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This seminar is an introduction to sea turtle epibiont diversity, and an explanation of how this type of research supports case-based learning.

Beavers, like humans, shape their ecosystems not just by eating or excreting, but also by building and tearing down. And because of those similarities, the rodents have become North America’s best-known “ecosystem engineers.”

Dr. Kenneth Feeley discusses some of the possible responses of tropical rainforests to anthropogenic climate change. He describes ongoing research that he is leading to determine if tropical trees can: tolerate rising temperatures through adaptation or acclimation, avoid rising temperatures through species migrations, and/or if climate change puts tropical tree species at risk of extinction.

As early as the 1960s, when we saw a proliferation of plastic waste in landfills and unsightly plastic cups along the roadside, we realized that some of these products were never going to break down. Less obvious were persistent pesticides and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS) that circulate in nature from their point of application to the most distant and pristine of earth’s environments.

A new study assessed effects of past and current climate variability on global forest productivity. The work highlights sensitive regions where forests may be most at risk as the planet warms and temperatures become more extreme. The framework can help set conservation priorities, support forest adaptation efforts, and improve carbon accounting.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which comes from things like leaves, gives water a brown tea-like color. DOC can enter water bodies through leaf fall or be washed in during large storm events. It can also be created within water bodies, by microbes.

Ian Shive, an Ansel Adams award-winning photographer, author, and filmmaker dedicated to documenting nature, shares conservation stories, and highlights connections that unite even the most remote and unexplored lands.

In summer 2019, the Cambridge physicist Gareth Rees flew into Yakutsk to meet a team of Russian scientists. The far eastern Siberian port is known as the coldest city on Earth, but that year it was simmering under a heatwave. Together the researchers drove deep into the region’s sprawling forests on a road paved by gulag prisoners.

If you’ve been waiting for a Lyme disease vaccine, now’s your moment to get jabbed. Phase three of a clinical study by Pfizer Inc. and Valneva SE is now enrolling about 6,000 participants ages 5 and up in Europe and the United States, including locally.

That some ants will disperse herbaceous seeds with elaiosomes (fatty acid appendages that attract ants) was first reported in 1906. However, a parallel process, in which the same ants collect and disperse oak leaf galls, has gone undetected. As it turns out, ants disperse oak galls (induced by cynipid wasp species) very similarly to how they disperse seeds. 

Separating habitats in our vocabulary and in our minds obscures the innumerable connections that bind these habitats into a single working landscape. Streams are especially well connected to other habitats, in ways both obvious and subtle.

Forests play an important role in mitigating climate change, with their carbon storage and accumulation in biomass that can serve as a carbon bank for decades to centuries.

It’s October, and the stink bugs are moving into my house for the winter. They’re hanging onto window screens, hiding in dark corners, and crawling ponderously around the bathtub. And woe unto you if you squash one

Climate change is increasing the number and frequency of intense storms in the tropics. This means more lightning strikes, which can be bad for large trees, their neighbors, and ultimately the climate.

Why is it salt turning up in streams in the summertime? Rock Salt lowers the temperature at which water freezes, so it's widely used in wintertime to prevent our roads from icing up. It's a boon for safety but there are environmental consequences.

Zoonotic diseases emerge where people, animals, and pathogens overlap. Through activities like farming, live animal trading, wet markets, and ecotourism, we are increasing our contact with animals and the pathogens they carry. Globally, people are encroaching on wildlife habitat while climate change is forcing species into new places.

Why do large trees die? And how does their loss impact carbon dynamics, biodiversity, and the composition of forests? These are among the questions that forest ecologist Dr. Evan Gora discusses.

Place-based education (PBE) has emerged as a popular model for schooling and is focused on learning that is “rooted in what is local—the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place”.

Traditionally under-considered, the influence that biota exert over environmental contaminant behavior is emerging as an important driver of contaminant persistence and legacy impact.