Zachary Steel, PhD

Research Biological Scientist

Rocky Mountain Research Station

0000-0002-1659-3141

zachary.steel@usda.gov

Publications & Products
Related
Education

Treesearch Publications

Sylvia Kantor, Zachary Steel, Marc D. Meyer, Amarina Wuenschel. 2026. Managing fire for more species: Landscape mosaics benefit plants and animals in Sierra Nevada forests
Kristen L. Shive, Clarke A. Knight, Zachary Steel, Charlotte K. Stanley, Kristen N. Wilson. 2025. Leveraging wildfire to augment forest management and amplify forest resilience
Kirby L. Mills, Martin Leclerc, Mark Ditmer, Zachary Steel, David C. Stoner, Joseph O. Sexton, Panshi Wang, Kent R. Hersey, Darren DeBloois, Cody A. Schroeder, Kathryn A. Schoenecker, Julie K. Young, Alyson M. Andreasen, Kathleen M. Longshore, Patrick J. Jackson, Derek B. Hall, Kristin Engebretsen, Neil H. Carter. 2025. Long‐term benefits of burns for large mammal habitat undermined by large, severe fires in the American West
Kendall L. Calhoun, Zachary Steel, Phoebe Parker-Shames, Haylee Oyler, Justin S. Brashares. 2025. Severity outweighs pyrodiversity in shaping avian and bat species distributions following an oak woodland megafire
Kristin A. Nesbit, Brandon M. Collins, Zachary Steel, John J. Battles, Michael L. Goulden, Scott L. Stephens. 2025. Multi‑scale assessment of wildfire use on carbon stocks in the Sierra Nevada, CA
Ana Kuile, Jamie S. Sanderlin, Jessalyn Ayars, Helen E. Chmura, Melissa Dressen, Jessie Golding, Gavin M. Jones, Rebecca Kirby, Kari Norman, Zachary Steel, Valerie Stein Foster. 2025. Functionalizing ecological integrity: Using functional ecology to monitor animal communities
M. van den Bosch, Zachary Steel, Jennifer Costanza, K. F. Kellner, R. A. Peek. 2025. Increased drought drives avian community declines in the warm deserts of the United States
M. van den Bosch, Jennifer Costanza, R. A. Peek, Zachary Steel. 2025. Projected increases in climate extremes across global vertebrate diversity hotspots
Zachary Steel, Alissa M. Fogg, Raphaela Floreani Buzbee, Kate Wilkin, Brandon M. Collins, Ryan Burnett, Marc D. Meyer, Amarina Wuenschel, Scott L. Stephens. 2025. Finding floral and faunal species richness optima among active fire regimes
Gavin M. Jones, Brandon M. Collins, Lacey E. Hankin, Ronan Hart, Marc D. Meyer, Jon Regelbrugge, Zachary Steel, Craig Thompson. 2025. Collapse and restoration of mature forest habitat in California
Diana Ramírez Sanchez, Georges Seingier, Gonzalo De Leon Giron, Mariana Villada Canela, Zachary Steel, Hiram Rivera Huerta. 2025. A systematic review of trends and methodologies in research on the effects of wildfires on the avifauna in temperate forests
Jennifer Costanza, R. A. Peek, J. M. Mola, Zachary Steel, M. van den Bosch. 2024. Climate change scenarios forecast increased drought exposure for terrestrial vertebrates in the contiguous United States
Zachary Steel, Jesse E. D. Miller, Lauren C. Ponisio, Morgan W. Tingley, Kate Wilkin, Rachel Blakey, Kira M. Hoffman, Gavin M. Jones. 2023. A roadmap for pyrodiversity science
Pariya Pourmohammadi, Zachary Steel, Brandon M. Collins, Matthew D. Hurteau, Emily J. Francis. 2023. Proportion of forest area burned at high-severity increases with increasing forest cover and connectivity in western US watersheds
Scott L. Stephens, Zachary Steel, Brandon M. Collins, Danny L. Fry, Samantha J. Gill, Hiram Rivera‐Huerta, Carl N. Skinner. 2023. Climate and fire impacts on tree recruitment in mixed conifer forests in northwestern Mexico and California
JonahMaria Weeks, Jesse E. D. Miller, Zachary Steel, Evan E. Batzer, Hugh D. Safford. 2023. High‐severity fire drives persistent floristic homogenization in human‐altered forests
