C P Singh
ISRO, Ahmedabad
C P Singh joined the Space Applications Centre, ISRO, in 2002 and is currently working as Scientist/Engineer-SF in the Earth and Planetary Sciences and Applications Area. He has played a key role in various prestigious research projects related to satellite remote sensing applications in the fields of environment, forestry and ecology. He has designed an active forest fire algorithm for INSAT-3D/3DR. A long-term, first-of-its-kind ecological monitoring network called Himalayan Alpine Dynamics Research Initiative (HIMADRI) in India and the first PhenoMet network for Indian forests has been initiated under his guidance. He is also interested in ecosystem modelling, phenology, lichenology, palaeobotany and climate change impact studies. He has been the focal point for many sponsored research collaborations of ISRO with academia. He has represented India in various international forums, including the 39th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (2019-2020). He has to his credit more than 100 publications. He is the recipient of the prestigious P R Pisharoty Memorial Award from the Indian Society of Remote Sensing and the President's Appreciation Medal from the Indian Society of Geomatics.
Session 2B - Symposium on "Landscape and Seascape of Western India and Beyond"
Binod Sreenivasan, IISc, Bengaluru, Convener - Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi, BITS-Pilani, Goa
Phenological monitoring: Sensing the pulse of the forest ecosystem
Phenology of plants is a sensitive indicator of climate change and is crucial in regulating biosphere functions. Satellite remote sensing with synoptic coverage, frequent revisits and suitable wavelengths to monitor finer changes in greenness is gaining importance to understand ecosystem dynamics in changing climate scenarios. This has implications for forest fire regime, CO2 fluxes, and energy and mass exchange. These variations, as captured and quantified spatially at the landscape level using time-series satellite remote sensing observations and validated with Phenocam network data, can prove to be potent means to understand ecosystem dynamics, including functional traits of forests. Phenocams fitted with automatic weather monitoring systems can further help us understand the meteorological/climatic drivers of these changes on a temporal scale. With our HIMADRI network data, we have observed upward treeline shifts and lengthening of the growing season, thermophilization, and treeline species missing flowering events. However, there is no systematic observation being done in the country; therefore, ISRO's Geosphere and Biosphere Programme has taken up systematic observation through the PhenoMet network covering major forest types. This is expected to generate well-calibrated and validated phenological matrices and investigate the drivers of changes in the forest ecosystem.