Emily P Harris

As coastal communities are experiencing increased impacts from climate stressors, it is becoming more important for policy makers to establish sound policy objectives for the protection of these communities. Top-down focused policies are not always successful as they do not always align with the wants and needs of a community. Bottom-up information, on the other hand, can be highly insightful for local policy makers to help design management strategies that include social needs and potential conflicts as they take into account the public's attitudes, perceptions, and expectations of the environment. This study sought to assess how beach users - local residents and tourists - perceive the environmental and economic ecosystem services that coastal dunes provide as well as their views on management strategies for the protection of these environments at Pensacola Beach. A total of sixty surveys were conducted at various beach locations in Pensacola Beach, Florida. Results indicated that beach users, both local and tourist, understood the environmental and economic value of coastal dunes, yet the different user groups showcased differing levels of willingness to support dune management initiatives. Local residents showed a substantially higher propensity to support dune management both financially as well as through action.

The UWF GeoScholars program was designed based on the inherently interdisciplinary nature of geoscience research and careers. Specifically, we sought to demonstrate to undergraduate geoscience students the need for including content and skills from other academic areas, while also showing non-geoscience undergraduate majors the application of their fields of study to a range of geoscience topics, including climatology, soil science, and geomorphology. We secured NSF IUSE funding to pair faculty and undergraduate researchers from the UWF Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences with faculty-student partners from non-geoscience UWF departments, including Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Information Technology, and Mathematics & Statistics. Research team faculty mentors collaborated to identify an interdisciplinary geoscience research project that employed specific areas of interest and expertise from the geoscience and non-geoscience participants. Faculty then worked with the UWF GeoScholars directors to identify and recruit students from a targeted pool of eligible undergraduate students. Research teams then conducted related research, with students funded as part of the UWF Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) and continuing through the subsequent academic year(s) culminating in each student presenting research at a regional or national geoscience conference, also attended by the non-geoscience faculty mentors. Additionally, the UWF GeoScholars program developed a series of professional development engagement activities that began in the UWF SURP program and continued in regular GeoScholars programs during the academic year. Professional development highlights included student researcher sessions with regional geoscience employers and representatives from national geoscience PhD graduate programs. Now in its third year, the UWF GeoScholars has facilitated multiple new interdisciplinary faculty collaborations, trained more than 20 undergraduate students in research and professional skills, and engaged regional industry partners with the University community as demonstration of the multitude of paths into the geosciences.