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 […]
News
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 […]
Breaking the frog fungus code
It’s a crisp February morning at Quail Ridge Reserve, and Imani Russell is stalking frogs. Prepared for the chill in a Golden State Warriors ski cap, insulated jacket, and full hiking boots, she is scouting the perimeter of a former cattle pond. She places each foot so carefully that her heavy duty footwear barely raises […]
Confluence: Drawings and Photographs
Berkeley artist Todd Gilens made a series of drawings and photographs informed by time spent in the Sierra Nevada with scientists from NRS reserves. He visited Valentine Camp, Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, Yosemite Field Station, and Sagehen Creek Field Station during the 2015-18 field seasons. He’s now assembling this body of work into an […]
UC Natural Reserve System Symposium
The world’s largest university-administered reserve system will hold a symposium this fall to commemorate 55 years of field research and teaching. The UC Natural Reserve System Symposium, to be held in Berkeley from November 12–13, 2020, will feature more than three dozen talks showcasing research, immersive field education, and public service conducted across the NRS. […]
Conservation Scholars program improves diversity
By Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has awarded renewed funding for the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at UC Santa Cruz with a grant of $2.63 million over the next four years. The program was established with an initial four-year grant in 2015, with the goal of diversifying the conservation […]
2019-20 Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant awards
Joshua trees will be under the gun in the California of the future. Scientists predict that it’ll become too hot and dry for these striking Mojave plants to persist in much its the high desert habitat by 2100. How much water these treelike yucca plants can store at one time is key to their conservation. […]
Students power resurvey of NRS reserves
While Alex Krohn was completing his PhD, he visited numerous UC Natural Reserves looking for reptiles and amphibians. With dozens of protected wildlands located in a wide variety of ecosystems across the state, NRS reserves are popular places for scientists to collect specimens and do field research. Trying to determine whether certain species of interest […]