Posted by Kristen Goodhue on August 1st, 2019
by Quinn Burkhart
We’ve known for years that many of Earth’s forests are dying out and struggling to replenish their populations. At the Forest Global Earth Observatory, or ForestGEO, scientists are attempting to get to the root of this issue. A global network of research sites and scientists, ForestGEO studies how climate change is affecting tropical and temperate forests globally. Worldwide, ForestGEO examines how forests are changing over time at 67 sites in 27 countries. This totals to about 12,000 species and six million trees. Click to continue »
Posted in Climate Change, Ecology, SERC Sites and Scenes | Comments Off on May The Forest Be With You—SERC’s ForestGEO Census
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on July 22nd, 2019
by Quinn Burkhart
When the word fossil comes to mind, the first thing many people think of are dinosaurs. Of course, dinosaurs are long extinct. Yet, as crazy as it sounds, we can find ourselves walking under the shade of a special fossil that grew in the age of the dinosaurs too. We call this “fossil” a ginkgo tree–an ancient plant giving us a glimpse into the future. Click to continue »
Posted in Publications | Comments Off on The Scientists’ Time Machine—Otherwise Known as Ginkgos
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on July 12th, 2019
by Kristen Minogue
SERC education coordinator Karen McDonald shows the contents in a stuffed shark stomach: bits of bone, a toy turtle and plastic. (Credit: Kristen Minogue/SERC)
Move over, blue crabs. There’s a new predator in the education department. Sharks are making waves as the latest addition to field trips and engineering programs at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC).
This spring, SERC added sharks as another station in its “Shoreline Connections” and “Exploring Nature” field trips. The education staff also created a day-long program that lets students think like scientists by planning a shark tagging expedition and designing their own shark tags.
“Most of the students and teachers and even parents don’t realize that there are sharks and rays in the Chesapeake Bay,” said Karen McDonald, director of SERC’s education center. “So this is new to them. And typically the organisms are vilified. So this is a chance for us to show their importance in the ecosystem.” Click to continue »
Posted in Classes and Events, Ecology, Education, Interns, SERC Sites and Scenes | Comments Off on Sharks Debut on SERC Field Trip Menu
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on June 21st, 2019
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center stays close to its heritage by leasing land to farmers
by Stephanie Fox
Summer farm fields on the SERC campus (Photo: Nicole Campbell)
Before the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) became a bustling scientific center, adorned with research labs and paved roads, it was the Java Dairy Farm, run by an eccentric millionaire named Robert Lee Forrest. In 1962, Forrest passed away, leaving his 368 acres of farmland and other properties along Maryland’s Rhode River to the Smithsonian Institution. Despite some talk of selling the farm to grow the Smithsonian’s endowment, further inspection of the abandoned property revealed an ideal space for field biology and ecology studies.
Over the past 57 years since Forrest’s donation, the property has grown to 2,650 acres, 19 labs and nearly 100 researchers. The majority of the natural terrain is dedicated to studying environmental issues like nutrient pollution and climate change. But SERC also has set aside about 270 acres (three plots of land) for local farmers to lease, as a reminder of the center’s agricultural origins. Click to continue »
Posted in Land Use, SERC Sites and Scenes, Water Quality | Comments Off on Leased Farmland Hearkens Back to Smithsonian’s Agricultural Roots
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on June 18th, 2019
by Quinn Burkhart
Most people need to visit the ocean to get their sea water fix. But beneath their feet, those waters may already be closer than they think. “Saltwater intrusion,” which occurs when the sea level rises and pushes large amounts of saltwater onto the coast, is one of the most prominent—and least talked about—effects of climate change. Its influence on the Chesapeake Bay, one of the lowest regions in the United States, is gaining traction.
Click to continue »
Posted in Climate Change, Ecology, Invasive Species, Land Use, Publications | Comments Off on The Invisible Flood: When We Can’t Tell We’re Drowning
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on June 3rd, 2019
By Stephanie Fox
Each year, thousands of invasive organisms cling to the bottoms of boats, traveling hundreds of miles to distant bays. It’s proven difficult and time consuming for scientists to investigate all the harbors being invaded. So researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) are looking to citizen scientists for help.
