Search Results for: collaborative cropping

6.1.23

Collaborative cropping: Can plants help each other grow?

The activities are as follows:

Alfalfa (middle) planted in a Kernza® field.

Most of the crops grown on farms in the United States are annual plants, like corn, soybeans, and wheat. Annual plants die every year after harvest and must be replanted the following year. Preparing farm fields for replanting every year can erode soils and hurt important bacteria and fungi living in the soil.

One way to change how we produce food is to grow more perennial crops. Perennial plants live for many years and don’t need to be replanted. Perennials stay in the ground all year and start growing right away in the spring before annual crops are even planted. This early growth also gives perennial crops a “head-start” in competing with annual weed species that emerge later in the season.

While there are potential benefits of perennial crops, they are not commonly planted because they tend to make lower profits for farmers than annual crops. Crop scientists are still examining potential options to make perennial crops work at a large scale for farmers. For twenty years, researchers at The Land Institute in Kansas and at the University of Minnesota have been looking at a new perennial grain, called Kernza^®, that could be used as an alternative to wheat and rye annual crops. Kernza^® comes from the seeds of a plant called intermediate wheatgrass. Because Kernza^® is such a new crop, scientists still have a lot to learn about it. Before it can be widely used by farmers, they want to know what field conditions help the plants grow to ensure the crop makes money for farmers.

Dr. Jake Jungers taking a soil core in a Kernza® field.

One strategy to improve field conditions for perennial crops is to plant legumes in the field alongside them. Legumes can make nitrogen, a nutrient that plants need to grow, more available to the plants around them. Additionally, farmers can select legume species that typically don’t compete with the crop but may outcompete weeds.

Jake is an ecologist who uses his knowledge about plants to make agriculture more sustainable. Jake wanted to do some research into alfalfa, a type of perennial legume that might work well with Kernza^®. Jake thought that growing alfalfa alongside Kernza^® would lead to increased profit and yield for two reasons. One, because it would add nitrogen to the soil to boost crop growth. Two, because alfalfa would compete with agricultural weed species, making valuable resources available for the crop plants.

To test this idea, Jake set up an experiment with his team. Alfalfa was grown with Kernza^® at three different locations in Minnesota in 2019. The study was replicated four times at each site, with the same amount of alfalfa and Kernza^® planted into each field. At the end of the growing season, the fields were harvested, and the plants were sorted into three categories: Kernza^®, alfalfa, and weed species. He further sorted Kernza^® by grain, which can be used for food, and straw, which can be used for animal feed. Jake wanted to compare yield, or plant growth per unit area, across the plant categories. To do this, he weighed all the plants in each category to get the biomass and then divided by the area of the field.

Featured scientist: Jake Jungers (he/him) from the University of Minnesota

Written by Claire Wineman (she/her)

Flesch–Kincaid Reading Grade Level = 8.5

MEET THE SCIENTISTS!

Want to know more about the scientists behind each Data Nugget? Click on their name for a link to their professional websites, or on their Data Nugget to learn more about their research!

