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Environment

July 10, 2025

Photo depicts Brittany Barreto Martinez pouring liquid into a test tube in a lab.
San Luis Reservoir in Merced County - one of California's largest artificial lakes - not only irrigates Central Valley farmland and supplies drinking water across Silicon Valley and the South Bay, but also draws swimmers, boaters and anglers year-round. Yet for months at a time, forest-green...
Ocean after a hurricane.
Even the tiniest organisms have a surprisingly huge effect on life in the oceans, eating up the last bits of oxygen in certain areas, preventing larger marine life from surviving there, a new study...
Professor Sarah Kurtz, center, poses with graduate students Aaron Wheeler and Dalia Martinez behind a solar panel.
Finding creative solutions to lessen humans’ impact on the environment and reduce reliance on fossil fuels is a core tenet of the renewable energy field, something engineering Professor Sarah...
A 10 kW array on location at UC Merced. This is one of the two innovative technologies in the Department of Energy's desalination contest.
When people hear the word “solar,” many think of solar panels on a house, which generate electricity. But there is another way to use energy harnessed by the sun: heat. Founding...
Fourth-graders at a Merced elementary school are introduced to agriculture-related sciences by undergrads in the FARMERS program.
Students at UC Merced and those who might someday become Bobcats are the focus of FARMERS, Professor Rudy M. Ortiz’s training program funded again for $1 million by the U.S. Department of...
Professor John Abatzoglou
An upside of the increase in forest fires in the West is that they reduce the amount of fuel available for other burns. That might provide a buffering effect on western fires for the next few decades...
Professor Josué Medellín-Azuara is heading up a new study of drought's effects on agricultural communities.
Just because there has been rain lately doesn’t mean California is drought-free. A new $1.5 million research grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture is supporting School...
Professor Xuan Zhang
Lots of people look at clouds and think about flying, floating or the shapes they see. When atmospheric chemistry Professor Xuan Zhang looks at clouds, she thinks about tiny particles in the air....
Biochar is high in carbon and created by heating biomass at moderate temperatures in a process called pyrolysis.
Central Valley natives are accustomed to seeing plumes of smoke from burning tree piles after harvest. This is the traditional way farmers dispose of crop waste, such as trees, nut shells and pruned...
Professor Rebecca Ryals, left, talks to students in her lab.
Human waste isn’t a topic most people want to talk about. But environmental systems Professor Rebecca Ryals embraces the subject, especially when it comes to mitigating climate change,...

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