Environment & Ecology

Catching a wave of innovation: Central Coast company Patagonia reinvents the wetsuit

UC Santa Barbara  students can swap their lab coat for a wetsuit, trading biology lab at the university’s Marine Biotechnology Lab for catching waves at Campus Point in under five minutes. Surfing ...
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Simply Stated: What caused the massive waves on the California coast?

  If you were anywhere on the California coast last month, you were likely one of millions receiving high surf warnings and coastal flooding advisories. On Dec. 28, 2023, Santa Barbara experience...
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Simply Stated: What is an El Niño year?

If you are like me, you may have heard the explanation, “because it’s an El Niño year” as a response to any questions about why it has been raining so much or why it has been so warm all of a s...
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Closing the Loop: UCSB’s A.S. Department of Public Worms’ sustainable solution to food waste

For most people, the moment their scraps fall and join the leftovers at the bottom of the dining commons’ green compost bins marks what they believe to be the end of the line for that food. In reali...
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UC Santa Barbara faculty take part in United Nations Plastics Treaty negotiation

UC Santa Barbara’s Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory recently joined the United Nations in making historic progress toward a plastic-free world. Over 175 countries around the globe convened in Nairob...
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A conversation with SB Channelkeeper on the legal battle against nitrate pollution

Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, an organization with the mission of protecting and restoring local water resources, has joined a broad coalition of environmentalists, fishing organizations and Latinx and...
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UCSB Decarbonization Study Project Committee launches clean energy master plan

In a virtual kickoff meeting, UC Santa Barbara’s Decarbonization Study Project Committee launched its official campus Clean Energy Master Plan.  The initiative is a joint effort of both UCSB offici...
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A warming ocean: What’s happening below the surface with the Hofmann Lab?

With marine heatwaves facing our oceans as a climate stressor, UC Santa Barbara’s Hofmann Lab draws attention to just how drastically marine organisms may change in response.  As a relatively recen...
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“River Undammed”: Largest dam removal in history underway, researchers optimistic

Decades of hard-fought activism of the Yurok and Karuk tribes have borne fruit in the beginnings of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history. Hopes are high for the future of the Klamath River ...
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UCSB Lab Studies Emergence and Disease Risk of Mosquito-Borne Viruses

Diseases like dengue are becoming much more common due to the expansion of the range of the mosquito species that transmit it. Andrew MacDonald, an assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren Sch...
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“The Future of the Amazon”: UCSB’s Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies hosts international conference

Dozens of scholars, researchers, activists and policymakers from institutions across the globe arrived at UC Santa Barbara for a three-day international conference from Oct. 25-27, aimed at discussing...
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“The Heat Will Kill You First”: Writer Jeff Goodell warns against extreme heat, says we are not doomed

You probably heard it on the radio, read it in the newspaper or saw a post on Instagram at some point over the past few months: 2023 was the hottest summer ever recorded in human history. According to...
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Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary enters final quarter of public comment phase

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is nearing the close of its public comment phase, making it one step closer to official designation.
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Q&A with SB Channelkeeper: August is National Water Quality Month!

National Water Quality Month was first started in 2005 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to bring awareness to the issue of water pollution, encourage appreciation of the water we d...
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MethaneMapper: A new effective AI-based tool for methane detection

From erratic weather patterns to increasing occurrences of hurricanes, the climate crisis is worsening by the minute. The main component of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions, with methane in ...
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