Against expectations, U.S. West Coast birds are increasing in size as climate changes

By RACHEL NUWER3 November 2011 As we noted here in a recent post, a substantial body of research indicates that species tend to become smaller as a result of global warming and other climate change patterns. So researchers in California were surprised to find that West Coast birds, on the contrary, have been growing larger […]

‘Illusion of plenty’ masks collapse of two key Southern California fisheries

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2011) – The two most important recreational fisheries off Southern California have collapsed, according to a new study led by a researcher from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Scripps postdoctoral researcher Brad Erisman and his colleagues examined the health of regional populations of barred sand bass and kelp bass-staple […]

Rising seas expected to wash out key California beaches

By Emmett Berg; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston15 September 2011 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Rising seas forecast from climate change will likely wash away some of California’s most iconic beaches by century’s end, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate, roads and tax revenues, a new study found on Wednesday. […]

Growing water deficits threaten world grain harvests

Analysis by Lester R. Brown* WASHINGTON, Jul 20, 2011 (IPS) – Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20 […]

Warming California climate gives exotic grasses edge over natives

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations 28 July 2011 BERKELEY — California’s native grasses, already under pressure from invasive exotic grasses, are likely to be pushed aside even more as the climate warms, according to a new analysis from the University of California, Berkeley. In the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal […]

Acidified oceans detrimental to California mussels

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2011) — Ocean acidification, a consequence of climate change, could weaken the shells of California mussels and diminish their body mass, with serious implications for coastal ecosystems, UC Davis researchers will report July 15 in the Journal of Experimental Biology. California mussels (Mytilus californianus) live in beds along the western coast of […]

California pumps kill 6 million Sacramento splittail, 50,000 imperiled salmon

Contact: Jeff Miller, (415) 669-7357      June 8, 2011 SAN FRANCISCO— In one of the largest fish kills in California history, new federal data show, the Central Valley Project and State Water Project pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have killed more than 6 million Sacramento splittail in the past six weeks and more than 51,000 […]

Law would force California cities to plan for sea level rise

By Julia Scott8 June 2011 Bay Area cities and counties whose jurisdictions contain the San Francisco and Oakland airports and the ports of Oakland and Redwood City would be required to prepare action plans to deal with rising sea levels under a trailblazing bill passed by the state Assembly last week. The bill would require […]

Fall of the Wild: California’s disappearing state parks

By TIMOTHY EGAN2 June 2011 For a few months, still, you can see the sunlit room where the author of “Call of the Wild” wrote his daily thousand words before noon, and walk under redwoods and wild oaks on his 1,400-acre Beauty Ranch, where he pioneered “sustainability” before anyone was pushing $20 plates of arugula […]

Groundwater depletion is detected from space

By FELICITY BARRINGER30 May 2011 IRVINE, Calif. — Scientists have been using small variations in the Earth’s gravity to identify trouble spots around the globe where people are making unsustainable demands on groundwater, one of the planet’s main sources of fresh water. They found problems in places as disparate as North Africa, northern India, northeastern […]

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