Ruth DeFries and Jan Dempewolf have received a one year grant for $100,000 for the project “Large Scale Deforestation and Local Changes in Humid Tropical Forests in Support of Biodiversity Monitoring for TEAM” from Conservation International (CI).

The mission of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (TEAM) is to quantify and forecast changes in the biodiversity of humid tropical forests on local to regional and global scales. Changes in biodiversity are largely driven by anthropogenic forces affecting the extent and condition of habitats, including land cover conversion and degradation, climate change, and overexploitation of species. Local biodiversity levels are determined by systematic sampling through a network of field stations. Biodiversity monitoring at regional and global scales requires the integration of field data with spatially coherent data layers over large areas.

The goals of TEAM require a standardized, efficient approach for monitoring land cover changes which can be applied for different areas and for future assessments.

The University of Maryland collaborators determine areas of rapid deforestation between 2000 and 2006 in tropical humid forests using satellite imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors in combination with higher resolution imagery. Analysis of historical land cover change is carried out at selected field stations using higher spatial resolution imagery. This is done in collaboration with field scientists and remote sensing / GIS collaborators at CI. The applied methodologies will be incorporated into protocols for repeated monitoring of land cover change at local, regional, and global scales. The work of TEAM is further supported by integrating analyses of forest cover with other data sets to identify locations field stations and interpret field measurements.