Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration

Lupinus nipomensis, the Nipomo lupine, is an endangered plant species faced with an alarming vulnerability to extinction from invasive species, habitat fragmentation, and variable abiotic factors. In Munz's 1963, The California Flora, Nipomo lupine was determined to be a divergent population of Bajada lupine (Lupinus concinnus), creating uncertainty about the species resolution to the present day, despite documented differences in habitat, geographic distribution, and morphology. Furthermore, the taxonomic ambiguity surrounding Nipomo lupine has hindered conservation efforts. Here, we provide phylogenetic evidence to demonstrate that Lupinus nipomensis is a clearly circumscribed species and separate lineage from other clades, particularly Lupinus concinnus.

Presented at the 2026 URCA Week Poster Colloquium, a platform for students from various disciplines to present their research findings and creative projects to the university community and beyond.

Understanding trophic interactions helps reveal how energy and nutrients move through ecosystems and provides insight into the ecological effects of habitat restoration. This study examined potential feeding relationships between birds and aquatic prey at North Campus Open Space (NCOS), a restored wetland. I constructed two trophic networks representing bird interactions with aquatic prey: one for aquatic invertebrates and one for aquatic vertebrates. I based these networks on bird and prey species recorded in monitoring datasets at NCOS and compiled trophic links through a literature review of documented avian diets. Highly connected prey groups included Chironomidae (midges) and small fish, suggesting that these two prey groups may function as key shared resources for birds at NCOS. Although these networks represent potential rather than directly observed interactions, they provide insight into the structure of avian-aquatic food webs and support future restoration efforts at NCOS.

This poster was presented at the 2026 UCSB Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Poster Colloquium on 13 May, 2026.

The restoration of the estuary and surrounding upland habitats of UCSB’s North Campus Open Space (NCOS) successfully reintroduced tidal flow and many plant communities to the site, facilitating faunal recovery. As in many other restoration projects, monitoring data has been collected and reported but lacks comprehensive analysis. Here, I leveraged eight years of monthly bird survey data to study how bird assemblages have changed, with a focus on the most consistently detected avian species. Moreover, to understand bird population trends and community composition shifts, I used Bayesian General Linear Mixed Models and Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling, respectively. The changes in these metrics provide insight into the effect of the NCOS restoration, evaluating its positive or negative results for individual species and their ecological functions.

This poster was presented at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Poster Colloquium on May 13, 2026.

Regionally threatened Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) rely on open habitats with suitable burrows and prey. Dangermond Preserve is potentially the best remaining example of this in Santa Barbara County, and understanding owl diets and their spatial variation can guide targeted habitat management to support owl populations. We expected Burrowing Owl diets at this preserve to have a lower proportion of invertebrate prey compared to previously documented diets at a smaller recently disturbed restoration site. We analyzed the contents of 25 intact owl pellets collected from mapped burrows and determined the minimum number of individual prey based on vertebrate and invertebrate remains. Results show earwigs; ground beetles; California voles; and grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets occurring in the majority of pellets, and proportions across the sites indicate less of a reliance on invertebrate prey in Dangermond than the smaller restoration site. With these diverse prey, we can understand the effects a less overturned site may have on burrowing owls' diets, therefore informing restoration decisions going forward.

This poster was presented at the 2026 UCSB Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Poster Colloquium on 13 May, 2026.

Faunal communities are increasingly recognized as indicators of wetland restoration progress, yet studies linking waterbirds and their aquatic invertebrate prey at the habitat scale is sparse. At UCSB, the Cheadle Center manages a large coastal wetland project - the North Campus Open Spaced (NCOS) - in which waterbird use is spatially uneven. This raises the question: how are bird assemblages using specific habitats related to the aquatic invertebrate prey available in those areas? Monthly waterbird survey data and quarterly aquatic invertebrate sampling were combined with known diet relationships from the literature to build trophic networks across four distinct habitat zones: the main Devereux Slough channel and mudflats, Phelps Creek confluence, constructed freshwater ponds, and seasonal vernal pools.

