Ecology / Conservation posts
- December 7, 2015
- 04:00 PM
- 610 views
Global CO2 Emissions Might Be Stalling
by Jenny Ludmer in Rooster's Report
No one wants to hear the stock market is down. But, if carbon emissions slow — well, that’s something to celebrate. And according to a new study, that just might be what our world is experiencing.... Read more »
C. Le Quéré, & et al. (2015) Global Carbon Budget 2015. Earth System Science Data, 7(2), 349-396. info:/10.5194/essd-7-349-2015
Jackson, R., Canadell, J., Le Quéré, C., Andrew, R., Korsbakken, J., Peters, G., & Nakicenovic, N. (2015) Reaching peak emissions. Nature Climate Change. DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2892
- December 5, 2015
- 11:58 AM
- 613 views
Marine Protections Are Sorely Lacking
by Jenny Ludmer in Rooster's Report
As awareness has increased across the world, marine protection areas have more than quadrupled over the last decade. And yet, according to a new study, that’s not nearly enough. Indeed, scientists have identified tens of thousands of species that rely on largely unprotected regions of the sea. But, fortunately they’ve got a plan.... Read more »
Klein, C., Brown, C., Halpern, B., Segan, D., McGowan, J., Beger, M., & Watson, J. (2015) Shortfalls in the global protected area network at representing marine biodiversity. Scientific Reports, 17539. DOI: 10.1038/srep17539
- December 4, 2015
- 02:00 PM
- 625 views
Is Science Becoming Irrelevant?
by Jenny Ludmer in Rooster's Report
Aaaah…Science. It may have tortured you in school, but if you’ve managed to skip polio, enjoyed the incredible photos of Pluto, or even just appreciate the gadget you are reading this on, please show Science some love. It’s feeling a little neglected today. For, according to a new study, it only takes an ounce of doubt to discredit all of Science’s hard work.... Read more »
McCright, A., Charters, M., Dentzman, K., & Dietz, T. (2015) Examining the Effectiveness of Climate Change Frames in the Face of a Climate Change Denial Counter-Frame. Topics in Cognitive Science. DOI: 10.1111/tops.12171
- December 3, 2015
- 08:06 AM
- 557 views
Penguins in a frying pan
by sceintists from the Marine group at CEES in Marine Science blog
Penguins are highly visible species for the public. Their life has been portrayed in many movies. Unfortunately they are also species impacted by climate change. In a recent publication a team led by Charles Bost used long-term data to relate the large-scale climatic anomalies in the Southern Hemisphere to the foraging behaviour and population dynamics of the king penguin.
... Read more »
Bost, C., Cotté, C., Terray, P., Barbraud, C., Bon, C., Delord, K., Gimenez, O., Handrich, Y., Naito, Y., Guinet, C.... (2015) Large-scale climatic anomalies affect marine predator foraging behaviour and demography. Nature Communications, 8220. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9220
Le Bohec, C., Durant, J., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Stenseth, N., Park, Y., Pradel, R., Gremillet, D., Gendner, J., & Le Maho, Y. (2008) King penguin population threatened by Southern Ocean warming. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(7), 2493-2497. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0712031105
- December 2, 2015
- 07:47 PM
- 750 views
The Many Stories of Climate Change
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
World leaders meet in Paris this week to agree to legally binding agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In honor of this historic conference, I take a look at a few stories around the world about how climate change already influences our global civilization.... Read more »
Rivero-Calle, S., Gnanadesikan, A., Del Castillo, C., Balch, W., & Guikema, S. (2015) Multidecadal increase in North Atlantic coccolithophores and the potential role of rising CO2. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa8026
- November 30, 2015
- 12:00 PM
- 688 views
Will the Paris Climate Talks Matter?