Name	Institution	About Me	Data Nuggets
Jaron Adkins	Utah State University	Jaron is an ecosystem ecologist focused on the links between soil microbial communities and ecosystem functions. Jaron received his B.S. from Boise State University, where he researched how plant-soil interactions influence carbon sequestration under biofuel crops. Jaron completed his Ph.D. at Michigan State University, where he studied the effects of wildfire on soil carbon cycling and microbial community structure in California mixed-conifer forest.	Sink or source? How grazing geese impact the carbon cycle
Anurag Agrawal	Cornell University	I teach classes in ecology and field biology, and enjoy natural history, identifying plants, figuring out what makes some organisms toxic, and interacting with students. Most of my research is on the interactions on insects and plants in the local landscape – seeking to understand their ecology and evolution. Monarchs and milkweeds figure in prominently, but not exclusively. I also work with plant breeders to work on ways to improve pest management in crops with reduced pesticides. The ability to pursue a life in science is a gift from our society for which I will be eternally grateful. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	How milkweed plants defend against monarch butterflies
Ruby An	Princeton University	I am a plant community ecologist fascinated by the Arctic and passionate about understanding the resilience of ecosystems to global climate change. In my PhD at Princeton University, I study the expansion of tundra shrubs or “shrubification” of the Arctic. I spend the summer at Toolik Field Station on the North Slope of Alaska, where I run field experiments to simulate “future worlds” for tundra plants. In the winter, I am in New Jersey analyzing data and building mathematical models. Year-round, some of my main joys are eating pastries, growing basil from grocery-store stems, and playing dungeons & dragons on zoom with my sisters.	Which tundra plants will win the climate change race?
Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira	Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute	I am a forest ecologist at the Smithsonian, where I lead the Ecosystems and Climate Program for the Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO). I am interested in how forests around the world interact with our changing climate - both how they respond and how they can help to slow the pace of climate change. For example, I am interested in how climate change is affecting tree growth and mortality, what makes trees resistant or vulnerable to drought, how climate affects forest recovery after big disturbances, and how the amount of carbon stored in forests varies around the world.	Breathing in, Part 1 & Breathing in, Part 2
Ivan Arismendi	Oregon State University	I am from the southern cone of South America where empanadas, lamb, and temperate rainforests formed my early years. I am a quantitative aquatic ecologist interested in the links among water, land, and people. I focus on freshwater-terrestrial links, freshwater-marine links, invasive species impacts on aquatic and riparian ecosystems, and the consequences of climate change on freshwater food webs and ecosystems. I am also interested in issues related to diversity and inclusion in science.	All washed up? The effect of floods on cutthroat trout
Trisha Atwood	Utah State University	Trisha is an assistant professor in the Watershed Sciences Department and the Ecology Center, where she runs the Aquatic Ecology and Global Change Lab at USU. Undergraduate students, graduate students, and staff in the lab conduct research on a broad array of questions relating to the health, conservation and dynamics of freshwater and marine ecosystems across the globe.	Sink or source? How grazing geese impact the carbon cycle & Poop, poop, goose!
Christie Bahlai	Kent State University, Michigan State University	I am an applied quantitative ecologist and population ecologist who uses approaches from data science to help solve problems in conservation, sustainability, and ecosystem management. I combine a background in physics and organismal ecology with influences from the tech sector and conservation NGOs to ask questions and build tools addressing problems in population ecology.	Blinking out?
Megan Ballard	University of Texas - Austin	I am interested in using measurements of sound waves to learn more about underwater environments. By studying the propagation of sound waves through the ocean, we can characterize the water masses of the ocean’s interior, the sediments that make up the seafloor, and the waves or ice cover on the ocean’s surface. By listening to naturally occurring sounds, we can determine wind speed and rainfall, identify species of vocalizing fish and marine mammals, and estimate photosynthetic bubble production from submerged aquatic vegetation.	The sound of seagrass
Mélanie Banville	Arizona State University	Ever since I was young I had a keen interest for wildlife. This led me to pursue a B.S. in Zoology at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Shortly after I graduated I left Canada to travel and work in the United States. I have been working as a professional wildlife biologist on a wide variety of wildlife-related projects for over a decade, eight of which were in the desert southwest. I truly believe that a better understanding of urban ecology is of fundamental importance for the future of all living organisms as our urban boundaries expand and put more pressure on our ecological resources.	Lizards, iguanas, and snakes! Oh my!
Tina Barbasch	Boston University	I first became interested in science catching frogs and snakes in my backyard in Ithaca, NY. This inspired me to major in biology at Cornell University, located in my hometown. As an undergraduate, I studied male competition and sperm allocation in the local spotted salamander. After graduating, I joined the Peace Corps and spent 2 years in Morocco teaching environmental education and 6 months in Liberia teaching high school chemistry. As a PhD student, I study how parents negotiate over parental care in my study system, the clownfish. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Raising Nemo: Parental care in the clown anemonefish
Carina Baskett	Michigan State University	I became interested in biology when I was in high school, so I joined Science Olympiad. I went to college at Rice University in Houston, Texas, my hometown. I did some research on pollination in college, and decided that I really enjoyed learning about the relationships between plants and insects. Before starting my PhD, I did a year-long Watson Fellowship, an independent study abroad. I traveled to different ecosystems in Ecuador, Chile, Panama, and Spain, and made a podcast about relationships between people and nature. For my PhD, I studied pollination and herbivory and how they change with latitude—lots of travel again!	Where to find the hungry, hungry herbivores & Are plants more toxic in the tropics?
Heather Bateman	Arizona State University	I am a field ecologist and conservation biologist interested in how human land-use affects vertebrate populations and habitats. As Earth’s ecosystems move into a future of growing human influence, restoring the integrity of these ecosystems will become central to the conservation of biodiversity. Human activities tend to perturb ecosystems by suppressing natural disturbances such as flooding or fire. This can lead to a decline in native species and proliferation of non-native species. My research interests lie in exploring population responses to habitat alteration, with a particular interest in amphibians, reptiles, and birds.	Lizards, iguanas, and snakes! Oh my!
Karen Beard	Utah State University	My research focuses on how changing landscapes influence species interactions and ecosystem functioning. My research is often done in the context of non-native species and/or climate change. I am researching how non-native frogs influence the communities and ecosystems where they invade on the Hawaiian islands. I have also conducted research in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in western Alaska on how the timing of seasonal events, including bird migration, influences species interactions and ecosystem processes.	Sink or source? How grazing geese impact the carbon cycle
Matthew G. Betts	Oregon State University	I study the ways that landscape composition and pattern influence animal behavior, species distributions and ecosystem function. As humans are one of the primary drivers of landscape characteristics globally, much of my work is applied and focused on management and conservation. However, understanding mechanisms is key to generalization, so a central part of my research program is basic in nature and links landscape ecology to behavioral ecology, physiology, and molecular ecology.	Trees and bushes, home sweet home for warblers
Andrew Blinn	Idaho State University	Andrew is currently working on a research project studying carbon dynamics and ecosystem function in urban streams. Stream ecology played a large role in developing his passion for ecological sciences and he hopes to foster the passion of future scientists through education. He has also spent two years as an interpretive park ranger and naturalist for Maryland and Delaware State Parks where he developed stream monitoring programs in parks that help inform natural resource managers and introduce the public to exciting research methods in ecology.	Surviving the flood
Harriet Booth	Northeastern University	I am interested in how species interactions drive community structure and dynamics in coastal ecosystems as well as how these interactions are altered by human influence. My graduate research will focus on predator-prey dynamics in a subtidal oyster reef system in Apalachicola Bay, Florida. I am examining the combined effects of intraspecific trait diversity and density of stone crabs on oyster survival and growth over time.	The mystery of Plum Island Marsh
Isabela Borges	Kellogg Biological Station,Michigan State University	I'm a Brazilian evolutionary ecologist, currently working as a conservation scientist at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in Santa Barbara, California. I received my my Ph.D. from Michigan State University, having worked in the Fitzpatrick lab at the W. K. Kellogg Biological Station. I grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and started my undergraduate degree in biology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. I then transferred to the University of Toronto, in Canada, where I completed a B.Sc. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.	Guppies on the move
Jennifer Bowen	Marine Science Center, Northeastern University	My work runs the gamut from modeling how changing land use on watersheds alters the geochemistry of receiving waters to understanding how climate change and nutrient enrichment alters the structure and function of microbial communities. In particular I have been focusing on both how human activities are altering the structure and function of microbial communities and in turn how microbial communities can help ameliorate pollution from human sources.	Marsh makeover
Carrie Branch	University of Nevada Reno	I have been interested in animal behavior and behavioral ecology since my second year in college at the University of Tennessee. I research how variation in ecology and environment affect communication and signaling in birds. I have also studied various types of memory and am interested in how animals learn and use information depending on how their environment varies over space and time. Once I finish my PhD I hope to become a professor at a university so that I can continue to conduct research and teach students about animal behavior. In my spare time I love hiking with my friends and dogs, and watching comedies!	Finding Mr. Right
Adriana Briscoe	University of California, Irvine	Like many scientists, I believe that communicating science to the public is becoming increasingly urgent. As a consequence, I have become very interested in how science communicated in K-12 lessons, short dispatches, blogs, podcasts and videos can be used as a tool for inviting the public to participate in science as students, citizen scientists or as consumers of scientific knowledge. My research is focused on understanding what happens to gene products underlying physiological and behavioral traits following gene duplication and functional diversification. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Why are butterfly wings colorful?
Robert Buchsbaum	Mass Audubon	I enjoy sharing my knowledge and passion for the natural world as a trip leader and lecturer for Mass Audubon and other environmental groups. My particular interests include marine and coastal habitats, wildflowers, birds, climate change, and alpine ecology. I am a Mass Audubon’s Regional Scientist in the Southeast, Cape, and Islands Region and have been a staff scientist here since 1987.	Make way for mummichogs & Does sea level rise harm saltmarsh sparrows?
Kristi Bugajski	Valparaiso University	I specialize in the area of forensic entomology. Forensic entomology looks at how insects are used in a court of law. My specialty is medico-legal forensic entomology, or how maggots can be used to estimate the amount of time that has passed since death. I am interested in oviposition timing and factors that influence oviposition.	CSI: Crime Solving Insects
Ashley Carroll	Gull Lake Middle School	I teach 7th-grade science at Gull Lake Middle School in Richland, MI. In the summer of 2018 I worked in Jeff Conner’s lab and participated in a Research Experience for Teachers (RET). My research experience took place at one of Michigan State University's off-campus sites, Kellogg Biological Station (KBS). During my time at KBS I collaborated with scientists and college students to study a variety of radish plant adaptations.	Fast weeds in farmer’s fields
Jeff Conner	Michigan State University	I study the mechanisms by which natural selection on plants produces (sometimes very rapid) adaptation to a variable environment, as well as possible constraints on this adaptation. Members of my lab measure the strength of selection acting in present-day populations and combine this with quantitative and molecular genetic and genomic analyses to predict short-term evolutionary change and identify the genetic mechanisms underlying adaptation and constraint. Major projects focus on floral evolution and weed adaptations to agricultural habitats.	Fast weeds in farmer’s fields
Susan Cook-Patton	The Nature Conservancy	I am a Senior Forest Restoration Scientist at The Nature Conservancy. I work to quantify the climate mitigation potential of reforestation and other natural climate solutions and infuse the best-available science into land management decisions.	Breathing in, Part 1 & Breathing in, Part 2
Dave Costello	Kent State University	I am an ecosystem ecologist and I spend most of my time studying how human actions impact rivers and streams. Recently, my work has focused on excess nutrients, metal pollution, and the combination of those two “stressors”. I use experiments in the field and lab to discover how human stressors change the abundance, composition, and function of organisms living in streams. I am fascinated by the resilience of stream organisms to the stresses of human disturbance.	Surviving the flood
Aaron Curry	Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER site & Wise High School	I am an Environmental Science Teacher at Wise High School in Maryland. As a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Fellow with the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, I studied the effects of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on riparian spider food webs. To do this research, I worked with a team of undergraduate students from UMBC to sample spiders and we also analyzed pictures of spider webs to determine the irregularity of the web shapes. I am a huge science nerd and I really enjoy being outdoors studying science. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Spiders under the influence
Robert Cox	University of Virginia	I am an evolutionary ecologist and my interests span from comparative endocrinology and physiology to behavioral ecology and evolutionary genetics. My current projects focus on integrating quantitative genetics, endocrinology, and genomics to study intralocus sexual conflict and life-history tradeoffs.	Is it better to be bigger? & Is it dangerous to be a showoff?
Hans Dam	University of Connecticut-Avery Point	I am a biological oceanographer. My research interests are in the biology, ecology and evolution of planktonic organisms, particularly pelagic copepods. Earlier in my career I investigated questions dealing with the role of planktonic organisms in biogeochemical cycles in the ocean, and the formation and fate of marine aggregates. Recently, my interests have broadened to deal with questions of the evolutionary ecology of plankton.	Dangerous aquatic prey: can predators adapt to toxic algae?
Ellen Damschen	University of Wisconsin-Madison	As an ecologist and conservation biologist, I am interested in how local and regional ecological processes affect species diversity with a particular emphasis on how human-induced global changes affect their relative importance. My approach lies at the intersection of basic and applied ecology, using long-term datasets and large-scale experiments from terrestrial plant communities to test basic theory with relevance to applied conservation management.	A burning question
Emily Dangremond	Roosevelt University	I am an ecologist with interests in conservation, climate change, and patterns of abundance. My research has been on rare plants in California, Panama and Illinois and on the geographic range expansion of mangroves in Florida. I teach courses in ecology, introductory biology, botany and global change biology. One of my main goals is to spend time outside, and studying the natural world lets me do that.	Mangroves on the move
Sarah Davies	University of Texas at Austin & Boston University	Changing climates and ongoing anthropogenic habitat modifications threaten natural ecosystems worldwide. Research in my lab studies the potential roles of acclimation, adaptation, and dispersal in an organism’s response to rapid climate change. Understanding how symbioses are maintained is fundamental as climate change disrupts symbiotic relationships worldwide. The coral–Symbiodinium symbiosis is essential and serves as the cornerstone for the entire reef ecosystem.	Won’t you be my urchin?
Erin de Leon Sanchez	University of California - Santa Barbara	I am a Ph.D. student in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara studying the effects of marine heatwaves on the ecologically and commercially important red sea urchin, Mesocentrotus franciscanus. Prior to graduate school, I earned my B.S. in Biology at the University of California, Davis and researched how warming and hypoxia affect Chinook salmon. Overall, I am interested in how commercially important aquatic species may adapt to climate change and its associated stressors. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Do urchins flip out in hot water?
Clara Deser	National Center for Atmospheric Research	I study global climate variability and climate change using observations and models, with an emphasis on interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, and sea ice. My recent projects include the role of internal variability in regional climate change, the effects of projected Arctic sea ice loss on global climate, asymmetries between El Nino and La Nina, and Pacific decadal variability.	The Arctic is Melting – So What?
Leila Desotelle	Michigan State University	My research explores how food web subsidies can influence communities. I study the Kalamazoo River, which has several dams. Dams change the flow of the water and can increase the production of phytoplankton. The phytoplankton can act as a subsidy both temporally and spatially. Stream insect communities change along the river, and some of this response is to the subsidy from dams. Rivers frequently have multiple dams though many are aging and will be removed in the coming decades. Therefore, understanding how dams change food sources is important for the management of rivers.	Float down the Kalamazoo River
Colin Donihue	Harvard University & Washington University	I am an evolutionary ecologist studying the drivers and consequences in intra-specific variation in animal functional traits. In particular, my research focuses on predicting changes in behavioral, morphological, and performance traits as a result of changes in ecological context. My field research in Southern Europe, the West Indies, East Africa, and North America makes use of direct manipulative studies and landscape-scale natural experiments. My work generates fundamental insights into eco-evolutionary dynamics and critical applied lessons for conservation in human-dominated landscapes.	Hold on for your life! Part 1 & Part 2
Emma Droste	North Carolina State University	I am a PhD student in Genetics and Genomics at NC State. I received my bachelors in Genetics and master's in STEM Education also from NC State (AKA Go Pack!). I am fascinated by how genes shape the nervous system, and am studying the fly auditory system for my dissertation. When I'm not doing science, I am crafting in my sewing room, acting on the stage, or hammocking with a book.	Did you hear that? Inside the world of fruit fly mating songs
Liz Duff	Mass Audubon, Salt Marsh Science Project	I coordinate environmental education in the Great Marsh Region and beyond, primarily in salt marshes and other coastal ecosystems. I provide professional development workshops and courses for teachers. Currently, I am conducting long term ecological research with middle and high school students, investigating invasive Phragmites. I engage students in stewardship projects, and am passionate about my work teaching about climate change, working to raise awareness about rising sea levels, and to inspire actions and plan for the future.	Make way for mummichogs & Invasive reeds in the salt marsh & Can a salt marsh recover after restoration?
Ken Dunton	University of Texas Marine Science Institute & Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems LTER	I am a biological oceanographer whose research is focused on estuarine, coastal, and shelf processes. Although my work spans from the Arctic to the Antarctic, my continuous studies of the arctic coastal ecosystem have spanned three decades. My research also includes measurements that can help identify processes that are sentinel indicators of global change.	Benthic buddies & Seagrass survival in a super salty lagoon
Carleigh Engstrom	Biotechnology High School & Monmouth University	I teach Molecular and Agricultural Biotechnology to tenth graders in New Jersey. I hope to instill my love for biology with all of my students, and one way I do that is by staying current. During the summer of 2018, I participated in a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program at Monmouth University's Phifer-Rixey lab. This research experience allowed me to get involved with a striped bass project, where we determined the stock populations for striped bass that were sampled off the NJ coast. I truly enjoy sharing this experience with my students, as a way to show them all that science has to offer.	Fishy origins
Meredith Everett	University of Washington & NOAA	My research explores how organisms interact with and adapt to their environments on a genomic scale, and how knowledge of these interactions can be applied to conservation and management solutions. During my time in the Seeb Lab I worked on SNP discovery, developing novel genomic maps for Pacific salmonids, and using these maps to discover the genomic regions associated with ecological traits through QTL and association mapping. I was also involved in a project using SNPs to track sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. I currently work at NOAA on the phylogenetics of deep-water corals.	Salmon in hot water
Ilka (Candy) Feller	Smithsonian Environmental Research Center	I am a mangrove ecologist. I was the Principal Investigator in the Animal-Plant Interaction Laboratory at the Smithsonian Environment Research Center from 1999 until 2018, when I retired and transitioned to an emeritus appointment at the Smithsonian Institution. My research is focused on the biology of animal-plant interactions in mangrove ecosystems. I maintain a lab at SERC and plan to continue to work on mangroves for the foreseeable future.	Mangroves on the move
Michael Finiguerra	University of Connecticut-Avery Point	My PhD dissertation investigated the evolution of tolerance to toxins. Today I am a professor at the University of Connecticut, Teaching is my passion. I love interacting with students and coaching them through complex problems. To me, science is more than intellectual content. It is a lens through which to teach critical thinking. Helping my students become independent critical thinkers is my goal. I use my research as a tool for teaching; it connects the real-world to classroom lectures and gives student much needed hands-on experience, in both laboratory and field-settings.	Dangerous aquatic prey: can predators adapt to toxic algae?
Susan Finkbeiner	University of California, Irvine & Boston University	I spent my childhood chasing butterflies and collecting insects in Illinois, with the dream of studying butterflies in the tropical rainforest. As an undergrad at Cornell I did a semester abroad in Costa Rica where I was introduced to Heliconius butterflies. For my PhD I worked with these butterflies to examine how natural and sexual selection drive the evolution of butterfly wing patterns. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University (Mullen Lab) working with Adelpha butterflies to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes that shape patterns of biodiversity.	Why are butterfly wings colorful?
Erika Foster	Colorado State University	I strive to answer complex questions about soil productivity and to inspire the next generation of soil ecologists. I aim to work with diverse communities from farmers to students, to discover best land management practices, and to ignite curiosity and passion for science. Broadly, I hope to continue serving as an interpreter in my field of soil ecology, delving into the mechanisms that build healthy soils. I want to dig deep into the science, and connect my work to management practices for climate-smart agriculture.	Can biochar improve crop yields?
Daniel Fraser	University of Texas Marine Science Institute & Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems LTER	As a member of the Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystem - Long Term Ecological Research (BLE - LTER) program, I am studying the spatial and temporal variation in community composition and structure of benthic macrofaunal communities of Alaskan Arctic Lagoons.	Benthic buddies
Sarah Frey	Oregon State University	My research is in quantitative population ecology, with a focus on understanding how environmental patterns at different scales affect biodiversity in both temperate and tropical forest systems. Specifically, I study how land-use and climate changes in montane forest landscapes influence species distributions, abundance trends, and community composition. I apply novel analytical tools to address my research questions.	Trees and bushes, home sweet home for warblers
Becky Fuller	University of Illinois	I grew up in a small town riding horses in 4-H and working in a veterinary clinic. I’ve always been interested in biology, but two key experiences lead me to my career. I took courses at Cedar Point Biological Field Station. There I met Dr. Tony Joern who hired me onto his field crew to study grasshopper community ecology. I caught the “science bug” and never looked back. After undergrad I worked with Dr. Anders Berglund on pipefish on the west coast of Sweden. There I developed my love for fish and aquatics. I feel very fortunate to have a job where I can do science and teach young, enthusiastic students.	Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish Part 1 & Part 2
Iniyan Ganesan	Michigan State University	I am interested in the pore size of the chloroplast TOC and TIC protein translocons as well as the degree of folding present in proteins as they pass through chloroplast outer and inner membranes. My area of specialization is Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, and Genomics.	Cheaters in nature – when is a mutualism not a mutualism?
Ali Gephart	Bayfield High School	I graduated from Bayfield High School in 2012. After graduation, I attended UW-La Crosse for 2 years and then transferred to UW Madison where I graduated in 2016 with a degree in Communication Arts - Film/Radio/TV. I spent 5 years in Los Angeles trying my best to avoid the sun before moving back to the Midwest. I now live in Chicago and work as a Studio Mechanic (Local 476) on TV shows such as Chicago Med, The Chi and Force. I much prefer the climate here in Chicago, Southern California is simply too hot. Not to mention I couldn’t stand living so far away from one of the Great Lakes.	Lake Superior rhythms
Gena Gephart	Bayfield High School	After graduating from Bayfield High School, Gena attended UW-Madison where she got her degree in Communication Arts and Gender & Women’s Studies. After college Gena moved to Chicago to pursue standup comedy which people think is an art but is actually a science.	Lake Superior rhythms
Eben Gering	Michigan State University	One of the most exciting things I learned as a college student was that natural populations sometimes evolve very quickly. Biologists used to think evolution was too slow to be studied “in action”, so their research focused on evolutionary changes that occurred over thousands (or even millions) of years. I study feral animal populations to learn how rapid evolutionary changes help them survive and reproduce, without direct help from us.	Feral chickens fly the coop
Anne Giblin	Marine Biological Laboratory & Plum Island Ecosystems LTER	My major research interest has been on the cycling of elements in the environment, especially the biogeochemistry of nitrogen, sulfur, iron, and phosphorus. Much of my work has been focused in soils and sediments where element cycling takes place under different conditions of oxidation and reduction. Much of my current research focuses on the nitrogen cycle and has been centered on understanding how ecosystems respond to high nutrient inputs from wastewater and fertilizer.	Keeping up with the sea level
Cara Giordano	University of Virginia	My research in sexual selection focuses on the dewlap, a secondary sexual trait in the brown anole lizard. I investigate if variation in the characteristics of this ornament relates to the fitness of the individual expressing it. I am interested in how ecological relationships change over time, particularly under pressures of environmental transition, as well as the physiological mechanisms that underlie conservation concerns.	Is it dangerous to be a showoff?
Laura Gough	Towson University	When I was young, I was always happiest when I was outside. I loved to walk in the woods and observe insects, birds, and mammals and think about how they could live with the plants I encountered there. I trained to be a plant ecologist and am still interested in how plants interact with other organisms in the same habitat. I have been studying the arctic tundra for many years and love thinking about how arctic organisms survive and thrive and how they are responding as climate change progresses and the Arctic warms.	Which tundra plants will win the climate change race?
Kristine Grayson	University of Richmond, Victoria University of Wellington	I am an Associate Professor in the Biology Department and an HHMI BioInteractive Ambassador and facilitator with the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES) project. My work on tuatara was conducted during a postdoc at Victoria University of Wellington funded by an NSF International Research Fellowship. One of my claims to fame is capturing the state record holding snapping turtle for North Carolina – 52 pounds! To read more about my interest in science from a young age, check out this article.	When a species can’t stand the heat
Skye Greenler	Colorado College & Purdue University	As a child I was always asking why; questioning the behavior, characteristics, and interactions of plants and animals around me. This love of discovery, observation, questioning, and experimentation led me to pursue a career in science. As a graduate student at Purdue I study the factors influencing oak regeneration after ecologically based timber harvest and prescribed fire. While my primary focus is ecological research, I love getting to leave the lab and bring science into classrooms to inspire the next generation of young scientists and encourage all students to be always asking why!	Is chocolate for the birds?
Stanley Gregory	Oregon State University	I am a professor emeritus. My research focuses on the analysis of processes and patterns that shape aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems at landscape scales. I am particularly interested in the influence of human activities on ecosystem structure and function. My work evaluates patterns of historical change as a basis for developing restoration strategies and design future human development.	All washed up? The effect of floods on cutthroat trout
Natasha Hagemeyer	Old Dominion University	I got an early start with bird research, and banded my first bird at 12 years old. Since then, I've worked with a variety of species and questions, looking at song sharing in orchard orioles, foraging behavior in black-backed woodpeckers, window strikes in migratory passerines, and social behavior in acorn woodpeckers. My true love, however, is movement ecology, and my PhD research focuses on the pre-dispersal movement patterns of the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpeckers, using a novel automated telemetry system with solar-powered radio tags.	Deadly windows
Travis Hagey	Michigan State University, BEACON	Ever since I was a kid, I've been interested in animals and wanted to be a paleontologist. I even had a bunch of dinosaur names memorized to back it up! In college I discovered evolutionary biology, which drove me to apply for graduate school and become a scientist. There, I fell in love with comparative biomechanics, which combines evolutionary biology and mechanical engineering. Today I study geckos and their sticky toes, which allow them to scale surfaces like glass windows and tree branches.	Sticky situations: big and small animals with sticky feet
Mark Hammond	Michigan State University	I am the research technician for the Lau lab and the resident natural history, lab, and greenhouse guru! I manage all projects in the lab, and am a resource for grad students and mentor for summer researchers. Research in the lab focuses on community ecology and evolutionary ecology. We study how plant populations respond to human-cased environmental change, the ecology and evolution of species interactions, and natural selection in the wild.	Invasion meltdown & Springing forward
Chris Hawn	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	The most vulnerable populations in society overlap with critical concerns in human-modified systems. I explore the relationships between human activity and ecological systems through conservation ecology, citizen science, and environmental justice.	Spiders under the influence
Adam Heck	Colorado State University	I am a graduate of the University of Sioux Falls with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Chemistry and Entrepreneurial Studies. Currently, I am continuing my education as a PhD graduate student at Colorado State University in Cell/Molecular Biology en route to a career in biomedical research.	Gene expression in stem cells
Jennifer Hellmann	The Ohio State University & University of Illinois	It is becoming clear that past and current environmental influences can cause even genetically identical individuals to behave in very different ways. I use field and laboratory experiments, molecular tools, and modeling to understand behavioral differences among individuals and the mechanisms that permit individuals to plastically adjust their behavior given social and environmental pressures (e.g. predation risk). To do this, I study a variety of marine and freshwater fishes.	Clique wars: social conflict in daffodil cichlids
Raisa Hernández Pacheco	University of Richmond	I am interested in understanding the drivers shaping population dynamics. In 2013, I obtained my PhD from the University of Puerto Rico after assessing the effects of mass bleaching on Caribbean coral populations. Right after, I joined the Caribbean Primate Research Center and the Max-Planck Odense Center to study the long-term dynamics of the Cayo Santiago rhesus macaque population. At the Grayson lab, I am studying the population of red-backed salamanders in Richmond; its density, spatial arrangement, and space use. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	What big teeth you have! Sexual selection in rhesus macaques
Richard Holmes	Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest & Dartmouth College	I am a Research Professor of Biology at Dartmouth College, where I am also a Harris Professor of Environmental Biology Emeritus. I live in Grantham, NH.	The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part 1 & Part 2
Jared Homola	Michigan State University	I am a conservation geneticist focusing on questions that influence natural resource management. I grew up in Michigan, attended Michigan State University to earn a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife before going on to graduate school at Grand Valley State University and the University of Maine. I then worked as a postdoctoral scholar back in the Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife at MSU. Currently, I am the Director of the Molecular Conservation Genetics Lab at University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point where my lab does research to addresses information needs of fisheries managers using genomic, bioinformatic, and statistical tools.	Round goby, skinny goby
Charles Hopkinson	University of Georgia & Marine Biological Laboratory	I have been studying estuaries since graduate school and in collaboration with colleagues from around the world, but especially here at Georgia and in Louisiana and Massachusetts (MBL). Estuaries are the most productive natural ecosystems of the world because they receive nutrient and water subsidies from every land use upstream and because of tidal pumping. It’s their location relative to land inputs however that also makes them vulnerable to N-enrichment and eutrophication.	Urbanization and estuary eutrophication
Forrest Howk	Bayfield High School, OneEnergy Renewables	I grew up in Bayfield, Wisconsin. In high school, I partnered with various local organizations and my science teacher to complete an independent project looking at long-term boat traffic data as a proxy for changing ice seasons in the Bayfield Harbor of Lake Superior. After high school I went on to study conservation biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received a Master’s degree in public policy from the University of Washington-Seattle. I am now an associate in project development at OneEnergy Renewables, a company that helps with solar projects around the United States.	The end of winter as we’ve known it?
Jerry Husack	University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)	I grew up in southeast Texas, went to college in west Texas, and did his graduate work at Oklahoma State University. My work combines physiology, behavior, and life-history theory in an evolutionary framework to understand how form and function evolve. I am interested in how and why organisms allocate limited resources to different aspects of their form and function, as well as what trade-offs occur with those ‘decisions’.	Size matters - and so does how you carry it
Alexandria Igwe	University of California-Davis	I am a microbial ecologist and study how microbial communities impact plant phenotypes. There were two reasons I became a biologist: interest and money. First, I enjoyed science. I grew up participating in science fairs and most of my topics dealt with nature: surveying insects, growing plants, growing crystals, etc. I was set to become a medical doctor when I was introduced to research as a career which led to my second reason I became a biologist: money. I was excited to pursue a career where I could, essentially, get paid to learn and explore topics of interest. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Getting to the roots of serpentine soils
Jake Jungers	University of Minnesota	The objective of my research group is to improve the profitability and sustainability of cropping systems. Our highly-collaborative team relies on the principles of plant ecology, field experiments, and statistical modeling to achieve these goals. Key components of our strategy include 1) improving the management of perennial crops in crop rotations, and 2) enhancing crop diversity at local, watershed, and regional scales.	Collaborative cropping: Can plants help each other grow?
Adrienne Keller	University of Minnesota	I am an ecologist and climate change scientist. I do research and work with land managers to use scientific knowledge when deciding how to manage ecosystems in a changing climate. I collect data in the field, do analyses in the lab, and conduct experiments in the greenhouse. I also synthesize data other researchers have collected to look for general patterns across studies. A lot of my research focuses on understanding what’s going on under our feet, exploring the many important roles of soils. I am passionate about making science accessible to people from all walks of life and applying good science to equitable land management policies.	Trees and the city
