Welcome to the swenson lab

We study ecological and human-induced changes with
​remote sensing and geospatial analysis 

Seasonal ephemeral water for wildlife migrations, Southern Africa (Shaffer-Smith et al 2022)

Blue wave ephemeral water viewer 

Left: VA Lime disease cases driven by NDVI (Lantos et al. 2021)                Right: Summer Vegetation Optical Depth (SMOS)          

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​Research Themes:  

• Biodiversity patterns and climate-induced changes
• Ecosystem shifts and stress (deforestation/degradation, drought stress, afforestation, surface water changes)      
• Three-dimensional forest attributes for wildlife habitat
• Land use policies & health

Recent papers:                                                       Google Scholar page

• Qiu, T., A. Bell, J. J. Swenson, and J. S. Clark. 2023. Habitat-trait interactions that control response to climate change: North American ground beetles (Carabidae). Global Ecology and Biogeography in press.
• Shaffer-Smith et al. 2022. Tracking a blue wave of ephemeral water across arid southern Africa. Environmental Research Letters
• Clark et al. 2021. Continent-wide tree fecundity driven by indirect climate effects. Nature Communications.
• Lantos, P., et al. 2021. Environmental correlates of Lyme disease emergence in Southwest Virginia, 2005-2014. Journal of Medical Entomology
• Smart. S, et al 2020. Aboveground carbon loss associated with the spread of ghost forests as sea levels rise. Environmental Research Letters​

Interested in joining the lab?

Fall Course: Remote Sensing for Environmental Analysis 
Spring Courses: ​Lidar Remote Sensing, Geospatial Analysis for Land & Water,                         intro to QGIS
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With the Clark Lab 2019

​The lab in their remote sensing T's (2018)













​Contact: jswenson@Duke.edu
Nicholas School of Environment
Duke University Box 90328
Durham NC 27708

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