There's a lot to dig into our this month's highlight of Sonoma State faculty and staff research.
Avalos, J. G., Champagne, C. D., Crocker, D. E., Khudyakov, J. I., & Todgham, A. (2024). The plasma proteome reveals markers of recent and repeated stress in free-ranging seals. Conservation Physiology, 12(1).
Abstract: Animals in nature potentially experience multiple stressors, and those of anthropogenic origin are likely to be repeated or chronic. However, stress hormone levels are highly context-dependent and are not consistent predictors of chronic stress in wildlife. Profiling the downstream consequences of repeated stress responses, such as changes in metabolism or gene expression, may be more informative for predicting their individual-level health consequences and population-level impacts, which are key objectives for wildlife conservation. We previously found that in free-ranging juvenile elephant seals, the blubber transcriptome and proteome, but not cortisol levels, could distinguish between responses to single versus repeated stress axis stimulation. However, the blubber proteome response to stress was limited and mainly involved extra-cellular matrix proteins. In this study, we examined the plasma proteome response of four of the same animals to the repeated stress experiment, since multiple organs secrete proteins into the circulation, providing a readout of their activity and integration. We isolated plasma proteins, identified and quantified them using liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and compared their abundance between sampling times. We identified >200 proteins in plasma, of which 42 were altered in abundance, revealing complex protein dynamics in response to repeated stress challenges. These changes were delayed but sustained, suggesting that the plasma proteome may reflect longer term integration of multi-organ responses to recent, rather than immediate, challenges. Differentially abundant proteins included components of the osmoregulatory system, acute phase and complement proteins, organokines, apolipoproteins and hormone transport proteins, which coordinate physiological processes with significant implications for marine mammal health and may explain several aspects of marine mammal stress physiology, such as insulin resistance and high aldosterone levels. We identified several potentially novel biomarkers, such as AGT, HPX, TTR and APOA4, that may be useful for detecting recent and repeated stress exposure in marine mammals.
Ryuh, Y., Geschwender, C., Kim, J., & Becker, K. (2024). The Distance Effect in Focus of Attention: Spatial or Temporal Distance? Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport., 1–6.
Abstract: The benefit of an external focus over an internal focus has been well-established. Within this literature, several studies have documented a distal effect of attentional focus by comparing the efficacy of a proximal and distal external focus. A potential confound is that most distal focus cues direct the performer’s attention to an outcome occurring after the completion of movement, while the proximal cues direct attention to something that occurs during the movement process. This study aims to disentangle whether the distal effect of attentional focus comes from spatial distance (proximal vs. distal) or temporal distance (during vs. after). Method: To test this, we employed a two-handed underhand medicine ball throw for maximum distance with 38 healthy young adults. This study employed five conditions: baseline, internal-during, internal-after, external-during, and external-after focus. Results: The result indicated that both external-during and -after foci elicited a significantly greater throwing distance than internal-during (p =.006) and internal-after (p <.001), where internal-after even significantly underperformed than baseline (p =.02). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that using an outcome cue unrelated to the intended action does not enhance motor performance. Rather, the most effective approach is to use an external cue that represents the action effect either during or after the movement.
Biermann, C., Law, J., & Pearson, Z. (2024). Producing Nature. In Doing Political Ecology (pp. 28–45).
Abstract: This chapter considers the concept of co-production, tracing the long lineage of ways that human societies and environments make one another through techniques of management and the production of ecological knowledge. This framework highlights how resulting human and non-human entanglements are often complex, messy, politicized, and always changing. The management of the environment is also deeply biopolitical, as humans make critical interventions that allow some species, environments, or genes to thrive, and others to die. This chapter will be useful for researchers interested in novel ecologies, critical physical geography and the critical environmental sciences, and science and technology studies.
Cohen, S. (2023). Violence and episcopal elections in late antique Rome, ad 300-500. Late Roman Italy: Imperium to Regnum, 356–383.
