by Kristen Goodhue
The year 2024 is set to go down as the hottest year on record since the mid-1800s (so far), shattering several additional records in its wake. Even for solutions-minded scientists like the ones we’re lucky to work with, there’s no denying it was a rough year for planet Earth. But that doesn’t erase the many bright moments and crucial steps forward that also marked the year.
At the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), scientists have been finding new ways to sustain the Earth for the past six decades. This year the center will reach its 60th anniversary. To mark the occasion, we’ve rounded up our six favorite stories from 2024, from the groundbreaking and inspiring to the quirky and fun:
U.S. Rolls Out Its First Strategy to Save Ocean Biodiversity
An estimated 2 million species live in the ocean—but scientists have only described a mere 10% of them. Meanwhile, the U.S. relies on the sea and its life for food, shipping, energy and tourism, to the tune of over $400 billion per year. This past June, the White House announced the first nationwide strategy aimed specifically at protecting marine life and all its services. Emmett Duffy of SERC and Gabrielle Canonico of NOAA led the team that wrote the new National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy. It aims to shore up critical knowledge gaps—including oft-neglected smaller species—and align science with needs of people to expand usable, open-source data on ocean life. To do so, it aims to build stronger partnerships with local communities, Tribal communities, civil society and the private sector, to bring their needs and knowledge to the forefront for a sustainable future. Read the full story
Detector Dogs Sniff Out Endangered Orchids
Video: Encore sniffs out a small whorled pogonia with his handler, Carl Dunnock. (Video by Melissa McCormick)
Meet Encore and Grand, two Labradors recruited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work as “detector dogs.” Detector dogs are most famous for sniffing suitcases in airports or doing search-and-rescue ops. But this summer, they joined SERC ecologist Melissa McCormick in Virginia, as part of a joint project with the U.S. Botanic Garden. They were searching for one of the state’s endangered orchids: the small whorled pogonia, Isotria medeoloides. The orchid is tiny, green and has an unfortunate lookalike that makes it even harder to identify by sight. So Encore and Grand went through an Isotria-hunting boot camp to learn to find the orchid by smell. When put to the test, the two dogs found several new Isotria plants in the field. They may have even discovered some of its hiding places underground. Read the full story
Wetlands’ Superpowers Revealed in New Coastal Carbon Atlas
Coastal wetlands are carbon-storing juggernauts, making them critical players in the fight against climate change. Many nations are relying on them to meet their greenhouse gas reduction goals, as promised in the Paris Agreement. But no two wetlands are identical. To help nations pin down what their wetlands are doing—and the benefits of conserving them—scientists created a new Coastal Carbon Library and Atlas. It’s a free, open-access database, with over 15,000 soil samples from every continent except Antarctica. Led by SERC’s James Holmquist, scientists from all over the world are contributing their data on wetland carbon. The result: Conservation managers can put real numbers on the value of conserving their local wetlands. And in some places, with the rising interest in “blue carbon” credits, money. Read the full story
Found: 1,000 Beetle Species on the SERC Campus
Fireflies are enchanting, and scarab beetles can be downright gorgeous, despite the less charming name some scarabs go by (“dung beetles.”) But carrion beetles? Yep, we need them too, to decompose the rotting corpses of other animals. Over 25,000 different beetle species call North America home. And thanks to two volunteers, we now know over 1,000 of them live on our campus in Edgewater, Maryland. This summer, volunteer entomologists Charlie and Sue Staines documented the 1,000th beetle species at SERC: Nipponserica peregrina, a non-native scarab beetle from Japan. By the end of the year, the total had climbed to 1,090 species. An entire 15 species had never been recorded in Maryland. The Staines have collected data on SERC’s creepy-crawly residents since 2018, following their mantra of never overlooking something just because it’s small or common. Read the full story
In Baltimore, High School Interns Link Race, Science & Faith
In 21st-century America, it’s common to shoehorn religion and science into opposing camps. However, this stereotype ignores the vast overlap often present in their missions—to look out for their communities and the Earth. This past year, 49 Baltimore high school students took part in SERC’s “Science and Faith” internship, a partnership with Temple X led by Rylee Wernoch and Alison Cawood. The students learned about their local environment, met environmental and faith leaders working in the city and collected data in the green spaces of two Baltimore churches. They also confronted issues of racism and environmental injustice. And at the end of the program, they proposed their own solutions—from eco-friendly cosmetics to a “sacred salon” styled after the intellectual gatherings of the French Enlightenment. Read the full story
Students Help Conserve Orchids With ‘Classroom Cultivation’
What does it take to grow an endangered orchid and bring it back to the wild? This past school year, SERC and Smithsonian Gardens decided to ask over 400 middle and high school students. It’s part of a participatory science project called “Classroom Cultivation.” Its goal: Turn students into scientists and classrooms into botany labs. Organized by SERC’s Shatiyana Dunn, the students run a real-world experiment, gathering data on what soil types help threatened and endangered orchids grow best. Last year’s students in Maryland and D.C. grew the tuberous grass pink (Calopogon tuberosus), an orchid that’s critically imperiled in Maryland and has vanished from D.C. This year, the project is branching out to classrooms in Alaska, Delaware and Minnesota, who will attempt to grow their native ladies’ tresses orchids. Read the full story
