Monsoonal Landscapes: Territorial adaptation through co-habitation in critical geographies

Emergence of humans as the dominant species of the planet have come along with extreme manipulation of the earth’s systems to sustain this dominance. The Anthropocene has lasted a little over 200 years has perhaps seen the most shift from completely natural systems to requiring an additional man-made system to aid exponential growth of our...

Rootzone storage capacity reveals drought coping strategies along rainforest-savanna transitions

Climate change and deforestation have increased the risk of drought-induced forest-to-savanna transitions across the tropics and subtropics. However, the present understanding of forest-savanna transitions is generally focused on the influence of rainfall and fire regime changes, but does not take into account the adaptability of vegetation...

Active microwave remote sensing of the Amazon forest region

The Amazon rainforest is among the most vital ecosystems on earth, holding about a quarter of the global terrestrial carbon sink. Since 2005, three 100-year return period droughts have occurred, the likes of which have the potential to turn the forest from a carbon sink to a source – meaning disastrous consequences for the planet. Monitoring of...

Tree Sway Time Series of 7 Amazon Tree Species (July 2015–May 2016)

Water stress detection using radar

Vegetation is a crucial part of the water and carbon cycle. Through photosynthesis carbon is assimilated for biomass production, and oxygen is released into the atmosphere. During this process, water is transpired through the stomata, and is redistributed in the plant. Transpired water is refilled by uptake of water from the root zone in the...

Water stress detection in the Amazon using radar

The Amazon rainforest plays an important role in the global water and carbon cycle, and though it is predicted to continue drying in the future, the effect of drought remains uncertain. Developments in remote sensing missions now facilitate large-scale observations. The RapidScat scatterometer (K_u band) mounted on the International...

Measuring Tree Properties and Responses Using Low-Cost Accelerometers

Trees play a crucial role in the water, carbon and nitrogen cycle on local, regional and global scales. Understanding the exchange of momentum, heat, water, and CO 2 between trees and the atmosphere is important to assess the impact of drought, deforestation and climate change. Unfortunately, ground measurements of tree properties such as mass...

Dielectric Response of Corn Leaves to Water Stress

Radar backscatter from vegetated surface is sensitive to direct backscatter from the canopy, and two-way attenuation of the signal as it travels through the canopy. Both mechanisms are affected by the dielectric properties of {the individual elements of the canopy, which are primarily a function of water content.} Leaf water content of corn can...

A comparison between leaf dielectric properties of stressed and unstressed tomato plants

Leaf dielectric properties influence microwave scattering from a vegetation canopy. The dielectric properties of leaves are primarily a function of leaf water content. Understanding the effect of water stress on leaf dielectric properties will give insight in how plant dynamics change as a result of water stress, and how radar can be used for...

Impact of diurnal variation in vegetation water content on radar backscatter from maize during water stress

Microwave backscatter from vegetated surfaces is influenced by vegetation structure and vegetation water content (VWC), which varies with meteorological conditions and moisture in the root zone. Radar backscatter observations are used for many vegetation and soil moisture monitoring applications under the assumption that VWC is constant on short...

Diurnal differences in vegetation dielectric constant as a measure of water stress

Currently, vegetation is considered a barrier to soil moisture retrieval by both passive and active remote sensing missions. Microwave emission and backscattering of vegetation is driven by the vegetation dielectric constant, which is a function of vegetation water content. The latter is a measure of root zone water availability. Understanding...

Water purification in the water stressed areas of emerging markets

Many sources mention that over 1 billion people lack adequate access to drinking water. A majority of these people live in countries of emerging economies. In many cases this problem involves poor and remote areas with little infrastructure of sewage and safe water supply. For these people, often referred to as the Base of the Pyramid (BoP),...