#Nalini Nadkarni

[ingydars]

And yet it's still made out of these subcomponents, these little micro ecosystems that can get as small as a single microorganism or a single molecule of nitrogen and carbon, and yet somehow it all works together as a whole. And I guess I sometimes when I arrive to the top of the tree and if you were sitting next to me, I might have a conversation more about spirituality than about biology because I think that biologically and from the standpoint of the human spirit, getting and living and thinking about the tree canopy is really all about connections, which is something I think that all of us feel when we walk beneath the crowns of redwood forest or a lowland tropical forest, or any sort of forest that we sent that really what it's about is connections.

— Nalini Nadkarni on For The Wild

[loudlylovingreview]

Video: Between Earth & Sky

Renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni studies “what grows back” after a disturbance in the rainforest canopy. In 2015, her rope snapped on a research climb, and she fell fifty feet from a tree and nearly died. After making a miraculous recovery, Nalini begins to explore a new research subject – herself. BETWEEN EARTH & SKY follows Nalini as she prepares for another research climb in Monteverde,…

[richardcassidy]

Between Earth & Sky from Andrew Nadkarni on Vimeo.

Renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni studies "what grows back” after a disturbance in the rainforest canopy. After surviving a life-threatening fall from a tree, she must turn her research question onto herself to explore the effects of disturbance and recovery throughout her own life.

betweenearthandsky.com _____

a film by ANDREW NADKARNI   featuring NALINI NADKARNI   produced by SWETHA REGUNATHAN KATIE SCHILLER   executive producers CAITLIN MAE BURKE SU KIM   edited by PETER ZACHWIEJA   directors of photography JOE VAN EECKHOUT DEREK KNOWLES   original score SARI MELLAFE   associate producers MEGAN MASSEY DEVIN TUSA PETER ZACHWIEJA _____

additional cinematography KATELYN REBELO ANDREW HINTON   assistant editors JORDAN TULLIS REBECCA SCHWARTZ   additional footage provided by MERETE MUELLER   additionally featured KEYLOR MUÑOZ ELIZONDO INDIRA KULKARNI AMY McDERMOTT   business affairs DEVIN TUSA   clearance consultant ADAM LAWRENCE   graphic design MEGAN ROJEK _____   produced in association with AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY | POV Shorts   executive producers for American Documentary | POV Shorts OPAL H. BENNETT ERIKA DILDAY CHRIS WHITE   produced in association with IF/THEN SHORTS | FIELD OF VISION   consulting producer | IF/Then Shorts MERRILL STERRITT   coordinator | IF/Then Shorts CHRISTINE CHUNG _____   post production services CUTTERS STUDIOS   president & managing director | cutters studios CRAIG DUNCAN   managing director & executive producer | cutters CAITLIN GRADY   additional editing | cutters REBECCA SCHWARTZ   senior producer | cutters JAYSON RAMOS   executive producer | post-production ELIZABETH KRAJEWSKI _____   managing director | another country TIM KONN   executive producer | another country LOUISE RIDER   sound designer & mixer | another country JORDAN STALLING   associate sound designer & mixer | another country LOGAN VINES

