Sustainable Ebony Project
The goal of the program is to enhance ebony stocks through community engagement while collecting crucial data to refine techniques for production and management.
Projects
Toward a conservation physiology of Californian flora: assessing drought vulnerability across species and ecosystems
Awardee: Camila Medeiros, PhD Student. Camila's project aims to quantify the vulnerability of woody plant species to drought in key ecosystem types of California and model species’ relative sensitivities to drought under future climate change scenarios.
Urban ecology meets citizen science: monitoring reptile diversity and measuring landscape genetic connectivity in the Los Angeles area
Awardee: Erin Toffelmier, PhD Student. Erin is studying how some types of reptiles are able to live in urban environments while some are not and how we can help protect species that are negatively impacted by humans.
Using native plant gardens to preserve pollinator diversity in L.A.
Team: David Cook, Tien Ha, Melissa Ikeda, Kayla Smith, Arianna Wolff Advisor: Peter Kareiva Client: Theodore Payne Foundation
Using Pond Hydroperiod to Attenuate the Spread of Invasive Tiger Salamander Alleles
Awardee: Robert Cooper, PhD Student. Robert's research is focused on the recent hybridization between the threatened California tiger salamander and the non-native barred tiger salamander.
Biodiversity Restoration: Giving Sage Hill a Physical, Educational, and Digital Presence
Sage Hill, a biodiversity hotspot home to many California native plants, has huge potential to serve as an educational and recreational spot for the UCLA community, as well as a…
Citizen Scientist’s Message in a Bottle: Rapid eDNA assessments of marine biodiversity to evaluate the effectiveness of Los Angeles’ marine protected areas
Awardee: Zack Gold, graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Zack is conducting a citizen science environmental DNA project to compare marine biodiversity inside and outside of coastal MPAs in Los Angeles County to understand how well fishing restrictions protect marine ecosystems.
Deploying Arable ‘PulsePod’ Sensors to Continuously and Remotely Monitor Plant Stress
Awardee: Alexandria Pivovaroff, Ph.D. Alexandria's research will remotely monitor plant stress using newly developed sensors to understand both short- and long-term responses.
Developing a model for sustainable ebony production and logging in Cameroon
Students: Sarah Casey, Kenyon Chow, Diana Krichevsky, Abigail Mejia, Emily Parker Advisor: Kevin Njabo Clients: Taylor Guitars Our Team We are the UCLA Undergraduate Research Team for Sustainable Ebony Production in Cameroon,…
Evaluation of Community Scale Solar Water Heating in Los Angeles County
Reliance on Natural Gas for Residential Water Heating Inexpensive natural gas and the historical subsidization of its use as a source of thermal energy has led Southern California to depend heavily on natural gas for residential heating. As of…
Feeling the Squeeze: A GIS Analysis of Rocky Intertidal Habitats
Rocky intertidal habitat is located at the land sea interface and supports a unique variety of species. In southern California, often these habitats are closely backed by existing developments such…
Impacts of Kelp Forests on Ocean Acidification in Santa Monica Bay
Research suggests that as humans continue releasing carbon dioxide into our atmosphere our oceans are changing in ways that may drastically affect marine life.