Environmental Studies Faculty Research
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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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 University Reform in an Era of Global Warming(2008) Bowers, C. A.Item Open Access Educational Reforms that Address the Silences(2007) Bowers, C. A.Item Open Access 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 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 Renewing the Commons: University Reform in an Era of Degraded Democracy and Environmental Crises(Ecojustice Press, 2006) Bowers, C. A.Abstract What is Unique About the Themes Addressed in the Book: The initial question that prompted the writing of this book was: What is there about an American university education that enables so many graduates to make the seemingly seamless transition from the classroom to becoming advisors and supporters of President George W. Bush’s policies? Further investigation led to an examination of the three main themes that set this manuscript off from other critiques of the policies of President Bush. First, the entire analysis, as well as recommendations for reforming universities, address how the current misuse of our two most prominent political terms of liberalism and conservatism leads to a basic misunderstanding of the policies that are being pursued under these two labels. I point out that the domestic and foreign policies of the Bush administration, as well as such think tanks as the CATO and American Enterprise Institutes, are based on the market-liberal thinking of John Locke, a partial reading of Adam Smith, and more recent libertarian thinkers. Thus, to refer to the policies that give corporations a greater influence over legislation in the areas of health care, energy, and the role-back of environmental protection as examples of conservatism is a problem that has its roots in the failure of universities to expose students to the history of conservative thinkers from Edmund Burke to Wendell Berry, and to the history of liberal thinkers from Locke, Smith, and Mill to current libertarians. I also provide an explanation of how the misuse of our political labels leads self-identified conservative students not to understand that they are actually proponents of market-liberal policies, and that many of their professors are in the social justice tradition of liberalisms—and that both share a number of the deep cultural assumptions that give conceptual direction and moral legitimacy to the industrial/consumer culture that is now being globalized. The failure of social justice liberal faculty is in not introducing students to the history of liberal and conservative thinkers in the West, thus leaving most university graduates without an understanding of what separates the classical liberal theorists from the philosophic conservative thinkers such as Edmund Burke and environmental conservatives such as Wendell Berry and Vandana Shiva. The irony is that the ideas of Burke and Berry are essential to understanding the importance of revitalizing the world’s diverse cultural commons as ecologically sustainable alternatives to the hyper-consumerism promoted by market liberals. The second theme is that the fundamentalist Christians that are part of the president's base of political support hold the view that they know the will of God and that their political mission is to be "God's regents" until the Second Coming. Their theology, which is not shared by evangelical Christians such as Jim Wallis, leads them to adopt a friend/enemy approach to politics that contributes to undermining what remains of the traditions that support a democratic, open, pluralistic society that is able to move forward through compromise and negotiation. I also point out that conserving the traditions of separation of church and state, an independent judiciary, the separation of power between the main branches of government, is not part of the political agenda of these fundamentalists who now number in the millions. I also point out how the fundamental Christians view the destruction of the environment as yet another sign that the rapture and the end-of-time is near. As self-identified liberals are not comfortable using the language of conservatism, they continue to emphasize the importance of the autonomous individual and of representing change as progressive in nature. Consequently they are not speaking out on the importance of conserving the traditions that are the basis of our civil liberties and the social justice issues that are still to be addressed. Thus, they are caught in a linguistic double bind. An example of this linguistic double bind is George Lakoff’s reference to “progressive environmentalism.” The third theme is the need for educational reforms that address what university students need to know about the nature and importance of the cultural and environmental commons (aspects of the culture and environment that have not been monetized and incorporated into the industrial and consumer-dependent culture). A knowledge of how the world’s diverse cultural commons represent sites of resistance to the further spread of a market economy that leaves increasing numbers of people in America vulnerable to the loss of jobs, of health benefits, and of pensions takes on special importance today. What remains of the world's diverse cultural and environmental commons (and they still exist across American, even in urban areas) hold out the possibilities of a more communitycentered existence that involves reliance on intergenerational knowledge and skills that lead to mentoring, mutual support systems, and self-reliant activities that reduce dependence upon a money economy. The manuscript contains a chapter that explains how courses in existing disciplines can be used to help students understand why the importance of the intergenerational knowledge was marginalized by Western philosophers, the history of cultural forces that have contributed to the enclosure of the commons, how different technologies impact the commons, the economics and environmental impact of the cultural commons, and the connections between conserving the linguistic diversity of the cultural commons and conserving habitats and species. The last chapter examines the similarities between the theocracy/market-liberal oriented policies and the characteristics of fascist societies that came to power through a weakened democratic process between the two world wars. While we are not there yet, the nearly forty percent of hard-core Bush supporters, as well as the nearly fifty percent of adults that think that evolution is a liberal-inspired myth suggest that we are further down the slippery slope than many people realize. If we continue to move down this slippery political slope, the future of the environmental movement will be further weakened. Indeed, any major environmental crisis, such as the topping out of oil production and its subsequent decline, may lead to the kind of social unrest that preceded the rise of earlier fascist governments. Table of Content: Preface Chapter 1 The Convergence of Crises: Challenges Facing Higher Education Chapter 2 The Anti-Democratic and Anti-Social Justice Record of Powerful University Graduates Chapter 3 How Liberal Faculty are Complicit in the Education of President George W. Bush’s Political Base (At first glance this may seem an outrageous claim. Reading the short piece on my website that has been incorporated into this chapter, and that is titled the “real failure of liberal faculty”, will clarify the basis for the claim…) Chapter 4 The Role of Education in the Anti-Democratic End-game of the Christian Right Chapter 5 Revitalizing the Commons as the Focus for Reforming Universities Chapter 6 The Slippery Slope: Will We be too Late in Recognizing Where It Leads? Chapter 7 Disillusionment and Resistance: Will it be Enough? Notes