Table of contents for Issue 11 in NatureVolve

Bees provide critical pollination services to agricultural systems; however, these areas can be harsh to pollinators. As such, augmented pollinator habitat is commonly added as a conservation tool. Even though soybean is considered a pollinator-independent crop by many, previous research contradicts this thinking. A paper authored by Hannah K. Levenson, April E. Sharp, and David R. Tarpy is the first to show the addition of pollinator habitat results in increased soybean yield, as measured by seed weight. This paper also documents that bees in soybean fields, as shown in the image, actively collect resources from the crop. These findings suggest that the management of pollinator-independent crops should be reevaluated as these crops can be attractive to and benefit from pollinators. This image shows a Bombus impatiens (common eastern bumble bee)…

Lespedeza cuneata (or “sericea”) is an invasive alien plant brought to the U.S. from East Asia in the 1890s for use as forage. It has now become a “nightmare plant” in grasslands of several states in the U.S. southern Great Plains, including Oklahoma, Kanasa, and Missouri. At maturity, this plant has high levels of tannin that can cause discomfort in some grazing animals, like bison and cattle. Sericea has some other competitive advantages over native species, especially in nitrogen-poor soils, being a nitrogen-fixing legume. Sericea is also taller than the majority of native plants which reduces the amount of light captured by native species. Interestingly, some of these characteristics or traits, such as plant nitrogen content or height can be estimated with relatively high level of accuracy using optical remote…

Wetlands are natural settings where water completely covers the ground, throughout the year or seasonally. Wetlands can help us adapt to climate change by capturing and storing carbon, which minimizes greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, as well as offering resilience to threats like flooding, storm surge, and coastal inundation. Changes in temperature, as well as the timing and amount of precipitation, are projected to have an impact on wetlands as a result of climate change. Thomas Skou Grindsted investigates how dynamics like climate change relate to public, political, and scientific discourse. According to him, nature is social, and there is no vantage point from which we can study natural processes without considering social influences. Over the years, he has been studying local responses to socio-natural transitions in a Nature…

The Appalachian Mountain region of the eastern United States is a global biodiversity hotspot for amphibians and contains many high elevation-endemic woodland salamanders (genusPlethodon). In mountainous regions, many wildlife species are responding to increasing temperatures by shifting their distributions to higher elevations. Unfortunately, these high elevation salamanders are already at the mountaintops and have nowhere to go. Our research suggests the majority of potential habitat for two of these species, the Cow Knob Salamander (Plethodon punctatus) and Cheat Mountain Salamander (Plethodon nettingi), will disappear by the end of the century due to climate change. About Donald Brown is a research assistant professor with West Virginia University and the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station. He and his graduate students conduct research to assist with conservation of wildlife populations and communities…

We can view nature around us as a form of art, whether it be majestic mountain ranges, the colorful diversity of flowers, and the blue shades of ocean water. When we see the picturesque varieties of nature around us, we cannot help but grab our camera to capture that moment. Karl Gaff must have felt the same when he saw the visually stunning formations that are only visible from the microscope. Karl is a scientific photographic artist and has a degree in Physical and Life Sciences. His passion for science and photography led him to discover the colorful spectacles that can be formed from crystallized chemicals. Inside Karl’s laboratory, through the lens of his microscope and camera, a fusion of art and science is beautifully interwoven to make art like…

The photograph portrays a tourist in costume posing for an Instagram post (in the evening we ourselves found the picture the tourist took on Instagram). The image was taken in Iceland at Reynisfjara Beach, just outside the town of Vik. It’s a spot that has been made very popular over the years on Instagram. Iceland, as a whole, has been a popular sight on Instagram and the country’s tourist authorities have played a central role in using Instagram and other social media to promote their landscapes, especially after the country’s financial crisis. Yet, the country’s hottest destinations and the national infrastructure have struggled to keep up. Vik, for example, has a population of 750, and yet it receives over a million visitors a year. This is putting tremendous pressure on…

Economics for a Fragile Planet outlines the policy, business and consumer actions needed now to overcome global environmental risks. The world is facing growing environmental risks from global warming, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and degradation of the marine environment. Meeting these challenges calls for a fresh perspective on our economic relationship with the environment. For too long we have undervalued nature – at our peril. Managing an increasingly “fragile” planet requires new thinking on markets, institutions and governance that decouples wealth creation from environmental degradation. This can only happen if we end the underpricing of nature, foster collective action, accept absolute limits, attain sustainability, and promote inclusivity. Business as usual is no longer an option -actions are needed now by governments, businesses, financial institutions and consumers for better stewardship of…

Humans make a lasting impact on the environment, often through land-use change: modifying the natural landscape, which can be temporary or permanent, occuring through human activity like agriculture, urbanization, and deforestation. While these all negatively impact the environment, there are positive impacts of land use change like reforestation. Negative land-use actions do not only affect the local environment, they have wider-reaching effects, like contributing to raising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or impacting natural flood control (a type of ‘ecosystem service’). One obstacle with managing land-use change is that much of it occurs on privately owned land. Many governments don’t have systems in place to regulate activities in non-public areas, and this presents a challenge in preserving important ecosystem services. It can be difficult to persuade private landowners to adopt…

Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are one of the delights of our woods in spring. They are often thought to only occur where the woodland has existed for hundreds of years. However we know this area was rough farmland, used for grazing in the Second World War and was only planted with the beech trees in 1948. Hidden amongst the bluebells are the remains of ditches that hark back to an earlier conflict – they are the remains of practice trenches dug by soldiers in World War I before they went off to fight in the trenches for real in France. About Keith Kirby (D.Phil.) worked for 33 years as a forest ecologist for the British government conservation agency (now called Natural England). Since retiring he has returned to Wytham Woods where…

This image was taken during site surveys where a team of researchers recorded and identified flowers that were in bloom. Protecting wild bee populations in urban areas is critical as they pollinate wildflowers, gardens, and urban food systems. To conduct their ecological study, Gerner & Sargent surveyed residential yards in Ottawa, Ontario to look at how bee diversity (i.e., a metric that looks at number and species of wild bees present) at yards along a gradient of urbanization (i.e., differing degrees of hard surface cover in the land surrounding the site), and tree cover. They found that having a higher number of flowering plants in a yard was a better predictor of wild bee diversity than urbanization or tree cover. These results suggest that that homeowners and municipalities can increase…

The mangrove rivulus fish is native to mangrove forests in Florida, the Caribbean, and Central America. Most individuals in this species are self-fertilizing hermaphrodites, allowing them to reproduce on their own. Because of this quality, and their tolerance to a wide range of environmental conditions, rivulus is an important species in researching genetics, ecology, and evolution. One question that studying rivulus helps answer is how species adjust in harshly changing environmental conditions. Mangrove forests in which this fish lives are located in saltwater or brackish water in coastal intertidal zones. The forests experience changing tide levels as well as have general susceptibility to changing environmental conditions such as salinity, temperature, and precipitation. Mangrove forests are heavily impacted by climate change and are a major focus for conservation efforts. As the…

It is often argued that over-consumption and inequality, not population, are the true causes of the current overshoot of planetary boundaries: through a consumption reduction in rich countries and through a fair resource distribution, humanity could become environmentally sustainable. Nevertheless, a quantitative analysis to prove this idea was never done. To prove it, we estimated the potential eco-balance, namely the eco-balance of a hypothetical world where resources are equally distributed and individual impacts are reduced to τ, an empirically determined threshold corresponding to an acceptable level of human development. Results show that even under this scenario, the global eco- balance, albeit improved, would stay negative. About Lucia Tamburino has a background in Mathematics and Natural Sciences. She holds a PhD in Forest Ecology, has a post-doctoral research experience at Swedish…

Before the 1930’s, the area surrounding the Rio Grande river on the border of the United States and Mexico was filled with wetlands and riverside forests. Canals were built along the river to allow for the division of water between the United States and Mexico. While this system allowed for sharing of important water resources, it destroyed the surrounding habitat. In the face of climate change and further drought in the area, communities are looking into how to better utilize our resources and ensure water availability in the desert environment. The Center for Environmental Resource Management (CERM) at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) aims to address environmental health and water resources. One project includes restoring a small section near the river back to the native wetlands environment…

I Was A Kid is a brand-new multimedia project from author/illustrator/explorer Karen Romano Young. Dedicated to demonstrating pathways into STEAM fields for young people, it shares the stories of STEAM careerists. Find out more about Angelica Patterson -- and the other I Was A Kid profilees -- at iwasakid.com About Karen Romano Young is an author, illustrator, science communicator, comics creator, polar explorer, and deep-sea diver. I Was A Kid brings all of these strands together to form a new project in the hope of welcoming new students and their viewpoints to STEAM education and careers. Contact Website: www.iwasakid.com…

Antonio Polidano Vella is a cancer research scientist currently undergoing a PhD at the University of Malta; his motherland. In his project he seeks to find a better therapy for a type of Leukaemia called CML. When out of the lab he pursues his main interest - the visual arts, relishing painting in oils, particularly by amalgamating scientific concepts into his art. Artwork Painted in oil paint on canvas. Inspired by the pandemic, this artwork portrays how imperative the works of scientists and health care workers are, not only for the advancement, but for the mere maintenance of the human race. The science of medicine will be the torch that will guide us out of dark times and with the right cooperation, will help defeat all things which hinder us…

Ying Kit Chan, a Chinese-American artist, is currently Professor of Art at the University of Louisville, USA. For over three decades, Chan used his art projects to celebrate the beauty of nature, but also to critique the anthropogenic impact on the environment. He has presented his artwork in over 200 exhibitions in the United States, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Germany, Korea, Japan, England, Hong Kong, Poland, Taiwan, and Portugal. Find out more at: yingkitchan.com Artwork The phrase “Not In My Backyard” is a common expression which carries complex meanings. It implicates environmental injustices and identifies environmental issues as social justice issues. Constructed with tree branches and discarded plastic bags, the materials embody the degradation of nature and harmful effects of plastic waste pollution. The round shape may symbolize the garbage patch…

