From earthquakes to early humans to the tiniest wildlife in local canyons, here's what 10 San Diego researchers are studying — and where (2024)

Got a good atlas? You’ll need one to understand just how far-flung San Diego scientists will be this summer when they’re conducting field research.

One scholar is headed for an icy stretch of the North Atlantic off Greenland. Another is traveling to a lush national park in central Brazil. A third will roam through farm country in China.

Some will work closer to home, including spots not far from where they live.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has chosen to introduce you to 10 researchers whose work ranges from literally taking the planet’s temperature to exploring how dolphins communicate.

Rafael Almeida

Geologist, San Diego State University

Argentina’s Mendoza Province isn’t known just for its beloved red wines. Since the mid-1800s, it’s been the site of seven earthquakes that measured from 6.0 to 7.1 in magnitude.

Raphael Almeida with his daughter Nadia in Eucador.

(Courtesy of Raphael Almeida)

Like Southern California residents, the people of Mendoza are well aware they live in a potential danger zone. And Almeida will spend nearly a month there this summer mapping faults.

Such work often involves digging trenches. He won’t need to do that. The province features some deep river canyons whose walls contain specific signs of past quakes.

“Everything is beautifully exposed,” Almeida said. “There are abrupt changes in rock types. This area used to be part of the southern edge of the Pangaea supercontinent. It will help us understand what Pangaea looked like about 250 million years ago.”

Audra Ames

Bioacoustitian, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute

Risso’s dolphins are noisy mammals that make a variety of sounds, from grunts to chirps to clicks. They even whistle.

Ames is trying to figure out whether the whistles are unique sounds they use to identify themselves to other members of their species. Bottlenose dolphins do this — but it’s unclear how widespread it is among marine mammals.

Ames will use hydrophones to record Risso’s dolphins off Pico Island in the Azores, an archipelago off Portugal in the North Atlantic.

“If we can use these whistles to identify specific Risso’s, we’ll be able to follow their movements,” she said. “Recently, there have been fewer Risso’s sightings off Pico. The whistles might help us learn what’s going on.”

Researcher Audra Ames syncing a hydrophone.

(Dr. Karin Hartman)

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Michelle Thompson

Conservation biologist, San Diego Natural History Museum

Urbanization has impinged on some of San Diego County’s hundreds of canyons. But there’s plenty of plant and wildlife to be found. Thompson is cataloging as much as she can for the sake on conservation, bringing a sharp eye to the task.

“We’re looking at plants, we’re looking at insects, we’re looking at arachnids, we’re looking at reptiles, we’re looking at birds, we’re looking at bats, we’re looking at large mammals, we’re looking at small mammals,” she said.

The work seems endless — even in familiar places such as Florida Canyon in Balboa Park, right near the museum. “We still don’t have a complete picture of all the plant and animal species using that area,” Thompson said.

Michelle Thompson photographs tadpoles in Chollas Radio System Open Space in San Diego.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Ruixue Jia

Economist, UC San Diego

Jia will make liberal use of China’s vaunted high-speed rail system to move between big cities, small towns and obscure villages to get a fresh look at what’s happening economically and culturally in the world’s second-most populous nation.

She’ll pay special attention to how industry is coping with worker shortages.

“Young people don’t want to work in factories anymore. They think it’s boring,” said Jia, an expert on the political and historical context in which companies change, especially when it comes to adopting new technology. “I’ll ask businesses if they’ll use more machines — including robotics.”

She’ll also engage the public in generalized conversations about their day-to-day lives, avoiding sensitive issues like China’s political oppression. Jia, who is Chinese, expects this conversation to be a bright spot.

She also will drop by music festivals to connect with young people. There, the tone could be different. “You see slogans about feminism and LGBT, which are (otherwise) forbidden topics in public. But young people express themselves in the subculture.”

Ruixue Jia

(Courtesy of UC San Diego)

George Vourlitis

Biologist, California State University San Marcos

There’s a war of sorts playing out at Chapada dos Guimarães National Park, a world of towering waterfalls and handsome savannas in central Brazil.

