CENTER FOR ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, AND SUSTAINABILITY

Miles R. Silman, BIOLOGY

• Reynolda Gardens Piedmont Prairie Restoration
  Awarded $9,600 for the period 7/1/12 to 8/1/16
  Source: US Fish and WildlifeService, Partners Program

The project restores a 16.1-acre Carolina Piedmont prairie in a high-visibility area in Winston-Salem for recreation and education ranging from kindergarten through university classes through adult education. It is a particular hotspot for bird and butterfly watching. Eight faculty in the Biology Department are incorporating the project into core and upper-level classes, undergraduate research mentoring, and research projects, and four courses are developing the baseline geographic, soil, ecosystem function, and biodiversity measures. The center partners in the work and, with the Environmental Studies Program, uses the site as a case study in sustainability practice and education.

• Ecosystem effects and carbon content of Amazonian bamboo-dominated forests
  Awarded $30,000 for the period 9/1/12 to 8/31/13
  Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Bamboo-dominated forests in southwestern Amazonia encompass 180,000 km2 of nearly contiguous, primary tropical lowland forest, an area roughly equivalent to all primary and secondary forests in Central America combined and ~0.5% of the Earth’s total forests. Two methods of remote sensing classification are used to estimate their area, density, and biomass in Madre de Dios, Peru: (1) the extensive temporal archive of LandSat ETM and Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) imagery; and (2) spectral mixture analysis (SMA), which unmixes each pixel’s spectral components. Input into traditional classification algorithms, the data will be scaled from the stand level to generate estimates of the structure, composition, and carbon content of the entire region and validate a novel technique for mapping the remaining bamboo-dominated forests of SW Amazonia. Funds support the graduate student researcher for two years.