Central Coast Naturalist

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, we will be airing Sea Change, a 6 part series from the 2021 Global Change Ecology class at the University of California Santa Cruz. Each episode explores local climate change issues right here in Santa Cruz, CA. Sea Change is written and produced by UCSC undergraduate students under the guidance of Dr. Kristy Kroeker. Episode 2 focuses on wildfires.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, we will be airing Sea Change, a 6 part series from the 2021 Global Change Ecology class at the University of California Santa Cruz. Each episode explores local climate change issues right here in Santa Cruz, CA. Sea Change is written and produced by UCSC undergraduate students under the guidance of Dr. Kristy Kroeker. Episode 1 focuses on range shifts.

This week, Sara talked with Dr. Alexis Fischer, an associate scientist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and a visiting scientist at NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center. If you've spent a lot at the ocean, you've probably encountered an algal bloom that turned the water dark and opaque for a few days. But not all algal blooms are harmful. Tune in to learn about the hidden world of phytoplankton, why they bloom, and when a bloom is considered harmful.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily interview PhD student, Ben Walker. Before starting his PhD, Ben worked as a technician on the endangered white abalone at UC Davis. Tune in to hear the history of abalone in California!

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily interviews Dr. Kristy Kroeker about COP 26. Dr. Kroeker is an Associate Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on the ecological impacts of global climate change and ocean acidification.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily interviews PhD candidate, Jason Toy, about a local genus of fishes, the surfperches. In this episode, Jason, explains how important and interesting these fishes are. In part two of our interview, he'll tell us more about how and why he uses surfperches to study adaptation right here in our own Monterey Bay. Tune in on November 16th to hear more!

In the second part of Nikka's chat with Dr. Darrin Schultz, we go big picture. Find out why ctenophores hold the key to understanding how important animal features, like brain cells, came to be. 

Nikka interviews Dr. Darrin Schultz, a research scientist at MBARI, about ctenophores, also known as comb jellies. He helps us get to know these beautiful animals - look out for part 2, when we'll learn more about how studying ctenophores can teach us about animal evolution.

This week, Sara talked with Kathleen Aston, the Collections Manager for the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. The museum displays many aspects of the natural world, but here we focus on fossils--where you can find them around Santa Cruz and what history they reveal. 

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily interviews UCSC PhD student, Ben Walker, about abalone. Before starting his PhD, Ben worked as a technician on the endangered white abalone at UC Davis. Tune in to hear what makes abalone one of the coolest mollusks in ocean!