August 2020 – Page 2

Friday, April 19, 2024

From Cropland to Cities: Aerial Transport of Fungi

August 10, 2020September 12, 2022 Brianne Palmer 0 Comments fungi, Restoration, soil microbes, urban ecology

How connected are our farms to our cities? If you are a flying fungus, they may be very connected! In a new study, researchers from De Paul University found fungi from the soil on the rooftops of Chicago and wondered why. It turns out, small fungal spores can travel from agricultural fields through the air into the cities and form friendships with the city-dwelling plants. Understanding how these spores move from agriculture to cities could help researchers develop new insight of the urban ecosystem.

Climate

Will there be more hurricanes because of climate change?

August 7, 2020August 7, 2020 Rohini Shivamoggi 0 Comments climatechange, hurricanes

NO ONE KNOWS, but read on to hear about some of the ways scientists are thinking about this question!

Animal behavior

Stop and Smell the Flowers: Color-changing spiders blend in to avoid being eaten

August 7, 2020August 7, 2020 Brandi Pessman 0 Comments color change, crab spiders, flowers, predation

Can you think of any animals that can change colors? I bet a spider didn’t come to mind! Believe it or not, crab spiders can change colors from white to yellow depending on the color of the flower they occupy. When an insect arrives at a spider-inhabited flower, the crab spiders use their long legs to grab their meal. Matching the color of their flower may allow crab spiders to hide from their prey and predators. Stop, smell the flowers, and see if you can spot some crab spiders!

Case Studies Environmental Science

Using genetics to reveal how coffee agriculture affects a forest dwelling rodent

August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 Kevin Aviles Rodriguez 0 Comments coffee, conservation biology, conservation genetics, land management, land use and land cover

Strong conservation plans are enriched by data that show which features of the habitat are important for wildlife. DNA analyses can reveal how landscape features join or separate populations without necessarily needing the observational data collected from studying animals moving in the wild. These methods can be helpful for conservation policies for elusive or understudied species. Read on to find out how coffee plantations affect an elusive forest dwelling rodent.

Cities Environmental Science

Unequal Access to Urban Tree Benefits in the Bronx

August 3, 2020December 28, 2020 Jenna Zukswert 0 Comments ecosystem services, environmental justice, Trees, urban ecology

Urban trees provide many ecosystem services to residents, but tree cover can be unequally distributed, resulting in fewer benefits for disadvantaged neighborhoods. This is true in the Bronx, where a recent study demonstrates that the distribution of services provided by trees is related to median income as well as population density. Analyzing the inequity of ecosystem services in our cities is the first step towards developing solutions to improve access to ecosystem services and make the distribution of these resources more just.