Carly Kenkel	University of Texas at Austin & University of Southern California	Environmental variation is ubiquitous in natural systems. I am interested in understanding the mechanisms marine organisms use to cope with environmental variation at multiple scales, from changes in the relationship between intracellular symbionts and their host environment, to the mechanisms enabling local populations to persist in different habitats. I also have a strong interest in “translational ecology”: turning scientific findings into tools for conservation management.	Coral bleaching and climate change
Traci Kennedy	Milwaukee Public Schools	I am a science teacher who enjoys doing research during the summer. I participated in a research experience for teachers program for two summers at University of California-Santa Barbara looking at urchin responses to marine heatwaves.	Do urchins flip out in hot water?
Hankyu Kim	Oregon State University	I study how bird population response to climate change and land-cover change, focused on conservation of migratory and common bird species. I am interested in how dynamic changes in human use of land and climate change interact with bird population dynamics throughout their annual migratory life cycle. I have worked in various ecosystems, from temperate coniferous rainforests in the Pacific Northwest to temperate deciduous forests in South Korea and marine ecosystems in western Antarctica. I think leaving records of biodiversity is very important for biodiversity conservation and understanding its impact on human life.	Trees and bushes, home sweet home for warblers
Lauren Kinsman-Costello	Kent State University & Michigan State University	I am an ecosystem ecologist interested in the effects of hydrology on aquatic nutrient biogeochemistry and ecosystem function. My research aims to inform larger questions about the resilience of ecosystems faced with environmental change and the ability of humans to manage, restore, and create ecosystems. A recurring theme in my research is the role that sediments play in freshwater ecosystem function (mud matters!). As a grad student I was part of the original team of scientists who helped develop Data Nuggets!	Marvelous mud
Melissa Kjelvik	Michigan State University & Data Nuggets	I am a postdoctoral researcher and co-founder of Data Nuggets. I completed my PhD in Zoology and EEBB at the Kellogg Biological Station as a member of Gary Mittelbach’s Lab. For my research I work with juvenile bluegill sunfish. I am interested in how fitness tradeoffs may lead to the maintenance of individual-level biodiversity, particularly in the behaviors of fish.	Dangerously bold
Gabe Knowles	Kellogg Biological Station LTER	I am an elementary teacher and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) fellow at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. I conducted research on monarch butterfly ecology and conservation with scientists from the Landis Lab at Michigan State University. I love bringing my experiences back to the classroom to share with my students. <"https://projectbiodiversify.org/2024/09/10/gabe-knowles/">Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Mowing for Monarchs, Part 1 & Mowing for Monarchs, Part 2
John Kominoski	Florida International University, Miami	I opt to be outside. I am an ecosystem ecologist whose research integrates spatial and temporal scales of biogeochemical cycling and organic matter processing. My research focuses on the interface (ecotone) between ecosystems where community transitions and exchanges of materials occur. I use theory to test fundamental questions in ecology, enabling me to study diverse ecosystems ranging from the mountains to the sea. I am passionate about field-based research and teaching, and I maintain long-term research in the southern Appalachian Mountains, Gulf Coast of Texas, and the Florida Everglades.	The case of the collapsing soil
Bob Kuhn	Centennial High School	I have been an educator for 22 years, mostly at Centennial High School in Roswell, Georgia where I have taught freshman biology and AP biology for 19 years. I am a proud graduate of the University of Georgia (BS/MS) with degrees in paleontology. In addition to teaching biology, I mentor students in independent research.	Hold on for your life! Part 1 & Part 2
Matt Kustra	University of Virginia	I am a senior at the University of Virginia majoring in Biology and Computer Science. My research interests are in post-copulatory sexual selection as well as how social environment affects animal physiology and behavior. I am currently working on my distinguished major’s thesis in the Cox lab, looking at how spatial distributions of lizards change throughout the year. After graduation, I plan on pursuing a PhD in evolutionary biology.	Is it better to be bigger?
Alycia Lackey	Michigan State University & Murray State University	My research lies at the intersection of evolution, ecology, and behavior. I am interested in how populations evolve in response to the environment, especially in cases of environmental change. I study what generates, maintains, and erodes diversity within and between populations. For my PhD I explored the evolution of reproductive isolation between species of stickleback fish. I studied how divergent sexual and natural selection maintained distinct species and how environmental change facilitated hybridization between one species pair. I am enthusiastic about teaching, mentoring, and outreach.	Which guy should she choose? & Fish fights
Doug A. Landis	Michigan State University	I am an entomologist and have been a professor at MSU since 1988. My research focuses on how agricultural landscapes influence plant-insect interactions. Together with my students, I study insect ecology and management, particularly in regard to biological control of insects and weeds. I hope to use these insights to help design sustainable landscapes that promote the benefits we get from insects, such as pollination and pest suppression for crops. I am also interested in invasive species ecology and management, and more recently in the conservation and restoration of rare species and communities.	Mowing for monarchs, Part 1 & Mowing for monarchs, Part 2
Ashley Lang	Indiana University	I am interested in the ways that microbial communities influence the response of ecosystem carbon dynamics to climate change and shifts in plant species composition. My previous work has been focused on New England forest ecosystems. When I'm not in the lab, you can find me hiking, making art, and hanging out with my family.	Going underground to investigate carbon locked in soils
Wesley Larson	University of Washington	My graduate research is focused on the use of genotyping by sequencing to acquire data from Chinook salmon populations in western Alaska; these data will provide conservation options and new insights into local adaptation. I am also interested processes influencing variation in the genes of the major histocompatibility complex.	Salmon in hot water
Jen Lau	Michigan State University & Indiana University	I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in understanding the full range of ways that plant populations respond to changing environmental conditions. Much of my work focuses on how rapid environmental changes (e.g., biological invasions, rising CO2 concentrations, and global climate change) impact population dynamics, species interactions, and the evolution of plant populations.	Invasion meltdown & Springing forward
Kevin Lee	University of Texas - Austin	My research uses sound to study the underwater environment, including ocean boundaries, aquatic life, and objects in the ocean. Many of my interests focus on the seabed: marine sediments, seagrass and aquatic vegetation, infauna (worms and other invertebrate animals that live in the seabed sediment), and carbon burial. I also study the acoustic effects of gas bubbles in the sediment and in the water, as well as how sound interacts and bounces off underwater objects (both natural and human-made). Another application of my research is finding ways to reduce human-made underwater noise pollution.	The sound of seagrass
Laura Lilly	Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego	My research focuses on zooplankton responses to El Niño events in the California Current. I completed a joint B.S. and M.S. degrees at Stanford University in Earth Systems, with an oceanography focus. In conjunction with those degrees, I researched tuna physiology. Prior to graduate school, I completed a California Sea Grant Fellowship with the West Coast Governors' Alliance and Ocean Observing Systems to connect oceanographic data to policymakers. In my non-research time, I love to surf, ride horses, run, travel to Baja California, write poetry, and promote low-waste lifestyles.	Crunchy or squishy? How El Niño events change zooplankton
Michael Martin	University of Maryland, Baltimore County & University of Arizona	I started my college career as an engineer, but after taking a zoology class I was hooked on biology. I was amazed by the millions of different types of animals that have lived, and currently live, on Earth. I needed to know how so many different types of animals evolved, and so I decided to study the process of speciation. I am currently working in a group of stream fish, called darters, to try and learn how differences in mating behavior might lead to new animal species. This work has led me to a more general interest in animal behavior that I now study in fruit flies as well.	Are you my species?
Erin McCullough	University of Western Australia	I am fascinated by morphological diversity, and my research aims to understand the selective pressures that drive (and constrain) the evolution of animal form. Competition for mates is a particularly strong evolutionary force, and I study how sexual selection has contributed to the elaborate and diverse morphologies found throughout the animal kingdom. Using horned beetles as a model system, I am interested in how male-male competition has driven the evolution of diverse weapon morphologies, and how sexual selection has shaped the evolution of physical performance capabilities.	Beetle battles
Remington Moll	Michigan State University	I am currently a graduate student. My research uses cutting-edge technologies such as GPS collars and camera-traps to study predator-prey interactions between large carnivores and their prey. I am excited about evaluating how ecological theory developed in "natural" areas like national parks applies to urban contexts. I grew up in the city and fell in love with nature and ecology in city parks. Although it comes with challenges, I believe that humans and large predators can peaceably coexist, even in and around cities. It is my goal to use the lessons learned from my research to help make that belief a reality.	City parks: wildlife islands in a sea of cement
James Morris	University of South Carolina	My research spans the basic and applied aspects of the physiological ecology of plants adapted to wetland habitats and the biogeochemistry and systems ecology of wetlands, primarily salt and freshwater intertidal wetlands. We take an approach that combines field work, analytical chemistry, and numerical modeling.	Is your salt marsh in the zone?
Bill Munger	Harvard University	The Harvard Forest Environmental Measurement Station began measurements in the fall of 1989. The objectives at this site are to make long-term measurements of net carbon exchange, canopy-atmosphere exchange of selected trace gases, and regional atmospheric chemistry. My emphasis has been on the regional atmospheric chemistry and nitrogen deposition, and long-term trends in carbon storage.	Are forests helping in the fight against climate change?
Alyssa Novak	Center for Coastal Studies, Boston University	I am a coastal ecologist who uses a combination of theoretical and empirical approaches to understand how coastal ecosystems experience and respond to stressors. The ultimate goal of my research is to provide information that facilitates initiatives to enhance ecosystem resilience. I have worked extensively in seagrass systems. Recently, I expanded my work to salt marsh systems and am investigating marsh-edge subsidence and its relationship to the invasive European green crab.	Green Crabs: Invaders in the Great Marsh
Alison O’Donnell	University of Western Australia	I have a broad research interest in biogeography and landscape ecology in relation to climate variability and fire regimes. I am particularly interested in utilising dendrochronology (tree ring) techniques to understand past climates and fire regimes of arid and semi-arid regions in Western Australia. I also have an ongoing interest in improving understanding of the interactions between climate and fire and vegetation, topography and ecosystem processes.	What do trees know about rain?
Erik Olson	Northland College	I currently study a wide-variety of topics focused on predator ecology and conservation. Some of my recent projects include: wolf management and ecology in the Great Lakes region, island biogeography theory in the Apostle Islands wildlife community, grey fox climbing behavior, monitoring of jaguars and other wildlife in two National Parks of Costa Rica, factors influencing nest site selection and reproductive success in American kestrels, and the habitat value of old-growth white pine canopies.	Candid camera: Capturing the secret lives of carnivores
John Orrock	University of Wisconsin-Madison	I am an ecologist who works at the intersection of behavioral ecology, global change, and ecological interactions. I study terrestrial plants and animals, often focusing on research to promote conservation and restoration, and often using behavior as a foundation. Current projects include linking climate, behavior, and physiology to understand large-scale variation in zoonotic disease, large-scale experiments to inform restoration of forest ecosystems, examining the effect of invasive shrubs on forest ecosystems, and exploring how plants utilize cues of herbivores to optimize defense.	A burning question
Logan Pallin	Oregon State University & Palmer Station LTER	Populations of humpback whales in the Southern Hemisphere are recovering after intense commercial whaling during the last century. Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) this recovery is occurring in an environment that is experiencing the fastest warming of any region on the planet. For my master’s research, I will employ a suite of genetic, biochemical, and photographic techniques to assess the demography of humpback whales along the WAP and how these demographics change with the onset of climate change. Specifically, I will measure changes in sex ratios and quantify pregnancy rates.	When whale I sea you again?
Jessie K Pearl	University of Arizona	I am a postdoc with the U.S. Geological Survey in Seattle, WA studying the recurrence and impacts of large mega-thrust earthquakes along the Cascadian subduction zone. I use dendrochronology, dendroecology, geochronology, and sedimentology to describe and analyze past landscapes, extreme events, and climate. I am interested in regional climate dynamics, and how knowledge of the past can inform our understanding of current global change and future hazards.	A window into a tree’s world
Neil Pederson	Harvard University	I am an ecologist at the Harvard Forest studying climate-forest dynamics and disturbance ecology. I was born and raised in Volney, NY. Throughout my career I have been a forester, professor, and research professor. My research focuses on the ecology of climate change of temperate, mesic forests including the eastern US, Spain, east Asia, and the Colchic Temperate Rainforest in Turkey and the Republic of Georgia.	A window into a tree’s world
Damián A. Concepción Pérez	Wilder Middle School	I am a middle and high school Science and Math teacher. I have always been searching for innovative ways to get my students engaged in the science classroom and to connect their new knowledge with the real-world. In thinking of ways to help my students learn, I engaged my self with the scientific community collaborating in scientific projects and creating hands-on, interactive, and inspiring teaching lessons. It is my main interest to develop ideas that could positively contribute to any student’s STEM education.	What big teeth you have! Sexual selection in rhesus macaques
Julia Perrone	Kent State University, Michigan State University	I grew up in Michigan and have a love for all things nature, which led me to pursue a BS in Environmental Biology/Zoology at MSU. After graduating, I worked as the lab manager for an entomology lab researching insects and landscape ecology. I am passionate about connecting people with science and nature. I got my Master of Library and Information Science at Kent State University. I specialized in youth engagement with the goal of building science literacy in my community through effective and engaging programming and collaborations with community organizations. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Blinking out?
Kaylie Plumb	University of Texas Marine Science Institute & Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems LTER	I am a marine scientist specializing in biological oceanography with experience in the lab, on the open ocean, and in the estuary. My research interests include studying the interactions between the physiology of marine photosynthesizers and their environment, developing strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change on coastal ecosystems, and the intersections between science and policy.	Benthic buddies
Richard Rachman	Boise State University	I am a Ph.D. student in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at Boise State University. I have a Master’s degree in Biology from California State University, Northridge, where I studied post-wildfire vegetation succession. I also have a lot of experience in plant ecology, invasive species management, and remote sensing research, and have led community science workshops and media outreach initiatives. My activism spans from queer representation in science, to expanding science to individuals not typically seen as scientists. My free time is spent playing with my puppy and writing poetry.	Too hot to help? Friendship in a changing climate
Shannon Rankin	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center	I am a wildlife research biologist at NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Center, where we use sound as a tool to study marine mammals. Sound travels exceptionally well in the ocean, and marine mammals have evolved to use sound for communication, foraging, navigation, and finding mates. Their reliance on sound as their primary means of interacting with the world means that we can learn a lot about these species just by listening!	Eavesdropping on the ocean
Desray Reeb	U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management	I am a Marine Biologist with BOEM. As a subject matter expert for the last decade at BOEM, I was tasked with assessing the impacts of offshore renewable energy on marine mammals and sea turtles. In my new position as the Science/Studies Coordinator for the Office of Renewable Energy Programs, I expand on these efforts by overseeing and supporting research directed at improving our ability to accurately assess the potential impacts of offshore renewable energy on the environment. I have been working with marine mammals for over 25 years, with a particular interest in right whales.	Eavesdropping on the ocean
Robert Reed	Cornell University	My research focuses on the question of where butterfly color patterns come from - how they originated and how they change over time. My work examines this question using multiple approaches, ranging from developmental genetics to behavioral ecology. I became interested in butterflies as an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley. I later earned a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at University of Arizona, where I characterized several genes involved in wing patterning and pigmentation. I am currently an Associate Professor at Cornell University where my lab works on many different types of butterflies, including Heliconius.	Why are butterfly wings colorful?
Aaron Reedy	University of Virginia	I lead field research in Florida, where I'm conducting my PhD research on the quantitative genetics and genomics of intralocus sexual conflict in brown anoles. Before grad school, I taught biology at Thomas Kelly High School in Chicago, where I pioneered the new model of teacher-scientist collaboration and classroom experimentation that is the centerpiece of our Evolution Education program.	Is it better to be bigger? & Is it dangerous to be a showoff?
Evelyn Reilly	University of Minnesota	I grew up in the city of Minneapolis and became interested in agriculture when I was in high school. I was surprised to learn that it has a huge impact on soil, water, and air quality, as well as wildlife habitat and biodiversity. I wanted to do something to help protect the environment, so I do research on nitrate under different crops. One project involved working with cities and organizations in rural Minnesota to plant Kernza above drinking water that had high levels of nitrate. I saw how farmers, city officials, water managers, and scientists were all working together to find solutions to the problem.	Nitrate: Good for plants, bad for drinking water
Gal Ribak	Tel-Aviv University, Israel	My field of research covers comparative biomechanics and ecophysiology of locomotion in animals. I study the biomechanical, physiological and evolutionary mechanisms that shape the diversity of animal abilities to move (e.g. fly, swim jump) through their natural environment.	The flight of the stalk-eyed fly
Clare Rittschof	University of Kentucky	I am broadly interested in the evolutionary consequences and mechanistic underpinnings of behavioral plasticity, particularly in the context of social interactions. I have addressed this topic to-date with studies of alternative reproductive strategies and tactics in the spider Nephila clavipes, and more recently in the context of socially-induced variation in aggression in the honey bee. My research combines perspectives from behavioral ecology, behavioral genomics, and neuroscience.	To bee or not to bee aggressive
Nick Robertson	Northland College	My research group focuses on using synthetic chemistry to reduce the environmental impact of society. We work to develop new biorenewable and/or biodegradable materials as well as developing methods for reducing the quantity of waste materials heading to landfills. All of the lab work for these projects is performed by Northland students. I have two young daughters who keep me on my toes and constantly entertained. When I am not spending time with my family, I love silent sports—cross country skiing, biking (road, mountain, cyclocross and snowbiking) and paddling.	Working to reduce the plastics problem
Ashlee Rowe	University of Oklahoma	I am interested in sensory and motor systems and their role in the evolution of adaptive behavior, particularly traits that mediate interactions between animals. My ultimate goal is to understand how animals adapt to their environment. My research program is integrative and focuses on understanding the biochemical, molecular, genetic and physiological bases of adaptive behavior. To address these questions, I study traits that are at the interface of species interactions.	A tail of two scorpions
Matt Rowe	University of Oklahoma	My research in behavioral ecology uses integrative approaches to study coevolution between predators and prey. These dynamic interactions show remarkable sophistication, from ground squirrels using rattling they provoke in rattlesnakes to assess the body size and temperature of their reptilian enemies, to grasshopper mice capable of feeding on highly neurotoxic scorpions because of subtle modifications in the mouse’s peripheral nerves. My conservation biology research examines habitat selection and habitat requirements in vertebrates.	A tail of two scorpions
Leilei Ruan	Michigan State University & University of California, Berkeley	I study the effects of nitrogen fertilizers on greenhouse gas emissions, a project that will help to maximize crop productivity while reducing emissions. In another research project, I examine biofuel crops. Most people think that if we use biofuel crops, what we burn doesn’t increase or decrease carbon in the atmosphere, and my research studies that question.	Fertilizing biofuels may cause release of greenhouse gasses
Gregg Sanford	GLBRC, University of Wisconsin-Madison	I am responsible for the management of a 40 acre intensive biofuel cropping systems trial located at the UW agricultural research station in Arlington, WI. I was involved in the design and implementation of 3 new bioenergy cropping systems trials in WI. I conduct independent research related to the sustainable production of dedicated bioenergy crops with an emphasis on soil quality metrics such as carbon pools and dynamics.	Growing energy: comparing biofuel crop biomass
Karina Scavo Lord	Boston University	I am a marine ecology PhD candidate interested in the population demographics and genomics of reef corals living in marginal, non-reef environments, such as mangroves and seagrass meadows. As coral reefs decline worldwide, scientists are looking beyond the reef to coral communities growing in these non-reef environments, which may serve as climate refugia or as reservoirs of resilient or hardy coral individuals. To better understand if these habitats are important to reef recovery, I use empirical, theoretical, and molecular approaches.	Corals in a strange place
Doug Schemske	Michigan State University	The goal of my research is to characterize the mechanisms of adaptation. This requires information on both the ecological significance of putative adaptive traits as well as an understanding of their genetic basis. Such comprehensive studies are extremely difficult to accomplish; thus it is perhaps not surprising that our current knowledge of adaptation is inadequate. A central theme of my work is the link between temporal and spatial variation in ecological conditions and the adaptive differentiation of populations and species. I rely on ecological and genetic approaches to investigate the origin and maintenance of biological diversity.	Winter is coming! Can you handle the freeze?
Elizabeth Schultheis	Michigan State University, KBS LTER, & Data Nuggets	I am the Education & Outreach Coordinator for the KBS LTER and co-founder of Data Nuggets. For my PhD I studied invasive plants in Michigan and whether release from enemies, like herbivores and disease, could drive their success over native plants. My work on Data Nuggets includes science education research, curriculum development, and running workshops for teachers and scientists. My current research explores the effects of Data Nuggets on the students who use them, and the scientists who create them.	Do insects prefer local or foreign foods? & Do invasive species escape their enemies? & Springing forward
James Screen	University of Exeter	My research examines climate varaibility and change in the polar regions, and the effects these changes on the global climate system. My research utilises a combination of observational analyses and numerical modeling to elucidate the physical drivers of climate variability on seasonal and longer timescales, and the two-way interactions between polar and lower-latitude regions. Currently, my research focusses on exploring how the inexorable retreat of Arctic sea ice effects extreme weather in Europe and the U.S.	The Arctic is Melting – So What?
Jim Seeb	University of Washington	My research focuses on identifying genetic differences that distinguish one Pacific salmon population from another. My current work uses genetic markers to track the migration of adult salmon in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. My wife, Lisa Seeb, and I run the program which provides an important intersection between the Alaska Salmon Program and the SAFS Molecular Ecology Research Laboratory to conduct both basic and applied research. We want to better understand the genetic mechanisms underlying how salmon respond to environmental change.	Salmon in hot water
Shelby Servais	Florida International University, Miami	My research focuses on how soil microbes are affected by environmental stresses and subsidies. I work in the Everglades where carbon-rich soils are threatened by climate change and land management practices. Microbial communities influence biochemical cycles, and microbial function is controlled by environmental conditions. I am testing how soil microbial function is affected by changes in salinity, inundation, and phosphorus. I am also passionate about science communication and outreach.	The case of the collapsing soil
Iurii Shcherbak	Michigan State University	I am a crop modeling scientist, experienced in programming and statistics. I have a strong interest in developing improved crop models with emphasis on limiting complexity while representing features sufficient for model to be widely applicable. I also want to understand ways to enhance efficiency of farm management and achieve sustainable crop production.	The ground has gas!
Arial Shogren	Michigan State University & The University of Alabama	I am a stream ecologist - and I like to say that I literally fell in love with river research. As part of a high school outdoor education course, I fell into the St. Croix River in Northern Wisconsin! While I briefly floated downstream, I realized that I wanted to know more about how rivers work, sparking my early interest in aquatic ecology and hydrology. My research focuses on how rivers move and transform material as they cross the landscape. I work primarily in the Arctic. I am interested in how physical and biological variables interact to drive the signals we see in river water. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Streams as sensors & Limit by limit
Hannah Stoll	University of Minnesota	I am a plant breeder dedicated to applying my expertise in plant biology and genetics to enhance the sustainability of our agricultural systems. I am passionate about educating learners from all backgrounds and firmly believe that meaningful change requires collaboration across scientific disciplines. In addition to my research focused on improving crop traits such as yield and end-use quality, I actively collaborate with agronomists, soil scientists, social scientists, and more to understand the broader context of our work and to collectively implement sustainable cropping systems on our landscape.	A plant breeder's quest to improve perennial grain
Paula Stoller	Valparaiso University	I am a hardworking and dedicated person who is personable and enjoys interacting with others. I am also a public speaker. My biggest academic goal is to graduate from Valparaiso University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Biology and Environmental Science. I would like to go onto graduate school and pursue a Master's in Entomology. I am very passionate about the environment as well.	CSI: Crime Solving Insects
Nora Straquadine	Michigan State University	I am currently an undergraduate getting my B.S. in Zoology with a concentration in Zoo and Aquarium as well as a minor in Marine Ecosystem Management. Although aquatic life is my main interest, I think it’s important to appreciate other animal groups and take a break to play and explore the nature around you. That curiosity was how I was able to volunteer in labs on campus from entomology to genetics, and how I came to spend a summer at the Kellogg Biological Station in Michigan.	Which would a woodlouse prefer?
Lantao Sun	University of Colorado at Boulder & National Center for Atmospheric Research	I am currently a research scientist at Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado at Boulder and NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL).	The arctic is melting – so what?
Tomomi Suwa	Michigan State University & Chicago Field Museum	I am broadly interested in population, community, and evolutionary ecology in agricultural and natural systems. I work on topics including plant-insect interactions, biological invasions, and plant-microbe symbiosis. I completed my PhD in Plant Biology and EEBB at the Kellogg Biological Station as a member of Jen Lau’s Lab. My dissertation research examined the role of resource mutualisms in plant adaptation to abiotic environments. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Does a partner in crime make it easier to invade?
John Swallow	University of Colorado, Denver	My research focuses on how morphology, physiology, and behavior evolve together as an integrated phenotype. I use stalk-eyed flies as a model system to investigate how evolution, driven by sexual selection (e.g. ornamentation that serves as secondary sexual signals), conflicts with locomotor performance and, ultimately, fitness. Sexual selection provides a selective engine with the ability to drive large changes in suites of behavioral, physiological and morphological characters with the potential for rapid speciation. Research in my lab includes ecological, organismal, biomechanical and behavioral approaches.	How to escape a predator, The flight of the stalk-eyed fly, How do brain chemicals influence who wins a fight?, Ant wars! & more!
Jeff Taylor	Konza Prairie LTER	I am a field biologist at the Konza Prairie LTER. My roles include monitoring plant community composition across the site and managing the bison herd. I am interested in how grazing shapes plant communities, as well as the ways that plant communities affect grazers. This fascinating interaction becomes even more interesting when combined with the effects of fire and climatic variability. My work provides unique insights into tallgrass prairie ecology, but not only that, it’s also fun!	Does more rain make healthy bison babies?
Casey terHorst	California State University, Northridge	I am an evolutionary ecologist, studying how rapid evolution alters interactions between competitors, mutualists, and predator and prey. My lab is also interested in how evolution occurs in communities, where any species lives with many other types of species in a complicated web of interactions. When I'm not in the lab, I spend too much time consuming pop culture and playing pub-trivia with friends.	Testing the tolerance of invasive plants & Too hot to help? Friendship in a changing climate
Robin Tinghitella	University of Denver	Work in our lab centers on the roles of ecology and behavior in rapid evolutionary change. We work with real organisms in their real habitats, and also use laboratory experimentation and genomic tools to understand the forces that shape diversity in animal communication and their consequences for divergence and speciation. Recently, we’ve been thinking a lot about the consequences of anthropogenic change for sexual selection. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	How the cricket lost its song Part 1 & Part 2 & Purring crickets: The evolution of a new cricket song
Biz Turnell	Cornell University & Technische Universität Dresden	I study how sexual selection drives evolution, and the interplay between pre- and postcopulatory sexual selection. For my PhD I studied a Hawaiian cricket, measuring the different stages of sexual selection in the field and developing a mathematical model of strategic sperm allocation. As a postdoc I investigated how sperm metabolism changes in female sperm storage organs, and whether these changes can explain the differences in sperm use patterns we see in different species of Drosophila fruit flies. Currently I’m working as a scientific editor. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Bon Appétit! & Stop that oxidation!
Tony Vorster	Colorado State University	I am a PhD candidate in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. My research addresses natural resource management questions related to managing beetle-killed forests, forest carbon and invasive species. I have taught at both the elementary and undergraduate level and continue to enjoy taking science to K-12 classrooms.	Tree-killing beetles
Bonnie Waring	Imperial College London	Bonnie is a climate change researcher. Her current research focuses on how the ecology of plant and soil microbial communities influences the carbon cycle and its feedback on climate change. Bonnie Waring received her PhD in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013. Her research currently focuses on land-based negative emissions technologies.	Sink or source? How grazing geese impact the carbon cycle & Poop, poop, goose!
Marjorie Weber	Michigan State University	I am an evolutionary ecologist, interested in how ecological interactions impact phenotypic evolution and diversification across evolutionary scales. My research focuses on interactions between plants and arthropods, and evaluates hypotheses that link plant-arthropod interactions with macroevolutionary patterns. I work in many systems, including ant-plant and ant-mite mutualisms, plant defense, and plant-pollination interactions. I also have a passion for promoting social justice and equity in STEM, and work to understand and implement change through education. Find out more about me by visiting my scientist profile!	Buried seeds, buried treasure
Martha Weiss	Georgetown University	My research focuses on the role of behavior, by both plants and insects, in mediating interactions among the two groups of organisms. The sensory and behavioral attributes of insects, including vision, taste, smell, and touch, as well as a capacity to learn and remember, ultimately shape the insects' ability to interact with and exert selection on plants and on other insects. Similarly, the active behavior of plants allows them to take advantage of insects' sensory and behavioral capabilities.	Shooting the poop
Danielle Whittaker	Michigan State University, BEACON	My current work focuses on avian chemical communication, addressing the following questions: what information is present in a bird's odor, what can birds detect, and what are their preferences when it comes to choosing a mate?	Sexy smells
Caroline Williams	University of California, Berkeley	An organism’s task is to get nutrients from the environment, and divide those nutrients among competing demands in the way that best enhances the passing on of its genes. This task is complicated by the fact that environments vary in concentrations of nutrients, and in abiotic factors that impact the acquisition and processing of those nutrients. My research combines field-based natural history and experiments with laboratory-based biochemistry and physiology. Research in my lab focuses on linking detailed biochemical and physiological measurements to life history and fitness consequences.	Beetle, it’s cold outside!
Amy Worthington	Creighton University & Washington State University	I strive to help my students attain a broader scientific literacy that will serve them long after their formal education is complete. Specifically, I want my students to learn how science works, why it is an ever-changing field, what the scientific method is and how to use it, how to critically evaluate science in the news, and how to effectively communicate science to both peers and laypeople. I particularly enjoy engaging with the general public about science and I frequently seek out unique opportunities to interact with people of all ages.	How to escape a predator
Jazmine Yaeger	University of South Dakota	My interests surround the neurophysiology of stress-related responses and aggressive behaviors. While my early work focused on aggression in invertebrates, including mantis shrimp, I currently use rodent models to explore the development and progression of stress-induced affective disorders, like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Specifically, I consider how stress reshapes neural circuitry and if pharmacological intervention can reverse these changes. My research may help uncover novel treatments for mood and anxiety-related disorders.	Ant wars!
Jay Zarnetske	Michigan State University	I am a hydrologist, which means I spend my days observing, quantifying, and advancing our understanding of how water interacts with human and ecological processes. In other words, I ask “How does the physics of water regulate ecosystems?” I have the opportunity to develop measurements, models, and methods that are relevant to a wide range of stakeholders dealing with climate change, sustainability, hydrology, biogeochemistry, aquatic ecology, and landscape ecology issues. This work has taken me from my roots in the Adirondack region of New York, to school, research, and jobs around the world.	Streams as sensors: Arctic watersheds as indicators of change
Lydia H. Zeglin	Kansas State University	I worked and played outdoors a lot growing up, and always wondered about how all the pieces of nature fit together. Eventually in college I figured out that ecological research could be a job, and that the microorganisms were the most interesting and invisibly intriguing players that regulated nutrient cycling in every ecosystem. Now I lead a microbial ecology research laboratory, where my students and I learn about ecosystems together. We focus primarily on soil and stream-dwelling microbes and how they influence soil and water quality, and consequently the rest of the ecosystem.	Fertilizer and fire change microbes in prairie soil

