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Kyle Kovach

Photo of Kyle Kovach

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Member of:

Carbon Cycle And Ecosystems

Visiting Postdoc

Biography

Dr. Kyle Kovach is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working with Dr. Phil A. Townsend in the department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology. He works primarily on two funded projects which include NASA ABoVE (Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment) and NSF NEON (National Ecological Observation Network). Both utilize ground sampled foliar traits to create airborne hyperspectral imagery models to predict traits at larger scales. In his doctoral work, he used drone-based hyperspectral and lidar remote sensing in experimental biodiversity-ecosystem function tree plantations to assess biochemical and morphological properties of trees to reveal functional variation and links to productivity. In his masters at Penn State, he worked to build drones and sensor systems for ecological applications, as well as predictive models for harvest analysis in cooperation with the Cary Institute on a USDA grant.

Education

  • Ph.D. University of Freiburg (2021)
  • M.S. Pennsylvania State University (2016)
  • B.S. Pennsylvania State University (2012)
  • B.A. Pennsylvania State University (2012)

Professional Experience

  • Postdoc Researcher, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2022-present)
  • Graduate Researcher, University of Freiburg (2016-2021)

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewd Articles

  1. Ji, F., Yang, J., Townsend, P.A., Zheng, T., Kovach, K.R., Yu, T., Yang, R., Liu, M., Chen, M., (2026). Robust hyperspectral reconstruction from satellite and airborne observations via a deep hierarchical fusion network across heterogeneous scenarios. Remote Sensing of Environment 338, 115385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2026.115385
  2. Cherif, E., Ouaknine, A., Brown, L.A., Dao, P.O., Kovach, K.R., Lu, B., Mederer, D., Feilhauer, H., Kattenborn, T., Rolnick, D., (2026). GreenHyperSpectra: A multi-source hyperspectral dataset for global vegetation trait prediction. NeurlPS:arXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06806v3
  3. Hayden, M.T., Rossi, M.W., Dee, L.E., Kovach, K., Amaral, C.H., Nesslage, J., Slimp, M., Meyer, R.S., Stavros, E. N., (2026). Scale dependence in remotely sensed biodiversity: Leveraging continental-scale imaging spectroscopy from the National Ecological Observatory Network. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation n/a. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.70068
  4. Ji, F., Zheng, T., Shiklomanov, A.N., Yang, R., Townsend, P.A., Li, F., Hao, D., Dashti, H., Kovach, K.R., You, H., Zhou, J., Chen, M., (2026). Tracking seasonal variability in plant traits from spaceborne PRISMA and NEON AOP across forest types and ecoregions. Remote Sensing of Environment 333, 115149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2025.115149
  5. Queally, N., Zheng, T., Ye, Z., Kovach, K. R., Pavlick, R., Shafran, E., Schneider, F. D., & Townsend, P. A.
  6. (2025). Functional Traits From Imaging Spectroscopy Inform Patterns of Forest Mortality During Sierra Nevada Drought. Global Change Biology, 31(5), e70246. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70246
  7. Miller, C. E., Green, R. 0., Thompson, D. R., Thorpe, A. J., Eastwood, M. L., McCubbin, I. B., Oslan-Duvall, W., Bernas, M. A., Sarture, C. M., Rios, L. M., Hernandez, M. A., Bue, B. D., Lundeen, 5. R., Pavlick, R., Chapman, J. W., Brodrick, P. G., Eckert, R. F., Willow Coleman, R., Baskaran, L., ... Kovach, K. R., ... Griffith, P. C. (2025). Airborne imaging spectroscopy surveys of Arctic and boreal Alaska and northwestern Canada 2017-2023. Scientific Data, 12(1), 692. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04898-w
  8. Williams, L. J., Kovach, K. R., Guzman Q., J. A., Stefanski, A., Bermudez, R., Butler, E. E., Coq-Etchegaray, D., Glenn-Stone, C., Hajek, P., Klama, J., Medlyn, B. E., Messier, C., Moradi, A., Paquette, A., Park, M. H., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., Townsend, P. A., Reich, P. B., Cavender-Bares, J., & Schuman, M. C. (2025). Tree diversity shapes the spectral signature of light transmittance in developing forests. Ecology, 106(3), e70032. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70032
