Biodiversity Blog

Monday, 06 July 2020

Stengl Wyer Research Award to Support Creation of Environmental Sensing Network

  Angle of prototype. Sensors are to the right and left of the processor. Advances in machine learning and remote sensing provide potential for studying life’s diversity and interactions between organisms and their natural environments. Tim Keitt, professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, and his colleagues are interested in lev...

Friday, 03 July 2020

The Texas Trout

Today the only member of the family Salmonidae (trout, salmon and their relatives) that occurs in Texas is the non-native Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. That species is widely stocked around the state and there is one permanent population in McKittrick Creek, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, where it was introduced in the early 1900s. However...

Tuesday, 30 June 2020

Trout of Mexico's Sierra Madre

   Young Dean, reading to go fishing with dad... Like many others I'm sure, I found that working from home facilitated catching up on housecleaning, etc. Picking away at the long-standing task of re-housing old family photos, I came across one of me heading out trout fishing with my Dad.  It got me reflecting on what a big role ...

Sunday, 21 June 2020

Nest building isn't just for the birds

by Laurel Treviño, Outreach Coordinator for the Jha lab Have you ever wondered what insect carves out the leaf edges on your garden plants? If the leaves look like this cut-leaf daisy, American beautyberry, or rock rose, you may have leafcutter bees in your garden. Several native bees have made nests in my native pollinator garden this May; I spott...

Tuesday, 16 June 2020

BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY: Texas Spiny Lizard

       Photo: Clinton & Charles Robertson from RAF Lakenheath, UK & San Marcos, TX, USA & UK (Creative Commons) If the Green Anole is the showy lizard presence in a garden, scampering around while flaring its red dewlap, the Texas Spiny Lizard is the opposite, typically shy, and well-camouflaged agai...