News
Moonshot Accelerator
Posted on May 30, 2024
Gwen Iacona, assistant research professor at the School of Life Sciences and assistant director at the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, was part of the ASU Foundation Moonshot Accelerator pitch event on May 21 in the Fulton Center. Together with Margaret Hinrichs, associate director of decision science at the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience and assistant research professor in the School of Complex Adaptive Systems, they pitched their projects to philanthropic funders or corporate partners for large-scale gifts.
SURE poster symposium
Posted on May 6, 2024
On April 26th, students involved in the Sustainability Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program presented their posters at the Annual SURE Showcase! Our group of dedicated students had the opportunity to showcase their progress on the research projects they have been working on alongside their faculty and graduate students supervisors from the CIL lab. Pictured here, student Neha Karanjia, Economics and Supply Chain Management (Sustainability) student, next to her research poster on the Cost of Conservation.
Olivia Davis at ASU Graduate Commencement
Posted on May 6, 2024
Dr. Olivia Davis at ASU Graduate Commencement with Professor Leah Gerber.
Congratulations, Olivia!
PhD Candidate Jessica Beaudette wins AAUW fellowship
Posted on May 6, 2024
Jessica Beaudette, an environmental Humanities PhD Candidate studying community-based conservation in Southern Africa, is an AAUW Fellow! Jessica was awarded the prestigious American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Dissertation Fellowship. The fellowship will support her dissertation’s qualitative meta-analysis of Botswanan women’s conservation fieldwork practices and the role of women‘s leadership in generating effective conservation outcomes.
CBO 10 Year Anniversary Celebration
Posted on May 1, 2024
The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes recently held our 10-year anniversary event! We celebrated our success over our first ten years and developed plans for future work. The event included panel discussions, lightning talks, interactive activities, and a photo exhibition on Indigenous Sustainability in the Amazon. We wrapped up with a celebratory lunch and deeper discussions on conservation efforts.
The event included 3 different panels that featured speakers from all over ASU. Several graduate students from the Conservation Innovation Lab, Olivia Davis, Rebecca Snyder, Risa Schnebly, Paola Sangolqui and Nana Sakyiwa, led discussions on important conservation themes. Subjects such as knowledge partnerships, developing a common language for achieving conservation impacts and structured decision making in the Galapagos were some topics discussed by CIL students.
Additionally, education efforts like Girls Conserve, CBO’s immersion camp that combines environmental leadership training and real work experiences, were also discussed.
The event was a great success and could not be done without our supporters and fellow conservationists. A special thanks to the CI Lab students who took the time to share their experiences with CBO!
PhD Candidate Olivia Davis defends her dissertation!
Posted on May 1, 2024
On March 22, CIL lab member Olivia Davis successfully defended her PhD titled, "There's No Place Like Home: Conserving Species in the United States under the Endangered Species Act". Her dissertation focused on examining recovery planning in the U.S. context through systems under the ESA like Species Status Assessments and Five Year Reviews, as well as a qualitative study interviewing conservation practitioners from the government and non-governmental organizations. Olivia's committee was chaired by Dr. Leah Gerber, and included CBO's Dr. Gwen Iacona, as well as Dr. Ben Minteer, Jake Li, and Katrina Vandenberg. Congrats Olivia!!
ASU News story about societally engaged conservation work
Posted on March 28, 2024
Center for Biodiversity Outcomes members Simon Lhoest, Candice Carr Kelman, Chris Barton, Jessica Beaudette and Leah Gerber recently published a paper about how universities could reward conservation scientists not only for their scientific peer-reviewed publications, but for having real impacts.
New lab members!
Posted on March 6, 2024
Welcome to new lab members Meredith Grady and Lisley Gomes, who were admitted to the Conservation Innovation lab as part of the Biology and Society PhD program. They will join the lab on the Fall 2024.
Congratulations!
AAAS Presentation
Posted on March 6, 2024
Olivia Davis, a PhD student and member of the CIL, presented at AAS a couple of weeks ago and got Honorable Mention for her poster. Davis presented on her 5YR project.