  9. Mederer, D., Feilhauer, H., Cherif, E., Berger, K., Hank, T. B., Kovach, K. R., Dao, P. D., Lu, B., Townsend, P. A., & Kattenborn, T. (2025). Plant trait retrieval from hyperspectral data: Collective efforts in scientific data cu ration outperform simulated data derived from the PROSAIL model. ISPRS Open journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 15, 100080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophoto.2024.100080
  10. Chadwick, K. D., Davis, F., Miner, K. R., Pavlick, R., Reynolds, M., Townsend, P. A., Brodrick, P. G., Ade, C., Allen, J., Anderegg, L., Angel, Y., Boving, I., Byrd, K. B., Campbell, P., Carberry, L., Cavanaugh, K. C., Cavanaugh, K. C., Easterday, K., Eckert, R., ... Kovach K. R., ... Schimel, D. (2025). Unlocking ecological insights from sub-seasonal visible-to-shortwave infrared imaging spectroscopy: The SHIFT campaign. Ecosphere, 16(3), e70194. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70194
  11. Van Beek, J. M., Zheng, T., Wang, Z., Kovach, K. R., & Townsend, P. A. (2024). Evaluation of the Reliability of the CCM-300 Chlorophyll Content Meter in Measuring Chlorophyll Content for Various Plant Functional Types. Sensors, 24(15), Article 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24154784
  12. Qiu, T., Clark, J. 5., Kovach, K. R., Townsend, P. A., & Swenson, J. J. (2024). Remotely sensed crown nutrient concentrations modulate forest reproduction across the contiguous United States. Ecology, 105(8), e4366. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4366
  13. Ji, F., Li, F., Hao, D., Shiklomanov, A.N., Yang, X., Townsend, P.A., Dashti, H., Nakaji, T., Kovach, K.R., Liu, H., Luo, M., Chen, M. (2024) Unveiling the transferability of PLSR models for leaf trait estimation: lessons from a comprehensive analysis with a novel global dataset New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19807
  14. Lam, O.H.Y., Kattge, J., Tautenhahn, 5., Walther, G., Boenisch, G., Kovach, K.R., Townsend, P.A. (2024) 'rtry': An R package to support plant trait data preprocessing. Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11292
  15. Hajek, P., Morsdorf, M., Kovach, K. R., Greinwald, K., Rose, L., Nock, C. A., & Scherer-Lorenzen, M. (2023) Quantifying the influence of tree species richness on community drought resistance using drone-derived NOVI and ground-based measures of Plant Area Index and leaf chlorophyll in a young tree diversity experiment. Eur J Forest Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-023-01615-3
  16. Cherif, E., Feilhauer, H., Berger, K., Dao, P. D., Ewald, M., Hank, T. B., He, Y., Kovach, K. R., Lu, B., Townsend, P. A., & Kattenborn, T. (2023). From spectra to plant functional traits: Transferable multi-trait models from heterogeneous and sparse data. Remote Sensing of the Environment, 292, 113580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2023.113580
  17. Gottschall, F., Cesarz, 5., Auge, H., Kovach, K. R., Nock, C. A., & Eisenhauer, N. (2023). Tree community composition stabilizes ecosystem functions in response to drought. Ecosphere, 14(4), e4486. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4486
  18. Hajek, P., Link, R. M., Nock, C. A., Bauhus, J., Gebauer, T., Gessler, A., Kovach, K., Messier, C., Paquette, A., Saurer, M., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., Rose, L., & Schuldt, B. (2022). Mutually inclusive mechanisms of drought-induced tree mortality. Global Change Biology, 28(10), 3365-3378. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16146
  19. Gottschall, F., Cesarz, 5., Auge, H., Kovach, K. R., Mori, A. 5., Nock, C. A., & Eisenhauer, N. (2021). Spatiotemporal dynamics of abiotic and biotic properties explain biodiversity-ecosystem-functioning relationships. Ecological Monographs, e01490. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1490
  20. Frey, J .• Kovach, K., Stemmler, 5., & Koch, B. (2018). UAV Photogrammetry of Forests as a Vulnerable Process. A Sensitivity Analysis for a Structure from Motion RGB-lmage Pipeline. Remote Sensing, 10(6). 912. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10060912