Pretty much what the title says. My dad and his friend purchased a slice of woods in the Northern Lower Peninsula Michigan with hopes of having a place to hunt deer. While the land is mostly gorgeous Beech-Sugar Maple-Hemlock forest, there's a swath of Pine Barren land that's dominated by Bracken Fern with some short grasses at the ground-story (fescue, and I think some Little Bluestem). He wants to turn this portion into land that hosts food to attract deer to the property for hunting.

Now hunting ethics aside, his grand plan is to herbicide the area and plant beets here. I'm convinced there's another, smarter way to do this to not only provide a food source for deer, but to increase the biodiversity while keeping this natural community intact.

I thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas as to where to start. I just checked out a copy of 'A Field Guide to the Natural Communities of Michigan' to help me understand which species are typically found in this community in hopes of finding some that provide food for deer populations/other.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

I posted this comment in r/teachers as a reply to a comment saying their students biggest fear was climate change.

I understand why climate change is such a fear for many but it’s not true concern for life on earth. I’m an Ecologist and embrace the inevitable climate change of the world as an exciting new challenge for us to tackle. It gives us a reason do science. In the grand scheme of geologic time us humans are a small speck. Natural order will prevail despite all the damage us humans (who are also a natural piece of this world) do. Climate change will not actually change the evolutionary process that created this blossom of life it will only change the current state of it. I don’t believe climate change is an issue however I will continue to it use it to my advantage in any grant proposal or article I write. The general public understands that dying sea lions = bad so we tend to play up the idea that “climate change will destroy everything” to get funding. I do this to support my projects and do fun, meaningful work. Some large organizations do it to exploit big hearted individuals and line their pockets. The world will be OK in the end, I promise.

TLDR: Fear mongering climate change is a great way to get funding so I could go play with salamanders in the woods.

Edit: I appreciate the feedback and can see that my logic is flawed. My opinion is more philosophical in the grand scheme of things. I was hung up on the final result, post humanity. Thanks all.

Wildfires host lots of benefits (mostly in North American ecosystems I don’t really know about others), and lots of ecosystems are built around fires. Wildfires help stop the spread of invasive plants, encourage new growth they keep a limit on pests like ticks, and they revitalize the soil reintroducing vital nutrients.

I can understand people wanting to keep them away from densely populated areas, which I feel like can be done, we just need to be more proactive and find way to keep them away from people.

I’m not very educated on the subject so I don’t really understand stand why people want to prevent them.

Edit: Thank you to everyone who has commented on this post and help clear things up for me, it’s a very complicated topic. I’m sorry to anyone I offended that has been involved with any incident regarding fires and especially wildfires, I was I was uneducated and ignorant lumping together controlled burns and wildfires.

Hello Eco friends,

I have recently started growing lots of plants mostly from seeds. I have watched enough YouTube videos to understand some and to think some don’t work. I want to dig deeper scientifically myself and start working my way into fertilizing my nursery plants so that I won’t lose them to sun or severe climate. Please recommend me any books that would give me basic knowledge of Macro and Micro nutrients as well as Humins. What ever I can in a very chronological order would be great to learn/read. So please send me your recommendations..

Thank you.

I understand at some level, this may just be an emergent outcome. However, I wonder if there was a particular paper or researcher that coined the phrase "stream ecology". According to USGS data, the most generic terms for inland flowing waters in the US are "river" and "creek". This visualization of the different names of flowing waters in the contiguous United States by Derek Watkins shows the many different names people have come to name flowing waters.

https://preview.redd.it/95psevpdejoc1.png?width=1977&format=png&auto=webp&s=687e61d0c7de1b772f28858587ce2fcc508bb22d

I recently discovered that koalas, much like humans, have distinct fingerprints with ridges and whorls, enabling the identification of each individual. This similarity showcases convergent evolution, where unrelated species develop similar traits due to comparable environmental pressures. For example, both bats and dolphins evolved echolocation despite their distant relation.

I’m intrigued by the selective pressure that gives koalas with fingerprints an edge over their fingerless counterparts. Koalas are known for being picky eaters, preferring specific ages of eucalyptus leaves. However, I’m unsure how this behavior relates to fingerprint development in all koalas. It’s fascinating to question how their dietary habits might be linked to unique adaptations like fingerprints, which are absent in other species. What environmental pressures could have led to the convergent evolution of humans and koalas developing fingerprints?

