Saturday, June 6, 2026

Welcome to Envirobites

We want to make cutting edge research in the environmental sciences accessible to all by highlighting recent studies and explaining how these advances shape the understanding of our world.

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Climate
Rohini Shivamoggi

Climate Change is Increasing the Likelihood of Worst-Case Scenarios

If you were following coverage of Hurricane Delta this week, you might’ve noticed that it seemed to come out of nowhere — one day we were all talking about Tropical Storm Gamma, and then seemingly overnight the conversation shifted to sounding alarms over Hurricane Delta. This phenomenon, in which a hurricane goes from nobody to nightmare in under a day, is known as rapid intensification. The one-two punch of rapid intensificaton being both deadly and difficult to predict has made it an urgent problem for forecasters as we all try to adjust to our changing climate.

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ClimateEcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Elisabeth Lang

Blue Carbon and Green Kelp: Kelp forests could reduce carbon emissions

Blue carbon is the carbon that is stored within marine ecosystems. It is being used more frequently within global carbon budgets, which are calculated to help us reduce climate change. Historically, only tidal marshes, mangrove forests, and seagrass beds have been used in calculating stored carbon for carbon budgets. A team of researchers from Norway wanted to see if kelp forests could significantly contribute to carbon storage. They studied the kelp forests along Australia’s southern coast and found their storage potential to be similar to that of the other historically used ecosystems. Conserving and restoring kelp forests could therefore increase carbon storage and help reduce climate change.

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ClimateHuman Exposure and Public Health
Christina M. Marvin

Measuring who our carbon footprint landing on

Who is impacted most by climate change? While most environmental carbon originates in the developed world, most of the immediate effects are being felt by those in developing or least developed countries. Could describing climate change in a human frame be the key to mobilizing mitigation action? Researchers use new data sets to assess the flood risk of a previously unexplored population of vulnerable communities living in river deltas around the world.

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Animal behaviorCitiesEnvironmental Science
Kevin Aviles Rodriguez

Does wearing a face mask make humans less scary to tree sparrows?

Environmental conditions can change quite quickly. In this case, due to the global pandemic of COVID-19 we’ve all been wearing masks when we venture outside. How might this sudden change in our appearance affect animals that frequently live amongst us? Find out how Eurasian tree sparrows responded to wearing masks in two provinces of Sichuan, China.

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EcosystemsEnvironmental ScienceRemote Environments
Brianne Palmer

Some Soil Microbes Don’t Mind Our Camping Trips

Have you ever thought about the microorganisms living under your tent while you’re camping? It may seem like setting up the tent and trampling all over the campsite may harm the organisms that live in the soil but new study in the Arizona savanna turns that idea on its head. Read on to learn about camping resistant plants, microbes, and resiliency of this awesome ecosystem.

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CitiesEcosystemsEnvironmental ScienceRemediation
Jenna Zukswert

From Food Waste to Roadways: Using Compost to Improve Soil Conditions and Tree Success Along Highways

Planting trees along highway roadsides is a good way to increase tree coverage in cities, but getting trees to grow here and maintaining these plantings over time can be difficult. Reducing soil compaction and adding organic material, such as compost, can improve roadside soils and support tree growth in these areas. A 5-year study in Ontario recently found that loosening up the soil and mixing in 10-25% food waste compost relative to soil can help improve tree growth along roadsides, possibly reducing the need to follow up and maintain these trees over time.

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Animal behaviorCitiesEcosystems
Brandi Pessman

Life in the City – Humans alter city habitats for plants and animals

Cites are ecosystems, just like a forest, desert, and prairie are ecosystems. As human populations grow and move to urban areas, cities expand into other ecosystems. Plants and animals must adjust to the rapid changes that result. Humans are the biggest threat to organisms, but why are cities challenging environments for plants and animals? Let’s learn more about one of the largest and growing ecosystems on land… cities!

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ClimateEcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Jeannie Wilkening

In otter news: Disappearing otters and climate change spell double trouble for reefs

As many people know, sea otters are great at being adorable. But do sea otters also play an important role in combating the impacts of climate change? In this study, scientists looked at how the loss of sea otters might be making reefs more susceptible to climate change.

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ClimateEcosystemsEnvironmental ScienceScience through time
Sienna Wessel

When Fire and Water Collide: Looking to Lakes to Understand Fire’s Deep Past

As I woke up this morning, I learned that a wildfire raging in our local forest had grown to nearly 70,000 acres. A mixture of emotions subsequently flooded in, combining thoughts of concern with questions about how climate change is altering wildfire patterns. In order for scientists and land managers to better predict wildfire outbreaks and to understand the role that climate plays in their behavior, they must first examine the fire history of an area over a long period of time—longer than recorded history. Charcoal and pollen deposits in lake sediments may be able to provide answers to the mysteries of fire’s deep past. Read on to hear about this interesting approach and how one study of lake sediments mapped out 1.5 million years of fire history in China.

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Environmental Science
Jackie Webb

Leaving aquaculture ponds ‘out-to-dry’ has implications for nitrous oxide budgets

Researchers from China and the UK have demonstrated that the dormant period of shrimp farming, when aquaculture ponds are drained and left ‘out-to-dry’ for half a year, is associated with increased nitrous oxide emissions. The global aquaculture industry is currently growing at a rate that surpasses most other food sectors, yet the potential climatic impacts from increased greenhouse gas production has implications for the sustainability of this farming system. Through an extended field campaign of nitrous oxide measurements, emissions from the dry-period of aquaculture ponds made up the vast majority of total nitrous oxide emissions. As a previously unaccounted for part of the pond farm greenhouse gas budget, this dry phase of the aquaculture period is too large to be ignored.

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