Elizabeth Pattey

Last updated
Elizabeth Pattey
NationalityCanadian
Occupationsenior research scientist

Elizabeth Pattey is a Principal Research Scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the leader of the micrometeorology laboratory at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre. [1] [2] Her research supports nationwide improvement in the environmental performance of agriculture, in support of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change and Canada’s Clean Air Act. [3] She is the co-author for over 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications, [3] and her areas of expertise include trace gas flux measurement techniques, process-based models, and remote-sensing applications. [2]

Contents

Biography

Pattey has served as adjunct professor at the Macdonald Campus of McGill University, and was an external examiner for numerous Ph.D. theses in Canada and internationally. [3]

She currently works as a Research Scientist in micrometeorology at AAFC in Ottawa [1] and has led several major remote sensing initiatives, including the first project funded by the Canadian Space Agency at AAFC. [3] She has represented AAFC at the Interdepartmental Committee on Space and the Canadian Embassy Science and Technology advisors, and to numerous other organizations. [3]

Career

Her current research focuses on developing and improving trace gas flux measurement techniques to quantify greenhouse gas emissions (particularly N2O, CH4, and CO2) and other airborne contaminants, such as ammonia and particulate matter. [3] She did pioneer work on the relaxed eddy accumulation technique to measure trace gas fluxes. She has contributed to international efforts for verifying process-based models for greenhouse gas emissions and ammonia volatilization from agricultural sources, [1] and for assimilating biophysical descriptors using remote sensing data in soil and crop growth models. [2] In her research, she evaluates the impact of beneficial management practices on air quality and the impact of climate variations on the sustainability of crop production. [1] In other current projects, she quantified crop growth and biomass in response to weather and soil conditions using remote sensing, micrometeorology, and modelling techniques, and she quantified greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices at the field-, farm-, and regional-scales using micrometeorological techniques and laser instrumentation. [1] She also developed biophysical descriptors and procedures for assimilating remote-sensing data to derive yield estimates and determine site-specific agricultural management practices. [3] She was an active participant in The Boreal Ecosystem – Atmosphere Study (BOREAS), and she measured the fluxes of carbon dioxide, methane, and isoprene in the Southern Old Black Spruce site in Saskatchewan. [3]

GreenCropTracker

Along with Jiangui Liu, Pattey developed GreenCropTracker (https://www.flintbox.com/public/project/5470/), a tool to help create better models for simulating crop growth and obtaining physical descriptors of agricultural crops. GreenCropTracker is a software tool that can be used to derive crop information from a simple digital photo taken over a crop canopy in agricultural fields. [4] The resulting model predictions help growers understand what happens in the field so they can manage production more efficiently. [5] Pattey and Liu thought that a time series of photos taken over a crop canopy for documenting the growth advancement would contain quantitative information that could be evaluated. [6] They developed a histogram-based threshold method to differentiate gaps from plant tissues and then incorporated this image analysis method into GreenCropTracker. [4] GreenCropTracker can be used to study crop production in experimental plots and fields to evaluate the impact of climate variation on crops and to provide ground data for deriving crop descriptors from remote sensing data. [4] It also verifies the output of crop growth models and integrates surface conditions with regional meteorological models. [6] The software, which has already been tested over corn, wheat, and soybean crops, is used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and has been requested by nearly 50 countries because it provides fast and inexpensive crop information. [5]

Affiliations

Honours and awards

Pattey was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (CSAFM) for her lifetime contributions to agricultural and forest meteorology, she was a recipient of the Gerbier Mumm International Award for scientific excellence, WMO, in 2002 and of Graham Walker Memorial Award for excellence in Agrometeorology, CSAM, in 1997. She was nominated Chair of Task Team on Flux Measurement in Agriculture for the World Meteorological Organization – Commission of AgroMeteorology (WMO CAgM). [3] In 2018, Pattey was awarded the Andrew Thomson Prize in Applied Meteorology from the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. [7] This was for her long-standing leadership and significant contributions to agricultural meteorology. She was also awarded the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Biometeorology in 2020, from the American Meteorological Society. [7] This was for pioneering the development of systems that measure surface layer turbulence and the nocturnal boundary layer to quantify particulate matter and trace gas fluxes.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satellite temperature measurements</span>

Satellite temperature measurements are inferences of the temperature of the atmosphere at various altitudes as well as sea and land surface temperatures obtained from radiometric measurements by satellites. These measurements can be used to locate weather fronts, monitor the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, determine the strength of tropical cyclones, study urban heat islands and monitor the global climate. Wildfires, volcanos, and industrial hot spots can also be found via thermal imaging from weather satellites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evapotranspiration</span> Process by which water moves into the air from plants and soil.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined processes by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation and transpiration. Evapotranspiration is an important part of the local water cycle and climate, and measurement of it plays a key role in agricultural irrigation and water resource management.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for the federal regulation of agriculture, including policies governing the production, processing, and marketing of all farm, food, and agri-based products. Agriculture in Canada is a shared jurisdiction and the department works with the provinces and territories in the development and delivery of policies and programs.

