Author: Zach

Staying current for Chapter 6 See also articles from{2009–2021}-{2002–2008} { Ecosystem Change Contents } Excellent video (15 minutes): Mountain Lions in Nebraska (2011)  Latest articles (2022–2023) 2025-01-02. Farmers are abandoning land worldwide. What should happen to it? By Dan Charles, Science. Excerpt: …“This is a worldwide phenomenon,” says Peter Verburg, a land use researcher at the […]

Staying current for Chapter 6 Articles from 2002–2008 Stay current index page for Chapter 6 { Ecosystem Change Contents } 2008 Fall. Delta Blues. By Barry Yeoman, OnEarth. Excerpt: On this brisk, cloudless day, Tom Zuckerman and I are driving to his duck-hunting club on Rindge Tract, one of the low-slung rural islands that form the nucleus […]

Staying current for Chapter 5 { Ecosystem Change Contents } 2025-01-24. Antarctic krill vertical migrations modulate seasonal carbon export. By A. J. R. Smith et al, Science. Editor’s summary: Shrimp-like krill constitute the greatest biomass of any living animal: up to 379 million tonnes in the Southern Ocean. Dead krill and their feces sink and are assumed […]

Staying current for Chapter 4 { Ecosystem Change Contents } See also: GSS Climate Change chapter 8, Losing Biodiversity chapters 5 (Soil, the Living Skin of the Earth), 7 (One Global Ocean), and 8 (Champions of a Sustainable World). 2025-02-26. Where the Wetlands Are. By Rebecca Owen, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In classic literature, wetlands—ecosystems characterized by permanently or periodically […]

Staying current for Chapter 3 { Ecosystem Change Contents } 2023-08-10. Cultural water and Indigenous water science. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi0658] By Erin O’Donnell et al, Science. Excerpt: Water management failings in [Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin] MDB, which is home to more than 40 First Nations who have lived sustainably with water for tens of thousands of years through […]

Staying current for Chapter 2 { Ecosystem Change Contents } SEE ALSO…Losing Biodiversity Chapter 5: Soil, the Living Skin of the Earth  Chapter 7: One Global Ocean  Chapter 8: Champions of a Sustainable World 2021-06-04. [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/rise-and-fall-world-s-largest-lake] – The rise and fall of the world’s largest lake. By Sid Perkins. Science Magazine. Excerpt: When continental plates smashed […]

Staying current for Chapter 1 See Non-chronological resources for this chapter { Ecosystem Change Contents } 2025-03-06. Butterfly populations are plummeting across the United States. By Erik Stokstad, Science. Excerpt: The American lady (Vanessa virginiensis) is one of the most common and widespread butterflies across the United States. But over the past 2 decades, this […]

Chapter 7 { Ecosystem Change Contents } The citizens of the United States use more energy and resources per person than do people in other countries. What can we do to reduce our individual and collective impact on earth’s global system? On the pages that follow, we have described some actions taken by students to […]

Chapter 6 { Ecosystem Change Contents } In an influential essay entitled, “Essay on the Principle of Population,” Thomas Malthus noted that the growth of population and what he thought should be the inevitable tidal wave of people that would eventually inhabit the Earth, hadn’t occurred and that somehow the human population must be kept […]

Chapter 5 { Ecosystem Change Contents } I. The Carbon Dioxide Cycle When we enjoy the beauty of a tree we probably aren’t thinking of this marvelous structure as a carbon-based system that transforms sunlight and gases into food. A single cell in a tree leaf is a tiny system that uses light energy plus […]