DeFries, Ruth
University Professor; Denning Family Professor of Sustainable Development in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology
Affiliation/Department
University Professor; Denning Family Professor of Sustainable Development
Education
PhD (1980) Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University; B.A., summa cum laude (1976) Washington University, St. Louis MO
Telephone
212-851-1647
rd2402@columbia.edu
Website
http://www.ruthdefries.e3b.columbia.edu
Research Description
Ecosystem services from tropical agriculture and forests; Characterization of deforestation and anthropogenic land use change with remote sensing
Research Keywords:?Land use; Deforestation; Sustainable agriculture; Tropics; India
Representative Publications
DeFries, R., J. Fanzo, R. Remans, C. Palm, S. Wood, and T. Anderman. 2015. Metrics for land-scarce agriculture: Nutrient content must be better integrated into planning. Science 349:238-240.
DeFries, R., E. C. Ellis, F. S. I. Chapin, P. A. Matson, B. L. Turner II, A. Agrawal, P. J. Crutzen, C. Field, P. Gleick, P. Kareiva, E. Lambin, D. Liverman, E. Ostrom, P. Sanchez, and J. Syvitski. 2012. Planetary opportunities: A social contract for global change science to contribute to a sustainable future. BioScience 62:603-606.
DeFries, R. and C. Rosenzweig. 2010. Toward a whole-landscape approach for sustainable land use in the tropics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(46): 19627-19632.
DeFries, R., Rudel, T.K., Uriarte, M., and Hansen, M., 2010. Deforestation driven by urban population growth and agricultural trade in the twenty-first century. Nature Geoscience, 3, 178-181.