PRIMES (PRogram for Interdisciplinary Mathematics, Ecology, and Statistics) is designed to address the challenges of studying complex ecological systems. Modern studies of ecological systems incorporate an extremely wide range of scientific and quantitative techniques, from the collection of data in the field, to the modeling of complex systems, to the application of advanced computational techniques. Consequently, quantitative ecology has become an inherently multi-disciplinary activity. Read More

Master of Public Administration, San Jose State University, San Jose. Environmental Policy emphasis. August 1995

Master of City Planning, University of California, Berkeley. Environmental Planning emphasis. May 2000

PRIMES is supporting my research financially by enabling the purchase of satellite imagery and other difficult to obtain datasets. Additionally, PRIMES has supported my attendance at statistical conferences and trainings in Bayesian hierarchical modeling, both critical to my research. Most importantly, PRIMES has facilitated my research by providing access to an intellectual community engaged in similar research areas.

Urbanization, and its associated activities, has significant implications for the functioning of natural systems. Of particular importance are effects on aquatic systems, which provide an integrative measure of broader ecosystem condition. Aquatic ecology increasingly acknowledges that there are spatially nested mechanistic controls on the relationship between catchment land use and aquatic system integrity. I develop a research framework to assess the relationship between urbanization and indicators of aquatic system condition across a spectrum of spatial aggregation to understand relationship dynamics over a range of nested spatial scales. To achieve this, I draw from landscape ecology and Bayesian statistics, using Bayesian hierarchical regression models to represent the scalar hier! archies of nested watersheds.