Energy & Environment

UC Merced Aerial Picture
UC Climate-Change Research is One Focus of Global Summit, New Reports
September 11, 2018
California aims to lead the nation — and the globe — in climate change research, policy and action — in large part through climate-focused research conducted at University of California campuses and labs. Some of that research, including... Read More
CAREER Award Will Help Professor Predict How Species Respond to Climate Change
August 10, 2018
Paleoecology Professor Jessica Blois recently became the campus’s 19th recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award. The NSF describes as the CAREER as its “most prestigious... Read More
Campus Earns Kudos for Sustainability Best Practices
July 10, 2018
UC Merced demonstrated that it’s living up to its reputation for being “green from the ground up” by winning five awards — more than any other University of California campus — in the 14th annual Higher Education Energy Efficiency and... Read More
Merced River Helps Explain How Soils Capture and Store Planet-Warming Carbon
July 2, 2018
Soils are carbon sinks, storing more planet-warming carbon than the atmosphere and all animal and plant life combined. But they can also release massive amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere. Given carbon’s central role in climate... Read More
Following a Devastating Pandemic, California’s Sea Stars are Evolving
June 19, 2018
In 2012, Environmental Systems graduate student Lauren Schiebelhut was collecting DNA from ochre sea stars living along the Northern California coast — part of an effort to study genetic diversity in various marine species that serve as... Read More
Berhe Selected by National Academies to Serve as “New Voice” for Science
June 8, 2018
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) just announced that they’ve selected Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe to serve as an inaugural member of the Academies’ newest initiative — New Voices in Sciences,... Read More
Shakespeare’s ‘Dream’ Delights Yosemite Visitors for Earth Day Weekend
April 24, 2018
“April ... hath put a spirit of youth in everything,” Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 98. He might as well have been writing about this year’s Shakespeare in Yosemite production. With Friday’s premiere — attended by high school students from... Read More
Billions of Gallons of Water Saved by Thinning Sierra Forests
April 23, 2018
There are too many trees in Sierra Nevada forests, say experts from UC Merced, UC Irvine and the National Park Service working at the National Science Foundation Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (NSF SSCZO). This comes as a... Read More
Sustainable California Video Highlights UC Water Academy Experience
April 13, 2018
April is Earth Month. It’s also when UC Water Academy — an intensive course aimed at training the next generation of California water experts — starts its second year. To mark the occasion, UC Water released its second video for the UCTV... Read More
Grad Programs Make U.S. News Rankings Debut
March 20, 2018
For the first time, UC Merced’s doctoral programs in the sciences have been ranked among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 edition of Best Graduate Schools. The School of Engineering celebrated its... Read More