Research Groups
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) — UCSB: CCBER promotes the teaching of diverse undergraduate courses in EEMB, Environmental Studies, and Geology. It also supports faculty, staff, and student research interests by providing field and lab-based resources. In addition, CCBER houses regionally focused collections of terrestrial plants, algae, and vertebrates, as well as an extensive plant anatomy collection. The Center satisfies the University’s obligation to provide stewardship of campus lands, rich in biodiversity. Through the ecological restoration program, the Center encourages land restoration on and near campus.
Individuals
Professor Burbank studies tectonic geomorphology and surface processes. Working with the Earth Research Institute, Burbank’s research areas include earth evolution, earth systems science, and natural hazards. His current research projects include analyzing the climate and tectonic controls on growth of the Puna Plateau in the Andes of NW Argentina, changes in Andean erosion rates over the past 5 million years, and the interactions of tectonics, erosion, and climate in shaping the Himalaya, Pamir, and Tien Shan mountains in Asia.
Earth Research Institute
Dr. D’Antonio’s research is primarily focused on factors driving changes in ecosystem structure and functioning. She evaluates how species, communities, and ecosystem processes are responding to human-altered fire regimes, species invasions, nitrogen deposition, and climatic fluctuations, including drought. Through her research, she seeks to provide a scientific basis for the management and restoration of ecosystems and for predicting how species composition will change under current and future stressors.
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration
Frank Davis brings conservation science and geographical analysis to bear in land use planning and the conservation of wild species. Davis is a Distinguished Professor in the Bren School and directs the La Kretz Research Center at UCSB's Sedgwick Reserve. His research focuses on the landscape ecology of California plant communities, the design of protected-area networks, rangeland and farmland conservation, and the biological implications of regional climate change.
Biogeography Lab, Director
National Research Council Committee on Science for EPA's Future
National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology
National Research Council Committee for the Independent Scientific Review of the Everglades Restoration Program, Chair
Dr. Holden’s research blends environmental engineering with soil microbiology. Her current research projects deal with the interactive effects of soil, water, and nutrients on bacterial processes, as well as coastal water quality in urban environments. She focuses on bacteria as both an agent of environmental restoration and of environmental degradation.
Dr. Kendall applies the science of population ecology to the conservation of rare species and to the management of harvested populations. His research focuses on the causes of population fluctuation, the prediction of the extinction of rare species, and the effects of current-driven dispersal on marine fish species. He also studies the design of protected areas for biodiversity conservation and fisheries management and how to manage tradeoffs among multiple ecosystem services.
Marine Science Institute
Earth Science Institute
Dr. King studies the interactions between soils, plants, and the atmosphere. Her research focuses on biogeochemical processes, which are those processes that cycle elements on Earth, and examines how these processes are influenced by natural and human-induced environmental changes. She recently investigated biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in urban households and how human decisions impact the fluxes of these elements. Current projects include examination of biotic and abiotic factors affecting the carbon cycle in California grasslands.
The Lipshutz Research Group at UCSB is committed to developing new green technologies that will transform the way in which organic synthesis will be performed. Their technologies provide alternatives to the use of toxic and flammable organic solvents that constitute the vast majority of the organic waste created by the chemical enterprise today. Through the use of newly engineered "designer" surfactants, which are environmentally benign, many of the most commonly used organic reactions can now be run in water under mild conditions.
Dr. Mazer’s research involves detecting the mechanisms by which plants adapt to the ecological risks and opportunities that they encounter and exploring the genetic constraints that may limit the rate or degree of adaptation. Her central research goals are to determine genetic and environmental sources of variation in traits that affect individual fitness. Since 2011, as field director of the California Phenology Project (www.usanpn.org/cpp), she has designed and implemented phenological monitoring programs throughout the state, engaging students, national park staff, UC Natural Reserves, and citizen scientists in the study of how climate change is affecting the seasonal cycles of 30 California native plant species.
Member, Advisory Committee, National Phenology Network
Field Director, California Phenology Project
Professor McFadden studies how changes in land cover and land use modify the two-way flows of water, energy, and carbon between ecosystems and the atmosphere. His current work is focused on understanding and modeling these processes in cities and suburbs, with the aim of using that knowledge to inform sustainable urban design and planning.
Professor Morse and his group conduct research focused on biophotonics and biologically inspired photonic technologies to improve the efficiency of solar energy, light-emitting diodes and infrared detectors. Previously recognized for their innovation of "Silicon Biotechnology," the team's approach is focused on advantageous mechanisms they are discovering in biological systems and translating into practical new materials and engineering.
Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies
Center for Nanomedicine
California NanoSystems Institute
Institute of Energy Efficiency
Dr. Schimel's research focuses on ecosystem and microbial ecology and their feedback on global climate. Specifically, his research looks at the role of soil microbes in controlling ecosystem scale processes through the linkages between plant and soil processes. Schimel's research is particularly important when analyzing the effects of increased temperature and altered rainfall patterns and CO2 emissions on global climate. Major foci of Schimel’s research are on Arctic ecosystems, which store huge pools of organic carbon and are warming rapidly, and California grasslands and scrublands which experience regular droughts.
UC Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology
Professor Stohl is current involved in a project entitled: Sustainability at the Crossroads: Examining the Vulnerability of New Zealand’s Global Environmental Positioning. The research project aims to understand how interested parties, including NZ policy makers, media, and business leaders think about, frame, and prioritise environmental, social and economic sustainability issues and with what consequences.
Carsey-Wolf Institute
Dr. Sweet’s current research is based on conservation biology, distributional ecology, and systematics of western North American and Australasian amphibians and reptiles; the ecology and systematics of monitor lizards; functional and evolutionary morphology; and ethnozoology.
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration
Professor Valentine's current research projects include the study of the microbial weathering of hydrocarbon compounds released into marine Environments as well as methods of Environmental remediation and biofuel production. His research aims to achieve a better understanding of the distribution, evolution and activity of microbial communities and their interaction with chemicals present in their Environment.