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Nature lovers can explore the eerie yet essential world of decomposition in an upcoming lecture at Cary Institute, just in time for Halloween.

Dr. Schuler discusses how urban flooding and salinization reshape the structure and function of aquatic communities in freshwater and coastal ecosystems.

Understanding the processes maintaining species richness and abundance is particularly relevant for highly diverse communities such as tropical forests. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the maintenance of many species and forest functionality in a continuum between neutral- and niche-based frameworks.

The Urban Biotic Homogenization (UBH) hypothesis predicts that urban areas are ecologically homogenous at both intra- and inter-city scales. This hypothesis has played a central role in the field of urban ecology over the past two decades.

For decades, scientists have generally thought that rivers emit more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, than they take in. But a new analysis of every river network in the contiguous United States — including underrepresented rivers in deserts and shrublands — challenges this assumption, uncovering hints that many Western waterways may be soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The findings were published in Science and led by Taylor Maavara, an aquatic biogeochemist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.

An Exploration of the Grand Canyon through science and music.

Scientists have found that many inland waterways are getting saltier, and that’s helping to mobilize heavy metals and other chemicals from the soil, creating potentially dangerous combinations.

Where does New York City’s tap water come from? The City of New York protects the largely forested Catskills-Delaware watersheds—the source of drinking water for 9 million people. Research studies highlight areas where more protection is needed.
 

Bird song expert Donald Kroodsma describes how birds communicate and why. Listen to the sounds of birds as you’ve never listened before, using their songs as a window into their minds.

A graduate student shares their summer research as part of the Catskill Science Collaborative Fellowship. The student travelled across the Catskills to measure how hemlock health varies from place to place, and how other invasive species may establish themselves, depending on the condition of the hemlocks.

It turns out that a lot of rivers in the West – especially in dry areas – might actually be absorbing CO₂ from the atmosphere. This kind of discovery changes how we think about carbon movement on Earth. If some rivers can pull in carbon instead of releasing it, that shifts how we calculate our carbon budgets and how we might manage emissions in the future.

New research has found nearly 38 million hectares of land in the western United States is historically behind on its burning, leaving those lands in a “fire deficit.” Cary's Winslow Hansen will present the findings on Thursday at AGU’s 2025 Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Large wildfires are becoming more frequent in the eastern US, accelerating risks to people, property, and ecosystems. To help address these threats, Winslow Hansen, an ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will bring his expertise in western fires to the newly formed Eastern Fire Network (EFNet).

A new study coauthored by Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies ecologist Sarah Batterman estimates that if recovering tropical forests had enough nitrogen in their soils, they might absorb up to an additional 820 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year for a decade. 

Based on satellite photos, natural lands are suffering a lower rate of impact from human population growth. To a large extent, that is due to the fact that more and more people live in cities, where they leave a lesser footprint on natural lands. But there are other footprints of humans on nature that are not captured by satellite photos—including the impacts of fertilizers, fossil fuels, and contaminated wastes.

During the summer of 2023, spongy moth caterpillars caused severe defoliation of oak trees  in parts of Southeastern New York. Questions and concerns about the likelihood and impacts of additional damage this coming year have prompted us to share our observations on spongy moth activity in the Cary forests during the 2024 season.

Areas in the mid-Hudson region are experiencing spongy moth outbreaks, with many at or approaching the peak of the outbreak this year. Be prepared to see many larvae (tiny caterpillars) ballooning on silken threads. They will then feed on tree leaves, defoliating the trees as the caterpillars grow.

A world-renowned expert, Kathleen Weathers talks about how fog interacts with air, land and water, and investigates its importance to ecosystems.

Future drought is likely to have major effects on natural landscapes and the plants that inhabit them. Warmer days will dry out the land surface—agricultural soils, forests, and suburban yards. The cooling effect of trees counteracts the greater reflectivity of bare surfaces—we like trees in our yards because their transpiration of water cools the atmosphere on hot summer days.