Science and Climate Content

Fish ‘Beauty Salons’ Offer Insight into How Microbes Move Within Reefs

Katherine E Kerlin — June 05, 2025 - 9:05am

Where do you go when you’re a fish and you need a skincare treatment? Coral reefs contain natural “beauty salons,” lively social hubs of activity where fish “clients” swim up and wait to be serviced by smaller fish cleaners. The little cleaners dart under and around their much bigger clients — even entering their mouths — cleaning their scales of bacteria and parasites like a team of car washers servicing a Buick. Sometimes cleaners even rub against their clients, providing a soothing massage.

EV Battery Recycling Key to Future Lithium Supplies

Andy Fell — May 29, 2025 - 9:02am

Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries are crucial for the transition to electric vehicles, and global demand for lithium is set to grow rapidly over the next 25 years. A new analysis from the ��Ƶ, Davis, published May 29 in Nature Sustainability, looks at how new mining operations and battery recycling could meet that demand. Recycling could play a big role in easing supply constraints, the researchers found.

Extreme Weather Cycles Change Underwater Light at Tahoe

Katherine E Kerlin — May 21, 2025 - 9:00am

Large shifts in UV radiation at Lake Tahoe are associated with wet and dry climate extremes, finds a UC Davis study.

Native Turtles Return to Yosemite After Removal of Invasive Bullfrogs

Katherine E Kerlin — May 20, 2025 - 9:00am

After invasive American bullfrogs croak, native turtles return to Yosemite, finds a UC Davis study.

��Ƶ Risks Billions in Economic Losses Without Water Supply Action

Katherine E Kerlin — May 14, 2025 - 2:28pm

A new economic analysis by UC professors shows the high cost of inaction on ��Ƶ’s perpetual water supply challenges. It estimates that the state could lose enough water each year to supply up to 9 million households — with economic losses totaling between $3.4 and $14.5 billion per year, depending on the severity of the scenario.

Helping Birds and Floating Solar Energy Coexist

Katherine E Kerlin — May 12, 2025 - 2:00am

How might floating solar energy projects impact wild birds and vice versa? A UC Davis paper outlines key considerations for a growing floating solar industry.

Sulfur Runoff Amplifies Mercury Concentrations in Florida Everglades

Katherine E Kerlin — May 08, 2025 - 10:26am

Sulfur from sugarcane crops is flowing into wetlands in the Florida Everglades, creating toxic methylmercury, which accumulates in fish, a UC Davis study finds.

Arctic Plants React Unexpectedly to Climate Change

Katherine E Kerlin — April 30, 2025 - 8:00am

Rapid climate change is upending established plant diversity and growth patterns in the Arctic, with species blooming in some areas and declining in others, suggests a study published today in the journal Nature.

The decades-long study of more than 2,000 plant communities across 45 areas in the Arctic tundra found that many locations saw vegetation change in type, abundance and growth, between 1981 and 2022.

A New Record for ��Ƶ’s Highest Tree

Katherine E Kerlin — April 17, 2025 - 9:00am

A UC Davis professor's pleasure hike in the High Sierra turned into a new elevation record for ��Ƶ highest tree, the Jeffrey pine, which wasn't formerly known to grow at extreme elevations.

��Ƶ Rice and Conservation

Andy Fell — April 07, 2025 - 4:12pm

In 1991, the state of ��Ƶ largely banned burning of rice straw after harvest, and farmers turned instead to winter flooding of fields to break down straw. As a result, wildlife has flourished in rice fields which reproduce, to some extent, the wetland habitat that once covered most of ��Ƶ Central Valley. Rice fields now support some 200 species including fish, birds and reptiles.