Lead supervisor: Adam Pellegrini, Plant Sciences
Co-supervisor: David Edwards, Plant Sciences
Brief summary:
Mapping the effects of wildfire on forest carbon storage using remote sensing and field-based surveys in northern coniferous forests.
Importance of the area of research concerned:
Forests are experiencing unprecedented increases in wildfire frequency and severity. Wildfires threaten their capacity to store and sequester carbon as well as being used for nature-based climate solution investments. Nevertheless, we have a limited understanding on the ability of predict fire effects on ecosystem carbon stocks in forests and whether data and observations match ecosystem models.
Project summary :
This project will involve analysing remote sensing data to reconstruct wildfire trends in coniferous forests worldwide. It will integrate LIDAR data to map carbon losses, and location data on nature-based solution projects. It will use machine learning models to link trends with climate data and future climate forecasts to predict potential carbon losses in the future. There will be the opportunity to conduct fieldwork, either in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, or potentially Canada.
What will the student do?:
The student will work with large remote sensing datasets mapping wildfire trends and severity. They will also work with climate model output and machine learning methods to map the future vulnerability of forests to climate change. Model outputs will be compared with field data using large plot datasets across North America combined with the opportunity to sample areas with known wildfire dates and severities in the Sierra Nevada range in California.
References - references should provide further reading about the project:
Goss, Michael, et al. "Climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California." Environmental Research Letters 15.9 (2020): 094016.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab83a7?ftag=MSF0951a18
Williams, A. Park, et al. "Correlations between components of the water balance and burned area reveal new insights for predicting forest fire area in the southwest United States." International Journal of Wildland Fire 24.1 (2014): 14-26. https://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/WF14023
Applying
You can find out about applying for this project on the Department of Plant Sciences page.