Zack is a postdoctoral researcher at UCD and Berkeley. Through his research he seeks to improve our understanding of how acute (e.g. wildfire & drought) and chronic (e.g. climate) environmental stressors structure ecological communities, how landscape pattern mediates environmental drivers, and how anthropogenic change at local to global scales directly or indirectly alters community dynamics and species distributions. His post-doctoral research assesses impacts of extreme drought on Sierran conifer forests, informs reforestation prioritization within areas of high tree mortality, and investigates the ecological consequences and patterns of managed wildfire in Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks. His dissertation research focused on how wildfire and forest management alters landscape pattern, and influences habitat use of birds and bats in the forests of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.