BY MATH & SCIENCE CONCEPTS

Below, you will find a table of all the current Data Nuggets available. Click on the Title to open a page displaying the Data Nugget, teacher guide, student activities, grading rubric, and associated resources. The table can be sorted using the arrows located next to each column header. It can also be searched by keyword using the search bar, located to the top right of the table.

If you are looking for additional data to use with your students, search “full dataset available” to find Data Nuggets where the scientists have provided the full datasets behind the research in the activity. Email datanuggetsK16@gmail.com to get a copy of these data!

To help introduce these science and math concepts to your students, check out this set of resources.

Title	Content Level	Science Concepts / Keywords	Quantitative Concepts / Statistics	Graph Type(s)	Variable Type(s)	Data Type(s)
Dangerously bold	1	animals, animal behavior, tradeoff, fish, predation, biological significance	percent, standard error (SE), predictions	bar	categorical	summarized, Digital Data Nugget
Coral bleaching and climate change	1	climate change, coral reef, marine, mutualism, temperature, animals, algae, adaptation, evolution	ratio	bar	categorical	summarized
Won’t you be my urchin?	1	coral reef, herbivory, marine, sea urchin, water, animals, competition, food web	mean, models, standard error (SE), standard deviation (SD)	bar	categorical	raw
Springing forward	1 & 3	climate change, phenology, plants, temperature	mean, standard error (SE), Julian date	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Do urchins flip out in hot water?	1 & 3	animals, climate change, marine, heatwaves, urchins, behavior, invertebrates, environmental change	average, mean, standard error, calculation	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized, two levels available,
Do insects prefer local or foreign foods?	2	herbivory, invasive species, plants, insects, enemy release, ecology	mean, variance, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE), confidence intervals (CI), predictions	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Spiders under the influence	2	animals, invertebrates, habitat, chemical pollution, aquatic, streams, scientist profile	mean, multiple variables	multiple bar	categorical	full dataset, students summarize
Do invasive species escape their enemies?	2	herbivory, invasive species, plants, insects, enemy release, ecology	mean, percent	bar	categorical	summarized
Lake Superior Rhythms	2	amplitude, aquatic, atmosphere, environmental, physics, student research, wave period, waves	cycle, sine wave, amplitude, change over time	sine wave	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
All washed up? The effect of floods on cutthroat trout	2	animals, disturbance, ecology, fish, water, stream, floods, alternative hypotheses, limnology	regression, ratio, rate, graph choice, unnecessary variables, long-term data	scatter	continuous	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Float down the Kalamazoo River	2	Kalamazoo River, water, suspended solids, dam, reservoir, limnology	mean, ratio, rate, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE), Julian date, unnecessary variables	bar, line	categorical, continuous	summarized, Digital Data Nugget
Finding a foothold	2	animals, ecology, marine, substrate, water	frequency, proportion	bar	categorical	summarized
Is chocolate for the birds?	2	experimental design, agriculture, animals, birds, biodiversity, rainforest, succession, disturbance, transect, habitat	addition, unnecessary variables	bar	categorical	raw, full dataset available
Fish fights	2	animal behavior, animals, fish, mating	mean, proportion, regression	scatter	continuous	summarized, Digital Data Nugget
Marvelous mud	2	ecology, environmental, fertilization, mud, phosphorus, substrate, water, wetland, limnology	percent, regression, graph choice	scatter	continuous	summarized
Which guy should she choose?	2	animal behavior, animals, fish, mating	frequency, regression, correlation vs. causation	scatter	continuous	raw, summarized
Sexy smells	2	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, birds, mating	percent, regression, correlation vs. causation	scatter	continuous	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Shooting the poop	2	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, insects, predation, alternative hypotheses	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw
Invasive reeds in the salt marsh	2	disturbance, invasive species, plants, wetland, limnology, transect	mean, percent	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
A tail of two scorpions	2	animal behavior, animals, predation	addition, proportion, ratio, graph choice	bar, stacked bar, pie chart	categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Green crabs: invaders in the Great Marsh	2	animals, invasive species, substrate, wetland, erosion, limnology	addition, range, map	map	categorical, spatial	raw, summarized
Guppies on the move	2	animals, aquatics, behavior, ecology, genetics, migration, movement, tropics	regression	line, scatter	categorical, continuous	raw, full dataset available
The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part I	2	animals, biodiversity, birds, climate change, succession, disturbance, ecology	count, long-term data	line, scatter	continuous	raw, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Beetle battles	2	adaptation, animals, behavior, competition, evolution, insects, mating	standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
How do brain chemicals influence who wins a fight?	2	animals, behavior, competition, insects, aggression, brain chemistry, physiology	mean	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Deadly windows	2	animals, animal behavior, birds, environmental, urban, alternative hypotheses	addition, proportion	bar	categorical	summarized
Which would a woodlouse prefer?	2	experimental design, animals, behavior, ecology, predation	count, Chi-square test, replication, sample size	bar	categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Tree-killing beetles	2	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, environmental, insects, plants	mean, percent, proportion, regression	scatter	continuous	summarized
Alien life on Mars – caught in crystals?	2	astrobiology, salt, solution, Mars, extraterrestrial life, chemistry, physical science	mean, time series	line	continuous	summarized, visual, full dataset available
Beetle, it’s cold outside!	2	animals, climate change, ectotherm, insects, temperature	mean, standard error (SE), models	line	continuous	summarized
Can a salt marsh recover after restoration?	2	disturbance, salinity, transect, invasive species, plants, wetland, restoration, limnology	mean, percent, frequency	bar, line	continuous	summarized
Fast weeds in farmer’s fields	2	evolution, adaptation, agriculture, plants, fitness, heredity, genetics	frequency, percent, mean, replication, sample size, unnecessary variables	bar, scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized
The carbon stored in mangrove soils	2	carbon, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, nutrients, greenhouse gasses, plants, transect	proportion, mean, unnecessary variables	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Where to find the hungry, hungry herbivores	2	herbivory, plants, insects, ecology, latitude, longitude	regression, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE)	scatter	continuous	summarized
A window into a tree’s world	2	climate change, dendrochronology, ecology, plants, temperature	mean, relative growth, graph choice, regression, correlation vs. causation, trend line,	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized
Corals in a strange place	2	adaptation, coral reef, mangrove, morphology, structure and function	visual data, count	bar, stacked bar, pie chart	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Mangroves on the move	2	climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, fertilization, nitrogen, nutrients, phosphorus, plants	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
Getting to the roots of serpentine soil	2	soil, plasticity, limiting factors, plants, ecology, scientist profile	mean, range, standard deviation	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Blinking out?	2	agriculture, insects, population, ecology, biodiversity, fireflies, scientist profile	moving window, long-term data, standardize, sampling effort, division, count, unnecessary variables	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Buried seeds, buried treasure	2	germination, plants, seed bank, seed viability, scientist profile	long-term data, trend	scatter	continuous	raw
Mowing for monarchs, Part I	2	community science, citizen science, animals, behavior, biodiversity, community science, disturbance, ecology, plants, insects, alternative hypotheses	average, time, rate, fraction	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
A difficult drought	2	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, plants, carbon, fermentation, ethanol, chemistry	mean, range, variability, replication, sample size	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Mowing for monarchs, Part II	2	community science, citizen science, animals, behavior, biodiversity, community science, disturbance, ecology, plants, insects, predation, alternative hypotheses	average, time, rate, fraction	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Does more rain make healthy bison babies?	2	animals, ecology, keystone species, plants, prairie, precipitation	mean, time, regression, long-term data, unnecessary variables	line, scatter	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Benthic buddies	2	adaptation, animals, arctic, biodiversity, ecology, environmental, invertebrates, lagoons, marine	mean	bar	categorical	summarized
Did you hear that? Inside the world of fruit fly mating songs	2	animals, insect, process of science, reproducibility, communication, volume, social, behavior	calculations, index, standard deviation, average, replicate	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
A burning question	2	biodiversity, canopy, ecology, fire ecology, forest, human impact, keystone species, land management, natural resources	average, time	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
Are plants more toxic in the tropics?	3	herbivory, diversity, plants, insects, ecology, adaptation, chemistry	standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE), index, formula	bar	categorical	summarized
Does a partner in crime make it easier to invade?	3	legume, plants, mutualism, rhizobia, invasive species, soil, scientist profile	mean	bar	categorical	summarized
Fair traders or freeloaders?	3	evolution, legume, plants, mutualism, rhizobia, nitrogen, fertilization	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
Fertilizing biofuels may cause release of greenhouse gasses	3	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, fertilization, greenhouse gases, nitrogen, plants	regression	scatter	continuous	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
The ground has gas!	3	climate change, temperature, greenouse gases, nitrogen, plants	regression	scatter	continuous	raw, summarized, full dataset available
Growing energy: comparing biofuel crop biomass	3	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, fertilization, plants, carbon	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
How the cricket lost its song, Part I	3	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, rapid evolution, mating, parasitism, scientist profile	percent	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
The mystery of Plum Island Marsh	3	fertilization, fish, food web, marine, mollusk, water, wetland, limnology	mean	bar	categorical	raw
Invasion meltdown	3	climate change, ecology, invasive species, plants, temperature	mean, range, replication, sample size	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Is your salt marsh in the zone?	3	climate change, ecology, plants, sea level rise, substrate, wetland, limnology	mean	bar	categorical	raw
Lizards, iguanas, and snakes! Oh my!	3	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, restoration, urban, transect	count, addition	bar	categorical	raw
What do trees know about rain?	3	climate change, dendrochronology, ecology, plants, precipitation, temperature, water	mean, formula, equation, addition, multiplication	line	continuous	raw, full dataset available
CSI: Crime Solving Insects	3	animals, insects, parasitism	weighted mean	bar	categorical	raw
Does sea level rise harm saltmarsh sparrows?	3	animals, birds, sea level rise, climate change, disturbance, ecology, wetland, limnology	mean, standard deviation (SD)	line	continuous	summarized
Keeping up with the sea level	3	climate change, disturbance, ecology, sea level rise, plants, substrate, wetland, limnology	formula, equation, rate	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	raw
The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part II	3	animals, biodiversity, birds, climate change, succession, disturbance, habitat, ecology	count, long-term data	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	raw, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
How the cricket lost its song, Part II	3	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, rapid evolution, mating, parasitism, scientist profile	mean	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Feral chickens fly the coop	3	adaptation, animals, behavior, birds, ecology, evolution, invasive species, mating, heredity, genetics	proportion, percent	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Raising Nemo: Parental care in the clown anemonefish	3	animals, behavior, coral reef, ecology, fish, marine, mating, tradeoff, plasticity, scientist profile	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw
When a species can’t stand the heat	3	animals, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, mating, temperature, sex ratio	addition, percent, ratio, regression	scatter	continuous	raw, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Are you my species?	3	adaptation, animals, behavior, biodiversity, competition, evolution, fish, mating	formula, equation, addition, subtraction, division, regression	scatter	continuous	raw
Marsh makeover	3	bodiversity, disturbance, ecology, greenhouse gases, mud, plants, restoration, wetland, limnology	standard error (SE)	bar, line	categorical	raw, summarized
To bee or not to bee aggressive	3	animals, behavior, genes, insects, tradeoff, plasticity, aggression	mean, effect size, percent change, range	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Why are butterfly wings colorful?	3	adaptation, animals, insects, models, predation, alternative hypotheses	fraction, proportion, probability	bar	categorical	summarized
City parks: wildlife islands in a sea of cement	3	animals, biodiversity, ecology, urban, island biogeography, parks, camera trap	Shannon Wiener Index, formula, equation, sum, proportion, regression	scatter	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Is it better to be bigger?	3	adaptation, animals, evolution, predation, natural selection	mean, percent, rate, regression	scatter	continuous	summarized, Digital Data Nugget
Is it dangerous to be a showoff?	3	adaptation, animals, evolution, predation, tradeoff, natural selection	percent, rate, regression	scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized
What big teeth you have! Sexual selection in rhesus macaques	3	adaptation, animals, evolution, sexual selection, sexual dimorphism, scientist profile	mean, standard deviation (SD)	bar	continuous, categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Bringing back the Trumpeter Swan	3	animals, biodiversity, birds, ecology, environmental, restoration	mean, long-term data, count	line	continuous, categorical	raw, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Are forests helping in the fight against climate change?	3	climate change, carbon, ecology, greenhouse gasses, photosynthesis, plants, decomposition, respiration	regression, long-term data	scatter	continuous	raw
Can biochar improve crop yields?	3	agriculture, environmental, fertilization, plants, soil, water, biochar, carbon	percent, mean, standard deviation (SD), yield, replication, sample size, randomization	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Hold on for your life! Part I	3	adaptation, animals, disturbance, evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, hurricane, biological significance, alternative hypotheses	argumentation, mean, standard error (SE)	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Hold on for your life! Part II	3	adaptation, animals, disturbance, evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, hurricane	argumentation, visual data		visual	raw, photo, video
Testing the tolerance of invasive plants	3	ecology, herbivory, invasive species, plants, tolerance	statistical interaction, mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Picky eaters: Dissecting poo to examine moose diets	3	animal behavior, animals, ecology, foraging, herbivory, parks, predator-prey	1:1 line, proportion, mean, unnecessary variables	scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Candid camera: capturing the secret lives of carnivores	3	animals, biodiversity, carnivores, ecology, island biogeography, richness, camera trap, parks	regression	map, scatter	continuous	summarized
Crunchy or squishy? How El Niño events change zooplankton	3	algae, animals, marine, El Niño	outlier, correlation vs. causation, unnecessary variables	line, scatter	continuous	raw
Streams as sensors: Arctic watersheds as indicators of change	3	climate change, ecology, environmental, carbon, nitrogen, permafrost, limnology	unnecessary variables, regression, long-term data	scatter	continuous	summarized
The end of winter as we’ve known it?	3	climate change, ice cover	Julian date, mean, regression, messiness, variability	scatter	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Working to reduce the plastics problem	3	plastics, synthetic materials, chemistry, biodegradable, elastomer, polymer, monomer, stress, strain, physical science	percent, ratio	line	continuous	summarized
Limit by limit: Nutrients control algal growth in Arctic streams	3	nitrogen, nutrients, phosphorus, nutrient limitation, law of the minimum, Arctic, limnology	response ratio, graph choice, standard deviation (SD)	bar	categorical	summarized
To reflect, or not to reflect, that is the question	3	albedo, arctic, climate change, environmental, ice, temperature, water	equation, unnecessary variables, regression	line, scatter	continuous	summarized
How milkweed plants defend against monarch butterflies	3	herbivory, evolution, coevolution, plants, insects, ecology, scientist profile	mean, regression, best fit line, trend line, multiple dependent variables, messiness, outlier	line, scatter	continuous	summarized
Purring crickets: The evolution of a new cricket song	3	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, rapid evolution, mating, parasitism, scientist profile	mean, percent, Chi-square test	bar	categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Round goby, skinny goby	3	local adaptation, animals, biodiversity, rapid evolution, fish, Great Lakes, habitat, invasive species, Kalamazoo River	mean, standard error, replication, sample size	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
David vs. Goliath	3	aggression, animals, behavior, brain chemistry, competition, insects, physiology, biological significance	frequency, proportion, percent, unnecessary variables	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Size matters - and so does how you carry it!	3	adaptation, animals, evolution, insects, sexual selection, tradeoffs	residuals, trend, multiple graphs, standardize	scatter, line	continuous	raw, summarized, full dataset available
Ant wars!	3	aggression, animals, behavior, competition, insects	density, ratio, percent, regression, count	bar, line, scatter	continuous	raw, summarized
Salty sediments? What bacteria have to say about chloride pollution	3	bacteria, chemistry, disturbance, environmental, microbes, pollution, salt, urban, water, habitat, time, toxicity	mean, concentration	bar	categorical	summarized
Going underground to investigate carbon locked in soils	3	climate change, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, soil carbon, microbes, chemistry	mean, standard deviation (SD), regression, best fit line, trend line, correlation vs. causation	line, scatter	continuous	summarized
Nitrate: Good for plants, bad for drinking water	3	agriculture, environmental, fertilization, nitrogen, soil, water, plants, human health	mean, time, date, Julian date, concentration	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Trees and the city	3	biodiversity, ecology, environmental justice, social demographics, urban	spatial data analysis, percent, binned data, average, median, histogram	multiple scatter, spatial map	continuous	spatial, summarized, full dataset available
Collaborative cropping: Can plants help each other grow?	3	agriculture, environmental, plants, crops	replicates, correlation vs. causation, regression, trend	multiple scatter	continuous	raw
The sound of seagrass	3	acoustics, sound, photosynthesis, marine, productivity, decibels, physics	average, mean, standard deviation, trend, time	multiple scatter, line	continuous	summarized
Which tundra plants will win the climate change race?	3	climate change, nutrients, long-term data, competition, plants, ecology	mean, trend, time, series, control, long-term data	line	continuous	summarized
The prairie burns with desire	3	ecology, prairie, plants, fire ecology, human impact, reproduction, land management	trend, time, multiple plots, multiple variables, long-term data, proportion, average	scatter, line	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Seagrass survival in a super salty lagoon	3	climate change, ecology, environmental, long-term, marine, plants, salinity	double y-axis, trend, time, multiple variables	scatter	continuous	summarized
Sink or source? How grazing geese impact the carbon cycle	3	carbon cycle, Arctic, wetlands, primary production, photosynthesis, respiration, climate change, birds, ecosystem	equation, calculation, subtraction, negative values, source, sink	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
Poop, poop, goose!	3	wetlands, Arctic, carbon cycle, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, birds	mean, standard deviation (SD), flux	bar	categorical	summarized
Too hot to help? Friendship in a changing climate	3	mutualism, algae, coral, genotype, photosynthesis, respiration, climate change	calculations, negative values, net, mean, average, standard error	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
A plant breeder’s quest to improve perennial grain	4	genetics, artificial selection, DNA, selective breeding, phenotype, genotype, nucleotides, sequencing	calculations, average, predictions, standard error, standard deviation,	bar	continuous, categorical	supplemental activity available,
Cheaters in nature – when is a mutualism not a mutualism?	4	evolution, legume, plants, mutualism, parasitism, rhizobia, nitrogen, fertilization	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
Dangerous aquatic prey: can predators adapt to toxic algae?	4	adaptation, algae, evolution, marine, predation	mean	bar	categorical	summarized
Salmon in hot water	4	adaptation, animals, climate change, evolution, fish, genes, genome, temperature, DNA, heredity, genetics, QTL	mean	line	continuous	summarized
Urbanization and estuary eutrophication	4	algae, eutrophication, fertilization, marine, nitrogen, phosphorus, wetland, urban, photosynthesis, respiration, limnology	mean, standard error (SE), subtraction, model	bar	categorical	raw
How to escape a predator	4	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, predation, physiology	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
The flight of the stalk-eyed fly	4	physics, moment of intertia, adaptation, animals, flight, physiology	mean, standard error (SE), formula, equation, multiplication		continuous	summarized
Make way for mummichogs	4	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, fish, restoration, wetland, limnology	mean	bar, line	continuous	raw, summarized
The Arctic is melting – so what?	4	climate change, marine, temperature, water, weather, ice, Arctic, albedo	percent, models	diagram	categorical, modeled data	summarized
Gene expression in stem cells	4	gene expression, genes, stem cells, DNA, genetics, human health	mean	bar	categorical	summarized
Bon Appétit! Why do male crickets feed females during courtship?	4	adaptation, animals, behavior, competition, insects, mating, feeding, alternative hypotheses, scientist profile	count, proportion, regression, multiple regression, unnecessary variables	scatter	continuous	raw
Winter is coming! Can you handle the freeze?	4	ecology, evolution, genes, plants, local adaptation, QTL	percent, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE)	bar, line	categorical	raw, summarized
Finding Mr. Right	4	animals, animal behavior, biodiversity, birds, evolution, genes, mating, local adaptation	mean	bar	categorical	raw
Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish, Part I	4	adaptation, animals, biodiversity, evolution, fish, genes, mating, heredity, genetics, close reading activity	mean, standard deviation (SD), standarad error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish, Part II	4	adaptation, animals, biodiversity, evolution, fish, genes, mating, heredity, genetics	mean, standard deviation (SD), standarad error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Sticky situations: big and small animals with sticky feet	4	adaptation, animals, biomimicry, chemistry, physics, scale	mean, ratio, multiplication, formula, equation, surface area, mass, volume	scatter - logarithmic axes	continuous	summarized
When whale I sea you again?	4	climate change, marine, temperature, water, whales, DNA, PCR, sex ratio	fraction, percent, ratio	line, stacked bar	continuous, categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
The case of the collapsing soil	4	climate change, carbon, ecology, plants, phosphorus, sea level rise, respiration, substrate, wetland, limnology	regression, concentration	scatter	continuous	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Clique wars: social conflict in daffodil cichlids	4	animal behavior, animals, competition, fish	count, standard deviation (SD), standarad error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
Fishy origins	4	community science, citizen science, DNA, evolution, fish, PCR, marine, microsatellites	percent, proportion, addition, division	bar, stacked bar	continuous, categorical	raw
Fertilizer and fire change microbes in prairie soil	4	biodiversity, diversity, grassland, microbes, plants, prairie, soil	unnecessary variables, Shannon Wiener Index, mean	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Breathing in, Part I	4	photosynthesis, carbon accumulation, carbon sequestration, climate change, forest, habitat	mean, confidence, global database	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Breathing in, Part 2	4	climate change, photosynthesis, respiration, carbon, climate model	precision, percent, model prediction, mean, calculation, equation	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Stop that oxidation! What fruit flies teach us about human health	4	insects, model species, cell biology, genetics, cellular processes, oxidation, genetics, scientist profile	mean	bar	continuous, categorical	raw, summarized
Love that dirty water	4	environmental, urban, water, GIS, landscapes, impervious surfaces, ecosystem services, land acknowledgement, human health	model, web-tool, simulation, percent change, calculation, map	bar, line, map	categorical, continuous	summarized
Trees and bushes, home sweet home for warblers	4	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, birds, succession, transect, habitat	regression, best fit line, trend line, percent	scatter	continuous	summarized
Changing climates in the Rocky Mountains	4	citizen science, climate change, community science, ecology, environmental, plants, precipitation, temperature	mean, trend, time	line, double y-axis	continuous, categorical	summarized, photo
Surviving the flood	4	disturbance, urban, stream, floods, photosynthesis, respiration, stormwater	reference line, percent, negative values, additional variables, difference, unnecessary variables, outlier	scatter, line	continuous	raw, summarized
Eavesdropping on the ocean	4	acoustic ecology, physics, whales technology, mammals, marine biology, renewable energy, population, human impact	proportions, calculation, detections	scatter, bar	categorical, continuous	summarized, full dataset available

VIEW IN SEARCHABLE TABLE

Below, you will find a table of all the Data Nugget activities. Click on the Title to open a page displaying the teacher guide, student activities, grading rubric, and associated resources. The table can be sorted using the arrows located next to each column header. It can also be searched by content area using the search bar, located to the top right of the table.