J. N. Williams, H. D. Safford, N. Enstice, Zachary Steel, A. K. Paulson. 2023. High‐severity burned area and proportion exceed historic conditions in Sierra Nevada, California, and adjacent ranges
Hugh D. Safford, Alison K. Paulson, Zachary Steel, Derek J. N. Young, Rebecca B. Wayman. 2022. The 2020 California fire season: A year like no other, a return to the past or a harbinger of the future?
Zachary Steel, Alissa M. Fogg, L. Jay Roberts, Hugh D. Safford, Ryan Burnett. 2022. When bigger isn’t better - implications of large high-severity wildfire patches for avian diversity and community composition
Zachary Steel, Gavin M. Jones, Brandon M. Collins, Rebecca E. Green, Alexander Koltunov, Kathryn L. Purcell, Sarah Sawyer, Michele R. Slaton, Scott L. Stephens, Peter Stine, Craig M. Thompson. 2022. Mega-disturbances cause rapid decline of mature conifer forest habitat in California
Mari‐Liis Viljur, Scott R. Abella, Martin Adámek, Janderson Batista Rodrigues Alencar, Nicholas A. Barber, Burkhard Beudert, Laura A. Burkle, Luciano Cagnolo, Brent Campos, Anne Chao, Brahim Chergui, Chang‐Yong Choi, Daniel F. R. Cleary, Thomas Seth Davis, Yanus A. Dechnik‐Vázquez, William M. Downing, Andrés Fuentes‐Ramirez, Kamal J. K. Gandhi, Catherine Gehring, Kostadin B. Georgiev, Mark Gimbutas, Konstantin B. Gongalsky, Anastasiya Y. Gorbunova, Katie H. Greenberg, Kristoffer Hylander, Erik S. Jules, Daniil I Korobushkin, Kajar Köster, Valerie Kurth, Joseph Drew Lanham, Maria Lazarina, Alexandro B. Leverkus, David Lindenmayer, Daniel Magnabosco Marra, Pablo Martín‐Pinto, Jorge A. Meave, Marco Moretti, Hyun‐Young Nam, Martin K. Obrist, Theodora Petanidou, Pere Pons, Simon G. Potts, Irina B. Rapoport, Paul R. Rhoades, Clark Richter, Ruslan A. Saifutdinov, Nathan J. Sanders, Xavier Santos, Zachary Steel, Julia Tavella, Clara Wendenburg, Beat Wermelinger, Andrey S. Zaitsev, Simon Thorn. 2022. The effect of natural disturbances on forest biodiversity: an ecological synthesis
Zachary Steel, Daniel Foster, Michelle Coppoletta, Jamie Lydersen, Scott L. Stephens, Asha Paudel, Scott H. Markwith, Kyle Merriam, Brandon M. Collins. 2021. Ecological resilience and vegetation transition in the face of two successive large wildfires
Henriette I Jager, Jonathan W. Long, Rachel L. Malison, Brendan P. Murphy, Ashley Rust, Luiz G. M. Silva, Rahel Sollmann, Zachary Steel, Mark D. Bowen, Jason B. Dunham, Joseph L. Ebersole, Rebecca Flitcroft. 2021. Resilience of terrestrial and aquatic fauna to historical and future wildfire regimes in western North America
Zachary Steel, M. J. Goodwin, M. D. Meyer, G. A. Fricker, H. S. J. Zald, M. D. Hurteau, Malcolm P. North. 2021. Do forest fuel reduction treatments confer resistance to beetle infestation and drought mortality?
Zachary Steel, Brandon M. Collins, David B. Sapsis, Scott L. Stephens. 2021. Quantifying pyrodiversity and its drivers
Zachary Steel, B. Campos, W. F. Frick, R. Burnett, H. D. Safford. 2019. The effects of wildfire severity and pyrodiversity on bat occupancy and diversity in fire-suppressed forests
Laetitia G. E. Wilkins, Kathleen R. Matthews, Zachary Steel, Sébastien C. Nusslé, Stephanie L. Carlson. 2019. Population dynamics of Rana sierrae at Dusy Basin: influence of non‐native predators, drought, and restoration potential
Zachary Steel, Michael J. Koontz, Hugh D. Safford. 2018. The changing landscape of wildfire: burn pattern trends and implications for California’s yellow pine and mixed conifer forests
Zachary Steel, Hugh D. Safford, Joshua H. Viers. 2015. The fire frequency-severity relationship and the legacy of fire suppression in California forests

