Student Sophia Lemmo Forestry & Wildland Resources

Sophia Lemmo (Forestry graduate student advised by Lucy Kerhoulas and Rosemary Sherriff) was awarded a Student Fellowship of $10,800 from the CSU Agricultural Research Institute for her M.S. investigation of forest mortality and regeneration in northern California.

Faculty Lucy Kerhoulas, Wade Polda, Nick Kerhoulas, and Pascal Berrill Other Campus Unit

Lucy Kerhoulas (Forestry faculty), Wade Polda (Biology undergraduate student), Nick Kerhoulas (Wildlife faculty), and Pascal Berrill (Forestry faculty) published a research paper in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change on how management can influence conifer seedling physiology, growth, and survival.

Faculty Phil van Mantgem, Lucy Kerhoulas, Rosemary Sherriff, and Zach Wenderott Other Campus Unit

Phil van Mantgem (USGS researcher), Lucy Kerhoulas (Forestry faculty), Rosemary Sherriff (Geography faculty), and Zach Wenderott (Forestry graduate student) published a review paper in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change on how tree-rings can be used to verify that management can moderate forest drought responses.

Student Xerónimo Castañeda, Allison Huysman, Matthew D Johnson Wildlife

Former graduate students Xerónimo Castañeda, Allison Huysman, and their advisor Matt Johnson published a paper in Ornithological Applications entitled, “Barn Owls select uncultivated habitats for hunting in a winegrape growing region of California.”

Faculty Jasper Oshun, Margaret Lang, Wyeth Wunderlich Geology

Thanks to Will Goldenberg and SPF for putting together a great video highlighting our water development work in Perú: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cz0rVMWDYE. Thanks to Jazmin Sandoval and Nathalie Rivera (Film), Yojana Miraya (Env. & Com.), and Laurel Smith (ERE) for collecting footage.

Faculty Alison O'Dowd Environmental Science & Management

ESM professor Alison O’Dowd recently published a chapter “Urbanizing River Channels” in the Treatise on Geomorphology (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.12500-X

Student Hilary Cosby and Micaela Szykman Gunther Wildlife

Former graduate student Hilary Cosby had her thesis research published in the Journal of Mammalogy, co-authored with mentor Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther in the Department of Wildlife. The paper is entitled: “Variation in diet of river otters by season and aquatic community.”

Student Zachary Erickson, Kevin Boston, Pascal Berrill Forestry & Wildland Resources

Zachary Erickson, Kevin Boston, Pascal Berrill (Forestry & Wildland Resources, CNRS) were awarded an Intertribal Timber Council, Native American Natural Resource Research Scholarship for Zachary’s forestry MS thesis research into defining stewardship goals of native people, with case study example of the Wiyot tribe and Humboldt’s Goukd’in (Jacoby Creek) Forest: “Identifying forest management objectives of the Wiyot”. $4,200.

Faculty Dr. Steven Steinberg and Dr. Sheila Steinberg Environmental Science & Management

The Steinbergs are pleased to announce the release of their new edited volume, Resilient Communities across Geographies (Esri Press, 2021). The book presents a collection of case studies examining the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to environmental and socioeconomic challenges for analysis, planning, and, ultimately, more resilient communities. Each chapter explores a spatially driven approach to challenges of environments and communities working to achieve and support resilience.

Faculty Susan Edinger Marshall Forestry & Wildland Resources

“Undergraduate Soil Science Training in the USA,” was recently published in the Soil Science Society of America Journal. Co-author Susan Edinger Marshall discovered that Cal Poly Humboldt is among only four universities in California (and 15 in the eleven Western States) that offer sufficient coursework for graduates to qualify as federal Soil Scientists CSA (Crop Soil Agronomy) News featured this article in their December 2020 issue. Free access is available at: https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/saj2.20140

Faculty C.D. Hoyle Physics & Astronomy

Professor C.D. Hoyle received a Fundamental Physics Innovation Award from The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the American Physical Society that will support a 6-week research collaboration with Dr. Luciano Di Fiore and the gravitational physics group in Naples, Italy during the summer of 2021. This work, that is supported by the INFN and the University of Naples, will focus on developing a novel experimental platform for testing the fundamental properties of gravity at short distance scales, as well as solidifying a longer-term international collaboration.

Faculty Alison O'Dowd Environmental Science & Management

ESM Professor Alison O’Dowd was invited to give a talk at Portland State University on “Impacts of dams and an opportunity for renewal: Case studies of the Elwha and Klamath River Dams” on November 13, 2020.

Faculty Mark Colwell, Chelsea Polevy and Hannah LeWinter Wildlife

Mark Colwell, Chelsea Polevy and Hannah LeWinter published the last of three papers summarizing the importance of Humboldt Bay to shorebirds along the Pacific America’s Flyway. Their work, funded by Audubon California, shows that the bay hosts a diverse (52 species) and abundant (~850,000 individuals) assemblage of mostly sandpipers and plovers rear-round, justifying its designation as a site of international importance under the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. See their work at: https://www.waderstudygroup.org/article/14584/

Staff Nievita Bueno Watts Other Campus Unit

Dr. Nievita Bueno Watts joined a panel of invited speakers at the Ecological Forecasting Initiative (EFI) National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Research Coordination Network – Conversations on Diversity and Data seminar series. The participants shared information about their programs and their thoughts on the topic “What do diverse students need to thrive in data- and computer-heavy settings?”

Faculty Seafha Ramos Wildlife

Dr. Seafha Ramos, NSF postdoctoral fellow in biology, and collaborators developed a series of 5th grade science lessons that incorporate Traditional Ecological Knowledge and a simulated wildlife survey. All lessons are available for free download at https://www.stemtradingcards.org/teklessons.

Staff Nievita Bueno Watts Other Campus Unit

Nievita Bueno Watts presented her work “Methods for Incorporating Identity, Place, and Culture into a Virtual Undergraduate Research Experience: The REU on Sustainable Land and Water Resources During the COVID 19 Pandemic” at the national Geologic Society of America (GSA) conference. This work was part of a week long series of presentations discussing Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI)in the geosciences.

Student Christian Trujillo Other Campus Unit

Christian Trujillo (Environmental Science & Management) was invited to speak at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities’ Earth and Environmental Science Department colloquium on October 19. Christian spoke about Ciencia Para Todos, a student organization he co-founded to teach Environmental Science in Spanish. This student-run organization aspires to uplift bilingual students by implementing culture in science programs.

Student Madison Lalica Other Campus Unit

Madison Lalica (Botany) was awarded first place in Plant Sciences/Botany category at the 2020 national Society for the Advancement of Chicano/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference for her work “Early Devonian Glomeromycotan Spores in the Battery Point Formation (Quebec, Canada).” Madison is mentored by Dr. Mihai Tomescu.

Student Sarah Schooler, Matt Johnson, Peter Njoroge, Tim Bean Wildlife

Graduate student Sarah Scholer published a paper in the journal “Ecology & Evolution” stemming from her Master’s thesis with co-authors from Humboldt, Cal Poly SLO, and the National Museums of Kenya, “Shade trees preserve avian insectivore biodiversity on coffee farms in a warming climate.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.6879

Faculty Karen Kiemnec-Tyburczy Biological Sciences

Karen Kiemnec-Tyburczy and co-authors published a paper “A New Perspective on Female-to-Male Communication in Salamander Courtship” in Integrative and Comparative Biology. The paper can be viewed at https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaa087