Environmental Studies Seminar Series spring 25

Please note: All seminars will be available via zoom in ISB 221. If you are unable to stream the talk live and need to access a recorded version, please contact Scott Winton @scwinton@ucsc.edu  

A UC Santa Cruz email address is required to access the recording.

Mondays 12:00 to 1:05 pm in person. Zoom Link

Location: ISB 221

Meeting ID:  990 0092 9409

Passcode: 128579

January 6:  Brianna Elliott (via Zoom)  Host: Emma Gee

Title: Illuminating bycatch in Indian Ocean gillnet fisheries: learning from low-cost methodologies to potentially high-cost unilateral trade policy measures

January 13:  Christine Wilkinson Host: Chris Wilmers

Title: Improving human-wildlife interactions through environmental justice

Abstract: Human-wildlife interactions are fundamentally driven by both societal and ecological factors, and negative interactions (i.e., "conflicts") are often underpinned by environmental injustices. Integrating local community perspectives and histories with data on ecology and animal behavior can help us to understand how people and wildlife can successfully share landscapes in a world of increasing climate change and human-wildlife overlap. In this talk, we will discuss case studies on human-carnivore interactions and wildlife movement in Nakuru, Kenya and California, USA, and explore how our own intersectional lenses can complement applied science to achieve resilient, more just conservation outcomes.

January 27:  William Horwath  Host: Weixin Cheng

February 3:  Yamina Pressler, Host: Karen Holl

Title: Soil food webs in fire-affected ecosystems

Abstract: Global fire regimes are shifting as a result of changing climate, land use, and habitat management. Both wildfires and prescribed burns impact soils with consequences for ecosystem functions. Soil organisms are diverse, ubiquitous indicators of soil health. Soil biota are an ideal lens for understanding how ecosystems will respond to changing fire regimes because they regulate important ecological functions including decomposition, carbon and nutrient cycling, and soil organic matter formation. Literature syntheses suggest that fire negatively affects soil biota abundance and diversity overall, with considerable variation across taxa and ecosystems. In this seminar, I will present results from several studies that investigate how soil organisms respond to fire in different contexts. These studies use observational, experimental, modeling, and synthesis approaches to explore several aspects of shifting fire regimes, including fire frequency, severity, and interactions with drought. In an oak-pine savanna in Oklahoma, we found that long-term frequent burning led to less complex and more resilient soil food webs. Similarly, soil food webs were less complex after moderate severity fire in an Arctic tundra ecosystem in Alaska. In a comparative study of soil nematode responses to sequential high severity fires in California forests, we found that recurring high severity fire decreases total nematode abundance overall, but trophic group responses may respond to bottom-up changes in plant inputs and organic matter availability after fire. In an experiment manipulating prescribed fire and drought in a semi-arid grassland in Texas, we found no differences in microbial biomass or diversity after fire, drought, or a combination of treatments. Together, these studies suggest that fire impacts to soil biota are context dependent and vary by ecosystem type and fire regime. I will reflect on the value of applying multiple approaches to address knowledge gaps in soil science and disturbance ecology.

February 10:  Michael Cox  Host: Anne Kapucinski

Title: The theory and practice of environmental property rights

Abstract: How do we – and how should we – engage with the natural environment through the concepts of rights and responsibilities? In this presentation, Michael Cox will discuss how he addresses this question in his recent book, Common Boundaries. In this book, Cox develops the theory and practice of environmental property rights, moving beyond simplistic assumptions that do not reflect the diversity of arrangements we see in the world. Recognizing this diversity will help us craft better responses to environmental problems in the future with an interdisciplinary foundation in what has worked, or not worked, in the past. Synthesizing a variety of methods and disciplines, Cox explores rights-based environmental policies as well as different cultural approaches to environmental ownership.

February 24: Blessing Kavhu Host: Natalia Ocampo-Penuela

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA

February 3: Brook Constantz  Host: Karen Holl

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA

March 10:  Pat Rogers Host: Grad Students

Title:  The history of Indian Land Title and its modern implications to environmental justice.

Abstract: TBA