Ecology / Conservation posts
- February 17, 2012
- 10:46 AM
- 948 views
A Scientist’s Worst Nightmare
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A detailed analysis of a new infographic dealing with the issue of falsification in scientific research.... Read more »
Ioannidis, J. (2005) Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. PLoS Medicine, 2(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
Moonesinghe, R., Khoury, M., & Janssens, A. (2007) Most Published Research Findings Are False—But a Little Replication Goes a Long Way. PLoS Medicine, 4(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040028
Young NS, Ioannidis JP, & Al-Ubaydli O. (2008) Why current publication practices may distort science. PLoS medicine, 5(10). PMID: 18844432
Fanelli D. (2009) How many scientists fabricate and falsify research? A systematic review and meta-analysis of survey data. PloS one, 4(5). PMID: 19478950
- February 17, 2012
- 02:33 AM
- 547 views
Myrrh trees (Commiphora) are useful things...
by Colin Beale in Safari Ecology
Most Commiphora have distinctive peeling bark, Eyasi Aug 2011. Having last week given you the bad news about the biological warfare that plants with thorns are engaging in, I thought it only fair to share some tips that may help you stave off those tropical nasties threatening to kill you... So the good news is that some of those very same thorny trees that are out to get you also hold the cure in their sap. Traditional healers and many folk still living in the country have long known about the ........ Read more »
Bakari, G., Max, R., Mdegela, R., Phiri, E., & Mtambo, M. (2012) Antiviral activity of crude extracts from Commiphora swynnertonii against Newcastle disease virus in ovo. Tropical Animal Health and Production. DOI: 10.1007/s11250-012-0076-6
- February 17, 2012
- 01:11 AM
- 531 views
Tiger beetles in southeast Missouri
by Ted MacRae in Beetles in the Bush
Volume 43(3) of the journal CICINDELA was published a few weeks ago, and I can truly lay more claim to the issue than anybody else (except perhaps Managing Editor Ron Huber). In addition to having one of my photos (a face-on shot of Tetracha carolina) featured on the cover, I was coauthor on the first [...]... Read more »
Fothergill, K., C. B. Cross, K. V. Tindall, T. C. MacRae and C. R. Brown. (2011) Tetracha carolina L. (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) associated with polypipe irrigation systems in southeastern Missouri agricultural lands. CICINDELA, 43(3), 45-58. info:/
- February 15, 2012
- 10:31 PM
- 542 views
Badger culling in the U.K. – step one: cull badgers, step two: …?, step three: profit!
by Austin Bouck in Animal Science Review
Badger culling has been a part of TB control in the United Kingdom since 1973. Despite this and other programs in place, incidence of TB has only increased during that time. In the thousands of biological and environmental risk factors that have been associated with TB infection risk, Badgers have been identified as an important reservoir and potential vectors for the disease...... Read more »
Donnelly CA, Woodroffe R, Cox DR, Bourne J, Gettinby G, Le Fevre AM, McInerney JP, & Morrison WI. (2003) Impact of localized badger culling on tuberculosis incidence in British cattle. Nature, 426(6968), 834-7. PMID: 14634671
Donnelly CA, Wei G, Johnston WT, Cox DR, Woodroffe R, Bourne FJ, Cheeseman CL, Clifton-Hadley RS, Gettinby G, Gilks P.... (2007) Impacts of widespread badger culling on cattle tuberculosis: concluding analyses from a large-scale field trial. International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, 11(4), 300-8. PMID: 17566777
Donnelly CA, Woodroffe R, Cox DR, Bourne FJ, Cheeseman CL, Clifton-Hadley RS, Wei G, Gettinby G, Gilks P, Jenkins H.... (2006) Positive and negative effects of widespread badger culling on tuberculosis in cattle. Nature, 439(7078), 843-6. PMID: 16357869
- February 15, 2012
- 01:15 PM
- 561 views
Does mountain biking always cause more impact?
by Ashley D in The Average Visitor
Mountain biking is generally considered a recreational activity that causes more impact to the environment than non-mechanized activities like hiking. Mountain biking has become a very popular outdoor recreation activity in the United States and it’s popularity is increasing across the globe as well. … Continue reading →... Read more »
Pickering CM, Rossi S, & Barros A. (2011) Assessing the impacts of mountain biking and hiking on subalpine grassland in Australia using an experimental protocol. Journal of environmental management, 92(12), 3049-57. PMID: 21856066
- February 15, 2012
- 11:45 AM
- 302 views
America’s suburban future
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
If you think American cities are sprawling now, just wait until 2025. In that time, the U.S. population will grow by 18 percent but the amount of developed land will increase 57 percent. Up to 9.2 percent of the lower 48 could be urbanized by then. And while that number includes cities and the infrastructure [...]... Read more »
Alig, R., Kline, J., & Lichtenstein, M. (2004) Urbanization on the US landscape: looking ahead in the 21st century. Landscape and Urban Planning, 69(2-3), 219-234. DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2003.07.004
White, E., Morzillo, A., & Alig, R. (2009) Past and projected rural land conversion in the US at state, regional, and national levels. Landscape and Urban Planning, 89(1-2), 37-48. DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2008.09.004
- February 15, 2012
- 11:45 AM
- 256 views
■ America’s suburban future
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
If you think American cities are sprawling now, just wait until 2025. In that time, the U.S. population will grow by 18 percent but the amount of developed land will increase 57 percent. Up to 9.2 percent of the lower 48 could be urbanized by then. And while that number includes cities and the infrastructure [...]... Read more »
Alig, R., Kline, J., & Lichtenstein, M. (2004) Urbanization on the US landscape: looking ahead in the 21st century. Landscape and Urban Planning, 69(2-3), 219-234. DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2003.07.004
White, E., Morzillo, A., & Alig, R. (2009) Past and projected rural land conversion in the US at state, regional, and national levels. Landscape and Urban Planning, 89(1-2), 37-48. DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2008.09.004
- February 15, 2012
- 08:46 AM
- 533 views
The wheatear's remarkable migration: Alaska to East Africa
by Colin Beale in Safari Ecology
A great piece of research came my way today, detailing the migration of the individual wheatears from their Alaskan breeding areas to winter territories in East Africa. We've long known this must happen, as pretty much all the world's Northern Wheatears Oenanthe oenanthe spend the winter in Africa, but now technology has allowed us to follow individual birds on their 14,600km long migration from Alaska to East Africa and back. It's a remarkable story, not least that a 20g songbird can repeatedly........ Read more »
Bairlein, F., Norris, D., Nagel, R., Bulte, M., Voigt, C., Fox, J., Hussell, D., & Schmaljohann, H. (2012) Cross-hemisphere migration of a 25 g songbird. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1223
- February 15, 2012
- 08:00 AM
- 569 views
Miniature chameleons: beyond the “Squee!”
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
The discovery of several new tiny species of chameleons is making the round in science news this week. When I heard about them, I went to the paper and to see the pictures of them. And they are amazing! Look at juveniles in B and C – they are irresistible.
You went, “Squee!”, didn’t you?
This is Brookesia micra, the smallest of the new species. There are four species described in this paper, shown below:
From top to bottom, they are Brookesia tristis, Brookesia confidens, Brookesia........ Read more »
Glaw F, Köhler J, Townsend T, & Vences M. (2012) Rivaling the world's smallest reptiles: discovery of miniaturized and microendemic new species of leaf chameleons (Brookesia) from Northern Madagascar. PLoS ONE, 7(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031314
- February 14, 2012
- 09:26 AM
- 271 views
Alternative maps of America
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Esquire explores the United States of 2012 from a cartographic perspective. Don’t miss Eric Fischer’s contribution, which delightfully explores cultural meaning in the United States—places where we tweet, tag, and photograph. ∞∞
... Read more »
Thiemann, C., Theis, F., Grady, D., Brune, R., & Brockmann, D. (2010) The Structure of Borders in a Small World. PLoS ONE, 5(11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015422
- February 14, 2012
- 03:04 AM
- 581 views
Tarangire wildebeest migration
by Colin Beale in Safari Ecology
Tarangire wildebeest on the move, Sep 2011. Following the ATBC / SCB conference in June I mentioned a talk by Thomas Morrison on the movements of the wildebeest in Tarangire. The Tarangire migrations is, of course, tiny in comparison to the better known Serengeti migration and involves a different race of wildebeest (C. t. mearnsi in Serengeti, C. t. albojubatus in Tarangire) , but it's just as interesting to understand, and Tom and his supervisor Doug have recently published some work describin........ Read more »
Morrison, T., & Bolger, D. (2012) Wet season range fidelity in a tropical migratory ungulate. Journal of Animal Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01941.x
- February 13, 2012
- 03:00 PM
- 743 views
Green Super Rice: Is It the Solution to Feeding More than 7 Billion People?
by United Academics in United Academics
According to John Vidal from The Observer, scientist Zhikang Li may become one of the most important people of the century, and yet his name remains mainly unknown. He is responsible for the development of the so-called “green super rice”; different kinds of strongly resistant rice that haven’t been genetically modified.... Read more »
Cheng L, Wang Y, Meng L, Hu X, Cui Y, Sun Y, Zhu L, Ali J, Xu J, & Li Z. (2012) Identification of salt-tolerant QTLs with strong genetic background effect using two sets of reciprocal introgression lines in rice. Genome / National Research Council Canada , 55(1), 45-55. PMID: 22181322
- February 12, 2012
- 01:03 PM
- 559 views
On introducing elephants to Australia...
by Colin Beale in Safari Ecology
Sometimes scientists suggest the mostabsurd things. In the news last week (with thanks to an Australianfriend for tipping me off) was a paper published in the prestigiousjournal Nature that suggested in the text and headline that Australiashould introduce elephants to control an invasive grass thatoriginally came from Africa: Gamba grass, Andropogon guyanus. Theauthor made a number of sound observations: Australia (like too muchof the world) is riddled with invasive species, has suffered amassiv........ Read more »
Bowman, D. (2012) Conservation: Bring elephants to Australia?. Nature, 482(7383), 30-30. DOI: 10.1038/482030a
- February 11, 2012
- 04:27 PM
- 109 views
If you’ve seen one elephant, have you seen them all?
by Shermin de Silva in Elephants of Uda Walawe
“A horse is a horse” – but is any elephant just another elephant? Few people realize that Asian and African elephants are about as different from one another as we are from chimpanzees. That’s not an exaggeration – the estimated … Continue reading →... Read more »
Eggert, L., Rasner, C., & Woodruff, D. (2002) The evolution and phylogeography of the African elephant inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequence and nuclear microsatellite markers. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 269(1504), 1993-2006. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2002.2070
Wildman, D. (2003) Implications of natural selection in shaping 99.4% nonsynonymous DNA identity between humans and chimpanzees: Enlarging genus Homo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(12), 7181-7188. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1232172100
de Silva, S., Ranjeewa, A., & Kryazhimskiy, S. (2011) The dynamics of social networks among female Asian elephants. BMC Ecology, 11(1), 17. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6785-11-17
de Silva, S., & Wittemyer, G. (2012) A Comparison of Social Organization in Asian Elephants and African Savannah Elephants. International Journal of Primatology. DOI: 10.1007/s10764-011-9564-1
- February 11, 2012
- 02:00 PM
- 292 views
If you've seen one elephant, have you seen them all?
by Shermin de Silva in Elephants of Uda Walawe
A side-by-side comparison of Asian and African elephant societies shows that the two species are not as similar as one might think, overturning decades of popular depictions of elephants which paint the two species as identical.... Read more »
Eggert, L., Rasner, C., & Woodruff, D. (2002) The evolution and phylogeography of the African elephant inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequence and nuclear microsatellite markers. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 269(1504), 1993-2006. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2002.2070
Wildman, D. (2003) Implications of natural selection in shaping 99.4% nonsynonymous DNA identity between humans and chimpanzees: Enlarging genus Homo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(12), 7181-7188. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1232172100
de Silva, S., Ranjeewa, A., & Kryazhimskiy, S. (2011) The dynamics of social networks among female Asian elephants. BMC Ecology, 11(1), 17. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6785-11-17
de Silva, S., & Wittemyer, G. (2012) A Comparison of Social Organization in Asian Elephants and African Savannah Elephants. International Journal of Primatology. DOI: 10.1007/s10764-011-9564-1
- February 10, 2012
- 11:17 AM
- 577 views
What your intoor/outdoor cat could be sharing with the local pumas
by Austin Bouck in Animal Science Review
Generally not small talk, though I imagine they might be interested in the projections for this year's salmon run (pause for polite awkward laughter). A new article from PLoS ONE has been discussed, implying that, while direct contact may not be routine, exchange of disease between domesticated and wild cats may be fairly common.... Read more »
Sarah N. Bevins1*, Scott Carver2, Erin E. Boydston, Lisa M. Lyren, Mat Alldredge, Kenneth A. Logan, Seth P. D. Riley, Robert N. Fisher, T. Winston Vickers, Walter Boyce, Mo Salman, Michael R. Lappin.... (2012) Three Pathogens in Sympatric Populations of Pumas, Bobcats, and Domestic Cats: Implications for Infectious Disease Transmission. PLoS ONE. info:/
- February 10, 2012
- 12:59 AM
- 470 views
Why is the African Savanna so full of thorns?
