Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies Department University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 e-mail: zavaleta@ucsc.edu phone: (831) 459-5011 fax:      (831) 459-4015

I study community and ecosystem ecology with emphasis on the consequences of changing biological diversity, and the link between ecological condition and human well-being.  My research spans ecosystems from boreal forest to temperate grassland to subtropical islands. Recent and current projects include California grassland responses to climate and atmospheric changes; influences of plant community structure and diversity on susceptibility to biological invasions; wildfire effects on the provision of ecosystem services in rural Alaska; barriers to California oak regeneration; and island ecosystem responses to the removal of exotic mammals.  In much of my work, I strive to bridge ecological theory and research to sound conservation and management practice. To that end, my research incorporates collaboration with conservation practitioners and elements of economics, public policy, and anthropology.  Click here to for a list of selected publications.

I welcome students interested a range of ecological and interdisciplinary topics related to my research.  Click here to meet the members of the lab.  I expect to admit one new Ph.D. student in fall 2008.  Prospective applicants should read about my mentoring approach and contact me directly with a letter describing research and career goals, unofficial academic transcripts, GRE scores (if available), and a detailed CV including two or more references.  Please visit the graduate program page on my department's web site for program, deadline and application details. 

Links

Graduate students

Kris Hulvey Community and ecosystem consequences of biodiversity loss; impact of native plant population declines in California grasslands; ecological extinction thresholds; biological invasions and their management. For my dissertation, I am asking how shifts in native species abundances affect the ability of California grasslands to resist the impacts of exotic invaders.  My current work looks at the competitive interaction of the native tarweed, Hemizonia congesta subs. luzulifolia, with yellow starthistle, a noxious weed.

Joanna Nelson Fire- and climate-mediated effects on subsistence resources in the boreal forest of Alaska; collaborations between scientific research-based and local knowledge-based systems. Other interests: structuring interdisciplinary teaching and learning, terrestrial-marine interactions in coastal ecosystems of central California and environmental decision-making, resilience and vulnerability of humans-in-ecosystems.
Jae Pasari I'm interested in the causes and consequences of biodiversity changes, ecosystem service quantification and valuation, landscape epidemiology, conservation education,and environmental framing. I also research the effect of research on researchers.
Blair McLaughlin Biogeochemistry and ecology; nutrient subsidies across systems; anthropogenic impacts on nutrient cycling; climate change, biodiversity and human vulnerability; dendroecology; stable isotope analysis; political ecology. My dissertation work explores the historic and current impacts of Pacific salmon and grizzly bears on riparian forests, through tree ring and stable isotope analysis and remote sensing in California and Alaska.  I am also examining impacts of Euro-American settlement on early California landscapes, and how shifts in market structures influenced declines of California fisheries, the extirpation of the California Grizzly, and nitrogen cycling in riparian forests.
Pete Holloran (major advisor: Daniel Press) When should eradication of an invasive plant species be pursued rather than containment or control? In my research, I am characterizing the biological, economic, and political factors that shape: 1) when invasive plant eradication is attempted 2) whether eradication efforts then succeed or fail.  I am examining case studies in the western United States and New Zealand.

Education and Training

B.A. Dept. of Anthropology, Stanford University
M.A. Dept. of Anthropology, Stanford University
Ph.D. Dept. of Biological Sciences, Stanford University
Postdoc   Smith Fellows Program, The Nature Conservancy and University of California-Berkeley
Sabbatical (2005-06)   Staff Ecologist, The Christensen Fund

Selected Publications

          E. S. Zavaleta, K. Hulvey, and B. Fulfrost (2007).  Regional patterns of recruitment success and failure in             two endemic California oaks.  Diversity and Distributions in press.

