NASA SERVIR

Forest Disturbances and Ecosystem Services

Rio Alto Tamaya. Photo credit: D. Salisbury.

The Amazon rainforest provides ecosystem services to 33 million people, including 1.5 million Indigenous people from 385 different groups, living within the biome boundary. The goals of this project are to understand how forest degradation, deforestation, and road building affect the ecosystem services provided by the hydrologic cycle in the Southwestern Amazon and to develop data and tools to improve sustainable development in the region.

Our team will work in the areas of Ucayali, Peru and Acre, Brazil to characterize changes in forest cover using remotely-sensed data and fieldwork, and attribute these changes in forest cover to localized changes in evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture, humidity, and surface temperature. The effect-radius of these changes in forest cover (how far away these changes are felt) will be determined, and maps generated that highlight areas that have undergone changes in microclimatology and land-use. This information will be shared through trainings, fieldwork, and workshops with partner communities and universities.

Our project will emphasize capacity strengthening of local indigenous and non-indigenous groups, as well as colleagues at CIAT and SERVIR Amazonia-Hub partner institutions such as ACCA-MAAP, and colleagues and students with current partners in the region.

THE (Urichmond} TEAM

We have an amazing team of undergraduates working on our project. Their projects range from collecting training data from high-resolution satellite data to mapping and understanding the political ecology of newly built logging roads to analyzing trends in observational climate data to building user-friendly apps that will allow our stakeholders to understand deforestation and degradation in real time.

Stephanie Spera

Project PI
Assistant Professor of Geography & the Environment

David Salisbury

Project Co-I
Associate Professor of Geography & the Environment
David's research website can be found here.

Yunuen Reygadas

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yunuen has a PhD in Geographic Information Science (GIScience) from Texas State University.

beth Zizzamia

GIS Operations Manager
Beth earned a BSc in earth system sciences from George Mason and a MSc in structural geology from Montana State University. She has applied knowledge in diverse topics including geology, carbon sequestration, environmental assessment practices, ecology, census analysis, and hydrology. Her expertise is focused on producing spatial web products, relational database management, vector and raster analysis, and field data collection. Her personal interests include sharing her love of the outdoors with her family and dog.

Anna Cheng, '21

Anna Cheng is a senior, majoring in philosophy. After graduation, she intends to travel and work for a few years before going back to school to learn more about applications of technical skills in the environmental science and sustainability fields.

Virginia Sun, '21

Virginia Sun, a global studies major, is interested in international development in Latin America and Africa. During her undergraduate studies, she studied abroad in Chile and Brazil for a year, and is interested in indigenous rights, peace and conflict resolution, and evidence-based development projects.

Madison London, '21

Madison is a senior double majoring in computer science and Italian studies with a minor in linguistics. She is very excited to join the team and use her technical skills to support UR's research dedicated to the Amazon rainforest!

Renato Nunez, '21

Renato is a senior double majoring in computer science and Latin American and Iberian studies.

Julia Funk, '21

Julia Funk is a senior studying both geography and environmental studies. Her studies focus on using GIS to spatially analyze both demographic and environmental patterns. In addition to this project, she serves as a GIS Intern for the City of Richmond’s Office of Sustainability.

Riley Place, '22

Riley Place is a junior studying environmental science at the University of Richmond. Originally from Washington DC, Riley is passionate about conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon region of South America.

Emily Lopez, '23

Emily is a sophomore who plans on majoring in global studies, and is interested in geography and anthropology. She is excited to expand her GIS skill set and apply it to issues in environmental justice and sustainable development.

Anna Frisbie, '22

Anna is a junior double-majoring in biology and environmental studies.

Tereza Hernadez, '23

Tereza is a sophomore considering a global studies major with a Latin American studies minor. Although originally from NOVA (northern VA), her family is Guatemalan. Her ethnicity makes her very interested in indigenous rights and all things about Latin America and beyond.

Elspeth Collard, '23

Elspeth is a sophomore who is likely majoring in Health Care Studies and minoring in Environmental Studies with a particular interest in how these two topics overlap. She is also fascinated by geography and the powerful messages it can be used to send, especially on projects like this.