Smoke Chasers, Colorado Apples, Pikas. June 21, 2019, Part 2

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🗓️ 21 June 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When wildfires rage in the West, Colorado State University atmospheric scientist Emily Fischer hops into a plane, and flies straight into the smoke. The plane is a flying chemistry lab, studded with instruments, and Fischer’s goal is to uncover the chemical reactions happening in smoke plumes, to determine how wildfire smoke may affect ecosystems and human health. Pikas—those cute little animals that look like rodents but are actually more closely related to rabbits—used to roam high mountain habitats across the West. But global warming is pushing temperatures up in their high mountain habitats, and pikas are now confined to a few areas. And thanks to those warmer temperatures, which are threatening the pikas’ way of life, they may be in danger of disappearing—potentially as early as the end of the century. In this segment, recorded as part of Science Friday’s live show at the Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, Colorado, Ira speaks with Chris Ray, a population biologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Ray is tagging and tracking the pikas to investigate how closely their fate is tied to climate change—and whether there’s a way to save them before it’s too late. In the late 1800, Colorado was one of the top apple growing states, but the industry was wiped out by drought and the creation of the red delicious apple in Washington state. But even today, apple trees can still be found throughout the area. Plant ecologist Katharine Suding created the Boulder Apple Tree Project to map out the historic orchards. She talks about Boulder’s historic orchards, some of the heirloom varieties like the Surprise and Arkansas Black, and a surprising connection to a hit Hollywood franchise. Plus, cider maker Daniel Haykin talks about how he uses the information from the Boulder Apple Tree Project combined with sugar, yeast and apples to make the bubbly beverage.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, podcasters. Ira here with some exciting news. Cephalopod Week is here. Even better, I'm giving you the chance to join the Cephaloparty by sponsoring some virtual cephalopods. Let me explain.
0:14.4	Our talented team has built a sea of support on our website, giving each of you the chance to sponsor a virtual cephalopod for a mere $8 donation.
0:25.4	With each gift, you will get to pick from one of eight beautifully illustrated sea creatures, which we will post to our site along with your first name and city.
0:36.1	So just head to ScienceFriety.com slash squid support to donate and
0:41.1	join our sea of support. Again, go to sciencefriety.com slash squid support to sponsor a cephalopod
0:49.2	and support our public radio program. And thanks.
0:55.1	This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato, coming to you from the Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, Colorado.
1:05.2	If you've hiked around the high mountains here in Colorado and have scrambled between the boulders,
1:10.5	you've probably spotted a
1:12.6	fluffy little critter known as a pica. They're pretty darn cute, but don't confuse them with rodents.
1:18.6	Oh no. These tiny mountain dwellers are more closely related to rabbits. But as global warming pushes temperatures up in their high mountain habitats, the
1:28.8	PICA's way of life is changing, and they may be in danger of disappearing, perhaps as early
1:36.0	as the end of this century. My next guest is tagging and tracking these animals to understand
1:42.5	how we might save him. Chris Ray is a research associate at the Institute of Alpine and Arctic Research
1:49.0	and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, right here in Boulder.
1:55.0	Welcome, Dr. Ray.
2:05.8	Describe for our radio audience what a what a pica looks like well you know it's the only animal with truly mickey mouse ears so it's about as big as your
2:12.4	fist it looks like a baked potato with Mickey Mouse ears I will never forget that now that you have described it that way.
2:21.0	And we have a sound clip of these guys calling. You've heard that often. Oh yeah. So they're not rodents.
2:31.2	They look like rodents, but they're not. No, they're just related to rabbits and hairs, and how often have you heard a rabbit or a hair?
2:37.5	I mean, pikas are unique in that they have a lot of vocalizations. It's really fun to listen to them.
2:42.7	So give me the day of a life of a typical pika. What is that like?
	...

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