Research, Conservation & Social Justice
Investigating ecology of Encelia shrubs in the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, Baja California Sur, México.
Sky Islands: Los Picachos de Santa Clara
Pinecrest Research Corporation, Inc. was founded to provide an alternative platform to support public interest initiatives including ecological restoration, rare species conservation, and social and environmental justice. With roots in Oakland & the Emerald Triangle, we are aware of the social and economic inequalities that prevent equal access to the environment and the benefits of financial security.
It is our position that the pipeline for training scientists and supporting conservation and research in the U.S. is deeply flawed and exacerbates social inequity. Higher education is suppose to be the great equalizer, but as it is currently practiced largely reproduces the same inequalities that exist in society.
We also believe there is a “missing link” between conservation research and on-the-ground land managers. Most publicly funded conservation research continues to be published in journals that the vast majority of on-the-ground practitioners cannot access. The result is that the overwhelming majority of practitioners do not read the literature, and the public continues to reduce funding for research that is increasingly perceived as being performed in a vacuum. All research should be made freely available to the taxpayers who paid for it.
Presentations
DiVittorio, C.T. 2021. Darwinian speciation, publication inflation, and social reproduction in science. UC Berkeley Center for Theoretical and Evolutionary Genomics invited seminar, April 5, 2021. PDF of slides available here. Abstract available here.
Higher education as it is currently practiced reinforces social, racial, and economic inequalities. This presentation identifies 6 structural aspects of the academic experience that directly lead to the reproduction of inequality. Unfortunately, very little is being done to address these issues and academia remains a deeply conservative institution, largely out of step with a post-George Floyd, post-COVID world.
DiVittorio, C.T. 2021. Conservation of species and evolutionary processes on coastal sand dunes. Southern California Botanical Society invited seminar, October 16, 2021. Video of 20-minute presentation here.
Coastal and desert sand dunes are harsh environments, that are known to harbor a large number of rare and endemic species. Stresses in the sand dune habitat include wind, salt spray, and shifting sands, in addition to the usual hazards of herbivory, drought, and competition. Sand dunes are also known to be areas where new species form. Stressful habitats are known to provide the ecological opportunity for new lineages to invade and differentiate, provided they are able to adapt to the novel stresses. Hybrid zones at the junction between dune and desert habitats in Baja California illustrate this phenomenon particularly well. Two species of the desert shrub Encelia and their hybrids have been coexisting for nearly 150 years, with hybrids limited to the boundary between habitats. Despite the large number of rare species and the fragility of dune habitats, they are currently suffering from competition from the biggest user of space of all: humans. The desire to drive all-terrain vehicles over sand dunes is growing every year. Huge crowds can be seen converging on sand dunes from Death Valley to the Oregon Coast, and dune communities and the animals that live in them don't stand a chance. These fragile coastal and desert dunes are loaded with endangered species and should be protected, not driven over with vehicles. This is, however, a political issue and until humans decide the sound of wind and waves is preferable to two stroke engines we will continue to loose sand dune species and the evolutionary processes that created them.
DiVittorio, C.T. & A. Burquez. 2011. Adaptación y hibridización en dos especies de arbusto endemico al Desierto Vizcaíno. Sonoran Desert Conservation Science Symposium invited seminar, Baja California Sur, México, May 25-28, 2011.
DiVittorio, C.T., J. De Wolf, S. Workman, W. Dietrich & M.E. Power. 2005. Biological-physical coupling: causes and effects of White Alder tree recruitment on channel structure in a Northern California stream. National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics invited seminar, August 29-30, 2005.
Publications
Singhal S, Roddy AB, DiVittorio CT, Sanchez-Amaya A, Henriquez CL, Brodersen CR, Fehlberg S, Zapata F. 2021. Diversification, disparification, and hybridization in the evolution of Encelia, an adaptive radiation in the deserts of the Americas. New Phytologist.
DiVittorio CT, Singhal S, Roddy A, Zapata F, Ackerly D, Baldwin B, Brodersen CR, Burquez A, Fine PVA, Padilla-Flores M, Solis E, Morales-Villavicencio J, Morales-Arce D, Kyhos DW. 2020. Natural selection maintains species despite widespread hybridization in the desert shrub Encelia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DiVittorio CT, Corbin JD, & D’Antonio CM. 2007. Spatial and temporal patterns of seed dispersal: an important determinant of grassland invasion. Ecological Applications 17:311-316.
DiVittorio, C.T. & R. Pereira. in preparation. Disassembly and reassembly of adaptive character complexes in nature.
DiVittorio CT, Overcast I, Roddy A, Smith L, Zapata F. in preparation. Population structure and historical admixture of Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa.
Biodiversity Field Expedition - Nanay River, Iquitos, Peru
Redwood Deforestation - Humboldt County
Land & Water Use - Central Coast
Mineral Extraction - Searles Lake
Sediment Discharge - Olympic Peninsula
Hydraulic Mining - Trinity County
Climate Change - Lake County
“Green” Energy - Mojave Desert
“Salvage” Logging - Shasta County