An emerging forest is starting to subsume the savannas, which are famous for their biodiversity. Vourlitis will help park rangers explore whether small, controlled fires can preserve the savannas without destroying too many trees.

“Forests are fantastic at storing carbon that would otherwise go into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change,” Vourlitis said. “The question is, Can we find a fire of the right intensity to do the things we want?”

Biologist George Vourlitis will be doing research in central Brazil this summer.

(Courtesy of George Vourlitis)

Fiamma Straneo

Physical oceanographer, UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Earth is growing warmer — that’s well-established. But the precise details of what’s happening in various places, and what the consequences might be, are only beginning to emerge.

Straneo will add to the picture by taking baseline data of such things as ocean temperature and salinity off northwestern Greenland.

“We think that some of the warming of the ocean has made its way to the glaciers,” said Straneo. “It’s one of the drivers of ice loss from the ice sheet.”

The work involves risk. She’ll be on a research ship that will have to slowly pick its way through sea ice and glaciers.

“One of the goals is to get as close to some of the glaciers as we can,” she said. “But there’s always a balance between pushing science and wanting to be safe.”

Fiamma Straneo will be conducting research off Greenland this summer.

(Photo by Alex Rivest)

Jillian Maloney

Geoscientist, San Diego State University

Geoscientist Jillian Maloney

(Courtesy of Jillian Maloney)

The ancient coastline of Washington state is buried beneath hundreds of feet of water, making it hard to study whether the first humans migrated down the coast of North America.

But Maloney will glean fresh facts next month when she uses two types of sonar to search above and beneath the sea floor for geologic features that might suggest the past presence of humans. She’ll be looking for estuaries and river channels where people might have built shelters.

“We will be looking at black-and-white data as it comes in,” Maloney said. “It can be very exciting. You never know what you’re going to see.”

Gabriel Valle

Environmental studies scientist, California State University San Marcos

Remember earlier in the pandemic when lots of younger workers abruptly moved to the mountains in and around Lake Tahoe and Truckee?

Valle will visit the region to study the environmental and economic impact of that demographic shift in what had previously been a slow-growing area popular among retirees.

Gabriel Valley, environmental studies professor, Cal State San Marcos

(Courtesy of Gabriel Valle)

The young workers “weren’t tied to an office anymore, which meant they could escape the high cost of living in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles,” he said. “And they wanted what the Sierra offers — hiking, skiing, enjoying the lakes. It was an amenity migration.”

The surge intensified a demand for everything from housing to dentists to breweries.

It also led to heavier use of environmentally sensitive areas, like the backcountry near trails. “Community leaders are still trying to figure out how to deal with the change,” Valle said.

Erika Robb Larkins

Anthropologist, San Diego State University

In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, people recoil in fear when they hear a power transformer explode.

Sparks often travel up electrical wires, setting homes in the working-class neighborhoods on fire. It’s a regular occurrence, and residents are responsible for repairing their neighborhood’s sketchy, overloaded power grids.

Outages can last a week — insufferable during summer, when the temperature can reach 105 degrees.

Larkins’ visit will come during winter in Rio. But it still gets warm, and she’ll have an extended opportunity to examine how the weather and blackouts affect people’s health, and how people cope with a burden that’s being exacerbated by climate change.

“I’m impressed by how creative and resilient people are in dealing with something they shouldn’t have to face,” said Larkins. She, like many in Rio, deeply dislikes intense heat.

Erika Robb Larkins holds a heat index meter she uses in her research.

(Courtesy of Erika Robb Larkins)

Sarah Federman

Conflict resolution, University of San Diego

Long before Canada became a nation, the Hudson Bay Company was an economic and political force there with a great advantage over Indigenous people in negotiations involving the fur trade and acquisition of land.

Much of this story is well-known. But Federman will delve into the archives of the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, to search for novel details that will be included in an upcoming book.

“I want to know if these were fair negotiations, and how they went down,” she said. “I also want to understand how this history continues to affect Indigenous people today. On Vancouver Island, you see postage stamp-sized reserves. Driving along, you’re on a reserve — then five minutes later you’re off.”

Sarah Federman, conflict resolution professor, University of San Diego

(Courtesy of University of San Diego)