by Colin Beale in Safari Ecology
Giraffe lick leaves between thorns. Note how obvious the white thorns are. Spinescence. Now there's a word! It simply means having spines and one of the first things many visitorsto the African savannah notice is that everything is covered inthorns. Or, in other words, Africa is spinescent. It's not a wise idea to brush past a bush when you'rewalking, and you certainly want to keep arms and legs inside a carthrough narrow tracks. These are thorns that puncture heavy-duty cartyres, let alone deli........ Read more »
Halpern, M., Raats, D., & Lev-Yadun, S. (2007) Plant biological warfare: thorns inject pathogenic bacteria into herbivores. Environmental Microbiology, 9(3), 584-592. DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01174.x
Wilson, S., & Kerley, G. (2003) The effect of plant spinescence on the foraging efficiency of bushbuck and boergoats: browsers of similar body size. Journal of Arid Environments, 55(1), 150-158. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-1963(02)00254-9
- February 9, 2012
- 10:53 AM
- 420 views
When Did Cetaceans Evolve Echolocation?
by Jim Ryan in Wild Mammals
Modern whales include baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti). Baleen whales are large, filter feeding whales that do not echolocate. Odontocete whales tend to be smaller in size, predatory, and are capable of producing high-frequency sounds used in echolocation. In addition, modern odonotcetes have an asymmetrical skull, where the bones of the skull roof extend posteriorly (telescoped) and are shifted to the left side of the skull (asymmetry) (Figure 1). This pronounce........ Read more »
Fahlke, J., Gingerich, P., Welsh, R., & Wood, A. (2011) Cranial asymmetry in Eocene archaeocete whales and the evolution of directional hearing in water. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(35), 14545-14548. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1108927108
- February 9, 2012
- 03:22 AM
- 579 views
How the zebra got his stripes?
by Colin Beale in Safari Ecology
Most animals in the savanna come in one shade of brown or another, except for zebra. Zebra, as everyone knows, are stripey. Black with white stripes, at that; or are they white with black stripes? Anyway, why they're stripey has puzzled many people for a very long time: even Wallace and Darwin debated whether zebra stripes make them conspicuous or not! For stripes to have evolved there must be some evolutionary advantage, but what, exactly is it? There are a huge number of theories out the........ Read more »
Egri, A., Blaho, M., Kriska, G., Farkas, R., Gyurkovszky, M., Akesson, S., & Horvath, G. (2012) Polarotactic tabanids find striped patterns with brightness and/or polarization modulation least attractive: an advantage of zebra stripes. Journal of Experimental Biology, 215(5), 736-745. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.065540
- February 8, 2012
- 10:56 AM
- 543 views
Friends with Benefits
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
"It is not so much our friends' help that helps usas the confident knowledge that they will help us."-Epicurus, Greek philosopher (341 - 270 BC)“Silences make the real conversations between friends.Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.”-Margaret Lee Runbeck, American author (1905 - 1956)photo by Jérôme Micheletta, Macaca Nigra ProjectWhere would we be without our friends? Friends lend a hand in bad times and cheer uson in good times. They make us laugh, share their fo........ Read more »
Micheletta, J., & Waller, B. (2012) Friendship affects gaze following in a tolerant species of macaque, Macaca nigra. Animal Behaviour, 83(2), 459-467. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.018
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