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By Tim Stephens

Return to Rat Island: Researchers help restore native species to Aleutian island chain

In 2008, UC Santa Cruz researchers led a conservation effort to remove invasive rats from an island off Alaska’s Aleutian archipelago. A decade later, native island birds and the seashore ecosystem are returning to their natural balance.

By Tim Stephens

Healthy oceans need healthy soundscapes, say marine scientists

A global team of researchers has found overwhelming evidence that marine fauna and their ecosystems are negatively impacted by noise, which disrupts their behavior, physiology, and reproduction, and can even cause mortality.

By Tim Stephens

Study of flowers with two types of anthers solves mystery that baffled Darwin

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have found that some flowers encourage bees to visit, and therefore pollinate, multiple flowers through a clever strategy of doling out pollen gradually from two different sets of anthers.

Original story from the UCSC Newscenter.

By Tim Stephens and Sarah Buckleitner

Cooperative research effort documents northward migration of kelp forests

In a sweeping display of the power of community-based science to capture data spanning the entire West Coast of North America, a team of scientists and countless volunteers from 14 different organizations joined forces to document the northward migration of kelp forests due to warming waters.

By Tim Stephens

Marine mammals show off their training in evacuation from Long Marine Lab

CZU Lightning Complex update: two dolphins, five seals, and a sea lion were safely evacuated from the UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Laboratory thanks to good preparation, well-trained and cooperative animals, and generous assistance from SeaWorld San Diego and the Marine Mammal Center.

Original story from UCSC Newscenter.

By Tim Stephens

Alaska’s salmon are getting smaller, affecting people and ecosystems

The size of salmon returning to rivers in Alaska has declined dramatically over the past 60 years because they are spending fewer years at sea, according to a new study. Salmon are critically important to both people and ecosystems in Alaska. Smaller salmon provide less food for people who depend on them, less value for commercial fishers, and less fertilizer for terrestrial ecosystems.

By Paul Koch

The Cost of Silence

The Cost of Silence, a new documentary by director Mark Manning, offers a more nefarious reading of the decision to use chemical dispersants by aerial spraying and injection during the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
Original story from Science.

By Ed Yong

The mysterious case of the ornamented coot chicks has a surprising explanation

As adults, American coots have a drab color scheme, with black bodies and white bills. Their chicks, however, have an aesthetic that’s part drunk friar, part disheveled lion, and part tequila sunrise. Their faces and bald pates are bright red, while their necks are encircled in scruffy yellow-orange plumes.
Original story from The Atlantic.

By Natalie Parletta

Saving pumas with genomics

Genomes from mountain lions, or pumas, have spawned insights into how to encourage genetic diversification within the striking feline species and boost their health and survival.
Puma concolor – also known as cougars or panthers – were once widespread but are now mainly found in low population densities throughout western North America and much of Central and South America, and many of those are at risk of extinction.
Original story from Cosmos Magazine.

By Alanna Mitchell

“There’s no coming back from this:” Why the global ocean crisis threatens us all

We are hunting whales in Antarctica and time is running out. Unlike the harpooners of old, our goal is not to butcher them for blubber. Instead, it’s to get close enough to slap satellite-linked tracking tags on them. And rather than kill them, the point is to figure out how to make sure they survive.
Original story from Canadian Geographic.

By pbsci.in

'Genius' grant goes to marine scientist who embraces flash mobs & comic books

NPR — Ecology & Environmental Biology alumna Stacy Jupiter realized how dangerous flooding was becoming in her adopted home of Fiji in 2009 when she flew back after a vacation and landed on an island in crisis. “Water was up to the roofs of the houses, and roads were cut off,” says the marine scientist, who directs the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Melanesia Program. Her research soon revealed that this uptick in floods — paired with human land mismanagement — was spreading waterborne diseases.

By pbsci.in

Alumna Stacy Jupiter wins coveted MacArthur Fellowship

UCSC Newscenter — Alumna Stacy Jupiter, a marine scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society who earned her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz in 2006, is among the 26 new MacArthur Fellows for 2019. The prestigious MacArthur fellowships, awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for “extraordinary originality and dedication,” come with a no-strings-attached award of $625,000 over five years.

By pbsci.in

A study in Elkhorn Slough reveals the increasing threat of climate change to salt marshes.

Monterey County Weekly — Between crabs burrowing into the marshes and rising oceans, a recent study led by Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in collaboration with NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System found that it is not crabs alone that are potentially causing problems for the nation’s salt marshes.