Associate Professor Stephanie Pau

My research addresses how terrestrial ecosystems are impacted by climate change. I focus on understanding interactions between plants and their environment. More specifically, I am interested in the role of biodiversity and plant traits in ecosystem functions, and how these change along environmental gradients. Much of my work uses satellite, drone, or mounted camera observations (i.e., remote sensing), which provide repeated and spatially-extensive measurements of the Earth’s surface. Remote sensing can help us “see” wavelengths of reflected energy from plants that we cannot see with our own eyes. For example, near-infrared reflectance is a region beyond visible wavelengths, and this region of reflected energy contains valuable information about differences in plant species’ photosynthetic activity. I combine remote sensing observations with intensive boots-on-the-ground field measurements. These can be used to develop relationships between plant reflectance and ecological properties for mapping biodiversity and ecological function across landscapes.

I have a joint appointment with the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management.