2023
Timara Crichlow
Mentor: Paul Coseo
Research Project: Modeling Community Perceptions of Tree Distribution in the Phoenix Region
Olivia Nguyen
Mentors: Jesse Lewis, Dan Childers, and Esther Rubin
Research Project: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on human behaviors and wildlife populations across the gradient of urbanization
Peter Price
Mentors: Paul Coseo and Ariane Middel
Research Project: Heat Reduction Benefits of a Residential Rooftop Green Space: Perceptions vs. Realities for a Vulnerable Population
Zachary Van Tol
Mentors: Ariane Middel and Jennifer Vanos
Research Project: Mechanisms of Movement: Identifying the factors that decide the spaces people experiencing chronic homelessness occupy and the associated climate exposures
2022
Jordan Cisco
Mentor: Pierre Herckes
Research Project: The Fate of Microplastics in Tres Rios Wetlands
Jorge Morales Guerrero
Mentor: Marta Berbés-Blázquez and Monique Franco
Research Project: Bridging Academic Knowledge with Community Practice
Jeff Haight
Mentors: Sharon Hall, Jesse Lewis, Kelli Larson, and Jeffrey Brown
Research Project: Influences of Wildlife Presence and Diversity on the Environmental Attitudes of Metropolitan Phoenix Residents
Abigail Mitchell
Mentor: Kelli Larson
Research Project: The impacts of nature interactions on human wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic
Luke Ramsey
Mentor: Dan Childers
Research Project: Changes in Plant Community Composition of Urban Accidental Wetlands
Shaylynn Trego
Mentors: Sara Meerow and David Hondula
Research Project: A Longitudinal Assessment of Heat Risk Perception and Adaptation in Phoenix, Arizona
Leanna Watts
Mentor: Pierre Deviche
Research Project: The breeding success of introduced urban Rosy-faced Lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis)
Qinnan Zhu
Mentor: Kelli Larson
Research Project: Multi-scalar drivers of residential yard changes in Phoenix metropolitan area:
implications for urban landscape sustainability
2021
Vanya Bisht and Amanda Kuhn
Mentor: Marta Berbés-Blázquez
Research Project: Engaging K-12 Students in Co-designing Urban Futures for the Rio Salado
Kanchana Chandrakanthan
Mentor: Pierre Herckes
Research Project: Spatial and temporal distribution of soil microplastics in warm arid environments
Alexandreana Cocroft
Mentor: Sharon Hall
Research Project: Assessing the Influence of Income and Ethnicity on Wildlife in Residential Neighborhoods
Annika Enloe
Mentor: Heather Bateman
Research Project: Feeling rattled: Linking attitudes and habitat features to patterns of snake occurrence in urban landscapes.
Elizabeth Fain, Michael Mann, Timothy Ohlert, Mariah Patton, and Purbendra Yogi
Mentors: Scott Collins and Jennifer Rudgers
Research Project: Above and belowground connections under extreme drought in the Sonoran Desert
Aaron Mehner
Mentors: David Sailor and Jennifer Vanos
Research Project: Summertime Heat Impacts of Solar PV Installation on Urban Park Shading Structures in Edison Eastlake Park, Phoenix, Arizona
Arun Pallathadka and Jason Sauer
Mentors: Heejun Chang and Nancy Grimm
Research Project: Future fluvial and pluvial flood risk and the social, ecological, and technological characteristics of flood-prone areas in Phoenix, AZ
Matt Seelig
Mentor: Becky Ball
Research Project: Soil Responses to Land Use and Precipitation in the Phoenix Metropolitan
Katherine Weiss
Mentors: Jesse Lewis, Jan Schipper, and Beckett Sterner
Research Project: Assessing the Ecological and Nutritional Drivers of Coyote (Canis latrans) Diets Along the Salt River Corridor
Mary Wright
Mentor: David Hondula
Research Project: A meta-analysis of social and environmental factors predicting household-level heat-related illness in Phoenix, Arizona.
