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Natalie Queally

Photo of Natalie Queally

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

Click here

Member of:

Water & Ecosystems

Biography

I am a terrestrial ecologist interested in how plants respond to environmental change and disturbance. Using imaging spectroscopy and field measurements to map functional trait responses, I investigate major drivers of change in the western US, including drought, wildfire, and grazing. By revealing hidden patterns of shifting plant resource allocation, I aim to better understand complex vegetation systems and inform landscape-scale conservation and management.

Education

  • Ph.D., Forestry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2024
  • B.A., Geography and Environmental Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 2016

Professional Experience

  • NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, JPL, 2026-Present 
  • Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, Los Angeles, 2024-2026
  • Graduate Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2018-2024

Research Interests

Ecosystem ecology, disturbance ecology, functional traits, imaging spectroscopy, biodiversity, conservation

Selected Publications

  1. Braghiere, R. K., Wang, Y., Liu, K., Chadwick, K. D., Brodrick, P. G., Shiklomanov, A. N., Schneider, F.D., Ferraz, A., Zheng, T., Queally, N., Townsend, P.A., Schimel, D., & Frankenberg, C. Shifting from plant functional types to traits: Enhancing biodiversity epresentation in Earth system models. In press: Ecosphere.
  2. Saide, P.E., Wu, Y., Arnold, M., Thapa, L.H., Soja, A., Gargulinski, E., Li, F., Wiedinmyer, C., Emmons, L.K., Tang, W., Westerling, A.L., Xu, Q., Ordway, E., Queally, N., & Kueppers, L. (2026). Assessing consistency in fuel consumed between activity-based wildfire emission estimates. Geophysical Research Letters, 53(8), e2025GL120030
  3. Gilbert, N., Queally, N., Cooper, J.C., Eyster, H.N., & Williams, P.J. (2026). Heterogeneity, productivity, and migration drive continental evenness patterns of bird assemblages. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 35(2), e70205.
  4. Queally, N., Zheng, T., Ye, Z., Kovach, K. R., Pavlick, R., Shafron, E., Schneider, F.D., & Townsend, P. A. (2025). Functional traits from imaging spectroscopy inform patterns of forest mortality during Sierra Nevada drought. Global Change Biology, 31(5), e70246.
  5. Chadwick, K. D., Davis, F.W., Miner, K.R., Pavlick, R., Reynolds, M., Townsend, P. A., ..., Queally, N., ..., & Schimel, D. (2025). Unlocking ecological insights from sub‐seasonal visible‐to‐shortwave infrared imaging spectroscopy: The SHIFT campaign. Ecosphere, 16(3), e70194.
  6. Greenberg, E., Thompson, D. R., Jensen, D., Townsend, P. A., Queally, N., Chlus, A., Fichot, C.G., Harringmeyer, J.P., & Simard, M. (2022). An improved scheme for correcting remote spectral surface reflectance simultaneously for terrestrial BRDF and water‐surface sunglint in coastal environments. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 127(3), e2021JG006712.
  7. Queally, N., Ye, Z., Zheng, T., Chlus, A., Schneider, F., Pavlick, R. P., & Townsend, P. A. (2022). FlexBRDF: A flexible BRDF correction for grouped processing of airborne imaging spectroscopy flightlines. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 127(1), e2021JG006622.

Projects

EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation)