Oaks, asters and 6 other ‘keystone' native species to plant for biodiversity
University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy's research has identified 'keystone' plant species that make up the foundation of many U.S. ecosystems by producing food for native insects, thus supporting the ecological food web.
Even planting just one keystone plant in the yard or in a container will help restore biodiversity on your property.
Here are eight of the most important trees and plants that Tallamy, author of the new book, 'How Can I Help?', recommends (find a complete list for your ecoregion at https://homegrownnationalpark.org/keystone-plant-guides/.)
Top keystone trees
__ Oaks (Quercus spp.): Best in the 84% of the U.S. counties in which they occur.
__ Native willows (Salix): Best farther north.
__ Native Cottonwood (Populus): Best in drier regions.
__ Native cherries (Prunus): Very important nationwide.
__ Native plums (Prunus): Very important nationwide.
__ Goldenrod (Solidago)
__ Perennial sunflower (Helianthus)
__ Aster (Symphyotrichum)
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Business Wire
06-05-2025
- Business Wire
University of Delaware Study Identifies Optimal Formulation of ZIVO's Active Ingredients for Further Testing to Mitigate Avian Influenza in Poultry
BUSINESS WIRE)-- ZIVO Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB: ZIVO), a pioneering biotech/agtech R&D company dedicated to developing therapeutic, medicinal and nutritional product candidates derived from proprietary algal cultures, today announced positive results from its second collaborative study with the University of Delaware evaluating the efficacy of several formulations of ZIVO's proprietary active ingredients in mitigating the spread of Low Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (LPAI) virus among poultry. Building upon the outcomes of the initial study, this second study aimed to assess and compare the performance of three different ZIVO formulations in both directly challenged and contact-exposed birds. The study affirmed earlier observations that ZIVO's active ingredients may positively influence LPAI transmission dynamics, while identifying the optimal formulation for further testing. In the first arm of the study, which involved birds receiving a direct challenge with LPAI, modest positive trends were observed in viral shedding reduction among ZIVO-treated groups compared with untreated controls. While these differences did not reach statistical significance, the findings suggest potential for ZIVO's formulations to lessen disease severity. The second arm focused on the transmission of the virus from infected birds to naïve birds. Notably, the formulation consisting of a blend of four distinct algal-derived materials demonstrated a slower and less efficient spread of the virus. One bird treated with this combination showed no signs of infection post-exposure, indicating potential protective effects. Brian Ladman, PhD, Principal Investigator at the University of Delaware's Department of Animal and Food Sciences, commented, "Any positive trend observed in these early-stage studies is very encouraging. Delaying transmission, even by a few days, can provide significant benefits to poultry producers by allowing more time to manage high risk or at-risk flocks effectively." "These findings resulting from rigorous testing at the University of Delaware reinforce our commitment to developing sustainable, non-antibiotic solutions for the poultry industry. The insights gained from this study show encouraging trends and identifying a superior formulation will be instrumental in guiding our future research and product optimization efforts. Given the potential impact ZIVO's product can have on mitigating avian influenza, a widespread issue in the nation's large poultry industry, we submitted a funding request to the State of Michigan for $5.5 million to further our research. Additionally, we are applying for a portion of the previously announced $100 million Avian Influenza Poultry Innovation Grand Challenge from the USDA," said John Payne, Chairman and CEO of ZIVO Bioscience. ZIVO Bioscience remains dedicated to advancing its pipeline of algal-derived compounds aimed at enhancing poultry health and productivity. The company plans to continue its collaboration with the University of Delaware to further explore and refine these interventions, including a larger scale project focused on a single formulation in order to determine the reproducibility of the observations from the first two studies. About ZIVO Bioscience ZIVO Bioscience, Inc. is a research and development company with an intellectual property portfolio comprised of proprietary algal and bacterial strains, biologically active molecules and complexes, production techniques, cultivation techniques and patented or patent-pending inventions for applications in human and animal health. Please visit for more information. Forward Looking Statements Except for any historical information, the matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including with respect to the Company's product candidate's potential to generate revenues and the expected timeframe for results of future studies. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates" and similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although ZIVO believes there is a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our expectations of the future, about which we cannot be certain. Our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect due to factors largely outside our control, including risks that our strategic partnerships may not facilitate the commercialization or market acceptance of our products; risks that we will be unable to increase production sufficient to meet demand; risks that our products may not be ready for commercialization in a timely manner or at all; risks that our products will not perform as expected based on results of our preclinical and clinical trials; our ability to raise additional funds; uncertainties inherent in the development process of our products; changes in regulatory requirements or decisions of regulatory authorities; the size and growth potential of the markets for our products; the results of clinical trials; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described under the heading 'Risk Factors' in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward–looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release and ZIVO undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward–looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available.
