Something in the Air

摘要

What's up? A lot more than you might think. Floating and flying above us are not only the usual suspects - birds, bats, insects - but countless microscopic creatures as well. The disciplines of aerobiology and aeroecology explore how animals, plants and other organisms live in, move through and interact with the aerosphere - the part of Earth's atmosphere that supports life. (It's also known as the boundary layer, which typically stretches upward about 650 to 1,650 feet.) Ever since Boston University biologist Thomas Kunz founded aeroecology in 2008, it has seen huge gains because of the growing ability to track air movement with radar and telemetry, and because of humans' growing use of airspace.