FIORENZA MICHELI, a professor of biological sciences, and REBECCA BIRD, an ecological anthropologist, were recently awarded National Science Foundation grants of $1.3 million and $250,000, respectively.

Micheli, an affiliate with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, will study the capacity of natural systems and human communities to adapt to environmental change. Specifically, her project will investigate the impacts of oceanographic variability on coastal marine ecosystems and human communities of the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico.

Bird’s project will measure direct effects of indigenous burning practices on woodlands and low-elevation, mixed forests in the Central Valley, Klamath Mountains and Sierra Nevada and indirect effects of these practices on the availability of wild foods and materials used by indigenous peoples that inhabit the woodlands.

Both research projects got their start with funding from the Woods Institute’s Environmental Venture Projects, seed grants for transformative environmental and sustainability research.

— ROB JORDAN, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment