Professor Dominik Kulakowski earned a B.S. in Environmental Resource Management and a M.S. in Ecology at Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Geography of Colorado-Boulder. Prior to joining the Clark faculty, he was a research scientist at the University of Colorado-Boulder and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) in Davos. Dr. Kulakowski's research is focused on the effects of climate, disturbances, and land use on mountain forest ecosystems in the U.S. Rocky Mountains and in Europe. Important recent research themes include:

• The causes and consequences of forest disturbances such as fires and insect outbreaks;

• Effects of climate on tree mortality and forest dieback;

• Interactions and feedbacks among forest disturbances under climatic variability, especially how previous disturbances affect the spread and severity of subsequent disturbances and how compounding disturbances affect ecological dynamics; 

Dr. Kulakowski has authored over 60 peer-reviewed articles on various aspects of ecology and ecosystem management, has been widely interviewed in the popular press, and has testified about his research before the United States Congress on three occasions.

Courses Offered

Geog 104: Earth System Science
GEOG 109: Forests in the Anthropocene
Geog 116: Forest Ecology
Geog 216/316: Field Methods for Environmental Science
Geog 323: Forest Ecology and Management
Geog 372: Seminar on Contemporary Environmental Issues in Forest Ecosystems

Selected Publications

Shrestha, S., Williams, C. A., Rogers, B. M., Rogan, J., & Kulakowski, D. (2022). Wildfire controls on land surface properties in mixed conifer and ponderosa pine forests of sierra nevada and klamath mountains, western US. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 320 doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2022.108939

Guz, J., Sangermano, F., & Kulakowski, D. (2022). The influence of burn severity on post-fire spectral recovery of three fires in the southern rocky mountains. Remote Sensing, 14(6) doi:10.3390/rs14061363

Guz, J. and D. Kulakowski. 2021. Forest Disturbances in the Anthropocene. Annals of the Association of American Geographers.