What's Current in

Environment + Sustainability

UCSB professor Deron Burkepile explores the North shore of Moorea’s fore reef.
Photo Credit
Andrew Thurber
The structural complexity of a healthy coral reef provides habitat for a diversity of lifeforms.

Dead coral skeletons hinder reef regeneration by sheltering seaweed

Read Article

A large pile of small blue plastic objects rises from a relief map of Manhattan
Photo Credit
Courtesy Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory
This image of a blue plastic pile represents the cumulative amount of plastic waste that would be generated between 2010 and 2050 — enough to cover the entire island of Manhattan, and ten times the height of the Empire State Building — under a business-as-usual scenario where no aggressive policy actions are taken.

A ‘Paris Agreement for plastic’ could slash plastic pollution to almost zero
The head of a California red-legged frog peers out from lily pads
Photo Credit
Gary M. Fellers/USGS
California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) surfaces in a pond in Point Reyes National Seashore, Calif.

Seeding climate solutions for California’s amphibian communities and iconic beaches
In Focus placeholder

Giving rise to diversity in marine science, by way of mentorship and research
A humpback swims at the surface with fishing gear wrapped around its flukes.
Photo Credit
E. Lyman/ NOAA Sanctuaries
Less gear in the water means fewer chances for Whales to become entangled.

Reducing fishing gear could save whales with low impacts to California’s crab fishermen
fishers just off a Pacific island shore
Photo Credit
Jacob Eurich
Fishers coming home on a paddle canoe after fishing on the fore reefs of Abaiang, Kiribati

Researchers build and test a framework for achieving climate resilience across diverse fisheries
Palms blow in a storm.
Photo Credit
ChiehCheng via iStock
The El Niño Southern Oscillation influences weather patterns across the world.

El Niño and La Niña multi-year events could become more common
In Focus placeholder

Professor Kyle Meng will serve as a senior economist in Washington
open bottle pouring out a small pool of detergent
With this method, your empty detergent bottle can be turned into more detergent

Our plastic waste can be used as raw material for detergents, thanks to an improved catalytic method
A scalloped hammerhead prowls a reef in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, Ecuador.
Photo Credit
Lopazanski et al.
The Galapagos Marine Reserve is one of many marine protected areas around the globe that safeguards biodiversity, cultural heritage and marine resources.

Theory meets practice: Marine protected areas overwhelmingly manage with climate change in mind
In Focus placeholder

NCEAS's Alexandra Phillips has been awarded the first Legislative Branch Fellowship in Climate Science by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
researchers working with Senegalese partners
Photo Credit
Courtesy Image
UCSB geographer David López-Carr, center left, and Stanford University health and environmental scientist Andrea Lund, center right, working with Senegalese partners

Nuisance vegetation removal in Senegalese waterways reduces the overall prevalence of parasitic infections and increases local food production
dune plant and dune fence
Photo Credit
Karina Johnston
Beach bur, a native plant that helped to form dunes on a section of Santa Monica Beach in Los Angeles

Dune restoration could increase the resilience of Southern California's urban beaches to sea level rise
Subscribe to Environment + Sustainability