by Jenny Ludmer in Rooster's Report
Today, over 190 countries are convening in Paris with one ambitious goal: To reach an agreement for the global reduction of CO2 emissions. Perhaps you’re wondering if these talks even matter. After all, prior meetings have had little impact. (Kyoto or Copenhagen, anyone?) Fortunately, a new study addresses this question, and offers hope.... Read more »
Fawcett, A., Iyer, G., Clarke, L., Edmonds, J., Hultman, N., McJeon, H., Rogelj, J., Schuler, R., Alsalam, J., Asrar, G.... (2015) Can Paris pledges avert severe climate change?. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad5761
- November 28, 2015
- 04:25 PM
- 773 views
How early life may influence the way elephants age
by Shermin de Silva in Maximus
Insights from 50 years of records on the reproduction and aging of Myanmar's timber elephants.... Read more »
Clubb, R., Rowcliffe, M., Lee, P., Mar, K., Moss, C., & Mason, G. (2008) Compromised Survivorship in Zoo Elephants. Science, 322(5908), 1649-1649. DOI: 10.1126/science.1164298
Mumby, H., Courtiol, A., Mar, K., & Lummaa, V. (2013) Birth seasonality and calf mortality in a large population of Asian elephants. Ecology and Evolution, 3(11), 3794-3803. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.746
Mumby HS, Courtiol A, Mar KU, & Lummaa V. (2013) Climatic variation and age-specific survival in Asian elephants from Myanmar. Ecology, 94(5), 1131-41. PMID: 23858653
Mumby, H., Mar, K., Thitaram, C., Courtiol, A., Towiboon, P., Min-Oo, Z., Htut-Aung, Y., Brown, J., & Lummaa, V. (2015) Stress and body condition are associated with climate and demography in Asian elephants. Conservation Physiology, 3(1). DOI: 10.1093/conphys/cov030
de Silva, S., Webber, C., Weerathunga, U., Pushpakumara, T., Weerakoon, D., & Wittemyer, G. (2013) Demographic Variables for Wild Asian Elephants Using Longitudinal Observations. PLoS ONE, 8(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082788
Mumby, H., Mar, K., Hayward, A., Htut, W., Htut-Aung, Y., & Lummaa, V. (2015) Elephants born in the high stress season have faster reproductive ageing. Scientific Reports, 13946. DOI: 10.1038/srep13946
- November 25, 2015
- 09:50 AM
- 569 views
Video Tip of the Week: iDigBio for access to historical specimens and more
Usually for Thanksgiving week posting is light. In the past, we’ve all done turkey breeding and genomics, cranberry genome, and some people have included apples, potatoes, and more. But another key aspect of the holiday is to remember the past and thank those who came before. And as I was watching this video that crossed my […]... Read more »
Nelson, G., Sweeney, P., Wallace, L., Rabeler, R., Allard, D., Brown, H., Carter, J., Denslow, M., Ellwood, E., Germain-Aubrey, C.... (2015) Digitization Workflows for Flat Sheets and Packets of Plants, Algae, and Fungi. Applications in Plant Sciences, 3(9), 1500065. DOI: 10.3732/apps.1500065
Nelson, G., Paul, D., Riccardi, G., & Mast, A. (2012) Five task clusters that enable efficient and effective digitization of biological collections. ZooKeys, 19-45. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.209.3135
Jolley-Rogers, G., Varghese, T., Harvey, P., dos Remedios, N., & Miller, J. (2014) PhyloJIVE: Integrating biodiversity data with the Tree of Life. Bioinformatics, 30(9), 1308-1309. DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btu024
- November 24, 2015
- 12:10 PM
- 643 views
How Spider Personalities Affect Pest Control
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
They say you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. But what about with lazy spiders versus lively ones? When it comes to keeping pests at bay, the personalities of the spiders hunting them are important.
That's what two behavioral ecologists reported after watching bug dramas play out in a sunny hilltop alfalfa patch. Raphaël Royauté of North Dakota State University and Jonathan Pruitt of the University of Pittsburgh were studying the personalities of wolf spiders (Pardosa mi........ Read more »
Royauté, R., & Pruitt, J. (2015) Varying predator personalities generates contrasting prey communities in an agroecosystem. Ecology, 96(11), 2902-2911. DOI: 10.1890/14-2424.1
- November 21, 2015
- 05:09 PM
- 588 views
The mysterious fungus that has major health consequences
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Researchers at the University of Toronto examined fungi in the mucus of patients with cystic fibrosis and discovered how one particularly cunning fungal species has evolved to defend itself against neighbouring bacteria. A regular resident of our microbiome – and especially ubiquitous in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients -the Candida albicans fungus is an “opportunistic pathogen.”
... Read more »
Kim, S., Clark, S., Surendra, A., Copeland, J., Wang, P., Ammar, R., Collins, C., Tullis, D., Nislow, C., Hwang, D.... (2015) Global Analysis of the Fungal Microbiome in Cystic Fibrosis Patients Reveals Loss of Function of the Transcriptional Repressor Nrg1 as a Mechanism of Pathogen Adaptation. PLOS Pathogens, 11(11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005308
- November 20, 2015
- 03:45 PM
- 662 views
Horrible Gulls Are Eating Baby Whales Alive
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
Yes, it's important not to anthropomorphize other species or impose our values on them—but sometimes animals are just horrible. For example, kelp gulls. A few decades ago the birds in one part of Argentina realized that for a tasty snack, they could tear flesh from the backs of whales when they came up for air. Eventually the whales learned to protect themselves somewhat from the gulls. But now the gulls have shifted their attention to the whales' babies, and might be killing them.
