Professor Karen Anderson

Current research: I work with spatial data captured by satellites, airplanes and drones to understand ecosystem processes, particularly flows and stores of carbon and water. I work mostly in non-forest systems where vegetation pattern and volumetric structure provides a useful proxy for function. My current work is focused on the following topics:

• Vegetation dynamics in cold climate ecosystems. I am particularly interested in how mountain systems are responding to the changing climate. My team has used satellite data to show how Himalayan alpine systems and Arctic peatland systems are changing.  
• Over more than a decade, my team has experimented with drone technology for surveying ecosystems. We have developed photogrammetric approaches for quantifying dryland ecosystem structure and scaled these to a wide range of vegetation types including data from the global community. I love to collaborate with scholars from other disciplines and together we have written various pieces on drone technology, e.g. in ecology, and geography. 
• I am working on a project about net zero-inspired approaches to landscape management, and one of the things we have done in that project is produce a map of tree, hedgerow and woodland habitats for England and Wales. This was possible through open-source LiDAR data in combination with radar data from satellite platforms. 
• Together with collaborators in the Exeter CREWW centre, I have been part of the monitoring team for various peatland restoration projects across South-West England (Dartmoor and Exmoor mires projects) where we have used remote sensing data to map features associated with peatland degradation (for targeting restoration efforts) and quantifying how peatland sites respond to restoration over short to medium timescales. 
• I have collaborated with Stephan Harrison for many years, exploring interesting parts of mountain systems; including rock glaciers in Bolivia, producing the first Himalayan-wide inventory of rock glaciers (using google Earth) and also discovering evidence for little ice age glaciers on the North Face of Ben Nevis. I really like spending time in mountains.
• With collaborators at the Environment and Sustainability Institute I have explored the environmental life-cycle impacts of the 'dark side' of Earth observation amidst the current boom in satellite launches and growing use of data centres for information extraction. 
• After my PhD in the field of 'field spectroscopy' I have participated in various field campaigns, e.g. at European flux tower sites. I was very happy to participate in this dream experiment linking spectroscopic measurements at a remote desert tramway, with drone measurements and satellite observations. 

Expertise: My PhD was focused on developing proximal sensing and spectroradiometric approaches for calibrating and validating coarser-grained remote sensing (RS) data through which I gained a deep critical understanding of the physical aspects of RS. My research now addresses questions about the relationships between spatial pattern, volumetric structure and ecosystem function in vegetated systems using RS observations, in situ data and spatial modelling. I work extensively with RS data of all types, from satellite observations to airborne and terrestrial laser scanning, and spectroscopy. With my DroneLab research group, I have pioneered the use of lightweight drones for spatial ecological research, with a particular focus on spatial modelling of vegetation structure in wetland, grass and shrub ecosystems. I have undertaken a range of practical research developing drone sensing methodologies, the latter which has led to me producing the first spatial estimates of shrub biomass in drylands using drone-based SfM photogrammetry methods.

Supervision: I currently manage a team comprising postdoctoral, doctoral and MbyRes researchers. I have supervised 12 PhD students to successful completion, all of whom have published peer-reviewed papers during their research projects.

I am affiliated to the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science which is based within the Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences.

I am also part of the Environment and Sustainability Institute. 

You can find my Google Scholar page here.

Qualifications:

2005 PhD Geography (University of Southampton)
1999 BSc Environmental Science (University of Southampton, First Class Hons)

Career:

2016 Associate Professor, University of Exeter
2010 Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
2004-2010 Lecturer, University of Exeter
2000-2002 Manager of the NERC Equipment Pool for Field Spectroscopy, University of Southampton
2000-2002 Remote sensing consultancy, GeoData Institute