Carl Salk
Guest Research Scholar
Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group
Advancing Systems Analysis Program
Biography
Carl Salk is a guest research scholar in the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis Program. In parallel, he works as a researcher at the Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education in Sweden. He studies forests and how people benefit from and impact them. His specific research interests include temperate tree phenology, forest governance by small communities, biodiversity assessment, and land-cover mapping. His research uses techniques like simulation modeling, field-based games, and online crowdsourcing.He first came to IIASA as part of the Young Scientists Summer Program in 2010 and then returned to join the former Ecosystems Services and Management Program in 2011 as a recipient of the Peccei Award. He continued his work as part of an IIASA Postdoctoral Fellowship, contributing to the evaluation of the quality of data collected through crowdsourcing activities such as Geo-Wiki.
In 2016-2025, he worked at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He has also studied the management of community-owned forests with collaborators at the University of Colorado, the Center for International Forestry Research, and the University of Sao Paulo.
Salk received his PhD in biology from Duke University, USA in 2011. His dissertation research examined the environmental cues that determine when temperate trees grow and shed their leaves and how leafing dates will respond to a warmer climate. Before graduate school, Salk worked in forest research and management for the US Forest Service and National Park Service in California, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
Last update: 14 MAR 2025
Publications
Wright, G., Salk, C., Magnuszewski, P., Stefanska, J., Andersson, K., Benavides, J.P., & Chazdon, R. (2023). Conformity and tradition are more important than environmental values in constraining resource overharvest. PLoS ONE 18 (2) e0272366. 10.1371/journal.pone.0272366.
Andersson, K.P., Cook, N.J., Grillos, T., Lopez, M.C., Salk, C., Wright, G.D., & Mwangi, E. (2018). Experimental evidence on payments for forest commons conservation. Nature Sustainability 1 (3) 128-135. 10.1038/s41893-018-0034-z.
Salk, C., Fritz, S. , See, L. , Dresel, C., & McCallum, I. (2018). An Exploration of Some Pitfalls of Thematic Map Assessment Using the New Map Tools Resource. Remote Sensing 10 (3) p. 376. 10.3390/rs10030376.
McCallum, I , See, L. , Sturn, T., Salk, C., Perger, C., Dürauer, M., Karner, M., Moorthy, I. , Domian, D., Schepaschenko, D. , & Fritz, S. (2018). Engaging Citizens in Environmental Monitoring via Gaming. International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research 13 15-23. 10.2902/1725-0463.2018.13.art3.