Nathan Lin Rose Hills
Diversity of Ground-Dwelling Beetles in the San Vicente Redwoods
The increasing threat of devastating wildfires in California has sparked interest in improving forest management, initiating work with indigenous tribes to integrate traditional knowledge with modern practices such as prescribed burning and mechanical fuel reduction. The efficacy of these techniques has previously been studied, but less is known about their effects on invertebrate communities. To address this, the Will lab has an ongoing, 4-year sampling project in the San Vicente Redwoods, studying how ground-dwelling arthropods are affected by different levels of mechanical treatment. I will characterize the beetle community in the control year and compare diversity between sampling plots, which will serve as a baseline for future work with these samples. Beyond that, my project will provide an assessment of beetle diversity in the San Vicente Redwoods, generate a set of voucher specimens valuable for future entomological research, and inform future wildfire-risk control efforts.
Message To Sponsor
Thank you so much! This project is a very meaningful culmination of many of the classes I have taken and experiences I have had at Berkeley, and it will help to hone my insect identification and ecological analysis skills, which will be invaluable in my career aspirations in entomology research! I am so incredibly excited for the summer!