Forest

Wolf Creek Pass

An amazing overlook of the Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. Wolf Creek is a mountain pass on the Continental Divide (also known as the "Great Divide") in the San Juan Mountains. The Continental Divide separates waters that flow into the Pacific Ocean from those that drain into the Atlantic Ocean. ⁣

Mangrove Forest

Mangrove forests provide a natural defense to coastal communities against the rising sea levels. The growing volume of warming ocean waters and the meting of ice caps and glaciers have led to significant increases in sea levels which is expected to continue in the future. With their unique roots, mangrove forests reduce the energy of tidal waves and ocean currents and protect the coastal areas from erosion. Unfortunately, a large fraction of mangrove forests has been destroyed due to development in coastal areas. In some countries, nearly all mangrove forests have disappeared. I took this picture from what is left from Singapore’s mangroves. Over the past 200 years, mangrove cover has been reduced from 13% to only 0.5% of the total land area of the country! ⁣

Burned Forest

View of a burned forest in Alberta, Canada. The life cycle of wildfires is fascinating. Fires devastate the landscape, but they also enrich the soil with nutrients from decomposed organic matter in plants, accelerating the regrowth process. The regrown forest can look very different from the original one, leading to a different ecosystem and biodiversity. The latest research shows that there is a high degree of randomness in the ecosystem that emerges after a wildfire. This calls to question how much we should or can intervene in the post-fire regrowth process.

Burned Forest

View of a burned forest in Alberta, Canada. The life cycle of wildfires is fascinating. Fires devastate the landscape, but they also enrich the soil with nutrients from decomposed organic matter in plants, accelerating the regrowth process. The regrown forest can look very different from the original one, leading to a different ecosystem and biodiversity. The latest research shows that there is a high degree of randomness in the ecosystem that emerges after a wildfire. This calls to question how much we should or can intervene in the post-fire regrowth process.

Susitna River, Alaska

Rivers are considered as one of the most important “agents of landscape evolution”! If there is no physical obstacle or human intervention, a meandering river like this slowly moves laterally by sediment erosion on the outside of the meander and deposition on the inner curve. This process causes river meanders to slowly grow larger over time, and move laterally in the direction of the outside bend. Here is a photo of the Susitna River in Alaska that I took from a helicopter. ⁣

Susitna River, Alaska

Rivers are considered as one of the most important “agents of landscape evolution”! If there is no physical obstacle or human intervention, a meandering river like this slowly moves laterally by sediment erosion on the outside of the meander and deposition on the inner curve. This process causes river meanders to slowly grow larger over time, and move laterally in the direction of the outside bend. Here is a photo of the Susitna River in Alaska that I took from a helicopter. ⁣