Rainy Tropics Could Face Unprecedented Droughts as an Atlantic Current Slows

Some of the rainiest places on Earth could see their annual precipitation nearly halved if climate change continues to alter the way ocean water moves around the globe. In a new study, scientists revealed that even a modest slowdown of a major Atlantic Ocean current could dry out rainforests, threaten vulnerable ecosystems and upend livelihoods across the tropics.

Making Aquatic Science Research Safe

As an assistant diving and boating safety officer for UC Davis based at Bodega Marine Laboratory, Abbey Dias works with UC Davis researchers to coordinate and provide guidance for critical fieldwork that’s helping us understand the health of our oceans and waterways, and in turn, our global climate. 

From Magma Deep Beneath Ancient Volcanoes a Hidden Driver of Earth’s Past Climate

An international team of geoscientists led by a volcanologist at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and including Maxwell Rudolph, associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has discovered that, contrary to present scientific understanding, ancient volcanoes continued to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from deep within the Earth long past their period of eruptions.

In the Seagrass Meadows

Join Elisabeth Sellinger and Mazie Lewis for a day of seagrass meadow monitoring research in Elkhorn Slough. A nursery habitat for many marine animals, including mammals, shellfish and fish, seagrass meadows are vital ecosystems. But their benefits don’t just touch the ocean-dwellers of our planet.

How Can Seagrasses Help Mitigate Climate Change?

At the most recent Davis Science Café, Professor Tessa Hill, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, discussed the rapid changes occurring in the oceans due to human-induced climate change. But a potential solution may reside in the disappearing seagrass beds hugging the California coastline.