Alicia Peduzzi

Researcher

Expertise: Remote sensing application, natural resource management issues, in-country capacity building.

Dr. Peduzzi’s research has centered on the application of remote sensing to evaluate and monitor vegetation to solve natural resource management issues with respect to climate change. Prior to joining the WHRC staff, she worked in forestry and related sciences for 15 years, most recently with the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station in Newtown Square, PA. A specialist in in-country capacity building, for several years Dr. Peduzzi was a collaborator on WHRC’s NASA Carbon Monitoring System and Mexico REDD+ projects. She holds a B.S. from Universidad de Los Andes in Merida, Venezuela, a Master’s from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, all in Forestry.

http://whrc.org/about-whrc/who-we-are/scientific-staff/

Sarai Piazza

Ecologist

Program manager for the habitat restoration monitoring network Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) under the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA). Responsible for all aspects of program management from developing and implementation of 10 year budgets, cost share agreements, project coordination, and staffing. Regular coordination with Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and 5 federal partner agencies. Act as liaison between the CRMS analytical teams and data delivery teams to develop web delivery products and ensure timely product development. Develop new ideas for CWPPRA program evaluation on multiple spatial scales using CRMS monitoring data. Design and implement ecological research projects. Collect, process, maintain, analyze and publish scientific data in reports and journal articles. Supervise permanent and term limited federal employees as well as contract staff. Oversee ecological research activities including field schedules, data collection, data QA/QC, field personnel training, and special use permit applications. Develop and deliver training, seminars, and presentations to scientific partners and the general public. Review scientific publications on a variety of topics related to coastal wetlands. Served as an Acting Branch Chief, for one year, within the Wetland and Aquatic Research Center overseeing administrative, procedural, and budgetary planning for the Coastal Restoration Assessment Branch.

https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/sarai-piazza?qt-staff_profile_science_products=0#qt-staff_profile_science_products

Paulo Arévalo

Boston University-Department of Earth and Environment

BU PhD student Paulo Arevalo (GRS’19) works with Olofsson, focusing on forest change in his home country of Colombia using data from the mid-1990s through the present. “Before, it was like looking at a picture of when you were a kid and then looking at one when you were 25 years old and ignoring all the things that happened in between,” he says. Being able to monitor deforestation in greater detail with time series analysis has allowed him to see patterns of land change that had never been explored in depth before. For example, in the Colombian Amazon, he found that communities would clear a portion of forest for subsistence agriculture, then abandon it and move on. If left alone over years, the cleared patches can regain their forest cover. However, previously farmed patches of vegetation are likely to be occupied by other communities who might clear the land again. Both patterns can be seen in Colombia, but deforestation is more prevalent and damaging.

Arevalo, Olofsson, and their colleagues, BU PhD students Christopher Holden (CAS’11, GRS’11,’17) and Eric Bullock (GRS’22), and Curtis Woodcock, also a BU professor of earth and environment, are working with the governments of Colombia and other nations to help them monitor rainforests and meet global expectations for reducing deforestation. One of their sponsors is SilvaCarbon, a US government program under the President’s Global Climate Change Initiative that monitors deforestation and carbon emissions and looks for the best methods to measure and model environmental changes around the world. SilvaCarbon and its collaborators, like the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD), also educate countries on how to report and reduce carbon emissions.

Deforestation affects the Earth’s carbon cycle, and Arevalo plans to find out how. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they grow and release it again when they die and decompose. Halting or even slowing deforestation could have a huge impact on the carbon cycle and, scientists expect, on climate change.