Earlier this winter, I took to the pond ice – not to skate, but to peek below the surface. Although lake ecologists once considered the plankton in frozen lakes to be dormant during winter, recent studies reveal that the plant-like, microscopic phytoplankton (which move with the lake’s currents) and animal-like zooplankton remain active below the icy surface. [Read more…] about Winter Waters: The Under-Ice Food Web
Aquatic Culture
Invasive Species Boat Inspection Law Extended
The law requiring motorized boats to be inspected for invasive plants and other harmful organisms prior to launch in New York waters has been extended. The Legislature also approved new education and outreach funding.
Boaters must verify that watercraft have been inspected and/or decontaminated to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species. [Read more…] about Invasive Species Boat Inspection Law Extended
Life In Groundwater Fed Springs in Winter
On a clear mid-winter day several years ago, my student Sarah Wakefield and I pulled on snowshoes, donned backpacks, and headed up through Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont.
Our destination was Big Spring, which rises from Mount Mansfield’s bedrock before flowing east for 100 yards and entering a culvert under Route 108. When it emerges from the culvert, the spring water joins a stream fed by surface runoff and snowmelt. [Read more…] about Life In Groundwater Fed Springs in Winter
Aquatic Culture in Early America
The Atlantic World has brought many disparate peoples together, which has caused a lot of ideas and cultures to mix.
How did the Atlantic World bring so many different peoples and cultures together? How did this large intermixing of people and cultures impact the development of colonial America?
Aquatic Culture in Early America
The Atlantic World has brought many disparate peoples together, which has caused a lot of ideas and cultures to mix.
How did the Atlantic World bring so many different peoples and cultures together? How did this large intermixing of peoples and cultures impact the development of colonial America?
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History Kevin Dawson, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California-Merced and author of Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), joins us to explore answers to these questions with an investigation of the African Diaspora and African and African American aquatic culture. [Read more…] about Aquatic Culture in Early America