People can farm more food from the seas while shrinking mariculture’s negative impacts on biodiversity, according to a study led by Deqiang Ma, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). Mariculture, which is the branch of aquaculture that farms saltwater seafood, accounted for about one-fifth of the food farmed from fisheries in 2020 and has been growing rapidly to meet the increasing demand for seafood. SEAS Associate Professor Neil Carter is the senior study author.
As many beachgoers know, it’s not uncommon for E. coli to temporarily shut down lakes and other recreational waters across the U.S. Research led by Xiaofeng Liu, a postdoctoral researcher at SEAS and a Schmidt AI in Science Fellow, shows that communities of color in Texas face pronounced risks of E. coli exposure in nearby waters following storms that dump abnormally high amounts of rain.
SEAS Professor Ivette Perfecto and U-M Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology John Vandermeer say that, to manage agricultural practices with fewer or no pesticides, they will need to understand how ecological systems work on agricultural lands. Using two ecological theories, the researchers have described a complex web of interactions among three ant species, as well as a recently introduced fly that preys on one of the ant species. This work, conducted on a coffee farm in Puerto Rico, shows that the interaction between the ants and the predator fly creates chaotic patterns, demonstrating how natural populations are subjected to fluctuations depending on the interactions of organisms within a system. Understanding that any one of the four species could be dominant at any given point in time may help farmers utilize ants to manage pests on their farms.
Heat waves and cold spells are part of life on the Great Lakes, but research shows that the appearance of extreme temperatures has increased significantly. To reveal the trends, Hazem Abdelhady, a postdoctoral research fellow at SEAS, and his colleagues developed a state-of-the-art approach that allowed them to study heat waves and cold spells dating back to 1940. The surface water temperature of the Great Lakes plays an important role in the weather, which is an obvious concern for residents, travelers and shipping companies in the region. But the uptick in extreme temperature events could also disrupt ecosystems and economies supported by the lakes in more subtle ways. The study’s co-authors include SEAS Associate Research Scientist Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome, Assistant Research Scientist David Cannon of the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research and SEAS Associate Professor Drew Gronewold.
SEAS research investigated the costs and emissions associated with the different options for drying clothing in the U.S. The researchers anticipated a stark contrast between dryers and line drying; however, the study yielded some striking results, underscoring the importance of behavioral changes in conjunction with technical solutions. The study’s lead author is Zhu Zhu (MS ’24), who performed the work as a SEAS master’s student under the guidance of SEAS Professor Shelie Miller.
Due to climate change, seasonal allergies caused by fungal spores now start three weeks earlier. The study, led by Ruoyu Wu (MS ’24) while she was pursuing a master’s degree at SEAS, found that, on average, spore allergy season began 22 days earlier in 2022 than it had in 2003. Alongside colleagues, including study senior author Kai Zhu, SEAS associate professor, Wu performed the first large-scale systematic study of outdoor fungal spore abundance across the continental U.S. between 2003 and 2022.
