Biodiversity

Voracious Invader May Be Nearing Lake Michigan

New York Times (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009

Evidence of Asian carp, a fish that some fear could destroy the ecosystem of Lake Michigan, has been found beyond a barrier intended to keep the fish out.

When mammoths roamed

Gene Expression (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009

Pleistocene Megafaunal Collapse, Novel Plant Communities, and Enhanced Fire Regimes in North America : Although the North American megafaunal extinctions and the formation of novel plant communities are well-known features of the last deglaciation, the causal relationships between these phenomena are unclear. Using the dung fungus Sporormiella and other paleoecological proxies from Appleman Lake,...

Asian carp may have breached electronic barrier

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Asian carp may have breached an electronic barrier designed to prevent the giant invaders from upsetting the ecosystem in the Great Lakes and jeopardizing a $7 billion sport fishery, officials said Friday.

Invasion of the Fish Snatchers?

Green Options (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009

Bighead carp are one of two non-native species of Asian carp causing widespread concern among Great Lakes advocates. The other is silver carp. Great Lakes advocates are calling it a “ conservation emergency ” now that non-native Asian carp have been detected within seven miles of Lake Michigan. They want an immediate closure of locks and gateways leading to the lake in a literally”last-ditch”...

The Week in Pictures: Rot-Proof Apple, Surprises at GreenBuild, Bacteria Lights Up Landmines, and More

Treehugger (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009

From the news that scientists have created a bacteria that lights up around landmines to the development of a rot-proof apple--that stays fresh for 4 months--a lot happened this week in green. A new study called The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) shows that putting money into protecting wetlands, coral reefs, and forests is a better investment than gold, Lloyd visited GreenBuild 2009...

Loose Feathers #213

A DC Birding Blog (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009

Emperor Penguins / Photo by lin padgham Bird and birding news A study of the fossil record argues that there were six genera and nine species of moas (much lower than other estimates) and that the North and South Islands of New Zealand have been geographically isolated for 20-30 million years. The Puerto Rican Nightjar's range is much than previously estimated ; in all this species has 1,400-2,000...

After Mastodons And Mammoths, A Transformed Landscape

Red Orbit (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009

Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals — including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground sloths and giant beavers — began their precipitous slide to extinction.And when their populations crashed, emptying a land whose diversity of large animals equaled or surpassed Africa's wildlife-rich Serengeti...

• After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape - Physorg
• After Mastodons and Mammoths, a Transformed Landscape - Newswise
• See the 5 articles on the same subject

Tracking A Mass Extinction Via Mastodon Poop

Ars Technica (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009

The Younger Dryas period was an era of extinctions and ecosystem change that occurred just prior to the end of the last ice age. It's also a hot area of research right now, with some researchers suggesting that a comet or meteor struck the earth over North America, killing off megafauna like mammoths and mastodons. That prompted a response that suggested the evidence for an impact might just be a...

20th November - Today's News

Weather & Earth Science News (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009

All news reports concerning flooding in Britain and Ireland are in the entry below Mini tornadoes spotted on Humber As the Australian heatwave continues, temperature records fall and fire burn Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica - were previous interglacials 6c warmer there than they are today? SOFIA seeks secrets of planetary birth Army Corp of Engineers blamed for for Hurricane Katrine levee breaches...

Unknowlingly consuming endangered tuna

Physorg (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009

While most of us would never willingly consume a highly endangered species, doing so might be as easy as plucking sushi from a bento box. New genetic detective work from the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History shows that bluefin tuna is routinely plated in sushi bars sampled in New York and Colorado. A quarter of what was labeled as tuna on sushi menus...

• Unknowlingly consuming endangered tuna - Eurekalert

Rate of Change

Chris Hamer-Hodges (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009

It's been a while since I have blogged about evolution or faith and science. But this article in New Scientist has provoked me again. The debate between evolutionists and creationists often goes nowhere, in my opinion. The Darwinists' understanding of the science is often much better and the creationists' arguments are often embarrassingly poorly constructed and as such are easily torn to pieces. However...

Helping Old Forests Stabilize Climate 2009: Ecological Internet $75,000 Year-End Fund-Raiser

Water Conservation Blog (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009

Please support EI's proven Internet-based global advocacy to achieve ecological science-based ecosystem protection and restoration - http://www.climateark.org/shared/donate/ Dear Earth colleagues, I have just come from the rainforest, and things are not looking good. Old forests continue to needlessly fall, even as abrupt runaway climate change appears imminent. Today Ecological Internet launches our...

Kenya evicts thousands of forest squatters in attempt to save Rift valley

Desdemona Despair (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009

Tourism, tea and energy industries threatened after a quarter of huge Mau forest destroyed in 20 years By Xan Rice in Nairobi, www.guardian.co.uk , Wednesday 18 November 2009 22.48 GMT Several thousand people who had settled illegally in Kenya's most important forest have left their homes at the beginning of an eviction plan designed to end rampant environmental degradation in the Rift valley. Security...

Japan Hoarded Tuna To Keep Sushi Price Down?

Kurashi - News From Japan (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009

Astonishing - the Japanese government admits to having hoarded some 25,000 tonnes of tuna, thus "there is no reason to fear tuna prices will spike or that the inventories of tuna will run out," the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries said at a news conference, according to Kyodo News . Hirotaka Akamatsu inherited this problem - and the inventory - from the LDP government, but...

Group on Earth Observations Meets to Strengthen Access to Data and Information on Biodiversity, Forest Carbon and Other Global Issues

Space Ref (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009

Some 80 nations, the European Commission and 56 international organizations are coordinating their Earth observation assets and strategies through GEO.

HOTMED Project: a new family tree

patrickguillard | 12/31/2008

Financed under the FP6 and partly by the international grant Marie Curie, the HOTMED project (Evolutionary origin of biodiversity hotspots with a Mediterranean climate)has participated to the set up of a new family tree of proteas (commonly known as sugarbushes) that reveals that new species of these plants are appearing three times faster in biodiversity hotspots.

Delphi and Autonet Mobile to develop mobile internet connectivity for cars

trymi | 11/05/2008

Delphi and Autonet Mobile are currently designing the next generation telematics platform that will provide entertainment, downloadable content and many other forms of media which will produce a new ecosystem of profits for OEMs.

Acidification – Marine life takes a bad trip

ciesm news | 10/06/2008

Owing to the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide being released to the atmosphere “ocean acidification may soon threaten unique ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea”, concluded an international group of 15 leading scientists who just met in Menton, France, at the invitation of the Mediterranean Science Commission (CIESM). This International Commission federates over 4000 researchers distributed around