The tiny mosses that glue desert soils together spend the majority of their days dormant—the better to withstand a harsh environment. Yet within seconds of absorbing water, the crumbly wisps of brown green up in a frenzy of photosynthetic activity. How these hardy desert residents withstand the harsh UV rays of the sun while essentially […]
News
Spreading resistance: NRS scientist returns frogs to high Sierra lakes
by Shelly Leachman, UC Santa Barbara In a box, within a canister filled with snow, tucked tightly into a backpack strapped to one determined ecologist. Twenty at a time they travel, these unassuming native frogs, departing places where they’re thriving for sites from which their species has vanished. Their mission: population recovery. In ecology-speak this […]
Granite Mountains plants at UC Botanical Garden
by Vanessa Handley, Director of Collections and Research, UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley Excerpted from the Fall 2017 edition of the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Newsletter In April 2017, a team from the Garden traveled to the east Mojave Desert for a productive stint of field work. Our base was the Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert […]
Sentinel species show mine-damaged streams returning to life
by Shelly Leachman, UC Santa Barbara A community of tiny stream bugs has proved that efforts to restore streams heavily polluted by an old Sierra Nevada mine are working. Leviathan, Aspen and Bryant Creeks, once crystalline natural streams, have at times run a sickening and toxic rusty-orange color. The culprits: iron and other acidic, heavy […]
International carbon experts gather at Blue Oak Ranch
Top carbon scientists from around the world met at the NRS’s Blue Oak Ranch Reserve this September as part of the Global Climate Action Summit. Experts at measuring the amount of carbon in forests, grasslands, and other natural environments, they gathered to discuss how their countries measure terrestrial carbon emissions. These measurements, which every country […]
Just add water—Sedgwick pond renewed
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 […]
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, […]