A team of University of California scientists found that high-mountain streams may be more vulnerable to droughts and heatwaves than previously thought.
Climate change threatens Sierra Nevada stream ecosystems
News
Carlson Lab hosts ESPM Seminar speaker, Dr. Cleo Wölfle Hazard, for his seminar on “Queer Trans River Sciences: Field Notes on Politics and Practice”
Cannabis agriculture at risk from wildfire
Wildfires are an increasing threat to people’s lives, property and livelihoods, especially in rural California communities. Cannabis, one of California’s most lucrative commercial crops, may be at a higher risk of loss from wildfire because it is mostly confined to being grown in rural areas, according to our new article led by Chris Dillis and published in Ecosphere. Check out the paper and UC press release!
Fun day of science and re-connecting at the #BerkeleyFreshwater fall retreat
Our #BerkeleyFreshwater team came together today for our fall retreat, which included a mix of life updates, science, visioning, and re-connecting after the summer field season. A highlight was learning from biologists with the East Bay Regional Park District about monitoring aquatic habitats in the 74 #EastBayRegionalParks. Fun & important conversations with a great group!
It’s a wrap!
Thrilled to wrap up our first experiment of the MacLIFE International Laboratories effort, led by Dr. Charlotte Evangelista together with collaborators Mat Buoro from INRAE and Albert Ruhi and Kyle Leathers from the #BerkeleyFreshwater group. We used the experimental stream system at SNARL and manipulated flows to explore how early snowmelt influences insect emergence and top-down control by brown trout.
Denise’s keynote @ 2022 Interagency Ecological Program Workshop
Postdoc researcher Denise Colombano gave a keynote talk at the 2022 Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) Workshop, titled “Strength in numbers: advancing estuarine ecology through data synthesis and collaboration”. She discussed successful research team culture, and provided insights from others through interview clips. Her talk was voted People’s Choice for Best Presentation—watch it on Youtube!
Melissa passed her quals!
Melissa von Mayrhauser, Ph.D. student (now candidate!) in the Ruhi and Grantham labs, just passed her Ph.D. qualifying exam! Her prospectus is titled Changing Flows, Ecosystems, and Perceptions on the Los Angeles and Santa Clara Rivers, and we are really excited about all the cool research on urban stream ecosystem restoration that’s underway. Congratulations, Melissa!
Why and where do streams go dry?
PhD candidate Hana Moidu explores this question in her article on California WaterBlog and a recent paper published in Water Resources Research! And an amazing graphical summary of her study is provided here:
New publications on the California Environmental Flows Framework
We recently published a series of papers in a Special Issue of Frontiers in Environmental Science focused on “Environmental Flows in an Uncertain Future.” Stein et al. (2022) provide an overview of the California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF). Grantham et al. (2022) describe the modeling approach to predict functional flows in California streams and inform development of environmental flow recommendations under CEFF. And Yarnell et al. (2022) present case studies for how CEFF can be applied to groundwater-influenced stream ecosystems. More to come!
New California Water Blog post by Hana Moidu and team!
You can learn more about Hana Moidu’s first dissertation chapter at her new California Water Blog post “Between a rock and a dry place: effects of drought on stream drying patterns in California’s intermittent streams”