B.S. Colorado State University (1999)
Major: Natural Resource Management
Minor: Spatial Information Systems
M.S. Colorado State University (Pending)
Department: Soil and Crops Science
Advisor: Gene Kelly
Thesis: Spatially Modeling Soil properties in Fraser Experimental Forest
Professional Work:
Spatial analyst / spatial information manager for the Short Grass Steppe Long
Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) program at CSU (1999 – 2004)
Spatial systems analysis / programmer for the Pedology And Soils Information Systems lab (PASIS) at CSU (1999 – 2004)
Programmer / spatial analyst for Dave Theobald’s spatial analysis group with the Natural Resource Ecology Lab (NREL) CSU (2004 – present)
Professional Interests:
Developing spatially explicate tools that allow for functional distances to
be incorporate into statistical analysis.
Developing spatially intelligent algorithms that approximate optimal solutions for reserve site selection problems
Developing landscape signatures with regression tree algorithms
Investigating efficient ways of sampling a landscape remotely
Personal Interests:
Cycling (Road, Mountain, Commuting)
Skiing (Skate and Telemark)
Alpine Trekking
Digging soil pits
Paleopedology
Presentation Abstract:
Integration of Basic Pedological Principles, Remote Sensing and Terrain Analysis for Soil Survey Update of the Fraser Experimental Forest.
Hans Jenny's Factors of Soil Formation, a system of quantitative pedology (1941), concisely summarized and illustrated many of the basic principles of Pedology to that date (Jenny, 1941). This model the (state factor model) became the backbone for soil survey research and production because it proposed that a limited number of environmental factors could largely explain the distribution of soils within and among ecosystems.
While advances in soil chemistry, soil physics, soil mineralogy, and soil biology, as well as in the basic sciences have helped increase our fundamental understanding of the spatial distribution of soil, new tools and new dimensions to the study of soil formation have evolved with the increasing power and utility of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistical analysis to further quantify the complex spatial relationships of soils and landscapes. These new advances have resulted in a field of study termed Pedrometrics, which is focused on the application of mathematical and statistical methods for the study of the distribution and genesis of soils. We proposed to develop new protocols for advancing the science of soil mapping This approach to mapping the spatial distribution of soils requires the soil scientist to develop a spatial model of soil properties as a function of landscape configurations and variations in other soil forming factors with the study area.
We developed and tested a model in Fraser Experimental forest that centers
on pedrometric principles, as well as, how to streamline sampling protocols
and remain statistically viable while increasing our accuracy in developing
a working soil survey for researchers and landmanagers. The modeling component
of this work entails using mixed linear, lease square and regression tree models
to capture global and small scale trends based on spatially informed terrain
and spectral surfaces.