The road linking the northern tip of Lake Berryessa to the southern shores of Clear Lake is particularly arresting in spring. Climbing through the crinkled hills of the inner Coast Range, it passes bucolic meadows, stands of chaparral, and copses of slender, long-needled gray pines. But in April and May, one stretch in particular looks […]
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Plugged into the environment
The field sciences are often thought to have remained unchanged since Victorian times. A good pair of binoculars, a water-resistant notebook, and infinite stores of patience have long been considered the stock in trade, right alongside a pith helmet and khaki shorts. In reality, field researchers are embracing advances in technology right alongside the rest […]
Ancient whale named for UC ocean scientists
by Scripps Institution of Oceanography An extinct species of whale was recently renamed in remembrance of the late Ken Norris and his son Richard (Dick) Norris, influential scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. Norrisanima miocaena is newly described in the journal PeerJ. First described in the early 1920s by a researcher […]
California Heartbeat Initiative soars ahead
A University of California project to study the availability of water in California’s ecosystems is off to a soaring start. The California Heartbeat Initiative (CHI) uses drones, sap flow meters, and other remote sensing techniques to monitor the water status of plants across large swaths of the landscape. The project aims to interpret water status […]
Field research, UC mentors inspire career in marine biology
by Brenda Ortiz, UC Merced Lauren Schiebelhut credits the support and opportunities afforded to her at UC with opening the door to her career in marine research. Schiebelhut — a first-generation transfer student from Fresno — earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from UC Merced in May 2009 but was uncertain about her future. […]
Elephant seal “supermoms” produce most of the population
by Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz Most of the pups born in an elephant seal colony in California over a span of five decades were produced by a relatively small number of long-lived “supermoms,” according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The long-term study, published September 17 in the Canadian […]
Saving the season
By Shelly Leachman, UC Santa Barbara Conservation requires certain heroics: research to identify and develop solutions, and the resources to put them into place. And sometimes it’s a matter of being quick on one’s feet — quite literally. Case in point: Cristina Sandoval, longtime director of UC Santa Barbara’s Coal Oil Point Reserve. In her […]
Citizen scientists census animals on Año Nuevo Island Reserve
By Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz researchers are inviting citizen scientists to help achieve the first comprehensive counts of the thousands of seals, sea lions, and seabirds on Año Nuevo Island, a rocky islet north of Santa Cruz along the San Mateo coast. The Año Nuevo Island animal count project (sealcount.com) launched […]