producer | another country JOSH HUNICUTT _____   managing director | flavor NEAL COHEN   executive producer | flavor KATE SMITH   flame artist | flavor MOISES TAVERA   resource manager | flavor JULIE KLOS _____   color ASSEMBLY   supervising colorist MARÍA CARRETERO   colorist JOSÉ FONT   producer | assembly VERONICA WEBB _____   co-produced by IT DOESN'T SUCK PRODUCTIONS   impact support provided by THE REDFORD CENTER JILL TIDMAN HEATHER FIPPS ARATHI GOVIND CAIT FITZWATER NICO CADENA   production support provided by BRIC TV KUYE H. YOUNGBLOOD CHARLIE HOXIE SRIYANKA RAY   additional production funding provided by MOUNTAINFILM _____   special thanks to the family JACK LONGINO AUGUST LONGINO NATALIE VANDEVEN RIKKI NADKARNI LONGINO   special thanks to the family BOB DEUTSCH ELLEN DEUTSCH PAULA DEUTSCH THELMA DEUTSCH AMAL FALLAH SUSHA FALLAH SAROJ GHOTING MOHAN NADKARNI VINAY NADKARNI   special thanks EMILY BEST ELLA CHRISTIANSEN MARK DUPLASS DOUG FABRIZIO JESSICA FITZMORRIS DAISY FRIEDMAN PAUL GABRIELSEN JO GENNETT LORENA LOURENÇO RANDY MacLOWRY KHAULA MALIK CRISTY MEINERS KELSIE MOORE SKYLAR NIELSEN MALIKKAH ROLLINS ZEV ROSE BROOKE ROSS SUSAN SCHILLER KIRA SIMON-KENNEDY REENA SHAH KATRIN SPIRIDONOVA TRACY HEATHER STRAIN _____   location & access support MONTEVERDE CLOUD FOREST BIOLOGICAL PRESERVE MONTEVERDE INSTITUTE OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY - COLLEGE OF FORESTRY STARKER CAPSTONE WORKSHOP THE MOBILE MOON CO-OP UNIVERSITY OF UTAH _____   archival materials   "Climbing a Tree" produced by Elaine Clark & Doug Fabrizio cinematography by Nathan C. Balli provided by RadioWest   "Nalini Nadkarni | Tapestry Thinking: Weaving Together the Unexpected" provided by TEDxSaltLakeCity   "Not My Job: We Quiz Tree Canopy Expert Nalini Nadkarni On Canapés" Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! provided by NPR   "Fallen: A Transdisciplinary Tale of Disturbance and Recovery" provided by Society of Critical Care Medicine   "Rain Forest: Heroes of the High Frontier" provided by National Geographic   "The Second Voyage of the Mimi" provided by Bank Street College of Education   "Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees" provided by University of California Press _____   The filmmaking team would like to acknowledge that this documentary was filmed on the unceded territory of the Quinault, Rama, Eastern Shoshone, Chepenefa Peoples, who have stewarded this land throughout the generations.

We thank them for their strength and resilience in protecting this land, and aspire to uphold our responsibilities according to their example. _____

If you were affected by sexual violence, you are not alone.

NATIONAL SEXUAL ASSAULT HOTLINE 800.656.HOPE online.rainn.org 

The National Sexual Assault Hotline is operated by RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. _____   "Between Earth & Sky" won the 2021 IF/Then x The Redford Center Nature Access Pitch at DOC NYC 2021.

This film was produced by By the Creek Productions, which is solely responsible for its content.   © 2023 By the Creek Productions LLC All Rights Reserved ___

betweenearthandsky.com/resources

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

August 15, 2023

JESUS TOO WOKE FOR THE RIGHT?

Jesus was a Capricorn and ate organic food — that much we know. But was he woke? Some conservative “Christians” think so and say His teachings are too “weak” and “liberal,” explained Russell Moore, former top official for the Southern Baptist Convention. “Turn the other cheek,” is too woke for the Christian right. "When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis." Amen. The family values folks have been preaching something besides brotherly love for a while now. Turn the other cheek? Maybe if they drop their pants first. “Evangelical” is a scary term for heathens, like Wilson and the band. It comes from the Greek “euangelion,” meaning “good news.” In times past “evangelical” referred to people and churches committed to the message that Jesus Christ is the savior of humanity. For some on the right it means something like, “Jesus Christ is the savior of MAGAtes,” others need not apply. Some 81 percent of white evangelical Protestant voters went for Trump in 2020, according to Gallup exit polls. After all, who is more Christlike than Donald Trump. “If you come after me, I'm coming after you.” Well, not exactly what Jesus of Nazareth would say. But then again, He keeps spouting those woke talking points: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The dude is totally woke. “Love your neighbor?” Ha.

