Projects
Sustainable Product Procurement Guide
Stakeholder: Noah Bidna, UCLA Health Supply Chain AnalystProject Leads: Vicky Tong and Campbell BakerMembers: Ethan Shnack, Kevin Briseno, Eden Kessler, Natalie Gurzeler, Jackson Roberts Final Report
Estimating the Energy Impacts of Rebuilding after the Palisades and Eaton Fires
Key Findings from the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA Introduction The Eaton and Palisades fires left a trail of devastation — destroying homes, displacing communities, and disrupting lives.…
Bird Migration Tracking in the Santa Monica Mountains at Stunt Ranch Reserve
Awardee: Kelsey Reckling, a second year PhD Student, primarily studies bird migration in the Western United States.
Effects of Urbanization and Feral Cats on the Psychobiology of LA’s Most Abundant Lizard
Awardee: Colleen De Allaume, a third year Undergraduate Student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department
Investigating Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis prevalence in a fragile vernal pool ecosystem
Awardee: Erica Ro, an undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Environmental Science with a concentration in Conservation Biology, is broadly interested in urban ecology and conservation science.
Investigating the Transient Effects of Ocular Blood Sampling on Sceloporus Occidentalis
Awardee: May Jiang, a fourth year Biology undergraduate interested in urban animal ecology and plant biology.
Plant performance-dispersal feedbacks in a California annual grassland community
Awardee: Lauren Glevanik, a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, works with a plant community of annual wildflowers and grasses.
Undergraduate Senior Practicum
Recruit a team of five to seven seniors from our environmental B.S. program to address a current environmental science, policy or management challenge. Teams are faculty-advised and work with public…
Assessing eDNA as a tool to monitor Southern California Estuarine health and invasive species impact
This project evaluates a new eDNA assay targeting the tufA gene to improve early detection of the invasive algae Caulerpa prolifera, which poses a major threat to California’s marine ecosystems.
California Public Utilities Commission Distributed Energy Resource Program Data Working Group
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) selected the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA, with support from LARC, to facilitate a Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Data Working Group.
Hyperspectral Imaging for California Plant Ecology
Awardee: Nikita Burger, undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Computational and Systems Biology at UCLA.
Scrub-Jays: an emerging model system for studying evolution and understanding conservation priorities in California.
La Kretz Center postdoctoral researcher Dr. Devon DeRaad plans to use genomic approaches to characterize the genetic diversity and relatedness of scrub-jays throughout the state of California. This includes a…