eeling a bit lost during the summer after her first year in grad school, Patricia Fancher spent a few weeks couch surfing in New York City. One afternoon in a museum, she was struck by an exhibit by the Danish collage and sculpture artist Henrik Olesen, “Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing.” Oleson’s […]
UC Santa Barbara
Posted inCalifornia
New study in Nature Water puts spotlight on importance of groundwater
Groundwater is a critical resource around the globe, especially in dry regions, but it’s importance in sustaining ecosystems remains largely unstudied. There are many challenges in managing this precious resource for multiple purposes, including water supply and healthy ecosystems. New research has used satellite imagery and groundwater monitoring data to investigate the links between groundwater […]
Posted inCalifornia
Small changes can yield big savings in agricultural water use
(Santa Barbara, Calif.March 25, 2024) — While Hollywood and Silicon Valley love the limelight, California is an agricultural powerhouse, too. Agricultural products sold in the Golden State totaled $59 billion in 2022. But rising temperatures, declining precipitation and decades of over pumping may require drastic changes to farming. Legislation to address the problem could even […]
Posted inEnviro
Reinforcing the diverse ways people access seafood can ensure healthy communities in the face of change
Santa Barbara, Calif. February 7, 2024) — As climate change affects the oceans, coastal communities, particularly those at the front lines of ocean warming and sea level rise, are facing pressures that could threaten their access to aquatic foods. “Climate change and other economic shocks are impacting how people access seafood, and typically households that […]
Posted inEnviro
Sea otters stabilize salt marsh banks as they recolonize a Californian estuary
Sea otters are making an impact as they return to the wetlands of Central California. Remarkable changes have occurred in the landscape as these adorable animals recolonize their former habitat in the Elkhorn Slough, a salt marsh-dominated coastal estuary in Monterey County. The erosion of creek banks slowed on average by 69% after the sea […]
Posted inUS
US voters’ climate change opinions swing elections
When voters cast their ballots in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, many were driven by their concern for climate change, according to a new report. The authors determined that views on climate change played a significant role in whom people voted for, concluding that the climate issue very likely cost Republicans the 2020 election, […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Thomas Fire research reveals that ash can fertilize the oceans
December 4, 2023 – Flames roared through Santa Barbara County in late 2017. UC Santa Barbara canceled classes, and the administration recommended donning an N95, long before the COVID pandemic made the mask a household item. Smoke and ash choked the air, but the Thomas Fire’s effects weren’t restricted to the land and sky. Huge […]
Posted inEnviro
Forest can adapt to climate change, but not quickly enough
America’s forests have a tough time in store for them. Climate change is increasing temperatures and decreasing moisture levels across the country, not a winning combination for trees. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and University of Utah sought to determine how our sylvan ecosystems might fare in the near future. The authors combined mathematical models […]
Posted inEnviro
Lessons from ‘The Blob’ will help us manage fisheries during future marine heatwaves
In early 2014, a great anomaly descended upon the seas: A patch of warm water that manifested in the Gulf of Alaska. Scientists called it “The Blob.” A strong El Niño prolonged this marine heatwave through 2016. It extended as far south as Baja California, Mexico, throwing marine ecosystems, weather patterns and fisheries into disarray. […]
Posted inCalifornia
A tiny species known only from fossils is found alive in the tidepools of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA, November 7, 2022 – Discovering a new species is always exciting, but so is finding one alive that everyone assumed had been lost to the passage of time. A small clam, previously known only from fossils, has recently been found living at Naples Point, just up the coast from UC Santa Barbara. […]
Posted inCalifornia
Marine research and conservation institutions band together to expand whale-saving technology to the San Francisco Bay
September 21, 2022 – Three weeks ago, the hearts of ocean scientists and whale lovers were broken when the body of California’s most popular humpback whale, known as “Fran,” washed ashore at Half Moon Bay, the victim of a ship strike that dislocated her skull from her spine and fractured her vertebrae. “For those of […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Researchers estimate the environmental impacts of 57,000 common store-bought food products
We’re all capable of slowing down the effects of a warming Earth, and it could be as simple as how we stock our pantries. An international team of scientists has evaluated the environmental impacts of more than 57,000 food products – the stuff you typically find as you wander the aisles of your local grocery. […]
Posted inSci/Tech
How the Earth is Changing
Climate change is a complicated phenomenon with a variety of both abrupt and gradual effects that scientists are working hard to uncover. Emerging findings on how various ecosystems are responding to a changing climate, stemming from long-term research conducted through the National Science Foundation’s 40-year-old Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, have now been published in […]
Posted inLife
The Geological Society celebrates Tanya Atwater’s extraordinary career studying plate tectonics and sharing her enthusiasm for discovery
It’s a rare few scientists whose discoveries are so monumental that they leave an indelible mark upon society. Among them is UC Santa Barbara’s Tanya Atwater, who has watched her groundbreaking research transition into common knowledge. Now, the Geological Society of London has awarded Atwater the Wollaston Medal for her contribution to the theory of seafloor spreading and […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Shuffling the Deck: Biologists investigate what happens when traits jump between branches of the tree of life
May 3, 2022 – We all must play the game of life with the cards we’re dealt, so the common aphorism goes. In biology, this means organisms must compete through natural selection with the genes and anatomy they were born with. But the saying is a lie. Okay, it’s not exactly a lie, but modern […]
Posted inSci/Tech
UC Santa Barbara geologists lead the effort to describe the devastating eruption in Tonga
On January 15, the volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai devastated the nation of Tonga. The eruption triggered tsunamis as far afield as the Caribbean and generated atmospheric waves that travelled around the globe several times. Meanwhile, the volcano’s plume shot gas and ash through the stratosphere into the lower mesosphere. Just two months after the eruption, […]
Posted inEnviro
Climate scientists reconsider the meaning and implications of drought in light of a changing world
Maps of the American West have featured ever darker shades of red over the past two decades. The colors illustrate the unprecedented drought blighting the region. In some areas, conditions have blown past severe and extreme drought into exceptional drought. But rather than add more superlatives to our descriptions, one group of scientists believes it’s […]
Posted inCalifornia
The Frogs of Baja California
There’s a pandemic sweeping across the globe. No, not COVID, a different one. For decades, a brutal fungal infection has been decimating amphibians worldwide. “We call it a panzootic,” said Andrea Adams(link is external), an assistant researcher in the Earth Research Institute at UC Santa Barbara. “It’s like a pandemic, only with animals.” Scientists are hard […]
Posted inUS
The Politics of COVID: Study finds people put party over policy in dealing with pandemic
January 25, 2022 – If a politician you dislike supports a COVID policy, there’s a good chance you’ll oppose it. But if a politician you like backs the same plan, it’s likely you will, too. Not all is lost, though. Policies proposed by nonpartisan experts tend to be supported by the public despite political affiliation. […]
Posted inCalifornia
Outwitting Omicron: UCSB Graduate student Zach Aralis develops a rapid test for the COVID-19 Omicron variant
Speed is everything in the race against COVID-19’s Omicron variant, the fastest version of the virus we’ve seen to date. Its dizzying rise to dominance in the United States threatens to overwhelm our already beleaguered healthcare system, as physicians across the country grapple with how to treat their mounting caseloads. But a new lab test […]