Pandemic Stories: Why I am alone in the desert catching lizards
Barry Sinervo, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, shares how he’s juggling research, teaching, and the pandemic during these uncertain times.
The long road home from Antarctica
“In late December, my son left for Antarctica. He’s a marine biologist who is doing a whale study in this vast and intimidating place. I didn’t worry… Until I heard that he might be trapped there due to COVID-19.”
Original story from Voices of Monterey Bay.
Grad student Melissa Cronin wins Seafood Sustainability Contest
$45,000 prize will support Cronin’s efforts to to reduce the mortality of manta rays and devil rays incidentally caught during tuna fishing.
Original story from UCSC Newsroom.
Biologist Marm Kilpatrick helps introduce a new bill to protect monarch butterflies
Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta announced that he introduced H.R. 5920, the bipartisan Monarch Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat (MONARCH) Act.
Original story from Congressman Jimmy Panetta.
$2.6 million grant funds program to increase diversity of conservation leaders
New funding for the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at UC Santa Cruz builds on the program’s successes in training the next generation of diverse conservation leaders.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
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.
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.
MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant winners for 2019: The full list
The MacArthur fellowships are awarded annually for exceptional “originality, insight and potential.” Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Alumna Stacy Jupiter is one of them.
'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.
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.
Switzer Environmental Fellowship awarded to ecology Ph.D. student Melissa Cronin
UCSC Newscenter — Melissa Cronin, a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz, has been awarded a Switzer Environmental Fellowship from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. The prestigious fellowship recognizes promising environmental leaders and provides $15,000 to support their research.
Cronin’s research focuses on threatened manta ray and devil ray populations, which are often caught as bycatch in industrial fishing operations.
My first research internship revealed a whole new field of study—Birds!
During a research trip to study Rosy finches in the Sierra Nevada, undergraduate Sarah Albright reflects on her first internship experience at Younger Lagoon Natural Reserve—where it all began.