Patty Guerra

More than two dozen educators from kindergarten through college converged at UC Merced to discuss the challenges they're facing and the opportunities ahead.

Wildfires are growing more frequent and severe across the western United States, and California's Sierra Nevada is ground zero. Decades of fire suppression have left these forests overstocked and vulnerable to catastrophic fires, drought and pest outbreaks.

Beyond destroying homes and infrastructure, high-severity wildfires release massive amounts of carbon, degrade water quality, erode soils, reduce timber supply and fill the air with hazardous smoke that threatens public health.

BioSCape, a multinational research project co-led by UC Merced, the University at Buffalo and the University of Cape Town, which monitored Earth’s biodiversity from the air, has received a Group Achievement Award as part of the 2024-25 NASA Honor Awards.

A new documentary also showcases the project’s impressive results.

Nearly half of the world’s worst wildfire disasters have occurred in just the past decade, new research from UC Merced’s Fire Resilience Center shows.

Storing carbon in forests is an essential, nature-based buffer against climate change. Yet forests packed with too many trees increase the threat of severe wildfires, which are becoming all too common in warmer, drier conditions.

A team of UC Merced and collaborating researchers evaluated the tradeoffs between two seemingly opposing scenarios:

• Trees are critical because they pull carbon dioxide from the air and store it in their trunks, preventing carbon from adding to greenhouse effects that trap heat and warm the atmosphere.

An almond orchard in Parlier provides a look into the future of farming.

Researchers at UC Merced and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources installed an irrigation system powered by artificial intelligence to deliver the precise amount of water needed and measure the results.

A new partnership focused on a popular snack nut will offer exciting opportunities for students, research potential for faculty and the latest technology for farmers.

Representatives of the University of California and the Almond Board of California signed a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, at the UC Merced campus on Sept. 10. The MOU calls for the entities to work together over the next five years in such vital areas as automation, sustainability and new almond varieties.

Lightning from thunderstorms rolling through Central California on Sept. 2 ignited numerous wildfires, including several large fires in the Sierra Nevada foothills that had burned more than 19 square miles by Wednesday morning. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services recorded more than 9,000 lightning strikes in a single day.

Lightning is a major source of wildfire ignition in the western United States every summer.

Three professors are joining UC Merced’s Agricultural Experiment Station this fall, bringing more expertise and resources to the 3-year-old research center.

UC Merced’s smart farm is getting a smart barn.

The university will receive $3 million from the state of California, part of $80 million in funding to support 11 projects across California announced Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Jobs First Council.

The money will go to construct an agricultural technology barn at the site of UC Merced’s Agriculture Experimentation Station, known as the Smart Farm. The barn facility will be used for research and development, according to the governor’s office.