How do cross-system subsidies shape the functioning of recipient #ecosystems? Sterling Tebbett & Scott Ling explore a @PLOSBiology study revealing that #seabird -derived nutrients fuel primary producers on #CoralReefs, enhancing herbivore productivity. Paper: https://plos.io/44RFyJk Primer: https://plos.io/4lDpvo6
#Neanderthals on the Portuguese #coast and track ways in #dune landscapes, ca. 80,000 years ago
Climate change drives record-breaking heat in Iceland and Greenland challenging cold adapted ecosystems and societies
On May 15, #Egilsstaðir Airport recorded 26.6°C, breaking the previous record for #Iceland’s highest May temperature, while regions of the country saw temperatures more than 10°C above average (Icelandic Met Office, 2025). The #Ittoqqortoormiit station in #Greenland saw temperatures reach 14.3°C on May 19, which is more than 13°C above the May average daily maximum temperature of 0.8°C (#DMI, 2025).
These high temperatures were caused by a steady flow of warm air from the south, caused by a high-pressure system near the #Faroe Islands and a low-pressure system south of #CapeFarewell. This #weather setup lasted for about nine days, bringing unusually warm weather to the area. While similar patterns have happened before, this #heatwave stood out because it came so early in the year and lasted for so long.
While few impacts have been reported, numerous studies demonstrate that unusually high temperatures early in the year can have significant impacts on local ecosystems. These #ecosystems, adapted to very cold climates, are sensitive to temperature shifts, and disruptions to their delicate balance can lead to consequences not only for the ecosystems themselves, but also for the communities that depend on them.
I remember driving through those vast unpopulated spaces and never paying attention to the patches of prairie between the wheat or corn fields.
#Ecology #Ecosystems #Restoration #Conservation
https://prairieecologist.com/2025/07/03/photos-of-the-week-july-3-2025/
Part of Gordon River, winding through #Cowichan Valley.
If our public lands are sold off, we’ll never get them back
Republicans are proposing the sale of up to 3.3 million acres of public lands within the next five years. Think about that for a second…3,300,000 acres. That the equivalent to 5,156 square miles, which is larger than either the states of Rhode Island or Delaware and nearly as large as Puerto Rico and Connecticut. It would be the same as lopping off one-tenth of Louisiana or Alabama. Here’s the rub – the 3.3 million acres is just the beginning, as more than 250 million acres would become eligible. That’s 1.45 times the size of Texas, folks! More area than any state except Alaska.
Source: blm.gov“Less well understood is the fact that the bill makes more than 250 million acres of public lands eligible for those sales, including via nomination by any interested party.”
“Over 250 million acres of public lands are eligible for sale in the bill, including local recreation areas, wilderness study areas and inventoried roadless areas.”
Source: americanprogress.org and wilderness.org
If you have ever tried to hike longer distances in the east, midwest, Great Lakes, south, and much of the Great Plains, it is not necessarily an easy thing to do. With the exception of certain trails like the Appalachian Trail, it is quite difficult because of trespassing laws related to private property. Even a mega trails like the Appalachian and North Country have to obtain easements and/or sometimes have to alter their routes.
West of the 100th Meridian, numerous outdoor activities would be limited or completely unavailable if it was not for our public lands. These include, but are not limited to:
The problem with short term thinking like this proposed public land sell-off is once it is gone, there is little or no chance of ever getting the land back. It would be very unlikely if ANY OF US would ever have another chance to explore sold off land again in our lifetimes.
“This proposal is a direct attack on our jointly held ownership of the very soul of America – its public lands.”
Even more infuriating is the likelihood that these lands will be sold at “giveaway” prices for the claim that it will add more land for more housing. Instead, these lands will be sold to help offset the tax breaks being proposed for billionaires. These very same public lands will likely end up being bought by billionaires and corporate interests from both inside and outside the United States.
If selling off our shared land upsets you, please call, write, email, text, or talk to your senators and representatives in Congress. Don’t let them inflict irreparable and unnecessary pain on our beautiful nation for badly conceived short-term political or economic reasons. This proposal is a direct attack on our jointly held ownership of the very soul of America – its public lands.
“Whatever happened to: ‘This land is your land, this land is my land…”?
(Lyrics by Woody Guthrie)
Peace!
Also fascinating to hear what the Brazilian government is doing on regulation of systemically-important digital #ecosystems
#ThickTrunkTuesday
Mossy #OldGrowth #cedar trees in coastal temperate #rainforest.
