Achievements

Kai Zhu, Yiluan Song, Josephine Lesage, Justin Luong, James Bartolome, et al.

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Justin Luong (FFRM) and colleagues recently published in Nature Ecology and Evolution on the how California grasslands are experiencing rapid shifts in response to climate change, resulting in plant communities that are more thermophillic, or adapted to warmer conditions. Understanding these plant community shifts to climate tolerances can help inform invasive species and conservation management.  A link to the manuscript is here.  

Fisheries Biology - students and faculty

Fisheries Biology

Sixteen students and faculty from Cal Poly Humboldt's Fisheries Biology Department attended the American Fisheries Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, joining over 2,000 global participants to share research and build collaborations. Humboldt representatives delivered ten presentations and chaired a symposium on integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge with genomic approaches in fisheries conservation. The department also hosted a gathering for alumni, faculty, and friends to reconnect and celebrate shared achievements. Travel and registration costs were primarily funded through grants, illustrating the professional development opportunities available to students through active research and involvement in major scientific events. Learn more

Jordyn Neal, Sam Rodrigues, Allison Bronson

Biological Sciences

Recent Marine Biology alumni Jordyn Neal and Sam Rodrigues, with help from Assistant Professor Allison Bronson, co-authored a paper on the inner ear anatomy of sharks, published in the journal The Anatomical Record. Jordyn and Sam reconstructed the inner ear spaces within shark skulls using the on-campus CT scanning facility. This work, especially in the context of relatively sparse prior studies on these structures, serves as a strong baseline for future comparative anatomy research on the hearing and equilibrium apparatus of cartilaginous fishes.

Pascal BIWOLE

Environmental Resources Engineering

A recent publication in the first-quartile (Q1) journal "Energy and Buildings": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778824008235

Dino Santia, Kerry Byrne

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

RRS undergraduate Dino Santia was awarded a $3,750 research award over this past summer to support his ongoing independent research project in Kerry Byrne's lab, entitled "Seed Bank Emergence Study."

Dino Santia, Kerry Byrne

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

RRS undergraduate Dino Santia has been awarded an $8,000 NEXTGEN research fellowship from the Agricultural Research Institute to support his independent research project in the Byrne Lab (ESM Dept), entitled "Seed bank Emergence Study." 

Jesse Laine, Kerry Byrne

Environmental Science & Management

Natural Resources graduate student Jesse Laine (ESM option) has been awarded a $25,000 NEXTGEN research fellowship from the Agricultural Research Institute to support his proposed study entitled "Insect biodiversity in a restored coastal grassland." Jesse is a first-year graduate student in Kerry Byrne's lab.

Wendy Kornberg, Claudia Alfaro Hernandez

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Undergraduate students Wendy Kornberg and Claudia Alfaro Hernandez were each awarded an $11,000 California State University Agriculture Research Initiative-NEXTGEN in a systemwide competition to conduct independent research related to agricultural resources with Dr. Justin Luong. Wendy Kornberg will evaluate how indigenous microorganisms (IMO) inoculation can be used to benefit regenerative tomato production in south county. Claudia Alfaro Hernandez will evaluate how microhabitats created by solar microgrids shape plant communities and soil properties on local rangelands. The data will be used to inform ecological restoration plant selection for future management goals related to native plant diversity, pollinator habitat, and sheep grazing.   

Rosemary Sherriff and Andrew Stubblefield

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Drs. Andrew Stubblefield and Rosemary Sherriff are Coordinating Leads on California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment’s Regional Synthesis Report for the North Coast, focusing on how climate change is impacting six counties in northwestern California. The assessment is supported through the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and aims to inform on-the-ground implementation and decision-making at the local, regional, tribal, and state levels, focusing on communities most vulnerable to climate change. Lead authors include Dr. Daniel Lipe, Dr. David Narum, Dr. Keith Parker, and Jennifer Marlow.

Learn more about the assessment here.

Allison Bronson

Biological Sciences

Dr. Allison Bronson received a National Science Foundation grant to study the inner ear structures of sharks, using CT scanning and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). This work will evaluate whether ear shape differs between shark species living in different habitats, potentially developing a predictive model for inferring the ecology of extinct fishes. The project involves collaborators at the University of Michigan, University of North Carolina WIlmington, University of Birmingham, and University of Auckland, and will use specimens from Cal Poly Humboldt’s Fish Collection and other museums throughout the United States.