William Hagan Brown

William Hagan Brown

Profile

My research interest includes climate change, biodiversity, forest ecology, GIS and remote sensing. I studied Natural Resources Management for my undergraduate and started my research career after graduation. Currently, I am a Principal Technologist attached to the CSIR – Forestry Research Institute of Ghana. My experience in forestry and forest-related research has provided me with several opportunities to work with both local and visiting researchers on different subjects of interest. In the long run, my research aspiration is to improve on the understanding of the structure, dynamics and how tropical forest ecosystems function, and thereby influence policies impacting on them.

My recent qualification and experience in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing has also exposed me to spatial technologies relevant in forest-related research. Remote Sensing and GIS offer the opportunity to obtain environmental data over larges areas. I am particularly interested in ways that remote sensing technologies such as infrared thermography could be utilized in obtaining information of forest canopies in the face of climate change.

William Hagan Brown

Ecology and Biodiversity

PhD title: Climate change impacts on forest canopy Temperatures: from mechanisms to implications.

My project is part of a wider network of researchers monitoring temperature of forest canopy across 5 continents (netCTF) using infrared cameras. I will be undertaking my research at a moist semi-deciduous forest in Ghana and a mature oak woodland in the UK. At these sites, I will undertake detailed measurements and analysis of canopy and tree species responses to climate change. From my analysis, I will be able to explain why canopy temperature response differ between the two sites. My fieldwork at the above sites will yield large data of plant functional traits and physiological processes that will inform on the mechanisms of temperature regulation in plants resulting from increased temperature. Output from my research will provide ground-truthing data for satellite based remote sensing, vegetation model evaluation and inform policy on temperature tolerance of plant species in the face of climate change.

ORCiD

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4399-0182