Join us for our Weekly Biology Seminar Series, open to biology students and enthusiasts from all disciplines. Each week, expert speakers share their latest research and insights into various fields of biology. This series offers a unique opportunity to learn, network, and engage with fellow students and professionals.

Speaker: Dr. Jessica O'Connell, Colorado State University

Host: Erik Nati-Johnson

Title: Remote sensing of water-mediated plant-soil interactions and wetland landscape resiliency

Abstract: Plant productivity in coastal and inland wetlands contributes to important ecosystem services, such as habitat provisioning for wildlife, surface water denitrification, and plant-mediated carbon sequestration for mitigation of climate warming. Understanding water-driven dynamics in belowground plant production is especially important, because belowground production increases soil accretion and C stabilization. Water is an important driver of productivity, and hence resiliency, because high water-tables reduce oxygen available to plant roots and impact growth. Thus, spatiotemporal patterns in flooding and belowground biomass might serve as a proxy for marsh resiliency, ecosystem function, and carbon sequestration potential. Novel remote sensing models can help track pattern and process in belowground dynamics in wetland landscapes, through an understanding of plant growth and remote sensing derived biophysical proxies. This talk presents progress made so far in open-science remote sensing analytics for understanding water and carbon dynamics across inland and coastal wetland dominated landscapes.