Using Landsat 8 imagery from before and after the 2015 wildfire season in Glacier National Park, Montana, learners calculate the damage using a Normalized Burn Index, digitize the burn area, and publish to ArcGIS Online.

This activity introduces students to an actual data set that explores the impacts of ocean acidification on tropical coral reef ecosystems. Students are first given a scenario for a field site in the Caribbean and are asked to design an experiment that answers the question: How will a decline in surface ocean pH by the 21st century impact tropical coral growth? Students then gather actual data (from coral images collected from the field site) to calculate calcification rates of different coral samples. Finally, students use the provided saturation state values to predict the extent to which coral calcification is expected to decline by the 21st century.

Given that humans historically have heavily used rivers and the lands along them for agriculture, transportation and other activities, how does human impact currently affect riparian ecosystems in a rural region? Students will address this question through several activities.

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In this activity, students explore the web-based U.S. Forest Service Climate Change Atlas to learn about projected climate changes in their state and how suitable habitat for tree and bird species is projected to change by 2100.

This is a photo essay linked to a New York Times story about climate-related stressors on forests -- including mountain pine beetles, forest fires, forest clearance, and ice storms -- and the importance of protecting forests as an important carbon sink.

Next generation sensors and a potential new ecosystem for marketing and advertising in augmented and virtual reality

Short Description:
Marketing is a competitive field that demands continuous improvement in the delivery of persuasive messaging to target audiences. The most recent successes in finding competitive advantage is achieved by professional marketers through technology. In this report, we will consider how Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (AR/VR) will impact the marketing profession. We will review our research into the background of AR/VR, the sensor technologies that enable these advances, a review of the available hardware types, their positioning in the marketplace, and their use cases. We will then review current best practices in digital marketing as shared by key presenters at the 2017 University of New Hampshire Digital Marketing Conference. This will be the basis of a discussion about how AR/VR might embrace these current practices, cannibalize them, or depart from them to establish completely new methods. The new ecosystem driven by advances in VR and AR technology make a powerful new tool available to engage with their audiences at a new intense emotional and psychological level. We will discuss AR/VR’s evolving uses in entertainment, therapy, training and pornography. A review of risks is included. We conclude with analysis and projections for future use cases in social media, business practices, education, and for opportunities that may accrue to marketers because of AR/VR.

Long Description:
It’s 2017 and we stand upon the brink of another evolution in digital media. Since the first Turing architecture machine was invented to break codes in WWII, the ongoing technology evolution has led to a state of nearly ubiquitous computing, most recognizable in the form of modern smart phones. Stemming from the concurrent development in computing hardware and information processing, governments, businesses, and individuals created new marketplaces. These technologies established the ecosystem for the Internet and World Wide Web. Marketers and traditional marketing models adapted quickly to this ecosystem to the extent that digital marketing now dominates a typical marketing mix.

New technology innovations, known as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), are developing at a rapid pace. The unique properties of fully immersive VR and situationally aware AR have great potential value to marketers seeking to engage and persuade consumers with impactful messaging. Marketers are starting to work with VR and AR as part of their toolbox for messaging. Its potential impact on existing marketing practices may turn out to be similar to what we have seen in the transition to digital marketing. In this report, we will describe AR/VR hardware technology and how it may enable new ecosystems to develop for marketing and advertising.

Word Count: 21293

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically as part of a bulk import process by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided. As a result, there may be errors in formatting.)

5th grade students work together in teams to create an ecosystem to support Pacific Northwest pollinators.

BI 101 is an introductory lab science course intended for majors in disciplines other than the biological sciences. This course is designed to help you discover the applications of science to your everyday life, as well as provide elements of critical thinking. This course has four Credit Units that emphasize a variety of topics including ecological principles, biodiversity, and impact of human activities on the environment.

Course Outcomes:
1. Discuss biological community interactions.
2. Explain how changes in human population and/or actions impact natural ecosystems.
3. Describe the movement of energy & nutrients through trophic levels.
4. Recognize the appropriate taxonomic level of an organism based on key characteristics or traits.

