Climate Impacts Content

Paul Griffin on How Climate Risk Could Bring a Series of Recessions

Soterios J Johnson — August 02, 2022 - 12:20am

New research finds the economy could be plunged into recession — or a series of recessions — because financial markets don’t account for climate risk. Paul Griffin, Distinguished Professor at the �ٺ��Ƶ Graduate School of Management, has been studying this ”unpriced risk” and how it can affect markets and the economy.

Lichens Slow to Return After Wildfire

Katherine E Kerlin — May 10, 2021 - 11:00am

Lichen communities may take decades — and in some cases up to a century — to fully return to chaparral ecosystems after wildfire, finds a study from the University of California, Davis, and Stanford University.

The study, published today in the journal Diversity and Distributions, is the most comprehensive to date of long-term lichen recolonization after fire.

Solar Development: Super Bloom or Super Bust for Desert Species?

Katherine E Kerlin — May 03, 2021 - 11:45am

Throughout the history of the West, human actions have often rushed the desert — and their actions backfired. In the 1920s, the Colorado River Compact notoriously overallocated water still used today by several Western states because water measurements were taken during a wet period.

Decarbonizing California Transportation by 2045

Katherine E Kerlin — April 21, 2021 - 2:40pm

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California. In order to achieve the state’s goals of carbon neutrality by 2045 and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, decarbonizing this sector is essential. But such a transition is unlikely to occur rapidly without key policy intervention.

Seagrasses Turn Back the Clock on Ocean Acidification

Katherine E Kerlin — March 31, 2021 - 9:00am

Spanning six years and seven seagrass meadows along the California coast, a paper from the University of California, Davis, is the most extensive study yet of how seagrasses can buffer ocean acidification.

When ‘Eradicated’ Species Bounce Back With a Vengeance

Katherine E Kerlin — March 15, 2021 - 12:00pm

Some invasive species targeted for total eradication bounce back with a vengeance, especially in aquatic systems, finds a study led by the University of California, Davis.

Poor Swelter as Urban Areas of U.S. Southwest Get Hotter

Karen Michele Nikos — February 18, 2021 - 11:10am

Acres of asphalt parking lots, unshaded roads, dense apartment complexes and neighborhoods with few parks have taken their toll on the poor. As climate change accelerates, low-income districts in the Southwestern United States are 4 to 7 degrees hotter in Fahrenheit — on average — than wealthy neighborhoods in the same metro regions, University of California, Davis, researchers have found in a new analysis.

Migratory Birds Track Climate Across the Year

Andy Fell — February 18, 2021 - 8:45am

As climate change takes hold across the Americas, some areas will get wetter, and others will get hotter and drier. A new study of the yellow warbler, a widespread migratory songbird, shows that individuals have the same climatic preferences across their migratory range. The work is published Feb. 17 in Ecology Letters.

Arctic Shrubs Add New Piece to Ecological Puzzle

Katherine E Kerlin — February 01, 2021 - 3:48pm

A 15-year experiment on Arctic shrubs in Greenland lends new understanding to an enduring ecological puzzle: How do species with similar needs and life histories occur together at large scales while excluding each other at small scales? The answer to this question has important implications for how climate change might shift species’ distributions across the globe.

Eyes Reveal Life History of Fish

Katherine E Kerlin — January 27, 2021 - 4:51pm

If you look deep into the eyes of a fish, it will tell you its life story.

Scientists from the University of California, Davis, demonstrate that they can use stable isotopic analysis of the eye lenses of freshwater fish — including threatened and endangered salmon — to reveal a fish’s life history and what it ate along the way.