Lands of Two Seasons

March 13, 2013 By

724Great weather, abun­dant har­vests, and some of the world’s most cos­mopoli­tan cities make up what are known as Mediterranean-climate ecosys­tems. But the land­scapes that house Rome, Perth, San Fran­cisco, and Cape Town  are also  some of the world’s most crit­i­cal bio­di­ver­sity hotspots. Their tremen­dous bio­log­i­cal diver­sity, sec­ond only to trop­i­cal rain­forests, faces com­mon threats such as inva­sive species and inten­sive development.

With Lands of Two Sea­sons: The World’s Mediterranean-Climate Ecosys­tems, the UC Nat­ural Reserve Sys­tem and Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Tele­vi­sion inau­gu­rate a six-part video series about these regions. The intro­duc­tory pro­gram offers an overview of the world’s Mediterranean-climate zones, point­ing out their sim­i­lar­i­ties, unique char­ac­ter­is­tics and impor­tance, while also illu­mi­nat­ing the fac­tors that threaten them. Sub­se­quent pro­grams on sub­jects rang­ing from geol­ogy to ocean and atmos­pheric forces will explore the many fac­tors that make these envi­ron­ments so unique and alluring.

 

Filed Under: Scripps Coastal Reserve

Mediterranean Cooperative Fellowships Awarded

December 16, 2011 By
The fel­low­ship will sup­port plans for a par­al­lel study of oaks in Spain and at UC Nat­ural Reserves such as Steb­bins Cold Canyon Reserve. Image credit: Lob­sang Wangdu

The inau­gural 2011 Mediter­ranean Reserve Man­agers Inter­na­tional Coop­er­a­tive Fel­low­ships have been awarded to two sci­en­tists with exten­sive expe­ri­ence work­ing in Mediterranean-type regions. Both pro­pos­als seek to improve the flow of knowl­edge and the estab­lish­ment of coop­er­a­tive projects in regions fac­ing sim­i­lar con­ser­va­tion problems.

Jef­frey Clary is a reserve man­ager at Quail Ridge, Steb­bins Cold Canyon, and Jep­son Prairie reserves. He plans to forge rela­tion­ships between land man­agers in Cal­i­for­nia and those in Cat­alo­nia, Spain by arrang­ing on-the-ground meet­ings at the UC Nat­ural Reserve Sys­tem and Spain’s Parc Nat­ural de Collserola. Sem­i­nars will be hosted at UC Davis and the Uni­ver­si­tat Autònoma de Barcelona to engage the inter­est of wider audi­ences. Par­tic­i­pat­ing sci­en­tists will develop pro­to­cols for study­ing oak pop­u­la­tion dynam­ics in par­al­lel at Parc de Collserola and the UC Davis Nat­ural Reserves of Quail Ridge and Steb­bins Cold Canyon.

Marine Protected Area off the coast of Landels-Hill Big Creek ReserveMarine sanc­tu­ary man­agers from Italy will visit Marine Pro­tected Areas at Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve as part of a MRMIC fel­low­ship exchange. Image credit: Lob­sang Wangdu

Fiorenza Micheli is a pro­fes­sor of biol­ogy at Hop­kins Marine Sta­tion, Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity. With this award, Micheli aims to help devise science-based con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment mea­sures for a marine sanc­tu­ary in the north­ern Tyrren­ian Sea and a pro­posed sanc­tu­ary in the Adri­atic Sea. Col­lab­o­ra­tors from Italy will travel to the United States to meet with sci­en­tists, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, National Marine Sanc­tu­ary staff and oth­ers involved in man­ag­ing Marine Pro­tected Areas. Par­tic­i­pants will visit Cal­i­for­nia Marine Pro­tected Areas within the UC Nat­ural Reserve Sys­tem at Bodega Marine, Landels-Hill Big Creek, and Scripps Coastal reserves, and meet with reserve staff to dis­cuss cur­rent research and man­age­ment issues.

Each Fel­low was awarded $5,000 to carry out these pro­pos­als, with funds com­ing from the Ken­neth S. Nor­ris Endow­ment Fund for the Cal­i­for­nia Envi­ron­ment, pro­vided to the NRS by the David and Lucile Packard Foun­da­tion. Each project is being con­ducted with match­ing funds from par­tic­i­pat­ing inter­na­tional organizations.

Filed Under: Bodega Marine Reserve, Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve, Quail Ridge Reserve, Scripps Coastal Reserve, Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve