Bourg, Norm

Norm Bourg is a plant ecologist who joined the U.S. Geological Survey's National Research Program in 2015, working initially in the Vegetation and Hydro-geomorphology Lab of Dr. Cliff Hupp and currently in the Wetland Ecosystem Ecology & Biogeochemistry Laboratory (WEEBL) of Dr. Greg Noe. He was previously Interdisciplinary Biologist and Large Ecological Research Programs Manager/NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) Liaison at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), and is a Co-PI on the 25.6 ha SCBI ForestGEO Large Forest Dynamics Plot. Norm's research interests include disturbance ecology, plant population biology, fire ecology, plant-herbivore interactions, long-term forest dynamics, and dendro-ecology/dendro-geomorphology. His dissertation research examined fire as a disturbance agent in the southern Appalachians and its influence on the population biology and distribution of turkeybeard (Xerophyllum asphodeloides), a rare fire-adapted forest herb. Dr. Bourg's current research includes vegetation dynamics and dendro-ecological responses to salinity and sea-level rise in tidal freshwater forested wetlands, and dendrogeomorphic assessments of sedimentation/erosion of stream floodplains and banks in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, North Carolina, and Louisiana.