Biodiversity and preservation of natural environment projects
Humans have long affected the landscapes in which they live, sometimes with disastrous consequences. ASU researchers are currently studying past and present impacts of humanity to develop sustainable strategies for the future. While some multidisciplinary teams are examining past societies to understand key lessons about the nature and possible outcomes of interactions among human and natural systems, others teams are pioneering the new field of urban ecology to understand modern human effects on biodiversity and habitat.
Acquisition of an Imaging Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer »
This award will acquire an imaging secondary ion mass spectrometer instrument to support an extended group of researchers working on diverse topics involving both soft (biological) and hard materials (minerals), and at the interface between the two (biosensors, antibiotic clays, nanoparticle toxicity).
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Atmospheric Processing of Iron — Does Particle Size Influence Iron Stability? »
This project will examine the influence of particle size on atmospheric reactions of iron and, in turn, the influence of particle size on iron solubility.
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Biodesign Institute »
The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University spurs scientific breakthroughs that improve health, protect lives and sustain our planet. Our research is aimed at predicting, preventing and detecting the onset of disease, developing renewable energy and reducing environmental damage and developing innovations that safeguard our nation and the world.
Bioelectronics and Biosensors, Center for (BB) »
The primary aim of the Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors is to create powerful, sensitive, and selective sensors - ranging from embedded systems to handheld devices - that can detect the presence of specific chemicals in the environment, or biomarkers in the body. The Center's research can be divided up into several key themes. Some of the technologies are focused on the detection of harmful chemicals that are a threat to the environment and human health. Others look inside the body for markers or presence of disease. Still others focus on the detection of human-made threats.
Bioenergy and Photosynthesis, Center for »
The center carries out frontier multidisciplinary scientific research designed to use biological and biologically-based artificial systems to address societal energy needs in a sustainable manner, with an emphasis on solar energy conversion and bioinspired energy transformation to meet human needs, and investigates other aspects of photosynthesis that affect society and the environment.
Biological Stoichiometry of Microbes under Severe P-Limitation »
This project will investigate the biological rules that determine the elemental recipe ("stoichiometry") of microorganisms that grow under severely P-deficient conditions in a set of unique desert springs in Mexico.
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Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) »
Through interdisciplinary projects integrating natural sciences, social science, and engineering, the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project examines the effects of urbanization on a desert ecosystem and vice versa.
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Climate and Population Change and Thresholds of Peak Ecological Water: Integrated Synthesis for Dryland Rivers »
This project seeks to understand how ecosystem services change in response to extraction or addition of water to ecosystems due to population change and climate change.
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Cloud and Fog Processing of Organic Matter »
This project investigates the fate of organic matter in a cloud/fog system.
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Determinants of Grassland Dynamics in Tibetan Highlands: Livestock, Wildlife, and the Culture and Political Economy of Pastoralism »
This project will deepen basic understanding of the complex interactions involving geophysical, biological, social, and policy factors and feedback systems that affect grassland status
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Development of Geochemical Proxies to Evaluate Larval pH-Exposure History »
This project will develop a new interdisciplinary partnership between connectivity ecology, metal isotope geochemistry,, and paleoclimatology to identify new proxies for ocean acidification that can be used to assess pH exposures in living organisms and, potentially to interpret the geologic record.
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Do Microenvironments Govern Macroecology? »
This project couples field studies of local climate, tree establishment and tree growth with regional climate modeling and models that depict spatial processes of plant population and fire dynamics.
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Ecological Homogenization of Urban America »
This research will transform scientific understanding of an important and increasingly common ecosystem type ("suburbia") and the consequences to carbon storage and nitrogen pollution at multiple scales. In addition, it will advance understanding of how humans perceive, value and manage their surroundings.
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Ecosystem Response to N and Organic C Deposition from the Urban Atmosphere »
The "Urban Air" project studies the exchange of chemical elements between land and atmosphere in urban systems.
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Environmental Biotechnology, Swette Center for (EB) »
The Center for Environmental Biotechnology focuses on developing microbiological systems that capture or develop renewable resources and also prevent or clean up environmental pollution. Center researchers combine engineering with microbiology, molecular biology, and chemistry in order to gain an integrated understanding of how microbial ecosystems work and can be controlled to reclaim polluted water, generate energy from waste substances, and improve public health and sustainability.
Examining the Evolution of Biospheric Oxygenation in Late Archean to Middle Proterozoic Oceans Through High-Resolution Trace Metal Chemostratigraphy »
The project proposes to obtain high-resolution trace metal geochemical profiles from organic-rich sedimentary rocks to examine the evolution of climate and biospheric oxygenation in the Late Archean to Middle Proterozoic.
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Follow the Elements »
The Astrobiology Team at Arizona State University "follows the elements" to help guide the exploration for life beyond Earth, in our Solar System and on planets orbiting other stars.
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Impacts of Urbanization on Nitrogen Biogeochemistry in Xeric Ecosystems »
This research will help identify sources of surface water and groundwater nitrate contamination in arid and semi-arid deserts.
