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Elizabeth Valentine provides research support to Dr. Jane Lucas. She conducts microbial ecology and soil health research in both field and laboratory settings.

Recent work reported in Science indicates that fine particulate matter—always a pernicious air pollutant—from coal-fired power plants caused 2.1 times greater mortality than all other sources of PM_2.5 in the atmosphere between 1999 and 2020.  In the United States, as many as 460,000 “excess” deaths were attributed to fine particles from coal-fired power plants during that period.

A new study combines fossil evidence, ancient DNA, and modeling to disentangle the threats that forced the European bison’s population decline.

A new study finds that a long-term drying trend throughout the Caribbean is making it harder for the American redstart to survive migration to the northernmost parts of its range. As a result, redstart breeding sites have shifted southward by more than 310 miles since 1990

Rosamond Naylor, Stanford University professor and director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, explores the connections among food production, health, environmental resources, and international security. 

The Catskill Science Collaborative is accepting applications for its 2024 Fellowship Program through January 17. Fellows conduct paid summer research in the Catskills, working on research gaps identified by the DEC, DEP, USGS, and other resource managers (outlined in the RFP). Funds up to $15,000 per fellowship.

Spongy moths, an invasive forest pest has recently resurged. Outbreaks of very hungry caterpillars have defoliated trees in the Hudson Valley and beyond. Will this happen again in 2024? Will defoliated trees recover? Can we do anything to protect our trees and forests?

Microbial ecologist Peter Groffman, a senior research fellow at Cary Institute, has been elected the 2025 president of the Ecological Society of America.

Author and award-winning ecologist Kurt Fausch has spent his career exploring threats to stream and river life. His new book, For the Love of Rivers, reflects on the deep significance of freshwaters to humanity and their ultimate fate in our future.

Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies is launching a new program to support high school and middle school educators in teaching global change and ecology. Starting in the summer of 2024, nine teachers will spend six weeks at Cary Institute conducting collaborative research in ecosystem science. Follow-up meetings throughout the school year will support the teachers as they develop and implement innovative curricula based on their research experiences.
 

Salting roads can make winter driving safer, but its corrosive impacts on roads and human health need addressing.

Join Cary Institute wildlife biologist Mike Fargione for a virtual tour of animals on our 2,000-acre research campus in New York’s Hudson Valley. Drawing from a network of trail cameras, Fargione shares insights into wildlife living in our forests, fields, and wetlands, among them: beavers, bears, bobcats, and more.

Concerned about Zika, West Nile, and other mosquito-borne diseases? Discover which mosquito species spread illnesses, why invasive Asian tiger mosquitoes increase our risk of getting sick, and lessons learned about effective mosquito management.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS), which repel grease and water, have widespread use in non-stick surfaces (Teflon), raincoats, stain-proof coatings, and fire-fighting foams. About 50 years ago, studies within the chemical industry linked these chemicals to a variety of health problems, including cancer and impaired kidney function. What is instructive about polyfluoroalkyl compounds is how easy it is to add a chemical to our environment for which we have little to no understanding of side effects.

Tropical forests experience 35-67 million lightning strikes each year, and strikes appear to be becoming more frequent. Evan Gora, the paper’s lead author and a Research Fellow at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, explains, “Lightning is a major cause of tree death and forest disturbance, yet it has been understudied as an agent of change. We wanted to understand why some lightning strikes kill more trees than others – and discovered that lianas play an outsized role.”

Dr. Charles Canham discusses fundamental flaws in how forest carbon offsets are awarded, the folly of granting offsets to already protected lands, and ecological limits on how much carbon US forests can sequester.

In Beaverland, Philip reveals the profound ways in which one animal and the trade surrounding it have shaped history, culture, and our environment. She tells the ecological story of how this unusual rodent, once trapped to the point of extinction, has returned to the landscape as one of the greatest conservation stories of the twentieth century.

Most folks who live in the eastern United States, particularly in New England, are likely to have experienced more than one close encounter with White-Tail deer.  In recent years, insurance records suggest as many as 1.2 million collisions between deer and vehicles, costing over $7 billion in repairs.  And, of course, anyone with an outdoor garden knows the frustration of fencing out deer, which like to eat the same vegetables that we do.

What is the area of impervious surface of the world, how much of that is contributed by cities, how much by roads, and how much by parking areas for cars?  A quick search on the web indicates that urban area tops the list, roughly estimated at 300,000 km² in the United States.  Roads are next at 40,000 km² of area in the U.S., about 0.4% of the land.  It is noteworthy that 83% of the United States is within 1 km of a road.