JOHN R. THOMLINSON

CURRENT POSITION

Associate Professor

Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies

University of Puerto Rico Phone: (787) 764-0000 ext 4375

PO Box 23341 Fax: (787) 772-1481

San Juan, Puerto Rico 00931-3341 email: thomlins@sunites.upr.clu.edu

EDUCATION

1993 Ph.D., Biology, University of North Texas

1980 MA, Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge

1979 MS, Petroleum Engineering, Imperial College, University of London

1976 BA, Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge

PRESENT RESEARCH AND DUTIES

My research includes the study of land-use patterns and change on the island of Puerto Rico and landscape ecological processes in the Luquillo Experimental Forest. I am the manager of the laboratory for image analysis and geographic information systems within the Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies (Spatial Analysis Technologies Lab, SATLITES). I am responsible for training, and facilitating the use of these technologies by students, technicians, and other researchers. Courses taught include Landscape Ecology, Introduction to Remote Sensing, and Advanced Remote Sensing in the Environmental Sciences Program for undergraduate students (ESP), and graduate Landscape Ecology and Tropical Ecology in the Biology Department of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Río Piedras campus. These are all new offerings in their respective curricula. I serve on the thesis committees of many graduate students and have supervised the senior thesis of several undergraduate students in the SATLITES, specifically in the interpretation of aerial photography and use of spatial-analysis software. These students have been supported by funding from NSF and NASA.

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

Barone, J. A., J. R. Thomlinson, J. K. Zimmerman, and N. V. L. Brokaw. Tropical forest community composition and structure along an elevational gradient in Puerto Rico. In revision.

Grau, H. R., T. M. Aide, J. K. Zimmerman, J. R. Thomlinson. 2004. Trends and scenarios of the carbon budget in post-agricultural Puerto Rico (1936-2060). Global Change Biology 10:1163-1179.

Grau, H. R., T. M. Aide, J. K. Zimmerman, J. R. Thomlinson, E. Helmer, and X. Zou. 2003. The ecological consequences of socioeconomic and land-use changes in postagriculture Puerto Rico. Bioscience 53:1159-1168.

Lugo, A. E., L. Miranda Castro, A. Vale, T. del M. López, E. Hernández Prieto, A. García Martinó, A. R. Puente Rolón, A. G. Tossas, D. A. McFarlane, T. Miller, A. Rodriguez, J. Lundberg, J. R. Thomlinson, J. Colón, J. H. Schellekens, O. Ramos, and E. Helmer. 2001. Puerto Rican karst – a vital resource. Forest Service General Technical Report WO-65, Washington, DC, USA.

Clark, D. A., S. Brown, D. Kicklighter, J. Q. Chambers, J. R. Thomlinson, J. Ni, and E. A. Holland. 2001. Net primary production in tropical forests: an evaluation and synthesis of existing field data. Ecological Applications 11: 371-384.

Clark, D. A., S. Brown, D. Kicklighter, J. Q. Chambers, J. R. Thomlinson, and J. Ni. 2001. Measuring net primary production in forests: concepts and field methods. Ecological Applications 11:356-370.

Clark, D. A., S. Brown, D. W. Kicklighter, J. Q. Chambers, J. R. Thomlinson, J. Ni, and E. A. Holland. 2001. Net primary production in tropical forests: an evaluation and synthesis of existing field data. Ecological Archives A011-006.

López, T. del M., T. M. Aide, and J. R. Thomlinson. 2001. Urban expansion and the loss of prime agricultural lands in Puerto Rico. Ambio 30:49-54.

Thomlinson, J. R., and L. Y. Rivera. 2000. Suburban growth in Luquillo, Puerto Rico: some consequences of development on natural and semi-natural systems. Landscape and Urban Planning 49:15-23.

Thomlinson, J. R., P. V. Bolstad, and W. B. Cohen. 1999. Coordinating Methodologies for scaling land-cover classifications from site-specific to global: steps toward validating global map products. Remote Sensing of Environment 70:16-28.

Myster, R. W., J. R. Thomlinson, and M. C. Larsen. 1997. Predicting landslide vegetation in patches on landscape gradients in Puerto Rico. Landscape Ecology 12:299-307.

Thomlinson, J. R., M. I. Serrano, T. Del M. López, T. M. Aide, and J. K. Zimmerman. 1996. Land-use dynamics in a post-agricultural Puerto Rican landscape (1936-1988). Biotropica 28:525-536.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1996. Predicting status change in Red-cockaded Woodpecker cavity-tree clusters. J. Wildlife Management 60:350-354.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1995. Landscape characteristics associated with active and abandoned Red-cockaded Woodpecker clusters in east Texas. Wilson Bulletin 107:603-614.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN PROCEEDINGS VOLUMES

Schaefer, D. A., T. M. Aide, J. D. Chinea, N. Fetcher, M. Keller, S. Molina, J. A. Molinelli, J. R. Thomlinson, G. A. Toranzos, R. B. Waide, B. R. Weiner, J. K. Zimmerman, and X. Zou. 1997. Land management in the tropics and its effects on the global environment: the NASA Institutional Award. Pages 665-670 in NASA University Research Centers: Technical Advances in Education, Aeronautics, Space, Autonomy, Earth, and Environment, Volume 1. Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 16-19.

