Dr. Laurel Larsen

Biography

Laurel Larsen is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research interests include hydroecology, landscape dynamics, complex environmental systems, and environmental restoration. With a focus on using a variety of tools to identify feedback processes that drive environmental systems at landscape scale, her work encompasses both field and laboratory research, simulation modeling, and data-driven analysis leveraging environmental sensor networks and remote sensing platforms. Dr. Larsen's research addresses the interactions between water, physical elements, and biological components of the environment, seeking to understand nonlinear dynamics that lead to thresholds, sudden shifts, and alternate stable states. These insights have crucial implications for anticipatory planning and improving the efficiency of restoration efforts, particularly in contexts like the Everglades and the Chesapeake Bay. Dr. Larsen utilizes a complex-systems approach to tackle environmental problems, integrating field studies and numerical modeling to predict landscape responses to climate change and management practices.

Research Interests