MSU AgBioResearch scientist David Skole is partnering with NASA to use advanced satellite technology to precisely map tree systems — including individual trees and small tree systems living outside of traditional canopy forests — to provide perspective of the planet’s total tree cover and potential for climate change mitigation efforts.
Skole and the team at Global Observatory for Ecosystem Services received a $2.1 million grant from NASA for the three-year study as part of the United States Global Change Research Program, a federal program that coordinates climate change research and investments by understanding the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, and their impacts on society.
Skole, along with collaborators from five universities, two major industry leaders and 12 collaborating institutions in South Asia, where the mapping study will take place, will use NASA satellites and mapping technology to examine forests and other tree-based systems, including trees outside of forests in agricultural landscapes.
focused on forests, deforestation and forest degradation, but research and mapping efforts are lacking for trees located on agricultural or rural land.
“What’s less known is what’s happening outside of the forest zones, in agricultural landscapes where there is still considerable tree cover,” said Skole, a professor in the MSU Department of Forestry. “From direct observations, using satellite mapping, we will try to determine how much of that land exists in South Asia and the potential carbon storage power of tree structures outside of forests.”
