Welcome to the Center for Climate Science and Natural Resource Solutions for Water-Limited, Paired Mountain/Valley Systems.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded CSUB a large grant to continue development of the Center for Climate Science and Natural Resource Solutions for Water-Limited, Paired Mountain/Valley Systems under the Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) NSF program, Phase II. With the recruitment of undergraduate and graduate CREST students, our research is aimed at better understanding the role of drought, evaluating potential responses, and assisting with adaptive planning in response to these changes.
The Center's approach articulates three research subprojects addressing the effects of climate variability on landscape processes, ecology, and human response. Subproject 1 will evaluate the landscape response and predicted time intervals for preferential occurrence of mass wasting events, floods, and wildfires. Subproject 2 investigates the ecological response of plant communities and focuses on the sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and resilience of vegetation to drought along a transect from the San Joaquin Valley floor to the Sierra Nevada crest. Subproject 3 focuses on the human response to climate variability through the sequestration of CO2 into mature oil fields and saline aquifers and the predictive mapping of treatable groundwater from the same saline aquifers. CREST faculty comprises of multi-disciplinary researchers with a background in Biology, Engineering, Geology, and Statistics.
CREST students participate in extensive academic research at CSUB, national labs and cooperating Ph.D.-granting institutions.
A principal goal of this project is to promote advanced graduate study to the diverse population served by CSUB.
