Melissa Chipman

Education

• Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• M.S. in Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• B.S. in Environmental Geosciences, Concord University
• B.A. in Geography, Concord University

Research Interests

Paleoecology, Paleoclimate, Paleolimnology, Arctic Regions

I am a paleoecologist specializing in both climate and environmental reconstructions in the Arctic. Specifically, I examine geologic and biological material from lake sediment cores, which can provide records spanning thousands of years. Sediment cores extracted from lakes contain abundant information about how terrestrial and aquatic systems have changed through time, in response to both natural variability and recent human influences. My research combines ecological analyses of fossil material, such as insect remains and charcoal particles, with sedimentological and geochemical techniques such as x-ray fluorescence, grain size analysis, biogenic silica, and stable isotopes to reconstruct past environments. I am particularly interested how disturbances such fire and permafrost thaw have changed in tundra and boreal landscapes over the Holocene, and what this may mean for the future.

Field Photo Gallery

• Sarfannguit, Sisimiut, & Kangerlussuaq, Greenland (June-July 2024)
• Noatak National Preserve, Alaska (July-August 2023)
• North Slope, Alaska (July 2021)
• South Greenland (July-August 2018)

Active Research Projects

1. Navigating Disturbance Regimes in the New Arctic, National Science Foundation Environmental Engineering Grant #NSF-1927772, 2020-2025: This project is a collaboration with Dr. Mark Lara at the University of Illinois. We combine historical satellite imagery, chronosequence surveys of soils, and paleoecological reconstructions from lake sediments to investigate the relationships between fire, climate, permafrost erosion, and vegetation change on annual to centennial timescales in Arctic tundra regions of Alaska.
2. The Past, Present, and Future of Boreal Fire Feedbacks, National Science Foundation Arctic Natural Sciences Grant #NSF- 2215120, 2023-2026: This project is a collaboration with Dr. Philip Higuera at the University of Montana. We examine existing and new lake-sediment archives of boreal fires to determine how recent unprecedented fires in the Alaskan boreal forest are impacting vegetation structure, nutrient cycling, and landscape dynamics to understand how these flammable systems will respond in the future.
3. Investigate History of Vegetation and Fire Regime in Denali to Inform Fire Management Planning, US Department of Interior and National Park Service, Grant # P25AC01042-00, 2025-2030: This project is a collaboration with ecologists and fire managers at the Denali National Park and Preserve. We will collect lake sediment cores from sites in the park to reconstruct fire history and vegetation feedbacks spanning the Holocene to provide critical baseline information on boreal burning for ongoing fire management.

Selected Publications

* denotes undergraduate author; ‡ denotes graduate student author

^‡Frank-DePue, L. and M. L. Chipman (2025) Tundra fires and linkages to climate and vegetation over the Late Holocene in northern Alaska. Arctic Science 11, 1-14. doi.org/10.1139/as-2025-0009. LINK

^‡Edgerton, B.A., Axford, Y., and M.L. Chipman  (2024). Evaluating middle to late Holocene climate variability from δ¹⁸O of aquatic invertebrate remains in southwestern Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 333, 108664. doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108664. LINK

Medeiros, A.S. Chipman, M.L., Francis, D.R., Hamerlik, L., Langdon, P., Puleo, P.J.K., Schellinger, G., Steigleder, R., Walker, I.R., Woodroffe, S., and Y. Axford (2023) A continental-scale chironomid training set for reconstructing Arctic temperatures. Quaternary Science Reviews 294, 107728. doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107728. LINK

Shuman, J.K. et al. including M.L. Chipman (2022) Reimagine fire science for the Anthropocene. Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Science Nexus 1(3), pgac115. doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac115. LINK

Napier, J.D. and M.L. Chipman (2021) Emerging palaeoecological frameworks for elucidating plant dynamics in response to fire and other disturbance. Global Ecology and Biogeography 31, 138-154. doi:10.1111/geb.13416. LINK

Chen, Y., R. Kelly, H. Genet, M.J. Lara, M.L. Chipman, A.D. McGuire, and F.S. Hu (2021) Resilience and sensitivity of ecosystem carbon stocks to fire-regime change in Alaskan tundra. Science of the Total Environment 806(4), 151482. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151482. LINK

Lara, M.J. and M.L. Chipman (2021) Periglacial lake origin influences the likelihood of lake drainage in northern Alaska. Remote Sensing 13, 852. doi:10.3390/rs13050852. LINK

