NASA invests in U of I doctoral student’s grassland research
By HANNAH SPANGLER
FarmWeek
A University of Illinois doctoral candidate received a $150,000 investment from NASA to create a detailed grassland map using remote sensing.
Wendy Dorman, the recipient of the prestigious three-year research grant, plans to map grassland habitats across Illinois — where 99% of the prairies have vanished.
Her goals include finding out which habitat features are most important for endangered birds to maximize best practices to protect them in the small amount of grassland available.
“I’ve been really frustrated by the lack of available data to use when trying to understand what’s happening to birds,” Dorman said, adding that current research is not at the level needed for making management decisions and conducting effective modeling.
Dorman will use remote sensing, which involves using satellite imagery to collect information, to produce a high-quality map of the cold and warm season grasses in grasslands across the state.
She believes this will help provide targeted support to individual bird species based on their survival needs.
“It’s important for conservation and for management and wildlife or other environmental reasons that we have a good idea of where grasslands are and what their qualities are,” said Mike Ward, U of I professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES).
The research can also benefit farmers enrolling in conservation programs and help enhance habitats for birds like quail and pheasants, Ward explained. The detailed maps can show where to place grasslands to maximize agricultural and new environmental benefits.
Ward told FarmWeek that the use of remote sensing in grasslands is a lot like the use of precision technology in agriculture. They are working with small amounts of grassland and using technology to optimize conservation practices.
“A strategic placement of habitat can go a long way,” he said. “Right now, it’s kind of overwhelming to have so much information and so much data. But as we go on, all this information will keep on coming in and we’ll be able to do a better job of managing our resources.”
Research has already started on a small scale, and Dorman and her team are preparing to ramp things up. This semester, she will work with students from natural resources and environmental sciences, computer science and physics to bring together the different disciplines needed for the project.
She hopes to have preliminary results around March or April before moving into fieldwork throughout the spring and summer. The fieldwork will help compare satellite data with real-life observations.
“You need to actually physically go into the field and see what is on the ground,” Dorman said. “We don’t just trust the models that we produce, we compare them against what’s actually in the field.”
This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association.
