URAP

Rodrigo Almeida - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Grapevine leaf roll disease and red blotch disease are two economically important grape pathogens in California. The diseases are currently not curable, so mitigation efforts including roguing (removing infected plants) are used to reduce disease spread. Roguing requires correctly identifying infected plants, which can be difficult to do visually due...

Rodrigo Almeida - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Xylella fastidiosa is a xylem-limited bacterium associated with several important diseases in a wide range of plants. In California, the bacterium causes Pierce's Disease (PD) of grapevine, which has economic and management implications for the state's wine industry. The range of PD in California is limited by cold winter...

Carl Boettiger - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Become familiar with the mathematical, statistical, and computational tools used in the group and learn how to apply these methods to answer questions in ecological research and conservation decision making. Emphasis on the use of deep reinforcement learning and best practices in data science software development...

Carl Boettiger - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Develop, test, and visualize methods for forecasting ecological variables such as carbon flux, beetle abundance, or indicators of aquatic ecosystem health...

Carl Boettiger - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Arid ecosystems such as the Mojave Desert are undergoing rapid shifts in climate and fire activity, with major implications for ecological resilience and species conservation. The Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment (DSE) is currently collaborating with the National Park Service to develop ecological models that simulate vegetation response...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Monitoring the status of wildlife populations is critical to assessing ecosystem health. Rapid advances in machine learning and engineering have recently allowed researchers to deploy acoustic recorders that autonomously capture and classify population trends for vocalizing species, such as birds. Currently, UC Berkeley is preparing to launching the first ever...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Several aspects of global change are changing the dynamics of fire ecology across California and around the world. Recent fires have had devastating effects on livelihoods across the state, but little remains known of the direct and indirect impacts of these fires on wildlife species and the implications of those...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Non-invasive techniques are increasingly valuable for ecologists to be able to collect data on the distribution, population sizes, behavior, and diet of wildlife species. The California Wolf Project led by Arthur Middleton and Justin Brashares at UC-Berkeley is teaming up with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife...

Alejandra Echeverri - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Traditional biodiversity monitoring tools, such as camera traps and acoustic recorders, are limited in scope, require frequent maintenance, and often fail to capture the full spectrum of wildlife activity. This project aims to transform how we monitor biodiversity by developing solar-powered, AI-assisted monitoring stations that can simultaneously detect...

Gordon Frankie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Under the direction of Dr. Gordon Frankie, the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab is monitoring diversity and abundance of California native bee species (1600 species state-wide) and their plant preferences at various locations throughout the state. In addition to studies in California, the Lab also investigates native bee diversity...

Laureano Gherardi - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: Off Campus

In seasonal wetlands like vernal pools, the hydroperiod fundamentally influences community composition and structure. Vernal pools are seasonal wetlands that are wet during the fall and winter, and dry during the spring and summer. They support many endemic plant and animal species, many of which are listed as federally threatened...

Rosemary Gillespie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

This project asks, "What defines the "health" of an ecological community, and can the signatures of "health be detected from communities of insects and spiders? And to what extent is that signature captured across scales, from plants, on to imagery – drones, helicopters, and satellites? The work aims to show how...

Rosemary Gillespie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

No matter the size, all organisms interact with the world via their senses. Sensory input dictates reactions to stimuli, and the ability of organisms to adapt their neurological and sensory structures is critical to success and survival. Web building spiders in particular use webs as an extension and enhancement of...

Rosemary Gillespie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Hawaii is well known for its unique biodiversity – rather like the Galapagos, but much more extreme. This is particularly true of insects and spiders, where almost all the native species are unique to the islands. However, the environments of Hawaii are suffering at the hand of invasive species and climate...

Rosemary Gillespie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

This project focuses on the biodiversity of insects and spiders on Pacific islands. Biodiversity surveys often accumulate a ton of specimens, but it is usually hard to figure out what the species actually are. Many species cannot be identified because they are immature, or are not yet described. In this...

