School of Social Sciences

Dr. Teresa Nguyen will use her Visionary Grant Award from the American Psychological Foundation to test a proposed culturally-sensitive model of marriage and relationship development.

This project's overarching objective is to demonstrate the value of NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) spaceborne lidar for systematic and timely wildfire severity prediction, and to assess how GEDI-detected structural changes due to wildfire and fuels treatments alter predictions of future wildfire severity in California forests. Our research will provide insights into post-wildfire recovery, forest management strategies to reduce wildfire risk, contemporary fire regimes, and potential fire impacts under extreme wind conditions and in wildland-urban interface areas.

The Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) will collaborate with ESA Inc. and CA State Parks to conduct an archaeological and tribal cultural resources inventory at China Camp State Park, in Marin County, and to develop a model for understanding climate effects to significant resources. Climate modeling includes identifying areas likely to be disturbed or destroyed by rising sea levels, tidal action, and erosion due to changes in vegetation patterns, infrastructural projects, and public access.

Mapping and monitoring the structure, function, and biodiversity of Earth's ecosystems is one of the most important research objectives for space science this decade, in particular to address the rapid decline of biodiversity under anthropogenic pressure and climate change. To respond to the urgent need of mapping and monitoring biodiversity in a timely manner, the BioSoundSCape project will use a novel, generalizable, and species agnostic approach to retrieve acoustic and plant spectral and structural diversity.

The Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) will research, survey, and record the Jones Bar mining site for the Sierra District of State Parks. The site burned in the 2020 Jones Bar fire and new cultural features and artifacts may be exposed. It may have also been damaged by the fire. ASC will assess any damage. The site record will be provided to Parks for their records and filed with the appropriate information center.

Accurate estimates of forest carbon stock underpin the development of a global carbon market, yet estimates can vary in accuracy and utility. The proposed research will use a space-based laser (NASA's GEDI) to refine biomass estimations for Sequoia sempervirens redwood forests. These forests are of global importance because they represent areas of extremely high biomass (i.e. carbon stocks), and can provide a proof-of-concept approach that can be extended to validate carbon in other high-biomass forests. As contract work, Dr.

The ASC will develop an Interpretation Master Plan for Empire Mine State Historic Park. The project team will develop a baseline survey of interpretive infrastructure, current conditions and relevant programming. The project team will also examine visitor needs and interests through surveys, key personnel interviews, and visitor statistics. ASC will also hold regular meetings with State Parks and the Sierra Gold Parks Foundation as well as lead four public stakeholder meetings.

The Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) will conduct a cultural resources survey and inventory report for the East Bay Regional Park District’s Robertson Land Bank Trails Project. ASC will do three tasks to complete the project including: Background Research, Archaeological Field Survey and Recordation and Archaeological Resource Documentation and Archaeological Survey Report.

The Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) will undertake NHPA Section 106 evaluation and data recovery of the proposed Hotel Sebastopol project. The scope of work includes ground-penetrating radar survey, National Register of Historic Places evaluation and determination of eligibility, assessment of effects and mitigation measures for all affected cultural resources. The site is the location of Chinese- and Japanese-American settlement in Sebastopol from the 1870s through the 1940s.

The Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) will conduct a cultural resources survey of Calabazas Creek Regional Park. The cultural resources study will update the initial MND and is being prepared to support an IS/MND, Master Plan, and Resource Management Plan. Sonoma County Regional Parks is serving as the lead agency and the final cultural resources study report will address the California Environmental Quality Act of 1970, as amended.