Supposedly drought-tolerant Sonoran Desert species hit their breaking points.
Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center
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 […]
Snake training at Deep Canyon
By Heather Constable, Campus Administrative Officer, UC Riverside NRS Rattlesnakes are an uncomfortable fact of life in California. From the state line with Oregon, where the western rattlesnake holds sway, to the border with Mexico, where sidewinders rule alongside speckled, red diamond, and western diamondback rattlers, these venomous reptiles are notorious for frightening the snot […]
Deep Canyon expands to accommodate meetings, groups
By Kathleen M. Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center is a premier site for studying the Sonoran Desert. It sprawls across two major drainages and the crest of a mountain range, enabling the study of species ranging from bighorn sheep to barrel cactus. The reserve began hosting field scientists even […]
2020-21 Mathias Grant recipients
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Most people will be staying close to home in 2021 due to the pandemic. UC Santa Barbara graduate student Samantha Sambado will not be among them. Her doctoral research will take her on multiple journeys up and down California, in search of ticks and the human pathogens they […]
2019-20 Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant awards
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System 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 […]
California Heartbeat Initiative soars ahead
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System A University of California project to study the availability of water in California’s ecosystems is off to a soaring start. The California Heartbeat Initiative (CHI) uses drones, sap flow meters, and other remote sensing techniques to monitor the water status of plants across large swaths of the landscape. […]
2019 super bloom at Boyd
The winter of 2019 inundated California in an exceptional amount of rain and snow. Wildflowers erupted in a super bloom across the state’s southern deserts. See how plants and animals at the UC Natural Reserve System’s Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center made the most of this rarity in the desert: abundant moisture. The video […]
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 […]
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, […]
Tracking water through California ecosystems
OAKLAND, California—The University of California Natural Reserve System has received a $2.179 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to monitor the pulse of water through state ecosystems. The California Heartbeat Initiative-Freshwater (CHI-Freshwater) will link plant responses to environmental conditions such as heat waves, rainstorms, and drought on a landscape scale. The results […]
Archiving NRS history
Peter Alagona’s Natural Reserve System History & Archive Project is working to preserve historical materials from UC reserves statewide By Shelly Leachman, UC Santa Barbara Say you’re an ecologist studying the biodiversity of plant communities on a coastal nature preserve. If you knew the land had once been used for ranching and agriculture, would it […]
Sister reserve links NRS with Africa
The UC Natural Reserve System welcomes a new member to its family. This spring, the NRS entered into a sister reserve relationship with the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre in Namibia. The five-year arrangement aims to foster cooperative research into climate change and the ecosystems of arid lands in California and southern Africa. A network […]
NRS on Open Road TV
The scenic and scientific glories of the NRS will grace TV airwaves next Sunday, July 24, on an episode of Open Road with Doug McConnell. The longtime Bay Area television host takes viewers on journeys to explore the natural, historical and cultural treasures of the Bay Area and California. The show focuses on parks and open spaces protected […]