Undergraduate Student Researcher
Richmond, Virginia, United States
Researching the effects of climate change on the timing of Fall foliage in the National Parks on the East Coast with Dr. Steph Spera in the Geography, Sustainability, and Environment department at the University of Richmond. Currently focusing on the Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah National Parks and the Marsh-Billings Rockefeller, Saint Gaudens, and Minuteman National Historic Parks. The specific time window of interest is 1950-2023.The research involves three main components, climate data, remote sensing, and archival research. In working with big climate data, I have learned (and am still learning) the R programming language. I used R to optimize and make the data obtained from weather stations usable and replicable for any location. For the remote sensing component of the research, satellite imagery is collected and used to determine peak fall foliage. This cannot be done for all the years I am observing, so archival data must be used. This data is acquired by searching through archives and communicating with officials, business owners, and government agencies in the regions of interest.