Lab retreat in Elkhorn Slough
Lab members, partners, and friends enjoyed kayaking and group dinner in Elkhorn Slough as the first in-person gathering after normal life returns.
Yiluan wins Hammett Fellowship
Yiluan Song is awarded the Hammett Fellowship established by Benjamin and Ruth Hammett in the Department of Environmental Studies, UC Santa Cruz. The Hammett Fellowship funds interdisciplinary research on climate change or climate change and water issues. Yiluan will use this fellowship to improve the ecological forecasting of leafing and flowering phenology during climate change to inform public health.
New paper: Climate change sends tropical species racing to higher elevations, while temperate counterparts lag behind
From UC Santa Cruz News Climate change sends tropical species racing to higher elevations, while temperate counterparts lag behind Responses to rising temperatures vary by latitude, but researchers fear there may be no clear winners among these strategies May 17, 2021 By Allison Arteaga Soergel Mount Karimui, in Papua New Guinea, is one example of a mountainous tropical environment where species are rapidly moving to higher altitudes in an attempt to escape warming temperatures. [...]
Kai and colleague awarded UCSC Collaborative Research Grant 2021-2022
Kai and Prof. Yu Zhang (Electrical and Computer Engineering) are awarded a Collaborative Research Grant from the Committee of Research at UC Santa Cruz for 2021-2022. The research topic is to model and predict wildfires using artificial intelligence.
Kai elected as ESA Early Career Fellow
ESA Announcement UC Santa Cruz News UC Santa Cruz faculty recognized for excellence in ecology March 25, 2021 By Allison Arteaga Soergel UC Santa Cruz Professor Ingrid Parker earned a 2021 ESA fellow award for her work partnering with resource managers to conserve biological diversity through invasive species removal and ecosystem restoration. Professor Karen Holl's award recognizes her accomplishments in "bringing science into decision making," through her efforts to improve the effectiveness of tree-growing campaigns. Professor [...]
Kai published coauthored paper on forest and climate change
UC Santa Cruz News Forest monitoring efforts contribute to new understanding of climate change impacts February 25, 2021 By Allison Arteaga Soergel The Forest Ecology Research Plot, part of the UCSC Campus Natural Reserve, includes about 31,000 tagged plants monitored by student interns. Photo by Cody Perhamus. Data collected by student interns at UC Santa Cruz’s Forest Ecology Research Plot (FERP) recently contributed to a breakthrough in understanding how climate change affects forests. A new [...]
Clara featured on ESA blog
Clara was featured on the Ecological Society of America's (ESA) blog as a 2020 NEON-ESA Early Career Scholar. This program supports early-career scientists in attending the ESA Annual Meeting and a pre-conference meet-and-greet where they can connect with peers. The theme of the 2020 Annual Meeting was "Harnessing the Ecological Data Revolution" – which made it an ideal venue for learning to leverage large datasets such as those available from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). [...]
Yiluan and Kai received Tech for Social Good Program Award
A team led by Yiluan Song and advised by Kai Zhu received the Tech for Social Good Program Award, funded by CITRIS and the Banatao Institute in partnership with UCSC Institute for Social Transformation. In a six-month project, the team seeks to enhance climate change education through personalized scientific communications on phenology. This award will enable the team to assimilate crowdsourced phenology observations into data-driven phenology models, provide customized information on climate-phenology coupling, and encourage [...]
Kai awarded New Phytologist Tansley Medal
UC Santa Cruz News Quantitative ecologist wins Tansley Medal for plant science contributions November 04, 2020 By Allison Arteaga Soergel Kai Zhu joined the UC Santa Cruz faculty in 2017 and is now an assistant professor in the Environmental Studies Department. From a global field of applicants, environmental studies assistant professor Kai Zhu was recently chosen as one of two honorees to receive the Tansley Medal for Excellence in Plant Science. This annual award, presented by [...]
Lab presented at ESA 2020
The lab presented at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting. Clara Qin Combining continental-scale sampling networks to uncover the rules of fungal community assembly Abstract link Yiluan Song Keeping up with climate: Phenology in the Anthropocene Abstract link Kai Zhu Latitudinal patterns of climate tracking in montane plants and animals Abstract link