• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Natural Reserve System

University of California

  • Reserves
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Public Service
  • Information
  • NRS Giving
You are here: Home / Reserves / Bodega Marine Reserve / 2014-15 Mathias Grants awarded

2014-15 Mathias Grants awarded

January 12, 2015 By Kathleen Wong

Allison Simler
Mathias award winners Allison Simler (red shirt) and Tyler Bourret of UC Davis will study the role of fire in the persistence, spread, and management of sudden oak death at Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve. Image credit: Lobsang Wangdu

Sixteen University of California graduate students have been awarded 2014-15 Mildred E. Mathias Graduate Student Research Grants from the UC Natural Reserve System. The students, from six different UC campuses, received up to $3,000 to fund field projects at 22 different NRS reserves.

Virtually all of this year’s successful proposals will study ecology, evolution, or other aspects of the biological sciences. The exception is a geomorphology project examining gravel distribution controls in coastal streams hosting steelhead runs.

Focusing on climate change

More than half of this year’s successful proposals plan to examine climate change impacts on plants and animals. Five grant recipients proposed conducting research at more than one reserve. Many of these intend to compare conditions at southern versus northern California reserves, or higher versus lower elevation sites, to simulate the effects of a warmer, drier California of the future. Their interest in using multiple reserves underscores the importance of having reserves located across the state in a wide variety of habitats and environmental conditions.

porcelain crab larva
The recruitment of marine larvae like this zoea of a porcelain crab will be the subject of Mathias winner Connor Dibble’s work at Bodega Marine Reserve and Kenneth S. Norris Rancho Marino Reserve. Image credit: Jackie Sones

One project, to predict the effects of climate change on floral traits and reproductive success in Clarkia wildflowers, will involve research at seven reserves. Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve in Big Sur will host five Mathias projects this year, the most of any reserve.

Early career support

The Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant program gives students experience applying for and managing research grants, and reporting on their research progress—skills valuable for many careers in science.

Receiving a Mathias grant also helps convince other agencies and institutions that a researcher’s work is serious and worthy of additional funding. Scores of previous grant winners have cited early career support by a Mathias grant as critical to their subsequent academic and professional success.

The Mathias grant competition is open to UC graduate students who submit a proposal for research to be conducted at one or more NRS reserves. Students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. Applications are evaluated based on academic merit. Students at an early stage of their careers and in underrepresented fields of study receive preference.

The $38,000 awarded this year comes from the Kenneth S. Norris Endowment Fund for the California Environment, provided to the NRS by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Since its inception in 1988, the Mathias grant program has awarded a total of $753,264 to 415 students.

Footer

Our work

Reserves
Research
Teaching
Public Service

Our Organization

About Us
History
Land Acknowledgement
News Stories
Information
Jobs
Contact

Give

Donate Now

For Staff

Resources
Login

Find Us on Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

1111 Franklin Street, Oakland CA 94607

© 2023 UCNRS · All Rights Reserved · Contact · Privacy Policy