New paper about impact factor of engaged research
Posted on March 6, 2024
CIL members Simon Lhoest, Candice Carr Kelman, Chris J. Barton, Jessica A. Beaudette and Leah R. Gerber recently published a paper about impact factor of engaged research. In this paper, they examine the relevance of scientific publications for conservation outcomes and propose specific recommendations to encourage procedural reforms in academia.
New paper about sequencing endangered species according to pesticide risk
Posted on March 4, 2024
Camila Guerrero-Pineda, a third year PhD candidate and CIL member, recently published a paper entitled "Prioritizing resource allocation to reduce adverse effects of pesticide risk for endangered species". Within the U.S. registration and review process, there is currently a backlog of unreviewed pesticides, leaving a large quantity of pesticides without updated use conditions to protect endangered species. This paper develops a sequencing approach to address the risk assessment bottleneck in the pesticide registration and review process and identify species that would benefit most from detailed assessments.
Invited Speaker
Posted on March 2, 2024
Graduate student Jessica Beaudette was an invited speaker at Columbia University Law School on January 31 where she gave a presentation entitled, "Engaging with a World on Fire: Mindfulness and Climate Resilience." Her presentation included aspects of our lab's co-authored paper in Conservation Science and Practice entitled, "Practicing mindfulness in addressing the biodiversity crisis" (Gerber et al. 2023) which they wrote in partnership with the Mindfulness Center at ASU.
Dissertation Defense Announcement
Posted on February 22, 2024
Graduate student Olivia Davis will defend her Ph.D. dissertation!
Invitation:
There’s No Place Like Home: Conserving Species in the United States under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
Olivia N. Davis Dissertation Defense
Date: Friday, March 22, 2024
Time: 9 am PST/12 pm EST
In-Person Location: ASU, LSC 202
Zoom: https://asu.zoom.us/j/84062720995
Contact ondavis1@asu.edu with any questions!
Update: She passed! Congratulations, Olivia!
Sustainable Gift Guide!!!
Posted on December 5, 2023
Thank you to Olivia Davis, graduate student in the Conservation Innovation Lab for working with the ASU Sustainability Committe on the annual Sustainable Holiday Gift Guide. Check on the guide here to inform your smart and sustainable gift giving practices. Happy Holidays everyone!!!
Happy Halloween Barrett Honors Thesis Defense!
Posted on October 31, 2023
Congratulations to Amelie Clark for defending her Honors Thesis on College Hesitancy in Minority High School Girls Interested In STEM. Amelie worked on the pilot program of GirlsConserve which sought to provide nature-based educational experiences to underrepresented girls. Her research during the pilot program will help in the longer term implementation of the program and provides valuable information on the impact of educational designs on college motivation and hesitancy in girls from minority backgrounds.
Need for a National Biodiversity Strategy
Posted on October 30, 2023
Director of Center for Biodiversity Outcomes and faculty in the Conservation Innovation Lab, Dr. Leah Gerber, recently published a paper with colleagues Mark Shwartz and Lindsay Dreiss on the need for a national biodiversity strategy. The paper highlights both the need for a national strategy and the kinds of legislation and policy needed in order to better meet the ongoing biodiversity crisis.
CIL Graduate Student Presents on GirlsConserve
Posted on October 23, 2023
Nana Sakyiwa Brown-Wood, a doctoral student in Sustainability affiliated with the Conservation Innovation Lab presented a poster at this year's Inclusion Summit on GirlsConserve, an educational program from the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes designed to engage girls from underrepresented backgrounds in environmental science and nature-based careers. The program has collected data on the outcomes of the program finding that 93% of respondents said they were more interested in pursuing STEM careers. Way to go Nana!
New paper by PhD student Rebecca Snyder!
Posted on October 19, 2023
Rebecca Snyder, a second year PhD student and CIL member, was recently listed as an author on a paper published in Frontiers in Environmental Science titled "Assisting adaptation in a changing world." This paper is the product of a working group that formed during ICCB 2019 in Kuala Lumpur to study how the field of conservation can better grapple with the effects of climate change.
PhD opportunity: Community science and mobile technology to address biodiversity loss
Posted on October 16, 2023
Unique PhD opportunity at Arizona State University in partnership with the International Union for Conservation, Conservation International and Northern Arizona University examining the interface of biodiversity conservation, community science technology, and equity in rural development.
