Climate change is dramatically altering the San Francisco Bay Area’s ecosystems and raising profound questions among conservationists about how to help species best adapt to new conditions.
While walking in the woods, you’ve likely encountered a dead log engraved with maze-like squiggles. These natural carvings are known as beetle galleries, and the grooves are munched out by the larvae of bark beetles in the subfamily Scolytinae.
Bits of DNA linger on the forest floor, in the ocean, and even in the air—and these strands have stories to tell, back at the lab. Here's how environmental DNA (aka 'eDNA') is starting to transform how ecologists work in the Bay Area and beyond.
After three years of extreme drought, the Western U.S. is finally getting a break. Mountain ranges are covered in deep snow, and water reservoirs in many areas are filling up following a series of atmospheric rivers that brought record rain and snowfall to large parts of the region. Many people are looking at the snow and water levels and asking: Is the drought finally over? There is a lot of nuance to the answer.
For decades, whale migration and crabbing operated as a tag team. But now, the whales are coming sooner—widening the window for exposure to fishing gear.
Century-old bird nests help scientists time-travel to San Francisco Bay’s lost plant communities.
King tides over 7 feet are coming to the Bay Area Jan. 21-22, 2023—and lucky for us, they’re happening at a reasonable time to go out and see them. Here’s a short cosmic backgrounder on why king tides happen.
California, the most biodiverse state, hopes to stave off the Sixth Extinction by protecting 30 percent of its lands and waters by 2030. How's that going?
Eucalyptus trees on Albany Hill are wasting away from blight. Some people may cheer—but these trees are also home to endangered monarchs.
Private landowners in California hold a huge amount of forest that's primed to burn.
With Bay of Life, Frans Lanting and Christine Eckstrom wanted to go past Monterey Bay's natural beauty to explore its past, present and possible futures.
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
