Environmental Studies Program
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Environmental Studies is a field that crosses the boundaries of traditional disciplines, challenging faculty and students to look at the relationship between humans and their environment from a variety of perspectives. The Environmental Studies Program at the University of Oregon draws upon the strengths of our campus community and our connections to the greater geographic area of the Pacific Northwest. Our students have the opportunity to integrate coursework in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, as well as the professional programs of management, public policy, design, and law.
The program offers undergraduate and graduate training leading to a B.A./B.S. in Environmental Studies or Environmental Science; an M.A./M.S. in Environmental Studies; or a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Studies, and Policy (ESSP).
For more information on the program, visit the web site.
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Item Open Access Temporary establishment of bacteria from indoor plant leaves and soil on human skin(BMC, 2022-12-22) Mhuireach, Gwynne A.; Fahimipour, Ashkaan K.; Vandegrift, Roo; Muscarella, Mario E.; Hickey, Roxana; Bateman, Ashley C.; Van Den Wymelenberg, Kevin G.; Bohannan, Brendan J. M.Background: Plants are found in a large percentage of indoor environments, yet the potential for bacteria associated with indoor plant leaves and soil to colonize human skin remains unclear. We report results of experiments in a controlled climate chamber to characterize bacterial communities inhabiting the substrates and leaves of five indoor plant species, and quantify microbial transfer dynamics and residence times on human skin following simulated touch contact events. Controlled bacterial propagule transfer events with soil and leaf donors were applied to the arms of human occupants and repeatedly measured over a 24-h period using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Results: Substrate samples had greater biomass and alpha diversity compared to leaves and baseline skin bacterial communities, as well as dissimilar taxonomic compositions. Despite these differences in donor community diversity and biomass, we observed repeatable patterns in the dynamics of transfer events. Recipient human skin bacterial communities increased in alpha diversity and became more similar to donor communities, an effect which, for soil contact only, persisted for at least 24 h. Washing with soap and water effectively returned communities to their preperturbed state, although some abundant soil taxa resisted removal through washing. Conclusions: This study represents an initial characterization of bacterial relationships between humans and indoor plants, which represent a potentially valuable element of biodiversity in the built environment. Although environmental microbiota are unlikely to permanently colonize skin following a single contact event, repeated or continuous exposures to indoor biodiversity may be increasingly relevant for the functioning and diversity of the human microbiome as urbanization continues.Item Open Access Introduced annuals mediate climate-driven community change in Mediterranean prairies of the Pacific Northwest, USA(Wiley, 2021-11-01) Reed, Paul B.; Pfeifer-Meister, Laurel E.; Roy, Bitty A.; Johnson, Bart R.; Bailes, Graham T.; Nelson, Aaron A.; Bridgham, Scott D.Aim: How climate change will alter plant functional group composition is a critical question given the well-recognized effects of plant functional groups on ecosystem services. While climate can have direct effects on different functional groups, indirect effects mediated through changes in biotic interactions have the potential to amplify or counteract direct climatic effects. As a result, identifying the underlying causes for climate effects on plant communities is important to conservation and restoration initiatives. Location: Western Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington), USA. Methods: Utilizing a 3-year experiment in three prairie sites across a 520-km latitudinal climate gradient, we manipulated temperature and precipitation and recorded plant cover at the peak of each growing season. We used structural equation models to examine how abiotic drivers (i.e. temperature, moisture and soil nitrogen) controlled functional group cover, and how these groups in turn determined overall plant diversity. Results: Warming increased the cover of introduced annual species, causing subsequent declines in other functional groups and diversity. While we found direct effects of temperature and moisture on extant vegetation (i.e. native annuals, native perennials and introduced perennials), these effects were typically amplified by introduced annuals. Competition for moisture and light or space, rather than nitrogen, were critical mechanisms of community change in this seasonally water-limited Mediterranean-climate system. Diversity declines were driven by reductions in native annual cover and increasing dominance by introduced annuals. Main conclusions: A shift towards increasing introduced annual dominance in this system may be akin to that previously experienced in California grasslands, resulting in the “Californication” of Pacific Northwest prairies. Such a phenomenon may challenge local land managers in their efforts to maintain species-rich and functionally diverse prairie ecosystems in the future.Item Open Access A new hypothesis for the origin of Amazonian Dark Earths(Nature Research, 2021-01-04) Silva, Lucas C. R.; Corrêa, Rodrigo Studart; Wright, Jamie L.; Bonfirm, Barbara; Hendricks, Lauren; Gavin, Daniel G.; Muniz, Aleksander W.; Martins, Gilvan Coimbra; Motta, Antônio Carlos Vargas; Barbosa, Julierme Zimmer; Melo, Vander de Freitas; Young, Scott D.; Broadley, Martin R.; Santos, Roberto V.Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are unusually fertile soils characterised by elevated concentrations of microscopic charcoal particles, which confer their distinctive colouration. Frequent occurrences of pre-Columbian artefacts at ADE sites led to their ubiquitous classification as Anthrosols (soils of anthropic origin). However, it remains unclear how indigenous peoples created areas of high fertility in one of the most nutrient-impoverished environments on Earth. Here, we report new data from a well-studied ADE site in the Brazilian Amazon, which compel us to reconsider its anthropic origin. The amounts of phosphorus and calcium—two of the least abundant macronutrients in the region—are orders of magnitude higher in ADE profiles than in the surrounding soil. The elevated levels of phosphorus and calcium, which are often interpreted as evidence of human activity at other sites, correlate spatially with trace elements that indicate exogenous mineral sources rather than in situ deposition. Stable isotope ratios of neodymium, strontium, and radiocarbon activity of microcharcoal particles also indicate exogenous inputs from alluvial deposition of carbon and mineral elements to ADE profiles, beginning several thousands of years before the earliest evidence of soil management for plant cultivation in the region. Our data suggest that indigenous peoples harnessed natural processes of landscape formation, which led to the unique properties of ADEs, but were not responsible for their genesis. If corroborated elsewhere, this hypothesis would transform our understanding of human influence in Amazonia, opening new frontiers for the sustainable use of tropical landscapes going forward.Item Open Access Oregon Water Futures Project Report: 2020-21 Community Engagement(University of Oregon, 2021) Reyes-Santos, Alaí; Holliday, Cheyenne; Dalgaard, Stacey; Evans, Taren; Witherill, Kristiana TeigeThe Oregon Water Futures Project is a collaboration between the University of Oregon, water and environmental justice interests, Indigenous peoples, communities of color, and low-income communities. Through a water justice lens, we aim to impact how the future of water in Oregon is imagined through storytelling, capacity building, relationship building, policymaking, and community-centered advocacy at the state and local level. In 2020, project partners co-conceptualized and facilitated a series of conversations with Native, Indigenous Latin American, Latinx, Black, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Arab, and Somali communities, including webinars on Oregon water systems, phone interviews, and virtual online gatherings. These conversations lifted up culturally specific ways of interacting with drinking water and bodies of water; concerns around water quality and cost; resiliency in the face of challenges to access water resources essential for physical, emotional, and spiritual health; and a desire for water resource education and to be better equipped to advocate for water resources.Item Open Access Amazonian Dark Earths [Dataset](University of Oregon, 2020) Silva, Lucas C. R.; Corrêa, Rodrigo S.; Wright, Jamie L.; Bomfim, Barbara; Hendricks, Lauren; Gavin, Daniel G.; Muniz, Aleksander W.; Martins, Gilvan Coimbra; Motta, Antônio Carlos Vargas; Barbosa, Julierme Zimmer; Melo, Vander de Freitas; Young, Scott D.; Broadley, Martin R.; Santos, Roberto V.Item Open Access Benton County’s Prairie Species Habitat Conservation Plan: Signposts for the future of species-based land-use regulation?(The Wildlife Society, Oregon Chapter, 2011-02-10) Novick, AdamDoes Benton County's recently approved Habitat Conservation Plan address concern that species-based land-use regulation (whether prohibitions or mitigation requirements) might be counterproductive to the survival of maintenance-dependent species on non-federal land? I suggest that despite significant limitations, the plan gives this concern unprecedented recognition, including a promise of some prosecutorial discretion and a recommendation to refine rules implementing the US Endangered Species Act. I discuss what might help the US Fish and Wildlife Service and others do more to address this concern.Item Open Access Educating for Ecological Intelligence: Practices and Challenges(University of Oregon, 2009) Bowers, C. A.Contents: Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Educational Reforms that Foster Ecological Intelligence -- Chapter 3. Educating Students About the Political Economy of the Cultural Commons and the Nature of Sustainable Wealth -- Chapter 4. The Misuse of Academic Freedom in an Era of Global Warming -- Chapter 5. How Computers Contribute to the Enclosure of the Cultural Commons -- Chapter 6. The Leadership Role of Deans in Colleges of EducationItem Open Access Toward a Post-Industrial Consciousness: Understanding the Linguistic Basis of Ecologically Sustainable Educational Reforms(2008) Bowers, C. A.The focus in the following chapters is on the different ways that language, which is now represented in most classrooms from the early grades through graduate school as a conduit in a sender/receiver process of communication, carries forward many of environmentally destructive misconceptions of the past. Each chapter examines, within the context of different discourses, how the layered metaphorical nature of the language/thought connection continues to reinforce the same mindset that underlies a number of key characteristics of Western culture that still are not being addressed—even by environmental thinkers.Item Open Access Transitions: Educational Reforms that Promote Ecological Intelligence or the Assumptions Underlying Modernity?