On winter mornings in Yellowstone, the story looks simple: a distant howl, a nervous elk, a quiet bend in a willow-lined creek. The truth is richer and a little messier, and that’s where the science gets exciting. Since wolves were reintroduced in the mid‑1990s, riparian plants have rebounded in pockets, beavers have built new ponds, ...
At sunrise in Florida Bay, a streak of pink glides low over the water, the bill of a roseate spoonbill slicing the surface like a slow oar. Not long ago, these birds were a bellwether of trouble, their empty nests mirroring years when the marsh ran too deep or too salty. Today, scientists and managers ...
On the fog-cool mornings that once defined California’s coast, a different kind of heat now lurks below the surface. Marine heatwaves have crept into kelp country, and the state’s towering underwater forests are reacting in ways both dramatic and subtle. Scientists are racing to read the signals – thinning canopies, urchin barrens, shifting animal behavior ...
Gargi Chakravorty
