{"id":405729,"date":"2026-07-20T21:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405729\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T21:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:52:10","slug":"coastal-live-oak-under-threat-saving-oaklands-namesake-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405729\/","title":{"rendered":"Coastal Live Oak Under Threat: Saving Oakland’s Namesake Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2013 The roots extending from Oakland\u2019s namesake oak tree species run deeper throughout the Bay Area city than its topsoil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Depictions of the ancient trees adorn road signs, billboards and its official flag, enduring symbols that have united the city\u2019s diverse tapestry of peoples and cultures since its founding 174 years ago.<\/p>\n

Like other oak varieties endemic to California, the coastal live oak (Quercus agrifolia) supports immense biodiversity, a \u201ckeystone\u201d species relied upon by mammals, birds, insects, humans and the Earth itself, said Gabriela Garcia<\/a>, an assistant professor at Northeastern University\u2019s Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences (MES) whose research focuses on agroecosystems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But some climate models predict the oaks\u2019 natural habitat may shrink by 50% in the next 50 to 100 years, she said. Already, the vast oak forests that once spanned the region have shrunk due to bacterial blight and regional warming.<\/p>\n

To establish a climate change-proof future for the trees that gave Oakland its name, campus sustainability manager Andrew Gonzales and a group of Northeastern students have kicked off a novel tree-transplant operation using oak saplings from Southern California.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In trialing the more drought- and heat-resistant species \u4e00 which will also be made available to Northeastern faculty across the global campus network for their own research purposes \u4e00 Gonzales hopes to identify promising replacements for the coastal live oak that can one day diversify Oakland\u2019s urban forest and safeguard its long-term survival.<\/p>\n

\"HandSome of the trees will be intentionally introduced to vehicle exhaust and residual heat from the nearby Seminary Avenue. Photo by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Close-upA successful transplant could help \u201cpre-adapt\u201d existing trees to climate change, but genetic incompatibilities could have the opposite effect. Photo by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\":The saplings will also be made available to Northeastern faculty across the global campus network for their own research purposes. Photo by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Coastal live oaks are the most populous tree variety on the verdant, 135-acre Oakland campus, with over 1,500 individual specimens. Photo by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University
\nSustainability manager Andrew Gonzales planted four saplings in strategic locations on the Oakland campus, with plans to add another 20 to 30 specimens during the coming academic year. Photos by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\u201cExperiments like this are still relatively rare, and it\u2019s great to see this experiment happening on the Oakland campus,\u201d said Katie Lotterhos<\/a>, whose research at the Lotterhos Lab at Northeastern\u2019s Marine Science Center investigates climate\u2019s effects on biodiversity. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see what they find.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzales and the students planted four saplings this month in strategic locations on the Oakland campus, with plans to add another 20 to 30 specimens during the coming academic year, he told Northeastern Global News.<\/p>\n

Among them are Quercus tomatella \u4e00 a type of oak native to Catalina Island \u4e00 and the silver leaf oak, which comes from northern Mexico, Gonzales said. They will also plant Quercus rugosa, the red netleaf oak, whose leaves have minuscule hairs that can collect dust and other airborne particulates.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason why we\u2019re picking these trees is because they\u2019re drought tolerant \u2026 and some have shown a little bit more disease and pest resiliency than the coastal live oak,\u201d Gonzales said.<\/p>\n

Some of the oak saplings, which Northeastern obtained from Devil\u2019s Mountain Nursery, are expected to grow comfortably uphill from the southwest-facing Oakland campus farm<\/a>, Gonzales said. Others will sit beside the busy Seminary Avenue that flanks the eastern edge of campus, intentionally introducing them to vehicle exhaust and residual heat from the asphalt.<\/p>\n

Transplanted saplings are typically measured on a number of factors as they grow accustomed to a new home, including their height, trunk diameter, stress indicators such as leaf drying, and reproduction of flowers and acorns, according to Randall Hughes<\/a>, an MES professor researching the consequences of biodiversity change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese experiments are important to conduct because sometimes there are unexpected trade-offs among those responses when organisms are moved to a new environment, because they are not only having to deal with temperature or drought or disease \u2026 but they are having to deal with changes in many of those variables at once,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n

Researchers can also look at whether the new oak species\u2019 genetic material mixes with closely related trees on campus, and what the consequences of that genetic mixing will be, Lotterhos said. A successful transplant could help \u201cpre-adapt\u201d existing trees to climate change, but genetic incompatibilities could have the opposite effect, she said.<\/p>\n

\"AThe coastal live oak is a \u201ckeystone\u201d species relied upon by mammals, birds, insects, humans and the Earth itself. Photo by Lachlan Cunningham for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

A greater variety of healthy, well-adapted trees in urban areas fortifies the entire forest\u2019s resilience capacity because it mimics the natural diversity found in non-urban systems, according to Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf all the trees are clones of each other or even the same species \u4e00 a monocrop \u4e00 then they\u2019re much more vulnerable to a pest outbreak than it is if you have lots of different genotypes,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

The transplant experiment is a unique opportunity for experiential education, she added, and a fulfillment of Northeastern\u2019s promise to bridge local research with global impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always the position for universities \u2026 to test things out in ways that local city governments maybe don\u2019t have the capacity or funding to do,\u201c Gonzales said as he clipped dry leaves from one of the saplings. \u201cWe\u2019re thinking of the public good, of adding to the body of knowledge of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northeastern will be inviting representatives from the city of Oakland to observe the progress of the oak saplings in the years to come, Gonzales said, a proof of concept for widespread planting in the future.<\/p>\n

The mighty oak tree\u2019s pivotal role as a keystone species in Oakland is matched only by its cultural importance to the city, further raising the stakes of a successful transplant experiment, Gonzales said. The threat is also personal, he added, as vulnerable coastal live oaks are the most populous tree variety on the verdant, 135-acre Oakland campus<\/a>, with over 1,500 individual specimens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something near and dear to the Oakland community,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be an interesting future in 100 years, let\u2019s say, if maybe only one out of 10 of these oaks are surviving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2013 The roots extending from Oakland\u2019s namesake oak tree species run deeper throughout the Bay Area city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[41546,2791,20,443,133744,143,145,144,1673,19583,41186],"class_list":["post-405729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-biodiversity","tag-campus","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-northeastern-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sustainability","tag-trees","tag-trees-on-campus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}