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Alexandra Paige Fischer
Associate Professor
Behavior, Education, and Communication
Climate + Energy
Conservation + Restoration
Lab website
Websites
About
Paige Fischer, PhD, serves as Associate Professor at SEAS. Fischer's research group focuses on human dimensions of environmental change. The primary goal of her research is to increase scientific understanding of human behavior as it relates to the sustainability of socio-ecological systems. She focuses much of her work on human adaptation to climate change and natural hazards such as wildfire in forested areas.
Fischer is particularly interested in understanding the capacity of individuals (e.g., private landowners) and organizations (e.g., natural resource agencies and environmental organizations) to adapt to environmental change through individual and collective natural resource management and environmental conservation actions. She draws on theories from the fields of natural resource sociology and human-environment geography in her work. Her methods include qualitative interview analysis, quantitative survey analysis and social network analysis. She collaborates with researchers from diverse disciplines using a broad range of analytical approaches and strives to address problems of concern to local practitioners.
Fischer is recognized as one of 50 female leading scholars in the international field of fire science.
Publications
Fischer, A. P. and R. C. H. Denny*. (In press). Evaluating behavioral adaptation to climate change in terms of adaptation and coping: an index approach. Global Environmental Change.
Fischer, A. P., Shah, M. A. R., Segnon, A. C., Matavel, C., Antwi-Agyei, P., Shang, Y., Muir, M.*, & Kaufmann, R.* (2024). Human adaptation to climate change in the context of forests: A systematic review. Climate Risk Management, 43, 100573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2023.100573.
Fischer, A. P., Russo, M.*, & Powers, G*. (2022). Behavioral adaptation to climate change: New insights on psychosocial frameworks from the context of managed forests. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-01085-9.
Berrang-Ford, L., Siders, A. R., Lesnikowski, A., Fischer, A. P., et al. (2021). A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change. Nature Climate Change, 11(11), 989-1000. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01170-y.
Charnley, S., Kelly, E. C., & Fischer, A. P. (2020). Fostering collective action to reduce wildfire risk across property boundaries in the American West. Environmental Research Letters, 15(2), 025007. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab639a
Hamilton, M., Salerno, J., & Fischer, A. P. (2019). Cognition of complexity and trade-offs in a wildfire-prone social-ecological system. Environmental Research Letters, 14(12), 125017. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab59c1
Sayles, J., Mancilla Garcia, M., Hamilton, M., Alexander, S., Baggio, J., Fischer, A. P., Ingold, K., Meredith, G., & Pittman, J. (2019). Social-ecological network analysis for sustainability sciences: a systematic review and innovative research agenda for the future. Environmental Research Letters, 14(9), 093003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2619
Bodin, Ö., Alexander, S. M., Baggio, J., Barnes, M. L., Berardo, R., Cumming, G. S., Dee, L., Fischer, M., Fischer, A. P., Mancilla-Garcia, M., Guerrero, A., Hileman, J., Ingold, K., Matous, P., Morrison, T. H., Nohrstedt, D., Pittman, J., Robins, G., & Sayles, J. (2019). Improving network approaches to the study of complex social-ecological interdependencies. Nature Sustainability, 2, 551-559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0308-0
Fischer, A. P. (2019). Characterizing behavioral adaptation to climate change in temperate forests. Landscape and Urban Planning, 188, 72-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.09.024
Fischer, A. P., Klooster, A., & Cirhigiri, L. (2019). Cooperation across property boundaries to manage forest landscapes: collective action and social exchange among individual landowners. Landscape and Urban Planning, 188, 151-162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.02.004
Fischer, A. P. (2019). Adapting and coping with climate change in temperate forests. Global Environmental Change, 54, 160-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.10.011
Hamilton, M., Fischer, A. P., & Ager, A. (2019). A social-ecological network approach for understanding wildfire risk governance. Global Environmental Change, 54, 113-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.11.007
Hamilton, M., Fischer, A. P., Guikema, S., & Keppel-Aleks, G. (2018). Behavioral adaptation to climate change in fire-prone forests. Wires Climate Change, 9(6), e553. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.553
Fischer, A. P. (2018). Forest landscapes as socioecological systems and implications for management. Landscape and Urban Planning, 177, 138-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.05.001.
Fischer, A. P. (2018). Pathways of adaptation to external stressors: implications for climate change in coastal natural resource-dependent communities. World Development, 108, 235-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.007
Fischer, A. P. & Frazier, T. G. (2018). Social vulnerability to climate change in temperate forest areas: incorporating new measures of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(3), 658-678. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1387046
Kline, J. D., E. M. White, Fischer, A. P., Steen-Adams, M., Charnley, S., Olsen, C., Spies, T. A., & Bailey, J. D. (2017). Integrating social science into empirical models of coupled human and natural systems. Ecology and Society, 22(3), 25. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09329-220325
Fischer, A. P. & Jasny, L. (2017). Capacity to adapt to environmental change: evidence from a network of organizations concerned with increasing wildfire risk. Ecology and Society, 22(1), 23. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08867-220123
Fischer, A. P., Spies, T. A., Steelman, T. A., Moseley, C., Johnson, B. R., Bailey, J. D., Ager, A. A., Bourgeron, P., Charnley, S., Collins, B. M., Kline, J. D., Leahy, J. E., Littell, J. S., Millington, J. D. A., Nielsen-Pincus, M., Olsen, C. S., Paveglio, T. B., Roos, C. I., Steen-Adams, M. M., Stevens, F. R., Vukomanovic, J., White, E. M., & Bowman, D. M. J. S. (2016). Wildfire risk as a socio-ecological pathology. Frontiers of Ecology and the Environment, 14(5), 1-9. https://doi:10.1002/fee.1283
Read more publications here.
Research
Understanding Opportunities for Adapting to and Mitigating Risks Associated with Climate Change on Family Forestlands in the Pacific Northwest. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 2019-2021. (PI).
Forecasting effects of forestry responses to climate change on landscape-scale forest structure and wildlife habitats. USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, McIntire Stennis Project. 2020-2022. (Co-PI).
Impacts of Socio-Ecological Adaptation to Global Change on Forests Ecosystems. USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, McIntire Stennis Project 1011135. (Co-PI with Inés Ibáñez, University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability.)
Scientific Knowledge Networks for Natural Resource Management: Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station scientists, managers and stakeholders, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. 2016-2021. (PI)
Accolades
Notable awards and recognition
- Fulbright Scholar, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Austral de Chile
Education
PhD, Oregon State University (forest resources social science)
MS, Oregon State University (forest resources social science)
BA, Hampshire College (cultural anthropology)
Affiliations
National and International Service
- Climate Action Committee, Hampshire College, 2023-present.
- Associate Editor, Ecology and Society, 2021-present.
- Associate Editor, Frontiers in Climate, Climate Risk Management, 2019-present
- Contributing Author, Chapter 16, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), 2020-2022
- Board Chair, Human Dimensions of Global Change Specialty Group, American Association of Geographers, 2020-2022.
In the News
In the Media