Over the last year, volunteers assisted from the comfort of their homes, helping identify invasive species using images online. But this summer, a small group of Invader ID volunteers will get their hands dirty doing experiments of their own in the Chesapeake Bay. Click to continue »
Posted in California, Ecology, Invasive Species, Participatory Science, Volunteers | Comments Off on Invader ID Volunteers Are Deploying Tiles in Chesapeake Bay
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on May 10th, 2019
by Stephanie Fox
Standing on the beach of High Island, Texas, James “Tyler” Bell saw a handful of tiny dots on the horizon and knew he was about to observe something incredible. Within seconds, they grew closer, hovering just above the water before coming ashore.
Many casual observers would have no idea what was happening. But Bell, a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s Microbial Ecology Lab and an avid bird watcher, knew he was witnessing the “Yucatan Express”—a seasonal event in which millions of ruby-throated hummingbirds spend a single evening flying across the Gulf of Mexico from Central America and Mexico to the breezier north.
A ruby-throated hummingbird purches on a branch. (Photo: Mickey Estes)
“Millions of individual birds…all arrive in their own time, one by one,” Bell said. The birds often fly in clusters, each group completing the Yucatan Express during different evenings throughout the spring.
For 20 hours the ruby-throated hummingbirds travel more than 500 miles across the water without stopping. Their voyage ends in cooler states that are more suitable for their annual summer nesting.
But the miraculous journey takes its toll on the birds that weigh less than a nickel. Click to continue »
Posted in Ecology | 11 Responses »
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on May 6th, 2019
by Stephanie Fox
Standing in a nearly empty classroom, three students crowded around a massive cardboard box, removing padding and clearing the way for the robot inside. Within minutes, they had extracted and turned on the robot, whose abilities they will test and manipulate this spring.
Joe Lewis turns Pepper on for the first time since removing it from the box. (Stephanie Fox/Northwestern University)
South River High School juniors John Hair, Jacob Haley and Joe Lewis partnered with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) to develop a program for the robot that improves environmental literacy.
The robot they’re programming is just one of 12 “Pepper” robots SoftBank Robotics donated to the Smithsonian in February 2018.
“It was a pilot project trying to see if these Pepper robots could be used in an educational museum or research setting,” said Cosette Larash, a public engagement program assistant at SERC. Click to continue »
Posted in Education, Programs | Comments Off on High School Students Program Robot to Help Environmental Literacy
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on April 24th, 2019
by Stephanie Fox
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) celebrated Earth Day with the first trash audit since changing its recycling system.
SERC administration staff Sarah Wade, Michelle Rossman and Lauren Nicol sort through trash bags in search of recyclables. (Photo: Stephanie Fox/Northwestern University)
After examining almost 115 pounds of waste and recycling bags, the SERC operations team in charge of today’s audit found only about 3% of items were thrown in the wrong bin. That’s a huge improvement from the first audit that took place in the fall.
SERC prides itself on being one of the most environmentally friendly research centers in the country. Its Mathias Laboratory was awarded a “Platinum” Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, the highest rank LEED offers for green buildings. It also received the President’s GreenGov Building the Future Award in 2015, awarded to buildings with sustainable operations and green designs.
That’s why members of the staff were shocked to find that a 2018 waste audit revealed them to be terrible at recycling. Click to continue »
Posted in SERC Sites and Scenes | 1 Response »
Posted by Kristen Goodhue on April 11th, 2019
A new team is using big data to change how the world calculates its carbon budget on the coasts
by Kristen Minogue
Left to right: Jorge Ramos of Conservation International (Credit: Laura Jaramillo/Conservation International); James Holmquist of SERC (Credit: Lauren Brown); David Klinges of SERC (Credit: SERC); Kathe Todd-Brown of the International Soil Carbon Network (Credit: Andrea Starr/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory).
There’s a gaping hole in Earth’s carbon budget. Scientists have known about it for years, but the data to balance the books have proven hard to find. The blank line is for coastal wetlands—ecosystems that could protect us not only from climate change, but hurricanes, pollution and a host of other environmental hazards.
“When we think of carbon storage or natural climate solutions, a lot of the time forests and trees come to mind,” said David Klinges, a research technician at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). “Because trees have a lot of mass, they store a lot of carbon. But what is not as publicly recognized is that soils—and other forms of plants besides trees—they also store carbon.” Click to continue »
Posted in Climate Change, Ecology, Land Use | Comments Off on Rethinking Carbon
