Pharmaceutical drugs and personal care products are showing up in rivers and streams throughout the United States and the rest of the world. What effects are they having on the environment?
Working independently, Likens and Scheffer have, says the jury, contributed to understanding and finding solutions for “gradual, abrupt and potentially irreversible ecosystem change” in response to pollution and other ecological threats. Together, the two scientists “have transformed our understanding of how human activities are changing the structure and function of natural ecosystems, and provided tools to inform ecosystem management.”
Despite a steady rise in the manufacture and release of synthetic chemicals, research on the ecological effects of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals is severely lacking. This blind spot undermines efforts to address global change and achieve sustainability goals.
Protecting the environment is usually easier to the extent we can link it to human health concerns. The tough federal Clean Air Act, for example, has been driving the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, but the real impetus for the law is the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimate that it’s saving more than 160,000 human lives each year.
Researchers have developed a new warning system that can effectively foresee a toxic algal bloom in a body of water and in turn help resource managers to avert its development well in advance.
Toxic algae blooms in lakes and reservoirs are highly destructive, resulting in fish kills and toxicity risks to wildlife, livestock – and even humans. But their development is difficult to predict.
Early this year, researchers will head to a giant outdoor laboratory in New Hampshire armed with warm clothing, helmets and high-pressure firefighting pumps
Tis the season when many Americans welcome trees into their homes. For millions of us, fresh-cut evergreens are at the heart of Christmas celebrations – a symbol of hope and joy. Sadly, the situation facing America’s trees is neither hopeful nor joyous.
The scourge of forest pests is expected to put almost two thirds of America’s forests at risk by 2027, costing several billion dollars every year for dead tree removal and jeopardizing longstanding U.S. industries that rely on timber.
Scientists say bugs such as the hemlock woolly adelgid and emerald ash borer, both native to Asia, are driving some tree species toward extinction and are causing billions of dollars a year in damage.
In a towering forest of centuries-old eastern hemlocks, it's easy to miss one of the tree's nemeses. No larger than a speck of pepper, the Hemlock woolly adelgid spends its life on the underside of needles sucking sap, eventually killing the tree.
The Cary Institute has received $158,549 from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Grant Program. Funding will support the Hudson Data Jam, an annual competition that melds science, data, and creative expression – with the goal of increasing environmental awareness among students and the community.
While deer are often associated with ticks that carry Lyme disease, the ruminants don’t transmit the infection. Mice do, and when they flourish, the disease will proliferate.
Preserving the environment is often seen as a battle of development versus nature. But in America today, roughly three-fourths of us live in metropolitan areas. To preserve our health and the planet's health, we need to create something new: A sustainable city.
The White Mountains of New Hampshire contain an unusual patch of woods known as the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Hubbard Brook has been home to some of the past half-century’s biggest discoveries in forest science, particularly around acid rain and clear-cutting.
A surprising computer-based study highlights Nebraska and Kansas as possible “hotspots” for mammals carrying viruses with the potential to infect human populations.
When we think of nature in cities, we often think about major green expanses, places like Central Park in New York City or Griffith Park in Los Angeles. But in these cities and others, little patches of greenery — sometimes forgotten, often overlooked — can be very important for the local environment.
Senior Scientist Kathie Weathers was recently named the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Chair in Ecology, in recognition of her achievements advancing freshwater science.
Friends turned out for the Ned Ames Honorary Reception and Lecture on June 24. This year’s speaker, President Emeritus Dr. Gene E. Likens, spoke about lessons learned from 50 years of research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest.
The Cary Institute has embarked on an ambitious study that will test environmental interventions with the potential to reduce tick-borne disease in neighborhoods. The goal: to lower Lyme disease rates and protect public health.
Understanding the ecology of infectious diseases is critical to protecting public health. In the U.S., tick-borne diseases are becoming more prevalent thanks, in part, to climate change.
West Baltimore residents contend with more mosquitoes than people living in more affluent parts of the city, putting them at increased risk for mosquito-borne diseases.
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