Hello Im currently in my first year of the IB program and i was wondering what subjects are needed for studying ecology in university. Im currently taking bio and chem but im thinking of dropping chem will this hurt me in the long run?

10 years ago I wrote a program for a friend for their ecology coursework on point counts that was a basic "animal" counter. I have just recently found it and put it on GitHub and thought someone here may like to see/use/improve it. You can see it in action here, many of the options don't work and i've had a 2 minute poke around and can't work out why.

Is this something people would find interesting? should I do some work on it or even write a v2?

Hello all, I am graduating from my university in May and I am currently trying to find a good job for my gap year before my masters program. I have applied to what I consider a lot of jobs and I am not hearing back. Wanted to ask if there are any certifications or courses that you all would recommend to help my competitiveness before I get my masters.

I would appreciate any help you can give.

Hey all, I have see a lot of great advice on here so I thought I would take a shot. Cross-posted with r/forestry

I am a Master of Forestry (M.F.) and Master of Environmental Management (M.E.M.) dual-degree student currently trying to decide on summer internships. A bit of context--I am 32 years old and a former teacher transitioning from outdoor ed/high school science to (hopefully) forest resource management and applied research in that sector. Job searching feels intimidating as it it is a new field and I am already on the older side so I feel like I don't have as much time to shop around.

I am interested in applied forest research informing restoration and conservation aligned management, but also with a public-facing educational component (I still care about and enjoy education, just don't want it to be my whole career). I have a community engagement and environmental justice concentration as well, so things like community science, community forestry, and community-engaged research and resource management are all avenues I hope to consider. Getting a PhD and working in this space within the academic world (though probably after a few more years of professional work), doing extension work, working with the forest service, or the myriad options within the non-profit world seem like potential landing zones. With all that said, here are some of my potential options for the summer:

• Forest Research Tech for the USGS--this is out west (where I hope to be living after), and is some very cool research, but I worry it isn't as much of a stepping stone as I might hope. It would give me some more research experience and potentially a foot in the door with govt agencies, but I am wary about starting down the federal road as I likely won't be wanting to relocate regularly after I graduate (hoping to have kids soon).
• Forest Research position with university labs--also out west, very cool research, but kind of seems like a job that would normally be filled by undergrads so also maybe not as much of a stepping stone. But if I end up going the academia route this could provide some good experience and networking.
• Forestry/Wildlife Intern with USFWS--east coast (which I am interested in just not where I want to end up). Working with federal foresters managing federal lands for timber and wildlife. Also foot in the door with the feds and good practical forest and wildlife survey experience.
• Operations Intern with a timberland management organization (TIMO)--Maybe the least like what I want to end up doing, but higher paying, local to where I live, and might open doors to larger scale management and give me valuable experience within the forestry world more generally.
• Habitat management with a local land trust (NGO)--great way for me to gain experience with a lot of different components of conservation, exercise my community engagement muscles, apply my forestry knowledge and skills, and learn the ins and outs of land trust operations. But I'm not sure the small land trust world is where I want to end up long-term.

Any other suggestions/career advice would be much appreciated as well, if you think of something I didn't mention! I also have one other summer internship so next year I could try something totally different. Thanks in advance for helping with my insufferable indecision.

Hello,

I am considering a career switch to a consultant ecologist, though one of the challenges with my current role is the amount of driving I am doing, currently ~15k miles / yr.

Please could you let me know your rough annual driving mileage and number of days travelling per week - as I understand there is a lot of travel to client sites.

Thanks,

Hello all!

I'm an independent consulting botanist looking for a field mapping app that's compatible with QGIS.

Do any of you have programs you like (other than ESRI Field Maps) that can do the following?

Must Haves:

• Collect polygons, points, and lines both by streaming at 1 or 2 second intervals and by directly drawing them in. Allow editing of collected features.
• Works with full functionality offline
• Available for iOS
• Allow the use of maps created in advance using my own layers
• Allow custom attribute fields for data collection

Nice to Haves:

• Ability to turn different layers on and off (very nearly put this in the "Must Have" category)
• Fancier attribute options such as custom picklists or the ability to require* certain attribute fields to be filled

The bulk of my work is as a subcontractor for a company that has an ESRI license, but I need something for the small handful of projects where that is not the case.

