My general research interests are in Biogeography and Climate studies. I am especially interested in how large-scale climate processes affect what can grow where.
Much of my work so far has focused on using tree-ring and stable isotope approaches to evaluate the relationship between plant growth in coastal central California (especially the conifers on the Channel Islands) and summertime coastal fog/low stratus-cloud cover. Now I am studying how this coastal summertime cloud cover relates to the global climate system and whether coastal summer clouds are beginning to develop differently as a result of recent changes in global climate. I am also using satellite imagery (MODIS) to map relative cloudiness along the entire United States west coast. It will be fun to compare maps of cloudiness at different times of the year to maps of plant species distributions (like coast redwood) or maps of global climate parameters (like atmospheric pressure).
I am also expanding my studies to areas outside of California. I am currently working on a project that compares tree-ring data collected from 1000 sites in the continental US to climate records. Using projections of how climate is expected to behave for the next century, I hope to point out regions or forests where we should expect changes in vegetation growth rates and/or species type in the near future. |
