Using respective strengths of the biological, physical, and social sciences, we are developing an online decision support tool, the Santa Cruz Watershed Ecosystem Portfolio Model (SCWEPM), to help promote the use of information relevant to water allocation and land management in a binational watershed along the U.S.-Mexico border. The SCWEPM will include an ES valuation system within a suite of linked regional driver-response models and will use a multicriteria scenario-evaluation framework that builds on GIS analysis and spatially-explicit models that characterize important ecological, economic, and societal endpoints and consequences that are sensitive to climate patterns, regional water budgets, and regional LULC change in the SCW.

Data have become the new global currency, and a powerful force in making decisions and wielding power. As the world engages with open data, big data reuse, and data linkage, what do data-driven futures look like for communities plagued by data inequities? Indigenous data stakeholders and non-Indigenous allies have explored this question over the last three years in a series of meetings through the Research Data Alliance (RDA). Drawing on RDA and other gatherings, and a systematic scan of literature and practice, we consider possible answers to this question in the context of Indigenous peoples vis-á-vis two emerging concepts: Indigenous data sovereignty and Indigenous data governance. Specifically, we focus on the data challenges facing Native nations and the intersection of data, tribal sovereignty, and power. Indigenous data sovereignty is the right of each Native nation to govern the collection, ownership, and application of the tribe’s data. Native nations exercise Indigenous data sovereignty through the interrelated processes of Indigenous data governance and decolonizing data. This paper explores the implications of Indigenous data sovereignty and Indigenous data governance for Native nations and others. We argue for the repositioning of authority over Indigenous data back to Indigenous peoples. At the same time, we recognize that there are significant obstacles to rebuilding effective Indigenous data systems and the process will require resources, time, and partnerships among Native nations, other governments, and data agents.

Food projects have become an increasingly popular engine for economic development and branding efforts to promote “creative cities” in the neoliberal context (Joassart-Marcelli & Bosco, 2017). However, proponents of food-based devel­opment often overlook the uneven impacts of such projects and neglect underlying structural, social, and environmental issues. University researchers can play a key role in raising awareness about these issues, inform food policy needs, and create university-community partnerships that can disrupt dominant narratives and support local initiatives that build capacity, equity, and resilience in regional food systems. Located in Tucson, Arizona—a UNESCO City of Gastronomy—researchers at the University of Arizona (UA)’s Center for Regional Food Studies (CRFS), in collaboration with the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), endeavor to accomplish these urgent tasks through several collaborative efforts described here.

Universities, researchers and funders are increasingly asking how research contributes to positive changes in society and the environment, and seeking ways to document and describe impacts consistently across diverse disciplines and organisational scales. The societal impacts framework presented in this pilot study uses a combination of impact goal and impact descriptor frameworks to elucidate the societal impacts of research. The framework blends elements of assessment-driven and mission-driven reporting frameworks, and was administered online to volunteers from one interdisciplinary environmental research institute. The 12 projects in the pilot study addressed 15 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and all 12 projects reported impacts in two or more of six impact descriptor categories. We also identified an impact subcategory dealing with changes to higher education practice. Combining two types of impacts frameworks – societal goals and descriptors of changes – allowed us to understand how the research projects contributed to broad societal goals, not just that they addressed the goals. Responses from study participants indicated a good fit between the framework and their research efforts. However, we found that the online reporting tool, in its current form, was not effective in eliciting full and accurate reports from all participants. We reflect upon how to improve data collection in the future, as well as on opportunities for additional tests of the framework in new contexts.

Climate change is a major threat to human health, however the role of health in climate change communication is understudied. The goal of this study was to understand how to support individuals’ adoption of climate related mitigation and adaptation activities. We hypothesized the primary motivation for engaging in pro-environmental activities would be unequally distributed across health, economics, or environment motivations. We also hypothesized respondents who felt greater susceptibility and those with higher perceived self-efficacy would adopt more pro-environmental behaviors. In 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional study using Amazon’s MTurk platform. Among the respondents, the most commonly reported activity was alternatives to private vehicles (30% already engaging), while more than two thirds of respondents reported wanting to install solar panels (70.1%) and converting to a high efficiency vehicle (63.2%). Depending on the action, respondents’ reported motivation varied. Economics was common to those who used public transportation and who installed solar paneling; purchasing a high efficiency vehicle was split between environment and economic reasons. Health was the primary motivation for converting to a plant-based diet. The perceived immediacy of climate change impacts was associated with adoption of pro-climate activities as were beliefs around human capacity to mitigate climate change. Despite the growing literature supporting health as a motivation for climate action, economic motivation was more commonly selected among the activities we evaluated. These results could aid the development of more efficient evidence-based communication strategies that would reach various audiences in society.

