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I am a global change ecologist with a focus on temporal dynamics of populations, communities, and ecosystems at local to continental scales. I create and use long-term and broad-scale datasets to answer questions about how human-driven environmental change affects plants and animals. In order to generate and process these large data sets, I create and run online citizen science projects, practice crowdsourcing, run experiments, employ data management techniques, and design and implement advanced statistical and computational models. kosmala_headshot

Technology advancements in the past decade have facilitated new directions in ecological research. The decreased cost of automatic sensors allows for wide-spread collection of high frequency environmental data. Meanwhile, computational power has increased, increasing our ability to search and optimize over large data sets. I use quantitative methods to harness the power of such sensors and computational power, in order to answer nationally and globally pressing challenges centered around biodiversity, ecosystem function and resilience, and sustainability.

I also enjoy expanding the sphere of science to include those who are not professionally trained as scientists. I co-run Snapshot Serengeti, a citizen science project in which volunteers help us identify African animals in images taken by camera traps in Serengeti National Park. I also run Season Spotter, another online citizen science project that asks volunteers to classify images from automated cameras deployed across North America to better understand tree and plant phenology (seasonal changes) in response to climate change. And I help out with Jungle Rhythms, which seeks to understand tree phenology in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Current and Past Affiliations (Full CV)