[Enviro-lunch] This Thursday Nov. 16: Qin Ma

[Nate Bogie]

Dear all,

Please join us this Thursday (11/16) for our speaker, Qin Ma, a PhD
Candidate from UC Merced.



*Qin Ma*

Environmental systems, UC Merced

[image: Inline image 1]


*How has evapotranspiration changed over the past three decades in
California? **—an improved satellite-based evapotranspiration estimation
and analysis of forest fire disturbance.*

*Abstract:*

Evapotranspiration (ET), defined as water transferred from land to the
atmosphere via surface evaporation and vegetation transpiration, is a key
forest ecosystem component which connects the water, energy, and carbon
cycles. More than half of annual precipitation is allocated to ET in the
majority of California river basins. During dry years, ET has shown to
exceed precipitation, drawing from multi-year water storage. Thus, accurate
spatial estimations of ET is of great importance for water-resources
management, particularly since drought, wildfire, and tree mortality have
become major concerns for California in recent decades. Eddy-covariance
flux towers provide high temporal (30-min) and accurate observations of ET
at the local scale (0.1-1km2), but huge uncertainties exist in
extrapolating these observations to the regional scale. We proposed an
improved satellite-based ET simulation method, which used non-linear
multiple regression, and accounted for the hysteretic effect of
precipitation on ET. This method significantly elevated ET estimation
accuracies particularly during droughts using either Landsat (30m) or MODIS
(250m) satellite imagery. A preliminary analysis on 30-year ET estimations
indicated both controlled fire and wildfire fire had substantial impacts on
ET, on average reducing annual ET values by approximately 15% and 30%,
respectively. This study could be useful for forest and water-resources
managers to develop strategies in the face of a changing climate and
growing population in California.


*Bio:*


Qin Ma is a PhD candidate in Environmental System at UC Merced who uses
remote sensing techniques to map and understand how forests respond to
climate change and human disturbances in California. Her current work
focuses on analyzing how forest fire, timber harvest, and climate change
have impacted vegetation evapotranspiration and tree growth using
multi-source remote sensing data from the individual tree (LiDAR) to forest
stand (Aerial imagery) and basin scales (Satellite imagery) in Sierra
Nevada forests. Before joining UC Merced in 2014, she received her B.A. in
geography at Nanjing University, China in 2011 and her M.Sc. in geography
at University of Western Ontario, Canada in 2013.



When: Nov. 16th, Thursday, 12pm – 1pm

Where: SE2-302



Coffee will be provided, please bring your own mugs.

We look forward to seeing you,



Organizers for 2017-18: Nate Bogie and Lixia Jin

Faculty coordinator: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

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