“TREETOP BARBIE” NO TARZAN

Nalini Nadkarni, professor emerita of biology at the University of Utah, was the impetus for a Barbie, known as Treetop Barbie. Nadkarni studies the canopies of forests and spent much of her career in the tops of tall trees where little-known ecosystems thrive. No Wilson, she doesn't swing on vines and call out “ungowa” to the elephants. Two decades ago the biologist put the idea to toy-maker Mattel to create a Barbie that climbed trees for scientific research, she told The Salt Lake Tribune. “I simply wanted to show little girls that being curious about and exploring forest canopies with a crossbow, ropes, helmet and instructional booklet about canopy plants is a possibility.” If Barbie can be an astronaut, a musician or a doctor, why not. But it was a no-go until 2019 when Mattel introduced it's Explorer Series with Barbies of various scientific professions. All told there are some 176 different Barbies with nine body types, 35 skin tones and 94 hairstyles. She does get around. And now Barbie is the star of a blockbuster movie that has over $1billion in ticket sales worldwide. They even love Barbie in China, but the movie has been banned in Lebanon, Kuwait and Vietnam because it “encourages unacceptable behavior and distorts society’s values.” They know trouble when they see it.

WOMEN'S SOCCER DESTROYING AMERICA

Unless you've been living in Iowa where Republican presidential candidates are eating corndogs and trying to be Mini-Trump, you know the Women's U.S. Soccer Team lost to Sweden in the World Cup. True patriots pounced — they knew too well why the U.S. lost: Because the team is a bunch of entitled woke communist losers. They hate this country and are led by the purple-haired Megan Rapinoe, an LGBTQ activist, who four years ago after winning the World Cup said, “I'm not going to the f---ing White House,” when President Trump so graciously invited them.“I'm thrilled they lost. Good. I'm glad you went down,” said conservative commentator Megyn Kelly. In 2016, the then-world champion U.S. Women's team began demanding equal pay. In 2022, they grabbed worldwide headlines when they got it! And if that wasn't uppity enough, they stood in silence during the National Anthem at the World Cup. Trump just couldn't help himself, writing on social media: “Woke equals failure... The U.S. is going to hell.” The internet echoed, “woke pieces of trash,” over and over again. Mike Freedman of USA Today summed it up perfectly: “We have not seen this kind of hatred since Colin Kaepernick took a knee.” It's so fulfilling to have someone to hate. It just brightens up the whole day.

Post script — That's a wrap for another strange week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of AI (artificial intelligence) so you don't have to. AI, it seems, is everywhere. There's even a new app where folks can text back and forth to Jesus. We wouldn't lie about a thing like that. Maybe Florida's governor will give it a try after reading this headline: “Should DeSantis do mushrooms to be a cooler candidate.” The rapper known as Drake opened his L.A. concert with this: “Don't throw bras, my five-year-old son is here.” Throwing bras at Drake has become a thing ever since... well ever since women started throwing bras at him. It could be worse. Saying the political right is up in arms is like saying the sun also rises. Markers honoring Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveller, have been removed from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. Yes, those damn woke commies have cancelled a horse. What's next? Donald Trump's first wife Ivana is buried at his Bedford, N.J. golf course. Sad. But recently sharp-eyed players noticed that tall grass has grown around her gravestone obscuring it. We have no idea what that means. Last but not least, Republican state legislators, who have been clamping down on abortion rights, think women in the GOP never get abortions. Clearly they haven't seen “Barbie.”

Well Wilson, the Christian right is at it again. But now it seems they're turning on Jesus for being woke and empathetic. It's a troubled world and Jesus probably had a good idea that people were always going to screw up. “Forgive others and you will be forgiven.” So Wilson, tell the guys in the band to put down the bong and take us out with some love and understanding:

Jesus was a Capricorn He ate organic food He believed in love and peace And never wore no shoes Long hair, beard and sandals And a funky bunch of friends Reckon we'd just nail him up If he came down again 'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on Prove they can be better than at any time they choose Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me Eggheads fussin' rednecks cussin' Hippies for their hair Others laugh at straights who laugh at Freaks who laugh at squares Some folks hate the Whites Who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan Most of us hate anything that We don't understand

