Human Footprints on Biodiversity: From Wildlife and Extreme Events to Socioeconomics and Global Data Ecosystems

Worldwide biodiversity is increasingly pressed by human activities and extreme weather events. To stem the loss of biodiversity, nations across the world have committed to ambitious conservation agendas placing a focus on the equitable benefits of nature contribution to people. In this talk, I will present on how species are responding to these dynamic stressors, highlighting behavioral responses in animal movement of terrestrial wildlife to extreme heat and shifting human mobility patterns across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latter part of the talk, I will discuss how socioeconomic disparities shape our access to biodiversity data, constraining ecological insights, biodiversity policies and conservation efforts. Finally, I will discuss ongoing local bottom up educational efforts for a bottom-up environmental justice centered collection of biodiversity. 

Increasingly pressed by human activities and extreme weather events. To stem the loss of biodiversity, nations across the world have committed to ambitious conservation agendas placing a focus on the equitable benefits of nature contribution to people. In this talk, I will present on how species are responding to these dynamic stressors, highlighting behavioral responses in animal movement of terrestrial wildlife to extreme heat and shifting human mobility patterns across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latter part of the talk, I will discuss how socioeconomic disparities shape our access to biodiversity data, constraining ecological insights, biodiversity policies and conservation efforts. Finally, I will discuss ongoing local bottom up educational efforts for a bottom-up environmental justice centered collection of biodiversity.

Communicating complex scientific concepts to the public is challenging for busy academics. However, raising awareness of the innovative science being conducted at UC Berkeley and beyond is essential! Science communication bridges the gap between researchers and the public, transforming complex ideas into accessible language, visuals, and stories that resonate with non-specialists. How can we make science communication more effective, apply it to our own work, and fit it into our packed schedules? With so many forms of communication—such as data visualization, photography, and journalism—what’s the best way to leverage these approaches to share our research widely?

Join us at this Berkeley Wildlife seminar featuring five UC Berkeley-affiliated communications specialists (and one humble PhD student). Our speakers, including data visualizers, photographers, and professional communicators, will each present their unique perspectives on science communication and their most effective methods. Following short presentations, there will be a 20–30-minute guided discussion.

Speakers include:

Julie Gipple is the Director of Communications for Rausser College of Natural Resources, where she leads all College communications including Breakthroughs magazine, news stories for College and departmental sites, social media, and donor communications. Suzanne Spencer: Communications Manager for Schmidt DSE and the Stone Center at UC Berkeley, specializing in translating data science & research for non-academic audiences.  Malia Byrtus: A communications specialist on the California Wolf Project at UC Berkeley and an Emmy award-winning producer with expertise in conservation storytelling and wildlife camera trapping. Mat Burciaga: Writes about natural and human systems from biological, ecological, economic, and social science perspectives for UC Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources. Vishal Subramanyan: Accomplished wildlife photographer focused on telling conservation stories in California and beyond. Eric Heisey: PhD student in ESPM and photographer interested in applying visual science communication to his work.

Join us for this special Albright lecture and celebration as part of Rausser College of Natural Resources' 50th anniversary.

For 136 years, the National Geographic Society has championed exploration, science, conservation, education and storytelling to deepen understanding and protection of our world. The Society's conservation efforts date back to the early 20th century with environmentalists like Horace M. Albright.

Today, in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, National Geographic Society CEO Jill Tiefenthaler collaborated with strategic partners, Society staff, Trustees and supporters to create and implement a dynamic vision and ambitious plan that addresses these urgent global challenges.

Dr. Tiefenthaler will discuss how the Society draws on its legacy to shape its future, driving impactful initiatives — from international conservation projects to historic scientific expeditions — to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.

 

Bridging adaptive management with deep reinforcement learning

Machine learning seems to pop up everywhere you look these days. Many times, a question that
hovers over a research project is: Could an AI methodology help here? In this talk I'll explore a
particular type of machine learning tool used for sequential decision making—deep reinforcement
learning (RL). RL has been used to solve complex control problems in fields such as robotics,
engineering and operations research. Its claim to fame was when an RL algorithm was able to beat
grandmaster Magnus Carlsen at chess. Here I'll explore the question: Can this type of algorithm
help us in decision problems related to complex ecosystem dynamics? I'll focus on our most
recent project: the problem of designing harvest control rules for fisheries with irregular, highly
variable, recruitment dynamics.

