Mark Lara

Mark Lara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Biology within the School of Integrative Biology and holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at El Paso and conducted postdoctoral research as a research associate in Plant Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2016 to 2019.

Lara's research focuses on Arctic and Boreal permafrost landscapes, advancing understanding of their responses to climate change and disturbances such as permafrost degradation, wildfire, and herbivory. He employs a multi-scale approach integrating ground-based monitoring, aerial and satellite remote sensing, and empirical, machine-learning, and process-based modeling to disentangle spatiotemporal variations in ecosystem dynamics and biogeophysical feedbacks. Key publications include "A robust visible near-infrared index for fire severity mapping in Arctic tundra ecosystems" (Chen, Lara, & Hu, 2020, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing), "Large loss of CO₂ in winter observed across the northern permafrost region" (Natali et al., 2019, Nature Climate Change), "Nutrient Release From Permafrost Thaw Enhances CH₄ Emissions From Arctic Tundra Wetlands" (Lara et al., 2019, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences), "Automated detection of thermoerosion in permafrost ecosystems using temporally dense Landsat image stacks" (Lara, Chipman, & Hu, 2019, Remote Sensing of Environment), and recent contributions such as "A 20 m spatial resolution peatland extent map of Alaska" and "Peatland fires in Alaska will double by the end of the century" (Lara et al., 2025, Scientific Data and Scientific Reports). Lara's scholarship, with over 4,700 citations, informs predictions of carbon cycle impacts from permafrost thaw. He has received the AGU Global Environmental Change Early Career Award (2022), Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Scholar (2024, with research funding), and Helen Corley Petit Scholar (2025–2026).

Professional Email: mjlara@illinois.edu