(Jesus Was a Capricorn — Kris Kristofferson)

[cavenewstimes]

Nalini Nadkarni, the ecologist revealing the secrets of cloud forests

Nalini Nadkarni, the ecologist revealing the secrets of cloud forests, How a pioneering canopy researcher unlocked the mysteries of an extraordinary ecosystem and the unlikely tree-dwelling plants it depends on…, 2023-03-28 16:00:00, Life How a pioneering canopy researcher unlocked the mysteries of an extraordinary ecosystem and the unlikely tree-dwelling plants it depends on By Matthew…

[exhaled-spirals]

— David Wagoner, “Lost”, quoted in Nalini Nadkarni’s Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees

[focusonthegoodnews]

She started climbing trees as a kid. Then this ecologist helped create scientist Barbie. Good News Notes: "Nalini Nadkarni didn’t play with Barbies as a girl. She was too busy climbing the maple trees in her front yard in Bethesda, Md.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

(Originally posted on my blog at https://rebeccalexa.com/the-hidden-world-of-moss-forests/)

Last week I wrote about why it’s important to preserve all sorts of ecosystems, not just forests. Today I want to discuss an ecosystem-within-an-ecosystem you may not have realized was there, and why it’s so important to preserve it: moss forests.

Recently I was listening to this episode of NPR’s Radiolab, featuring the work of Korena Mafune and Nalini Nadkarni. The show focused on the diverse and highly important ecosystems centered around moss, high up in the trees, and how even the trees themselves benefit from their mossy coverings. Many people think of moss only as something that grows on trees, rocks, and roofs, and as a nuisance which often needs to be removed from lawns and sidewalks. Yet these humble bryophytes are the foundation of their own miniature ecosystems, as important to them as trees are to larger forests.

Within the tangled green of moss forests lives a wide variety of beings. Springtails are tiny arthropods; while they have six legs, they are only related to insects and not a part of that class. Some species are carnivorous, hunting even tinier creatures like nematodes and tardigrades; others are herbivores, grazing on the moss and other small plants, while still others are omnivores. There are even detritivorous springtails, which feed on decaying matter and help release nutrients into the food web.

The springtails aren’t alone, though. They are a favorite prey of spiders that hunt in moss forests. And both aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates make their homes here. The aforementioned nematodes and tardigrades, as well as rotifers, are just some of the aquatic beings that thrive best in the rainy months when the moss holds pools and droplets of water. Drier times are better for the springtails, as well as their neighbors, the mites, along with various other insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. Like a seasonal wetland, the mosses help to preserve water even after the rains have ended, and allow the beings who live within their leaves to survive and thrive year-round.

So why care about such little living beings? Well, for one thing, they’re important parts of the food web, in which small beings are eaten by bigger ones, which themselves are then eaten by even larger ones. So a spider hunting springtails in the moss could be eaten by a small salamander, which is then caught and eaten by a garter snake, who then ends up as lunch for a great blue heron chick being fed in the nest by its diligent parents.

But they’re also important in their own existence, as are all beings. Too often we only ascribe importance to living beings that we consider to be economically valuable, or that are charismatic megafauna or flora. It’s easier for us to want to help endangered tigers or rhinoceroses, but the smaller, less flashy beings have fewer cheerleaders. And that’s a problem.

Many people, me included, have read and enjoyed Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. While I thoroughly enjoyed it myself, I actually like her earlier book even more! Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses is exactly what the title says: an immersion into not only what mosses are and how they support local ecology, but their importance to a wide variety of indigenous communities and traditions.

One of the things that really made my heart sink was when Kimmerer wrote about commercial moss collection. The entire chapter “The Bystander” describes in painful detail how commercial moss collectors will rip away moss forests from their tree branches, stuff them in sacks, and carry them away. Moss does not generally grow back after these “clearcuts”; it started growing on the trees shortly after they sprouted and began seeking the sun, which means the moss hunters were wholesale destroying colonies that could have been centuries old.

