All Your Bees Are Gone? Well That Sure Stings!

Bees are awesome, and we should protect them!
Image taken from Science News

Beginning with the invention of the scarecrow, humans have continued to search for new ways to protect the vital crops that our society depends on. The scarecrow has now been replaced with pesticides, and along with it, a vast array of unwanted ecological consequences have occurred.

One unwanted effect of pesticide use has been the global decline of wild Honey and Bumble Bee populations. Bees, as well as other insects, are the primary pollinators for the majority of the world’s flowering plants. From an agricultural standpoint, bees are responsible for the pollination of many of the crops commonly produced in the United States such as apples, tomatoes, and cauliflower. Without the assistance provided by bees in the pollination of crops, the agricultural industry would find itself in a difficult position.

A class of insecticides, called neonicotinoids, commonly used in the agricultural industry, has been found to be the cause behind the decline of bee populations. A recent study published in Science Magazine has discovered that non-lethal doses of neonicotinoids, similar to the amount found in the crops pollinated by bees,  have a negative impact on the success rates of bee foraging, as well the production of viable queen bees. Due to the decrease in their survival rates, as well as the ability to produce successful bee colonies, the wild bee population in many parts of the Unites States has declined, some populations more drastically than others.

The ecological and financial impact of a major decline in the bee population could result in the loss of bilions; both in the number of organisms that would be affected by their absence, as well as the annual GDP resulting from the crops they help produce. At the moment there is still much debate as to the accuracy of the studies, as well as how to go about protecting bees from the consequences of pesticide use. One thing for certain, without some form of change in how our crops are being protected, the bee population will continue to diminish.

For more information regarding the article on the Impact of Pesticides on Bees.
For the research paper published in Science Magazine.

-Joel Kirksey

Lessons from Nature

A fish eagle snatches a young Nile crocodile in Selous Game reserve, Tanzania Photo: Mark Sheridan-Johnson. Story here.

Remember, you are only on top of the food chain until someone bigger comes along.

Costa Rica Bans Shark Finning

On Wednesday, Costa Rica passed a law banning the practice of shark finning in its coastal waters. Finning occurs when fishermen catch sharks, remove their fins, and then discard the remainder overboard. Oftentimes, the sharks are alive during this process, and are left to die in the ocean. Catching sharks for food is still legal under this law.

Shark finning is illegal in the waters of many nations, including the United States and the European Union. The main motivation for the practice is mostly due to the popularity of shark fin soup in Asian markets, especially in China. Much of a shark's body is not valuable relative to the fins, and it is much easier to transport many fins rather than fewer dead sharks, leading to finning as a method to conserve transport space and maximize profits.

Fishermen who practice finning tend to focus on pelagic sharks such as Shortfin Mako and Blue sharks, which act as top predators in their ecosystems. In addition to the normal increases in fishing due to superior technology and greater numbers of workers, shark finning in particular magnifies the effect of overfishing by allowing the harvest of many more sharks than if they were taken whole. Combined with the long development times of most shark species, such practices can be devastating to adult shark populations.

There is not only danger for the species threatened by the practice. As top predators, their depleted numbers have the potential to cause trophic cascades, affecting the entire food web below them. A simple example of a predator regulating an ecosystem can be seen in the relation between kelp forests and urchin barrens: Sea Otters act as a major predator of urchins. When sea otter populations decline, urchin populations increase due to decreased predation. Urchins feed upon kelp, by severing the kelp at its holdfast. This increase in urchin population causes a decrease in kelp density, to the point that some areas are barren of kelp entirely. Piscovorous sharks could easily regulate the pelagic system in a similar manner.

See the full article at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/11/uk-costarica-sharks-ban-idUSLNE89A00820121011

- Colin Fujii

Human Pathogen Causing Disease in Coral

A recent study has proven that white pox disease of Caribbean elkhorn coral is caused by a human pathogen present in the wastewater.  What does this tell us about our sewage systems and their effect on the environment?  We need a better filtration system, and need to create a better way to get rid of our “waste.” 

Research was done in Key West, Florida on the strains of pathogens present in the coral, humans, and other animals, such as Key deer and seagulls.  The human strain of the pathogen (found in human sewage) directly matched the strain found in white pox coral.  This is a disturbing fact, considering the cause of this pathogen has had serious detrimental effects on the state of coral off the coast of Florida. 

Once the strain was matched, experiments were conducted in closed seawater tanks to test the spread of the human pathogen to the coral, and within five days, the elkhorn coral was infected.  And this was just in a closed, experimental environment.  Imagine the effects that a much larger amount of waste have had on a much broader area of coral reefs.  The experiments were specifically done in closed environments as not to harm the remaining uninfected coral.

Serratia marcescens is the pathogen found in humans, commonly causing infections in newborn children and immune-compromised adults.  This situation is a primary example of what we typically see the opposite of in nature - a human to wildlife spread of disease.   Examples of wildlife to human spread  of disease are those such as HIV and birdflu. In fact, based on their findings and ecological history, this is the first time that human disease has caused a population decline of marine invertebrates. 

Luckily, this pathogen spread can be controlled and we have the means to stop it.   Water treatment plans will help to eliminate the spread of the bacterium, and have been set up across the entire Florida Keys. Do you think these treatment plans will work? And are we already too late?  If we have the means to more efficiently “clean” are waste, should we be utilizing different methods and possibly think of other ways to dispose of it?

