This activity guide introduces the topic of plant reproduction. Within this guide are five activities: firstly, to help understand plant reproduction structure, followed by activities to understand processes of sexual and asexual reproduction.

Researchers have uncovered the highest-ever concentration of microplastics on the seafloor. According to a new study in the journal Science, scientists recently found 1.9 million pieces in an area of about 11 square feet in the Mediterranean Sea. Over 10 million tons of plastic waste enter oceans each year - but the visible floating plastic that has led to anti-straw and anti-plastic bag movements accounts for less than 1% of the ocean's total plastic.

Laura Bankey, Director of Conservation at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, guides us through the Fort McHenry Wetland. This 7-acre protected marsh was created in the 1980's as mitigation for the Fort McHenry Tunnel, and it provides critical habitat for wildlife in this heavily industrialized portion of the Chesapeake Bay. However, trash and debris are a major problem that must be managed through the help of community volunteers.

Our ocean and the array of species that call it home are succumbing to the poison of plastic. Examples abound, from the gray whale that died after stranding near Seattle in 2010 with more than 20 plastic bags, a golf ball, and other rubbish in its stomach to the harbor seal pup found dead on the Scottish island of Skye, its intestines fouled by a small piece of plastic wrapper. According to the United Nations, at least 800 species worldwide are affected by marine debris, and as much as 80 percent of that litter is plastic.

Various components of the overall pollutant loading picture of the Lake are known or have recently been estimated from data that is available. For example, there are quite a few spot or point analyses of pollutant levels at most of the significant inflows into the Lake, such as at municipal discharge points and mouths of major tributaries. Generally lacking at these points to establish pollutant loading levels are volume flow measurements and a statistically significant number of samples over an extended period of time.

A 2015 report by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights also found pervasive problems associated with mining projects in territories where Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent live in the Americas, including contamination of soil and water and other negative health effects. And yet, pollution and other environmental problems aren't always viewed as examples of racial inequity.

The struggle to find clean drinking water has become a way of life for the residents of East Orosi. But they're not alone. Like a growing number of California's poor people, they're paying for water that's not fit to drink. One in 10 Californians in two major agricultural regions pays high rates for well water that's laced with nitrates, pesticides and other pollutants. Most are low-income Latinos; many speak only Spanish.

This interactive map allows users to visualize watersheds, subbasins, urban areas, impaired waterways, and rivers in the Pontchartrain Basin.

This interactive map allows users to visualize watersheds, subbasins, urban areas, impaired waterways, and rivers in the Pontchartrain Basin.

Use this website from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to learn more about the water cycle, weather and climate, technology, and societal applications of studying precipitation.