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Patrick Gonzalez - Nature Conservancy climate change scientist

Patrick Gonzalez
Photo © 2006 C. Rose

People

Patrick Gonzalez, Ph.D.
Climate Change Scientist

Contact Information
 The Nature Conservancy
4245 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1606

Phone: (703) 841-2038
Fax: (703) 276-3241
Email: pgonzalez@tnc.org

Brief Biography
A forest ecologist with field experience that extends from the African Sahel to the Amazon to the Sierra Nevada of California, Patrick joined the Global Climate Change Initiative in 2003. He analyzes impacts of climate change on ecosystems, assesses the potential of forests to absorb atmospheric carbon and slow global warming, and works with Nature Conservancy staff to integrate climate change factors into natural resource management and conservation.

Patrick works in the field with Nature Conservancy partners to establish permanent ecological monitoring plots and track environmental change and conservation results over time. He matches field data with remote sensing imagery to detect impacts of climate change, to track deforestation, and to quantify forest carbon.

Patrick has conducted scientific research and worked on community-based natural resource management since 1988 in Africa, North America, and South America. His doctoral research produced the first documentation of a shift of the Sahel, Sudan, and Guinea ecoregions in Africa due to desertification and climate change.

His public service includes positions with the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.N. Development Program. Patrick is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Senegal, West Africa. He serves on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the scientific panel that conducts the definitive global assessments of climate change.

Education
 Ph.D., Energy and Resources, University of California, Berkeley
M.S., Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
B.S., Natural Resources, Cornell University

Honors and Awards
American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow
Fulbright Scholar
Regents Fellow, University of California, Berkeley

Scientific Advisory Panels
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1999-present
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2003-2005
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Roster of Experts, 2002-present
U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, Roster of Experts, 2001-present

Selected Publications
 Aalde, H., P. Gonzalez, M. Gytarsky, T. Krug, W. Kurz, S. Ogle, J. Raison, D. Schoene, and N.H. Ravindranath. 2006. Forest Land. In Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Guidelines. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan.

Desanker, P., C. Magadza, A. Allali, C. Basalirwa, M. Boko, G. Dieudonne, T.E. Downing, P.O. Dube, A. Githeko, M. Githendu, P. Gonzalez, D. Gwary, B. Jallow, J. Nwafor, and R. Scholes. 2001. Africa. In Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Gonzalez, P. 2001. Desertification and a shift of forest species in the West African Sahel. Climate Research 17: 217-228.

Gonzalez, P. 2001. Energy use, human. In S. Levin (ed.) Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

Gonzalez, P., R.P. Neilson, and R.J. Drapek. 2005. Climate change vegetation shifts across global ecoregions. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting Abstracts 90: 228.

Gonzalez, P., H. Sy, and C.J. Tucker. 2004. Local knowledge and remote sensing of forest biodiversity and forest carbon across the African Sahel. In A.M. Lykke, M.K. Due, M. Kristensen, and I. Nielsen (eds.) Proceedings from the 16th Danish Sahel Workshop. Sahel-Sudan Environmental Research Initiative, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sampson, R.N., N. Bystriakova, S. Brown, P. Gonzalez, L.C. Irland, P. Kauppi, R. Sedjo, and I.D. Thompson. 2006. Timber, Fuel, and Fiber. In Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Current State and Trends. Island Press, Washington, DC.

Shvidenko, A., C.V. Barber, R. Persson, P. Gonzalez, R. Hassan, P. Lakyda, I. McCallum, S. Nilsson, J. Pulhin, B. van Rosenburg, and B. Scholes. 2006. Forest and Woodland Systems. In Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Current State and Trends. Island Press, Washington, DC.

Public Media
Desertification in the West African Sahel, radio interview by Steve Curwood, Living on Earth, September 18, 1998.

"End of Trees," magazine article by Patrick Gonzalez, WorldView 19 (2): 13-15, Summer 2006.