Snowless winter? Arctic field team finds flowers and meltwater instead

New commentary reveals a dramatic and concerning shift in the Arctic winter.
Scientists in Svalbard were shocked to find rain and greenery instead of snow during Arctic winter fieldwork. The event highlights not just warming—but a full seasonal shift with major consequences for ecosystems, climate feedback, and research feasibility.


Here in central Illinois, it rained on Christmas last year. We would've had a white Christmas, except for climate change. That was just sad.

THE MINI FOREST - Rewilding using the Miyawaki Method

Terrell Wong is about to plant 100 trees in her small Toronto backyard, a dense mini forest based on the Miyawaki Method. What at first seems like a simple act soon evolves into a complex story about dirt, lawns, fungus, wildlife, native species, and finally the human brain. An anti-lawn anthem from director David Hartman, The Mini Forest explores this innovative form of afforestation and the importance of restoring the native woodlands that once covered so much of Canada and the World.

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The Thunder of Bison Finally Returns to the Osage Prairie

60 million American bison, commonly known as buffalo, once thundered across the prairies of North America — until 1889, when they were almost driven to extinction.

These mighty giants terraformed the land, diversified prairie ecosystems, and sustained many native tribes across the continent. Now, tribes and conservationists join forces to bring the species back from the brink, finally returning the American bison to their native grasslands.

The Osage Nation in Oklahoma, with help from allies at the Nature Conservancy and the Bronx Zoo, are reviving their cultural and spiritual connection to buffalo by rebuilding a herd that once shared their land. By reigniting traditional land management practices like prescribed fire, the Osage support the herd as it continues to grow, which in turn, restores natural balance that helps the entire prairie ecosystem thrive.


As a keystone species, buffalo restore prairie habitat to health. They also help restore the tribal nations who depended upon them.

How Dinosaur Extinction Gave Us Fruit

I found this video entertaining for its discussion of r-strategy vs. k-strategy reproduction in plants.  Interestingly, during the time of large sauropods, they broke up the forests so much that most plants preferred to make many small seeds rather than fewer large seeds.  They had to capitalize on the disturbances to find a place and sprout.  In other words, most or all of the plants in those forest behaved like weeds, which are designed to cover disturbed ground as fast as possible.

Later on, after the sauropods died out, the forest canopy became closed rather than open, the forest floor darker.  The animals were much smaller, and well suited to distributing seeds.  So plants began making larger fruit to bribe the animals to carry their seeds around.

An interesting fork appears before us now, as humans have wiped out almost all large animals.  Normally this would lead to dense dark forests, and thus, more and larger fruits.  But humans are more disruptive than even the sauropods.  We are creating conditions that favor the weed strategy again.  Except for the bit where we really love large, sweet fruits and will go farther than any other species to propagate plants that we like.  That makes it rather a toss-up how plants will respond.

FireSmart Canada is pleased to release Blazing the Trail: Celebrating Indigenous Fire
Stewardship, a beautiful, bound publication that recognizes the contributions to wildfire
prevention of Indigenous communities in Canada.

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Fighting fire with fire: How prescribed burns reduce wildfire damage and pollution

Wildfires are becoming more intense and dangerous, but a new Stanford-led study offers hope: prescribed burns—intentionally set, controlled fires—can significantly lessen their impact. By analyzing satellite data and smoke emissions, researchers found that areas treated with prescribed burns saw wildfire severity drop by 16% and smoke pollution fall by 14%. Even more striking, the smoke from prescribed burns was just a fraction of what wildfires would have produced in the same areas.


And how long did it take white people to figure out what tribal folks have been doing for, oh, 20,000+ years?

New cheese packaging decomposes in 300 days, not 1,000 years: 'The solution was in the cheese itself'

As an alternative to single-use plastic wrapping, Ogilvy Colombia and Nestlé Central America have created “Self-Packing Cheese.”

The new biodegradable film is designed to decompose within 300 days of disposal — in stark contrast to the estimated 1,000 years it takes for standard plastic to break down.

And it’s entirely made from cheese waste and whey.


Now that's brilliant!  Admittedly, we tend to buy block cheese or shredded cheese rather than slices, but lots of people prefer slices.

New butterfly species wows scientists: 'This discovery reveals a lineage shaped by 40,000 years of evolutionary solitude'

The Satyrium semiluna, or half-moon hairstreak, is a small gray butterfly that looks like a moth at first glance. The wildflower lovers are widespread across North America, from the Sagebrush steppe to the montane meadows of the Rocky Mountains.

But tucked away in the southeastern corner of Alberta, Canada, another colony of butterflies flaps across the Blakiston Fan landform of Waterton Lakes National Park.

Until now, they were thought to be a subpopulation of half-moon hairstreaks — until scientists made a phenomenal discovery: They were a new species of butterfly that had hidden in plain sight for centuries.

The researchers, who recently published their findings in the scientific journal ZooKeys, defined the new species as Satyrium curiosolus.

This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It fills the Earth Day square in my 3-1-23 card for the March Is... fest. It is posted as a gift to Anthony Barrette for Father's Day.

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Here's another post about the insect apocalypse, including a trophic cascade devastating other species especially insectivores.  This one proposes electromagnetic radiation as a causal factor, which may or may not be true, and is not being studied.  It would be nice if that were a cause, because it is a factor under human control and thus could be fixed.