University of Florida News

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Flowering plants near ponds may owe their pollination not only to the winged creatures of the air, but also to the finned ones of the deep.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As the boom in residential construction alters the landscape and boosts demand for energy and water, a new University of Florida program is helping developers build communities that protect the environment while maintaining the economic benefits of growth.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Polar bears and people, at the chilly top of the Arctic’s food chain, risk consuming a smorgasbord of industrial pollutants that have seeped into their habitat and pose potential health hazards.

VERO BEACH, Fla. — Tiny, blood-sucking flies that plague Florida’s coastline should be less common this fall, thanks to summer rains that flooded areas where the pests breed, says a University of Florida expert.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — To meet the needs of today’s University of Florida community without compromising its future generations of students, faculty and staff, UF has announced it will open an Office of Sustainability.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Broken sewers, flooded industrial plants and dead bodies are all likely to blame for poisoning the waters being drained from New Orleans.
But the water – and the muck it is leaving behind — also owes its contamination to a source as mundane as it is unexpected: Toxins common in most urban environments [...]

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Stucco, a cement-based product used to coat buildings, may have been wrongly blamed for causing at least some of the leaks that struck thousands of Central Florida homes during the 2004 hurricane season, says a University of Florida expert investigating stucco’s water resistance.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Along the nation’s coastlines, marinas are being replaced by high-priced residential and commercial developments, a trend that leaves increasing numbers of boat owners high and dry, unable to access marine waters.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The gopher tortoise, a burrowing reptile unique to the U.S. Southeast, is gradually disappearing because the dry, sandy upland where it commonly dwells is ideal for development. But University of Florida researchers say the tortoise’s ability to survive in coastal areas may be one key to future preservation efforts.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Prehistoric big game hunters and not the last ice age are the likely culprits in the extinction of giant ground sloths and other North American great mammals such as mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed tigers, says a University of Florida researcher.