Sea Level Rise and Coastal Wetlands: Predicting the Future
Source Articles: Blum, M.D. and H.H. Roberts. 2009. Drowning of the Mississippi Delta due to insufficient sediment supply and global
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Human Exposure and Public Health
Can your pet’s pest control product harm you?
Are you and your kids at risk from your pet’s flea powder/collar? If it contains a chemical called Tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP), maybe! Read more to find out and learn how to avoid any potential risk.
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How can we help salt marshes recover after an oil spill?
Salt marshes impacted by oil spills (like Deepwater Horizon) often experience vegetation diebacks and a loss of ecosystem function. Researchers recently found that re-establishing the dominant salt marsh vegetation, Spartina alterniflora, is critical to ensure and enhance the presence of other marsh animals. Unexpectedly, the addition of fertilizer had little to no effect on the recolonization of salt marsh critters.
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Air Pollution Can Affect Your Mind and How You Think
Pollution has long been known to negatively affect humans physically. Recent research has shown that exposure to pollution can also lower the brain’s thinking and problem-solving abilities.
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And the winner is: rare and fast growing California species!
In the competition of survival under a severe drought scenario, what to expect from the local plant and animal community? Prugh et al (2018) seeked to answer this question. “And the winner is: rare and fast growing California species!”.
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Assessing the impact of pollutants on kidney health
Do PFASs affect human health? What even are PFASs? Researchers at Duke University conducted a comprehensive review of the published literature to summarize what we know about how a class of pollutants called PFASs may impact human kidney health.
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Can soil help remove antibiotics from wastewater effluent?
Antibiotics are finding their way into surface waters via wastewater effluent where they pose a threat to the environment and organisms including humans. Many wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove antibiotics. This study explores the use of soil to reduce the amount of antibiotics that enter the environment.
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Microplastics may be hitching a ride from water to land in mosquitos
Microplastics are now found all over, even in freshwater environments such as ponds, rivers and lakes. Young mosquitos live in these freshwater environments and move to land as they mature. Scientists in this study wanted to find out if young mosquitos ingest microplastics found in freshwater environments and carry the microplastics with them to air and land as adults.
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At risk from atrazine?
Atrazine is one of the most widely used weed killers in the United States. It has been found in water used for drinking, irrigation, bathing etc. This post summarizes a recently released EPA report that looked to see if humans are at risk from atrazine.
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Biking – When and where you ride could affect your health
Trading your car for a bike to get around can help reduce traffic congestion and vehicle emissions, which is why many major cities have started to install bike lanes along roads. This study looks at the potential exposure to airborne black carbon, an indicator of fossil fuel combustion, that a bicyclist could experience during their commute in a major Brazilian city.
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