Environment

Mapping the Future’s Sweet Spot for Clean Energy and Biodiversity

Climate change is driving both the loss of biodiversity and the need for clean, renewable energy. It is also shifting where species are expected to live in the future. Yet these realities are rarely considered together. Where can clean energy projects be built without impacting the future habitat ranges of threatened and endangered species?

Car Fumes, Weeds Pose Double Whammy for Fire-Loving Native Plants

Springtime brings native wildflowers to bloom in the Santa Monica Mountains, northwest of Los Angeles. These beauties provide food for insects, maintain healthy soil and filter water seeping into the ground — in addition to offering breathtaking displays of color. 

They’re also good at surviving after wildfire, having adapted to it through millennia. But new research shows wildflowers that usually would burst back after a blaze and a good rain are losing out to the long-standing, double threat of city smog and nonnative weeds.

Saving Space for Research

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AMONG THE ACADEMIES

UC Davis has more than 50 faculty members who belong to the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, a recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in research. The academies are among the most prestigious membership organizations in the world.

Each month, Dateline UC Davis will profile one of these faculty members in honor of their contributions to scientific research and knowledge.

UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology Welcomes New Director with Spider Expertise

Professor Jason Bond starts today (Feb. 1) as the new director of the UC Davis R.M. Bohart Museum of Entomology, which houses the 7th largest insect collection in North America. Bond succeeds Lynn Kimsey, distinguished professor with the Department of Entomology and Nematology, who retired last month after serving as the museum’s director and curator since 1990.

Fungi Scouting Field Trip Yields Edible Finds, Plus Poisonous Ones, too

They had names like Galerina marginata, Helvella dryophila and Ramalina menziesii.

Such was the bounty collected by students from UC Davis and other Bay Area colleges during a weekend fungi hunt field trip along the California coast.

The trip is a beloved tradition and a sought-after adventure for students taking PLP 148: Introductory Mycology, which is the study of fungi like mushrooms, molds and yeasts.

Professor Reflects on Role at the Council of Economic Advisers in D.C.

After memorable encounters with the president and collaborating with some of the world’s top economic experts, Frances C. Moore, an associate professor with the Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), is shedding light on the relationship between research and real-world decision-making.