Other Projects and Activities

Workshops and Symposia:

6/13/14

Dr. Rodrigo J. Bombardi, Dept. of Atmospheric, Oceanic & Earth Sciences, George Mason University

Improvements in the representation of the Indian Monsoon in the NCEP Climate Forecast System version

6/13/14

Forest Cannon

Winter Westerly Disturbance Activity in High Mountain Asia: A Wave Tracking Approach

5/28/14

Ken O. Buesseler, WHOI

Fukushima: A View from the Ocean

5/21/14

Scott Hornafius

What is the oil industry doing to reduce GHG emissions?

5/9/14

Pete Peterson

Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) version 1.8: A 30+ Year Quasi-Global Terrestrial Rainfall Dataset Ready for Release

5/9/14

Haline Heidinger

Extreme Rainfall in the Peruvian Andes

4/30/14

Jonathan Harvey

Geomorphic evidence for a discontinuity in the Main Himalayan Thrust in west Nepal

4/4/14

Stefan Lange

Regional climate model sensitivities to parametrizations of clouds and convection over South America and novel approaches to model evaluation with complex networks

4/4/14

Shane Grigsby

Assessment of Canopy Temperature Retrieval Accuracy Using a Synthesis of Hyperspectral and Multispectral Data Over Delano Vineyard

3/14/14

Oliver Chadwick

Thoughts on Developing a Dynamic Concept of Soil that is responsive to a global-change focused Earth-Systems research agenda

3/14/14

Marcia T. Zilli

Frequency Analysis of Extreme Events based on Precipitation Station Data over Southeastern Brazil

3/12/14

Laura Reynolds

 Holocene relative sea level in Southern California

3/11/14

Pete Homyak

Plant and Soil Moisture Controls on NO Emissions in a Semiarid Annual Grassland

3/4/14

Susan Meerdink

Linking Seasonal Foliar Chemistry to VSWIR-TIR Spectroscopy Across California Ecosystems

2/26/14

Charles Jones

Sensitivity of heavy precipitation over the contiguous United States to the Madden-Julian Oscillation

2/25/14

Sam Prentice

Linking Soil and Geomorphic Process Zones Using Fine Scale LIDAR DEMs

2/19/14

Gordana Garapic

Melt migration in experimental and natural upper mantle rocks

2/18/14

Joey Blankinship

Disentangling the biology and physics of soil carbon cycling

2/14/14

Jesse Norris

Dynamics and Organization of Precipitation Bands in the Midlatitudes

2/14/14

C. Jones and L. Carvalho

Overview of 2014 winter weather and climate

2/11/14

Lisa August-Schmidt

 Community Assembly after Fire: How Nitrogen-Fixing Trees Shape Understory Composition

2/5/14

Joel Pederson

Solving a hot debate with cool luminescence--new applications of bedrock-OSL for dating rock art in Canyonlands National Park

1/29/14

Daniel Viete

Earthquakes, fluid flow and rapid metamorphism in subduction zones

1/22/14

Stacy Rebich Hespanha

Using "big data", evaluation, and storytelling to lower barriers to access and reuse of Earth and environmental science data

1/21/14

Sara Baguskas

Impact of fog-drip vs. fog immersion on the physiological function of Bishop pines

1/17/14

Deborah Khider

Assessing millennial-scale variability during the Holocene: a perspective from the western tropical Pacific

1/17/14

Taylor Smith

Debris Cover Mapping and Mass Balance Estimates for the High Tien Shan of Central Asia

1/15/14

Nicole Neira

Results of First Seafloor SF6 Gas Tracer Experiment: Fluid Flow Direction & Velocity in 3.5 Ma Crust on Juan de Fuca Ridge Flank

1/8/14

Burch Fisher

From Googly- to Google-Eyed: Explicit Chanel Widths from High-Spatial Resolution Google Earth Imagery

12/4/13

Alexander Simms

Alex Simms - A Holocene case for parasequences:  Examples from the Gulf of Mexico and Antarctica.

