At Oak Ridge, Turner began a project on the spatial distribution of land use in forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains.
Early blazes, sparked in June by a combination of lightning and human activities, burned for several weeks without raising much concern.
In July, "we had active fires spread, but nothing that we hadn't previously experienced," recalls Roy Renkin, a Yellowstone biologist.
[3] Turner's work at Yellowstone gave insight into vegetation dynamics concerning changing disturbance regimes, vertebrate grazing, and soil-microbe nutrient interactions.
After Yellowstone's stand-replacing fire in 2000, Turner found that relatively large amounts of ammonium depletion occurred during the first four years.
Turner’s work at Yellowstone, over a period of 20 years, has provided an insight unto the resiliency of ecosystems after major disturbances.