News
Drought in Sierra streams
Long ago naturalist John Muir extended an open invitation to harken to the rugged beauty and wonder of the high mountains. Listen to the sounds of gushing streams as they roll through wild canyons, amid gardens of rocky meadows. Wander, surrounded by the forest and snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada. Today, however, these places […]
2019 super bloom at Boyd
The winter of 2019 inundated California in an exceptional amount of rain and snow. Wildflowers erupted in a super bloom across the state’s southern deserts. See how plants and animals at the UC Natural Reserve System’s Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center made the most of this rarity in the desert: abundant moisture. The video […]
Record rain and snow temporarily close James Reserve
It’s raining, it’s sliding Should we stay or should we go? A supportive UC family Flood relief fund Related links
Marine heat wave pulled tropical species north
By Kat Kerlin, UC Davis During the marine heatwave of 2014-16, scientists from the University of California, Davis, noticed creatures typically seen only in places like Baja California, Mexico, showing up alongside the NRS’s Bodega Marine Reserve. These included warm-water species of jellyfish, crabs, nudibranchs, fish and even dolphins and sea turtles. Their study, published in […]
Rare sunfish washes ashore at Coal Oil Point
By Shelly Leachman, UC Santa Barbara There are rare finds, and then there are those out-of-nowhere, first-ever discoveries that send scientists’ hearts aflutter. An occurrence at Sands Beach in Goleta a week ago lands decidedly among the latter. A fish that washed in with the tides at UC Santa Barbara’s Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve has been […]
Foreign bees monopolize Southern California flower resources
Immense numbers of introduced honey bees overwhelm native pollinators for access to pollen and nectar By Mario Aguilera, UC San Diego Hike around the natural habitats of San Diego County and it becomes abundantly clear that honey bees, foreign to the area, are everywhere. In a study published last year, researchers at the University of California […]
Doctor drought
UC Santa Cruz professor Michael Loik tests how plants respond to climate extremes Acute drought is parching Santa Cruz. For the past four years, the coastal prairie of Younger Lagoon Reserve, on the west end of town, has received just over half the rain that normally falls. The situation is so dire it’s likely to […]