Many of California’s native species rely on human-built stock ponds for water. Impounding streams or low spots on the landscape, these ponds were built to supply cattle and other livestock. Now, however, they are often critical habitats for endangered amphibians and reptiles, as well as water-loving birds. The pond at the NRS’s Sedgwick Reserve in the […]
News
Measuring greenhouse gases on the go
By Sarah Nightingale, UC Riverside To pinpoint sources of air pollution across California, two UC Riverside professors are taking to the road. They’ll be traveling in the university’s new Mobile Isotope Laboratory, a Mercedes Benz transport van fitted with a suite of instruments that can measure the flux […]
NRS hosts earthquake warning system sensors
A major effort to warn Californians about impending earthquakes is coming to the NRS. Scientists from UC Berkeley are installing seismometers at four reserves this fall as part of an earthquake early warning (EEW) system for the entire West Coast. Called ShakeAlert, the system will detect the first rumbles of an earthquake, predict its intensity, […]
Summer hiking warning for Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve
By Cody Kitaura, UC Davis Staff who oversee the NRS’s Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve, which has popular hiking trails, are taking a broader approach to keeping visitors safe in the wake of another heat-related rescue over the weekend. A woman who ignored warnings and hiked Stebbins Cold Canyon on a 106-degree afternoon had to be airlifted to […]
Learning from “little monsters”
By Jeff Mitchell, UC Santa Barbara Caddisflies, crustaceans, mollusks and flatworms. Those are just a few of the curious creatures known as benthic (bottom-dwelling) invertebrates and commonly found in small streams. Fingernail clams and oligochaetes are part of the menagerie, too. Their individual names aside, UC Santa Barbara stream ecologist David Herbst affectionately calls them […]
McLaughlin Reserve art project wins award
by UC Davis Art Studio UC Davis graduate student Jodi Connelly was awarded the 2018 Keister and Allen Art Purchase Prize for an art project featuring the NRS’s McLaughlin Natural Reserve. The prize is given to a UC Davis art studio Master of Fine Arts student annually. The award provides for the purchase of artwork […]
Angelo soils yield potential antibiotics
By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley Soil, the source of our best antibiotics, can be more thoroughly mined for new drugs and other useful chemicals with the help of metagenomics. In a paper appearing June 13 in the journal Nature, UC Berkeley researchers report sequencing the genomes of every microbe in a teaspoon of soil from the […]
Proposition 68 to benefit the NRS
The UC Natural Reserve System will receive up to $10 million thanks to the passage of California Proposition 68, the Parks, Environment, and Water Bond, June 5. The proposition authorizes the state to issue $4 billion in general obligation bonds to fund state and local parks, natural resources protection, climate adaptation, water quality and supply, […]