Congratulations Humberto Flores-Landeros!

Humberto’s passion for the environment began at Lincoln Elementary school in his hometown of Santa Rosa, California. There he learned about the impacts of global warming on a heronry located in his neighborhood. After high school, he enrolled at his local community college with the goal to one day transfer to a four-year university and pursue a degree in Environmental Engineering. In the Fall of 2018, Humberto started his first semester at UC Merced. His research interest on the climate change effects on water resources found him at the Water Systems Management Lab, led by Dr. Josué Medellín-Azuara. There he got the opportunity to do fulfilling research working with disadvantaged communities in the San Joaquin Valley. Next, Humberto plans to work in industry before returning to pursue his graduate education in the Fall of 2021.

U3 Presentation

A Glass Half Empty & Underrepresented, Underserved, Understudied Presented by Dr. Angel Santiago Fernandez-Bou

Watch the talk by Dr. Angel Santiago Fernandez Bou for the UC ANR Water Weminar Series about (1) representation of different stakeholders in news related to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and (2) representation of vulnerable communities (disadvantaged communities) in the news, legislation, and scientific publications. Abstract: The first part […]

The Guide about climate change resilience in vulnerable communities is finally published in English and Spanish!

Educational guide published by the Union of Concerned Scientists in collaboration with WSML members Angel Santiago Fernandez-Bou and Mahesh Maskey. Find more information on https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/climate-change-san-joaquin-valley Guide in English: Climate Change in the San Joaquin Valley: A Household and Community Guide to Taking Action Guía en Español: Cambio climático en el […]

tropical soil CO2 emissions, soil CO2 transport modeling, El Niño, drought, Costa Rica, CO2 response to precipitation, tortuosity, CO2 outgassing

Precipitation‐drainage cycles lead to hot moments in soil carbon dioxide dynamics in a Neotropical wet forest

Tropical wet forests are essential to preserve the global carbon balance, yet tropical soil‐carbon dynamics are not well understood. We study the short‐term effects of meteorological variability and predict the long‐term effects of climate change on soil CO2 in a Neotropical wet forest in Costa Rica. Short‐term soil CO2 emissions include significant out‐gassing events (“hot moments”) which were associated with rainfall events. Simulated long‐term warming scenarios resulted in increased soil CO2 concentrations, with drier future conditions increasing emissions the most. Our findings suggest that tropical wet forest soil CO2 will increase under climate change while precipitation patterns will regulate emissions.

A glass half empty: Limited voices, limited groundwater security for California

New publication in Science of The Total Environment New publication by the Water Systems Management Lab at UC Merced suggests that Media can be biased toward certain water stakeholders and that may influence negatively underrepresented stakeholders, such as disadvantaged communities. Groundwater is a common pool resource that supports agriculture, human communities, and […]

Gas Flux in Leaf-cutter Ant Nests

WSM Lab’s Angel Santiago Fernandez-Bou recently published a study with co-authors Diego Dierick and Thomas Harmon detailing gas flux behavior in nests of Atta cephalotes ants in dense Costa Rican tropical forest. Leaf-cutter ant nests change the soil CO2 dynamics in Neotropical rainforests. We designed flow-through chambers to continuously measure the convective CO2 fluxes […]

Congratulations Spencer Cole!

On December 4th 2019, Professor Medellin-Azuara presented WSM Lab’s Spencer Cole with the Outstanding Student Award for Fall 2019. Spencer was chosen by the School of Engineering to receive this award. He was selected along with a strong group of five other Engineering students and was the only Environment Engineering […]