Nature's Archive

Dr. Merav Vonshak is a former guest on the podcast from episode 7. Merav is an ecologist, naturalist, and citizen science organizer (see BioBlitz.club) located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Merav volunteers as a curator on iNaturalist, and has an astounding 42800 observations on iNaturalist. She has also lead a project to document and raise awareness about the tragically high roadkill mortality of pacific newts along Lexington reservoir in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Merav is one of those people who has many fascinating projects and nature observations. But today, we’re talking about her latest idea - Gall Week 2021, which is planned from October 2 to October 10 (yes, it is a week PLUS a bonus weekend!).The idea is to get everyone, regardless of naturalist ability, to get out and observe these fascinating creatures.

If you aren’t sure what a plant gall is, I can point back just two episodes ago to my interview with Adam Kranz covering all things galls. But the short answer is these are beautiful and sometimes bizarre growths on plant tissues induced by another organism, such as a wasp, midge, or many others. They often develop vivid colors and evocative shapes, and all have fascinating natural histories. These growths occur specifically to support the life cycle of the inducer, and are often induced in amazingly precise ways.

Today Merav tells us about the project, how to participate, and has a few tips and tricks for documenting your observations.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links To Topics Discussed
Gall Week 2021 iNaturalist Project - join this project so you can add it to your gall observations

Books and Gall Resources
Gallformers.org - searchable (by host plant or gall) website with detailed descriptions of galls
Plant Galls of the Western United States, by Ronald Russo – HIGHLY recommended
iNaturalist Gall Projects:

• Galls of California
• Galls of North America
• Leaf and Plant Galls - a global project

 Merav has a pamphlet of San Francisco Bay Area galls

My guest today is Dr. Jaret Daniels. Dr. Daniels is a professor specializing in lepidoptera research and insect conservation at the University of Florida, and is curator of Lepidoptera at the  Florida Museum of Natural History. In addition to that, Dr. Daniels is the author of over a dozen books that help connect the general public to butterflies, insects, and gardening for wildlife. These include titles such as Backyard Bugs, Insects and Bugs for Kids, and Native Plant Gardening for Birds, Bees and Butterflies, which is a series of regionally-specific books.

In this episode we dive into Dr. Daniels ability to connect with the public, and how he “flips the switch” between academic endeavors and authoring for the general public. We discuss some of his specific books (links in the show notes). And he outlines why creativity is so important for public outreach. Along those lines, he tells us about the butterfly themed beer partnership with First Magnitude Brewing, which even used yeast from a butterfly!

Dr. Daniels also discusses some of his conservation activities and successes, including helping to restore the federally listed Schaus’ Swallowtail, which only lives in tropical hardwood hammock habitats in southeast Florida. This restoration also involved important efforts from community science (or citizen science) doing hard work monitoring populations in very challenging environments. This butterfly occupies a limited geographic range, meaning it is vulnerable to both habitat loss and storms such as hurricanes. Dr. Daniels discusses the recovery plan and how they intend to make Schaus' Swallowtail populations more resilient.

As you know, I love to highlight ways we can make non-traditional spaces more wildlife friendly, and this is a specialty of Dr. Daniels. We hear about how Dr. Daniels worked with the Florida Dept. of Transportation to demonstrate that reduced roadside mowing frequency was a win-win-win for drivers, the department, and insects.

And to support homeowners looking to make better plant choices, Dr. Daniels is collaborating to create a wildlife-friendly plant certification program. Additionally, Dr. Daniels reveals some surprising findings from studying attractiveness of various home landscapes in Florida. The short story: plant larger quantities of fewer "good" plants, and you'll create a better habitat than lots of variety, but with only one specimen of each species.

You can also find Dr. Daniels on twitter.

This was an enlightening discussion on a number of fronts, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Dr. Daniel's Books
Backyard Bugs: An Identification Guide to Common Insects, Spiders, and More
Insects & Bugs for Kids: An Introduction to Entomology
Native Plant Gardening for Birds, Bees & Butterflies: A series covering the Upper Midwest, Southeast, South (coming soon)

Other Links
Plasterer Bees of the Southeast - an iNaturalist project started by the Florida Museum of Natural History looking to gather knowledge and observations about these rare bees. And more about the Plasterer Bee Project from the museum.
The Florida Museum of Natural History
The Xerces Society

Galls are beautiful and sometimes bizarre growths on plant tissues induced by another organism, such as a wasp, midge, or others. They often develop vivid colors and evocative shapes, and have fascinating natural histories.