Across the natural-to-urban gradient some species persist, winners, and others are lost, losers. The Long-tailed Shrike clearly is one of the winners of this story, as they thrive in agricultural and urban landscapes all around Asia. I am particularly interested in understanding why some species persist to intense habitat transformation and what mechanisms they employ to cope with these changes. Recently, we have found that, whilst in natural areas birds depend on highly specialized morphologies such as long beaks to find food, other features such as size and aggressiveness determine resource use in transformed habitats. Long-tailed Shrikes perfectly exemplify this process – they are strong and aggressive birds and even larger species do not dare to challenge their supremacy. About Emilio Pagani-Núñez is a field ornithologist with broad interests in…

Defining species’ association with and degree of specialization for a habitat is often reliant on static, categorical classifications. These fail to account for spatial and temporal variation in the extent of species’ association with a habitat. The Relative Habitat Use (RHU) metric quantifies species’ association with and degree of specialization for a habitat using species’ count data. It can be calculated at any scale so can account for any variation over time and space and allows for between-species comparisons. The image below is of a Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus) which we identified as being specialized to forest habitat using the RHU metric. In our research we compared RHU scores of habitats for 246 European breeding bird species to literature-based classifications for each species’ association with and degree of specialization for the…

The montado (as it is known in Portuguese) is a unique agro-forestry ecosystem found only in the Mediterranean region, known in Spanish as dehesa. This landscape is made up of savanna-like woodlands and is dominated by the cork oak, Quercus suber. Cork is an impermeable buoyant material and is harvested for commercial use, commonly for producing bottle stoppers, timber for building and making charcoal. Cork oak woodlands have also offered grasslands for keeping livestock, while also providing habitats for animals and plants. Not only is there sustenance and income generated from cork and cattle, it provides space for recreation, social communities and culture. However, this precious ecological system is facing numerous pressures: rural abandonment, tree mortality, depreciation of cork market value, overgrazing and climate change. Irene Holm Sørensen (Universities of…

Socorro island vegetation Socorro island in Mexico was subject to herbivory from feral sheep for 100 years that devastated the native vegetation. Once sheep were removed, the island was colonized by the aggressive Pteridium caudatum that currently is hampering natural regeneration. Our investigation aims to provide tools to restore ecosystem functioning on the island using native plant species. Bio Ek del Val studied Biology at UNAM and a Phd in Ecology at Imperial College, UK. Since 2005 she has been a Professor at IIES-UNAM, in Morelia Mexico. She is interested in understanding how anthropogenic activities affect biotic interactions, in particular invasive species and insect pests. She is passionate about science outreach. Horacio Paz studied Biology and a Phd in Ecology at UNAM. Since 2004 he has been a Researcher at…

Deforestation and inappropriate forest management practices are key causes of soil erosion. In the northern part of Iran, the reduction of forestland cover, due to the expansion of arable land and intensive cultivation, population growth, and technological development, has led to soil degradation in large areas. To present a new method, Misagh Parhizkar made some striking discoveries about how Hydromulch affects rill erosion, and its potential as a technique for rill erosion control. Hydromulching involves spraying a particular mix of liquid to prevent soil erosion. The below image shows “deforested hillslopes” in a forestland of Guilan province (Northern Iran), where there is a very high susceptibility to rill erosion and great potential for Hydromulch to help. About Misagh Parhizkar is a Dr of Soil physics and conservation graduated from the…

Hakea is a plant genus that includes about 150 species native to Australia. They grow as shrubs or small trees that can reach up to 6 meters tall. Hakeas have leaves that are flat or circular in cross-section as well as woody fruits where seeds are held that stay intact until there is a fire or the plant dies. These features help support the plants’ tolerance of drought conditions. We speak with Professor Byron Lamont, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Plant Ecology at Curtin University in Western Australia. He researches how plants such as Hakea and other Mediterranean flora are adapted to drought and fire conditions and uses his artistic abilities to illustrate intricate details that allow these plants to thrive in harsh conditions. Q & A: Byron Lamont Why do…

This SciArt illustration aims to illuminate the importance of bees and their research. It was created to support Dr. Hema Somanathan’s laboratory, which focuses on behavioral and evolutionary ecology at IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India. About Aiswarya PS is a physics master’s and biology minor student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, India. She is an avid science communicator and an aspiring illustrator. She aims to work with scientists to help communicate and share their research through the fantastic medium of illustration. She is currently serving as a gravitational wave science communicator at LIGO, India, and head of design at Project Encephalon. Contact Email: aiswarya18@iisertvm.ac.in…

Star Holden is a self taught artist based in London with an interest in capturing natural phenomena and exploring our connection to the cosmos. He uses a combination of digital fabrication methods and traditional techniques to create performative sculptures. Planetesimal is a tactile, dynamic depiction of changing light on the surface of Asteroid 4 Vesta. Shadows emerge and disappear as light moves bringing different textures into definition. Artwork Planitesimal imagines witnessing the movement of light and shadow across the Rheasilvia crater as asteroid 4 Vesta silently tumbles through space. It represents a snapshot of the early formation of a planet in our solar system. Surface topography data gathered by NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft in 2012 is sculpted into a primitive surface, while hundreds of individual lights hidden within the artworks frame…