Hi there! My name is Brent Wilder and I’m a PhD student in the Department of Geosciences at Boise State University where I focus on quantifying changes to seasonal snowpack due to anthropogenic global warming and disturbances such as severe, high elevation wildfires in forested ecosystems. In my research, I use a combination of airborne/helicopter lidar, physics-based modeling, and field spectroscopy to answer research questions relevant to downstream communities and ecosystems. As a Scientist in Parks Fellow at the Cabrillo National Monument, I will be focusing on a totally different form of precipitation – fog! Nestled at the end of the Point Loma peninsula in San Diego, the park is home to several endemic, drought-deciduous plant species that when blooming, make for an absolutely beautiful view. Researchers at the park are interested in installing weather cameras, meteorological stations, and leaf wetness sensors to get a better idea of the role fog plays in plant phenology, especially during the warm spring and summer months when rainfall is sparse. This research will help promote climate adaption strategies at the park by hopefully identifying microrefugia at the park that could be conducive for future native revegetation efforts.
Taro Katayama and I arrived at Cabrillo on May 16th, 2022, with the goal of doing just that! During the first month of my internship we have had the opportunity to work with a lot of different folks at the park to learn about the work being done at Cabrillo. For example, we participated in a Weed Warriors event by the Tide Pools where we learned about the non-native, invasive plants around the park and efforts to mitigate the spread. We also learned about some of the rare, native plants at the park such as Cliff Spurge at the NPS greenhouse. It is our hope that the fog monitoring stations will identify the best spots on the peninsula to replant this one when the time is right. One potential microrefugia is a site we have named “Event Bluff” (coincidently named after the Event Bluff it sits adjacent to). Our supervisor informed us that fog can sometimes be seen funneling up this steep slope upwards. We also used high resolution lidar elevation datasets provided from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to assess covariates such as elevation, slope, slope position, and aspect to inform decision making for our other sites. We constructed a total of four weather stations, each equipped with three leaf wetness sensors. Each of these sensors will measure even the smallest amount of moisture deposited by rain or fog. In the coming weeks we will be installing the stations, along with two trail cameras that will capture time-lapse of fog occurrence for further data validation.
Stay tuned for our next update in July!
