Trail cameras have become essential tools for environmental monitoring. Relatively inexpensive, and easy to operate, they enable scientists to spot local wildlife, observe animal behaviors, and even occasionally uncover the presence of rare species. At the 41 reserves of the University of California Natural Reserve System, a network of protected lands enabling study of the […]
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Arbor Creek Experimental Watershed: watching the flow of water through oak woodlands
Foothill oak woodlands are among the most familiar ecosystems in California. Supporting deer and squirrels, acorn woodpeckers and oak moths, these habitats occupy tens of thousands of acres across the state. Yet change is coming to these widespread habitats. Like much of the West, California’s foothills are predicted to experience shifts in climate in coming […]
Climate change harms southern California newts
By David Colgan, UC Los Angeles Just three years after one of the most severe droughts ever recorded in California, the driest February in 150 years has spurred discussion of whether we’re in another drought — or if the last one even ended. That’s bad news for the California newt, Taricha torosa, and other newts in […]
Hiking Stebbins Cold Canyon sparks positive wildfire perceptions
by Kat Kerlin, UC Davis When hikers returned to Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve in 2016, a year after a wildfire swept through its expanse of oak trees and chaparral in Northern California, half of them expected to see a devastated landscape. But surveys conducted before and after hikes at the UC Natural Reserve System site reveal that […]
2020 Field Science Fellowship Awards
Four UC undergraduates have been awarded the UC Natural Reserve System’s first Field Science Fellowships. The fellowship is intended to enable these highly motivated students to concentrate full time on their field science research for an entire summer with the guidance of a UC faculty mentor. “The fellowship applications we received were truly stellar,” says […]
Pathogen moves from land to ocean, infecting sea otters
By Kat Kerlin, UC Davis A parasite known only to be hosted in North America by the Virginia opossum is infecting sea otters along the West Coast. A study from the University of California, Davis, elucidates the sometimes surprising and complex pathways infectious pathogens can move from land to sea to sea otter. For the […]
Oil pipeline company to pay $60M for 2015 Refugio Oil Spill
May 19, 2015 was a dark day at Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve in Santa Barbara. That morning, a rusty underground pipeline a dozen miles up the coast began spewing 120,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean. Much of it drifted ashore, where beaches, where it coated birds, marine mammals, shorelines, and subtidal habitats […]
How the monkeyflower gets its spots
By Kara Manke, UC Berkeley The intricate spotted patterns dappling the bright blooms of the monkeyflower plant may be a delight to humans, but they also serve a key function for the plant. These patterns function as landing pads for bees, attracting nearby pollinators to the flower and signaling the best approach to access the sweet […]