Most recent 30 articles: Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems
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These seeds could hold the genetic key to protecting Western forests - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Oct 14, 2024) |
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Oct 14, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In the Western U.S., small mesh cages adorn the towering whitebark pines that dot high-elevation landscapes.
The cages have been placed around the trees’ pine cones to protect their increasingly precious contents: seeds.
The survival of the slow-growing whitebark pine is threatened by an array of pressures: an invasive fungus called blister rust, a hungry beetle, and wildfires that have grown increasingly intense on a landscape parched by human-caused climate change.
Blister rust arrived in the United States from Asia around the year 1900. ... Read more ...
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A new financing model could speed up forest thinning projects - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Sep 25, 2024) |
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Sep 25, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Thinning dense forests can help reduce the risk of intense wildfires as the climate warms.
But getting forest restoration work funded can take a long time – and hold up this critical work.
So the nonprofit Blue Forest created a new approach to financing projects.
Anna Yip of Blue Forest says private investors fund what’s called a forest resilience bond. It provides the upfront capital needed for the Forest Service or other partner to do the restoration work.
Yip: “The financing dollars allow for the implementation to happen at a ... Read more ...
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How a stream restoration project in Indiana is helping to reduce flooding - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Sep 10, 2024) |
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Sep 10, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When it rains, the Duck Creek Tributary in northwest Indiana often floods, filling nearby roads with water.
Schleizer: “When it floods, it gets real messy … so people were, you know, getting stuck and not being able to travel like they used to.”
Bill Schleizer is with the nonprofit Delta Institute.
He says during storms, pollution from farms, road salt, and sediment also wash into the creek. And as climate change brings more intense rain, the risk of flooding is growing.
So Schleizer’s group is working with local officials to restore ... Read more ...
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Fireflies face 'one-two punch’ of climate change, habitat loss, and light pollution - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Sep 05, 2024) |
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Sep 05, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
On warm summer evenings across the U.S., you can glimpse the twinkling lights of fireflies.
These magical insects are threatened by light pollution and habitat loss. But a new study adds another risk to that list: climate change.
McNeil: “Those factors … coupled with the effects of climate change are probably going to be the one-two punch for many firefly populations.”
D.J. McNeil is an ecologist at the University of Kentucky.
He and his colleagues studied the relationship between environmental conditions and firefly numbers, using ... Read more ...
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Tree-planting project aims to identify climate-resilient trees - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Aug 26, 2024) |
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Aug 26, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In 2020, about 200 volunteers helped plant trees at Crosby Farm Regional Park near the Mississippi River in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
They helped launch a 20-year project that seeks to identify which tree species will grow well in the region as the climate warms and precipitation becomes more extreme.
Emma Vanhdy of the nonprofit Mississippi Park Connection coordinates volunteers for the project.
She says they planted more than 1,000 trees across 24 research plots. Some plots contain species already common in the area.
Vanhdy: “So mainly ... Read more ...
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Invasive insect could accelerate release of climate pollution from forests - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Aug 23, 2024) |
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Aug 23, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
As climate change has caused warmer winters, an invasive insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid has spread across forests in the Eastern U.S., killing hemlock trees from Maine to Alabama.
And scientists are worried that this insect’s spread could also accelerate climate change.
Hemlocks, like other trees, absorb planet-warming carbon from the atmosphere as they grow.
Danielle Ignace of the University of British Columbia explains that when hemlock needles fall, the carbon they contain is stored in the soil for a long time.
Ignace: ... Read more ...
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The bold plan to save coral reefs - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Aug 21, 2024) |
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Aug 21, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
For 20 years now, Ken Nedimyer has been strapping on his scuba gear and diving into the waters off the Florida coast in a desperate effort to restore coral reefs that have been decimated by climate change and pollution. In 2019, he founded his latest venture, Reef Renewal USA. The group’s YouTube channel shows Nedimyer and other members underwater, carefully attaching nursery-grown coral to structures designed to build healthy reefs.
“We’re working hard under pressure with innovation, speed, and efficiency to repopulate our coral reefs,” the narrator says. Read more ...
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Climate change threatens the already endangered Karner blue butterfly - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Aug 16, 2024) |
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Aug 16, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
The Karner blue – a tiny, powder blue butterfly – used to live in oak savannas and pine barrens across the Midwest and Northeast.
