John is a Climate Hub Fellow exploring the effects of grazing land management on soil organic carbon. His research seeks to understand how consumers (herbivores and fire) cause and respond to environmental change across a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. John holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from Montana State University. His doctoral research focused on understanding the long-term drivers and consequences of the distribution and abundance of bison and other ungulates in postglacial North America. He earned his B.S. in Rangeland Ecology from Colorado State University.
John is developing a comprehensive knowledge database and conducting a meta-analysis of scientific literature reporting grazing land management and soil carbon sequestration. The effort is expected to produce at least one impactful refereed paper as well as accessible outreach materials that summarize the knowns and unknowns about livestock grazing and soil carbon dynamics.
Featured Work
Wendt, J.A.F., McWethy, D.B., Hempson, G.P., Brookshire, E.N.J., Fuhlendorf, S.D., 2023. Past and present biomass consumption by herbivores and fire across productivity gradients in North America. Environ. Res. Lett.
Wendt, J.A.F., McWethy, D.B., Widga, C., Shuman, B.N. 2022. Large-scale climatic drivers of bison distribution and abundance in North America since the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews. 284.
Epstein, K., Wood, D.J.A., Roemer, K., Currey, B., Duff, H., Gay, J.D., Goemann, H., Loewen, S, Milligan, M.C., Wendt, J.A.F., Brookshire, E.N.J, McNew, L., McWethy, D.B., Maxwell, B.D., Stoy, P.C., Haggerty, J. 2021. Towards an urgent yet deliberate conservation strategy: sustaining social-ecological systems in rangelands of the Northern Great Plains, Montana. Ecology and Society.
