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As Waves Pound Pacifica, Surfers Pitch a Reef to Defend the Shore
Pacifica still needs to study the reef’s scale, how much sand is needed and its environmental impacts, said Borja Gonzalez Reguero, a professor with the Coastal Science and Policy Program at UC Santa Cruz. “So far it’s a concept, but it could be a viable one,” Gonzalez Reguero said. He qualified that by saying the…
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A $20 Minimum Wage Sounded Like a Win—Until These 5 Consequences Kicked In
California’s $20 minimum wage sounded like a win—until these five ripple effects hit workers, prices, and jobs. Here’s what leaders need to know to design business models that actually work. A recent University of California Santa Cruz study quantified a pattern every leader should recognize before issuing a mandate: When you impose rapid cost change on a complex system, you get unintended…
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Mountain lions avoid busy trails to reduce conflict with people
“If you’re a hiker or mountain biker in these spaces, mountain lions already know you’re there, and they’re avoiding the area,” explained Chris Wilmers, a UC Santa Cruz Professor. Additional coverage in KAZU, The Denver Gazette, The Times of India, GearJunkie, The Inertia, Half Moon Bay Review, and Nautilus.
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The mystery eating Ocean Beach alive
One of Ocean Beach’s foremost sand sleuths is UC Santa Cruz researcher Patrick Barnard, who spent two decades analyzing San Francisco’s shoreline for the U.S. Geological Survey. Barnard said humans have been wrestling with the sand for nearly two centuries. He cites data from as far back as the Gold Rush, when excessive mining injected…
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Animals Facing Greatest Risk of Death From El Niño Marine Heat Waves
“It’s hard to predict which ecosystem components will be impacted. During the last major heatwave, impacts were felt across the entire food web including fisheries,” Heather Welch, an associate project scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz who researches climate variability and change in ocean ecosystems through the lens of marine predators and fisheries,…
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Deadly parasite is flourishing in a California river
Miles Daniels, an associate researcher at UC Santa Cruz, said there’s a risk the adult fish could die before reaching spawning grounds as they’re exposed to more pathogens on their route. “The longer you’re in a room with someone that’s sick, the more likely you’re going to get infected,” he explained. “The longer the fish…
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How 30 minutes of recess could change how your child learns
Educators point out that schools are responsible for developing the whole child, and that recess is not a break from learning — it is an integral part of it. “Having kids sit in their seats for six hours a day is not necessarily a recipe for success,” said Rebecca London, a sociologist at UC Santa Cruz…
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Universities Hiring Student Expression Specialists
Two public universities—the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Santa Cruz—are each hiring a student affairs professional whose job will focus entirely on student speech and free expression.
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International Teachers Needed in U.S. Classrooms Threatened by Visa Delays, Fees
The international teaching pool is critical for districts large and small, said Lora Bartlett, chair of the education department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She said, too, if the $100,000 fee were to stand, it would only harm students. “U.S. schools in general do better with stable teacher populations,” Bartlett said. “And so when…
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Humpback whales likely killed by neurotoxin
The UC Santa Cruz Marine Mammal Stranding Network recently necropsied two young humpback whales. They washed up at Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove and Sunset State Beach in Watsonville within a few days of each other. Stranding network director Robin Dunkin says researchers confirmed a neurotoxin from algae blooms to be the cause of…