News

Envision California’s lush forests from San Francisco to the Oregon border. Now imagine that 90 percent of those forests disappear within two years. Laura Rogers-Bennett, senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, says that’s exactly what happened to underwater kelp forests off Northern California’s coastline from 2014-16.

Read more & listen to the piece on Science Friday

A career dedicated to mollusks isn’t always easy. Sometimes progress can occur at a snail’s pace. But a team of scientists are close to reaching a significant milestone in their efforts to bring white abalone — a species of sea snail — back from the brink of extinction.

Read more

In a Changing Ocean, Giant Kelp’s Reproductive Success Depends on Where It’s From

When a marine heat wave hit California’s coast in 2014, it brought ocean temperatures that were high for Northern California but fairly normal for a Southern California summer. Much of the giant kelp in the north died in the heat wave, while southern populations survived.

UC Davis News

My job is to write about the wonders and challenges of our coast and oceans, but I’ll admit: Before this story, I had no idea what an abalone looked like...

Read more

The California coast once teemed with millions of white abalone. Overfishing, warming oceans and predators devastated the species. Almost all are gone. Now scientists are trying to save this mysterious sea snail.

Read more

Purple sea urchins have laid waste to Northern California coastal zones in recent years, decimating the kelp forest and ruining the habitat of other sea creatures that depend on it.

Read more

A climate-related catastrophe off the California coast has resulted in the death of 90% of the kelp from San Francisco to Oregon as an explosion of ravenous urchins devours everything in sight. And it’s happening at the same time native fish in San Francisco Bay are dying out, two studies released Monday documented.

Read more in the SF Chronicle

Despite the unrivaled beauty of the California coast line, UC Davis scientists say that just below the surface, the famous Kelp Forest is in serious trouble. Don Ford reports for CBS News.

Learn more

First the sea stars wasted to nothing. Then the purple urchins took over, eating and eating until the bull kelp forests were gone. The red abalone starved. Their fishery closed. Red sea urchins starved. Their fishery collapsed. And the ocean kept warming...

UC Davis News, read more

The John Muir Institute of the Environment recently named its 2019 Muir Institute Fellows, an interdisciplinary mix of seven faculty and staff members engaged in the fight against climate change. Each receives $5,000 in research funding. Fellows inlcude several CMSI faculty.

Read more