Title	Keywords	Summary	Content Level	Study Location
Won’t you be my urchin?	coral reef, herbivory, marine, sea urchin, water, animals, competition	Corals are the most important reef animals since they build the reef for all of the other animals to live in. But corals only like to live in certain places. In particular they hate living near algae because the algae and coral compete for the space they both need to grow. Perhaps if there are more vegetarians, like urchins, eating algae on the reef then corals would have less competition and more space to grow.	1	Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, Texas
Do urchins flip out in hot water?	animals, climate change, marine, heatwaves, urchins, behavior, invertebrates, environmental change	Periods of unusual warming in the ocean are called marine heatwaves. During marine heatwaves, water gets 2-3 degrees hotter than normal. That might not sound like much, but for an urchin, it is a lot. The research team decided to test whether marine heat waves could be stressing urchins by looking at a simple behavior that they could easily measure - how long it takes urchins to flip back over.	1 & 3	University of California - Santa Barbara
Coral bleaching and climate change	climate change, coral reef, marine, mutualism, temperature, animals, algae, adaptation, evolution	Corals are animals that build coral reefs. They look brown and green because they have small plants, called algae, that live inside them. The coral animal and the algae work together to produce food so that corals can grow big. When the water gets too warm, sometimes the coral and algae can no longer work together. The algae leave and the corals turn white, called coral bleaching. Scientists want to study coral bleaching so they can protect corals and the reefs that provide a home for so many different species.	1	Florida Keys, Florida
Too hot to help? Friendship in a changing climate	mutualism, algae, coral, genotype, photosynthesis, respiration, climate change	Coral and certain types of algae form a mutualism. However, climate change is causing warmer ocean temperatures that stress the relationship. Casey set out to test if different algae genotypes were capable of being better mutualists under warm temperatures. If he could identify these genotypes, then maybe that could help protect coral in the future.	3	California State University - Northridge
Corals in a strange place	adaptation, coral reef, mangrove, morphology	When you picture coral, you might imagine beautiful reef structures with clear water and colorful corals and fishes. But, there are actually corals that live in other habitats as well! Does the same species of coral look different depending on where it lives?	2	Belize
Raising Nemo: Parental care in the clown anemonefish	animals, behavior, coral reef, ecology, fish, marine, mating, tradeoff, plasticity	Offspring in many animal species rely on parental care; the more time and energy parents invest in their young, the more likely it is that their offspring will survive. However, parental care is costly for the parents. The more time spent on care, the less time they have to find food or care for themselves. In the clown anemonefish, the amount of food available may impact parental care behaviors. When there is food freely available in the environment, are parents able to spend more time caring for their young?	3	Boston University, Massachusetts
Buried seeds, buried treasure	germination, long-term, plants, seed bank, seed viability, agriculture	Over 100 years ago, a scientist named William J. Beal had a question: how long do seeds survive underground? He started an experiment by filling 20 bottles with seeds from 50 plant species, buried them on campus, and creating a map to find them in the future. This map have been passed down from scientist generation to generation. The most recent bottle was dug up in 2021, and scientists tested how many seeds were still able to germinate after 142 years underground.	2	Michigan State University
Getting to the roots of serpentine soil	soil, plasticity, limiting factors, plants, ecology	When an organism grows in different environments, some traits change to fit the conditions. Serpentine soils have high amounts of toxic heavy metals, do not hold water well, and have low nutrient levels. Low levels of water and nutrients found in serpentine soils limit plant growth. Because serpentine soils have fewer plant nutrients and are drier than non-serpentine soils, Alexandria thought that plants growing in serpentine soils may not invest as much into large root systems.	2	University of Miami, Florida
The prairie burns with desire	ecology, prairie, plants, fire ecology, human impact, reproduction, land management	Fire plays a crucial role for prairie habitats across North America. Stuart became interested in learning more about how fire affects the reproduction of native prairie plants. He knew that Echinacea plants grow in many places, but they have a hard time making seeds. He looked at a long-term dataset to see whether fire might help Echinacea by getting plants on the same schedule to make flowers at the same time, bringing neighbors closer to each other and making it easier to be pollinated.	3	Staffanson Prairie Preserve, Minnesota
A burning question	biodiversity, canopy, ecology, fire ecology, forest, human impact, keystone species, land management, natural resources	Fire is part of the natural history of oak forests. They are adapted to recover quickly and they actually can benefit from fire. This is important for land managers who want to encourage the health of oak forests. Ellen and John wanted to know if there were more plant species in oak forests that had prescribed fires so they looked at a long-term dataset to find patterns in biodiversity.	2	Madison School Forest, Wisconsin
Fertilizer and fire change microbes in prairie soil	biodiversity, diversity, grassland, microbes, plants, prairie, soil, agriculture, fire ecology	Prairies grow where three environmental conditions come together – a variable climate, frequent fires, and large herbivores roaming the landscape. However, prairies are experiencing many changes. For example, people now work to prevent fires, which allows forest species take over. In addition, land previously covered in prairie is now being used for agriculture. How do these changes affect the plants, animals, and microbial communities that inhabit prairies?	4	Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas
Does more rain make healthy bison babies?	animals, ecology, keystone species, plants, prairie, precipitation, agriculture	The North American Bison is an important species for the prairie ecosystem. Bison affect the health of the prairie in many ways, and are also affected by the prairie as well. Each year when calves are born, scientists go out and determine their health by weighing them. This long-term dataset can be used to figure out whether environmental conditions from the previous year affect the health of the calves born in the current year.	2	Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas
City parks: wildlife islands in a sea of cement	animals, biodiversity, ecology, urban, island biogeography, parks	It's tempting to think that wild places are only somewhere "out there", far away from humans and cities. However, as more and more people move into cities, they are quickly becoming the main place where many people experience nature and interact with wildlife. A camera-trapping project in the Cleveland Metroparks reveals a vast urban wilderness that is home to countless wild creatures living among us.	3	Cleveland Metroparks, Ohio
Candid camera: capturing the secret lives of carnivores	animals, biodiversity, carnivores, ecology, island biogeography	Carnivores captivate people’s interest for many reasons – they are charismatic, stealthy, and can be dangerous. Not only are they fascinating, they’re also ecologically important. Carnivores help keep prey populations in balance. While they are important, they are also difficult to monitor.	3	Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin
Picky eaters: dissecting poo to examine moose diets	animal behavior, animals, ecology, foraging, herbivory, national park, predator-prey	Since wolves have disappeared from Isle Royale, moose populations have exploded. Moose are important herbivores, and with so many on the island they are having strong impacts on the island's plant communities. Do moose just eat any plant they find, or do they have a preference for certain types?	3	Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
Guppies on the move	animals, aquatics, behavior, ecology, genetics, migration, movement, tropics	Animal parents often choose where to have their offspring in the place that will give them the best chance at success. They look for places that have plentiful food, low risk of predation, and good climate. Why, then do animals sometimes move away from the place they are born?	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Deadly windows	animals, behavior, birds, environmental, urban	Glass makes for a great windowpane because you can see right through it. However, this makes windows very dangerous for birds. Many birds die from window collisions in urban areas. In North America window collisions kill up to 1 billion birds every year! Perhaps local urban birds are able to learn the locations of windows and avoid collisions. By comparing window collisions by local birds to those of migrant birds just passing through, we can determine if local birds have learned to deal with this challenge.	2	Virginia Zoological Park, Virginia
Bringing back the Trumpeter Swan	animals, biodiversity, birds, ecology, environmental, restoration	Trumpeter swans are the biggest native waterfowl species in North America. At one time they were found across North America, but by 1935 there were only 69 known individuals in the continental U.S.! In the 1980s, many biologists came together to create a Trumpeter Swan reintroduction plan. Since then the North American Trumpeter Swan survey has been conducted to measure swan populations and determine whether this species is recovering.	3	Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, Michigan
The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part I	animals, biodiversity, birds, climate change, succession, disturbance, ecology	Avian ecologists at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest have been monitoring bird populations for over 50 years. The data collected during this time is one of the longest bird studies ever conducted! What can we learn from this long-term data set? Are bird populations remaining stable over time?	2	Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire
The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part II	animals, biodiversity, birds, climate change, succession, disturbance, ecology, habitat	Hubbard Brook was heavily logged and disturbed in the early 1900s. When logging ended in 1915, trees began to grow back. The forest then went through secondary succession, which refers to the naturally occurring changes in forest structure that happen as a forest ages after it has been cut or otherwise disturbed. Can these changes in habitat availability, due to succession, explain why the number of birds are declining at Hubbard Brook? Are all bird species responding succession in the same way?	3	Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire
Trees and bushes, home sweet home for warblers	animals, biodiversity, birds, disturbance, ecology, environmental, habitat	Andrews Forest is a long-term ecological research site where there have been manipulations of timber harvest and forest re-growth. This history has large impacts on the bird habitats found in an area. Each year since 2009, scientists have gone out and measured bird populations and habitat types. Two species of warbler with very different habitat preferences can give insight into how birds are responding to these disturbances.	4	HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon
Is chocolate for the birds?	agriculture, animals, birds, biodiversity, ecology, rainforest, succession, habitat	Humans invented agriculture 9,000 years ago, and today it covers 40% of Earth’s land surface. To grow our crops, native plants are often removed, causing the loss of animals that relied on these native plants for habitat. However, sometimes animals can use crop species for food and shelter. For example, the cacao tree may provide habitat for bird species in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Will the abundance and types of birds differ in cacao plantations, compared to native rainforests?	2	Limón Province, Costa Rica
Feral chickens fly the coop	adaptation, animals, behavior, birds, ecology, evolution, invasive species, mating, heredity, genetics	Sometimes domesticated animals escape captivity and interbreed with closely related wild relatives. Their hybrid offspring have some traits from the wild parent, and some from the domestic parent. Traits that help hybrids survive and reproduce will be favored by natural selection. On the island of Kauai, domestic chickens escaped and recently interbred with wild Red Junglefowl to produce a hybrid population. Over time, will the hybrids on Kauai evolve to be more like chickens, or more like Red Junglefowl?	3	Kauai, Hawaii
Sexy smells	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, birds, mating, evolution, sexual selection	Animals collect information about each other and the rest of the world using multiple senses, including sight, sound, and smell. They use this information to decide what to eat, where to live, and who to pick as a mate. Many male birds have brightly colored feathers and ornaments that are attractive to females. Visual signals like these ornaments have been studied a lot in birds, but birds may be able to determine the quality of a potential mate using other senses as well, such as their smell!	2	Mountain Lake Biological Station, Virginia
Finding Mr. Right	adaptation, animals, behavior, biodiversity, birds, evolution, genes, mating, local adaptation	Mountain chickadees are small birds that live in the mountains. To deal with living in a harsh environment during the winter, mountain chickadees store large amounts of food throughout the forest. Compared to populations at lower elevations, birds from higher elevations are smarter and have better spatial memory, helping them better find stored food. Smarter females from high elevations may be contributing to local adaptation by preferring to breed with males from their own population.	4	University of Nevada Reno & Sagehen Experimental Forest
Spiders under the influence	animals, invertebrates, habitat, chemical pollution, aquatic, streams	People use pharmaceutical drugs, personal care products, and other chemicals on a daily basis. Often, they get washed down our drains and end up in local waterways. Chris knew that many types of spiders live near streams and are exposed to toxins through the prey they eat. Chris wanted to compare effects of the chemicals on spiders in rural and urban environments. By comparing spider webs in these two habitats, they could see how different the webs are and infer how many chemicals are in the waterways.	2	Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER
Trees and the city	biodiversity, ecology, environmental justice, social demographics, urban	Trees provide important benefits, such as beauty and shade. The number and types of tree species that are planted in a neighborhood can increase the benefits received from trees in urban areas. Based on her own observations, Adrienne started conversations with her colleagues about differences in urban landscapes. They conducted a study to see how social demographics of neighborhoods may be related to tree species richness and tree cover.	3	Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota
Salty sediments? What bacteria have to say about chloride pollution	bacteria, chemistry, disturbance, environmental, microbes, pollution, salt, urban, water	In snowy climates, salt is applied to roads to help keep them safe during the winter. When the snow melts, salt makes its way into local rivers. Halophiles, or bacteria that thrive in salty conditions, might be a good indicator of how much salt is in a particular waterway, telling scientists when certain areas have become too polluted with salt.	3	Southeastern Wisconsin
A tail of two scorpions	animal behavior, animals, predation	Species rely on a variety of methods to defend against predators, including camouflage, speedy escape, or retreating to the safety of a shelter. Other animals, such as scorpions, have painful venomous stings. Scientists wanted to know whether the pain of a scorpion sting was enough to deter predators, like the grasshopper mouse.	2	Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona
Why are butterfly wings colorful?	adaptation, animals, insects, models, predation	Big wings allow butterflies to fly everywhere with ease. But you may wonder, why are the wings of some species so brightly colored? The red postman butterfly lives in rainforests in Mexico, Central America, and South America. The color pattern on its wing is usually a mix of red, yellow, and black. These bright colors may warn birds and other predators that they would not make a tasty meal. Another potential reason for butterflies to have bright colors and dramatic patterns is to attract mates.	3	La Selva Tropical Biological Station, Sarapiquí, Costa Rica
To bee or not to bee aggressive	animals, behavior, genes, insects, tradeoff, plasticity, aggression	Honey bees turn nectar from flowers into honey, and honey serves as an energy-rich food source for the colony. Honey also makes hives a target for break ins by animals that want to steal it. Bees need to aggressively defend their honey when the hive is threatened. They also need to ensure that they do not waste energy on unnecessary aggressive behaviors when the threat level is low. One way bees might match their aggressiveness to the threat level in the environment is learning from adults when they are young.	3	University of Kentucky, Kentucky
Ant wars!	aggression, animals, behavior, competition, insects	Neighboring colonies of pavement ants often compete for food, leading to tension. If an ant finds a non-nestmate, it organizes a large war against the nearby colony. This results in huge sidewalk battles that can include thousands of ants fighting for up to 12 hours! Scientists wanted to know, what are the factors that lead to war?	3	University of Colorado-Denver and University of South Dakota
CSI: Crime Solving Insects	animals, insects, parasitism	You might think maggots (blow fly larvae) are gross, but without their help in decomposition we would all trip over dead bodies every time we went outside! Forensic entomologists also use these amazing insects to help solve crimes. Blow flies oviposit on dead bodies; the age of the maggots helps scientists determine how long ago a body died. Scientists noticed parasitic wasps were also present at some bodies. Might these wasps delay blow fly oviposition and interfere with scientists' estimates of time of death?	3	Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, Michigan & Valparaiso University, Indiana
Shooting the poop	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, insects, predation	Caterpillars are a great source of food for many species. The silver-spotted skipper caterpillar has a variety of defense strategies against predators, including building leaf shelters for protection. This caterpillar was also discovered to “shoot its poop”, sometimes launching it over 1.5m! Might this very strange behavior serve as some sort of defense against predators?	2	Georgetown University, Washington DC
How the cricket lost its song, Part I	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, evolution, mating, parasitism, rapid evolution	Pacific field crickets live on several Hawaiian Islands, including Kauai. Male field crickets make a loud, long-distance song to help females find them, and then switch to a quiet courtship song once a female comes in close. One summer scientists noticed that the crickets on the island were unusually quiet. Back in the lab they saw males that had lost their specialized wing structures used to produce song! Why did these males lose their wing structures?	3	Kauai Agricultural Research Center - Kapaa, Hawaii
How the cricket lost its song, Part II	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, evolution, mating, parasitism, rapid evolution	Without their song, how are flatwing crickets able to attract females? In some other animals species, males use an alternative to singing, called satellite behavior. Satellite males hang out near a singing male and attempt to mate with females who have been attracted by the song. Perhaps the satellite behavior gives flatwing males the opportunity to mate with females who were attracted to the few singing males left on Kauai.	3	Kauai Agricultural Research Center - Kapaa, Hawaii
Purring crickets: The evolution of a new cricket song	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, evolution, mating, parasitism, rapid evolution	About twenty years ago, scientists discovered male Pacific field crickets in several spots in Hawaii had stopped making songs due to selection from a parasitoid fly that uses the songs to locate their hosts. One summer, scientists heard what sounded like a purring cat, but there was no cat in sight. This sound was coming from crickets, and was unlike anything ever observed before. Could it be the beginning of evolution of a novel mating signal?	3	Kauai Agricultural Research Center - Kapaa, Hawaii
Beetle battles	adaptation, animals, behavior, competition, evolution, insects, mating	Male animals spend a lot of time and energy trying to attract females. They may fight with other males or court females directly. Is there one trait that is both good for fighting males and attracting females? In the horned dung beetle, males have to fight with other males for space in underground tunnels where females mate and lay their eggs. Males also attract females by tapping on their backs. Males that are stronger may potentially be better at both defending tunnels and at attracting females by tapping.	2	Perth, Australia
Tree-killing beetles	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, environmental, insects, plants	A beetle the size of a grain of rice seems insignificant compared to a vast forest. However, during outbreaks the number of mountain pine beetles can skyrocket, leading to the death of many trees. Recent outbreaks of mountain pine beetles killed millions of acres of lodgepole pine trees across western North America. Widespread tree death caused by mountain pine beetles can impact human safety, wildfires, nearby streamflow, and habitat for wildlife.	2	Colorado State University, Colorado
Mowing for monarchs, Part I	animals, behavior, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, plants, insects	During the spring and summer months, monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants. Milkweed plays an important role in the monarch butterfly’s life cycle. When milkweed is cut at certain times of the year new shoots grow, which are softer and easier for caterpillars to eat. Scientists set out to see if mowing milkweed plants could help boost struggling monarch populations.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Mowing for monarchs, Part II	animals, behavior, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, plants, insects, predation	When the scientists mowed down milkweed plants for their experiment, they changed more than the age of the milkweed plants. They also removed other plant species in the background community. Perhaps the patterns they were seeing were driven not by milkweed age, but by eliminating predators from the patches they mowed.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
How milkweed plants defend against monarch butterflies	herbivory, evolution, coevolution, plants, insects, ecology	For millions of years, monarch butterflies have been antagonizing milkweed plants. Although adult monarchs drink nectar from flowers, their caterpillars only eat milkweed leaves, which harms the plants. The only food for monarchs is milkweed leaves, meaning they have evolved to be highly specialized, picky eaters. But their food is not a passive victim. Like most other plants, milkweeds fight back with defenses against herbivory. Which defensive traits are helping in the fight against herbivory?	3	Cornell University
Where to find the hungry, hungry herbivores	herbivory, plants, insects, ecology	When travelling to warm, tropical places you are exposed to greater risk of diseases. The same pattern of risk is true for other species like plants grown for food; crops in warm places have more problems with pests than those in colder areas. Does this pattern hold for plants in the wild as well?	2	Michigan State University
Are plants more toxic in the tropics?	herbivory, diversity, plants, insects, ecology, adaptation	Long before chemists learned how to make medicines in the laboratory, people found their medicines in plants. To this day, people still extract some medicinal drugs from plants. But, why do plants make these chemicals that are often so useful to people? Many of these chemicals are to reduce herbivory. Carina thought that this might differ by latitude, or distance from the Equator. Are tropical plants more toxic?	3	Michigan State University
Do insects prefer local or foreign foods?	herbivory, invasive species, plants, insects, enemy release, ecology	Insects that feed on plants, called herbivores, can have big effects on how plants grow. A plant with leaves eaten by herbivores will likely do worse than a plant that is not eaten. Herbivores may even determine how well an exotic plant does in its new habitat and whether it becomes invasive. Understanding what makes a species become invasive could help control invasions already underway, and prevent new ones in the future.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Do invasive species escape their enemies?	herbivory, invasive species, plants, insects, enemy release, ecology	Invasive species have been introduced by humans to a new area and negatively impact places they invade. Many things change for an invasive species when it is moved from one area to another. For example, a plant that is moved across oceans may not bring its enemies along for the ride. Now that the plant is in a new area with nothing to eat or infect it, the plant could potentially do very well and become invasive.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Testing the tolerance of invasive plants	ecology, herbivory, invasive species, plants, tolerance	People move species around the globe, and some of these species cause problems where they are introduced. What is it about these invasive species that makes them able to invade? Perhaps certain traits cause invasive species to be more troublesome than others. By studying trait differences between native and invasive populations of the same species, we can learn something about the causes of invasions.	3	McLaughlin Natural Reserve, California
Invasion meltdown	climate change, ecology, invasive species, plants, temperature	Humans are changing the earth in many ways, including adding greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change, and introducing species around the globe, which can lead to invasive species. Scientists wanted to know, could climate change actually help invasive species? Because invasive species have already survived transport from one habitat to another, they may be species that are better able to handle change, such as temperature changes.	3	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Springing forward	climate change, phenology, plants, temperature	What does climate change mean for flowering plants that rely on temperature cues to determine when it is time to flower? Scientists who study phenology, or the timing if life-history events in plants and animals, predict that with warming temperatures, plants will produce their flowers earlier and earlier each year.	1 & 3	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
The sound of seagrass	acoustics, sound, photosynthesis, marine, productivity, decibels, physics	Underwater seagrass meadows have high plant productivity, or growth, which could help offset the effects of climate change. Megan and Kevin are working with biologists to determine the value of applying sound-based methods to monitor photosynthesis in seagrass meadows. They wanted to see whether ambient sound levels were noticeably different during peak photosynthesis times.	3	Gulf of Mexico, Texas
Seagrass survival in a super salty lagoon	climate change, ecology, environmental, long-term, marine, plants, salinity	Unfortunately, seagrasses are disappearing worldwide. Seagrasses are sensitive to changes in their environment because they have particular conditions that they prefer. Kyle started working with Ken during graduate school and wanted to understand more about what environmental conditions, such as salinity, temperature, and light levels may have caused the decline they saw in manatee grass in Laguna Madre.	3	Laguna Madre, Gulf of Mexico, Texas
Lake Superior Rhythms	amplitude, aquatic, atmosphere, environmental, physics, student research, wave period, waves	In high school, Gena and Ali set out to learn about the geophysical forces acting on Lake Superior. They wanted to investigate why they would sometimes see such dramatic fluctuations in Lake Superior water levels. They learned that large lakes exhibit a phenomenon called a seiche (pronounced saysh) and they decided to investigate how often the water switched directions and how much the water level changed because of the seiche.	2	Bayfield, Wisconsin
The end of winter as we’ve known it?	climate change, ice cover	Lake Superior plays a vital role in the lives of people who live and work on its shores, and therefore all sorts of data are recorded to help understand and take care of it. Forrest, a high school student, used data from archives to figure out if the ice season was getting shorter each winter in his home town. The length of the ice season is important because it frees the island residents from working around a ferry schedule, allowing them to drive on the ice to get to the mainland.	3	Madeline Island, Wisconsin
When a species can’t stand the heat	animals, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, mating, temperature	Tuatara are a unique species of reptile found only in New Zealand. In this species, the temperature of the nest during egg development determines the sex of offspring. Warm nests lead to more males, and cool nests lead to more females. With warming temperatures due to climate change, scientists expect the sex ratio to become more and more unbalanced over time, with males making up more of the population. This could leave tuatara populations with too few females to sustain their numbers.	3	North Brother Island, New Zealand
What do trees know about rain?	climate change, dendrochronology, ecology, plants, precipitation, temperature, water	The typical climate of arid northwest Australia consists of long drought periods with a few very wet years sprinkled in. Scientists predict that climate change will cause these cycles to become more extreme – droughts will become longer and periods of rain will become wetter. When variability is the norm, how can scientists tell if the climate is changing and droughts and rain events today are more intense than what we've seen in the past? The answer to this challenge comes from trees!	3	Pilbara region, northwest Australia
Changing climates in the Rocky Mountains	citizen science, climate change, community science, ecology, environmental, plants	As the climate warms and precipitation changes, plants may have to move to survive. To figure out if species are moving, we need to know where they’ve lived in the past, and if climates are changing. One way that we can study both things is to use the Global Vegetation Project. The goal of this project is to curate a global database of plant photos that can be used by educators and students around the world.	4	Rocky Mountains, Wyoming
A window into a tree’s world	climate change, dendrochronology, ecology, plants, temperature	Scientists are very interested in learning how trees respond to rapidly warming temperatures. Luckily, trees offer us a window into their lives through their growth rings. Growth rings are found within the trunk, beneath the bark. These rings provide a long historical record, which can be used to study how trees respond to climate change.	2	Harvard Forest LTER, Massachusetts
Breathing in, Part I	climate change, photosynthesis, respiration, carbon	Photosynthesis is the process by which trees and other plants trap the sun’s energy within the molecular bonds of glucose. Tree growth pulls carbon out of the atmosphere and trees hold on to it for long periods of time. This process is known as carbon sequestration or carbon accumulation. Kristina and Susan decided they needed to work together to learn more about how carbon accumulation rates and how they differ across various types of forests found around the world.	4	Global
Breathing in, Part II	climate change, photosynthesis, respiration, carbon, climate model, precision	Like many other scientists, Susan and Kristina are concerned about global warming. Global warming is the well-documented rise of the temperature of Earth’s surface, oceans, and atmosphere. They wanted to make sure that those creating climate change policy have the most precise data available. They compared their ForC model, which predicts carbon accumulation based on forest regrowth across the glove, to a similar model the IPCC was using.	4	Global
Beetle, it’s cold outside!	animals, climate change, ectotherm, insects, temperature, snow	Many species rely on the snow for protection from the winter’s cold. The snow acts as an insulating blanket, covering the soil and keeping it from getting too cold. If temperatures get too hot in the winter, snow melts and leaves the soil uncovered for longer periods of time. This leads to the shocking pattern that warmer temperatures actually means the soil gets colder! How will species that rely on the snow, like lady beetles, respond to warmer temperatures due to climate change?	2	University of California, Berkeley
Benthic buddies	adaptation, animals, arctic, biodiversity, ecology, environmental, invertebrates, lagoons, marine	Arctic lagoons support a surprisingly wide range of marine organisms! Marine worms, snails, and clams live in the muddy sediment of these lagoons. Having a rich variety of benthic animals in these habitats supports fish, which migrate along the shoreline and eat these animals once the ice has left. Ken, Danny, and Kaylie are interested in learning more about how the extreme seasons of the High Arctic affect the marine life that lives there.	2	Beaufort Lagoon LTER site, Alaska
To reflect, or not to reflect, that is the question	albedo, Arctic, climate change, environmental, ice, temperature, water	Long-term observations of sea ice extent at the North Pole show it is declining, and fast! Why is this important? Sea ice has a higher albedo than sea water, meaning it reflects back more of the sun's energy. If Arctic albedo decreases, this might create a feedback and lead to even more warming.	3	University of Colorado, Boulder
The Arctic is melting – so what?	climate change, marine, models, temperature, water, weather, snow, albedo, Arctic	Think of the North Pole as one big ice cube – a vast sheet of ice, only a few meters thick, floating over the Arctic Ocean. With global warming, more sea ice is melting than ever before. If more ice melts in the summer than is formed in the winter, the Arctic Ocean will become ice-free. Scientists ran a climate model to determine whether this loss of sea ice could affect extreme weather in the northern hemisphere.	4	Arctic Ocean, North Pole
Eavesdropping on the ocean	acoustic ecology, physics, whales technology, mammals, marine biology, renewable energy, population, human impact	Winds that blow over the ocean are more consistent than on land, making offshore wind energy a potentially reliable renewable energy source. The construction of offshore windmills could impact whales. Scientists want to see whether it is possible to identify the best time of year for construction with the least disturbance to marine mammals. Acoustic ecology is a way to learn more about whales their presence in the proposed wind energy areas through sound.	4	Offshore by Morro Bay, California
When whale I sea you again?	climate change, marine, temperature, water, whales	People have hunted whales for over 5,000 years for their meat, oil, and blubber. Today, as populations are struggling to recover from whaling, humpback whales are faced with additional challenges due to climate change. Their main food source is krill, which are small crustaceans that live under sea ice. As sea ice disappears, the number of krill is getting lower and lower. Humpback whale population recovery may be limited because their main food source is threatened by ongoing ocean warming.	4	Western Antarctic Peninsula, Palmer Station LTER
Can biochar improve crop yields?	agriculture, environmental, fertilization, plants, soil, water	Biochar is a pretty unique material. It is created when things burn without oxygen. Most biochar has lots of tiny spaces, or pores, that cause it to act like a hard sponge when it is in the soil. Due to these pores, the biochar can hold more water and nutrients than the soil can by itself. Adding biochar to the soil may help farmers grow more crops, especially in areas prone to drought where water is limited.	3	Colorado State University Agricultural Research and Development Center
A plant breeder’s quest to improve perennial grain	agriculture, genetics, artificial selection, DNA, phenotype, genotype, nucleotides, sequencing, Kernza®	Kernza® is a new grain crop that is similar to wheat. Kernza® breeders are working on improving the same traits that have already been improved in annual wheat, including larger seed size. Hannah wanted to see whether different genetic makeups (genotypes) lead to differences in seed size (phenotypes) so selecting individuals to breed becomes easier and costs are reduced.	4	University of Minnesota
Nitrate: Good for plants, bad for drinking water	agriculture, environmental, fertilization, nitrogen, soil, water, plants, human health, crops, Kernza®	Nitrate dissolves well in water. This helps make it an easy form of nitrogen for plants to use, but it can also end up in rivers and groundwater where it becomes harmful to human health. Most of the crops we grow are annual plants with shallow roots, but perhaps planting perennial crops can help take more nitrate from the soil before it reaches our groundwater.	3	University of Minnesota
Collaborative cropping: Can plants help each other grow?	agriculture, environmental, plants, crops, Kernza®	Most of the crops grown on farms in the United States are annual plants, like corn, soybeans, and wheat. However, there may be potential benefits of perennial plants that could increase sustainability. One strategy to improve field conditions for perennial crops and to increase yield could be to plant legumes alongside them.	3	University of Minnesota
A difficult drought	fermentation, ethanol, agriculture, biofuels, climate change, plants, carbon	Biofuels are made from plants that are growing today, and are being considered as an alternative to fossil fuels. To become biofuels, plants need to go through a series of chemical and physical processes that transform the sugars into ethanol. Scientists are interested in seeing how yeast’s ability to transform sugar into fuel is affected by environmental conditions in fields, such as droughts.	2	University Wisconsin-Madison, GLBRC, Kellogg Biological Station &
Growing energy: comparing biofuel crop biomass	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, fertilization, plants	Corn is one of the best crops for producing biomass for fossil fuels, however it is an annual and needs very fertile soil. To grow corn, farmers add a lot of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to their fields. Other crops, like switchgrass, prairie, poplar trees, and Miscanthus grass are perennials and require fewer fertilizers and pesticides to grow. If perennials can produce high levels of biomass with low inputs, perhaps they could produce more biomass than corn under certain low nutrient conditions.	3	GLBRC, Kellogg Biological Station & University Wisconsin-Madison
Fertilizing biofuels may cause release of greenhouse gasses	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, fertilization, greenhouse gasses, nitrogen, plants	One way to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere could be to grow our fuel instead of drilling for it. Unlike fossil fuels that can only release CO2, biofuels remove CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow and photosynthesize, potentially balancing the CO2 released when they are burned for fuel. However, the plants we grow for biofuels don’t necessarily absorb all greenhouse gas that is released during the process of growing them on farms and converting them into fuels.	3	GLBRC, Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
The ground has gas!	agriculture, climate change, temperature, greenhouse gasses, nitrogen, plants	Nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide are responsible for much of the warming of the global average temperature that is causing climate change. Sometimes soils give off, or emit, these greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere, adding to climate change. Currently scientists figuring out what causes differences in how much of each type of greenhouse gas soils emit.	3	GLBRC, Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Are forests helping in the fight against climate change?	climate change, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, photosynthesis, plants	In the 1990s, scientists began to wonder what role forests were having in the exchange of carbon in and out of the atmosphere. Were forests overall storing carbon (carbon sink), or releasing it (carbon source)? To test this, they built large metal towers that stand taller than the forest trees around them and use sensors to measure the speed, direction, and CO2 concentration of each puff of air that passes by. These long term measurements can tell us whether forests help in the fight against climate change.	3	Harvard Forest LTER, Massachusetts
Sink or source? How grazing geese impact the carbon cycle	carbon cycle, Arctic, wetlands, primary production, photosynthesis, respiration, climate change, birds, ecology	When geese graze on wetland plants, they remove plant matter, potentially decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide, or CO2, that is released during photosynthesis. This is important because it could change whether this ecosystem is a carbon sink or a carbon source. We want ecosystems to be carbon sinks because then they keep CO2 out of the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming.	3	Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Poop, poop, goose!	wetlands, Arctic, carbon cycle, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, birds	Each spring, millions of birds return to the Y-K Delta to breed. With all these geese coming together in one area, they create quite a mess – they drop tons of poop onto the soil. So much poop in fact, that scientists wonder whether poop from this area in Alaska could have a global impact!	3	Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Going underground to investigate carbon locked in soils	climate change, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, soil carbon, microbes, chemistry, agriculture	Soil is an important part of the carbon cycle because it traps carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere and locked underground. Carbon enters the soil when plants and animals die, and their organic matter is decomposed by soil bacteria and fungi. Climate affects rates of decomposition, and therefore may affect how much carbon becomes stable and attached to minerals in the soil, feeding back to affect climate change.	3	Indiana University
The carbon stored in mangrove soils	carbon, climate change, disturbance, ecology, nutrients, greenhouse gasses, mangrove, plants	Mangroves are globally important for many reasons. They form dense forested wetlands that protect the coast from erosion and provide critical habitat for many animals. Mangrove forests also help in the fight against climate change by storing carbon in their soils. The balance between how much carbon is added to the soils and how much is released might be dependent on a variety of factors, including tree size and amount of disturbance to the site.	2	Biscayne National Park, Florida Everglades
Mangroves on the move	climate change, ecology, environmental, fertilization, nitrogen, nutrients, phosphorus, plants, mangrove	One day out in the saltmarsh, scientists noticed something strange. A mangrove shrub was growing in a place they had not been seen before! Are the fertilizers washing into the saltmarsh from nearby urban areas responsible for this shocking discovery?	2	Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Florida
Which tundra plants will win the climate change race?	climate change, nutrients, long-term data, competition, plants, ecology	While you might think of the arctic tundra as a blanket of snow and polar bears, this vast landscape supports a diversity of unique plant and animal species. Climate change is altering the arctic environment. With warmer seasons and fewer days with snow covering the ground, soils are thawing more deeply and becoming more nutrient-rich. With more nutrients available, will some plant species be able to outcompete other species by growing taller and making more leaves than other plant species?	3	Toolik Field Station, Alaska
Streams as sensors: Arctic watersheds as indicators of change	climate change, ecology, environmental, carbon, nitrogen, permafrost	As the world warms from climate change, the Alaskan Arctic is heating up. This is causing permafrost, or the frozen underground layer of rock and ice, to melt. When permafrost melts, plant material that has been stored for thousands of years begins to decay, releasing carbon and nitrogen from the system. Ecologists can act like “ecosystem accountants” measuring the balance of material that goes into and out of these systems.	3	Toolik Field Station, Alaska
Limit by limit: Nutrients control algal growth in Arctic streams	climate change, ecology, environmental, nitrogen, nutrients, phosphorus	Aquatic algae, a type of microbe that live in the water, need to take in nutrients from their surroundings for growth. Two important nutrients for algal growth are nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P). Climate change may be altering which nutrients are limiting to algae, changing food webs in the ecosystem.	3	Toolik Field Station, Alaska
Cheaters in nature – when is a mutualism not a mutualism?	evolution, legume, plants, mutualism, parasitism, rhizobia, nitrogen, fertilization, agriculture	Mutualisms are a special type of relationship in nature where two species work together and both benefit. This cooperation should lead to each partner species doing better when the other is around – without their mutualist partner, the species will have a harder time acquiring resources. But what happens when one partner cheats and takes more than it gives?	4	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Fair traders or freeloaders?	evolution, legume, plants, mutualism, rhizobia, nitrogen, fertilization, agriculture	One example of a mutualism is the relationship between a type of bacteria, rhizobia, and plants like peas, beans, soybeans, and clover. Rhizobia live in bumps on the plant roots, where they trade their nitrogen for sugar from the plants. Rhizobia turn nitrogen from the air into a form that plants can use. Under some conditions, this mutualism could break down, for example, if one of the traded resources is very abundant in the environment.	3	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Does a partner in crime make it easier to invade?	legume, plants, mutualism, rhizobia, invasive species, soil	Invasive plants are species that have been transported by humans from one location to another, and grow and spread quickly compared to other plants. Mutualisms can affect what happens when a plant species is moved somewhere it hasn’t been before. For invasive legumes with rhizobia mutualists, there is a chance that the rhizobia will not be transported with it and the plant will have to form new relationships with rhizobia in the new location.	3	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Fast weeds in farmer’s fields	adaptation, agriculture, evolution, plants, heredity, genetics	Weeds in agricultural fields cost farmers $28 billion per year in just the United States alone. One of the world’s worst weeds is weedy radish, which evolved from native radish not very long ago. While weedy radish is able to take over agricultural fields, native radish cannot. What causes this difference? Perhaps it could be due to the weedy radish’s ability to flower quickly and make seeds before crops are harvested.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
What big teeth you have! Sexual selection in rhesus macaques	animals, evolution, sexual selection, sexual dimorphism	In Cayo Santiago there is one of the oldest free-ranging rhesus macaque colonies in the world. Scientists have gathered data on these monkeys and their habitat for over 70 years. The program monitors individual monkeys over their entire lives, and when they die their bodies are recovered and skeletal specimens are stored in a museum. These skeletal specimens can be used by scientists today to ask new and exciting questions, for example, what traits are under sexual selection in this population?	3	Laboratory of Primate Morphology, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus
Is it better to be bigger?	adaptation, animals, evolution, predation	Brown anoles are very small when they hatch out of the egg. Because of their small size, these anole hatchlings are eaten by many different animals, including birds, crabs, other species of anole lizards, and even adult brown anoles! Predators could be a significant force of natural selection on brown anole hatchlings. Juvenile anoles that get eaten by predators will not survive to reproduce.	3	Matanzas River, Florida
Is it dangerous to be a showoff?	adaptation, animals, evolution, predation, tradeoff, sexual dimorphism	Brown anoles are small lizards that are abundant in Florida. They have an extendable red and yellow flap of skin on their throat, called a dewlap. To communicate with other brown anoles, they extend their dewlap and move their head and body. Males have particularly large dewlaps, which they often display to defend territory or attract females. Females also have dewlaps but use them less often. How might natural selection on this trait differ between males and females?	3	Matanzas River, Florida
Hold on for your life! Part I	adaptation, animals, disturbance, evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, hurricane	In the fall of 2017, a team of scientists from Harvard University and the Paris Natural History Museum visited Pine Cay and Water Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands. They were there to collect data on a small local lizard, the Turks and Caicos anole, as part of a larger environmental conservation project. Unbeknownst to them, a storm was brewing to the south of the islands, and it was about to change the entire trajectory of their research.	3	Turks and Caicos, Caribbean
Hold on for your life! Part II	adaptation, animals, disturbance, evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, hurricane	The scientists needed to find out how lizards behave in hurricane-force winds. Obviously, they couldn’t stick around to watch lizards ride out a storm, so they designed a safe experiment that would simulate hurricane force winds. They bought the strongest leaf blower they could find, set it up in their hotel room on Pine Cay, and videotaped 40 lizards as they clung to a perch while slowly ramping up the leaf blower until the lizards were blown (unharmed) into a safety net.	3	Turks and Caicos, Caribbean
Sticky situations: big and small animals with sticky feet	adaptation, animals, chemistry, physics, scale, surface area	Sticky, or adhesive, toe pads have evolved in many different kinds of animals, including insects, arachnids, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. The heavier the animal, the more adhesion they will need to stick and support their mass. For tiny species like mites and flies, tiny toes can do the job. Each fly toe only has to be able to support a small amount of weight. But when looking at larger animals like geckos, their increased weight means they need much larger toe pads to support them.	4	BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action
Lizards, iguanas, and snakes! Oh my!	animals, biodiversity, disturbance restoration, urban	People have dramatically changed the natural riparian habitat found along rivers and streams. In many urban areas today, these riparian habitats are being rehabilitated with the hope of bringing back native species, such as reptiles. Reptiles, including snakes and lizards, are extremely important to monitor as they play important roles in ecosystems. Are rehabilitation efforts in Phoenix successful at restoring reptile diversity and abundance?	3	Salt River, Phoenix, Arizona
Blinking out?	agriculture, insects, population, biodiversity, ecology	Many people have fond memories of watching fireflies blink across open fields and collecting them in jars as children. This is one of the reasons why fireflies are a beloved insect species. However, there is concern that their populations are in decline. Scientists turned to the longest-running study of fireflies known to science to see if this is the case!	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Urbanization and estuary eutrophication	algae, eutrophication, fertilization, marine, nitrogen, phosphorus, wetland, urban	Estuaries are very productive habitats found where freshwater rivers meet the ocean. They are important natural filters for water and protect the coast during storms. A high diversity of plants, fish, shellfish and birds call estuaries home. Estuaries are threatened by eutrophication, or the process by which an ecosystem becomes more productive when excess nutrients are added to the system. Parts of the Plum Island Estuary in MA may be more at risk from eutrophication due to their proximity to urban areas.	4	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
Love that dirty water	environmental, urban, water, GIS, landscapes, impervious surfaces, ecosystem services	As green spaces are lost to make room for homes and businesses, there are fewer forests and wetlands to filter our drinking water. A team of scientists used the New England Landscapes Future Explorer to study this challenge for the Merrimack River, an important river for the people of New England.	4	New England
Green Crabs: Invaders in the Great Marsh	animals, invasive species, substrate, wetland, erosion	The introduction of invasive species, such as the European Green Crab, poses a great threat to marshes. Digging behaviors of the Green Crab disturb sediments on the marsh floor and may have lead to the destruction of native eelgrass populations, which are sensitive to disturbance. Scientists aimed to identify locations where crab numbers are low and eelgrass can be restored.	2	Essex Bay, Massachusetts
The mystery of Plum Island Marsh	fertilization, fish, marine, mollusk, water, wetland	Salt marshes are among the most productive coastal ecosystems, and support a diversity of plants and animals. Algae and marsh plants feed many invertebrates, like snails and crabs, which are then eaten by larger fish and birds. In Plum Island, scientists have been fertilizing and studying salt marsh creeks to see how added nutrients affect the system. They noticed that fish populations seemed to be crashing in the fertilized creeks, while the mudflats were covered in mudsnails. Could there be a link?	3	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
Does sea level rise harm saltmarsh sparrows?	animals, birds, sea level rise, climate change, disturbance, ecology, wetland	For the last 100 years, sea levels around the globe have increased dramatically. Salt marshes grow right at sea level and are therefore very sensitive to sea level rise. Saltmarsh sparrows rely completely on salt marshes for feeding and nesting, and therefore their numbers are expected to decline as sea levels rise and they lose nesting sites. Will this threatened bird species decline over time as sea levels rise?	3	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
Keeping up with the sea level	climate change, disturbance, ecology, sea level rise, plants, substrate, wetland	Salt marshes are very important habitats for many species and protect the coast from erosion. Unfortunately, rising sea levels due to climate change are threatening these important ecosystems. As sea levels rise, the elevation of the marsh soil must rise as well so the plants have ground high enough to keep them above sea level. Basically, it is like a race between the marsh floor and sea level to see who can stay on top!	3	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
Is your salt marsh in the zone?	climate change, ecology, plants, sea level rise, substrate, wetland	Beginning in the 1980s, scientist James began measuring the growth of marsh grasses. He discovered that their growth was higher in some years and lower in others and that there was a long-term trend of growth going up over time. Marsh grasses grow around mean sea level, or the average elevation between high and low tides. Are the grasses responding to mean sea level changing year-to-year, and increasing as our oceans warm and water levels rise due to climate change?	3	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
The case of the collapsing soil	climate change, carbon, ecology, plants, phosphorus, sea level rise, respiration, substrate, wetland	The Everglades are a unique and vital ecosystem threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change. Recently scientists have observed in some areas of the wetland the soils are collapsing. What is causing this strange phenomena? Sea level rise might be stressing microbes, causing carbon to be lost to the atmosphere through increased respiration.	4	Everglades, Florida
Marvelous mud	ecology, environmental, fertilization, mud, phosphorus, substrate, water, wetland	Because mud is wet most of the time, it tends to have different properties than soil. Dead organic matter (partially decomposed plants) is an important part of mud and tends to build up in wetlands because it is decomposed more slowly under water where microbes do not have all the oxygen they need to break it down quickly. The amounts of organic matter may determine the levels of phosphorus and other nutrients held in wetland muds.	2	Fort Custer Recreation Area, Michigan
Marsh makeover	biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, greenhouse gasses, mud, plants, restoration, wetland	The muddy soils in salt marshes store a lot of carbon, compared to terrestrial dry soils. This is because they are low in oxygen needed for decomposition. For this reason they play a key role in the carbon cycle and climate change. If humans disturb marshes, reducing plant diversity and biomass, are they also disturbing the marsh's ability to sequester carbon? If a marsh is restored, can the carbon holding capacity also be brought back to previous levels?	3	Oak Island and Neponset Marsh, Boston, Massachusetts
Dangerously bold	animal behavior, animals, tradeoff, fish, predation	There are two main habitats that young bluegill sunfish can use to find food to eat – open water and cover. There is lots of food in the open water, but this habitat also has very few plants for bluegill to hide from predators, like the largemouth bass, so it’s not safe when bluegill are small! The cover habitat has less food, but it has lots of plants that make it hard for predators to see the bluegill. This sets up a situation where there are costs and benefits to using either habitat, called a tradeoff.	1	Pond Lab, Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Which guy should she choose?	animal behavior, animals, fish, mating	Mating behavior is intriguing to study because in many animal species, males use a lot of energy to attract a female. Yet some males are able to attract zero females and other males attract many females. What accounts for this difference? What about the way a male looks, moves, or smells attracts the female? A female could benefit from identifying “high quality” males that would serve as a good father to her offspring or that would make offspring that are attractive to females in the next generation.	2	Michigan State University lab and British Columbia, Canada
Fish fights	animal behavior, animals, fish, mating	Male stickleback fish fight each other to gain territories along the bottom of the shallow areas of a lake. In these territories, males build a nest out of sand, aquatic plants, and glue they produce from their kidneys. Males then attract females to their territories with courtship dances. If a female likes a male, she will deposit her eggs in his nest. Then the male will care for those eggs and the offspring that hatch. Perhaps more aggressive males are better at defending their territory and nests.	2	Michigan State University lab and British Columbia, Canada
Clique wars: social conflict in daffodil cichlids	animal behavior, animals, competition, fish	Daffodil cichlids live in social groups of several small fish and one breeding pair. The breeding male and female are the largest fist in the group, and the smaller fish help defend territory against predators and help care for newly hatched baby fish. About 200 social groups together make up a colony. Behavior within a social group may be influenced by the presence of other groups in the colony. For example, neighboring groups can be a threat because they may try to take away territory or resources.	4	The Ohio State University, Ohio
Fishy origins	citizen science, DNA, evolution, fish, PCR, marine	The population of striped bass in New Jersey is a mixed stock, meaning fish come together from different spawning grounds. Scientists want to understand where these fish come from in order to better manage their population. For their study, they needed DNA from many fish, so they turned to fishermen to help collect fin clip samples. They used these samples to identify the stocks migrating to New Jersey, and to determine if they was changing over time.	4	Monmouth University
Salmon in hot water	adaptation, animals, climate change, evolution, fish, genes, temperature, heredity, genetics	Salmon are important members of freshwater and ocean food webs. Climate change threatens salmon by warming the waters of rivers where they reproduce. To maintain healthy populations, salmon rely on cold, freshwater habitats and may go extinct as temperatures rise. However, some salmon individuals have higher thermal tolerance and are able to survive when water temperatures rise. Scientists want to know whether there is a genetic basis for the variation observed in salmon’s thermal tolerance.	4	University of Washington Hatchery, Seattle, Washington
Are you my species?	adaptation, animals, behavior, biodiversity, competition, evolution, fish, mating	How do animals know who to choose as a mate and who is a member of their own species? One way is through communication. Animals collect information about each other and the rest of the world using multiple senses, including sight, sound, and smell. Darters are a group of over 200 colorful fish species that live in lakes and rivers across the US. The bright color patterns on males may signal to females during mating who is a member of the same species and who would make a good mate.	3	University of Maryland, Baltimore
Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish, Part I	adaptation, animals, biodiversity, evolution, fish, genes, mating, heredity, genetics	In nature, animals can be found in a dazzling display of different colors and patterns. Even within one species there can be variation in color. For example, male bluefin killifish can have fins that are bright blue, red, or yellow. Becky, a scientist studying this species noticed an interesting pattern - males found in springs with crystal clear water have mostly red or yellow fins, while males found in swamps have bright blue fins. Becky wants to know, what is the driving mechanism behind this interesting pattern?	4	University of Illinois, Illinois
Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish, Part II	adaptation, animals, biodiversity, evolution, fish, genes, mating, heredity, genetics	To take a closer look at her data, Becky added information on paternal fin color into her analysis.	4	University of Illinois, Illinois
Bon Appétit! Why do male crickets feed females during courtship?	adaptation, animals, behavior, competition, insects, mating	In many species of insects and spiders, males provide females with gifts of food during courtship and mating. This is called nuptial feeding. These offerings are eaten by the female and can take many forms, including prey items the male captured, substances produced by the male, or parts from the male’s body. These gifts can cost the male a lot, so why do they give them? They may increase the male's chances of mating with a female, or they may help the female have more and healthier offspring.	4	Cornell University, New York
Stop that oxidation! What fruit flies teach us about human health	insects, model species, cell biology, genetics, cellular processes, oxidation	Each of our cells is home to mitochondria, tiny factories whose job is to turn the food we eat into the energy we need to live. But during this process oxidative damage can cause harm to everything in the cell. There are two ways that bodies can prevent oxidative damage: antioxidants and more efficient metabolic pathways. Biz looked at fruit flies with varying genetics for these two strategies and wanted to test whether the level of oxidative damage in eggs and sperm would influence how many offspring a female had.	4	Technische Universität Dresden
Did you hear that? Inside the world of fruit fly mating songs	animals, communication, insect, process of science, reproducibility, volume, social, behavior	Emma is a neuroscientist who is really interested in studying how brains are able to understand all kinds of communication. She uses fruit flies to figure out how brains process communication through sounds. Emma wanted to test whether lab conditions, such as volume of playback sounds and social isolation affected whether fruit flies in her lab performed a behavior called chaining that had been observed in other labs.	2	North Carolina State University
How to escape a predator	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, predation, physiology	Stalk-eyed flies have their eyes at the tip of eyestalks on the sides of their heads. Males with longer eyestalks are better at attracting mates – females find them sexy! However, long eyestalks may come at a cost. Males with long eyestalks may not be able to move easily and quickly, and could be easy targets for predators. Males also use a variety of behaviors to defend themselves against predators. Are these behaviors enough to compensate for long eyestalks?	4	Washington State University and University of Colorado, Denver
The flight of the stalk-eyed fly	physics, moment of inertia, adaptation, animals, flight, physiology	Moment of inertia (I) is an object’s tendency to resist rotation – in other words how difficult it is to make something turn. Stalk-eyed flies have eyes located on the ends of long projections on the sides of their head, called eyestalks. Because moment of inertia goes up with the square of the distance from the axis, we might expect that as the length of the flies’ eyestalks goes up, the harder and harder it will be for the fly to maneuver during flight.	4	Tel-Aviv University, Israel and University of Colorado, Denver
How do brain chemicals influence who wins a fight?	animals, behavior, competition, insects, aggression, brain chemistry, physiology	Animals compete for resources, including space, food, and mates. What are the factors that determine who wins in a fight? Within the same species, larger individuals tend to win fights. However, if two opponents are the same size, other factors can influence outcomes. Serotonin is a chemical compound found in the brains of all animals, including stalk-eyed flies. Even a small amount of this chemical can make a big impact on aggressive behavior, and perhaps the outcome of competition.	2	University of Colorado, Denver and University of South Dakota
David vs. Goliath	animals, behavior, competition, insects, aggression, brain chemistry, physiology	Animals in nature often compete for limited resources, like food, territory, and mates. Who wins a battle depends on lots of factors, such as size, aggression, and brain chemistry. In stalk-eyed flies, is a change in brain chemistry enough to tip the balance for smaller males to win in battle?	3	University of Colorado, Denver and University of South Dakota
Size matters - and so does how you carry it!	adaptation, animals, evolution, insects, sexual selection, tradeoffs	Some animals have evolved special traits that advertise their fitness to potential mates. Scientists have long predicted that these traits come with both benefits and costs, but John and Jerry have not found costs to the long eye stalks of stalk-eyed flies. Could there be a different answer? In this activity, the team looks at how wing size could play a role.	3	University of Colorado, Denver and University of St. Thomas
Which would a woodlouse prefer?	animals, behavior, ecology, predation	Woodlice are small crustaceans that live on land. They look like bugs, but are actually more closely related to crabs and lobsters. To escape predators they hide in dark places. They spend most of their time underground and have very poor eyesight. If they can't see very well, how do they decide where to live?	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Crunchy or squishy? How El Niño events change zooplankton	algae, animals, marine, El Niño	El Niño events happen every 5 to 10, and in California they cause the ocean to be much warmer than usual. Warm ocean waters during El Niño events have lower nutrient levels, so fewer phytoplankton grow leading to less food available for zooplankton. This may cause a change balance between the two main groups of zooplankton, “crunchy” crustaceans and “squishy” gelatinous animals. These changes could have cascading effects up the food chain.	3	San Diego, California
Dangerous aquatic prey: can predators adapt to toxic algae?	adaptation, algae, evolution, marine, predation	Phytoplankton are microscopic algae that form the base of all aquatic food chains. Some phytoplankton produce toxins, and when these algae reach high population levels it is known as toxic algal blooms. Can predators feeding on toxic prey for many generations evolve resistance, by natural selection, to the toxic prey?	4	Maine and New Jersey
Finding a foothold	animals, ecology, marine, substrate, water	The ground at the beach is made of rocks of many different sizes, called substrates. These can range from large boulders down to fine grains of sand, with many size variations in between. Just like there are different types of substrates, there are different types of organisms that can live there. How can we determine which types of organisms prefer which types of substrates?	2	Puget Sound, Washington
Invasive reeds in the salt marsh	disturbance, invasive species, plants, wetland	Phragmites australis is an invasive reed that is taking over saltwater marshes of New England, outcompeting other plants that serve as food and homes for marsh animals. Once Phragmites has invaded, it is sometimes the only plant species left, called a monoculture. Phragmites does best where humans have disturbed a marsh, and scientists were curious why that might be. They thought that perhaps it was caused by changing salinity, or amount of salt in the water, after a marsh is disturbed.	2	Ipswich High School, Massachusetts
Can a salt marsh recover after restoration?	disturbance, ecology, invasive species, plants, wetland, salinity, restoration	Before restoration began, it was clear the Saratoga Creek salt marsh was in trouble. Invasive Phragmites plants covered large areas of the marsh, crowding out native plants and animals. Human activity was thought to be the culprit – storm drains were dumping freshwater into the marsh, lowering salinity. In 1999 a restoration took place to divert freshwater away from the marsh in an attempt to reduce Phragmites numbers. Did it work?	2	Saratoga Creek Salt Marsh, Rockport, Massachusetts
Make way for mummichogs	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, fish, restoration, wetland	Mummichogs are small fish that live in tidal marshes all along the US Atlantic coast. Because they are so widespread and can be found in most streams, they are a valuable tool for scientists looking to compare the health of different marshes. The absence of mummichogs in a salt marsh is a sign that it is highly damaged. Students collected data on mummichog numbers before and after a marsh restoration. Did the restoration successfully bring back mummichogs to the marsh?	4	Gloucester, Massachusetts
Surviving the flood	disturbance, urban, stream, floods, photosynthesis, respiration, stormwater	Streams are found everywhere, including cities. Urban streams are surrounded by buildings, roads, and parking lots, which can make rain from storms flow through the system very quickly. But how do these rapid flooding events affect the organisms that live there? Andrew and Dave used photosynthesis and respiration from algae to take a closer look!	4	Mill Creek, Ohio
All washed up? The effect of floods on cutthroat trout	animals, disturbance, ecology, fish, water, stream, floods	Floods are very common disturbances in streams. If floods happen right after fish breed and eggs hatch, young fish that cannot swim strongly may not survive. Although floods can be dangerous for fish, they are also very important for creating new habitat. Cutthroat trout are a species of fish living in Mack Creek, which experiences occasional floods. Trout breed in the early spring, right at the peak of flooding, so scientists are collecting long-term data on this species. Will floods hurt trout populations or help?	2	Mack Creek, HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon
Float down the Kalamazoo River	river, water, suspended solids, dam, reservoir	There is a lot more in river water than you might think! As the river flows, it picks up bits of dead plants, algae, and other living and non-living particles from the bottom of the river. These suspended solids are important for the river food web, but can be influenced by human activities, such as the construction of dams.	2	Kalamazoo River, Michigan
Round goby, skinny goby	local adaptation, rapid evolution, animals, biodiversity, fish, Great Lakes, habitat, invasive species, river	When invasive species are moved to new habitats, they often have traits that aren’t matched to their new conditions. However, invasive species may be able to adapt in just a few generations. The round goby is a small invasive fish species that arrived in the Great Lakes around 1990, and is now invading rivers as well. Is there evidence that this species has evolved in response to the different conditions found in rivers and lakes?	3	Kalamazoo River and Great Lakes, Michigan
Winter is coming! Can you handle the freeze?	local adaptation, ecology, evolution, genes, plants	Depending on where they live, plant populations each face their own challenges. For example, in Arabidopsis thaliana there are some populations of this species growing in very cold habitats, and some populations growing in very warm habitats. The idea that populations of the same species have evolved as a result of certain aspects of their environment is called local adaptation.	4	Michigan State University, Michigan
Gene expression in stem cells	gene expression, stem cells, genetics	Every cell in your body contains the same DNA. Genetically identical skin, brain, and muscle cells can look very different and perform very different functions by turning particular genes on and off. But once they differentiate, their role in the body is fixed. Unlike these cells, stem cells have the ability to turn into any other type of cell in the body. Can we uncover the genes expressed in stem cells that give them that ability?	4	Colorado State University, Colorado
Alien life on Mars – caught in crystals?	astrobiology, salt, solution, Mars, extraterrestrial life, chemistry	Is there life on other planets besides Earth? This question is not just for science fiction. Scientists are actively exploring the possibility of life on Mars. Mars is cold, dry, and has a very thin atmosphere. However, there might still be places on Mars where life could exist, despite its extreme conditions. While there is no liquid water on the surface of Mars anymore, it once had a saltwater ocean covering much of its surface. Certain solutions of salt may trap liquid water in pockets as it evaporates, preserving conditions for life.	2	UK Centre for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh, Great Britain
Working to reduce the plastics problem	plastics, synthetic materials, chemistry, biodegradable, elastomer, polymer, monomer, stress, strain	Plastics can be shaped easily and are used for many functions, making them extremely popular across the world. However, most plastics negatively impact the environment and some can take thousands of years or longer to break down. Scientists are testing new ways to make plastics that are biodegradable so they can be decomposed and won’t last as long in the environment. How can researchers use knowledge about the chemical properties of different monomers to make alternatives for synthetic plastics?	3	Northland College, Wisconsin

