UC Irvine, Author at YubaNet

UC Irvine biologists find what colors a butterfly’s world

by UC Irvine August 14, 2023August 14, 2023

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 14, 2023 —As butterflies flit among flowers, they don’t all view blossoms the same way. In a phenomenon called sexually dimorphic vision, females of some butterfly species perceive ultraviolet color while the males see light and dark. University of California, Irvine biologists have discovered that in at least one species, the variation results […]

In October 2020, the Silverado fire illuminated the night sky above Orange County. In a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers -- including Amir AghaKouchak of UCI’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering -- say that nearly all of the increase in burned area from California’s wildfires in the past three decades is attributable to anthropogenic climate change. Amir AghaKouchak / UCI

California

Human-caused climate change to blame for increase in California’s wildfires

by UC Irvine June 12, 2023June 12, 2023

Irvine, Calif., June 12, 2023 – In the quarter century between 1996 and 2020, wildfires in California consumed five times more area than they did from 1971 to 1995. Researchers at the University of California and other international institutions have concluded that nearly all of the increase in scorched terrain can be blamed on human-caused climate change. […]

Steven Davis, UCI professor of Earth system science, led a study of carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires in recent decades. In a paper in the journal Science, he and his colleagues shared some shocking findings. “According to our measurements, boreal fires in 2021 shattered previous records. These fires are two decades of rapid warming and extreme drought in Northern Canada and Siberia coming to roost, and unfortunately even this new record may not stand for long,” he says. Steve Zylius / UCI

Enviro

Wildfires in 2021 emitted a record-breaking amount of carbon dioxide

by UC Irvine March 3, 2023March 3, 2023

Irvine, Calif., — Carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires, which have been gradually increasing since 2000, spiked drastically to a record high in 2021, according to an international team of researchers led by Earth system scientists at the University of California, Irvine. Nearly half a gigaton of carbon (or 1.76 billion tons of CO2) was released from […]

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, UCI Earth system science researchers and their collaborators at UC Riverside drove a mobile lab around Southern California to collect air samples. They found a significant drop in carbon dioxide emissions on the region’s freeways during that time, but the decline soon rebounded as more people took to the roads in the summer of 2021.

California

UC Irvine researchers find that carbon dioxide pollution dropped on California freeways during pandemic

by UC Irvine December 15, 2022December 15, 2022

Irvine, Calif., Dec. 14, 2022 –The COVID-19 pandemic changed the world. One thing it changed right here in Southern California is the way people drive their cars. In a place where freeways, traffic and smog are ubiquitous, Southern Californians drove far less during the pandemic, and that change in behavior resulted in a massive decrease […]

Sci/Tech

UCI-led study finds prolonged, low-level radon exposure still a leading cause of lung cancer

by UC Irvine June 14, 2022June 14, 2022

Irvine, Calif., June 14, 2022 – A study led by the University of California, Irvine shows a strong relationship between prolonged exposure to low levels of radon and lung cancer, indicating a need for enhanced protection measures. Radon gas in the air decays into tiny radioactive particles which can damage lung cells and lead to […]

Regional

Human-triggered California wildfires more severe than natural blazes

by UC Irvine June 6, 2022June 6, 2022

Irvine, Calif., June 6, 2022 – Human-caused wildfires in California are more ferocious than blazes sparked by lightning, a team led by scientists from the University of California, Irvine reported recently in the journal Nature Communications. The research could help scientists better understand fire severity and how likely a blaze is to kill trees and inflict long-term […]

Prospects for a democratic breakdown in the U.S.

by UC Irvine January 25, 2022January 25, 2022

What pathways would lead most directly to democratic failure in the U.S. and why is a breakdown more plausible today than at previous points in recent history? A new essay by Bernard Grofman, Jack W. Peltason Endowed Chair of Democracy and Distinguished Professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine, argues that the […]

Sci/Tech

UCI study could explain why Parkinson’s drug improves, then diminishes quality of life

by UC Irvine January 19, 2022January 19, 2022

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 19, 2022 — A team of University of California, Irvine researchers has discovered a possible reason why L-dopa, the front-line drug for treating Parkinson’s disease, loses efficacy and causes dyskinesia – involuntary, erratic muscle movements of the patient’s face, arms, legs and torso – as treatment progresses. “Paradoxically, the exact therapy that improved […]

The FASER particle detector that received CERN approval to be installed at the Large Hadron Collider in 2019 has recently been augmented with an instrument to detect neutrinos. The UCI-led FASER team used a smaller detector of the same type in 2018 to make the first observations of the elusive particles generated at a collider. The new instrument will be able to detect thousands of neutrino interactions over the next three years, the researchers say.

