Mayda Nathan/University of Maryland
–Mayda Nathan, graduate student (University of Maryland)
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 1065098. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Mangrove research is not glamorous work.
Researchers Lorae Simpson, Jake Bodart, Nancy Shipley and Mayda Nathan ford across a mangrove-surrounded pool. (Brian Thompson)
Our team has descended on the Florida mangroves this summer to study the insects that live in and on them, the fish that find shelter among their submerged roots, the dietary choices of the crabs that live in their branches, their reproductive biology, and the interactions between the three mangrove species found here and their marsh plant neighbors. Taken together, our efforts will contribute to a better understanding of the communities that assemble as mangroves spread north into the northern Florida saltmarshes.
This means we spend some days struggling through thickets of mangroves, waist-high patches of pickleweed, and neck-deep pools of brackish water. In building up a research program, we’re building a lot of character, too.
More stories from the mangroves >>
-Mayda Nathan, graduate student (University of Maryland)
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 1065098. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
by Cora Johnston
Red Lionfish. Photo: Jacek Madejski
by Dan Gruner
Black mangrove. Mangroves like this tolerate hot, salty environments partly by exuding excess salt onto their leaves. (John Parker)
I don’t think anyone believes that will happen. However, it does seem that mangroves are moving up in latitude, encroaching into more temperate salt marsh systems dominated by cord grass and other herbaceous species. Although mangrove systems are in steep decline worldwide because of coastal development, aquaculture and other human activities, climate change and other factors may be increasing their total geographic range.
Why would this happen? What would this mean for coastal ecosystems in the USA and globally? And what would it mean for the billions of people who live within 20 miles of a coastal zone, or the billions more who rely on some form of oceanic protein?
by Monaca Noble
Arthur Carlton-Jones, the Boy Scout who encouraged fishermen to throw unused bait in the trash. (Photo: Michael Carlton-Jones)
Those were the words that echoed out during August and early September of last year, when the Marine Invasions Lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) gave away hundreds of bags of bloodworms to Maryland fishermen. We’re doing it again this spring. Why would an environmental research center give away hundreds of dollars worth of worms?
It’s national Poem in Your Pocket Day, and brevity has been the soul of wit since (approximately) 1603. We’re celebrating by showcasing some of the shortest nature poems in the history of the written language.
Yellow cowhorn orchid, Cyrtopodium flavum (Jim Fowler)
Nature rarer uses Yellow
Than another Hue.
Saves she all of that for Sunsets
Prodigal of Blue
Spending Scarlet, like a Woman
Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly
Like a Lover’s Words.
-Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
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by Kristen Minogue
Vanessa Beauchamp/Towson University
by Kristen Minogue
Ascidia sydneiensis. Rosana Rocha, Universidade Federal do Paraná
Tunicates. Ascidians. Filter-feeders. Sea grapes. Sea squirts. They go by many names, all describing some of the most colorful invaders in the ocean. A photo gallery from the marine invasions lab offers a glimpse of the most stunning.
by Monaca Noble
Invasion was a godsend for the rough periwinkle snail, which managed to escape its flatworm parasites. (World Register of Marine Species)
Take the common cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii. T. gondii‘s complex two-host life cycle makes it difficult for it to adapt to new places. The parasite has two phases, a sexual phase and an asexual phase. The sexual phase can only take place in the cat (primary host), but the asexual phase can occur in several mammal species (secondary host) including cats, mice, humans, and birds. Because the parasite must infect a cat to reproduce and survive, its preferred secondary host is a mouse. If a mouse infected with T. gondii were introduced into an area with no cats, the parasite would not be able to survive.
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by Kristen Minogue
Blue mussels (Credit: Meriseal)
