Miss Heather Friendship-Kay

Miss Heather Friendship-Kay

Research Fellow

Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

Contact Details

Profile

Heather joined the research group in October 2018, to manage the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative (CCI+) Biomass project. The project aims to map global above-ground forest biomass in order to improve climate modelling and assist with the global carbon stocktake. As part of her work she is also undertaking research into the spatial variation of the relationship between forest height and canopy cover using spaceborne LiDAR data. She graduated from Aberystwyth with an Environmental Science degree in June 2018, and is currently also undertaking a PhD.

Prior to her undergraduate she spent several years working in the French Alps before moving back to the UK and managing a glazing business in the South West of England.

Research

Her research investigates the drivers of variation in forest structure across the globe. In the UK she has a keen interest in natural regeneration, rewilding and landscape ecology. She is also part of an international team assisting with contributions to the AFOLU sector of the UNFCCC Secretariat.

Publications

Ochiai, O, Poulter, B, Seifert, FM, Ward, S, Jarvis, I, Whitcraft, A, Sahajpal, R, Gilliams, S, Herold, M, Carter, S, Duncanson, LI, Kay, H, Lucas, R, Wilson, SN, Melo, J, Post, J, Briggs, S, Quegan, S, Dowell, M, Cescatti, A, Crisp, D, Saatchi, S, Tadono, T, Steventon, M & Rosenqvist, A 2023, 'Towards a roadmap for space-based observations of the land sector for the UNFCCC global stocktake', iScience, vol. 26, no. 4, 106489. 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106489
Lucas, RM, German, S, Metternicht, G, Schmidt, RK, Owers, CJ, Prober, SM, Richards, AE, Tetreault-Campbell, S, Williams, KJ, Mueller, N, Tissott, B, Chua, SMT, Cowood, A, Hills, T, Gunawardana, D, McIntyre, A, Chognard, S, Hurford, C, Planque, C, Punalekar, S, Clewley, D, Sonnenschein, R, Murray, NJ, Manakos, I, Blonda, P, Owers, K, Roxburgh, S, Kay, H, Bunting, P & Horton, C 2022, 'A globally relevant change taxonomy and evidence-based change framework for land monitoring', Global Change Biology, vol. 28, no. 21, pp. 6293-6317. 10.1111/gcb.16346
Yang, H, Ciais, P, Wigneron, JP, Chave, J, Cartus, O, Chen, X, Fan, L, Green, JK, Huang, Y, Joetzjer, E, Kay, H, Makowski, D, Maignan, F, Santoro, M, Tao, S, Liu, L & Yao, Y 2022, 'Climatic and biotic factors influencing regional declines and recovery of tropical forest biomass from the 2015/16 El Niño', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 119, no. 26, e2101388119. 10.1073/pnas.2101388119
Kay, H 2021, Aboveground Woody Biomass Product Validation Good Practices Protocol. National Aeronatics and Space Administration. 10.5067/DOC/CEOSWGCV/LPV/AGB.001
Kay, H, Santoro, M, Cartus, O, Bunting, P & Lucas, R 2021, 'Exploring the Relationship between Forest Canopy Height and Canopy Density from Spaceborne LiDAR Observations', Remote Sensing, vol. 13, no. 24, 4961. 10.3390/rs13244961
More publications on the Research Portal