Data Nuggets in the classroom

Title	Content Level	Science Concepts / Keywords	Quantitative Concepts / Statistics	Graph Type(s)	Variable Type(s)	Data Type(s)
Dangerously bold	1	animals, animal behavior, tradeoff, fish, predation, biological significance	percent, standard error (SE), predictions	bar	categorical	summarized, Digital Data Nugget
Coral bleaching and climate change	1	climate change, coral reef, marine, mutualism, temperature, animals, algae, adaptation, evolution	ratio	bar	categorical	summarized
Won’t you be my urchin?	1	coral reef, herbivory, marine, sea urchin, water, animals, competition, food web	mean, models, standard error (SE), standard deviation (SD)	bar	categorical	raw
Springing forward	1 & 3	climate change, phenology, plants, temperature	mean, standard error (SE), Julian date	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Do urchins flip out in hot water?	1 & 3	animals, climate change, marine, heatwaves, urchins, behavior, invertebrates, environmental change	average, mean, standard error, calculation	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized, two levels available,
Do insects prefer local or foreign foods?	2	herbivory, invasive species, plants, insects, enemy release, ecology	mean, variance, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE), confidence intervals (CI), predictions	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Spiders under the influence	2	animals, invertebrates, habitat, chemical pollution, aquatic, streams, scientist profile	mean, multiple variables	multiple bar	categorical	full dataset, students summarize
Do invasive species escape their enemies?	2	herbivory, invasive species, plants, insects, enemy release, ecology	mean, percent	bar	categorical	summarized
Lake Superior Rhythms	2	amplitude, aquatic, atmosphere, environmental, physics, student research, wave period, waves	cycle, sine wave, amplitude, change over time	sine wave	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
All washed up? The effect of floods on cutthroat trout	2	animals, disturbance, ecology, fish, water, stream, floods, alternative hypotheses, limnology	regression, ratio, rate, graph choice, unnecessary variables, long-term data	scatter	continuous	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Float down the Kalamazoo River	2	Kalamazoo River, water, suspended solids, dam, reservoir, limnology	mean, ratio, rate, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE), Julian date, unnecessary variables	bar, line	categorical, continuous	summarized, Digital Data Nugget
Finding a foothold	2	animals, ecology, marine, substrate, water	frequency, proportion	bar	categorical	summarized
Is chocolate for the birds?	2	experimental design, agriculture, animals, birds, biodiversity, rainforest, succession, disturbance, transect, habitat	addition, unnecessary variables	bar	categorical	raw, full dataset available
Fish fights	2	animal behavior, animals, fish, mating	mean, proportion, regression	scatter	continuous	summarized, Digital Data Nugget
Marvelous mud	2	ecology, environmental, fertilization, mud, phosphorus, substrate, water, wetland, limnology	percent, regression, graph choice	scatter	continuous	summarized
Which guy should she choose?	2	animal behavior, animals, fish, mating	frequency, regression, correlation vs. causation	scatter	continuous	raw, summarized
Sexy smells	2	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, birds, mating	percent, regression, correlation vs. causation	scatter	continuous	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Shooting the poop	2	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, insects, predation, alternative hypotheses	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw
Invasive reeds in the salt marsh	2	disturbance, invasive species, plants, wetland, limnology, transect	mean, percent	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
A tail of two scorpions	2	animal behavior, animals, predation	addition, proportion, ratio, graph choice	bar, stacked bar, pie chart	categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Green crabs: invaders in the Great Marsh	2	animals, invasive species, substrate, wetland, erosion, limnology	addition, range, map	map	categorical, spatial	raw, summarized
Guppies on the move	2	animals, aquatics, behavior, ecology, genetics, migration, movement, tropics	regression	line, scatter	categorical, continuous	raw, full dataset available
The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part I	2	animals, biodiversity, birds, climate change, succession, disturbance, ecology	count, long-term data	line, scatter	continuous	raw, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Beetle battles	2	adaptation, animals, behavior, competition, evolution, insects, mating	standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
How do brain chemicals influence who wins a fight?	2	animals, behavior, competition, insects, aggression, brain chemistry, physiology	mean	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Deadly windows	2	animals, animal behavior, birds, environmental, urban, alternative hypotheses	addition, proportion	bar	categorical	summarized
Which would a woodlouse prefer?	2	experimental design, animals, behavior, ecology, predation	count, Chi-square test, replication, sample size	bar	categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Tree-killing beetles	2	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, environmental, insects, plants	mean, percent, proportion, regression	scatter	continuous	summarized
Alien life on Mars – caught in crystals?	2	astrobiology, salt, solution, Mars, extraterrestrial life, chemistry, physical science	mean, time series	line	continuous	summarized, visual, full dataset available
Beetle, it’s cold outside!	2	animals, climate change, ectotherm, insects, temperature	mean, standard error (SE), models	line	continuous	summarized
Can a salt marsh recover after restoration?	2	disturbance, salinity, transect, invasive species, plants, wetland, restoration, limnology	mean, percent, frequency	bar, line	continuous	summarized
Fast weeds in farmer’s fields	2	evolution, adaptation, agriculture, plants, fitness, heredity, genetics	frequency, percent, mean, replication, sample size, unnecessary variables	bar, scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized
The carbon stored in mangrove soils	2	carbon, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, nutrients, greenhouse gasses, plants, transect	proportion, mean, unnecessary variables	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Where to find the hungry, hungry herbivores	2	herbivory, plants, insects, ecology, latitude, longitude	regression, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE)	scatter	continuous	summarized
A window into a tree’s world	2	climate change, dendrochronology, ecology, plants, temperature	mean, relative growth, graph choice, regression, correlation vs. causation, trend line,	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized
Corals in a strange place	2	adaptation, coral reef, mangrove, morphology, structure and function	visual data, count	bar, stacked bar, pie chart	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Mangroves on the move	2	climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, fertilization, nitrogen, nutrients, phosphorus, plants	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
Getting to the roots of serpentine soil	2	soil, plasticity, limiting factors, plants, ecology, scientist profile	mean, range, standard deviation	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Blinking out?	2	agriculture, insects, population, ecology, biodiversity, fireflies, scientist profile	moving window, long-term data, standardize, sampling effort, division, count, unnecessary variables	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Buried seeds, buried treasure	2	germination, plants, seed bank, seed viability, scientist profile	long-term data, trend	scatter	continuous	raw
Mowing for monarchs, Part I	2	community science, citizen science, animals, behavior, biodiversity, community science, disturbance, ecology, plants, insects, alternative hypotheses	average, time, rate, fraction	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
A difficult drought	2	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, plants, carbon, fermentation, ethanol, chemistry	mean, range, variability, replication, sample size	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Mowing for monarchs, Part II	2	community science, citizen science, animals, behavior, biodiversity, community science, disturbance, ecology, plants, insects, predation, alternative hypotheses	average, time, rate, fraction	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Does more rain make healthy bison babies?	2	animals, ecology, keystone species, plants, prairie, precipitation	mean, time, regression, long-term data, unnecessary variables	line, scatter	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Benthic buddies	2	adaptation, animals, arctic, biodiversity, ecology, environmental, invertebrates, lagoons, marine	mean	bar	categorical	summarized
Did you hear that? Inside the world of fruit fly mating songs	2	animals, insect, process of science, reproducibility, communication, volume, social, behavior	calculations, index, standard deviation, average, replicate	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
A burning question	2	biodiversity, canopy, ecology, fire ecology, forest, human impact, keystone species, land management, natural resources	average, time	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
Are plants more toxic in the tropics?	3	herbivory, diversity, plants, insects, ecology, adaptation, chemistry	standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE), index, formula	bar	categorical	summarized
Does a partner in crime make it easier to invade?	3	legume, plants, mutualism, rhizobia, invasive species, soil, scientist profile	mean	bar	categorical	summarized
Fair traders or freeloaders?	3	evolution, legume, plants, mutualism, rhizobia, nitrogen, fertilization	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
Fertilizing biofuels may cause release of greenhouse gasses	3	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, fertilization, greenhouse gases, nitrogen, plants	regression	scatter	continuous	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
The ground has gas!	3	climate change, temperature, greenouse gases, nitrogen, plants	regression	scatter	continuous	raw, summarized, full dataset available
Growing energy: comparing biofuel crop biomass	3	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, fertilization, plants, carbon	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
How the cricket lost its song, Part I	3	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, rapid evolution, mating, parasitism, scientist profile	percent	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
The mystery of Plum Island Marsh	3	fertilization, fish, food web, marine, mollusk, water, wetland, limnology	mean	bar	categorical	raw
Invasion meltdown	3	climate change, ecology, invasive species, plants, temperature	mean, range, replication, sample size	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Is your salt marsh in the zone?	3	climate change, ecology, plants, sea level rise, substrate, wetland, limnology	mean	bar	categorical	raw
Lizards, iguanas, and snakes! Oh my!	3	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, restoration, urban, transect	count, addition	bar	categorical	raw
What do trees know about rain?	3	climate change, dendrochronology, ecology, plants, precipitation, temperature, water	mean, formula, equation, addition, multiplication	line	continuous	raw, full dataset available
CSI: Crime Solving Insects	3	animals, insects, parasitism	weighted mean	bar	categorical	raw
Does sea level rise harm saltmarsh sparrows?	3	animals, birds, sea level rise, climate change, disturbance, ecology, wetland, limnology	mean, standard deviation (SD)	line	continuous	summarized
Keeping up with the sea level	3	climate change, disturbance, ecology, sea level rise, plants, substrate, wetland, limnology	formula, equation, rate	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	raw
The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part II	3	animals, biodiversity, birds, climate change, succession, disturbance, habitat, ecology	count, long-term data	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	raw, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
How the cricket lost its song, Part II	3	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, rapid evolution, mating, parasitism, scientist profile	mean	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Feral chickens fly the coop	3	adaptation, animals, behavior, birds, ecology, evolution, invasive species, mating, heredity, genetics	proportion, percent	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Raising Nemo: Parental care in the clown anemonefish	3	animals, behavior, coral reef, ecology, fish, marine, mating, tradeoff, plasticity, scientist profile	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw
When a species can’t stand the heat	3	animals, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, mating, temperature, sex ratio	addition, percent, ratio, regression	scatter	continuous	raw, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Are you my species?	3	adaptation, animals, behavior, biodiversity, competition, evolution, fish, mating	formula, equation, addition, subtraction, division, regression	scatter	continuous	raw
Marsh makeover	3	bodiversity, disturbance, ecology, greenhouse gases, mud, plants, restoration, wetland, limnology	standard error (SE)	bar, line	categorical	raw, summarized
To bee or not to bee aggressive	3	animals, behavior, genes, insects, tradeoff, plasticity, aggression	mean, effect size, percent change, range	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Why are butterfly wings colorful?	3	adaptation, animals, insects, models, predation, alternative hypotheses	fraction, proportion, probability	bar	categorical	summarized
City parks: wildlife islands in a sea of cement	3	animals, biodiversity, ecology, urban, island biogeography, parks, camera trap	Shannon Wiener Index, formula, equation, sum, proportion, regression	scatter	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Is it better to be bigger?	3	adaptation, animals, evolution, predation, natural selection	mean, percent, rate, regression	scatter	continuous	summarized, Digital Data Nugget
Is it dangerous to be a showoff?	3	adaptation, animals, evolution, predation, tradeoff, natural selection	percent, rate, regression	scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized
What big teeth you have! Sexual selection in rhesus macaques	3	adaptation, animals, evolution, sexual selection, sexual dimorphism, scientist profile	mean, standard deviation (SD)	bar	continuous, categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Bringing back the Trumpeter Swan	3	animals, biodiversity, birds, ecology, environmental, restoration	mean, long-term data, count	line	continuous, categorical	raw, full dataset available, Digital Data Nugget
Are forests helping in the fight against climate change?	3	climate change, carbon, ecology, greenhouse gasses, photosynthesis, plants, decomposition, respiration	regression, long-term data	scatter	continuous	raw
Can biochar improve crop yields?	3	agriculture, environmental, fertilization, plants, soil, water, biochar, carbon	percent, mean, standard deviation (SD), yield, replication, sample size, randomization	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Hold on for your life! Part I	3	adaptation, animals, disturbance, evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, hurricane, biological significance, alternative hypotheses	argumentation, mean, standard error (SE)	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Hold on for your life! Part II	3	adaptation, animals, disturbance, evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, hurricane	argumentation, visual data		visual	raw, photo, video
Testing the tolerance of invasive plants	3	ecology, herbivory, invasive species, plants, tolerance	statistical interaction, mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Picky eaters: Dissecting poo to examine moose diets	3	animal behavior, animals, ecology, foraging, herbivory, parks, predator-prey	1:1 line, proportion, mean, unnecessary variables	scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Candid camera: capturing the secret lives of carnivores	3	animals, biodiversity, carnivores, ecology, island biogeography, richness, camera trap, parks	regression	map, scatter	continuous	summarized
Crunchy or squishy? How El Niño events change zooplankton	3	algae, animals, marine, El Niño	outlier, correlation vs. causation, unnecessary variables	line, scatter	continuous	raw
Streams as sensors: Arctic watersheds as indicators of change	3	climate change, ecology, environmental, carbon, nitrogen, permafrost, limnology	unnecessary variables, regression, long-term data	scatter	continuous	summarized
The end of winter as we’ve known it?	3	climate change, ice cover	Julian date, mean, regression, messiness, variability	scatter	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Working to reduce the plastics problem	3	plastics, synthetic materials, chemistry, biodegradable, elastomer, polymer, monomer, stress, strain, physical science	percent, ratio	line	continuous	summarized
Limit by limit: Nutrients control algal growth in Arctic streams	3	nitrogen, nutrients, phosphorus, nutrient limitation, law of the minimum, Arctic, limnology	response ratio, graph choice, standard deviation (SD)	bar	categorical	summarized
To reflect, or not to reflect, that is the question	3	albedo, arctic, climate change, environmental, ice, temperature, water	equation, unnecessary variables, regression	line, scatter	continuous	summarized
How milkweed plants defend against monarch butterflies	3	herbivory, evolution, coevolution, plants, insects, ecology, scientist profile	mean, regression, best fit line, trend line, multiple dependent variables, messiness, outlier	line, scatter	continuous	summarized
Purring crickets: The evolution of a new cricket song	3	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, rapid evolution, mating, parasitism, scientist profile	mean, percent, Chi-square test	bar	categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Round goby, skinny goby	3	local adaptation, animals, biodiversity, rapid evolution, fish, Great Lakes, habitat, invasive species, Kalamazoo River	mean, standard error, replication, sample size	bar	categorical	summarized, full dataset available
David vs. Goliath	3	aggression, animals, behavior, brain chemistry, competition, insects, physiology, biological significance	frequency, proportion, percent, unnecessary variables	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Size matters - and so does how you carry it!	3	adaptation, animals, evolution, insects, sexual selection, tradeoffs	residuals, trend, multiple graphs, standardize	scatter, line	continuous	raw, summarized, full dataset available
Ant wars!	3	aggression, animals, behavior, competition, insects	density, ratio, percent, regression, count	bar, line, scatter	continuous	raw, summarized
Salty sediments? What bacteria have to say about chloride pollution	3	bacteria, chemistry, disturbance, environmental, microbes, pollution, salt, urban, water, habitat, time, toxicity	mean, concentration	bar	categorical	summarized
Going underground to investigate carbon locked in soils	3	climate change, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, soil carbon, microbes, chemistry	mean, standard deviation (SD), regression, best fit line, trend line, correlation vs. causation	line, scatter	continuous	summarized
Nitrate: Good for plants, bad for drinking water	3	agriculture, environmental, fertilization, nitrogen, soil, water, plants, human health	mean, time, date, Julian date, concentration	line, scatter	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Trees and the city	3	biodiversity, ecology, environmental justice, social demographics, urban	spatial data analysis, percent, binned data, average, median, histogram	multiple scatter, spatial map	continuous	spatial, summarized, full dataset available
Collaborative cropping: Can plants help each other grow?	3	agriculture, environmental, plants, crops	replicates, correlation vs. causation, regression, trend	multiple scatter	continuous	raw
The sound of seagrass	3	acoustics, sound, photosynthesis, marine, productivity, decibels, physics	average, mean, standard deviation, trend, time	multiple scatter, line	continuous	summarized
Which tundra plants will win the climate change race?	3	climate change, nutrients, long-term data, competition, plants, ecology	mean, trend, time, series, control, long-term data	line	continuous	summarized
The prairie burns with desire	3	ecology, prairie, plants, fire ecology, human impact, reproduction, land management	trend, time, multiple plots, multiple variables, long-term data, proportion, average	scatter, line	continuous	summarized, full dataset available
Seagrass survival in a super salty lagoon	3	climate change, ecology, environmental, long-term, marine, plants, salinity	double y-axis, trend, time, multiple variables	scatter	continuous	summarized
Sink or source? How grazing geese impact the carbon cycle	3	carbon cycle, Arctic, wetlands, primary production, photosynthesis, respiration, climate change, birds, ecosystem	equation, calculation, subtraction, negative values, source, sink	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
Poop, poop, goose!	3	wetlands, Arctic, carbon cycle, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, birds	mean, standard deviation (SD), flux	bar	categorical	summarized
Too hot to help? Friendship in a changing climate	3	mutualism, algae, coral, genotype, photosynthesis, respiration, climate change	calculations, negative values, net, mean, average, standard error	bar	categorical, continuous	summarized
A plant breeder’s quest to improve perennial grain	4	genetics, artificial selection, DNA, selective breeding, phenotype, genotype, nucleotides, sequencing	calculations, average, predictions, standard error, standard deviation,	bar	continuous, categorical	supplemental activity available,
Cheaters in nature – when is a mutualism not a mutualism?	4	evolution, legume, plants, mutualism, parasitism, rhizobia, nitrogen, fertilization	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
Dangerous aquatic prey: can predators adapt to toxic algae?	4	adaptation, algae, evolution, marine, predation	mean	bar	categorical	summarized
Salmon in hot water	4	adaptation, animals, climate change, evolution, fish, genes, genome, temperature, DNA, heredity, genetics, QTL	mean	line	continuous	summarized
Urbanization and estuary eutrophication	4	algae, eutrophication, fertilization, marine, nitrogen, phosphorus, wetland, urban, photosynthesis, respiration, limnology	mean, standard error (SE), subtraction, model	bar	categorical	raw
How to escape a predator	4	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, predation, physiology	mean, standard error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
The flight of the stalk-eyed fly	4	physics, moment of intertia, adaptation, animals, flight, physiology	mean, standard error (SE), formula, equation, multiplication		continuous	summarized
Make way for mummichogs	4	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, fish, restoration, wetland, limnology	mean	bar, line	continuous	raw, summarized
The Arctic is melting – so what?	4	climate change, marine, temperature, water, weather, ice, Arctic, albedo	percent, models	diagram	categorical, modeled data	summarized
Gene expression in stem cells	4	gene expression, genes, stem cells, DNA, genetics, human health	mean	bar	categorical	summarized
Bon Appétit! Why do male crickets feed females during courtship?	4	adaptation, animals, behavior, competition, insects, mating, feeding, alternative hypotheses, scientist profile	count, proportion, regression, multiple regression, unnecessary variables	scatter	continuous	raw
Winter is coming! Can you handle the freeze?	4	ecology, evolution, genes, plants, local adaptation, QTL	percent, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE)	bar, line	categorical	raw, summarized
Finding Mr. Right	4	animals, animal behavior, biodiversity, birds, evolution, genes, mating, local adaptation	mean	bar	categorical	raw
Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish, Part I	4	adaptation, animals, biodiversity, evolution, fish, genes, mating, heredity, genetics, close reading activity	mean, standard deviation (SD), standarad error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish, Part II	4	adaptation, animals, biodiversity, evolution, fish, genes, mating, heredity, genetics	mean, standard deviation (SD), standarad error (SE)	bar	categorical	raw, summarized
Sticky situations: big and small animals with sticky feet	4	adaptation, animals, biomimicry, chemistry, physics, scale	mean, ratio, multiplication, formula, equation, surface area, mass, volume	scatter - logarithmic axes	continuous	summarized
When whale I sea you again?	4	climate change, marine, temperature, water, whales, DNA, PCR, sex ratio	fraction, percent, ratio	line, stacked bar	continuous, categorical	raw, Digital Data Nugget
The case of the collapsing soil	4	climate change, carbon, ecology, plants, phosphorus, sea level rise, respiration, substrate, wetland, limnology	regression, concentration	scatter	continuous	raw, Digital Data Nugget
Clique wars: social conflict in daffodil cichlids	4	animal behavior, animals, competition, fish	count, standard deviation (SD), standarad error (SE)	bar	categorical	summarized
Fishy origins	4	community science, citizen science, DNA, evolution, fish, PCR, marine, microsatellites	percent, proportion, addition, division	bar, stacked bar	continuous, categorical	raw
Fertilizer and fire change microbes in prairie soil	4	biodiversity, diversity, grassland, microbes, plants, prairie, soil	unnecessary variables, Shannon Wiener Index, mean	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized
Breathing in, Part I	4	photosynthesis, carbon accumulation, carbon sequestration, climate change, forest, habitat	mean, confidence, global database	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Breathing in, Part 2	4	climate change, photosynthesis, respiration, carbon, climate model	precision, percent, model prediction, mean, calculation, equation	bar	continuous, categorical	summarized, full dataset available
Stop that oxidation! What fruit flies teach us about human health	4	insects, model species, cell biology, genetics, cellular processes, oxidation, genetics, scientist profile	mean	bar	continuous, categorical	raw, summarized
Love that dirty water	4	environmental, urban, water, GIS, landscapes, impervious surfaces, ecosystem services, land acknowledgement, human health	model, web-tool, simulation, percent change, calculation, map	bar, line, map	categorical, continuous	summarized
Trees and bushes, home sweet home for warblers	4	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, birds, succession, transect, habitat	regression, best fit line, trend line, percent	scatter	continuous	summarized
Changing climates in the Rocky Mountains	4	citizen science, climate change, community science, ecology, environmental, plants, precipitation, temperature	mean, trend, time	line, double y-axis	continuous, categorical	summarized, photo
Surviving the flood	4	disturbance, urban, stream, floods, photosynthesis, respiration, stormwater	reference line, percent, negative values, additional variables, difference, unnecessary variables, outlier	scatter, line	continuous	raw, summarized
Eavesdropping on the ocean	4	acoustic ecology, physics, whales technology, mammals, marine biology, renewable energy, population, human impact	proportions, calculation, detections	scatter, bar	categorical, continuous	summarized, full dataset available

Search Current Data Nuggets

Below, you will find a table of all the Data Nugget activities. Click on the Title to open a page displaying the teacher guide, student activities, grading rubric, and associated resources. The table can be sorted using the arrows located next to each column header. It can also be searched by content area using the search bar, located to the top right of the table.

Below the table, Data Nuggets are placed on a map to help you search for research conducted in your local area!

