Articles from 2009–present See also Articles from 2002-2008 Excellent video (15 minutes): 2021-03-25. After more than 2 decades of searching, scientists finger cause of mass eagle deaths. By Erik Stokstad, Science Magazine. Excerpt: More than 25 years ago, biologists in Arkansas began to report dozens of bald eagles paralyzed, convulsing, or dead. Their brains were pocked with lesions never seen before in eagles. The disease was soon found in other birds across the southeastern United States. Eventually, researchers linked the deaths to a new species of cyanobacteria growing on an invasive aquatic weed that is spreading across the country. ...Today in Science, a team identifies a novel neurotoxin produced by the cyanobacteria and shows that it harms not just birds, but fish and invertebrates, too. ...An unusual feature of the toxic molecule is the presence of bromine, which is scarce in lakes and rarely found in cyanobacteria. One possible explanation: the cyanobacteria produce the toxin from a bromide-containing herbicide that lake managers use to control the weed.... [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/after-more-2-decades-searching-scientists-finger-cause-mass-eagle-deaths] 2021-01-12. Animal Planet. By Sonia Shah, Illustrations by Shyama Golden, The New York Times. Excerpt: An ambitious new system will track scores of species from space — shedding light, scientists hope, on the lingering mysteries of animal movement. ...Last fall, teams of scientists began fanning out across the globe to stalk and capture thousands of other creatures — rhinos in South Africa, blackbirds in France, fruit bats in Zambia — in order to outfit them with an array of tracking devices that can run on solar energy and that weigh less than five grams. The data they collect will stream into an ambitious new project, two decades in the making and costing tens of millions of dollars, called the International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space, or ICARUS, project. Each tag will collect data on its wearer’s position, physiology and microclimate, sending it to a receiver on the International Space Station, which will beam it back down to computers on the ground. This will allow scientists to track the collective movements of wild creatures roaming the planet in ways technically unimaginable until recently: continuously, over the course of their lifetimes and nearly anywhere on Earth they may go. By doing so, ICARUS could fundamentally reshape the way we understand the role of mobility on our changing planet. The scale and meaning of animal movements has been underestimated for decades.... [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/12/magazine/animal-tracking-icarus.html] 2020-10-03. A Toxic Alien Is Taking Over Russia. By Maria Antonova, The New York Times (Opinion). Excerpt: BALASHIKHA, Russia — ...Russia is the biggest country on Earth and both the state and the people take pride in the size of its territory — “from the southern seas to the polar fringes,” as the current national anthem goes. That quiet emptiness, the enormousness of Russia, has been infiltrated in recent decades by an alien force: the giant hogweed. This invader, an exceptionally tall plant with a toxic sap that can cause third-degree burns and blindness, has come to symbolize the fate of rural Russia: malign neglect by the government. ...In the summer, the giant hogweed assumes the look of dill on steroids; its coffee-table sized leaves create thickets impossible to pass without a hazmat suit. In the winter, it desiccates into a brown skeleton. Outside Moscow, the hogweeds are often the only visible landmarks over white fields, ominous umbrellas standing in the snow like War of the Worlds troops poised to march. Officials have begun to refer to overgrown areas as “contaminated.”... [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/opinion/sunday/russia-hogweed.html] 2020-03-18. Safe Passages. By Ben Guarino, Graphics by Joe Fox and Lauren Tierney, The Washington Post. Excerpt: Long-haul trucks roar along Interstate 80, a transportation backbone that stretches from San Francisco to just outside New York City. Traffic is so heavy here that the state’s transportation department recently counted a passing vehicle every 10 seconds, on average. This vital, four-lane corridor of commerce also threatens wildlife. It blocks the ancient north-south paths of mule deer, elk and pronghorn, creatures that embody the American West. ...Wyoming officials and scientists have a plan: Build wildlife crossings to preserve migrations. Bridges, tunnels and other structures — imagine protected bike lanes, but for animals — can protect animals from hazards like highways and help them navigate a warming planet.... [https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/climate-solutions/wyoming-wildlife-corridor/] 2019-11-05. We Have Broken Nature into More Than 990,000 Little Pieces. By Jenessa Duncombe, Eos/AGU. 2019-10-11. Giant reptiles once ruled Australia. Their loss sparked an ecological disaster. By John Pickrell, Science Magazine. 2019-07-11. Courting controversy, scientists team with industry to tackle one of the world’s most destructive crops. By Dyna Rochmyaningsih, Science Magazine. 2019-04-30. Imported wolves settle in as Lake Superior island teems with moose. By Christine Mlot, Science Magazine.
2019-01-01. A Rising Threat to Wildlife: Electrocution. By Rachel Nuwer, The New York Times.
2018-07-06. A fence built to keep out wild dogs has dramatically altered the Australian landscape. By Lakshmi Supriya, Science Magazine. 2018-02-02. Dams nudge Amazon's ecosystems off-kilter. By Barbara Fraser, Science. 2018-01-26. Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements. By Marlee A. Tucker et al, Science. 2017-12-05. Sometimes Seeing More Endangered Tigers Isn’t a Good Sign. By Douglas Quenqua, The New York Times. 2017-09-25. Pandas Are No Longer Endangered. But Their Habitat Is in Trouble. By Douglas Quenqua, The New York Times. 2016-09-08. We’ve destroyed one-tenth of Earth’s wilderness in just 2 decades. By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. 2016-04-27. Monarchs Need Better Pit Stops on Their Epic Journeys.
By Susan Cozier, Natural Resources Defense Council. 2016-02-29. Invasive Species Aren’t Always Unwanted.
By Erica Goode, The New York Times. 2015-04-05. The Snake That’s Eating Florida.
By Clyde Haberman, The New York Times. 2015-03-23. Shrinking habitats have adverse effects on world ecosystems--and ultimately people.
NSF. 2014-10-13. A Threat Is Seen in Pumas’ Isolation. By Douglas QuenQua, The New York Times. 2014-04-27. A variety of California kingsnake is wreaking havoc in Canary Islands. Excerpt: An albino variety of California kingsnake popular in the pet trade has infested the Canary Islands, decimating native bird, mammal and lizard species that have had no time to evolve evasive patterns in what was once a stable ecology northwest of Africa. ...Canary Island biologists fear that the snakes may be nibbling three native species of gecko, skink and giant lizard into extinction. ..."Most control programs for invasive reptiles are initiated long after the problem has gotten out of hand," Reed said. "Unfortunately, this sort of thing will probably become more common as international borders fall, incomes rise and more people get interested in owning exotic pets."... http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-kingsnake-20140428,0,2901782.story#ixzz30yhbHq5B. By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times. 2014-03-24. Carp(e) Diem: Kentucky Sends Invasive Fish To China. Excerpt: ...The invasive Asian carp has now been found in 12 states and in the Great Lakes watershed, gobbling up native fish, jumping aggressively into boats and reproducing like crazy. Researchers have tried various ways to slow the spread of the fish as it prowls other waterways. ...So now a processing plant in Kentucky is trying the latest method of Asian carp disposal: sending them to China. ...Angie Wu ships them to her native country — China — where they are a prized food. "There are a lot [of carp] in China but most of them are farmed ... not very clean as here," she says. Wu has shipped more than a half-million pounds of processed carp to China. ...Asian carp hasn't caught on in U.S. restaurants, but that hasn't stopped Kentucky from trying to teach people how to prepare it. ...The state has also hosted tastings to show people that when you fry Asian carp in cornmeal, it's not that different from catfish. ...one longtime fishermen and distributor, Ronnie Hopkins...says it is possible to make a living on Asian carp, but it's not easy. He says native fish sell for about 60 cents a pound — the abundant carp go for just 10 cents a pound ... and that's if he can find a local buyer. "I wish the state would get more involved and maybe use it as product in our schools. We're buying from other countries and other states right now when we've got an abundance of fish we could use," says Hopkins.... http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/24/293846571/carp-e-diem-kentucky-sends-invasive-fish-to-china. Whitney Jones, NPR. 2014-03-16. Officials give up on evicting pythons — big but nearly invisible in the wild — from Everglades. Excerpt: ...Only in Florida can a search for one invasive monster lead to the discovery of another. ...recently, a group of volunteers called Swamp Apes was searching for pythons in Everglades National Park when it stumbled on something worse: a Nile crocodile, lurking in a canal near Miami suburbs. It was an all-points alarm, prompting an emergency response by experts from the national park, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the University of Florida. They joined the Swamp Apes and wrestled the reptile out of the canal. Nile crocs are highly aggressive man-eaters known to take down huge prey in Africa, and officials worried that the one in the canal might be breeding in the swamp since it was first spotted two years ago. Worrying is what Florida wildlife officials often do when it comes to invasive species. The state is being overrun by animals, insects and plants that should not be there, costing Floridians half a billion dollars each year in, among other things, damaged orange groves, maimed pets and dead fish in water where plants have depleted the oxygen. ...Native Florida alligators are already in a death match with giant Burmese pythons and other python species to sit atop the food chain. On top of that is a rogues’ gallery of bad-to-the-bone lizards, fish and frogs. They include the Argentine tegu, which eats sea turtle eggs; the Nile monitor lizard, which kills house pets; the Cuban tree frog, which dines on other frogs; and the greedy lionfish, which is eating scores of native fish. ...Up to 100,000 pythons are estimated to be living in the Everglades, and more than 1,500 thrill-seekers, amateurs and skilled hunters who flocked to the event from across the country caught only 68. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/big-but-nearly-invisible-in-the-wild-officials-give-up-on-evicting-pythons-from-everglades/2014/03/16/58cab268-aa37-11e3-8599-ce7295b6851c_story.html. Darryl Fears, Washington Post. 2014-02-24. Science Takes On a Silent Invader. Excerpt: Since they arrived in the Great Lakes in the 1980s, two species of mussels the size of pistachios have spread to hundreds of lakes and rivers in 34 states and have done vast economic and ecological damage. ...the quagga and zebra mussels, have disrupted ecosystems by devouring phytoplankton, the foundation of the aquatic food web, and have clogged the water intakes and pipes of cities and towns, power plants, factories and even irrigated golf courses. ...Daniel P. Molloy, an emeritus biologist at the New York State Museum in Albany ...Leading a team at the museum’s Cambridge Field Research Laboratory in upstate New York, ... discovered a bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens strain CL145A, that kills the mussels but appears to have little or no effect on other organisms. ...New York State has awarded a license to Marrone Bio Innovations, a company in Davis, Calif., to develop a commercial formulation of the bacterium. The product, Zequanox, has been undergoing tests for several years, with promising results ...Zequanox killed more than 90 percent of the mussels in a test using tanks of water from Lake Carlos in Minnesota ...A control group of freshwater mussels, unionids from the Black River in Wisconsin, were unharmed. ...Natives of Eastern Europe ...zebra and quagga mussels began moving up the Volga River toward Western Europe 200 years ago. ...Both species are thought to have arrived in North America in the ballast of trans-Atlantic cargo ships.... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/science/science-takes-on-a-silent-invader.html. Robert H. Boyle, The New York Times. 2012 Jun 07. Warming nears point of no return, scientists say. By David Perlman, SF Gate. Excerpt: The Earth is reaching a "tipping point" in climate change that will lead to increasingly rapid and irreversible destruction of the global environment unless its forces are controlled by concerted international action, an international group of scientists warns. Unchecked population growth, the disappearance of critical plant and animal species, the over-exploitation of energy resources, and the rapidly warming climate are all combining to bring mounting pressure on the Earth's environmental health…scientists from five nations, led by UC Berkeley biologist Anthony Barnosky, report their analysis Thursday in the journal Nature…. 2011 July 14. Ecosystems take hard hit from loss of top predators. By Sarah Yang and Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News Center. Excerpt: BERKELEY — A paper reviewing the impact of the loss of large predators and herbivores high in the food chain confirms that their decline has had cascading effects in marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems throughout the world. The paper, published in the July 15 issue of the journal Science by an international team of 24 researchers, presented evidence highlighting the reverberating – and often unexpected – effects the loss of “apex consumers” have had not only on immediate prey species, but also on the dynamics of fire, disease, vegetation growth, and soil and water quality... 2011 May 31. Groundwater Depletion Is Detected From Space. By Felicity Barringer, The NY Times. Excerpt:
Scientists have been using small variations in the Earth’s gravity to
identify trouble spots around the globe where people are making
unsustainable demands on groundwater, one of the planet’s main sources
of fresh water… 2011 March 21. As Larger Animals Decline, Forests Feel Their Absence. By Sharon Levy, Environment 360 (Yale). Excerpt:
…Today native Mauritian plants, under siege from a tide of invasive
competitors and predators, hang on only in a few small conservation
management areas. Even where invasive plants are laboriously weeded out
by hand, large-fruited native tree populations are dwindling because of
a lack of fruit-eating animals to disperse the trees’ seeds…. 2010 September 27. Old Trees May Soon Meet Their Match. By Jim Robbins, New York Times. Excerpt:
For millenniums, the twisted, wind-scoured bristlecone pines that grow
at the roof of western North America have survived everything nature
could throw at them, from bitter cold to lightning to increased solar
radiation. 2010 May 7. Pythons in Florida Stalked by Hunters and Tourists Alike. By Damien Cave, NY Times. Excerpt:
FLORIDA CITY, Fla. — Thousands of Burmese pythons, the offspring of
former pets, have invaded the Everglades, eating birds, bunnies, even
alligators. It has gotten so bad that Congress is considering an
outright ban on buying or selling nine kinds of giant snakes. 2009 Fall. Hardrock Headache. By Alice Tallmadge, Forest Magazine. Excerpt:
...There’s no doubt that hardrock mining helped build the West. It
lured the curious and the inventive, the brave and the greedy, the
visionary and the hopeful across the plains and into the mountains of
the arid West. The 1872 Mining Law made land and mining cheap and laid
out a welcome mat for mining into the twenty-first century. Mining
generated communities, agriculture, railroads and commerce and built an
industry that provided a livelihood for thousands. 2009 August 12. NASA RELEASE: 09-185. Satellites Unlock Secret to Northern India's Vanishing Water. Excerpt:
WASHINGTON -- Using NASA satellite data, scientists have found that
groundwater levels in northern India have been declining by as much as
one foot per year over the past decade. Researchers concluded the loss
is almost entirely due to human activity. 2009 August 8. Avian Silence: Without Birds to Disperse Seeds, Guam's Forest Is Changing. By Brendan Borrell, Scientific American. Excerpt: The forest on Guam is silent. 2009 August 1. An Underwater Fight Is Waged for the Health of San Francisco Bay. By Malia Wollan, The NY Times. Excerpt:
SAN FRANCISCO — Chela Zabin will not soon forget when she first
glimpsed the golden brown tentacle of the latest alien to settle in the
fertile waters of San Francisco Bay. 2009 July 6. Some See Beetle Attacks on Western Forests as a Natural Event. By JIM ROBBINS, The NY Times. Excerpt:
MISSOULA, Mont. — When Ken Salazar — then a senator from Colorado, now
secretary of the interior — called the attack on millions of acres of
pine forests by the bark beetle the Katrina of the West, he was
expressing the common view of the explosive growth of the beetles as an
unmitigated disaster. 2009 June 15. An Unsightly Algae Extends Its Grip to a Crucial New York Stream. By Anthony DePalma, The NY Times. Excerpt:
SHANDAKEN, N.Y. — The Esopus Creek, a legendary Catskill Mountain fly
fishing stream that is an integral part of New York City’s vast upstate
drinking water system, is one of the latest bodies of water to be
infected with Didymosphenia geminata, a fast-spreading single-cell
algae that is better known to fishermen and biologists around the world
as rock snot. 2009 February 16. The Unintended Consequences of Changing Nature’s Balance. By Elizabeth Svoboda, The NY Times. Excerpt:
With its craggy green cliffs and mist-laden skies, Macquarie Island —
halfway between Australia and Antarctica — looks like a nature lover’s
Mecca. But the island has recently become a sobering illustration of
what can happen when efforts to eliminate an invasive species end up
causing unforeseen collateral damage. |
GSS Blog 2014–2019 > Ecosystem Change >