Wolves saved Yellowstone’s aspens… right? Turns out the real story isn’t so simple. Read it here. 🧪🌿🌎

Have Wolves Saved Yellowstone’s Aspens? - Mountain Journal

Claims that wolves have rescued Yellowstone National Park aspen trees through a ‘trophic cascade’ oversimplify a complex story

mountainjournal.org

I looked at the #grokipedia articles about five major environmental topics: coral reefs, sea ice, Amazon rainforest, wildfire, glacier. The five articles mentioned the phrases climate change/global warming a total of 4 times. They said alarm/alarmism/alarmist 12 times. 🧪🌿🌎

The #grokipedia on coral reefs mentions "global warming" and "climate change" zero times. It also emphasizes reefs' resilience to "thermal stress." 🧪🌎🦑

We can protect California's forests from megafires. Last month, I visited part of the Sierra Nevada that burned in 2021. In unmanaged areas, most trees died. But where land managers had thinned trees and conducted prescribed burns, nearly every tree survived. These photos show the difference.🧪🌿🌎

Oak‑savanna birds thrive after fire, a new study found. Dozens of species preferred areas that burned in the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire over unburned areas. So far, these ecosystems are proving resilient to increasingly severe wildfires, the authors concluded. 🧪🌿🌎

Mendocino County’s Burned Oak Savannas Attract Birds – KneeDeep Times

A new study has found that birds are thriving in the nutrient rich oak savannas that burned in the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire.

kneedeeptimes.org

‪This was a fun story to write. Last year, environmental police in Brazil stumbled upon thousands of climbing bumblebee catfish. Scientists know almost nothing about this species, which only became known to science in 2017. 🧪🌿🌎

Science Magazine@science.org · 12mo ago

Researchers have filmed thousands of climbing catfish scaling waterfalls, providing a rare insight into the daring migration of an enigmatic fish. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4lDlFux

Botanical surveys of more than 2,000 European cemeteries found that they support at least 65 native orchid species. Graveyards might be the last best plant habitat around cities, the study authors said. 🧪🌿🌎 nautil.us/orchids-thri...

Orchids Thrive Among the Dead

Cemeteries are a gravely overlooked habitat for wild orchids in Europe

nautil.us

There are so many fascinating studies you can find while looking through recent issues of scientific journals. Here is an article I wrote about a study that used high-speed videos of volcanic eruptions to determine the shapes of the projectiles they shoot. 🧪

Science Magazine@science.org · last yr.

Hidden features of volcanic “lava bombs” have been caught on video. Learn more: scim.ag/478PIqq

Burning coal and smelting metals vaporizes small amounts of iron. Some of the iron produced by East Asian industry has been wafting into the North Pacific, where it supercharges an algal bloom. 🧪🦑

Eos@eos.org · 12mo ago

Iron emissions from East Asia are pushing a phytoplankton bloom in the North Pacific farther north. Story by @markr4nger.bsky.social

In 1988, wildfires razed one-third of Yellowstone National Park. While most park woodlands are regenerating, some have turned into meadows. A new study digs into why. 🧪🌿🌎

Yellowstone’s 1988 Fires Eviscerated Forests. Will They Ever Recover? - Mountain Journal

While most park woodlands are regenerating, some have turned into meadows. A new study digs into why.

mountainjournal.org

Whether it’s ice cream, a greasy hamburger, or a heap of french fries, everybody loves fatty foods. For coyotes, that meal is a blubbery seal pup, according to a new study led by UC Santa Cruz scientists. 🧪🌎🦑 They published the first known videos of California coyotes hunting harbor seals.

New study documents California coyotes eating harbor seal pups

A paper published on February 12 in the journal Ecology details how the researchers used motion-triggered cameras placed at MacKerricher State Beach on California's North Coast during harbor seal pupp...

news.ucsc.edu

Happy #salmonsunday!! 🦑🌎🐟 The Santa Cruz Mountains are home to the world’s southernmost coho salmon runs. Although this population of fish is critically endangered, scientists are finding that they were relatively unaffected by a major wildfire.

Wild Coho Salmon Are Surviving Four Years After CZU Fire

At the southern end of their range, coho salmon in Scott Creek are adapting to wildfire and warming.

kneedeeptimes.org

Happy #saltmarshsaturday!! 🌎🦑 Salt marshes are powerful tools in the fight against climate change because they trap more carbon than nearly any other ecosystem. In this story, I wrote about the scientists who are measuring how much carbon is stuck in the muck of a northern California salt marsh.

Stuck in the muck: Scientists study carbon trapped by Elkhorn Slough

Salt marshes, which have historically been drained and turned into farms or land ripe for real estate development, are emerging as a powerful tool in the fight against global warming.

mercurynews.com

Walking through a coastal northern California forest that burned a little over 4 years ago. Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), madrone (Arbutus menziesii) and manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp) are THIRVING. 🌎🌿🔥

Young trees and saplings are choking out many forests in the western United States after 150 years of grazing and fire supression. I really enjoyed reporting on this Navajo-led project to reverse these changes. 🌎

Students and scientists collaborate to maintain Navajo Nation forests

Surviving desert heat, alpine cold, and meager rainfall each year, two-needle pinyon pines (Pinus edulis) are the backbone of many forests in the southwestern United States. Their stout branches offer...

news.mongabay.com

Got to watch a prescribed burn for a story I’m writing about using fire to revive prairies. The most incredible thing about it was that the actual burning only lasted about 15 minutes. Fire moves fast through dried grass. #photography #nature 🌎

Anyone here give a hoot about owls? 🦉🌎 If you do, I recommend burrowing into this story about burrowing owls. They are a candidate for endangered species protection in California, and scientists are working to protect one of the last populations in the Bay Area.

How a surprising San Jose spot became a last refuge for the Bay Area’s burrowing owl population

Sandwiched between office buildings and the sewage plant, a 200-acre slice of land is home to some of the last burrowing owls in the Bay Area.

mercurynews.com

Blub 🐟🫧 Blub 🐟🫧 Blu…efin tuna are swimming toward recovery! Down to just 2% of historic levels in 2014, international cooperation is now reeling them back from extinction—and faster than expected. 🦑

Pacific bluefin tuna are swimming toward sustainability

The aquarium’s Seafood Watch upgraded some bluefin caught off the coast of California and Mexico from red (avoid) to yellow (good alternative).

mercurynews.com

Sperm whales abound off the coast of California, according to scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. They found these elusive creatures not with their eyes, but with their ears. 🦑 www.mercurynews.com/2024/10/21/a...

A (sperm) whale of a discovery in Monterey Bay

“We actually found that these animals are here quite a bit more often than we had realized,” says Will Oestreich, a researcher from MBARI and the lead author of a study published last month in Move…

mercurynews.com