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Joseph Birch Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Hannes De Deurwaerder - Assistant Professor

Headshot of Joseph Birch
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Contact:

jdbirch@vt.edu
  • Ph.D. Forest Biology and Management, University of Alberta (2021)
  • B.S. Conservation and Restoration Ecology, Utah State University (2016)

Joseph Birch is an Assistant Professor of Forest Soil Health in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech. He is a forest ecologist who seeks to connect belowground processes with aboveground forest dynamics to better understand long-term forest function. As a belowground ecologist he is particularly focused on the role of fungal communities in influencing forest growth, health, and structure – particularly after disturbances such as wildfire. Joseph is a PI at the Utah Forest Dynamics Plot, a permanent forest demography plot in the Smithsonian ForestGEO network.

Research Interests

Joseph's research interests include belowground ecology and soil health in forest ecosystems with a focus on fungal communities and root ecology. His research is particularly focused on connecting aboveground forest dynamics and ontogenesis with belowground community assembly and function. As part of those interests, he studies fire behavior and effects and uses tree-rings to characterize the ecosystems he works in.

Selected publications

  • Birch, J.D., Lutz, J. A., Dickinson, M. B., Franklin, J., Larson, A. J., Swanson, M. E., and J. R. Miesel. 2025. Small scale fire refugia increase soil bacterial and fungal richness and increase community cohesion nine years after fire. Science of the Total Environment. 966:178677. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.17867
  • Birch, J.D., Lutz, J.A., Struckman, S., Miesel, J.R., and J. Karst. 2023. Large-diameter trees and deadwood correspond with belowground ectomycorrhizal fungal richness. Ecological Processes. 12(3). doi.org/10.1186/s13717-022-00415-8
  • Xu, H., Detto, M., Hogan, J.A., Alonso, A., Birch, J.D., Bissiengou, P., Chu, C., Davies, S.J., Fischer, G.A., Hau, B.C., Kenfack, D., Li, B., Lian, J., Lin, Mingxian., Liu W., Loi, Y., Liu Z., Lutz, J.A., Memiaghe, H.R., Mi. X., Novotny, V., Ren, H., Su, J., Thompson, J., Uriate, M., Valencia, R., Yao, T.L., Yap, S.L., Zhang, Y., Zimmerman, J.K., Weiblen G. D., Li, Y., Fang, S., and Fangliang He. 2026. The importance of competition and facilitation for global tree diversity. Nature. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10349-2