2020
Brittany Allen
Research project: Urban Heat Island Effect and Rodent Body Condition
Aaron Grade
Research project: Do human-provided resources buffer the effects of drought on bird abundances in residential neighborhoods?
Florian Schneider
Research project: Project MaRTiny: Data analysis and validation of low-cost sensors measuring thermal conditions and space use
Kayla Tarr
Research project: Long-Term Monitoring of Urban Ecological Infrastructure for Stormwater Management at ASU
Amanda Trakas
Research project: Where the Water Flows: Plant Selection for Rapid Infiltration in Biodetention Basins in Maricopa County
Eric Vahid
Research project: The Impacts of Residential Flood Irrigation and Yard Management on Gaseous Nitrogen Losses in the Phoenix Metro Area, AZ
Emily Webb
Research project: Life-history variation in carotenoid profiles of an urban songbird
2019
Anthony Basile
Research project: Effect of Anthropogenic, Western Diet Foods on Avian Abundance, Richness, and Metabolic Physiology
Ryan Clark
Research project: A Field Comparison of Western Black Widows: Does Behavior Differ Between Urban and Desert Habitats?
Jessica Dwyer
Research project: Bat habitat use along the graident of urbanization in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area
Stephen Elser and Michelle Stuhlmacher
Research project: Ecosystem services provided by green infrastructure: expanding knowledge on the Phoenix metropolitan area
Jeffrey Haight
Research project: Biophysical and Socioeconomic Influences on Spatial Patterns of Urban Mammal Communities
Timothy Ohlert
Research project: Drought impacts on desert ecosystems
Sarah Polekoff
Research project: Adapting to city life: physiology and behavior of urban and desert House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)
Zhaocheng Wang
Research project: Understanding Urban Irrigation Impact by Coupling Machine Learning and Physical Based Model in a Desert Urban Environment
Megan Wheeler
Research project: Land managers drive long-term and annual plant community dynamics: A case study of change over time in Phoenix residential yards
Mary Wright and Peter Crank
Research project: A comprehensive assessment of the thermal environment of two PASS neighborhoods
2018
Riley Andrade
Research project: Linking human-environment interactions with community ecology in urban ecosystems
Alicia Hinterlong
Research project: The effects of urbanization on the wildlife community across the CAP LTER in the Phoenix Valley
Marina Lauck
Research project: Effects of Variable Inundation Patterns on Wetland Plant Communities and Nitrogen Uptake in the Salt River Wetlands
Christopher Sanchez
Research project: Design process and outcomes of designed experiments using Urban Ecological Infrastructure (UEI): a case-study
Michelle Stuhlmacher
Research project: Quantifying Landscape Architecture Dynamics in Tempe’s Rio Salado
Kate Weiss
Research project: Assessing Mammalian Functional Diversity Across a Gradient of Urbanization in the Phoenix Valley
Nicholas Weller
Research project: Extreme Heat Public Forums: Perspectives of participants and policy makers in Phoenix, AZ, Portland, OR, and St. Paul, MN
2017
Melissa Davidson and Yeowon Kim
Research project: Alternative Futures for Phoenix Neighborhoods: A downscaling approach to scenario development
Cyrus Hester
Research project: Developing a Novel Paleoecological Approach for Studying Long-term, Heavy Metal Pollution in the Greater Phoenix Area
Pierce Hutton and Emily Webb
Research project: Urban Impacts on Life History Strategy in a Common Desert Songbird
Ivan Lopez-Castrillo
Research project: Regional Urban Ecohydrological Assessment of Rainfall-Runoff Relations and their Hydrologic Modeling
Eli Perez-Ruiz
Research project: Evaluation of the Net Ecosystem Exchange across different landscapes in Phoenix, Arizona
Jazmine Russell
Research project: Utilizing remotely sensed data to monitor algal blooms and water quality in Arizona reservoirs
Megan Wheeler
Research project: Effects of nutrient enrichment on annual plant community composition in the northern Sonoran Desert
Qunshan Zhao