New York Times
02-05-2025
- New York Times
Volcanic Eruption in Deep Ocean Ridge Is Witnessed by Scientists for First Time
Andrew Wozniak, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Delaware, struggled to process what his eyes were taking in. Dr. Wozniak was parked on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean beneath nearly 1.6 miles of water in Alvin, a research submersible. As far as he could see lay a mostly barren expanse of jet-black rock. Just a day before, at this same spot, a vibrant ecosystem had thrived in the sweltering waters of the Tica hydrothermal vent, about 1,300 miles west of Costa Rica. Creatures inhabited every inch of the rocky seafloor, writhing in a patchwork of life. The crimson tips of giant tube worms waggled in the current, tangling around clusters of mussels. Buglike crustaceans scuttled through the scene while ghostly white fish languidly prowled for their next kill. Now, only a single cluster of tube worms remained in the blackened terrain, all dead. A haze of particulates filled the water as glints of bright orange lava flickered among the rocks. 'My brain was trying to understand what was going on,' Dr. Wozniak said. 'Where did things go?' Eventually it clicked: He and the sub's other passengers were witnessing the tail end of a submarine volcanic eruption that had entombed the flourishing ecosystem under fresh lava rock. This was the first time scientists had witnessed a clearly active eruption along the mid-ocean ridge, a volcanic mountain chain that stretches about 40,000 miles around the globe, like the seams of a baseball. The ridge marks the edges of tectonic plates as they pull apart, driving volcanic eruptions and creating fresh crust, or the layer of the Earth we live on, beneath the sea. About 80 percent of Earth's volcanism happens on the seafloor, with the vast majority occurring along the mid-ocean ridge. Before this latest sighting, only two underwater eruptions had been caught in action, and neither was along a mid-ocean ridge, said Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist at Oregon State University who was not on the research team. 'That's a super exciting first,' he said. Observing such an event live offers a unique opportunity for scientists to study one of our planet's most fundamental processes: the birth of new seafloor, and its dynamic effects on ocean chemistry, ecosystems, microbial life and more. 'Being there in real time is just this absolutely phenomenal gift — I'm really jealous,' said Deborah Kelley, a marine geologist at the University of Washington who was not part of the research team. Dr. Wozniak and colleagues sailed on a ship, the R/V Atlantis, before setting out in the Alvin sub. Their original goal was to study carbon flowing from the Tica vent, funded by the National Science Foundation. Hydrothermal vents are like a planetary plumbing system, expelling seawater that's heated as it seeps through the ocean floor. The process transports both heat and chemicals from Earth's interior, helping regulate ocean chemistry and feeding a unique community of deep marine life. The dive on Tuesday morning started like any other. Alyssa Wentzel, an undergraduate at the University of Delaware who joined Dr. Wozniak aboard Alvin, described the enchantment of sinking into the darkness of the ocean depths on the 70-minute journey to the seafloor. As the light vanished, bioluminescent jellies and tiny zooplankton drifted by. 'It was magical,' she said. 'It really takes your words away.' But as they approached the site, a darker magic set in as temperatures slowly ticked upward and particles filled the water. The usual dull gray-brown of the seafloor was capped by tendrils of inky rock that glimmered with an abundance of glass — the result of rapid quenching when lava hits chilly water. As particulates clouded the view from Alvin, Kaitlyn Beardshear of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the pilot in command of the day's journey, slowed the sub, keeping close watch on the temperatures. As they ticked up, so too did concerns for safety of the submersible and the crew. Eventually, the pilot made the call to retreat. 'It was an incredible sight to see,' they said. 'All the life and features that I had seen just a few days before, wiped away. I can't believe we were so lucky to have been there within a few hours of eruption.' The team learned after returning to the ship that sensitive microphones, called hydrophones, aboard the Atlantis had detected the volcanic eruption earlier in the day. It registered as a series of low frequency booms and campfire-like crackle. This was the third known eruption at the Tica vent since its discovery in the 1980s. Over the decades, Dan Fornari, a marine geologist at Woods Hole, and his colleagues have closely monitored the site, tracking changes in temperature, water chemistry and more. Combining these analyses with modeling of seafloor spreading, they realized the site seemed poised for an eruption, proposing it would happen either sometime this year or last. In 1991, he and his colleagues had arrived at Tica within days of an eruption's start. It might even have still been active, he said, but they saw no flashes of lava to confirm. This time, he said, there's no doubt of what the Alvin crew saw. 'This has been the closest that we ever come to witnessing the initiation of an eruption' along the mid-ocean ridge, he said. The team is continuing to study the volcanic activity. Given safety concerns, they're collecting data and taking photographs remotely from the Atlantis. The data will help researchers unravel the mysteries of deep-sea volcanism and the role it plays in marine ecosystems. 'All of this has to do with understanding this holistic system that is Earth and ocean,' Dr. Fornari said. 'It's so intertwined, and it's both complex and beautiful.'
