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 […]
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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 […]
Learning to swim, elephant seal style
Elephant seals were born to swim, and scientists have the data to show it. For the first time, researchers at the University of California have tracked the diving behavior of northern elephant seal pups on their inaugural journeys into the open ocean. Like videos of a toddler’s baby steps, the recordings show the 300-pound youngsters […]
Reviving field research with living laboratories and outdoor education
By Lily Dayton for UC Santa Cruz In the spring of 1948, UCLA graduate student Ken Norris was eager to return to his field research site in the Coachella Valley, where he’d spent previous seasons crouched in the sand dunes, observing the desert iguanas that scurried beneath the Dicoria bushes. When he arrived at his research plot, […]
2019 Simes award recipients to study Lyme disease, woodpecker cooperation
The NRS’s Hastings Natural History Reservation has awarded financial support to two graduate students conducing field research at the Carmel Valley reserve. Kacie Ring of San Francisco State University and Russell Winter of Old Dominion University will each receive up to $1500 from the William Simes Fund. Ring is exploring how host animals affect a […]
Groundwater shepherds California forests through long droughts
By Lorena Anderson, UC Merced The health of California forests depends on water stored several feet below ground, making them especially vulnerable to multiyear droughts. The evidence comes from a new study of wildlands across the West, including at the NRS’s James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve in Southern California. “Each year our forests, grasslands and […]
Jen Hunter, new director of Hastings Natural History Reservation
The NRS’s oldest reserve is now under the leadership of its newest director. Jennifer (Jen) Hunter took the reins of Hastings Natural History Reservation in December, after former resident director Vincent Voegeli relocated to Kauai. Hunter, who holds a PhD in carnivore community ecology from UC Davis, learned about the NRS as a graduate student. […]