By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System When wildfires rage, fire retardants can slow or stop the spread of flames. These chemical mixes are often sprayed over large swaths of land, coating entire hillsides in stripes of yellow or red. In recent years, millions of gallons of fire retardants have been dropped in a single […]
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Retired Riverside faculty fund Advancing Inclusivity Internship
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Thanks to a gift from retired UC Riverside faculty, the UC Riverside Natural Reserve System is offering an internship for undergraduates to participate in summer field research at one or more of the campus’s natural reserves. The Advancing Inclusivity Internship will provide diverse students from Southern California universities […]
Following rain, desert microbes exhale potent greenhouse gas
By Jules Bernstein, UC Riverside New research at two UC Natural Reserves shows how, after it rains, microbes in desert soil convert one form of pollution into another—laughing gas. No laughing matter, nitrous oxide or N2O is the third most potent greenhouse gas. Scientists conducting the research were surprised to measure N2O production in the […]
A tale of two fishes
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Deciphering how species interact with other organisms and their environment is the bread and butter of ecologists. For rare or threatened species, understanding which factors enable populations to boom or bust isn’t just academic; the answers can mean the difference between sound population management and species extinction. These […]
Hands on the Land to renew the landscape at McLaughlin
By Tiffany Dobbyn, UC Davis Three UC Davis students have launched Hands on the Land, a new student organization working on landscape renewal through repairing and restoring native ecosystems. Alana Luzzio, a first-year ecology graduate student and one of the group’s co-founders, says the goal is to reconnect people to the land, community and each […]
Anza-Borrego reserve receives major endowment gift
by Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System The estate of philanthropist Audrey Steele Burnand has gifted $2.631 million to the NRS’s Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center in Borrego Springs. The funds will expand the endowment to support the center. “A lot of reserves don’t have an endowment and scramble for funding. We’re very fortunate to […]
Wildfire runoff may impede steelhead sense of smell
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System In 2020, a massive lightning storm ignited wildfires across much of Northern California. Among the thousands of acres it charred were multiple coastal watersheds from San Mateo County to Big Sur. For UC Santa Cruz fish ecologist Eric Palkovacs, the burns offered a chance to study how the […]
Desert bighorn sheep in the White Mountains
This story was originally published in the Fall/Winter 2021–22 edition of the White Mountain Research Center Newsletter, which features introductions to new staff, goodbyes to former researchers and colleagues, summaries of studies on rock art research, a new flora of the area, GLORIA alpine summit survey updates, and more. By Rick Ianniello, Environmental Scientist, California […]