our people

Turner’s research emphasizes the causes and consequences of spatial heterogeneity in ecological systems, focusing largely on ecosystem and landscape ecology in forested systems. Current research includes studies of disturbance regimes (fire and insects), vegetation dynamics, and climate change in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem; effects of land-use and climate patterns on biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Southern Appalachian Mountains; and land-water interactions and ecosystem services in Wisconsin landscapes. She has published over 200 scientific papers; has authored or edited six books, including LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY IN THEORY AND PRACTICE; and is co-editor in chief of the journal Ecosystems. Turner was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2004, and in 2008 she received both the ECI Prize in Terrestrial Ecology and the Ecological Society of America’s most prestigious recognition, the Robert H. MacArthur Award. She was recently elected President of the Ecological Society of America and will serve a year as President-Elect beginning in summer 2014.

A native New Yorker, Turner received her B.S. in Biology in 1980 from Fordham University, Bronx, NY, graduating summa cum laude. She obtained her Ph.D. in Ecology in 1985 from the University of Georgia (UGA), then completed a two-year postdoc at UGA, spent seven years as a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and joined the faculty of UW-Madison in 1994.