Some of the work from this quarter's class, ART-119-02 (Special Topics in Drawing: Digital Story Telling), is going to be displayed at the Student Environmental Center's Earth Summit event on Friday, April 24th.
Joshua Trees and Pumas:
The student work in this exhibit is inspired by the research of Juniper Harrower and Veronica Yovovich, both PhD Students in Environmental Studies. Juniper studies Joshua trees and desert ecosystems; Veronica studies mountain lions and the interactions of species.
Deserts are particularly sensitive to climate change. Joshua trees struggle to adapt to rising temperatures and diminished precipitation. To survive, they'll need to move to higher, cooler ground. Current climate models predict that within 90 years most of the trees may vanish from Joshua Tree National Park.
Top predators like pumas help keep ecosystems in balance. When the numbers of top predators decline, prey populations rapidly expand and overgraze vegetation. As California's coastal wilderness disappears, pumas struggle to adapt to smaller habitats divided by busy roads and dotted with commercial and residential developments.
More information at: http://sec.enviroslug.org/earth-summit.html