Wenbo Zhou

University of Michigan | U-M · Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Camera traps are a powerful, practical, and non-invasive method used widely to monitor animal communities and evaluate management actions. However, camera trap arrays can generate thousands to millions of images that require significant time and effort to review. Computer vision has emerged as a tool to accelerate this image review process. We prop...

Air temperature (Ta), snow depth (Sd), and soil temperature (Tg) are crucial variables for studying the above- and below-ground thermal conditions, especially in high latitudes. However, in-situ observations are frequently sparse and inconsistent across various datasets, with a significant amount of missing data. This study has assembled a comprehe...

Plain Language Summary This paper represents a synthesis of conceptual analyses, case study analyses, and practical thoughts on the application of convergence science in Arctic change studies. During a virtual workshop in 2020, a diverse, multi‐national team of authors consisting of social scientists, engineers, earth system scientists, and ecologi...

Ground heat flux (G0) is a key component of the land‐surface energy balance of high‐latitude regions. Despite its crucial role in controlling permafrost degradation due to global warming, G0 is sparsely measured and not well represented in the outputs of global scale model simulation. In this study, an analytical heat transfer model is tested to re...

Plain Language Summary The seasonally thawed layer on top of the permafrost (active layer) is a key component of the Arctic system affected by the strong warming trend over the past decades. This soil layer experiences a pronounced seasonal cycle of freezing and thawing processes caused by the availability of Sun's energy. Mathematical modeling of...

A physically based analytical model is formulated to simulate the thaw depth of active layer under changing boundary condition of soil heat flux. The energy conservation statement leads to a nonlinear integral equation of the thaw depth using an approximate temperature profile as an analytical solution of the diffusion equation describing the heat...

Previous studies discovered a spatially heterogeneous expansion of Siberian larch into the tundra of the Polar Urals (Russia). This study reveals that the spatial pattern of encroachment of tree stands is related to environmental factors including topography and snow cover. Structural and allometric characteristics of trees, along with terrain elev...

This study analyzed summer observations of diurnal and seasonal surface energy budgets across several monitoring sites within the Arctic tundra underlain by permafrost. In these areas, latent and sensible heat fluxes have comparable magnitudes, and ground heat flux enters the subsurface during short summer intervals of the growing period, leading t...