Research Narrative

My research interests relate to understanding the processes and potential impacts of land cover change and future climate change on both managed and natural terrestrial ecosystems. This research interest was initiated during my PhD when I was part of a large, multi-disciplinary research team involved in modeling the impacts of climate change on agricultural and forest ecosystems (see Book Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Agricultural Production Systems), specifically on changes in mean climate conditions and in changing climate variability on plant-environment interactions (see papers in Climatic Change, Climate Research, Forest Ecology and Management, and Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment).

During my doctoral work, I became interested in remote sensing, an interest that has continued to develop, now involving researchers at a number of different institutions: Dr. Munroe (the Ohio State University); Dr. Nagendra (Weiss fellow, India); a number of my fellow faculty here at UF, Dr. Michael Binford (Geography), Dr. Abe Goldman (Geography) and Dr. Graeme Cumming (WEC); as well as a number of graduate students. In addition, climate change, climate variability and modeling studies are also being developed with university faculty, including Dr. Peter Waylen (Geography), Dr. Michael Binford (Geography), and Dr. Jim Jones (Agriculture and Biological Engineering). Recently funded NSF projects which we are just being initiated undertake to examine interactions between land use, land cover, people’s livelihoods, and biodiversity in landscapes surrounding national parks in Tanzania and Uganda (NSF: Geography and Regional Science Proposal, funded May 2004, Co-PI); and analysis of the interacting social, economic, and ecological processes that have affected economic growth, the emergence or intensification of social inequality, and the dynamics of land-use and environmental change in Thailand and Cambodia (NSF SES- HSD – Agents of Change, Funded September 2004, Co-PI on UF subcontract). I cooperate with a Caribbean research group, studying land cover land use change of the Caribbean region (I was not a Co-PI on the grant which initiated funding but am now involved with this project). Collaboration on a more local topic, with Drs. Binford and Cumming, as part of a larger funded NASA project (Dr. M. Binford P.I.) is underway, with our first publication currently under review (Southworth et al. submitted). In addition, Dr. Binford and I are incorporating these research results and datasets directly into the remote sensing course, which we began revising over the past summer. All of these research efforts involve multidisciplinary research teams, and in many cases, several universities.

Current and future continued research interests build upon my existing research, with remote sensing of land cover change and land cover change modeling (see papers in Professional Geographer, Agricultural Economics, and Mountain Research and Development); fragmentation of land cover and the role of protected areas within a landscape (see papers in Applied Geography, Environmental Management, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, Landscape Ecology and Landscape Research); the use of continuous variables in remote sensing and modeling analyses (see papers in the International Journal of Remote Sensing and Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment) and the implications of scale and scaling in remote sensing and modeling analyses (see papers in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, and Ecosystems). Within these different research areas my major contributions to science, or those areas in which my influence is most strongly felt, are effects of climate change and changing climate variability on agricultural systems, and economic development and land-use/land-cover change around large protected areas. These are areas of developing theory, in which my research will play a key future role. On the more technical side, the role of continuous data analyses, development of improved methodologies and their incorporation into modeling, are all key areas of future development. As such, I hope to place myself at the frontier for development of these areas and their incorporation into the field of geography, not only by being an innovator in their development (see papers in the International Journal of Remote Sensing and Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment) but also by incorporating the teaching of these methodologies and other cutting edge developments into my courses on Remote Sensing (GEO5134), GIS (GEO3151, GEO5177) and Land Use Land Cover Change (GEO6938).