Development of UAV Remote Sensing for Ecosystem Research

PI:  D. Schinstock (NME), with Doug Goodin as co-PI
Funding: $654,011 from the National Science Foundation
Duration: 2005-2008
Collaborators: KSU Department of Nuclear & Mechanical Engineering, KSU Department of Agronomy

Impact of Rapid Anthropogenic Landcover Change on Hantavirus Ecology

KSU co-PIs:  Doug Goodin and Shawn Hutchinson
Funding:  $1.8 million from National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center
Duration:  2004-2008
Collaborators:  Southern Research Institute, Texas Tech University, New Mexico State University, National University of Asuncion (Paraguay)

Lab researchers are involved in a multidisciplinary investigation of the role of human land cover disturbance on the dynamics of hantavirus in Paraguay. As part of this project, RSRL faculty and students have shown that areas of human disturbance are preferred habitats for the rodents that carry hantavirus. This work further suggests that hantavirus-prone areas can be mapped and detected via remote sensing, and that these observations might help to determine the conditions that lead to outbreaks of hantavirus disease.

Mapping Burns in Tallgrass Prairie using Remote Sensing

PI:  Doug Goodin
Funding: $15,000 from EPA Region 7
Collaborators: KCARE

In the Kansas Flint Hills, RSRL researchers have developed innovative new ways of mapping seasonal rangeland burning. This work has important implications for prairie wildlife habitat, as well for predicting air pollution events caused by the burning.

Rain Manipulation Plot Study (RaMPs)