Episodic changes in global forest edges in the 21st century
George Hurtt is a coauthor on a paper titled "Episodic changes in global forest edges in the 21st century", published in Nature Communications!
Modeling Earth's Ecosystems
Understanding carbon, biodiversity, and climate interactions
Explore Our WorkAbout Us
The Global Ecology Lab conducts research on the structure, function and dynamics of ecological systems, and their interactions in the Earth system. Our primary approach is to combine data and mathematics to develop models for quantifying patterns and predicting future dynamics. Current research is focused on the development and application of models to address issues such as: terrestrial carbon balance, the sustainability of land-use practices, the effects of disturbances on ecosystem structure and function, and interactions between the biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
Research Areas
Featured Research
Ecosystem Demography Model (ED)
Global Carbon Modeling and Simulation
Land-Use Harmonization Model (LUH)
Modeling changes in land use over time
Carbon Monitoring Systems
Mapping, modelling, and monitoring changes to the world's forest carbon.
Latest News
View all newsGeorge Hurtt named a 2026 Scilit Top Cited Scholar
George Hurtt has been honored as one of the 2026 Scilit Top Cited Scholars, ranking among the world’s outstanding researchers with remarkable publication and citation influence.
Welcome new students!
Welcome new PhD students Eni Awowale and Sarah Liu to GEL!
Knowledge-Guided Learning for Global Carbon Flux Prediction: Integrating High-Level Remote Sensing with Bottom-Up Physical Modeling
Shuo Xu is the first author on a paper titled "Knowledge-Guided Learning for Global Carbon Flux Prediction: Integrating High-Level Remote Sensing with Bottom-Up Physical Modeling", that will be presented in at the KDD Conference in South Korea on August 10th. Zhihao Wang, Yiqun Xie, Ruohan Li, Lei Ma and George Hurtt are coauthors.
Widespread carbon accumulation in mature forests remains underestimated by satellite observations
Lei Ma and George Hurtt have led a a paper titled "Widespread carbon accumulation in mature forests remains underestimated by satellite observations", published in Nature Ecology and Evolution!
GEOG High School Summer Internship Program 2026
Janna Chapman and George Hurtt led the Summer 2026 High School Internship Program with 12 interns!