Harmful algae blooms, fueled by warming temperatures and nutrient runoff, plague the state.

"Coyote Ridge is the mother lode for serpentine habitat," says Andrea Mackenzie

Nitrogen from wastewater fuels algae blooms. We can’t stop peeing, but we can upgrade our wastewater plants.

Groundwater sustainability will take more than one epic rain year, and recharging aquifers is just one piece of the puzzle.

Amid droughts and depleted aquifers, farmers must choose which land goes dry. Their choices will shape California’s future.

Every fossil is part of a bigger story.

Tulare Lake and nearby floodwaters could stick around for over a year, providing ample wetland habitat for birds in the southern Central Valley.

The squiggly grooves on dead logs are the telltale traces of bark beetles, which shape the lives and deaths of stressed-out trees.

California land and water managers are adopting genetic tools to monitor biodiversity, detect invasive and endangered species, and track how ecosystems change over time.

Storms on the California coast whip up frothy sea foam, which is like a planktonic meringue.

From creeping slime molds to brain-eating ciliates to kelp, protists may be the strangest and most misunderstood group of creatures in the tree of life.

As the latest strain of avian influenza—Gs/GD HPAI, it’s called—spreads through the U.S., birds are not the only creatures the virus has felled.

“We don’t want to vilify the carriers,” says one expert. “They’re just doing their thing. They’re being ducks.”

In an open letter, they’re calling for California to consider making white sturgeon fishing catch-and-release for now.