But over time, much of the Karner blue’s habitat has been destroyed – and today only a few small populations remain in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and New York.
Now climate change is posing a whole new threat to this endangered butterfly.
Karner blue caterpillars only eat a plant called wild lupine. But as winters have grown warmer, the caterpillars have started hatching earlier in the year, before the ... Read more ...
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Long-term whitebark pine restoration project aims to save the trees for future generations - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jul 31, 2024) |
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Jul 31, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In the Rocky Mountains, vast areas of whitebark pine trees have been killed by wildfires, mountain pine beetles, and a fungus called blister rust.
But even in hard-hit areas, a handful of trees survive.
Durglo: “There in the middle of all these dead hundreds of trees, you’ll see a green one.”
That’s Mike Durglo of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana.
He says whitebark pines provide vital wildlife habitat. And their shade helps slow down mountain snowmelt. For communities downstream, that helps reduce the risk ... Read more ...
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The climate benefits of mangroves - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jul 15, 2024) |
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Jul 15, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in thick groves right along the ocean’s edge, often with a tangle of roots and branches that weave in and out of the water.
During a storm, these roots and branches can help calm choppy waves and reduce the risk of flood damage farther inland.
So as climate change creates more extreme weather, mangrove thickets can help protect coastal communities from increasingly intense storms.
Mangroves can also help reduce global warming.
That’s because mangroves grow very quickly. And as they grow, they ... Read more ...
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Eelgrass makes a comeback along the Virginia coast - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jul 10, 2024) |
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Jul 10, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In shallows off the Virginia coast, thick meadows of bright green and spindly plants called eelgrass sway in the waves.
Bieri: “It’s kind of like the forests of the underwater world, you know, it provides structure and habitat, refuge, food, a place to raise young, a place for juvenile fish, soft-shell crabs to seek refuge.”
Jill Bieri is with the Nature Conservancy’s Virginia Coast Reserve, a 75-mile-long protected area along the coastline.
In the 1930s, disease and hurricanes wiped out Virginia’s eelgrass.
But by the late 1990s, a ... Read more ...
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Partnership helps Chicagoans plant trees in underserved neighborhoods - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jun 05, 2024) |
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Jun 05, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
During a storm, trees help soak up excess water. And on a hot day, they provide cooling shade.
But in many cities, decades of disinvestment have left low-income communities of color with little tree cover.
Bweza Itaagi is with Grow Greater Englewood, a nonprofit based in a primarily Black neighborhood of Chicago.
Itaagi: “Englewood has some of the highest temperatures in the city. And … when it rains, we have significant flooding throughout the area because a lot of the spaces are vacant and are very paved.”
So her group is ... Read more ...
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Brook trout are in trouble in Adirondacks lakes - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (May 13, 2024) |
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May 13, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
The Adirondacks region of New York is famous for its brook trout fishing. But as the climate warms, this cold-water fish is in trouble.
Stephen Jane is a postdoctoral fellow at Notre Dame University. He says in the summer, the sun warms the water near a lake’s surface. Warm water is less dense than cold water, so it forms a layer that floats on top of the cooler water below.
Jane: “In many lakes, it stays that way until late in the fall when the air temperatures cool down.”
That top layer can get too hot for brook trout. And it’s getting ... Read more ...
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In praise of shade trees - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (May 10, 2024) |
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May 10, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
If you go to a city park on a hot, summer day, you might sit under a big, shady tree to cool off.
But that tree is helping you beat the heat, even when you’re not standing directly under it.
One study found that on very hot days, greener areas of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. can be more than 15 degrees cooler than areas of those same cities with fewer trees.
One reason for this dramatic difference in temperatures is that dark-colored roads and rooftops get scorchingly hot when the sun shines down on them. Then those surfaces release the ... Read more ...
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Prescribed burning can reduce wildfire damage - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (May 07, 2024) |
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May 07, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In 2020, the Cameron Peak Fire raged across more than 200,000 acres of Colorado.
But the damage could have been more severe if not for how government agencies and landowners had managed some forested land before the fire.
In some areas, they had conducted prescribed burns - intentional fires that are carefully monitored and managed.
Schultz: “When I interviewed land managers, they said where they had done prescribed fire, they were able to hold that wildfire, because it came in and it would kind of settle down, and they were able to manage ... Read more ...
