Urban Wet Carbon Accounting and Climate Change

Zintellect is offering a NASA Postdoctoral Program opportunity focused on Urban Wet Carbon Accounting and Climate Change in New York, NY. The role involves researching carbon storage in wetlands, utilizing satellite remote sensing and field experiments to assess carbon stocks and fluxes. Candidates should have a strong background in remote sensing, GIS, or blue carbon. This is a competitive fellowship aimed at advancing NASA’s missions in Earth science.
About the NASA Postdoctoral Program

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Description:

This opportunity is closed to applicants who are Senior Fellows (5-years or more past PhD).

Wetlands are strongly linked to climate, whether in emissions, fluxes, or storage. We investigate carbon storage in wetlands in the New York area, assessing the value of these wetlands for preserving them in the face of coastal ecosystem degradation and managed restoration, in terms of regional and global biogeochemical cycles as well as in terms of climate change mitigation policies. Using satellite remote sensing and observational data, this study will address this urgent research gap by characterizing carbon (C) stocks and fluxes in the lower Hudson Valley and the Long Island Sound, and developing measurement and analytical approaches for use in support of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) frameworks in coastal wetlands. The applicant will couple space-based remote sensing with comprehensive field and laboratory experiments to quantify the areal extent of wetlands and determine the depths and C content of various types of wetland sediments (both riverine and marineestuarine). In addition, we will together examine the role of these wetlands in lateral exchanges of organic C with adjacent estuarine and coastal waters. This combination of studies will allow us to understand wetland-atmosphere-estuarine C exchanges, assess how much C is stored on the landscape today, and how land use and land cover change, as well as changes in climate will affect this significant C reservoir. This information is critical for C management and MRV activities. A strong background in remote sensing, GIS, or blue carbon is required.

Field of Science: Earth Science

Advisors:

Dorothy M. Peteet

dorothy.m.peteet@nasa.gov

845-642-5702

Questions about this opportunity? Please email npp@orau.org