New York Times
22-04-2025
- New York Times
A New Hotel Says It's ‘Carbon Positive.' Is That Hype or Reality?
One of the first things to catch your eye on entering the Populus hotel in downtown Denver is what looks like sheets of cowhide hanging above the restaurant's bar. But the art installation material is actually Reishi, a leathery material made from mycelium, a root-like structure found in fungus. It's just one of many elements at the new 265-room hotel (rates from $299) that are meant to evoke nature and underscore a broader mission to offer what the Populus bills as an exceptional level of sustainability. (A second, 120-room Populus with a similar approach will open in Seattle this spring.) In fact, the hotel, designed by the Chicago-based Studio Gang firm, claims it is the United States' first 'carbon-positive' hotel (meaning that it is supposed to sequester more carbon than it emits). It's a bold statement, but just one among a growing list of self-applied superlatives by other properties. Aruba's Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, for example, calls itself 'the Caribbean's first and only certified carbon-neutral resort.' IHG Hotels and Resorts bills its new Voco Zeal Exeter Science Park in Exeter, England — with an exterior clad in electricity-generating vertical photovoltaic panels — as the brand's first net zero-carbon hotel. The Alohilani Resort in Honolulu says it is the 'first hotel in Hawaii to announce carbon neutral certification commitment.' The Populus's claims go a step further, said Joseph Romm, a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, and author of 'The Hype About Hydrogen: False Promises and Real Solutions in the Race to Save the Climate.' The hotel, he said, 'has the chutzpah to claim they are being a net positive for the climate, which is a much stronger claim than neutral.' 'A hotel has a lot of impact on the environment,' said Jon Buerge, the president of Urban Villages, the Denver-based developer behind the Populus. He said his team didn't find many properties that they felt took a holistic approach to reducing environmental impact while also enhancing guests' experience. The hotel's design intends to mimic the experience of being inside a tree, from the 'forest floor' aesthetic of the ground level to the rooftop restaurant and deck with citywide views (the 'canopy'). Of course, the most environmentally conscious approach would have been to not build anything. But the hotel's prime location on an unused downtown lot means the site was unlikely to escape redevelopment. Amid a hospitality landscape in which many hotels have moved far beyond the simple bathroom-counter placard urging you to reuse your towel, how does the Populus measure up? It Begins With the Building The Populus's approach started at construction, with a concrete mix said to emit 30 percent less carbon dioxide than regular concrete. Repurposed elements are heavily relied on, including wood from an already felled cottonwood tree for the reception desk; beetle-kill pine for some walls and bed headboards; and snow fencing from Wyoming as decorative ceiling beams. The 365 glass-fiber-reinforced concrete panels on the hotel's exterior, inspired by the bark of aspen trees, help keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter. The hotel did not build a parking garage — instead it uses existing lots in the area for valet parking, and encourages public transit for guests. Measures like these, said Shivya Nath, who runs the consulting firm Climate Conscious Travel, help reduce a building's embodied carbon, or the carbon emitted by making, using and eventually disposing of materials like concrete, steel and insulation. According to the American Institute of Architects, almost 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide result from construction materials, and embodied carbon makes up 11 percent of this total. Other measures used by the Populus include guest rooms that rely on durable textiles; carpeting made from recycled, biodegradable materials; and a biodigester that turns food waste from the hotel's Pasque and Stellar Jay restaurants into a nutrient-dense liquid, which is then mixed with compost to fertilize local fields. An online carbon dashboard tracks the hotel's emissions and offsets for curious guests. 