9/13, Kaggie Orrick, Wildlife Postdoc, Social-Ecological Practice Theory & Human-Wildlife
Interactions: People, Cattle, and Predators in Makgadikgadi, Botswana

9/27, Grant Ballard, Chief Science Officer Point Blue Conservation Science, Recent advances in our understanding of Adelie penguin ecology and the Southern Ocean ecosystem in the context of climate change

10/11, Felipe Montealegre, DSE Postdoc, Bridging adaptive management with deep reinforcement
learning

10/25, Mauriel Rodriguez Curras, Wildlife Postdoc, Contrasting impacts of humans and wolves shape Isle Royale's carnivore guild

11/8, Veronica Frans, Stanford Postdoc, Humans' place in nature and niches: updating ecological
methods, applications, and theory for coexistence and sustainability

11/22, Cesar O. Estein,  Yesterday's tomorrow: Exploring how societal inequities shape the ecology of cities

MONTH    DAY    SPEAKER

Jan               19         Fengyi "Freda"Guo *

Feb               9          James Prosek *

Feb               23         Axel Hunnicutt CDFW Wolf Coordinator, "The return of an apex predator: California’s conservation of gray wolves"

Mar               8          Intro to The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment (DSE), developing data-enabled solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges

Mar               22         Daniel Okamoto, Assistant Professor of Global Change Biology, "Coastal oceans under global change" 

Apr               5           Emily Chen Finishing Talk, Population dynamics of Chinook salmon and implications for fisheries and water in the state

Apr               19         Mitch Serota Finishing Talk, "Pumas and penguins: how an unexpected interaction reshapes the ecology of coastal Patagonia"

May               3         Jessie Moravek Finishing Talk, "Freshwater restoration in California: Exploring how floodplain reconnection, habitat restoration, and species reintroduction influence freshwater resources at a landscape scale"

May               10         Avery Shawler Finishing Talk,  "Ecological & social challenges of wolf-livestock conflict: wolf-elk interactions & local perspectives in the eastern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem"

* Please note, most talks are from 12noon-1pm, but 1/19 is from 1-2pm and 2/9 is from 10-11am.  We will update the events page with talk details the week of each talk.

Population Dynamics of California's Central Valley Chinook Salmon

Chinook salmon in the Central Valley exhibit rich life history diversity that historically supported abundant runs of salmon at their southernmost range. The productivity and resilience of this species in the basin has been challenged and reduced by human demands for water, flood control, fisheries, and land use. This presentation will highlight the life history diversity of Chinook salmon, the challenges they face inhabiting a system with high human use and demands, and research on their life history and population dynamics geared towards improving tools for managing and conserving this species.

Presenters: 
Brookie Guzder-Williams, Senior Data Scientist
Ciera Martinez, Senior Program Manager
Kevin Koy, Executive Director
Sam Pottinger, Senior Research Data Scientist / Software Engineer

The DSE (https://dse.berkeley.edu/) was founded in 2022 with a mission to develop data-enabled solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges. In the last year, we have hired and onboarded a talented staff team, narrowed on in five core projects, and began developing user-centered applications that meet specific identified needs.

We look forward to sharing an introduction to where we are now, our projects work with Co-Design of Technology for Tribal Environmental Stewardship, Unlocking Regenerative Agriculture Practices at Scale, Solving the Snow Problem with Remotely Sensed Data, Ending Plastic Pollution Forever, and National Park Service Climate Change Decision Support. And, lastly, we'll also share additional plans for the future and where we'd love to further engage with ESPM students, faculty, and staff.
 

James Prosek is an artist, writer, and naturalist whose work pays homage to the history of art and natural sciences while addressing contemporary environmental concerns. His diverse body of work is the result of extensive travel and field observation. Prosek creates paintings, drawings, and sculptures that evoke the immense biodiversity of our planet and its imaginative potential. The interconnectedness of nature, the ephemerality of boundaries, and the loss of cultural and biological diversity are major themes of Prosek’s work.

Prosek will discuss his work in the context of his interest in lines that humans draw in nature—in the mind and on the world—and how nature trespasses across those lines.  He will give an overview of his work as a visual artist and talk about how his passion for trout and char as a child evolved into a lifelong inquiry into how and why we name and order nature—asking what happens when we join words to a world that doesn’t have words on it.  He will discuss how we and other animals use representation and mimicry to read and communicate information (from imitation in varied forms, to drawing, to using fishing flies, lures and decoys), how these representations are not the world they describe but can influence the world they describe.  Prosek will talk about the possible origins of drawing through the study of shadows and reflections, and how reading passive marks left behind by animals (animal tracks) may have evolved into using marks with intent to communicate information, to drawing and the beginnings of written language and recorded history.  He will talk about his current exhibition about remnant praires at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas and the biological memory that ancient remnant prairies hold.

This week's speaker is Brian Kastl (PhD in Environmental Science, Management & Policy, 2023)

Brian is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the U.S. EPA and serves as a National Geographic Explorer. He holds over 15 years of experience leading aquatic conservation projects and teaching environmental leadership, spanning 12 countries.

Kastl's seminar is his finishing talk and is titled: "Ecological Thresholds in a Water-Scarce, Warming World: Informing Instream Flow Conservation for Endangered Salmon"

We will meet in-person in 36 Mulford Hall or via Zoom for remote attendees.

The talk will be from 9-10am at the Faculty Club (The Heyns room) and light breakfast will be provided.

Amy Van Scoyoc, ESPM Grad Student

Kristin Barker, ESPM Grad Student

Ben Goldstein, ESPM Grad Student