michigan state university

Hawaiian Stream Diversions Alter Aquatic Ecology

For more than 100 years, Hawaiian streams have been diverted to irrigate agricultural plantations. But, until now, the potential costs in terms of Hawaii’s endemic stream life were undocumented. A recent study reports drastic changes in stream communities below the diversion of a Maui stream. Below the diversion of Iao Stream, Maui; three macroinvertebrate groups (which include insects, crustaceans, and snails) disappear. Densities of other macroinvertebrate groups drop by 46 percent below the diversion. The changes in the macroinvertebrate community could have serious impacts on endemic fish that rely on them for food.

Molting habits may have led to extinction of once-hardy trilobite

Molting, that periodic ritual in which arthropods shed and replace their outer skeletons, can be a dangerous time for the creatures. Just ask the trilobite. Research published by an MSU paleontologist suggests that an inconsistent molting style, coupled with inefficient physiology, contributed to the demise of these prehistoric relatives of today’s crabs and lobsters nearly 250 million years ago.

Picky microbe could aid environmental cleanup

Michigan researchers have found an elusive microbe whose pickiness could be key to the cleanup of a common type of environmental toxin. The researchers report the discovery of a microbe dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River that has an insatiable appetite to break down the environmental pollutant TCA. That means the bacterium shows promise as the missing piece of the puzzle to clean up soil and groundwater contaminated by multiple chlorinated solvents.