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Snapping Turtles Finding Refuge in Urban Areas While Habitats are Being Polluted or Developed, MU Researcher Finds

By Guest PostAugust 31, 2013Naturebill peterman, butler university, central canal, habitats, interaction with humans, jessica stephens, midwest, pollution, refuge, sean sterrett, snapping turtles, snapping turtles habitats, travis ryan, university of missouri, urban areas, waterways

Stopping pollution from flowing into waterways could restore natural habitats

COLUMBIA, Mo. – In the Midwest, people have a fear of encountering snapping turtles while swimming in local ponds, lakes and rivers. Now in a new study, a University of Missouri researcher has found that snapping turtles are surviving in urban areas as their natural habitats are being polluted or developed for construction projects. One solution is for people to stop using so many chemicals that are eventually dumped into the waterways, the scientist said.

“Snapping turtles are animals that can live in almost any aquatic habitat as long as their basic needs for survival are met,” said Bill Peterman, a post-doctoral researcher in the Division of Biological Sciences at MU. “Unfortunately, suitable aquatic habitats for turtles are being degraded by pollution or completely lost due to development. We found that snapping turtles can persist in urbanized areas, despite the potential for more interaction with humans.” (more…)

Ancient Fossilized Sea Creatures Yield Oldest Biomolecules Isolated Directly from a Fossil

By Guest PostFebruary 21, 2013Nature, Scienceamerican midwest, analytical tools, ancient, aquatic sea creatures, aromatic compounds, biological signal, biomarkers, calcite crystal, carboniferous period, christina omalley, complex organic molecules, crinoids, crinoids today, DNA, feathery arms, fine grained sediment, fossil, fossilization, fossilized sea creatures, function, gas chromatograph, geochemist, geologic time, geologists, hard calcite shell, Indiana, iowa, layer, living tissue, mass spectrometer, midwest, mountain chains, North America, ohio, ohio state, ohio state geologists, ohio state university, oldest biomolecules, organic matter, organic molecules, pigments, pores, predators, quinines, sand dollars, sea lily, spindly animals, toxins, vast inland seas, volcanism, william ausich, yu ping chin

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Though scientists have long believed that complex organic molecules couldn’t survive fossilization, some 350-million-year-old remains of aquatic sea creatures uncovered in Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa have challenged that assumption.

The spindly animals with feathery arms—called crinoids, but better known today by the plant-like name “sea lily”—appear to have been buried alive in storms during the Carboniferous Period, when North America was covered with vast inland seas. Buried quickly and isolated from the water above by layers of fine-grained sediment, their porous skeletons gradually filled with minerals, but some of the pores containing organic molecules were sealed intact. (more…)

OSU Grad Student’s Study on Salamander Fitness Selected for Scifund Challenge

By Guest PostMay 31, 2012Natureagricultural areas, ambystoma salamanders, cloning, crawford county, DNA, emily caldwell, hybrids, midwest, mole salamanders, North America, offspring, ohio state university, reproductive practice, robert denton, scifund challenge, unisexual salamanders, vertebrates

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An Ohio State University graduate student’s study of the unprecedented reproductive practices among unisexual salamanders has earned the support of the national research crowd-funding initiative known as the SciFund Challenge.

Robert Denton, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, is the only Ohio-based researcher among the 75 scientists selected for this year’s fundraising campaign, the second annual round of the SciFund Challenge. Participating scientists are spending the month of May soliciting financial support from anyone and everyone who is interested in their research.

Denton already has surpassed his initial goal of $1,600. With the additional support, he will be able to expand the scope of the research on whether these salamanders’ strange reproductive habits and resulting messy genetics actually give them a leg up on their competition in the wild. (more…)

Statistical Analysis Projects Future Temperatures in North America

By Guest PostMay 20, 2012Environmentbayesian statistics, change, climate models, climate projection, emily kang, emissions scenario, great lakes, hudson bay, midwest, narccap, noel cressie, North America, ohio state university, pam frost gorder, projection, rocky mountains, seasonal temperature, spatial statistics, statistical analysis, temperature

COLUMBUS, Ohio – For the first time, researchers have been able to combine different climate models using spatial statistics – to project future seasonal temperature changes in regions across North America.

They performed advanced statistical analysis on two different North American regional climate models and were able to estimate projections of temperature changes for the years 2041 to 2070, as well as the certainty of those projections.

The analysis, developed by statisticians at Ohio State University, examines groups of regional climate models, finds the commonalities between them, and determines how much weight each individual climate projection should get in a consensus climate estimate. (more…)

MU Expert Predicts Hot, Dry Summer for Midwest

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2012EnvironmentAl Gore, climate pattern, drought, eastern pacific ocean, global climate change, heat dome, la niña, la nina scenario, midwest, missouri area, nobel peace prize, precipitation, purdue, rainfall, southwest united states, summer, temperature, texas to iowa, thunderstorms, tony lupo, university of missouri, weather

COLUMBIA, Mo. – For nearly a year, the Midwest and southwest United States have experienced drought and warmer than normal conditions. A University of Missouri expert is predicting no relief, as he expects drought and hot conditions to continue this summer.

“I expect one of two scenarios to play out; the first is a continued La Nina climate pattern to affect our weather this summer,” said Tony Lupo, professor and chair of the Department of Atmospheric Science in the School of Natural Resources. “This will lead to a drought and above average heat throughout the Midwest from Texas to Iowa, where farmers with parched fields can least afford dry conditions. However, it is also possible that a new El Nino pattern could develop this fall. While I don’t see this happening, it would bring more favorable temperatures and precipitation patterns to the Midwest.” (more…)

Landscape Change Leads to Increased Insecticide Use in U.S. Midwest

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2011Environmentagricultural landscapes, annual insecticide application, bioenergy crops, claudio gratton, connecticut, crop diversity, cropland, doug landis, entomologis, great lakes bioenergy research center, insecticide, landscape ecologist, landscape simplification, long term ecological research, lter, michigan, midwest, nancy huntly, national science foundation, natural habitat, nsf, switchgrass, tim meehan, university of wisconsin-madison

*Growth of cropland, loss of natural habitat to blame*

The continued growth of cropland and loss of natural habitat have increasingly simplified agricultural landscapes in the Midwest.

In a study supported in part by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Michigan–one of 26 such NSF LTER sites around the world–scientists concluded that this simplification is associated with increased crop pest abundance and insecticide use. (more…)

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