Crossing Boundaries

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This online data viewer provides user-friendly access to regional land cover and land cover change information developed through NOAA's Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP). The Land Cover Atlas eliminates the need for desktop geographic information system software, or advanced technical expertise, by processing C-CAP data for the user and providing easy access to that distilled information.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) supports research into our world's frozen realms: the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, and climate interactions that make up Earth's cryosphere. NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere.

"Young children are able to recognize every single specimen of the 493 Pokémon "species" (e.g., a value three times greater than our number of "priority protection species"), but they face great difficulties when asked to recognize common animal species... Natural attractiveness of children towards animals should not focus only on few iconic species but must be also directed toward common and local organisms by engaging children with practical experiences with nature. Our study simply adds another call to push the children outside and away from the screens."

A summary of an article that examines the impact of farming on birds in Costa Rica. Apparently, planting and/or leaving trees can have a large positive impact on birds in these contexts.

"The arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) makes an incredible migration each year. These small birds travel distances of more than 50000 miles, from pole to pole, crossing through temperate and tropical regions along the way. Carsten Egevang used geo-locator tags to track ten of these terns, and he shares their story with us in this tour."

This blog is by an elementary teacher in Palmer Station, Antarctica to lead educational outreach for a research team that is studying the largest land animal in Antarctica... (which, believe it or not, is a wingless fly!)

A downloadable US forest map assembled from space-based radar, satellite sensors, computer models, and a massive amount of ground-based data. It is possibly the highest resolution and most detailed view of forest structure and carbon storage ever assembled for any country. "Trees are one of Earth's largest banks for storing the carbon that gets emitted by natural processes and human activities. Forests cover about 30 percent of the planet's surface, and as much as 45 percent of the carbon stored on land is tied up in forests."

"From Brazil to Borneo, new roads are being built into tropical forests at a dizzying pace, putting previously intact wilderness at risk. If we hope to preserve rainforests, a leading researcher says, new strategies must be adopted to limit the number of roads and reduce their impacts. "

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) - Human land-use activity has begun to change the regional water and energy cycles of parts of the Amazon basin. A new study published in the journal Nature also shows ongoing interactions of deforestation, fire, and climate change have the potential to alter carbon storage, rainfall patterns, and river discharge on an even larger scale.

Learn more about the kinds of data available and download data. Use these tools to turn data into the useful information your organization needs. Update your skills by participating in one of these training programs. See how data and tools are used to address coastal management issues.

In this 7-minute excerpt from the documentary Roots of Change: The Vision of Wangari Maathai see how she became the first African woman, and first environmentalist, to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. The Green Belt Movement that she founded has profoundly changed the physical and social landscape of Kenya...and it all began with planting trees.

Grazing by zebras, other African wildlife can actually help cattle -- student-friendly summary of the Science article

Discovery Channel teacher materials

Ecoregion descriptions by WWF, useful with Science Pipes biome lesson and other activities using these ecoregions

Creative Commons free share images

"Google is adding addresses along sections of the Amazon River and Rio Negro in Brazil to its Street View service."

"A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) examines how the Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) program has succeeded in stabilizing wildlife while improving agriculture in the Luangwa Valley."

A blog by the New England Aquarium about the massive collaborative effort to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from ship strikes, gear entanglements and other threats.

Texting service that does not require you to ever see the student or parent cell number - FREE - to send notifications as you like.