Brian Buma

Brian Buma serves as an associate research professor at the University of Colorado Denver and senior climate scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, maintaining affiliations with University of Alaska Southeast and University of Alaska Fairbanks. His work integrates field exploration across extreme environments—from Greenland's polar seas to Chile's Isla Hornos—with climate science and conservation efforts, documented through extensive photography and National Geographic collaborations.

Buma's research centers on climate-driven ecosystem transformations, specializing in carbon dynamics within high-latitude forests, wildfire-permafrost interactions, and disturbance ecology. He investigates how windstorms, wildfires, and spruce beetle outbreaks alter carbon storage and resilience in carbon-dense ecosystems like the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest, employing techniques ranging from satellite mapping to ground-based EcoTram measurements in Colorado's subalpine watersheds.

His recent publications (2024-2025) reveal accelerating trends in short-interval wildfires across boreal forests, quantify carbon mobilization from landslide systems, and evaluate climate mitigation strategies including enhanced weathering and wetland restoration. Key findings highlight sectoral emission complexities, permafrost vulnerability to fire, and the critical role of non-growing season N2O emissions in agricultural accounting.

Buma leads a research laboratory supporting student and postdoctoral projects funded by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and Ecological Society of America. His team conducts fieldwork in Alaska, Colorado, and Chile while developing tools like the EcoTram for measuring landscape connectivity. Current grants focus on boreal fire feedbacks, carbon dynamics in coastal temperate rainforests, and climate-threatened tree species resilience.

Field operations span the 'Edges of (All) Life' initiative, featuring projects like Glacier Bay historical plot studies, Cape Horn Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Network, and documentation of the world's southernmost forests. His lab emphasizes expeditionary science methodology and public communication through speaking engagements and his recent National Geographic-style book on visualizing ecosystem change.