<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<big><br>
NCEAS had a busy and productive summer. Following is a quick
update on our summer activities, newly funded Working Groups, news
about recent science publications, and three open career
opportunities with NCEAS. We are looking forward to seeing many
of you in the upcoming Working Group meetings-<br>
<br>
All the best, <br>
LeeAnne<br>
</big><br>
<br>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<p><big><big><b>NCEAS ACTIVITIES</b></big></big><br>
</p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/OSS"><font
color="#3366ff"><u><big><b>NCEAS and RENCI</b><b> provide
bi-coastal training for early career scientists </b></big></u></font></a><br>
<br>
</p>
<p><img alt="" src="cid:part2.04000105.00070403@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="float: left; height: 111px; width: 120px;"></p>
<p>UCSB's NCEAS and University of North Carolina’s Renaissance
Computing Institute (<a href="http://www.renci.org/"
moz-do-not-send="true">RENCI</a>) offered a unique bi-coastal
training, <a href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/OSS"
moz-do-not-send="true">Open Science for Synthesis (OSS)</a>, for
early career scientists who looking to learn new software and
technology skills needed for open, collaborative, and reproducible
synthesis research. Following a competitive application process, <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/open-science-synthesis-announcing-2014-program-participants">45
participants</a> chosen for the intensive training workshop.
This year the OSS workshops were be held in both Santa Barbara, CA
and Chapel Hill, NC from July 21 - August 8, 2014. During this
three-week bi-coastal training, OSS participants receives hands-on
guided experience from <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/OSS#Instructors"
moz-do-not-send="true">a dynamic group of instructors</a>
assembled to provide for a mixture of instructive lectures,
discussions forums, exercises, and an opportunity to apply new
skills in real world collaborative group synthesis research
projects.</p>
<br>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><span class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/first-open-science-codefest-success">First
Open Science Codefest a Success<br>
</a></h3>
</div>
</span>
<div class="views-row views-row-6 views-row-even">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content"></span></div>
<div class="views-field views-field-body">
<div class="field-content">
<p><img alt=""
src="cid:part8.02000603.01050700@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="width: 120px; height: 114px; margin: 6px; float:
left;"></p>
<div class="rteindent4">
<p><br>
From September 2 to 4, more than 70 scientists from all
over the world gathered in Santa Barbara for the
first-ever <a
href="http://nceas.github.io/open-science-codefest/"><em>Open
Science Codefest</em></a>. OSCodefest brought together
computer programmers and environmental scientists who
typically work in isolation to collaborate, problem solve,
code, and share skills. This conference was organized to
stimulate productivity and community building, while
providing ample opportunities for collaborative coding and
design sessions. By the conclusion of the meeting, over 20
breakout sessions had been completed, and these new
collaborations for skill-sharing and product generation
will continue long beyond OSCodefest. <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/first-open-science-codefest-success">More></a></p>
</div>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="views-row views-row-7 views-row-odd">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<hr width="85%"></div>
</span></div>
</div>
<div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<h3 align="left"><big>NEW</big><big> NCEAS </big><span
class="field-content"></span><big>WORKING GROUPS<br>
</big></h3>
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/snap-announces-four-new-working-groups">SNAP
announces four new Working Groups<br>
<br>
</a></h3>
</div>
</span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-body">
<div class="field-content">
<p><img alt=""
src="cid:part12.07000202.00020802@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="width: 120px; height: 34px; margin: 6px; float:
left;"></p>
<div class="rteindent4">
<p>SNAP: Science for People and Nature announces the
addition of four new Working Groups to its growing
portfolio of solution-oriented scientific inquiries – from
exploring how video games could overturn entrenched
perceptions about climate change to using evidence-based
conservation to make the right decisions for people and
nature. The four new working groups are:</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<ul>
<li> <a
href="http://www.snap.is/groups/evidence-based-conservation/">Evidence-Based
Conservation: Making the Right Decisions for
People and Nature </a></li>
<li> <a
href="http://www.snap.is/groups/forest-sharing-or-sparing/">Forest
Sharing or Sparing: Maintaining Timber
Production While Improving Outcomes for Carbon,
Conservation and Water</a></li>
<li> <a
href="http://www.snap.is/groups/gaming-the-future-of-climate-communications/">Gaming
the Future of Climate Communications: Can Video
Games Succeed Where Traditional Climate
Communications Have Failed?</a></li>
<li> <a
href="http://www.snap.is/groups/fisheries-measures/">Fisheries
Measures: Measuring the Status of Fisheries and
Factors Leading to Success</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p> <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/snap-announces-four-new-working-groups">More></a></p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<hr width="85%">
<h3><small><span class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/announcing-two-new-gulf-alaska-working-groups">NCEAS
launches two new Gulf of Alaska Working Groups</a></h3>
</div>
</span></small><span class="field-content">
<p><img alt=""
src="cid:part19.00010904.02090900@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="width: 120px; height: 111px; margin: 6px;