And they didn’t just take the moss, either. As Kimmerer describes: “…in the bag are also untold billions of beings who made that moss their home, like birds nesting in a forest. Scarlet Orbatid mites, bouncing springtails, whirling rotifers, reclusive waterbears, and their children: shall I say all their names in a requiem mass?” (p. 153)

The bags of kidnapped moss forests are then carried to buyers who trade these priceless ecosystems for a few dollars. The moss is then dried–killing anything left alive–and sold to florists who want a more “natural, wild” appearance in their arrangements, or gardeners who use it as a mulch in pots and beds. Large sheets of moss may be dried intact, dyed, and used as indoor decoration, far from the forests they came from. Dried moss is used to stuff wire-frame animals, trying to evoke the wilderness while destroying the wilderness.

Yes, there are commercial moss hunters who do things legally (though Kimmerer writes that "Illegal harvest is thought to be as much as thirty times higher than the legal quota." p. 154) Some even try to use more sustainable practices, such as taking no more than 50% of moss in a given area, or only collecting moss from rocks. But when the moss that remains grows very slowly no matter its substrate, and literally cannot grow back on the now-bare tree branches–older branches are too smooth to allow the moss to recolonize them–what good is 50% as a target? Especially when illegal poachers may come along and steal the rest? And especially when even the legal moss hunters are still killing billions of tiny invertebrates, the backbone of a forest food web, with every haul?

None of the commercial uses for moss are a matter of life and death for humans, but they certainly are for the moss forests. No one needs to have draped sheets of dried moss in their home or business, and no one needs to pretend their wood-paneled living room is a forest by placing a moss-stuffed wire deer in the corner next to some birch logs. Florists with their high environmental footprint do not need to add to their impact by fueling the demand for mosses to adorn temporary arrangements that will ultimately end up in the trash once they wilt and turn moldy. Even peat, which often contains large amounts of moss in varying states of decay, is no longer a necessary source of fuel, especially when greener energy sources are on the rise.

So what do we do from here? The easiest way to help slow the demand for moss is to simply not buy it. Avoid home decor that has moss incorporated into it, or only buy these items secondhand (which may involve haunting thrift shops, which generally offer better prices anyway!) If you absolutely must buy floral arrangements, see if you have a florist who grows their own flowers and other plants rather than importing hothouse flowers that must be flown in from thousands of miles away, and skip the moss entirely.

If you decide you want to grow a moss lawn (which is more ecologically friendly and easier to maintain than grass), either transplant small “starters” of moss from rocks and soil (not trees!) in nearby ecosystems that have large amounts (assuming it’s legal to do so), or buy from a moss supplier. In the case of the latter, I encourage you to ask where the moss comes from, how it’s harvested, what sustainability guidelines the company uses, etc. The more you know about where your moss is sourced, the better decisions you can make.

But we also need to pressure our legislators to protect moss. Most of the U.S. moss forests being stripped away are either from the Pacific Northwest or the Appalachians, and for the most part all you need is a permit to collect legally on some areas of land–or to be very sneaky if you decide to go collect where it’s prohibited and enforcement is difficult to nonexistent. Those of us in these states need to be contacting our elected officials, as well as the various natural resources entities, to urge them to end the commercial collection of mosses entirely.

And we need to educate others. Most people have no idea this is a problem! When people are empowered with knowledge, they are more likely to make conscious, informed decisions. Yes, it doesn’t work 100% of the time, but some of the time is better than none of the time. Every person who realizes what’s going on and wants to do something about it is one more voice adding to the message.

You can even start by sharing this article with others–the links throughout the text are good resources for further reading, as is Gathering Moss. And, as always, you can contact me if you need even more resources.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online natural history classes, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written!

[npr]

When Nalini Nadkarni was a young scientist in the 1980s, she wanted to study the canopy – the part of the trees just above the forest floor to the very top branches.

