Geography Postdoc and Research Scientist Showcase Colloquium
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Speakers:Ìý
Dr. Sean Burns (Geography)Ìý
My research goal is to improve our understanding of the meteorological factors and conditions that control the exchange of energy and gases between the surface and atmosphere in complex, forested terrain. This research is carried out at the University of Colorado Niwot Ridge Subalpine Forest AmeriFlux site where a 26-m tall tower is used to measure wind, temperature, water vapor, and carbon dioxide.
Dr. Yu Peng (ESIIL)Ìý
Yu Peng is an agroecologist dedicated to evaluating and scaling nature-based solutions in managed terrestrial ecosystems to foster ecosystem resilience and services. His research combines field measurements with global synthesis to quantify soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, greenhouse gas (GHG) dynamics, and nitrogen leaching across diverse agricultural landscapes.
Prior to joining CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï, Yu earned his Ph.D. in Applied Earth and Environmental Sciences from Indiana University, where he evaluated the climate mitigation potential of cover crops in close collaboration with local farmers, regional conservation agencies, and the USGS. He also holds the joint dual M.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Copenhagen and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a B.S. in GIS from Central China Normal University.
At ESIIL, Yu focuses on leveraging AI-powered frameworks to harmonize multi-source datasets spanning lab assays, field observations, literature syntheses, and satellites images. His research aims to scale agricultural nature-based solutions from regional to continental levels and translate global syntheses into mechanistic insights, delivering scalable, science-backed strategies for sustainable agroecosystem functioning.
Dr. Kai Kopecky (ESIIL)Ìý
Kai is a community and marine ecologist and earned his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was involved with the . He is interested in how new disturbance regimes, brought on by global change, affect the capacity for ecosystems to recover after a disturbance occurs (i.e., ecosystem resilience). In particular, he studies how the dead, remnant structures of foundation species (a type of material legacy; e.g., dead trees, coral skeletons, bivalve shells, etc.) affect ecological processes that drive ecosystem recovery. He combines remote sensing techniques (photogrammetry, structure from motion) with AI-assisted image analysis, as well as time series analysis and mathematical modeling to understand how material legacies of foundation species are being altered under global change, and the impacts this will have on the resilience of contemporary ecosystems.
Dr. Karl Andraczek (ESIIL)Ìý
Karl is an ecologist who uses trait-based approaches and causal inference techniques to study the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem functioning. His interests span both the above- and belowground world of plants, and he is driven by the motivation to find nature-based solutions to extreme climatic events like drought. Before coming to CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï, he received his PhD in Ecology at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and worked as a postdoc at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), where he was PI of an independent research project using belowground plant traits to understand the climate resilience of grasslands. He is excited to collaborate around climate resilience, biodiversity–ecosystem functioning and their feedbacks, and trait ecology.
Dr. Wyatt Million (ESIIL)Ìý
Wyatt is a marine ecologist focusing on tropical coral reefs, acclimatization and adaptation to climate change, and environmental variability's impact on species physiology and distribution. Wyatt received his doctorate at the University of Southern California studying phenotypic plasticity of coral in the Florida Keys. Most recently as a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Technology Sydney, he explored the consequences of marine deoxygenation for tropical coral on the Great Barrier Reef.
At ESIIL, Wyatt will focus on characterizing dissolved oxygen dynamics on coral reefs around the world to find patterns associated with coral bleaching, reef health, and species distributions. This work will combine a patchwork of dissolved oxygen, temperature, and coral ecological datasets to create tools for assessing deoxygenation on reefs.Ìý