Jason Funk

Jason has always been drawn to landscapes – both their natural dynamics and the ways in which people alter them.  Growing up among the forested hills and rich farmlands of southeastern Ohio, he became intrigued by the causes and consequences of change in landscapes.  While studying environmental science at the Ohio State University, he began to recognize the broader interconnections of human and natural processes.  Landscape ecology and spatial analysis were his first tools, with which he studied how changes in reclamation policy had improved restoration of several strip mines near his hometown.  His undergraduate work was his first step toward integrating multiple scales of analysis and engaging diverse stakeholders. 

Since this experience, he has continued to look for common ground between environmental solutions and livable landscapes.  In his Master’s program, Jason changed his focus to the problem of global climate change.  Exploring the interaction of the climate system and the biosphere, he sought out ways in which land-use change could mitigate climate change by increasing carbon sequestration.  Stepping into economics, he developed a model of land-use decisions in Ohio -- integrating land market values, soil productivity, and carbon price projections under several climate policy scenarios.  He characterized the conditions under which rural landowners could benefit from climate policy by reforesting their property.  His model also revealed how urbanization affected emerging land-use patterns in the landscape.  The result was a valuable product for landowners, regional planners, and policymakers.  

Since coming to Stanford, Jason has enjoyed opportunities to explore new landscapes.  First, he spent a summer characterizing carbon stabilization processes in the soils of Alaska’s boreal forests.  Later, he traveled to Costa Rica to see how environmental incentives were reversing deforestation.  Most recently, he visited the Brazilian Amazon to investigate the drivers and biogeochemical impacts of deforestation.   

For his doctoral work, Jason has continued to link his work to climate policy, focusing on land-use change as a controlling factor in the climate system.  The dispersed, private nature of land-use decisions is an intriguing modeling challenge, due to its complex interaction of drivers operating at multiple scales.  Can these factors be harnessed to reverse deforestation, protect biodiversity, ensure continued ecological services, and provide sustainable incomes for rural people?  Jason is tackling this question by teasing apart the drivers of land-use change in New Zealand, where he is studying the importance of biophysical, economic, political, and cultural factors on the land-use decisions of Maori landowners.  He hopes to predict changes that will occur in New Zealand’s landscape as a result of policy incentives for sequestration forestry.  Through this project, he is developing techniques that can be widely applied for preserving the landscapes we depend upon.