But back then, people hadn't figured out a good way to easily reach the canopy so it was difficult to conduct research in the tree tops. And Nadkarni's graduate school advisors didn't really think studying the canopy was worthwhile. "That's just Tarzan and Jane stuff. You know that's just glamour stuff," Nadkarni remembers advisors telling her. "There's no science up there that you need to do."

They couldn't have been more wrong. Over the course of her career, Nadkarni's work has illuminated the unique and complex world of the forest canopy.

She helped shape our understanding of canopy soils — a type of soil that forms on the tree trunks and branches. The soil is made up of dead canopy plants and animals that decompose in place. The rich soil supports canopy-dwelling plants, insects and microorganisms that live their entire life cycles in the treetops. If the canopy soil falls to the forest floor, the soil joins the nutrient cycles of the whole forest.

She also discovered that some trees are able to grow above-ground roots from their branches and trunks. Much like below ground roots, the aerial roots can transport water and nutrients into the tree.

During Nadkarni's early work as an ecologist she began to realize something else: There weren't many women conducting canopy research.

Nadkarni was determined to change this. In the early 2000s, she and her lab colleagues came up with the idea of TreeTop Barbie, a canopy researcher version of the popular Barbie doll that could be marketed to young girls.

VIDEO: Tree Scientist Inspires Next Generation ... Through Barbie

Video: NPR

[fatehbaz]

All words are made-up; “canopy” has some surprising manifestations. When I was younger, a friend and I were hiking and looking for snakes (just to appreciate from afar, not to harass or catch or anything like that), and she gestured toward a small slab of basalt rock which was laying partially covered by soil. She pointed at the lichen growing atop the basalt, only a few centimeters above the ground, where ants were foraging, and she said: “that’s a canopy ecosystem.” And she’s right, since academic pedants say that a “canopy ecosystem” can technically exist at a height of a few centimeters off of the ground, on top of a rock or at the height of wildflowers that rise just slightly above the surrounding prairie.

“A collage of canopies at varying scales” [Text from: “The Nature of Forest Canopies.” Nalini M. Nadkarni, Geoffrey G. Parker, H. Bruce Rinker, and David M. Jarzen.]:

(A) Stromatolites at low tide, Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, Western Australia (photo credit: D.M. Jarzen); (B) Lichens near Shaw’s Woods, Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada (photo credit: D.N. Jarzen).

(C) Equisetum sylvaticum L., sterile stems, Mer Bleu, Ontario, Canada (photo credit: D.M. Jarzen); (D) Wheat fields, Saskatchewan, Canada (photo credit:D.M. Jarzen).

(E) Heath, sclerophyll vegetation at Cape Naturaliste, Western Australia (photo credit: D.M. Jarzen); (F) Coniferous forest, Wind River Canopy Crane Facility, Carson, Washington (photo credit: H. Bruce Rinker)

(G) Temperate deciduous forest in early spring, Millbrook School Forest Canopy Walkway, Millbrook, New York (photo credit: H. Bruce Rinker); (H) Subtropical oak/palm hammock, Myakka River Canopy Walkway, Sarasota, Florida (photo credit: Ray Villares).

(I) Tropical rainforest, Australian Canopy Crane Facility, Cairns, Australia (photo credit: H. Bruce Rinker); (J) Tropical rainforest, Amazon Conservatory for Tropical Studies, Iquitos, Peru (photo credit: H. Bruce Rinker); (K) Composite showing katydid, epiphylly, and herbivoery from the Upper Amazon of Peru; assemblages, known as biofilms, of bacteria and other microorganisms on leaf surfaces constitute a new ecological science called biofilm ecology or even phyllosphere microbiology (photo credit: H. Bruce Rinker).

This article is published in:

Forest Canopies - Second Edition. Edited by Margaret D. Lowman and H. Bruce Rinker. Elsevier Academic Press. Copyright - Elsevier Inc. (2004).

(I was reading through this book today and realized I’ve coincidentally visited 3 of the canopy walkways pictured here; 4 if you count “Saskatchewan wheat fields.”)

[losarbolesmagicos]

¿Cuantos árboles existen por cada persona?

