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Dr. Kathy Kelsey

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
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Kathy uses a cart to move around scientific equipment for measuring gas exchange on the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in Western Alaska.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Kathy Kelsey

I am a vegetation ecologist and biogeochemist, and I focus my research on interactions between the biosphere and the atmosphere, particularly in areas affected by human-driven changes to natural ecosystems including land management practices and climate change.

 

Research Questions

Changes in terrestrial pools of carbon, or changes in biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchanges can have large impacts on the future carbon-climate system.  Therefore, accurate quantification of these systems is necessary for anticipating future feedbacks within the global carbon cycle and informing land management actions. My research questions investigate the current state of soil and forest ecosystems and their interactions with the biosphere using field observations, ecosystem modeling and information from remote sensing platforms.

 

Past and Current Research

In my dissertation researcher completed at the University of Colorado Boulder, I investigated how disturbance, human activities, and climate driven trends in forest growth affect how forests store carbon.  Currently I am working with Dr. Jeff Welker at UAA and others to investigate the exchange of greenhouse gasses between the biosphere and atmosphere in the coastal regions of the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in Western Alaska.  In this region we are exploring the effects of a potential developing phonological mismatch between the rapidly advancing growing season, and the timing of the arrival of the geese who use the vegetation of this region as essential forage, and also alter ecosystem function, and gas exchange, as they graze.

 

For more information about me and my research, please visit:

http://kathykelsey.weebly.com/

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.