Ecology / Conservation posts
- March 29, 2013
- 09:21 AM
- 95 views
The Wisdom of Wolves: A Reason for Hope
by Kimberly Moynahan in Endless Forms Most Beautiful
As the reader will discover, the wolves—given just a fragment of chance and space—wove a story while we, with our supposedly vast powers of imagination, did well to just sit back and watch and learn. –Rick Bass, Preface to the Mariner Books edition of The Ninemile Wolves (2003) This post is a final analysis of [...]... Read more »
Axelsson, E., Ratnakumar, A., Arendt, M., Maqbool, K., Webster, M., Perloski, M., Liberg, O., Arnemo, J., Hedhammar, �., & Lindblad-Toh, K. (2013) The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-rich diet. Nature, 495(7441), 360-364. DOI: 10.1038/nature11837
- March 28, 2013
- 06:10 AM
- 135 views
Message in a bottle
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
The oceans have long accumulated the waste products of civilization. Dumping at sea is banned, but to protect the marine environment we must also monitor litter on coastal lands and rivers.... Read more »
Nature Geoscience Editorial. (2013) Message in a bottle. Nature Geoscience, 6(4), 241-241. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1798
- March 26, 2013
- 06:00 PM
- 92 views
Wildlife Wednesday: Whio ducklings
by Amy Whitehead in Amy Whitehead's Research
These whio (pronounced “fee-0”) ducklings were just a few days old when I took this photo. They were some of the lucky ones, hatching in a river valley where introduced predators were kept at low numbers due to the hard … Continue reading →... Read more »
WHITEHEAD, A., EDGE, K-A., SMART, A., HILL, G., & WILLANS, M. (2008) Large scale predator control improves the productivity of a rare New Zealand riverine duck. Biological Conservation, 141(11), 2784-2794. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2008.08.013
WHITEHEAD, A., ELLIOTT, G., & MCINTOSH, A. (2010) Large-scale predator control increases population viability of a rare New Zealand riverine duck. Austral Ecology, 35(7), 722-730. DOI: 10.1111/j.1442-9993.2009.02079.x
- March 26, 2013
- 11:32 AM
- 145 views
Good Coot Parents Let Kids Starve, Make It Up to Them Later
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
Too many mouths to feed? Just make your babies fight each other to the death! That's a strategy some bird parents have been using since even before The Hunger Games was popular. It means the strongest chicks get stronger while the weakest ones conveniently stop showing up to the table.
One type of bird takes this family drama a step further: after letting the biggest chicks bully their siblings for a while, parents suddenly decide the runts are their favorites and begin beating up ........ Read more »
Shizuka, D., & Lyon, B. (2013) Family dynamics through time: brood reduction followed by parental compensation with aggression and favouritism. Ecology Letters, 16(3), 315-322. DOI: 10.1111/ele.12040
- March 25, 2013
- 01:11 PM
- 142 views
How Eating Monkey Meat Leads to Less Fruit
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
In Africa people eat monkey meat for the protein it contains. You can guess this is bad news for the monkey population, but it actually has far bigger consequences for the whole forrest and eventually for humans themselves. It could lead to less fruits and nuts, typically those that men also eat, like mango’s.... Read more »
Effiom EO, Nuñez-Iturri G, Smith HG, Ottosson U, & Olsson O. (2013) Bushmeat hunting changes regeneration of African rainforests. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 280(1759), 20130246. PMID: 23516245
- March 25, 2013
- 11:55 AM
- 141 views
Clean Coal Gets a Sponge
by Whitney Campbell in Green Screen
Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, the combustible, black rock we call coal was formed from the vast peat bogs of flooded forests. For centuries, people have burned lumps of coal for smoky fuel, such that opposition to its pollution had been voiced as early as the fourteenth century. Today, as anti-coal movements emphasize a role in climate change and miners cope with unemployment, a novel, microporous material may challenge objections to coal by cleaning up its carbon emissions.... Read more »
Lyndon R, Konstas K, Ladewig BP, Southon PD, Kepert PC, & Hill MR. (2013) Dynamic photo-switching in metal-organic frameworks as a route to low-energy carbon dioxide capture and release. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English). PMID: 23401101
Baxter PJ, Kapila M, & Mfonfu D. (1989) Lake Nyos disaster, Cameroon, 1986: the medical effects of large scale emission of carbon dioxide?. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 1437-1441. PMID: 2502283
Ahern MM, Hendryx M, Conley J, Fedorko E, Ducatman A, & Zullig KJ. (2011) The association between mountaintop mining and birth defects among live births in central Appalachia, 1996-2003. Environmental research, 838-46. PMID: 21689813
Hendryx M, Wolfe L, Luo J, & Webb B. (2012) Self-reported cancer rates in two rural areas of West Virginia with and without mountaintop coal mining. Journal of community health, 320-327. PMID: 21786205
- March 24, 2013
- 02:25 PM
- 262 views
Demystifying De-Extinction