Thomlinson, J. R., F. N. Scatena, D. A. Schaefer, and R. B. Waide. 1996. Regionalization of the Luquillo Experimental Forest LTER Site. LTER Coordinating Committee Meeting, Petersham, MA, Oct 4-5. http://atlantic.evsc.virginia.edu/regionalization/luq.html

Thomlinson, J. R. 1995. Endangered species habitat identification from space: an example from the southern United States coastal plain. Proc. Conference for Remote Sensing and Environmental Monitoring for the Sustained Development of the Americas, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 21-22.

Atkinson, S. F. and J. R. Thomlinson. 1994. An examination of ground water pollution potential through GIS modeling. Pages 71-80 in ASPRS/ASCM Annual Convention and Exposition. Volume 1: ASPRS Technical Papers.

Thomlinson, J. R., 1992. A renaissance in attitudes towards nature: the development of contemporary environmental ethics. Proc. Conference on the Renaissance, Lawton, OK, April 23-25.

Atkinson, S. F. and J. R. Thomlinson. 1991. The use of geological data in unsupervised habitat classification with satellite imagery. Pages 1297-1308 in Proc. Eighth Thematic Conference on Geologic Remote Sensing, Volume II.

PRESENTATIONS AT SCIENTIFIC FORUMS

Thomlinson, J. R., J Thompson, and N. Brokaw. 2002. Exploration of relative tree species density in the Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot, Puerto Rico. Association for Tropical Biology, Panama City, Panama, July 29-Aug 2, 2002.

Thomlinson, J. R. 2000. Patrones de desarrollo en el noreste de Puerto Rico. Invited speaker, 17^o Simposio de Ecología Isleña, Universidad Interamericana, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 27.

Thomlinson, J. R. 2000. Issues of scale in land-cover classification. Invited participant in CIAT workshop: Scale in Decision Making for Ecoregional Development, San Jose, Costa Rica, July 4-6.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1999. A visual assessment of the response of different forest types to the passage of Hurricane Georges across eastern Puerto Rico. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Spokane, WA, Aug 8 - 12.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1999. The Use of GIS and Animation to Deliver the Message of Land-use Change to Community Groups. 5^th. International Congress of the International Association for Landscape Ecology, Snowmass, CO, July 29 - Aug 3.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1997. Crecimiento de bosques o concreto: Luquillo, 1936 - 1993. IV Simposio de Recursos Naturales Publicos: Puerto Rico en Transición de Agricola a Urbano. Ponce, Puerto Rico, November 15.

Alvarez, N. and J. R. Thomlinson. 1997. Fractal dimension as a tool to analyze changes in land use. Ecological Society of America 82nd Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, August 9-14.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1997. The use of remotely sensed data for environmental analysis. Invited speaker, 3rd Regional AIDIS Congress for North America and the Caribbean, San Juan, June 9-11.

Thomlinson, J. R., L. Rivera, and D. A. Schaefer. 1997. Estimating ecosystem attributes at the landscape scale in the humid Neotropics: The LTER-NASA EOS validation project. 3rd Annual NASA EPSCoR Conference, Fajardo, PR, May 23-24.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1997. Fractal dimension, diversity index, and Eigenvalue as measures of TM image variability. XVI Annual Symposium on Caribbean Geology: Remote sensing in the earth sciences. Mayaguez, PR, Feb 24-Mar 1.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1996. Factors influencing land-cover change trajectory in a post-agricultural neotropical landscape. Ecological Society of America 81st Annual Meeting, Providence, RI, August 10-14.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1996. Analysis of land-use change in northeastern Puerto Rico. First Annual Puerto Rico Arc/Info Users' Group Seminar, San Juan, PR, March 8.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1995. Structural and compositional equilibrium in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Ecological Society of America 80th Anniversary Meeting, Snowbird, UT, July 30-August 3.

Schaefer, D. A. and Thomlinson, J. R. 1995. Using geographic information systems and local measurements to extrapolate atmosphere-terrestrial flux measurements to regional scales. 1st Puerto Rico NASA-EPSCoR Mini-Gordon Conference, Ponce, PR, February 24-25.

Atkinson, S. F., Thomlinson, J. R., and Sill, P. E. 1993. Gully erosion versus sheet-and-rill: are management efforts addressing the larger problem? 29th Annual American Water Resources Association Conference, Tucson, AZ, August 29-September 2.

Thomlinson, J. R. and S. F. Atkinson. 1993. Patch characteristics of Red-cockaded Woodpecker colonies: A geographic information systems approach. Proc. Texas Academy of Science Annual Meeting, Denton, Texas, March 5-6.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1992. Geographic information systems and landscape ecology: a powerful tool for analyzing the fragmented forest. Third Annual Texas ARC/INFO Users Conference, San Antonio, Texas, October 20-21.

