Today in the School of the Environment:
Palouse Prairie Bird Report – Spring 2024
Learn about bioacoustic studies of birds being conducted in Palouse Prairie habitats including the ecology of urban and rural bird populations. Read More…
Undergraduate Research: Elephants, Leopards, and Himalayan Black Bears
Undergraduate, Cayden Steele, recently described his adventures while studying wildlife in Thailand and Bhutan to complete his thesis in the WSU Honors Program. Read More…
Polar Bears Unlikely to Adapt to Longer Summers
Cameras attached to polar bears indicate that the more time they are forced by melting ice to stay and forage on land the more likely they are to have reduced feeding success and body condition. Read More…
In the Blink of An Eye: How Humans Shrink Animals Around the World
Humans are directly and indirectly shrinking the size of many species of animals in the world. Dr. Jennifer Phillips and her colleagues have recently reported that excessive light in urban environments is even shrinking the eyes of some species of birds. Read More…
Effects of Human Disturbance on Wildlife
Wildlife ecologists in the School of the Environment used automated camera stations to measure wildlife reactions to disturbances by vehicle traffic versus human hikers. They discovered that reactions to human disturbance varied among wildlife species, but in general, many species tended to shift their habitat use at sites with recreational hikers to more nocturnal hours or delayed their return to these sites after disturbance. Read More…
Bad News: You’ve Been Contaminated, and Yes, We Mean You
The air we breathe, the foods and water we ingest, the items we wear, touch, and use are all around us daily. We are surrounded and often infused by manufactured chemicals, perhaps most of which have not been explicitly evaluated for potential effects on human or other biological life. Read More…
Summer / Fall 2023 – In This Issue:
Palouse Country: Birds of Summer and a Mirror of Life
A wildlife biologist walks through riparian forests along the Snake River and watches as Nature measures and reflects the passage of time. Read More…
Video: Pygmy Rabbit Research
This summer, KCTS 9, a local affiliate of PBS, highlighted some of the research being conducted on pygmy rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) by Dr. Lisa Shipley, Professor, WSU School of the Environment, and her colleague, Dr. Janet Rachlow, Dept. Head, Fish and Wildlife Sciences, Univ. of Idaho. Read More…
Video: Invasive Asian Clams in the Columbia River
Researchers in the School of the Environment have sampled nearly 300 miles of the Columbia River from the ocean and upstream to Richland, Washington, and found that invasive Asian clams are widespread and successful in many habitats despite variation in water temperature, water quality, and substrates (sand, silt, rock). Read More…
Wear and Tear on the Environment: Stormwater Biofiltration Increases Coho Salmon Hatchling Survival
In a recent study, Dr. McIntyre and her colleagues in the Northwest Fisheries Science Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, found that when stormwater runoff was treated using green infrastructure (bioretention filtration – runoff filtered through layers of sand, compost, gravel, wood mulch, etc.) it removed many of the toxins that otherwise increased mortality of coho salmon hatchlings. Read More…
A Summer of Heat, Flooding, Fire, and Smoke
This summer, the dramatic summer of 2023, will go down as one of many markers of increasingly widespread and frequent effects of climate heating and climate catastrophe.
Unfortunately, climate researchers in the WSU School of the Environment are increasingly called upon to comment on our rapidly changing climate and the effects of heat, smoke, fire, and drought in the western U.S. and world.
What Do Elephants, Billiard Balls, and Your Stomach Have in Common?
The entire world, the environments around us, and virtually all life on Earth is surrounded and embedded with plastic.
Even if you think you know about plastic pollution, you owe it to yourself to read the following report by noted science author, Elizabeth Kolbert. Read More…
Just for Fun:
CARTOON: First Dog on the Moon – Brenda the Civil Disobedience Penguin Interviews Climate Scientists
Sometimes, laughing at climate change (or human folly) might just be the best medicine. See this cartoon by First Dog on the Moon. Read More…
Book Review:
The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush
In her new book, author Elizabeth Rush joins a scientific expedition to visit the Thwaites Glacier and explores the troubling question, “What does it mean to bring a child into the world at this time of radical change?” Read More…
Book Review:
The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell
This summer has awakened many people to the harsh new future that all life is facing on Earth. The heat is coming. Relentlessly. Goodell’s new book explores in frank detail the consequences of a primary force in climate change, increasing heat. Read More…
Film Reviews:
Rotten Tomatoes: 75% Tomatometer©
Asteroid City by Wes Anderson
Those of you who like the director, Wes Anderson, may enjoy his new film, Asteroid City, with an ensemble cast. Read More…
In Memoriam:
Tokitae (Lolita or Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut)
A life remembered. Read More…
Spring, 2023 – In this Issue:
Hare Today and Gone Tomorrow: Using Camera Traps to Census Wildlife
One of the most difficult problems encountered by wildlife biologists attempting to study wild animals is answering the question of how many we have and where they are located.
See how SoE wildlife ecologist, Dr. Dan Thornton and his colleagues are using camera traps to study lynx, snowshoe hares, and other wildlife to better understand their ecology and future conservation. Read More…
Large Carnivore Kills, Nutrient Dynamics, and Landscape Ecology
What happens when a large carnivore kills its prey and leaves the remains of a carcass to slowly decompose? What happens to the ecosystem?
