A Critical Arctic Organism Is Now Infested With Microplastics

The smaller a particle is, the more organisms it can get into. Plastics can break down so small that they enter individual cells of either the algae or the zooplankton that feed on them.  The researchers can’t yet say if all that microplastic is harming Melosira arctica. But additional lab research has found that plastic particles can be […]

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What the World’s Largest Organism Reveals About Fires and Forests

Despite concerns raised by Weaver and others in the field, fire suppression became a cornerstone of forest management. And at first, coinciding with a relatively cool, wet period, it seemed to work. Fires across the American West were limited and generally controllable. For about 50 years, this fire regime was presumed to be normal. The […]

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