Mathias Award Winners for 2011–2012

December 19, 2011 By
Math­ias Grant awards sup­port grad­u­ate stu­dent research con­ducted at NRS reserves. Here, 2009 Math­ias award win­ner Michelle Afkhami exam­ines her study plot at Quail Ridge Reserve. Image credit: Lob­sang Wangdu

Four­teen grad­u­ate stu­dents from seven dif­fer­ent Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia cam­puses have been awarded Mil­dred E. Math­ias Grad­u­ate Stu­dent Research Grants. Each will receive up to $3,000 to sup­port their field stud­ies. The research projects will be con­ducted at 15 dif­fer­ent NRS reserves across the state.

Math­ias grants are awarded to UC grad­u­ate stu­dents based on the aca­d­e­mic mer­its of their pro­pos­als and use of one or more NRS reserves to con­duct their research. Pref­er­ence is given to stu­dents at an early stage of their careers, as well as under­rep­re­sented fields of study.

The major­ity of awards sup­port projects in the bio­log­i­cal sci­ences. This is con­sis­tent with pre­vi­ous award cycles; to date, roughly 85 per­cent of Math­ias grant projects have been biology-based. Life sci­ence stud­ies funded this year include the phys­i­o­log­i­cal adap­ta­tions to cli­mate change in chip­munks; how the spread of conifers are chang­ing con­di­tions in Sierra Nevada mead­ows; using ele­phant seals as sen­tinels of toxic chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion in the ocean; and new meth­ods for approach­ing grass­land restora­tion in an era of cli­mate change.

North­ern ele­phant seals are among the sub­jects to be stud­ied with fund­ing from this year’s Math­ias Grant com­pe­ti­tion. Image credit: Kath­leen M. Wong

Funded pro­pos­als from other dis­ci­plines include recon­struct­ing Native Amer­i­can plant use on Santa Cruz Island dur­ing pre­his­toric times, and dat­ing the devel­op­ment of the Hilton Creek earth­quake fault in east­ern California.

The $38,000 awarded this year comes from the Ken­neth S. Nor­ris Endow­ment Fund for the Cal­i­for­nia Envi­ron­ment, pro­vided to the NRS by the David and Lucile Packard Foun­da­tion. The aver­age amount received by appli­cants was $2,714. Since its incep­tion in 1988, the grant pro­gram has awarded a total of $639,491 to 368 students.

Math­ias grant win­ners are invited to present their find­ings at a sym­po­sium held every other spring. Those who received grants in the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 cycles have been invited to the next Math­ias Sym­po­sium, which will be held at Bodega Marine Reserve from March 2 to 4, 2012.

The grant pro­gram is named for UCLA botanist Mil­dred E. Math­ias. Known as the found­ing mother of the NRS, Math­ias chaired the NRS University-wide com­mit­tee for an unsur­passed 21 years.

 

Filed Under: Mathias Symposium, Quail Ridge Reserve, Reserves

Mediterranean Cooperative Fellowships Awarded

December 16, 2011 By
The fel­low­ship will sup­port plans for a par­al­lel study of oaks in Spain and at UC Nat­ural Reserves such as Steb­bins Cold Canyon Reserve. Image credit: Lob­sang Wangdu

The inau­gural 2011 Mediter­ranean Reserve Man­agers Inter­na­tional Coop­er­a­tive Fel­low­ships have been awarded to two sci­en­tists with exten­sive expe­ri­ence work­ing in Mediterranean-type regions. Both pro­pos­als seek to improve the flow of knowl­edge and the estab­lish­ment of coop­er­a­tive projects in regions fac­ing sim­i­lar con­ser­va­tion problems.

Jef­frey Clary is a reserve man­ager at Quail Ridge, Steb­bins Cold Canyon, and Jep­son Prairie reserves. He plans to forge rela­tion­ships between land man­agers in Cal­i­for­nia and those in Cat­alo­nia, Spain by arrang­ing on-the-ground meet­ings at the UC Nat­ural Reserve Sys­tem and Spain’s Parc Nat­ural de Collserola. Sem­i­nars will be hosted at UC Davis and the Uni­ver­si­tat Autònoma de Barcelona to engage the inter­est of wider audi­ences. Par­tic­i­pat­ing sci­en­tists will develop pro­to­cols for study­ing oak pop­u­la­tion dynam­ics in par­al­lel at Parc de Collserola and the UC Davis Nat­ural Reserves of Quail Ridge and Steb­bins Cold Canyon.

Marine Protected Area off the coast of Landels-Hill Big Creek ReserveMarine sanc­tu­ary man­agers from Italy will visit Marine Pro­tected Areas at Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve as part of a MRMIC fel­low­ship exchange. Image credit: Lob­sang Wangdu

Fiorenza Micheli is a pro­fes­sor of biol­ogy at Hop­kins Marine Sta­tion, Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity. With this award, Micheli aims to help devise science-based con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment mea­sures for a marine sanc­tu­ary in the north­ern Tyrren­ian Sea and a pro­posed sanc­tu­ary in the Adri­atic Sea. Col­lab­o­ra­tors from Italy will travel to the United States to meet with sci­en­tists, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, National Marine Sanc­tu­ary staff and oth­ers involved in man­ag­ing Marine Pro­tected Areas. Par­tic­i­pants will visit Cal­i­for­nia Marine Pro­tected Areas within the UC Nat­ural Reserve Sys­tem at Bodega Marine, Landels-Hill Big Creek, and Scripps Coastal reserves, and meet with reserve staff to dis­cuss cur­rent research and man­age­ment issues.

Each Fel­low was awarded $5,000 to carry out these pro­pos­als, with funds com­ing from the Ken­neth S. Nor­ris Endow­ment Fund for the Cal­i­for­nia Envi­ron­ment, pro­vided to the NRS by the David and Lucile Packard Foun­da­tion. Each project is being con­ducted with match­ing funds from par­tic­i­pat­ing inter­na­tional organizations.

Filed Under: Bodega Marine Reserve, Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve, Quail Ridge Reserve, Scripps Coastal Reserve, Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve