Monday, June 22, 2026

Cities

Close-up image of a honey bee sitting on a green leaf
Animal behaviorCitiesEcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Jenna Zukswert

Decoding the Waggle Dance: The Importance of Flowers in Urban Landscapes for Honey Bees

Bee populations are threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation, partly due to the expansion and intensification of agriculture worldwide. By videotaping and analyzing the “waggle dances” of honey bees near London, scientists compared the distance that bees need to travel to reach nectar in urban and agricultural landscapes. Bees needed to travel less far to reach nectar and pollen in urban areas vs. agricultural areas, underscoring the importance of urban planted areas, like gardens, in supporting honey bee populations. Establishing flowering plants in agricultural landscapes could help support honey bee populations.

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Animal behaviorCities
Brandi Pessman

For birds, drab is in fashion in our cities

Color has the power to affect our feelings and emotions. For many animals, color signals status or condition. Factors such as food quality, stress, and pollution can cause changes in animal coloration. The color of the background can also have significant effects on how animals perceive color. Cities introduce drab, grey buildings and pavement, pollutants, and reduced plant complexity. A recent study shows that city birds produce darker, duller feathers with less complex patterns. Click to find out how cities may be hindering the color and diversity of wildlife.

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CitiesClimateEcosystemsEnvironmental ScienceHuman Exposure and Public Health
Jessica Espinosa

How Air Pollution Regulation Can Affect Bird Populations

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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Animal behaviorCitiesEcosystems
Brianne Palmer

Combine Crickets and Lockdowns and get an Unlikely Experiment

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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CitiesClimateEnvironmental ScienceHuman Exposure and Public Health
Jessica Wright

Hot take – we need diverse and rich tree species, not just more trees to reduce the urban heat island effect

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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CitiesClimateEnvironmental ScienceHuman Exposure and Public Health
Jessica Wright

The Urban Heat Island Challenge – How to quantify this pressing concern for cities facing a changing climate

Sangiorgio, V., Fiorito, F., & Santamouris, M. (2020). Development of a holistic urban heat island evaluation methodology. Scientific Reports, 10(1),

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CitiesClimateEnvironmental ScienceHuman Exposure and Public Health
Jessica Wright

Public Health & Urban Trees – What you need to know

Read all about the public health benefits of trees in cities. Team of researchers complete scoping literature review to help urban planners learn about the importance of urban trees.

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CitiesEnvironmental Science
Brandi Pessman

Celebrating Community Science Month – How you can get involved

If you are a science enthusiast looking for ways to become more involved, community science is the perfect activity for you and your friends and family. Community scientists are people interested in science who volunteer to make observations, collect data, and report findings. Recently, community scientists in Ohio worked with experts to track declining native ladybugs in their backyards. April is global community science month and the perfect time to get involved with projects like these!

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Animal behaviorCitiesEcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Brianne Palmer

Can Human Infrastructure Improve Biodiversity?

Electrical towers are dotted across landscapes around the world, bringing power to people in cities and the country. But can these towers be used to help wildlife? In a new study, researchers in Sevilla, Spain modified the base of these towers to attract wildlife. They found that not only do these man-made structures attract wildlife, but they can also act as wildlife corridors — providing safe passage for critters as they move across human-modified landscapes.

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CitiesEcosystems
Brandi Pessman

Dead and Gone? – The loss of decaying wood communities in urban forests

Forests are beautiful. From flourishing plants to tranquil wildlife to decaying logs, all parts are beautiful, vital, and connected. Dead logs are responsible for maintaining a healthy forest thanks to teams of fungi and wood-dependent insects inside. These organisms break down plant material to add nutrients back to the ecosystem. Forests are essential for human health and well-being, but human disturbance could threaten these ecosystems. To keep our forests healthy and beautiful, we depend on these decomposers, but can they rely on us?

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