Photo courtesy of Mike Reese Andy McGlashen / Ensia March 20, 2018 Sometime soon — maybe this year, maybe next — biologist Jeffrey Glassberg expects to say goodbye to the Poweshiek skipperling. The endangered, orange-and-brown butterfly is one of several species in the Upper Midwest’s prairies on the slippery slope toward extinction. In the [...]
GULF OF MEXICO RESEARCH INITIATIVE MARCH 20, 2018 Researchers analyzed dissolved organic carbon from water column samples collected in five regions to establish baseline data about its relative persistence and cycling in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The team found that the Mississippi River exports large amounts of dissolved organic carbon with an anthropogenic 14C [...]
By Todd C. Frankel / The Washington Post March 14, 2018 A picaresque tour of infrastructure reveals a struggle for control all along America’s great river, full of questions about what it once was, doubts about what it will become and who will pay for any of it. ALONG THE RIVER — The Mississippi runs the [...]
By Stacey Plaisance and Kevin McGill / AP News March 8, 2018 NORCO, La. (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began opening part of a 1930s flood control structure northwest of New Orleans on Thursday to divert water from a rising Mississippi River into nearby Lake Pontchartrain, a move that eases pressure [...]
Photo courtesy of Kathleen Pozarycki By Maria Dolan / Ensia March 5, 2018 On a blustery January day at Seahurst Park, a tree-fringed shoreline in the town of Burien just south of Seattle, Jason Toft searches for a promising beach log among the many specimens at hand. Beachgoers sit or climb on top [...]
Flower Garden reef, credit Kristine DeLong By STEVE HARDY | The Advocate> March 2, 2018 Over the years, diving to her beloved coral reefs in the Florida Keys began to feel more and more to Kristine DeLong like visiting a cherished older relative in hospice care. But the first time she saw [...]
A shrimp boat heads out from Point Cocodrie, La. Photo Credit: JC Winkler photo. John DeSantis / National Fisherman February 8, 2018 Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishermen are looking at 2018 with a mixture of apprehension and hope. There is apprehension because the past year’s record is not good. There is hope [...]
By Seth Borenstein / U.S. News January 4, 2018 Two new studies show global warming is making oceans sicker, depleting oxygen and harming coral reefs. Global warming is making the world's oceans sicker, depleting them of oxygen and harming delicate coral reefs more often, two studies show. The lower oxygen levels are making marine [...]
By Alex Fox / EOS January 4, 2018 The grandfather of modern corn may hold the key to reducing its need for chemical fertilizers. Ears of corn (maize), showing a wide range of colors and shapes that reflect different varieties. Credit: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, CC BY NC-SA 2.0 Corn has [...]
By Damian Carrington / The Guardian January 4, 2018 Areas starved of oxygen in open ocean and by coasts have soared in recent decades, risking dire consequences for marine life and humanity Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites [...]
