Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Heather Kropp published a paper titled “Heterogeneous long-term changes in larch forest and shrubland cover in the Kolyma lowland are not captured by coarser-scale greening trends” in the journal Environmental Research: Ecology.
The study used artificial intelligence to map changes in vegetation using historical and contemporary high resolution satellite imagery. Kropp's research found that changes in the composition of shrubs and trees are not reflected in the coarser-scale satellite imagery that is commonly used by scientists to document changes in vegetation throughout the Arctic-Boreal region. This paper helps contribute to better understanding the ecological changes that are concurrent with rapidly rising air temperatures in the Arctic region.