And Adam Kranz is here to help us understand what a gall is, their lifecycles, how to find them, and about Gallformers.org, a website designed to be the authoritative resource for all USA/Canada plant galls.

Adam has a BA in Environmental Studies from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and a Masters of Science in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

We also discuss some particularly amazing galls that you’ll have to hear to believe. For example, Adam explains how the larvae inside the gall may steer the plant response throughout their lifespan! Check the full show notes for photos.

We discuss techniques for identifying galls in the field, including their attributes and how to differentiate them from other plant growths. Galls are common worldwide and provide ample opportunities for discovering and describing new species.

Adam also gives a nice overview of three extremely interesting galls that are among his favorites.

• Callirhytis quercusoperator
• Dryocosmus quercuspalustris
• Callirhytis quercusgemmaria

Each of these have fascinating natural histories, including peculiarities like hollow centers with free-rolling cells, and what might be considered a gall threesome, where a second cynipid wasp comes along and entirely changes the gall’s developmental trajectory. 

You can find Adam on twitter @gallformers, and on iNaturalist @megachile.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Bugguide
Eiseman’s blog BugTracks
iNaturalist Gall Projects: California | North America

Books
Plant Galls of the Western United States, by Ronald Russo - HIGHLY recommended
Tracks and Signs of Insects and Other Invertebrates by Charley Eiseman - HIGHLY recommended
Weld Cynipid Books: Free! See the full show notes

Podcasts
Charley Eiseman
Dr. Doug Tallamy

Support Us On Patreon!
Buy our Merch!

Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

My guests in this episode are Dr. Carrie Olson-Manning and Sydney Kreutzmann. Dr. Olson-Manning is an Assistant Professor at Augustana University, has a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Genetics from Duke University, and leads the Olson-Manning Lab which focuses on understanding how biochemical pathways evolve.

Sydney Kreutzmann is a Research Technician in Dr. Olson-Manning's lab, working on a number of research and outreach efforts.

In today’s episode, we focus on milkweed, and in particular, the Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, of the eastern United States, and the Showy Milkweed, Asclepias speciosa, of the arid west. Dr. Olson-Manning’s lab is studying how these two species hybridize in the transition zone in the Great Plains, where humid eastern climates give way to arid western climates. They discuss some of their initial findings, but as is often the case, each discovery opens up many new questions.

But to do milkweeds justice, we also get deep into many broader aspects of milkweed, discussing their diversity, speciation, and ranges. No discussion of milkweed is complete without coverage of milkweed toxicity, and the unique animals that rely on it despite this toxicity. And of course, this means some Monarch butterfly talk. But did you know that there are at least 10 other species that rely on milkweed as part of their lifecycle?

And one other amazing fact - milkweed produce dopamine. Yes, the same dopamine that you and I rely on. You’ll have to listen to hear how it is put to use.

Be sure to check out Dr. Olson-Manning's lab, milkweedflower.org for more details on the common and showy milkweed hybridization research, and their instagram. You can also follow the Olson-Manning lab on iNaturalist, and join their iNaturalist project that tracks observations of the Showy and Common milkweeds and their hybrids.

Full Show Notes Here

Links and References
Past Episodes Mentioned

• Pollinator Posse and the Western Monarch
• Charley Eiseman and Leafminers

Books and Resources
Monarchs and Milkweed by Anurag Agrawal, also available as an audiobook!
Monarch Joint Venture - a resource mentioned by Dr. Olson-Manning
What Milkweed To Plant - PDF showing which species to plan by region of the USA

People, Organizations, and Other Things
Dr. Steven Matzner - collaborator
iNaturalist - anyone can use this wonderful resource to learn about the plants, animals, fungi, and other things living in their area.
Mead's Milkweed - a milkweed species that is threatened
Tropical Milkweed - is NOT recommended by Xerces Society. We discuss this briefly in the episode.

Note: links to books are affiliate links

My guest today is Brandon Kong. Brandon is a conservation field technician at Stanford University, is studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz, and has a particular passion for “herping” , which is looking for and studying the nature of reptiles and amphibians. Brandon’s studies and field work give him plenty of hands-on herping experience, and he shares many of his amazing finds on his YouTube and Instagram channels.