Results reveal differences in both trophic structure and species composition across all zones. The slough supports the greatest waterbird diversity at NCOS, and species overlap across all four zones is high. No habitat beyond vernal pools hosts an exclusively unique species, and even there, only the Wilson's Snipe is recorded nowhere else at NCOS. Trophic networks reinforce this pattern. The slough sees a dense, generalist-dominated network of 25 waterbird species for nine invertebrate taxa. The Phelps confluence shows a more divided network in which rails and Willet specialize on Oligochaeta, potentially reflecting a reduction in interspecies competition with generalists at this unique saline-freshwater junction. Food web structure, not just water presence, shapes waterbird habitat use. Restoration efforts that adopt a fine-scale habitat monitoring practice can capture ecologically meaningful variations that broad, site-level surveys will miss.

This poster was presented at the 2026 UCSB Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Poster Colloquium on 13 May, 2026.

The New Zealand mudsnail (NZMS, Potamopyrgus antipodarum) is a globally widespread aquatic invader tolerant of diverse environmental conditions. Since detection in the Snake River, ID, NZMS has spread to numerous watersheds across the western United States. eDNA sampling in 2022 detected the species in North Campus Open Space (NCOS), a coastal estuary under restoration in Goleta, CA; presence was later verified through hand sampling. This study examines local population dynamics to assess invasion status and spread within NCOS. I used data from quarterly benthic sweep-net sampling and water-quality measurements to assess species distribution and density across sites. NZMS occurred across a wide range of water-quality conditions. Spatial patterns suggest entry via freshwater inlets, with dense populations at Phelps Creek and sparse or absent populations elsewhere. Continued monitoring is needed to evaluate ecological impacts of NZMS invasion in NCOS.

This poster was presented at the Undergraduate Research Poster Colloquium on May 13th, 2026. 

The Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration recently obtained a series of sea sponge samples, including several new species, collected in Santa Barbara County by Dr. Thomas Turner (EEMB Faculty member). These sponges were curated and digitized. The specimens were accessioned into the Cheadle Center's Invertebrate Zoology Collection and their data was published on Ecdysis and made publicly available through Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). There are now over 140 sponges in the Cheadle Center's Collection. A publication for the Biodiversity Data Journal and an article for the Cheadle Center's Newsletter, which will make information about these sponges more accessible, are in progress. This poster was presented at the UCSB Undergraduate Research Colloquium 2026.

Solitary bees represent over 80% of bee biodiversity and a substantial portion of pollinator diversity, yet many species remain overlooked and understudied compared with their social relatives. Most solitary bees nest in the ground and are difficult to rear in captivity, making them especially challenging to study. Here, we evaluate the use of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to track the growth and survival of solitary bee larvae encased in substrate, with the broader goal of understanding overwintering strategies in the ground-nesting bee Melissodes tepidus timberlaki (Apidae). Because these bees develop within enclosed brood cells, traditional observational approaches often require destruction of the cell, limiting repeated observations through time. Micro-CT offers a non-destructive technique that preserves brood cells and enables longitudinal observation of larval development in captivity. Using this method, we assess the feasibility of measuring larval position, body size, survival, developmental stage, and brood cell architecture through time.

This poster was presented at the UCSB Undergraduate Research Colloquium 2026

Bees are among the most diverse and ecologically important pollinators, but climate change is increasing temperature variability that may affect their physiology and performance. One structure likely sensitive to these changes is the flight muscle, which powers flight and supports foraging and pollination. However, the effects of developmental temperature on flight muscle morphology remain poorly understood.      In this study, we investigate how temperature influences flight muscle development in Bombus impatiens. Individuals were reared under three heat treatments simulating environmental temperature variation. High-resolution micro-CT imaging was used to visualize internal anatomy and quantify variation in flight muscle structure.      Understanding how temperature affects flight muscle morphology provides insight into how climate change may influence bee physiology and pollination, and may inform future studies on pollinator resilience and adaptation.

Presented at URCA 2026.

The California Stream Bioassessment Procedure is a standardized procedure used to measure the health of wadeable rivers. It helps identify point and non-point source pollutants based on physical, chemical, and biological properties, such as depth, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and benthic communities. In 2017, a restoration project began on the Devereux Slough in Goleta, Santa Barbara. This project reverted the upper arms of the estuary and its tributaries from their previous use as a golf course back into a natural slough. While the estuary itself has been more heavily monitored, the health of its tributaries has not been equally studied. Therefore, a bioassessment can indicate not only the health of these tributaries, in this case, Phelps Creek, but also the potential impacts on the downstream slough. The preliminary results illustrate that the river's health is marginal. The main sources of concern are the slow flow, high salinity, and lack of benthic diversity.

This poster was presented at the Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (URCA) Symposium and the EEMB Undergraduate Research Symposium 2026.