SCWIBLES News

Invited Talks/Poster Presentations

  • Fellows Catherine Wade and Kristin de Nesnera presented posters at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) conference in Sacramento, CA. Catherine’s poster title was: Impacts of Precipitation Change on Native vs. Invasive Species and Fire Fuel Properties in a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem. (Aug 2014). The title of Kristin’s talk was: Evaluating the importance of mussel recruit associations with biological & non-biological substrates across a tidal stress gradient.
  • Fellow Jenny Lovell presented a paper at the Association of American Geographers in Chicago, IL (April 2015). The abstract title of the paper he presented was: Hydro-Agricultural Coping Strategies in the Mekong River Delta.
  • Fellow Rachel Zuercher co-presented her completed work at the NADEF field week at the A.L. Mickelson Field Station near Cody, Wyoming to 50+ other professionals, graduate students and faculty (Jul 2014)
  • Fellow Max Tarjan presented at the 51st Animal Behavior Society conference at Princeton University (Princeton, NJ). Her talk was titled: Movement behavior and home range use of sea otters at Big Sur and Monterey, CA (Aug 2014)
  • Fellows Hamutahl Cohen and Elissa Olimpi presented posters at the Ecological Society of America conference in Sacramento, CA. (Aug 2014) Hamutahl’s poster title was: Landscape drivers of pollination services in urban gardens. Elissa’s poster title was: Bats in the agricultural matrix: Factors driving species richness and activity
  • Fellow Caleb Bryce gave a talk at the Santa Cruz Museum of Discovery’s Citizen Science talks, in Santa Cruz, CA. The title of his talk was: From Woof to Wolf: Using Dogs to Learn About Wolves in the Wild. (Sep 2014)
  • Fellow Chandra Goetsch gave a talk at the 5th International Bio-Logging Science Symposium in Strasbourg, France. The title of her talk was: Specific foraging behaviors are associated with different diets in northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). (Sep 2014)
  • Catherine Wade gave a talk at the California Invasive Plant Council Symposium at California State University, Chico. The title of her talk was: Impacts of Precipitation Change on Native vs. Invasive Species and Fire Fuel Properties in a Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem (Oct 2014)
  • Max Tarjan, Kristin de Nesnera, and Rachel Zuercher presented at the Western Society of Naturalists Conference in Seattle-Tacoma, Washington (Nov 2014). The title of Max’s talk was: Movement behavior and mating tactics of sea otters at Monterey and Big Sur, California. The title of Kristin’s talk was: Mussel recruit substrate associations within central California rocky shores. The title of Rachel’s poster was: Using otolith crossdating to understand biotic and abiotic factors Influencing growth of rockfishes.
  • Fellows Caleb Bryce and Vikram Baliga presented at the 2015 Annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SCIB) in West Palm Beach, Fla (Jan 2015). The title of Caleb’s talk was: Locomotive costs of domestic canids: exploring breed-specific energetic economy. Vikram’s talk was entitled: Kinematics of picking behavior in wrasses.
  • Catherine Wade gave a talk at the California Native Plant Society’s Conservation conference in San Jose, CA ­­­­. The title of her talk was: Impacts of precipitation change on Bromus tectorum (Poaceae) vs. native vegetation in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem
  • Elissa Olimpi submitted a poster to a Bat conference to be presented by a colleague (Mar 2015).
  • Catherine Wade gave a talk at the 7th biennial Plant Symposium here at The title of her talk was: Effects of extreme disturbance events and fuels management on fuel loads and invasive species abundance.
  • Max Tarjan presented at the Sea Otter Conservation Workshop in Seattle, Washington (Apr 2015). The title of her talk was: A first look at using genetics to quantify reproductive success and skew in male sea otters.
  • Fellow Jeff Jenkins presented a paper at the Association of American Geographers in Chicago, IL (Apr 2015). The abstract title of the paper he presented was: “Rare earth at Bear Lodge: State access to economically strategic mineral development among competing political-legal land use regimes”.
  • Vikram Baliga presented at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Reno, Nevada (July 2015). The title of his talk was: “Picking” behavior in wrasses: kinematics of feeding & patterns of morphological integration.
  • Elissa Olimpi presented her research at the North American Symposium on Bat Research. Her talk was called “Impact of agriculture on global bat assemblages”.
  • Caleb Bryce presented his research “Running with the pack: Investigating the cost of transport for dogs and wolves”. 2014. at the 4th Annual Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Research Symposium, UC Santa Cruz, CA.
  • Fellow Duran Fiack presented a paper at the Western Regional Science Association Annual Meeting in Tucson, AZ (February 2015). The title of the paper he presented was: “Oil Production and Water Quality: An Econometric Evaluation of Hydraulic Fracturing”
  • Duran Fiack presented a paper at the Universities Council on Water Resources Annual Meeting in Henderson, NV (June 2015). The title of the paper he presented was: “The Effect of Hydraulic Fracturing Wastewater Disposal on Groundwater Quality: Observational Evidence from an Oil-Producing Region”
  • Jeff Jenkins presented a paper at the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences 2015 annual conference (UC San Diego) in the session “Advancing Environmental Research with Q Methodology.”

