Cambridge Centre for Earth Observation (CEO) Seminar
Phil Wilkes, RBG Kew
Next week we are hosting a seminar with Phil Wilkes from Kew. Please find attached the poster for Phil’s talk and feel free to extend the invite.
CORRECTED TIME AND DATE: Nov 16th 11:00-12:00, Main Seminar Room, David Attenborough Building
Wakehurst Ecosystem Observatory: monitoring long term biodiversity trends with Kew’s Nature Unlocked programme
The UK’s biodiversity provides multiple ecosystem co-benefits, however major gaps remain in our knowledge. Nature Unlocked: Landscape Ecology Programme was established to utilise the Wakehurst’s diverse landscapes (Kew’s Wild Botanic Garden) for long-term research to determine how different habitats support specific ecosystem services. Initiated in 2021, the research programme has so far collected high resolution baseline data across Wakehurst for above, below and in flux carbon; mycorrhizal links with carbon storage; pollinator monitoring focused on understudied floral availability of trees; and understanding how nature connectedness can improve mental and physical wellbeing, access, and diversity. Moving forward, we plan to establish the Wakehurst Ecosystem Observatory, a network of permanent plots across the Wakehurst landscape where key environmental metrics are recorded. Coupling these baseline measurements with interdisciplinary data, we aim to inform and influence land management policies and key practices. In turn, this offers UK government bodies, businesses, communities, and landowners’ effective evidence-based solutions to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Drinks and snacks will be provided for networking after the seminar. For attending online, please find the Zoom information below
Topic: Centre for Earth Observation Seminar
Join Zoom Meeting
https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81844083194?pwd=c1QzK1dHamRpSUNnbmN2ZVI1WExLUT09
Meeting ID: 818 4408 3194
Passcode: 584178
Biography
Phil is Research Leader of the Nature Unlocked: Landscape Ecology Programme at RBG Kew and is based at Wakehurst. Phil’s interests are in the use of remote sensing, in particular LiDAR, to characterise forest structure, from individual branches and trees to continental scales. Most recently, he has developed techniques to efficiently capture and process plot scale terrestrial LiDAR data outputs which have been used in cal/val of satellite based aboveground biomass missions. Phil’s other interests include characterising the configuration and value of urban forests as well as modelling remote sensing signals with radiative transfer models.
https://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/208204
Wakehurst photo from Mark Fosh from Watford, UK, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wakehurst_Place_1.jpg
