This week there has been no shortage of Darwin-related events to attend about town in Washington, D.C., as science and environmental groups have clamored to put on talks, events and celebrations commemorating Darwin’s legacy. Today I attended a symposium sponsored by the National Academies , titled “Twenty-first Century Ecosystems: Systemic Risk and the Public Good.” The session I attended on…
Charles Darwin was a great thinker, philosopher and naturalist who spent 20 years observing, tracking and analyzing the natural world. His collected data resulted in what is probably the most influential book in all of biology: his abstract about organismal evolution, “On The Origin Of Species”.* Today the theory of evolution by natural selection is the cornerstone of biology. The…
Biodiversity hotspots are geographic areas that have both high endemism and high risk for species extinctions. Since the inception of the term two decades ago, these areas have been the focus for conservation projects attempting to save their disproportionally high numbers of endangered species. With science funding on the decline and a shortage researchers available, however, the support and manpower…
The stimulus bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last week includes $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, among other large sums set aside for NOAA and the USGS. The bill is having trouble gaining support in the Senate, however, because many lawmakers believe that the bill includes too many long-term projects that would do little to…
Oceans are a reliable carbon sink in scientists’ climate change models because they absorb so much of the atmosphere’s excess carbon dioxide. But this good news for climate change is bad news for ocean life: dissolved carbon is making the oceans more acidic, which threatens the balance of the marine food chain. That dissolved carbon (and a slew of other…
In a paper published online this month in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, ESA member Bruce Robertson and his colleagues in biology and biophysics explore the concept of polarized light pollution. They synthesize work that shows how light reflected off of human-made surfaces can confuse animals and alter their behavior, leading to injury or even death. The American Museum…
Eastern Fence Lizards are rampant across the American southeast but, in recent years, they’ve begun to coexist with invasive red fire ants from South America. Because the lizards and the ants have similar requirements (terrestrial areas with abundant sunlight), they often find themselves occupying the same space. And the ants don’t like it. Tracy Langkilde of Penn State University studies…
Tree deaths have more than doubled in the western U.S. in the past 20-30 years, and the culprit is climate change, according to a paper published Friday in Science. Warming has all kinds of consequences for species ranges. Changes in temperature can narrow a species’ range or move it latitudinally through changes in average yearly temperatures and alterations of the…
There’s been a lot of buzz in Washington these past few weeks, and a good deal of it is about science. Here are highlights from today’s issue of the ESA Policy News Update, written by ESA’s Policy Analyst, Piper Corp. Science in the Economic Stimulus Bill. An $825 billion economic stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009,…
President Barack Obama has been an inspiration to many scientists during his campaign and his transition to office because of his repeated commitments to the sciences and his early appointments of scientists in high-profile cabinet positions and advisory roles. Yesterday he renewed those sentiments in his inauguration speech, vowing to “restore science to its rightful place” in our government. The…
The promise of biofuels – fuel made from plant material – has taken a nosedive as scientists predict its generation could cause far more greenhouse gas emissions than it would make up for in preventing the use of fossil fuels. But a Michigan State chemist has asserted in a paper in Environmental Science & Technology online that if sustainable management…
ESA sent a letter today to president-elect Barack Obama recommending top priorities where ecological science should inform policy decisions in the new administration. Obama has already pledged his commitment to curbing climate change during his term. ESA applauded that commitment and outlined four other priorities for the next administration: ▪ Protecting water quality and quantity, especially in conjunction with worldwide…