Lecture touts importance of saving forests

In the annual UNT Regents Faculty lecture Nov. 6, Miguel Acevedo, professor of geography, will describe the study of forest landscapes and ways that human use changes the valuable resources of forests. The presentation, "Let's See the Forest for the Trees," is at 7:30 p.m. in the University Union Lyceum.

Through computer modeling and video clips, Acevedo will offer a visual story of forested landscapes from Texas and the Pacific Northwest to the tropical rainforests of South America.

"The world's forests not only provide timber and other products, but also protect the quality of watersheds and provide habitat for wildlife," says Acevedo. "Therefore, forests must be preserved."

In his lecture, Acevedo will describe how timber extraction, changes in land use, deforestation and mining are major national and international concerns related to human impact upon forests. He will also focus on how changes in forest cover have a direct effect on diverse life found in forests and on the climate of the entire planet through global warming.

"Scientists at UNT and Duke University have developed methods to 'scale up' computer models in ecology," says Acevedo. "These enhanced models can describe long-term changes of large forested areas, allowing decision makers to plan strategies for sustaining forests."

Acevedo has served as a professor in the Department of Geography and the Institute of Applied Sciences since 1992. He earned his doctoral degree in biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980. He received a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from UC-Berkeley in 1978 and a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972.

His expertise and interests are in systems analysis; ecological, environmental and geographical modeling; linkages of dynamic simulation models to geographic information systems; effects of stress on ecological systems; high-resolution spectral data acquisition and analysis; landscape and forest ecology; ecosystem management; biological sensors; global climate change and variability; tropical environmental systems; and sustainability.

BY CATHY CASHIO ccashio@unt.edu

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