1997 |
Edwards, Christopher |
M01Activity Code Description: An award made to an institution solely for the support of a General Clinical Research Center where scientists conduct studies on a wide range of human diseases using the full spectrum of the biomedical sciences. Costs underwritten by these grants include those for renovation, for operational expenses such as staff salaries, equipment, and supplies, and for hospitalization. A General Clinical Research Center is a discrete unit of research beds separated from the general care wards. |
Pain and Word Manipulations
endogenous opioid; stress; pain; memory; clinical research; human subject;
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0.943 |
2007 — 2011 |
Kudela, Raphael [⬀] Edwards, Christopher Peterson, Tawnya (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Influence of Continental Margin Iron On Phytoplankton Species Composition and Production in the Northern Gulf of Alaska @ University of California-Santa Cruz
The northern Gulf of Alaska (GOA) is among the ocean's most productive ecosystems and supports a rich coastal fisheries. Although strong cross-shelf gradients in phytoplankton (chlorophyll decreasing offshore) have been identified, yet the specific factors that regulate and control primary production have only been hypothesized. Cross-shelf patterns in primary production/species composition are consistent with a gradient of iron availability (Strom et al., in press), but this has yet to be rigorously tested. In collaboration with the NSF-funded project Mixing of iron-rich coastal waters with nutrient-rich HNLC waters leading to enhanced phytoplankton biomass: a focus on the northwest Gulf ofAlaska (K. Bruland), this project will examine the influence of cross-shelf exchange and physico-chemical gradients on phytoplankton distributions, physiology, and assemblage structure in the northern GOA, making use of complementary high-resolution iron data and building on the results from previous studies. The proposed work directly complements studies accomplished by the US GLOBEC Coastal Gulf of Alaska (CGOA) program, and is essential to link Bruland's study of trace metal dynamics and speciation to key biological processes. Bruland's project seeks to quantify the inputs of iron from the Copper River, AK, and to characterize and assess the interactions among river inputs and shelf/offshore systems. The quasi-synoptic sampling scheme enables characterization at the mesoscale, the dominant scale of variability in the region. The station grid allows quasi-synoptic sampling while remaining flexible to take advantage of interesting mesoscale features. Should a mesoscale eddy be present, the study will focus on the role that eddy circulation plays in facilitating the offshore transport (suggested by Stabeno et al., 2004) of bio-active trace metals.
This project aims to provide a detailed examination of the phytoplankton rates, assemblage structure, and response to cross-shelf transport/ mixing across gradients in iron and light to better parameterize satellite observations and future modeling efforts. Specific questions include: 1) Do cross-shelf gradients in iron correspond to patterns of carbon assimilation, nutrient uptake, new production, and species composition of phytoplankton in the northern GOA? 2) Do iron and light interact to structure species assemblages and patterns of carbon assimilation? 3) How do frontal regions influence phytoplankton distributions and physiology? 4) What bio-optical properties characterize the different water masses (inshore/offshore), and how well do satellite observations describe phytoplankton standing stocks and rates? 5) What chemical characteristics define the deep Fe-source identified by Lam et al. (2006), and what is the bioavailability of this material when mixed with near-surface waters? This study will provide the first concurrent measurements of iron concentration and phytoplankton physiological parameters in the waters of the northern GOA.
Broader Impacts. The proposed work will be extremely valuable in testing hypotheses arising from many years of effort by GLOBEC CGOA. Data from this study will further our understanding of ocean-climate interactions in an economically and ecologically important region. The results could have far-reaching implications for our basic understanding of coupled biogeochemical cycles in shelf ecosystems. This will have both direct and indirect impacts on our understanding of carbon cycling, as well as how other researchers parameterize regional and global biogeochemical models. Undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral education will be furthered through active participation in lab, field, and data synthesis activities. Two full time graduate students and a post-doc (this proposal and an NSERC Fellowship) will receive a unique educational background in multidisciplinary oceanography, spanning physical, chemical, and biological processes.
