EcoTone

A Conference About Water, Part II: Drought and water issues on the big screen

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:39:40 +0000

Yesterday afternoon at the ESA Millennium Conference on water-ecosystem services, drought, and environmental justice included a varied program of presentations, including two more plenary talks and a reception showcasing case studies on water-ecosystem services, presented in a manner very different for ecological science: in a session using videos that was reminiscent of a poster session. Emily [...]

A Conference about Water and Ecology

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:53:09 +0000

Nancy Grimm welcomes attendees to the first ESA Millennium Conference. ESA’s first Millennium Conference kicked off today in Athens, GA. The meeting is bringing together ecologists and social scientists to engage in conversations about one of the most dramatic emerging challenges in ecology: that of clean water and water scarcity. While ecologists’ main expertise is [...]

ESA Conference: Drought & environmental justice

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:53:09 +0000

The first conference in ESA’s Millennium Series begins on Monday at the University of Georgia in Athens. The conference, titled “Water-Ecosystem Services, Drought, and Environmental Justice,” will bring 100 scientists and land managers together to work on the resolution of social issues related to localized drought. The conference will focus on issues surrounding one of the [...]

Fish migrate to escape climate change

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:26:07 +0000

A study out today in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series shows that global warming could have a major effect on the fishing industry by forcing large fish populations from their original habitats. About half of the fish stocks studied in the Atlantic ocean, many of them commercially valuable species, have shifted northward over the [...]

Climate change will further endanger monkeys

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:06:00 +0000

A critically endangered northern muriqui in Brazil. Photo by Carla B. Possamai, provided by K.B. Strier A study out today in Biology Letters shows that global warming will likely drive several species of primates closer to extinction by increasing the severity and frequency of El Niño and La Niña events (the El Niño Southern Oscillation, ENSO). Eric [...]

ESA Policy News, Oct. 23: Kerry-Graham Op-Ed

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:50:19 +0000

ESA’s Policy News for Oct. 23, written by ESA’s Policy Analyst Piper Corp, gives an in-depth look at the New York Times opinion piece written by John Kerry and Lindsey Graham meant to aid in the passage of a bipartisan climate bill in the Senate. Read more below, and read the Policy News in its [...]

The Senate, climate change, and the public opinion

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:48:53 +0000

On Wednesday, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) sent a letter, signed by 18 scientific organizations including ESA, to each member of the Senate. The letter states the consensus views of the scientific community: that climate change is real, that it is mostly anthropogenic in source and that, if unchecked, it will [...]

Pollutants melting out of glaciers, into lakes

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:11:45 +0000

A mountain lake in Glacier National Park, Montana. Organic pollutants have been on the decline in most natural areas in recent years, due to stricter regulations and improvements to products including the contaminants, such as certain pesticides. But a new study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology shows that these pollutants are showing a [...]

Biophysical climate feedbacks revealed at NASW 2009

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:40:43 +0000

Science writers from around the country gathered in Austin this week for their annual conference, put on by the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. The meeting attracted some 300 science writers - journalists, editors, communications professionals, etc. - for several days of talking about science and [...]

Plants “smell” siblings, scale back competition

christine@esa.org (Christine Buckley) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:05:00 +0000

A study out in Communicative and Integrative Biology shows the mechanism behind plants that can recognize their own siblings. These plants send out fewer roots when planted next to siblings than when they’re planted next to strangers, a phenomenon the researchers think lessens competition among sibs but increases competition among unrelated plants. The study was done [...]