Publications

Publications

*Click titles for PDF copies, as available

48. K. Komatsu, M. Avolio, J. Blair, S. Koerner, Z. Ratajczak, M. Smith, E. Welti, K. Wilcox, and L. Zeglin. (In press) Consistent timelines, divergent end points: plant community change in multiple tallgrass nitrogen addition experiments. Oecologia

47. S. Noble, Z. Ratajczak (In press) Restoring frequent fire and bison grazing results in habitat improvement for bison but minimal early reduction of woody encroachment. Ecological Restoration

46. S. Noble, Z. Ratajczak (In press) Effects of grazer identity (bison versus cattle) and woody encroachment in mixed grass prairies in adjacent National Parks and National Grasslands. Natural Areas Journal

45. S. Noble, Z. Ratajczak, B. Noble (2025) Native megafauna (Bison bison) act as a surprising inhibitor of cedar tree expansion in a Great Plains grassland. Ecological Applications, 35: e70108.

44. ¤*B. Noble and ¤ Z. Ratajczak (2025) NEON’s LiDAR increases woody plant detection in a grassland using machine learning.Remote Sensing (13) 2224. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17132224

¤ Denotes equal contribution

43. B. Bookout, S. Herzog, and Z. Ratajczak (2025) Resilience of grazed and ungrazed Great Plains grassland plant communities to severe drought. Biological conservation (305) 111088.

42. E. Wedel, Z. Ratajczak, E. Tooley, J.B. Nippert (2025) Divergent resource-use strategies of encroaching shrubs: Can traits predict encroachment success in tallgrass prairie? Journal of Ecology (113) 339-352.

41. D. Thom and 26 others, including Z. Ratajczak (2024) Parameters of 150 temperate and boreal tree species and provenances for an individual-based forest landscape and disturbance model. Data in Brief (55) 110662.

40. A. Sutton, Z. Ratajczak, & A. Louthan (2024) High among-species variability in the context dependence of herbivory across three abiotic gradients. Journal of Ecology (112) 2237-2248.

39. E.G. Tooley, J.B. Nippert, and Z. Ratajczak (2024) Evaluating methods for measuring the leaf area index of encroaching shrubs: from leaves to 3-D scanning and aerial observation. Agriculture and Forest Meteorology (349) 109964.

38. K. Silber, T. Hefley, H. Castro-Miller, Z. Ratajczak, & A. Boyle. (2024) The long shadow of woody encroachment: an integrated approach to modeling grassland songbird habitat. Ecological Applications, (34) e2954.

37. Noble, B. & Ratajczak, Z. (2024) Bison (Bison bison) dung decays slowly but can still be used to track short and long-term habitat usage. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Sciences, 126, 91-101.

36. Ramiadantsoa, T., Ratajczak, Z., & Turner, M.G. (2023) Regeneration strategies and forest resilience to changing fire regimes: insights from a Goldilocks model. Ecology, 104(36), e4041

35. Dodds, W.K., Ratajczak, Z., Keen, R.M., Nippert, J.B., Grudzinski, B., Veach, A., Taylor, J.H., & Kuhl, A. (2023) Trajectories and state changes of a grassland stream and riparian zone after a decade of woody vegetation removal. Ecological Applications, e2830

34. Keen, R.M., Nippert, J.B., Sullivan, P.L., Ratajczak, Z., Ritchey, B., O’Keefe, K., and Dodds, W.K. (2023) Removal of riparian woody trees does not alter hydrology in a tallgrass prairie watershed. Ecosystems, 26, 290-301

33. Ratajczak, Z., Collins, S.L., Blair, J.M., Koerner, S.E., Louthan, A.M., Smith, M. D., Taylor, J., & Nippert, J. B. (2022) Reintroducing bison results in long-running and resilient increases in grassland diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 119(36), e2210433119.

32. Turner, M.G., Braziunas, K.H, Hansen, W.D., Hoecker, T.J., Rammer, W., Ratajczak, Z., Westerling, A.L., and Seidl, R. (2022) The magnitude, direction and tempo of forest change in Greater Yellowstone in a warmer world with more fire. Ecological Monographs.

31. W., Rammer, Braziunas, K.H., Hansen, W.D., Ratajczak, Z., Westerling, A.L., Turner, M.G., and Seidl, R. (2021) Widespread regeneration failure in forests of Greater Yellowstone under scenarios of future climate and fire. Global Change Biology 27: 4339-4351.

30. Ma M., Collins, S.L., Ratajczak, Z. (2021) Soil seed banks, alternative stable state theory and ecosystem resilience. Bioscience 71: 697-707.

29. Collins, S.L., Nippert, J., Blair, J.B., Briggs, J.B., Blackmore, P, and Ratajczak, Z. (2021) Fire frequency, state change and hysteresis in tallgrass prairie. Ecology Letters 24: 636-647.

28. Albrich, K., Braziunas K.B., Hansen W., Rammer W., Ratajczak Z., Turner M.G., and Seidl R. (2020) Simulating forest resilience: a review. Global Ecology and Biogeography 29: 2082-2096.

27. Turner, M.G., Calder W.J., Cumming G.S., Hughes T.P., Jentsch A., LaDeau S.L., Lenton T.M., Shuman B.N., Turetsky M.R., Ratajczak Z., Williams J.W., Williams A.P., and Carpenter S.C. (In Press) Climate Change, Ecosystems, and Abrupt Change: A Science Agenda. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences.

26. McWethy D.B., Schoennagel T., Higuera P.E., Krawchuk M., Harvey B.J., Metcalf E.C., Schultz C., Miller C., Metcalf A.L., Buma B., Vorapongse A., Kulif J.C., Stedman R.C., Ratajczak Z., Nelson C.R., and Kolden C. (2019) Rethinking resilience to wildfire. Nature Sustainability 2: 797-804.

25. Ratajczak Z., Churchill A., Ladwig L, Taylor J.H. and Collins S.L. (2019) The combined effects of an extreme heatwave and wildfire on tallgrass prairie vegetation. Journal of Vegetation Science 30: 687-697.

24. Ning C., Yu K., and Ratajczak Z. (2019) A dryland re-vegetation in northern China: Success or failure? Quick transitions or long lags? Ecosphere 10: e02678.

23. Higuera P.E., Metcalf A.L., Miller C., Buma B., McWethy D.B., Metcalf E.C., Ratajczak Z., Nelson C.B., Chaffin B.C., Stedman R.C., McCaffrey S., Schoennagel T., Harvey B.J., Hood S.H., Schultz C.A., Black A.E., Campbell D., Haggerty J.H., Keane R.E., Krawchuk M.A., Kulig J.C., Rafferty R., and Virapongse A. (2019) Integrating subjective and objective dimensions of resilience in fire-prone landscapes. BioScience 68: 379-388.

22. Ratajczak Z. and Ladwig L. (2019) Will climate change push grasslands past tipping points? Book chapter for “Grasslands and Climate Change” Gibson D. and Newman J. (eds) British Ecological Society and Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK.

21. Stegner, A.M., Ratajczak Z., Carpenter S., and Williams J, (2019) Inferring critical transitions in paleoecological time series with irregular sampling and variable time-averaging.Quaternary Science Reviews 207, 49-63.

20. Ratajczak Z., Carpenter S., Ives A., Kucharik K., Ramiadantsoa T., Stegner A.M., Williams J., Zhang J., Turner M.G. (2018) Abrupt change in ecological systems: diagnosis and inference. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 33: 513-526.

19. Miller J.E.D., Damschen E.I., Ratajczak Z. and Özdoğan M. (2017) Holding the line: prescribed fire halts but does not reverse 75 years of woody encroachment. Landscape Ecology 32: 2297-2310.

18. Brunsell N., Van Vleck E.S., Nosshi M., Ratajczak Z., Nippert J.B. (2017) Assessing the roles of fire frequency and precipitation in determining woody plant expansion in central U.S. grassland. Journal of geophysical research, Biogeosciences 122: 2683-2698.

17. Ratajczak Z., D’Odorico P.D. and Yu L. (2017) The enemy of my enemy hypothesis: why coexisting with grasses might be an adaptive strategy for savanna trees. Ecosystems 20: 1278-12905.

