| STEPS Research Initiatives The
Institute is currently facilitating teams of researchers
within UCSC and regional partnerships to address scientific/social
issues in three areas of national and international research
priority:
- The effects of climate change
- Conservation of biodiversity
- Alterations in the earth's water systems
The effects of Climate Change
[text being updated 2/25/08]
Conservation of biodiversity
All the earths major ecosystems are
undergoing rapid change in genetic diversity through
global transport of species and changing global environments:
- Introduced plants, animals,
and diseases cost the U.S. more than $100 billion
annually.
- Rapid changes in the
genetic diversity of ecosystems are making conservation
and management efforts expensive.
- Solutions require new
approaches on how best to manage the inevitable continued
change in genetic diversity.
Coastal
Biodiversity
The combination of intensive human use and linkages across physical
and biological gradients makes coastal regions critical to human well-being
and ecological health. Coastal regions provide human society with food, water,
temperate zones for cities, access to river and ocean transportation, recreation,
and connections with spiritual and cultural practices. Many of these benefits
and services in turn rely on diverse, complex ecosystems the cross the land-sea
interface. These environments, however, are changing quickly through introduction
of invasive species and rapid genetic change in native species. Threats to
ecosystem health may, through feedback effects, impact human uses of coastal
regions. The STEPS Institute is facilitating connections among existing research
programs in the natural and social sciences and engineering that are characterizing
large scale patterns in the genetic diversity of coastal environments and
seeking solutions to the many challenges of coastal management. The goal of
these studies is to draw on new approaches in ecological science, molecular
technology, sensor engineering, and social science to provide better assessments
of ongoing change and better management approaches.
Biodiversity Networks
The network structure of biodiversity is changing rapidly in all ecosystems worldwide through alteration of ecosystem processes, loss and fragmentation of habitats, redistribution of species across continents and oceans, climate and atmospheric change, and selective addition or removal of taxa. These changes affect all efforts to conserve and manage ecosystem services. Part of the long-term goal of STEPS is the development of a predictive science of how rapid environmental change is altering species interactions in terrestrial and marine environments. These interactions include those between predators and prey, parasites and hosts, competing species, and mutualists (such as interactions between pollinators and plants). We are concentrating many of our efforts on analyses of how interactions are changing at the interface of contrasting environments-for example, land/sea and reserve/non-reserve.
Core Facility: Molecular
Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics (MEEG) Facility
California Central Coast Biodiversity Database
STEPS-funded Collaborations:
Santa
Lucia Gradient Study
Movement
of Top Predators
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Alteration of the Earth's Water Systems
All
the earths water systems have been changing rapidly
through alteration of rivers and lakes, increased use
of oceanic resources, and diffusion of environmental
toxins.
- Conflicting societal
demands for water have become one of the earths
major environmental issues.
- The ongoing changes
affect fisheries, agriculture, forests, rangelands,
urban centers, and the spread of diseases.
- Solutions require
new approaches linking scientific knowledge with
social change.
Climate,
Precipitation and Rivers
We are combining regional climate modeling expertise with statistical modeling,
ecological research, and policy analysis to link academic research with
policy needs. Working directly with public agency decision-makers, we
are co-defining research priorities and developing work plans. Our research
focus is on the practical needs of government and industry to understand
and adapt to climate change.
Those
planning needs are mediated
through our use of rivers.
Rivers are among the most crucial and contended
elements of the landscape. Changing and growing
demands on rivers as suppliers of water and nutrition;
providers of recreation, solitude, and habitat; transporters of both goods
and wastes; embodiments of cultural heritage; and generators
of energy make river regulation a central focus of public concern. Our
research
on rivers construes regulation in its broadest sense – from geomorphological
controls on water chemistry to strategic links between farming and restoration
in riparian corridors. Only through a broad, interdisciplinary understanding
of rivers in general, and of particular rivers, can effective use and management
strategies emerge.
Core Facility: UCSC
Climate Change and Impacts Laboratory (CCIL)
STEPS-funded Collaborations:
Regional Climate Change and
Precipitation
Nutrient Flow in Coastal Rivers
Sacramento River Restoration
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