Chris Hakkenberg
Biography
(Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017) is a remote sensing ecologist whose research integrates field and remotely-sensed data to characterize cross-scale patterns, drivers and constraints on forest structure, biodiversity, biomass, and wildfires. Projects seek to understand multi-scale ecological processes by integrating space-borne lidar, broadband optical time series, and hyperspectral remote-sensing data with airborne and field data to support wildfire and conservation policy, planning, and practice.
Education
2017 PhD Ecology University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2007 MA Regional Studies East Asia Harvard University
2004 BA Chinese Studies Reed College
Research
Ecology: forest structure and dynamics, biodiversity, fire ecology, macroecology and biogeography
Remote sensing: lidar, image spectroscopy, broad-band optical time series
GIScience: geospatial analysis, ecoinformatics, data visualization
Statistics: parametric, nonparametric, spatial, hierarchical, prediction and inference
Applications: wildfire management, biodiversity conservation
Selected Publications
Hakkenberg, C.R.; Clark, M.; Bailey, T.; Burns, P. and S.J. Goetz. (2024). Ladder fuels rather than canopy volumes consistently predict wildfire severity even in extreme topographic-weather conditions. Nature Communications Earth & Environment. 5:721. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01893-8
Hakkenberg, C.R., Atkins, J.W., Brodie, J.F., Burns, P., Cushman, S., Jantz, P., Kaszta, Z., Quinn, C.A., Rose, M.D., and S.J. Goetz. (2023). Inferring alpha, beta, and gamma plant diversity across biomes with GEDI spaceborne lidar. Environmental Research: Ecology. 2(3), 035005. https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/acffcd
Hakkenberg, C.R. and S.J. Goetz (2021). Climate mediates the relationship between plant biodiversity and forest structure across the contiguous United States. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 30:2245–2258. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13380
Hakkenberg, C.R., M.P. Dannenberg, C. Song, and G. Vinci. (2020). Automated continuous fields prediction from Landsat time series: application to fractional impervious cover. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters. 17 (1) 132-136. https://doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2019.2915320
Hakkenberg, C.R., R.K. Peet, D.L. Urban, and C. Song. (2018). Modeling plant composition as community continua in a forest landscape with LiDAR and hyperspectral remote sensing. Ecological Applications. 28(1), 177-190. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1638
Hakkenberg, C.R. (2008). Biodiversity and Sacred Sites: Vernacular Conservation Practices in Northwest Yunnan, China. Worldviews: Environment, Culture, and Religion. Vol. 12, No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853508X276842
Grants & Awards
NASA EDGE (Co-I; Wildfires Lead; Biodiversity Co-lead)
NASA GEDI (Completed Science Team PI)
CAL FIRE (Institutional PI)
Save the Redwoods League (PI)
