Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Californian CESU

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The US Geological Survey seeks to cooperate with a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) for the purpose of improving methods to track annual change in areas of mountain pine beetle-infested forest areas in the western United States. Mountain pine beetle (MPB) is the most destructive forest insect of the western United States and Canada, where it occurs widely on a variety of pine species. The current MPB outbreak has impacted large expanses of lodgepole and ponderosa pine forests, changing their ability to act as carbon sinks, altering wildfire hazards, modifying local surface energy balance, altering hydrology, and changing regional climate. Although there is general knowledge, based on aerial surveillance, about the distribution of MPB and it�s change over time for the western US, a considerable amount of uncertainty exists in such knowledge. Therefore, it is desirable to develop and improve monitoring techniques that can accurately and effectively track spatio-temporal patterns of MPB based on time-series remotely sensed data to assess the long-term impacts by this type of disturbance in forests.

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