Seminars
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The ES/ESS Seminar Series occurs weekly each semester during the academic year. Unless otherwise noted, all talks are from 12:30 to 1:50 pm in COB 113. For questions about the seminar series, please contact Josué Medellín-Azuara (jmedellin-azuara@ucmerced.edu).
January 24: Kevin Simonin (SFSU) Genome downsizing drove physiological novelty and the rise of the flowering plants (Host: Stephen Hart)
January 31: Jeremy Wimpey (Applied Trails Research) Outdoor recreation management on Public Lands, balancing resource protection with recreation access (Host: Jeffrey Jenkins)
February 7: Susan Harrison (UC Davis) Winter Drought and Community Change in Californian Grasslands (Host: Jason Sexton)
February 14: Park Williams (Columbia University) The impact of human-caused warming on drought and forest fire in the western US (Host: Leroy Westerling)
February 21: Arnold Dekker (Australian National University) Design Considerations for An Aquatic Ecosystem Earth Observing System (Host: Erin Hestir)
February 28: Barbara Cade-Menun (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) Phosphorus Forms and Cycling in Soils and Other Environmental Samples (Host: Student Nomination/Stephen Hart)
March 7: Erin Hestir (UC Merced) Remote Sensing for Aquatic Ecosystem Sustainability (Host: ES Seminar Lead Group)
March 14: Jennifer Martiny (UC Irvine) The role of microbial communities in mediating ecosystem to environmental change (Host: Student Nomination/Mike Dawson)
March 21: Mark Rains (USF) Connecting the Dots: Hydrological Connectivity between Vernal Pools and Downgradient Waters (Host: Joshua Viers) – NOTICE: Held in Student Services Building (SSB) 170
March 28: No Seminar (Spring Break)
April 4: Jeffrey Mount (Public Policy Institute of California) Consequences of Groundwater Sustainability in California (Host: Joshua Viers) – NOTICE: Held in Student Services Building (SSB) 170
April 11: Nicola Ulibarri (UC Irvine) Collaborative Governance and Modeling for Managing Water Infrastructure (Host: Marc Beutel)
April 18: David Sandino (CA Department of Water Resources) Understanding the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: Ecosystem and Water Supply. (Host Marc Beutel)
April 25: John Harte (UC Berkeley) Predicting the Fate of Ecosystems in the Anthropocene (Host: Asmeret Berhe)
May 2: Kurt Schwabe (UC Irvine) (Host: Roger Bales)
Previous semesters
Fall 2017
The ES/ESS Seminar Series occurs weekly each semester during the academic year. Unless otherwise noted, all talks are from 12:30 to 2:00 pm in SSB 120. For questions about the seminar series, please contact Josué Medellín-Azuara (jmedellin-azuara@ucmerced.edu).
September 6: Katie Ferris (UC Davis) Of Mice and Mimulus: the genetic and phenotypic basis of adaptation to harsh environments (Host: Jay Sexton)
September 13: Fernanda Santos (UC Merced) Impacts of fire on soils and rivers (Host Asmeret Berhe); Dannise Ruiz-Ramos, and Lauren Schiebelhut (UC Merced) Tracking a mass mortality event along the California coast: tracing the genetic consequences of sea star wasting disease. (Host: Michael Dawson).
September 20: William Cooper (UC Irvine) Recent studies of NOM excited states in the photochemical (sunlight) fate of organic compounds and application in the design and optimization of constructed wetlands (Host: Thomas Harmon).
September 27: Ate Visser (Lawrence Livermore National Lab) Tracking Water through the Critical Zone using Isotopic Tracers (Host: Martha Conklin)
October 4: Alvar Escriva-Bou (Public Policy Institute California) Policy Priorities for California's Water Management (Host: Josué Medellín).
