Santa Cruz Naturalist

In this week's episode, host Frankie Gerraty chats with Georgia Third, a fisheries ecologist and PhD student at UC Santa Cruz. They chat about genetics, snorkeling in rivers, and all things steelhead trout.

This episode is part 2 of our conversation with Julia Harenčár, a botanist, evolutionary biologist, and PhD candidate at UC Santa Cruz. Frankie and Julia discuss weeds, evolution, and Julia's favorite plants!

In this episode, host Frankie Gerraty interviews Julia Harenčár, a botanist, evolutionary biologist, and PhD candidate at UC Santa Cruz. They discuss when and where to find wildflowers in Santa Cruz county, and how to identify them!

In this week's episode with host Niki Sridhar, we continue our conversation with Keenan Chau-Pech on effects of aquaculture facilities in Tomales Bay on the entire ecosystem!

On this episode, host Niki Sridhar interviews undergraduate researcher Keenan Chau-Pech on his recent project looking at ecosystem services of aquaculture facilities in Tomales Bay. Spoiler alert: birds are attracted to habitat created by aquaculture gear!

This week, hosts Frankie Gerraty and Nikka Malakooti discuss the biology underpinning the unique bioluminescence currently taking place along the Santa Cruz coastline.

In otter news, Frankie Gerraty covers a developing story about "841," a southern sea otter who has gotten too comfortable with humans—so comfortable, in fact, that she has been stealing surfboards!

In this episode, host Frankie Gerraty discusses the ecological effects of one of the most common and widespread human infrastructures: fencing.

In this week's episode, host Frankie Gerraty continues his conversation with Nicolás Cruz about prescribed and cultural burning. 

In this episode, host Frankie Gerraty talks to fire ecologist Nicolás Cruz about forest fires, cultural burning, and his research on the role of fire in wetland ecosystems. 

In this episode, host Frankie Gerraty discusses the important ecological roles that fallen trees play as they move from forests to rivers to oceans. 

On today's episode, host Niki Sridhar talks about the sunflower seastar. A now critically endangered species that plays an important role in kelp forest dynamics.

This week on the Santa Cruz Naturalist, Frankie talks to Moss Landing Marine Labs masters student Jacob Harris about ongoing efforts to restore Olympia oyster populations in Elkhorn Slough. 

This week on the Santa Cruz Naturalist, Frankie talks to UCSC marine mammal biologist Allison Payne about ocean acoustics and eavesdropping on rare, deep-ocean whales. 

Niki Sridhar continues her conversation with Aspen Ellis, discussing conservation strategies for protecting seabird populations. 

On this episode, Niki Sridhar speaks with PhD student at UC Santa Cruz, Aspen Ellis, about the life of a seabird ecologist and why seabirds are quite an extraordinary taxonomic group!

In this week's episode of Santa Cruz Naturalist, Chloe wraps up their series on the Norris Center by speaking with Dr. Gizelle Hurtado about community and outreach events, and where the field of natural history is going over the next 20 years.

Even though this series is at an end, you can still visit the Norris Center! For more information, including the current operating hours, check out https://norriscenter.ucsc.edu/

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Chloe sits down with Dr. Gizelle Hurtado, Assistant Director of the Norris Center.  We hear about Dr. Hurtado's background and some of the amazing work she does at the Norris Center

Chloe continues their conversation with Dr. Andy Kulikowski, the lead entomologist at the Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History at UC Santa Cruz.  Dr. Kulikowski talks about how the Norris Center interfaces with education and conservation, and tells us about some interesting specimens in the museum.

Norris Center Fall 2022 hours:

Monday - Thursday 10am - 4pm

Friday 10am - 2pm

Chloe interviews expert entomologist Dr. Andy Kulikowski, to talk about his background as a naturalist and the future of natural history.

In this week's episode, and the second in the Norris Center series, Chloe continues her interview with Dmitrius Rodriguez, and together they speculate about the future of natural history.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Nikka interviews Chloe Rickards, M.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, about the mind-controlling Cordyceps fungus, which served as the inspiration for their award-winning entry for the Coha-Gunderson Prize in Speculative Futures at the UCSC Humanities Institute. To see the pieces we reference, check out Chloe's Instagram: @clo.makes.art 

In this second-parter interview with Sarah Mastroni, we learn more about the red algae responsible for lowering methane emissions from dairy cows.

In this week's episode of Santa Cruz Naturalist, and the first installment of the Norris Center Naturalist series, Chloe talks with Dmitrius Rodriguez about natural history, community science, and more.

In this episode of Santa Cruz Naturalist, Chloe briefly talks about humpback whale mothers and behaviors.

This week in Santa Cruz Naturalist, Chloe talks about two native birds: the California scrub jay and the Steller's Jay

Chloe continues their conversation with Quinn Todzo, a geotechnical engineer. Tune in to learn about the Marble Caves, and what makes Santa Cruz geology special.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Nikka interviews UCSC masters student Sarah Mastroni, who is working with Blue Ocean Barns on using red algae to make cows more climate-friendly! 

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 6 focuses on marine heat waves.

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 5 focuses on phenology.

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 4 focuses on ocean deoxygenation.

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 3 focuses on ocean acidification.

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!

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Nikka Malakooti gives us an introduction to salps, beautiful gelatinous organisms found filter feeding, jet-propelling, and occasionally causing mayhem in oceans around the world.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily Donham introduces listeners to one of Monterey Bays most common intertidal invertebrates, the California mussel. Mussels are important foundation species, creating habitat for diverse assemblages of seaweeds and animals.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily Donham chats with UCSC Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD candidate Casey Sheridan about his work on sea urchins. Casey shares how sea urchin behavior might impact how (and where) they get their dinner. 

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily chats with UCSC PhD candidate Lauren Bell about coralline algae. Lauren explains what coralline algae are and why they're so important in all marine ecosystems.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily introduces listeners to one of her favorite seaweeds, Postelsia palmata, commonly known as the sea palm. Sea palms can be found right here in the Monterey Bay. Listen in to learn more!

This week, Sara talked with Wendy Bragg, a PhD student at UC Santa Cruz who is leading a recovery effort of the endangered black abalone following last year’s fires. You might not think that terrestrial forest fires would impact coastal marine life, but Wendy explains how large loads of sediment make their way to the coastline, and the impact this has on black abalone populations.

This week on Santa Cruz Naturalist, Emily speaks with Stanford graduate student Melissa Palmisciano about her work on juvenile rockfish. This is part two of a series on rockfish found right here in the Monterey Bay. Tune in to learn more!