New analysis of strontium isotopes reveals how the global carbon cycle has responded to changes in climate and sea level through geologic time.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
While kelp forests have declined dramatically along the California coast, sea otters in Monterey Bay are maintaining patches of healthy kelp forest, according to a new study.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
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.
“Biodiversity means more than the number of species, and when we focus on species-level extinctions we are missing part of the story,” says UC Santa Cruz professor Eric Palkovacs. “Intraspecific variation is a neglected aspect of biodiversity, but it has value for people, and we need to start recognizing that and protecting this form of biodiversity.”
Analysis of ancient DNA sequences recovered from mammoth teeth reveals previously unknown details about how mammoths evolved.
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.
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.
An invisible flow of groundwater seeps into the ocean along coastlines all over the world. Scientists have tended to disregard its contributions to ocean chemistry, but a new study finds groundwater discharge plays a more significant role than had been thought.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
Understanding the origins of life on this planet could offer hints about where to search for life elsewhere, says Natalie Batalha, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It has very significant implications for the future of space exploration.”
Original story from Science News.
A continuous record of the past 66 million years shows natural climate variability due to changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun is much smaller than projected future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions
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.
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.
