Researching land-cover and land-use change, as well as its impacts on ecosystems, using remotely sensed data and ecosystems modeling.

Research Interests

Gillian's focus is on understanding the impacts on land-atmosphere interactions resulting from human modifications, such as greenhouse gas emissions from land clearing or land-use management (e.g. tillage or fertilization). Gillian uses remote sensing to analyze historical and contemporary land-cover and land-use change and couples these results with ecosystems modeling to understand historical, current and possible future greenhouse gas emissions. As a postdoctoral research scientist at the Earth Institute (co-sponsored by E3B and the Tropical Agriculture Program), Gillian's postdoctoral research assess the impacts, including effectiveness and unintended consequences, of new agricultural management strategies being used by the African Green Revolution to address food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her previous research experience includes land-cover and land-use change on the Brazilian Amazon agricultural frontier and its impacts on greenhouse gas emissions.

Academic Background

Brown University- Marine Biological Lab (MBL) Joint Graduate Program
in Biological and Environmental Sciences
Ph.D., Department of Geological Sciences (Brown University) and The Ecosystems Center (MBL), 2010
Brown University- Marine Biological Lab (MBL) Joint Graduate Program,
M.Sc. Department of Geological Sciences (Brown University) and The Ecosystems Center (MBL), 2006
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Bachelor of Arts ’04, cum laude

Publications - Representative Listing - See CV for complete Listing

Galford, G.L.,  J.M. Melillo, D.W. Kicklighter, T.W. Cronin, C.E.P. Cerri, J.F. Mustard, C.C. Cerri (In Review). Estimating greenhouse gas emissions from land-cover and land-use change: Future scenarios of deforestation and agricultural management. PNAS
Galford, G.L., J.M. Melillo, D.W. Kicklighter, J.F. Mustard, T.W. Cronin, C.E.P. Cerri, C.C. Cerri (In Review). Carbon emissions and uptake from 105 years of land-cover and land-use change at the agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon. Ecological Applications.
Galford, G.L., J.M. Melillo, J.F. Mustard, C.E.P. Cerri, C.C. Cerri (In Press). The Amazon frontier of land-use change: croplands an consequences for greenhouse gas emissions. Earth Interactions.