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Wildfire problem to increase in coming decades

March 5, 2018
Research projects substantial increases in area burned across western North America, with implications for land managers and policy makers. Above: Projected change in annual area burned for the period 2010–2039, with red colors indicating areas with the greatest increase in area...

California agriculture faces serious threats from climate change, study finds

February 27, 2018
Over the past decade, California farmers have been seeing symptoms of climate change in their fields and orchards: less winter chill, crops blooming earlier, more heat waves and years of drought when the state baked in record temperatures. Scientists say California agriculture will face much...

Study: Climate Change Threatens Major Crops in California

February 27, 2018
California currently provides two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts, but according to a new study published Tuesday, by the end of the century California’s climate will no longer be able to support the state’s major crops, including orchards. The report, published in...

Study finds ‘rock moisture’ spared California forest from drought

February 26, 2018
The recent drought left record numbers of trees dead and dying and vulnerable to fire in virtually every corner of California, but a dense tract of evergreen forest in northern Mendocino County remained wet and healthy.   The reason, say the authors of a study published Monday, is...

State Water Resources Challenge Described by Merced Expert

February 22, 2018
In a state where nature produces multi-year droughts, and at a time when global warming is reducing the traditional Sierra snow pack, California must do more to understand and protect its precious water resource, according to a nationally known expert on the subject. The expert is Roger Bales, a...

Why We Need Working Floodplains

February 22, 2018
Floodplains are hard-working landscapes when they’re allowed to “act naturally.” But their flood-taming, habitat-feeding abilities are compromised when they’re paved over or constricted by levees. We talked with Josh Viers, a watershed scientist at UC Merced and a member of...

Documentary warns water shortage in SJV a matter of national security

February 21, 2018
It's a film that explores a possible and dire future where water, food and natural resources teeter on the edge of collapse. And the San Joaquin Valley is at the center of the drama. Filmmaker Jim Thebaut's documentary "Running Dry: Beyond the Brink" premiered...

Why millions of dead trees in the Sierra may have helped save water during the drought

January 17, 2018
The millions of trees that died in the Sierra Nevada during California’s five-year drought may have actually helped the state’s water supply once the historic dry spell finally ended, according to a new study. Scientists led by UC Merced’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute...

Scientists Explain Mechanisms Affecting Runoff Levels During Drought

January 12, 2018
Scientists at UC Merced’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI) , UC Irvine, UC Davis and the USDA Forest Service have enumerated the mechanisms that serve as master regulators of streamflow and drought intensity by studying California’s 2012-15 drought. Their findings are detailed...

Scientists Explain Mechanisms Affecting Runoff Levels During Drought

January 12, 2018
Scientists at UC Merced’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI), UC Irvine, UC Davis and the USDA Forest Service have enumerated the mechanisms that serve as master regulators of streamflow and drought intensity by studying California’s 2012-15 drought. Their findings are detailed in a new paper...

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