STEPS-Funded
Collaborations:
The Institute facilitates development
of interdisciplinary research on the STEPS research priorities
by helping with the early stages of interdisciplinary collaborations.
These efforts include funds for graduate and undergraduate
students working with faculty among environmental disciplines
and workshops that link UCSC faculty with other researchers
and policy makers outside the university.
The Institute is always searching
for new and innovative approaches that link science, technology,
engineering, policy, and society. UCSC faculty attempting
to develop collaborations on the major STEPS research priorities
should contact the STEPS
Director to discuss funding possibilities.
Current
Collaborations:
UCSC Faculty:
John Thompson (PI), Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Mark Carr, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Laurel Fox, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Maggie Fusari, Director, UCSC Natural Reserves
Karen Holl, Department of Environmental Studies
Marc Mangel, Department Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Grant
Pogson, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Don Potts, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Peter Raimondi, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary
Biology
Agencies and Organizations:
Big Sur Land Trust,
Big Sur Ornithology, California State Parks, Elkhorn Slough
Reserve, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, National
Marine Fisheries Service, The Nature Conservancy,
Santa Lucia Conservancy,
Ventana
Wilderness
Society, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey,
Wildlife Conservation Society
Other Universities:
UC Berkeley
Abstract:
The Central Coast of California
is a region rich both in biological diversity and jurisdictional
complexity.
The STEPS Institute is helping to coordinate
a network or researchers, managers, and policy makers to evaluate rapidly
changing biological diversity along the steep environmental
gradients that characterize
this part of California. Those gradients include the land-sea interface
and the coastal-inland gradient of ecosystems.
The network include participants
from UC universities, federal and state agencies, private organizations
and foundations, and major landowners. Much of
the current work on this effort
is devoted to development of a meta-database on research results already
in place from decades of past work by researchers
and managers working for different
organizations. In addition, through a series of workshops, SLGS is
working toward development of new research collaborations
among researchers working
on the biological diversity of the Central Coast.
Workshops:
2003 Santa Lucia Gradient Study
2004 Santa
Lucia Gradient Study
 Movement of Top Predators:
Combining Sensor Technology and Biology
UCSC Faculty:
Katia Obraczka (PI), Department of Computer Engineering
Roberto Manduchi, Department of Computer Engineering
Patrick
Mantey, Department of Computer Engineering
Terrie Williams, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology
Abstract:
The goal of this collaboration between biologists and
engineers is to develop instruments that will help
evaluate the movement
and impact of large predators within ecosystems. Large
mammalian carnivores are important in the organization
of biodiversity in many ecosystems. Recent work on
free-ranging marine mammals has demonstrated the power
of using instrumentation
to integrate energetic and behavioral data to study
the impacts of predators within ecosystems. Key to
this approach
has been the use of animal-borne sensors that provide
information on physiology, behavior, and movement.
Remarkably, such instruments have not been developed
for terrestrial mammals. This project is developing
a miniaturized
instrument package for deployment on free ranging
carnivores. The researchers are developing sensors
that provide
surrogate data for hunting behavior and energetics.
They are also
combining these sensors with additional sensors that
record attributes of the environment that affect
the movements
of the animals.
As interactions between wild animals and human populations
increase, we require better methods to evaluate how
large carnivores move across landscapes. Mountain
lion attacks
on humans in California and the problems surrounding
wolf/rancher interactions following the reintroduction
of the predators
in Yellowstone Park are just a two examples of how
underestimating predator requirements can be deleterious
to conservation
efforts and human safety. This research will therefore
help inform public policy on conservation by providing
better data on the movement patterns of large terrestrial
carnivores.
Go to Top
Regional Climate Change and Water Initiative
Regional
Climate Change and Precipitation:
Linking Models to Management
UCSC Faculty:
Bruno Sanso, Department of Applied Math and Statistics
Lisa Sloan, Department of Earth Sciences
Michael Loik, Department of Environmental
Studies
Agency: Metropolitan Water
District
Abstract:
The Institute is
supporting a cluster of collaborations on the ways in which
regional climate change
is affecting precipitation patterns and water flow within
and among ecosystems. Lisa Sloan’s Climate Change
and Impacts (CCIL) Laboratory is developing high resolution
computer models on how changes in atmospheric gas levels
are altering precipitation patterns within California.
Bruno Sanso is working in collaboration with the CCIL to
provide
statistical underpinnings to different climate model projections.