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0.952 |
2008 |
Edwards, Christopher |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Sbir Phase I: Adhesive Systems For High Performance Sandwich Panels
This SBIR Phase I project will focus on the development of a thermally activated cross-linkable thermoplastic adhesive film. Although many thermoplastic adhesive films are available, none are capable of being cross-linked as they are applied. The addition of the cross linking functionality will allow the bonded joints thus created to be used at a higher temperature, closer to the original film melting point, without loss of performance due to softening or creep of the adhesive.
The prime application for the development of the cross-linkable adhesive film is for bonding of polypropylene composite skins to foam cores for the manufacture of structural sandwich panels. The new adhesive film will allow bonding at a sufficiently low temperature to avoid damage to the foam while enabling the panel to be used at a temperature close to the film application temperature, thus extending the temperature range at which the panels may be used. This will significantly broaden the application range for these lightweight sandwich panels in transport and infrastructure applications. Additionally the cross-linkable adhesive films have potential uses in other areas including apparel and automotive interiors where more durable, higher temperature bonds are of value.
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0.903 |
2009 — 2013 |
Edwards, Christopher Veneziani, Carmela (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: What Do Global Surface Drifters Tell Us About Submesoscale Processes? @ University of California-Santa Cruz
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
A recent global census of surface loopers (drifter trajectories with a definite sense of rotation) has revealed some unexpected features of the distribution of structures at scales of the submesoscale (R<15 km; Griffa, Lumpkin, and Veneziani 2008). Three main regimes have emerged: a) a prevalently cyclonic zonal band at 10−20 degrees latitude; b) a prevalently anticyclonic zonal band at 30−40 degrees and c) regions devoid of submesoscale presence corresponding to areas of formation of great rings. The dynamical mechanisms behind this distribution are not completely understood yet, one of the reasons being that small loopers can be the signature of different processes, such as submesoscale eddies and subinertial Ekman response.
This study focuses on the submesoscale component, and investigates the implications of the findings for submesoscale distribution in the open ocean. The question to be addressed is: Are submesoscale processes in the world ocean characterized by a nontrivial distribution in terms of polarity and abundance, modulated by the ambient large-scale dynamical regimes in which they form? This question cannot be investigated by means of Lagrangian data alone, and other global data sets or global numerical models do not have sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to solve submesoscale structures. Therefore very high resolution (up to 300 m) regional models of key selected areas suggested by the drifters will be used to investigate the Eulerian and Lagrangian dynamics. This will be complemented by specific process studies in idealized configurations indicated by the regional modeling results. The overall result will be an increased understanding of the properties and distribution of open ocean submesoscale processes.
The proposed research has a societal impact because it contributes to the understanding of climate and biological processes in the upper ocean. The results will be presented in graduate classes at UCSC and RSMAS, and they will be part of outreach programs. Analysis algorithms developed for the ROMS model simulations will be freely distributed to the greater scientific community through the WikiROMS web-pages.
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0.952 |
2010 — 2016 |
Edwards, Christopher Fiechter, Jerome Goebel, Nicole |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Proposal: Multi-Scale Modeling: Assessing the Role of Eastern Boundary Upwelling Regions and Their Ecosystems On Climate Variability Using a Fully Coupled Model @ University of California-Santa Cruz
Intellectual merit This is a multi-institutional research project to study the regional atmosphere-ocean interactions, and the global ramifications, that result from a more accurate treatment of the eastern boundary coastal upwelling regions of California, Peru-Chile and Benguela, their ecosystems and biogeochemistry in a fully coupled global multi-scale climate model. The novel computational development provides the ability to selectively increase the resolution of the ocean component in desired regions while keeping the two-way coupling to the atmosphere. This project will address the question of physical and biological mechanisms affecting the CO2 air-sea exchange and export in these regions and the climate variability in the present, and under future scenarios, for the selected regions from physical, ecosystem and biogeochemical perspectives. As a study of the role of continental shelves in the climate system, and by addressing known biases/deficiencies in current climate models, it will contribute to our understanding of the climate system and improve projections of climate change. By directly including a biogeochemical model, this study can begin to address climate change impacts on the ecosystems of three of the most productive oceanic regions, and the ecosystems interaction with climate
Broader Impacts The proposed research has significant impacts to many communities on several levels. By studying regions that are commercially significant, this project will contribute to the knowledge that is needed for future ocean resource management. The inclusion of an ocean model (ROMS) that has been extensively used for ecosystem studies, brings the climate, biogeochemical and ecosystem communities closer together and will permit the study of the role of climate change on ecosystems including higher trophic levels all the way to human activity. The project also contributes significant technical developments to the climate modeling community. The results will lead to the availability of a regional ocean model fully embedded within a global climate model and linked to all its components, including a multi-resolution atmosphere, land surface and sea ice models. By working within the NCAR Community Climate System Model framework all the technical developments will become part of the model that is accessible to the scientific community and can benefit emerging interdisciplinary programs. This project includes the training of three post-doctoral scientists one at University of Maine and two at U.C. Santa Cruz. All the academic institutions involved have a significant track record in teaching of both undergraduate and graduate students and outreach activities. Outreach and teaching activities are also an important part of the mission at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) where regular summer colloquia (organized by the advanced studies program) educate graduate students on various aspects of the climate system and its modeling, and well-visited websites are maintained for both the scientific community and the public.