A study of the biology and ecology of Bat Cave, Grand Canyon National Park, was conducted during a series of four expeditions to the cave between 1994 and 2001. A total of 27 taxa, including 5 vertebrate and 22 macro-invertebrate species, were identified as elements of the ecology of the cave. Bat Cave is the type locality for Eschatomoxys pholeter Thomas and Pape (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) and an undescribed genus of tineid moth, both of which were discovered during this study. Bat Cave has the most species-rich macro-invertebrate ecology currently known in a cave in the park.

A new cavernicolous, arachnophilous thread-legged bug (Phasmatocoris labyrinthicussp. nov.; Reduviidae: Emesini) is described from Kartchner Caverns, a limestone cavern in Kartchner Caverns State Park near Benson, Arizona, USA. Cavernicolous emesines are recorded from caves in many parts of the world and are distributed across several genera, but are generally uncommon. P. labyrinthicus shows no obvious troglomorphy but ecological evidence suggests it is, at minimum, a cave-limited troglophile. The species seems to be low-humidity intolerant, due to its occurrence in a cave within a desert region, effectively confines the population to the cave, and the species may thus actually be troglobitic by default. Arachnophily in emesines is more common, including in Phasmatocoris Breddin, but has been previously documented in only a single cavernicolous species, Bagauda cavernicola Paiva, reported from India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. However, unlike P. labyrinthicus, B. cavernicola is apparently not morphologically adapted for its arachnophilous association. P. labyrinthicus is the only known troglophilic emesine that is also a morphologically adapted and behaviorally functional arachnophile. The only other known cavernicolous Phasmatocoris (P. xavieri Gil-Santana, Alves, Barrett and Costa)is recorded from a sandstone cave in Brazil. P. xavieri exhibits morphological features indicative of a potentially arachnophilous habit, but its ecology has not been studied. Adults of P. labyrinthicus share characteristics with the species Phasmatocoris praecellens Bergroth, P. m i n o r McAtee and Malloch, P. xavieri, P. s p e c t r u m Breddin, and P. rapax McAtee and Malloch. Phasmatocoris is primarily a Neotropical genus and the discovery of P. labyrinthicus represents a significant range extension for the genus, being the first Nearctic species identified, with its geographically nearest relative an undescribed species from Mazatlan, Mexico, over 1,000 km to the south.

Emesine bugs, within several genera, are recorded from caves around the world, but have been regarded as uncommon in these habitats. Many emesines have ecological relationships with spiders, as kleptoparasites, predators, or both. However, cave emesines are apparently rarely involved in these arachnophilous relationships, and only two examples have been previously documented. Recent studies in limestone caves at Presidente Olegário in northwestern Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil revealed the presence of four emesine species, two of which (Emesa mourei Wygodzinsky, 1946 and Phasmatocoris sp.) were associated with spiders, probably as kleptoparasites. The spiders recorded in these associations were Mesabolivar aff. tandilicus (Mello-Leitão, 1940) (Pholcidae) and Loxosceles similis Moenkhaus, 1898 (Sicariidae). The only non-emesine reduviid recorded in Presidente Olegário caves was Zelurus zikani (Costa Lima, 1940). We discuss these rarely recorded associations between cave emesines and spiders and the importance of protecting Presidente Olegário caves.

This study developed and evaluated the Drawing-Based Emotional Processing Scale for Art Therapists (DRAWEP) for measuring emotional processing. We collected 120 drawings from participants (aged 18–87). The study was conducted in two phases: (a) tool development through expert focus group discussions of 20 drawings, content validity and interrater reliability assessment; (b) assessment of 100 drawings for construct validity (factor structure, convergent and discriminant validity). In Phase 1 The DRAWEP tool was constructed. In Phase 2, four emotional processing factors were identified: art creation, making sense, organizing, and embodiment. Convergent and discriminant validity and reliability were satisfactory. DRAWEP may provide art therapists with a tool for evaluating latent contents of emotional processing. Further testing with clinical populations is needed.

Purpose: Little is known about how teachers view the leadership of assistant principals in comparison to that of principals, especially in relationship to teachers’ work outcomes. We examine whether a gap exists between teachers’ perceptions of fairness from principals and assistant principals, and whether this gap is associated with teachers’ commitment to their school. Research Methods: We employ mixed methods with a converging evidence model to understand the relationship between teachers’ perception gaps and commitment outcomes. We analyze interview data from 98 teachers across five high schools in one metropolitan area in the U.S. South to describe these gaps, and analyze survey data from 354 teachers from these same schools using structural equation modeling. Findings: Our qualitative analysis uses a typology to show examples of typical work scenarios where a teacher perceives a gap or no gap in fairness. Results from our quantitative data analysis suggest teachers express more commitment when they assess as fair (i.e., unbiased) the performance feedback from assistant principals rather than head principals. Yet, teacher commitment hinges on greater considerate interpersonal treatment from principals than from assistant principals. Overall, gaps in administrator fairness are associated with lower average teacher commitment. Implications for Research and Practice: Our investigation advances understandings of school leadership by clarifying role distinctions between principals and assistant principals that go beyond task types and considering expectations teachers hold of different school administrators. These perception differences matter as they appear associated with levels of teacher commitment.