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If I had to describe the Fundamentals of Ecosystem Ecology (FEE) course at the Cary Institute in one word, I would use “connectivity.” 

Eighty plots on Cary's grounds will reveal how heat, drought, antibiotics, and fungicides impact soils in Northeastern grasslands.

At some point we need to realize that if seven billion people are to eat well, there will be emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, even with the best farming practices.

Ammonia is unregulated, yet it is the cause of poor health and early death in rural agricultural communities. At least one study has estimated that much of the economic benefit of using fertilizers in farms of the Midwest is negated by increased health costs due to particulate matter in the eastern U.S.

Chromium is naturally found in water; it becomes interesting when we find contamination that is significantly higher than background levels—the historic concentration of chromium. The discovery of a large-scale prevalence of hexavalent chromium in drinking water wells raises difficult questions for North Carolinians and others who consume well water—what is a safe level of hexavalent chromium?

Following an analog to volcanoes, one way to increase Earth’s albedo would be to provide a layer of reflective aerosols, perhaps sulfate particles, in the stratosphere. These could be delivered by rockets, and for several years before they fell back to the surface, they would increase the reflectivity of the Earth, while simultaneously creating dimmer sunlight on its surface.

Changes in what covers the land—snow, ice, trees, and barren soils—can have indirect effects on climate that must be included in all models of future climate. Losses of snow and ice at high latitudes and in polar regions are likely to reinforce the warming of the Earth.

There is a need to identify environmental limits and thresholds for salt ions and reduce salinization before planetary boundaries are exceeded, causing serious or irreversible damage across Earth systems. Freshwater salinization syndrome can make the water uninhabitable to creatures that previously called it home and, similarly, render it unusable for human consumption.

Epidemiological studies have linked glyphosate to a wide variety of maladies, including breast cancer, decreasing testosterone, kidney disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and nervous system disorders. The question of glyphosate safety revolves around the efficacy of the EPA standard (700 ppb) as a threshold for direct and epigenetic effects.

The emerald ash borer has cut deep swaths through white and green ash stands that are key to healthy urban canopies, and it’s happening at a faster pace than most local governments can keep up. The nonprofit American Forests has called the ash borer “the most destructive forest insect to ever invade the U.S.”

The water used to produce food, energy, and other consumer products is known as indirect or embedded water—it is contained in the product, even if we don’t see it. In a recent analysis for the United States, embedded water exceeded the direct use of water in 74 metropolitan areas.

Trees cool the environment by converting a lot of liquid water taken from the soil to water vapor in the atmosphere. They also remove particulate matter from the atmosphere, particularly small particles that are a major health hazard in air pollution. And while they emit volatile organic gases, trees take up a variety of air pollutants, including both ozone and nitrogen oxides, which reduces the ambient concentrations that we breathe.

One study in Illinois found that with supplemental food from birdfeeders, birds were fatter, grew new feathers faster, and had lower levels of stress hormones in their blood. Other studies have cast a pall over bird feeding, indicating that birdfeeders are a locus for the transmission of disease, for collisions of birds with windows, and for exposure of high numbers of birds to obvious predators.

Each time an accidental spill coats thousands of seabirds with oil, worldwide opinion is galvanized against off-shore oil production.  Witness the wreck of the Exxon Valdez tanker in Alaska and British Petroleum’s blowout at its Deepwater Horizon platform. Yet, anyone who has walked the beach at Santa Barbara knows about natural oil seepage.

Disease ecologist Dr. Barbara Han  discusses how, with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, her team analyzes data on animals, disease, and geography to pinpoint areas at risk of future disease outbreaks.

All summer long, the insects and fishes that live in our streams browse on the algae that grow on the stream bottom. But the really big delivery of food to our streams comes in the fall, when falling leaves fall or blow into the water.

What if we could forecast pathogen spillovers and diffuse them before they harm people, other animals, or ecosystems? This question is at the heart of Dr. Barbara Han's research program. Working at the intersection of ecology, computing, and global public health, she is developing new tools to predict and preempt zoonotic disease outbreaks.

The most likely cause of the next pandemic will be the “spillover” of a disease from one of a select group of animals with particular immune system traits and interactions with humans. In this MinuteEarth video, learn why animals that 'live fast and die young' are more likely to pass along new diseases to humans.

Across the US, cities have embraced green infrastructure as a way to mitigate flooding, excessive heat, extreme weather, and other urban hazards. Can greening efforts also address social injustices and inequality?