Patina Mendez - Lecturer, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Streams in California have a variety of forms including: (a) intermittent streams that only flow for part of the year, and often are dry throughout the summer, (b) protected streams in national, state, regional, and county parts, and (c) urban streams that serve recreational needs and stormwater management. The project...

Patina Mendez - Lecturer, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Studies in ecology and evolution rely on properly curated museum material and access to museum records and specimen. Caddisflies, in the insect order Trichoptera, are aquatic insects closely related to moths and butterflies. In this project, the student will assist with labeling, organizing, and curating caddisflies. The student will also...

Michael Polson - Staff Researcher, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Students will be working to support a project on the cannabis industry and the general work of the Cannabis Research Center in disseminating research and engaging the public. The project is a mixed method investigation of: 1) anti-competitive and monopolistic practices of cannabis investors and owner-operators; 2) protective...

Michael Polson - Staff Researcher, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Accurately estimating unlicensed cultivation is crucial for assessing and designing interventions into the illicit market. This project aims to demonstrate the potential for accurate assessment of the amount and geography of unlicensed production in California with empirically-based data on cannabis cultivation, improved mapping tools, and robust ethnographic fieldwork. The...

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

MycoMaterial Innovation: Repurposing Invasive Eucalyptus into Sustainable Building Materials Project Overview California faces two interconnected challenges: the spread of invasive eucalyptus forests, which increase wildfire risks and displace native ecosystems, and the urgent need for sustainable, low-carbon construction materials in the face of a housing and climate crisis. This...

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) has set ambitious goals for conserving and restoring biodiversity as well as mobilizing public and private sector action and finance to meet these goals. Coupled to this has been the emergence of mandatory (European Union’s [EU] Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive [CSRD]) as well...

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Faced with ever-increasing anthropogenic pressures, including land use change and climate change, today’s biodiversity is in crisis. Anthropogenically induced species extinction rates have become high enough to prompt researchers to dub this phenomenon the “Sixth Great Extinction”. Meanwhile, emerging voluntary biodiversity markets, in parallel to voluntary carbon markets, hold...

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Project Overview El Salvador is undergoing rapid transformations shaped by cryptocurrency-driven urbanization (“crypto urbanism”) and the recent lifting of the national metal mining ban. These shifts pose urgent threats to the country’s protected natural regions, including biodiversity hotspots, watersheds, and Indigenous territories. This project investigates the socio-environmental impacts...

George Roderick - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: Off Campus

This project is focused on the residential urban gardens of the East Bay and how those gardens impact butterfly communities with a focus on the Western Monarch butterfly. The project covers topics of native and non-native plants, invasive arthropods, urban gardens, and changes in species interactions. This project is...

George Roderick - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

In our lab, we are interested in the ecology and evolutionary history of arthropod (insect and spider) species. We mostly study arthropods from Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific, but also species in California and elsewhere. Some are native species, some are recent invasive species, and some are introduced...

George Roderick - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Are you interested in science news and social media? In our lab, we study the ecological and evolutionary history of arthropod (insect and spider) species--the little things that run the earth. We mostly study arthropods from Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific. Outreach and communication are as critical...

George Roderick - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Biodiversity surveys often accumulate many many insect and spider specimens, but it is usually hard to figure out what the species actually are. Many species are not yet described and many are found in an area for the first time, or the species are not yet in DNA databases. In...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Aquatic ecosystems transport more than just water, they also move energy, nutrients, and pollutants to adjacent terrestrial ecosystems. One of the key connections between aquatic and terrestrial systems is the movement of biomass via emergent aquatic insects (think mosquitoes): insects which start their life as aquatic larvae, metamorphose, then emerge...

Christopher Schell - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The Schell Lab integrates animal behavior, physiology, and genetics to study how carnivores adapt to the challenges and opportunities of life in cities. This project focuses on raccoons in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region that provides an ideal natural laboratory for examining how wildlife persists in densely populated...

Christopher Schell - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Rapid urbanization is a major driver of the transition to the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch in which ecosystems are dominated by human influence. Urban regions have been drastically transformed compared to their historical antecedents, and though many species have been unable to persist in these altered landscapes, a surprising...