Graphic from HarperCollins Publishers

The monarchs have never come to these parts, but a natural disaster has destroyed their winter habitat in Mexico, and the butterflies appear in November in the Volunteer State — the implication being it’s warm enough there to host them, even though it’s almost winter.

The butterflies disrupt life in the quiet town. Dellarobia’s in-debt father-in-law wants to sell the mountain land to a logging company, but others want to preserve it and charge money to tourists to see the monarch colony. Media outlets interview Dellarobia, who becomes a reluctant mini-celebrity for having her butterfly “vision” — but some feel it goes to her head.

Then a lepidopterist from a New Mexico university comes to study the butterflies. Soon, the Turnbow barn gets converted to a lab and Dellarobia works part-time for the scientist, along with his graduate students, in an effort to uncover what’s going on with the monarchs.

Kingsolver calls “Flight Behavior,” which was published in fall 2012, “a fictional story within a plausible biological framework.” It’s an enjoyable tale with a witty, worrying main character who elicits our sympathy. Kingsolver’s vivid prose and ease at weaving this tale make it a fun, compelling read, one that provides insight to the worlds of science and rural America.

Those interested in science will enjoy the detailed scenes in the field counting and observing butterflies, or in the lab conducting lipid extraction experiments and parasite counts. Some parts are like “CSI” or “Bones,” but with butterflies rather than dead bodies and poetic passages rather than worn clichés.

Back in the real world, the New York Times recently reported monarch numbers in their Mexican wintering grounds have declined for the last seven or eight years. The amount of territory they cover in winter shrunk 59 percent from 2011 to 2012, due to the impacts of drought and record-breaking heat. (The Yale Environmental 360 blog recently published an interview with University of Kansas insect ecologist Orley Taylor, too.) It seems “Flight Behavior” is a case of fiction underscoring truth.

Dan Kulpinski will graduate with an M.S. Environmental Sciences and Policy degree in May 2013.

(Creative Commons image “Monarch Butterfly [Norristown Farm Park],” courtesy of stinkenroboter via Flickr. Video from HarperCollins Publishers.)

The ooid sand flats at Joulters Cays seem to stretch on forever. (Photo by Dan Kulpinski)

But first, why it’s as good as it sounds: The course consists of a week of online units and a week in The Bahamas. From the field station on Andros Island, we took a small boat to many small islands or cays (pronounced “keys”); saw one of two places in the world where ooid sand forms; explored Captain Morgan’s Cave (no rum present); snorkeled and saw lots of coral reefs and fish, including lionfish (an invasive species); saw mangroves and swam in blue holes (Andros has the most blue holes in the world — 178 on land and more than 50 in the ocean). Oh, and we had great weather — sunny, with temperatures in the high 70s.

We saw evidence of higher sea levels in past millennia, walked over lithified sand dunes, and saw carbonate crusts being formed on rocks in the intertidal zone. Schubel calls the area “the carbonate factory,” and after a week I did get a sense of how the geology there works and how it created what we see today.

Andros Island (just left of center) is the largest in The Bahamas. (Image from travel.state.gov)

It was a treat to snorkel and be able to see coral reefs, not only because they are beautiful and colorful, but also because they’re fragile environmental indicators, vulnerable to the changing climate, ocean acidification, pollution and other — mostly human-caused — impacts. Seeing them made the reefs’ predicament more real for me.

The class was a blast — and a great learning experience. So how did this amazing field course come about? Schubel, who has taught the Bahamas course for six years and hopes to offer it again in 2014, explained.

Q: How did you get the idea for the Bahamas class? Had you been down there before?

A: “Susie Creamer, who is a graduate of the program and has been the TA for the course since it began, came to me and said that she thought the program needed an international component. She challenged me to come up with a class. I had taught an undergraduate course in the Bahamas a number of times in the past. I knew the island well and it made it easy to put together a course for JHU students.”

Q: What’s your favorite part of teaching the class?

