What's Current in

Bren School of Environmental Science & Management

Two Mapuche women smiling and wearing colorful, traditional attire with silver necklaces.
Photo Credit
Oscar Gutierrez Zozulia via iStock
The Mapuche are Chile’s largest Indigenous group, having retained independence form the Spanish empire for centuries.

Indigenous land restitution empowers communities, but environmental gains require extra support

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Three tropical cyclones in the northeast Pacific Ocean.
Photo Credit
NASA
The El Niño Southern Oscillation drives major weather patterns across the globe. Disrupting it could have intense and far-reaching ramifications.

A hard look at geoengineering reveals global risks
A placid lake with background mountains perfectly reflected on its surface.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

Jim Salzman elected to prestigious environmental law society for bridging economics, nature and policy
The sun glistens through water droplets on blades of grass.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

Grasses are spendthrifts, forests are budgeters, in a nuanced account of plant water use
A barracuda school off Bikar Atoll, Marshall Islands.
Photo Credit
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Monitoring fishing activity far from shore presents a challenge for resource management and marine conservation.

Satellites show that strictly protected marine areas exclude industrial fishing
drone footage of river with water based plastic trash collectors
Photo Credit
Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory
A depiction of various river plastic collection technologies utilized for data collection

How plastic pollution flows from rivers to oceans — and how to stop it
Old, abandoned barn in a large field with white wildflowers and prairie grass.
Photo Credit
Richard McMillin via iStock
While global trends dominate environmental outcomes, decisions about recultivating or rewilding abandoned fields can influence habitat health.

Protecting nature may depend on where — not just how — we farm
Headshot of Andrew Plantinga on a background of conifer trees.
Photo Credit
emLab
Andrew Plantinga

Andrew Plantinga recognized for shaping environmental policy through economic insight
Erosion has exposed the cross-section of a forest from the canopy and understory to the subsoil and parent material.
Photo Credit
tarasov_vl via iStock
A new model provides a look into the dynamic feedback between soil moisture levels and plants’ water-use strategies.

A nuanced model of soil moisture illuminates plant behavior and climate patterns
Graduates smile

Capping off a stellar year
Bren students rejoice during a colorful commencement ceremony.
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
Bren students rejoice during a colorful commencement ceremony.

Bren’s class of 2025 is ready to face a challenging world
Three adults in graduation regalia throwing caps toward a blue sky
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

UC Santa Barbara commencement events to celebrate 7,460 graduates for 2024–2025
color photograph of a black bear in a tree
Photo Credit
Skyler Palatnick/@skyswildart
A black bear on the UCSB campus, April 2025

Bear ecologist offers insight on recent sightings on and around campus
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