EcoTone

In Ecology News: Python vs the Everglades

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:51:07 +0000

Are exotic pythons devastating Florida’s Everglades National Park? By Liza Lester, ESA communications officer Sometimes the snake wins. The exotic Burmese python is a new and deadly predator allegedly squeezing the wildlife of Florida’s already environmentally pressured Everglades. Large snakes have been observed swallowing American alligators and 80-pound deer, but more common prey are small [...]

Wintering pythons? Unlikely, but not impossible

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:57:40 +0000

This post contributed by Terence Houston, ESA Science Policy Analyst A commonly held sentiment is that cold winters prevent established non-native constrictors like the Burmese python in southern Florida from extending north. However, a recent report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggests that adaptability may eventually punch a hole in this notion. The [...]

ESA Policy News: January 27

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:50:56 +0000

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Science Policy Analyst Terence Houston. Read the full Policy News here. STATE OF THE UNION: PRESIDENT HIGHLIGHTS CLEAN ENERGY, RESEARCH GOALS For his third formal State of the Union address, President Obama outlined a set of proposals and initiatives for the 112th Congress to act [...]

Researchers Find Flaws in Popular Theory on Women’s Math Performance

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:47:38 +0000

This post contributed by Celia Smith, ESA Education Programs Coordinator Credit: xkcd.com In science, neat and tidy explanations rarely tell the whole story, and that is exactly what researchers at the University of Missouri have found about stereotype threat theory in their paper on the subject, currently in press at the Review of General Psychology. [...]

State of the Science, 2012

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:48:09 +0000

Thoughts and twitterings around the ecosphere on President Obama’s State of the Union address to Congress, Tuesday, January 24th, 2012. In the Wednesday morning quarterbacking that followed this year’s State of the Union, pundits aired the perennial complaint that the President’s speech ran too long, heavily-laden with a Clinton-style laundry list of programs. But citizens [...]

What’s your number?

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:14:01 +0000

This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs Many of us still operate under the notion that, as responsible car owners, we should get our vehicle’s oil changed every 3,000 miles to keep our engines running smoothly. But it turns out that this engrained wisdom is not true if you own a [...]

Solutions for a nitrogen-soaked world

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:01:04 +0000

Interdisciplinary panel reviews US nitrogen pollution trends, risks and mitigation strategies. -This post contributed by Liza Lester, ESA communications officer. A tractor spreads manure. Excess fertilizer seeping out of fields has a host of consequences for ecological systems and human health. Credit, flickr user eutrophication&hypoxia, 2010. Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a [...]

Beneath the waves film festival–call for submissions!

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:30:08 +0000

This post contributed by Liza Lester, ESA communications officer. Four years ago, graduate student Austin Gallagher took a video camera into the tropical waters around Mo’orea, about 17 km northwest of Tahiti in French Polynesia. With his first post to YouTube, he was hooked. Filmmaking supplied an instant gratification quotient to balance the years of [...]

ESA Policy News: January 13

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:21:16 +0000

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Science Policy Analyst Terence Houston. Read the full Policy News here. INTERIOR: GRAND CANYON HARDROCK MINING PROHIBITION ENACTED On Jan. 9, the Department of Interior (DOI) announced its decision to ban new hardrock mining claims on more than one million acres around Grand Canyon National [...]

FAA’s whooping waiver

katie@esa.org (Katie Kline) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:23:00 +0000

On January 10, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted a waiver to a small aircraft designed to help a young flock of whooping cranes reach their wintering grounds. Since 2001, Operation Migration has been operating a program reintroducing the endangered birds to northeastern North America, seeking to re-establish an Eastern flyway for the birds. Because [...]