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Questions of race, state violence explored in ‘The Rising Tide of Color’

By Guest PostJanuary 3, 2015Culture, Politicsamerican west, aspergillus, black panther party, chitin, hausstauballergie, martin luther king, night vision, pacific coast, photodetector, pilzinfektion, race, schimmelpilz, sensor des immunsystems, university of washington, zak mian

Moon-Ho Jung is an associate professor of history and editor of the book “The Rising Tide of Color: Race, State Violence and Radical Movements across the Pacific,” published by University of Washington Press. He answered a few questions about the book.

Q: What is the concept behind this book and how did it come to be written?

A: In May 2011, when I was directing the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, we hosted a major conference that sought to center the Pacific Coast in the study of race and politics, in part because the American West tends to be ignored in conversations about race. (more…)

Leatherback sea turtles

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2014Naturebahamas, caribbean coast, costa rica, costa rican culture, doug tallamy, environmental research, leatherback sea turtles, leatherback trust, local costa ricans, nesting ecology, pacific coast, puerto rico, sea turtle, sex ratio, topography, university of delaware

UD alumna studies leatherback sea turtles in Costa Rica

It’s not every day that you get to see a creature that has been around for 110 million years emerge from the ocean and lay its eggs on the beach. Unless, of course, you’re like University of Delaware graduate Lauren Cruz, who spends her days in Costa Rica with the Leatherback Trust studying leatherback sea turtle nesting ecology.

Cruz, a 2013 graduate who studied wildlife conservation in UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is tracking the demographics of the turtles that nest at Playa Grande and Parque Nacional de las baulas — which translates to the park of leatherback sea turtles — and spends her nights with a team patrolling the beach looking for nesting turtles. (more…)

Mutual benefits: Stressed-out trees boost sugary rewards to ant defenders

By Guest PostNovember 14, 2013Natureant, ant protection, azteca ants, azteca pittieri, carnegie institution, central america, climate change, cordia alliodora, deborah gordon, dry tropical forest, ecologist, ecologists, ecuador laurel trees, elizabeth pringle, erol akcay, evolution, evolutionary model, honeydew, insurance model, key environmental factor, life sustaining foliage, mutual benefits, pacific coast, plant animal interaction, rodolfo dirzo, santa fe institute, scale insects, Science, southern mexico, stanford university, stressed out trees, sugary reward, ted raab, theory, university of michigan, university of pennsylvania

ANN ARBOR — When water is scarce, Ecuador laurel trees ramp up their investment in a syrupy treat that sends resident ant defenders into overdrive, protecting the trees from defoliation by leaf-munching pests.

The water-stressed tropical forest trees support the production of more honeydew, a sugary excretion imbibed by the Azteca ants that nest in the laurels’ stem cavities. In return, ant colonies boost their numbers and more vigorously defend the life-sustaining foliage. (more…)

Emerging Consensus Shows Climate Change Already Having Major Effects on Ecosystems and Species

By Guest PostDecember 22, 2012Environment, Natureamanda staudt, animal species, arizona state university, atlantic, bark beetles, biodiversity, bird population, bruce stein, carbon, climate change, coastal habitat, diversity of species, ecological systems, ecological tolerance, ecosystems, extinction, food source, gulf of mexico, human caused stressors, marine fish, mary ruckelshaus, michelle staudinger, migrating birds, nancy grimm, natural resource, pacific coast, peter kareiva, plant, pollution, rainfall, risk, shawn carter, stuart chapin, tempe, U.S. Geological Survey, united states, waterborne disease, wildlife

Plant and animal species are shifting their geographic ranges and the timing of their life events – such as flowering, laying eggs or migrating – at faster rates than researchers documented just a few years ago, according to a technical report on biodiversity and ecosystems used as scientific input for the 2013 Third National Climate Assessment.

