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My name is Lola Fatoyinbo-Agueh.

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I am a Research Physical scientist in the
Biospheric Sciences Lab.

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I actually grew up in a lot of countries.

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I moved every two to three years, because
my dad was working as a journalist and with

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international organizations.

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And so I spent a lot of time living in West
Africa and it was really clear to me that

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there was a direct correlation between environmental
conditions and the human conditions.

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Now that I work at NASA I am able to look
at all these countries; everywhere I lived

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and places where I haven’t lived.

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I can basically see them all from space.

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I did my graduate work in Mozambique and in
Mozambique 40% of their export is actually

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shrimp.

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They use the mango as nursery habitat, so
there is a direct relationship between the

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GDP of a country and their mango coverage.

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Mango forest, actually store a lot of carbon
in them; they store them in the above ground

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biomass, so in the trees themselves, but also
in below biomass in the soil.

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They are also very important for nursery habitats
for many fish species and crustaceans.

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And actually knowing just the structure of
the forest, like how tall it is and the extent,

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really gives you a good indication of how
healthy a forest is.

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I mostly work on estimating forest 3-D structure,
so basically estimating forest height.

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I love going in to the field.

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I love making new discoveries.

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I love it when your results are really validated
by your research.

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I love coming in here every day, so you know
there are a lot of great things happening