Christy E Briles

Dr. Christy Briles
Ph.D. • Assistant Professor
Department of Geography & Environmental Sciences
Christy.Briles@ucdenver.edu

Mailing Address:
Dept. of Geography & Environmental Sciences
Campus Box 172
P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364

Physical Location:
Auraria Campus
North Classroom Building
Room 3514-B

Lab: North Classroom 3208

Fields of Interest: 

Paleoecology, Biogeography, Climate Change, Palynology, Bee Ecology

Biography

Dr. Christy Briles is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. As a second-generation Coloradan raised on a small rural farm surrounded by majestic mountain peaks, she has always been interested in understanding natural and anthropogenic landscapes. Now as a biogeographer and paleoecologist, she uses environmental proxies including pollen, charcoal, and geochemistry, to understand how biotic and abiotic factors influence species and ecosystems at different scales of both space and time. Her conducts research in the  Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, Australia and northern Vietnam. She runs the Paleoecology, Palynology, and Climate Change Lab and the CU Denver Bee Project. She helped develop and now directs the Climate Change Studies Program.  

Dr. Briles’ work is driven by a desire to understand the natural world to sustain and promote valuable natural resources and be a versed steward of the environment. In the classroom, she involves undergraduates and graduate students in all aspects of her research and was nominated for the CU Denver/Anschutz Outstanding Mentoring Award. Beyond academia, she enjoys working with the community and grade school kids on a range of environmental topics. Promoting and strengthening earth system science in academia and the community is a career goal through the Association of American Geographers and the Geological Society of America.

Education

PhD, Geography | University of Oregon | 2008
MS, Geography | University of Oregon | 2003
BS, Environmental Science | University of Denver | 1999

Birdshire, K. R., Carper, A. L., & Briles, C. E. (2020). Bee community response to local and landscape factors along an urban-rural gradient. Urban Ecosystems, 23(4), 689-702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00956-w 

Briles, C.E., Serenchenko, O., Stevens, L., White, A.J., and Huong, Mai. 2019. Late Holocene climate and human impacts on a tropical ecosystem in northern Vietnam. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 7(121), 1-11. (doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00121).

Subotic, S., Boddicker, A. M., Nguyen, V. M., Rivers, J., Briles, C. E., & Mosier, A. C. (2019). Honey bee microbiome associated with different hive and sample types over a honey production season. PloS one, 14(11), e0223834. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223834 

Skinner, C.N., Taylor, A.K., Agee, J.K., Briles, C.E., and Whitlock, C. 2018. Klamath Mountains Bioregion. In: N. G. Sugihara, J. W. van Wagtendonk, J. Fites-Kaufmann, K. E. Shaffer, and A. E. Thode, editors. Fire in California's Ecosystems. University of California Press, Berkeley. pp. 171-193.

Briles, C.E., 2017. Controls on mountain plant diversity: a 14,000-year overview. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 107(2), 238-249. (doi: 10.1080/24694452.2016.1232617).

Rathburn, S.L., Bennett, G.L., Wohl, E.E., Briles, C.E., McElroy, B., Sutfin, N. 2017.The fate of sediment, wood and organic carbon eroded during an extreme flood, Colorado Front Range, USA. Geology 45(6), 499-502. (doi: 10.1130/G38935.1).

Kinoshita, A.M., Chin, A., Simon, G.L., Briles, C.E., Hogue, T.S., O’Dowd, A.P., Gerlak, A.K., Albornoz, A.U. 2016. Wildfire, water, and society: Toward integrative research in the “Anthropocene”. Anthropocene 16, 16-17. (doi: 10.1016/j.ancene.2016.09.001).

Cook, P.L.M, Jennings, M., Holland, D.P., Beardall, J., Briles, C.E., Atun, Z., Doan, P.L., Mills, K., Gell, P. 2016. Blooms of cyanobacteria in a temperate Australian lagoon system post and prior to European settlement. Biogeosciences 113 (12), 3677-3686. (doi: 10.5194/bg-13-3677-2016).

