women's history month
Fulbright Reflections Series
Jaclyn Hall: Monitoring Ecological Change within Forests
We are pleased to invite you to a presentation in the Fulbright Reflections Series on “Seeing the Disturbance For the Trees: Change beneath the canopy in East African Mountains” by Fulbrighter Jaclyn Hall on Thursday, March 29 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. at the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam.
For many East African rain forests, viewing the 55 meter tall canopy from opposing ridges gives the impression of healthy and intact forests, yet underneath exist farms, numerous stumps, sawpits and other evidence of human activities. This study investigates variations in composition and structure within the area that would be classified as rainforest, and develops methods to monitor ecological change within forests. It will develop new methods to use satellite images to detect and monitor forest disturbance in East Africa’s rain forests.
Jaclyn Hall is a PhD student from the department of Geography at the University of Florida. She is in Tanzania completing her data collection with a Fulbright Fellowship. Her field work has taken place in the East Usambara Mountains of the Tanga region, where she has been conducting vegetation structure surveys for the past year. She will link her field data with the satellite data in order to offer a greater understanding of the extent of variations in forest structure, including disturbance such as shade grown crop expansion.
Jaclyn has been working in Tanzania since 1996 when she first came to the Tanga region as a Geography teacher with the U.S. Peace Corps. She since has returned to the country about every other year. She hopes to use her skills in GIS and remote sensing along with her knowledge of Tanzania and it environments to aid on the ground conservation projects and influence international conservation directions.
To confirm your attendance, please register by emailing paodar@state.govwith your name or names of people in your office that will be attending the presentation. As we have several events, please be sure to mention the name of this one in your response.
