astronomy

Thomas W. Swetnam

Thomas W. Swetnam is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thomas W. Swetnam rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas W. Swetnam (born 1955) is Regents' Professor Emeritus of Dendrochronology at the University of Arizona, studying disturbances of forest ecosystems across temporal and spatial scales.

Key takeaways

Thomas W. Swetnam belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thomas W. Swetnam to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thomas W. Swetnam from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thomas W. Swetnam (born 1955) is Regents' Professor Emeritus of Dendrochronology at the University of Arizona, studying disturbances of forest ecosystems across temporal and spatial scales. He served as the Director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research from 2000 to 2015.

Education Swetnam received his bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from the University of New Mexico and subsequently received his master's and PhD from the University of Arizona in watershed management and dendrochronology.

Recognition He received the A.E. Douglass award from the University of Arizona, the W.S. Cooper award from the Ecological Society of America (with Julio Betancourt) and the Henry Cowles award from the American Association of Geographers (with James H. Speer). He was elected a Fellow of the American Association For the Advancement of Science in 2015. He received the Harold C. Fritts Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tree-Ring Society in 2016. He received the Harold Biswell Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Association for Fire Ecology in 2016.

Advisor He has served on the following advisory and editorial boards:

2000-2004 Board of trustees, Valles Caldera National Preserve 2003-2006 Arizona Forest Health Advisory Council 2005-2006 Arizona Climate Change Advisory Group 1993–present associate editor, International Journal of Wildland Fire 2000-2001 editor, Tree-Ring Research 1994-1998 associate editor, Ecoscience 1998 associate editor, Canadian Journal of Forest Research 1998-1999 editorial board, Ecological Applications 2005–2012 associate editor, Dendrochronlogia 2016–2019 board of trustees, The Nature Conservancy, New Mexico

Research He has authored and co-authored more than 120 scientific papers in journals and symposium proceedings, including the following frequently cited/significant papers:

Swetnam, T. W.; Betancourt, J. L. (1990). "Fire-Southern Oscillation Relations in the Southwestern United States". Science. 249 (4972): 1017–20. Bibcode:1990Sci...249.1017S. doi:10.1126/science.249.4972.1017. PMID 17789609. S2CID 5687227. Swetnam, T. W. (1993). "Fire History and Climate Change in Giant Sequoia Groves". Science. 262 (5135): 885–9. Bibcode:1993Sci...262..885S. doi:10.1126/science.262.5135.885. PMID 17757357. S2CID 43064334. Swetnam, T. W.; Lynch, A. M. (1993). "Multicentury, Regional-Scale Patterns of Western Spruce Budworm Outbreaks". Ecological Monographs. 63 (4): 399. Bibcode:1993EcoM...63..399S. doi:10.2307/2937153. JSTOR 2937153. Swetnam, T. W. and C. H. Baisan, 1996. Historical fire regime patterns in the Southwestern United States since AD 1700. In C. Allen, editor, Fire effects in Southwestern Forests, Proceedings of the Second La Mesa Fire Symposium, Los Alamos, New Mexico, March 29–31, 1994. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report RM-GTR-286:11-32. Swetnam, T. W.; Betancourt, J. L. (1998). "Mesoscale Disturbance and Ecological Response to Decadal Climatic Variability in the American Southwest". Journal of Climate. 11 (12): 3128–3147. Bibcode:1998JCli...11.3128S. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.483.9198. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(1998)011<3128:MDAERT>2.0.CO;2. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |citeseerx= (help) Swetnam, T. W.; Allen, C. D.; Betancourt, J. L. (1999). "Applied Historical Ecology: Using the Past to Manage for the Future". Ecological Applications. 9 (4): 1189–1206. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.170.1230. doi:10.1890/1051-0761(1999)009[1189:AHEUTP]2.0.CO;2. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |citeseerx= (help) Westerling, L.; Hidalgo, G.; Cayan, R.; Swetnam, W. (Aug 2006). "Warming and earlier spring increase western U.S. Forest wildfire activity" (PDF). Science. 313 (5789): 940–943. Bibcode:2006Sci...313..940W. doi:10.1126/science.1128834. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 16825536. Kitzberger, T.; Brown, P. M.; Heyerdahl, E. K.; Swetnam, T. W.; Veblen, T. T. (2006). "Contingent Pacific-Atlantic Ocean influence on multicentury wildfire synchrony over western North America". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (2): 543–548. Bibcode:2007PNAS..104..543K. doi:10.1073/pnas.0606078104. PMC 1766421. PMID 17197425.

Edited books Dean, J. S., D. M. Meko, and T. W. Swetnam, eds., 1996. Tree Rings, Environment, and Humanity, Proceedings of the International Conference, Tucson, Arizona, 17–21 May 1994. Radiocarbon, Tucson Arizona. 889 pp. Veblen, Thomas T. (2003). Fire and Climatic Change in Temperate Ecosystems of the Western Americas. Springer. pp. 413–. ISBN 978-0-387-95455-4.

References

External links University homepage

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas W. Swetnam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas W. Swetnam claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thomas W. Swetnam before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thomas W. Swetnam ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thomas W. Swetnam

In research: Thomas W. Swetnam appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thomas W. Swetnam in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thomas W. Swetnam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1955 births, American scientists, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas W. Swetnam outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thomas W. Swetnam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thomas W. Swetnam means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thomas W. Swetnam out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas W. Swetnam in simple terms?

Thomas W. Swetnam (born 1955) is Regents' Professor Emeritus of Dendrochronology at the University of Arizona, studying disturbances of forest ecosystems across temporal and spatial scales.

Why does Thomas W. Swetnam matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thomas W. Swetnam?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thomas W. Swetnam.