Plastic Pollution Drives Crabs Crabby
Differing types of plastic may affect certain wetland species more than others.
Read more
wetlands
“Where Did the Turtles Go?”: How One Case Study Brings Perspective On How Endangered Species Populations Are Studied
Recent study highlights the unique difficulties involved in estimating the state of endangered species populations.
Read moreLet the games begin! Having fun and playing games can improve the lives of people and wildlife.
With environmental conditions deteriorating across the globe, there’s no time to stop and play games. Except for when the solutions to these problems can be found by playing games. Find out how researchers, conservationists, and farmers in France all played a game to improve land management in a wet grassland.
Read moreModelling nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture once fertilizer leaves the field
Countries need to keep track of their national greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to meet targets to combat climate change. Even though carbon dioxide gets most of the attention, nitrous oxide is the most potent of the top three greenhouse gases that contribute to current global warming, having 300 times the warming strength of carbon dioxide. In many countries agriculture is the largest source of nitrous oxide emissions. Keeping track of these emissions after they leave the farm fields via water pathways is difficult.
Read moreGhost Forests: Are they as scary as they sound?
Sea level rise has been accelerating over the last century, which will impact coastal ecosystems and their animals. Scientists have set out to study the conversion of forests to wetlands that is occurring with sea level rise, which results in the formation of ghost forests. While the loss of these forests is problematic, the resulting gain in wetland may actually be beneficial, making ghost forests less scary than they sound.
Read moreDuck broods are more resilient than expected in the face of oil and natural gas extraction
The Bakken Formation, a unique geological feature in the midwestern US and Canada, is a mecca for oil reserves and duck habitat. Scientists aimed to better understand how increased oil production has impacted the establishment and survival of duck broods.
Read moreWhich Wetland? National Dataset Helps Reduce Flood Risk
Flooding is an expensive and dangerous problem across the globe. Freshwater wetlands can help reduce flood risk and damage. During large storm events, wetlands hold extra water allowing it more time to flow downstream or into the soil. In order to help communities understand where to spend their time and resources to utilize these important landscape features, researchers created a national dataset that identifies the wetlands that would be best for mitigating flood risk.
Read moreFewer wetlands, more nutrients: water quality in the face of marsh erosion
As marsh edge erosion takes away land from Louisiana’s coastal wetland system, is there enough denitrification power left to control water quality?
Read moreAncient groundwater brings a new lease of life to arid ecosystems
How does a living fish have a radiocarbon age of ~9,000 years BC? A recent study revealed that very old carbon from ancient groundwater actually provides a life-sustaining source of energy to the contemporary food web of wetlands in dry (“arid”) climates.
Read moreTrees, Tempests, and Time: What trees can tell us about weather in the past
For storms along the Gulf Coast, first-person recordings are only reliable for the past 150 years. But knowing more about when storms happened in the past helps us understand how the climate is changing and how to reduce storm risks for coastal communities. To do that, we have to use even more unusual records: tree rings.
Read more