News

A new research endeavor involving multiple institutions, including UC Santa Barbara, will explore the possibility that frogs’ ability to survive certain infections can help enhance understanding of how to help humans do the same.

There’s evidence of a large cosmic airburst, close to this city called Tall el-Hammam. The shock of the explosion over Tall el-Hammam was enough to level the city.

Fish do require oxygen to breathe; it’s just that they get what they need from the oxygen dissolved in water rather than in the air. Unfortunately, oxygen concentrations are dropping throughout the oceans. A new study out of UC Santa Barbara and University of South Carolina is the first to document more than a dozen species moving to shallower water in response to low oxygen conditions.

The “use it or lose it” is a stipulation common to many of the laws governing public resources in the U.S. and around the world: You can’t lease public resources with the intent to leave them be. A group of scientists, economists and lawyers at several universities, including UC Santa Barbara, say it’s time for this requirement to go. The authors argue their case for creating a free market in an article featured in the prestigious journal Science.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara with expertise ranging from energy systems and policy analysis to ornithology and marine life offer their take on how offshore wind capacity fits into the country’s energy portfolio, as well as the effect it may have on humans and wildlife.

Reef fish have pooped on coral since time immemorial. While it’s a normal part of the coral reef ecosystem, a recent study out of UC Santa Barbara suggests that changing environmental conditions could be throwing this dynamic off kilter.

A forest canopy performs many functions. It forms habitat, creates microclimates, provides food and much more.

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers demonstrate the effectiveness of eDNA analysis in the measurement of beta diversity in aquatic environments.

Oak. Elm. Rowan. Ash. Willow. Hazel. Forests of these trees used to cover Ireland, but now its landscape is home to towering, upright conifers of the American Pacific Northwest. Sitka spruce for example, constitute slightly more than half of Ireland’s tree cover.

Hippopotamus offered UC Santa Barbara ecologist Keenan Stears a window into the progression of an anthrax outbreak that struck Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, in the dry season of 2017.

What will the Earth be like for our children and grandchildren, as temperatures continue to rise?

A team of scientists, including UC Santa Barbara’s Dave Herbst, investigated how river ecosystems respond to remediation efforts.

Local factors offer opportunities for management that could boost coral reefs’ resistance to climate change, according to UC Santa Barbara professor Deron Burkepile.

Research co-led by Anastasia (Tasha) Quintana at UC Santa Barbara and Alfredo Giron-Nava at Stanford University investigated feedback loops for community-based conservation in northwest Mexico

UC Santa Barbara professor David Siegel and his group, along with fellow UCSB marine scientists Mark Brzezinski and Craig Carlson and their research groups, join colleagues from multiple research institutions to piece together the complex puzzle that is the ocean’s carbon cycle.

Charles Lester is revitalizing UC Santa Barbara’s Ocean and Coastal Policy Center (OCPC) to carry forward work on pressing coastal management issues, from the protection of public shoreline access to the challenge of community adaptation to sea level rise.

Marine scientists say they have identified in the Pacific Ocean more than 25,000 barrels that they believe contain the toxic chemical DDT.

A team of researchers from UC Santa Barbara has proposed a novel strategy for reducing large amounts of nutrients — specifically nitrogen and phosphorous — after they have already been released into the environment.

Kelp forests are well known biodiversity hotspots, particularly those in the Santa Barbara Channel. UC Santa Barbara doctoral graduate Dana Morton has just released the most extensive ecological food web that includes parasites, which in her opinion, have too often been overlooked. The detailed description was published in the journal Scientific Data.

UC Santa Barbara Professor Armand Kuris serves as a seasoned mentor for several young researchers who hadn’t even been born when he first visited the Pacific Northwest site.

Undergraduate students in UC Santa Barbara ecologist Doug McCauley’s lab found themselves staring intently at satellite image upon image of bovine herds at Point Reyes National Seashore.

A toxic dumpsite that settled on the ocean floor decades ago continues to wreak havoc on marine life to this day.

Doctoral student Kai Kopecky and his co-authors, who include Adrian Stier, professor in the Department of Ecology Evolution & Marine Biology and one of Kopecky’s advisors, have found that young corals are quite vulnerable to corallivores like parrotfish and pufferfish.

For his work advancing our understanding of the recovery of degraded marine species and ecosystems, UC Santa Barbara ecologist Adrian Stier has been named a 2021 early career fellow by the Ecological Society of America (ESA).