UC Irvine

Climate change is occurring at an unprecedented rate. According to the 2021 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the past five years have been the hottest on record since 1850. As a result, organisms inhabiting Earth must respond and adapt. This includes the smallest of microorganisms to human beings. To ensure that our planet remains a hospitable environment, we must improve our predictions of the impacts of climate change by furthering our knowledge of the biological processes currently in play. In turn, this information can inform policy makers of rules and regulations that must be set in place. All the while, we must address the mental health impacts that can result from studying this grim information so that we can continue to enact positive change. These topics are the focus of this dissertation.As antibiotic resistance is expected to worsen with increasing temperatures, my first chapter elucidates the role of native aquatic bacteria in harboring and disseminating antibiotic resistance genes via mobile genetic elements. This was accomplished by collecting water from an urban environment and isolating a multidrug-resistant strain of Aeromonas veronii. Through plasmid DNA extraction and sequencing, I identified the extended-spectrum β-lactamase gene blaVEB-3 carried on a broad-host-range and conjugative IncA/C plasmid. This highlights the potential of aquatic Aeromonas in transferring antibiotic resistance genes of clinical concern to other species of bacteria. In my second chapter, I examined trade-offs among fungal traits to improve predictions of fungal community responses to climate change. Using the Biolog Filamentous Fungi data, I calculated maximum growth rates of 37 fungal species and compared them to fungal traits from the funfun database. As a result, I identified Fast Growth, Resource Capture, and Blended life history strategies. Ultimately, this information can be incorporated into trait-based ecosystem models to link shifts in fungal communities under climate change to ecosystem feedbacks. My third chapter investigates the mental health impacts that can result when studying climate change topics, known as eco-grief or climate anxiety. I asked how educators may confront feelings of eco-grief in the classroom to foster pro-environmental actions in students. In various biology undergraduate courses at UC Irvine, a pre-survey, eco-grief lesson, and post-survey were administered. While levels of eco-grief did not improve because of the lesson, students did report developing better coping mechanisms. In addition, attitudes and values and environmental behaviors increased from the pre- to post-survey, indicating that feelings of eco-grief did not interfere with students’ ability to take action. Collectively, my dissertation addresses the impacts of climate change at various levels, provides insight towards predicting future changes, and examines methods for educating the next generation of environmentally motivated individuals.