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0.952 |
2010 |
Edwards, Christopher |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Sbir Phase I: Development of a Low Cost Thermal Storage System Using a Novel Phase Change Material For Use With Solar Thermal and Waste Heat Recovery Systems
This Small Business Innovation Research Project will develop a thermal storage system combined with solar thermal heating and waste heat recovery allowing energy to be accumulated throughout the year to be used when needed in winter. The use of a new phase change material as the energy storage device, combined with the use of winter and summer heat generation will make feasible the storage of sufficient heat for a typical family residence in an acceptably small storage space. Storage of thermal energy is the single largest barrier to large scale implementation of solar thermal collection. Currently, no viable option exists for heat storage in a reasonable volume. The objective is to develop a solar thermal heating system with sufficient heat storage capacity to allow heat to be generated and stored throughout the year and used to provide heating in winter. During phase I a prototype system capable of generating and storing 300MJ of heat, or roughly the daily heat requirement for a domestic house in winter, will be developed. The techniques and data developed during this work will provide the necessary basis to develop a full scale system capable of providing heating throughout the winter to a typical domestic house.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project lies in making localized solar heat generation for space heating a viable option for domestic as well as commercial, institutional and industrial buildings a commercial practicality. It is estimated that approximately 40 million buildings in the US are suitable for implementation of solar thermal heating. This represents a US-based manufacturing opportunity of >$400 billion. Successful implementation on this scale could result in annual energy savings of 300billion kWh corresponding to $30 billion in energy costs.
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0.903 |
2011 — 2015 |
Moore, Andrew Edwards, Christopher Fiechter, Jerome |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Variability of the California Current System Derived From 4d-Var Circulation Estimates @ University of California-Santa Cruz
A comprehensive analysis of the U.S. west coast ocean circulation and California Current System (CCS) will be performed using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) and 4-Dimensional Variational (4D-Var) data assimilation. Ocean observations from the period 1981-2011 will be assimilated into ROMS, in conjunction with the best available estimates of ocean surface forcing and open boundary conditions. The goals of this research project are: (1) To perform retrospective analyses of the ocean circulation during the last 3 decades; (2) Use the analyses to document and understand changes in spring-summer stratification and how these changes, along with variations in wind-stress and wind-stress curl, influence upwelling intensity and upwelling source water depth; (3) Identify the dominant space-time modes of circulation variability on intraseasonal-to-interannual and decadal timescales and how these modes are related to climate modes such as the Pacific decadal Oscillation and North Pacific Gyre Oscillation; (4) Quantify the impact on the analyses of the in situ and satellite observing networks; (5) Make the circulation analyses available via a data server to the community at large for scientific and marine resource management applications.
