News

Yi Wang, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of California, Davis, is part of a new multi-institutional engineering research center funded by the National Science Foundation that aims to develop transformative technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster sustainable manufacturing practices.

New research from the University of California, Davis, is shedding light on when and where to plant tree seedlings to help restore forests after high-severity wildfires, and it has a lot to do with shrubs. 

In hotter, drier areas where natural regeneration is weaker, well-timed tree planting can boost recovery by up to 200%, but the outcome also depends on competition with shrubs, a paper in the journal Forest Ecology and Management concludes.

Season’s Greetings from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences! Every December we create a yearly slideshow to showcase our many incredible efforts and commitment to excellence in education, research and outreach. This year we had several reasons to celebrate the college! Please enjoy the highlights for 2024—a year full of discoveries, awards, research and student engagement. Thank you to our faculty, staff, students, friends, donors and partners for your dedication and commitment to the college and campus.

What started as a simple sketch in Brianna Bobadilla’s notebook has transformed into an eye-catching structure – a hanging table surrounded by benches and elevated side tables. Now on display outside Hunt Hall, just steps from Memorial Union, this piece is one of three unique structures crafted by students in the LDA 160 Design and Build Studio course, which challenges students to build a new small-scale project each fall.

Researchers at University of California, Davis, are developing a chatbot powered by Artificial Intelligence to help growers, backyard gardeners, landowners and others identify and treat weeds. 

WeedChat will have access to and train itself on a broad array of papers, books, journals and other data that allow it to provide real-time accurate, comprehensive information about weeds and invasive plants, said Mohsen Mesgaran, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences.  

UC Davis students are taking their soil skills to the big stage, earning a spot in the 2025 National Collegiate Soils Contest after securing third place at the Region 6 Soil Judging Competition in New Mexico.

Last month’s regional contest, where undergraduate student teams are scored on their ability to describe and classify soils and landscapes, was held near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The event was hosted by New Mexico State University with assistance by soil scientists with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At least one-quarter of all nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in California’s Salton Sea air basin come from soil, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

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Seaweed is once again showing promise for making cattle farming more sustainable. A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that feeding grazing beef cattle a seaweed supplement in pellet form reduced their methane emissions by almost 40% without affecting their health or weight. The study was published today (Dec. 2) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As California faces pressure to grow both food and energy while protecting biodiversity — all on a finite amount of land — a trend is emerging in the field of clean energy: multi-use solar projects, or sustainable voltaics.