White, A., Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C. 2015. Postglaical vegetation and fire history of the southern Cascade Range, Oregon, USA. Quaternary Research 84, 348-357. (doi: 10.1016/j.yqres.2015.09.007).

Higuera, P.E., Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C. 2014. Fire regime complacency and sensitivity to centennial- through millennial-scale climate variability in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests, Colorado, USA. Journal of Ecology 102, 1429-1441. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12296).

Dunnette, P.V., Higuera, P.E., McLauchlan, K.K., Derr, K.M., Briles, C.E., and Keefe, M.H. 2014. Biogeochemical impacts of wildfires over four millennia in a Rocky Mountain subalpine watershed. New Phytologist 203, 900-912. (doi: 10.1111/nph.12828).

Morey, A.E., Goldfinger, C., Briles, C.E., Gavin, D., Colombaroli, D. and Kusler, J.E. 2013. Are great Cascadia earthquakes recorded in the sedimentary records from small forearc lakes? Natural Hazards and Earth System Science 13, 2441-2463. (doi: 10.5194/nhess-13-2441-2013).

Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C., and Meltzer, D. 2012. Late-glacial-interglacial environments in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA and implications for Younger Dryas-age human occupation. Quaternary Research 77, 96-103. (doi: 10.1016/j.yqres.2011.10.002).

Marlon, J.R., Bartlein, P.J., Long, C., Gavin, D.G., Anderson, R.S., Briles, C.E, Brown, K.J., Colombaroli, D., Hallett, D.J., Power, M.J., Scharf, E.A., Walsh, M.K. 2012. A long-term perspective on wildfires in the western U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, 3203-3204. (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1112839109).

Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C., Skinner, C., and Mohr, J. 2011. Holocene forest development and maintenance on different substrates in the Klamath Mountains, northern California. Ecology 92, 590-601. (doi:.1890/09-1772.1).

Whitlock, C., Briles, C.E., Fernandez, M.C., and Gage, J. 2011. Holocene vegetation, fire, and climate history of the Sawtooth Range, central Idaho, USA. Quaternary Research 75, 114-124. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2010.08.013).

Whitlock, C., Higuera, P.E., McWethy, D., Briles, C.E. 2010. Paleoecological perspective on fire ecology: revisiting the fire-regime concept. The Open Ecology Journal 3, 6-23. (doi: 10.2174/1874213001003020006).

Marlon, J.R., Bartlein, P.J., Walsh, M.K., Harrison, S.P., Brown, K.J., Edwards, M.E., Higuera, P.E., Power, M.J., Anderson, R.S., Briles, C.E., Brunelle, A., Carcaillet, C., Daniels, M., Hu, F.S., Lavoie, M., Long, C., Minckley, T., Richard, P.J.H, Shafer, D.S., Tinner, W., Umbanhowar, C.H., Whitlock, C. 2009. Wildfire responses to abrupt climate change in North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106, 2519-2524. (doi: 10.1073/pnas.0808212106)

Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C, Bartlein, P.J and Higuera, P.E. 2008. Regional and local controls on postglacial vegetation and fire in the Siskiyou Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 265, 159-169. (doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.05.007).

Whitlock, C., Marlon, J., Briles, C.E., Brunelle, A., Long, C. and Bartlein, P.J. 2008. Long-term relations between fire, fuel, and climate in the northwestern U.S. International Journal of Wildland Fire 17, 72-83. (doi: 10.1071/WF07025).

Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C., and Bartlein, P.J. 2005. Postglacial vegetation, fire and climate history of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon, USA. Quaternary Research 64, 44-56. (doi: 10.1016/j.yqres.2005.03.001).

CCST 1060: Global Climate Change
GEOG 1202: Introduction to Physical Geography
GEOG 3232: Weather and Climate
GEOG/ENVS 4720/ 5720: Climate Change: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions
GEOG/ENVS 4731/5731: Mountain Biogeography 
GEOG/ENVS: Overland Colorado: Environmental Science & Policy in Motion
GEOG/ENVS 6800: Community-Based Research Practicum