Rolling grasslands that harbor rare vernal pool ecosystems next door to UC Merced have joined the UC Natural Reserve System. The 6,561-acre Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve will enable students and faculty to study fairy shrimp, endemic plants, and some of North America’s oldest soils just minutes from campus. Most of California’s original vernal […]
Blog Post
New observatory to look deep into Eel River watershed
by Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley Media Relations A $4.9 million grant will fund a study of the nearly 10,000 -square-kilometer Eel River watershed in Northern California, home to the UC Natural Reserve System’s Angelo Coast Range Reserve. Led by UC Berkeley scientists, the five-year study will examine how the vegetation, geology and topography of the […]
2013-2014 Mathias Grants Awarded
To a scientist, the natural world is full of mysteries. How does the winter ant thrive in cold weather when most insects go underground or perish? Are urban birds stressed out by the glow of street lamps, the roar of traffic, and the constant presence of people? What do some of the world’s largest pinnipeds, […]
The Intelligent Plant
Scientists debate a new way of understanding flora This excerpt is from a story by Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma, Botany of Desire) published Dec. 23, 2013 in The New Yorker Plants speak in a chemical vocabulary we can’t directly perceive or comprehend. The first important discoveries in plant communication were made in the lab in […]
The Friendliest Bird on the Beach
by April Price, Conservation Specialist, Coal Oil Point Reserve On August 6, an employee at McGrath State Beach rescued a plover egg from being washed away, and brought the egg to the NRS’s Coal Oil Point Reserve. After a two-day incubation at the reserve, a fuzzy baby plover emerged and Raul was born. Raul spent […]
Oceans and Mediterranean Climate
Mellow weather is a hallmark of Mediterranean-climate regions. The warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters enjoyed by places like Cape Town and Los Angeles have a surprising origin: the oceans. The oceans exert a moderating influence on many parts of the globe. But in Mediterranean-climate regions, the production of coastal fog, atmospheric cells, and […]
Climate change study at Valentine Reserve/SNARL
by Katie Vane Eastern Sierra volunteers recently wrapped up the first full year of a study on the effects of climate change at the Valentine Reserve and Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL) in and near Mammoth Lakes. The efforts are part of a larger California Phenology Project, which by observing and recording the life […]
Fieldwork: The Great Outdoors
Now more than ever, field stations are helping scientists to tackle big questions about pressing environmental issues by Roberta Kwok Noah Whiteman’s 2011 field season was tough. He and his team spent two summer months in the Rocky Mountains studying whether bacterial infections made plants more vulnerable to herbivores. They wanted to isolate bacteria from […]