‘Ticking timebomb’: #sea acidity has reached critical levels, threatening entire #ecosystems
#OceanAcidification has crossed a crucial threshold for planetary health, scientists say.
Ocean acidification, called "evil twin" of #climatecrisis, is caused when #carbondioxide is absorbed by ocean, where it reacts with water molecules leading to a fall in #pH of #seawater. It damages #coral #reefs and other #ocean habitats and, in extreme cases, can dissolve the shells.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/09/sea-acidity-ecosystems-ocean-acidification-planetary-health-scientists
What happens when #oceans die? We're about to find out -
‘Ticking Time Bomb’ of #OceanAcidification Has Already Crossed Planetary Boundary, Threatening #Marine #Ecosystems: Study - EcoWatch https://buff.ly/zef2wr5
‘Ticking timebomb’: sea #acidity has reached critical levels, threatening entire #ecosystems
#ClimateCrisis
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/09/sea-acidity-ecosystems-ocean-acidification-planetary-health-scientists
Vast areas of land are now dominated by one species – purple moor-grass – and good luck with seeing a bird or insect there.
An issue that I've not been aware of. The way we've used the land has caused tipping points to be exceeded to the detriment of ecosystems.
An important issue that will need political support to enable a complex solution, but will probably be ignored.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/09/britain-deserts-dead-zones-purple-moor-grass
"# Ocean acidification isn’t just an environmental crisis – it’s a ticking timebomb for marine #ecosystems and #coastal economies,” said PML’s Prof Steve Widdicombe, who is also co-chair of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network."
"It can be tempting to give up when confronted with the scale of humanity's consumption and the speed with which we are changing the climate and losing the natural world. But nature is our greatest ally. Wherever we have given nature the space to recover, it's done so. Protecting the oceans brings swift benefits to ecosystems and the people who depend on them."
— David Attenborough
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/ocean-david-attenborough-marine-conservation
Nopal, blossoming potato plants, and salt deposits in the soil.
Our water is highly saline - and it's a predicament. We cannot get any plants established without irrigation, and the mesquites in particular are critical for bringing back soil fertility. Even though all of the water we irrigate with goes through a filter, the TDS is still around 1100 from the hose - that's brackish. Our drinking water is filtered again through a 14-stage filter with a reverse osmosis stage, and so is pure, but such a filter big enough to handle the whole property is an enormous expense. There are manual ways to desalinate water, and we are going to try some methods, but it is unlikely that that will meet our needs for the immediate future.
So.. why? Why should we bother? Should humans even live in such an environment? Shouldn't we give up and move on?
Well, with something like 150,000 hectares of land becoming desert each year, it feels important to find ways to solve these problems. We can run from them, but they will find us.
One solution I'm going to try is to plant saltbrush (which is native and abundant on our property, though most has shed its green to manage through drought) near everything we're irrigating. Mulching with straw also helps, as the straw ends up with the salt, not the soil, though I imagine the salt makes its way to the soil eventually as the straw (very, very) slowly breaks down into the basin - though there are ways we could mitigate this (feeding the straw to donkeys is one potential future solution). Saltbrush takes in the salt, capturing it in its leaves, according to one source. Research on non-charismatic desert species is minimal, and so I have yet to find any specific information on what happens next. However, building on the source I found that mentions saltbrush as being high value forage, and knowing that most livestock need supplemental salt, I'm interested in testing the hypothesis that if we plant saltbrush in strategic locations, and then periodically harvest and feed it to livestock, the salt will then be utilized by the animal and not be directly put back into the soil. Obviously salt will be freely available, still, to all future livestock, but my hypothesis is that they would need less supplemental salt if they were ingesting it in their forage/feed.
It makes me curious about ecological roles: salt-loving native plants are endemic (at least, as far as I know now) to regions where bighorn sheep and mule deer once roamed: species which would, in theory, also need salt in their diet. While the groundwater the plants were accessing with deep taproots would have been theoretically less saline before the water table was disrupted by human use, concentrating the mineral content, it is likely it has always had some salt content, the water in our aquifers being trapped water from an ancient sea. Could the ecosystem be protecting soil structure through symbiosis with salt-loving plants and herbivores who otherwise have few native sources of salt in their diet?
'collisions'
#Lepidoptera are vital to terrestrial #ecosystems, yet we know so little about higher-level #phylogenetic relationships among the superfamilies.
Chen et al. aim to change that with a robust new framework for future study.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jse.13180
@WileyEcolEvol
#butterfly #moth #evolution