Intellectual merit This research will yield the first analyses of the California Current System circulation generated by a regional ocean model forced by the best available ocean surface fluxes from regional atmospheric models. Also, this assimilative ocean model is unique in that it provides formal estimates of the expected error in the analyses, and provides a quantitative assessment of the impact of each individual observation on any aspect of the resulting circulation estimates. Analysis error estimates are critically important for establishing confidence in the analyses, and observation impact and observation sensitivity studies can be used in the future to design optimal observing arrays. A by-product of the proposed analyses are fields of surface forcing and open boundary condition corrections that provide information about potential errors in these fields and errors in the model. The investigators are a uniquely qualified and experienced team of ocean modelers, all with considerable experience in both modeling the CCS and 4D-Var data assimilation, and the lead investigator is one of the lead developers of the ROMS 4D-Var system.
Broader impacts The proposed retrospective ocean analyses are significant for a number of reasons: (i) They can be used to quantify variability on weekly to decadal timescales, and trends in the dominant circulation features, particularly in subsurface regions that are not well observed; (ii) They provide complete realizations of the circulation at high temporal resolution on the full grid of the model that are largely free of the sampling and aliasing issues that often plague observations; (iii) They can be used to test hypotheses about ocean dynamics, climate variability, and climate change. The resulting analyses will form a valuable community resource in the form of a data archive that can be used for numerous applications, including: process studies of the CCS; input for driving offline ecosystem and individual based models; a source of open boundary conditions for higher resolution models nested within the native ROMS CCS grid; and initial conditions for the development of ocean hindcasting/forecasting systems, to name but a few. This project will also provide training for a graduate student and post-doctoral researchers in advanced 4D-Var data assimilation methods, since it is important that we continue to train the next generation of ocean data assimilators. The proposed research will also use the adjoint of 4D-Var which is an original and transformative aspect of this work. This project will also complement the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative, and will support synthesis activities, development of user products, and array assessment within the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing Systems along the U.S. west coast.
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0.952 |
2013 — 2017 |
Edwards, Christopher Paytan, Adina [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Belmont Forum-G8 Initiative Collaborative Research: Coastal Vulnerability: Global Learning For Local Solutions: Reducing Vulnerability of Marine-Dependent Coastal Communities @ University of California-Santa Cruz
This award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 13-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum and the G8 countries Heads of Research Councils. The Belmont Forum is a high level group of the world's major and emerging funders of global environmental change research and international science councils. It aims to accelerate delivery of the international environmental research most urgently needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. The G8 Heads of Research Councils developed a funding framework to support multilateral research projects that address global challenges in ways that are beyond the capacity of national or bilateral activities. Each partner country provides funding for their researchers within a consortium to alleviate the need for funds to cross international borders. This approach facilitates effective leveraging of national resources to support excellent research on topics of global relevance best tackled through a multinational approach, recognizing that global challenges need global solutions.
Working together in an inaugural call of the International Opportunities Fund, the Belmont Forum and G8HORCs have provided support for research projects that seek to deliver knowledge needed for action to mitigate and adapt to detrimental environmental change and extreme hazardous events that relate to either Freshwater Security or Coastal Vulnerability. This award provides support for the U.S. researchers to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries and that bring together natural scientists, social scientists and research users (e.g., policy makers, regulators, NGOs, communities and industry).
This award supports research activities that will work to improve community adaptation efforts by characterizing, assessing, and predicting changes in coastal-marine food web resources through the provision and sharing of knowledge across regions experiencing rapidly changing climate and social tensions. Many coastal communities rely on marine resources for livelihoods and food security. Increasing populations and associated socio-ecological changes put pressure on these resources through increased pollution, development, climate changes and habitat degradation. This project will (1) build regional skill-sets to reduce coastal vulnerability by evaluating and characterizing probable changes; (2) create predictive systems to inform decision makers about expected consequences of coastal changes; (3) deliver alternative options for adaptation and transformations for coastal communities; and (4) define long-term implications of selecting particular policy and management options in terms of economic, social, and environmental outcomes. This work will focus on southern hemisphere hotspots of change, including southern Africa, southern and western Australia, Mozambique channel, southern India, and Brazil. This project will contribute to understanding the vulnerability of coastal biological and human systems to develop sustainable adaptation pathways for coastal communities and develop effective mechanisms and expertise to translate evidence-based results into management strategies.