The report, Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services, synthesizes the scientific understanding of the way climate change is affecting ecosystems, ecosystem services and the diversity of species, as well as what strategies might be used by natural resource practitioners to decrease current and future risks. More than 60 federal, academic and other scientists, including the lead authors from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Wildlife Federation and Arizona State University in Tempe, authored the assessment. (more…)

A Better Way to ID Extreme Weather Events in Climate Models

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2011Environmentatmospheric river, berkeley lab, bill collins, cam5, category 5 hurricane, climate simulation, community atmospheric model, computer models, cray xe6 supercomputer, dan krotz, data, effects of climate change, floods, frequency of extreme weather events, global atmosphere models, global climate model, hawaiian islands, heavy precipitation, high resolution simulation, hopper, hurricane, large datasets, library of congress, michael wehner, models, North America, pacific coast, pattern detection algorithm, prabhat, satellite images, simulation, weather, weather phenomenon, wes bethel

*Berkeley Lab scientists help automate the search for hurricanes and other storms in huge datasets*

You’d think that spotting a category 5 hurricane would never be difficult. But when the hurricane is in a global climate model that spans several decades, it becomes a fleeting wisp among mountains of data.

That’s a problem. As scientists develop ever-more sophisticated computer models to predict the effects of climate change, one of the things they’ll look for are changes in the frequency of extreme weather events such as hurricanes and heavy precipitation. The more data generated by models, however, the more difficult it is to quantify these rare but potent events. (more…)

US West Coast Erosion Spiked In Winter 2009-10, Previewing Likely Future As Climate Changes

By Guest PostJuly 13, 2011Environmentamerican geophysical union, california, climate change scenarios, climatic pattern, el niño, el nino modoki, equatorial pacific, global warming, ocean beach, oregon state university, pacific coast, pacific northwest, patrick barnard, san diego, san francisco, scripps institution of oceanography, us west coast, willapa bay

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Knowing that the U.S. west coast was battered during the winter before last by a climatic pattern expected more often in the future, scientists have now pieced together a San Diego-to-Seattle assessment of the damage wrought by that winter’s extreme waves and higher-than-usual water levels. Getting a better understanding of how the 2009-10 conditions tore away and reshaped shorelines will help coastal experts better predict future changes that may be in store for the Pacific coast, the researchers say.

“The stormy conditions of the 2009-10 El Niño winter eroded the beaches to often unprecedented levels at sites throughout California and vulnerable sites in the Pacific Northwest,” said Patrick Barnard, USGS coastal geologist. In California, for example, winter wave energy was 20 percent above average for the years dating back to 1997, resulting in shoreline erosion that exceeded the average by 36 percent, he and his colleagues found. (more…)

Researchers Find That Pollution Forms an Invisible Barrier for Marine Life

By Guest PostMarch 18, 2011Environmentanthropogenic factors, bacteria, chemicals, chlorinated hydrocarbons, coastal areas, coastal water ecosystems, contaminants, discharge, ecosystem based management, evolutionary trajectory, heavy metals, human impacts, human stressors, jon puritz, larvae, los angeles, marine life, municipal treatment plants, nutrients, ocean, pacific coast, petroleum hydrocarbons, plankton, pollutants, population, rob toonen, sea stars, sewage, southern california bight, species, starfish, toxic, united states, urban runoff, urban runoff plumes

Over 50 percent of the population in the United States and over 60 percent in the world live in coastal areas. Rapidly growing human populations near the ocean have massively altered coastal water ecosystems.

One of the most extensive human stressors is the discharge of chemicals and pollutants into the ocean. In the Southern California Bight, more than 60 sewage and urban runoff sources discharge over 1 billion gallons of liquid on a dry day with the two largest sources of contaminants being sewage from municipal treatment plants and urban runoff from highly modified river basins. (more…)

2 new frog species discovered in Panama’s fungal war zone

By Guest PostJuly 5, 20101 commentNatureand, Central Panama, chytridiomycosis, colombian border, darien province, deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, el cope, frogs, fungal disease, karen lips, omar torrijos national park, pacific coast, panama, panama amphibian rescue conservation project, pristimantis adnus, pristimantis educatoris, p_adnus

Trying to stay ahead of a deadly disease that has wiped out more than 100 species, scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute continue to discover new frog species in Panama: Pristimantis educatoris, from Omar Torrijos National Park, and P. adnus from Darien Province near the Colombian border.

(more…)

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