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Protecting a singular ecosystem in the Galápagos
Giant tortoises on the Galápagos Islands.

The Galápagos giant tortoises at the the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galápagos Islands. (Image: Elias Rovielo)

Protecting a singular ecosystem in the Galápagos

Michael Weisberg, the Bess W. Heyman President's Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, students, and Ecuador's Ambassador to the United States reflect on the momentous expansion of the Galápagos Marine Reserve.

Blake Cole

A call for tools to navigate the future of the Delaware River watershed
Three images of highway submerged with water, robot, and underwater scene that says Ecotopian Toolkit for Delaware Watershed Justice

A call for tools to navigate the future of the Delaware River watershed

The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is partnering with Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum to solicit designs for tools to help Delaware River watershed residents adapt and respond to climate change and other ecological challenges.

Katherine Unger Baillie

From corals to humans, a shared trigger for sperm to get in motion
coral diving

With coral reefs under threat from climate change, pollutants, sedimentation, and other factors, Barott and colleagues hope to continue investigating how such challenges may influence coral reproduction and persistence. (Image: Courtesy of Kelsey Speer)

From corals to humans, a shared trigger for sperm to get in motion

Coral sperm require a specific pH to move, according to research from the School of Arts & Sciences, which identifies a signaling pathway that is shared by organisms including humans. The results inform how corals may fare with climate change.

Katherine Unger Baillie

To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data
map of the united states

The final classification employs an 8x8 kilometer grid scale, large from an archaeological perspective but which allows for consistency. The four maps here show the effect of grid size on data visibility. (Image: Chad Hill, published in PLOS ONE)

To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data

The project, called LandCover6k, offers a new classification system that the researchers hope will improve predictions about the planet’s future and fill in gaps about its past.

Michele W. Berger

Declines in shellfish species on rocky seashores match climate-driven changes
snails and barnacles on a rock on the seashore

Dogwhelks feed on barnacles on the shores of Swan’s Island. New research documents slow and steady declines in these and other intertidal species that make up an important part of the area’s food chain. Climate change is a suspected culprit. (Image: Jonathan A. D. Fisher)

Declines in shellfish species on rocky seashores match climate-driven changes

Mussels, barnacles, and snails are declining in the Gulf of Maine, according to a new paper by biologists Peter Petraitis of the School of Arts & Sciences and Steve Dudgeon of California State University, Northridge. Their 20-year dataset reveals that the populations’ steady dwindling matches up with the effects of climate change on the region.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Merging big data and marine biology
Student Ashna Sethi

Merging big data and marine biology

Junior Ashna Sethi found an opportunity to delve into one of her passions this summer with paleobiologist Lauren Sallan’s lab in the School of Arts & Sciences.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment
People in fishing boats on the water

Aunifying game theory model describing the feedbacks that occur between strategic decision making and environmental change captured dynamics that occur in fisheries, in human social interactions, in soil-microbe interactions, and much more. (Image: Erol Akçay) 

Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment

With a unifying model based in game theory, Andrew Tilman, Joshua Plotkin, and Erol Akçay of the School of Arts and Sciences inform dynamics in fields as diverse as ecology and economics.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Urban planning for biodiversity after bushfires
A bushfire burning in Queensland Australia

Urban planning for biodiversity after bushfires

The Weitzman School’s Richard Weller visited Sydney for a two-week intensive on critical urban challenges and converting a parkland into an incubator for wildlife.

Penn Today Staff