Ecology and Biosphere Engineering

Up to now, planet Earth's environment (including climate, flora and fauna) has evolved mostly governed by `natural laws' (physics, random mutation, natural selection, competition of species, symbiosis etc.). Increasingly, Earth's environment is affected by human activity. Human activity has, thus far, been mostly driven by demographics, and by economic and political objectives. Humans are starting to realize that the quality of the environment they all share is valuable and needs to be preserved and managed.  At this point humanity needs knowledge to make informed choices, and technology to have better options.

Our research aims to provide humanity with knowledge and technology options regarding the biosphere. This effort operates on three fronts:

1. Inform: develop methods to measure accurately the state of the Earth's biosphere (species abundance, distributions, interactions, local and global outputs);
2. Analyze: understand at the causal level how alterations to one part of the biosphere affect the others (if this perturbation is made, then that happens) to support cause-effect and cost-benefit analyses;
3. Provide Options: invent and develop technologies to mitigate and remedy the effect of human activities and to restore affected ecosystems.

• How can we leverage new imaging technologies, sensing modalities, and data interpretation approaches to improve our ability to remotely monitor biosphere composition and outputs from the micro to global scale in real time?
• Can we collect measurements and develop models to guide human activities, so that we can monitor and limit unwanted damage to the biosphere and direct restoration efforts productively?
• How can we harness the programmable physical, chemical and biological capabilities of living organisms for sustainable energy, agriculture and materials?
• For example, can we identify and manipulate (micro)biological processes in the soil better to achieve important ecosystem services (e.g. protection against pathogens, plant access to nutrients, increased carbon uptake)?