Environment

Hurricanes Create Powerful Changes Deep in the Ocean, Study Reveals

June 6, 2025

Hurricane Bud left some surprising changes in its wake, UC Merced researchers found.

With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedition off the coast of Mexico. The team was able to sample the ocean right after the storm passed and found that the storms churn the ocean so powerfully and...

From left, professors Tom Harmon, David Strubbe, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Michael Scheibner, Sayantani Ghosh and Mehmet Baykara

NSF Grant to Help Grad Students Find Solutions to Environmental Challenges

Graduate students and a convergence of physics, engineering and environmental science could result in not only the next generation of solutions to pressing environmental challenges, but a new group...

Professor’s Side-Blotched Lizards Become Latest Campus Inhabitants

Every faculty member has to set up their lab when they join a new campus. But Professor Danielle Edwards literally built a key component of hers from the ground up. The outdoor component of El...

Professor Colleen Naughton is taking students to Morocco to study argan oil production.

Research Program Offers Students a Moroccan Summer Field Experience

Students will soon be able to apply for a unique opportunity to go to Morocco — when travel is safe again — to study the environmental and socioeconomic aspects of the production of argan...

Professor Joshua Viers stands near a canal on the UC Merced campus.

UC Merced Leads Innovative Effort to Secure Water for Agriculture and Ecosystems

UC Merced’s largest research grant in its 16-year history aims to improve agricultural and environmental water resilience. The new $10 million collaborative focuses on water banking, trading...

HSRI Receives $1.2 Million to Research Health Impacts From Vehicle-Related Air Pollution

UC Merced's Health Sciences Research Institute (HSRI) has been awarded a $1.2 million grant to study the effects of vehicle emissions on public health and the environment. This award is part...

Professor Colleen Naughton (center) poses with first-year doctoral student Ana Grace Alvarado (left) and fourth-year undergraduate student Fernando Adali Roman, Jr (right). Photo by Veronica Adrover, UC Merced

UC Merced Joins Global COVID-19 Wastewater Data Center Effort

As the number of cases of COVID-19 surge again globally as a result of the delta variant, world leaders are searching for ways to make more informed decisions on how to contain the pandemic....

UC Merced Makes Princeton Review ‘Green Honor Roll,’ Remains Consistent on International Young University Rankings

UC Merced’s superb sustainability and environmental reputation continue to be a powerhouse, with The Princeton Review placing the campus among only three UCs on its ‘2022 Green Honor Roll...

Antibiotic Resistance Found in Insecticides Commonly Used in California

The over the counter, “safe,” organic-compliant insecticides people purchase at home-improvement stores could be causing a problem that goes far beyond the vegetable garden or farm field...

Edwards Eager to Expand Father of Evolution’s Work

It has been 186 years since Charles Darwin collected the samples of the Galapagos Islands species that led to his explanation of how the diversity of life on Earth has evolved and forever changed the...

Research