Dr. Koontz will present on: Understanding Where Wildfires and Insects Kill Trees Using Drones and Satellites

Join the livestream.

Michael is a postdoc with the Earth Lab and CIRES at the University of Colorado in Boulder working with Dr. Jennifer Balch. He is interested in how spatial patterns of vegetation structure and composition affect the resilience of forests to wildfire and bark beetle disturbance. The goal of his research is to reveal how system-wide feedbacks in disturbance-prone forests can be harnessed to guide effective management action.

These are some projects Michael is currently working on:

1. Integrating drone-derived data with the National Ecological Observatory Network forest structure data and the Aerial Observation Platform
2. Using Google Earth Engine to assess wildfire severity and the precariousness of continental US forest systems to state change
3. Drone mapping forest structure and spatial patterns of western pine beetle outbreaks in the Sierra Nevada
4. Teaching scientific computing skills to researchers
5. GLORIA alpine plant monitoring to track climate change effects on peaks within the Great Basin region
6. Eco-evolutionary consequences of multiple introductions for colonizing individuals using microcosm experiments