Algal ecological design inspiration

January 28, 2009

Reading the chapter on “Southern Plains Rivers” in the fine book Rivers of North America (2005, Academic Press) I came across this observation from W.J. Matthews: in autumn of some years, major portions of the streambed [of the Canadian River in Oklahoma] can become encrusted with a thick layer of algae that appears to be [...]

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Taste the earth

January 28, 2009

Ask mothers why babies are constantly picking things up from the floor or ground and putting them in their mouths, and chances are they’ll say that it’s instinctive — that that’s how babies explore the world. But why the mouth, when sight, hearing, touch and even scent are far better at identifying things? Jane Brody [...]

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American Ecological Engineering Society Annual Conference 2009

January 24, 2009

The call for papers is now out for the 2009 American Ecological Engineering Society annual conference. This year’s conference will be held at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon on June 24-26, 2009. In addition, a series of pre-meeting workshops will be held June 22-23. The theme of this year’s conference is “Engineering for Ecosystem [...]

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Good Slime

January 1, 2009

In a couple of previous posts I’ve mentioned our work cultivating periphyton to trap the very fine particles and dissolved nutrients thought to be responsible for the declining clarity of Lake Tahoe. This work caught the attention of Tahoe Quarterly magazine in their “Best of Tahoe 2008″ edition. They recognized our work–via one of our [...]

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Coral Reefs as Exemplars

December 27, 2008

The steady drumbeat of bad news about coral reefs around the world provides an ironic context for this quote from one of the pioneers of ecological planning. Nevertheless, I believe it still correctly sets the high bar for ecosystem designers: The most beautiful gardens I have ever seen are pristine coral reefs in the South [...]

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Imagining Floating Wetlands

December 20, 2008

I have only just stumbled across this post from Pruned with wonderful images of design by N.E.E.D. for a floating waterfront fish farm. While designed as an aquacultural park for New York City, it is easy to imagine them as floating wetlands. Check out more images here.

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