Bridging the gap between science and policy for a sustainable future
Posted on October 11, 2023
Professor Leah Gerber published a short commentary on how scientist can make an impact in sustainability issues by working at the intersection of science and policy.
Masters Thesis Defense Announcement
Posted on August 24, 2023
Masters student Katherine Poe will be defending her masters thesis "Testing the benefit of agroforestry as a solution for Red Listed bird conservation in the Peruvian Amazon" on August 29th MST in Life Sciences Building A Room 335! Good luck Katherine!!
New Paper on Co-Production of Knowledge For Actionable Science
Posted on August 2, 2023
New paper from the CIL lab on the misalignment that occurs between the logic of inquiry which guides scientists and the logic of action (which guides conservation practitioners. The paper calls for the development of a National Biodiversity Strategy to help bridge this gap in knowledge production for better and more actionable science. This paper makes explicit why biodiversity loss is a public values issue, it identifies why most diagnoses of the communication failures between scientists and practitioners are flawed (and provide an alternative, the 'logic synchronization' model), and proposes a policy solution, and answers some of the practical questions as to how this issue might be overcome.
Great work Leah Gerber, Chris Barton, and Derrick M. Anderson.
Olivia Davis Continues Her Amazing Mental Health Work
Posted on June 12, 2023
Our wonderful Olivia Davis, 4th year PhD student in the CIL, has just had her compassionate service work on behalf of graduate student mental health. See the coverage of her work here. We appreciate all you do for our community Olivia!
New Publication on Plastic Pollution and Species Vulnerability
Posted on June 8, 2023
Recent Conservation Innovation Lab graduate Dr. Erin Murphy published a paper entitled "A multi-taxonomic, trait-based framework for assessing macroplastic vulnerability". Currently, little is known about the higher level effects of plastic pollution and that this paper introduces a new method for evaluating population and species level vulnerability to macroplastic pollution, using species life history traits.
CIL Recent Grad Interviewed For Outdoors.com
Posted on June 6, 2023
Recent PhD graduate, Dr. Katie Surrey was recently included in an article on Outdoors.com regarding the recent boat attacks by orcas off the coast of Spain. Katie just defended her dissertation on whale behavior in eco-tourist zones in Panama and has expertise in human-wildlife interactions in a conservation setting. Great work getting the lab's science "out in the open"!!
Alice Sansonetti Masters Defense
Posted on June 1, 2023
Join us in celebrating Masters student Alice Sansonetti for her Masters Thesis defense entitled "Cost Estimation Choices Influence Recovery Resource Allocation Priorities for Endangered Species" on Thursday June 8th, 2023 at 10:30 am MST on Zoom or on campus at Arizona State University in LSA 335.
Update: She passed!!!!!!
New Paper on Baboon Mating Patterns!
Posted on May 31, 2023
Lead author and current graduate student in the Conservation Innovation Lab (CIL), Caitlin Hawley, has published her master's research on mating and parenting behavior dynamics in olive baboons in iScience, finding that males experience a trade-off between courting sexually receptive females and maintaining relationships with closely bonded females ("primary associations") who are often the mothers of their offspring. Prior to joining the CIL and becoming interested in applied conservation solutions, Caitlin worked as a primatologist for many years.
Congratulations Gwen!
Posted on May 25, 2023
Congratulations to Gwen Iacona on being one of fifteen appointees to the National Park System Advisory Board on March 24, 2023. As a member of the board, Gwen hopes to make a positive impact on public land management. Read more here.
Katie Surrey Defense Announcement
Posted on May 19, 2023
Join us to celebrate Katie Surrey's PhD Dissertation Defense on Friday May 26, 2023. We are so proud of all of the interesting and meaningful work Katie has done at the intersection of animal behavior, eco-tourism, community conservation, and social theory!!
Congratulations Olivia!
Posted on May 1, 2023
Conservation Innovation Lab Graduate Student, Olivia Davis, recently won not one but two prestigious service awards! Olivia was honored with the Arijit Guha Advocacy Award and the Graduate & Professional Student Association (GPSA) Service Award. The Arijit Guha Award recognizes Olivia’s commitment and service to mental health advocacy on behalf of the graduate student population. The GPSA Award recognizes Olivia’s overall commitment to service. Olivia has provided service as an E-board member to the School of Life Sciences, worked as a service member of the Roots & Shoots Chapter at ASU, hosted Coffee & Conversations (a venue for graduate students to discuss a variety of challenges and successes they face), and has taken on many additional service roles to better the lives and experiences of ASU students.
