Student Kenia Gomez, Gabriel Abundis, Ernesto Chavez-Velasco Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Kenia Gomez, Gabriel Abundis & (graduate student) Ernesto Chavez-Velasco received research grants from the California Native Grassland Association to examine pressing issues on various California rangelands. Kenia will explore how drought and woody debris affect a local threatened species, North Coast Semaphore Grass; Gabriel will explore how local photovoltaic grids affect rangeland plant communities; Ernesto will work to develop field methods for selecting plants that will match with environmental characteristics for context-specific management to promote biodiversity and drought resilience on rangelands.

Faculty Rouhollah Aghasaleh, Tristan Gleason Education Drs. Rouhollah Aghasaleh and Tristan Gleason have been named the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (JCT) Editors and Presidents of the Foundation for Curriculum Theory for 2025-2030. 
JCT is recognized as one of the most prestigious journals in the field of Curriculum Studies. Notably, JCT is closely associated with the Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice, a gathering that has fostered dialogues among theorists, practitioners, scholars, and cultural workers since 1969. Both the journal and the conference operate under the Foundation for Curriculum Theory, reinforcing their commitment to diverse perspectives and innovative approaches in curriculum theory.

Student Emma Held, Darren Ward Fisheries Biology Emma Held was awarded a research fellowship from California Sea Grant to support her work on the life history of threatened Chinook salmon in the Mattole River. Emma's work will provide information to support ongoing conservation efforts by collaborators at the Mattole Salmon Group.

Faculty Lucy Kerhoulas, Rosemary Sherriff, Erik Jules, and Michael Kauffmann Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Lucy Kerhoulas, Rosemary Sherriff, Erik Jules, and Michael Kauffmann were awarded a $1.1 million grant to complete extensive vegetation mapping in the Klamath Mountains Ecoregion. Project vegetation surveys will be compared to vegetation surveys from the 1960s, 1980s, and 2010s to evaluate the influences of fire and climate change on high elevation plant communities.

The work will support three graduate students and numerous undergraduate students and will contribute substantially to the Cal Poly Humboldt Vascular Plant Herbarium; Robin Bencie and the California Native Plant Society are also project collaborators. Funding comes from the CA Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Student Jeffrey Abell, Tamara Barriquand, Christine Cass, Malcolm Edwards-Silva, Kenneth Mathe, Marcos Moreno, Carla Villanueva, Ethan Wadsworth Oceanography Oceanography faculty Jeffrey Abell, Tamara Barriquand, and Christine Cass presented their research at the international Ocean Sciences Meeting (New Orleans, LA) in February. This ~6,000 person conference brings together marine scientists from across disciplines. Undergraduate students Malcolm Edwards-Silva, Marcos Moreno, Carla Villanueva, Ethan Wadsworth, and Kenneth Mathe (Fall '23) also attended to present a poster on their capstone research project.

Faculty Pedro Peloso, Brandice Guerra Biological Sciences Professors Pedro Peloso (Biological Sciences) and Brandice Guerra received a grant from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation (www.maxwell-hanrahan.org) to support an illustration internship at Cal Poly Humboldt. An international student will visit our community this spring to work in a project that aims to raise awareness about amphibian extinctions globally. You can read more about the internship here: https://now.humboldt.edu/news/new-scientific-illustration-internship-gi…

Faculty Kjirsten Wayman, Maralyn Renner, Alexander Wright, Aaron Floden, Jayne Lampley, Susan Farmer, Edward Schilling Chemistry Kjirsten Wayman (Chemistry Department), Maralyn Renner (M.S. Biology, 1980), Alexander Wright (Washington State U.), Aaron Floden (Missouri Botanical Garden), Jayne Lampley (U. Alabama), Susan Farmer, Edward Schilling (U. Tennessee, Knoxville) published a peer-reviewed article titled “New insights into systematics of the Trillium ovatum complex” in Madroño, a journal focusing on research of the Western American flora.  The article highlights Trillium oettingeri, an endemic plant to the Klamath Mountains and Cascade Range, and can be accessed at the following link: https://doi.org/10.3120/0024-9637-70.3.158

Faculty Alana Chin Biological Sciences Dr. Alana Chin received a grant to support research looking into factors impacting redwood tree fog-uptake. Redwood trees absorb water from fog, making it a key provider of water in the summer months. However, as the climate changes, so have fog characteristics, increasing the need to understand how redwoods are acclimating to changes in fog. The project will assess and monitor fog absorption capacity in redwoods, and is a critical next step in our ability to predict the impacts of climate change on redwoods and select nursery stock for restoration.

Funding comes from the Save the Redwoods League.

Faculty Daniel Barton Wildlife Dan Barton (Associate Professor and Department Chair, Wildlife) was elected chair of the Pacific Seabird Group, a role in which he will serve for the next three years. Pacific Seabird Group is a society of professional seabird researchers and managers that was formed in 1972 out of a need for increased communication among academic and government seabird researchers, and currently has over 500 members from around the world. The society also publishes the journal Pacific Seabirds.

Faculty Kerry Byrne and Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler Environmental Science & Management Drs. Kerry Byrne and Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler received a grant to support a study on Applegate’s milkvetch, a federally endangered plant species found only in the lower Klamath Basin of southern Oregon. The project will investigate alternative management practices that may better promote Applegate's milkvetch recovery, and ultimately provide managers with a roadmap for optimal management of this species. Collaborators will include Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, US Fish and Wildlife Service, ODA, and the City of Klamath Falls, OR.

