Choy's Ecology and Remote Sensing Lab
Department of Geography, National Taiwan University
Using remote sensing to study the impacts of climate change along environmental gradients
Researchers in Choy's Ecology and Remote Sensing Lab use synoptic sensing methods of integrating field and geospatial techniques to investigate the impacts of amplified climate change on terrestrial environments. Here are the specific research focuses of the lab:

- Assessing the ramifications of extreme meteorological events on ecosystem health; 
- Estimating the amount of water (rainfall and fog) yielded by near tropical montane cloud forest ecosystems;
- Developing novel approaches to measure near tropical forest productivity.

Students, postdocs and visiting scholars who are interested in the topics please contact me. Email is at the bottom of this web page.

-- Video --

-- News --
  • 2017/07/31: Our lab's video relating to Hu KT's research. Here is the link.
  • 2017/07/11: Chung CH passed his dissertation with flying colors. Super congrats Dr. Chung!
  • 2017/06/28: Lu XC just passed her thesis this morning. Super congrats! Her thesis is about quantification and indirect estimation of fine root productivity in a conifer montance cloud forest.
  • 2017/06/09: Our undergraduate student Li HJ won a prestigious MOST student research grant.
  • 2017/05/11: Hu KT is awarded the NTU 2017 best master thesis award. Awesome!
  • 2017/04/27: Our last year's Science paper is highlighted in NTU Landscape by NTU Office of Research and Development.
  • 2017/04/23: We have a new link CHILI of a list of Chilan Mountain's bibliography.
  • 2017/03/30: Our former undergraduate Liu PH has been admitted by the EBS University for Business and Law MBA program. Atta girl!
  • 2017/03/13: Hu KT rejoined our lab as a full-time researcher after her wonderful trip to Germany.
  • 2017/03/11: Chung CH's dissertation work about dendroecology was published early today. Good job!
  • 2017/01/25: Our Hu KT used airborne lidar to estimate litter production of a near tropical montane cloud forest, and she just passed her ms oral exam with flying colors!
-- Events --
  • 2017/06/21-23: Crossing scales and disciplines to identify global trends in tree mortality as an indicator of forest health, Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems, Hannover, Germany. HTML
  • 2014/10/20-23: International and Interdisciplinary Workshop on Tree Mortality, the Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany. Report Review
  • 2013/09/04-06: A workshop on Remote Sensing of Vegetation Mortality: Challenges, Solutions, and Ecological Understanding. Santa Fe, NM, USA. Earth and Environmental Science Division, Los Alamos National Lab, NM, USA. Photo Publication Video
-- Highlights --
  • Academia Sinica Highlights (2016): Rewrite a classical theory: When evolutionary biology encounters macroecology. PDF 
  • NTU Highlights (2016): Daily variations have opposite effect to seasonal fluctuations on species distribution. HTML
  • AAAS EurekAlert! (2016): Tolerance to daily versus seasonal temperature changes may dictate fitness. HTML
  • Science Perspective (2016): Thermal trouble in the tropics. HTML
  • Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (2016): Cover image. PDF 
  • ScienceDaily (2015): Glimpses of the future: Drought damage leads to widespread forest death. HTML
  • The New York Times (2015): Climate change threatens to kill off more aspen forests by 2050s. HTML
  • Pacific Standard (2015): The trembling aspen Is in trouble. HTML
  • The Week (2015): How climate change is killing the aspen forests of the American Southwest. HTML
  • Colorado Public Radio (2015): Listen to aspen trees having 'heart attacks' due to drought. HTML
  • Nature World News (2015): Drought damage will cause widespread forest death by 2050. HTML
  • Woodworking Network (2015): Aspen trees threatened by hot droughts. HTML
  • The Independent (2015): Climate change could eliminate aspen forests in the western US. HTML
  • Carnegie Science highlight (2015): Glimpses of the future: Drought damage leads to widespread forest death. HTML
  • Trends in Plant Science (2015): Cover image. PDF
  • Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences (2014): Cover image. PDF
  • IOP highlight (2014): Vegetation in Taiwan is strongly affected by El Nino. HTML
  • Landsat news (2011): Consequences of aspen die-off. HTML
  • DIREnet highlight (2011): Large drought-induced aboveground live biomass losses in southern Rocky Mountain aspen forests. PDF
  • NASA MODIS publications database houses (2008): Abstract. HTML
  • Photo gallery (2007): Postfire stand structure. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 88:23. PDF
-- Passengers --
  • 2016/07/26: We welcome Tai TC, UCL Geography major sophomore and Basant Apurva, Lakeside HS junior joining our lab this summer.
  • 2016/07/04: We welcome Stella Yuan, UCSD Environmental Sciences/Psychology major senior joining our lab this summer for 6 weeks.
  • 2015/07/21: Miao R, a 3rd year Nankai University Environmental Sciences major college student is staying with our lab for 8 weeks for the NTU summer intern training program.
  • 2015/06/14: Our lab's first PhD Wang H. Super congrats, Dr. Wang!
  • 2014/07/02: We welcome Xiong D, a 3rd year UCLA civil engineering major college student. She will stay in our lab for 8 weeks for the NTU summer intern training program.
  • 2014/06/06: Our Hu KT and former summer intern Liu PH were graduated this year. You go girls! Photo
-- Cover stories --


1 Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, Taiwan 10617 | choying@ntu.edu.tw | +886.2.33663733 phone | +886.2.23622911 fax