Fall foliage, hoarfrost, and smoke, oh my! This Thanksgiving, my family and I journeyed through part of the Southern Appalachians we frequent most often: the Great Smoky Mountains. It was like any other trip through the mountains this time of year, except we saw colorful leaves still hanging on to the trees in late November
Why is the world's largest body of freshwater (by volume), Lake Baikal, currently in danger and why does it matter so much? It is known for its unmatched biodiversity and happens to hold 20% of the world's freshwater. This impressive combination certainly makes it worthy of global attention. To better understand what's at stake, let's
We're familiar with ants as picnic-skimming and foot-biting pests, but just below the soil's surface, ants live surprisingly complex and intricate lives. The leaf cutting ants, or leaf cutters, live in a way that's particularly alien to us, as the dominant herbivore (or perhaps “fungivoreâ€) of South American rainforests. Ant colonies as superorganisms Rather than
We cannot talk about streams without first discussing a very important concept: the watershed [1]. A watershed, or drainage basin, is an area between ridges where precipitation collects in creeks and streams, eventually coalescing to form rivers. The way precipitation moves across land is analogous to the way water from a faucet pools in the
by Suzie Henderson, Athens Science Café What is an ecosystem engineer? Every ecosystem, even arctic ice [2], is subject to the influence of ecosystem engineers [3]. An ecosystem engineer alters habitat and consequently changes resource availability to other organisms [2]. Even though all organisms play a role in resource cycling to varying degrees, not all
If you read the first installment of our ScienceCafé invasive species series, you may have already guessed the name of this topic: Pueraria lobata, or… kudzu! Before kudzu arrived in the states and poison ivy was the only three-leaved vine, times were simpler. No one worried about kudzu invading their yard and killing their plants
I will attempt to graze over a topic ubiquitous in the southeast: invasive plants. With over 5,000 nonnative plant species in the U.S., you could say that this is no small problem, whether it is in our hands or not. You may ask yourself: Why should I care about the spread of some obnoxious, ugly