(Anticipatory note: Avenza is not adequate for this use. It does not allow the level or accuracy of data collection, or the layer customization that I need. It's great for some things, and I use it for those, but it's nowhere near a substitute for ESRI Field Maps.)

Cross-posted to a few other biology/ecology/GIS subs.

I'm having some issues working with it and was wondering if anyone here has used it before so I can ask you some questions. Thanks for any help!

(also posted in r/bioinformatics)

I am working on porting over some of the functionality of R's vegan package to a Python module. For a sanity check, I am working with the dune dataset. Based on this pipeline, it seems as though the vegan NMDS algorithm terminates with a pretty good stress value -- about 0.1. When running the ScikitLearn NMDS on the same dataset (with the same number of iterations), I am getting a stress value of closer to 2.6.

I know the algorithms for both functions are slightly different, but it shouldn't make this huge of a difference (I would think).

Does anyone have any ideas for why this might be?

From what I’ve gathered, the NSF fellowship seems to be the most popular for paying tuition + stipend? The Ford and Hertz seem almost impossible. And in a lot of ways so does the NSF one. Does anyone know of any other promising fellowships for an ecology grad student or is it kind of NSF or bust?

Whats your experience?

The history of ecology is full of cases where the intentions were good, but the outcomes were bad as many of us know- mongooses were introduced to Hawaii to control rodents, Asiatic Carp species were introduced into the Great Lakes and Mississippi to control algae... And many, many more.

I'm curious if there are current examples of this going on right now. Like valuing individuals over a population, or an introduced species over a healthy ecosystem. Issues that come from a lack of understanding ecology or conflating it with other "environmentally minded" fields or philosphies. It could be local, regional, country, or international.

One that comes to mind is the lack of control for feral horses in both North America and Australia due to popular demand. People have good intentions for the horses, but it ends up harming the local ecology. The Colombian Hippo fiasco comes to mind too, where instead of nipping before their populations grow, actions have been stalled due to popular demand, all while the hippo populations grow. But those two are famous ones, I'm wondering if there are less famous ones out there

Hi!

Does anyone have an opinion on what are the current trends in Europe research, or towards what type of project the funding is going to? Where do you see it shifting for the next years?

My bet is in one health and vector ecology

I am working on a paper for a vegetation study I conducted that did not directly measure, but was likely influenced by, large differences in rainfall year to year. I am searching for rainfall data 2016-2020. I just need a full-year average for each year, although monthly totals would be better.

I am aware of the NOAA database at https://www.climate.gov/maps-data/dataset/past-weather-zip-code-data-table and the associated climate data online search, but when I enter the date range and zip, the data I get are only for 2016. I've been struggling to find this elsewhere. Any tips? TIA

Edit: Thanks everyone! I really appreciate all the responses.

I will be working a position that involves sampling fish/macroinvertebrates in streams from March 25 to November 1. I was originally thinking about planning a hiking trip after November 1, but after some research, the hike may not be doable after the middle of October due to potential snowfall in the area. Would taking a little over a week off to do it (If I left on a Friday, I could fly back the next Monday) be too much for a temporary position, even if I do it in late September or early October (fieldwork should be mostly done by this point). I haven't informed my supervisor yet because nothing is set in stone at this point.

Hello! I'm a biology student on my second year of uni, planning to specialise in ecolog. I'm specifically interested in research and fieldwork, and I am in s place where that is a viable career path. However, I have a mild allergy to ant bites. Yesterday I was volunteering assisting park rangers in my local preserve and wilife refuge, I have been going there every week for two years when I was bitten by a fire ant. I felt flushed and a bit faint, but quickly recovered, but my finger is still very puffy. Should I be concerned about my allergy getting worse? Will I still be able to work in this field if it does?

I'm sorry if it's a silly question. I guess I'm just a bit scared I love this field and I love volunteering there, I actually feel at home.

Hi ecologists! I'm looking for a camera to take pictures of fungi. Budget is around 2k including gear. I'm leaning towards mirrorless, with a 50 or 100 mm macro lens. I'm a beginner though so I'd like to get something that's going to be accessible, not too physically cumbersome, but will last me for the next five years. Thanks for your help!

Found these in a small pond in the woods today. I think they are newts but what specifically? :)