Avian research often focuses on forests as breeding habitats, but scientists are now working to understand the vital role that small forest patches play in migration. For the first time, a team of researchers from Princeton University and the University of Delaware has created a comprehensive map of migratory pathways and stopover locations in the Eastern United States.

UD alumna Fatemeh Izaditame visits an EPA Superfund-adjacent site in Wilmington to study heavy metal contamination. Collected soil samples showed high levels of arsenic, underscoring the need for the remediation of sites vulnerable to flooding and sea level rise.

Farmers in the Delmarva region are used to heat stress affecting their snap beans. Some Pennsylvania farmers are just far enough north to avoid the problem, but those in the southeastern part of the state could see the same issues. A nighttime temperature of 68 degrees or higher causes heat stress in beans, said Emmalea Ernest, a vegetable and fruit educator with University of Delaware Extension.

Every autumn, billions of birds migrate across the eastern U.S. en route to their wintering sites. As the birds undertake their journeys, however, they are faced with increasing threats, including habitat loss, storms, feral cats and other predators, pesticides, collisions with buildings, and climate change. Not only are individual species impacted by these threats, but so is the migratory phenomenon itself.