Agroecology Lab

 
Photo of Moffatt K. Ngugi

Moffatt K. Ngugi

Postdoctoral fellow

e-mail:
ngugi@nrel.colostate.edu 		Resume (PDF)

EDUCATION
Pd.D., Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University. Ft. Collins CO. 2007.
Dissertation: Application of moderate resolution satellite data for assessment of large herbivore impacted rangelands: Case studies US and Kenya rangelands.

M.Sc., Physical Land Resources, Ghent University, Belgium 2001.
Thesis: The impact of recently introduced ungulates on the coastal dune soils of the Westhoek Nature Reserve, Belgium.

B.Sc., Range Management, University of Nairobi, Kenya 1998.


RESEARCH INTERESTS
I have a background in Range Management. I worked on a Masters degree in soil science within a Physical Land Resources program. This involved study of the flow of energy and matter in soil-plant-atmosphere continuums. At Colorado State University, I worked within the auspices of the Natural Resources Ecology Lab (NREL) with Dr. Richard T. Conant. Our research focused on utilizing remote sensing to understand landscape-level herbivory. We assessed the use of moderate resolution satellite data for grazing management in US grasslands and characterized large herbivores key resource areas in Kenyan rangelands. My general areas of interest in ecology include: grassland structure and function, plant production dynamics and implications for element cycling, plant response to grazing and how remote sensing can be useful in these fields. The integral quality of my studies and experience is analysis of explicit spatial and temporal information from diverse datasets and methods in order to understand biotic and abiotic natural resource management using remote sensing and GIS. In my current project, I use remote sensing and modeling for a temporal and spatial assessment of greenhouse gas emissions in Californian agriculture. The aim is to assess possibilities for greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture at the local and regional scale.

Projects
  1. Impacts of Ungulates in a sand dune ecosystem
  2. Does grazing impact light-use-efficiency in pastures?
  3. Remote sensing of grazing intensity: Case studies in the short- and midgrass steppes
  4. Remote sensing and ecological modeling for assessing C sequestration in semiarid grassland soils