October 11: Benjamin Sullivan (University of Nevada, Reno) Biogeochemistry of Tropical Forests (Host: Steve Hart)
October 18: John Battles (UC Berkeley) Consequences of 100+ million dead trees: Has the Sierran conifer forest reached a tipping point? (Host: Emily Moran)
October 25: Shazeen Attari (Indiana University) Misperceptions of water use and water systems (Host: Jessica Blois)
November 1: Neslihan Taş (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab) Deep look into deep permafrost: Impact of warming on microbial functions. (Host: Teamraat Ghezzahei)
November 8: Anne Hansen (Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua) Development of strategies to evaluate methods of controlling eutrophication in water bodies (Host: Marc Beutel)
November 15: Fernando Rosario-Ortiz (University of Colorado Boulder) Assessing the Impact of Wildfires on Water Quality (Host: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe)
November 22: No seminar (Thanksgiving break)
November 29: Mark Marvin-DiPasquale (USGS) Mercury Cycling in a West Coast Watershed: Historic and Contemporary Tales from the San Francisco Bay-Delta (Host: Student nomination/Peggy O’Day)
Spring 2017
January 25: Mengqiang (Mike) Zhu (University of Wyoming) Phosphorus Biogeochemical Transformation and Effects of Aeolian Dust Deposition during Long-term Soil Development in Semi-arid Ecosystems (Host: Stephen Hart)
February 1: Benjamin Sullivan (University of Nevada, Reno) Biogeochemistry of Tropical Forests (Host: Stephen Hart)
February 8: Jeremy Wimpey (Penn State University and Applied Trails Research) Outdoor recreation management on Public Lands, balancing resource protection with recreation access (Host: Jeffrey Jenkins).
February 15: Binayak Mohanty (Texas A&M) Soil Moisture Remote Sensing Across Space and Time – Scale Up and Scale Down (Host: Teamrat Ghezzehei)
February 22: Steven Sadro (UC Davis) Title: Exploring the climate sensitivity of Sierra Nevada lakes and the consequences of warming for ecosystem function (Host: Marc Beutel).
March 1: Jon Keeley (U.S. Geological Survey) Different future fire regimes in climate-limited vs. ignition-limited ecosystems (Host: Emily Moran)
March 8: Javier Ceja-Navarro (Lawrence Berkeley Lab) Arthropod-Microbiome Interactions and their Role in the Host's Success to Environmental Adaptation (Host: LeRoy Westerling)
March 15: Hoori Ajami (UC Riverside) Towards Improved Hydrologic Prediction using Integrated Land Surface-Groundwater Models (Host: UC Water)
March 22: Joe Wagenbrenner (U.S. Forest Service) Watershed impacts of wildfire and post-fire management (Host: Roger Bales)
April 5: Gara Villalba (UC Merced) Simulation of Carbonyl Sulfide (COS) to better understand the urban biosphere signal (Host: Elliott Campbell)
April 12: Scott Anderson (Northern Arizona University) Vegetation transitions along coastal California, from the last glaciation to the Euro-American period (Host: Stephen Hart)
April 19: Seema Sheth (UC Berkeley) Title TBD (Host: Jason Sexton)
April 26: Kurt Schwabe (UC Riverside) Title TBD (Host: UC Water)
Fall 2016
Spring 2016
Fall 2015
- August 26: Introduction; Environmental Systems Faculty Research Summaries, Part 1
- September 2: Environmental Systems Faculty Research Summaries, Part 2
- September 9: Dr. Susan Mazer (UC Santa Barbara) Plant Adaptation - Host: Jay Sexton The evolution of mating system, life history, and physiological performance in annual wildflowers: genetic correlations and the evolution of risky mating behavior in a changing climate.
