August 2019 – envirobites

Saturday, April 27, 2024

‘Otter’ Ways of Assessing Species Vulnerability to Climate Change

August 30, 2019 Nick Iraola 0 Comments Climate Change, Conservation planning, Ecology, freshwater otters, predictive models

How do scientists figure out how a species will be impacted by climate change? They usually look at how their habitat will change with a changing climate – but that may not be the whole story. Other factors, such as a species environmental needs, how they tolerate change, and how their habitat will change (i.e. size, fragmentation, proximity to human disturbances) also need to be considered! Otters are among the most vulnerable mammals in the world, and determining where their specific threats from climate change come from will be key for conservationist to save them from extinction.

Case Studies Environmental Science Remediation

Can shellfish farming clean our coastal waters?

August 29, 2019August 30, 2019 Lindsay Green-Gavrielidis 0 Comments coastal management, eutrophication, nitrogen loading, nutrient extraction, shellfish farming

Coastal waters throughout the United States and the globe are suffering from an excess of nitrogen due to human activities. Excess nitrogen comes from a variety of sources such as wastewater treatment plants and can impact the health of coastal habitats. Coastal managers are adopting a variety of practices to limit the nitrogen inputs to coastal waters including improved stormwater and wastewater treatments, but could shellfish farming help clean our coastal waters? A study from Cape Cod, Massachusetts sought to quantify how much nitrogen can be removed from coastal waters through oyster and quahog farming.

Climate Environmental Science

Proper land management can offset greenhouse gas emissions from grass-fed cattle

August 28, 2019 Lauren Bonatakis 0 Comments cattle, grasslands, greenhouse gases, land management

Greenhouse gas emissions from the cattle industry have proven to be a big problem. As the demand for beef has increased, the amount of cattle farming operations has increased in response, both in the form of grass-fed and feedlot-finished feeding methods. Although many consumers prefer grass-fed beef, studies have shown that grass-fed beef produce more greenhouse gas emissions than feedlot-finished cattle in their lifetime. However, a recent study has shown that by changing the way that cattle graze on grassland, grass-fed beef could ultimately benefit the environment.

Climate Environmental Science

Native milkweed supports healthy monarch communities

August 28, 2019August 21, 2019 Ashley Riane Booth 0 Comments behaviour ecology, butterflies, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, insects, invasive species, invertebrates, milkweed, monarch butterflies

“Monarch butterflies do really well on the exotic milkweed species that’s being widely sold and planted under current environmental conditions. But under warmer conditions, the exotic plant becomes too toxic and monarchs become less healthy.”

Climate Ecosystems Environmental Science

Not so blue anymore: how dead mangroves burden coastal carbon sinks

August 23, 2019August 23, 2019 Jackie Webb 0 Comments blue carbon, Climate Change, coastal environments, mangroves, methane

Mangrove forests have been feeling the pressure of climate change. With heat waves and low rainfall, many mangroves along a 1000 km stretch of coastline in northern Australia have been wiped out. However, the dead trees are living on by contributing large methane emissions which has consequences to global mangrove carbon stores and climate change. Read on to find out how the living dead remain active methane emitters.

Environmental Science

Shifting Baseline Syndrome

August 22, 2019August 27, 2019 Whitney Kroschel 0 Comments Climate Change, Ecology, environment, extinction

Shifting baseline syndrome is perpetuated when each new generation perceives the environmental conditions in which they grew up as ‘normal’. It also describes how people’s standards for acceptable environmental conditions are steadily declining.

Environmental Science

IT’S ALIVE! Scientists Restore Cellular Activity in a Pig Brain Four Hours Postmortem

August 21, 2019August 21, 2019 Laine Farber 0 Comments

Can we bring the dead back to life? This morbid question has haunted brilliant literary and scientific minds for centuries. Scientists at the Yale School of Medicine dipped their toes into the macabre to bring a pig back to life… well, bring it’s brain back to life… sorta.

Environmental Science

The Color of Water Policy

August 20, 2019March 25, 2020 Riley Lovejoy 0 Comments green water, policy, water

What’s your favorite color – blue, or green? Water policy has focused traditionally on blue water (ground or surface water released into the atmosphere by evaporation), but there’s more to the water-use equation. To understand water use and availability more broadly, researchers are now considering the value and availability of green water (that which is released back to the atmosphere by plants). In this paper, green-water use and availability is investigated at a global scale, leading the authors to advocate for inclusion of green water into water policy considerations.

Climate Ecosystems Environmental Science

Glimmer of Hope: Seagrasses Starting to Recover in Europe

August 14, 2019August 17, 2019 Brittany Maule 0 Comments Climate Change, coastal environments, ecosystem services, Ocean, Restoration

Seagrasses provide vital habitat and resources for marine ecosystems. Water pollution, disease, and coastal modification have led to a decrease in 30% of seagrasses across Europe. Researchers analyzed over 1,000 studies to understand the trends of seagrasses over nearly 150 years. While overall losses have been great, the last few decades have shown seagrasses are starting to recover – likely due to strategies to decrease water pollution and protect vital habitats.

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