Recipient Organization
California State University, Los Angeles
ORSP/GE 3rd floor
Los Angeles,CA 90032
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Forming a collaborative partnership between Cal-State University Los Angeles and Cal-State University Sacramento, the project focuses on educational training and the study of water and wetlands in the Salton Sea area. The Salton Sea has experienced progressive shrinkage since the late 1990s, posing a hazard to surrounding communities due to playa sediment exposure. These sediments contain inorganic and organic toxins, becoming airborne during dust storms. The emerging playa surfaces also support the development of near-shore wetlands, crucial for sustaining wetland vegetation and integral to local ecosystems supporting pollinators essential for agricultural crops and desert ecosystems. Our project aims to create innovative curriculum modules, integrative teaching methods, and research activities focusing on the availability, chemical quality, and sustainability of water sources and wetlands in the Salton Sea region. Engaging directly with partner organizations, California Audubon and California Department of Water Resources, we will collaborate on strategies for Salton Sea water and wetland sustainability analysis. Engagement with stakeholders will also occur through an annual FAHN Conference featuring a Salton Sea Symposium.In educational initiatives, we will develop new course modules, comprising 1 to 2 lectures in 1 lower division class and 4 upper division classes in hydrology and environmental science. These modules relate to research topics investigated in the Salton Sea. Course cross-fertilization involves faculty guest lectures at participating campuses. The project also includes 5 integrative research projects covering inventories of water sources, modeling groundwater flow, tracking water movement through terrains and across wetlands, and acquiring airborne and drone imagery in Salton Sea to evaluate new and changing vegetation and emerging wetlands. Graduate and undergraduate student students will actively participate in this research.Collaborative efforts with stakeholders involved in the project will involve data sharing and contributing to policy formulation and resource development for the Salton Sea community. The project will provide access to new information forming the basis for hydrologic models, serving as a pivotal planning tool for evaluating the feasibility of water extraction projects for dust suppression and wetland augmentation. This collaborative effort signifies a significant stride toward sustainable environmental management in the Salton Sea region.
Animal Health Component
80%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
80%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
This 3-year partnership between two designated Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) aims to create new educational and research opportunities, fostering an understanding of competitive water availability for wetlands, dust mitigation projects, and agriculture in the Salton Sea area. The specific objectives of the project include: 1) strengthening faculty collaborations in water resources analysis of the Salton Sea area to enhance research and educational capacity at both campuses; 2) providing students with enriching course modules and research experiences under the guidance and mentorship of a core group of faculty with multi-disciplinary research expertise; 3) increasing the number of diverse students pursuing advanced degrees in FANfields, covering arid zone hydrology, watershed and wetlands analysis, hydrologic modeling, and biogeography; 4) exposing a large number of students (>200 per year in the classroom, ~10 per year in mentor-based research) to research and educational activities at each participating campus, offering exposure/training in research practice and methodology, allowing high-achieving students to continue with full funding for year-long thesis research; and 5) developing stakeholder-relevant research and knowledge transfers to improve and inform watershed management in the Salton Sea area, with data and findings exchanged to satisfy dissemination objectives.The project provides interdisciplinary training to bring underrepresented minorities into the FANH workforce and to advance science as it relates to the Salton Sea area. Our education project is constructed as a tiered program, focused on broad student exposure to education related to changing conditions in the Salton Sea area at all levels ranging from lower division undergraduate to graduate student degrees. The overall project will cross-fertilize educational and research activities across the participating disciplines through the tiered approach outlined in this plan. The project includes relevant resource management issues related to the problems in the Salton Sea area, such as climate change, wetlands development and resilience, water availability and quality, and human health impacts through dust suppression. Direct exposure of students to modified and new coursework designed as part of the grant will connect participants from each of the overlapping disciplines at both campuses in a way that allows Salton Sea dynamics to form the core of investigatory and educational efforts. Education will transition to research, where research will be carried out by the principal investigators and their students via undergraduate and graduate directed studies and thesis research. The project includes training modules allowing cross-fertilization across natural sciences and engineering. Faculty will work together to develop, coordinate, and teach educational modules that will attract many students from across both campuses. An annual FAHN conference will be held each year, where information will be exchanged with faculty, students, and stakeholders.The project leverages historical hydrological and environmental isotope data collected by our participating faculty over two decades. Faculty and students will collect new hydrological and environmental data, develop updated hydrological models, and perform quantitative assessments of the hydrological systems in the Salton Sea area, comparing them to historical databases. The research will evaluate how the Salton Sea hydrological systems have responded to natural and human-induced changes, addressing the area's profound impacts. In terms of student experiential learning, comparisons of data in time series offer exceptional stimuli and learning opportunities, fostering academic growth and developing high-quality performing students. The dynamic changes in hydrological systems and ecosystems in the Salton Sea area present an exciting time for research, including rapidly declining lake and aquifer water levels, decreasing ephemeral streamflow, and climate and human-induced changes in water quality. Investigations are crucial now to evaluate system responses to natural and anthropogenic changes, developing contemporary data in the Salton Sea area. The intensive investigatory research and training campaigns aim to advance data and knowledge, exposing a large number of students to Salton Sea issues through curriculum addendums. Participating faculty are enthusiastic about engaging students and stakeholders in this educational and research effort, striving to advance data and knowledge.