We had two primary goals for today - discuss what herping is and how to do it, and dive deeper into the California Tiger Salamander, which is the subject of Brandon’s conservation efforts and studies.

The topic of herping is immense. After all, it covers snakes, lizards, newts, salamanders, frogs, toads, and more. And species diversity and behaviors vary dramatically across habitats.

Despite the enormity of the topic, I think we pulled it off! In this episode you’ll learn about how to find herps and where to look, weather dependencies, and the ethics and etiquette of herping. These are sensitive animals with fragile habitats, so this is particularly important.

Along the way we also discuss Brandon’s experiences with the Prairie Rattlesnake and Project RattleCam, Next we move into the amazing world of the California Tiger Salamander, and learn about what makes them so unique. Brandon offers some tricks of the trade in tracking and identifying unique individuals, as well as discusses the challenges of road mortality.

Brandon also offers great resources for would-be herpers looking to learn more.

And one note about today’s recording - I’m trying very hard to maintain my episode release schedule on top of my day job and family demands. To that end, I purchased some new audio editing software that promises to save a lot of time. I used the software for the first time for this episode, and yes, there is a learning curve. There were some things it did well that I couldn’t have done previously, but there were also some things that I learned to do differently in the future. Thanks for your patience as I work to sustain and scale the show.

FULL SHOW NOTES

People, Organizations and Things
Chytrid Fungus - article about this destructive pathogen that threatens global amphibians
Enormous congregations of garter snakes in Manitoba, and a video
Life in Cold Blood - David Attenborough 5 episode series
Project RattleCam citizen science project to help scientists learn about rattlesnake behavior led by Dr. Emily Taylor and Dr. Scott Boback

Books and Resources
California Herps - website for herps in California
Field Guides by Robert Stebbins and Samuel McGinnis: Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians is a good guide for the western USA, and Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California goes into depth for California.
The Field Herping Guide by Mike Pingleton and Joshua Holbrook
i3s Spot - Software Brandon uses to identify specific individual tiger salamanders by photo

Today's guest is Dr. Doug Tallamy, and let me say up-front that the episode title doesn't really do justice to our wide ranging discussion!

Doug Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored over 100 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 40 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His book Bringing Nature Home  was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers' Association. Nature’s Best Hope  (2020) a New York Times Best Seller, and his latest book The Nature of Oaks was released by Timber Press in 2021. Dr. Tallamy is the recipient of numerous awards for his conservation and communication efforts.

Today we discuss the aforementioned The Nature of Oaks.

Oaks aren't just a little important, but stand well above others in terms of the number of insects they support. Why is this important? As you'll hear, the majority of birds require insects to raise young, and not only that, but immense numbers of caterpillars. And this is just scratching the surface of the food web impacts. We also talk about gall-making wasps that use oaks, and the parasitoid wasps that rely on those gall-making wasps! Dr. Tallamy gives a great introduction into gall maker life histories.

We discuss some basic ecological concepts in relation to oaks, including keystone species, trophic levels and energy transfer. We consider the roles oaks played back when our forests were more diverse, before the American Chestnut was wiped out, before Dutch Elm Disease wiped out 75% of mature elms, and before the current die-off of eastern Ash trees.

Doug discussing semi-random acorn masting, and reviews the four fascinating hypothesis as to why this is.

Doug started Homegrown National Park (instagram) that helps people understand the critical connection they have with functional food webs and ecosystems. We discuss how Homegrown National Park came to be, how to help people make yards more ecologically functional, and some tips and suggestions for connecting with people if you too want to advocate for this good cause.

FULL SHOW NOTES

MORE LINKS
California Native Plant Society CalScape native plant finder
Kenneth V. Rosenberg - lead author of study showing 3 billion birds have been lost
Michelle Alfandari - Partnered with Doug to create Homegrown National Park
Sudden Oak Death
Tammany Baumgarten - advocate for the "10 step program" to make insect problems disappear

Support Us On Patreon!
Buy our Merch!

Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

My guest today is Danielle Husband. Danielle is a graduate student studying dragonflies and damselflies at the McIntyre Lab at Texas Tech University. In particular, she is studying the west Texas playas, salinas, and urban catchments, and their suitability for odonates.

