Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research

Undergraduate researcher receives Fulbright scholarship to UK

marcia — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:55:03 +0000

Jaleila Brumand, a CAP undergraduate student, has received a Fulbright scholarship to the UK. Jaleila has been working with CAP scientist Kelli Larson for the past two years as a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student. Her research focuses on understanding the drivers of residential landscaping decisions in metropolitan Phoenix and culminated in her honor’s thesis, “The effects of formal and informal institutions on residential land management in the Phoenix metropolitan area.” She also authored two publications during her REU experience and has had an opportunity to work with a research team from across several Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites.

In the UK, Jaleila will attend the University of Lancaster on a Fulbright-Lancaster University STEM Award in Science and Technology. She will pursue a MSc in Energy and the Environment, focusing her research on energy vulnerability between the US and UK.

CAP graduate student’s photographs included in NSF art exhibit

marcia — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:50:21 +0000

CAP graduate student, Edgar Cardenas, has his photographic work featured in an exhibit at the National Science Foundation, “Ecological Reflections,” which opened on February 28th. The exhibit, which is closed to the public, features 39 artists and writers affiliated with LTER sites based in universities across the United States. Their work involves a range of artistic media, including textiles, watercolors, and photography, as well as poetry and essays.

Cardenas’ work focuses on the Tres Rios constructed wetland, part of a wastewater treatment facility maintained by the City of Phoenix. He has imbedded himself within CAP co-PI Dan Childers’ research group to document the scientific research at Tres Rios while reflecting on what it means to have a vibrant, human-created wetland in the midst of the Sonoran desert.

CAP LTER is actively engaging the arts and humanities in its work through a number of collaborations that explore the nexus between science and human expression and experience.

Cardenas’ photographs on display

Ecological Reflections exhibit

CAP co-sponsoring Arizona Riparian Council meeting on urban rivers

marcia — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:05:05 +0000

The Arizona Riparian Council is holding its annual meeting on April 4-6, 2013 in the Convergence Room at ASU SkySong in Scottsdale. The theme of the meeting is “Sustaining Urban Rivers — Visions and Actions across the Southwest: Application for the Salt River through the Phoenix Metro Area.” The program includes presentations, field trips, and a poster session. Please visit the Arizona Riparian Council website for registration and poster abstract submission information.

CAP graduate student presents climate justice research

marcia — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:01:02 +0000

CAP Ph.D. student Juan Declet-Barreto presented research on vegetation and the urban heat island recently to a seminar of Fulbright scholars held in Phoenix. Declet-Barreto noted that a lack of vegetation in poor Latino neighborhoods drives up temperatures in the already hot summers in the Phoenix area. Planting desert-adapted trees can mitigate this heat. Declet-Barreto’s research is a part of CAP’s ongoing investigations of the urban heat island and the Urban Vulnerability to Climate Change project, funded through a separate grant from the National Science Foundation.

2013 student poster winners announced

marcia — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:07:46 +0000

The 2013 winners of the CAP ASM student poster competition have been announced.

First Place: Elizabeth Cook, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University.

Runners-up: David Huber, Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University; Kevin Kane, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University.

Congratulations to all of these winners. Please see full poster citations and links to the posters below.

Cook, Elizabeth M., Pamela Padgett, and Sharon J. Hall. Effects of Co-occurring Urban Atmospheric Compounds on Desert Herbaceous Plants. (pdf)

Huber, David P., Kathleen A. Lohse, and Sharon J. Hall. Climate Controls the Fate of Anthropogenic Nitrogen Additions in Desert Ecosystems. (pdf)

Kane, Kevin, Abigail M. York, Joseph Tuccillo, Lauren Gentile, and Yun Ouyang. A Spatio-Temporal View of Historical Growth in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, 1915-1963. (pdf)

Urban heat island research featured in International Innovation magazine

marcia — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:24:37 +0000

CAP co-PI Sharon Harlan and the research team on the National Science Foundation-funded “Urban Vulnerability to Climate Change” project are featured in a special issue of International Innovation that focuses on making sense of Earth’s dramatically changing climate. In the article, research team members reflect on the scientific significance and practical applications of their research, which investigates human vulnerability to urban heat in the Phoenix metropolitan area. This research is being conducted in collaboration with CAP LTER, which has supported some of the remote sensing work under the initiative.

Video of CAP ASM keynote presentation by Dr. William Solecki

marcia — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:01:53 +0000

Dr. William Solecki, Director, Institute for Sustainable Cities, City University of New York, and Professor, Department of Geography, Hunter College, City University of New York, was the keynote speaker for the 2013 CAP All Scientists Meeting on January 11, 2013. His presentation, “Transitions in urban environmental systems: Lessons from New York City and Hurricane Sandy,” reflects on the past urban environmental system crises and transitions. He notes that the lens of critical transition theory and writings on urban system resilience can be used to sharpen our analytical capacity to study such issues. His presentation makes reference to the case of Hurricane Sandy, which heavily impacted the New York City metropolitan region and is now defined as one of the most damaging disaster events in U.S. history.

Video updates on CAP core activities!

marcia — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:48:45 +0000

CAP is a large research program and keeping up on all of our initiatives is difficult. We have a series of videos created for the 2013 CAP All Scientists Meeting that share important information on some of our core functions. You can access these through: http://vimeo.com/channels/445388

Video presenters and topics are:

Monica Elser, K-12 education initiatives
Billie Turner, Land cover classification project
Philip Tarrant, Information management
Stevan Earl, Site management, including new research initiatives
Chuck Redman, Synthesis volume
Arnim Wiek, Sustainable futures and scenarios work

Please rsvp for lunch during CAP ASM

marcia — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:16:50 +0000

The 15th annual CAP ASM and Poster Symposium will be held on January 11, 2013 from 8:30 am – 5:00 pm in the Convergence Room at ASU SkySong, 1475 North Scottsdale Road. Please join us in the morning to hear our keynote speaker, Dr. William Solecki, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Cities, and Professor, Department of Geography, City University of New York. We will also have CAP science presentations and poster presentations throughout the day. During lunchtime, we will hold small group meetings, focusing on our major research areas, which we invite all scientists, students, and community partners to attend.

We ask that you rsvp if you intend to join us for lunch http://sustainability.asu.edu/events/email/cap-symposium-meeting-2013 .

CAP scientist in Nature news feature

marcia — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:19:00 +0000

Urban ecology research was the focus of a recent news feature in the journal Nature, which explored the wide range of work conducted under the National Science Foundation and the US Forest Service’s Urban Long Term Research Areas Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex) grant program. This program builds on the success of ongoing urban ecological research by hundreds of scientists connected with CAP and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES). CAP scientist Paige Warren is the PI of an ULTRA-Ex project in Boston that asseses how efforts to plant vegetation throughout Boston have affected air quality, people and wildlife. CAP scientists Chris Boone, Abby York, Dan Childers, and Josh Abbott are currently collaborating with scientists at the Sevilleta and Jornada LTER sites on an ULTRA-Ex project investigating open space in the Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces metropolitan areas.