Citations of Non-Forest Service Publications

Viljur, M. and 46 others including Steel, Z. L.. 2022. “The effect of natural disturbances on forest biodiversity: An ecological synthesis”, Biological Reviews 97(5):1930-1947.
Levine, J., B. Collins, Z. L. Steel, P. de Valpine, and S. Stephens. 2022. “High-severity fire risk heightenedboth on and near industrially managed forests”. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 20(7):397-404.
Safford, H., A. Paulson, Z. Steel, D. Young, and R. Wayman.2022. “The 2020 California fire season: Ayear like no other, a return to the past, or a harbinger of the future?”. Global Ecology and Biogeography 31(10):2005-2025.
Steel, Z. L., A. Fogg, R. Burnett, L. J. Roberts, H. D. Safford. 2022. “When bigger isn’t better – implications of large high-severity wildfire patches for avian diversity and community composition”. Diversity and Distributions 23(3):439-453.
Steel, Z. L., B. M. Collins, D. B. Sapsis, and S. L. Stephens. 2021. “Quantifying pyrodiversity and its drivers”. Proc. R. Soc. B 288(1948).
Steel, Z. L., M.J. Goodwin, M.D. Meyer, G.A. Fricker, H.S.J. Zald, M.D. Hurteau, and M.P. North. 2021. Do forest fuel reduction treatments confer resistance to beetle infestation and drought mortality? Ecosphere 12(1):e03344.
Jager, H., J. Long, R. Malison, B. Murphy, A. Rust, L. Silva, R. Sollman, Z. Steel, M. Bowen, J. Dunham, J. Ebersole, and R. Flitcroft. 2021. “Resilience of terrestrial and aquatic fauna to historical and future wildfire regimes in western North America”. Ecology and Evolution 11(18):12259-12284.
Stephens, S., S. Thompson, G. Boisrame, B. Collins, L. Ponisio, K. Rakhmatulina, Z. Steel, J. Stevens, K. Wilken, and J. van Wagtendonk. 2021. “Fire, water, and biodiversity in the Sierra Nevada: A possible triple win”. Environmental Research Communications 3(08):1004.
Steel, Z. L., D. Foster, M. Coppoletta, J. M. Lydersen, B. Wing, S. L. Stephens, and B. M. Collins. 2021. “Ecological resilience and vegetation transition in the face of multiple large wildfires”. Journal of Ecology 109(9):3340-3355.
Steel, Z. L., B. Campos, W. Frick, R. Burnett, and H. D. Safford. 2019. “The effects of wildfire severity and pyrodiversity on bat occupancy and diversity in fire-suppressed forests”. Scientific Reports 9, 16300.
Wilkins, L. G. E., K. R. Matthew, Z. L. Steel, S. C. Nussle, and S. M. Carlson. 2019. “Population dynamics of Rana sierrae at Dusy Basin: Influence of non-native predators, drought, and restoration potential”. Ecosphere 10(11):e02951.
Steel, Z. L., M. Koontz, and H. Safford. 2018. “The changing landscape of wildfire: Burn pattern trends and implications for California’s yellow pine and mixed conifer forests”. Landscape Ecology 33(7): 1159-1176.
Steel, Z. L., A. E. Steel, J. Williams, J. H. Viers, P. Marquet, and O. Barbosa. 2017. “Patterns of bird diversityand habitat use in mixed vineyard-matorral landscapes of Central Chile”. Ecological Indicators 73:345-357.
Grof-Tisza, P., Z. L. Steel, E. Cole, M. Holyoak, and R. Karban. 2017. “Testing predictions of movement behavior in a hilltopping moth”. Animal Behavioral 133:161-168.
Grof-Tisza, P., Z. L. Steel, and R. Karban. “The spatial distribution and oviposition preference of the Ranchman’s tiger moth, Platyprepia virginalis (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae)”. Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 71(1):16-19.
Steel, Z. L., H. D. Safford, and J. H. Viers. 2015. “The fire frequency-severity relationship and the legacy of fire suppression in California forests”. Ecosphere 6(1):1-23.
Schwartz, M.W., L. B. Smith, and Z. L. Steel. “Conservation investment for rare plants in urban environments”. PLOS ONE 8(12):e83809.
Steel, Z. L., M. L. Bond, R. B. Siegel, and P. Pyle. 2012. “Avifauna of Sierra Nevada Network parks: Assessing distribution, abundance, stressors, and conservation opportunities for 145 bird species”. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. Natural Resource Report NPS/SIEN/NRR—2012/506.
Siegel, R. B, R. L. Wilkerson, J. F. Saracco, and Z. L. Steel. 2011. “Elevational distribution of common bird species on the Sierra Nevada’s west slope”. Western Birds 42:2-26.