Abstract: This chapter reconsiders the violence associated with the contested elections of three Roman bishops: Damasus (366-84), Bonface (418-22) and Symmachus (498-514). My focus on the Roman church is a consequence of the availability of evidence, but I will also consider how contested episcopal elections elsewhere in Italy compare to those at Rome. As we shall see, personal ambition, the size and complexity of the Roman church, the lack of clear procedures for episcopal elections, and the diminution of the coercive power of the tate in the city from the late third century onwards increased the potential for intra-Christian conflict following the death of a bishop. These conflicts focused especially on controlling (or attempting to control) specific buildings and areas of the city. The descriptions of the resulting violence, which featured club- and sword-wielding thugs, massacres in churches and attacks against rival candidates in the streets, still shock with their apparent callous brutality. This has occasionally led to the mischaracterising of these episodes as riots or examples of mob violence, expressions that implictly lay the blame upon the faceless, fanatical multitude. However, as I will argue, the violence associated with contested Roman episcopal elections was intentional, carefully coordinated and deployed from the top down as part of a deliberate strategy to gain control of the see of St. Peter.
Jeppesen, R., de Rivera, C. E., Grosholz, E. D., Tinker, M. T., Hughes, B. B., Eby, R., & Wasson, K. (2025). Recovering population of the southern sea otter suppresses a global marine invader. Biological Invasions, 27(1).
Abstract: Understanding the role of apex predators on ecosystems is essential for designing effective conservation strategies. Supporting recovery of apex predators can have many benefits; one that has been rarely examined is control of invasive prey. We investigated whether a recovering apex predator, the southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis), can exert local control over a global marine invader, the green crab (Carcinus maenas). We determined that southern sea otters in Elkhorn Slough estuary in California can consume large numbers of invasive green crabs and found strong negative relationships in space and time between otter and green crab abundance. Green crabs persisted at highest abundance in this estuary at sites with artificial tidal restriction that were not accessible to otters. Green crab abundance remained lower in this estuary than in all other estuaries in the region, which lack resident sea otters. Conservation organizations and agencies have invested heavily in recovery of southern sea otters, increasing their numbers in this estuary. Restoration of natural tidal exchange, lost marshes, and seagrass beds further support sea otter populations. We have demonstrated that these investments in top predator recovery and habitat restoration have reduced the impacts of a global invader. Our investigation highlights that investment in recovery of top predators can increase beneficial food web interactions and resilience of the entire ecosystem.
Ford, A. (2024). Where we live, learn and play: Environmental racism and early childhood development in review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly., 69, S71–S81.
Abstract: What are the effects of environmental racism on early childhood development? This paper argues that this is a largely unanswered question that reflects more than a research gap, but a research vacuum. This paper reviews the available literature on the intersection of environmental racism and early childhood from a sociological perspective. I rely on Iruka et al.’s (2022) Racism + Resilience + Resistance Integrative Study of Childhood Ecosystem (R3ISE) framework and the framework of critical environmental justice (Pellow, 2016; 2018) to summarize what is known about how environmental racism contributes to disparities in health, learning, and well-being through the early years of childhood development, as well as to point out gaps in our knowledge. Scholars have identified strong indicators that many converging environmental hazards affect young children, and that exposure to these hazards is strongly associated with race and racism. An emerging body of literature also links environmental racism to global climate change and global ecological degradation. This paper will provide a theoretical overview of environmental racism as it pertains to young children and consider in relation to early childhood and race: 1) disproportionate exposure to environmental pollutants and their effects; and 2) vulnerability to effects of climate change. It concludes with a discussion of implications, and suggestions for paths forward and future research.
Lyon, E. G., Scott, L., Casesa, R., Spurgin, C., & Maldonado, S. I. (2024). Transforming secondary teacher preparation for multilingual learners through translanguaging: Toward an integrated biliteracy and disciplinary learning framework. TESOL Journal.
Abstract: Students designated as English learners and the broader group of multilingual learners continue to face restrictive learning environments in secondary classrooms despite existing research that demonstrates how integrating literacy development with authentic and relevant disciplinary learning benefits multilingual learners and all students. To address this issue, an interdisciplinary team of biliteracy and secondary content method scholars and teacher educators used funding through the U.S. Department of Education's National Professional Development Program to (1) articulate a cohesive framework that integrates biliteracy with disciplinary learning through research-based instructional practices and (2) explore how English, math, and science secondary content method instructors apply this framework when working with preservice teachers. The researchers connected translanguaging pedagogy, content and language/literacy integrated approaches, and a practice-based teacher education model to develop the Biliteracy and Content Area Integrated Preparation (BCAIP) Framework. They found that participating content area secondary method instructors made progress toward applying the BCAIP framework by building upon what they already do in support of diverse learners (i.e., foundational pedagogies) as they shifted toward biliteracy-oriented pedagogy. The authors argue that situating translanguaging in a disciplinary learning context better positions secondary teacher educators to transform how they prepare preservice teachers to serve multilingual learners.