Tag: agriculture
December 1, 2022
GCC Native Plant Nursery Project
The purpose of this project is to determine the feasibility of a native plant nursery in Gaviota, at Baron Ranch or elsewhere. A new native plant nursery would increase the supply of native plants regionally and directly supply restoration projects and native landscaping efforts. This nursery will also provide opportunities for community involvement. My recommendations for this potential nursery will be based off of interviews with stakeholders and rightsholders, analysis of hydrologic and financial data, and other avenues of research.
October 6, 2022
ERI Revegetation Project
During the Summer of 2022 we investigated the following research questions: (1) What plant communities were present pre-industrial agriculture? (2) What plant communities are present on fallowed/retired lands? (3) What is likely to recover with active vs. passive restoration? (4) How do abiotic factors and disturbance history influence this recovery? These questions are intended to explore the links between plant functional groups, fallowing, revegetation, and disturbance, and allow for the use of remote sensing techniques in the process.
June 1, 2022
Agricultural Abandonment
This study aims to quantify and understand changes in agricultural abandonment under a variety of projected climate scenarios, its impacts on connectivity, and how future agricultural demand can be satisfied with these abandoned lands. A manuscript for this project is currently in production.
Employer: emLab (Environmental Markets Lab, UCSB) and Conservation International, through a larger project called SPARCLE/SPARC (Spatial Planning for Climate Change: Land Use for Conservation, Agriculture, and Energy). The funding for this particular project comes from the Arnhold Fellowship.
Tag: assignment
February 1, 2023
Lyric Sentiment Analysis R Package
For this assignment in ESM 262 Environmental Computing, we were asked to come up with a creative function, visualize the outputs, and then turn that function into a working package for public use.
My partner and I created a function that conducts a sentiment analysis on lyrics for songs in the top 100. The required input is an artist name (e.g. Madonna), and the output is a data frame which contains a column for that artists’ Top 100 song titles and a column for the sentiment values for those songs.
December 8, 2022
A Message for the United States: Munga Mañuha ni ti Gigao-mu*
The colonial history of Guam (hereafter referred to as Guåhan from the indigenous CHamoru language) is not over, and its impacts carry into the present, especially for people and the environment. Initiating full self-governance of Guåhan is a critical step to ensure lasting environmental protection. Without sovereignty, Guåhan will continue to experience environmental degradation and pollution, particularly from the US military, with unfavorable impacts on fisheries leading to food insecurity and cultural losses.
March 1, 2022
ESM 270 Conservation Planning Assignments
The assignments included on this page are snippets of assignments that I submitted for ESM 270 Conservation Planning. The full assignments also included co-written lab reports from myself and a peer, of which only the summaries are included here. All maps below are my own, created with ArcGIS.
Lab 4 Summary: Jaguars (Panthera onca) of the Talamanca-Osa region of Southern Costa Rica are experiencing habitat fragmentation from human land use. A Circuitscape and Linkage Mapper analysis of least cost paths and land use types in this area show that agricultural pastures and palm plantations are the largest threats to jaguars.
January 1, 2022
ESM 263 GIS Assignments
This class was intended to build a working knowledge of GIS theory and practice in a single quarter. GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, are used to visualize, analyze, and interpret geographic data. Three of my assignments for this class are displayed below.
Assignment 2 This map reveals how sea-level rise will impact downtown Santa Barbara spatially and financially. Created with QGIS.
Assignment 3 This map highlights the top ten potential sites for wind turbines in Santa Barbara County, based on a multi-criteria analysis.
October 19, 2021
The Silent Island: A “Tail” of Ecosystem Collapse
Stepping into the forests on the island of Guam, one may notice that something critically important is missing: the sound of birds. The cause of this silence is the invasive non-native predator, the Brown treesnake, which was introduced to the island after World War II. The ecological cascade following the arrival of this species parallels Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, which explores the consequences of the pesticide DDT on bird reproduction and the resulting deficit of birds and bird calls.
Tag: bren
February 1, 2023
Lyric Sentiment Analysis R Package
For this assignment in ESM 262 Environmental Computing, we were asked to come up with a creative function, visualize the outputs, and then turn that function into a working package for public use.
My partner and I created a function that conducts a sentiment analysis on lyrics for songs in the top 100. The required input is an artist name (e.g. Madonna), and the output is a data frame which contains a column for that artists’ Top 100 song titles and a column for the sentiment values for those songs.