A: “I love being out in the field with students. We can read about and discuss topics, but there is nothing like seeing things first-hand. That is when the magic happens. That’s when things may suddenly all make sense. Andros Island is a large island by Bahamian standards. There are so many different carbonate sedimentary environments (coral reefs, sandy tidal flats, muddy tidal flats, ooid sand shoals, etc) and karst features represented. It’s the best place I know to get a comprehensive overview of all of these settings.”

Q: What would you tell students who are hesitant to sign up because they’ve never been snorkeling before?

A: “Not to worry. If you can swim I can teach you to snorkel. Snorkeling is really just swimming for lazy people. It doesn’t require a  whole lot of physical exertion. If you have a wetsuit on you’ll be nice and buoyant and then it’s a matter of kicking a bit. Your arms are largely just along for the ride.”

Dan Kulpinski still considers himself a beginning snorkeler. He will graduate from the M.S. Environmental Sciences & Policy program in May.

Photo by NS Newsflash via Flickr.

The top stories included a climate rally over a proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a simple way New York City could reduce its carbon footprint, the rapid loss of grasslands due to federal biofuel mandates, the outlook for wild weather, and what happens when fish take antianxiety drugs.

Thousands Rally in D.C. Against Keystone XL Pipeline
The Feb. 17 climate-change protest drew about 35,000 people who called on President Obama to reject the pipeline plan, which would transport crude oil from tar sands in Alberta to refineries and ports in Texas. Environmentalists say the extraction process creates more greenhouse gases than traditional oil drilling, and that the oil is dirtier. Two days after the rally, TransCanada claimed the pipeline will have no measurable effect on global warming.

Report Claims N.Y. City Can Reduce Its Carbon Footprint 90% by 2050
Research by the non-profit group Urban Green Council details how retrofitting buildings to be more energy efficient, thus reducing heating and cooling loads, would take the city most of the way toward this goal. In a review article, Slate calls the approach “The Triple-Pane Windows Theory.”

Biofuel Rush Wiping Out Grasslands at Fastest Rate Since Dust Bowl
Scientists at South Dakota State University found that U.S. farmers converted more than 1.6 million acres of grasslands to corn and soybean fields between 2006 and 2011. This trend has implications for climate, because grasslands retain more carbon in the soil than crops do. Switching to crops also appears to be reducing populations of ducks and other ground-nesting birds, which breed in the northern prairies.

Scientists Say Wild Weather Is Here to Stay
Researchers at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held Feb. 14-18 in Boston, said human-driven climate change has made severe weather events more intense and more frequent, according to an AAAS press release.

Traces of Antianxiety Drug in Rivers Alter Way Fish Act
The Wall Street Journal reported that a new study shows that wild perch in a Swedish river have six times the amount of the drug oxazepam in their tissue than is found in the water. Perch raised in the lab in water with trace amounts of the drug separated themselves from each other, acted more adventurously than wild perch, and put themselves in danger more often.

Professor David Curson in the field. (Photo by David Curson)

David Curson teaches two courses in the AAP Environmental Sciences & Policy program: Principles of Ecology and Field Methods in Ecology. He is Director of Bird Conservation for Audubon Maryland-DC, which is a state office of the National Audubon Society. He spoke with us about his job, a project underway on the Eastern Shore, and how he became interested in ecology.

Q: What do you do in your role as Director of Bird Conservation for Audubon Maryland- DC?

A: “Well, essentially I design and carry out conservation programs for birds in Maryland and DC, and I’m the only staff person in the science and conservation department here in Maryland at the moment, so as well as doing that essential role, I’m also fundraising and doing many other things as well, administrative and such like.”

Q: I know one thing Audubon does is the Important Bird Areas Program. Can you explain what it is and how it works in Maryland?

A: “I think of it less as a program; rather, it’s a prioritization tool. Important Bird Areas are sites that provide essential habitat for vulnerable bird species. And really it tells Audubon where to focus its conservation work. So, by identifying these sites using science-based criteria, we can use it as a filter and say these are the places we really need to focus on if we are going to protect the wide assemblage of bird life that’s currently in Maryland.”

