WFU researcher Ovidiu Csillik to collaborate on NASA-funded project
Study to focus on tropical forests and carbon storage capacity
Wake Forest researcher and remote sensing expert Ovidiu Csillik will serve as a co-investigator on a new NASA-funded project to get a more accurate and detailed picture of what is happening with carbon storage over time in tropical forests.
The three-year, $1 million NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) grant will fund the study, “Aboveground Carbon Stock Changes in Dynamic Tropical Forests.” The project is led by the U.S. Forest Service and includes researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology and UCLA.
With remote sensing technology called lidar, scientists can gather detailed 3D aerial and satellite data on trees and other plant material that make up the forest to estimate carbon storage capacity.
“Satellite biomass monitoring will be critical in tropical forests. But, we have to know how accurate it is.”
WFU researcher Ovidiu Csillik
The researchers will develop benchmark data to quantify tropical forest aboveground biomass change and associated uncertainties with airborne lidar combined with a ground-based forest inventory of the same area at the same time.
“If we want to quantify carbon through time, this is the most accurate way to get a 3D model of the forest,” he said.
Accurately measuring carbon losses and gains over time is important for effective climate mitigation strategies.
“These results will have immediate value to stakeholders to participate in carbon markets because they need both estimates of forest changes and estimates of the associated uncertainties,” Csillik said.
The data and tools they develop will be made publicly available at the end of the project.
Csillik is an assistant professor in remote sensing who teaches courses in the environment and sustainability studies program. He recently published a PNAS study showing that forest degradation drives carbon loss more than deforestation in the Amazon.
Categories: Environment & Sustainability, Research & Discovery
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