Background

Monica Garcia obtained a Master in International Agricultural Development at the University of California, Davis (2000) and a Ph.D. in Remote Sensing of the environment (2003) at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, (Spain) where she also graduated as an Agricultural Engineer.

Research interests

1. Modeling the surface energy balance and evapotranspiration at regional scales using remote sensing

2. Development of new land degradation and disturbance indicators based on surface energy changes

3. Assessing the effects of rainfall variability on ecosystem functioning and resilience using time-series analyses

Current work

At the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) she works on development of an evapotranspiration product for dryland regions based on remotely-sensed data with emphasis in the African continent.

Publications in review (ISI)

Garcia, M., Were A., Villagarcia L., F. Domingo, Puigdefabregas J. & I. Sandholt. Performance of an NDVI-surface temperature approach to estimate evaporative fraction under radiation or water limiting conditions. In review at Remote Sensing of Environment.

Morillas, L., Leuning, R., Villagarcia, L., Garcia, M., Serrano-Ortiz, P., Domingo, F. Improving evapotranspiration estimates in semiarid ecosystems: the role of soil evaporation in a Penman-Montheith based model. Accepted with revisions at Water Resources Research.

Publications (ISI)

Morillas, L., Garcia, M., Nieto, H., Villagarcia, L., Sandholt I ., Gonzalez-Dugo M.P, Zarco-Tejada P., Domingo, F. Accepted at Remote Sensing of Environment. Using radiometric surface temperature for energy flux estimation in Mediterranean drylands from a two-source perspective.

Garcia, M., Sandholt, I., Ceccato, P., Ridler, M., Mougin, E., Kergoat, L., Morillas, L., Timouk L., Fensholt, & R., Domingo, F. 2013. Actual Evapotranspiration in Drylands from In-Situ and Satellite Data: Assessing Biophysical constraints. Remote Sensing of Environment 131: 103-118.

Palacios-Orueta, A., Huesca, M., Whiting, Litago, J. M., Garcia, M., Ustin, S.L. 2012. Derivation of phenological metrics by function fitting to time-series of spectral shape indexes AS1 and AS2: Mapping cotton phenological stages using MODIS time series. Remote Sensing of Environment, 126: 148-159

Domingo, F., Serrano-Ortiz, P., Were, A, Villagarcia, L., Garcia, M. Ramirez, D., Kowalski, A., J. Moro, Rey, A., & C. Oyonarte. 2011.Carbon and water balances in semi-arid ecosystems of SE Spain. Journal of Arid Environments 75(12): 1275-1281.

Villagarcia, L., Were, A., Garcia, M. & F. Domingo. 2010. Sensitivity of a clumped model of evapotranspiration to surface resistance parameterizations: application in a semi-arid environment. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology,150, 1065-1078.

Garcia, M., Litago, J., Palacios-Orueta A., Pinzon J. and Ustin S.L. 2010. Short-Term Propagation of Rainfall Perturbations on Terrestrial Ecosystems in Central California. Journal of Applied Vegetation Science, 13(2): 146-162

Garcia, M., Contreras, S., Domingo, F., & Puigdefabregas, J. 2009. Mapping land degradation risk: Potential of the non-evaporative fraction using Aster and MODIS data. In: Roeder, A. & Hill, J. (Eds.): Recent Advances in Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Processing for Land Degradation Assessment (pp. 261-280). Boca Raton, London, New York, Leiden: CRC Press (Taylor & Francis) (ISBN 978-0-415-39769-8).

Garcia, M., Oyonarte C., Villagarcia, L., Contreras, S. Domingo, F. & Puigdefabregas, J. 2008. Monitoring land degradation risk using ASTER data: the non-evaporative fraction as an indicator of ecosystem function. Remote Sensing of Environment, 112 (9): 3720 - 3736

Campra, P., Garcia, M., Canton, Y., & Palacios-Orueta, A. 2008. Surface air temperature cooling trends and negative radiative forcing due to land use change towards greenhouse farming in southeastern Spain. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, D18109, doi:10.1029/2008JD009912.

Contreras, S., Boer, M.M., Alcala, F.J., Domingo, F., Garcia, M., Pulido-Bosch, A. & Puigdefabregas, J. 2008. An ecohydrological modelling approach for assessing long-term recharge rates in semiarid karstic landscapes. Journal of Hydrology, 351(1-2): 42-57.

Garcia, M., Villagarcia, L., Contreras, S. Domingo, F. & Puigdefabregas, J. 2007. Comparison of three operative models for estimating the surface water deficit using ASTER reflective and thermal data. Sensors, 7: 860-883.

Villagarcia, L., Were A., Domingo, F., Garcia, M. & Alados-Arboledas, L. 2007. Estimation of soil boundary-layer resistance in sparse semiarid stands for evapotranspiration modelling. Journal of Hydrology, 342(1-2): 173-183.

Garcia, M., y S. L. Ustin. 2001. Detection of inter-annual vegetation responses to climatic variability using AVIRIS data in a coastal savannah in California. IEEE Transactions on GeoScience and Remote Sensing V39:1480-1490.

Ustin, SL; Roberts, DA; Green, R.O; Zomer, RJ; y Garcia, M. Oct. 1999. Remote sensing methods monitor natural resources. Photonics Spectra, V33 (10): 108-111.

Publications in preparation

Garcia, M., Mu, Q., Ceccato, P., Ardo, J.P., Mougin, E., Kergoat, L., Timouk, F., Sandholt, I., Fisher, J. 2013. Satellite-based drought monitoring in the Sahel: Evaluation of two global physically-based evapotranspiration algorithms. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 15, EGU2013-13379-1, 2013.EGU General Assembly 2013

Garcia, M., Fernandez, N. and Delibes, M. 2013. Ecosystems resilience to drought: indicators derived from time-series of Earth Observation data. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 15, EGU2013-13474, 2013, EGU General Assembly 2013.

Scientific outreach

Press release in Nature of the article: Surface air temperature cooling trends and negative radiative forcing due to land use change towards greenhouse farming in southeastern Spain

Press release note about the article: Monitoring land degradation risk using ASTER data: the non-evaporative fraction as an indicator of ecosystem function. Several radio and TV interviews, newspaper notes

Outreach conference in Jordan invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain (Institute Cervantes) and the Royal Society for Nature Conservancy: Can we monitor desertification from space? The threat of desertification.

Highlighted young scientist in the fluxnet newsletter 2012, vol.5, pp 13.