New publication on actionable science
Posted January 16, 2023
Led by Dr. Candice Carr Kelman, members of the Conservation Innovation Lab and Center for Biodiversity Outcomes published, Five approaches to producing actionable science in conservation. Through interviews with 71 conservation scientists who participated in fellowships focused on training scientists to be agents of change, they identified 16 activities researchers employ to make their science more actionable. From these activities, they identified five approaches: the discloser (focused on open access), the educator (focused on science communication), the networker (focused on user needs and building relationships), the collaborator (focused on boundary spanning), and the pluralist (focused on knowledge coproduction resulting in valuable outcomes for all parties).
Graduate students and mental health
Posted November 10, 2022
This week, Olivia Davis participated in ASU’s Inclusion Summit to discuss mental health with graduate students. It is well documented that mental health is a challenge in the graduate student community, and it is so important to draw attention this issue and create an opportunity for open dialogue. Thank you for your service to our community Olivia!
ElisaOlofssonDefense1.pngCongrats Elisa!
Posted on November 8, 2022
Congratulations to Elisa Olofsson on successfully defending her thesis, titled “Protecting Natural Biodiversity With National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans: Analyzing Stakeholders.” Amazing work!
New publication: The plasticscape
Posted on November 7, 2022
Members of the Conservation Innovation Lab recently published a new manuscript, The plastic-scape: Applying seascape ecology to marine plastic pollution, in Frontiers in Marine Science. This manuscript explores how principles from seascape ecology can be applied to plastic pollution and management.
New publication: Conservation awareness through social media
Posted on September 7, 2022
Today social media has emerged as a powerful tool to inspire younger generations to value conservation. In Conservation awareness through social media, Dr. Leah Gerber and recent graduates of the Conservation Innovation lab, sought to understand the role of social media in Generation Z’s awareness of conservation issues to if social media spurs any pro-environmental behavior change related to conservation amongst Generation Z. Through surveys of ASU students, they found that social media and online news sources are an important source of conservation information for many. Their results suggest the strong potential of social media for communicating science and conservation issues to young people.
Dr. Simon Lhoest, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Conservation Innovation Lab, recently co-authored the article “The complexity of the conservation-development nexus in Central African national parks and the perceptions of local populations”, published in the Journal for Nature Conservation.
Focusing on Rwanda and the Republic of Congo, this study identified the key determinants of conservation perceptions in order to implement successful local and regional conservation strategies. To ensure sound conservation and development measures, revenue-sharing schemes focusing on material benefits and alternative livelihoods may provide the best approach if participation of communities in the decision-making process is ensured. Improving education levels will concomitantly raise awareness and positive perceptions of conservation measures. In depth research on local demands for ecosystem products, relationships among stakeholders and community decision power are crucial factors to understand the complexity of
the conservation-development nexus.
New publication: The complexity of the conservation-development nexus in Central African national parks and the perceptions of local populations
New publication: An investment strategy to address biodiversity loss from agricultural expansion
Posted on April 19, 2022
Members of the Conservation Innovation Lab, led by PhD student Camila Guerrero-Pineda, recently published “An investment strategy to address biodiversity loss from agricultural expansion”, in Nature Sustainability.
Focusing in Colombia, the study presents a methodology to maximize the biodiversity benefits from limited conservation funding while ensuring that landowners maintain economic returns equivalent to agriculture. This approach can be applied to other contexts to examine development and policy priorities to estimate financial needs for achieving biodiversity goals.
Lisa Dent Memorial Fellowship
Posted on April 13, 2022
Erin Murphy was this year’s recipient of the Lisa Dent Memorial Fellowship. This fellowship was established to honor the life and work of Lisa Dent, an inspiring and talented graduate of ASU, who made significant contributions to the field of ecology. Each year, it is awarded to one exceptional women Ph.D. student, studying ecology in the ASU School of Life Sciences.
Congratulations on this honor, Erin!
Congratulations to our new MSc graduates!
