Monday, June 8, 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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EcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Lauren Bonatakis

Farmers vs. Fish: The Story of Delta Smelt

Delta smelt, a small free-swimming fish native to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California, have been portrayed as the catalyst for failing agriculture in the delta region. As an Endangered Species Act-listed species, delta smelt require increased water allocation to maintain low salinity in an already water-starved area, leaving less water for farmers and their crops. In reality, only a small percentage of freshwater outflow to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is being used for fish protection. Through improper management and general disregard for delta smelt recovery, the species is near extinction.

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ClimateEcosystemsEnvironmental ScienceHuman Exposure and Public Health
Whitney Kroschel

Poison Ivy’s Pervasiveness

Are you part of the 80% of the population that is allergic to poison ivy? What do we really know about poison ivy beyond its potential to cause an itchy rash on our skin? Poison ivy can actually adapt to its environment and exploit a variety of habitats, which helps explain its ubiquitous distribution. A future climate with greater carbon dioxide concentrations is expected to expand its distribution and increase its toxicity – bad news.

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ClimateEcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Jessica Espinosa

Can We Save Our Corals? Using Investment Planning to Conserve Coral Reefs

By now, most of us have heard the news that climate change is threatening our oceans. Rising carbon dioxide levels due to increasing greenhouse gas emissions into the earth’s atmosphere are warming our oceans and causing a multitude of other adverse effects on our planet. In particular, these changing environmental conditions are wreaking havoc on the world’s coral reefs. Meanwhile, conservationists around the world have been working to mitigate coral reef degradation, with little overall success. However, a recent study describes a new approach taken from investment theory that could shed a hopeful light on coral conservation efforts.

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ClimateEcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Chelsea Barreto

Habitats are a work of art: habitat mosaics and fish production

Biodiversity is continually being threatened by human activities, and it is vital that we protect it. Conserving biodiversity means conserving species and the habitats they live in. We know that habitats vary through space and time, but does this variation impact fish production in the long term? Brennen et al. explores this question using Pacific salmon species in an Alaskan watershed.

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Case StudiesEcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Brittany Maule

Tweet tweet: Using social media to help bird conservation

Conservation areas are vital to maintaining biodiversity, and as a result, it’s important to know which conversation areas humans are most likely to visit. Looking at publicly available social media data, researchers analyzed how many people posted on Twitter and Flickr in over 12,000 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas across the globe. Understanding how many people visit what areas is important for funding, and eco-tourism, but also to see which areas may have higher threats with so many visitors.

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EcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Michaela Cashman

Fishing for Answers– Cyanide Detection in Aquarium Fish

Up to 10% of our salt water aquarium fish are caught through a dangerous technique known as cyanide fishing. While this practice is heavily outlawed for its reckless environmental consequences, it is nearly impossible to tell how a fish was caught by the time it reaches the US– until now. Breen et al., suggests a new rapid response test for the presence of cyanide in fish as a way to help stop this harmful fishing practice.

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CitiesClimateEcosystemsEnvironmental ScienceHuman Exposure and Public HealthScience through time
Nick Iraola

Climate Change and Inequality: The Missing Link.

In the most recent IPCC report, scientists have concluded that global warming is likely to reach 1.5o C between 2030 and 2052, if it continues to increase at the current rate. To curb this warming, and the host of environmental plagues with it, we must completely halt our carbon emissions by 2050. That’s 30 years. But who is actually on the front-lines of climate change? And why do some people draw parallels between climate change and inequality? Is the key to all of this solving both at the same time?

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EcosystemsEnvironmental Science
Anita Masse

Families that shed skin together, may die together?

Amphibian populations are declining partially due to the prevalence of a fungus infecting their skin, but there is no clear indication why certain species are more susceptible than others. Skin structure and the rate of shedding may be the clue to solving this problem and ultimately saving amphibian populations.

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ClimateEnvironmental Science
Aleksandra Dolezal

In a climate crisis no one is safe, but marine species are getting hit twice as hard

Our world is undergoing a climate crisis, which threatens every living thing on the planet. A study by Pinsky et al. (2019) has found that marine species are more vulnerable to warming than terrestrial species which may change the course of conservation management and deployment of conservation resources.

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