Crossing Boundaries

This fun reflection prompts me to ponder the impact of Urban parks on Birds Cities may not seem like hotbeds of evolution. Tropical rain forests, maybe. The Galapagos Islands, certainly. But Central Park? Yes, even Central Park. Wherever there is life, there is evolution. Organisms reproduce, passing down their genes to their offspring. Some variants of those genes may become more common over the generations thanks to lucky rolls of the genetic dice.

Jaret Daniels / University of Florida via AP file ORLANDO, Florida - After six years of searching, an entomologist has concluded that three varieties of butterflies native to south Florida have become extinct, nearly doubling the number of North American butterflies known to be gone. "These are unique butterflies to Florida.

TopoView is a searchable collection of historical U.S. topographic maps, published before 2009.

Multimedia, lessons, data, and background information about the Great Lakes. Includes a "Listen to the Lake" podcast and several webcams. Lessons to download relate to watershed land use, fish life cycles, invasive species, human population, and others.

"First World Problems read by Third World People" is by the non-profit "Water is Life" to ironically focus on the REALLY-CRITICAL issue of clean water. They enlisted Haitian children and adults to read the everyday gripes and minor irritations that first world citizens post on Twitter."

This animated special report by NSF profiles how scientists are using technology to track wildlife ranging from zebras to dragonflies.

A quiz of weird animal sounds assembled by Wired Magazine using recordings from Cornell's Macaulay Library

The Club-winged Manakin is a bird that makes an odd foghorn call using its wings rather than vocal chords. Through 13 short videos, this site explores how these wings "work," how they evolved, and how this was discovered by Cornell scientist Kim Bostwick.

"The birds-of-paradise are among the most beautiful creatures on earth-and an extraordinary example of evolutionary adaptation. On this site you can find what few have witnessed in the wild: the displays of color, sound, and motion that make these birds so remarkable. Then you can delve deeper, examining the principles that guided their evolution and the epic adventure it took to bring you all 39 species."

When the sun goes down, dung beetles rely on a galactic source--light from the Milky Way--to navigate, according to a recent report in Current Biology. Study co-author Eric Warrant, of Lund University in Sweden, explains how dung beetles see the starry night sky.

This map represents one possible supply chain for a running shoe. Two petroleum-based synthetics-polyester and polyurethane-make up 36 percent of the weight of a typical running shoe, including packaging; these synthetics are responsible for 57 percent of the carbon footprint of the shoe's materials. From extraction to the end of the shoe's life, the entire carbon footprint of this typical pair of running shoes is equivalent to using a 100-watt light bulb for a week.

"Explore 15,000 of the world's endangered species. With over 100,000 photos and videos, discover what these animals, plants and fungi look like, what makes them special and why we should protect them."

Follow an osprey's migration online: "As part of a two-year research project, we have outfitted a male Osprey nesting at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge with a GPS pack in order to follow him on his local hunting trips during the summer and his yearly migrations south."

"Young Voices for the Planet is a film series featuring young people who are making a difference! They are shrinking the carbon footprint of their homes, schools and communities. You, too, can do something about global warming! As Alec Loorz says, "Kids Have Power.""

"Compare NOAA satellite imagery from before and after Hurricane Sandy and investigate damage caused by the superstorm in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Click and drag the white bar to compare historical and current imagery. You can also use the included bookmarks to explore some of the the most damaged areas. "

"Deer alone may not threaten any species with extinction but could locally be the straw breaking the camel's back for many songbird populations when acting in concert with other stresses"

If you're looking for some good map-related laughs, give this page a try.

EPA's downloadable PDF maps and GIS datasets for U.S. ecoregions

Earthzine is an online source for news, articles, information and educational materials about Earth science, Earth observations and users of Earth information for the international Earth-observing community. Earthzine is updated regularly with news from around the world about the Earth, Earth observations, environmental policy, and new and emerging environmentally-friendly and earth-observing technologies.

Have you ever wanted to create a bundle of links to share? Bundlenut makes this possible with just a few easy steps. Visitors can use the site to create a bundle of links and give the bundle a title. There's a "bundle browser" as well, and it's easy to share them. Some of the sample bundles on the site include "Mrs. Comstock's 11th Grade Reading List."