This dataset provides a presentation that highlights the role NASA research and researchers played in developing a wide range of significant, quantitative ecological applications of satellite data. The presentation by Dr Diane E. Wickland, former NASA Terrestrial Ecology Program Manager and Lead for NASA Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Focus Area, provides a top-level overview from her perspective of the development and evolution of the program. Dr Wickland joined NASA in 1985 to manage a newly formed Terrestrial Ecosystems Program. Along with other NASA program managers, she was charged with reorienting the program to be less empirical and have a greater focus on first principles, and to prepare for a next generation of earth-observing satellites. As an ecologist, she thought that focusing on important ecological questions and recruiting practicing ecologists to the program would facilitate such a change in directions. The presentation emphasizes the early years of U.S. satellite remote sensing and covers a few highlights after 2005.

This site discusses traditional ways people in Western Alaska and Chukotka, Russia, use plants for food medicine and other purposes.

Beringia is the region including the Bering Strait and the land on either side of it. Some people define the term narrowly to include only the westernmost part of the Seward Peninsula in Alaska and the easternmost part of the Chukotsky Peninsula in Russia. However, we prefer a broader definition that includes much of Alaska and Chukotka.

Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between people and plants. This includes how people use plants, for example, as food, medicine, for construction, and for many other purposes. It also includes how plants are named and classified, as well as stories, legends, and other beliefs about plants.