biodiversity – Page 2

Friday, April 19, 2024

Could We “Dilute” Disease by Protecting Biodiversity?

April 28, 2020April 29, 2020 Sienna Wessel 0 Comments biodiversity, disease, ecosystem health, ecosystem services, plant communities, plant diversity

So you are a passionate conservation activist distracted in the time of global pandemic- perhaps you haven’t had the mental space to prioritize biodiversity protection in your ever growing laundry list of pressing societal issues. What if I told you that the preservation of biodiversity could have the potential to check off a few items on that list- including disease impact? Read on to hear how science has worked tirelessly to determine if diversity can actually “dilute” disease in a variety of organisms, ending with a new comprehensive study that looks at this effect in plants.

Environmental Science

The use of albatrosses as a conservation tool

April 17, 2020 Lauren Bonatakis 0 Comments biodiversity, birds, Conservation, fisheries, Ocean

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing poses an imminent threat to biodiversity in our oceans. Notoriously difficult to track, fishing vessels are able to elude traditional tracking measures. Authors H. Weimerskirch et. al. introduce the concept of the “ocean sentinel”, where sea birds that are naturally attracted to fishing vessels are equipped with bio-loggers. Data from these loggers help locate where, when, and how frequently IUU is occuring.

Climate Ecosystems Environmental Science

A humble sponge in Indonesia may be creating cancer medicine

April 9, 2020April 9, 2020 Christina M. Marvin 0 Comments biodiversity, cancer, Climate Change, sea sponge

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.

Climate Ecosystems Environmental Science

Where have all the flowers gone? Climate change is driving the loss of forbs and diversity in Californian grasslands

March 7, 2020March 7, 2020 Sienna Wessel 0 Comments biodiversity, Climate Change, drought, Ecology, plant communities

Science predicts that climate change will disrupt many natural processes and cycles and there is ever increasing media coverage regarding expectations for Earth’s future under these pressures. Yet there is little popular discussion about how plant communities will be impacted by these changes despite the fact that they represent the first level of the food web, support entire ecosystems of species, and contain one of the only organisms that can capture free energy to produce life. Understanding the ways that these communities are changing and will change in the future is crucially important to seeing the full picture of how climate change will re-shape life as we know it.

Ecosystems Environmental Science

The Cows and the Bees

February 4, 2020February 5, 2020 Abigail Bezrutczyk 0 Comments agriculture, biodiversity, Conservation, ecosystems, environmental science, pollinators, rangeland, Sustainability

In the age of the sixth extinction, we need to think carefully about how we use our land– especially when different land uses are at odds. As a way to advance conservation, researchers in Israel examined “land sharing” of rangelands: a way of using land to benefit agriculture and biodiversity alike.

Climate Ecosystems Environmental Science

Editing life to save it? The potential for gene drive technology in conservation

December 20, 2019December 19, 2019 Sarah Shainker 0 Comments biodiversity, biotechnology, conservation biology, CRISPR, gene drive, Gene editing

From designer babies to GMOs, gene editing biotechnology is behind some of the most controversial issues on the news. Is it feasible and safe to use gene editing as a conservation tool?

Cities Ecosystems Environmental Science

Microhabitat temperature makes a mega impact on urban coastal biodiversity

November 14, 2019November 14, 2019 Sarah Shainker 0 Comments biodiversity, coastal development, thermal stress

Anywhere people live, we build things! Along the coast, our construction projects are especially important for protecting us from strong wind and waves, and for providing opportunities for recreation in and along the water. This development is important, but how is it impacting the animals and algae that make their homes on the coast?

Climate Ecosystems Science through time

What is scarier than zombies, ghosts, and witches? A modern mass extinction

October 31, 2019November 12, 2019 Ashley Riane Booth 0 Comments biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, extinction, modeling

When I was a little kid, the things that scared me were a little silly – the slime monster from Ghostwriter, caterpillars, or a sinkhole developing underneath my bed that would swallow me while I slept. While I’ve gotten over these mostly ridiculous fears, being an adult doesn’t mean I am now fearless. Instead, the things that I consider “scary” have shifted. Now, the things that scare me are all too real – things like climate change and mass extinction.

Environmental Science

Can you figure out what species this is? Computers can

September 5, 2019 Abigail Lewis 0 Comments animals, biodiversity, citizen science, Conservation, identification

Protecting wild animals requires far more data than scientists could collect alone, so researchers often enlist the help of amateur “citizen scientists” to help identify animals in photos. However, with more and more large scale projects that need help from citizen scientists, it is taking an increasingly long time to process all of the photos from any individual study. Marco Willi from the University of Minnesota and his colleagues thought there might be a way to speed things up: by getting computers to identify most of the easy animals, and leaving humans to figure out the extra hard ones.

Environmental Science

Gardeners for Biodiversity: How Surveys can Help Quantify Diversity in Urban Areas

July 24, 2019July 24, 2019 Riley Lovejoy 0 Comments biodiversity, Conservation, gardens, urban

Backyard gardens can boast surprising levels of biodiversity. Quantifying the diversity of many small gardens spread out across an urban area, however, can be difficult for scientists. In this study, researchers proposed a survey in which garden-owners were asked to give basic information about their gardens. From the responses, a statistical model was designed to determine the actual number of species present.