Title	Keywords	Summary	Content Level	Study Location
Won’t you be my urchin?	coral reef, herbivory, marine, sea urchin, water, animals, competition	Corals are the most important reef animals since they build the reef for all of the other animals to live in. But corals only like to live in certain places. In particular they hate living near algae because the algae and coral compete for the space they both need to grow. Perhaps if there are more vegetarians, like urchins, eating algae on the reef then corals would have less competition and more space to grow.	1	Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, Texas
Do urchins flip out in hot water?	animals, climate change, marine, heatwaves, urchins, behavior, invertebrates, environmental change	Periods of unusual warming in the ocean are called marine heatwaves. During marine heatwaves, water gets 2-3 degrees hotter than normal. That might not sound like much, but for an urchin, it is a lot. The research team decided to test whether marine heat waves could be stressing urchins by looking at a simple behavior that they could easily measure - how long it takes urchins to flip back over.	1 & 3	University of California - Santa Barbara
Coral bleaching and climate change	climate change, coral reef, marine, mutualism, temperature, animals, algae, adaptation, evolution	Corals are animals that build coral reefs. They look brown and green because they have small plants, called algae, that live inside them. The coral animal and the algae work together to produce food so that corals can grow big. When the water gets too warm, sometimes the coral and algae can no longer work together. The algae leave and the corals turn white, called coral bleaching. Scientists want to study coral bleaching so they can protect corals and the reefs that provide a home for so many different species.	1	Florida Keys, Florida
Too hot to help? Friendship in a changing climate	mutualism, algae, coral, genotype, photosynthesis, respiration, climate change	Coral and certain types of algae form a mutualism. However, climate change is causing warmer ocean temperatures that stress the relationship. Casey set out to test if different algae genotypes were capable of being better mutualists under warm temperatures. If he could identify these genotypes, then maybe that could help protect coral in the future.	3	California State University - Northridge
Corals in a strange place	adaptation, coral reef, mangrove, morphology	When you picture coral, you might imagine beautiful reef structures with clear water and colorful corals and fishes. But, there are actually corals that live in other habitats as well! Does the same species of coral look different depending on where it lives?	2	Belize
Raising Nemo: Parental care in the clown anemonefish	animals, behavior, coral reef, ecology, fish, marine, mating, tradeoff, plasticity	Offspring in many animal species rely on parental care; the more time and energy parents invest in their young, the more likely it is that their offspring will survive. However, parental care is costly for the parents. The more time spent on care, the less time they have to find food or care for themselves. In the clown anemonefish, the amount of food available may impact parental care behaviors. When there is food freely available in the environment, are parents able to spend more time caring for their young?	3	Boston University, Massachusetts
Buried seeds, buried treasure	germination, long-term, plants, seed bank, seed viability, agriculture	Over 100 years ago, a scientist named William J. Beal had a question: how long do seeds survive underground? He started an experiment by filling 20 bottles with seeds from 50 plant species, buried them on campus, and creating a map to find them in the future. This map have been passed down from scientist generation to generation. The most recent bottle was dug up in 2021, and scientists tested how many seeds were still able to germinate after 142 years underground.	2	Michigan State University
Getting to the roots of serpentine soil	soil, plasticity, limiting factors, plants, ecology	When an organism grows in different environments, some traits change to fit the conditions. Serpentine soils have high amounts of toxic heavy metals, do not hold water well, and have low nutrient levels. Low levels of water and nutrients found in serpentine soils limit plant growth. Because serpentine soils have fewer plant nutrients and are drier than non-serpentine soils, Alexandria thought that plants growing in serpentine soils may not invest as much into large root systems.	2	University of Miami, Florida
The prairie burns with desire	ecology, prairie, plants, fire ecology, human impact, reproduction, land management	Fire plays a crucial role for prairie habitats across North America. Stuart became interested in learning more about how fire affects the reproduction of native prairie plants. He knew that Echinacea plants grow in many places, but they have a hard time making seeds. He looked at a long-term dataset to see whether fire might help Echinacea by getting plants on the same schedule to make flowers at the same time, bringing neighbors closer to each other and making it easier to be pollinated.	3	Staffanson Prairie Preserve, Minnesota
A burning question	biodiversity, canopy, ecology, fire ecology, forest, human impact, keystone species, land management, natural resources	Fire is part of the natural history of oak forests. They are adapted to recover quickly and they actually can benefit from fire. This is important for land managers who want to encourage the health of oak forests. Ellen and John wanted to know if there were more plant species in oak forests that had prescribed fires so they looked at a long-term dataset to find patterns in biodiversity.	2	Madison School Forest, Wisconsin
Fertilizer and fire change microbes in prairie soil	biodiversity, diversity, grassland, microbes, plants, prairie, soil, agriculture, fire ecology	Prairies grow where three environmental conditions come together – a variable climate, frequent fires, and large herbivores roaming the landscape. However, prairies are experiencing many changes. For example, people now work to prevent fires, which allows forest species take over. In addition, land previously covered in prairie is now being used for agriculture. How do these changes affect the plants, animals, and microbial communities that inhabit prairies?	4	Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas
Does more rain make healthy bison babies?	animals, ecology, keystone species, plants, prairie, precipitation, agriculture	The North American Bison is an important species for the prairie ecosystem. Bison affect the health of the prairie in many ways, and are also affected by the prairie as well. Each year when calves are born, scientists go out and determine their health by weighing them. This long-term dataset can be used to figure out whether environmental conditions from the previous year affect the health of the calves born in the current year.	2	Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas
City parks: wildlife islands in a sea of cement	animals, biodiversity, ecology, urban, island biogeography, parks	It's tempting to think that wild places are only somewhere "out there", far away from humans and cities. However, as more and more people move into cities, they are quickly becoming the main place where many people experience nature and interact with wildlife. A camera-trapping project in the Cleveland Metroparks reveals a vast urban wilderness that is home to countless wild creatures living among us.	3	Cleveland Metroparks, Ohio
Candid camera: capturing the secret lives of carnivores	animals, biodiversity, carnivores, ecology, island biogeography	Carnivores captivate people’s interest for many reasons – they are charismatic, stealthy, and can be dangerous. Not only are they fascinating, they’re also ecologically important. Carnivores help keep prey populations in balance. While they are important, they are also difficult to monitor.	3	Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin
Picky eaters: dissecting poo to examine moose diets	animal behavior, animals, ecology, foraging, herbivory, national park, predator-prey	Since wolves have disappeared from Isle Royale, moose populations have exploded. Moose are important herbivores, and with so many on the island they are having strong impacts on the island's plant communities. Do moose just eat any plant they find, or do they have a preference for certain types?	3	Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
Guppies on the move	animals, aquatics, behavior, ecology, genetics, migration, movement, tropics	Animal parents often choose where to have their offspring in the place that will give them the best chance at success. They look for places that have plentiful food, low risk of predation, and good climate. Why, then do animals sometimes move away from the place they are born?	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Deadly windows	animals, behavior, birds, environmental, urban	Glass makes for a great windowpane because you can see right through it. However, this makes windows very dangerous for birds. Many birds die from window collisions in urban areas. In North America window collisions kill up to 1 billion birds every year! Perhaps local urban birds are able to learn the locations of windows and avoid collisions. By comparing window collisions by local birds to those of migrant birds just passing through, we can determine if local birds have learned to deal with this challenge.	2	Virginia Zoological Park, Virginia
Bringing back the Trumpeter Swan	animals, biodiversity, birds, ecology, environmental, restoration	Trumpeter swans are the biggest native waterfowl species in North America. At one time they were found across North America, but by 1935 there were only 69 known individuals in the continental U.S.! In the 1980s, many biologists came together to create a Trumpeter Swan reintroduction plan. Since then the North American Trumpeter Swan survey has been conducted to measure swan populations and determine whether this species is recovering.	3	Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, Michigan
The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part I	animals, biodiversity, birds, climate change, succession, disturbance, ecology	Avian ecologists at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest have been monitoring bird populations for over 50 years. The data collected during this time is one of the longest bird studies ever conducted! What can we learn from this long-term data set? Are bird populations remaining stable over time?	2	Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire
The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part II	animals, biodiversity, birds, climate change, succession, disturbance, ecology, habitat	Hubbard Brook was heavily logged and disturbed in the early 1900s. When logging ended in 1915, trees began to grow back. The forest then went through secondary succession, which refers to the naturally occurring changes in forest structure that happen as a forest ages after it has been cut or otherwise disturbed. Can these changes in habitat availability, due to succession, explain why the number of birds are declining at Hubbard Brook? Are all bird species responding succession in the same way?	3	Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire
Trees and bushes, home sweet home for warblers	animals, biodiversity, birds, disturbance, ecology, environmental, habitat	Andrews Forest is a long-term ecological research site where there have been manipulations of timber harvest and forest re-growth. This history has large impacts on the bird habitats found in an area. Each year since 2009, scientists have gone out and measured bird populations and habitat types. Two species of warbler with very different habitat preferences can give insight into how birds are responding to these disturbances.	4	HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon
Is chocolate for the birds?	agriculture, animals, birds, biodiversity, ecology, rainforest, succession, habitat	Humans invented agriculture 9,000 years ago, and today it covers 40% of Earth’s land surface. To grow our crops, native plants are often removed, causing the loss of animals that relied on these native plants for habitat. However, sometimes animals can use crop species for food and shelter. For example, the cacao tree may provide habitat for bird species in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Will the abundance and types of birds differ in cacao plantations, compared to native rainforests?	2	Limón Province, Costa Rica
Feral chickens fly the coop	adaptation, animals, behavior, birds, ecology, evolution, invasive species, mating, heredity, genetics	Sometimes domesticated animals escape captivity and interbreed with closely related wild relatives. Their hybrid offspring have some traits from the wild parent, and some from the domestic parent. Traits that help hybrids survive and reproduce will be favored by natural selection. On the island of Kauai, domestic chickens escaped and recently interbred with wild Red Junglefowl to produce a hybrid population. Over time, will the hybrids on Kauai evolve to be more like chickens, or more like Red Junglefowl?	3	Kauai, Hawaii
Sexy smells	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, birds, mating, evolution, sexual selection	Animals collect information about each other and the rest of the world using multiple senses, including sight, sound, and smell. They use this information to decide what to eat, where to live, and who to pick as a mate. Many male birds have brightly colored feathers and ornaments that are attractive to females. Visual signals like these ornaments have been studied a lot in birds, but birds may be able to determine the quality of a potential mate using other senses as well, such as their smell!	2	Mountain Lake Biological Station, Virginia
Finding Mr. Right	adaptation, animals, behavior, biodiversity, birds, evolution, genes, mating, local adaptation	Mountain chickadees are small birds that live in the mountains. To deal with living in a harsh environment during the winter, mountain chickadees store large amounts of food throughout the forest. Compared to populations at lower elevations, birds from higher elevations are smarter and have better spatial memory, helping them better find stored food. Smarter females from high elevations may be contributing to local adaptation by preferring to breed with males from their own population.	4	University of Nevada Reno & Sagehen Experimental Forest
Spiders under the influence	animals, invertebrates, habitat, chemical pollution, aquatic, streams	People use pharmaceutical drugs, personal care products, and other chemicals on a daily basis. Often, they get washed down our drains and end up in local waterways. Chris knew that many types of spiders live near streams and are exposed to toxins through the prey they eat. Chris wanted to compare effects of the chemicals on spiders in rural and urban environments. By comparing spider webs in these two habitats, they could see how different the webs are and infer how many chemicals are in the waterways.	2	Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER
Trees and the city	biodiversity, ecology, environmental justice, social demographics, urban	Trees provide important benefits, such as beauty and shade. The number and types of tree species that are planted in a neighborhood can increase the benefits received from trees in urban areas. Based on her own observations, Adrienne started conversations with her colleagues about differences in urban landscapes. They conducted a study to see how social demographics of neighborhoods may be related to tree species richness and tree cover.	3	Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota
Salty sediments? What bacteria have to say about chloride pollution	bacteria, chemistry, disturbance, environmental, microbes, pollution, salt, urban, water	In snowy climates, salt is applied to roads to help keep them safe during the winter. When the snow melts, salt makes its way into local rivers. Halophiles, or bacteria that thrive in salty conditions, might be a good indicator of how much salt is in a particular waterway, telling scientists when certain areas have become too polluted with salt.	3	Southeastern Wisconsin
A tail of two scorpions	animal behavior, animals, predation	Species rely on a variety of methods to defend against predators, including camouflage, speedy escape, or retreating to the safety of a shelter. Other animals, such as scorpions, have painful venomous stings. Scientists wanted to know whether the pain of a scorpion sting was enough to deter predators, like the grasshopper mouse.	2	Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona
Why are butterfly wings colorful?	adaptation, animals, insects, models, predation	Big wings allow butterflies to fly everywhere with ease. But you may wonder, why are the wings of some species so brightly colored? The red postman butterfly lives in rainforests in Mexico, Central America, and South America. The color pattern on its wing is usually a mix of red, yellow, and black. These bright colors may warn birds and other predators that they would not make a tasty meal. Another potential reason for butterflies to have bright colors and dramatic patterns is to attract mates.	3	La Selva Tropical Biological Station, Sarapiquí, Costa Rica
To bee or not to bee aggressive	animals, behavior, genes, insects, tradeoff, plasticity, aggression	Honey bees turn nectar from flowers into honey, and honey serves as an energy-rich food source for the colony. Honey also makes hives a target for break ins by animals that want to steal it. Bees need to aggressively defend their honey when the hive is threatened. They also need to ensure that they do not waste energy on unnecessary aggressive behaviors when the threat level is low. One way bees might match their aggressiveness to the threat level in the environment is learning from adults when they are young.	3	University of Kentucky, Kentucky
Ant wars!	aggression, animals, behavior, competition, insects	Neighboring colonies of pavement ants often compete for food, leading to tension. If an ant finds a non-nestmate, it organizes a large war against the nearby colony. This results in huge sidewalk battles that can include thousands of ants fighting for up to 12 hours! Scientists wanted to know, what are the factors that lead to war?	3	University of Colorado-Denver and University of South Dakota
CSI: Crime Solving Insects	animals, insects, parasitism	You might think maggots (blow fly larvae) are gross, but without their help in decomposition we would all trip over dead bodies every time we went outside! Forensic entomologists also use these amazing insects to help solve crimes. Blow flies oviposit on dead bodies; the age of the maggots helps scientists determine how long ago a body died. Scientists noticed parasitic wasps were also present at some bodies. Might these wasps delay blow fly oviposition and interfere with scientists' estimates of time of death?	3	Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, Michigan & Valparaiso University, Indiana
Shooting the poop	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, insects, predation	Caterpillars are a great source of food for many species. The silver-spotted skipper caterpillar has a variety of defense strategies against predators, including building leaf shelters for protection. This caterpillar was also discovered to “shoot its poop”, sometimes launching it over 1.5m! Might this very strange behavior serve as some sort of defense against predators?	2	Georgetown University, Washington DC
How the cricket lost its song, Part I	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, evolution, mating, parasitism, rapid evolution	Pacific field crickets live on several Hawaiian Islands, including Kauai. Male field crickets make a loud, long-distance song to help females find them, and then switch to a quiet courtship song once a female comes in close. One summer scientists noticed that the crickets on the island were unusually quiet. Back in the lab they saw males that had lost their specialized wing structures used to produce song! Why did these males lose their wing structures?	3	Kauai Agricultural Research Center - Kapaa, Hawaii
How the cricket lost its song, Part II	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, evolution, mating, parasitism, rapid evolution	Without their song, how are flatwing crickets able to attract females? In some other animals species, males use an alternative to singing, called satellite behavior. Satellite males hang out near a singing male and attempt to mate with females who have been attracted by the song. Perhaps the satellite behavior gives flatwing males the opportunity to mate with females who were attracted to the few singing males left on Kauai.	3	Kauai Agricultural Research Center - Kapaa, Hawaii
Purring crickets: The evolution of a new cricket song	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, evolution, mating, parasitism, rapid evolution	About twenty years ago, scientists discovered male Pacific field crickets in several spots in Hawaii had stopped making songs due to selection from a parasitoid fly that uses the songs to locate their hosts. One summer, scientists heard what sounded like a purring cat, but there was no cat in sight. This sound was coming from crickets, and was unlike anything ever observed before. Could it be the beginning of evolution of a novel mating signal?	3	Kauai Agricultural Research Center - Kapaa, Hawaii
Beetle battles	adaptation, animals, behavior, competition, evolution, insects, mating	Male animals spend a lot of time and energy trying to attract females. They may fight with other males or court females directly. Is there one trait that is both good for fighting males and attracting females? In the horned dung beetle, males have to fight with other males for space in underground tunnels where females mate and lay their eggs. Males also attract females by tapping on their backs. Males that are stronger may potentially be better at both defending tunnels and at attracting females by tapping.	2	Perth, Australia
Tree-killing beetles	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, environmental, insects, plants	A beetle the size of a grain of rice seems insignificant compared to a vast forest. However, during outbreaks the number of mountain pine beetles can skyrocket, leading to the death of many trees. Recent outbreaks of mountain pine beetles killed millions of acres of lodgepole pine trees across western North America. Widespread tree death caused by mountain pine beetles can impact human safety, wildfires, nearby streamflow, and habitat for wildlife.	2	Colorado State University, Colorado
Mowing for monarchs, Part I	animals, behavior, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, plants, insects	During the spring and summer months, monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants. Milkweed plays an important role in the monarch butterfly’s life cycle. When milkweed is cut at certain times of the year new shoots grow, which are softer and easier for caterpillars to eat. Scientists set out to see if mowing milkweed plants could help boost struggling monarch populations.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Mowing for monarchs, Part II	animals, behavior, biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, plants, insects, predation	When the scientists mowed down milkweed plants for their experiment, they changed more than the age of the milkweed plants. They also removed other plant species in the background community. Perhaps the patterns they were seeing were driven not by milkweed age, but by eliminating predators from the patches they mowed.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
How milkweed plants defend against monarch butterflies	herbivory, evolution, coevolution, plants, insects, ecology	For millions of years, monarch butterflies have been antagonizing milkweed plants. Although adult monarchs drink nectar from flowers, their caterpillars only eat milkweed leaves, which harms the plants. The only food for monarchs is milkweed leaves, meaning they have evolved to be highly specialized, picky eaters. But their food is not a passive victim. Like most other plants, milkweeds fight back with defenses against herbivory. Which defensive traits are helping in the fight against herbivory?	3	Cornell University
Where to find the hungry, hungry herbivores	herbivory, plants, insects, ecology	When travelling to warm, tropical places you are exposed to greater risk of diseases. The same pattern of risk is true for other species like plants grown for food; crops in warm places have more problems with pests than those in colder areas. Does this pattern hold for plants in the wild as well?	2	Michigan State University
Are plants more toxic in the tropics?	herbivory, diversity, plants, insects, ecology, adaptation	Long before chemists learned how to make medicines in the laboratory, people found their medicines in plants. To this day, people still extract some medicinal drugs from plants. But, why do plants make these chemicals that are often so useful to people? Many of these chemicals are to reduce herbivory. Carina thought that this might differ by latitude, or distance from the Equator. Are tropical plants more toxic?	3	Michigan State University
Do insects prefer local or foreign foods?	herbivory, invasive species, plants, insects, enemy release, ecology	Insects that feed on plants, called herbivores, can have big effects on how plants grow. A plant with leaves eaten by herbivores will likely do worse than a plant that is not eaten. Herbivores may even determine how well an exotic plant does in its new habitat and whether it becomes invasive. Understanding what makes a species become invasive could help control invasions already underway, and prevent new ones in the future.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Do invasive species escape their enemies?	herbivory, invasive species, plants, insects, enemy release, ecology	Invasive species have been introduced by humans to a new area and negatively impact places they invade. Many things change for an invasive species when it is moved from one area to another. For example, a plant that is moved across oceans may not bring its enemies along for the ride. Now that the plant is in a new area with nothing to eat or infect it, the plant could potentially do very well and become invasive.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Testing the tolerance of invasive plants	ecology, herbivory, invasive species, plants, tolerance	People move species around the globe, and some of these species cause problems where they are introduced. What is it about these invasive species that makes them able to invade? Perhaps certain traits cause invasive species to be more troublesome than others. By studying trait differences between native and invasive populations of the same species, we can learn something about the causes of invasions.	3	McLaughlin Natural Reserve, California
Invasion meltdown	climate change, ecology, invasive species, plants, temperature	Humans are changing the earth in many ways, including adding greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change, and introducing species around the globe, which can lead to invasive species. Scientists wanted to know, could climate change actually help invasive species? Because invasive species have already survived transport from one habitat to another, they may be species that are better able to handle change, such as temperature changes.	3	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Springing forward	climate change, phenology, plants, temperature	What does climate change mean for flowering plants that rely on temperature cues to determine when it is time to flower? Scientists who study phenology, or the timing if life-history events in plants and animals, predict that with warming temperatures, plants will produce their flowers earlier and earlier each year.	1 & 3	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
The sound of seagrass	acoustics, sound, photosynthesis, marine, productivity, decibels, physics	Underwater seagrass meadows have high plant productivity, or growth, which could help offset the effects of climate change. Megan and Kevin are working with biologists to determine the value of applying sound-based methods to monitor photosynthesis in seagrass meadows. They wanted to see whether ambient sound levels were noticeably different during peak photosynthesis times.	3	Gulf of Mexico, Texas
Seagrass survival in a super salty lagoon	climate change, ecology, environmental, long-term, marine, plants, salinity	Unfortunately, seagrasses are disappearing worldwide. Seagrasses are sensitive to changes in their environment because they have particular conditions that they prefer. Kyle started working with Ken during graduate school and wanted to understand more about what environmental conditions, such as salinity, temperature, and light levels may have caused the decline they saw in manatee grass in Laguna Madre.	3	Laguna Madre, Gulf of Mexico, Texas
Lake Superior Rhythms	amplitude, aquatic, atmosphere, environmental, physics, student research, wave period, waves	In high school, Gena and Ali set out to learn about the geophysical forces acting on Lake Superior. They wanted to investigate why they would sometimes see such dramatic fluctuations in Lake Superior water levels. They learned that large lakes exhibit a phenomenon called a seiche (pronounced saysh) and they decided to investigate how often the water switched directions and how much the water level changed because of the seiche.	2	Bayfield, Wisconsin
The end of winter as we’ve known it?	climate change, ice cover	Lake Superior plays a vital role in the lives of people who live and work on its shores, and therefore all sorts of data are recorded to help understand and take care of it. Forrest, a high school student, used data from archives to figure out if the ice season was getting shorter each winter in his home town. The length of the ice season is important because it frees the island residents from working around a ferry schedule, allowing them to drive on the ice to get to the mainland.	3	Madeline Island, Wisconsin
When a species can’t stand the heat	animals, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, mating, temperature	Tuatara are a unique species of reptile found only in New Zealand. In this species, the temperature of the nest during egg development determines the sex of offspring. Warm nests lead to more males, and cool nests lead to more females. With warming temperatures due to climate change, scientists expect the sex ratio to become more and more unbalanced over time, with males making up more of the population. This could leave tuatara populations with too few females to sustain their numbers.	3	North Brother Island, New Zealand
What do trees know about rain?	climate change, dendrochronology, ecology, plants, precipitation, temperature, water	The typical climate of arid northwest Australia consists of long drought periods with a few very wet years sprinkled in. Scientists predict that climate change will cause these cycles to become more extreme – droughts will become longer and periods of rain will become wetter. When variability is the norm, how can scientists tell if the climate is changing and droughts and rain events today are more intense than what we've seen in the past? The answer to this challenge comes from trees!	3	Pilbara region, northwest Australia
Changing climates in the Rocky Mountains	citizen science, climate change, community science, ecology, environmental, plants	As the climate warms and precipitation changes, plants may have to move to survive. To figure out if species are moving, we need to know where they’ve lived in the past, and if climates are changing. One way that we can study both things is to use the Global Vegetation Project. The goal of this project is to curate a global database of plant photos that can be used by educators and students around the world.	4	Rocky Mountains, Wyoming
A window into a tree’s world	climate change, dendrochronology, ecology, plants, temperature	Scientists are very interested in learning how trees respond to rapidly warming temperatures. Luckily, trees offer us a window into their lives through their growth rings. Growth rings are found within the trunk, beneath the bark. These rings provide a long historical record, which can be used to study how trees respond to climate change.	2	Harvard Forest LTER, Massachusetts
Breathing in, Part I	climate change, photosynthesis, respiration, carbon	Photosynthesis is the process by which trees and other plants trap the sun’s energy within the molecular bonds of glucose. Tree growth pulls carbon out of the atmosphere and trees hold on to it for long periods of time. This process is known as carbon sequestration or carbon accumulation. Kristina and Susan decided they needed to work together to learn more about how carbon accumulation rates and how they differ across various types of forests found around the world.	4	Global
Breathing in, Part II	climate change, photosynthesis, respiration, carbon, climate model, precision	Like many other scientists, Susan and Kristina are concerned about global warming. Global warming is the well-documented rise of the temperature of Earth’s surface, oceans, and atmosphere. They wanted to make sure that those creating climate change policy have the most precise data available. They compared their ForC model, which predicts carbon accumulation based on forest regrowth across the glove, to a similar model the IPCC was using.	4	Global
Beetle, it’s cold outside!	animals, climate change, ectotherm, insects, temperature, snow	Many species rely on the snow for protection from the winter’s cold. The snow acts as an insulating blanket, covering the soil and keeping it from getting too cold. If temperatures get too hot in the winter, snow melts and leaves the soil uncovered for longer periods of time. This leads to the shocking pattern that warmer temperatures actually means the soil gets colder! How will species that rely on the snow, like lady beetles, respond to warmer temperatures due to climate change?	2	University of California, Berkeley
Benthic buddies	adaptation, animals, arctic, biodiversity, ecology, environmental, invertebrates, lagoons, marine	Arctic lagoons support a surprisingly wide range of marine organisms! Marine worms, snails, and clams live in the muddy sediment of these lagoons. Having a rich variety of benthic animals in these habitats supports fish, which migrate along the shoreline and eat these animals once the ice has left. Ken, Danny, and Kaylie are interested in learning more about how the extreme seasons of the High Arctic affect the marine life that lives there.	2	Beaufort Lagoon LTER site, Alaska
To reflect, or not to reflect, that is the question	albedo, Arctic, climate change, environmental, ice, temperature, water	Long-term observations of sea ice extent at the North Pole show it is declining, and fast! Why is this important? Sea ice has a higher albedo than sea water, meaning it reflects back more of the sun's energy. If Arctic albedo decreases, this might create a feedback and lead to even more warming.	3	University of Colorado, Boulder
The Arctic is melting – so what?	climate change, marine, models, temperature, water, weather, snow, albedo, Arctic	Think of the North Pole as one big ice cube – a vast sheet of ice, only a few meters thick, floating over the Arctic Ocean. With global warming, more sea ice is melting than ever before. If more ice melts in the summer than is formed in the winter, the Arctic Ocean will become ice-free. Scientists ran a climate model to determine whether this loss of sea ice could affect extreme weather in the northern hemisphere.	4	Arctic Ocean, North Pole
Eavesdropping on the ocean	acoustic ecology, physics, whales technology, mammals, marine biology, renewable energy, population, human impact	Winds that blow over the ocean are more consistent than on land, making offshore wind energy a potentially reliable renewable energy source. The construction of offshore windmills could impact whales. Scientists want to see whether it is possible to identify the best time of year for construction with the least disturbance to marine mammals. Acoustic ecology is a way to learn more about whales their presence in the proposed wind energy areas through sound.	4	Offshore by Morro Bay, California
When whale I sea you again?	climate change, marine, temperature, water, whales	People have hunted whales for over 5,000 years for their meat, oil, and blubber. Today, as populations are struggling to recover from whaling, humpback whales are faced with additional challenges due to climate change. Their main food source is krill, which are small crustaceans that live under sea ice. As sea ice disappears, the number of krill is getting lower and lower. Humpback whale population recovery may be limited because their main food source is threatened by ongoing ocean warming.	4	Western Antarctic Peninsula, Palmer Station LTER
Can biochar improve crop yields?	agriculture, environmental, fertilization, plants, soil, water	Biochar is a pretty unique material. It is created when things burn without oxygen. Most biochar has lots of tiny spaces, or pores, that cause it to act like a hard sponge when it is in the soil. Due to these pores, the biochar can hold more water and nutrients than the soil can by itself. Adding biochar to the soil may help farmers grow more crops, especially in areas prone to drought where water is limited.	3	Colorado State University Agricultural Research and Development Center
A plant breeder’s quest to improve perennial grain	agriculture, genetics, artificial selection, DNA, phenotype, genotype, nucleotides, sequencing, Kernza®	Kernza® is a new grain crop that is similar to wheat. Kernza® breeders are working on improving the same traits that have already been improved in annual wheat, including larger seed size. Hannah wanted to see whether different genetic makeups (genotypes) lead to differences in seed size (phenotypes) so selecting individuals to breed becomes easier and costs are reduced.	4	University of Minnesota
Nitrate: Good for plants, bad for drinking water	agriculture, environmental, fertilization, nitrogen, soil, water, plants, human health, crops, Kernza®	Nitrate dissolves well in water. This helps make it an easy form of nitrogen for plants to use, but it can also end up in rivers and groundwater where it becomes harmful to human health. Most of the crops we grow are annual plants with shallow roots, but perhaps planting perennial crops can help take more nitrate from the soil before it reaches our groundwater.	3	University of Minnesota
Collaborative cropping: Can plants help each other grow?	agriculture, environmental, plants, crops, Kernza®	Most of the crops grown on farms in the United States are annual plants, like corn, soybeans, and wheat. However, there may be potential benefits of perennial plants that could increase sustainability. One strategy to improve field conditions for perennial crops and to increase yield could be to plant legumes alongside them.	3	University of Minnesota