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
The following article is a guest post by David Jachowski. Dr. Jachowski is an instructor at Virginia Tech and conducts research in the United States, Africa and southeast Asia on the conservation and restoration of wildlife. You can find more information about his research on his website:
So maybe genetically recreating the Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is a bad
idea. Long ... Read more »
Hansen, D., Donlan, C., Griffiths, C., & Campbell, K. (2010) Ecological history and latent conservation potential: large and giant tortoises as a model for taxon substitutions. Ecography. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2010.06305.x
Josh Donlan C, Berger J, Bock CE, Bock JH, Burney DA, Estes JA, Foreman D, Martin PS, Roemer GW, Smith FA.... (2006) Pleistocene rewilding: an optimistic agenda for twenty-first century conservation. The American Naturalist, 168(5), 660-81. PMID: 17080364
- March 22, 2013
- 07:08 PM
- 157 views
Wind Turbine Noise Is Harmless, Study Shows
by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion
A new study, done by scientists at The University of Nottingham, however, has found no link between the ‘measured’ level of noise from small and micro wind turbines and reports of ill health.... Read more »
Taylor, J., Eastwick, C., Lawrence, C., & Wilson, R. (2013) Noise levels and noise perception from small and micro wind turbines. Renewable Energy, 120-127. DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2012.11.031
Taylor, J., Eastwick, C., Wilson, R., & Lawrence, C. (2013) The influence of negative oriented personality traits on the effects of wind turbine noise. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(3), 338-343. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2012.09.018
- March 22, 2013
- 03:36 PM
- 144 views
Study Looks At Costs & Benefits of Switchgrass
by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion
A new study by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists provides an extensive analysis of costs and benefits of replacing home oil heating systems with switchgrass pellets powered ones.... Read more »
Wilson, T., McNeal, F., Spatari, S., G. Abler, D., & Adler, P. (2012) Densified Biomass Can Cost-Effectively Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Address Energy Security in Thermal Applications. Environmental Science , 46(2), 1270-1277. DOI: 10.1021/es202752b
- March 22, 2013
- 03:28 PM
- 130 views
Friday Roundup: This Week's Wildlife Links (March 23, 2013)
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
A wildlife population can sustain itself when at least one animal is born for every animal that dies. Conservation biologists generally have a rule of thumb regarding how many individual animals need to be in a population to make sure that population has a high chance of sticking around for over 100 years or so; conservation plans often try to boost troubled populations up to that magic number. ... Read more »
Shoemaker KT, Breisch AR, Jaycox JW, & Gibbs JP. (2013) Reexamining the Minimum Viable Population Concept for Long-Lived Species. Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology. PMID: 23458501
Brown, C., & Bomberger Brown, M. (2013) Where has all the road kill gone?. Current Biology, 23(6). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.02.023
- March 22, 2013
- 12:00 PM
- 148 views
Play Along as Sub Discovers Sunken Whale Bones Crawling with New Life Forms
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
Forget a needle in a haystack. For that search you'd be allowed light and air—and when you held the needle in your hand at last, it wouldn't be unrecognizably coated in bone-eating worms. Looking for whale skeletons on the ocean floor is such an impossible task that no one sets out to do it on purpose. The most recent find, lying near Antarctica and crawling with previously unseen species, was a very happy accident.
A dead whale that sinks all the way to the ocean floor is called a "wha........ Read more »
Amon, D., Glover, A., Wiklund, H., Marsh, L., Linse, K., Rogers, A., & Copley, J. (2013) The discovery of a natural whale fall in the Antarctic deep sea. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2013.01.028
- March 21, 2013
- 08:27 AM
- 94 views
Setting the record a little straighter regarding trade in African grey parrots
by GrrlScientist in Maniraptora
SUMMARY: I am trying to learn the truth regarding a published piece that caused at least one reader to ask: "Is this really true??? If it is not true how can they get away with saying this???" Read more... Read more »
Melo Martim, & O’Ryan Colleen. (2007) Genetic differentiation between Príncipe Island and mainland populations of the grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), and implications for conservation. Molecular Ecology, 16(8), 1673-1685. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.03128.x
Blackburn Tim M., Harvey Paul H., & Pagel Mark D. (1990) Species Number, Population Density and Body Size Relationships in Natural Communities. The Journal of Animal Ecology, 59(1), 335. DOI: 10.2307/5176
- March 20, 2013
- 04:44 PM
- 141 views
Are Cottonmouths Aggressive?
