2014 News

With a handful of motivated undergrads serving as his assistants, UC Santa Barbara marine scientist Craig Carlson spent part of his summer at sea on the South Pacific, leading the biogeochemical component of a multidisciplinary research cruise aboard the RV Kilo Moana.

For Carlson, professor and chair of UCSB’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology (EEMB), such trips are routine. For the students, however, they can be the experience of their college careers.

Complex social organization with caste formation is best known for social insects and naked mole rats. Ana Garcia-Vedrenne's study presented evidence for trematode parasite social organization involving reproductive “Queens” and defensive “soldiers", all clone members, genetically identical. She examined 14 trematode species that infect the California horn snail, Cerithidea californica. Half of these species appear to have a division of labor involving a soldier caste, while the other half provide information on colony structure when soldiers are lacking.

A UCSB scientist and colleagues warn that widespread contraction of the planet’s animal life could have harmful effects on human well-being.

Ecologists and social scientists from UCSB and Berkeley show how the far-reaching effects of such declines require far greater collaboration

UCSB professor’s research in East Africa shows biodiversity loss heightens the risk of disease transmission from animals to humans.