In 2018 the Gulf coast of Florida suffered extensive damage from harmful algal blooms (HABs), from as far north as Clearwater Beach south to Naples. The bloom lasted nearly a year, picking up in intensity during the late summer months. HABs occur when conditions such as reduced salinity, higher water temperatures, light saturation, and currents…

Carbon is at the heart of many of today's environmental challenges. It is the central element responsible for the structure and function of living systems--taken up by plants through photosynthesis and moving from plants to other organisms, soil, and the ocean and into the atmosphere. The imbalance of these connected biogeochemical…

Students can gain an appreciation for the structure and function of local environments by studying the potential impacts of small changes in local microclimate on plant distribution. The concept of microclimate is easy for students to comprehend, simple to measure, exists in all schoolyards, and has important and tangible ecological implications.…