Coastal Science & Policy
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Ancient DNA research aids de-extinction efforts and reveals surprising dire wolf ancestry
UC Santa Cruz scientists worked with Colossal Biosciences to help reveal secrets in the dire wolf genome that contributed to what the startup is calling the world’s first de-extinction
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Science Division staff honored with new award for outstanding service, dedication
Jeannette Peters, Patti Schell, and Deana Tanguay share division’s first Outstanding Staff Award
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Three UC Santa Cruz faculty members named 2024 AAAS fellows
David Deamer, Theodore Holman, and Raphael Kudela awarded lifetime honor
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Forum captures urgency to use ecosystems now to keep people safe from looming natural disasters
The National Practice Forum on Nature-Based Solutions was held in Irvine on February 4 and 5, and sponsored by UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR). The forum drew over 500 attendees from around the country to discuss how our ecosystems can protect us from natural disasters.
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Whale waste helps health of oceans by funneling nutrients to the tropics, new study shows
New research shows that whales move nutrients thousands of miles—in their pee and poop—from as far as Alaska to Hawaii, supporting the health of tropical ecosystems and fish. UC Santa Cruz professors Dan Costa and Ari Friedlaender contributed their marine-mammal expertise to the study, which was published on March 10 in the journal Nature Communications.
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Biologist Erika Zavaleta receives Science Division’s Outstanding Faculty Award
The Science Division has announced that Erika Zavaleta, a professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, has won its 2023-24 Outstanding Faculty Award. The annual prize is the division’s highest honor for faculty achievement, recognizing combined excellence in research, teaching, and service.
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Foraging seals enable scientists to measure fish abundance across the vast Pacific Ocean
A new study led by UC Santa Cruz marine biologist Roxanne Beltran to be published as the February 14 cover story for Science concludes that seals can essentially act as “smart sensors” for monitoring fish populations in the ocean’s eerily dim “twilight zone.”
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New study documents California coyotes eating harbor seal pups
A paper published on February 12 in the journal Ecology details how the researchers used motion-triggered cameras placed at MacKerricher State Beach on California’s North Coast during harbor seal pupping season in the spring of 2023 and 2024.
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AAAS names UC Santa Cruz organelle discovery most outstanding paper in 2024
The discovery by UC Santa Cruz researchers of a new organelle within single-celled algae that converts nitrogen gas into ammonia continues to be celebrated by the science community, this time by winning the prestigious AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize.
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Explorer society honors Roxanne Beltran for advancing scientific field research, education equity
Roxanne Beltran, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, is among 50 people from around the world being honored this year for “doing remarkable work to promote science and exploration.”
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Climate change reshuffles species like a deck of cards, new study finds
A new study led by UC Santa Cruz ecology and evolutionary biologist Malin Pinsky finds that temperature changes due to climate change have a doubly detrimental impact: Not only do they destabilize animal populations, but the impacts accelerate as temperatures change more rapidly.
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Students make winning videos about importance of federal support for science research
Impactful scientific discovery isn’t possible without funding to support the research, and three UC Santa Cruz students have created short videos that took top prizes in a national competition held by the Science Coalition, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to sustaining the federal government’s investment in basic scientific research.