16. Ratajczak Z., D’Odorico P., Collins S.L, Bestelmeyer B., Isbell F. and Nippert J.B. (2017) The interactive effects of press/pulse intensity and duration on regime shifts at multiple scales. Ecological Monographs 87: 198-218.

15. Seakell D. Carr J., Dell'Angelo J., Gephart J., Kummu M., Magliocca N., Porkka M., Prell P., Puma M.J., Ratajczak Z., Rulli M.C., Seekell D.A., Suweis S., Tavoni A., D'Odorico P. (2017) Conceptualizing and quantifying resilience in the global food system. Environmental Research Letters 12: 025010.

14. Ratajczak Z., D’Odorico P.D., Nippert J.B., Collins S.L., Brunsell N. and Ravi S. (2017) Changes in spatial variance during a grassland to shrubland state transition. Journal Ecology 105: 750-760.

13. Jing G., Wei L.I., Yu K., Ratajczak Z., Kallenbach R.L. and Cheng J. (2017) Effects of fertilization, burning, and grazing on plant community in the long-term fenced grasslands. Plant, Soil and the Environment 4: 171-176.

12. *Klodd A.E., Nippert J.B., Ratajczak Z., Waring H., GK Phoenix (2016) Tight coupling of leaf area index to canopy nitrogen and phosphorus across heterogeneous tallgrass prairie communities. Oecologia 182: 889-898.

11. Marchand P., Carr J., Dell'Angelo J., Gephart J., Kummu M., Magliocca N., Porkka M., Prell P., Puma M.J., Ratajczak Z., Rulli M.C., Seekell D.A., Suweis S., Tavoni A., D'Odorico P. (2016) Reserves and trade jointly determine exposure to food supply shocks. Environmental Research Letters 11: 095009.

10. Fader, M., Rulli M.C., Carr J., Dell'Angelo J., D'Odorico P., Gephart J., Kummu M., Magliocca N., Porkka M., Prell P., Puma M.J., Ratajczak Z., Seekell D.A., Suweis S., Tavoni A. (2016) Past and present biophysical redundancy of countries as a buffer to changes in food supply. Environmental Research Letters 11: 055008.

9. Honglin L., Yu K., Ratajczak Z., Nippert J.B. and Du G. (2016) When variability outperforms the mean: trait plasticity predicts plant performance in an alpine wetland. Plant and Soil 407: 401-415.

8. Ratajczak Z., Briggs J.M., Goodin D.G., Luo L., Mohler R.L., Nippert J.B. and Obermeyer B. (2016) Assessing the potential for transitions from tallgrass prairie to woodlands: are we operating beyond critical fire thresholds. Journal of Rangeland Ecology and Management 690: 680-687.

7. Ladwig L.M., Ratajczak Z., Ocheltree T.W., Hafich K., Churchill A.C., Frey S.J.K., Fuss C.B., Kazanski C.E., Muñoz J.D., Petrie M., Reinmann A.B. and Smith J.G. (2016) Beyond arctic and alpine: the influence of winter climate on temperate ecosystems. Ecology 97: 372-382.

6. Ratajczak Z., J.B. Nippert, J.M. Briggs, and J.M. Blair (2014) Fire dynamics distinguish grasslands, shrublands, and woodlands as alternative attractors in the Central Great Plains. Journal of Ecology 102: 1374-1385.

Part of a special issue on "Grassland-Woodland Transitions"

5. Ratajczak Z., J.B. Nippert, and T.W. Ocheltree (2014) Abrupt shifts of mesic grassland to shrubland: evidence for thresholds, alternative attractors, and regime shifts. Ecology 95: 2633-2645.

4. Nippert J.B., T.W. Ocheltree, G.L. Orozco, Z. Ratajczak, B. Ling, and A.M. Skibbe (2013) Evidence of physiological decoupling from grassland ecosystem drivers by an encroaching woody shrub. PLoS One 8(12): e81630.

3. Ratajczak Z. and J.B. Nippert (2012) Technical Comment ‘Global Resilience of Tropical Forest and Savanna to Critical Transitions’. Science 336: 541-c.

see response by Van Nes et al. here.

2. Ratajczak Z., J.B. Nippert, and S.L. Collins (2012) Woody encroachment decreases diversity across North American grasslands and savannas. Ecology 93: 697-703.