KDLG: Fishermen as scientists? A new app gathers climate observations from fishermen at sea. “Fishermen have observed changes in ocean ecosystems for years. But, there was no one place to record those observations. This summer, a new mobile app will gather observations from commercial fishermen on the water to bridge the gap between what they see, and what scientists need to know.”
Victoria Harbor Times: DNA database to track bushfire impact to local wildlife. “The impact of the devastating Black Summer bushfires on native plants and wildlife will be able to be tracked, thanks to a new database being created in Canberra. A DNA database of local flora and fauna is being developed as part of a collaboration between the University of Canberra, the Australian National University and Canberra company Diversity Arrays Technology.”
Earth Institute, Columbia University: A New Global Archive Helps Researchers Chart Changes in Arctic Animals’ Behavior. “Researchers from more than 100 universities, government agencies and conservation groups across 17 countries are involved in the archive, which is hosted by the Max Planck Institute. It currently contains over 200 projects with the movement data of more than 8,000 marine and terrestrial animals from 1991 to the present. ‘Our goal is to use the archive to build a global community across institutions and political boundaries,’ said Martin Wikelski, director at the Max Planck Institute.”
BusinessWire: Esri, UN, and GEO Blue Planet Release Water Health Tool (PRESS RELEASE). “This project empowers countries, especially developing nations, with the information they need to understand potential impacts on coastal water quality, address those impacts, and have routinely updated data to understand and report their progress to the United Nations as part of the SDG initiative. While governments and organizations around the world are already able to conduct these analyses, this project transforms the raw global data into actionable information to make it easier for them to make better-informed decisions.”
BirdLife International: Want to discover world’s top wildlife habitats? This website has them all. “Where can you find out about the world’s most important sites for nature, and the reasons for their significance? The Key Biodiversity Area Partnership is delighted to announce the launch of its new website, containing everything you need to know about all 16,000 sites.”
Earth Institute, Columbia University: What Social Media Can Teach Us About Human-Environment Relationships. “Recent ecological research used Instagram posts to analyze the preferences of visitors to natural areas around the world. Researchers deduced the activities and feelings that people associated with different environments, including Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The study explores the potential of using social media data to understand cultural ecosystem services—the intangible benefits that people receive from nature—and interactions between people and their environments.”
EurekAlert: New smartphone game lets you solve real-world ecological puzzles. “EcoBuilder lets players build their own ecosystem of plants and animals. They throw together a bunch of species of different shapes and sizes, decide who eats who within the confines of the game, and depending on their decisions species will either survive or go extinct. The in-game processes that decide extinction and survival are modelled using the same equations used by scientists to study real world ecosystems. This means that natural phenomena can be reproduced inside the game, creating ecosystems that behave in realistic ways to provide real-world answers.”
NASA: NASA Fosters Innovative Ways to Understand Biodiversity. “To study and monitor changes in Earth’s biodiversity, or the immense volume of organisms in the world, scientists and citizen scientists record their sightings in the field. At the same time, sensors on the ground and on board satellites and aircraft monitor flora and fauna on a regional to global scale. NASA has funded four projects to create new, virtual portals that bring into focus this wealth of biodiversity information to help inform scientists, land managers and decision makers around the world regarding the status and health of terrestrial ecosystems.”
The Verge: Alphabet’s Tidal moonshot tracks individual fish to help sustainably feed humanity. “Today Alphabet is announcing Tidal, an X division moonshot project with the goal of preserving the ocean’s ability to support life and help feed humanity sustainably. Tidal’s initial goal is to develop technologies that will give us a better understanding of what’s happening under water, with a focus on helping fish farmers to run and grow their operations in environmentally friendly ways.”
The University of Washington Daily: The complexities of the Anthropocene through multimedia, vampires, and pig farms. “Anna Tsing, professor of anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, presented a lecture Feb. 25 as part of the Katz Distinguished Lectures in the Humanities series. The talk featured insights from her new book ‘Feral Atlas and the More-Than-Human Anthropocene.’ Feral Atlas will also be appearing online as an interactive digital medium that explores ecosystems that have been changed and expanded by human facilitation.”
McGill Newsroom: World’s most detailed database maps characteristics of Earth’s rivers and catchments. “Two researchers and friends from opposite ends of the Earth have created a world-first high spatial resolution atlas that maps the environmental characteristics of all the globe’s rivers and catchments. HydroATLAS was co-developed by Bernhard Lehner and his team from McGill University’s Department of Geography and Simon Linke from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute.”
Phys .org: New VR game to help researchers understand predator and prey movements. “Researchers have developed a free virtual reality game which allows players to experience the thrill of the hunt as a hungry predator feasting on swarming flies. The VR game, called FlyCatcher, has been created by scientists from the University of Lincoln, UK, to help enhance understanding of the erratic, evasive movement of fleeing prey.”
BrockNews: Master of Sustainability student maps Niagara’s invasive species. “Plants and animals being introduced on purpose, or inadvertently into new environments, can have harmful impacts on native ecosystems. During her Master of Sustainability program at Brock University, Lyn Brown (MS ’19) learned all about the dangers of invasive species. As part of her thesis, Brown created the Niagara Region Aquatic and Riparian Invasive Species Control Database, which lists activities by organizations and groups in Niagara that manage invasive plant and aquatic species.”
Sea Grant North Carolina: New Mapping Tool Identifies Sites for Re-establishing Oyster Reefs. “Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a mapping tool that identifies sites for re-establishing oyster reefs that maximize their ecological benefits — such as water filtration. This Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based tool could inform restoration of other vital, sensitive coastal habitats.”