- September 16: Dr. Mike Beman (UC Merced) Aquatic Microbial Ecology 'Oceans of Ocean Data'
- September 23: Dr. Sarah Bisbing (California Polytechic State University) Forest Ecology and Genetics - Host: Steve Hart Shaping a species: landscape influence on range-wide patterns of genetic structure
- September 30: Dr. Calla Schmidt (University of San Francisco) Hydrology, N-cycling, Groundwater - Host: Nate Bogie Isotopes to the rescue: understanding nitrogen cycling in surface water and groundwater
- October 7: Dr. Robert Graham (UC Riverside) Soil Weathering and Origins - Host: Roger Bales A soil climosequence in the White Mountains, eastern California
- October 14: Dr. William Walton (UC Riverside) Wetlands and Mosquito Biology - Host: Andrea Joyce Do Top-Down Effects Bottom-Out in Constructed Wetlands?
- October 21: Dr. Michael Dettinger (UC San Diego/US Geological Survey) Hydroclimatology - Host: Leroy Westerling Large Storms, Drought, and the Sierra Nevada Environment
- October 28: Emilio Camacho (CA Energy Commission) - Host: Robyn Lukens Climate, Energy, Innovation and the Future of California
- November 4: Dr. Susan Hubbard (Director of Earth Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab) Geophysics - Host: Teamrat Ghezzehei Identification and quantification of ecosystem functional zones using geophysical methods.
- November 11: Veterans Day – no seminar
- November 18: Dr. Carolin Frank (UC Merced) Endosymbiotic Bacteria From cells to ecosystems: above ground bacterial endophytes in conifers
- November 25: Day before Thanksgiving – no seminar
- December 2: Dr. Andrew Latimer (UC Davis) Plant Ecology and Evolution - Host: Erin Babich "Responses of plant populations to climate gradients in Mediteranean-climate regions"
- December 9: Dr. Alex Sessions (California Institute of Technology) Stable Isotopes - Host: Marilyn Fogel Isotope 'clumps' help unravel the sources of arctic methane
Spring 2015
- January 21: UC Merced Faculty Seminars
- January 28: UC Merced Faculty Seminars: Dr. Jason Sexton, Dr. Emily Moran, Dr. Mike Behman, Dr. Jessicca Blois
- February 4: Dr. Stephen Kaffka (UC Davis) Bio-Energy in California, with an emphasis on Ag-derived bio-mass
- February 11 : Rebecca Milczarek, PhD (USDA) Microwave Research in Food Processing: Commodities, Co-Products, and Consumer Products
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February 18: Sarah Brown, PhD. (UC Merced) Reconstructing the evolutionary history of the domestic dog: From village dogs to ancient DNA - Faculty Host: Jessica Blois
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February 25: Frank Davis (UC Santa Barbara) Changing windows of opportunity for tree seedling establishment under 21st Century climate change - Faculty Host: Emily Moran
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March 4: Steve Shackleton (UC Merced Parks and Protected Area Management) - Parks and universities: A global community of practice for a flourishing and peaceful planet Faculty Host: Roland Winston
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March 11: Dr. Michael Isaacson (UC Santa Cruz) The US-Denmark Program on Renewable Energy: In Practice - Faculty Host: Roland Winston
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March 18: Steve Horne, Consultant - Concentrating Photovoltaics Faculty Host: Roland Winston
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March 25: SPRING BREAK
- April 1: David Sandino (CA. Dept. of Water Resources) Understanding California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014: Will It Keep the Well from Running Dry? Faculty Host: Jessica Blois
- April 8: Joe Hereford, PhD (UC Davis) Climatic adaptation among California populations of the C3-C4 intermediate Mollugo verticillata. Faculty Host: Jason Sexton
- April 15: Heather Poiry, Kim McFarlane, P.E., Helen Tan (Gallo) Water Reduction Efforts at E. & J. Gallo Winery - Faculty Host: Roland Winston
- April 22: Jacob Fleck, (US Geological Survey) Mercury in California: A look at the past and hope for the future
Faculty Host: Peggy O'Day
- April 29: Caroline Masiello, Ph.D. (Rice University) Biochar, water, and microbes: Tracking the mechanisms behind biochar's environmental effects - Faculty Host: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe
- May 6: Adam Moule (UC Davis) Probing the morphology of bulk heterojunction films using electron microscopy Faculty Host: Roland Winston
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