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
A
few years ago I was walking alongside the edge of pond in the Florida panhandle
when I was startled by some splashing noises in the water. I had accidentally
gotten too close to a Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon
piscivorus) and the snake was warning me away by vibrating its tail in the
water and flashing its white mouth. It was obvious to me that the snake thought... Read more »
Gibbons, J., & Dorcas, M. (2002) Defensive Behavior of Cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus) toward Humans. Copeia, 2002(1), 195-198. DOI: 10.1643/0045-8511(2002)002[0195:DBOCAP]2.0.CO;2
D. B. Means. (2010) Blocked-flight aggressive behavior in snakes. IRCF Reptiles and Amphibians, 17(2), 76. info:/
- March 20, 2013
- 10:21 AM
- 122 views
New Plankton Study Is Actually Bad News
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
brighter future for our environment because of the new findings about plankton? Jef Huisman, Professor in Aquatic Microbiology at the University of Amsterdam, doesn’t agree. He thinks the recently published ratios of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in plankton actually paint a gloomy picture of future marine life on our planet. It means less food for the fish.... Read more »
Martiny, A., Pham, C., Primeau, F., Vrugt, J., Moore, J., Levin, S., & Lomas, M. (2013) Strong latitudinal patterns in the elemental ratios of marine plankton and organic matter. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1757
- March 19, 2013
- 10:54 AM
- 106 views
There’s Gold in Them There Faults!
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
There’s a new way to search for gold. Just look for old earthquake faults. A team of Australian scientists have discovered that gold is created, almost instantly, during a major earthquake, and that amounts of gold created by a long-active fault can be substantial.... Read more »
Weatherley, D., & Henley, R. (2013) Flash vaporization during earthquakes evidenced by gold deposits. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1759
- March 19, 2013
- 04:30 AM
- 133 views
Mathematical models in finance and ecology
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Theoretical physicists have the reputation of an invasive species — penetrating into other fields and forcing their methods. Usually these efforts simply irritate the local researchers, building a general ambivalence towards field-hopping physicists. With my undergraduate training primarily in computer science and physics, I’ve experienced this skepticism first hand. During my time in Waterloo, I [...]... Read more »
May RM, Levin SA, & Sugihara G. (2008) Ecology for bankers. Nature, 451(7181), 893-5. PMID: 18288170
- March 18, 2013
- 05:39 PM
- 98 views
Biological Beta Testing: Altitudinal Edition
by Melissa Chernick in Science Storiented
Spatial patterns in biodiversity have always been a popular topic in ecology, and understanding these patterns helps us to address the looming threats to biodiversity.Did you notice how I made the word ‘patterns’ plural? There isn’t a whole separate field of biogeography for nothin’. Biological diversity is difficult (some say impossible) to measure using a single metric. How do you count things? Simply by the number of species? How about rare versus common species? What about species t........ Read more »
Mori, A., Shiono, T., Koide, D., Kitagawa, R., Ota, A., & Mizumachi, E. (2013) Community assembly processes shape an altitudinal gradient of forest biodiversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography. DOI: 10.1111/geb.12058
- March 18, 2013
- 08:59 AM
- 105 views
Plankton Stores Twice the CO2 We Expected
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
Nature Geoscience published a study this weekend about the true carbon richness of the trillions of plankton floating around in the oceans. It turns out to be way different than oceanographer Alfred Redfield reported back in 1934. This may brighten up the future of the environment.... Read more »
Martiny, A., Pham, C., Primeau, F., Vrugt, J., Moore, J., Levin, S., & Lomas, M. (2013) Strong latitudinal patterns in the elemental ratios of marine plankton and organic matter. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1757
- March 18, 2013
- 07:53 AM
- 137 views
Antarctica’s first whale skeleton found with nine new deep-sea species
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
Marine biologists have, for the first time, found a whale skeleton on the ocean floor near Antarctica, giving new insights into life in the sea depths. The discovery was made almost a mile below the surface in an undersea crater and includes the find of at least nine new species of deep-sea organisms thriving on the bones.
The research, involving the University of Southampton, Natural History Museum, British Antarctic Survey, National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and Oxford University, is publis........ Read more »
National Oceanography Centre. (2013) Antarctica’s first whale skeleton found with nine new deep-sea species. National Oceanography Centre News. info:/
- March 18, 2013
- 07:08 AM
- 158 views
The Centroid
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
Jeremy Miller went on a road trip to discover the centroid–a mathematically devised point on the U.S. map that shows where the population center is, based on the decennial census. Since 1790, the centroid has migrated roughly 870 miles southwest, from Baltimore to Missouri.
Read “The Centroid” to explore the catalysts behind population shifts, from immigration to technology to climate change, as well as the human desire to orient ourselves through connecting to a center.
........ Read more »
JEREMY MILLER. (2013) The Centroid. Orion Magazine. info:/
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