News

In collaboration with the Secretariat of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol (MLF), today DSE announced publication of Kigali Sim in the Journal of Open Source Software. The milestone marks a new chapter for the free, open-source modeling tool that helps policymakers worldwide assess strategies to reduce emissions from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are some of the most potent greenhouse gases, under the Montreal Protocol’s Kigali Amendment. The paper is co-authored by DSE and MLF. “This publication validates Kigali Sim’s technical foundation and makes it...

Today the Ecological Society of America (ESA) announced Alejandra Echeverri, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and DSE faculty advisor, is a recipient of the 2026 Sustainability Science Award. The award honors “ Biocultural vulnerability of traditional crops in the Indian Trans-Himalaya," which was published in Science Advances last year. According to ESA, this research "makes the greatest contribution to the emerging science of ecosystem and regional sustainability through the integration of ecological and social sciences." Authors include...

Maya Zomer, postdoctoral researcher, is the lead author of a new paper in Tree Physiology examining whether elevated atmospheric CO₂ can protect post-fire seedlings against drought stress in Mediterranean shrublands. Her research was completed as part of her dissertation at the Desertification Research Center (CIDE-CSIC) in Valencia, Spain. The Study In fire-prone Mediterranean landscapes, many plants rely on germinating from a seed bank after fire, which is known as post-fire seeding. In their first summer, these seedlings face high risk of drought mortality. As climate change intensifies...

Postdoctoral researcher Kristin Davis and a team of researchers and land managers published a pair of scientific papers that used advanced population modeling and decision analysis to address a long-time ecological mystery for the American kestrel ( Falco sparverius), and a collaborative process to chart a path forward. The researchers and land managers are affiliated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), one Tribal and multiple state governments, multiple universities, and NGOs. “It was really inspiring to work on a common but declining species like...

In a new publication, Faculty Advisor Alejandra Echeverri and her colleagues mapped how to assess nature's societal benefits.

Kendall Calhoun, former postdoc in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management is the lead author on a new study in Science Advances that finds human-wildlife conflicts increased during drought. DSE postdoc Amy Van Scoyoc and faculty advisor Justin Brashares contributed to this research.

DSE and the Karuk Wildlife Team are thrilled to share new research in Ecology and Evolution that validates the importance of implementing local Indigenous knowledge in studies on biodiversity and population changes over time. Our paper provides groundbreaking analysis on how the Wildlife Team’s traditional knowledge, research, and citizen-science efforts support elk restoration and presents a potential model for Indigenous-led conservation efforts worldwide. It was co-written by DSE team members, the Karuk Wildlife Team, and former postdoctoral researchers in the UC Berkeley Department of...

Our ability to predict how any given species will respond to the environmental changes that are happening in our world - like extreme temperatures and drought - hinges on a fundamental ecological assumption: the niche conservatism hypothesis. This hypothesis posits that a species' ecological niche, or the set of environmental conditions where individuals can survive and reproduce, remains stable over space and time. But is that assumption too simplistic? Modeling Abundance Data Reveals Niche Differences Within Conserved Boundaries Kristin Davis, DSE postdoctoral researcher, is the lead author...