Ecology – envirobites

Timing is Everything: Sockeye Salmon Migration on the Skeena River

November 16, 2018December 13, 2018 Maddie Halloran 0 Comments British Columbia, Climate Change, Ecology, environmental science, life-cycle assessment, salmon, zooplankton

For most salmon to complete their life cycle, juveniles must migrate out to the ocean as “smolts”. They are then able to grow quickly by taking advantage of marine food sources, before they return as adults to spawn in the river where they were born. With climate change affecting environmental cues and conditions, the timing of their migration might not match up to the availability of crucial food resources, which could reduce smolt survival. Will this phenomenon affect the Skeena River populations of Sockeye Salmon? Read on to learn more!

Climate Environmental Science Remote Environments Science through time

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

November 13, 2018November 19, 2018 E.M.B. Doran 0 Comments agriculture, carbon cycle, Climate Change, Conservation, earth system, Ecology, ecosystems, environmental science, forest policy, forests, greenhouse gases, machine learning, nutrient cycles, remote sensing, Restoration

Satellites have changed our ability to see the globe. We can now use satellite data is to monitor change in the amount of land covered by forests, and determine the reasons for that change. In this article, we discuss recent findings global forest monitoring and the impact of supply chain decisions by corporate actors.

Cities Climate Environmental Science Human Exposure and Public Health

And the winner is: rare and fast growing California species!

November 5, 2018November 9, 2018 Luiza Aparecido 0 Comments drought, Ecology, wildfires

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!”.

Case Studies Climate Environmental Science

Warming bugs, insects decline in forest associated with climate change

November 5, 2018November 9, 2018 Kevin Aviles Rodriguez 0 Comments Climate Change, Ecology, ecosystems, el yunque

Can small changes in temperature really lead to dramatic impacts on habitats? Sometimes, small changes like a 2 Celsius degree warming of forest interiors, can affect a great number of species. Read on to learn how bugs, birds, and frogs were affected by climate change documented over a 36 year study in the tropical forest of Puerto Rico.

A screenshot of photos submitted to the california herp atlas. The screenshot includes nine photos of snakes

Cities Environmental Science Remediation

This website helps ordinary people collect data to save snakes

October 5, 2018October 11, 2018 Abigail Lewis 0 Comments citizen science, Conservation, Ecology, snakes

With a limited amount of time and money available for conservation efforts, it’s critical to know which species are the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, that assessment requires a virtually impossible amount of data. Citizen scientists from North and South Carolina have filled this critical gap by collecting 7,684 snake observations from every county in the two states over the course of eight years. Here’s what they found.

Environmental Science

Elephant Birds Never Forget

September 19, 2018September 25, 2018 Maddie Halloran 0 Comments Archaeology, Conservation, Ecology, environmental science, Madagascar

Recent research has uncovered evidence of human presence on Madagascar more than 6000 years earlier than previously thought. This may have big implications for how we understand human colonization of the island, as well as how prehistoric human-animal interactions can inform modern conservation.

Climate Environmental Science Remote Environments Science through time

Where will the tall trees grow?

September 18, 2018September 20, 2018 E.M.B. Doran 0 Comments Climate Change, Ecology, ecosystems, environmental science, land use and land cover, landscape change, modeling, paleoecology

What will the landscape look like when the world is four degrees warmer? Seven degrees warmer? Will you see the same trees and shrubs? Will the same birds visit your bird feeder? If you live in a forest now, will you then live in a desert? The implications have wide consequences not least for the production of food and the provision of water for your future self.

Environmental Science

Building Barriers to Stop Sea Level Rise, What’s at Stake?

September 4, 2018September 5, 2018 Aidan Barry 0 Comments Climate Change, Ecology, ecology and society, ecosystems, sea level rise, Sustainability

Anticipated growth of coastal communities is expected in the ensuing future. As these communities expand so will the issue of coastal protection. Currently 14% of the continental US has armored shorelines to protect infrastructure and people from storm surges and consequent flooding. However, the biological impact of these barriers is under scrutiny. Research conducted by Gehman and colleagues at the University of Georgia investigated how armored coastlines impact both biotic and abiotic features of coastal-upland boundaries along coastal Georgia compared unarmored and forested locations.

Climate Science through time

For the Jurassic World, Pollen Shows What Plants Grew When Dinosaurs Roamed

August 31, 2018September 4, 2018 Ashley Riane Booth 0 Comments dinosaur, Ecology, fossils, jurassic, paleoecology, palynology, pollen

Reference: Slater, S.M., C.H. Wellman, M. Romano, and V. Vajda. 2018. Dinosaur-plant interactions within a Middle Jurassic ecosystem – palynology

Climate Environmental Science

182 Years in the Making: Invertebrate Communities of Narragansett Bay

August 2, 2018August 2, 2018 Aidan Barry 0 Comments Conservation, Ecology, ecosystem services, eutrophication, fisheries, nutrient cycles, Sustainability, Wastewater, water quality

Benthic invertebrates support various ecosystem functions and services such as shellfish production and biogeochemical cycling. Historical data spanning 182 years permitted Hale and colleagues to determine the trends and current conditions of invertebrate communities in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. From the 104 studies, the authors detected over 1,000 different taxa that have been observed within the esturary and suggest human influence has greatly impacted the overall biodiversity of the invertebrate community.

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