Awards

The Green Music Center (GMC) will use funds to present the 10th anniversary season of performing arts programming. Especially during these challenging times, the Green Music Center's performances are helping to promote healing and empathy for one another.

This project aims to have student led mapping products of eruptive basalts in two areas of the Springerville Volcanic Field (SVF), the Blue Ridge Mountain shield volcano, and arguably some of the youngest flows in the southeast region of the field. The SVF is a well-mapped monogenetic volcanic field, with the two aforementioned areas notable missing pieces as they provide a view of a rare polygenetic eruptive vent and some of the flows that are petrogenetically at the end of the fields lifespan.

To date, very little is known as to how coastal processes from land can influence kelp forest dynamics in northern California, presenting a large knowledge gap as to potential drivers of kelp forest resilience and restoration potential. Our goal for this project is to evaluate methods for establishing bull kelp refugia close to Drakes Estero along Point Reyes National Seashore, and characterize the connectivity between the estuary and nearshore reefs to inform restoration efforts.

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.

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.

The Green Music Center received an award for funding to support a theater piece, Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man. It is an environmental, cultural and spiritual parable derived from living in the foothills of Appalachia, one man among many seeking to make sense of the time, place and condition in which we live.  In the story, Ezell’s choices, traumas, ancestors and more intersect with themes of domination and resilience as he seeks to take advantage of an anticipated fracking boom and the opportunity to reconnect with the people and land of his raising.

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.

Ingenuity Mars helicopter is history’s first aircraft to operate from the surface of another planet. It will support a ground rover’s exploration of the Jezero Crater to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. The helicopter's battery has to be reserved to keep equipment within allowable temperature during cold Mars nights. The helicopter is not able to recharge from the MMRTG on the rover. Hence, the helicopter has to take off at a specific time frame in the day to avoid risk of losing reserve battery. This significantly limits the exploration flights of this aerial vehicle.

The Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) will perform record searches of the California Historical Resources Information System (CHRIS), on an as-needed basis, in response to individual requests by the State Water Board. Record searches will include inventories of records, maps and files housed at nine regional branches of the CHRIS.

The marine sciences is a field that falls behind other fields of science in promoting a diverse workforce. California Sea Grant is addressing this issue by providing support for undergraduate research at Minority and Hispanic Serving Institutions who recently received a Kelp Recovery Research Award, which includes Sonoma State University. Each institution who falls under this criteria are eligible to receive this one-time award, providing a unique opportunity to provide hands-on training to minority students in kelp forest research. Dr.