History, Natural History & the Arts
There are several natural disasters that can alter the ecological make-up of an area. Widespread tree disease, severe winds, and intense ice storms can all seriously damage or destroy the dominant members of a forest community.
However, the most catastrophic force of nature is fire, as a major blaze can significantly impact more than just the composition of trees that cover a given location. [Read more…] about The Ecology of Adirondack Wildfires
From early spring through late summer, the air trills and croaks and buzzes and chirps with the sounds of nature’s little loudmouths. Mornings are full of birdsong; evenings are the domain of frogs and crickets.
How do such little animals make so much noise? Let’s find out by looking at some of the sound-per-pound champions you can find in our forests. [Read more…] about Little Loudmouths: Small Animals That Create Big Sounds
The life cycles of the three species of stream salamanders native to the Northeast – northern two-lined, northern dusky, and spring – are closely tied to the small streams where they are found. All three species belong to the Plethodontidae family, which are lungless salamanders that breathe through their skin.
Stream salamanders forage for small invertebrates both on land and in water and have a lengthy aquatic larval stage during which breathing is done with gills. The presence and persistence of these amphibians, therefore, can be greatly affected by the condition of the forested buffer along streams, as well as other factors, including atmospheric pollution. [Read more…] about Northeastern Stream Salamanders
The awakening of the many forms of life that passed the winter in a deeply dormant state begins with the melting of the snow, the retreating of the ice sheet covering our waterways, and the thawing of the soil.
Because of fundamental physiological differences among the species and the various preferences that each creature has for a wintering site, some animals are quicker to respond to the onset of favorable spring conditions than others.
In the forested regions of New York, the wood frog is among the first to return to an active state and announce with a distinct chorus of voices that spring has come. [Read more…] about Sounds of Spring: The Wood Frog
Throughout the Hudson Valley, community volunteers are getting out their flashlights, reflective vests, and rain gear in anticipation of annual amphibian breeding migrations, which typically begin in mid-March. Volunteers will document the migration and help salamanders and frogs as part of DEC’s Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings Project. [Read more…] about Volunteers Preparing for Annual Salamander, Frog Migration
Every so often, an obscure technical innovation really lights me up.
In mid-October of this year, a team of German scientists published a report on their work injecting tadpole noggins with algae.
This enabled the tiny brains (of amphibians, not researchers) to photosynthesize when exposed to light, flooding neurons with oxygen and rendering the frog-babies more intelligent. Or at least not brain-dead, which those tadpoles were before being converted to plant-imals. [Read more…] about Algae Injections: Synthetic Photosynthesis
There’s a myth environmental educators like to tell, and it goes something like this: after every long northern winter, spring returns. Days lengthen, temperatures rise, the snowpack slowly disappears, and one afternoon, it begins to rain – a soaking, 45-degree rain that continues well into the night. [Read more…] about Critter Crossings: Amphibians In Spring
One spring, following heavy rain, I visited the Saint Michael’s College Natural Area in Vermont hoping to capture exciting photographs of the rushing Winooski River. Rather than raging floodwaters, however, I found the river’s floodplain was efficiently – and slowly – accommodating the onslaught of rainwater. [Read more…] about Rivers, Wetlands and Floodwaters
On a warm, rainy April night a few years ago, I drove up our muddy, rutted dirt road through the mist, steering around the wood frogs hopping across the road. As I approached the vernal pool, there were more frogs in the road, so I parked to avoid hitting them and walked the rest of the way. [Read more…] about Salamander Mysteries: Complicated Genetics
Community volunteers throughout the Hudson Valley are getting out their flashlights, reflective vests, and raingear in anticipation of annual breeding migrations of salamanders and frogs, which typically begin in mid-March.
Volunteers in the Hudson Valley will record their observations as part of DEC’s Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings Project, coordinated by the Hudson River Estuary Program and Cornell University. [Read more…] about Volunteers Prepare for Salamander and Frog Migration