ecology

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The Premium Rush of Field Ecology

I don’t often endorse late-summer-multiplex-popcorn-with-butter-like-topping fare, but Premium Rush is, for what it is, phenomenal.  It’s true, if you watch the trailer, you’ve basically got the whole thing in microcosm, but trust me, it is much better on the big screen.  It’s basically a 91 minute movie, of which about 85 minutes are mad chase scenes of our bike messenger hero Wilee (pronounced “wiley,” like the coyote, and
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#ForewordFriday Observation and Ecology

This week's #forewordFriday comes from two authors that want to expand the methodological toolbox used by ecological scientists, researchers, and students. Come take a look at "how and why direct sensory awareness of the natural world is a bridge to deeper ecological understanding." Enjoy!  
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Why the Earth is Green: Trophic Cascades on Land and Water

We have been discussing the powerful and essential ecological link between apex predators, their prey, and the foods prey eat. Based on the revolutionary ideas of Hairston, Smith, and Slobodkin, who in 1960 ingeniously proposed that the world is green because predators limit their plant-eating prey, trophic cascades science has since then explored the consequences of predator removal from ecosystems worldwide.
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Battling for Bimini

Bimini has become a battleground between the forces of coastal development and mangrove protection. A huge resort development on the western side of the island has chomped through large swathes of mangroves and threatened marine habitats with a blanket of silt. I wanted to see the battle zone at first hand—and had an unexpected demonstration of how vigilant the protectors of mangroves have to be. . . Read more »
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Tagging Lemons

The role of mangroves as vital nursery habitat for fish is nowhere more evident than in the tiny island of Bimini, off the coast of Florida. Female lemon sharks come to the sheltered lagoon waters to give birth, and the pups live amongst the tangled roots of mangroves, safe from the attention of predators, until they are about three feet long and have a better chance of survival in the open sea. A long-term research program in Bimini is revealing just how important mangroves are in the lives of these sharks, and I turned up right in the middle of the annual population census.
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Travels with Mr. Burns

Sometimes you can push hard on doors of opportunity and they remain steadfastly closed. That was my experience in Cuba, where for innumerable reasons the careful plans I had laid kept being upended by unseen events. But the compensations of travel in this fascinating country are great—not least encountering its pervasive political messaging system. . . Read more »
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To the Bat Cave

One of the mangrove-related creatures I hoped to see in Cuba was the fishing bat, which takes small fish from the surface waters of wetland ponds in swooping aerial dives. While waiting for nightfall, when the bats are active, I visited a cave where another species, the butterfly bat, pours out of its roosts by the tens of thousands—a squeaking, fluttering horde. . . Read more »
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Bonefishing in Las Salinas

The Zapata wetland is one of the prime destinations for anglers who target the feisty, fast-swimming bonefish. My guide and I spent a morning cruising the shallows of an area called Las Salinas with an angler who knew where the best place for bonefish was: around the roots of mangroves. . . Read more »

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