Central Coast Naturalist

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist Emily returns to a discussion with Sara Gonzalez, UCSC PhD candidate, about her work with the giant kelp Macrocysistis pyrifera. Listen in to learn about the interesting life cycle of kelp.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Theadora interviews Jessie Kendall-Bar, a Ph.D. student at UC Santa Cruz in the Ecology & Evolutionary biology department. Jessie studies the neurophysiology of sleep in marine mammals, specializing in elephant seals.

Learn how Jessie researches elephant seal sleep and some of the differences between marine mammal and human sleep.

For more information about Jessie's research and other projects, check out her website: https://www.jessiekb.com/research

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Sara talks with Sabrina Shirazi, a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, about environmental DNA. Animals and plants shed DNA all the time into the environment, and by analyzing small samples of soil or water, scientists can discover which organisms are present there, whether they are animals, plants, fungi, or bacteria, even if the organism cannot be visually observed.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily chats with UCSC PhD candidate Sara Gonzalez about her work on the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera. Some of her work is focused on alginates, a polysaccharide, found in these towering seaweeds. Tune in to learn more! 

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Theadora talks about the two main hummingbird species seen in Santa Cruz: Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds. Learn how to attract them to your backyard, and how to tell them apart. Hummingbirds are very nimble fliers and are the only birds in the world that can fly backward. They beat their wings incredibly quickly to hover and fly in any direction, around 60 times per second.

Feel free to ask Theadora your bird questions, find her on twitter @gcsparrow.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist Emily heads back to the UC Ford Ord Reserve to chat with the field manager of the reserve, Joe Miller. To learn more about the reserve please visit: https://fortordreserve.ucsc.edu

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Theadora tells you about a wonderful bird that is easily seen all over Santa Cruz, and most of the USA: the house finch. Learn about how their population recently expanded throughout the United States, the sound of their lovely song, and what some of their mating behaviors are like. Male house finches perform a number of elaborate rituals to attract and keep their mates around!

Feel free to ask Theadora your bird questions on twitter @gcsparrow.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist Emily speaks with Dr. Yui Takeshita, a scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Dr. Takeshita explains how he uses chemistry to better understand the ocean and shares an interesting story about internal waves in the Monterey Canyon.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist Emily speaks with Dr. Katie Pitz, a research associate at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Dr. Pitz explains what environmental DNA or eDNA is and how it can be used to better understand the critters living within the Monterey Bay.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Theadora talks about two species of birds that you can easily see in your backyard! Listen with me to learn about Northern mockingbirds and California towhees and some of their fascinating behaviors. California towhees might not be colorful, but they make up for that by being cute and very devoted to their mates – the pairs usually stay together for life!