This question was recently addressed by SoE wildlife ecologists, Dr. Lisa Shipley and Dr. Dan Thornton and their colleagues. Read More…
SoE in National Geographic: How to Butter Up a Grizzly Bear
National Geographic recently reported on what they call “The odd phenomenon of moth-eating bears – and the dangers they face.“
See some of the many science news stories on SoE researchers, including Drs. Dan Thornton, Charles T. Robbins, and colleagues and their work on bears. Read More…
Special Essay: The Endling
Today in SoE Science we’d like to share a special essay with you from Orion Magazine, entitled “The Endling” by Christina Rivera Cogswell. Her touching essay addresses the emotions felt by those who value all the plants and animals and other life on Earth and feel deeply at the tragic losses occurring in the natural world.
Essay & Slide Show:
Palouse Country: Birds of a Feather
A wildlife ecologist shares observations and thoughts about birds in Palouse Prairie and the Snake River Valley. Read More…
Photo Exhibit – Hang Gliding With Pelicans
It isn’t just American Robins. The first Pelicans of spring also signal the impending summer in the Snake River Valley. See More…
Just For Fun: Pop Quiz – Barking Up the Right Tree
Take the quiz to see if you can identify this tree. Read More…
Opinion: On the Whiteness of Conservation and the Audubon Society
If you enjoy bird watching you’ve probably heard about the controversy over the push to change the name of the National Audubon Society.
Here we share various opinion pieces published by others as different people support and oppose changing the common names of birds. Read More…
Today in SoE Science [your chatbot-free zone…]:
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Today’s Philosophical Questions:
If chatbots tell each other jokes, do they laugh? Does it matter?We take a deep dive into some of the philosophical perspectives and bigger issues with ChatGPT and the use of AI, large language models (LLMs), and automated text generation/writing by sharing several in-depth thought pieces written by others (real people).
Noam Chomsky: The False Promise of ChatGPT – from the New York Times
The Stochastic Parrot – from “You Are Not a Parrot” by Elizabeth Weil, New York Magazine
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Geology Today: 100 Million Years in 20 Seconds & ‘Phosphogeddon‘
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In-Depth Ecology: Living with Leopards in India & Caterpillar Catastrophe
Winter 2023 – In this Issue:
Feature:
SoE Education & Research Reports:
- Climate Refuge? Canada Lynx in Glacier National Park
- Canary in the Forest? Dieback of Western Redcedar in the Pacific Northwest
- Dmitri Kalashnikov Wins AGU & AMS Awards
- Bears, Berries & Woodland Debris
- Human Disturbance & the Landscape Ecology of Fear
In-Depth Ecology:
Art, Literature, Photography:
Fall 2022 – In this Issue:
Editor’s Choice: Bug Splat Ecology & Science Pizza
SoE Special Reports:
Climate Anxiety in Environmental Science Students
Today’s Lab Assignment: Take a Bath
SoE Education & Research Reports:
- Bug Splat Ecology
- Droning on in Higher Education
- Dams, Reservoirs, & Methane Emissions
- Watching the Trees Die
- Are Bears Really Carnivores?
- Dry Lightening & Western Wildfires
- Survival of Mule Deer Fawns in SE Washington
- Air Pollution from Western Wildfires
- How Cars Kill Salmon
- Generating Science Enthusiasm in High School Students
- Video Interview: Western Wildfires Affect Midwestern Severe Weather
- Tipping Points for Pacific Northwest Forests?
- Landscape Ecology & Conservation of Wild Cats and Large-Mammals
- Phantom Forests: Why Global Tree Plantings Fail
- How Heavy Is a Forest? And Why Does It Matter?
- North Atlantic Right Whale Nearly Extinct
- What is Cop27 (and why does it matter to you?)
- Sightseeing on the Road to Hell
- Past 8 Years the Hottest Ever Recorded
- 20 Climate Photos That Changed the World
- Platypus, Be Dammed
- Exploding a Carbon Time Bomb: Congo Peatlands
- Geoscience (listen): Journey to the Doomsday Glacier
- Must-Watch Video: Exploding Plants
- Epicurious? What Does 36,000 Year-Old Bison Taste Like?
- Darwin’s Orchids and Drunk Wasps
- Rediscovery of Frogs Thought to Be Extinct
- Discovery of a Living Fossil on the California Coast
- Morbid Curiosity: The Difference Between Possum and Opossum
- Are You Smarter Than a Slime Mold? (be careful how you answer…)
- Lost and Found: Rescuing a Rare Oak
- Can Bumble Bees Play Soccer?
Essays & Natural History:
Margaret Renkl – from The New York Times:
At Summer’s End, a Moment of Wild Surprise
From the WSU Arboretum:
On the Controversy Over Milkweed & Monarch Butterflies
Art / Literature / Photography
What We’re Reading (and why):
– How to Speak Whale
– Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
– Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps
– The Soul of an Octopus
– Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
Photo Exhibit:
Study #23 in Mourning Doves & ‘Pigeons’
In-Depth Studies:
Elizabeth Kolbert – Climate Change From A To Z
Bill McKibben – Dimming the Sun to Cool the Planet is a Desperate Idea, Yet We’re Inching Toward It