by Monaca Noble
An orange sponge made this bryolith its home.
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Publications
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Discovery on the Mudflats
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011Click to continue »
Smithsonian Study Measures Watershed-wide Effects of Riparian Buffers on Nutrient Pollution
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
Well-developed riparian forests outline streams and help protect stream water quality.
Most of the time, nutrients are viewed as a positive and essential part of life. However, excess amounts of a nutrient, like nitrogen, can create major ecological problems for the Chesapeake Bay and other aquatic ecosystems. Too much nitrogen leads to an abundance of microscopic plant growth in the water. When the algae die and decay, they consume the oxygen that other organisms need to thrive.
Much of the Bay’s nitrogen pollution comes from farms where rainwater carries nitrate, a form of nitrogen, from fields into streams that drain into the Bay. For years, ecologists have noted that forests and wetlands growing between croplands and streams can reduce the amount of nitrate that reaches the waterways. Scientists have measured nitrate removal by these “riparian buffers,” but only in small study areas.
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Eco Trekking across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Sunset on canoes in Tylerton, MD
This summer from August 7th through August 13th, 9 students went on a journey through the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This trip was organized and led by Josh Falk, an Education Specialist at SERC, and Kevin Schabow, an educator at the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office. The purpose of this trip was to immerse high school age students in the complex nature of the science, culture and natural resources that the Bay’s watershed has to offer. This year, the students were assigned to report on what they learned and what they did. Here is their story.
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Nitrogen Weakens Marshes’ Ability to Hold Back Climate Change
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Scientists Find Excess Nitrogen Favors Plants That Respond Poorly to Rising CO2
The Smithsonian's Global Change Research Wetland. Photo: SERC
Plants build their tissue primarily with the CO2 they take up from the atmosphere. The more they get, the faster they tend to grow—a phenomenon known as the “CO2 fertilization effect.” However, plants that photosynthesize greater amounts of CO2 will also need higher doses of other key building blocks, especially nitrogen. The general consensus has been that if plants get more nitrogen, there will be a larger CO2 fertilization effect. Not necessarily so, says a new paper published in the July 1 issue of Nature.
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Introducing Tintinnophagus acutus
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
A Tintinnophagus acutus dinospore, with a flagellum. Photo: Wayne Coats
Of the approximately 2,000 known species of living dinoflagellates, about 150 are parasitic. These organisms can alter the marine food web, in some cases destroying prey that consumers like copepods and larval fish rely upon. Coats first spotted T. acutus in the 1980s, in plankton samples he had collected from the Chesapeake Bay. Through his microscope, he noticed a ciliate being edged out of its lorica (shell) by a dinoflagellate. It looked different from others he had observed.
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One species, 20 genotypes, 3,808 plants and a plague of voles: Study reveals new benefits of genetic diversity
Thursday, May 27th, 2010If you’re designing an ambitious field experiment that involves more than 3,800 plants and 240 deer cages, ecologist John Parker has some words of wisdom for you: beware of the unexpected. Beware of meadow voles. Parker is a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, in Edgewater, Maryland. He studies the relationship between plants and the herbivores that eat them.
Ecologist John Parker examines one of his plants in the field. Photo: Alex Smith
In a recent paper published in Ecology Letters, Parker chronicles the ups, downs and findings of a study investigating the links between genetic diversity in plants and herbivory. “Most people think about biodiversity in terms of species diversity, where you have a rich variety of plants and animals living in an ecosystem,” explains Parker. “I’m interested in exploring the importance of genetic diversity within a species.” Scientists have recently discovered that plants can benefit from growing in genetically-rich polycultures, where neighboring plants of the same species have different genotypes. Parker’s new research shows that these benefits include better protection against hungry herbivores like deer and voles.
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Key to invasive plants’ success is not simply a matter of taste
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
The woolly bear caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella) is a generalist herbivore; it feeds on many of the trees and plants in the woods surrounding SERC. Photo: John Parker
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Hypoxic waters: Researching beyond the surface to understand the impact on fisheries
Friday, March 19th, 2010
Two summer interns measure the water's dissolved oxygen concentrations. Water is typically considered hypoxic if oxygen concentrations are below 2mg/L. Photo: Courtney Richmond
In coastal waters around the world there are more than 500 hypoxic zones. These are areas where dissolved oxygen concentrations are so low that they threaten fish, invertebrates and aquatic food webs. Some fish manage to escape hypoxic areas, but oysters, clams and other sessile creatures are simply stuck.
Hypoxia makes the evening news when there’s a noticeable fish kill. However many of its effects are more subtle. Individuals that fail to escape low oxygen zones can suffer mortality or reduced growth and reproduction. Creatures that flee can become easy targets for fishermen and predators.
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Phragmites australis: Genetic analysis reveals the promiscuous nature of the invasive reed
Friday, March 12th, 2010
The non-native strain of Phragmites australis dominates many Chesapeake Bay wetlands. Photo Melissa McCormick.
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Forests are growing faster, climate change most likely new steroid
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Liriodendron tulipifera, or tulip poplar, is a common tree in the temperate forests surrounding the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Other species include sweetgum, American beech, and southern red oak. Photo: Kirsten Bauer.
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