PhD student Sheri Spiegal and the Range Ecology Lab, under the leadership of Professor James Bartolome, are measuring vegetation change across space and time in Tejon Ranch’s grasslands and isolating environmental factors driving the change.
Gene sleuths trace tree-killing pathogen back to California
UC Berkeley and the Italian National Research Council showed that the pathogen responsible for cypress canker disease, has lived and thrived in California for a long time.
Scavenger behavior and disease dynamics
Getz lab member Steve Bellan is looking at how the behavior of scavengers, like the black-backed jackals, contributes to the dynamics of infectious diseases.
Anthrax outbreaks in nature
Steve Bellan, a Ph.D. student in the Getz Lab, uses a combination of dynamic modeling and field work to gain insight into how host movement and social behavior contribute to the epidemiologic dynamics of infectious diseases.
Graduate Student Hillary Sardiñas Receives $25K Grant from Western SARE
Hillary Sardiñas recently received $25,000 for her project to study the provision of pollination services and subsequent economic benefits associated with hedgerow restoration, a common habitat enhancement technique.
There's something in the California air
UC scientists built and worked in towers as part of the largest single atmospheric research effort in the state. The data they've collected will guide policymakers dealing with air pollution.
At the interplay between landscape and life
Graduate student Sarah Reed of the Amundson Lab, studies the exchanges and feedbacks between terra firma and the organisms that move and live within it.
Obituary: ESPM Research Associate Rebecca Wenk
Rebecca Wenk, a research associate in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM), died after a brief battle with thyroid cancer on Thursday, July 14. She was 31.
The Hans Jenny Memorial Lecture in Soil Science - The Genius of Soil By Garrison Sposito
Garrison Sposito holds the Betty and Isaac Chair in Soil Science at Berkeley.
Environmental impacts of oil spills
Graduate student Thomas Azwell's research focuses on a better understanding of the environmental impacts of oil spills and innovating better technologies for oil spill response, remediation and restoration.
Research focuses on the influence of a highly invasive tree on frugivore foraging
Graduate student Erica Spotswood's research investigates how the introduction of non-native frugivores and fruit-bearing plants on oceanic islands has altered seed dispersal relationships between birds and plants.
Study done in the Sierra Nevada has implications for how foresters manage tree density
The Blodgett Forest Research Station in the Sierra Nevada mountains is part of a study designed to find out how trees respond to different levels of competition for resources (light, water, and nutrients).
A grandmother in Inner Mongolia talks about life as a herder
Professor Li Wenjun of Peking University and Professor Lynn Huntsinger of ESPM have collaborated on studies of the impacts of policies that seek to reduce sand storms and improve the lives of herders in Inner Mongolia.
The neural origins of shell structure and pattern in aquatic mollusks
ESPM professor George Oster and colleagues presented a model to explain how the diversity of shell shapes and patterns amongst the marine mollusks arise from the neural net in their mantle—the secretory organ that constructs and paints the shell.
The driest place on earth
ESPM scientist Ronald Amundson and his colleagues are using field research and chemical techniques to determine how old the desert is, how the landscape has evolved during millions of years of near-lifelessness, and how microbial life has adapted to these harsh conditions.
Ecosystems take hard hit from loss of top predators
A paper reviewing the impact of the loss of large predators and herbivores high in the food chain confirms that their decline has had cascading effects in marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems throughout the world.
How Safe is Mist Netting? First Large Scale Study into Bird Capture Technique Evaluates the Risks
Graduate student Erica Spotswood used data from organisations across the United States and Canada to assess the risk factors which could increase rates of injury or mortality including bird size, age, frequency of capture and the role of predators.
Latinos Have Higher Exposure to Nitrate-Contaminated Drinking Water, Study Finds
Researchers found that across all eight counties studied, there was a positive correlation between water systems that served larger proportions of Latinos and increased nitrate levels in the water systems.
Wild pollinators worth up to $2.4 billion to farmers, study finds
California agriculture reaps $937 million to $2.4 billion per year in economic value from wild, free-living bee species that serve the critical function of pollinating crops.
One Health: Water, Animals, Food and Society
Graduate student Kathryn Fiorella of the Brashares Lab spent the summer of 2011 exploring links between human health and the environment in Western Kenya.