New book by UD professor highlights latest work in land economics
When Oxford University Press set out to publish a handbook in each field of economics, they selected the University of Delaware’s Josh Duke to be a co-editor of the volume focused on land economics. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Twenty years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 17 prominent ecologists are calling for renewed international efforts to curb the loss of biological diversity, which is compromising nature’s ability to provide goods and services essential for human well-being.
Over the past two decades, strong scientific evidence has emerged showing that loss of the world’s biological diversity reduces the productivity and sustainability of natural ecosystems and decreases their ability to provide society with goods and services like food, wood, fodder, fertile soils, and protection from pests and disease, according to an international team of ecologists led by the University of Michigan’s Bradley Cardinale. (more…)
Street lighting is transforming communities of insects and other invertebrates, according to research by the University of Exeter.
Published in the journal Biology Letters, the study shows for the first time that the balance of different species living together is being radically altered as a result of light pollution in our towns and cities.
Believed to be increasing by six per cent a year globally, artificial lighting is already known to affect individual organisms, but this is the first time that its impact on whole communities has been investigated.
This study shows that groups of invertebrates living near to artificial lights include more predators and scavengers. This could be impacting on the survival rates of different species, having a knock-on effect on birds and mammals that rely on these species for food. The effects could be affecting entire ecosystems and even humans. (more…)
*National Science Foundation Grants Awarded for Research on Coupled Natural and Human Systems*
Water quality and environmental health in Botswana; wetlands in a working landscape; the collapse of the ancient Maya and what that has to tell us about society and environmental change today.
These and other projects that address how humans and the environment interact are the focus of $21 million in National Science Foundation (NSF) grants to scientists, engineers and educators across the country to study coupled natural and human systems. (more…)
*Chemicals known as oxygenated volatile organic compounds (oVOCs) affect environment, human health*
About the image: Poplars, aspens, other trees provide extensive “ecosystem services.” Image credit: USDA
Vegetation plays an unexpectedly large role in cleansing the atmosphere, a new study finds. (more…)