float: left;"></p>
</span></h3>
<div class="views-field views-field-body">
<div class="field-content">
<div align="left"><br>
A quarter of a century after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil
spill in the Gulf of Alaska, NCEAS collaborated with
investigators from <a
href="http://www.gulfwatchalaska.org/">Gulf Watch
Alaska</a> and the <a
href="http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/index.cfm?FA=projects.herringResearch">Herring
Research and Monitoring</a> program to gather all
the data collected on the ecological ramifications of
the spill overtime. Now, two new NCEAS Working Groups
have been selected to use this collated data to
conduct long-term synthesis analyzes of the region to
gain new insights on the impacts oil has on biological
diversity, ecosystems, human communities, and their
ability to recover. <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/announcing-two-new-gulf-alaska-working-groups">More></a>
</div>
<div class="rteindent4">
<p> </p>
<div> </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="views-row views-row-5 views-row-odd">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<hr width="85%"></div>
</span></div>
</div>
<h3 align="left"><big>NCEAS NEWS</big></h3>
<p>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
</p>
<div class="rteindent4">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<h3 align="center"><img alt=""
data-cke-saved-src="/files/DSC_2856%20copy.JPG"
src="cid:part23.04020505.01090409@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="width: 120px; height: 180px; border-width: 0px;
border-style: solid; margin: 6px; float: left;"><small><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/coral-reef-winners-and-losers"><big>Coral
Reef Winners and Losers</big></a></small><br>
</h3>
<div align="left">Contrary to the popular research-based
assumption that our world's coral reefs are "doomed," a
new longitudinal study from <span
data-scayt_word="NCEAS" data-scaytid="3">NCEAS</span>
paints a brighter picture of how corals will fair in the
future. While there will be winners and losers among
coral species with increasing natural and anthropogenic
stressors, experts now believe a subset of the present
coral fauna will likely populate the world's oceans as
water temperatures continue to rise, at least over the
next century. The results were published on October 1,
2014 in <i><span data-scayt_word="PLOS"
data-scaytid="4">PLOS</span></i><i> ONE</i>. <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/coral-reef-winners-and-losers">More></a><br>
</div>
</div>
<p><br>
</p>
<hr size="2" width="100%">
<p><br>
</p>
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/ocean-health-index-hits-new-milestones">The
Ocean Health Index hits new milestones</a></h3>
</div>
</span> </div>
<br>
<div class="views-field views-field-body">
<div class="field-content">
<p><img alt="" p=""
src="cid:part27.07030106.01090805@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="width: 120px; height: 120px; float: left;
margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px;"></p>
<div class="rteindent4"> <strong><em> First assessments
for Antarctica, Southern Ocean and the High Seas Ocean</em></strong><strong><em><br>
Most comprehensive Ocean Health score – Global
Oceans score of 67 out of 100</em></strong><strong><em></em></strong>
<p>The third annual update from the Ocean Health Index, a
partnership led by scientists from UC Santa Barbara's
NCEAS and <a
href="http://www.conservation.org/Pages/default.aspx">Conservation
International</a>, is the first to include scores for
Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (72 out of 100*) and the
15 ocean regions beyond national jurisdiction (67 out of
100 for the high seas areas). Together with the 220
Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) measured in 2012 and 2013,
the Index now measures all of the oceans on planet Earth.
<a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/ocean-health-index-hits-new-milestones">More></a></p>
</div>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<hr width="85%">
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/new-pnas-functional-trait-space-and-latitudinal-diversity-gradient">New
in PNAS: Functional trait space and the latitudinal
diversity gradient</a></h3>
</div>
</span> </div>
<br>
<div class="views-field views-field-body">
<div class="field-content">
<p><img alt=""
src="cid:part31.03090507.06050904@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="width: 120px; height: 47px; margin: 15px 6px;
float: left;"></p>
<div class="rteindent4">
<p>Understanding the causes of species richness across the
latitudinal gradient is still elusive. The Botanical
Information and Ecology Network (BIEN) Working Group at
NCEAS compared a range of ecological theories for
explaining biodiversity, such as neutral dynamics,
competitive exclusion, and environmental filtering, for
how well these predict functional diversity at varying
scales. They found that patterns of functional trait
diversity are not consistent with any one theory of
biodiversity. These conflicting results indicate that no
single biodiversity theory considered alone is able to
explain the latitudinal gradient of species diversity in
terms of functional trait space. <a
href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/38/13745.abstract">The
findings</a> of this analysis recently appeared in <i>Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)</i>.<a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/new-pnas-functional-trait-space-and-latitudinal-diversity-gradient">
More></a></p>
</div>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span class="field-content"></span>
<div class="views-row views-row-5 views-row-odd">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<hr width="85%">
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/survival-strategies-coral-reefs">Survival
Strategies: Coral Reefs</a></h3>
</div>
</span></div>
</div>
