CIRES Council of Fellows>

Carol A. Wessman

University of Wisconsin, 1987
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department
Center for the Study of Earth from Space

E-mail: wessman@cses.colorado.edu
Office: Ekeley W265B
Phone: 303-492-1139
Web: Wessman Research Group

Research Interests

Ecosystem ecology, landscape ecology, regional and global biogeochemical cycling, ecological applications of remote sensing and geographic information systems. Current research includes studies of ecosystem controls over biophysical fluxes (CO₂, water and energy) within global grasslands and semiarid lands utilizing remotely sensed spectral data in conjunction with simulation models; scaling site-level ecology to landscape and regional scales in the alpine; quantitative methods that link spatial patterns and ecological processes at broad spatial and temporal scales.

Selected Publications

• Wessman, C.A., J.D. Aber, D.L. Peterson, and J.M. Melillo. 1988. Remote sensing of canopy chemistry and nitrogen cycling in temperate forest ecosystems. Nature 335:154-156.
• Wessman, C.A. 1990. Evaluation of canopy biochemistry. In: Remote Sensing of Biosphere Functioning. R. Hobbs and H. Mooney, eds. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 135-156.
• Ustin, S.L., C.A. Wessman, B. Curtiss, E. Kasischke, J. Way and M.C. Dobson. 1991. Opportunities for parameterization of ecosystem models using the Eos imaging spectrometer and synthetic aperature radar. Ecology, 72(6):1934-1945.
• Wessman, C.A. 1992. Spatial scales and global change: bridging the gap from plots to GCM grid cells. Ann. Rev. of Ecol. and Syst. 23:175-200.

Wessman is also one of the CIRES Faculty who teach at the University of Colorado at Boulder with teaching loads equivalent to those of CU faculty rostered solely in departments and programs.