Search: Faculty directory, Natural History

Anthony Barnosky studies how changes in the physical environment (such as climate change and mountain building) contribute to the evolution of mammal species and faunas at varying temporal and geographic scales. Field aspects of the work include collecting fossils from long stratigraphic sequences that can be well-dated by biostratigraphic, paleomagnetic, or radioisotopic techniques. Lab analyses utilize database and GIS systems to identify faunal changes through space and time; the faunal patterns are then compared with independently identified changes in the physical environment to test various evolutionary and biogeographic predictions.

Scott Stephens is interested in the interactions of wildland fire and ecosystems. This includes how prehistoric fires once interacted with ecosystems, how current wildland fires are affecting ecosystems, and how future fires and management may change this interaction. He is also interested in wildland fire policy and how it can be improved to meet the challenges of the next decades. How fire will be affected by climate change is a new area of research.

Professor Mozingo’s research and creative work focuses on ecological design, landscape history, and social processes in public landscapes. Landscape architectural research usually considers ecology, history, and social factors separately; the purpose of Professor Mozingo’s scholarship is to breach the intellectual boundaries between them to produce a synthetic critical perspective of landscape architecture as a complex cultural artifact.

20th-Century American Literature. Creative Writing. Poetry. Professor Hass works on contemporary American poetry and translation; he has also been interested recently in environmental history and literature.

Major research interests presently are in global climate change and paleogeographic, oceanographic and life changes in the Ordovician and Silurian. The primary focus of his research at present is on the major developments before, during and after the Late Ordovician glaciation.

Ranching and pastoralism, rangeland ecology and management, history of range science, endangered species, scale in ecology and geography, the state, Western environmental history, and urbanization/land use change.

American business history, history of pollution regulation and corporate environmental management, and industrial ecology and new developments in corporate environmental management.

Of particular interest are two interrelated topics: the biology and genetics of biological invasions, and the history and structure of populations. Both topics are viewed especially in the context of biodiversity science.

Craig Moritz's research centers on the use of molecular approaches to study ecology and evolution and addresses questions including; (1) the use of molecular markers to infer current and historical population processes at various spatial and temporal scales; (2) the effects of historical changes in habitat on current distributions and diversity of faunas, with particular reference to rainforest biotas; and (3) improving the use of molecular information in conservation biology and the development of strategies that recognize evolutionary processes.

As Professor of Environmental History, Philosophy, and Ethics, Carolyn Merchant conducts research on these three topics and their interrelationships. She focuses on American environmental and cultural history in the overall context of Western history, philosophy, and the history of science.