News

UC Merced Launches Earth Institute, Uniting Climate and Environmental Research

September 15, 2026
UC Merced is deepening its investment in the fight against climate change, uniting scientific expertise across campus to help confront the effects of a changing planet.  Leading that effort is the Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI), UC Merced's first Organized Research Unit, which has merged...

How Much Does Wildfire Reduce Forest Water Use and Increase Runoff?

August 4, 2026
Wildfire is reshaping the forests of California's Sierra Nevada and affecting the water those forests supply to downstream users. A paper published in Hydrology and Earth System Science reports that the effect of wildfire on potential runoff from the state's main water-supply watersheds has...

Global Film Highlights Faculty Voice on the Future of Soil

June 18, 2026
A leading expert in soil biogeochemistry and environmental engineering, UC Merced Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, brings her research and perspective to a global conversation about the future of our planet. Berhe, the Ted & Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology and director of the UC...

Turning A Carbon Footprint into a Carbon Wave

May 1, 2026
It's time to think bigger about mitigating climate change. Measures such as recycling, turning off lights and reducing energy use are great, but making a real impact is going to take systemic change, said Leah Stokes, a political scientist, energy expert and climate communicator from UC Santa...

Two UC Merced Researchers Among This Year’s AAAS Fellows

March 26, 2026
Professors Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and Ming-Hsuan Yang have been named 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. They are among the nearly 500 scientists, engineers and...

UC Merced Climate Experts Explain Why March Heat Wave is Dangerous

March 17, 2026
Temperatures in the 90s are nothing new to the northern San Joaquin Valley. But having them in March, as expected this week, is unusual and potentially dangerous. An exceptionally strong ridge of high pressure will bring record-breaking heat to the entire region, the National Weather Service said....

Rising Simultaneous Fire Weather Threatens International Firefighting Efforts

February 18, 2026
High-risk conditions for fires are increasingly happening across countries at the same time, making wildfires even more challenging to tackle, new research reveals. Scientists from UC Merced and the University of East Anglia found this synchronized extreme fire weather — characterized by...

Innovative Solutions Turn Rural Energy Challenges Into Opportunities

January 21, 2026
One of the biggest hurdles facing local farmers is the rising cost of doing business. However, some innovative solutions are in the works, as highlighted at the Central Valley Rural Energy Systems Workshop at UC Merced in early December. Hosted by the UC Merced Energy Center and the Sierra Nevada...