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Jessica O'Connell, Wetland Plant Ecology and Remote Sensing

Research Emphasis:

Wetland landscape ecology, evaluated through ecological field assessments, remote sensing, and geospatial informatics. My recent projects seek to understand spatiotemporal pattern and process in wetland plant community composition, productivity, phenology, and environmental gradients, in order to identify changes induced by climate, sea level rise and anthropogenic effects.

GCE Committees:

GCE Disturbance Committee, GCE Flux Tower Committee

Contact Information:

Primary Organization:  Colorado State University

Mailing Address:

Dr. Jessica L. O'Connell
Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability
Campus Delivery 1476
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1476

E-Mail:  jessica.oconnell@colostate.edu

Web Page:  https://www.landscapemodeling.net/

Other Identity Systems:

ORCID:  orcid.org/0000-0002-2814-0668

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GCE Data Sets:

PLT-GCET-2409 (Spartina alterniflora above- and belowground biomass predictions and inundation intensity as estimated by the Belowground Ecosystem Resiliency Model for U.S. Georgia marshes from 2014 to 2023.)

PLT-GCET-2308 (Spartina alterniflora marsh vegetation data along the Georgia coast used in the Belowground Ecosystem Resiliency Model version 2.0)

MSH-GCET-2302 (Pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) 5-minute chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) with accompanying environmental variables from the GCE-LTER Keenan Field site on Sapelo Island, GA in July 2020)

PLT-GCED-2106 (Monthly Spartina alterniflora marsh vegetation data for additional sites along the Georgia coast used in the Belowground Ecosystem Resiliency Model)

PLT-NASA-2006b (Leaf area index and above ground biomass for Juncus roemerianus in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve from 2015 to 2019)

(most recent displayed - view all)

GCE Publications and Presentations: (custom bibliography)

Journal Articles

Runion, K., Alber, M., Mishra, D., Lever, M.A., Hladik, C.M. and O'Connell, J.L. 2025. Early warning signs of salt marsh drowning indicated by widespread vulnerability from declining belowground plant biomass. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 122(26):8. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2425501122)

Runion, K.R., Mishra, D., Alber, M., Lever, M.A. and O'Connell, J.L. (in press). Capturing spatiotemporal variation in salt marsh belowground biomass, a key ecosystem resilience metric, through geoinformatics. Ecosphere.

Runion, K.D., Mishra, D., Alber, M., Lever, M.A. and O'Connell, J.L. 2024. Capturing spatiotemporal variation in salt marsh belowground biomass, a key resilience metric, through geoinformatics. Ecosphere. 15(12):e70110. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70110)

Bansal, S., Creed, I.F., Tangen, B.A., Bridgham, S.D., Desai, A.R., Krauss, K.W., Neubauer, S.C., Noe, G., Rosenberry, D.O., Trettin, C., Wickland, K.P., Allen, S.T., Arias-Ortiz, A., Armitage, A.R., Baldocchi, D., Banerjee, K., Bastviken, D., Berg, P., Bogard, M.J., Chow, A.T., Conner, W.H., Craft, C.B., Creamer, C., DelSontro, T., Duberstein, J.A., Eagle, M., Fennessy, M.S., Finkelstein, S.A., Gockede, M., Grunwald, S., Halabisky, M., Herbert, E., Jahangir, M.M., Johnson, O.F., Jones, M.C., Ke

Hawman, P., Mishra, D. and O'Connell, J.L. 2023. Dynamic emergent leaf area in tidal wetlands: Implications for satellite-derived regional and global blue carbon estimates. Remote Sensing of Environment. 290(15). (DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2023.113553)

Mao, L., Mishra, D., Hawman, P., Narron, C., O'Connell, J.L. and Cotten, D.L. 2023. Photosynthetic Performance of Tidally Flooded Spartina Alterniflora Salt Marshes. JGR Biogeosciences. 128(3). (DOI: 10.1029/2022JG007161)

Narron, C., O'Connell, J.L., Mishra, D., Cotten, D.L., Hawman, P. and Mao, L. 2022. Flooding in Landsat across tidal systems (FLATS): An index for intermittent tidal filtering and frequency detection in salt marsh environments. Ecological Indicators. 141:109045. (DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109045)

Hawman, P., Mishra, D., O'Connell, J.L., Cotten, D.L., Narron, C. and Mao, L. 2021. Salt Marsh Light Use Efficiency is Driven by Environmental Gradients and Species-Specific Physiology and Morphology. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 126. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JG006213)

O'Connell, J.L., Mishra, D., Alber, M. and Byrd, K.B. 2021. BERM: A belowground ecosystem resilience model for estimating Spartina alterniflora belowground biomass. New Phytologist. (DOI: 10.1111/nph.17607)

O'Connell, J.L., Alber, M. and Pennings, S.C. 2020. Microspatial differences in soil temperature cause phenology change on par with long-term climate warming in salt marshes. Ecosystems. 23:498–510. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00418-1)

Alber, M. and O'Connell, J.L. 2019. Elevation drives gradients in surface soil temperature within salt marshes. Geophysical Research Letters. 46:5313-5322. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082374)

