Manatees Might Not Be Vegetarian, and Other Fun Facts about My Favorite Animal
Breaking News: the world’s most soothing swimmer MIGHT NOT BE WHAT IT SEEMS.
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Ecosystems
A humble sponge in Indonesia may be creating cancer medicine
Collaborators in the United States and Indonesia knew that an Indo-Pacific sea dwelling sponge produced medicinally important chemicals – they now report that those products may also treat cancer.
Read MoreWitness trees tell how ecosystems of Silicon Valley have changed
A new study scientifically tackles an important aspect of the story of our urban landscape: how do ecosystems change from the time prior to first permanent settlement to today, after growing into a densely developed modern city?
Read MoreT.G.I…M.? Why Wildlife Wants Your Vacation to End Sooner
When the workweek ends and the weekend arrives, many people leave their office life to visit the great outdoors. From birdwatching to biking, spending time in nature may be a positive experience for you, but your presence may make the animals living in the natural spaces you visit on the weekend wish it was Monday already.
Read MoreDouble trouble: how floods after bushfire affect the health of our rivers
Between Christmas 2019 and the 2020 New Year, forested mountain ranges across drought-stricken areas in Eastern Australia came alight, with fires ravaging 11 million hectares of bush (Eucalyptus woodlands and rainforests) – a size comparable to England’s land area. These megafires threw the states of New South Wales and Victoria into a state of emergency. The bushfire crisis took a sudden turn when heavy rainfall flooded the scorched land in the span of just two weeks. Unfortunately, while rainfall might appear to be a blessing in light of the megafires, the resulting floods were ultimately not sweet relief for rivers.
Read MoreMarine Microplastics: Not a small problem, despite its name
Studying corals can help scientists estimate the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans
Read MoreBugs from the deep: hyporheic stoneflies contribute much to their Ozark streams
Buried beneath the streambed is another environment home to a population of bugs more important to their local streams than ever before thought!
Read MoreWhat Smokey the Bear didn’t know about invasive species
Fires are increasing across the United States and researchers are looking to weed out the one of the culprits — invasive grasses. Using information from fires and non-native grass invasion across the country, researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst set out to determine if invasive grasses increase the number of fires across the United States. Of the twelve grass species analyzed, 66% increased fire frequency, adding another layer to the complexity of managing wildfires. As individuals we can help halt this “grass-fire cycle” by reducing the spread of invasive grasses and human-caused sparks.
Read MoreGhost Forests: Are they as scary as they sound?
Sea level rise has been accelerating over the last century, which will impact coastal ecosystems and their animals. Scientists have set out to study the conversion of forests to wetlands that is occurring with sea level rise, which results in the formation of ghost forests. While the loss of these forests is problematic, the resulting gain in wetland may actually be beneficial, making ghost forests less scary than they sound.
Read MoreDeep breaths: a reduction in the relative abundance of deer mice and update on hantavirus seroprevalence in Yosemite National Park
We arrived at Camp Curry in the heart of Yosemite Valley well past dark, two days before our long-awaited and
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