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The Grand Canyon Reach of the Colorado River is breathtaking and remote. For hundreds of miles, the rugged landscape renders the river virtually inaccessible to people. Those intrepid enough to explore the area are treated to red rocks, blue skies, and meandering waters.

Single use plastic shopping bags are the norm at grocery stores, pharmacies, and big box retailers. They are also a familiar sight tumbling down roads, waving from trees, clogging storm drains, and polluting lakes, streams, rivers, and oceans.

The average American is responsible for one of the largest carbon footprints in the world. Some 37% of our carbon emissions is associated with electricity generation; 33% stems from transportation – largely personal automobiles. The remaining 30% is attributed to industry, residential use, and agriculture.

Lead. Romans made pipes out of it. Armies use it for bullets, artists and builders for paint. And, automotive engineers once added lead to gasoline to make engines run better. The problem: lead is toxic to humans.

Wikipedia is 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 study, Wikipedia entries on politically controversial science topics can be especially unreliable.

Since the evolution of our earliest ancestors, people have looked to clues – such as footprints in the mud or rubs on trees – to gain insight into wildlife behavior.

Globally, there are more than 3,000 mosquito species, with around 150 native to the U.S. To many listeners – a mosquito is a mosquito. But depending on the species that bites you, mosquitoes can be a nuisance or a public health threat.

If you've ever taken a walk outside to "clear your head," it turns out you were onto something. Scientists, doctors, and the average person have long known that time spent in nature can have de-stressing, mood-boosting effects. They just haven't been exactly sure why.

Want to feel younger? Live on a street with more trees. That's the finding of University of Chicago researchers who studied the impact of street trees on the real and perceived health of residents of Toronto, Canada.

Once-upon-a-time, kids were expected to amuse themselves outdoors. Today, fears of shady neighbors and bodily harm have led to a nation of parents who appear content to keep their kids inside, playing computer games, surfing the web, texting, and watching TV.

Coming into this summer, I knew that my project was going to be different from everyone else’s. At Arizona State University, I double-major in sustainability and conservation biology.

According to Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, if we want to get a leg up on tick-borne illness we need to become vigilant earlier in the season.

Woodland pools are small, seasonal wetlands. In the Northeast, they are typically covered with ice and snow in the winter. In the heat of summer they dry up. And in the spring and late fall they contain standing water. Now is a great time for exploring the diversity of life in woodland pools.

Drinking water supplies around the world often contain trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, agricultural and industrial chemicals, and other synthetic compounds that can harm reproduction in fish and may be linked to adverse health effects in humans. 

Around the world, millions of frogs, toads, and salamanders are dying from two emerging diseases. The first plague appeared in the 1990s, and is so deadly to amphibians that it is causing what has been described as the most spectacular loss of vertebrate biodiversity due to disease in recorded history.

Here in the Northeast, winter is slowly giving way to spring. This means melting snow, thawing soils, and the return of migratory birds. The calls of warblers and woodcock and the thrill of spotting waterfowl like heron herald the warmer and greener days ahead.

In New York State, if you hear howling at night, it's not a wolf. And it's not your imagination. When New York's wolves were killed off in the 19th century, it left an ecological vacuum that coyotes were happy to fill.

Have you ever wondered how many lakes there are in the world? In an effort to answer this question, an international research team used satellite photos and computerized mapping technology to count up Earth's inland waters. They found about 117 million lakes, covering almost four percent of the planet's non-glaciated surface.

Do you wonder how climate change is affecting lakes? We just need to look across the pond, where scientists and agencies involved in the European Union’s Water Framework Directive have amassed an impressive body of research on the topic.

During a mild July in 1985, a cold front caused algae in Shelburne Pond, a small Vermont Lake, to quickly die back. Decomposing plants stripped the water of available oxygen, smothering aquatic life and causing a massive fish kill.