Most recent 40 articles: Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems
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Inmates are nurturing sagebrush seedlings - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Oct 27) |
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Oct 27 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
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 9) |
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Oct 9 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
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 6) |
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Oct 6 · 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) |
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Sep 29 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
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 4) |
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Sep 4 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
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) |
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Aug 24 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
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) |
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Aug 23 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
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 2) |
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Aug 2 · 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) |
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Jul 21 · 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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Hoopa Tribal member fights to save California’s Trinity River and its salmon - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Apr 24, 2023) |
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Apr 24, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
For 19-year-old Danielle Frank, California’s Trinity River is a cultural lifeline.
“We are water people. We are river people,” she says. “And we believe that when our river drains and there is no more water left, we will no longer be here.”
Frank is a Hoopa tribal member and Yurok descendant. The Trinity River runs through her homeland.
“Our river has been declining in health for decades,” she says.
The river has been dammed, and water from the Trinity is often diverted to the Central Valley. Frank says those diversions - combined ... Read more ...
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12 books for Earth Day - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Apr 12, 2023) |
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Apr 12, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Climate change was not on the agenda for the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Pollution, population, and wildlife preservation were the causes proclaimed on the posters. Now those causes cannot be separated from climate change. For Earth Day 2023, Yale Climate Connections offers a bookshelf on the intersections between climate change and the issues that animated the participants in that founding event of modern environmentalism.
The list begins with two looks back.
The United States was still fighting in Vietnam on that first Earth Day. In ... Read more ...
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Trout-stocking programs could aid fish populations as the climate warms - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 31, 2023) |
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Mar 31, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In spring, many anglers head to northern streams to fish for trout. They often find plenty to catch because state agencies stock popular fishing locations. This means they supplement the natural trout population with fish that were raised in captivity.
“We want to make sure that there’s enough out there to both support the environment as well as the take that’s going to happen of fish being harvested,” says Amy Teffer, a researcher from the University of Massachusetts.
She says existing stocking programs could provide an opportunity ... Read more ...
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‘How will global warming change springtime?’ - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 28, 2023) |
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Mar 28, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Dear Sara,
I would like to read your prediction of the effects of climate change on the traditional four weather seasons.
From a lifestyle preference, it has been nice for me to know that in the summer, there will be the warmth of the ocean. In the fall, we see the shedding of the leaves and the beauty of the trees when they’re bare. In the winter, there may be snow or outdoor sports. In the spring, we see the wonderful flower gardens that people have planted – and the beauty of that can be predicted.
I ask the question because I have some ... Read more ...
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Can saving animal and plant species help protect the climate? - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 27, 2023) |
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Mar 27, 2023 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
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Yale Climate Connections
Does helping animals also help the climate? Yes!
The climate and biodiversity crises overlap in many ways, and so attention to one can create solutions to both. Keeping in mind that the term biodiversity may encompass both the variety and the abundance of living animals, plants, and even ecosystems, read on for an introduction to the big picture, several fascinating (and surprising) examples, and some promising new policy developments.
Start here for some ways attention to ... Read more ...
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Armadillos are showing up farther north as the climate warms - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 21, 2023) |
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Mar 21, 2023 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
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Yale Climate Connections
When homeowners in Illinois see a freshly dug hole in their lawn, few suspect it’s an armadillo. But in recent decades, these small, armored animals have established populations as far north as southern Illinois and Indiana.
These areas were once thought to be too chilly. Armadillos are hairless, so they’re vulnerable to low temperatures. When it’s cold, they also struggle to find food because the worms and bugs they eat burrow deep underground.
But Agustín Jiménez of Southern ... Read more ...
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You can help track the impacts of climate change in your yard - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 17, 2023) |
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Mar 17, 2023 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
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Yale Climate Connections
As global temperatures warm, many plants flower earlier in the spring. And lots of animals are changing their migration or nesting schedules.
It’s impossible for professional scientists to be on the ground everywhere tracking all the changes.
So trained volunteers are helping monitor more than 1,000 species through a program called Nature’s Notebook.
Alyssa Rosemartin is with the USA National Phenology Network, which runs the program.
“Folks go out in their backyards or ... Read more ...
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Free online tool helps people identify tree species that will thrive in a warmer climate - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 10, 2023) |
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Mar 10, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
As the climate warms, some tree species may no longer thrive in areas where they once flourished.
“A tree species may have a threshold in terms of the amount of heat it can tolerate, the amount of drought it can tolerate,” says Maria Janowiak of the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science. “For instance, a northern conifer species that is adapted to cold conditions, it may not be able to persist or be competitive in a hotter climate.”
Her colleagues in the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station developed a free online tool called the ... Read more ...