Kelp........ Read more »
Marón CF, Beltramino L, Di Martino M, Chirife A, Seger J, Uhart M, Sironi M, & Rowntree VJ. (2015) Increased Wounding of Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena australis) Calves by Kelp Gulls (Larus dominicanus) at Península Valdés, Argentina. PloS one, 10(10). PMID: 26488493
- November 18, 2015
- 03:15 PM
- 876 views
Making climate change local: how to motivate city-wide adaptation strategies
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
More than 80% of the US population lives in cities, making their adaptation strategies one of the most important political decisions in the coming decades. Here we discuss a new study that identifies reasons why some cities have already prepared response programs while others haven't yet started.... Read more »
Carlson, K., & McCormick, S. (2015) American adaptation: Social factors affecting new developments to address climate change. Global Environmental Change, 360-367. DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.09.015
- November 15, 2015
- 03:19 PM
- 727 views
The rise of do-it-yourself biology
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
The Wilson Center’s Synthetic Biology Project has released a short documentary on the growth of the do-it-yourself biology (DIYbio) movement as seen through a community DIYbio lab in Baltimore, Maryland. ... Read more »
The Wilson Center. (2015) The rise of do-it-yourself biology: A look at the Baltimore Underground Science Space. Synthetic Biology Project. info:other/Link
- November 12, 2015
- 01:05 PM
- 428 views
Interdisciplinarity in action: a difference in perception
by sceintists from the Marine group at CEES in Marine Science blog
Interdisciplinarity is a central focus for many funding agencies. The argument for this is that only with scientists working together that some of the major questions of today could be answered. In a recent paper, a collection of students and post-doc from the NorMER network explored the difference of perception of scientists in function of their discipline: social science or natural science.
... Read more »
Boonstra, W., Ottosen, K., Ferreira, A., Richter, A., Rogers, L., Pedersen, M., Kokkalis, A., Bardarson, H., Bonanomi, S., Butler, W.... (2015) What are the major global threats and impacts in marine environments? Investigating the contours of a shared perception among marine scientists from the bottom-up. Marine Policy, 197-201. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2015.06.007
- November 11, 2015
- 11:10 AM
- 802 views
Short-term stability and long-term collapse: exploring the complex behavior of the Antarctic ice sheet
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
A recent study indicates that Antarctic sea ice is growing, but what about its long-term evolution? Read on to see what scientists have discovered about the Antarctic's future.... Read more »
Zwally JH et al. (2015) Mass gains of the Antarctic ice sheet exceed losses. Journal of Glaciology. DOI: 10.3189/2015JoG15J071
- November 11, 2015
- 10:10 AM
- 692 views
Monkeys Keep Their Food Clean, Sort Of
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
We all have our standards. For humans, it's the five-second rule. For macaques, it's "think twice before eating food off a pile of poop." The monkeys have several ways of keeping their food (sort of) clean. And the most fastidious macaques, it seems, are rewarded with fewer parasites.
On the Japanese island of Koshima, scientists have been studying Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) for nearly seven decades. The tiny, forested island is overrun with the monkeys, which live there naturally... Read more »
Sarabian C, & MacIntosh AJ. (2015) Hygienic tendencies correlate with low geohelminth infection in free-ranging macaques. Biology letters, 11(11). PMID: 26538539
- November 11, 2015
- 08:05 AM
- 1,270 views
Fish Guts and Cancer
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
E. fishelsoni s a bacterium that breaks the rules. It grows from 10 µm long to a fully visible 0.7 mm….in twelve hours! Normally, diffusion isn’t adequate for a bacterium this big because it takes too long for two interacting proteins to find one another. But what if the bacterium make more of the protein, so much more that it can find a partner all the time. How can you make that much of each protein? E. fishelsoni does it by making 85,000 copies of its genome….. ever........ Read more »
Bresler V, Montgomery WL, Fishelson L, Pollak PE. (1998) Gigantism in a bacterium, Epulopiscium fishelsoni, correlates with complex patterns in arrangement, quantity, and segregation of DNA. J Bacteriol., 180(21), 5061-5611. info:/9791108
- November 10, 2015
- 03:54 PM
- 883 views
Projects, papers and other pleasures
by Jente Ottenburghs in Evolutionary Stories
An overview of my PhD so far...... Read more »
Ottenburghs, J., Ydenberg, R., Van Hooft, P., Van Wieren, S., & Prins, H. (2015) The Avian Hybrids Project: gathering the scientific literature on avian hybridization. Ibis, 157(4), 892-894. DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12285
- November 9, 2015
- 01:17 PM
- 889 views
Solving the silicon swelling problem in batteries
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
Silicon anodes offer great capacity for next-generation batteries but suffer from volume expansion that degrades batteries. Here new research has found a clever method to allow for volume expansion and maintain their high potential capacity!... Read more »
Hassan FM, Batmaz R, Li J, Wang X, Xiao X, Yu A, & Chen Z. (2015) Evidence of covalent synergy in silicon-sulfur-graphene yielding highly efficient and long-life lithium-ion batteries. Nature communications, 8597. PMID: 26497228
- November 8, 2015
- 10:30 PM
- 777 views
Resistance to plant toxins in milkweed butterflies is linked to toxin storage for defense
by Betty Zou in Eat, Read, Science
Cornell biologists have shown that resistance to milkweed toxins is an evolutionary response to toxin sequestration as a defense mechanism and not as an adaptation to a toxic diet.... Read more »
Petschenka G, & Agrawal AA. (2015) Milkweed butterfly resistance to plant toxins is linked to sequestration, not coping with a toxic diet. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 282(1818). PMID: 26538594
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