Free and open access to satellite imagery and value-added data products have revolutionized the role of remote sensing in Earth system science. Nonetheless, rapid changes in the global environment pose challenges to the science community that are increasingly difficult to address using data from single satellite sensors or platforms due...
Understanding canopy radiation regimes is critical to successfully modeling vegetation growth and function.
For instance, the vertical distribution of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) affects vegetation growth,
informative upon carbon and energy cycling. Availing upon advances in information capture and computing
power, geometrically explicit modeling of forest structure becomes increasingly possible....
We investigated the potential use of airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to predict key wood fiber properties from extrinsic indicators in lodgepole pine leading forest stands located in the foothills of central Alberta, Canada. Six wood fiber attributes (wood density, cell perimeter, cell coarseness, mature fiber length, microfibril...
When characterizing the processes that shape ecosystems, ecologists increasingly use the unique perspective offered by repeat observations of remotely sensed imagery. However, the concept of change embodied in much of the traditional remote-sensing literature was primarily limited to capturing large or extreme changes occurring in natural systems, omitting many more...
Low-level nuclear power plant outages in the United States can lead to unanticipated costs, potentially compromising the expected operation lifetime of the plant. Nuclear power plants are complex systems of interfacing components and highly regulated processes. This inherent complexity makes predicting outages from system dependencies very challenging. When outages do...
The introduction of non-native species can negatively impact native species through reduced genetic fitness resulting from hybridization. The lack of spatiotemporal data of hybrids occurrences makes assessing hybridization risk difficult. Here, I developed a spatially-explicit GIS Hybridization Risk Model (HRM) between native ESA-listed Bull Trout and introduced Brook Trout by...
Paper-based assays for HIV diagnosis are cheap, portable, and require little to no skilled training, electricity, or expensive equipment to perform successfully. However, there is a need for tests with lower limits of detection (LOD) for diagnosing infection at the earliest stages. Effective labeling to increase signal-to-noise ratio is critical...
Health effects stemming from animal feeding operations pollution in the contiguous United States are analyzed using a 20-year, county-level data set. Several quasi-experimental, potential outcome models are used to estimate the impact of high concentrations of animal units on mortality rates and other health and economic outcomes over a 20-year...
Zebrafish are capable of fully regenerating organs and tissue such as their caudal fin, which is similar to a human regrowing an arm or a leg. In contrast, most mammals including humans have a greatly reduced capacity for wound healing. The ability of zebrafish to undergo this regenerative process, called...
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Michael Austin Garland, Author
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
After five years, I have a lot to
Increased dependence on fossil fuels and concerns of anthropogenic climate change have led to increased interest in alternative energy sources. Liquid fuels derived from renewable raw materials have gained attention in recent years due to their similarity to petroleum-based fuels. Biofuels derived through hydrodeoxygenation have been found to be one...