Scholarships/Fellowships/Grants

  • Jeff Jenkins was named a 2015 UC Santa Cruz Blum Scholar in Participatory Governance.
  • Rachel Zuercher was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship through the NADEF (North American Dendroecological Fieldweek) program for $1,500 (funding provided through NSF). Rachel will perform post-analysis on work conducted at NADEF, will be taking the lead on a manuscript for peer-reviewed publication, and she will present her work at a national conference at some point in the future.
  • Jenny Lovell was awarded the Marilyn C. and Raymond E. Davis Memorial Scholarship ($1,000) for women re-entering higher education, and the Jessica Roy Memorial Award ($750) for research in gender and natural resource management issues in developing countries.
  • Elissa Olimpi was awarded a 2-year National Science Foundation grant for $16,054. This grant is in support of her dissertation research: Bats in the agricultural matrix: impacts on diversity, distribution and ecosystem services”.
  • Hamutahl Cohen was awarded $2000 from a Heller Agroecology Grant in support of her research on bees. In addition she also being supported by the Orchard Bee Association by being provided with bee specimens from a bee breeder in Utah.
  • Rachel Zuercher was selected to attend the SESYNC (National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center) Teaching Socio-environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course in August 2015. A published module (“The Fish, the People, and the Tradeoffs: Social-Ecological Coupling in the Wetfish Fishery of Monterey Bay, California”) from this course is currently in review.
  • Jenny Lovell was awarded a $15,000 2-yr fellowship from the Mekong Sub-region Social Research Centre (MSSRC) in Vietnam. Her proposed research is titled “Agrarian Resilience: Gender, Diversity, and Intensity in the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta.” Jenny will be a Fellow with the Professional Development of Water Governance and Regional Development Practitioners in the Mekong Basin.
  • Duran Fiack was awarded a $12,000 grant from the California Institute for Water Resources to conduct research on the water quality impacts of hydraulic fracturing on California Water Resources. The Principal Investigator on the grant is Professor of Environmental Studies, Brent Haddad. Collaborators include Aaron Mamula and Cameron Speir of the NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Fisheries Ecology Division.
  • Kristin de Nesnera was awarded the 2015-2016 American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Dissertation Fellowship. The fellowship includes a $20,000 stipend to support the awardee in her dissertation year.
  • Kristin de Nesnera was awarded $1,000 by the 2015 Marilyn C. and Raymond E. Davis Memorial Scholarship to support the publication of her dissertation research.
  • Vikram Baliga was awarded a Grant-in-Aid of Research by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. This support enabled him to attend the 2015 Bodega Bay Workshop in Applied Phylogenetics and also gave him the tools to carry out a study that has recently been published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
  • Vikram Baliga was awarded a President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship (DYF) by the Graduate Council of UC Santa Cruz. The DYF will provide support to Vikram over the 2015-16 year – his final year in the doctoral program.
  • Hamutahl Cohen has been named a University of California Global Food Initiative Fellow for 2015-2016.
  • Elissa Olimpi was awarded $2000 from a Heller Agroecology Grant in support of her research on bats. Her proposed research is called “Testing the effects of agricultural intensification on pest control services provided by bats”.
  • Rachel Zuercher received a NSF Graduate Research Internship at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center for Winter 2015 – Winter 2016.

