Insect Ecology Lab @UNBC
Check out this new, interactive UNEP-WCMC blue ecosystems website covering #coral reefs, kelp forests, mangroves, and seagrass meadows 🔗 https://www.unep.org/interactives/why-blue-ecosystems-matter/ Considering where sea temperatures are headed – both long term and particularly this year – the best time to act was 20 years ago, but the second-best time to act is now. What are we Continue reading…
Saguaro cacti 🌵 are an important part of the biotic community in the Sonoran Desert 🏜️. They are also a vital part of the diet of Indigenous people in the area. Saguaros require a specific sequence of monsoons and dry spells to blossom and reproduce. Due to climate change-related shifts in weather conditions, the mature Continue reading "A prickly situation"
When I teach my invertebrate zoology course, we talk only very briefly about glass sponges, despite the fact that they re super cool. In this new paper the authors describe some incredible glass sponge #biodiversity off the coast of New Zealand. They used standard methods (morphology, genetics). But they also used phylometabolomics – that is, they Continue reading "Phylometabolomics (and glass…
Here s a cool new environmental DNA (eDNA) paper where the researchers (Garrett et al. 2023) used airborne DNA to detect bats in their roosts. Title: Out of thin air: surveying tropical bat roosts through air sampling of eDNA OA 🔗 https://peerj.com/articles/14772/ All of the detected bats (some rather rare) are known from previous work in Continue reading "Airborne environmental DNA (eDNA) 🧬 🦇"
Remember that failed #SpaceX #launch last week? Another big failure was that of the #FAA and SpaceX to protect the abundant and vulnerable #wildlife in the area. Great article: https://blog.esghound.com/p/spacexs-texas-rocket-is-going-to Quotes: SpaceX’s #Boca #Chica facility sits amid one of the most unique #natural #habitats in the northern hemisphere. The area is home to countless #endangered…