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0.952 |
2013 — 2017 |
Edwards, Christopher Garza, John Anderson, Eric Carr, Mark [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Integrative Evaluation of Larval Dispersal and Delivery in Kelp Rockfish Using Inter-Generational Genetic Tagging, Demography and Oceanography @ University of California-Santa Cruz
The spatial structure and dynamics of coastal marine fish populations are strongly influenced by the transport and recruitment of larvae. However, the scale and patterns of larval dispersal are among the most difficult demographic parameters to quantify in marine systems, due to the inability to tag and track the movement of larvae. In particular, the extent of local retention of larvae versus regional dispersal to other locations and populations is currently a hotly debated topic in the field of marine ecology and has profound implications for the design and effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The research will identify patterns of larval dispersal and use those patterns to test predictions of dispersal generated by state-of-the-art circulation models.
The PI team brings together ecologists, geneticists, statisticians, and oceanographers with expertise in population demography and field sampling, mark/recapture data from genetic tags, and empirical and model-based evaluation of oceanographic processes to answer the following questions. 1. Do observed patterns of dispersal and connectivity of larval kelp rockfish correspond to patterns predicted by high spatial resolution regional ocean circulation models? Model predictions will be tested empirically using larval settlement samples. Parentage analysis will be used to verify the occurrence of larvae derived from genetically tagged source populations. 2. Is there evidence for local retention of larval kelp rockfish within the study area? To test the hypothesis that local retention of juvenile kelp rockfish from source populations is greater than expected by existing larval transport models, the PIs will compare the proportion of recruits that are genetically identified to have been produced from within three focal sites with the proportion of larval production that was tagged in those sites. 3. Is the relative recruitment of recently settled kelp rockfish to focal sites in the study region proportionate to the relative larval production of those focal sites? The PIs will compare the proportion of tagged recruits with the proportion of larval production generated from tagged adults at varying spatial scales. They will use goodness of fit models to compare expected and observed connectivity matrices under varying hypotheses of larval dispersal. Alternatively, if the relative contribution of focal sites to larval replenishment of themselves, one another, and more distant populations is disproportionate to their relative production, can this discrepancy be explained by oceanographic processes that could facilitate particular trajectories of larval dispersal? To determine if differences in self recruitment and connectivity can be attributed to local oceanographic features, the PIs will examine spatial and temporal correlations between these features and the spatial distribution and timing of recruitment.
Broader Impacts: These include three elements: graduate and undergraduate interdisciplinary training, public outreach, and informing fisheries and conservation managers and policy makers. Graduate training in interdisciplinary science will be achieved through co-mentoring by PIs with expertise in population genetics, ecology and oceanography. Undergraduates will assist graduate students and faculty in all aspects of the study. Results will be disseminated to the general public through collaboration with the local University outreach center. Outreach to the fishing community will be through their involvement in the sampling program and through workshops facilitated by the Sea Grant advisor and the state collaborative fisheries program. Based on the PI's relationships with state and federal agencies, managers and policy makers will be directly informed of the results and their implications for management decisions.
