Biodiversity of native species in Los Angeles
La Kretz Postdoc Joscha Beninde is conducting a comparative landscape genomics study to understand how species survive and thrive in urban environments.
Projects
Bruin Naturalists Club
The Bruin Naturalists Club is a student organization at UCLA dedicated to getting people outside to learn about and interact with nature. We organize hikes, camping trips, and outreach events…
California Ecosystem Futures: The Future of California Drought, Fire, and Forest Dieback
The Center for Climate Science is using climate, vegetation, and fire observations and models to answer critical questions for California's future: Under climate change, what will happen to forests? How will fire risk change? How will climate, forest, and fire changes interact with and exacerbate one another — and what can we do to prepare?
Characterizing lagoon biodiversity in southern California using environmental DNA
Awardee: Rachel Turba. Rachel is investigating shifts in community structure related to such impacts through exploration of environmental DNA from water samples and sediments from these lagoons, with the goal to address conservation efforts related to translocation of populations or local environment improvement.
Designing a Toolkit to Support Sustainable Small Island Economies
Balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders when making decisions about marine resources is challenging. A toolkit that is specific to the challenges small islands face -economically, socially, and environmentally- is…
Detection of incipient, invasive Ambrosia Beetles using species distribution models
Awardee: Monica Dimson, Ph.D. Student. Monica is interested in modeling the distribution of the invasive shot-hole borer (Euwallacea sp. nr.fornicatus), a beetle that threatens native trees, urban forests, and agricultural crops in California, in order to assess the utility of these models in conservation and planning.
Developing Genomic Resources to Inform Conservation and Management of the Tricolored Blackbird
Awardee: Kelly Barr, PhD Student. Kellys work surrounds using a massive genomic dataset to analyze these issues in Tricolored Blackbirds, a species that has undergone sharp declines and is under intense management throughout the state of California.
Developing Human Capital in Support of Islands’ Blue Economy
Islands often lack a capable workforce. Their small populations and sparse educational training opportunities make it hard to address workforce limitations. This project will conduct a critical evaluation of workforce…
Diverting Landfill Waste in UCLA’s Graduate Housing
By building on past student research, we hope to perfect a waste diversion program implemented in Spring of 2017 at two of UCLA’s graduate housing apartment complexes. We are focused on improving…
Does wrack of an invasive alga provide a similar resource subsidy as giant kelp for supporting key ecosystem functions on sandy beaches?
Awardee: Lauren Smith, PhD Student. Lauren is researching invasive Sargassum horneri found in southern California.
Drone-based damage assessment of utility scale photovoltaic solar facilities
Team: Nour Abou Fadel, Huong Le, Laurence Ng-Cordell, Lillian Wherry, Wentao Wu, Heng Wah Zeng Advisor: Peter Kareiva Client: ADEPT / Gimball-Prod
Enhancing the feasibility of Zero Waste Practices at UCLA Recreation Events
Our project’s goal is to make Zero Waste events achievable for all sides involved in event planning. To accomplish this goal, we plan to create a Zero Waste Event guideline system that…