushkina, Nurjan S. Mukhamadiev, Ann M. Lynch, Nursagim A. Ashikbaev, Alexis H. Arizpe, Christopher D. O'Connor, Danyar Abjanbaev, Gulnaz Z. Mengdbayeva, Abay O. Sagitov. 2017. Wild apple growth and climate change in southeast Kazakhstan
Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2017. An empirical machine learning method for predicting potential fire control locations for pre-fire planning and operational fire management
Christopher D. O'Connor, Donald A. Falk, Ann M. Lynch, Thomas W. Swetnam, Craig P. Wilcox. 2017. Disturbance and productivity interactions mediate stability of forest composition and structure
Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew P. Thompson, Francisco Rodriguez y Silva. 2016. Getting ahead of the wildfire problem: Quantifying and mapping management challenges and opportunities
Tyson L. Swetnam, Christopher D. O'Connor, Ann M. Lynch. 2016. Tree morphologic plasticity explains deviation from metabolic scaling theory in semi-arid conifer forests, southwestern USA
Christopher D. O'Connor, Ann M. Lynch, Donald A. Falk, Thomas W. Swetnam. 2014. Post-fire forest dynamics and climate variability affect spatial and temporal properties of spruce beetle outbreaks on a Sky Island mountain range
N. Mukhamadiev, Ann M. Lynch, Christopher D. O'Connor, A. Sagitov, N. Ashikbaev, I. Panyushkina. 2014. The historical role of Ips hauseri (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in the spruce forest of Ile-Alatausky and Medeo National Parks
Christopher D. O'Connor, Donald A. Falk, Ann M. Lynch, Thomas W. Swetnam. 2014. Fire severity, size, and climate associations diverge from historical precedent along an ecological gradient in the Pinaleno Mountains, Arizona, USA
Christopher D. O'Connor. 2013. Spatial and temporal dynamics of disturbance interactions along an ecological gradient
Ann M. Lynch, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2013. Mountain pine beetle in southwestern white pine in the Pinaleno Mountains
Christopher D. O'Connor, Donald A. Falk, Ann M. Lynch, Craig P. Wilcox, Thomas W. Swetnam, Tyson L. Swetnam. 2010. Growth and demography of Pinaleno high elevation forests

Citations of Non-Forest Service Publications

Brais, S., T. T. Work, É. Robert, C. D. O’Connor, M. Strukelj, A. Bose, D. Celentano, and B. D. Harvey. 2013. Ecosystem Responses to Partial Harvesting in Eastern Boreal Mixedwood Stands. Forests 4:364-385.
O’Connor, C. D., G. M. Garfin, D. A. Falk, and T. W. Swetnam. 2011. Human pyrogeography: a new synergy of fire, climate and people is reshaping ecosystems across the globe. Geography Compass 5:329-350.
O’Connor, C.D., Koprowski, J.L., Lynch, A.M., Falk, D.F. 2014. Mt. Graham red squirrel use of forest habitat: Historical, present, and future perspectives. Final Report for U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Research Joint Venture Agreement 08-253. School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson. 33 p.
O’Connor, C. D., M. P. Thompson, and F. Rodríguez y Silva. 2016. Getting Ahead of the Wildfire Problem: Quantifying and Mapping Management Challenges and Opportunities. Geosciences 6:35.