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0.952 |
2016 — 2019 |
Moore, Andrew Edwards, Christopher Fiechter, Jerome |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Coastal Sees: Developing New Modeling Tools to Predict Ocean Acidification Impacts On Coastal Ecosystems @ University of California-Santa Cruz
An immediate consequence of the dissolution of CO2 in seawater is an increase in the acidity of the water, which has implications for organisms that rely on carbonate chemistry for vital functions. As the occurrence of lower pH and lower oxygen events along the U.S. west coast is likely to increase in frequency and worsen in magnitude over the next decades, it is paramount to carefully document present-day variability in water column pH and oxygen associated with seasonal and interannual changes in coastal upwelling, and produce reference pH and oxygen fields at the spatial (kilometers) and temporal (days) scales needed to assess their impact on ecosystem processes. To address this need, the proposed research uses a state-of-the art, data-assimilative, coupled physical-biogeochemical modeling framework to quantify the temporal variability of low pH and low oxygen intrusions along central California at the spatial scales relevant to coastal ecosystems. In addition, the modelling effort relies on an ensemble approach to identify the degree of certainty with which the frequency of occurrence and duration of low pH and low oxygen events can be predicted on daily to seasonal timescales, a critical component for improving future management strategies designed to mitigate the effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms. It is also anticipated that the results will apply to other eastern boundary current upwelling systems and improve broader knowledge of coastal upwelling impacts on biogeochemical processes (e.g., the long-term sign and magnitude of nearshore air-sea CO2 fluxes). The study will contribute to training a new generation of scientists versed in multidisciplinary ocean science and management concepts. Specifically, it will provide training for two post-doctoral researchers and one graduate student in (1) coupled physical-biogeochemical data assimilation, (2) regional-to-local downscaling of model simulations, (3) interpretation of complex numerical model solutions, and (4) creation of products targeted at improving resource management in the face of ocean acidification. In addition, the lead PI will give general audience lectures on the use of models and observations to study ocean acidification along the California coast.
Because the significant amount of variability occurring over relatively short spatial (< 100 km) and temporal (days to weeks) scales presents a challenge for coastal ocean observing systems and monitoring programs, the routine use of data-assimilative physical-biogeochemical models would greatly enhance current capabilities for predicting the occurrence of low pH and low oxygen events off central California. In this regard, this research has the following short- and long-term benefits: (1) establish the connections between alongshore upwelling variability and the frequency, magnitude and duration of low pH and low oxygen conditions on the shelf, (2) examine the probability that certain pH and oxygen thresholds below which conditions become detrimental to key marine organisms are exceeded for extended periods, (3) guide the implementation of an efficient monitoring system network by identifying specific regions where pH and oxygen variability is expected to be largest, and (4) implement a modeling framework capable of predicting the occurrence of extreme low pH and low oxygen events off central California, and assess its usefulness for decision-making purposes. These developments contribute to Coastal SEES overarching objectives of advancing understanding of fundamental, interconnected processes in coastal systems on a variety of spatial and temporal scales, improving capabilities for predicting future coastal system states and impacts, and identifying pathways by which research results will be translated to policy and management domains and used to enhance coastal sustainability.
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0.952 |
2016 — 2019 |
Edwards, Christopher Moore, Andrew Fiechter, Jerome |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Upwelling Variability in the California Current: Bridging Local Dynamics and Climate Variability @ University of California-Santa Cruz
Coastal upwelling research has a long and rich history in the California Current System, yet a comprehensive description of the interplay between physical processes at local, regional, and basin scales has remained elusive. Seasonal upwelling, driven by strong equatorward alongshore winds, plays a fundamental role in shaping the circulation and ecosystem structure along the west coast of the United States. The main objective of this study is to use high-resolution numerical simulations to characterize variability in the full three-dimensional, time varying circulation associated with wind-driven coastal upwelling in the California Current System. More specifically, the model results will be used to: (i) produce a regional synthesis that rigorously identifies and describes regions of enhanced upwelling in the vicinity of major coastal headlands, and (ii) quantify the impact of regional- and basin-scale processes on local-scale upwelling dynamics. This research will provide significant new insight into how regions of enhanced upwelling contribute to shaping alongshore gradients of physical and biogeochemical properties. Of particular relevance is the connection to coastal ocean acidification and the occurrence and persistence of low pH conditions over the continental shelf along the U.S. west coast. Enhanced upwelling centers are likely to play a key role in determining the spatiotemporal variability of nearshore pH levels, and, therefore, alongshore heterogeneity in the short- and long-term ecosystem response to coastal ocean acidification. This study will increase understanding of how much biogeochemical variability is attributable to physical forcing associated with local upwelling dynamics (as modulated by regional- and basin-scale processes), thereby advancing current knowledge of which coastal regions along the U.S. west coast are more prone to frequent and severe acidification events. In addition, the project will support a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Cruz who will gain valuable training in state-of-the-art regional ocean circulation modeling and diagnostic methods, such as adjoint-based calculations. Project outcomes will also be integrated into the graduate curriculum at UCSC, and enhance educational tools available for the community-based Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). Finally, the PIs will present general audience lectures at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center in Santa Cruz, as part of an ongoing series on how seasonal California upwelling will respond to changing climate conditions, and the potential impacts on ecosystem processes and socio-economic services.
