Spring is prime time around the University of California Natural Reserve System. As winter thaws, and skies dry, scientists and students alike start migrating to the protected lands of the network’s 41 reserves. Field stations bustle with university classes on field trips, who rub shoulders with faculty and student researchers, and may intersect with buses […]
Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland
Field station planned for UC Merced’s Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve
UC Merced aims to build a field station to facilitate research and instruction on the NRS’s Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve.
How plants could adapt to changing climate
By Lorena Anderson, UC Merced If you want to understand how plant populations will respond as the climate changes, just examine the plants in different locations. That’s one of the conclusions drawn by UC Merced School of Natural Sciences Professor Jason Sexton in a new American Journal of Botany issue exploring the evolution of plants. Written by Sexton and graduate student Erin […]
NRS Day at UC Merced
by Lorena Anderson, UC Merced Communications Research, teaching and public outreach were all on display this Thursday at UC Merced’s celebration of the University of California Natural Reserve System’s 50th anniversary. The inaugural celebration of the 39-reserve system’s golden anniversary featured a driving tour of the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve, which covers nearly […]
UC Merced naturalist training expands with gift
A $103,000 gift from the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas will expand naturalist training opportunities for University of California, Merced students as well as the general public at two UC Natural Reserve System sites. Through the gift, one informal UC Merced course and two University of California Extension California Naturalist classes can expand their […]
Quarters for kestrels
Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve adds housing for a declining raptor The sprawling grasslands of eastern Merced County should be American kestrel country. The area’s nearly treeless plains host clouds of grasshoppers and other arthropods as well as armies of voles, mice, and other small rodents. Grazing cattle keep vegetation short, helping kestrels see […]
Vernal Pools Reserve Dedication
More than 6,560 acres of open grassland surrounding UC Merced were dedicated as part of the UC Natural Reserve System this Wednesday. The Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve, approved by the UC Regents in January, is the 39th wildland site to join the system. The celebrations began with a birding tour that ranged deep […]
Merced Vernal Pools Join the Natural Reserve System
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 […]