December 8, 2022
A Message for the United States: Munga Mañuha ni ti Gigao-mu*
The colonial history of Guam (hereafter referred to as Guåhan from the indigenous CHamoru language) is not over, and its impacts carry into the present, especially for people and the environment. Initiating full self-governance of Guåhan is a critical step to ensure lasting environmental protection. Without sovereignty, Guåhan will continue to experience environmental degradation and pollution, particularly from the US military, with unfavorable impacts on fisheries leading to food insecurity and cultural losses.
March 1, 2022
Collaborative Conservation Planning for the Gaviota Region
This project is a Bren Group Project through the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara.
Colleagues: Alexandra Martin, Alissa Patterson, Alessandra Puig-Santana, Katherine Rosencrance, Pol Carbó Mestre, Kelly Caylor (advisor)
Client: The Nature Conservancy
Project Website: Bren GP Website
Shiny App: Gaviota Region Interactive Planner
March 1, 2022
ESM 270 Conservation Planning Assignments
The assignments included on this page are snippets of assignments that I submitted for ESM 270 Conservation Planning. The full assignments also included co-written lab reports from myself and a peer, of which only the summaries are included here. All maps below are my own, created with ArcGIS.
Lab 4 Summary: Jaguars (Panthera onca) of the Talamanca-Osa region of Southern Costa Rica are experiencing habitat fragmentation from human land use. A Circuitscape and Linkage Mapper analysis of least cost paths and land use types in this area show that agricultural pastures and palm plantations are the largest threats to jaguars.
January 1, 2022
ESM 263 GIS Assignments
This class was intended to build a working knowledge of GIS theory and practice in a single quarter. GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, are used to visualize, analyze, and interpret geographic data. Three of my assignments for this class are displayed below.
Assignment 2 This map reveals how sea-level rise will impact downtown Santa Barbara spatially and financially. Created with QGIS.
Assignment 3 This map highlights the top ten potential sites for wind turbines in Santa Barbara County, based on a multi-criteria analysis.
October 19, 2021
The Silent Island: A “Tail” of Ecosystem Collapse
Stepping into the forests on the island of Guam, one may notice that something critically important is missing: the sound of birds. The cause of this silence is the invasive non-native predator, the Brown treesnake, which was introduced to the island after World War II. The ecological cascade following the arrival of this species parallels Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, which explores the consequences of the pesticide DDT on bird reproduction and the resulting deficit of birds and bird calls.
Tag: environmental-justice
December 8, 2022
A Message for the United States: Munga Mañuha ni ti Gigao-mu*
The colonial history of Guam (hereafter referred to as Guåhan from the indigenous CHamoru language) is not over, and its impacts carry into the present, especially for people and the environment. Initiating full self-governance of Guåhan is a critical step to ensure lasting environmental protection. Without sovereignty, Guåhan will continue to experience environmental degradation and pollution, particularly from the US military, with unfavorable impacts on fisheries leading to food insecurity and cultural losses.
Tag: gis
October 6, 2022
ERI Revegetation Project
During the Summer of 2022 we investigated the following research questions: (1) What plant communities were present pre-industrial agriculture? (2) What plant communities are present on fallowed/retired lands? (3) What is likely to recover with active vs. passive restoration? (4) How do abiotic factors and disturbance history influence this recovery? These questions are intended to explore the links between plant functional groups, fallowing, revegetation, and disturbance, and allow for the use of remote sensing techniques in the process.
June 1, 2022
Agricultural Abandonment
This study aims to quantify and understand changes in agricultural abandonment under a variety of projected climate scenarios, its impacts on connectivity, and how future agricultural demand can be satisfied with these abandoned lands. A manuscript for this project is currently in production.
Employer: emLab (Environmental Markets Lab, UCSB) and Conservation International, through a larger project called SPARCLE/SPARC (Spatial Planning for Climate Change: Land Use for Conservation, Agriculture, and Energy). The funding for this particular project comes from the Arnhold Fellowship.
March 1, 2022
ESM 270 Conservation Planning Assignments
The assignments included on this page are snippets of assignments that I submitted for ESM 270 Conservation Planning. The full assignments also included co-written lab reports from myself and a peer, of which only the summaries are included here. All maps below are my own, created with ArcGIS.
Lab 4 Summary: Jaguars (Panthera onca) of the Talamanca-Osa region of Southern Costa Rica are experiencing habitat fragmentation from human land use. A Circuitscape and Linkage Mapper analysis of least cost paths and land use types in this area show that agricultural pastures and palm plantations are the largest threats to jaguars.