Leaf area index (LAI) is a dimensionless quantity that characterizes plant canopies. It is defined as the one-sided green leaf area per unit ground surface area in broadleaf canopies. In conifers, three definitions for LAI have been used:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddy covariance</span>

The eddy covariance is a key atmospheric measurement technique to measure and calculate vertical turbulent fluxes within atmospheric boundary layers. The method analyses high-frequency wind and scalar atmospheric data series, gas, energy, and momentum, which yields values of fluxes of these properties. It is a statistical method used in meteorology and other applications to determine exchange rates of trace gases over natural ecosystems and agricultural fields, and to quantify gas emissions rates from other land and water areas. It is frequently used to estimate momentum, heat, water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane fluxes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry</span> Institute in the Max Planck Society located in Jena, Germany

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Monteith</span>

John Lennox Monteith DSc, FRS was a British scientist who pioneered the application of physics to biology. He was an authority in the related fields of water management for agricultural production, soil physics, micrometeorology, transpiration, and the influence of the natural environment on field crops, horticultural crops, forestry, and animal production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FLUXNET</span> Global network of micrometeorological towers

FLUXNET is a global network of micrometeorological tower sites that use eddy covariance methods to measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere. FLUXNET is a global 'network of regional networks' that serves to provide an infrastructure to compile, archive and distribute data for the scientific community. The most recent FLUXNET data product, FLUXNET2015, is hosted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) and is publicly available for download. Currently there are over 1000 active and historic flux measurement sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LI-COR Biosciences</span>

LI-COR Biosciences is an international biotech company which designs, manufactures, and markets instruments, measurement systems, and software for biological and environmental research, and develops relevant measurement methodologies and techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hemispherical photography</span>

Hemispherical photography, also known as canopy photography, is a technique to estimate solar radiation and characterize plant canopy geometry using photographs taken looking upward through an extreme wide-angle lens or a fisheye lens. Typically, the viewing angle approaches or equals 180-degrees, such that all sky directions are simultaneously visible. The resulting photographs record the geometry of visible sky, or conversely the geometry of sky obstruction by plant canopies or other near-ground features. This geometry can be measured precisely and used to calculate solar radiation transmitted through plant canopies, as well as to estimate aspects of canopy structure such as leaf area index. Detailed treatments of field and analytical methodology have been provided by Paul Rich and Robert Pearcy (1989).

A seawater greenhouse is a greenhouse structure that enables the growth of crops and the production of fresh water in arid regions which constitute about one third of the earth's land area. This in response to the global water scarcity and peak water and the salt-infecting soil. The system uses seawater and solar energy. It uses a similar structure to the pad-and-fan greenhouse, but with additional evaporators and condensers. The seawater is pumped into the greenhouse to create a cool and humid environment, the optimal conditions for the cultivation of temperate crops. The freshwater is produced in a condensed state created by the solar desalination principle, which removes salt and impurities. Finally, the remaining humidified air is expelled from the greenhouse and used to improve growing conditions for outdoor plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Integrated Carbon Observation System</span>

The Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) is a research infrastructure to quantify the greenhouse gas balance of Europe and adjacent regions. In November 2015 it received the international legal status of ERIC by decision of the European Commission. It is recognized by The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) as a landmark European research infrastructure. It consists of a harmonized network of almost 150 long-term observation sites for the domains of atmosphere, ecosystems and ocean. The network is coordinated through its Head Office, the central data portal and central facilities including an atmosphere, ecosystem and ocean thematic center, and central analytical laboratories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Total Carbon Column Observing Network</span>

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i-Tree is a collection of urban and rural forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. It was designed and developed by the United States Forest Service to quantify and value ecosystem services provided by trees including pollution removal, carbon sequestration, avoided carbon emissions, avoided stormwater runoff, and more. i-Tree provides baseline data so that the growth of trees can be followed over time, and is used for planning purposes. Different tools within the i-Tree Suite use different types of inputs and provide different kinds of reports; some tools use a 'bottom up' approach based on tree inventories on the ground, while other tools use a 'top down' approach based on remote sensing data. i-Tree is peer-reviewed and has a process of ongoing collaboration to improve it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soil compaction (agriculture)</span> Decrease in porosity of soil due to agriculture

Soil compaction, also known as soil structure degradation, is the increase of bulk density or decrease in porosity of soil due to externally or internally applied loads. Compaction can adversely affect nearly all physical, chemical and biological properties and functions of soil. Together with soil erosion, it is regarded as the "costliest and most serious environmental problem caused by conventional agriculture."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vegetation index</span>

A vegetation index (VI) is a spectral imaging transformation of two or more image bands designed to enhance the contribution of vegetation properties and allow reliable spatial and temporal inter-comparisons of terrestrial photosynthetic activity and canopy structural variations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Burba</span> American bio-atmospheric scientist

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BAITSSS is biophysical Evapotranspiration (ET) computer model that determines water use, primarily in agriculture landscape, using remote sensing-based information. It was developed and refined by Ramesh Dhungel and the water resources group at University of Idaho's Kimberly Research and Extension Center since 2010. It has been used in different areas in the United States including Southern Idaho, Northern California, northwest Kansas, Texas, and Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Desjardins</span>

Raymond L. Desjardins is a senior research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in the Agrienvironment Division of the Ottawa Research and Development Centre. His areas of expertise include agricultural meteorology, micrometeorology, air quality, and climate change. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007, and in 2018 was appointed as Member of the Order of Canada for his research in agrometeorology and for his innovative devices to quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Canada, Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre;Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada;Government of. "Pattey, Elizabeth, Ph.D." www.agr.gc.ca. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Camacho, F. Implementing Multi-scale agricultural indicators exploiting sentinels. ImagineS, FP7-Space-2012-1
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Canadian Society for Agricultural and Forest Meteorology".
  4. 1 2 3 J. Liu and E. Pattey, 2010. Retrieval of leaf area index from top-of-canopy digital photography over agricultural crops. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 150:485–1490. DOI:10.1016/j.agrformet.2010.08.002.
  5. 1 2 J. Liu, E. Pattey and S. Admiral, 2013. Assessment of in situ crop LAI measurement using unidirectional view digital Photography. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 169:25–34. DOI:10.1016/j.agrformet.2012.10.009.
  6. 1 2 "GreenCropTracker: Deriving crop information from digital photography - Innovation Canada 150". 25 May 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Dr. Elizabeth Pattey".