A landscape ecologist searches for the links between patterns and ecological processes across large areas.
Creativity and curiosity are very important, but anyone who asks questions is already being a scientist. Having a “prove it!” attitude and not believing everything you hear or read is also useful.
I have worked on mapping areas that are ecologically similar with regard to particular characteristics. One specific question I have asked is, how are ecologically similar areas different when they are mapped?
I use supercomputers, statistics, and large data sets, often gathered from satellites orbiting Earth.
I have several favorite discoveries. I helped design and run a national “eye-in-the sky” tool that detects forest disturbances every eight days. I also created a website that predicts how the home ranges of 215 tree species will shift with future climatic change.
I knew I wanted to be a scientist by high school. By that time, I was doing a lot of noisy, messy science experiments at our home on a regular basis.