Project Methods
The project provides interdisciplinary training to bring underrepresented minorities into the FANH workforce and to advance science as it relates to the Salton Sea area. Our education project is constructed as a tiered program, focused on broad student exposure to education related to changing conditions in the Salton Sea area at all levels ranging from lower division undergraduate to graduate student degrees. The overall project will cross-fertilize educational and research activities across the participating disciplines through the tiered approach outlined in this plan. Direct exposure of students to modified and new coursework designed as part of the grant will connect participants from each of the overlapping disciplines at both campuses in a way that allows Salton Sea dynamics to form the core of investigatory and educational efforts. Education will transition to research, where research will be carried out by the principal investigators and their students via undergraduate and graduate directed studies and thesis research. The project includes training modules allowing cross-fertilization across natural sciences and engineering. An annual FAHN conference will be held each year, where information will be exchanged with faculty, students, and stakeholders. Summary details are provided on these topics.Lower division coursework at Cal State LA serves as the foundational exploration of career paths for students in their early academic programs. Our goal is to provide disciplinary perspectives that intellectually stimulate students, leading to increased recruitment and diversity in our participating degree programs. Additionally, we strive to equip students with practical training in FAHN fields, enabling them to bring newfound knowledge back to their communities.Within our GE program, two 1000-level 3-unit courses, GEOL 1500 - "Earth Revealed" and GEOG 1600 - "Physical Geography," lay the groundwork for students. These GE courses, also integral to our geoscience majors, introduce students to earth science, critical thinking skills, information literacy, and civic engagement related to the earth sciences and climate change. As part of the grant activities, we will adapt and develop course material for one week of coursework within GEOL 1500 and GEOG 1600. This initiative ensures that all enrolled students receive new material on Salton Sea issues. Regularly taught by Dr. Hibbs and Dr. Beland, these classes enroll a large number of students, with about 185 students per year taking GEOL 1500 or GEOG 1600. All students will have direct exposure to Salton Sea issues at the GE level, enriching their educational experience.Modification of existing courses at the upper division/graduate level will introduce topics and training modules directly related to the project. New curriculum will focus on material intended to reach across disciplines to engage students in science and socially relevant areas creating a diverse, and broadly trained learning community.Geology 4840, "Hydrogeology," a 3-unit course offered annually at Cal State LA since 1998, caters to upper-division undergraduate students and graduate students. FAHN topics, such as agricultural salinization, irrigation return flows, and groundwater case studies, are covered. In response to the Salton Sea project, two additional lectures will be incorporated into the course, exploring groundwater hydrology aspects related to the Salton Sea.Geography 4620, "GIS Applications in Environmental Science," is a 4-unit project-based course offered every other year at Cal State LA, focusing on developing technical remote sensing and GIS skills to address environmental issues. Two new lectures and lab activities will be introduced to cover essential remote sensing/GIS techniques applied to hydrology, geomorphology, and ecology questions.Civil Engineering 132, "Groundwater Engineering," is a 3-unit elective course offered annually at Sacramento State, catering to upper-division undergraduate students and graduate students. Taught by Dr. Dokou and other faculty, the course provides an introduction to groundwater principles with a focus on engineering topics. As part of the Salton Sea project, two lectures will be developed, covering topics related to Salton Sea groundwater, surface water, wetland interactions, groundwater availability for dust suppression on exposed playa sediments.Civil Engineering 232, "Groundwater Hydrology," is a 3-unit graduate course offered biennially at Sacramento State, with typical enrollment ranging from 12 to 15 students, and is taught by Dr. Dokou. This advanced groundwater course explores multiple well systems, geostatistics, and the analysis of groundwater flow problems through numerical, physical, and graphical methods. Two lectures will be developed to address Salton Sea groundwater, surface water, wetland interactions, modeling, and water quality issues.Civil Engineering 131, "Hydrology," is a 3-unit upper-division course offered annually at Sacramento State and taught by Dr. Poindexter, with typical enrollment at 35 students. This course introduces surface water hydrology, covering components of the hydrologic cycle such as infiltration and runoff. As part of the Salton Sea project, the water balance module will focus on the Salton Sea area, replacing an existing out-of-state example.The participating faculty will provide guest lectures in these and in other courses where students and faculty will profit from exposure to complementary material.Transitioning to research thrust areas, the research will begin immediately after the grant is awarded and will proceed until and beyond the end of the funding period. Our five research/experiential learning projects include significant technological and modeling components, while others have a heavy field emphasis. Research projects and faculty leads are listed below as projects 1 through 5.Research Project 1. Determining Hydrogeologic and Hydrochemical Inputs to Emerging Wetlands at Bombay Beach, North Shore Salton Sea (Hibbs/Beland)Research Project 2. Hydrochemical Studies of the Niland-Wister Watershed - Wetland Unit: Investigation of Salinity and Trace Element Contrasts due to Agricultural Inputs (Hibbs)Research Project 3. Is Groundwater in the Salton City-Tule Wash Playa Area a Sustainable Source for Dust Suppression?: A Groundwater Age Dating Study (Dokou/Hibbs/Poindexter)Research Project 4. Studying the Complex Interconnections Between Natural and Augmented Recharge and Groundwater Pumping with the Dynamic Changes in Wetland and Open Space Habitat Using Numerical Modeling (Dokou/Hibbs)Research Project 5. The Use of Remote Sensing to Characterize Emergent Wetland Plant Communities, Their Persistence and Geomorphic Setting on the Exposed Playa of the SaltonSea (Beland, Poindexter)Experiential learning and mentoring support for participating students is another important part of our project. The "hook" designed to captivate student interest in the project is rooted in the transformative experience of investigating and assessing changes in hydrological systems and associated ecological systems. This project acts as a catalyst, igniting investigatory questions about hydrological and ecological change in the Salton Sea watersheds.Outreach and engagement based on sharing the research with stakeholder agencies in a final component of our project. Dissemination of our research and education results will be accomplished through a variety of presentations and publications depending upon the audience and the information communicated. Finally, all participating students, faculty, and stakeholders will gather for an Annual FAHN Symposium to exchange knowledge and accomplishments, primarily through oral presentations, poster presentations, round tables, and panels.