Michael Loik’s group is heading PrecipNet, a consortium
of researchers attempting to link biologically-relevant
estimates of changes in precipitation with potential changes
in vegetation and land use among ecosystems. A subset of
these groups is partnering with Metropolitan Water District
on novel approaches to the links between climate change,
precipitation, and water flow.
The impact of future climate change on California
is of great interest from many perspectives. California
is particularly vulnerable to changes in temperature, precipitation,
and snowpack. Previous studies using global and regional
climate models have shown that with increased greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere, monthly mean temperatures
will increase and snow accumulation will decrease. However,
if we are to plan for the effects of these changes we need
more comprehensive assessments
of the quality and accuracy of climate model results. To this
end we plan to develop a very high-resolution observational
dataset using station data, to compare with the regional climate
model output using statistical techniques developed by Bruno Sanso.
By evaluating the quality of the regional climate model simulations
for the present day we will be able to quantify any biases and
apply that to simulations of future climate. With a better
understanding the uncertainties in the climate model simulations,
the information produced from these models will be of greater use
in planning for future climate change.
Workshops:
2002 Integrating Regional Climate
Change Models into Existing Water Supply and Demand
Models in California
2004 PrecipNet/STEPS Climate change
Science and Policy Workshop
Nutrient
Flow in Coastal Rivers:
Managing the Pajaro River
UCSC Faculty:
Andy Fisher (PI), Department of Earth Sciences and
Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics
Paul Koch, Department of Earth Sciences & Institute for
Geophysics and Planetary Physics
Marc Los Huertos, Department of
Environmental Studies & Center
for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Daniel Press,
Department of Environmental Studies & Center for Agroecology
and Sustainable Food Systems
Carol Shennan, Department of Environmental Studies & Center
for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Agency:
U.S. Geological Survey, Environmental Isotope
Laboratory and Water Resources Division
Abstract:
The Influence of Surface
Water Ground Water Interactions on Water Quantity and
Quality
This collaborative effort is analyzing the input and movement
of nutrients through the Pajaro River in central coastal
California and the tools and opportunities that may improve
resource regulation and management. The work emphasizes
nitrate (NO3), one of the most common aquatic contaminants
in the state, and has these specific goals: (1) estimate
NO3 levels in rivers and creeks based on land use and agricultural
practices, (2) determine mechanisms and rates of NO3 removal
and export from these systems, and (3) inventory and assess
a range of non-point-source effluent policies adopted in
the US, Canada and Europe (focusing on the last 10 years)
to evaluate their applicability and potential to improve
aquatic conditions in the Pajaro Valley (and, by example,
throughout the West in similar water systems). In particular,
the research team is using the Pajaro River as a test case
of how to prevent, control, or mitigate excess nutrient
loading associated with common and innovative agricultural
practices.
Sacramento River Restoration:
Linking Science
and Society
UCSC Faculty:
Brent Haddad (PI), Department of Environmental Studies
Daniel Doak, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Gregory Gilbert,
Department of Environmental Studies
Karen Holl, Department
of Environmental Studies
Nirvikar Singh, Department of Economics
Abstract:
UCSC conservation biologists, policy analysts,
and social scientists are collaborating on ways to help
ecological
restoration proceed in regions where there is substantial
economic activity. On the one hand, it is important to
restore and preserve critical habitat and ecological
processes. On the other hand, communities rely on the
jobs and sales from farming and other activities that
transform the landscape. This UCSC team of researchers
is using decision-making modeling to evaluate how organizations
and individuals make decisions in light of (1) the choices
that others are making, and (2) knowledge of how everyone's
choices collectively affect the rivers and surrounding
landscapes.
Focusing on the Sacramento River Conservation Area, their
research incorporates the complexity of feedbacks between
private landowners and resource users, nearby restored
areas, and restoration managers in linked game-theoretic
and ecological models. The approach layers the interactions
and negotiations between restorationists and resource users
and creates a realistic, dynamic model of natural-social
systems. The work organizes the actions and goals of restorationists
and resource users to identify how individual strategic
decision-making and social systems impact restoration activities,
and how to better manage scarce restoration resources in
light of landowner motivations and perspectives.
Biologists
involved in the project are studying how the mosaic boundaries
created by different uses affect the overall region. One
example
is how pests, weeds, and pest predators associated with
agricultural and restored sites affect all landowners.
The research is leading to a better understanding of social-ecological
feedbacks along California's largest river. It is helping
restorationists, regulators, and resource users make better
decisions about how to achieve multiple, competing goals.
It is also developing methods that will be useful in other
efforts that link social decision-making and scientific
results.
Go
to Top |
