Valerie Pasquarella
Overview
Following the completion of her postdoctoral appointment at UMass Amherst, Valerie became a Research Assistant Professor at Boston University, where she now works.
Research Interests
I am a spatial data scientist working at the intersection of remote sensing and ecology. Just as the carbon dioxide observations that form the Keeling Curve revolutionized the study of the global carbon cycle, free and open access to all Landsat imagery held by the USGS is fundamentally changing how the Landsat record is being used to study ecosystems and ecological dynamics. In my projects, I use time series of all high quality Landsat observations to map and monitor a variety of species, habitats, and drivers of change, with previous efforts focused on improved mapping of forest communities, annual monitoring of beaver activity, and detection of gypsy moth defoliation. My current research seeks to utilize dense time series of Landsat observations to characterize impacts of both invasive species and climate on ecosystem condition, with the goal of advancing our understanding of how various agents, processes and constraints influence both seasonal and long-term dynamics of landscapes in the Northeast.
