Biodiversity

Biodiversity Museum Day

Pet a pine cone at Biodiversity Museum Day March 6

Visit a pine cone petting zoo and craft a pressed-flower bookmark during UC Davis’ 11th annual Biodiversity Museum Day. Children and the young-at-heart will enjoy hands-on activities that bring science to life from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, March 6, at the UC Davis Conference Center, across from the Robert Mondavi Center.

Elephants Reverse the Depletion by Cattle of Soil Carbon and Nutrient Pools

Truman Young, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis, co-authored an article showing that megaherbivores (elephants) mitigate the negative effects of cattle on tropical African savanna rangelands, where wild herbivore populations are declining. He is project director of the Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experiment (KLEE), the most productive field experiment in Africa, and the site of this research.

Plant Diversity a Casualty of High-Severity Wildfires

Sierra Nevada forests are losing plant diversity due to high-severity fires, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. These fires are turning patches of forest into shrub fields — indefinitely, in some cases.