EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy in Physical Geography, March 2017.
Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Sweden.
Dissertation: Primary Production in African Drylands: Quantifying Supply and Demand Using Earth Observation and Socio-ecological Data. Supervisor: Prof. Jonas Ardö.
Abstract: The human-environment connection in the mostly rural drylands of Africa forms a complex, interlinked system that provides ecosystem services. This system is susceptible to climatic variability that impacts the supply of its products, and high population growth, which impacts the demand for these products. When plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis, they use some of this carbon to maintain plant cellular structure. The rest is stored as plant tissue and forms plant biomass. The annual accumulation of this plant biomass is called net primary production (NPP). On an annual basis, NPP supplies the provision of crops, animal feed and pasture. The societal implications of reduced NPP can be severe, possibly leading to crop failure and eventual food insecurity. This dissertation focuses on a method of quantifying the human impact on ecosystems using satellite-derived estimates of NPP and quantitative data on the demand for food, feed, and fuel. The manuscript is divided into five sections. First, I introduce the link between humans and the environment in the drylands of Africa. Second, I describe the role of climate and the concept of primary production, and the history of its estimation using data from Earth-observing satellites. Third, I present the various consumable components necessary for human survival and their statistical derivation. Fourth, I provide a conceptual framework that is based on the supply and demand of NPP. Finally, I broadly discuss the framework’s advantages and limitations, other studies that attempt to quantify human impact on ecosystems as well as knowledge gaps and future research needs.
An abridged version of the PhD dissertation can be found here.
Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies, March 2010.
Joint Degree: Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal | Universität Münster, Germany | Universitat Jaume I, Spain.
Thesis: Investigating Habitat Association of Breeding Birds Using Public Domain Satellite Imagery and Land Cover Data. Supervisor: Prof. Edzer Pebesma
Abstract: The efficacy of integrating open access geospatial data to produce habitat suitability maps for the corn bunting (Miliaria calandra) was investigated. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and Corine (Coordination of Information on the Environment) land cover data for the year 2000 (CLC2000) were processed to extract explanatory variables and divided into three sets; Satellite (ETM+, SRTM), CLC2000 and Combined (CLC2000 + Satellite). Presence-absence data for M. calandra, collected during structured surveys for the Catalan Breeding Bird Atlas, were provided by the Catalan Ornithological Institute. The dataset was partitioned into an equal number of presence and absence points by dividing it into five groups, each composed of 88 randomly selected presence points to match the number of absences. A logistic regression model was then built for each group. Models were evaluated using area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC). Results of the five groups were averaged to produce mean Satellite, CLC2000 and Combined models. The mean AUC values were 0.69, 0.81 and 0.90 for the CLC2000, Satellite and the Combined model, respectively. The probability of M. calandra presence had the strongest positive correlation with land surface temperature, modified soil adjusted vegetation index, coefficient of variation for ETM+ band 5 and the fraction of non-irrigated arable land.
The MSc thesis has been published in a shorter form as a peer-reviewed paper.
Bachelor of Science in Geoscience, August 2007.
Department of Earth and Environmental Studies, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, United States. Undergraduate Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Matthew L. Gorring