School of Social Sciences

The Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) will conduct Archaeological Monitoring and subcontract Tribal Cultural Monitoring as part of an on-call three year contract with the Northern Service Center (NSC) of the CA Department of State Parks and Recreation. Monitoring will occur at areas with high sensitivity for buried prehistoric or historic resources, and other designated locations, within the area of operations/jurisdiction of the NSC, in California.

Through this cooperative agreement, the Northwest Information Center (NWIC) supports the fulfillment of the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) obligations by 1) gathering, managing, and providing access to the statewide inventory of historical resources within the NWIC’s 18 county region; 2) providing guidance in the use and interpretation of historical resources information: and 3) providing broad public education in support of cultural heritage preservation including internships and volunteer opportunities here at Sonoma State University. 

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.

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