Animated Mangrove Swamp - Rachel Ignotofsky

Go on an illustrated adventure through a Florida mangrove swamp. New York Times best-selling author Rachel Ignotofsky has teamed up with animator Leo Thom and The Mangrove Action Project for this quick animated introduction: Ecosystem of the (Florida) Mangrove Swamp.

I have Ignotofsky’s picture book The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth.  It depicts the world’s diverse ecosystems—Rainforest, Desert, Arctic Sea, Red Wood Forest, Great Barrier Reef, and more—with her signature illustration style.

The book also introduces how our planet works and how we can protect it, highlighting furry and feathered apex predators, primary and secondary consumers, producers, scavengers, decomposers, and other creatures, fungi, and plants… including mangroves. From MangroveActionProject.org:

Although once thought of as useless wastelands, careful study and research has revealed that mangroves are among the most important ecosystems on this planet. Valued for anchoring coastal ecosystems as well as providing economic and ecosystem services to humans, mangrove forests are true treasures. The complexities of these systems are enormous, and there is still much to learn. Mangrove forests are highly interconnected within the ecosystem itself, but they also make up a transitional zone between land and ocean, connecting and supporting both. It is no surprise that mangroves are called “roots of the sea.”

Follow Rachel Ignotofsky on Instagram and Twitter, and check out her other best-selling books: Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World and Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win.

Interview with Fossil Hunter Michelle Barboza

The University of Florida’s Florida Museum of Natural History celebrated 100 years of inspiring people to care about life on Earth in 2017. To mark the closing of an era and the beginning of a new century, UF News profiled three Florida Museum women who are shaping the research institution’s future and breaking the cycle of stereotypes and misconceptions in the world of science. With modern tools like social media and podcasts, they continue the work of past and current museum women, who have fought for equality in their fields and for the visibility of women in science.

In this Becoming Visible video series and site, we meet Fossil Hunter Michelle Barboza, above, a Los Angeles native and graduate student who ‘accidentally’ became a scientist because of her love for the outdoors. Her podcast Femmes of STEM celebrates women who are scientists in the past with women who are scientists in the present.