(2008) Bowers, C. A.Table of Contents: Introduction Chapter 1 Conceptual Steps to Ecologically Sustainable Educational Reforms Chapter 2 E. O. Wilsonâ s Drift into Scientism: The Challenge Facing Science Educators Chapter 3 The Environmental Ethic Implicit in Three Theories of Evolution Chapter 4 Why the Lakoff and Johnson Theory of Metaphor Marginalizes the Cultural Issues Related to the Ecological Crises Chapter 5 Revitalizing the Cultural Commons or an Individualized Approach to Planetary Citizenship: The Choice Before Us Chapter 6 The Case Against John Dewey as an Environmental and Eco-Justice Philosopher Chapter 7 Why a Critical Pedagogy of Place is an Oxymoron Chapter 8 The Double Bind of Environmentalists Who Identify Themselves as Liberals Chapter 9 The Real Failure of University Faculty Chapter 10 Rethinking Social Justice Issues Within an Eco-Justice Conceptual and Moral Framework Chapter 11 Suggestions for a State-Wide Approach to Ecologically Sustainable Educational Reforms Chapter 12 What Should be Included in Teacher Education Programs in an Era of Global WarmingItem Open Access University Reform in an Era of Global Warming(2008) Bowers, C. A.Item Open Access Critical Essays on the Enclosure of the Cultural Commons: The Conceptual Foundations of Today’s Mis-Education(Ecojustice Press, 2007) Bowers, C. A.Item Open Access The Willamette Valley: Past and Present(University of Oregon, Environmental Leadership Program, 2007)Item Open Access Item Open Access Educational Reforms that Address the Silences(2007) Bowers, C. A.Item Open Access Expanding the range of regulatory strategies for conserving biodiversity: implications of the Willamette Valley's oak savanna(University of Oregon, Environmental Studies Program, 2006-06) Novick, AdamItem Open Access Growing a Garden of Access, Opportunity and Healing: The Voices of Eugene’s Community Gardens(University of Oregon, Environmental Leadership Program, 2006-03-17) Gordon, EleanorThe land along the Willamette River has undergone many drastic changes over the past 200 years, a silent witness to environmental, social and cultural decisions being made on top. The soil holds buried stories, some deep and others just now being layered upon the surface. In seeking a positive way to study agricultural land use in Eugene the story of the Community Gardens along the river are particularly compelling. What triggered their development? Who do they serve and what are their stories?Item Open Access Bridging the River: A History of Housing Discrimination in Eugene, Oregon(University of Oregon, Environmental Leadership Program, 2006-03-16) Neary, AndrewThe story of Tent City is one of harsh treatment of African Americans who were migrating to Eugene, Oregon in the 1940s. It is a story of descrimination and racism in the West where these issues were not as visible as they were in the South. It is a story of a settlement built of scrap lumber on the muddy floodplain of the Willamette River, held together by a stong sense of community and a faith in a better future. This paper that further develops the story of this community as well as the larger issue of housing descrimination in Eugene at the time.Item Open Access Transforming Environmental Education: Making the Cultural and Environmental Commons the Focus of Educational Reform(Ecojustice Press, 2006) Bowers, C. A.Abstract The primary focus of this book is on the need to integrate environmental education into a more general curriculum that engages students in terms of their daily experiences in their community’s cultural and environmental commons, and in providing them the language necessary for articulating what is being lost as more aspects of their commons are enclosed by market forces. If effect, this book is focused on the pedagogical and curricular reforms that are a necessary part of making the renewal of the cultural and environmental commons a central focus of educational reform. The how-to-do-it discussion of fostering the student’s communicative competence for articulating the difference between a commons-based and market-consumer based experiences introduces examples that would be appropriate in the early grades as well as how courses at the university level need to be refocused in order to clarify how the development of different disciplines contributed to the marginalization and silences that now characterize most North American’s relationships with the commons. The emphasis on pedagogical and curricular reforms are set against a background discussion of how such terms as the environment and environmental education are now being politically contested, as well as against the background of economic globalization, and the rapid rate of global warming and other changes in natural systems—such as the changes in the chemistry of the world’s oceans. The book can also be seen as laying out an approach to educational reform that makes the renewing of the cultural and environmental commons the responsibility of classroom teachers and university professors across the disciplines. Content: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Understanding the Cultural and Environmental Commons Chapter 3. Integrating Environmental Education into Commons Education Chapter 4: Teaching Sustainable Cultural Assumptions Chapter 5: The Classroom Practice of Commons Education Chapter 6: The Political Context of Commons Education Chapter 7: Toward Culturally Grounded Approaches to Teaching and Learning Afterword: A Case of Linguistic Complicity: How the Formulaic Thinking of George Lakoff Supports the Market Liberal’s Agenda of Enclosing What Remains of the CommonsItem Open Access Restoration Stewardship Project : web site(University of Oregon, Environmental Leadership Program, 2006) University of Oregon. Environmental Leadership ProgramItem Open Access A Bridge Story(University of Oregon, Environmental Leadership Program, 2006) Macphee, SaraThis is the story of one musician's connection to the Willamette River.