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Environment + Sustainability

A wave crashes upon campus point with Santa Cruz Island in the distance.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Ocean policy issues are front and center on UC Santa Barbara’s coastal campus.

Science policy education should start on campus

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A large field of sunflowers near Sacramento.
Photo Credit
Tfoxfoto via iStock
Tweaks to farming practices could preserve some of California’s declining water resources.

Small changes can yield big savings in agricultural water use
A tractor sprays a soybean field in spring.
Photo Credit
Fotokostic vi iStock
Organic farming practices can increase pesticide use in neighboring, non-organic fields.

Organic farms can have mixed effects on pesticide use depending on their neighbors
Wind turbines behind solar panels at sunset
Photo Credit
iStock \ hrui

Evaluating and advancing equity in energy transitions
A foothill yellow-legged frog perches on a rock.
Photo Credit
Brome McCreary
Foothill yellow-legged frogs live in the flowing water of rivers and streams, so are especially vulnerable when these shrink to isolated pools.

Scientists assemble a richer picture of the plight and resilience of the foothill yellow-legged frog
the sun sinks behind the horizon of the Black Sea

Anoxic marine basins are among the best candidates for deep-sea carbon sequestration
two fishers in Kiribati waters
Photo Credit
Jacob Eurich

Reinforcing the diverse ways people access seafood can ensure healthy communities in the face of change
California Sea Otters grooming themselves in the Elkhorn Slough at Moss Landing.
Photo Credit
Htrnr via iStock
Although sea otters only recently recolonized their historic habitat in the Elkhorn Sough, they’re already benefiting the ecosystem.

Sea otters stabilize salt marsh banks as they recolonize a Californian estuary
Amber hills roll away behind a lone oak tree, with facilities in the background.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
The rolling hills of Sedgwick Reserve offer a testbed for researchers to probe grassland ecology.

Extreme drought hits grasslands and shrublands harder than anticipated

Global groundwater depletion is accelerating, but is not inevitable
A school of hammerhead sharks.
Photo Credit
Masayuki Agawa via OceanImageBank

A global study reveals pathways to save threatened sharks, despite rising mortality trends
satellite image of Mississippi River and surrounding towns
Photo Credit
USGS via Unsplash
The Mississippi River and surrounding towns near the border of Arkansas and Mississippi

Unpacking social equity from biodiversity data: an interdisciplinary policy perspective
Shorebirds on a kelp-laden beach
Photo Credit
Jenny Dugan
Shorebirds forage in kelp wrack on a beach in California

The choreography of cross-ecosystem subsidies that connects the kelp forest to the beach
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