This unit is a sample of a High School Elective Course (Wildlife Management) for students in Saskatchewan. When you have finished this unit, you will have a better understanding of the various birds of Saskatchewan and their ecosystems,   Bird Image - "London , Kensington Gardens - Birds around the Round Pond" by Lewis Clarke is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"In ecology research, population density is an important metric for community analysis studies. Yet even though microbiomes are small ecosystems, microbiome studies rarely report the bacterial density. To evaluate the significance of bacterial density in gut microbiome research, a recent retrospective study examined rectal swabs from hospitalized patients. The authors found that bacterial density had important methodologic significance, as it predicted vulnerability to sequencing contamination. Specifically, low-bacterial-density specimens had higher levels of sequencing contamination. Clinical factors like age, exposure to antibiotics, and comorbidities also varied with bacterial density. Older patients and those with multiple co-morbidities had high bacterial density, while antibiotic exposure correlated with low density. Lastly, bacterial density showed potential as a prognostic indicator, as the density at time of admission correlated with subsequent infection..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Trees support so much life on Earth – but one important component might easily be overlooked. The phyllosphere – the aerial surfaces of plants, including leaves – is a microbial habitat for diverse microorganisms. Phyllosphere bacteria play key roles in plant health, human health, and ecosystem function, but unfortunately, not much is known about how plants and their associated microbes influence each other. A recent study evaluated this relationship in a diverse neotropical forest. Using shotgun metagenomics, researchers found that the metabolic functions of phyllosphere microbes varied based on their tree hosts. While overall there was low variability in plant-associated microbes, suggesting that certain microbes form a “core microbiota” for neotropical trees, bacterial metabolism and membrane transport functions varied between plant species..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In the open ocean around the Bahamas, pods of wild Spotted Dolphins frolic in the sunshine. Sometimes, they get bored and approach boats. In this educational video, Jonathan joins dolphin expert Wayne Scott Smith to learn how dolphins interact with each other. Jonathan learns how to play the Bandana Game, a game of -keep away- that the dolphins invented and like to play with Scott. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In forested areas, students are often intrigued by mysterious sticks covered in carved tunnels–but students often think the patterns were made by human artists or termites. After students complete this activity, they’ll have the skills to identify bark beetle galleries, to make explanations about the patterns of beetle galleries, and to interpret what these tracks tell us about the life history of the organisms that made them.

In an optional discussion, students can consider outbreak levels of bark beetles that cause the death of many trees, make arguments based on evidence about possible effects on ecosystems, then brainstorm and critique possible management strategies. An optional extension for investigating student questions about bark beetles is also included.

In this 7 day unit, students study bats and their important role in our ecosystem, research the need for conservation efforts, and design and build a bat house.

This video segment from the Nevada Department of Wildlife looks at various species of bats and how they impact the environment.

This Nature video segment focuses on the four foods most important to the grizzly bears' survival, and it describes the threats to the supply of each of them.

In this video segment from Nature, learn about the problems bears are creating on ranch land surrounding Yellowstone National Park.

This video segment explores the world of the beaver, including the biology of the species and, more importantly, its ability to transform an ecosystem for its own benefit.

Design of shoreline protection along rivers, canals and the sea; load on bed and shoreline by currents, wind waves and ship motion; stability of elements under current and wave conditions; stability of shore protection elements; design methods, construction methods. Flow: recapitulation of basics from fluid mechanics (flow, turbulence), stability of individual grains (sand, but also rock) in different type of flow conditions (weirs, jets), scour and erosion. Porous Media: basic equation, pressures and velocities on the stability on the boundary layer; groundwater flow with impermeable and semi-impermeable structures; granular filters and geotextiles. Waves: recapitulation of the basics of waves, focus on wave forces on the land-water boundary, specific aspects of ship induced waves, stability of elements under wave action (loose rock, placed blocks, impermeable layers) Design: overview of the various types of protections, construction and maintenance; design requirements, deterministic and probabilistic design; case studies, examples Materials and environment: overview of materials to be used, interaction with the aquatic environment, role of the land-water boundary as part of the ecosystem; environmentally sound shoreline design.

In this lesson students will learn about the different types of bees, the bee life cycle, and the importance of bees for our local ecosystems. Includes some background information about bees and instructions for the pollination simulation activity.

Time: 45-50 minutes

Materials: "The Honeybee Man" or other book about bees and pollination, small bag of cheetos, pip cleaners, various colors of construction paper, pompoms (small and medium), small dixie cups for water, straws (15 per group), jewerly bags, and yarn