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Ecology

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Confessions of a Real Life Scientist: Grasslands of the World

Friday, May 25th, 2018
Kim La Pierre in tall grasses

Kim Komatsu stands in a grassland at Konza Prairie Biological Station, in Manhattan, Kansas.
(Credit: Cynthia Chang)

by Kim Komatsu,
ecosystem conservation ecologist

One of the unexpected perks of my life as a scientist has been the opportunity to travel for work. As a grassland ecologist, my studies have taken me to South Africa and Tanzania to investigate the roles of fire, grazing, and nutrient availability in determining plant growth and species diversity. In these exotic field sites, I would drive by impalas, zebras, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, lions, and leopards before arriving at my experimental plots. Then I would spend my day working in the hot sun to survey the plant communities in my plots, all the while guarded by a park ranger with a loaded rifle to protect me from the very animals I marveled at on the way to the field site. (Thankfully those rifles were never fired during my trips.) With grasslands all over the world, I have many more grassland types on my research wish list, including the Mongolian steppes, the Pampas of South America, the Cerrado of Brazil, and the rangelands of Australia and Europe. Click to continue »

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Wetlands of the Warmer World

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018

SERC researchers race to find out how higher temps will affect coastal wetlands

by Mollie McNeel

Woman in hat collecting marsh plants

Genevieve Noyce collects a blade of marsh sedge to measure in lab, in the Smithsonian’s “wetland of the future.”
(Kristen Minogue/SERC)

Wetlands are typically filled with the sounds of crickets chirping, bees buzzing and frogs croaking. But at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), those are all accompanied by the whirring of motor-powered pumps. These pumps are driving air from hexagonal carbon dioxide chambers to a greenhouse gas analyzer, helping scientists create a “wetland of the future.”

Scientists at SERC are attempting to predict how the warming climate and rising carbon dioxide levels will impact coastal wetlands with an experiment called SMARTX—Salt Marsh Accretion Response to Temperature eXperiment. It’s one of many futuristic experiments on the center’s Global Change Research Wetland.

“Wetlands are a really important part of our planet in terms of storing carbon, and we’re hoping to get an idea of how higher temperatures will affect them,” said Genevieve Noyce, an ecology postdoc at SERC, as she moved among grass-covered warming plots, measuring gas exchange over five-minute intervals.

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Wanted: The Hunt for Chinese Mitten Crabs Is Back On

Tuesday, May 15th, 2018
Chinese mitten crab held in outstretched hand

A Chinese mitten crab found in Chesapeake Beach, Md., in 2007. Chinese mitten crabs are most recognizable by their brown, spiny shells and furry “mittened” claws. (Credit: SERC)

by Kristen Minogue

An army of invading crabs has disappeared. But scientists are skeptical about whether they’re gone for good, or just hiding. As warmer temps lure people onto the water, Smithsonian scientists are asking boaters to report any sightings of the elusive Chinese mitten crab.

In 1992, a team of fishermen unexpectedly caught a Chinese mitten crab while trawling for shrimp in southern San Francisco Bay. From there, sightings of the brown, furry-clawed crustaceans exploded. In 1998, nearly three quarters of a million appeared in the North Bay alone. The mitten crabs threatened to collapse river banks with their burrows and made fishing nearly impossible in some places, as they clogged gear, stole bait or ate trapped fish.

“It was spectacularly abundant. A true outbreak,” said Greg Ruiz, a biologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). “And it clogged the water intakes. Water is the economy in California.”

Mitten crab numbers remained high through 2005. And then they vanished. Chinese mitten crabs haven’t been seen in California since 2010. Click to continue »

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Posted in California, Ecology, Invasive Species | 2 Responses »

Is Your Plant Dead or Just Dormant?

Thursday, May 10th, 2018

by Mollie McNeel

pink lady's slipper orchid

Pink lady’s slipper (Cypripedium acaule), an orchid that can remain dormant for over 20 years. (Credit: SERC)

If a gardener told you that her plants had died and had come back to life years later, you might think she had gone crazy. But actually, she may be on to something.

Some fully-grown plants can “hibernate” in the soil for up to 20 years, researchers from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) discovered in a study published in the May issue of Ecology Letters.

The so-called “Rip Van Winkle” plants, nicknamed after the fictional character who slept for two decades, include many species of orchids and some ferns. Click to continue »

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Posted in Ecology, Endangered Species, Publications | Comments Off on Is Your Plant Dead or Just Dormant?

The Ugly Fish That Sings Its Own Song

Friday, April 27th, 2018

by Kristen Minogue

Orange-brown toadfishwith red eyes

Male Bocon toadfish of Panama attract mates by singing in a series of “grunts” and “boops.”
(Photo: Study authors)

The sing-off begins when the sun goes down. Every night off the coast of Bocas del Toro, Panama, Bocon toadfish start calling from their burrows, trying to win over females by showing off their vocal talents and drowning out the competition.

If you’ve never heard of the singing toadfish, you’re not alone. They don’t have the charisma of dolphins or whales. They’re mud-colored reef dwellers, with bulging eyes, puffed-out cheeks and fleshy barbels dangling from their mouths. By most human standards, the toadfish isn’t exactly the prettiest fish in the sea.

“It’s kind of like a troll that lives under a bridge and sings,” said Erica Staaterman, a marine biologist who recorded individual toadfish songs in Panama for a new study published this month.

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Posted in Ecology, Publications | 1 Response »

Intern Logs: Tagging Sharks
in the Sunshine State

Monday, March 26th, 2018

by Claire Mueller

Selfie of three scientists with palm trees

Front to back: SERC interns Claire Mueller and Michelle Edwards, and SERC postdoc Chuck Bangley, explore windy Fort Pierce, Fla.
(Credit: Claire Mueller/SERC)

As the communications intern for the Movement of Life Initiative, I’ve had the pleasure of doing a variety of fun projects, but my favorite was accompanying our marine team this winter to Fort Pierce, Fla., to continue their work tagging sharks with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University. Our mission was to tag as many bull sharks and cownose rays that we could with acoustic transmitters, allowing us to collect location data and determine the movement patterns of these two species.

When I arrived in Florida on January 14, I first caught up with Chuck Bangley, a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), and fellow SERC intern Michelle Edwards. They had been there since the previous Wednesday, and already had managed to tag four cownose rays and two bull sharks. Matt Ogburn (our fearless leader and principal investigator of SERC’s Fish & Invertebrate Ecology Lab) and Jay Fleming (the professional photographer documenting our expedition) joined the team on Monday night. Click to continue »

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Posted in Ecology, From the Field, Interns | 2 Responses »

Invader ID: Help Spot Invaders With Your Smart Phone

Wednesday, March 21st, 2018

by Kristen Minogue

Woman on docks holding plate with marine life, similar to the plates seen on Invader ID

SERC marine biologist Brianna Tracy holds a plate with marine life pulled from a dock in San Francisco. (Photo: Kristen Minogue/SERC)

Strange things grow on the bottoms of docks: brightly colored sponges, mat-like tunicates, and wispy, flower-shaped anemones. Many of these mysterious life forms are invasive species. This spring, Smithsonian marine biologists launched Invader ID, an online citizen science project calling on anyone with an Internet connection to help detect them.

The project centers on San Francisco Bay. With over 200 non-native species, it’s the most invaded estuary in North America. “The majority of the species that we identify in the San Francisco Bay are invasive,” said Brianna Tracy, a biologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Click to continue »

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Six Reasons To Celebrate World Wetlands Day

Friday, February 2nd, 2018

by Kristen Minogue

SERC scientist Lisa Schile in a marsh in San Francisco. (Courtesy of Lisa Schile.)

February 2 is most widely known as Groundhog Day, the day people all over the U.S. look to a rodent in Pennsylvania to predict the future. But it also marks a less famous holiday: World Wetlands Day, celebrated around the world since 1997, to mark the first international agreement to protect wetlands on Feb. 2, 1971. Curious why anyone would make a holiday for wetlands? Here are a few reasons to celebrate the unsung guardians along our shores.

wetland covered by grasses and yellow flowers

A wetland by the Kenai River in Alaska (Dennis Whigham)

  1. They protect our homes from storms and floods. Standing between us and the elements, wetlands soak up destructive energy from waves and storm surges. In an extreme example, it’s estimated during Hurricane Sandy wetlands along the East Coast prevented $625 million in property damage.
  2. They help keep pollution out of Chesapeake Bay and other waterways. Wetlands are sometimes called the “kidneys” of the Bay, because they’re able to filter out pollution from fertilizers, sewage, pesticides and harmful toxins before it streams into the water.
    3. red-winged blackbird among reeds.

    Red-winged blackbird. Wetlands provide a home or resting point for many birds on their migrations. (Kristen Minogue/SERC)

  3. They’re good for our drinking water. Most of the water we drink comes from groundwater beneath the surface. But wetlands can replenish it as some of their water seeps underground. And because of their filtering powers, the water is cleaner after passing through a wetland.
  4. Birds and fish love them. Herons, egrets, ducks and bald eagles all pass through Chesapeake wetlands as visitors or year-round residents. Striped bass and other popular fish rely on them for spawning ground or nurseries, as do crabs and shellfish.
  5. They store carbon. Plants soak up carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, making them critical players in fighting climate change. “Blue carbon” is the official name for carbon stored in wetlands and other coastal ecosystems. At the same time, wetland soils can also emit methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, making it tricky to know how much carbon wetlands store overall. Scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center are helping devise better ways to calculate this. So far they’ve found wetlands with more saltwater generally emit less methane and store more carbon.
  6. They’re natural air conditioning. With their lush plants and high water levels, wetlands can radiate moist air, cooling down areas nearby. This makes planting wetlands especially valuable near cities in tropical or dry climates.

Learn more:

Wetlands Can Resist Rising Seas, If We Let Them

The Blue Carbon Market Is Open

Coffee, Carbon and Crime: 22 Reasons to Love Trees

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Double Trouble? Tracking the Growth of Young Oysters Stressed by Acidity and Low Oxygen

Wednesday, January 10th, 2018

by Cosette Larash

The eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is one of the most important species in Chesapeake Bay. These shellfish filter the water, their reefs provide shelter for other marine species, and they’re an important seafood resource. But their numbers have hit a historical low due to overfishing, diseases like Dermo, and stressors such as hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen) and acidification (low pH).

Biologists with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) want to find out whether the double stresses of low oxygen and acidification can stunt oyster growth. Studies have shown that juvenile oysters grown under low oxygen are generally smaller than oysters grown under normal oxygen conditions. However, scientists still don’t know how these oysters fare over the long term. The answers could help aquaculture and oyster restoration projects all over the Chesapeake adapt to the often extreme conditions beneath the surface. Click to continue »

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The Ocean Is Losing Its Breath. Here’s the Global Scope.

Thursday, January 4th, 2018

by Kristen Minogue

Dead corals and crab shells

Low oxygen caused the death of these corals and others in Bocas del Toro, Panama. The dead crabs pictured also succumbed to the loss of dissolved oxygen.
(Credit: Arcadio Castillo/Smithsonian)

In the past 50 years, the amount of water in the open ocean with zero oxygen has gone up more than fourfold. In coastal water bodies, including estuaries and seas, low-oxygen sites have increased more than 10-fold since 1950. Scientists expect oxygen to continue dropping even outside these zones as Earth warms. To halt the decline, the world needs to rein in both climate change and nutrient pollution, an international team of scientists asserted in a new paper published Jan. 4 in Science.

“Oxygen is fundamental to life in the oceans,” said Denise Breitburg, lead author and marine ecologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. “The decline in ocean oxygen ranks among the most serious effects of human activities on the Earth’s environment.”

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