Research Experience
All my research experiences have been very valuable in contributing to my present inclination to the study of global environmental phenomena through remote sensing techniques. My experience encompasses the fields of biology and remote sensing with wide applications of statistical techniques.
At the Fundacion Zoologico de Barranquilla, I participated in enrichment programs for the spectacle bears, under direct supervision of the biologist in turn. The goal was to develop a series of activities in order to reduce the stress in animals that are held in captivity. In order to measure mitigation of stress-related behavioral patterns, I used non-parametric statistics. The program turned out to be successful, and the enrichment activities helped decreased stress in bears. Through this experience I learned more advanced statistical techniques and the life-long lesson that data is like a nutshell, depending on the tool you use to break it, you can extract different pieces of information.
As an undergraduate, I conducted research work entitled “Assessment of risks areas due to the presence of rodents and their impact on public health”. The goal was to determine rodent’s population density in different scenarios of the city of Barranquilla, and then determine the level of risk to which the human population was exposed. One major obstacle encountered was financial constraints; however, these limitations did not frustrate the project. After my many attempts to find sponsorship for the project, the Barranquilla Public Health Department agreed to participate. Furthermore, necessary equipment needed for capturing rodents alive was very costly, but with a little of resourcefulness, I devoted one month to build a set of 40 traps similar to the Sherman type. Moreover, for the proper identification of the species, the flesh from the cranium of the rodents needed to be removed, which is usually achieved by using special specie of beetles not available at any biology laboratory nearby. Then, I decided to create my own decomposing farm to attract and cultivate the beetles. As part of an extension of the project, I gave a series of talks to the community regarding the perils of a high rodent infestation and the ways to avoid infestation. Findings of this research were widely spread and used by the Barranquilla Public Health Department, and as a result, rodent eradication campaigns were carried out by them in the areas highly at risk.
Since I joined the doctoral program, I have strived to integrate biology, statistics, and remote sensing in class projects. For instance, as part of the ecology class I carried out a small project entitled “A comparative study on land use changes in Los Angeles, CA, USA and Beirut, Lebanon during the period of 1988 to 2007” which was presented at the 95th Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting in 2010. From this project I learned how to process imagery from the Landsat satellite, and I included land classification techniques to my set of skills managing ERDAS Imagine software.
The most recent research project and the one which I expect to continue working on in the next couple of years is entitled “Mapping Changes in Shrub Abundance and Biomass in Arctic Tundra using NASA Earth Observing System Data: A Structural Approach”. This project is sponsored by NASA EOS and it is under the direction of Dr. Chopping. As part of the project I had the opportunity to participate in two three-week field campaigns to the North Slope of Alaska to collect radiometric and structural data of the vegetation.
Picture taken during second field campaign along the Dalton Highway, 2011.
Prototype of Sherman trap. Foldable trap for capturing rodents alive.
As an extension of this research project is my thesis research proposal entitled “Mapping Changes in Shrub Abundance in Alaska Arctic Tundra and its Feedback on Surface Albedo and Temperature Regimes”. This project rests on the shoulders of the current research project I am involved on, and it goes a step forward to couple surface albedo with changes in shrub fractional cover in order to assess impacts and feedbacks to climate. I expect to generate yearly fractional cover maps of the entire North Slope of Alaska over the last decade.