Landscape Restoration

Science for Society

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Submitted by Visitor on February 21, 2011 - 12:34pm

Shannon

E

McNeil

Degree Program:

msc

Primary Department/Unit:

semcneil@email.arizona.edu

Email:

I am interestd in the effects of habitat fragmentation and isolation on avian dispersal, and how to improve current habitat restoration practices within the current agricultural landscape. I am developing genetic markers in yellow-billed cuckoos as a tool to measure current western riparian connectivity.

Topic or title of your dissertation/thesis:

Yellow-billed cuckoo Coccyzus americanus population genetics within a fragmented landscape.

Advisor(s):

Melanie Culver

Expected Graduation Date:

December, 2012

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[field_student_fname-raw] [field_student_mi-raw] [field_student_lname-raw]

Submitted by Visitor on February 18, 2011 - 10:02am

Pacifica

Sommers

Degree Program:

phd

Primary Department/Unit:

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Email:

psommers@email.arizona.edu

Web site:

http://www.biodiversitytheblog.wordpress.com

After interning with the Nevada division of the Bureau of Land Management (Conservation and Management program, 2007), then interning for National Wildlife Federation's public affairs office and working for another year in Washington, DC, on climate policy, I decided to return to science and academics. I am interested in how and when similar species can coexist, which drives biodiversity and its changes.

Topic or title of your dissertation/thesis:

Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliarus syn Cenchrus ciliarus) is a perennial C₄ grass native to Africa and Southwest Asia. It has been planted extensively for five decades in semi-arid regions, such as Australia, Brazil, and Sonora, for cattle forage. Over the past thirty years, however, buffelgrass has colonized ecosystems outside of the pasture, where it fills in bare space to become a fire hazard and decrease native vegetation diversity. This has become a serious problem in Southeastern Arizona, where buffelgrass does very well in the habitat of the iconic saguaro cactus and has fueled enormous wildfires.
I propose to develop a stage-structured model with variable growth and survival rates to investigate how buffelgrass may be excluding native vegetation. I will consider both resource competition and variable predation by granivores and herbivores as density-dependent mechanisms. I will also incorporate buffelgrass removal as an additional source of mortality, and ask at what level that mortality must be set in order to preserve native diversity, and how the native community should respond when buffelgrass is removed.
I propose to parameterize this model and test its predictions in a field experiment along the wildland-city border in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains just north of Tucson. I hope to begin pilot studies later in the spring of 2011.

Advisor(s):

Peter Chesson

Expected Graduation Date:

May, 2014

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Elizabeth Scott

Elizabeth

Scott

Title:

Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture

Additional Titles and Departments:

Affiliate Faculty, Institute of the Environment

Education:

MLA, University of Oregon, 2005

Phone:

(520) 626-9412

Email:

eascott@email.arizona.edu

Elizabeth Scott is an assistant professor in the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona who brings experience in community design and planning to the faculty. Her landscape research addresses social-ecological linkages between regional, community and site scales using GIS modeling as a base. Currently, she is working on a post-occupancy evaluation of conventional and sustainable communities to compare social-ecological impacts of the different styles of development.

Interest and Expertise:

Landscape Architecture

Urban and Built Environment

Spatial Analysis

Land Resource and Environmental Management

Environmental Themes:

Culture and Creative Arts

Engineering & Sustainable Design

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Stephen L Buchmann

Stephen

L

Buchmann

Title:

Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Entomology

Additional Titles and Departments:

Research Associate, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Affiliate Faculty, Institute of the Environment

Related Departments, Schools or Colleges and/or Program(s):

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

College of Science

Institute of the Environment

Education:

Ph.D., Entomology, The University of California, Davis, 1978

Phone:

(520) 797-2638

Email:

sb@pollinator.org

Website:

http://www.pollinator.org

I'm a melittologist (native bee researcher) who specializes in pollination ecology, especially the role of bees as pollinators of native plants and crops. Currently an adjunct professor in Entomology and a Research Associate in EEB. I am the international coordinator for The Pollinator Partnership (www.pollinator.org) an environmental non-profit organization I helped establish 11 years ago. To date, I've published 12 books and over 170 scientific articles. In the past, I taught beekeeping and pollination courses at the University of Arizona.

Interest and Expertise:

Mexico and Latin America

Environmental Themes:

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Eva Marie Levi

Submitted by kerr on December 9, 2010 - 3:58pm

Eva

Marie

Levi

Degree Program:

phd

Primary Department/Unit:

Soil, Water and Environmental Science

Other Departments or Unit Affiliations:

Minor Program:

Soil, Water and Environmental Science

Email:

evamarie@email.arizona.edu

Web site:

http://ag.arizona.edu/research/archer/people.html

I am primarily interested in landscape ecology in water-limited ecosystems. My research interests include vegetation and soil ecology and how plant-soil dynamics respond to changes in vegetation community composition, climate and land use. My research focuses on the phenomena of woody plant encroachment and desertification in drylands and how these alter landscape-scale ecosystem processes such as organic matter decomposition, redistribution of materials across the landscape by wind and water, and soil formation.

Topic or title of your dissertation/thesis:

My dissertation research encompasses several projects. Primarily, my research focuses on the rates and dynamics of decomposition of herbaceous organic matter in a dryland ecosystem experiencing woody plant encroachment and elucidating the relative importance of UV radation and soil-litter mixing as decomposition drivers. I am also doing research on decomposition of woody detritus, on the formation of woody detritus "litter dams" (which capture sediment and organic matter and may serve as the center for formation of islands of fertility), and on rates of soil formation in a dryland ecosystem.

