Latest News (August 2016)

• The Poulter Lab, or Ecosystem Dynamics group, is now based out of Maryland, with PhD students and Post-Doctoral colleagues associated with NASA, Montana State University, and University of Maryland.

Latest News (Nov 2016)

• Dr Paul Stoy and myself are recruiting a PhD student or Post Doctoral Scientist to work on modeling biofuel production and associated trade-offs for biodiversity, forest carbon processes, and water quality – please contact me if interested! This is part of a larger Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Sequestration (BECCS) project recently funded by NSF EPSCOR Track II.
• Check here for the 2016 Global Carbon Budget – record increase in atmospheric CO2 growth (3ppm), despite no growth in fossil fuel emissions, due to El Nino

Latest News (Oct 2016)

• ERL review on Calle et al (Asian land-use and land cover change emissions) & Leo’s video abstract

Latest News (June 2016)

• Congratulations to Leo Calle on receiving his NASA ESS Fellowship to use OCO-2 and MODIS data with DGVM models to better understand land-use and land-cover change CO2 emissions!
  • Read about Leo’s LULCC work in his latest paper in Environmental Research Letters

Latest News (May 2016)

• Congratulations to Kristen Emmett on receiving her NSF GRFP to study fire and climate interactions in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem!
• Good luck to Jerad Hoy this summer who will be working at NASA AMES!

Latest News (February 2016)

• Our first field season in Patagonia was a success thanks to the Kitzberger lab!
• The 2015 Global Carbon Budget is now published
• New video by our partners on the EU-KIC FOREST project showing potentials of a REDD+ carbon monitoring service using satellites and carbon cycle models.
• Zhen Zhang’s LPJ TOPMODEL paper in accepted at Biogeosciences
• Jerad Hoy awarded the Montana State University Presidential Emerging Scholar grant to present at the EGU conference for his climate change work!

My lab investigates the role of climate and humans on terrestrial ecosystems using vegetation models, remote sensing, forest inventory and physiological measurements. Land ecosystems play a critical role in the earth system by mitigating climate change, providing habitat for biodiversity, and resources, such as food, fiber and water for humans. In the Ecosystem Dynamics Lab we explore key questions related to interactions between vegetation, climate, and humans that directly impact a range of ecosystem services, such as:

• • What are the mechanisms that determine the land carbon sink over time and from year-to-year?
  • How does vegetation respond to, and recover from, disturbance, in particular, fire and reforestation?
  • How will the combined effects of global change, including elevated CO2, climate change, and land-use change, alter the land surface in the 21st century?

We use a range of techniques to address these questions that focus around the application and development of dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs).

The group began at Montana State University in January 2014, and is now based out of Maryland, and I am interested in recruiting a diverse group of researchers, from undergraduates to post-doctoral scientists, with an enthusiasm for exploring ecosystem science questions. Experience in biology, ecology, environmental science, physics, remote sensing and computer sciences is appreciated and/or a desire to learn new skills.

Please contact me at benjamin.poulter AT nasa.gov if you have questions or are interested in joining the Ecosystem Dynamics Group!