Today’s episode is full of great topics. We discuss the importance of wetlands in general, and drill down into the specifics of the semi-arid environment of west Texas. The playas and salinas of west Texas are fascinatingly unique, and also play a critical role in the groundwater system of the Ogallala Aquifer.

The Ogallala Aquifer is one of the largest groundwater sources in the world, and critical for much of the United State’s agriculture. Aquifers are being drawn down throughout the world, and the Ogallala is no exception. Playas and other wetlands and waterways “recharge” these aquifers, but is it enough to offset the extraction? Danielle describes the challenges of recharge and aquifer depletion.

We then dive into Danielle’s primary area of research - odonates. She covers the basics of odonata life history, including some differences between damselflies and dragonflies. And did you know some dragonfly species are migratory? Danielle also describes how she constructed the odonate surveying protocol she uses in her field research, some of the interesting discoveries she has made, and helpful tips for naturalists to find and identify dragonflies.

It was a wide-ranging and fun discussion that I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Find Danielle on Instagram.

People, Organizations, and Websites
Dragonfly Pond Watch Project - Monitoring program for migratory dragonflies that anyone with regular pond or wetland access can participate in.
Dragonfly Society of the Americas
Golden Gate Raptor Observatory
McIntyre Lab at Texas Tech University
Odonata Central

Books and Other Things
IUCN Global Wetland Outlook Report - from 2018
Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West by Dennis Paulson – one of the best field guides I’ve found - a bit large for the field but worth it
Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East by Dennis Paulson – the Eastern USA version of the above
Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Natural History - by Dennis Paulson
Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the Great Plains - by William Ashworth
Playas of the Great Plains - by Loren Smith (University of Texas Press)
Urban Areas Create Refugia for Odonates in a Semi-Arid Region - by Danielle M. Husband and Nancy E. McIntyre

"Just because it's a view you've seen your whole life doesn't mean it's a normal, healthy forest."

See full show notes here, with links to all topics discussed.

My guest today is Dr. Justin Angle, creator of the podcast series “Fireline”, which dives into the realities of wildfire in the western USA.

Justin is Associate Professor of Marketing at The University of Montana in Missoula. He earned his Ph.D. and MBA from the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Justin also produces his own interview podcast called A New Angle.

Today we focus on the “Fireline” podcast series, released earlier this year through Montana Public Radio. If you haven’t heard it, the seven episodes cover different aspects of wildfire. The series presents multiple points of view with a goal to demonstrate that the topic is complicated and nuanced, and we all have a role to play in finding solutions.

Today, we discuss many of Fireline's topics, including:
- How wildfire impacts can be both positive and negative, depending on perspective and context.
- The complexities of how years of wildfire policy and suppression have affected fire behavior, and how rising temperatures catalyzes more and larger fires.
- The growth of the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) and how that creates more negative human impacts.
- Relatively recent research showing that wind-blown embers can be a primary driver to fire spread and a primary risk to homes - not the towering flame front that we often envision. This changes how communities and homeowners need to prepare, which quickly turns into a sociology problem more than a science problem.

Any discussion of wildfire is incomplete without investigating human history and influence on wildfire, and Fireline covers indigenous use of fire through the perspective of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes, as well as some fascinating anthropological research.

We also review Justin’s atypical route to creating the show, and the process and partners he engaged to make it a reality. Fireline was produced at the peak of the pandemic, requiring Justin and his team to pivot multiple times.

You may also be interested in my interview with Rick Halsey of the California Chaparral Institute, where we took a deep dive into wildfire behavior, especially in chaparral habitats.

Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham
Fire in Paradise - on Netflix
Life with Fire - wildfire podcast
Fireline's Collaborators: Jeff Hull, Nick Mott, Victor Yvellez, Josh Burnham, Aj Williams
Cathy Whitlock
Jim See
Kimi Barrett
Libby and Alex Metcalf
Lily Clarke
Richard Wrangham
Steve Pyne - fire historian with several excellent books
Tony Incashola Jr and Sr - Father and Son
Wildfire Adapted Missoula

This episode is a special one that warrants a special introduction.

Today, you are going to hear all about Wasps with award winning author Heather Holm. But rather than me interviewing Heather, this is actually an episode from the Backyard Ecology podcast. Shannon Trimboli, the creator of Backyard Ecology, and I have become fans of each other’s shows. We decided it would be fun, and hopefully valuable for our audiences, to share an episode of each other’s podcast.

