{"id":33179,"date":"2026-03-03T15:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/?p=33179"},"modified":"2026-03-26T15:20:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:20:59","slug":"congratulations-associate-professor-koreen-millard-on-receiving-csa-and-eccc-research-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/2026\/congratulations-associate-professor-koreen-millard-on-receiving-csa-and-eccc-research-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations Associate Professor Koreen Millard on Receiving CSA and ECCC Research Grants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Congratulations Associate Professor Koreen Millard on Receiving CSA and ECCC Research Grants\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

We are pleased to congratulate Koreen Millard<\/strong> on receiving two research grants from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)<\/strong> and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)<\/strong> in support of innovative, interdisciplinary research on Canada\u2019s carbon-rich ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funded by the Canadian Space Agency (Flights and Fieldwork): <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Peatlands are carbon-rich wetlands. If they burn, the carbon they store is released. Using space-based technologies, this research will study peatlands to better understand them and guide future efforts to protect their carbon. The vast majority of scientific understanding of peatlands is from large peatlands on level terrain. Recent observations in Canada\u2019s mountainous regions have revealed that peatlands can form and thrive on hillsides, fed by emerging groundwater and\/or cooled by sub-peat permafrost. This project will be carried out in collaboration with the First Nation of Na-Cho Ny\u00e4k Dun (FNNND) and will be based out of Mayo, Yukon. By working closely with FNNND, the project will support local priorities, providing updated information for wetland mapping and improving knowledge of local hydrology and carbon storage. The project will first improve mapping of peatlands in sloped areas, combining drone imagery, satellite data, and field measurements to capture their unique characteristics. Next, it will assess smouldering peatland wildfires, which burn slowly and can persist underground, by tracking their movement over time using thermal and SWIR drone imagery. This work will test new quantum dot SWIR technology\u2014an emerging sensor type not yet available on satellites but highly relevant to future Canadian space missions and Earth observation applications. Scaling-up field and drone-based measurements to satellite observations will also be evaluated. Finally, the behavior of smouldering fires on flat and sloped terrain will be analyzed, and field and drone-based observations will be used to improve models that predict how these fires start, spread, and stop. The project will deliver updated peatland maps, detailed time-series maps of smouldering fire progression, empirical models linking drone and satellite data, and validated insights into fire behavior that can be used to support wildfire monitoring, emissions estimation, and land management strategies. These outputs will directly benefit FNNND by enhancing local wetland and fire management planning, as well as providing insights into the hydrological functioning of peatlands within their traditional territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partners: Murray Richardson (Carleton), First Nations of Na-cho Nyak Dun, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), National Research Council, Canadian Forest Service, Tauri Tampuu (Kappa Zeta)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada (Pollutant Inventories and Reporting division): <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s Blue Carbon Ecosystems (BCE) represent a significant gap in the global soft sediment carbon cycling literature (Macreadie et al 2021). Natural climate solutions typically highlight BCE as one of the most effective strategies, on a per-hectare basis (e.g. Drever et al. 2021 list it fourth in Canada). However, despite this importance, large gaps in our understanding of both sequestering capabilities and the distribution of coastal ecosystems remain (Macreadie et al. 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carbon stocks and accumulation rates across Canada\u2019s coastline reveal significant variability in both (Chmura et al., 2003; Mazzotti et al., 2008; Montillet et al., 2018; Gailis et al., 2021). This variability highlights the importance of ongoing research and data collection, as well as the need to explore the underlying mechanisms driving carbon dynamics in salt marsh ecosystems. One major limitation of research programs in Canadian BCE is the lack of GHG flux data needed to develop emission factors. While limited GHG flux data is available via the gas-flux-chamber method (e.g. Magenheimer et al. 1996; Chmura et al. 2011; and Comer-Warner et al. 2022), there is only one Eddy Covariance system in eastern Canada\u2019s coastal ecosystems. Over the past decades, the eddy covariance method has emerged as a valuable approach for measuring GHG fluxes. Unlike the gas-flux-chamber method, Eddy Covariance provides continuous measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), water, and energy fluxes over a broad swath of surface without interfering with the processes of gas exchange between the surface and the atmosphere. The continuous measurement allows for integrating annual fluxes, but observations from the full range of atmospheric conditions help determine both critical flux periods and drivers of flux variability which contribute to more accurate emission factor estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the limited observations of emission data, coastal marshes are poorly quantified. Currently, The Gulf of St. Lawrence is estimated to have around 309 km2 of salt marsh (Rabinowitz and Andrews, 2022) but this is likely an underestimate given the difficulty in remotely quantifying coastal ecotypes. Accurate emissions inventories require Activity Data (i.e. data capturing the extent of different Land-use Land Cover (LULC) classes at specific instances of time). Salt marshes generally have two broad classes (\u201chigh\u201d and \u201clow\u201d marsh), which are thought to differ in their capacities for carbon emissions and sequestration (Chastain et al., 2022; Chmura et al., 2003; Roughan et al., 2018). However, existing maps of salt marsh extent are not well developed for the maritime region. Primarily, studies have focused on the macrotidal Bay of Fundy as salt marshes have experienced significant historic loss due to agricultural expansion. However, salt marshes also are common in microtidal environments, but are much less readily studied and mapped. A method is required to produce high quality maps of salt marshes across large expanses, using a repeatable method to capture future changes over time. Remote sensing is an obvious choice, but in order to produce high quality maps, high quality reference data is required. Additionally, using remote sensing to capture changes in the past will require a different method due to changes in sensor characteristics over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research aims to compile and collect high quality reference data from existing sources and through additional field data collection. From this, we will explore both remote sensing and biometeorological methods to create high quality activity and emission data as well as quantify error estimates in both area and vertical carbon fluxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaborator: Graham Clark  (Saint Francis Xavier University and adjunct in DGES)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are pleased to congratulate Koreen Millard on receiving two research grants from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in support of innovative, interdisciplinary research on Canada\u2019s carbon-rich ecosystems. Funded by the Canadian Space Agency (Flights and Fieldwork): Peatlands are carbon-rich wetlands. If they burn, the carbon they store […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":32376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33180,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33179\/revisions\/33180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}