Posted 30 Nov 2022 / 0
I am excited about having participated in a wonderful STEAMplant project headed up by Art and Design Education graduate student Ana Codorean. The project focused on how to get local public school students thinking about interdependence and the ways in which natural dyes can be used in creative work. Encompassing an impressive breadth of scientific Read More
A Major Post, Art & Design, Coevolution, Community Ecology, Competition, Department of Mathematics & Science, Ecology, Ecology Education, Fashion, Green Design, Interactions, Mutualism, Pollination, Pratt Institute, Public Outreach, Reciprocity, Science in Art & Design, STEAMplant, Sustainability, Teaching
Posted 27 Sep 2018 / 0
Science “Climate model shows large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara increase rain and vegetation” These kinds of positive feedback loops are exciting. Generally, we are really good at creating deleterious positive feedback loops: changes that further exacerbate our environmental dilemmas. But as this modeling article demonstrates, careful re-engineering of our environment can create Read More
A Minor Post, Climate Change, Ecological Modeling, Ecological Restoration, Ecology, Modeling (General), Sustainable Energy
Posted 06 Sep 2018 / 0
I read about this first in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, but here is the actual article: Journal of Applied Ecology “Quantifying the impact of pesticides on learning and memory in bees” This is an important study, because it suggests that we need to ask more subtle questions about the impacts of pesticides on our pollinators!
A Minor Post, Mutualism, Pollination, Pollution, Sustainable Agriculture
Posted 06 Sep 2018 / 0
I learned about this from reading Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, but here are some other sources reporting on the same study… NPR St. Louis Public Radio “Missouri could offset carbon emissions from agriculture by conserving the soil, report says” Climate Central “Missouri Farms Hold Big Potential as Carbon Storehouse” These are exciting findings! They Read More
A Minor Post, Climate Change, Sustainable Agriculture
Posted 30 Aug 2018 / 0
Science “What lives in the ocean’s twilight zone? New technologies might finally tell us” We tend to think that there’s nothing unexplored on the earth, that we know what kinds of organisms inhabit different ecosystems. So it’s pretty striking that there’s a whole area of the ocean that we know so little about. The scientific challenges Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Fluidity of Knowledge, Marine Ecosystems, Sustainability
Posted 30 Aug 2018 / 0
Science “Insect threats to food security” Science “Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate” This is scary, especially since this is a global estimate that has never before been modeled. I found it interesting that the temperate-zone effects are most profound because the effects of warming are not so extreme as to lower Read More
A Minor Post, Climate Change, Food, Sustainable Agriculture
Posted 30 Aug 2018 / 0
Science “Chile’s salmon escape demands action” Feral crops and livestock can present potential invasive species problems on land, but it is easy to see how aquaculture would present even larger problems: although aquaculture does involve “domesticated fish”, those fish are far less dependent on human care than their terrestrial counterparts.
Aquaculture, Food, Invasive Species
Posted 30 Aug 2018 / 0
PNAS “Small room for compromise between oil palm cultivation and primate conservation in Africa” This study reaches what is probably not a surprising conclusion: if we want to grow tropical plants for food, we are likely to displace tropical mammals. Palm oil is particularly frightening because it seems to like to grow in areas where endangered Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Conservation Biology, Primates, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture
Posted 22 Aug 2018 / 0
Welcome to Brooklyn: it’s a great place to cycle if you know how to do so safely. In August of 2018 I was asked to give a one-hour workshop on urban cycling as part of Pratt’s new student orientation program. I figured that I should condense my thoughts on the why, how, when, where, and Read More
A Major Post, Altruism, Pollution, Pratt Institute, Sustainability, Sustainable Transportation, Urban Planning
Posted 04 Jan 2018 / 0
I guess that some people are really good at planning out where they are going with their careers, but for me serendipity seems to play a really big role. Rather than charting a particular course and then plotting my expedition from “now” to “future goal”, I seem to be more apt to catch a wave Read More
A Major Post, Conferences, Conservation Biology, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Geography, Higher Education, MSWI-270C, Ecology, Environment, & the Anthropocene, Sustainability, Sustainable Urban Design, Teaching, Teaching Tools