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Startup mimics nature to produce zero-carbon cement - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (May 03, 2024) |
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May 03, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
One day you may walk down a sidewalk made from algae. A startup called Prometheus Materials is working to make that a reality to reduce the climate impact of concrete.
Concrete is made from cement. And the traditional process used to make that cement causes about 8% of global carbon emissions.
Loren Burnett of Prometheus says making cement from algae does not emit any carbon pollution.
Burnett: “We don’t mine heavy limestone. We’re not using fossil fuels to transport that heavy limestone to a cement plant. We’re not using ... Read more ...
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Climate change threatens Africa’s rhinos - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (May 01, 2024) |
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May 01, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In the grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, few animals are as instantly recognizable as the rhinoceros.
But both black and white rhinos have been under intense pressure from poaching and habitat loss, which have pushed these species close to extinction.
And a new study warns that rhinos now face another threat - climate change.
National parks like Kruger in South Africa and Etosha in Namibia, home to some of the last rhinos in Africa, are expected to get hotter in coming decades.
Randhir: “Rhinos need really unique ... Read more ...
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How 'assisted migration’ could help species survive climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 12, 2024) |
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Mar 12, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Among the most consequential effects of a warming globe is the disruption or even destruction of habitats for plants and animals, from the blue whales and giant sequoias to the tiniest of bacteria. Some species are mobile and flexible enough that they can move or adapt on their own - by, say, moving uphill or toward the poles. Others, like sequoias, are not so lucky; woven into their current locations by multiple factors, they lack the capacity to change as quickly as the climate and ecosystem around them. These species may need a little help from humans. ... Read more ...
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Amphibians are in trouble - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jan 02, 2024) |
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Jan 02, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
There are more than 8,000 known species of amphibians: newts, salamanders, big warty toads, and frogs of every color.
These semiaquatic critters provide food for birds, snakes, and fish. And they help humans by eating insects, including disease-spreading mosquitoes.
But many amphibians are in trouble.
According to the latest Global Amphibian Assessment, about 40% of species are considered globally threatened.
Della Togna: “And I think it’s very important for the public and for the community to understand that this is a very ... Read more ...
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These cryopreserved baby corals are the first to reach adulthood - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Dec 11, 2023) |
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Dec 11, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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Arah Narida leans over a microscope to gaze into a plastic petri dish containing a hood coral. The animal - a pebbled blue-white disk roughly half the size of a pencil eraser - is a marvel. Just three weeks ago, the coral was smaller than a grain of rice. It was also frozen solid. That is, until Narida, a graduate student at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan, thawed it with the zap of a laser. Now, just beneath the coral’s tentacles, she spies a slight divot in the skeleton where a second coral is beginning to bud. That small cavity is evidence that ... Read more ...
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Inmates are nurturing sagebrush seedlings - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Oct 27, 2023) |
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Oct 27, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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At correctional facilities in Idaho, Oregon, and other Western states, inmates are growing sagebrush.
“From sowing the seeds in May to boxing up the seedlings in October … they’re in charge of fertilizing, watering, thinning, and checking out for diseased plants,” says Alyson Singer of the Sagebrush in Prisons Project in Idaho and eastern Oregon.
Scrubby sagebrush landscapes provide critical habitat for hundreds of plant and animal species.
But many of these areas are threatened by the growing risk of wildfire. And after a fire, ... Read more ...
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Climate change could increase pressure on declining American kestrel population - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Oct 09, 2023) |
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Oct 09, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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The American kestrel is North America’s smallest falcon. In many areas, you can spot the petite hunter swooping over a field to snatch up a grasshopper, beetle, or even a mouse to bring back to its nest and feed its babies.
“Historically, predators like kestrels time their reproduction to coincide with peaks in prey availability,” says Julie Heath, a professor at Boise State University.
She was part of a team that looked at how the timing of kestrel nesting across North America affected the birds’ reproductive success.
They found that when ... Read more ...
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How green roofs can help cities adapt to climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Oct 06, 2023) |
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Oct 06, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In cities, you may notice some roofs that are covered with plants.
Many of these green roofs are planted with a low-lying ground cover like sedum.
Kathryn McConnell of Brown University says other, more elaborate ones include a variety of plants, ranging from small flowers, grasses, or shrubs, to trees.
Replacing dark rooftops with vegetation can provide many benefits.
“Green roofs can help control stormwater runoff if you have sort of a sudden precipitation event,” McConnell says. “Green roofs can provide amazing pollinator habitat ... Read more ...
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A mission to protect thorn forests in the Rio Grande Valley - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Sep 29, 2023) |
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Sep 29, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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When Gisel Garza goes to work, she heads into the thorn forests of the Rio Grande Valley. Bucket in hand, she scours the dense, shrubby landscape for about 40 different kinds of seeds.
“Some of the species that we do collect for are Texas ebony, Texas persimmon, granjeno, guayacan,” she says. “Sometimes I pick them with my hand, or sometimes I can use a stick to cause them to fall down into my bucket.”
Garza works for the nonprofit American Forests, which helps restore thorn forests in Texas.
She says the area is incredibly diverse. It’s ... Read more ...
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When salt marshes erode, they can release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Sep 04, 2023) |
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Sep 04, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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Scattered along the Eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast, grassy salt marshes provide habitat for birds and marine life.
They help protect coastal communities from flooding by absorbing wave energy and soaking up water.
And they store a lot of carbon because when marsh grasses die, they fall into waterlogged soils.
It’s a low-oxygen environment where plants break down very slowly, so all that carbon-rich material builds up over time.
“Our wetlands have been here for thousands of years and they’ve just been piling up organic matter,” says ... Read more ...
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Healthy mangrove forests can help protect inland areas from hurricane damage - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Aug 24, 2023) |
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Aug 24, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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During a hurricane, tropical mangrove forests can help buffer inland areas from wind and reduce erosion.
In the process, these forests themselves may suffer a lot of damage. Strong winds can rip leaves from branches and topple whole trees.
Ken Krauss of the United States Geological Survey says that how fast mangrove forests recover after a storm depends on how healthy they were beforehand.
“If they’re healthy before the storm hit, they regenerate fairly quickly,” he says.
But he says many of the world’s mangrove forests are not ... Read more ...
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The race to save 'awe-inspiring’ giant sequoias - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Aug 23, 2023) |
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Aug 23, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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Giant sequoia trees can grow hundreds of feet tall and live for thousands of years in secluded groves along California’s Sierra Nevada.
“When you walk into a giant sequoia grove, it’s really awe-inspiring,” says Ben Blom of the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League.
He says sequoias evolved to thrive in wildfire-prone areas. But now some wildfires are so intense that they can kill even these massive trees.
That’s because, over the past century, land managers have worked to prevent forest fires. So over time, leaves and branches have ... Read more ...
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Beavers fight climate change, one wetland at a time - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Aug 02, 2023) |
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Aug 02, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
If you are reading these words, you are probably safe (at least at the moment) from the potentially dire effects of summer heat. But you might still want to immerse yourself in a cooling topic. Here is one good choice: beavers.
A venture into the mazes of the internet may capture you with tales of ancient beavers. Muskrat-sized Paleocastor lived some 30 million years ago and dug vertical, human-sized, corkscrew-shaped burrows. Casteroides lived up to some 12,000 years ago and were the size of black bears. Neither seems to have built dams.
Or you ... Read more ...
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Nonprofit plants thousands of ‘super trees’ along Houston’s shipping channel - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jul 21, 2023) |
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Jul 21, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
The Houston Ship Channel is a bustling corridor of industrial activity, with ships traveling from all over the world to the city’s factories and fossil fuel refineries.
But even in this petrochemical hot spot, nature has a foothold.
“Surprisingly enough, there was a lot of open green space,” says Ana Tapia of the nonprofit Houston Wilderness. Her group partners on the Houston Ship Channel Trees Program, an effort to use this open green space for tree-planting projects.
“One of the goals is to do forestation-style planting, so we’re ... Read more ...
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Intense winter storms caused 'heartbreaking’ losses in Western monarch population - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jun 01, 2023) |
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Jun 01, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Each winter, Western monarch butterflies migrate to the California coast, where they cluster together in clumps of orange and black to survive the cold months.
But this year, their winter habitat was hit by intense storms.
“We have seen photographs of monarchs that were completely wet and cold, trying to survive, and they were just falling on the ground,” says Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón of the National Wildlife Federation.
She says the storms were a blow to the Western monarch population, which has declined drastically since the ... Read more ...
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