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Continue reading →: Toledo March for Science
Off to Toledo to March for Science! Updates later this morning!
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Continue reading →: Keep Your Shirt On, Save Some Coral?
This is not great news, especially for those of us who like to be out in the sun but get really bad sunburns. As reported by Nature and Scientific American, Hawaii state senator Will Espero has introduced a bill to ban sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, two chemicals that may…
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Continue reading →: Federal GIS Data in Jeopardy
How safe is Federal GIS data? Thursday, I ran across this article on a Reddit GIS forum and felt troubled by it. What is the motivation behind this legislation, House Bill HR482 and Senate Bill S103? From Section 3 of each bill: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal…
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Continue reading →: Maine Shake Map Using Surficial Geology and Crowd-Source Responses
Researchers in Maine (Marvinney and Glover 2015) have created a clever earthquake risk shake map using readily available surficial geology maps and online responses from state residents. Did you feel it? That is the name of a USGS Earthquake Hazards Program interactive website that “collects information from people who felt…
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Continue reading →: Rejected Export Corn Prompts Class Action Suit
Updated 16 November 2016 When it’s assumed that food grown using modern high-tech agriculture, including GMO crops and greater reliance on chemical pesticides, is absolutely necessary to feed a growing world population, one might be tempted to question that assumption when the most populous nation in the world rejects such…
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Continue reading →: Lake Erie Algae Blooms Correlate to June Rainfall
June precipitation appears to be positively correlated to algae blooms in Lake Erie. Looking at monthly precipitation data readily-available from Weather Underground and comparing it to the Western Lake Erie Algae Bloom Severity Index, I was surprised by the strength of the correlation (0.6, 0.85 with an “outlier” removed). June…
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Continue reading →: Lake Erie Watershed Soil Phosphorus Study Shows Glyphosate Link
As reported recently by Laura Barrera in the magazine No-Till Farmer, a study led by Ohio Northern University chemistry professor Christopher Spiese links the popular herbicide glyphosate to dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) desorption in soils. Mobilization and runoff of phosphorus to streams and lakes is associated with toxic algae blooms in…
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Continue reading →: Half of U.S. Corn Crop Now Goes to Ethanol
Farming has always been about energy. We eat food for energy our bodies need to survive. But now American farming is increasingly about filling gas tanks as well as bellies. At a typical gas station found along an interstate highway, one can fill up on gasoline blended with 10% ethanol…
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Continue reading →: Herbicides, Critical Source Areas, and Vegetated Buffers
Waging Chemical Warfare on Weeds Last fall, while on one of my country road walking routes, I noticed an advanced infestation of marestail (Conyza canadensis) in a soybean field. Evidently, this weed, and others, is becoming herbicide-resistant. A new agricultural herbicide called Acuron (link goes to manufacturer’s website) is on…
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Continue reading →: It’s Mud Season on Lake Erie
This (above) is a MODIS satellite image of Lake Erie taken April 15, 2016. It clearly shows sediment entering the lake from major rivers and tributaries. The brownish hues on the land surface indicate “leaf off,” dead or dormant plant cover, and bare-ground agricultural fields. Later in the summer, the…
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