Over the past month, I’ve packed up my belongings and then unpacked them again as I moved between apartments. That got me thinking about animals that travel with their ‘house’, and so my topic for this month’s posts is hermit crabs. This is a topic that is pretty well unknown to me. During a […]
Archive for the ‘climate change’ Tag
Any safe haven?
Trapped by the matrix
In my last post, I looked at the consequences of habitat fragmentation when we build roads or dams or other physical structures- we construct barriers that are useful to us, but not so helpful to the plant and animal populations we isolate. And sometimes we create obstacles to movement even when we think we’re making […]
Going with the flow
As I mentioned in my last post, invasive aquatic plants are a big concern- although we are still learning about how they impact invaded ecosystems (and it’s not necessarily bad), we do know that plants such as water hyacinth, Spartina spp., and milfoil can clog waterways, change habitat, and alter faunal communities. And, as we […]
A disappearing act
I’ve spent the last few days trying to get a sense of how frogs are faring around the world, and what I found was generally depressing- according the to the first Global Amphibian Assessment which was completed in 2004, at least 43% of amphibian species are in decline worldwide (Ben-Ari 2005). This trend seems to […]
Croaks in the night
Where I am in Louisiana, spring is already in full swing- the tulip trees are blooming, song birds are loudly proclaiming their territories, and spotted salamander egg masses can be found in standing bodies of water. When some friends went looking for amphibians a week ago, they found lots of croaking frogs. Over the last […]
Cooling the greenhouse
In my last post I looked at larger, systems-wide options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but those actions may not be possible where you live, or it may require some time to move down those roads. I’m not sure how much time we have to prevent certain climate change effects, and I personally feel better […]
Reining in greenhouse gas emissions, Part I
As I started looking through literature on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it became clear that studies had approached the issue largely from two different angles: a) how specific industries are contributing to global warming in a broad sense, and b) how smaller-scale decisions, like those made by consumers, are involved. It made sense […]
The air we breathe
I think it should be pretty clear that researching the state of the atmosphere is a tall order- and some journal articles go REALLY in-depth when it comes to chemical reactions and composition and simulations (after a while, I found my eyes glazing over anytime I encountered more than 2 pages of graphs)- but I […]
A resolution to learn more
As 2013 begins, I’ve been mulling over events from last year and decisions to be made in the next 12 months, some of which involve things like energy sources and new places to live and even automobiles. And I’ve been hearing a lot about alternative energy and fracking and average temperatures, among other topics. I […]
Offering trees some shelter
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at the possible impacts of climate change on temperate forests around the world, impacts that could disrupt forest dynamics and alter the landscapes around us. Rising global temperatures can rearrange precipitation patterns, warm soils, and cause expanded disease and pest outbreaks. And there are concerns that tree […]