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Butcher, baker, and brewer. This image illustrates the strikingly simple but powerful analogy between man-made and natural systems. By looking at the functional structure of coral reef fish communities through a human eye, we find butchers, bakers, and brewers, but also diligent, cranky farmerfish, visually pleasing but ecologically negligible aesthetes, or worthless aristocrats. Using this approach, we can begin to answer some of the most pressing questions in coral reef biology. What are the origins and future trajectories of coral reefs and their fishy inhabitants? How do humans affect this perfectly balanced market? And do more brewers really make a happier system? Simon J. Brandl.
Butcher, baker, brewer-fish
We asked science café aspirants for creativity and Simon Brandl brought it with his analogy Read more
These are not your urban lawn flamingos! This pair dancing in the low tide in Mumbai’s busy harbor are Lesser Flamingos, considered near-threatened species due to declining populations in Africa and India. Yet, over the past decade, some 10-25 thousand of them have been turning up in Mumbai’s Thane Creek to spend the winter right in the middle of a megacity of over 20 million people. I photographed this pair just a year ago at Sewri Port, an industrial dockyard area known more for repairing boats than harboring such wildlife which now teems in the creek’s recovering mangroves. Credit, Madhusudan Katti.
These are not your urban lawn flamingos!
Madhusudan Katti won this year's ESA Science Café Prize with his lyric contemplation of the Read more
Beyond the Written Word: Advancing ecology communication through multimedia
From Oceans to Mountains: It’s All About Ecology… Communication!
An opportunity to build your multimedia toolkit at the ESA2014 Annual Meeting in Sacramento, CA Read more
An adult emerald ash borer (Agrilus plantipenis). Credit, K Oten.
Slowing the insect invasion: wood packaging sanitation policy yields US $11.7 billion net benefit
Risk analysis finds savings for homeowners and local governments of excluding invasive pests like the Read more
ESA Policy News May 30: FIRST Act fight over “frivolous” NSF funding
Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Policy Analyst Terence Houston. Read more
U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice is pictured speaking at the Global Food Security Symposium in Washington on May 22. She said, “Climate change affects every aspect of food security, from production to pricing. Climate change is not some distant threat. We’re already dealing with its impacts.” (Credit: The Chicago Council)
Building resilience for food security in a changing climate
Climate change is bringing hotter temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and more frequent natural disasters that Read more