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Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, Center for »
The Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology is focused on basic bacterial and viral infectious disease processes as well as the design and use of vaccines and protein therapeutics to combat infectious diseases. These include newly emerging pathogens and potential biological warfare agents. The Center is devising new and effective ways of producing advanced vaccines and therapeutics, and has also applied its expertise in the development of bacterial-based vaccines to genetically optimize cyanobacteria for biofuel production.
Integrated Paleoceanographic Analysis of the Late Paleozoic Midcontinent Sea »
The purpose of this research is to use an interdisciplinary approach to investigate paleoceanographic conditions during the deposition of Pennsylvanian cyclothems of Midcontinent North America and to test the "superestuarine circulation hypothesis."
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International Collaboration to Advance Sustainability Science in the US and Mexico »
Building on complementary skills and perspectives on problems that transcend political borders, we propose to form a new research collaboration between Arizona State University and the Institute of Ecology, National Autonomous University of Mexico (Director, Dr. Dominguez Perez-Tejada) based in the principles and aims of sustainability science.
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Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology (LARB) »
The Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology adds to the body of basic research on algae and cyanobacteria, while also conducting applied research into renewable energy production, environmental remediation, and human nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals.
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Legacies on the Landscape: Prehistoric Human Land Use and Long-Term Ecological Change »
This collaborative project involving ecologists and archaeologists explores how prehistoric agricultural communities have affected plant communities, soil properties, and biogeochemical cycling for thousands of years. The goal of the project is to build theory about what types of human disturbances leave legacies over different time scales, and gain insights into the ways that today's actions can affect future ecological systems.
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Local Context and the Dynamics of Social-Ecological Systems: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Solutions to Environmental Problems »
Globalization is changing the way humans interact with natural resources and many people no longer rely on locally derived resources but on distant resources linked through the global economic network. By analyzing mathematical models, based on local social-ecological systems case studies, this project contributes to a better understanding of critical variables needed to enhance the performance of local institutions, preserve institutional diversity, and enhance the integrity of the global resource system.
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Long-Term Dynamics and Resilience of Terrestrial Plant and Animal Communities in the Bahamas »
This project will provide a basis for predicting the responses of Bahamian and other island ecosystems to climatic and human-related perturbations. In particular, the assessment and management of worldwide biodiversity loss depend on an improved understanding of the dynamics of ecosystems at local and regional geographical scales as well as short and long time frames.
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Managing Biodiversity under Climate Change: Enhancing Capacities in Mexico for Conservation Planning, Decision-making and Sustainability Assessment »
The School of Sustainability at the Arizona State University and the Institute of Ecology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México are developing a sustainable academic program to create competency and expertise for policy and planning in the area of biodiversity conservation and climate change.
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Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences, Center for (MCMSC) »
The Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center (MCMSC) vision includes: bridging the gap between the biological, environmental, and social sciences and the mathematical sciences; promotion and support of cross-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary research that relies on state of the art computational, modeling and quantitative approaches; and the training of a new generation of computational mathematical, and theoretical scientists whose research is driven by the application of computational, mathematical, modeling and simulation approaches to the solution of problems that will improve the human condition.
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Multi-scale Effects of Climate Variability and Change on Hydrologic Regimes, Ecosystem Function, and Community Structure in a Desert Stream and Its Catchment »
The primary objective of this project is to understand how long-term climate variability and change influence the structure and function of desert streams via effects on short-term responses to hydrologic disturbance.
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Neuroendocrine Bases and Environmental Regulation of Reproduction in a Flexibly Breeding Songbird »
This project will combine field studies on free-ranging organisms with experiments in a controlled laboratory setting to investigate the neuroendocrine bases of vertebrate reproductive flexibility.
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North American Center for Transborder Studies (NACTS) »
NACTS focuses its research and policy efforts in the areas of borders, competitiveness, and the environment and works to diffuse the results of these efforts through events and initiatives that build public awareness about North America. NACTS accomplishes its mission by building key partnerships among northern and southern border specialists and identifying and educating key constituencies in government, the private sector, and civil society.
Ocean Redox Evolution at the Dawn of Animal Life: An Integrated Geological and Geochemical Study of the Ediacaran Yangtze Platform in South China »
The ultimate goal of the research is to integrate paleontological and geochemical data to test the coupling between redox conditions and spatial/temporal patterns of Ediacaran organisms. Anticipated data would provide important information for our understanding of the environmental forces related to a significant biological innovation in Earth history.
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Organic Geochemical Transformations and the Deep Biosphere — Identifying the Food Sources for Microbes in Sedimentary Systems »
This research explores how geochemical processes support microbes living deep in the Earth.
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Phoenix Area Social Survey (PASS) »
This survey studies the relationships between people and the natural environment in the Phoenix metro area.
Plankton Community Composition and Trophic Interactions as Modifiers of Carbon Export in the Sargasso Sea »
The research objectives of this study are: 1) to characterize (qualitatively and quantitatively) trophic interactions between major plankton groups in the euphotic zone and rates of, and contributors to, carbon export and 2) to develop a constrained food web model, based on these data, that will allow us to better understand current and predict near-future patterns in export production in the Sargasso Sea.