<div class="views-row views-row-7 views-row-odd">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content"></span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-created"> <span
class="field-content"><br>
</span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-body">
<div class="field-content">
<div> <img alt=""
src="cid:part35.05030804.09090201@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="width: 120px; height: 90px; margin: 6px; float:
left;">
<div class="rteindent4"> <br>
Corals species respond differently to disturbances in
terms of growth and recovery rate. Based on the results of
a NCEAS Working Group, scientists now know that corals
reduce each others’ abundance in good times, and in
tougher times with more disturbance, they can help each
other persist by reducing the chance that algae takes over
a coral reef. The results were published in<em> The
American Naturalist</em>. <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/survival-strategies-coral-reefs">More></a>
<div> </div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="views-row views-row-8 views-row-even">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<hr width="85%">
<div align="left"><big><big><b><br>
NEW CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AT NCEAS</b></big></big><br>
</div>
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/new-opportunity-join-nceas-team-scientific-programmeranalyst">Opportunity
to join the NCEAS Team: Scientific Programmer/Analyst<br>
<br>
</a></h3>
</div>
</span> </div>
<div class="views-field views-field-body">
<div class="field-content">
<p><img alt=""
src="cid:part2.04000105.00070403@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="float: left;" height="111" width="123"></p>
<div class="rteindent4">
<p>NCEAS seeks a Scientific Programmer/Analyst (Computer and
Network Technologist III) to consult with and advise NCEAS
researchers on efficient, appropriate, and powerful
computational and informatics approaches for advancing
scientific investigations. The Scientific
Programmer/Analyst will develop, test, and support
analyses and informatics products using best-of-class and
open-science inspired technologies. The ideal candidate
will give formal instruction, as well as ad hoc assistance
in the use of these cutting edge solutions. The Scientific
Programmer/Analyst works with NCEAS developers and
cyber-infrastructure collaborators to optimize
interoperability and long-term sustainability of these
codebases and datasets as generalized resources for
ecological and conservation science researchers. <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/new-opportunity-join-nceas-team-scientific-programmeranalyst">More></a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span class="field-content">
<div align="center"><br>
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/nceas-seeks-postdoctoral-associates-gulf-alaska-long-term-synthesis">NCEAS
seeks Postdoctoral Associates for Gulf of Alaska long term
synthesis</a></h3>
</div>
</span><br>
<div class="views-field views-field-body">
<div class="field-content">
<p><img alt="" src="cid:part41.05020401.02020701@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="width: 87px; height: 80px; margin-left: 10px;
margin-right: 10px; float: left;"></p>
<div class="rteindent4"> NCEAS has collaborated with
investigators from Gulf Watch Alaska and the Herring Research
and Monitoring program to collate historical data from a
quarter century of monitoring studies on physical and
biological systems impacted by the Exxon Valdez Oil spill.
NCEAS now seeks<strong> </strong>a<strong> Postdoctoral
Associate </strong>to conduct synthesis research for the
Gulf of Alaska while in residence at NCEAS for two years
starting Fall/Winter 2014. Successful candidates will utilize
data gathered by NCEAS, along with other existing information,
to conduct and publish holistic synthesis and analyses of
driving processes and perturbations within complex ecosystem
of the Gulf of Alaska. Postdoctoral Associates will pursue
their own independent synthesis of the available Gulf of
Alaska data while also collaborating with two Gulf of Alaska
long-term synthesis Working Groups. <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/content/postdoctoral-associates-long-term-synthesis-within-gulf-alaska">More></a></div>
<p>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
</p>
<span class="field-content">
<div align="center"><br>
<h3><a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/nceas-seeks-postdoctoral-associates-gulf-alaska-long-term-synthesis">UCSB
searches for a new NCEAS Director of Development <br>
</a></h3>
</div>
</span>
<p><img alt="" src="cid:part2.04000105.00070403@nceas.ucsb.edu"
style="float: left;" height="111" width="123"></p>
<br>
UC Santa Barbara seeks a dynamic and charismatic leader as
Director of Development (Director) for National Center for
Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS). As the leader for
NCEAS fundraising, the Director directs and manages a complex
and ambitious fundraising program, leads and oversees all levels
of fundraising activities and provides vision and strategic
counsel to the NCEAS Director, as well as other campus leaders
and the Foundation. Desired qualifications and characteristics
for the Director of Development can be found at <a
href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/files/UCSB%20NCEAS%20Director%20of%20Development.pdf">NCEAS
Director of Development.pdf</a>.
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="views-row views-row-6 views-row-even">
<div class="views-field views-field-title"><span
class="field-content">
<div align="center">
<hr width="85%"></div>
</span></div>
</div>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
LeeAnne French, MESM
Associate Director of Communication and Outreach
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
University of California, Santa Barbara
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:French@nceas.ucsb.edu">French@nceas.ucsb.edu</a>
805-893-7551
</pre>
</body>
</html>