By Isabelle Geller, SRC intern There are many situations which may increase the level of stress in an animal – for example, not being able to eat enough food to meet energy demands or being in temperatures above or below a tolerable range they can. DeRango et al. (2019) aimed to study both of these […]
By Gaitlyn Malone, SRC Masters Student As climate change continues to rapidly alter environments, it is important to investigate how these changes impact the species that utilize these areas. When faced with these alterations, organisms will often have to adjust their behaviors in order to increase their survival. Animals that migrate long distances in order […]
By Delaney Reynolds, SRC intern Plastic pollution has become one of the largest adverse impacts on marine life to date. In the last 70 years, plastic debris has become so prominent in layers of sedimentary deposits that it can be used as a primary indicator for the Anthropocene, a human-induced geological epoch (Puskic, et al. […]
By Enzo Newhard, SRC intern The environmental benefits of renewable energy sources have been well established as the “pro green” discourse emphasizes the importance of eliminating our input of greenhouse gasses into the environment. The negative impact renewable energy development may have on the environment, however, has not been as thoroughly discussed. Burning fossil fuels […]
By Bella Horstmann, SRC intern Previously almost hunted to extinction, the North Pacific gray whale population currently inhabits the waters off the coast of California. Distinguished by their extremely long and predictable migration patterns, these animals have been observed very close to shore, making them a model species for studying population dynamics and animal abundance […]
By Peter Aronson, SRC intern Lots of people know about the issue of piracy in Somali waters in recent years, with mass coverage from American media and even Hollywood focusing on it with the 2013 movie Captain Phillips. However, many people don’t know that the loss of secure fisheries to illegal foreign vessels was the […]
By Meagan Ando, SRC intern The ten-percent rule toward energy transfer among levels of a trophic system is one that has been used to study ecosystems’ energy dynamics for a long time. But, in order to understand it, one must have a basic understanding of a food chain (Figure 1). Food chains describe the transfer […]
By Chris Schenker, SRC intern Despite garnering less attention than their marine counterparts, freshwater species are diverse, important, and also under threat. Despite covering only 0.8% of the world’s surface and accounting for about 0.01% of the world’s water, freshwater contains at least 100,000 distinct species (Dudgeon et al. 2006). Comparisons to other environments are […]
By Casey Dresbach, SRC intern The EPA defines stormwater runoff as that which is generated from rain events that flow over land or impervious surfaces, such as paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops, and does not soak into the ground (EPA, 2018). This accumulation of water ultimately ends up in coastal waters, but upon […]
By Carolyn Hamman, SRC intern Phytoplankton are photosynthetic microorganisms that exist in both marine and freshwater environments. There are several different types of phytoplankton each with their own unique preferred environmental parameters and strategies for growth. For example, some phytoplankton (called coccolithophores) use calcium to create protective plates they use as a defense mechanism (Beaufort […]