Previous periods of rapid warming millions of years ago drastically altered plants and forests on Earth. Now, scientists see the beginnings of a more sudden, disruptive rearrangement of the world’s flora — a trend that will intensify if greenhouse gas...

Unless the world stops treating climate change and biodiversity collapse as separate issues, neither problem can be addressed effectively, according to a report issued by researchers from two leading international scientific panels. In December 2020,...

Annual Community Initiatives & Goals Check-In

Join the Food & Agriculture Community to meet new leadership and learn about exciting opportunities! Join in the discussion about the problems, solutions, and unknowns of the...

Biodiversity data support conservation research and inform conservation decisions addressing the wicked problem of biodiversity loss. However, these data often need processing and compilation before use, which exceed the time availability of...

A dozen summer-suitable climate reads to kick off the new season recommended by Yale Climate Connection. 

This episode of the Disabililty Projet Podcast is on climate action with Kera Sherwood-O’Regan, an indigenous multidisciplinary storyteller and activist based in Aotearoa, also known as New Zealand. Kera’s work and activism centers structurally...

Maintaining phenological synchrony with flowers is a key ecological challenge for pollinators that may be exacerbated by ongoing environmental change. Here, we show that bumble bee workers facing pollen scarcity damage leaves of flowerless plants and...

The Clean Water Report features case studies from across the nation and results from Surfrider's Blue Water Task Force, the largest volunteer-run beach water testing program in the country, which indicate that nearly a fourth of water samples tested...

When the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden was established in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1913, it was envisioned as a site that served white citizens. Kirstenbosch was presented as a landscape in which plants functioned as representatives of...

The Monarch butterfly eastern population (Danaus plexippus) is in decline primarily due to habitat loss. Current habitat restoration programs focus on re-establishing milkweed, the primary food resource for Monarch caterpillars, in the central United...

Christie Taylor speaks with Noa Lincoln, Katie Kamelamela, and Melissa K. Nelson about their work researching and restoring Indigenous foods to Hawaii and the mainland United States. They explained how these foods were disrupted by colonization, and...

Hazel Johnson spent her life fighting for environmental justice in black communities in Chicago’s Southeast Side. When she first started organizing in the 1970s after death and illness in her family, she quickly found that her work would be cut out for...

Even the mention of lavender evokes the distinct fragrance of the flower. This beautiful flower has been used to make perfumes and essential oils since time immemorial. The aesthetics of the flower have captured imaginations worldwide. So what makes...

Do all plant biologists worldwide have equal access to novel methods, enabling them to be equally productive, publish, and receive credit for their research? Or does reduced access to cutting‐edge techniques in countries with lower financial resources...

A study of sound recordings from 251 sites in 66 national parks found that listening to natural sounds may be one of the best ways to promote mental health and deal with the stresses of everyday life. The team found people experienced decreased pain,...

In the first webinar, Getting Started with GIS, we looked at the value of GIS for public gardens and how you can start down the path to using this technology to support your institution. In this webinar, users will see demonstrations that dive deeper...

Tom O'Dell, natural areas specialist at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens at the University of Michigan witnessed the periodical Cicada emergence 17 years ago and explains what damage may occur to plants and young trees as the insects emerge again.

The Morton Arboretum has released the results of its 2020 Chicago region tree census. Findings include the loss of an estimated 6 million ash trees, felled by the emerald ash borer. Chicago's canopy cover decreased from 19% to 16%, largely because of...

Read this issue of Public Garden here.

Additional Content: Vol. 36, No. 2

Garden Exhibit:

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This article from Frontiers in Forests and Global Change explores large-scale global reforestation goals in the US. The authors used GIS analyses, surveys of nursery managers and foresters, and literature synthesis to assess the opportunities and...