We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Carol Baird Graduate Student Award for Field Research. Our five UC Berkeley graduate awardees are listed below along with brief descriptions of their projects for the 2023 field season. Planning is underway and students will officially begin their Baird project fieldwork in Spring 2023.
Gregory Arena: Impacts of Coastal Scrub Canopy Cover on Drought Resilience in Perennial Grass, Stipa pulchra
Advisor: Todd Dawson, Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley
Project location: Pt. Reyes Field Station
Kendall Calhoun: Conserving California’s Wildlife Communities in the Age of Megafire Introduction
Advisor: Justin Brashares, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Project location: Blue Oak Ranch Reserve, Hastings Natural History Reservation, Hopland Research and Extension Center
Daisy Horr: Comparative Analysis of Mating Systems in California mice (Peromyscus)
Advisor: Eileen Lacey, Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley
Project location: Hastings Natural History Reservation
Paul Seibert: Fog Dependent Ecosystem Response to Climate Change: Point Reyes as a Microcosm
Advisor: Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Project location: Pt. Reyes Field Station
Sophie Ruehr (re-awarded): Using hyperspectral imagery at Sagehen Experimental Forest to quantify ecosystem reliance on groundwater
This year’s award will go toward funding an undergraduate research assistant during the summer.
Advisor: Prof Trevor Keenan, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Project location: Sagehen Creek Field Station, Hopland Research and Extension Center