11/22/13

Uwe Boerst

Batura-Glacier – mass balance and "Karakoram Anomaly" (Upper Hunza, Karakoram)

11/22/13

Forest Cannon

High Asia Wintertime Climate Variability: Large-Scale Circulation and Regional Precipitation

11/20/13

Chris Funk

Exploring seasonal and decadal predictions for Africa and the United States using Matched Filter Regression

11/13/13

James Boles

Modern oil generation and pyrolysis at >800ºC from spontaneous combustion in a landslide of Miocene shale, California

11/6/13

Christopher Sorlien

The pattern of (oblique) thrust reactivation of Miocene low-angle (oblique) normal faults, Inner California Borderland"

10/23/13

Sophie Briggs and Janelle McAtamney

Pegmatite Petrogenesis and the Age of Peak Metamorphism in the Southern Alps, New Zealand

10/16/13

David Siegel

Detecting Change in the Global Ocean Biosphere using Satellite Ocean Color Observations

10/11/13

Leonel Romero

Simulations of Nearshore Particle Dispersion in Southern California

10/11/13

Sarah Harris

Rainfall in southern California and the relationship with atmospheric rivers

10/9/13

Susannah Porter

Life before, during, and after a Neoproterozoic "snowball Earth" glaciation.

9/6/13

Tommy Dickey and Lumari Pardo

Toward the Understanding and
Prediction of Optical Variability in the Ocean

6/13/14

Dr. Rodrigo J. Bombardi, Dept. of Atmospheric, Oceanic & Earth Sciences, George Mason University

Improvements in the representation of the Indian Monsoon in the NCEP Climate Forecast System version

 

6/13/14

Forest Cannon

Winter Westerly Disturbance Activity in High Mountain Asia: A Wave Tracking Approach

 

5/28/14

Ken O. Buesseler, WHOI

Fukushima: A View from the Ocean

 

5/21/14

Scott Hornafius

What is the oil industry doing to reduce GHG emissions?

 

5/9/14

Pete Peterson

Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) version 1.8: A 30+ Year Quasi-Global Terrestrial Rainfall Dataset Ready for Release

 

5/9/14

Haline Heidinger

Extreme Rainfall in the Peruvian Andes

 

4/30/14

Jonathan Harvey

Geomorphic evidence for a discontinuity in the Main Himalayan Thrust in west Nepal

 

4/4/14

Stefan Lange

Regional climate model sensitivities to parametrizations of clouds and convection over South America and novel approaches to model evaluation with complex networks

 

4/4/14

Shane Grigsby

Assessment of Canopy Temperature Retrieval Accuracy Using a Synthesis of Hyperspectral and Multispectral Data Over Delano Vineyard

 

3/14/14

Oliver Chadwick

Thoughts on Developing a Dynamic Concept of Soil that is responsive to a global-change focused Earth-Systems research agenda

 

3/14/14

Marcia T. Zilli

Frequency Analysis of Extreme Events based on Precipitation Station Data over Southeastern Brazil

 

3/12/14

Laura Reynolds

 Holocene relative sea level in Southern California

 

3/11/14

Pete Homyak

Plant and Soil Moisture Controls on NO Emissions in a Semiarid Annual Grassland

 

3/4/14

Susan Meerdink

Linking Seasonal Foliar Chemistry to VSWIR-TIR Spectroscopy Across California Ecosystems

 

2/26/14

Charles Jones

Sensitivity of heavy precipitation over the contiguous United States to the Madden-Julian Oscillation

 

2/25/14

Sam Prentice

Linking Soil and Geomorphic Process Zones Using Fine Scale LIDAR DEMs

 

2/19/14

Gordana Garapic

Melt migration in experimental and natural upper mantle rocks

 

2/18/14

Joey Blankinship

Disentangling the biology and physics of soil carbon cycling

 

2/14/14

Jesse Norris

Dynamics and Organization of Precipitation Bands in the Midlatitudes

 

2/14/14

C. Jones and L. Carvalho

Overview of 2014 winter weather and climate

 

2/11/14

Lisa August-Schmidt

 Community Assembly after Fire: How Nitrogen-Fixing Trees Shape Understory Composition

 

2/5/14

Joel Pederson

Solving a hot debate with cool luminescence--new applications of bedrock-OSL for dating rock art in Canyonlands National Park

 

1/29/14

Daniel Viete

Earthquakes, fluid flow and rapid metamorphism in subduction zones

 

1/22/14

Stacy Rebich Hespanha

Using "big data", evaluation, and storytelling to lower barriers to access and reuse of Earth and environmental science data

 

1/21/14

Sara Baguskas

Impact of fog-drip vs. fog immersion on the physiological function of Bishop pines

 

1/17/14

Deborah Khider

Assessing millennial-scale variability during the Holocene: a perspective from the western tropical Pacific

 

1/17/14

Taylor Smith

Debris Cover Mapping and Mass Balance Estimates for the High Tien Shan of Central Asia

 

1/15/14

Nicole Neira

Results of First Seafloor SF6 Gas Tracer Experiment: Fluid Flow Direction & Velocity in 3.5 Ma Crust on Juan de Fuca Ridge Flank

 

1/8/14

Burch Fisher

From Googly- to Google-Eyed: Explicit Chanel Widths from High-Spatial Resolution Google Earth Imagery

 

12/4/13

Alexander Simms

Alex Simms - A Holocene case for parasequences:  Examples from the Gulf of Mexico and Antarctica.

