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PODCAST

Nature Snippets

This podcast is devoted to celebrating the natural world. Topics include discussions of specific organisms, natural phenomena, and actions to protect the natural world and our fellow travelers. As an aquatic ecologist, I often focus on life in freshwater. Many episodes will be based upon writings published in the last several years on biodiversity and the natural history of diverse organisms including invertebrates. The new cover art was designed by Lauren McCabe and is based on a calligrapha

science nature

All Episodes

00:08:12

Four Eyes on You

Nature Snippets ·

2022/06/03

Whirligig beetles are wonderful little creatures of the summer that zoom about on water surfaces. This episode get into some of their amazing adaptations to life on water surfaces.

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00:10:05

Opossums moving north, eating ticks, and playing possum

Nature Snippets ·

2022/05/20

Opossums are moving north in response to human-caused climate change, but the current journey builds upon a far longer and more ancient journey from South America. One advantage of having them about is their talent for eating ticks, many of which have also moved north. Finally we will get into their most famous behavior: playing possum.

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00:08:43

Wetlands filter water and reduce flooding

Nature Snippets ·

2022/05/06

Natural wetlands accumulate nutrient-rich sediment carried in by rising floods. The sediments feed the wetland foodweb and are not carried downstream where they can cause algal blooms in lakes. By providing places for flood water to go, wetlands reduce the potentially damaging impacts of floods.

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00:13:27

Flat Stanley and the Centipede: opening a new...

Nature Snippets ·

2022/04/22

Have you ever had the urge to send a potentially dangerous centipede through the mail? Suppress that urge! But at least one person has sent a fast-moving myriapod through the US Mail, and here is that story.

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00:07:15

Red-necked False Blister Beetles

Nature Snippets ·

2022/04/08

Spring flowers bloom before tree canopies fill out taking advantage of both accessible light, and early-year pollinators. This little beetle is one of the earliest and is well protected by a toxic payload.

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00:13:01

Underwater Leaf Season

Nature Snippets ·

2022/03/25

The leaves that provide breath-taking views in New England Falls are far from ecologically finished when they drop from trees. Many leaves end up fueling food webs in freshwater habitats. This episode covers some of the complex processes that occur under water before a leaf ever feeds a trout.

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00:29:56

Plankton Under Ice with Dr. Ariana Chiapella and Dr....

Nature Snippets ·

2022/03/12

Plankton are generally small plant-like and animal-like organisms that live in the water column of our oceans, lakes, and ponds. Ecologists have known that they plankton grow actively in lakes all summer and often produce blooms in warm weather. Until recently, ecologists considered that plankton died back in winter and were not an important source of food under ice. But recent research has made it clear that plankton grows under ice and is important in the winter food web. Dr. Jason Stockwell and

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00:07:21

Winter caddisflies

Nature Snippets ·

2022/02/25

In winter, a small black caddisfly emerges from streams to complete its life cycle. The females don't bother with wings, unless, that is, they happen to emerge in summer. These beautiful little caddisflies spend their larval lives filtering minute particles of organic matter from the water and cleaning the water in the process.

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00:10:21

Ice Capades

Nature Snippets ·

2022/02/11

A phenomenon called "the density anomaly of water" makes it possible for folks to drive trucks out on to Lake Champlain most years. This episode explains why ice is less dense than water and why this allowed life as we know it to evolve.

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00:51:46

Doug Tallamy author of Nature's Best Hope

Nature Snippets ·

2022/02/08

This special episode was recorded in a Saint Michael's College Senior Seminar. Seminar participants had read Nature's Best Hope and we were honored to have Dr. Douglas Tallamy join us on zoom. The episode consists of Doug's answers to students' questions regarding creating a Home Grown National Park. With the lion's share of land in the United States being in private hands, if each of us lives up to our responsibilities as stewards of the planet, we can go a long way toward enhancing biological

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00:13:36

Looking at small things: lenses and microscopes

Nature Snippets ·

2022/01/28

Because this podcast frequently discusses very small organisms, I thought an episode on magnification would be of interest. And because I know that some parents listen to this podcast, I decided to focus a little also on sharing the nature of small things with children. So tips and tricks about getting close views of tiny things are featured. The cover art for this episode is a Wild M5 Stereoscopic microscope. The image was clipped from a Wikimedia Commons image uploaded by Michael K. Oliver:

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00:09:41

Snow Scorpionflies

Nature Snippets ·

2022/01/14

Snow Scorpionflies are not true flies and don't look especially like scorpions. But the "snow" part of their name is certainly accurate. You may find these curious insects walking, hopping, but never flying from the snowy surfaces in your particular winter wonderland. And if you do, why not post about them on iNaturalist. This episode includes a useful tip about cell phone photography of very small things.The cover art for this episode is cropped from an image of a female snow scorpionfly; note the

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00:06:21

Life at 39 degrees

Nature Snippets ·

2022/01/08

Frozen lakes may appear incompatible with life. But "life" begs to differ. Any ice fisher will be happy to list the fish they have caught and the fish are exquisitely adapted to life beneath an icy ceiling. Learn how a quirk of water's physical chemistry makes life possible at 39 degrees. In summer, lakes are stratified into warm layers on top with colder layers below. Frozen winter lakes and ponds are coldest on top and warmer below; this is called inverse stratification.

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00:07:43

Summer Skaters

Nature Snippets ·

2022/01/08

Water striders or pond skaters use pond surfaces as spider webs. They prey upon aquatic organisms surfacing to breath, or on terrestrial organisms that end up stuck in the water surface. This episode explains the photograph I use as the Nature Snippets' logo. Water striders are insects in the order Hemiptera, family Gerridae. The community of organisms living on, and supported by, the surface tension of water bodies, including those organisms hanging beneath the surface tension is called the

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00:07:13

How Insects Spend the WInter

Nature Snippets ·

2022/01/07

Migration, hibernation, or actively going about their lives, insects are well adapted to dealing with winter weather. This episode gets into some of my favorite examples of the exquisite adaptations that insects use to get through the coldest months.

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