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While Lyme disease is usually found along coastal areas-the mid-Hudson valley, Long Island, and parts of the Jersey shore-people are now reporting tick bites further and further north into the Capital region, and even some people in the Adirondacks

Perhaps this summer’s most ironic story was the news that residents of Toledo, Ohio, a city on the shores of one of the largest and most magnificent lakes in the world, had no water to drink. 

I often hear that ecologists should stop being so gloomy. After all, the world isn’t coming to an end — the sky is still blue, the grass is still green and the birds are still singing.

Cary Institute scientists have been investigating the ecology of Lyme disease and other tick-borne ailments for more than 20 years. Here are some important tick facts to remember this summer.

Following a distinguished career at the Wildlife Conservation Society, Dr. Joshua Ginsberg will assume the role of president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies this fall.

Cary Institute scientist Dr. Emma Rosi-Marshall is working with colleagues at Yale University to understand how wildlife impacts the Mara River. Degraded waters have been linked to typhoid and cholera outbreaks, as well as fish kills.

Cary Institute biogeochemist Dr. Jonathan Cole recently received one of the highest distinctions a scientist can achieve: election into the National Academy of Sciences. The honor recognizes his distinguished career in limnology, the study of lakes, rivers, and other inland waters.

Join us in welcoming Dr. Barbara Han, the newest addition to the Cary Institute’s growing infectious disease ecology team.

For more than thirty years, our researchers have been studying the Hudson River and its watershed, analyzing everything from water chemistry to invasive species. That vast data set was the inspiration for a new offering by our Education Program.

If you want to see plants and animals from around the world, you don’t have to go to the zoo or botanical garden — just visit the Hudson River. When you get out of your car, you see common reed (phragmites), false-indigo and purple loosestrife growing along the edges of the parking lot.

The Tick Project has deployed field-workers to test two novel treatments on tick populations in twenty-four neighborhoods in Dutchess County. The goal? Kill ticks.

When I first arrived at Cary Institute, I was familiar with symbiotic relationships in nature – where organisms co-evolve together. But I hadn’t given a lot of thought to how these relationships were shaped by climate change

For more than 35 years, researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York have been studying how interactions between acorns, rodents, ticks, predators, and climate shape Lyme-disease risk in people. A new paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, details nine of the research project’s most surprising findings to date. Several are outlined below.

Prolonged dry spells or droughts can sometimes reduce aquatic diseases, many of which impact people. Yet other times, water scarcity can counterintuitively lead to an uptick in diseases that depend on water. A new Cary-coauthored paper published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution helps to untangle this “drought-disease paradox.” 

Evan Gora a forest ecologist investigating the causes and consequences of plant death. His research helps us understand the current stressors affecting forests and begin to predict how forests will change in the future.  

Wikipedia reigns. It’s the world’s most popular online encyclopedia, the sixth most visited website in America, and a source most students rely on. But, according to a recent paper by Dr. Gene E. Likens, Cary Institute President Emeritus, Wikipedia entries on politically controversial science can be unreliable.

This summer, the Cary Institute offered a special two-week camp exploring the interface between ecology and art. Cary educators teamed with George Kaye of Ecographs and Laurie Seeman of Strawtown Studio to add a new dimension to stream studies.

When you think of urban planning and design, the U.S. Forest Service likely isn't the first federal agency that comes to mind. But with upwards of 70 percent of the world's population projected to live in cities by 2050, the Forest Service is not only paying attention to urban ecosystems, they're hoping to help shape urban design and planning around them.

Beavers, once valued for their fur, may soon have more appreciation in the Northeastern United States. There they are helping prevent harmful levels of nitrogen from reaching the area's vulnerable estuaries. By creating ponds that slow down the movement of water, they aid in removing nitrogen from the water.