Tao, J., Mishra, D., Cotten, D.L., O'Connell, J., Leclerc, M.Y., Nahrawi, H.B., Zhang, G. and Pahari, R. 2018. A Comparison between the MODIS Product (MOD17A2) and a Tide-Robust Empirical GPP Model Evaluated in a Georgia Wetland. Remote Sensing. 10:1831. (DOI: 10.3390/rs10111831)

O'Connell, J., Mishra, D., Cotten, D.L., Wang, L. and Alber, M. 2017. 'The Tidal Marsh Inundation Index (TMII): An inundation filter to flag flooded pixels and improve MODIS tidal marsh vegetation time-series analysis '. Remote Sensing of the Environment. 201(November 2017):34-46. (DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2017.08.008)

O'Connell, J. and Alber, M. 2016. A smart classifier for extracting environmental data from digital image time-series: Applications for PhenoCam data in a tidal salt marsh. Environmental Modelling & Software. 84:134-139. (DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.06.025)

Conference Posters and Presentations

Runion, K., Mishra, D., Alber, M., Lever, M.A. and O'Connell, J.L. 2024. Presentation: Signals of salt marsh drowning are obscured by increasing aboveground canopies. Wetlands. Ecological Society of America 2024 Annual Meeting, August 2024, Long Beach, CA.

Runion, K.D., Alber, M., Mishra, D., Lever, M.A. and O'Connell, J.L. 2024. Poster: Salt Marsh Productivity Modeling Reveals Widespread Declining Belowground Biomass and Potential for Marsh Drowning. Modeling Coastal Marsh Resilience: Advancements, Uncertainties, and Sustainable Solutions. American Geophysical Union 2024 Annual Meeting, December 2024, Washington, D.C.

Runion, K.D., Alber, M., Mishra, D., Byrd, K. and O'Connell, J.L. 2023. Presentation: Is salt marsh ecosystem resilience driven more by changes in space or time? Interdisciplinary Tools to Advance Ecology. Ecological Society of America 2023 Annual Meeting, August 2023, Portland, OR.

Runion, K.D., Mishra, D., Alber, M. and O'Connell, J.L. 2022. Poster: Broadening a Belowground Ecosystem Resiliency Model for Spartina alterniflora salt marshes. Long Term Ecological Research Network All Scientists Meeting 2022, September 2022, Pacific Grove, CA.

O'Connell, J.L., Alber, M., Mishra, D. and Byrd, K. 2020. Presentation: Structural heterogeneity in above vs belowground biomass pools differ for Spartina alterniflora monocultures, with consequences for forecasting ecosystem resiliency. Ecological Society of America.

Hawman, P., Mishra, D., Cotten, D.L., O'Connell, J., Mao, L. and Narron, C. 2019. Poster: Salt marsh light use efficiency and gross primary production in response to environmental conditions. Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF), 2019, Mobile, Alabama.

Hawman, P., Mishra, D., Cotten, D.L., O'Connell, J., Narron, C. and Mao, L. 2019. Presentation: Salt marsh light use efficiency and gross primary productivity in response to environmental conditions. Disturbance Impacts on Ecological and Biogeochemical Processes in Coastal Wetlands I. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019, December 12, 2019, San Francisco, California.

Hawman, P., Mishra, D., O'Connell, J., Cotten, D.L., Narron, C. and Mao, L. 2019. Presentation: Salt marsh light use efficiency and gross primary production in response to environmental conditions. Carbon fluxes in coastal systems. CERF Biennial Conference 2019, November 5, 2019, Mobile, Alabama.

Mao, L., Mishra, D., Cotten, D.L., O'Connell, J., Narron, C. and Hawman, P. 2019. Poster: Analyzing chlorophyll fluorescence in Juncus roemerianus by Pulse Amplitude Modulated (PAM) fluorometer at different plant heights. International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, 2019, Yokohama, Japan.

Mishra, D., Cotten, D.L., O'Connell, J., Mao, L., Narron, C. and Hawman, P. 2019. Poster: Salt marsh light use efficiency and gross primary productivity in response to environmental conditions. American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2019, San Francisco, CA.

Narron, C., Mishra, D., O'Connell, J.L., Cotten, D.L., Hawman, P. and Mao, L. 2019. Presentation: Assessing tidal wetland above- and belowground net primary production using field and in situ measurements. Carbon fluxes in coastal systems. 2019 CERF 25th Biennial Conference, 11/05/2019, Mobile, AL.

O'Connell, J. 2019. Presentation: Patterns of Spartina alterniflora phenology and belowground biomass. Departmental Seminar, 2019, Athens, GA.

O'Connell, J. 2019. Presentation: Patterns of Spartina alterniflora phenology and belowground biomass. Departmental Seminar, 2019, Lafayette, LA.

O'Connell, J. and Alber, M. 2019. Poster: Elevation drives gradients in surface soil temperature within salt marshes. Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF), 2019, Mobile, Alabama.

O'Connell, J., Alber, M., Mishra, D. and Byrd, K.B. 2018. Presentation: Landsat models of Spartina alterniflora belowground biomass in coastal marshes. Ecological Society of America, New Orleans, LA.

O'Connell, J., Mishra, D., Alber, M. and Byrd, K.B. 2017. Presentation: Estimating patterns in Spartina alterniflora belowground biomass within salt marshes. American Geophysical Union, New Orleans, LA.