The full article can be found here: http://www.macroevolution.net/white-pox.html#.UHdarfnuXOZ

-Kirby Welsh

Martha

One of the recurring themes of this class is that we should put more effort into conservation BEFORE species become too rare (and probably less effort into it once the situation is hopeless.) I'm reminded of this when I look at how Passenger Pigeons were treated before and after their demise.


Before
At Woodstock, Ontario, about 1870, Dr. A.B. Welford found himself well placed under the path of a huge flock of passenger pigeons. He started shooting early in the morning, using a double-barreled muzzle-loader. By 10 a.m. he had run out of ammunition after killing more than 400 birds. The pigeons continued to stream low over a fence behind which the doctor was hiding, so he grabbed a long rail, held it aloft and found he could easily bring down more birds. The doctor was proud of his exploit, and since the supply of game seemed inexhaustible—the flight lasted for several days—he allowed his experiences to appear in The Ibis, a magazine for bird lovers.
(From  Sports Illustrated)

After (the last bird, Martha died in 1914)
"Martha" was on display in the Bird Hall in the 1920s through the early 1950s, and in the Birds of the World exhibit that ran from 1956 until 1999. She has left the Smithsonian Institution twice since arriving here. In 1966 she was displayed in San Diego at the San Diego Zoological Society’s Golden Jubilee Conservation Conference. In June 1974 she returned to the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens for the dedication of a new building named in her honor. Both times she was flown first class, with an airline flight attendant escorting her for the entire trip.
(From the Smithsonian)

First Class? Seriously, a dead bird?

You can hear John Herald's song, Martha, last of the passenger pigeons, at his website here. (Warning folk music ahead).

Teh kitteh carnage

I should save this for our upcoming lecture on alien and invasive species but I'll probably forget so here is the Oatmeal on How Much do Cats Actually Kill?

Note that although this is a humorous cartoon it is actually based on science (Science!) from the Kitty Cams project.

Metacommunities

Metapopulations are so last decade. All the hip kids are now into 'metacommunities' - sets of local communities that are linked by dispersal of multiple interacting species. Although this idea was suggested in 1992 (Complex Interactions in Metacommunities, with Implications for Biodiversity and Higher Levels of Selection) it has really only reached buzzword status in the last few years (eg The metacommunity concept: a framework for multi-scale community ecology.)

Here's a recent example with conservation implications that is very accessible: Plant extinction dynamics in an insular metacommunity.


In an attempt to better understand the causes of variation in species turnover, we quantified the colonization and extinction dynamics of woody plants inhabiting a temperate island archipelago. We measured the population sizes of 10 woody plant species on 18 islands off the west coast of Canada in 1997. Islands were resampled a decade later and the resulting data were used to answer four questions: 1) Is there evidence for species turnover? 2) If so, is colonization balanced by extinction? 3) Is among-island variation in species turnover associated with average population sizes, average plant stature, island area, isolation or exposure to ocean-borne disturbances? 4) Is amongspecies variation in species turnover associated with interspecific  differences in leaf morphology?

Speaking of biodiversity...

From National Geographic this weekend: 

This Borneo horned frog was among thousands of species recorded during a recent biodiversity survey of Mount Kinabalu in northern Borneo.

While this frog isn't new to science, some 160 species discovered during the two-week expedition to the Southeast Asian island in September are, according to a team of Dutch and Malaysian biologists.

Novelties include previously undescribed species of spiders, beetles, snails, damselflies, termites, and flies.

"Mount Kinabalu carries quite a high proportion of species that are found nowhere else on earth," said expedition leader Menno Schilthuizen, of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands.

"Our aim was to find out more about how these endemic species have evolved," he said.

Puppet follow up

Best picture of a congressional committee ever.

How many puppets have testified before congress?

From Elmo's Wikipedia entry: Elmo is the only non-human or puppet ever to testify before the U.S. Congress. Elmo testified before the Education Appropriations subcommittee in 2002 in support of funding for music education programs. But Elmo was far from the first or only.

According to the Muppet Wiki's page on Kermit's political affiliation Kermit has testified before Congress several times coming out in support of the environment, protecting wetlands, and other "green" initiatives. Kermit appeared on Capitol Hill in March 2000 to support an animal welfare act and again in March 2008, where he spoke alongside conservationists to help promote awareness of endangered amphibians across the globe.

And the aforementioned Lamb Chop testified before Congress back in 1993 calling for better educational programming for children as actually required  by the 1990 Children's Television Act.

What do we conclude from this small sample? Well puppets seem to be a bunch of  bleeding heart environmentalists in favor of big government and more regulations.

If you were promoting a conservation measure or bill would you seek puppet endorsement? It certainly gets you publicity but it can make people take you less seriously.

Yoda worm

From the Guardian newspaper yesterday (and lots of other places):

A worm from an ecosystem far, far away has been named after the Star Wars character Yoda.

Yoda purpurata is one of three new species of deep-sea acorn worms discovered 1.5 miles beneath the Atlantic.

Scientists coined the genus name because the large lips on either side of the creature's head reminded them of the Jedi master's floppy ears. The creature is a dark reddish-purple – hence the other part of the worm's name, which is Latin for purple.

Actual paper here: Observations on torquaratorid acorn worms (Hemichordata, Enteropneusta) from the North Atlantic with descriptions of a new genus and three new species

I don't see the resemblance myself. Maybe if it had been green. But the ears pointing down and what looks like curly hair remind me of another puppet I can't quite put my finger on. Help me Internets. Got it. Lamb Chop: