Monday, November 23rd, 2020
Human-produced noise and light pollution are troublesome to our avian neighbors, according to new research from a team at California Polytechnic State University, published Nov. 11, 2020 in Nature. Using NASA satellite data, the researchers got a bird’s-eye view of how noise and light negatively affected bird reproduction in North America. The team also discovered
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019
The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite collected this image of the lower reaches of the brown, sediment-rich Uruguay River where the river forms the border between Argentina and Uruguay, and is the site of the Esteros de Farrapos e Islas del Río Uruguay wetlands. Composed of lagoons, swamps and 24 islets, the Esteros are a haven for
Monday, August 13th, 2018
Satellite images of phytoplankton blooms on the surface of the ocean often dazzle with their diverse colors, shades and shapes. But phytoplankton are more than just nature’s watercolors: They play a key role in Earth’s climate by removing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Yet a detailed account of what becomes of that
Tuesday, May 15th, 2018
Eastern Siberia is home to the world’s deepest and most ancient freshwater ecosystem, Lake Baikal. This lake and its surrounding tributaries are one of the largest sources of pure drinking water in the world, containing some of the most diverse and unique organisms. Recent biological changes are causing a major shift in the composition of
Monday, September 25th, 2017
Forest fires in Southeast Asia during the El Niño droughts of 2015 caused considerable disruption to the biodiversity of the region due to the smoke-induced haze they created, according to new research published in the Environmental Research Letters journal and led by Benjamin Lee at the University of Kent and the National Parks Board in
Tuesday, June 20th, 2017
Loggerhead turtles are particularly susceptible to climate change as the risk of nest flooding increases and the health of hatchlings declines. Florida holds the world’s largest nesting population of loggerheads, yet little is known about the species’ activity in nearby Cuba. A recent article published in Chelonian Conservation and Biology suggests changing climate may
Monday, June 5th, 2017
Studying European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 images captured over the reef between January and April 2017, scientists working under ESA’s Sen2Coral project noticed areas that were likely to be coral appearing to turn bright white, then darken as time went on. The event was confirmed by two successive images captured in February, indicating the approximate
Thursday, July 14th, 2016
There are more different kinds of trees in the Amazon rainforest than anywhere else on earth, but the exact number has long been a mystery. In 2013, scientists estimated that the number of species was around 16,000–no one had ever counted them all up, though. In a new paper in Scientific Reports, the same scientists
Wednesday, July 6th, 2016
When invasive Burmese pythons are breeding, radio-tracking one python can help find and capture more, a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher says. Thus, UF/IFAS scientists say this technique can help them remove the pythons. “This is one more tool we can add to our tool box to help us combat
Monday, June 20th, 2016
CHARLOTTE, NC- Animals can adapt to their environment through changes to their DNA, but more recently, research has shown that non-genetic components may be important, too. UNC Charlotte biological sciences professor Adam Reitzel is leading an international team to investigate how epigenetic regulations and microbial communities are influencing the adaptation of coastal marine species to