Zavaleta, E.S., and K. Hulvey (2007).  Realistic variation in species composition affects grassland production, resource use and invasion resistance. Plant Ecology 188: 39-51. PDF

F. Stuart Chapin, III, Amy L. Lovecraft, Erika S. Zavaleta, Joanna Nelson, Martin D. Robards, Gary P. Kofinas, Sarah F. Trainor, Garry Peterson, Henry P. Huntington, and Rosamond L. Naylor (2006). Policy strategies to address sustainability of Alaskan boreal forests in response to a directionally changing climate.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(45): 16637-16643. PDF

Zavaleta, E. S and L. S. Kettley (2006).  Ecosystem change along a woody invasion chronosequence in a California annual grassland. J. Arid Environments 66: 290-306. PDF

Kueppers, L. M., M. A Snyder, L. C. Sloan, E. S. Zavaleta, B. Fulfrost (2005).  Modeled regional climate change and California endemic oak ranges.  Proceedings of the National of Academy of Sciences 102: 16281-16286.  PDF

Zavaleta, E. S. and K. B. Hulvey (2004).  Realistic species losses disproportionately reduce grassland resistance to biological invaders.  Science 306:1175-1177. PDF

Zavaleta, E. S., M. R. Shaw, N. R. Chiariello, B. D. Thomas, E. E. Cleland, C. B. Field, H. A. Mooney (2003). Responses of a California grassland community to three years of experimental climate change, elevated CO₂, and N deposition.  Ecological Monographs 73(4): 585-604. PDF

Zavaleta, E. S., B. D. Thomas, N. R. Chiariello, G. P. Asner, and C. B. Field (2003).  Plants reverse warming effect on ecosystem water balance.  Proceedings of the National of Academy of Sciences 100: 9892-9893. PDF

Zavaleta, E. S., M. R. Shaw, Nona R. Chiariello, Harold A. Mooney,  and C. B. Field (2003).  Additive effects of simulated climate changes, elevated CO₂, and nitrogen deposition on grassland diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100: 7650-7654. PDF

F. Stuart Chapin, III, T. Scott Rupp, Anthony M. Starfield, La-ona DeWilde, Erika S. Zavaleta, Nancy Fresco, Jonathon Henkelman, and A. David McGuire (2003).  Planning for resilience: modeling change in human-fire interactions in the Alaskan boreal forest. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1(5): 255-261.

M. R. Shaw, E. S. Zavaleta, N. R. Chiariello, E.E. Cleland, H. A. Mooney, C. B. Field (2002).  Grassland Responses to Global Environmental Changes Suppressed by Elevated CO₂. Science 298: 1987-90. PDF

Zavaleta, E. S. (2002). It's often better to eradicate, but can we eradicate better? Pp. 393-404 in C. R. Veitch and M. N. Clout (Eds.) Turning the Tide: The Eradication of Invasive Species.  Gland, Switzerland: The World Conservation Union (IUCN)

Zavaleta, E. S., R. Hobbs, and H. Mooney (2001).  Viewing invasive species removal in a whole-ecosystem context.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 16(8): 454-459. PDF

Zavaleta, E. S. and J. R. Royval (2001).  Climate Change and the Susceptibility of U.S. Ecosystems to Biological Invasions: Two Cases of Expected Range Expansion. Pp. 277-342 in S. H. Schneider and T. L. Root (Eds.) Wildlife Responses to Climate Change: U.S. Case Studies. Washington: Island Press. 

Zavaleta, E. S. (2000).  The economic value of controlling an invasive shrub.  Ambio 29(8): 462-67. PDF

Chapin, F. S. III, E. S. Zavaleta, V. T. Eviner, R. L. Naylor, P. M. Vitousek, O. E. Sala, H. L. Reynolds, D. U. Hooper, M. Mack, S. E. Diaz, S. E. Hobbie, and S. Lavorel (2000).  Consequences of changing biodiversity.  Nature 405: 234-242. PDF

Zavaleta, E. (1999).  The emergence of waterfowl conservation among Yup’ik hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska.  Human Ecology 27(2): 231-266.