Q: One of the Important Bird Areas is in Dorchester County, Md., on the Eastern Shore. I understand the salt marshes are threatened by the rising water level and Audubon has a project down there. Can you describe that a bit?

A: “Salt marshes are kind of a unique environment and they are uniquely threatened by sea level rise, which is partly caused by global warming and the thermal expansion of the oceans. And it is predicted by the Maryland Commission for Climate Change, that the majority of Maryland salt marshes may well be inundated by sea level rise by the end of this century.

Because there’s an assemblage of birds that are uniquely evolved to live in salt marshes, and some of these live in Maryland, we feel a great responsibility to try to make sure that all of these marshes are not lost and that we can do conservation work for them, for these birds. Audubon is currently preparing a climate adaptation strategy for the southern Dorchester County Important Bird Area, and this contains, I think it’s the largest contiguous block of salt marsh in the northeast of the United States, near Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and Fishing Bay Wildlife Management Area.

… We’ve identified, using computer models, the areas of land behind the coastal marshes which are most likely to become tidal and potentially support tidal marshes in the future…We’ll also be doing habitat restoration work to help dying salt-stressed forests transition to open marsh that’s suitable for the salt-marsh birds, and we’ll be working on existing salt marshes to try to make them more resilient to sea level rise and to make their condition better and more suitable for the target salt marsh bird species.” (Editor’s Note: The species include the salt marsh sparrow, seaside sparrow, willet, clapper rail, and the black rail.)

Q: How can students get involved in bird conservation in general?

A: “Well, there’s a couple of ways. Clearly through selecting the right kind of graduate program is a great way, but there are also opportunities to get directly involved in bird studies through field work. So if you’re able to work for very little pay, especially in the summer when you might have some time between classes, there are a large number of bird research studies going on around the country. Every year several hundred  interns and assistants are hired to do that…

Beyond that, if you’re completing a graduate degree soon, then I would urge volunteering with an organization like Audubon or another conservation organization. Other employers for this kind of work are state agencies, the (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, those kind of agencies. And they have volunteer opportunities as well, which can help you get a foot in the door. I know that this is a time of very limited funding and very limited additional hiring as well, so very often volunteering is a very good way to start yourself off and to get to know staff in relevant agencies and other organizations.”

Q: Why did you become an ecologist? What sparked your interest and pushed you in that direction?

A: “That’s a great question. I would say that growing up in an urban area, in London, really got me interested in ecology. I became interested in birds and other wildlife and I think really it was noticing how different kinds of birds and other animals and plants varied across the urban landscape. So the birds you might see in the middle of London are very different from birds you might see in more suburban areas and also in parks and little areas of forest and common lands that are kind of enclosed within London’s kind of landscape. So really it was kind of the gradients and the variations in the landscape and the birds that reflected it that really got me thinking about questions of how distribution and abundance of birds was influenced by land use and other aspects of the landscape.”

Q: Where did you earn your PhD and was it in ecology? What was your dissertation or research project?

A: “Well, my graduate work I completed at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and this was a wonderful place to live for a number of years, and I completed my master’s there and then went on to do a PhD in the Wildlife Ecology department — and that’s the department founded by Aldo Leopold back in the 1930s. My research project as a graduate student was on studying brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds, which is a species of bird native to North America, but they’re kind of the terrors of the bird world. They lay their eggs in other species’ nests and leave those hosts to raise their young, and this has real conservation impact on some of the rarer species of hosts — although it doesn’t seem to harm more abundant host species…”

Q: What do you like best about teaching in the JHU AAP program?

A: “That’s a great question. Firstly I should say I really, really thoroughly enjoy teaching in the environmental science program. To me, it allows me to — it’s like a bridge between my academic training and my current work with Audubon. So I can share aspects of my work with Audubon with students and I can continue exploring some of the theoretical aspects of ecology through my teaching and bring those to my work. So it’s a kind of a two-way conduit of experience between those two areas of my life that I really enjoy. I think, thinking holistically, it’s a benefit to both areas.”