Amy Breen

Dr. Amy Breen is a research assistant professor at the UA Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning. She is a botanist with broad training ranging from plant ecology and evolution, to biogeography and paleoecology. Amy holds a BA in human ecology, MS in biology and PhD in botany.

Her research interests include the history, evolution and distribution of arctic and alpine floras. Amy’s current research program aims to assess the impact of disturbance and climate change on arctic tundra by adapting a boreal forest fire regime and vegetation succession model to the tundra and investigating post-fire vegetation succession trajectories in tundra ecosystems. In addition, she is affiliated with the Alaska Geobotany Center and is working with that group to create an Alaska prototype for the Arctic Vegetation Archive that will unite and harmonize the vegetation-plot data from the Arctic tundra biome for use in developing a pan-Arctic vegetation classification and as a resource for climate-change and biodiversity research.