Tag: Science
Corps Experiments with Sediment Feed from Shallows
Can tides and waves move sediment placed in the shallows onto wetlands? The Army Corps is experimenting with how to do it.
Fast-Forward Fire
A new study, published last month in Nature, calculates that climate change has increased the risk of fast-spreading fires by 25% on average.
Wildlife Roll With Wildfire
Imagine a Mad Max-style wasteland, ravaged by wildfire, but populated by frolicking woodland fauna. That’s what Kendall Calhoun was surprised to see just months after one of California’s biggest megafires.
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Marsh Mice Come in Two Flavors
Scientists discover why the Bay Area’s two populations of endangered salt marsh harvest mice differ, and it’s partly due to sea level change.
Corps Experiments with Sediment Feed from Shallows
Can tides and waves move sediment placed in the shallows onto wetlands? The Army Corps is experimenting with how to do it.
Fast-Forward Fire
A new study, published last month in Nature, calculates that climate change has increased the risk of fast-spreading fires by 25% on average.
Wildlife Roll With Wildfire
Imagine a Mad Max-style wasteland, ravaged by wildfire, but populated by frolicking woodland fauna. That’s what Kendall Calhoun was surprised to see just months after one of California’s biggest megafires.
What Exactly is a Bomb Cyclone Anyway?
It’s hard for me to imagine a scarier name for weather than bomb cyclone — the kind of California experienced on January 4, 2023 — and in the days leading up to the storm, the media frenzy amped up my fears even more. Next, PG&E and my internet provider warned me of service outages. Then, Governor Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency.
Seeding Citizen Scientists
Billy Krimmel decided to sow tens of thousands of native seeds around Davis and do everything wrong. Everything wrong, at least, by the standards of the professional landscapers.
How Rivers in the Sky Travel Across the Ocean
In California, our fate swings from drought to floods, depending largely on whether or not we get rainstorms called atmospheric rivers.
Less Sea Level Rise for Left Coast
Scientists are now more confident we should plan for up to a foot of sea-level rise on the Pacific Coast by 2050 than they were the last time they did the math.
Dryer Vents Blow Hot Air & Microplastics
New research confirms that air vents on tumble dryers – rather than washing machines – may be a leading source of microplastic fibers from clothing in the environment. The insidious little particles are being found, among other places, in ocean-caught fish, beer, and even fecal samples of newborn babies.
Three Ways to Feed the Marsh
Seal Beach is drowning. As a result of sea-level rise, subsidence, and limited sediment supply, much of the 920-acre National Wildlife Refuge in Orange County can no longer keep its head above water. Pacific cordgrass, normally exposed at low tides, is being completely inundated. Rare nesting habitat for the endangered light-footed clapper rail is disappearing at high tides.
Scientists Nail Climate Links to Extreme Events
While a supermajority of Americans finally believe we are warming the world, a 2020 Yale Climate Opinion survey shows that most people still aren’t very worried about it. “Climate change is abstract to them,” says UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. “They don’t connect it to their personal lives.”
Enough Mud to Fill 670 Skyscrapers?
How much mud do we need to save Bay Area marshes from rising seas and how will we move it into position? If the future is drier there’s one answer, and if it’s wetter another (see chart), but the ballpark is 477,000,000 cubic yards. That’s the amount of sediment needed to sustain the ring of wetlands now protecting shoreline communities and infrastructure from a rising Bay, according to a new SF Estuary Institute report.