Welcome to Mike's personal site!

I am an ecologist with broad interests spanning ecophysiology, hydrology, remote sensing, and biological conservation. I enjoy identifying important problems in environmental science and management, developing deep knowledge of the relevant systems, and using rigorous field observations and technological innovations to tackle said problems.

I am currently a member of the Anderegg and Young labs in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara. In late 2026, I will graduate and begin a Simons Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Plant Biology under the supervision of Dr. Brian Bailey at UC Davis.

To learn more about my research interests, please visit the Publications and Research tabs of this website. People interested in building sap flow sensors and data loggers for analog voltage-based sensors (including FloraPulse microtensiometer probes) should check out the DIY Sensors tab, and those interested in upscaling sap flux data to whole-tree water use rates should check out the sapscaleR tab. I also provide links to various datasets I’ve produced in the Data tab.

Feel free to reach out to mburnett (at) ucsb (dot) edu with questions or offers of collaboration!