January 1, 2022
ESM 263 GIS Assignments
This class was intended to build a working knowledge of GIS theory and practice in a single quarter. GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, are used to visualize, analyze, and interpret geographic data. Three of my assignments for this class are displayed below.
Assignment 2 This map reveals how sea-level rise will impact downtown Santa Barbara spatially and financially. Created with QGIS.
Assignment 3 This map highlights the top ten potential sites for wind turbines in Santa Barbara County, based on a multi-criteria analysis.
Tag: guam
December 8, 2022
A Message for the United States: Munga Mañuha ni ti Gigao-mu*
The colonial history of Guam (hereafter referred to as Guåhan from the indigenous CHamoru language) is not over, and its impacts carry into the present, especially for people and the environment. Initiating full self-governance of Guåhan is a critical step to ensure lasting environmental protection. Without sovereignty, Guåhan will continue to experience environmental degradation and pollution, particularly from the US military, with unfavorable impacts on fisheries leading to food insecurity and cultural losses.
October 19, 2021
The Silent Island: A “Tail” of Ecosystem Collapse
Stepping into the forests on the island of Guam, one may notice that something critically important is missing: the sound of birds. The cause of this silence is the invasive non-native predator, the Brown treesnake, which was introduced to the island after World War II. The ecological cascade following the arrival of this species parallels Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, which explores the consequences of the pesticide DDT on bird reproduction and the resulting deficit of birds and bird calls.
Tag: landscape-ecology
February 1, 2023
tif2gif R Package
This R package was designed to turn TIF files into animated GIF files. The unique part is the customization: users can select a prefix and/or suffix of the files they want to use (in case of mixed-contents folders), the speed of the GIF in frames per second, the output and input file paths, an output name (which gets combined with any given prefix or suffix), and the color palette to color the GIF with.
October 6, 2022
ERI Revegetation Project
During the Summer of 2022 we investigated the following research questions: (1) What plant communities were present pre-industrial agriculture? (2) What plant communities are present on fallowed/retired lands? (3) What is likely to recover with active vs. passive restoration? (4) How do abiotic factors and disturbance history influence this recovery? These questions are intended to explore the links between plant functional groups, fallowing, revegetation, and disturbance, and allow for the use of remote sensing techniques in the process.
June 1, 2022
Agricultural Abandonment
This study aims to quantify and understand changes in agricultural abandonment under a variety of projected climate scenarios, its impacts on connectivity, and how future agricultural demand can be satisfied with these abandoned lands. A manuscript for this project is currently in production.
Employer: emLab (Environmental Markets Lab, UCSB) and Conservation International, through a larger project called SPARCLE/SPARC (Spatial Planning for Climate Change: Land Use for Conservation, Agriculture, and Energy). The funding for this particular project comes from the Arnhold Fellowship.
March 1, 2022
ESM 270 Conservation Planning Assignments
The assignments included on this page are snippets of assignments that I submitted for ESM 270 Conservation Planning. The full assignments also included co-written lab reports from myself and a peer, of which only the summaries are included here. All maps below are my own, created with ArcGIS.
Lab 4 Summary: Jaguars (Panthera onca) of the Talamanca-Osa region of Southern Costa Rica are experiencing habitat fragmentation from human land use. A Circuitscape and Linkage Mapper analysis of least cost paths and land use types in this area show that agricultural pastures and palm plantations are the largest threats to jaguars.
Tag: native-plants
December 1, 2022
GCC Native Plant Nursery Project
The purpose of this project is to determine the feasibility of a native plant nursery in Gaviota, at Baron Ranch or elsewhere. A new native plant nursery would increase the supply of native plants regionally and directly supply restoration projects and native landscaping efforts. This nursery will also provide opportunities for community involvement. My recommendations for this potential nursery will be based off of interviews with stakeholders and rightsholders, analysis of hydrologic and financial data, and other avenues of research.
September 24, 2020
Chaparral Seed Bank Project
The purpose of this project is to determine the best methods to germinate 19 chaparral plant species to better equip restorationists with the tools needed to analyze seed banks. Fire cues tested include charate, smoke, and two levels of heat (high-intensity and shorter-term heat, and low-intensity and longer-term heat). This study utilized both a viability stage of seeds in Petri dishes, and a greenhouse test to measure germination rates of seeds in soil.
