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 […]
White Mountain Research Center
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 […]
Delivering environmental data from the NRS
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Climate is the hottest topic in California these days. As global warming heats up the West, it’s set off a cascade of effects ranging from toxic algal blooms, to tree die-offs, to wildfires of unprecedented size and ferocity. The situation has everyone asking the same question: what is […]
NRS instrumental in biologist’s ascent to grad school
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Tim Brown spends his summers on top of the Golden State. While other Californians tan at the beach, hold BBQs, or relax at the pool, he makes a beeline for the high country. Striding across snowfields and rock scree atop eastern California’s highest ranges, this UC Santa Cruz […]
Research shows field courses bridge STEM diversity gaps
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System When Roxanne Beltran was admitted to UC Santa Cruz, she was thrilled to finally start her college career, possibly to become a marine biologist. But the introductory biology and physics classes she was required to take almost drove her out of science. “I was suddenly in 400 person […]
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 […]
Playing climate change leap-frog with trees…in very slow motion
by Brian Smithers, University of California, Davis, and Constance Millar, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station One of the predictions of current climate change is that species will generally shift their ranges up in elevation in response to warming. However, some species are likely to be better at that shift than others. Among the species […]
Earth’s oldest trees losing climate race
Limber pines are leapfrogging over bristlecone pines in mountaintop competition by Kat Kerlin, UC Davis Bristlecone pine and limber pine trees in the Great Basin region are like two very gnarled, old men in a slow-motion race up the mountaintop, and climate change is the starting gun, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. […]