Browsing Month 'January, 2009'
In a paper published online this month in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, ESA member Bruce Robertson and his colleagues in biology and biophysics explore the concept of polarized light pollution. They synthesize work that shows how light reflected off of human-made surfaces can confuse animals and alter their behavior, leading to injury or [...]
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Eastern Fence Lizards are rampant across the American southeast but, in recent years, they’ve begun to coexist with invasive red fire ants from South America. Because the lizards and the ants have similar requirements (terrestrial areas with abundant sunlight), they often find themselves occupying the same space. And the ants don’t like it. Tracy Langkilde [...]
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Tree deaths have more than doubled in the western U.S. in the past 20-30 years, and the culprit is climate change, according to a paper published Friday in Science. Warming has all kinds of consequences for species ranges. Changes in temperature can narrow a species’ range or move it latitudinally through changes in average yearly [...]
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There’s been a lot of buzz in Washington these past few weeks, and a good deal of it is about science. Here are highlights from today’s issue of the ESA Policy News Update, written by ESA’s Policy Analyst, Piper Corp. Science in the Economic Stimulus Bill. An $825 billion economic stimulus package, the American Recovery [...]
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President Barack Obama has been an inspiration to many scientists during his campaign and his transition to office because of his repeated commitments to the sciences and his early appointments of scientists in high-profile cabinet positions and advisory roles. Yesterday he renewed those sentiments in his inauguration speech, vowing to “restore science to its rightful [...]
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