In The News: School of Life Sciences
At small or minority-serving institutions, time and resources that are needed to draft successful grant proposals are often in short supply. But help is available.
The Big Basin Redwood State Park in Santa Cruz, California, is home to some of the tallest and oldest redwood trees on Earth. The towering trees reach heights of over 300 feet (91 m) and have an incredibly thick bark. This natural armor usually protects their upper branches and needles from wildfire damage. However, the CZU Lightning Complex Fire that burned 97 percent of the park in August 2020, was so intense that it even scorched these ancient giants.
Three years after a wildfire burned 97% of California's Big Basin Redwoods State Park, the forest — or at least several parts of it — is making a remarkable resurgence. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported on the new developments in the park, citing researchers who spoke at a scientific symposium hosted by environmental nonprofit Santa Cruz Mountains Bioregional Council.
Three years after a wildfire burned 97% of California's Big Basin Redwoods State Park, the forest — or at least several parts of it — is making a remarkable resurgence. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported on the new developments in the park, citing researchers who spoke at a scientific symposium hosted by environmental nonprofit Santa Cruz Mountains Bioregional Council.
Drylands, found across every continent, cover about 45% of the Earth's land surface and support 38% of the human population. In these regions, precipitation is low and evaporation rates are typically high, leading to an arid or semi-arid climate. Due to scarce water resources and sparse vegetation, drylands present formidable challenges for agriculture and human habitation. As the climate continues to warm, drylands are rapidly expanding.
Caltech researchers have discovered a new class of enzymes that enable a myriad of bacteria to "breathe" nitrate when in low-oxygen conditions. While this is an evolutionary advantage for bacterial survival, the process produces the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) as a byproduct, the third-most potent greenhouse gas, after carbon dioxide and methane.
At the Center for Urban Water Conservation, you’ll find over 500 fruit trees, grapevines, herb gardens and vegetable beds. It's the Research Garden & Demonstration Orchard for University of Nevada Extension, which also works in partnership with UNLV.
To minimize the use of plastic as a single-use packaging, alternatively, if you have to use a plastic bag, a rubber bag can be an alternative if you are stuck. Indeed, it is better to accommodate frozen food or stored in a refrigerator with an air-tight food container. But so that you can store a lot of piles, you can use the plastic bag bank used many times. However, microbiologists suggest the following.
Here on the Colorado Plateau, old-growth juniper and pinyon pine trees can live for 1,000 years. Can these ancient trees remember things that happened to them years ago? Science Moab explored this enchanting question with Drew Peltier, an assistant professor at the ҳ| 鶹ýӳ. Drew is a tree ecophysiologist interested in how climate influences tree growth in our changing world. He does this by studying what he calls “memory” in trees.
Get ready for a noisy summer: Double the normal amount of cicadas are predicted to emerge this year. Melodramatically dubbed by some as a "cicada apocalypse," there is a reason why we're going to see so many of them in 2024. Find out everything to know about why there will be so many cicadas in 2024 (AKA a double-brood!), how many cicadas to expect and which states they'll hit the hardest.
Get ready for a noisy summer: Double the normal amount of cicadas are predicted to emerge this year. Melodramatically dubbed by some as a "cicada apocalypse," there is a reason why we're going to see so many of them in 2024. Find out everything to know about why there will be so many cicadas in 2024 (AKA a double-brood!), how many cicadas to expect and which states they'll hit the hardest.
Yesterday, the feds signaled their approval for a long-awaited agreement between the Colorado River states — collectively, the lower basin states (Arizona, California, and Nevada) will reduce our water use by 3 million acre-feet by 2026. The hope is that we’ll be able to replenish our crucial reservoirs, including Lake Mead, the source of 90% of our city’s water. But damming rivers to create reservoirs isn’t without problems. So… was creating Lake Mead in the first place a mistake? Today, we’re bringing back a conversation co-host Dayvid Figler had with UNLV hydrologist Dr. David Kreamer, who explains the history of Lake Mead’s creation and why reservoirs can be so essential for cities — but also controversial.