Coastal upwelling trends and variability determined on the basis of coast-wide averages (i.e., integrated over stronger and weaker upwelling regions) likely compound different dynamical processes and may misrepresent the true nature of the local physical and biogeochemical fluctuations occurring along the U.S. west coast. Therefore, this research will provide significant new insight into how regions of enhanced upwelling in the vicinity of major coastal headlands contribute to shaping the coastal ocean circulation and physical variability at local scales. Outcomes from the numerical experiments will also help determine how regional- and basin-scale variability modulates vertical transport and water mass properties in the vicinity of enhanced upwelling centers and surrounding shelf regions. The most innovative aspect of the project is that it will describe the impacts of local-, regional-, and basin-scale processes on the full 3-dimensional, time-varying ocean circulation associated with coastal upwelling, as opposed to relying on traditional upwelling proxies (e.g., Bakun index) which are often unreliable in regions of intense upwelling or strong onshore geostrophic flow. Another important contribution from this research is that it will demonstrate the benefits of downscaling regional data-assimilative solutions to the local scales at which alongshore variability in upwelling dynamics occurs along the U.S. west coast. Finally, the results from the numerical simulations will complement and enhance another research project, funded under NSF's Coastal SEES Program, focused on quantifying the magnitude, frequency of occurence, and predictability of low pH events along California, as well as their potential impact on coastal ecosystem processes.
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0.952 |
2020 — 2025 |
Rillero, Peter Meyerson, Peter Jimenez-Silva, Margarita Short-Meyerson, Katherine Edwards, Christopher |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Comunidad De Ciencia: Building Latina Stem Interest Through Community Cultural Wealth and Familial Problem-Based Learning @ University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The project aims to understand ways to empower Latinx families (adult caregivers) to feel confident in their ability to support their middle school-aged girls in science and engineering activities. The project involves seven weeks of family programming around rockets or urban farming, as well as separate conversation groups for adult family members and girls. The project is relevant for several reasons: females and Latinx individuals are both underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) coursework and careers; girls tend to lose interest in STEM by middle school age; and adult family members may have an impact on their children?s attitudes and interests. The project partners with school districts and nonprofit organizations in Arizona and California.
This multidisciplinary project?s priority is broadening participation, with a focus on increasing Latina girls? science and engineering interests through Family Project-Based Learning Activities, Conversation Groups, and a cultivated Community of Learners. It is based on the frameworks of Social Cognitive Career Theory and Community Cultural Wealth. The project aims to empower families (adult caregivers) to feel confident in their ability to support their daughters in science and engineering activities, which is often low especially among Latinx parents. The project will develop and evaluate two out-of-school enrichment methods for aiding families in encouraging and supporting their daughters in science: Family Problem-Based Learning Activities, which focus on rockets and urban farming, and Conversation Groups, which provide information and discussion for separate groups of parents and girls. A series of pilot studies will be conducted with 80 families to iteratively evaluate and improve the materials and procedure prior to the main study with 180 families, featuring a factorial design with a control group.
The materials developed and research findings may inform similar projects, especially those for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and projects seeking to enhance the role of families in learning. The hypothesis guiding the project is that the greatest gains will be produced with the synergistic combination of enrichment methods. Another component that can potentially have broad impact is working to create environments where Community Cultural Wealth is recognized and enhanced through interactions of different families, creating Communities of Learners. This can inform projects that recognize the importance of community and/or that seek to use culture as an asset. The proposed study will engage three geographically distributed universities and several community partners. It will also provide university students and community leaders opportunities for work on instructional design, implementation, and research. The team will disseminate their findings and methods through multiple avenues to reach researchers, parents, leaders, curators, and educators in informal and K-12 settings.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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0.939 |