Sierra Nevada Research Institute

From Soil to Climate Solutions: Berhe Leads Sierra Nevada Research Institute into its Next Chapter

September 11, 2025

When Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe arrived at UC Merced in 2009, she and her husband, Professor Teamrat Ghezzehei, were leaving major research institutions to join a brand-new campus in California’s Central Valley. It was a leap of faith — one made easier by the Sierra Nevada Research...

Photo depicts a silhouette of California firefighters battling a lightning-caused fire in 2020.

Damaging Lightning-Caused Wildfires Likely to Increase in a Few Years, Researchers Find

Lightning from thunderstorms rolling through Central California on Sept. 2 ignited numerous wildfires, including several large fires in the Sierra Nevada foothills that had burned more than 19 square...

A sign posted on a tree in Eastern Europe warns of active land mines.

UC Merced’s Berhe Joins Scientists in Warning of Global Land Mine Crisis

More than 100 million land mines remain buried around the world, posing a threat in approximately 70 countries and territories, and killing or injuring about 5,000 people, most of them civilians,...

Instructor Kristen Hogue works with a class of high school students in New York City.

UC Merced Brings Climate Justice Course to Title I High School Students Across the Nation

Recently, more than 150 students at 10 high schools in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. completed Climate Justice, a UC Merced course , through a unique partnership between the...

Flames, the beach and the ocean are depicted in a scene from the January 2025 Palisades fire.

Researchers Look Ahead to Fire Season 2025

Pictures accompanying Professor John Abatzoglou's presentation on the 2025 fire season were blurry. That was intentional, he said, because so much about wildfire is unpredictable. "There...

A fluorescence microscope image of one kind of active matter being studied. Image courtesy of Amanda Tan, UC Merced

UC Awards Support Tackling Big Questions in Health, Physics, Agriculture and Climate

Faculty members at UC Merced are taking the lead on four Multicampus Research Program Initiatives (MRPI), working with colleagues around the University of California system to address challenges...

Study: Climate Change Extends Drought Recovery by at Least Three Months

A group of researchers at UC Merced has found that climate change means it takes about three months longer for California to recover from drought, and probably longer. “Climate change has...

Symposium attendees listen to Safeeq Khan, UC Merced associate adjunct professor and cooperative extension specialist in water and watershed sciences at the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, present research with coauthors Max Eriksson and Roger Bales on stakeholder perspectives of multi-benefit forest management and ecosystem-service valuation in California.

2024 Sierra Nevada Science Symposium Convenes Sierra Researchers at UC Merced

The 2024 Sierra Nevada Science Symposium, hosted March 5-6 at University of California, Merced, brought together National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Geological Survey, National Forest, state, local...

A forest fire is pictured in a photo from "California's Watershed Healing"

New Film Profiles Immediate Actions to Restore California's Wildfire-vulnerable Forests

The new film "California's Watershed Healing" documents the huge benefits that result from restoring forests to healthier densities. UC Merced's Sierra Nevada Research Institute...

As climate warms, the snowline, or rain/snow transition elevation, moves to higher elevations, placing some historically snow-dominated sites in the rain zone. Photo by Roger Bales at Crane Flat in Yosemite National Park

Warming Climate Pushes Rain to Higher Elevations, Raising Flooding Risks

A new study co-authored by UC Merced researchers assesses the effect of a warming climate in pushing the elevation of snow to rain higher during a storm, increasing runoff and the risk of flooding...