Napier, J.D., G. de Lafontaine, and M.L. Chipman (2020) The evolution of paleoecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 35(4), 293-295. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2019.12.006. LINK

McLauchlan, K.K., and Future of Fire Consortium Members including M.L. Chipman (2020) Fire as a fundamental ecological process: research advances and frontiers. Journal of Ecology 108(5), 2047-2069. doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13403. LINK

Chipman, M.L. and F.S. Hu (2019) Resilience of lake biogeochemistry to boreal-forest wildfires during the late Holocene. Biology Letters 15(8), 20190390. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2019.0390. LINK

Lara, M.J., M.L. Chipman, and F.S. Hu (2018) Automated detection of thermoerosion in permafrost ecosystems using temporally dense Landsat image stacks. Remote Sensing of the Environment 221, 462-473. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2018.11.034. LINK

Chipman, M.L. and F.S. Hu (2017) Linkages among climate, fire, and thermoerosion in Alaskan tundra over the past three millennia. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 122, 3362–3377. doi:10.1002/2017JG00402. LINK

*Vachula, R.S., M.L. Chipman, and F.S. Hu (2016) Holocene climatic changes in the Alaskan Arctic as inferred from carbonate oxygen isotopes. Holocene 27(11). doi:10.1177/0959683617702230. LINK

Chipman, M.L., G.W. Kling, C.C. Lundstrom, and F.S. Hu (2016) Multiple thermo-erosional episodes during the past six millennia: Implications for the response of Arctic permafrost to climate change. Geology  44, 439-442. LINK

Chipman, M.L., V. Hudspith, P.E. Higuera, P.A. Duffy, R. Kelly, W.W. Oswald and F.S. Hu (2015) Spatiotemporal patterns of tundra fires:  Late-Quaternary charcoal records from Alaska. Biogeosciences 12, 4017-4027. LINK

Hu, F.S., P.E. Higuera, P.D. Duffy, M.L. Chipman, A. Young, A. Rocha, R.K. Kelly and M. Dietze (2015) Tundra fires in the Arctic: Natural variability and responses to climate change. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13, 369-377. LINK

Kelly, R., M.L. Chipman, P.E Higuera, V. Stephanova, L. Brubaker, and F.S. Hu (2013) Recent burning of boreal forests exceeds fire regime limits of the past 10,000 years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110(32), 13055-13060. doi/10.1073/pnas.1305069110. LINK

Chipman, M.L., B.F. Clegg, and F.S. Hu (2012) Variation in the moisture regime of northeastern interior Alaska and possible linkages to the Aleutian Low: inferences from a late-Holocene δ¹⁸O record. Journal of Paleolimnology 48, 69-81. LINK

Higuera, P.E., M.L. Chipman, J.L. Barnes, M.A. Urban, and F.S. Hu (2011) Variability of tundra fire regimes in Arctic Alaska: millennial-scale patterns and ecological implications. Ecological Applications 21, 3211-3226. doi.org/10.1890/11-0387.1. LINK

Higuera, P.E., J.L. Barnes, M.L. Chipman, M.A. Urban, and F.S. Hu (2011) The Burning Tundra: A Look Back at the Last 6,000 Years of Fire in the Noatak National Preserve, Northwestern Alaska. Alaska Park Science 10, 36-41. LINK

Hu, F.S., P.E. Higuera, J.E. Walsh, W.I. Chapman, P.A. Duffy, L.B. Brubaker, and M.L. Chipman (2010) Tundra burning in Alaska: Linkages to climatic change and sea ice retreat. Journal of Geophysical Research 115,  G04002. doi:10.1029/2009JG001270. LINK

Clegg, B.F., G.H Clarke, M.L. Chipman, I.R. Walker, W. Tinner, and F.S. Hu (2010) Six millennia of summer temperature variation based on midge analysis of lake sediments from Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 3308-3316. doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.08.001. LINK

Kaufman, D.S. et al., and Arctic Lakes 2k Project Members including M.L. Chipman (2009) Recent warming reserves long-term arctic cooling. Science 325, 1236-1239. doi.org/10.1126/science.1173983. LINK

Chipman, M.L., G.H. Clarke, B.F. Clegg, I. Gregory-Eaves, and F.S. Hu (2009) A 2000-year record of climate change at Ongoke Lake, southwestern Alaska. Journal of Paleolimnology 41, 57-75. doi.org/10.1007/s10933-008-9257-8. LINK