Las fotos satelitales de la NASA de la Tierra ayudan a los biólogos a calcular la cantidad de árboles. Un profesor de ecología de Evergreen State College y sus alumnos estimaron que hay aproximadamente 61 por persona en todo el mundo.

¿Quién sabía que la NASA, encargada de mirar profundamente en el espacio, también nos mira hacia atrás?Durante años, los satélites de la NASA han estado tomando fotos de nuestros océanos, montañas y bosques, y los han compartido con ecologistas y biólogos.

Como resultado, dice el profesor de ecología Nalini Nadkarni de The Evergreen State College en Washington, "algunos de los mejores estudios de ecología forestal que se llevan a cabo hoy en día son el resultado de colaboraciones multidisciplinarias financiadas por la NASA".

Por ejemplo, debido a la NASA, podemos calcular aproximadamente cuántos árboles tenemos en la Tierra.Los árboles, tanto frondosos como de otro tipo, reflejan la luz del sol en patrones muy particulares, lo que hace posible que los satélites mapeen y las computadoras cuenten las franjas de tierra donde están los árboles. Los biólogos pueden probar esos lugares (bosques, suburbios, parques de la ciudad, incluso las calles de las ciudades), asumir una densidad de árboles, multiplicar por acre o hectárea, y calcular eso. En 2005, había 400,246,300,201 (más o menos) árboles en nuestro globo. (Eso es más de 400 mil millones, para aquellos de ustedes que tienen problemas para trabajar las comas).

¿Cuántos árboles por persona?

Aparentemente, antes de que ella hubiera hecho los números, había asumido que con la gente creciendo y los árboles disminuyendo, el conteo habría sido más delgado.

"Tenía muchas esperanzas de que hubiera más de un árbol [por persona]", dice, "pero temía y pensaba que habría menos".

Es una buena pregunta y fácil de calcular. Nadkarni buscó la población humana del mundo desde el 31 de diciembre y descubrió que ese día, sumamos 6.456.789.877 (nuevamente, más o menos). Golpeando las figuras en su calculadora, pensó que el mundo soporta 61 árboles por persona. Cuando hablamos, y puede escuchar nuestra conversación en nuestra historia de "Edición de mañana", estaba muy emocionada. "¡Hurra!" ella dijo: "¡Tengo más de un árbol!"

Pero cuando Nadkarni se sentó con su esposo, Jack, un microbiólogo de Evergreen State, para contarle las buenas noticias, estaba menos impresionado con la proporción de árboles que entre la gente.

"Me miró en su forma tranquila y lenta y dijo: 'Bueno, ya sabes, no sé. Usamos mucho en un par de temporadas de nuestra estufa de leña, y la cantidad de papel que sale la impresora y la madera que hizo nuestro hogar, así que tal vez no sean tantos ".

¿Estamos utilizando nuestra asignación?

Aquí hay algo de lo que encontraron: bates de béisbol, barriles, libros, bloques, bancos, muletas, filtros de café, guitarras, bolsas de supermercado, lápices, aceite de pino, camas, vallas publicitarias, botones, envoltorios de caramelos, botones, goma de mascar, corcho, crayones , cartones de huevos, relleno de tarta de fruta, cometas, linóleo, equipaje, papel, pelotas de ping-pong, palillos (especialmente el tipo desechable), goma, panderetas, guías telefónicas, neumáticos, papel higiénico, trementina, xilófonos y yo-yos (el tipo de madera )

¿Es esta una historia triste?¡No!

"No quiero que la gente se sienta culpable por su relación con los árboles y diga: 'Dios mío, nunca más podré tocar otro producto creado por un árbol'", dice.

Esto hizo que Nadkarni se preguntara: ¿Cuánto de nuestra asignación de 61 árboles usa un humano en su vida?¿Todo ello? ¿Algo de eso? Más de 61? Ella no sabía. Así que les pidió a sus estudiantes de posgrado que hicieran una lista de productos basados ​​en árboles, y elaboraron una lista tan larga que casi nunca se detiene.

