In early June 2025, CMSI sponsored a hands-on workshop at Bodega Marine Laboratory focused on using R to wrangle and analyze Earth System Model (ESM) output (AKA climate models).
“So the clue was, ‘This temperate coral undergoes quiescence in the winter. Another word for this is … ?’” Anya Brown has spent most of her adult life around coral reef systems. Her brother, meanwhile, has cultivated a career as a writer on the American quiz show, “Jeopardy!”
Where do you go when you’re a fish and you need a skincare treatment? Coral reefs contain natural “beauty salons,” lively social hubs of activity where fish “clients” swim up and wait to be serviced by smaller fish cleaners.
Some reef fish have the unexpected ability to move their jaws from side to side, biologists at the University of California, Davis have discovered. This ability – which is rare among vertebrate animals – allows these fish to feed rapidly and efficiently on algae growing on rocks.
Just as the sun came up, Emily Longman held up a map of boulders that were laid out in front of her—a rocky outcrop off of Second Sled Road in Dillon Beach. To her surprise, the map was still largely accurate, nearly eight decades later.
A mussel bed along Northern California’s Dillon Beach is as healthy and biodiverse as it was about 80 years ago, when two young students surveyed it shortly before Pearl Harbor was attacked and one was sent to fight in World War II.
The Science Coalition has announced the winners of its sixth-annual Fund It Forward Student Video Challenge. This year’s first place winners include University of California Davis graduate student Deva Holliman and University of California Davis undergraduate students Nathan Cole and Kaden Stone.
The work of 12 early-career faculty members, including CMSI affiliates Anya Brown and Maria Maldonado, will get a boost as this year’s class of Hellman Fellows.
A recent donation made by 11-year-old Matthew Gray exemplifies the impact of fostering the spirit of philanthropy from a young age. When Gray toured the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory for the first time this past year, he became an instant fan.