environmental science research for everyone
Mowing your lawn less frequently may promote a higher bee abundance due to greater floral resources. But how can we strike a balance between creating a suburban green space and a messy yard? Mowing every other week was found to promote pollinators in residential lawns without making the neighbors too angry.
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Throwbacks aren’t just for old songs and embarrassing childhood photos. Knowing how rivers and streams flowed before people started changing things can help us to create water management practices that are better for the ecological health of these systems. However, the first challenge of throwing it back to these natural flows is just figuring out what these natural flows are.
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Humans are masters of ecosystem engineering. But so are many other creatures, not least among them: Beavers. Paper
Read moreClimate change is forcing plants and animals around the world to shift their ranges into higher and higher latitudes. Mangroves,
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Neotropical birds can form flocks consisting of multiple species, but the birds that aren’t antshrikes benefit from the presence of these alarm-callers without returning the favor. How would they fare if the antshrikes weren’t around? An experimental study was conducted by Martinez et al. (2018) to determine just how much of an impact antshrikes have on the livelihood of other birds.
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Ever wonder how scientists reconstruct environments from the earth’s history? For those studying mangroves in South Florida, the answer is a little smaller than you would think. Palynology, or the study of fossilized pollen, can tell researchers about what plants were present in an area in the past, aiding in understanding how things have changed in the last few thousand years. With the help of this reconstruction, pollen fossils can also help us predict how mangrove systems will change in the future.
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Coastal New England isn’t independent from the world of invasive species. The Asian shore crab has encroached on many crustaceans habitats in the last few decades and recently this includes the American lobster. Work done by Baillie and colleagues suggest that specific life stages of the lobster may be negatively impacted by the invasion of the crab. Not only will understanding the interactions between these two species aid in preservation of one of North America’s most important fisheries, it may also provide critical insight into the fascinating relationship between endemic and invasive species.
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Surges in the popularity of rock climbing have made previously inaccessible cliff faces into tourist hotspots. How does this affect cliff ecosystems? Is there anything we can do?
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Think of all the electronic devices you’ve owned within your lifetime. As technology advances, it’s always exciting to get the new, latest and greatest. Once you upgrade to the newest technology it is easy to discard and forget about your former belongings. But what happens to these discarded items? Electronic waste contains hazardous materials that need to be properly disposed of, but this is not always the case as its safe disposal can be complicated. Monitour is an electronic waste transparency project that takes aim at tracking illegal and previously hidden international electronic waste export routes.
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You have probably heard about how carbon is a major contributor to climate change, but have you heard about the problem of nitrogen pollution? We have been growing more and more food, but the fertilizer we use to do so can cause environmental problems.
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