An exciting new NSF project is starting in January 2021 to study the role of past forest management and natural disturbances in constraining or promoting future conservation, harvest, and carbon-market activities.
The project will quantify carbon stocks at a high spatial resolution across the Alaskan and Canadian coast, one of the most carbon dense forests in the world. Working with professionals and academics in the United States and Canada, the student will build spatial models from pre-existing data using machine learning methods. They will also quantify spatial patterns of natural and anthropogenic disturbances.
The PhD student at PUS will work closely with a PhD at University of Colorado-Denver to build maps of current carbon stocks and disturbance patterns and then utilize the LANDIS-II landscape model to calibrate and run scenarios for future carbon storage on the landscape under various conservation, climate and management scenarios into the future. This will be the first high resolution carbon mapping and modeling of this globally significant region. Finally, the student will have the opportunity to work closely with a private carbon-accounting firm that specializes in carbon markets and carbon valuation (e.g. selling credits through the California Carbon Exchange) to estimate actual and potential values.
Potential students interested in forest ecology, biogeography, R/python programming, geospatial analysis, and carbon markets are welcome to apply. The project pays $22,000/year +tuition and health benefits and is located at Portland State University.
The successful candidate will join our strong research group led by Drs. Brian Buma (CU), Melissa Lucash (PSU), and Rob Scheller (NC State) and senior personnel Drs. David D’Amore (US Forest Service; Juneau Alaska), Caren Dymond (Senior Research Scientist, BC Gov.), Sari Saunders (Research Head, Coastal Region of BC), Allison Bidlack (Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center), and Brian Kleinhenz (VP of Operations, TerraVerde, AK and WA).
Preferred qualifications:
· M.S. in Ecology, Forestry, Geography or associated fields
· Programming ability in R and/or ArcMap
· Excellent writing skills
· Ability to work closely with remote partners, including frequent phone calls and personal visits.
Please submit a cover letter, CV, and list of three references to Dr. Melissa Lucash by email (lucash@pdx.edu) with the subject line “PhD student application- SE Alaska.”