Environmental and Earth Sciences

Arctic Science, Geography, Geology, Oceanography, Hydrology, Glaciology, Seismology, Meteorology, Climate Science, Limnology, Remote Sensing, Natural Resources, Mining, Green Tech, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Development, Archeology, Paleontology

You’ll Never Guess What This Yellow Fluff Ball is! Ft. Asterocolax gardneri

chloevanloon Biology and Life Sciences, Communication, Education and Outreach, Environmental and Earth Sciences
The expansive Duxbury reef where we found this interesting creature! Red Algal Parasite, Asterocolax gardneriWhere: Duxbury Reef, Bolinas California When: November 2020, King TideiNaturalist observations:, best photos , second best Like many other iNaturalist observations we would never have figured out what the heck it was, or have had to invest hours of scrolling and come to many dead ends in order to make an identification. But that is the beauty of the iNat community, the…

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Leaving Science Borealis

Sarah Boon Biology and Life Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences
In December of 2012 I posted a comment on a blog post by Maryse de la Giroday (Frogheart). She had just summarized all the science blogs in Canada and had included my brand new blog. She had also wondered out loud whether anyone would be interested in developing a science blog network. I posted in the comments thanking her for including my blog and expressing interest in a blog network. I wasn’t the only one…

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My New Nudes, aka my Newest Nudibranch Lifers from the November 2020 King Tide

chloevanloon Biology and Life Sciences, Communication, Education and Outreach, Environmental and Earth Sciences
This past weekend there was a lot of hunting for and photo shoots of nudibranchs, also known as the sea slugs! While we found many of the common crew, the real stars were the ones we’d never seen before, the lifers. The list includes: Graceful Aeolid, Hammerhead Doto, Nanaimo Dorid, Humped Ancula, Laguna Beach Aeolid, and Yellow-head Aeolid. King tides for tidepoolers and naturalists is a calendar worthy event; a time to shuffle whatever else…

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x lines of Python: static basemaps with contextily

Matt Hall Environmental and Earth Sciences
Difficulty rating: Beginner Something that is often useful in planning is to have a basemap of the area in which you have data or an interest. This can be made using a number of different tools, up to and including full-fledged GIS software, but we will use Contextily for a quick static basemap using Python. Installation is as simple as using conda install contextily or pip install contextily. The steps that we want to take…

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Things that go Bump in the Field

Amanda Tracey Biology and Life Sciences, Communication, Education and Outreach, Environmental and Earth Sciences
I have spent a lot of time at a lot of different field sites over the years. I have spent days in the blistering sun, days in the frigid cold, and days in the pouring rain, but until this spring, I had never spent any time in the field after dark. Every year, there is one field site with several kilometres of fencing that need monitoring to ensure the fence is in good working order.…

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