Here’s another one of those examples where the link between scientists and the public can break down, leading to conflicting or erroneous reports. As reported by the Nature blog The Great Beyond, when the Royal Society released a report on climate geoengineering earlier this week, reporters were scratching their heads about the take-home message from the report. The British coverage…
Soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University. Soil erosion has always been a big problem for ecosystems, and often increases with decreased ecosystem health, such as the dry conditions often encouraged by climate change. We normally think of rivers and glaciers as the most powerful eroders, but a study out today in Nature Geoscience finds that agriculture…
As fires cloak the San Gabriel Mountains in southern California, workers are attempting to carry out controlled burns along the perimeter of the fire. Firefighters battle part of the blaze in Glendale, CA. Photo courtesy Gina Ferazzi for the Los Angeles Times. These burns will reduce the amount of fuel around the current fire so that if the fire reaches…
Well, it’s just been a week full of videos, hasn’t it. For those interested in Sen. Tom Udall’s address to ESA at the recent annual meeting, below is a video of his Regional Policy Award acceptance speech. You can also read the full transcript of the address here.
This sketch shows the concept of the urban vertical farm, which recycles water and grows crops using hydroponics. Photo courtesy The New York Times. An utterly intriguing op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times proposes a bizarre solution to the problems with our current–purportedly unsustainable–agriculture system. Instead of converting wild lands to agriculture and destroying natural habitat, we should instead look…
The Goddard Space Flight Center at NASA just put out this excellent video about pollination, phenology and the effects of climate change. Although NASA has satellite data showing that spring green-up has been occurring a half-day earlier each year, it’s a bit harder to figure out whether a corresponding change in phenology is occurring among pollinators. The video shows beekeepers–scientists…
This post isn’t quite about ecology. But it’s about a phenomenon that many ecologists have ample experience with. A study out last week in Current Biology found that when people get lost in the wilderness, they actually do walk in circles. Jan Souman of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, and his colleagues set volunteer hikers…
Sorghum grown under acacia and palm trees in Burkina Faso. According to a new study by scientists at the World Forestry Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, we’ve underestimated that amount of trees worldwide that are grown in agricultural areas. Using satellite imagery, the scientists show at the 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry this week in Nairobi that trees cover more than…
This posted yesterday at The New York Times: permits have been issued to construct an oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada to northern Wisconsin, bringing crude oil from the Alberta tar sands. The Alberta Clipper pipeline will run through Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin to Hardisty, Alberta. The State Department issued a permit for the construction of a new pipeline to bring…
The 10th International Congress of Ecology is taking place this week in Brisbane, Australia. This conference happens once every four years and aims to bring together ecologists from all corners of the world. The theme is “Ecology in a Changing Climate – Two hemispheres, one globe.” With the conference being held down under and hosted by the Ecological Society of Australia…
ESA’s biweekly Policy News, produced by our Policy Analyst Piper Corp, was released on Friday. You can read the full edition here. One theme is the revival of the Sustainable Watershed Planning Act, which was drafted in June but then tabled. Ecologists are becoming increasingly aware that a world potable water shortage may be looming (see remarks by Sandra Postel…
A pulse of midges swarms over Lake Malawi in Africa. Photo credit: The Daily Mail. Freshwater fish often rely on terrestrial insects as a portion of their food supply. In lakes, the size and shape of the lake can determine how much the fish rely on terrestrial insects for food. But with humans’ love of lakefront property, the resulting development…