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Post-6 Ma Tectonic Evolution of the Bhutan Himalaya »
Atypical high-elevation, but low-relief landscapes are perched above and surrounded by deeply incised canyons in the middle latitudes of Bhutan. This study explores the proposition that these landforms represent a pulse of erosion that is sweeping through Bhutan and progressively changing the relief.
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Precipitation Controls of Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles in Arid-Semiarid Ecosystems »
This project puts forward four hypotheses to explain observed lags in ecosystem response to changing precipitation, and tests them by altering patterns of total precipitation and precipitation variability, with and without nitrogen manipulation. These manipulations, together with the model analysis, will help determine the cause and magnitude of lags in the ecosystem response to precipitation.
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RIDGE: Tipping Points in the Evolution of Submarine Hydrothermal Systems: Habitat Generation, Organic Transformation, and Rock Alteration »
Goals of the project are to use thermodynamic constraints and calculations to predict the supply of chemical energy to microbial communities that inhabit seafloor hydrothermal vents. It will also focus on adding estimates of hundreds of additional organic compounds to thermodynamic databases to allow more complete and realistic calculations of organic transformations and the abiotic synthesis of organic compounds.
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Robust Theoretical Frameworks for Ecological Dynamics Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints »
The investigators will extend and generalize existing well-received stoichiometry-based mathematical models to encompass a broader range of ecological situations, including cell quota dynamics, consumer age- or size-structures, variable consumer stoichiometry, and delayed nutrient cycling. Once such a generalized theoretical framework is established, the investigators will construct and evaluate models inspired by recent empirical discoveries in ES, including one considering the effects on consumer dynamics of not only insufficient food nutrient content but also of excess food nutrient content, and another considering the effects of stoichiometric dietary mixing.
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Sinking Rates and Nutritional Quality of Organic Matter Exported from Sea Ice; the Importance of Exopolymeric Substances »
The knowledge resulting from this study will contribute to our understanding of the Arctic Ocean carbon cycle and how it may be modified in response to climate variability.
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Source Apportionment of Iron in the Marine Atmosphere -- Application of Stable Iron Isotopic Measurements »
his project, a collaboration between investigators at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, will explore the use of Fe isotopes as a tracer of natural and anthropogenic sources of aerosols to assess their importance as a source of Fe to the open ocean.
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Southwest Environmental Information Network (SEINet) »
SEINet is a center of biodiversity information, organizing Southwestern natural-history collections into one portal.
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Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative (SPI) »
The ASU Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative (SPI) seeks to build a credible scientific consensus on the dimensions of the phosphorus sustainability challenge, catalyze an interdisciplinary global network focused on phosphorus sustainability, and design and motivate institutional, commercial, and consumer behavior change for conservation and recycling to establish phosphorus sustainability.
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Symbiota, A Virtual Flora Model for the Southwestern United States »
This project will develop a computer-based identification system for plants and animals.
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Testing Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Relationships in an Ecological Stoichiometry Framework in the World's Largest Natural Grassland »
This project will directly manipulate plant diversity in large-scale experimental plots and measure a number of ecosystem function variables to test existing biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and evaluate new hypotheses regarding ecosystem function for multiple trophic levels (plants, herbivores, and soil microbes) in the Inner Mongolian Grassland, part of the largest natural grassland in the world.
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The Complexities of Ecological and Social Diversity: A Long-Term Perspective »
This research project will examine how social and ecological diversity interact to influence the resilience of societies facing major changes in their social or environmental circumstances. The goal of the investigators conducting this project is to discover configurations of diversity in ecological landscapes and in forms of social organization that make systems more or less able to cope with significant environmental or social changes without undergoing an unpleasant transformation.
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The Embryo Project Training and Research »
The project will provide rigorous interdisciplinary training and research for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in history and philosophy of the life sciences, with a focus on developmental biology.
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The Joint Modeling of Seasonal Recreational Demand, Entry-Exit Decisions, and Fish Stocks over Time with an Application to Great Lakes Sportfishing »
This project plans to develop a model that integrates a multi-site, multi-species, seasonal model of angler demand for sport fishing with a dynamic, bioeconomic model of fish stocks for the purpose of comparing the welfare impacts and conservation implications of various recreational fishery management alternatives.
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Transformation and Transport of Organic Carbon in the Colorado River-Reservoir System »
This project will assess the distribution, composition and reactivity of terrestrial and riverine carbon along a sequence of well-characterized reservoirs in a single watershed.
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Uranium Isotopes in Carbonate Sediments: Assessing a Novel Paleoredox Proxy »
This work tests the application of Uranium (U) isotopes preserved in carbonate sediments as a paleo-redox proxy
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Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) »
This collaborative project is building greater knowledge and understanding of the bidirectional interactions between global environmental change and cities, present at local, regional, and global scales, and integrating the work of decision makers, practitioners, and academic researchers.
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Using Informatics to Advance History and Philosophy of Science Research »
The project is designed to address simultaneously the need of acquiring additional professional experience in informatics to advance research in the history and philosophy of science and to open up new areas of research and investigation at the intersection of these two areas.
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