Advisor(s):

Steven R Archer

Expected Graduation Date:

December, 2013

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Steven E Smith

Steven

E

Smith

Title:

Associate Professor, School of Natural Resources and the Environment

Additional Titles and Departments:

Associate Professor, School of Plant Sciences

Related Departments, Schools or Colleges and/or Program(s):

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Education:

Ph.D., Plant Breeding, Cornell University, 1984.

Phone:

(520) 621-5325

Email:

azalfalf@ag.arizona.edu

Website:

http://cals.arizona.edu/research/azalfalf/

My research is focused on the evolution of adaptation in plants. I have worked primarily with species found on grassland sites. A goal in my work is to link an understanding of plant growth and development processes with local adaptation and to understand the genetic basis for these processes.

Environmental Themes:

Climate

Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS)

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Alan Weisman

Alan

Weisman

Title:

Professor, School of Journalism

Additional Titles and Departments:

Professor, Center for Latin American Studies

Affiliate Faculty, Institute of the Environment

Related Departments, Schools or Colleges and/or Program(s):

School of Journalism

Institute of the Environment

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Education:

MS, Journalism, Northwestern University, 1971

Phone:

(520) 626-6407

Email:

weisman@u.arizona.edu

Website:

http://www.homelands.org/producers/weisman.html

Alan Weisman teaches international journalism at the University of Arizona. Much of his writing is about how the environment, economics, international relations, and human society and culture intersect. He is the author of An Echo In My Blood, Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World, La Frontera: The United States Border With Mexico, and We, Immortals. His reports, set in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Antarctica, Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle and Far East, have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Audubon, Mother Jones, Discover, Condé Nast Traveler, and in several anthologies. They have also aired on National Public Radio and Public Radio International. He is a senior producer for Homelands Productions. His current projects include research on the future of energy, and his forthcoming book The World Without Us, which discusses what the Earth would be like without human beings.

Interest and Expertise:

Anthropology

Arid Lands

Biofuels and Bioenergy

Borderlands

Carbon Cycling

Carbon Emissions and Offsets

Environmental Law and Policy

Population and Evolutionary Genetics

Translational Environmental Research

Urban and Built Environment

Environmental Journalism

Energy

Sustainability

Agriculture

Land Resource and Environmental Management

Economics

Alternative and Renewable

History

Environmental

Philosophy

Environmental Themes:

Climate

Culture and Creative Arts

Governance and Policy

Health

Science for Society

Water

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Larry D Howery

Larry

D

Howery

Title:

Professor, School of Natural Resources and the Environment

Additional Titles and Departments:

Rangeland Extension Specialist, School of Natural Resources and the Environment

Related Departments, Schools or Colleges and/or Program(s):

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Arizona Cooperative Extension

Education:

PhD, Range Science, Utah State University, 1993

Phone:

(520) 621-7277

Email:

lhowery@ag.arizona.edu

Website:

http://www.snr.arizona.edu/people/howery

Larry Howery is a professor and rangeland extension specialist in SNRE. His appointment is 65 percent extension, 25 percent research, and 10 percent administration/service. His job responsibilities involve developing and conducting a program of extension and research to promote the sustainable management of rangeland ecosystems. His approach to extension and research has been programmatic, focused in the following three areas: 1) Noxious, Invasive Plants, 2) Animal Foraging Behavior and Distribution, and 3) Rangeland and Natural Resource Ecology and Management. Research projects are closely allied with extension programs. A programmatic approach has allowed him to design and implement the kind of programs necessary to meet the evolving needs of Arizona's citizenry as stated in the Cooperative Extension Service mission statement (i.e., "the Cooperative Extension Service is constantly changing to meet the shifting needs and priorities of the people it serves").

Environmental Themes:

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Sharon B Megdal

Sharon

B

Megdal

Title:

Director, Water Resources Research Center

Additional Titles and Departments:

C.W. and Modene Neely Endowed Professor for Excellence in Agriculture and Life Science

Director, University of Arizona TRIF Water Sustainability Program

Professor/Specialist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

Professor/Specialist, Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science

Courtesy Appointment, Professor, School of Government and Public Policy

Courtesy Appointment, Professor, School of Geography and Development

Courtesy Appointment, Professor, Planning Degree Program- College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Professor, Public Health

Member, Arid Lands Resource Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program

Affiliate Faculty, Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Affiliate Faculty, Institute of the Environment

Elected Member, Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board of Directors

Related Departments, Schools or Colleges and/or Program(s):

Water Resources Research Center (WRRC)

Agricultural and Resource Economics

Soil, Water and Environmental Science

School of Government & Public Policy

School of Geography and Development

College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health

Office of Arid Lands Studies (OALS)

Institute of the Environment

Water Sustainability Program

Arizona Cooperative Extension

Education:

PhD, Economics, Princeton University, 1981

Phone:

(520) 621-9591

Email:

smegdal@ag.arizona.edu

Website:

http://ag.arizona.edu/azwater/director.php

Sharon Megdal is the director of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center. She also serves as a professor and specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Her work focuses on state and regional water resources management and policy with areas of focus including storage and recovery programs, regional approaches to water management, ecosystem restoration, and the role of the private sector in water delivery. She also writes a public policy column for the Arizona Water Resource, the bi-monthly Water Resources Research Center newsletter, and regularly makes presentations on water issues to diverse audiences.

Interest and Expertise:

Adaptation

Arid Lands

Conservation

Environmental Law and Policy

Extension Programs

Institutional Analysis