Integrative Biology M.S. Candidate, Katherine Hayes received a second place recognition for her oral presentation at the Front Range Student Ecology Symposium. Katherine presented some results from the study she and Dr. Brian Buma conducted, investigating how multiple short-interval fires are changing forest community, forest structure and forest carbon in Interior Alaska.
Laurel Sindewald, PhD Candidate also received a second place recognition for her poster presentation which discussed the following:
"Since the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972, satellite imagery has been an important, continuous dataset for monitoring agriculture, assessing forest fire extent and severity, and mapping landcover among other applications. Until recently, however, the spatial, radiometric, and spectral resolution of satellite imagery have been too coarse to be useful for distinguishing or mapping plant species in mixed communities. Species-level classification can be done using hyperspectral imagery in combination with lidar collected from aircraft, but this approach is costly and impractical for large-scale studies. The use of high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery to estimate forest composition at the species level would enable mapping of tree species at fine scales over large distances for a fraction of the cost. We are exploring the use of 1.24 m resolution, 8-band multispectral imagery from Maxar's WorldView-3 satellite to distinguish limber pine (Pinus flexilis)from Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii)and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa)in treeline communities in Rocky Mountain National Park. To date, no one has used high-resolution satellite imagery to study treeline species, where the rugged topography, heterogeneous terrain, and small tree stature represent new challenges."
CONGRATULATIONS to Katherine and Laurel!!