Proposal Number: 1611895
This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Dr. Maya Almaraz is "Using isotopic signatures to understand soil nitrogen oxide emission sources." The host institution for this fellowship is University of California, Davis, and the sponsoring scientist is Prof. Benjamin Zind Houlton.
This project examines sources of atmospheric nitrogen oxide, including fossil fuels, uncultivated soils, and agricultural soil emissions, in order to better understand nitrogen (N) cycling in ecosystems. Although N is an essential element that sometimes limits plant production, too much N can degrade ecosystems and endanger human health. Nitrogen oxides, in particular, are among the most noxious components of ground-level air pollution. Fossil fuel combustion and microbial emissions from both natural and agricultural soils are the major sources of nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere. In contrast to these well-studied sources, the contributions of agricultural fertilizers to nitrogen oxide pollution have received less attention. To better characterize the sources of nitrogen oxides to ecosystems, the Fellow is measuring nitrogen oxide isotopic signatures across industrialization, climate, and agricultural management gradients in California and Hawaii. Satellite data are also being used to compare estimates of nitrogen oxide emissions from forest, agriculture, and metropolitan regions in California. The Fellow is also estimating monetized health costs associated with nitrogen oxide emissions, in order to value the impact of these emission sources on human health and the economy. These findings are informing policy makers about regional variability in nitrogen oxide pollution sources, and thus the need to regulate fossil fuel vs. agricultural emissions. The Fellow is receiving training in isotopic methods and in developing regional models of atmospheric pollution.
The Fellow's project has three major broader impacts. First, the Fellow, who as a Latina is herself a member of an underrepresented group, is mentoring UC Davis undergraduate and graduate students from groups underrepresented in science, as part of the Ecological Society of America's Strategies for Ecology, Education and Diversity (SEEDS) program. Second, she is sharing her findings via a broadly disseminated career development website co-founded by the Fellow, Inventing Heron. The Fellow's project is featured as a regular blog, in order to promote the teaching of scientific concepts and methods, raise awareness concerning environmental issues, and advance public understanding of the lifestyle that accompanies a career in the sciences. Third, the Fellow's research fits well within the mission of the UC Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment, which her supervisor Houlton directs, and which supports interdisciplinary collaborations across human health, policy and environmental science and includes more than 250 faculty and staff members. The Institute is facilitating dissemination of the Fellow's findings and connecting her research to a breadth of disciplines within academia and environmental outreach in the greater community.
