The SPA LAB focuses on the integrated study of coupled human-natural systems as a step towards enhancing natural climate solutions while protecting ecosystem services and building resilience in vulnerable communities.

Our research fuses theory and experimentation to devise and test novel conservation, management, and restoration approaches coordinated at the Environmental Studies Program and Institute of Ecology & Evolution at the University of Oregon.

We engage in interdisciplinary research that bridges climate change mitigation, adaptation, and environmental justice. Our goal is to advance basic scientific knowledge to better understand and predict how terrestrial ecosystems function.

Our students conduct empirical research, combining field observations, laboratory experiments, and models to inform use and conservation of ecosystems for sustainable development under climate change.

Collaborators

We work collaboratively with communities and scientists all over the world to understand the causes and mitigate the consequences of climate change. The map below displays the institutional location of scientists with whom Lucas Silva (SPA Lab – Principal Investigator) co-authored peer-reviewed publications in recent years. Source: ISI Web of Science.