environmental science research for everyone
About once a decade, the corpse flower blooms and attracts human visitors of all ages who want to see the short-lived flower and smell the plant’s natural perfume of rotting flesh. But in the wild, these plants must attract a different kind of visitor –pollinators. Read on to learn more about the mysterious pollinators of the Corpse Flower and learn about the questions scientists still don’t know the answers to.
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Ever noticed how straight roads or the edges of crop fields are? Humans love turning naturally curvy land into straight lines. While land modification poses significant threats to many animals, some can take advantage of these changes. A new study found that bumble bees exploit human-made lines and edges to navigate to food sources. Taking the path most traveled may make all the difference for these bees.
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Spooky season is upon us, and people of all ages will be planning social events involving the holiday. Humans are not the only social beings. Although rare, some spider species are social too, living in large groups and sharing a web and the prey it catches. Sharing resources can be a real treat, but do some spiders get tricked into doing more work? Creep into the article for more on this spidery tale.
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Although we have strong evidence that air pollution poses significant health risks to humans, how air pollutants affect plants and animals is not well studied. Birds are especially susceptible to air pollution because they have a unique way of breathing and interacting with air. Therefore, a group of scientists conducted a study on how air pollution affects North American birds and how air quality regulations, which were initially created to benefit humans, can also benefit these bird species.
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What happens when glaciers melt? Scientists have discussed numerous effects of deglaciation including sea level rise and loss of habitats but recently, geologists have been thinking about how glaciers interact with the crust of the earth. Researchers from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks found a link between melting glaciers and earthquakes in Southeast Alaska which adds new understanding about the indirect effects of climate change and the role of humans in natural disasters.
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Global temperatures are increasing around the world due to climate change. While some animals can survive the harsh conditions, many will die off. Researchers have turned to the toughest animal alive, and it is not a lion, tiger, or bear as you might expect. Sometimes called a (water) bear, the toughest animal is microscopic and lives in the soil. Will they be able to take the heat?
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In the spring of 2020, we all dealt with lockdowns in a different way. In urban parks, animals were suddenly exposed to a world without humans, and this disrupted ongoing urban ecology experiments. But resourceful ecologists used the sudden silence near businesses and the uptick of outdoor recreation to understand how shifting human behaviors change timing and duration of chirping urban crickets.
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Wang, X., M. Dallimer, C.E. Scott, W. Shi, J. Gao. (2020). Tree species richness and diversity predicts the magnitude of
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What do you see when you picture an engineer? Perhaps you picture a human in a hard hat watching a
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Sources of noise, like gas well compressors, are known to affect many animals negatively. But could the noise be impacting plant communities? Researchers sought an answer by comparing pinyon and juniper seedling growth near quiet or noisy gas well pads in the woodlands of New Mexico. Throughout the twelve-year study, noise harmed tree communities. Trees struggled to recover even several years after the noise was removed. Now is the time to listen to the trees because the trees are tired of listening to us.
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