Student Range Plant Identification team Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Cal Poly Humboldt’s Range Plant Identification team placed 5th in a contest during the Society for Range Management Meetings in Sparks, Nevada on January 30. Coached by lecturer/NRCS Rangeland Specialist Todd Golder, team members include: JJ Madrigal Garcia, Celeste Orrick, Jennifer Salguero, Mikhela Aiken, Logan Holey, Forrest Horrobin, Hunter Mortensen, SRM President Barry Perryman. Students practice plant identification skills in RRS 475 Advanced Study of Range Plants. Most plant species on this test were grasses and many consisted of mere fragments of material.  The team owes much to Humboldt’s excellent Range and Botany courses.

Faculty Silvia Pavan, Pedro Peloso Biological Sciences We just published a paper on diversity of non-volant small mammals (marsupials and rodents) from Parque Nacional del Río Abiseo (PNRA), a poorly known site located in the eastern Andean slopes in Peru. We report the highest ever recorded diversity for high Andes, and through DNA barcoding we reveal several putative new species of small mammals that are uniquely known form PNRA. The paper is a result of an expedition in 2018, funded by National Geographic, and had the collaboration of a diverse team of researchers including myself as first author and Cal Poly colleague Pedro Peloso as senior author.

Faculty Melanie Michalak, Susan Cashman, Dana Christensen, Taylor Team Geology Melanie Michalak (Faculty- Geology) with co-authors Susan Cashman (Emeritus Geology Professor), Taylor Team (Humboldt Geology MS ’21), Dana Christensen (Humboldt Geology MS ’21) and Victoria Langenheim (USGS Geophysicist) published their work in the open access journal Geosphere. This publication is a long format research paper investigating Neogene tectonics and mountain building of the southern Klamath Mountains Province, a geologic province that records millions of years of faulting, magmatism, and deformation due to its position on the upper plate of tectonic plate subduction. Download the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02612.1

Faculty Rafael Cuevas Uribe Fisheries Biology Dr. Rafael Cuevas Uribe received a grant to support a collaborative project between Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Diego State University, and Cal Poly Humboldt. The project will involve building and testing a novel technology system for developing new and profitable seaweed strains for commercial, land-based aquaculture production. The system will contribute to a more diverse domestic seaweed production and larger networks of local seaweed sources, as well as aquaculture education and training through use at education institutions.

Funding comes as a subaward from University of California, San Diego, with the original funding source being SeaGrant.

Faculty Zach Walllace, Bryan Bedrosian, Jeff Dunk, Dave LaPlante, Brian Woodbridge, et al. Environmental Science & Management Jeff Dunk (ESM) and colleagues recently published a paper on predicting the spatial distribution of wintering Golden Eagles in Wyoming (including parts of surrounding states).  Much of the existing work on Golden Eagles pertains to their breeding season habitat use.  A link to the manuscript is here.  

Faculty Kjirsten Wayman, Matthew Reilly, Alaina Petlewski Chemistry Kjirsten Wayman (Chemistry), Matthew Reilly (USDA Forest Service), and Alaina Petlewski (B.S. Botany, 2017) published a peer-reviewed article in the American Journal of Botany (2023) titled "Taxonomic insights from floral scents of western North American sessile-flowered Trillium".  The article can be found here:  https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16255

Faculty William Wood, David Largent Chemistry Faculty William Wood, Chemistry, and David Largent, Biological Science

Emeritus Professors William Wood and David Largent recently published an article in the Austrian Academy of Sciences journal Biosystematics and Ecology on the crustacean-like odor of the mushroom Russula xerampelina. This mushroom has a cooked shrimp odor that gives it the common name the “shrimp mushroom.” They and mycologist Darvin DeShazer of the Sonoma County Mycological Association, identified the chemicals that are responsible for this mushroom’s odor.

Contact Information

William.Wood@humboldt.edu

Phone 707 832 2931

Student Colton Boyd, Brianna Rennard, Cristina Portillo, Kayah Ray, Nievita Bueno Watts Computer Science 2023 LSAMP PROUD

Outstanding Research in STEM

Please find attached the 2023 LSAMP PROUD Cal Poly Humboldt page featuring:

Cristina Portillo, Wildlife
Brianna Rennard, Zoology
Kayah Ray, Geology
Colton Boyd, Computer Science

Congratulations to these scholars and a huge thank you to their mentors.

Faculty Peter Goetz Mathematics Dr. Peter Goetz gave an invited talk titled "Frobenius Extensions in Noncommutative Invariant Theory" in the AMS Special Session on Homological Techniques in Noncommutative Algebra at the Joint Mathematics Meeting on January 3, 2024. The JMM is one of the largest international meetings of mathematicians with approximately 6000 attendees. Dr. Goetz reported on his new theorem: all dual reflection groups afford examples of (twisted) Frobenius extensions. Dr. Goetz also presented his work on the relationship between Artin-Schelter regular and Artin-Schelter Gorenstein algebras and Frobenius extensions, and examples of Frobenius extensions arising from noncommutative and noncocommutative Hopf algebra actions.

Faculty Jim Graham Environmental Science & Management Dr. Jim Graham received a grant from CalTrout that will pay for a graduate student to perform GIS habitat modeling in the Eel River Watershed, and develop a subsequent Riparian Climate Refugia (RCR) data set. The data will provide information on where riparian corridors (vegetation growing near natural bodies of water) contain remaining climate refugia on the CA North Coast. Climate refugia are landscape features that provide environmental protection and can allow species to persist through climate change effects. The data will be particularly useful to land managers, who can use it to make more informed restoration and conservation decisions.