 

11/22/13

Uwe Boerst

Batura-Glacier – mass balance and "Karakoram Anomaly" (Upper Hunza, Karakoram)

 

11/22/13

Forest Cannon

High Asia Wintertime Climate Variability: Large-Scale Circulation and Regional Precipitation

 

11/20/13

Chris Funk

Exploring seasonal and decadal predictions for Africa and the United States using Matched Filter Regression

 

11/13/13

James Boles

Modern oil generation and pyrolysis at >800ºC from spontaneous combustion in a landslide of Miocene shale, California

 

11/6/13

Christopher Sorlien

The pattern of (oblique) thrust reactivation of Miocene low-angle (oblique) normal faults, Inner California Borderland"

 

10/23/13

Sophie Briggs and Janelle McAtamney

Pegmatite Petrogenesis and the Age of Peak Metamorphism in the Southern Alps, New Zealand

 

10/16/13

David Siegel

Detecting Change in the Global Ocean Biosphere using Satellite Ocean Color Observations

 

10/11/13

Leonel Romero

Simulations of Nearshore Particle Dispersion in Southern California

 

10/11/13

Sarah Harris

Rainfall in southern California and the relationship with atmospheric rivers

 

10/9/13

Susannah Porter

Life before, during, and after a Neoproterozoic "snowball Earth" glaciation.

 

9/6/13

Tommy Dickey and Lumari Pardo

Toward the Understanding and
Prediction of Optical Variability in the Ocean

 
   

 

 

Research Experiences for Students:

Research education is a key component of ERI’s mission.  This fiscal year, ERI supported 68 graduate student researchers and 97 undergraduate students.  The students were involved in a wide range of projects.  Undergraduates have been involved in the NASA-funded Plumes and Blooms project, taking part in one-day optical oceanography cruises in the Santa Barbara Channel.  The Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEIN) has included multiple students in their research efforts. Many students took classes, interned, or were employed by the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) learning restoration and management skills, natural history collection management, and K-12 science education. The Research Abstracts (link) demonstrate the span of research involvement by students.

 

 

K-12 Outreach Activities:

Furthering ERI educational efforts, Sandy Seale, was recognized for her: “outstanding service in education, outreach, and training.” The award, which she received at the NEES 2013 Quake Summit, was for her efforts in earthquake awareness and education. Dr. Seale has involved K-12 students in: “Make Your Own Earthquake,” a program that teaches students about earthquakes and the instruments used in measuring accelerations.  Additional information on NEES outreach efforts may be found at: http://www.nees.ucsb.edu/eot

 

Kids in Nature:

The mission of the Kids in Nature Environmental Education (KIN) program is to promote the aspirations and achievements of students in underserved schools by providing quality environmental science education. To achieve this goal, CCBER recruits and trains undergraduates for careers in K-12 science education, provide professional development opportunities for teachers who have inadequate undergraduate preparation in science and who lack the resources for teaching science content in the classroom, and for both students and teachers, we create and encourage personal connections to the natural world, which will foster an interest in becoming stewards of the environment.

 

Program Description

While many programs are designed to offer educational experiences for several hours or for one day, the KIN program provides each classroom with a total of twelve educational activities offered with our partners, the Marine Science Institute’s REEF program, Coal Oil Point Reserve, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Arroyo Hondo Preserve. The fifth grade students work closely with the KIN staff and UCSB students enrolled in EEMB189/ES191 in an outdoor setting and gain firsthand experience with the concepts they learn in class for an in-depth and sustained educational experience. KIN curriculum emphasizes hands-on, placed based activities in outdoor environments  and also includes classroom visits where UCSB students mentor and assist with the fifth grade student work and activities in the established native plant gardens on the elementary school campuses.

 

During the yearlong program, we estimate that each KIN student experiences approximately 100 hours of small group education. KIN has a significant impact on the students’ understanding, involvement in, and awareness of environmental issues through engaging and challenging activities and positive interactions with scientists, graduate and undergraduate students both in class and in the field.  KIN students spend a significant amount of time on the UCSB campus, which helps to demystify the university and provides the students with opportunities to learn about programs and the campus environment. Each 5th grade student receives a Kids in Nature Science Notebook and Nature Journal, which contains additional information and activities to accompany each fieldtrip. There is also a teacher version of the journal available, which includes the Next Generation Science Standards that correspond with each chapter.