Several researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara will take part in the newly funded UC-wide Institute for the Study of Ecological and Evolutionary Climate Impacts (ISEECI). Biology professor Barry Sinervo from UC Santa Cruz is heading the initiative, which was awarded $1.9 million in 2014 as part of the UC President’s Research Catalyst Award.
As part of a collaboration involving all nine UC undergraduate campuses, the UCSB researchers will use the UC Natural Reserve System (NRS), which contain a varied and diverse range of climates, to detect and forecast the ecological impacts of climate change in California. According to the NRS website, "the UC Natural Reserve System is a network of protected natural areas throughout California, with 39 sites that include more than 756,000 acres. Most major state ecosystems are represented, from coastal tidepools to inland deserts, and lush wetlands to Sierra Nevada forests. The reserves also serve as a gateway to more than a million acres of public lands."
Read more: http://nrs.ucop.edu/#ixzz3RSRcPRCA
“The (NRS) reserves lend themselves to this kind of study,” said Susan Mazer, a professor in UCSB’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology (EEMB). She organized the campus’s contribution to the ISEECI proposal. “They represent a broad spectrum of climatic regimes because they include both latitude and elevation gradients and a variety of plant communities, which range from relatively moist coastal and montane habitats to desert. There is a lot of climatic variation captured by the reserves, which means that we can use this geographic variation as a proxy for climatic conditions that may occur over time.”
In addition to ongoing climate studies in the reserves, the UCSB group will study wild populations of terrestrial and near-shore species to monitor and to predict their responses to climate change. The researchers are also creating a seed bank to assess microevolutionary responses to climate change.
Among the research teams that would benefit most from this initiative, there are already teams studying many different aspects of climate change at UCSB:
In contrast to most recent research conducted on climate change in the reserves, which have been independent studies, ISEECI a collaborative and coordinated approach to climate change on a large scale.
“We hope new collaborations that we don’t foresee will also emerge as more people with a similar sensibility use ISEECI’s infrastructure and focus in on the ecology and evolution of species that are widespread across the reserves,” Mazer said.
In addition to groundbreaking and potentially life saving studies on climate change and biology, scientists at UCSB are constantly receiving millions in funding and making important advances in life science research.
For example:
Researchers from UCSB’s various well-funded life science departments will be in attendance, including from the new Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering.
To find out about attending this premier event at a highly-subsidized research institution, click the appropriate link below: