debor042

In continuation of Ann’s post a couple weeks back, conferences and meetings are very important in becoming a successful and knowledgeable graduate student. Currently, I am in Estes Park, Colorado, which is about 1.5 hours outside Denver and adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park for the  Long-Term Ecological Research All-Scientists Meeting . In a nut-shell, this meeting is held once every three years and brings together scientists and researchers from 26 LTER sites around the country and around the world. This meeting differs from a conference by being primarily focused on cross-site and interdisciplinary collaboration. This is done by holding working group discussion sessions surrounding a particular topic. Scientist that are interested in that topic can participate in a discussion session that has a specific outcome; typically information exchange, brainstorming, or a product such as data analysis or a journal article.   Map of all 26 LTER sites ...

The limousine pulls up to the opera house... The patrons step out wearing their summer fashion...   The red carpet is laid out, welcoming the guests... And the symphony begins… Hmm Hmm Buzzzz Bzzzzz Bzzzz….Slap Splat, Clap Smash…. Hmm Hmm Buzzzz Bzzzzz Bzzzz….Slap Splat, Clap Smash While conducting research in the Everglades you will inevitably come in contact with throngs of mosquitoes, especially during the dog days of summer in the mangroves along Shark River and Taylor River.  So let me back up a bit. In addition to the satellite images I use for my research (see previous post), I also collect water samples from the groundwater, surface water and pore water in the coastal mangrove ecotone. These samples serve as ground-truthed data, or in other words, a way to calibrate and validate the results from the satellite images (more to come). This requires going out in the Everglades every 2-3 months to collect samples, and that includes going d...

The Everglades covers an area of 734 square miles, which is about half of the size of the state of Rhode Island and about 350,000 football fields. This is a very large area to cover and can become logistically difficult and costly when you are trying to understand the transformations of the Everglades ecosystem with respect to the natural and man-made modifications to the way water moves through the system.  What if there was a way to measure and monitor these changes to the landscape as a whole without even leaving your office?  Oh wait, there is! Satellites! Satellites have been orbiting the Earth (among other celestial bodies) for the past three decades. And since the release of free images from NASA Earth-oriented satellites like Landsat and MODIS , remote sensing science has taken huge strides to understanding Earth surface processes. More specifically, related to my research in the Everglades, I can use the multi-spectra l images to measure water quality (nutrient) and...