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Tag: climate change

7 Tips on How You Can Help the Environment

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This is part three in a series on primates and conservation. Check out parts one and two here. If you want to help with saving our environment and animal conservation efforts follow the tips below! Even the smallest efforts can make an impact on primate conservation, and help combat against the effects of global warming. 

The cycle of life… and death… below your feet

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Photo of a deciduous temperate forest in autumn, with leaves senescing and leaf litter on the forest floor in various stages of decomposition.

As an ecosystem ecologist, I study how the cycle of life and death influences forest structure and changes over time. A walk in the woods might illuminate the forest’s dynamism as you observe squirrels tending to their buried acorn caches and listen to woodpeckers feasting on grubs. In contrast, the plant community may appear more… Read more »

A night at the museum takes us back to the future!

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Photos of museum collection specimens of preserved silky pocket mice (Perognathus flavus) and kangaroo rats (Dipodomys ordii) used for stable isotope analysis. Skeletons are enclosed in small jars, and stuffed prepared skins are aligned in trays.

Graduate students across disciplines agree: as your years of graduate education increase, your knowledge and skill sets become incredibly specialized. Cue Liam Neeson in Taken, “I can tell you that I do not have money, but what I do have… [is] a very particular set of skills.” So when I asked Dr. Tara Smiley, a… Read more »

How cutting edge technology can help us understand animal migration

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Two undergraduates are working on the device they created to measure the cardinal direction of flight of a moth. One undergrad is adjusting the moth attached to the device; the other undergraduate is checking the computer to make sure it is ready to record data

Scientists have long been interested in understanding animal migration, but gathering migration data proved difficult in the past. For example, the process of catching and recapturing migratory songbirds using mist nets is a laborious process. In the past, recovering songbirds produced data only about the breeding location and their migration destination, and rarely about the migration itself.  Studying… Read more »

What are scientific facts?

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This post is from ScIU’s archives. It was originally published by Chris ChoGlueck in October 2017 and has been lightly edited to reflect current events. Whether it’s the “alternative facts” from politicians or the “fake news” from the media, facts are at the fore. While they can’t agree on much else, politicians, pundits, and the… Read more »

Earth Day 2018: Reclaiming climate science

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A picture of Earth from space against a blue backdrop. The continent of Africa is obscrubed by a large cloud formation in the Anarctic.

This post is from ScIU’s archives. It was originally published for Earth Day 2017 and has been lightly edited to reflect current events.  When scientists communicate with the public about politics, they often frame the issue as “science vs. politics.”  For instance, some scientists champion speaking truth to power, while others suggest that they stay out of… Read more »

The grand challenge to prepare Indiana for environmental change… and the hope behind it

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The logo for the Environmental Resilience Institute, which is an artistic representation of the state of Indiana. The logo is an outline of the state with drawings of wildlife, wind turbines, farms and a city skyline included in the borders. It is accompanied with the words: “Prepared for Change: Resilient Ecosystems, Livable Communities, and Healthy Hoosiers”

Typically when you think about a bunch of academics discussing environmental change, it has an air of doom and gloom. The projections aren’t promising: the global temperature is predicted to rise 0.2 °C each decade, resulting mainly from anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases, and this will continue to result in rising sea levels and unpredictable,… Read more »

What are scientific facts?

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Whether it’s the “alternative facts” from politicians or the “fake news” from the media, facts are at the fore. While they can’t agree on much else, politicians, pundits, and the public do agree (mostly) about facts: facts are separate from fictions, they are reliable and authoritative, and, most importantly, they have something to do with… Read more »

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