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Protecting sagebrush habitat can help wildlife and the climate - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 07, 2023) |
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Mar 07, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
The sagebrush rangelands of the western U.S. may look empty, almost desolate. But these vast treeless landscapes are rich with life - from sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, and trout to pronghorn, mule deer, and elk.
“So hunters and anglers find the sagebrush ecosystem super important to them because this is a part of their way of life,” says Tiffany Turner of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
But she says sagebrush habitat is in peril.
According to a U.S. Geological Survey study, about 1.3 million acres are lost each year to ... Read more ...
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What is a 'blue carbon’ ecosystem? - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Mar 03, 2023) |
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Mar 03, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Salt marshes, mangrove swamps, and sea grass meadows teem with birds and fish.
With thick vegetation and rich soils, these habitats also absorb a lot of planet-warming carbon dioxide, helping to reduce climate change. So they’re often referred to as “blue carbon” ecosystems.
“Some of these coastal blue carbon ecosystems have been shown to draw down carbon at 10 times the rate per area of tropical forests,” says Zachary Cannizzo of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He says mangrove swamps, salt marshes, and sea grass ... Read more ...
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How restoring wetlands can help protect coastal communities from hurricanes - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Feb 24, 2023) |
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Feb 24, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Wetlands along the coast are nature’s own hurricane protection. These lush and waterlogged environments absorb surging waves when a big storm rolls in.
But in Louisiana, wetlands are being eaten away by development, invasive species, and natural sinking.
“And then on top of that, we have hurricanes. So we have water that is rushing in from storm surge and wearing away and eroding our land,” says Gardner Goodall of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, an environmental nonprofit.
His group organizes volunteers to plant native ... Read more ...
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People are building artificial beaver dams in drought-stricken Montana - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jan 23, 2023) |
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Jan 23, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
In southwest Montana, landowners, volunteers, and others are wading into streams and piling up sticks, branches, and sod to create artificial beaver dams.
“And it’s immensely satisfying because if you’re working in the spring, you build these structures and you just see the water back up right away,” says Pedro Marques of the Big Hole Watershed Committee.
He says beavers were once common in the region, and the dams they built slowed water and allowed it to soak into the soil, so the area was marshier.
But fur trappers decimated the beaver population. And with fewer beaver dams, snow melt that trickled slowly into rivers and streams ... Read more ...
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Researchers study how to help forests thrive in a warmer climate - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jan 18, 2023) |
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Jan 18, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
Ten years ago, a parcel of forest east of Seattle was clear-cut for timber.
“The trees that we’re planting now are going to be the trees that we have in the forest in 30 years. So we’re really looking at the climate 30, 40, 50 years out and saying, 'What is the forest that we want to have … in the longer-term future?’” says Rowan Braybrook of the Northwest Natural Resource Group, a nonprofit.
Her team helped plant 14,000 new trees on the site. Some are species such as incense cedar that are native to areas farther south - where today’s climate resembles what Seattle’s will be like in a few decades.
Others, like the Douglas firs, are ... Read more ...
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Rediscovered 19th-century records help show impact of climate change on plants - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jan 10, 2023) |
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Jan 10, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
In 2015, ecologist Kerissa Fuccillo Battle got a call that changed her life.
“That call was really like something out of a researcher’s dream - just unexpected and miraculous,” she says.
On the other end of the line was wildlife specialist Conrad Vispo.
He had found data buried in historic archives that was collected in the 1800s by citizen scientists. It described when tree buds emerged, flowers bloomed, and fruits ripened in New York State.
This was exciting to Fuccillo Battle because she runs the New York Phenology Project, an effort to gather similar data today. And comparing the data sets could reveal how climate change has ... Read more ...
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Researchers identify potential climate havens for vulnerable plants and animals - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jan 05, 2023) |
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Jan 05, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
When the water in Northeastern streams gets too warm, brook trout can become stressed.
After an extreme fire tears through Western rangelands, invasive cheatgrass can take hold, and sage grouse can struggle to find suitable habitat.
As the climate warms, many ecosystems are changing, and plant and animal species are at risk.
“Managers are feeling overwhelmed and at times hopeless about all the change that is happening and how we just don’t have enough resources to deal with all of this change,” says Toni Lyn Morelli of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center.
She’s part of a group called the ... Read more ...
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The warming climate is altering a key amphibian habitat - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jan 02, 2023) |
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Jan 02, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
Visit a Northeastern forest in spring, and you may see a shallow wetland filled with frogs, salamanders, and fairy shrimp.
These wetlands are called vernal pools. They hold water from winter to early spring, then dry out over the summer.
“Because they typically dry out each year, they don’t contain fish, which makes them important predator-free breeding habitat for a lot of amphibians,” says Jennifer Cartwright of the U.S. Geological Survey.
She’s concerned that as the climate warms, new precipitation patterns and hotter temperatures could make some vernal pools dry out faster.
“And if they go dry too early, it might be before ... Read more ...
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New Orleans company recycles glass by crushing it into sand - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Dec 22, 2022) |
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Dec 22, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
A startup in New Orleans is turning discarded glass bottles into sand.
“It started like most good ideas: over a bottle of wine,” says Franziska Trautmann, co-founder of Glass Half Full.
She says when she and her friend Max Steitz met for a drink, they considered the fate of their wine bottle.
With no local glass recycling, their only option was to throw it in the trash, and that upset them.
“And so after some research, we found these machines that just crushed the glass into sand,” she says. “And that’s when everything sort of clicked because we live in New Orleans and we know how important sand is here for disaster relief and ... Read more ...
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Community group helps prepare the Anacostia River for climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Dec 21, 2022) |
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Dec 21, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
For generations, the Anacostia River – which flows from Maryland through Washington, D.C. – has been polluted.
“The river used to be called the 'Forgotten River,’” says Jorge Bogantes Montero of the Anacostia Watershed Society
He says that during heavy rains, D.C.’s combined sewer and stormwater system would overflow, sending raw sewage into the river.
Toxic contaminants seeped into riverbank sediment, and storms washed trash into the water.
Today, the Anacostia is getting cleaner. D.C. built new tunnels to help prevent sewage overflow and is working to clean up toxic contaminants.
But protecting the river is not only a ... Read more ...
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The trouble with toilet paper (and other tissue) - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Dec 05, 2022) |
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Dec 05, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
From blowing our noses to using the bathroom, we rely on tissue products for many aspects of our daily lives.
“A lot of the fiber that ends up in our tissue products – facial tissue, toilet paper, paper towels – comes from the Canadian boreal forest,” says Jennifer Skene of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “This is a forest that is absolutely critical to avoiding catastrophic climate change.”
Skene was part of a team that graded tissue products on their environmental impact.
Skene says that to help protect forests and the carbon that they store, any tissue products made from trees should come from forests that are certified as ... Read more ...
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How protecting public lands can help the climate - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Aug 24, 2022) |
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Aug 24, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
About two-thirds of Utah is public land owned by the federal government. Some of that land includes national parks, like Zion and Arches.
Olivia Juarez of the nonprofit Green Latinos has worked as an organizer with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
“When I think of public land the first thing that comes to my mind is nature - mountains, desert valleys, canyon country,” Juarez says.
But not all public land is undisturbed. Millions of acres are used for cattle grazing, timber harvesting, and oil and gas drilling.
So environmental groups are pushing the federal government to designate more of Utah’s public land as wilderness, ... Read more ...
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Climate change complicates a precarious relationship between birds and farmers - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jul 04, 2022) |
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Jul 04, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
In the northeastern United States, most natural grasslands have been developed or converted to farmland.
So grassland songbirds like bobolinks and Savannah sparrows nest and care for their chicks in farm fields, in the path of mowers and equipment.
“The cutting or the picking can destroy the habitat that covers them, it can sometimes suck them out of the nests and fling them far away, or actually kill them in the machinery,” says Noah Perlut of the University of New England.
Perlut has been studying how the timing of hay harvests affects grassland songbirds. And he’s partnered with farmers to develop ways to time their mowing to ... Read more ...
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Dams, climate change threaten Missouri River cottonwood forests - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jun 23, 2022) |
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Jun 23, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Cottonwood forests once lined the Missouri River. But many of the trees were cut down for agriculture or to power steamboats. And even more were lost when the river was dammed.
“The cottonwoods on the Missouri River are already mostly gone,” says Jonathan Friedman, a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey. “And the ones that are remaining are declining.”
He explains that the remaining trees are struggling to reproduce.
Young cottonwoods need a lot of light and moisture to grow. So their seeds take root on sandbars that form when a river floods.
Many die when the river floods again. But Friedman says that if the river is ... Read more ...
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Climate change could dry up ideal duck habitat in the Northern Plains - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jun 16, 2022) |
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Jun 16, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Every year, millions of ducks nest across the Prairie Pothole region - a vast area of the northern Great Plains dotted with shallow, seasonal wetland ponds.
“So on a square mile here in eastern North Dakota or parts of Manitoba, we’ll have anywhere from 100 to 150 wetlands - tiny little wetlands - and that’s perfect for most ducks,” says Frank Rohwer, president and chief scientist of Delta Waterfowl, a hunting and conservation organization.
He says that over the years, many of these wetlands have been drained for agriculture. And climate change could affect the ones that remain.
The seasonal wetland ponds depend on rain and ... Read more ...
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Company helps incentivize tropical forest protection in Ecuador - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jun 14, 2022) |
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Jun 14, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Ecuador’s tropical forests store a lot of carbon. But they’re being cut down at a rapid rate.
Local landowners often clear-cut trees to make room for palm oil farming or cattle grazing, which for many people provide a critical source of income.
“That’s not to say that they don’t love the forest and want to keep it there,” says Peter Pinchot, co-founder of the company Whole Forest. “But when it comes between that and sending their kids to school or to the doctor, there is no question that the forest is going to disappear because the human need is very high.”
Pinchot wants to make preserving forests economically viable.
Whole ... Read more ...
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Conservation projects restore natural water flow to parts of Great Dismal Swamp - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jun 08, 2022) |
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Jun 08, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
The Great Dismal Swamp is a forested wetland in North Carolina and Virginia. And there’s nothing dismal about the climate benefits it provides.
The swampland is composed of peat, partly decayed plant matter that accumulates in wet conditions over thousands of years. It stores a lot of carbon.
But in colonial times, people logged trees and dug ditches to drain some areas of the swamp. Michael Burchell of North Carolina State University says the changes had lasting impacts.
“When you make these areas drier, microorganisms can break down the carbon in the soil at a faster rate,” he says.
That releases the carbon to the ... Read more ...
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Australia lists koala as an endangered species across most of its range - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Jun 02, 2022) |
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Jun 02, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
In 2019, massive bushfires ignited in Australia. They raged all summer. And with no way to escape the flames, tens of thousands of koalas died.
Stuart Blanch of World Wildlife Fund, Australia, says it was a terrible event to witness.
“I think what was hardest for me was hearing the sound of koalas screaming as they burned, seeing the footage of whole forests incinerated in front of your eyes, and knowing that so much of what many people, including myself, had worked for over decades to protect forests and wildlife populations, that they were being overwhelmed by the fires,” he says.
The bushfires were devastating to a species that was ... Read more ...
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Iconic Hawaiian bird faces possible extinction - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (May 24, 2022) |
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May 24, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
A small red bird called the 'i’iwi is a symbol of the Hawaiian islands. It used to be common, but now this distinctive little bird is in danger of extinction.
Eben Paxton of the USGS Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center explains that the i’iwi evolved in isolation. So these native Hawaiian birds never developed immunity to many diseases that were common elsewhere.
“And so they’re very vulnerable,” he says.
Avian malaria, which was brought to Hawaii in the 1800s, poses an especially grave threat. The disease kills almost all the 'i’iwi that it infects.
It’s spread by mosquitoes, which are most prevalent in low-lying areas. ... Read more ...
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Plant species can migrate in response to climate change – by hitching rides in animal bellies - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (May 18, 2022) |
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May 18, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
When a bear or a bird stops to eat berries, the animal gets a snack, and the fruit seeds hitch a ride in the animal’s belly. The seeds’ journey ends when the animal poops.
“This is perhaps one of the most important ways seed dispersals happen,” says Alejandro Ordonez, an ecologist at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.
He says traveling by animal gut allows plants to move into new areas, so it can help them shift their ranges to adapt to climate change.
Large animals like elephants and bears are especially important chauffeurs that transport seeds long distances.
But populations of many seed-dispersing animals are declining ... Read more ...
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'Almost impossible’: Scientists study secrets of inland mangrove forest - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Feb 17, 2022) |
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Feb 17, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Mangrove trees live along tropical coastlines, where their exposed, gnarled roots grow down into salty water and the sediment below.
So when scientists learned of mangroves growing more than 100 miles inland on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, they were astonished.
“Having mangroves living in fresh water very far from the ocean, it’s almost impossible,” says Octavio Aburto of Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Aburto was part of a team that traveled deep into tropical forest to see these mangroves for themselves.
“It was really amazing to see a mangrove, red mangroves, living beside a waterfall,” he says.
Using genetic and ... Read more ...
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Hotter summer temperatures prompt fly fishing restrictions in Montana - Yale Climate Connections - Ecosystems (Feb 01, 2022) |
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Feb 01, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Montana’s cool, clear streams and rivers are renowned for trout fishing. But veteran fly-fishing guide Hilary Hutcheson says that the warming climate poses threats to this cherished tradition.
Warmer water contains less oxygen, so it stresses fish species that are accustomed to colder temperatures. And it makes it harder for them to recover after anglers catch and release them.
In some areas, fishing has been temporarily prohibited on hot summer afternoons when the water is too warm.
“That’s a huge impact to fisheries and to the guiding community as a whole,” Hutcheson says. “There are operations that … they’re starting their guide ... Read more ...
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