Tag: photography
November 1, 2020
UCSB Intro Bio Plant Photography
During the height of COVID, UCSB needed a way to show their Intro Bio students the plants they were learning about instead of using in-person labs. They developed a website showcasing various plant species found at the UCSB greenhouse and campus.
As a UCSB greenhouse assistant, I was tasked with photographing many of the plant species displayed on this website. We were given a light box and other camera equipment to produce product-style photos and were expected to also edit the photos.
Tag: r-package
February 1, 2023
Lyric Sentiment Analysis R Package
For this assignment in ESM 262 Environmental Computing, we were asked to come up with a creative function, visualize the outputs, and then turn that function into a working package for public use.
My partner and I created a function that conducts a sentiment analysis on lyrics for songs in the top 100. The required input is an artist name (e.g. Madonna), and the output is a data frame which contains a column for that artists’ Top 100 song titles and a column for the sentiment values for those songs.
February 1, 2023
tif2gif R Package
This R package was designed to turn TIF files into animated GIF files. The unique part is the customization: users can select a prefix and/or suffix of the files they want to use (in case of mixed-contents folders), the speed of the GIF in frames per second, the output and input file paths, an output name (which gets combined with any given prefix or suffix), and the color palette to color the GIF with.
Tag: research
December 1, 2022
GCC Native Plant Nursery Project
The purpose of this project is to determine the feasibility of a native plant nursery in Gaviota, at Baron Ranch or elsewhere. A new native plant nursery would increase the supply of native plants regionally and directly supply restoration projects and native landscaping efforts. This nursery will also provide opportunities for community involvement. My recommendations for this potential nursery will be based off of interviews with stakeholders and rightsholders, analysis of hydrologic and financial data, and other avenues of research.
October 6, 2022
ERI Revegetation Project
During the Summer of 2022 we investigated the following research questions: (1) What plant communities were present pre-industrial agriculture? (2) What plant communities are present on fallowed/retired lands? (3) What is likely to recover with active vs. passive restoration? (4) How do abiotic factors and disturbance history influence this recovery? These questions are intended to explore the links between plant functional groups, fallowing, revegetation, and disturbance, and allow for the use of remote sensing techniques in the process.
June 1, 2022
Agricultural Abandonment
This study aims to quantify and understand changes in agricultural abandonment under a variety of projected climate scenarios, its impacts on connectivity, and how future agricultural demand can be satisfied with these abandoned lands. A manuscript for this project is currently in production.
Employer: emLab (Environmental Markets Lab, UCSB) and Conservation International, through a larger project called SPARCLE/SPARC (Spatial Planning for Climate Change: Land Use for Conservation, Agriculture, and Energy). The funding for this particular project comes from the Arnhold Fellowship.
March 1, 2022
Collaborative Conservation Planning for the Gaviota Region
This project is a Bren Group Project through the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara.
Colleagues: Alexandra Martin, Alissa Patterson, Alessandra Puig-Santana, Katherine Rosencrance, Pol Carbó Mestre, Kelly Caylor (advisor)
Client: The Nature Conservancy
Project Website: Bren GP Website
Shiny App: Gaviota Region Interactive Planner
September 24, 2020
Chaparral Seed Bank Project
The purpose of this project is to determine the best methods to germinate 19 chaparral plant species to better equip restorationists with the tools needed to analyze seed banks. Fire cues tested include charate, smoke, and two levels of heat (high-intensity and shorter-term heat, and low-intensity and longer-term heat). This study utilized both a viability stage of seeds in Petri dishes, and a greenhouse test to measure germination rates of seeds in soil.
Tag: writing-sample
December 8, 2022
A Message for the United States: Munga Mañuha ni ti Gigao-mu*
The colonial history of Guam (hereafter referred to as Guåhan from the indigenous CHamoru language) is not over, and its impacts carry into the present, especially for people and the environment. Initiating full self-governance of Guåhan is a critical step to ensure lasting environmental protection. Without sovereignty, Guåhan will continue to experience environmental degradation and pollution, particularly from the US military, with unfavorable impacts on fisheries leading to food insecurity and cultural losses.
October 19, 2021
The Silent Island: A “Tail” of Ecosystem Collapse
Stepping into the forests on the island of Guam, one may notice that something critically important is missing: the sound of birds. The cause of this silence is the invasive non-native predator, the Brown treesnake, which was introduced to the island after World War II. The ecological cascade following the arrival of this species parallels Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, which explores the consequences of the pesticide DDT on bird reproduction and the resulting deficit of birds and bird calls.