January 8, 2020

12:00pm The Hershey Hall Grand Salon, Room 158, Hershey Hall

Elsa Ordway
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

" Leveraging remote sensing and trait-based ecology to understand tropical forests in a changing world "

Climate change and increasing demands for land to accommodate food, fuel, and fiber production are rapidly transforming land systems globally. Tropical forest regions are intricately connected to these global changes due to their role in land-atmosphere feedbacks and the global carbon cycle, their high levels of biodiversity, and rapid land-use change concentrated in the region. Understanding the ecological as well as social dynamics of this change has revealed important insights into consequences and regionally-relevant conservation solutions. Dr. Elsa Ordway will present her current and ongoing research integrating remote sensing, field observations, modeling, and socioeconomic analyses to examine global environmental change dynamics in tropical forest regions. She will discuss her work exploring how variation in forest structure and function influence ecosystem responses to human impact and the use of trait-based ecology in predicting future vegetation dynamics, as well as patterns and pathways of deforestation in Central Africa. Lastly, Dr. Ordway will share her future research directions in trait-based ecology and land change science, and her efforts to use social-ecological systems in teaching.

 

Refreshments will be served at 11:40 a.m.