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Certificate Program: Black Rock Forest Case Study
Forests are a vitally important habitat for much of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. During this class you will learn key issues in forest ecology and management through an all-day field trip to Black Rock Forest, and study how pathogens and other invasive species affect forest structure and function.
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Cicadas Leave Trail of Dead Leaves
As you travel through our region, you may notice stands of trees with branch tips covered in dead leaves. The damage is not from the hot and humid weather, but rather the aftermath of the cicadas.
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Experience Ecosystems of the Dominican Republic
SEE-U Dominican Republic provides students with many enriching opportunities to engage in fieldwork and study biodiversity and ecosystems in their natural environments.
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Study Rainforest Ecology in Puerto Rico with SEE-U
The SEE-U Puerto Rico course provides students with a total immersion experience into the ecology and dynamics of a fragile and threatened environmental system.
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Arboreally Speaking, the ‘Good Old Growth Curve Is a Delusion’
In the previous post, I outlined the argument lighting up parts of the New Jersey legislature and the human elements of its ecological communities. Briefly, one reason some people are using to promote logging on public lands is the perception that old trees and forests are dying of old age. While there are other arguments…
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Arboreally Speaking, Does Age Matter?
“There is unrest in the forest, there is trouble with the trees“…I will mostly spare you one of the more ecologically correct, forest ecology rock tunes (the next two lines, however, “For the maples want more sunlight, and the oaks ignore their pleas,” written in 1978, seem incredibly prescient given that one of the first…
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Is Biomass Really Renewable?
Ninety percent of all existing biomass power plants use wood residue and there are currently 115 power plants in development that will burn biomass to generate electricity. But just how renewable is biomass energy?
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The Pitfalls of ‘Saving’ the Rainforest
For years, activists have sought to “save the rainforest.” Now, it looks like there could be a mechanism to do just that. It was announced yesterday that negotiators have reached a nearly final agreement on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD, in which polluters in the north will pay rainforest countries to keep…
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Saving Rainforests: Low-Hanging Fruit
The climate summit offers an opportunity to agree on two concrete policies that should significantly reduce global warming: incentives to end deforestation, and to generate electricity without releasing greenhouse gases. The initiative to save forests looks like it may be the one major accomplishment at Copenhagen, with yesterday’s announcement of an agreement that may be…
