Yeqiao Wang, a professor of terrestrial remote sensing at the University of Rhode Island, has received $1.15 million in funding from NASA to conduct a four-year study of the Appalachian Trail ecosystem. The study will be the first to take a look at the trail’s ecosystem in its entirety from it’s southern start at Springer Mountain in Georgia to it’s northern terminus at Mount Katahdin in Maine.
The research will use satellite imagery to measure ecosystem change and to look at forest health, plant density, species diversity and human development and trail use. The research will include a dip into satellite archives to see what the trail looked liked before for comparison to what it looks like today.
You can read more about the project via this story in the URI student paper.
