Awarded Grad Grants

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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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