Environmental Research

MERCED, Calif. — The effort to create a natural reserve out of nearly 6,000 acres adjacent to UC Merced has been jump-started by the hiring of two people to share the management duties. 

MERCED, Calif. — California isn’t going to face a superstorm like Hurricane Sandy because the Pacific Ocean is too cold to feed that kind of weather system.

But that doesn’t mean California won’t see extreme weather, say researchers from the University of California, Merced.

Chemistry Professor Jason Hein and his students make a lot of compounds in the lab.

They also make a lot of chemical waste.

But Hein found a way to clean up the waste and reuse it, saving money and helping the environment at the same time.

MERCED, Calif. — A global sustainable architecture competition is turning all eyes to the University of California, Merced, the newest campus in the UC system, and the only one to have all its buildings certified by the US Green Building Council as meeting LEED standards.

Architecture at Zero 2012 is a competition in which student and professional participants from around the world are invited to design examples of a new administration or student housing building and a district energy plan using the principles of zero net energy use.

MERCED, Calif. — A $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation will support a five-year investigation by University of California, Merced, researchers into environmental changes in marine lakes, including why some species adapt while others go extinct.

The grant also is helping spread UC Merced’s research and reputation across the Pacific.

“This research is an outstanding example of our faculty efforts to understand the links between the physical and the biological world,” said Sam Traina, UC Merced’s vice chancellor for research.

From the white, sugary sands of Hawaii to the white, powdery slopes of the Sierra Nevada, Natural Sciences Professor Stephen Hart has his eye on climate change.

MERCED, Calif. — People talk about climate change all the time.

But researchers at the University of California, Merced, are working to find out exactly how it will affect the millions of people who depend on the San Joaquin River for their drinking water, irrigation and food growth, and energy.

Campus diners who take out their meals are helping save the environment one container at a time.

MERCED, Calif. — Researchers at UC Merced are taking an important step toward a statewide water-monitoring system by installing wireless sensors across the American River basin.

The system, which is also being used in the Sierra Nevada, is designed to give continuous information about how much water is available to users, and could go live online at the beginning of 2013.

There’s a reason the UC Merced plasma lab is isolated behind a locking fence near the entrance to campus.

There’s some serious heat being produced down there.