Project Description: The CSU Channel Islands STAR program operates out of the CSUCI Santa Rosa Island Research Station, located on the island about 45 miles offshore from Ventura, California. Santa Rosa Island is part of Channel Islands National Park (Channel Islands National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)). The Research Station (Santa Rosa Island Research Station – SRIRS – CSU Channel Islands (csuci.edu)) is managed by CSUCI staff, and the Fellows are mentored by them along with Dr. Kathryn McEachern, USGS-Channel Islands Research Plant Ecologist, and USGS and National Park Service research assistants.

STAR Fellows stay in the Station’s bunkhouse (free of charge) for “island tours” of 8-days at a time. This schedule is 1-week on the island, 1-week off running from early June through the first week of August, for 4 island-tours followed by a week for poster/presentation preparation in early August. Transportation is typically aboard the NPS vessel “Ocean Ranger”; it takes about 2 hours to get to the island from the boarding dock in Ventura, CA. The bunkhouse is shared with other groups that rotate intermittently throughout the summer, ranging from undergraduate classes to outside agency and university researchers.

2024 will be the 8th STAR summer on the island. A major project through these years has been the creation of a “Cloud Forest” in a one-of-a-kind ecological restoration project to bring back chaparral vegetation that can harvest fog on the high central ridge of Santa Rosa Island (https://wim.usgs.gov/geonarrative/cloudforest/). Fellows have worked to install and maintain fog-harvesting infrastructure, plant native plants that they help grow in the island nursery, and research plant growth and survival, soil moisture, irrigation efficiency and sedimentation/erosion to demonstrate results. Another focus every summer has been the collection of detailed mapping and demographic data on an endangered island endemic plant, soft-leaved island paintbrush (Castilleja mollis). We will continue these projects in 2023, along with a couple of others listed below.

STAR projects envisioned for Summer 2024 include:
– mapping the endangered soft-leaved island paintbrush using gps technology
– installing seedling research plots and collecting seeds of the endangered Santa Cruz Island bush mallow on nearby Santa Cruz Island (Malacothamnus fasciculatus var nesioticus)
– native plant seed collection and cleaning
– cloud forest nursery work and planting, monitoring survival
– collecting plant community data in long-term monitoring plots at the cloud forest

We will have 4 Fellows in 2024, working as part of a larger team to accomplish the projects. Each Fellow will take on an aspect of the work for a focused project but will also participate in all of the activities for a broad field research experience.

Island work can be physically challenging at times: we will be outside nearly all day in conditions that range from hot to cold and windy as oceanic storm cells move across the Southern California Bight. We travel to/from the work sites in 4-wheel drive pickup trucks and UTV’s on dirt roads, so conditions are dusty and rugged. We walk/hike to the remote paintbrush sites. And the island oak project will involve some very rugged and steep terrain. There is no cell service on most of the island, and internet is available only near the Field Station. The island is absolutely beautiful, the SRI Field Station is near the pier and beach, and there are ample opportunities for hiking. The National Park Service is working toward designating the park islands as potential wilderness; there are no stores, restaurants or “services”. In many ways this is a true backcountry experience.

Island tour Dates:
June 11-18,
June 25 – July 2,
July 9-16,
July 23-30;
plus 4-5 days on the mainland in August to prepare posters and curriculum

Recent Projects:
Cloud Forest Restoration
Santa Rosa Island Plant Plots

Project Description: To further characterize these two Leptasterias species found in different zones of the intertidal, STAR interns will conduct summer projects in the Cohen lab to look at behavioral, morphological, and genetic differences. STAR fellow(s) will help with wet lab experiments, fieldwork, and genetic sequencing. Stars will be collected in the field from wave-protected and wave-exposed zones to conduct behavior assays. Arm tips will be removed from each star to collect genetic data to be later analyzed using mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase (COI) locus. Pictures of pedicellaria on the skin and spines will be taken in the field and used to determine possible morphological differences. Wet lab experiments may be conducted to observe pedicellaria growth and arm regeneration. RStudio will be used to analyze behavioral and genetic data.

Recent Projects:
Sea Stars
Eel Grass

Project Title: Dopamine modulation of sleep and feeding
Project Description: Sleep and hunger are fundamental behavioral states important for survival and reproduction. When food is not readily available animals respond by suppressing sleep in order to search for food. This starvation-induced sleep suppression represents a behavioral choice critical for survival that involves communication between endocrine/hormonal systems that signal nutrient availability and the brain. The fruit fly, like mammals, suppresses sleep in order to forage for food utilizing many conserved molecular pathways including insulin and glucagon-like signaling to control metabolism. Given the high conservation of metabolic, neural systems and behavior between flies and mammals, investigating starvation-induced sleep suppression in flies will provide timely insights into the general mechanisms through which nutrient/metabolic needs regulate brain circuits involved in sleep.

Dopamine has been implicated in sleep regulation in almost all studied sleep models (flies, humans, and rodents) but the precise mechanisms by which dopamine influences sleep suppression is unclear in any system. Furthermore, evidence in animal models is beginning to accumulate that dopamine plays a role in reward-associated food-seeking behavior. Taken together, it is highly likely that dopamine neurons represent at least in part, a common shared pathway in regulating sleep-feeding conflict. The goal of this proposal is to test the hypothesis that increased dopamine release in the brain represents a motivational state that drives the fly to actively forage thereby suppressing sleep.

The STAR fellow will work in close collaboration with undergraduate, post-graduate students and the mentor. In pursuit of the scientific goals, PI will provide a structured lab environment, exposure to cutting-edge research methods, and close mentoring. Additionally, we will also develop modules that can be implemented in middle- and high schools to engage students in cutting-edge biomedical research while focusing on core concepts of biology.

Recent projects:
Fruit Fly Lab
Neurophysiology & Behavior Lab