'They have a lot of things in the right place,' said Ms. Nath. Carbon Offsets: How Effective Are They? The Populus also relies on carbon offsets, as do many other sustainability-focused hotels that compensate for at least part of their emissions by tree planting, for example, or purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs). (A REC equates to one megawatt-hour of renewable power in environmental value.) With 20 properties worldwide, Florida-based 1 Hotels, for instance, contributes to reforestation projects through the Arbor Day Foundation and 'has also offset more than 46,000 metric tons of CO2 to date through independently verified carbon credits,' according to Elizabeth Traub, a hotel spokesperson. Room2's residence-style Chiswick in London works with a reforestation partner in Nicaragua. And the Alohilani Resort plants trees in Hawaii and buys additional offsets. Climate change experts have debunked the efficacy of most such measures. 'I don't know any company right now that is serious about climate change that still thinks tree planting is a legit offset,' said Mr. Romm. That's because the seedlings take time to grow into trees, which can then take years to fully absorb — and truly offset — carbon. Additionally, those trees are at risk of infestation and vulnerable to weather and wildfire. The Populus's own tree-planting efforts faced that kind of vulnerability. In 2022, when the hotel was being constructed, it paid for the planting of some 77,000 Engelmann spruce in Colorado in a partnership with the National Forest Foundation to replace trees wiped out by mountain pine beetles. Extreme weather killed 80 percent of the saplings. Mr. Buerge said the higher-than-expected death rate hasn't dissuaded his team from its belief in the program's ultimate efficacy in tipping the hotel's scale to carbon positive. The Populus aims to plant another 50,000 to 70,000 trees this year. The Need for Legislation Class action suits against companies making misleading environmental claims are increasing in the United States. California adopted a bill in 2023 that requires companies to disclose evidence for carbon neutrality and similar statements. In Europe, the legal system is paying close attention to the sustainability claims of businesses. 'Major companies have lost court cases in Europe in recent years for merely saying they are carbon neutral based on dubious offsets,' said Mr. Romm. Indeed, in Germany, hotels can no longer advertise that they are climate neutral without proof. And hotels throughout the European Union must comply with a new directive against greenwashing — overstating environmental claims — that will take effect next year. Perhaps a more accurate claim than carbon neutral is the one made by the Hotel Marcel in New Haven, Conn., which opened in 2022 in a retrofitted, 1960s, Marcel Breuer-designed building. The property calls itself America's first fossil-fuel-free hotel, thanks to more than 1,000 solar panels that help power the hotel's electric infrastructure. But some question environmental mitigation itself. Such steps are well-meaning but ultimately ineffective, according to Auden Schendler, the author of 'Terrible Beauty: Reckoning With Climate Change and Rediscovering Our Soul,' and the former senior vice president of sustainability for Aspen One, which oversees the Aspen Skiing Company. He argues that real sustainability comes with changes in governmental policy, not via the free market. 'These actions are voluntary and taken by sub 1 percent of the hotel industry,' Mr. Schendler said. 'They're inadequate.' To really address food waste, for instance, Mr. Schendler suggested that the Populus's operators argue for better waste legislation. 'People listen to businesses,' he said. In fact, Mr. Buerge said that he was a voting member of Denver's climate change task force, which put in place regulations that aim to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in large buildings by 2040, and that he's currently on the city's sustainability council, working to improve electricity distribution, which would allow the Populus to go all electric. Others within the hospitality industry see value in individual mitigation. Amanda Ho, a co-founder of Regenerative Travel, a collection of independently owned, sustainably minded hotels, said, 'The private sector has more power in making change happen quickly. We'd be moving very slowly if we waited for government.' And what role does the traveler play? The best approach may be to appreciate the real sustainability measures hotels undertake, which can range from renewable energy and eliminating single-use items to local sourcing, without attributing as much to hyped-up marketing messages. At their best, hotels that emphasize sustainability may increase environmental awareness among guests. 'It's not just about building more efficiently and reducing our carbon footprint,' said Mr. Buerge of his hotel's mission. 'My hope is that someone leaves the Populus and says the natural world is pretty amazing and we need to protect it.' Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