A difficult drought	fermentation, ethanol, agriculture, biofuels, climate change, plants, carbon	Biofuels are made from plants that are growing today, and are being considered as an alternative to fossil fuels. To become biofuels, plants need to go through a series of chemical and physical processes that transform the sugars into ethanol. Scientists are interested in seeing how yeast’s ability to transform sugar into fuel is affected by environmental conditions in fields, such as droughts.	2	University Wisconsin-Madison, GLBRC, Kellogg Biological Station &
Growing energy: comparing biofuel crop biomass	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, fertilization, plants	Corn is one of the best crops for producing biomass for fossil fuels, however it is an annual and needs very fertile soil. To grow corn, farmers add a lot of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to their fields. Other crops, like switchgrass, prairie, poplar trees, and Miscanthus grass are perennials and require fewer fertilizers and pesticides to grow. If perennials can produce high levels of biomass with low inputs, perhaps they could produce more biomass than corn under certain low nutrient conditions.	3	GLBRC, Kellogg Biological Station & University Wisconsin-Madison
Fertilizing biofuels may cause release of greenhouse gasses	agriculture, biofuels, climate change, fertilization, greenhouse gasses, nitrogen, plants	One way to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere could be to grow our fuel instead of drilling for it. Unlike fossil fuels that can only release CO2, biofuels remove CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow and photosynthesize, potentially balancing the CO2 released when they are burned for fuel. However, the plants we grow for biofuels don’t necessarily absorb all greenhouse gas that is released during the process of growing them on farms and converting them into fuels.	3	GLBRC, Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
The ground has gas!	agriculture, climate change, temperature, greenhouse gasses, nitrogen, plants	Nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide are responsible for much of the warming of the global average temperature that is causing climate change. Sometimes soils give off, or emit, these greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere, adding to climate change. Currently scientists figuring out what causes differences in how much of each type of greenhouse gas soils emit.	3	GLBRC, Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Are forests helping in the fight against climate change?	climate change, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, photosynthesis, plants	In the 1990s, scientists began to wonder what role forests were having in the exchange of carbon in and out of the atmosphere. Were forests overall storing carbon (carbon sink), or releasing it (carbon source)? To test this, they built large metal towers that stand taller than the forest trees around them and use sensors to measure the speed, direction, and CO2 concentration of each puff of air that passes by. These long term measurements can tell us whether forests help in the fight against climate change.	3	Harvard Forest LTER, Massachusetts
Sink or source? How grazing geese impact the carbon cycle	carbon cycle, Arctic, wetlands, primary production, photosynthesis, respiration, climate change, birds, ecology	When geese graze on wetland plants, they remove plant matter, potentially decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide, or CO2, that is released during photosynthesis. This is important because it could change whether this ecosystem is a carbon sink or a carbon source. We want ecosystems to be carbon sinks because then they keep CO2 out of the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming.	3	Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Poop, poop, goose!	wetlands, Arctic, carbon cycle, climate change, disturbance, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, birds	Each spring, millions of birds return to the Y-K Delta to breed. With all these geese coming together in one area, they create quite a mess – they drop tons of poop onto the soil. So much poop in fact, that scientists wonder whether poop from this area in Alaska could have a global impact!	3	Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Going underground to investigate carbon locked in soils	climate change, ecology, environmental, greenhouse gasses, soil carbon, microbes, chemistry, agriculture	Soil is an important part of the carbon cycle because it traps carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere and locked underground. Carbon enters the soil when plants and animals die, and their organic matter is decomposed by soil bacteria and fungi. Climate affects rates of decomposition, and therefore may affect how much carbon becomes stable and attached to minerals in the soil, feeding back to affect climate change.	3	Indiana University
The carbon stored in mangrove soils	carbon, climate change, disturbance, ecology, nutrients, greenhouse gasses, mangrove, plants	Mangroves are globally important for many reasons. They form dense forested wetlands that protect the coast from erosion and provide critical habitat for many animals. Mangrove forests also help in the fight against climate change by storing carbon in their soils. The balance between how much carbon is added to the soils and how much is released might be dependent on a variety of factors, including tree size and amount of disturbance to the site.	2	Biscayne National Park, Florida Everglades
Mangroves on the move	climate change, ecology, environmental, fertilization, nitrogen, nutrients, phosphorus, plants, mangrove	One day out in the saltmarsh, scientists noticed something strange. A mangrove shrub was growing in a place they had not been seen before! Are the fertilizers washing into the saltmarsh from nearby urban areas responsible for this shocking discovery?	2	Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Florida
Which tundra plants will win the climate change race?	climate change, nutrients, long-term data, competition, plants, ecology	While you might think of the arctic tundra as a blanket of snow and polar bears, this vast landscape supports a diversity of unique plant and animal species. Climate change is altering the arctic environment. With warmer seasons and fewer days with snow covering the ground, soils are thawing more deeply and becoming more nutrient-rich. With more nutrients available, will some plant species be able to outcompete other species by growing taller and making more leaves than other plant species?	3	Toolik Field Station, Alaska
Streams as sensors: Arctic watersheds as indicators of change	climate change, ecology, environmental, carbon, nitrogen, permafrost	As the world warms from climate change, the Alaskan Arctic is heating up. This is causing permafrost, or the frozen underground layer of rock and ice, to melt. When permafrost melts, plant material that has been stored for thousands of years begins to decay, releasing carbon and nitrogen from the system. Ecologists can act like “ecosystem accountants” measuring the balance of material that goes into and out of these systems.	3	Toolik Field Station, Alaska
Limit by limit: Nutrients control algal growth in Arctic streams	climate change, ecology, environmental, nitrogen, nutrients, phosphorus	Aquatic algae, a type of microbe that live in the water, need to take in nutrients from their surroundings for growth. Two important nutrients for algal growth are nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P). Climate change may be altering which nutrients are limiting to algae, changing food webs in the ecosystem.	3	Toolik Field Station, Alaska
Cheaters in nature – when is a mutualism not a mutualism?	evolution, legume, plants, mutualism, parasitism, rhizobia, nitrogen, fertilization, agriculture	Mutualisms are a special type of relationship in nature where two species work together and both benefit. This cooperation should lead to each partner species doing better when the other is around – without their mutualist partner, the species will have a harder time acquiring resources. But what happens when one partner cheats and takes more than it gives?	4	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Fair traders or freeloaders?	evolution, legume, plants, mutualism, rhizobia, nitrogen, fertilization, agriculture	One example of a mutualism is the relationship between a type of bacteria, rhizobia, and plants like peas, beans, soybeans, and clover. Rhizobia live in bumps on the plant roots, where they trade their nitrogen for sugar from the plants. Rhizobia turn nitrogen from the air into a form that plants can use. Under some conditions, this mutualism could break down, for example, if one of the traded resources is very abundant in the environment.	3	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Does a partner in crime make it easier to invade?	legume, plants, mutualism, rhizobia, invasive species, soil	Invasive plants are species that have been transported by humans from one location to another, and grow and spread quickly compared to other plants. Mutualisms can affect what happens when a plant species is moved somewhere it hasn’t been before. For invasive legumes with rhizobia mutualists, there is a chance that the rhizobia will not be transported with it and the plant will have to form new relationships with rhizobia in the new location.	3	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Fast weeds in farmer’s fields	adaptation, agriculture, evolution, plants, heredity, genetics	Weeds in agricultural fields cost farmers $28 billion per year in just the United States alone. One of the world’s worst weeds is weedy radish, which evolved from native radish not very long ago. While weedy radish is able to take over agricultural fields, native radish cannot. What causes this difference? Perhaps it could be due to the weedy radish’s ability to flower quickly and make seeds before crops are harvested.	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
What big teeth you have! Sexual selection in rhesus macaques	animals, evolution, sexual selection, sexual dimorphism	In Cayo Santiago there is one of the oldest free-ranging rhesus macaque colonies in the world. Scientists have gathered data on these monkeys and their habitat for over 70 years. The program monitors individual monkeys over their entire lives, and when they die their bodies are recovered and skeletal specimens are stored in a museum. These skeletal specimens can be used by scientists today to ask new and exciting questions, for example, what traits are under sexual selection in this population?	3	Laboratory of Primate Morphology, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus
Is it better to be bigger?	adaptation, animals, evolution, predation	Brown anoles are very small when they hatch out of the egg. Because of their small size, these anole hatchlings are eaten by many different animals, including birds, crabs, other species of anole lizards, and even adult brown anoles! Predators could be a significant force of natural selection on brown anole hatchlings. Juvenile anoles that get eaten by predators will not survive to reproduce.	3	Matanzas River, Florida
Is it dangerous to be a showoff?	adaptation, animals, evolution, predation, tradeoff, sexual dimorphism	Brown anoles are small lizards that are abundant in Florida. They have an extendable red and yellow flap of skin on their throat, called a dewlap. To communicate with other brown anoles, they extend their dewlap and move their head and body. Males have particularly large dewlaps, which they often display to defend territory or attract females. Females also have dewlaps but use them less often. How might natural selection on this trait differ between males and females?	3	Matanzas River, Florida
Hold on for your life! Part I	adaptation, animals, disturbance, evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, hurricane	In the fall of 2017, a team of scientists from Harvard University and the Paris Natural History Museum visited Pine Cay and Water Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands. They were there to collect data on a small local lizard, the Turks and Caicos anole, as part of a larger environmental conservation project. Unbeknownst to them, a storm was brewing to the south of the islands, and it was about to change the entire trajectory of their research.	3	Turks and Caicos, Caribbean
Hold on for your life! Part II	adaptation, animals, disturbance, evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, hurricane	The scientists needed to find out how lizards behave in hurricane-force winds. Obviously, they couldn’t stick around to watch lizards ride out a storm, so they designed a safe experiment that would simulate hurricane force winds. They bought the strongest leaf blower they could find, set it up in their hotel room on Pine Cay, and videotaped 40 lizards as they clung to a perch while slowly ramping up the leaf blower until the lizards were blown (unharmed) into a safety net.	3	Turks and Caicos, Caribbean
Sticky situations: big and small animals with sticky feet	adaptation, animals, chemistry, physics, scale, surface area	Sticky, or adhesive, toe pads have evolved in many different kinds of animals, including insects, arachnids, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. The heavier the animal, the more adhesion they will need to stick and support their mass. For tiny species like mites and flies, tiny toes can do the job. Each fly toe only has to be able to support a small amount of weight. But when looking at larger animals like geckos, their increased weight means they need much larger toe pads to support them.	4	BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action
Lizards, iguanas, and snakes! Oh my!	animals, biodiversity, disturbance restoration, urban	People have dramatically changed the natural riparian habitat found along rivers and streams. In many urban areas today, these riparian habitats are being rehabilitated with the hope of bringing back native species, such as reptiles. Reptiles, including snakes and lizards, are extremely important to monitor as they play important roles in ecosystems. Are rehabilitation efforts in Phoenix successful at restoring reptile diversity and abundance?	3	Salt River, Phoenix, Arizona
Blinking out?	agriculture, insects, population, biodiversity, ecology	Many people have fond memories of watching fireflies blink across open fields and collecting them in jars as children. This is one of the reasons why fireflies are a beloved insect species. However, there is concern that their populations are in decline. Scientists turned to the longest-running study of fireflies known to science to see if this is the case!	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Urbanization and estuary eutrophication	algae, eutrophication, fertilization, marine, nitrogen, phosphorus, wetland, urban	Estuaries are very productive habitats found where freshwater rivers meet the ocean. They are important natural filters for water and protect the coast during storms. A high diversity of plants, fish, shellfish and birds call estuaries home. Estuaries are threatened by eutrophication, or the process by which an ecosystem becomes more productive when excess nutrients are added to the system. Parts of the Plum Island Estuary in MA may be more at risk from eutrophication due to their proximity to urban areas.	4	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
Love that dirty water	environmental, urban, water, GIS, landscapes, impervious surfaces, ecosystem services	As green spaces are lost to make room for homes and businesses, there are fewer forests and wetlands to filter our drinking water. A team of scientists used the New England Landscapes Future Explorer to study this challenge for the Merrimack River, an important river for the people of New England.	4	New England
Green Crabs: Invaders in the Great Marsh	animals, invasive species, substrate, wetland, erosion	The introduction of invasive species, such as the European Green Crab, poses a great threat to marshes. Digging behaviors of the Green Crab disturb sediments on the marsh floor and may have lead to the destruction of native eelgrass populations, which are sensitive to disturbance. Scientists aimed to identify locations where crab numbers are low and eelgrass can be restored.	2	Essex Bay, Massachusetts
The mystery of Plum Island Marsh	fertilization, fish, marine, mollusk, water, wetland	Salt marshes are among the most productive coastal ecosystems, and support a diversity of plants and animals. Algae and marsh plants feed many invertebrates, like snails and crabs, which are then eaten by larger fish and birds. In Plum Island, scientists have been fertilizing and studying salt marsh creeks to see how added nutrients affect the system. They noticed that fish populations seemed to be crashing in the fertilized creeks, while the mudflats were covered in mudsnails. Could there be a link?	3	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
Does sea level rise harm saltmarsh sparrows?	animals, birds, sea level rise, climate change, disturbance, ecology, wetland	For the last 100 years, sea levels around the globe have increased dramatically. Salt marshes grow right at sea level and are therefore very sensitive to sea level rise. Saltmarsh sparrows rely completely on salt marshes for feeding and nesting, and therefore their numbers are expected to decline as sea levels rise and they lose nesting sites. Will this threatened bird species decline over time as sea levels rise?	3	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
Keeping up with the sea level	climate change, disturbance, ecology, sea level rise, plants, substrate, wetland	Salt marshes are very important habitats for many species and protect the coast from erosion. Unfortunately, rising sea levels due to climate change are threatening these important ecosystems. As sea levels rise, the elevation of the marsh soil must rise as well so the plants have ground high enough to keep them above sea level. Basically, it is like a race between the marsh floor and sea level to see who can stay on top!	3	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
Is your salt marsh in the zone?	climate change, ecology, plants, sea level rise, substrate, wetland	Beginning in the 1980s, scientist James began measuring the growth of marsh grasses. He discovered that their growth was higher in some years and lower in others and that there was a long-term trend of growth going up over time. Marsh grasses grow around mean sea level, or the average elevation between high and low tides. Are the grasses responding to mean sea level changing year-to-year, and increasing as our oceans warm and water levels rise due to climate change?	3	Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts
The case of the collapsing soil	climate change, carbon, ecology, plants, phosphorus, sea level rise, respiration, substrate, wetland	The Everglades are a unique and vital ecosystem threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change. Recently scientists have observed in some areas of the wetland the soils are collapsing. What is causing this strange phenomena? Sea level rise might be stressing microbes, causing carbon to be lost to the atmosphere through increased respiration.	4	Everglades, Florida
Marvelous mud	ecology, environmental, fertilization, mud, phosphorus, substrate, water, wetland	Because mud is wet most of the time, it tends to have different properties than soil. Dead organic matter (partially decomposed plants) is an important part of mud and tends to build up in wetlands because it is decomposed more slowly under water where microbes do not have all the oxygen they need to break it down quickly. The amounts of organic matter may determine the levels of phosphorus and other nutrients held in wetland muds.	2	Fort Custer Recreation Area, Michigan
Marsh makeover	biodiversity, disturbance, ecology, greenhouse gasses, mud, plants, restoration, wetland	The muddy soils in salt marshes store a lot of carbon, compared to terrestrial dry soils. This is because they are low in oxygen needed for decomposition. For this reason they play a key role in the carbon cycle and climate change. If humans disturb marshes, reducing plant diversity and biomass, are they also disturbing the marsh's ability to sequester carbon? If a marsh is restored, can the carbon holding capacity also be brought back to previous levels?	3	Oak Island and Neponset Marsh, Boston, Massachusetts
Dangerously bold	animal behavior, animals, tradeoff, fish, predation	There are two main habitats that young bluegill sunfish can use to find food to eat – open water and cover. There is lots of food in the open water, but this habitat also has very few plants for bluegill to hide from predators, like the largemouth bass, so it’s not safe when bluegill are small! The cover habitat has less food, but it has lots of plants that make it hard for predators to see the bluegill. This sets up a situation where there are costs and benefits to using either habitat, called a tradeoff.	1	Pond Lab, Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Which guy should she choose?	animal behavior, animals, fish, mating	Mating behavior is intriguing to study because in many animal species, males use a lot of energy to attract a female. Yet some males are able to attract zero females and other males attract many females. What accounts for this difference? What about the way a male looks, moves, or smells attracts the female? A female could benefit from identifying “high quality” males that would serve as a good father to her offspring or that would make offspring that are attractive to females in the next generation.	2	Michigan State University lab and British Columbia, Canada
Fish fights	animal behavior, animals, fish, mating	Male stickleback fish fight each other to gain territories along the bottom of the shallow areas of a lake. In these territories, males build a nest out of sand, aquatic plants, and glue they produce from their kidneys. Males then attract females to their territories with courtship dances. If a female likes a male, she will deposit her eggs in his nest. Then the male will care for those eggs and the offspring that hatch. Perhaps more aggressive males are better at defending their territory and nests.	2	Michigan State University lab and British Columbia, Canada
Clique wars: social conflict in daffodil cichlids	animal behavior, animals, competition, fish	Daffodil cichlids live in social groups of several small fish and one breeding pair. The breeding male and female are the largest fist in the group, and the smaller fish help defend territory against predators and help care for newly hatched baby fish. About 200 social groups together make up a colony. Behavior within a social group may be influenced by the presence of other groups in the colony. For example, neighboring groups can be a threat because they may try to take away territory or resources.	4	The Ohio State University, Ohio
Fishy origins	citizen science, DNA, evolution, fish, PCR, marine	The population of striped bass in New Jersey is a mixed stock, meaning fish come together from different spawning grounds. Scientists want to understand where these fish come from in order to better manage their population. For their study, they needed DNA from many fish, so they turned to fishermen to help collect fin clip samples. They used these samples to identify the stocks migrating to New Jersey, and to determine if they was changing over time.	4	Monmouth University
Salmon in hot water	adaptation, animals, climate change, evolution, fish, genes, temperature, heredity, genetics	Salmon are important members of freshwater and ocean food webs. Climate change threatens salmon by warming the waters of rivers where they reproduce. To maintain healthy populations, salmon rely on cold, freshwater habitats and may go extinct as temperatures rise. However, some salmon individuals have higher thermal tolerance and are able to survive when water temperatures rise. Scientists want to know whether there is a genetic basis for the variation observed in salmon’s thermal tolerance.	4	University of Washington Hatchery, Seattle, Washington
Are you my species?	adaptation, animals, behavior, biodiversity, competition, evolution, fish, mating	How do animals know who to choose as a mate and who is a member of their own species? One way is through communication. Animals collect information about each other and the rest of the world using multiple senses, including sight, sound, and smell. Darters are a group of over 200 colorful fish species that live in lakes and rivers across the US. The bright color patterns on males may signal to females during mating who is a member of the same species and who would make a good mate.	3	University of Maryland, Baltimore
Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish, Part I	adaptation, animals, biodiversity, evolution, fish, genes, mating, heredity, genetics	In nature, animals can be found in a dazzling display of different colors and patterns. Even within one species there can be variation in color. For example, male bluefin killifish can have fins that are bright blue, red, or yellow. Becky, a scientist studying this species noticed an interesting pattern - males found in springs with crystal clear water have mostly red or yellow fins, while males found in swamps have bright blue fins. Becky wants to know, what is the driving mechanism behind this interesting pattern?	4	University of Illinois, Illinois
Why so blue? The determinants of color pattern in killifish, Part II	adaptation, animals, biodiversity, evolution, fish, genes, mating, heredity, genetics	To take a closer look at her data, Becky added information on paternal fin color into her analysis.	4	University of Illinois, Illinois
Bon Appétit! Why do male crickets feed females during courtship?	adaptation, animals, behavior, competition, insects, mating	In many species of insects and spiders, males provide females with gifts of food during courtship and mating. This is called nuptial feeding. These offerings are eaten by the female and can take many forms, including prey items the male captured, substances produced by the male, or parts from the male’s body. These gifts can cost the male a lot, so why do they give them? They may increase the male's chances of mating with a female, or they may help the female have more and healthier offspring.	4	Cornell University, New York
Stop that oxidation! What fruit flies teach us about human health	insects, model species, cell biology, genetics, cellular processes, oxidation	Each of our cells is home to mitochondria, tiny factories whose job is to turn the food we eat into the energy we need to live. But during this process oxidative damage can cause harm to everything in the cell. There are two ways that bodies can prevent oxidative damage: antioxidants and more efficient metabolic pathways. Biz looked at fruit flies with varying genetics for these two strategies and wanted to test whether the level of oxidative damage in eggs and sperm would influence how many offspring a female had.	4	Technische Universität Dresden
Did you hear that? Inside the world of fruit fly mating songs	animals, communication, insect, process of science, reproducibility, volume, social, behavior	Emma is a neuroscientist who is really interested in studying how brains are able to understand all kinds of communication. She uses fruit flies to figure out how brains process communication through sounds. Emma wanted to test whether lab conditions, such as volume of playback sounds and social isolation affected whether fruit flies in her lab performed a behavior called chaining that had been observed in other labs.	2	North Carolina State University
How to escape a predator	adaptation, animal behavior, animals, predation, physiology	Stalk-eyed flies have their eyes at the tip of eyestalks on the sides of their heads. Males with longer eyestalks are better at attracting mates – females find them sexy! However, long eyestalks may come at a cost. Males with long eyestalks may not be able to move easily and quickly, and could be easy targets for predators. Males also use a variety of behaviors to defend themselves against predators. Are these behaviors enough to compensate for long eyestalks?	4	Washington State University and University of Colorado, Denver
The flight of the stalk-eyed fly	physics, moment of inertia, adaptation, animals, flight, physiology	Moment of inertia (I) is an object’s tendency to resist rotation – in other words how difficult it is to make something turn. Stalk-eyed flies have eyes located on the ends of long projections on the sides of their head, called eyestalks. Because moment of inertia goes up with the square of the distance from the axis, we might expect that as the length of the flies’ eyestalks goes up, the harder and harder it will be for the fly to maneuver during flight.	4	Tel-Aviv University, Israel and University of Colorado, Denver
How do brain chemicals influence who wins a fight?	animals, behavior, competition, insects, aggression, brain chemistry, physiology	Animals compete for resources, including space, food, and mates. What are the factors that determine who wins in a fight? Within the same species, larger individuals tend to win fights. However, if two opponents are the same size, other factors can influence outcomes. Serotonin is a chemical compound found in the brains of all animals, including stalk-eyed flies. Even a small amount of this chemical can make a big impact on aggressive behavior, and perhaps the outcome of competition.	2	University of Colorado, Denver and University of South Dakota
David vs. Goliath	animals, behavior, competition, insects, aggression, brain chemistry, physiology	Animals in nature often compete for limited resources, like food, territory, and mates. Who wins a battle depends on lots of factors, such as size, aggression, and brain chemistry. In stalk-eyed flies, is a change in brain chemistry enough to tip the balance for smaller males to win in battle?	3	University of Colorado, Denver and University of South Dakota
Size matters - and so does how you carry it!	adaptation, animals, evolution, insects, sexual selection, tradeoffs	Some animals have evolved special traits that advertise their fitness to potential mates. Scientists have long predicted that these traits come with both benefits and costs, but John and Jerry have not found costs to the long eye stalks of stalk-eyed flies. Could there be a different answer? In this activity, the team looks at how wing size could play a role.	3	University of Colorado, Denver and University of St. Thomas
Which would a woodlouse prefer?	animals, behavior, ecology, predation	Woodlice are small crustaceans that live on land. They look like bugs, but are actually more closely related to crabs and lobsters. To escape predators they hide in dark places. They spend most of their time underground and have very poor eyesight. If they can't see very well, how do they decide where to live?	2	Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan
Crunchy or squishy? How El Niño events change zooplankton	algae, animals, marine, El Niño	El Niño events happen every 5 to 10, and in California they cause the ocean to be much warmer than usual. Warm ocean waters during El Niño events have lower nutrient levels, so fewer phytoplankton grow leading to less food available for zooplankton. This may cause a change balance between the two main groups of zooplankton, “crunchy” crustaceans and “squishy” gelatinous animals. These changes could have cascading effects up the food chain.	3	San Diego, California
Dangerous aquatic prey: can predators adapt to toxic algae?	adaptation, algae, evolution, marine, predation	Phytoplankton are microscopic algae that form the base of all aquatic food chains. Some phytoplankton produce toxins, and when these algae reach high population levels it is known as toxic algal blooms. Can predators feeding on toxic prey for many generations evolve resistance, by natural selection, to the toxic prey?	4	Maine and New Jersey
Finding a foothold	animals, ecology, marine, substrate, water	The ground at the beach is made of rocks of many different sizes, called substrates. These can range from large boulders down to fine grains of sand, with many size variations in between. Just like there are different types of substrates, there are different types of organisms that can live there. How can we determine which types of organisms prefer which types of substrates?	2	Puget Sound, Washington
Invasive reeds in the salt marsh	disturbance, invasive species, plants, wetland	Phragmites australis is an invasive reed that is taking over saltwater marshes of New England, outcompeting other plants that serve as food and homes for marsh animals. Once Phragmites has invaded, it is sometimes the only plant species left, called a monoculture. Phragmites does best where humans have disturbed a marsh, and scientists were curious why that might be. They thought that perhaps it was caused by changing salinity, or amount of salt in the water, after a marsh is disturbed.	2	Ipswich High School, Massachusetts
Can a salt marsh recover after restoration?	disturbance, ecology, invasive species, plants, wetland, salinity, restoration	Before restoration began, it was clear the Saratoga Creek salt marsh was in trouble. Invasive Phragmites plants covered large areas of the marsh, crowding out native plants and animals. Human activity was thought to be the culprit – storm drains were dumping freshwater into the marsh, lowering salinity. In 1999 a restoration took place to divert freshwater away from the marsh in an attempt to reduce Phragmites numbers. Did it work?	2	Saratoga Creek Salt Marsh, Rockport, Massachusetts
Make way for mummichogs	animals, biodiversity, disturbance, fish, restoration, wetland	Mummichogs are small fish that live in tidal marshes all along the US Atlantic coast. Because they are so widespread and can be found in most streams, they are a valuable tool for scientists looking to compare the health of different marshes. The absence of mummichogs in a salt marsh is a sign that it is highly damaged. Students collected data on mummichog numbers before and after a marsh restoration. Did the restoration successfully bring back mummichogs to the marsh?	4	Gloucester, Massachusetts
Surviving the flood	disturbance, urban, stream, floods, photosynthesis, respiration, stormwater	Streams are found everywhere, including cities. Urban streams are surrounded by buildings, roads, and parking lots, which can make rain from storms flow through the system very quickly. But how do these rapid flooding events affect the organisms that live there? Andrew and Dave used photosynthesis and respiration from algae to take a closer look!	4	Mill Creek, Ohio
All washed up? The effect of floods on cutthroat trout	animals, disturbance, ecology, fish, water, stream, floods	Floods are very common disturbances in streams. If floods happen right after fish breed and eggs hatch, young fish that cannot swim strongly may not survive. Although floods can be dangerous for fish, they are also very important for creating new habitat. Cutthroat trout are a species of fish living in Mack Creek, which experiences occasional floods. Trout breed in the early spring, right at the peak of flooding, so scientists are collecting long-term data on this species. Will floods hurt trout populations or help?	2	Mack Creek, HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon
Float down the Kalamazoo River	river, water, suspended solids, dam, reservoir	There is a lot more in river water than you might think! As the river flows, it picks up bits of dead plants, algae, and other living and non-living particles from the bottom of the river. These suspended solids are important for the river food web, but can be influenced by human activities, such as the construction of dams.	2	Kalamazoo River, Michigan
Round goby, skinny goby	local adaptation, rapid evolution, animals, biodiversity, fish, Great Lakes, habitat, invasive species, river	When invasive species are moved to new habitats, they often have traits that aren’t matched to their new conditions. However, invasive species may be able to adapt in just a few generations. The round goby is a small invasive fish species that arrived in the Great Lakes around 1990, and is now invading rivers as well. Is there evidence that this species has evolved in response to the different conditions found in rivers and lakes?	3	Kalamazoo River and Great Lakes, Michigan
Winter is coming! Can you handle the freeze?	local adaptation, ecology, evolution, genes, plants	Depending on where they live, plant populations each face their own challenges. For example, in Arabidopsis thaliana there are some populations of this species growing in very cold habitats, and some populations growing in very warm habitats. The idea that populations of the same species have evolved as a result of certain aspects of their environment is called local adaptation.	4	Michigan State University, Michigan
Gene expression in stem cells	gene expression, stem cells, genetics	Every cell in your body contains the same DNA. Genetically identical skin, brain, and muscle cells can look very different and perform very different functions by turning particular genes on and off. But once they differentiate, their role in the body is fixed. Unlike these cells, stem cells have the ability to turn into any other type of cell in the body. Can we uncover the genes expressed in stem cells that give them that ability?	4	Colorado State University, Colorado
Alien life on Mars – caught in crystals?	astrobiology, salt, solution, Mars, extraterrestrial life, chemistry	Is there life on other planets besides Earth? This question is not just for science fiction. Scientists are actively exploring the possibility of life on Mars. Mars is cold, dry, and has a very thin atmosphere. However, there might still be places on Mars where life could exist, despite its extreme conditions. While there is no liquid water on the surface of Mars anymore, it once had a saltwater ocean covering much of its surface. Certain solutions of salt may trap liquid water in pockets as it evaporates, preserving conditions for life.	2	UK Centre for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh, Great Britain
Working to reduce the plastics problem	plastics, synthetic materials, chemistry, biodegradable, elastomer, polymer, monomer, stress, strain	Plastics can be shaped easily and are used for many functions, making them extremely popular across the world. However, most plastics negatively impact the environment and some can take thousands of years or longer to break down. Scientists are testing new ways to make plastics that are biodegradable so they can be decomposed and won’t last as long in the environment. How can researchers use knowledge about the chemical properties of different monomers to make alternatives for synthetic plastics?	3	Northland College, Wisconsin