Center for Forest Ecosystem Assessment
The Center for Forest Ecosystem Assessment (CFEA) at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, Alabama, is a Center of Research Excellence
in Science and Technology (CREST), a National Science Foundation (NSF) program. NSF,
through the CREST program, provides resources for minority-serving research institutions and acts as a catalyst
for the development of education and research in ecology on the Cumberland Plateau.
![A student conducts field research for the CFEA](/academics/colleges/agricultural-life-natural-sciences/research-interests-publications/center-forest-ecosystem-assessment/_images/cfea-field-student.jpg)
![A student conducts research in a forest for the CFEA](/academics/colleges/agricultural-life-natural-sciences/research-interests-publications/center-forest-ecosystem-assessment/_images/cfea-forest-student.jpg)
Our Mission
Our mission is four-tiered.
- To train students (both undergraduate and graduate levels), especially those underrepresented in the STEM fields, in a variety of ecology-based research;
- To conduct state-of-the-art research in forest and watershed ecosystems of the southern Cumberland Plateau region;
- To improve the infrastructure of our research facilities; and
- To contribute relevant data to policy and conservation management of the Cumberland
Plateau’s natural resources.
About Us
This is a Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology, funded through the National Science Foundation (grant # 1036600).
CFEA’s research mission emphasizes the inter- and trans-disciplinary synergies and the ecosystem complexities of forests. Focusing primarily (but not exclusively) on the Cumberland Plateau / Ridge-and-Valley of Alabama and Tennesee, we are investigating the complex ecosystem responses on multiple temporal scales from immediate response (short-term) to long-term, and spatial scale from an individual’s genetic make-up to landscape patterns and processes.
Contact Us
![Overhead view of campus](/_images/_examples/main-cta-md.png)