Great Lakes beachgoers could spend a lot more time in the water if a beach forecasting tool under development by University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues is adopted throughout the region. The new forecasting tool would significantly reduce the number of days that Great Lakes beaches are unnecessarily closed to swimming due to inaccurate assessments of E. coli bacteria levels, according to David Rockwell of the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment. "My estimate is that 23 percent of the time that swimming is prohibited at Great Lakes beaches due to high bacteria levels, those decisions are actually mistakes," said Rockwell, beach water quality forecasting coordinator at the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research (CILER), a collaboration between the U-M and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Predatory beetles can detect the unique alarm signal released by ants that are under attack by parasitic flies, and the beetles use those overheard conversations to guide their search for safe egg-laying sites on coffee bushes.Azteca instabilis ants patrol coffee bushes and emit chemical alarm signals when they're under attack by phorid flies. In an article published online July 27 in the journal Ecology and Evolution, University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues show that pregnant lady beetles intercept the ants' alarm pheromones, which let the beetles know that it's safe to deposit their eggs. The findings, which may have practical implications for pest management on coffee plantations, are the first documentation of a complex cascade of interactions mediated by ant pheromones, according to the authors.
Twenty years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 17 prominent ecologists are calling for renewed international efforts to curb the loss of biological diversity, which is compromising nature's ability to provide goods and services essential for human well-being. Over the past two decades, strong scientific evidence has emerged showing that loss of the world's biological diversity reduces the productivity and sustainability of natural ecosystems and decreases their ability to provide society with goods and services like food, wood, fodder, fertile soils, and protection from pests and disease, according to an international team of ecologists led by School of Natural Resources and Environment Associate Professor Bradley Cardinale.
At its meeting this month in Honduras, the Council of Ministers of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) named SNRE Professor Ivette Perfecto as a founding member of its new biodiversity science council. The Scientific Council on Biodiversity for the Central American Integration System will ensure the technical quality of work plans of the Regional Institute of Biodiversity, the technical body of the CCAD.
The first of nine rock reefs is under construction in the St. Clair River delta northeast of Detroit. The goal of the project, which is led by Michigan Sea Grant, is to boost populations of lake sturgeon and other rare native fish by providing river-bottom rock structures where they can spawn. The rock reefs are designed to assist several native species that are considered threatened or endangered in Michigan, including lake sturgeon, mooneye, the northern madtom catfish and the river redhorse sucker. Walleye, a popular sport fish, and commercially important lake whitefish should also benefit. The new reefs will be constructed in the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River delta, near an existing lake sturgeon spawning site.
The Center for Geospatial Medicine at the University of Michigan is working to reduce death and disability from Type 2 diabetes under a grant announced today as part the nation's 2010 health care law. The center is part of a multi-state research team examining Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, in at-risk populations in four, underserved counties in North Carolina, Mississippi, and West Virginia. The Center for Geospatial Medicine, which uses systematic, spatially-based methods for analyzing environmental threats to people and communities, is housed within the Children's Environmental Health Initiative at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment.
Loss of biodiversity appears to impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to a new study from an international research team that includes SNRE Assistant Professor Bradley J. Cardinale. The study, published today, is the first comprehensive effort to directly compare the impacts of biological diversity loss to the anticipated effects of a host of other human-caused environmental changes. The results highlight the need for stronger local, national and international efforts to protect biodiversity and the benefits it provides, according to the researchers, based at nine institutions in the United States, Canada and Sweden. (VIEW IMAGES OF SCIENTISTS AT WORK)
Christoph Nolte, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, has been selected as the first recipient of the Marshall Weinberg Population, Development, and Climate Change Fellowship. Nolte is studying the economic tradeoffs of land conservation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
The Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute has selected six faculty-led research projects, including one involving SNRE Landscape Architecture Professor Bob Grese, to join with Focus: HOPE, a nationally recognized civil and human rights organization, on a Detroit community development initiative. The U-M-funded projects will incorporate social, economic and environmental strategies to help develop a comprehensive plan for advancing the HOPE Village Initiative, a 100-block area immediately surrounding theFocus: HOPE campus straddling the cities of Detroit and Highland Park. The initiative seeks to integrate Focus: HOPE's strengths in workforce development, early childhood education and community development.
Four substantial, student-led sustainability projects are gaining momentum on campus, thanks to financial support from the new Planet Blue Student Innovation Fund. Three of the four, focused on reusable takeout food containers, a sustainable food kiosk and a U-M campus farm, were developed by students at SNRE. Announced by President Mary Sue Coleman last fall as part of her larger campus sustainability address, the Planet Blue Student Innovation Fund offers grants of up to $50,000 annually for projects that reduce the university's environmental footprint and/or promote a culture of sustainability on campus.