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McLaughlin Reserve part of plan to study climate change effects across California's ecosystems
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – McLaughlin Natural Reserve is a participant in an ambitious plan to use the University of California Natural Reserve System to detect and forecast the ecological impacts of climate change in California.
The University of California, Davis' field station at the reserve – established in 1992 and situated on 80 acres of the 7,050-acre McLaughlin property – is one of 39 UC field stations.
At the heart of the plan is a proposal to establish a UC-wide institute for the study of ecological and geological and evolutionary impacts.
The plan has received $1.9 million in funding, the largest of the Research Catalyst Awards announced by new UC President Janet Napolitano.
It will offer an opportunity for scientists to study how climate change will affect California ecosystems and the ecosystem services that people rely on.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for the UC Davis reserves and for the reserve system as a whole,” said UC Davis Natural Reserve System Associate Director Virginia Boucher. “As a result of long-term collaborations between the UC Davis reserves and campus engineers and computer scientists, our reserves provide prototypes for a variety of sensor networks.”
The multi-campus project is led by Barry Sinervo, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.
“We are going to be creating a large network of UC climate researchers and using the NRS system as a climate change observatory for biotic systems,” Sinervo said.
The local contact for McLaughlin Natural Reserve is resident Co-Director Catherine Koehler.
The researchers will assemble historical records, establish a new system for data collection, and conduct experiments and long-term monitoring studies across the state from 39 field stations.
Although there have been many in-depth studies documenting climate impacts, they have largely been done independently, with results that are difficult to compare among studies.
The new institute will pursue a coordinated approach across broad geographic scales.
Researchers will develop models to predict future changes to ecosystems and potential impacts on ecosystem services that might threaten the capacity of Californians to adapt to a changing climate.
“I have worked with grants for the reserve for 25 years and I’ve worked in a bunch of different reserves and it has become clear to me that there should be some better way to coordinate the data that we collect,” said Boucher.
“It used to be that everybody would get together once a year and agree, yes, that’s important and then they’d all go home where they had enough work to do already and nothing happened,” Boucher explained.
The institute is one of five newly funded projects designed to stimulate UC research in areas that could benefit California and the world.
The President's Research Catalyst Awards will channel $10 million over three years to fund research in areas of strategic importance, such as sustainability and climate, food and nutrition, equity and social justice.
“It’s not just a huge collection of researchers using a large number sites,” said Koehler. “There is an opportunity for the people of Lake County to get involved in this and to be participants in the data collection and make a difference to the science of this.”
Koehler said that geologists, ecologists and environmentalists will be well-served by the McLaughlin site.
“People start to think, ‘Oh, ecologists and environmentalists are people running around with butterfly nets,’” she said, “but a lot of ecologists are mathematicians who try to understand incredibly complex interactions and patterns by using mathematics, just like in astrology.”
Locally, the UC program will awaken the population hereabouts to the unique environment and scientific resources of the Lower Lake site.
Once the site of a gold mining operation that employed 200 people, it is now a knowledge mine for ecological and research scientists.
McLaughlin is a unique site in the UC system, said Koehler, because it places a university in partnership with a mining company that operated in the 1980s until the 2000s.
“It is an interesting alliance,” she said, “because there are so many liabilities and problems that could arise. The reason UC would partner with a mining company is that (McLaughlin) is an extremely conscientious company, so the risk involved to both parties is very low. An excellent agreement has been crafted.”
Contributing to the unique aspects of the McLaughlin Natural Reserve are the opportunities for soil studies.
“We are living smack in the middle of an amazing hot spot that is globally significant,” said Koehler.
That’s largely because of the mix of soils – i.e., pentament, volcanic and serpentine – at the site, she added.
In addition to multiple faculty members from UC Davis, representatives from the entire UC system are joined in the project.
They include UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Merced.
Environmental Science and Policy Associate Professor Marissa Baskett and John Muir Institute of the Environment Director Mark Schwartz are coordinating the campus effort.
“One of the most interesting was a researcher for NASA Ames who continues to work out here. She is studying the hydroxide and the microbes that live in the weird water here,” said Koehler. “The microbes seem to be living on iron atoms.”
Another scientist from Duke University is presently studying the mimulus – known as “monkey-flowers” – that grow at the site.
Koehler said that stateside there also have been research teams from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Wisconsin.
Study teams from the University of Toronto, China, Germany, the United Kingdom and “a few I can never remember” also have conducted research there, said Koehler.
One of its strongest attractions is the serpentine soil, which has a radically different chemistry than more common soils, she said.
“Serpentine soil may be common here, but it is not common across the country,” said Koehler.
She said that an average of 15 scientific research projects are annually conducted on the property.
“For Lake County, what’s really exciting about this place,” she added, “is that all of a sudden you’ve got the university community right out the back door.”
Persons looking for more information about the project can reach Koehler by phone at 707-995-9003 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Email John Lindblom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .