*Featured in Best American Science and Nature Writing 2010*
By Dawn Stover
January-March 2009 (Vol. 10, No.1)
A male European blackbird was terrorizing the neighborhood. For several months, he started singing at around 5 a.m. each day, but this was no ordinary song. The bird imitated the sounds of ambulance sirens and car alarms […] Read More »
By Tali Woodward
January-March 2009 (Vol. 10, No. 1)
As economic prospects turn grim, conservationists are locked in a familiar, highly polarized debate over the downturn’s potential costs. On one side are those who believe the recession may trigger dramatic environmental setbacks because only wealthy, growing nations are willing and able to fund conservation […] Read More »
By John Weier
January-March 2009 (Vol 10, No. 1)
Bearded and burly, Paul Stamets searches the forest on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula like a bloodhound, peering under fallen trees and sniffing inquisitively at the air. The object of his quest is the Agarikon mushroom—so rare that it can take Stamets, who has spent more […] Read More »
Froese, D.G. et al. 2008. Ancient permafrost and a future, warmer Arctic. Science 321(5896):1648.
At northern latitudes, buildings are collapsing and roads are buckling as the permafrost beneath them thaws. But the frozen ground further below the surface is proving remarkably stable. A new study in Science reports the discovery of a 740,000-year-old ice […] Read More »
Marlon J.R. et al. 2008. Climate and human influences on global biomass burning over the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience 1(10):697-702.
When Jennifer Marlon and her team charted out the rate at which vegetation has burned over the past 2,000 years, they ended up with a wildly fluctuating graph that resembled a roller-coaster ride. […] Read More »
Burkepile, D.E. and M.E. Hay. 2008. Herbivore species richness and feeding complementarity affect community structure and function on a coral reef. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(42):16201-16206.
The loss of algae-eating fish and invertebrates can decimate coral reefs, but researchers haven’t been sure which species best stop reefs from being taken over […] Read More »
Sundqvist, A., H. Ellegren, and C. Villà 2008. Wolf or dog? Genetic identification of predators from saliva collected around bite wounds on prey. Conservation Genetics 9(5):1275–1279.
Although wolves frequently shoulder the blame for raiding livestock pens, a study in Conservation Genetics proves that, in at least one case, they were framed. Researchers from Sweden’s […] Read More »
Campbell, G. et al. 2008. Alarming decline of West African chimpanzees in Côte d’Ivoire. Current Biology 18(19):R903-R904.
For years, Côte d’Ivoire has been regarded as one of the last havens for endangered West African chimpanzees. A 1990 survey found that the country was home to 8,000 to 10,000 of the animals; while that was […] Read More »
Sax, D. and S.D. Gaines. 2008. Species invasions and extinction: The future of native biodiversity on islands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105:11490-11497.
Conservation biologists typically view invasive species as a scourge that drives native plants and animals to extinction. But Brown University’s Dov Sax isn’t sure exotic plants deserve their bad […] Read More »
Aubrecht, C. et al. 2008. A global inventory of coral reef stressors based on satellite observed nighttime lights. Geocarto International 23(6): 467-479.
It’s easy to interpret pictures of the earth at night as a study in contrasts, with bright city lights isolated against dark expanses of sea. But Christoph Aubrecht of the Austrian Research […] Read More »
Luyssaert, S. et al. 2008. Old growth forests as global carbon sinks. Nature 455(7210):213-215.
Scientists have long believed that young forests serve as carbon sinks, consuming more atmospheric carbon dioxide than they produce. Reflecting this assumption, the Kyoto Protocol encourages nations to develop new carbon sinks by restoring lost forests. But the protocol offers […] Read More »
Arnone III, J.A. et al. 2008. Prolonged suppression of ecosystem carbon dioxide uptake after an anomalously warm year. Nature 455:383-386.
When it comes to climate change, scientists know that warming begets warming, but some critical aspects of this relationship remain unclear. For instance, many plants absorb less CO2 during unusually warm years, but researchers […] Read More »
Costello, C., S.D. Gaines, and J. Lynham. 2008. Can catch shares prevent fisheries collapse? Science 321:1678-1681.
Population crashes of predatory fish such as salmon, cod, and bluefin tuna are becoming increasingly common, and some experts warn that most of the world’s commercial fisheries could collapse within decades. These declines highlight a puzzling reality of […] Read More »
