Valeria Briones has a background in both forest resources and remote sensing—studying how forests have changed with the climate and how this impacts communities, tourism and forest resource management. She supports Woodwell’s Arctic-Boreal research under Dr. Brendan Rogers by collecting, processing and analyzing remote sensing data for use in improved models of Arctic carbon cycling, specifically emissions from permafrost thaw.
Briones earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and ecology from the Dominican University of California before going on to get her M.S. in forest resources as a participant in the NSF National Research Traineeship Program. At the University of Maine, her research focused on the use of remote sensing to monitor climate change’s impacts on seasonal events across Maine’s forests. She examined the consequences changing forests could have on resource and visitor management in state parks.
In her free time Briones enjoys traveling and can be found outside hiking, backpacking and skiing.
