Alexey-Ben meeting 2018-09-10

[ashiklom]

Alexey's updates:

• Last week on GitHub issue (#6)
• Today:
  • Read Lynch et al. discussions paper on respiration scaling
  • Working on testing PEcAn Docker on local machine
  • Interacting with PIC staff

Alexey's plan for this week:

• (PhD) trait analysis resubmission – 20%
• PEcAn setup and testing – 40%
• Direct Hector work – 25%
• Background research and planning for Hector and FoRTE – 15%
  • Hector – reading related to my ideas
  • FoRTE, e.g…
    • Past modeling activities at UMBS (e.g. Gil Bohrer)
    • Canopy structure modeling

Questions about Lynch paper:

• Pattern scaling – my understanding is correct
• Why respiration-temperature relationship negative? Probably a moisture signal – increased temperature drains soil moisture, which decreases respiration
• Why respiration-precipitation relationship weaker in dry areas? Not sure; may be a data/model artifact

Hector:

• Developing Hector as an R package
  • Take a look at Robert's current progress on his branch
  • Set up a meeting to discuss moving forward
  • Generally, Hector software engineering is valuable, even if no direct path to typical science paper. Think about a JOSS paper.
• Look at Lynch published paper – CMIP5 pattern scaling library (Alexey already has)
• Alexey's ideas
  • Derive CO2 and temperature responses from FLUXNET and/or MODIS NPP. Then, cluster to see if any discrete PFTs or easily model-able patterns emerge.
  • Run Hector globally, then calculate residuals at every FLUXNET site. Look for patterns.
• For significant Hector steps forward, good to keep Corinne in the loop. She is mostly not on email, but may be active on Slack, so ping her there.

FoRTE:

• Set up a GitHub issue with ideas for FoRTE papers
• Think about drone canopy work
  • Caveat – has to be PREMISE-related, because funding is from PREMISE
  • Plan on flying the drone at SERC at least once
  • Ask Stephanie if she wants to help
  • Check with PNNL safety regulations
  • Look into getting a pilot certification

Funding:

• Change position title for external funding? Probably difficult, but worth asking about if the opportunity arises. Also depends on details.
• Lots of internal funding opportunities
  • Pauling Fellowship
    • Ben will send contact info of past Pauling Fellows he knows
  • LDRD – Small internal funding opportunities
    • "Cool, small idea" – ~$20K, ~100-150 hours
    • Abigail Snyder got one
    • Good for demonstrating ambition and proposal-writing acumen
    • Also good for practice (low stakes)

[bpbond]

Note the drone canopy doesn't have to be all PREMIS-related, just partly. (No problem with it going to UMBS next summer, for instance.)

Also, re FLUXNET-related synthesis, this is something Chris Gough and I have talked about a bunch wrt deciduous forests specifically, and Chris has a plan of attack. One option would be for you to take over initial data processing for that, before proceeding to the potentially large-scale analysis above.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02459.x https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11430-008-0087-3 https://www.biogeosciences.net/15/1293/2018/bg-15-1293-2018.pdf