Posted on December 7, 2021
Congratulations to Kesha Cummings and Infynity Hill who are graduating with their Masters in Biology! Kesha’s applied project was based on her fellowship position with the Phoenix Zoo and focused on camera trap fieldwork and analysis for riparian sites within the Verde Valley. Kesha currently works in the energy industry and plans to use her experience to support and assist corporate compliance with federal wildlife laws and advocate for policy that protects and conserves natural resources and wildlife.
Infynity aimed to better understand plastic use and management by the American public. Using a nation-wide survey she explored how much plastic people by and how they dispose of various projects. Infynity currently runs her own second-hand store Infynitethreads and hopes to follow her passion for teaching moving forward!
Posted on November 9, 2021
As the scale and complexity of socio-environmental problems has grown, there has been a renewed debate about the role that academic institutions should play in developing solutions and how institutional structures should be redesigned to encourage greater interdisciplinarity. This paper (1) presents a graduate student perspective on this debate, (2) identifies challenges facing interdisciplinary graduate student researchers, (3) suggests ways for institutions to better prepare graduate students to be the next generation of leaders in this arena, and (4) outlines models for transformational change that will ensure research is focused on solving socio-environmental problems.
This work emerged from her participation in a Beyond the Academy workshop hosted at UCLA in January 2020.
The value of information for biological evaluations of pesticides possible impacts on listed endangered species
Posted on October 13, 2021
Check out our new manuscript from members of the Conservation Innovation Lab and the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, The value of increased spatial resolution of pesticide usage data for assessing risk to endangered species!
The EPA is responsible for registering pesticides before they can be sold and regularly reviewing pesticides. As part of this process, they must consider the risk pesticides pose to species protected by the Endangered Species Act. In this recently published paper, we explored the value of high resolution pesticide usage data for increasing the efficiency and transparency of the biological evaluation process.
New publication on market-based instruments for fisheries
Posted on September 23, 2021
This week members of the Conservation Innovation lab, Erin Murphy, Dr. Miranda Bernard and Dr. Leah Gerber, published "Evaluating the role of market-based instruments in protecting marine ecosystem services in wild-caught fisheries", in Ecosystem Services. This work emerged from a partnership between the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes and Dr. Kevin J. Dooley, of The Sustainability Consortium.
The movement from single-species to ecosystem-based fisheries management indicates the importance of ecosystem-level thinking for achieving sustainable fisheries; however, it is not clear that fishery-specific market-based instruments effectively align with the principles of the ecosystem-based approach. In this study, we review the written indicators of seven market-based instruments to evaluate the level of protection they provide to marine ecosystem services that may be impacted by fisheries. We found that many of the ecosystem services, which may impact during their operations, are not completely protected by the instruments written indicators. Through this analysis, we hope to promote a dialogue between scientists and decision-makers to encourage the use of ecosystem service indicators in market-based instruments used to promote sustainable fisheries.
This work was funded by the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes.
New publication: Integrating animal behavior into ecosystem services
Posted on December 8, 2021
Members of the Conservation Innovation Lab, led by PhD candidate Katie Surrey, recently published “Refining the Ecosystems Services Model: Integrating Animal Behavior into Ecotourism Management”, in Elsevier, as part of Imperiled: The Encyclopedia of Conservation. The paper presents a framework for considering animal behavior as a variable when assessing ecosystem service values, and highlights the increased need for more thorough understanding of the current wildlife-based ecotourism models and how they might become better adapted into the future.
New publication: The Present and Future Status of Ecosystem Services for Coral Reefs
Posted January 13, 2022
Members of the Conservation Innovation Lab, led by Assistant Research Professor Katie Cramer, published The present and future status of ecosystem services for coral reefs in Elsevier, as part of Imperiled: The Encyclopedia of Conservation.
Coral reef ecosystems are among the most imperiled globally from human impacts. Although the ecological and socioeconomic importance of coral reefs has been relatively well-documented, the impacts of coral reef degradation on ecosystem service provisioning are less known. In this manuscript, we review the range of ecosystem services currently provided by reefs (provisioning, regulating, and cultural), the human activities that threaten these services, and the future prospects of reef ecosystem services given the projected combined effects of local human disturbances and climate change. We then propose promising policy and management interventions to promote the maintenance of key coral reef ecosystem services into the future.