Research project: Impact of tree locations and arrangements on outdoor microclimate and human thermal comfort in a compact urban residential environment
2016
Riley Burnette
Research project: Social-spatial analyses of environmental attitudes in Phoenix, Arizona: 2006, 2011, and beyond
Christine DeMeyers
Research project: The intersection of ecosystem services, homelessness, and water insecurity in Phoenix
Nicole Pierini
Research project: Evaluating water, energy, and carbon fluxes across four distinct land cover types in a desert urban environment
Ruby Upreti
Research project: Modeling the impact of urban trees on regional hydroclimate
Shelley Valle
Research project: Effect of the Phoenix urban heat island on metabolic and reproductive physiology of a resident songbird
2015
Chao Fan
Research project: Compact or sprawl? Impacts of urban form on climate change
Benjamin MacNeille
Research project: Building an understanding of the urban phyllosphere in Phoenix: The next steps
Julie Ripplinger
Research project: Survey 200: A powerful tool for examining urban vegetation change under the great recession
Melinda Weaver
Research project: Stress in the city: Correlation between behavior and stress hormone levels in house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus)
Qunshan Zhao
Research project: Rooftop surface temperature analysis in urban residential environment
2014
Benjamin MacNeille
Research project: Building an understanding of the urban phyllosphere in Phoenix: The first steps
Christy Rose
Research project: Chloroform from swimming pools, a significant source of atmospheric chloroform in Phoenix?
Sisi Gao
Research project: Are all stressors equally disturbing? A study on how different urban disturbances affect a common urban bird
Greg Gryniewicz
Research project: Variation in wood specific gravity of Sonoran desert trees growing in irrigated urban landscapes and non-developed arid desert landscapes
Hannah Heavenrich
Research project: Hidden pools of nitrate in emerging ‘sustainable’ landscapes
Edgar Cardenas
Research project: Understanding collaboration patterns in artists-scientists teams
Aurelie Marcotte
Research project: Characterization of trace metals and inorganic species in time resolved haboob particulate matter in Phoenix, AZ
Amalia Handler and Amanda Suchy
Research project: Nitrogen cycling in urban wetlands: influence of vegetation and soil resources
Jorge Ramos
Research project: A new gas chamber to investigate the role of acrophytes in the greenhouse gas emissions from the Tres Rios constructed wetland in Phoenix, AZ
2013
John Connors and Kevin Kane
Research project: Shaping the City: Institutions and land system architecture in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area
Scott Davies
Research project: Sex in the city: how do birds adapt seasonal reproduction in response to urbanization?
Juan Declet-Barreto
Research project: Assessment of neighborhood and household adaptive capacity to heat-related vulnerability in Maricopa County, Arizona
Chao Fan
Research project: Impacts of vegetation cover on urban warming: Does spatial arrangement matter?
Chris Galletti and Shai Kaplan
Research project: Modeling broadband albedo with high resolution imagery
Heather Kropp and Michael Fell
Research project: Plant carbon status and hydraulic traits along an aridity/urbanization gradient
Israel Leinbach
Research project: Scorpion profiling in the city
Yevgeniy Marusenko
Research project: Ammonia-oxidizing microbial communities and their functional response to environmental change
Janet Reyna
Research project: Life cycle assessment of ecosystem service impacts from Phoenix buildings
Jiyun Song
Research project: Interfacing an urban land surface model with a single-column atmospheric model
Amanda Suchy
Research project: Denitrification in urban wetlands: The relative importance of hydrologic regime and soil resources for shaping patterns of denitrification
Jiachuan Yang
Research project: Enhancing urban hydroclimate modeling by coupling an advanced urban canopy model into WRF
Yujia Zhang
Research project: Linking land configuration to human wellbeing from the household to neighborhood level in Central Arizona Phoenix