Outreach Activities

  • Caleb Bryce, Kristin de Nesnera and Max Tarjan presented at the “Expanding Your Horizons” conference at Hartnell College in Salinas, California (Nov 2014). The conference provided STEM experiences to middle and high school girls to spark interest in STEM activities and careers. The fellows hosted two session of a workshop entitled, “It’s all fun and games: the science of spinning tops” in which girls engaged in the scientific process (from making observations to analyzing and communicating their results) and built spinning tops. Students brainstormed factors that could affect spin duration and designed their own tops to test their hypotheses. Students in each session (approx. 40 girls total) were highly engaged. The activity received high ratings on student evaluations, and multiple students requested additional materials to make tops at home!
  • Caleb Bryce, Kristin deNesnera, Max Tarjan, Jeff Jenkins, Elissa Olimpi and Vikram Baliga presented at the International Teacher-Scientist Partnership conference in San Francisco, California (Feb 2015). The group shared and discussed successful ways to engage scientists in science education, with an emphasis on scientist mentoring programs that support classroom teachers and student-designed investigations. They also presented three inquiry modules at the conference: the dive response module, urban walkability module, and trends in the periodic table module.
  • Kristin de Nesnera and Max Tarjan, and teacher Rob Hoffman presented at the California League of Schools North conference in Sacramento, California (Feb/Mar 2015). The group presented a 60 minute workshop that featured the science fair curriculum they have developed, the spinning tops module and the inquiry board module. The workshop was very well received and teachers took copies of their handouts to share with other teachers at their home schools.
  • Vikram Baliga served as a panelist during a discussion on scientists’ personal stories and academic career paths in an event hosted by the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program (May 2015). A group of Soquel High School students, predominately from groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education, visited UC Santa Cruz and were given a tour of Science Hill.
  • Vikram Baliga was a mentor for the Science Internship Program (SIP) at UC Santa Cruz. Through this program, Vikram has advised two high school students, Elora Pradhan (summer 2015) and O’Brian Santos (summer 2014). Each of these students completed independent projects that were thematically based off Vikram’s research, and also spent substantial time at UC Santa Cruz during the summer. Both Elora and O’Brian presented their findings at the SIP Symposium at the end of each summer.
  • Jeff Jenkins, Caleb Bryce, Hamutahl Cohen, and Veronica Yovovich were mentors for the 2015 Science Internship Program (SIP) at UC Santa Cruz were they advised and collaborated with high school students on their work.
  • Caleb Bryce presented “Large carnivores, disturbance, & climate change: A case study with Denali’s wolves” for COSMOS (California state summer school for science & mathematics), UC Santa Cruz, CA.
  • Caleb Bryce presented “WolfPark and wild wolves: What’s the connection with “smart collars”?” 2015. WolfPark Visitor Appreciation Day, Battle Ground, IN.
  • Caleb Bryce presented “Free-ranging carnivore energetics: Conservation physiology of pumas and wolves.” In BIO 105: Conservation Ecology, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA.
  • Caleb Bryce and Ben Higgins presented “Behavior in the wild: Why measuring it matters.” 2015. SCI 057: Life Science, Monte Vista Christian School, Watsonville, CA.
  • Caleb Bryce presented “From captive to wild: Smart collar calibration and deployment on Denali wolves.” 2015. River Camp, Mpala Research Centre, Laikipia, Kenya.
  • Caleb Bryce presented “What can fancy collars teach us about wild wolves? Using novel technology to address the behavioral ecology of a top predator.” 2014. WolfPark, Battle Ground, IN.

SCWIBLERs: Updates and In the Media

  • Catherine Wade lands a new position as Senior Associate Planner at Circlepoint in San Jose, CA.
  • Caleb Bryce is mentioned in Nature article titled “Survival of the Fittest”. more…
  • Watsonville High alumni Cesar and Edgar Garcia Lopez, both attending Ivy Leagues, are highlighted in SC Sentinel (Jan 2015). more …
  • SCWIBLES Teacher Chrissy MacLean, makes front page news for innovative curriculum at Watsonville High. more …
  • Beth Bastiaan lands Assistant Professor position at SUNY! more …
  • Kim Goetz was awarded a President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship for 2014-15. This is the most competitive and prestigious of campus awards for graduate students at UCSC, and reflects Kim’s accomplishments and great promise. Congratulations!
  • Two student research groups from Watsonville High School, one mentored by Kim Goetz and another by SCWIBLEr Max Tarjan, tied for 1st place at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Currents Symposium on April 26th, 2014. Congratulations WHS students!! Click here to go to the web site.
  • SCWIBLEr Tara Cornelisse is now a Postdoc Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York!
  • CONGRATULATIONS to SCWIBLErs: Tim Norris who completed his PhD exit seminar, Jenn Yost and Kristin McCully both completed their PhD defense.
  • Jenn Yost makes the Sentinel, and deftly handles the scientific subtleties. Click here for the full article.