Research

Study Indicates Human-caused Dust Events are Linked to Fallow Farmland

June 2, 2025

The Central Valley is a major contributor to a growing dust problem, in large part because of agriculture, researchers say.

An average of more than 1 million acres of idled farmland a year is a significant contributor to a growing dust problem in California that has implications for millions of residents’ health and the state’s climate. A new study published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment...

Environmental Systems Student Wins Inaugural GradSLAM! Event

This week marked the end of the first-ever UC Merced GradSLAM! competition, in which graduate students were given just three minutes to present their research to a panel of non-specialist judges with...

Floodplain Management Can Increase Groundwater Supply

California’s groundwater is being rapidly depleted because cities and farms extract more than is replenished naturally, compacting local aquifers and decreasing supply in some places in the Central ...

Sociologist Earns Fulbright Scholar Award to Study in Honduras

Paul Almeida, a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to study non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their role in community well...

Musical Sheds Light on Lives of Undocumented Youth

“In and Out of Shadows,” a musical by famed Chicano writer and Fresno native Gary Soto, is coming to Merced for a special one-night-only show on April 11. Performed by the San Francisco Youth Theatre...

New System Can Help Save Water with a Couple of Clicks

New software developed at UC Merced allows anyone on campus with a smartphone to report water leaks to Facilities in a couple of easy steps. Facilities and Operations in mid-March installed quick-...

New Magnetic Resonance Lab Opens on Campus

Looking at molecules just got easier for UC Merced researchers, now that Professor Erik Menke, Professor Jason Hein and other colleagues have opened a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) lab. “It’s a...

Relax: Benefits of Leisure Go Beyond the Moment

Doing the things you enjoy can be good for your health, according to a new study by Professor Matthew Zawadzki, a health psychologist with the University of California, Merced. The study,...

Study: Moral Decisions Can Be Manipulated by Tracking Eye Gaze

Moral decisions can be influenced by tracking moment-to-moment movements of the eyes during deliberation, according to new research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of...

Literature Professor Releases Book on Acclaimed Chilean Author

Ignacio López-Calvo, professor of Latin American literature in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, has edited a book that was published by Palgrave MacMillan this month. “Roberto...