I love the concept of Backyard Ecology and want to promote the importance of backyard habitats, as I’m sure you all have picked up on. Shannon interviews authors and specialists on everything from fireflies to backyard vernal pools. Shannon is located in the eastern USA, so her guests often focus a bit more on eastern ecology, which compliments my guests which are often in the western USA.

Shannon is also a beekeeper, author, public speaker, and owner of a native plant nursery. You can see her upcoming events and details on her public speaking on her website, https://shannontrimboli.com/.

As for this episode, as I mentioned, Shannon interviewed Heather Holm, who recently published the book Wasps: Their Biology, Diversity, and Role as Beneficial Insects and Pollinators of Native Plants. 

Wasps get a bad rap in many circles due to a few aggressive species. However, there are actually more species of wasps than bees, the majority are solitary, many are tiny, and they all have fascinating life histories.

What I love about this episode is the deep dive into some of these fascinating life histories. You’ll learn about how they hunt, how they create and provision their nests, and much more.

If you enjoy this crossover episode, please consider subscribing to Backyard Ecology. Also, check out the show notes naturesarchive.com for direct links to Shannon’s full show notes and her website.

Find Shannon on Facebook, and Backyard Ecology on Facebook.

People and Organizations Discussed
Backyard Ecology podcast
Shannon Trimboli - author, beekeeper, public speaker, native plant nursery owner, and creator of the Backyard ecology podcast

Books and Other Things
Wasps: Their Biology, Diversity, and Role as Beneficial Insects and Pollinators of Native Plants. 

My guests today are Scott Whittle and Mike Lanzone of Project Terra and Cellular Tracking Technologies. 

Scott is a bird expert and author. His passion for the natural world has led to co-authoring The Warbler Guide, the Warbler Guide App, and contributing to the Birdgenie bird song identification app.

Mike is a Research Biologist turned technologist, and is the Founder and CEO of CTT - Cellular Tracking Technologies, a leading manufacturer and innovator of wildlife trackers using various cellular, satellite and radio technologies.

We start off discussing CTT and their interesting origin story, attempting to identify if eastern Golden Eagles would be impacted by proposed wind power facilities. CTT has advanced the technology significantly, creating the “Internet of Wildlife”, allowing larger animals like eagles to be “repeaters” of data from smaller songbirds, overcoming limitations of how large of systems that these smaller birds can carry.

We also discuss a few of CTT’s conservation success stories, such as Project SNOWstorm, which tracks Snowy Owls.

Our primary topic is an exciting new project called Terra. Terra intends to dramatically expand wildlife tracking in the form of a system that you can place on your own property. 

Terra is intended to help people connect with nature, while simultaneously filling in crucial gaps in wildlife data, such as bird song variations, details about migratory flight paths, and even information about other animal vocalizations such as cicadas, crickets and frogs. 

Terra expects to use nocturnal flight calls (NFCs) to help identify migratory bird paths and volumes, so we spend some time talking about NFCs, and how important these unique, often single note calls are.

Terra is in late stage development, and has launched a kickstarter to help get it over the finish line. We discuss how Terra works, the technology inside, what a corresponding app might look like, privacy, and speculate on many potential research topics that will result from a network of Terra devices.

If you are interested in Terra, please check out the Kickstarter, which ends on July 1. We discuss exactly what a kickstarter is in the show, but the short story is kickstarter is basically how new ideas such as Terra get community funding, and are thus critically important for the success of projects such as this. And by backing projects on kickstarter, you get perks to help make it worth your while.

Follow Nature's Archive on Instagram

Links To Topics Discussed
Project Terra Kickstarter

Bringing Nature Home - by Doug Tallamy 

The Warbler Guide - Innovative field guide to warblers that includes spectrogram visualizations of vocalizations. Co-authored by Scott Whittle and Tom Stephenson

Macaulay Library - Cornell Lab's wildlife media archive

oldbird.org by Bill Evans, considered the resource for NFCs (Nocturnal Flight Calls)

Andrew Farnsworth - ornithologist at Cornell Lab known for migration research and use of radar tracking

Casey Halverson - Mike recruited Casey to help develop the first cell-based GPS trackers