Sci/Tech

UCI-led team of physicists detects signs of neutrinos at Large Hadron Collider

by UC Irvine November 24, 2021November 24, 2021

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 24, 2021 — The international Forward Search Experiment team, led by physicists at the University of California, Irvine, has achieved the first-ever detection of neutrino candidates produced by the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN facility near Geneva, Switzerland. In a paper published today in the journal Physical Review D, the researchers describe how […]

Wildfires have ravaged portions of the Sierra Nevada, such as this section along Route 41 south of Yosemite National Park, and UCI Earth system scientists expect the situation to get worse. In a new paper in Sciences Advances, the researchers say that for each 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature, the chance of fire jumps 19 percent to 22 percent.

Regional

Fires in the Sierra Nevada likely to grow in frequency

by UC Irvine November 18, 2021November 18, 2021

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 18, 2021 – Naturalist John Muir called the Sierra Nevada “the Range of Light.” But a more ominous nickname, “the Range of Fire,” may lie ahead, according to new research from the University of California, Irvine. By 2040, as humans continue to change the climate, fire-conducive heat waves will become so common that […]

Sci/Tech

Wind and solar could power the world’s major countries most of the time

by UC Irvine November 5, 2021November 5, 2021

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 5, 2021 — With the eyes of the world on the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, strategies for decarbonizing energy infrastructure are a trending topic. Yet critics of renewables question the dependability of systems that rely on intermittent resources. A recent study led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine tackles […]

Daniel Parker, UCI assistant professor of public health and the study’s corresponding author

California

UCI-led study finds disparities in O.C. rates of COVID-19 infection, mortality

by UC Irvine August 19, 2021August 19, 2021

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 19, 2021 — Socioeconomic, geographic and demographic factors all played critical roles in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 mortality among Orange County residents last year, according to a study led by the University of California, Irvine. The findings, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, show that some groups were more likely […]

California

Climate change is driving plant die-offs in Southern California, UCI study finds

by UC Irvine June 21, 2021June 21, 2021

A shift is happening in Southern California, and this time it has nothing to do with earthquakes. According to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, climate change is altering the number of plants populating the region’s deserts and mountains. Using data from the Landsat satellite mission and focusing on an […]

Droughts, such as the one impacting Devil’s Punchbowl on the northern slope of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, have increased in duration and severity over the past century. In a new study in Nature Communications, researchers in UCI’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering said that human-sourced greenhouse gases have been a significant factor in the growth and spread of the dry spells.

Enviro

Greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions are lengthening and intensifying droughts

by UC Irvine May 17, 2021May 17, 2021

Irvine, Calif., May 17, 2021 — Greenhouse gases and aerosol pollution emitted by human activities are responsible for increases in the frequency, intensity and duration of droughts around the world, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine. In a study published recently in Nature Communications, scientists in UCI’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering showed […]

California

California’s wildfire season has lengthened, and its peak is now earlier in the year

by UC Irvine April 22, 2021April 22, 2021

Irvine, Calif., April 22, 2021 — California’s wildfire problem, fueled by a concurrence of climate change and a heightened risk of human-caused ignitions in once uninhabited areas, has been getting worse with each passing year of the 21st century. Researchers in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine have conducted a […]

Sci/Tech

UCI’s Tirtha Banerjee probes the physics behind catastrophic blazes

by UC Irvine April 7, 2021April 7, 2021

In southern New Jersey, deep in an isolated, desolate forest known as the Pine Barrens, a small group of men trudge through the woods, behind them a charred trail of smoldering underbrush. This is not the work of criminal arsonists but a controlled burn conducted by members of the U.S. Forest Service. Scattered throughout the […]

California

California schools can reopen safely, UCI pediatricians tell us how

by UC Irvine March 3, 2021March 3, 2021

March 3, 2021 – Many students in California have not been inside a classroom since last March. Though low-income students have been affected the most, all kids have had to adjust because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more people are vaccinated, the end of remote learning is in sight, but schools will still need to use […]

Sci/Tech

UCI researchers: Climate change will alter the position of the Earth’s tropical rain belt

by UC Irvine January 18, 2021January 18, 2021

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 18, 2021 — Future climate change will cause a regionally uneven shifting of the tropical rain belt – a narrow band of heavy precipitation near the equator – according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions. This development may threaten food security for billions of people. In a […]

California

UCI study first to link disparities and ‘pharmacy deserts’ in California

by UC Irvine January 6, 2021January 6, 2021

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 6, 2021— In the United States, Black, Latino and low-income communities have historically lacked nearby access to pharmacy services. To provide the first record of these “pharmacy deserts” in Los Angeles County, a University of California, Irvine study identified communities where the nearest pharmacy was at least one mile away. Unlike previous […]

California

California’s 2018 wildfires caused $150 billion in damages

by UC Irvine December 7, 2020December 7, 2020

Irvine, Calif., Dec. 7, 2020 — In 2018, California wildfires caused economic losses of nearly $150 billion, or about 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product of the entire United States that year, and a considerable fraction of those costs affected people far from the fires and even outside of the Golden State. For a […]

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