Earth Systems Science

Study of Sugar Pines Reveals Urgent Issue in Protecting Forests from Climate Change

November 20, 2024

Sugar pines are the tallest pine species in the world, and they only grow along the West Coast of North America. They are a valued source of timber with cones as large as an adult’s forearm. But they face several problems that a new paper argues should be quickly addressed. The sugar pine...

SNRI Sees a Leadership Transition

Change is everywhere at UC Merced this year, from hiring a new chancellor to the completion of a major campus expansion. The Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI), an early hallmark of research...

Podcast Focuses on New Agriculture and California’s Future

On a hot June evening, UC Merced Professor Josh Viers joined farm advocate and small farmer Tom Willey on his front porch near Fresno to talk about California’s water, disadvantaged...

Professor and Falasco Chair Berhe Recognized as a Carnegie Corporation Distinguished Immigrant

Every Fourth of July, the Carnegie Corporation of New York honors the legacy of its founder Andrew Carnegie, by recognizing an extraordinary group of immigrants, who are now naturalized American...

Human Waste Treatment Helps Solve Climate-Change Puzzle, New Study Shows

About 4.5 billion people around the globe do not have access to adequate sanitation, and what they do have — typically pit latrines and lagoons — are responsible for widespread illnesses...

Researchers Look to Wetlands to Increase Delta Water Quality

UC Merced Professor Peggy O’Day hopes to improve water quality in the California Delta by studying local wetlands. O’Day is leading a new three-year study of Merced County wetlands...

Berhe Named to Endowed Chair in Recognition of Her Work in Soil Sciences

Soil biogeochemistry Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe has been named the Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology. “The Falasco family is engaged in construction and...

Biodiversity Study Indicates Large and Small Organisms React Similarly to Environment

Bacteria and starfish have more in common than people might think. A new study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences shows that both single-celled (...

TED Audiences get the Dirt on Soil and Climate Change from Berhe

Soil is one of the foundations of life on Earth and could be an important part of the solution to climate change, if only we can stop treating it like dirt. That’s the message Professor...

Stands of brown, dead trees throughout Sierra Nevada forests

Multiyear Drought Caused Massive Forest Die-off in Sierra Nevada

The most extreme drought event in hundreds of years caused a catastrophic die-off of the Sierra Nevada’s mature trees in 2015-2016. A study published today in Nature Geoscience details how...