Sara Baguskas

Sara Baguskas is an Associate Professor in the School of the Environment at San Francisco State University, where she investigates plant responses to environmental change through field studies, manipulative experiments, and spatial analyses across California ecosystems.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara (2014)

Research Interests: Dr. Baguskas specializes in terrestrial biogeography and plant ecophysiology under climate stressors. Her lab examines coastal fog's role in plant water relations across forests, farms, and urban habitats; drought impacts on montane meadow productivity; and fog-riparian interactions affecting salmonid stream temperatures. This work integrates ecohydrology with Mediterranean ecosystem conservation and urban water management challenges.

Scientific Awards: No awards documented in available sources.

Advising: Dr. Baguskas mentors students in environmental research, recently guiding Jessica Solis (M.A. Resource Management & Environmental Planning) and Kapewa Hopfe (B.S. Environmental Science/B.A. Geography) to graduation in Spring 2024; both presented their work at the 2023 American Geophysical Union conference.

Lab: The Baguskas Lab conducts multi-scale research on carbon-water dynamics under global change, focusing on fog-dependent ecosystems and drought resilience through field instrumentation, controlled experiments, and geospatial modeling, with active projects in coastal California habitats.