Después de todo, dice Nadkarni, citando al poeta indio Rabindranath Tagore:

Los árboles son el esfuerzo infinito de la tierra para hablar con el cielo que escucha.

El trabajo del profesor Nadkarni aparece en su nuevo libro,Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees,de la University of California Press.

Por el momento (y tal vez para siempre), es imposible determinar cuánto material de madera y química a base de madera se encuentra en nuestros productos. Es obvio que los estadounidenses se tragan más leña que los indios o los africanos, pero cuánto más es difícil de decir.

Aún así, Nadkarni advierte que pensar en el consumo de madera no es como pensar en el consumo de petróleo. Esta no es necesariamente una historia triste.

Después de todo, los árboles no son como el petróleo. Ellos son renovables Si crees que estamos gastando más de los 61 lotes que tenemos (y esa es su suposición, basada en la reducción gradual de la superficie de bosque), siempre puedes plantar algunos más. Puede que nos estemos quedando atrás en nuestra cuenta de árboles, pero no solo es posible, es muy atractivo, ir al bosque o al patio trasero o a la ladera con una semilla y una pala y reparar el daño.

[currentsinbiology]

Nature videos help to calm inmates in solitary confinement

A little bit of nature can calm even the most stressed populations of people, according to a study conducted on prisoners in solitary confinement.

In the experiment, researchers found that prisoners who watched videos with nature scenes felt less stressed and weren’t as violent as those who didn’t. The team, led by ecologist Nalini Nadkarni at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, published their findings on 1 September in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment1.

Nadkarni first proposed the study in 2010 while visiting a prison that housed criminals who were considered to be the highest security risks. “Six guards in Kevlar vests and full riot gear had to go in and subdue an inmate in a restraining chair,” she says. “I thought, wow, if we could just calm them with nature rather than with Kevlar vests and riot gear, that would be really great.” But it took Nadkarni years to find a prison that was willing to let her test her hypothesis.

The experiment's results have now convinced some prison officials to offer inmates access to nature videos. However, critics of the study argue that it could be used to justify the continued use of solitary confinement — a practice that some consider too harsh.

Nadkarni, N. et al. Front. Ecol. Environ. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/fee.1518 (2017).

[news44topmrt-blog]

And Now A Barbie Inspired By Indian American Ecologist Nalini Nadkarni - भारतीय पर्यावरणविद जिनसे प्रेरित हो बार्बी बनी 'इकोलॉजिस्ट'

And Now A Barbie Inspired By Indian American Ecologist Nalini Nadkarni – भारतीय पर्यावरणविद जिनसे प्रेरित हो बार्बी बनी ‘इकोलॉजिस्ट’

-विज्ञान, तकनीक, इंजीनियरिंग और गणितीय विषयों में स्कूली छात्राओं को प्रोत्साहन देने के लिए ‘स्टेम-थीम्ड’ बार्बी डॉल्स लान्च कर रही MATTLE कंपनी

-भारतीय मूल की अमरीकी नागरिक नलिनी नादकर्णी संभवत: पहली भारतीय वैज्ञानिक हैं जिनसे प्रभावित होकर बार्बी डॉल का नया स्वरूप गढ़ा गया है।

पर्यावरण के प्रति बच्चों को ज्यादा संवेदनशील बनाने के मकसद से बार्बी डॉल निर्माता अमरीकी कंपनी मैटल ने नेशनल…

[listinsemanal]

La historia de la Barbie científica, ideada por una ecóloga estadounidense | Ecología | Noticias

La historia de la Barbie científica, ideada por una ecóloga estadounidense | Ecología | Noticias

Salt Lake City –

Nalini Nadkarni era una niña que, cuando regresaba a casa de la escuela, trepaba uno de los ocho árboles de maple en el jardín y pasaba la tarde ahí con una manzana y un libro. Ahora es ecóloga de bosques de la Universidad de Utah y ha dedicado su carrera a estudiar los árboles de las selvas.

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