Thomlinson, J. R. and S. F. Atkinson. 1992. DRASTIC mapping of the State of Texas: A geographic information systems approach. Proc. American Water Resources Association Symposium: "Availability of Ground-Water Resources", Raleigh, NC, April 12-16.

Thomlinson, J. R. and Atkinson, S. F. 1991. Raster-based GIS and large data bases: the art of the state, Second Annual Texas ARC/INFO Users Conference, Denton, TX, Nov. 6-8.

TECHNICAL REPORTS

Atkinson, S. F., J. R. Thomlinson, P. E. Sill, and K. L. Dickson. 1993. Image processing and geographic information systems modeling of land use and nonpoint source pollution potential in the Upper Trinity and Richland Chambers Lake watersheds. Report to Tarrant County Water Control and Improvement District Number One.

Atkinson, S. F., Thomlinson, J. R., Hunter, B. A., Coffey, J. M., Dickson, K. L. 1992. The DRASTIC ground water pollution potential of Texas. Report to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Heath, J. C., Karr, L. A., Canter, L. W., Lahlou, M., Cooper, T. A., Thomlinson, J. R., and Bonilla, R. 1991. Literature review: computer aided assessment techniques for nonpoint source discharges. Technical Note N-1830, Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, Port Hueneme, CA.

Canter, L. W., Robertson, J. M., Lahlou, M., Cooper, T. A., Thomlinson, J. R., and Bonilla, R. 1990. Methods for assessment and prioritization of the water pollution potential of nonpoint discharges from navy facilities. Report to Battelle, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

WORKSHOPS CONDUCTED AND PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

Thomlinson, J. R. 2000. Shortcourse in vector GIS to group of scientists and resource managers from Palestine and Israel, sponsored by U. S. Department of Energy. Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 23-24.

Thomlinson, J. R. 2000. Introductory course in airphoto interpretation to visiting group of teachers from Haiti. San Juan, Puerto Rico, September 26.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1998. Crecimiento de bosques o concreto: Luquillo, 1936 - 1993. Presentation to Coalición Ecológica del Este, Luquillo, Puerto Rico, March 19.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1997. Short course in airphoto interpretation, funded by NASA. San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 21-25.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1997. The use of GIS technology to conduct land-use change analyses. University of Guadalajara, Mexico, July 10.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1997. The use of remotely sensed data for environmental analysis. University of Guadalajara, Mexico, July 9.

Thomlinson, J. R. 1996. The Role of Humans in the Luquillo LTER Site Landscape. Made to the Luquillo Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research advisory board. Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, January 13.

Hunter, B. A., J. R. Thomlinson, and K. L. Dickson. 1993. Application of remote sensing and GIS for ecological risk assessment. Workshop, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry, South Central Chapter Annual Meeting, Denton, TX, June 3-4.

PROFESSIONAL CONSULTATION WORK

1994 - 1996. Consultant in geographic information systems technology to an engineering subcontractor for a major road construction project in Puerto Rico.

1992 - 1993. Consultant in ground water flow analysis to an engineering company for hazardous waste site cleanup project.

GRANT INFORMATION

Land Management in the Tropics and its Effects on the Global Environment: NASA Institutional Research Award: $5,800,000 (total, multi-investigator): 1994 - 2003.

Long-term Ecological Research on the Luquillo Experimental Forest: National Science Foundation: $1,400,000 (total, multi-investigator): 1994 - 2004.

Vegetation of the Caribbean: USDA-FS, International Institute for Tropical Forestry: $21,000: 1998-2001.

Tropical Atmospheric Sciences Center: NASA-EPSCoR: $124,000: 1998-2000.

Local Validation of Global Estimates of Biosphere Properties: A Synthesis of Scaling Methods and Results Across Several Biomes -- Estimating Ecosystem Attributes at the Landscape Scale in the Humid Neotropics: National Aeronautics and Space Administration: $40,000: 1996-1997.

OTHER SERVICE

NSF Panelist: IGERT and Bioinformatics programs.

NSF Reviewer: CAREER and Instrumentation and Instrument Development programs.

Journal Reviewer: Ambio, Auk, Biotropica, Caribbean Journal of Science, Ecology and Society, Ecosystems, Environmental Conservation, Forest Science, Journal of Forestry, Landscape Ecology, International Journal of Remote Sensing, Remote Sensing of Environment, Wilson Bulletin.

Mentor, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus McNair Program.

Judge, AAAS - PR EPSCoR student symposium, Fall 1999.

Judge, Universidad Metropolitana student symposium, October 2001.

Executive Committee member, Long-term Ecological Research network Technology Committee.

Member, San Juan Bay Estuary Program Science Technical Advisory Committee.

Environmental adviser, Comite Pro Mejor Ambiente, Barrio Camarones, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

AWARDS and other items

New Century of Service Award, United States Forest Service, 2002

Special recognition award, San Juan Bay Estuary Program, 2000

Puerto Rico EPSCoR Scholarly Productivity Award, 1996

GRE scores: quantitative 800, verbal 790, analytical 740

HONORS SOCIETIES and PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Sigma Xi

Phi Kappa Phi

American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

American Geophysical Union

Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation

International Association for Landscape Ecology