A new model has been created that can forecast the location of Eastern Pacific leatherback turtles along the coast of Central and South America in an effort to decrease bycatch mortality of this critically endangered and ecologically important species.

In one generation, the climate experienced in many North American cities is projected to change to that of locations hundreds of miles away—or to a new climate unlike any found in North America today. A new study and interactive web application aim to help the public understand how climate change will impact the lives of people who live in urban areas of the United States and Canada.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has awarded a $5.75 million grant to establish a Center for Oceans and Human Health and Climate Change Interactions to study the effects of ocean health-related illness and the interactions from climate change. The Center will be headquartered at the University of South Carolina and involve more than 20 researchers from five colleges and universities, including the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

Ecologist Vic Kennedy offers baselines for abundance in Chesapeake Bay and a survey of the diamond-backed terrapin in two new books published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Maryland, with 3,100 miles of tidal shoreline from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries to the Atlantic Ocean and coastal bays, is highly vulnerable to sea-level rise. The effects of accelerated sea-level rise are already apparent, including shoreline erosion, deterioration of tidal wetlands, and saline contamination of low-lying farm fields. Later this century, rates of sea-level rise increasingly depend on the future pathway of global emissions of greenhouse gases during the next sixty years.

Jacqueline Grebmeier has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society, for providing “new and sustained insights on the ecological responses of Arctic continental shelves to climate change and extraordinary leadership in scientific program development.”

Researchers have found that tracking and quantifying herring DNA from the environment corresponded well to more traditional field methods and has great potential to assist future monitoring efforts of river herring abundance and habitat use.

Researchers from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science laid underwater microphones on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to find out more about the ambient noise levels in the area off the coast of Maryland. They found that dolphins are simplifying their calls to be heard over noise from recreational boats and other vessels in nearby shipping lanes.

Researchers have found that global changes, including warming temperatures and increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, are causing a decrease in the availability of a key nutrient for plants.