Sparkle Malone

Dr. Sparkle Malone is an assistant professor in the Yale School of the Environment and is on the scientific leadership team at the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture. Her primary research focus is to improve our understanding of how climate and disturbance regimes influence spatial and temporal variability in ecosystem structure and function. Using remote sensing, eddy covariance, and spatial and temporal models, she explores questions related to ecosystem condition, sustainability, and vulnerability to climate extremes.

Malone obtained her PhD from the University of Alabama in 2014, where she studied the carbon fluxes in subtropical wetland ecosystems. She then went on to work for the USDA Forest Service at Rocky Mountain Research Station (2014–2017) and Florida International University (2017–2022). At FIU, Malone established the Malone Disturbance Ecology Lab, where her primary research focus was to improve our understanding of how climate and disturbance regimes influence spatial and temporal variability in ecosystem structure and function. In fall 2022, she joined the Yale School of the Environment and the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture.