Holy frijole.. H5N1

 We all remember the H1N1 virus from a few years ago right?  Well there's a new virus in town, H5N1, that top virologists have been studying.  This virus is scary.  

Read why here at ObsessionBiology

Singing Whales Steal Spotlight From Earthquakes

Underwater earthquake recordings could help track the endangered and poorly understood fin whale, according to research presented here last week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Most quake researchers cull the whale’s booming calls from their seafloor recordings. But one group of seismologists has flipped things around to harvest an extensive repertoire of fin whale songs.
The second-largest among whales, fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) live in many of the world’s oceans. Yet, relatively little is known about their social habits, breeding grounds, and seasonal migration paths. The animals stick mostly to deep waters far offshore, so following them by visual surveys and radio tagging can be difficult and costly.
Seismologist William Wilcock of the University of Washington, Seattle, wondered if there was a better way. From 2003 to 2006, his group had measured undersea earthquakes that occur as new sea floor forms. Implanted in the ocean floor, their seismic detectors also picked up fin whale calls, which—at 17 to 35 hertz—overlap in frequency with Earth’s rumblings. To extract earthquake information efficiently, the group developed computer programs to detect and filter out whale songs…

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Inspired

I have really enjoyed checking this blog and posting interesting things, but now that our quarter is over what am I going to dooo?? Where will I post things like this panda ant?! Is it even an ant???

Well, I decided to start my own blog! It's little and new but I'm really excited to add posts, so discover the truth about the panda ant and check it out @ ObsessionBiology

Ella

Carbon Ranching: Offsetting Greenhouse Gases

Carbon Ranching is a method of 'trapping' carbon that is quickly gaining steam as a new way to reduce carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide emmisions. This article focuses on the San Joaquin Valley and the farmers and companies seeking to make their businesses profitable, but ecological. Carbon Ranching is an ecologically sound method that businesses (especially those required by CA law to either reduce business-related emissions or invest in emission reducing projects) and land owners can use to easily prevent carbon from escaping into the atmosphere. The method is elegantly simple: flood peatlands of the valley and grow a tall grass called tule. This grass can grow in oxygen deprived soil, and as it grows, it sucks carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon that can contribute to global warming and/or ocean acidification. The flooding of the area would also help restore the land to it's original composition.

This method could prove to be useful to rice farmers, their flooding method to grow rice can also be used to trap carbon.

I think that using this method can be extremely beneficial. Companies can pay farmers to harvest carbon sucking plants like the tule to offset emissions from their businesses. Though it would be best for the company to reduce emissions at the source, that can be incredibly expensive; essentially asking the company to drown itself in improvements. I feel that this Carbon Ranching is a good middle ground, but can be dangerous if it is the only step companies take to reduce their emissions. I feel it should only be a utilized concurrently with updating machinery/practices to reduce emissions.

Source:https://www.npr.org/2011/12/07/142947234/can-carbon-ranching-offset-emissions-in-calif

Bolivia Set to Pass Historic 'Law of Mother Earth' Which Will Grant Nature Equal Rights to Humans

You read that right-Bolivia plans to grant Mother Nature the same rights as humans.

With the cooperation of politicians and grassroots organizations, Bolivia is set to pass the Law of Mother Earth which will grant nature the same rights and protections as humans. The piece of legislation, called la Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, is intended to encourage a radical shift in conservation attitudes and actions, to enforce new control measures on industry, and to reduce environmental destruction.

The law redefines natural resources as blessings and confers the same rights to nature as to human beings, including: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered. Perhaps the most controversial point is the right "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities".

It's an interesting idea, but I can foresee some major problems arising from this. For example the "right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered" would mean genetically modified crops, which might become necessary if humans continue proliferating at the rate that we do, would be out of the question. Also, if we're going to treat her as a person, does that mean we can hold her responsible for all the destruction she causes?

Full Article Here

While I was doing some studying *ahem* I happened upon this lovely creature.

The ‘Giant Weta’ is the largest insect in the world, and this is the biggest one ever found! Recently discovered by former park ranger Mark Moffett, this behemoth Deinacrida has a wing span of 7 inches. Proud finder Mark said, “She enjoyed the carrot so much she seemed to ignore the fact she was resting on our hands and carried on munching away”.The creepy crawly is only found on Little Barrier Island, in New Zealand as the species was accidentally wiped off the mainland by rats introduced by Europeans. “After she had chewed a little I took this picture and we put her right back where we found her.”

Voice of a child

Here is a video I stumbled upon of a Canadian girl addressing a UN Conference on the environment. It's a very moving post and I'm interested to see if anyone has heard of this or its affects it had on the issue of international environment politics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0

New Measures to Protect the Hirola

The abundance of the hirola, a large, African antelope, has reached a dangerously low level. The entirety of the hirola population consisted of about 14,000 animals when surveyed in the 1970s, but today it is estimated that fewer than 400 remain, occupying small, fragmented habitats in Kenya and Somalia. The increasingly fragmented habitats, in addition to habitat destruction, predation, unregulated hunting, and limited resources due to drought have had a severe negative impact on the hirola. As the only surviving species in its genus, the hirola’s disappearance would mean the loss of an entire category of African mammals. Should the hirola go extinct, it will be the first mammal genus to completely die out in over 75 years.

Efforts to protect the hirola have been fairly weak, given its “critically endangered” ICUN status. Though a reserve was established in the 1970s to provide a refuge for the rare antelope, it has been largely neglected for decades, allowing the hirola population to shrink further still. All attempts to breed the animals in captivity have failed in various facilities around the world. After the captive breeding projects proved unsuccessful, small portions of the population were relocated to ensure their safety. There is currently a small but stable population of hirola living in a neighboring wildlife park.

The most recent efforts to save the hirola involve the Ishaqbini conservancy, which is composed of several Somalian clans dedicated to the preservation of the local wildlife. To combat the threat of predation due to rising numbers of African lions and African wild dogs, the Ishaqbini plan to implement a predator-proof fence to surround the hirola population. Paired with other conservation projects and redoubling efforts to prevent poaching, the new measures to protect the hirola will hopefully bring the species back from the brink of extinction.

Dahiye, Yakub, Mumin. “Reconnaissance survey for the hirola antelope in northern parts of

Garissa district, Kenya.” African Journal of Ecology 47, 452-453. 2009.

Dell’Amore, Christine. “Entire Mammal Genus on the Brink of Extinction.” National

Geographic. 2011.

extinct-genus-animals-science-africa-antelopes/>

Christina Young

The Pros and Cons of the Existence of Bees

I have always wondered why honey bees are a valued asset to the ecosystem. After researching, it was found that bees are the most important pollinators of food crops. It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees. The following are just some of the crops that they pollinate: avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, and sunflowers for oil, cucumbers, citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, cranberries, melons cotton and flax. As stated in one of the articles, even if they do not pollinate a crop directly, the crop still benefits indirectly from being in an environment in which honey bees are working, due to the increased biodiversity in the area which stimulates the crop.

Honey bees are important to the world because of their 2 main contributions: Pollination and bee products. Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. Bees are responsible for a wide variety of wild flowers and many crops depend on them. Secondly, the health of humans is greatly enhanced by the use of bee products. The following are some of the products humans use daily that contain bee products in them: honey, beeswax, propolis, royal jelly and venom.

Although there are many pros of having the honey bee, there are also some cons. It is belived that if the honey bee continues to pollinate, there is a possibility that it could introduce new diseases, which has happened. It is also believed that honey bees hurt the environment. They are not native to North America and were believed to be imported from Euroope in 1638. These bees have taken of much of the habitat from native bees, thus putting a strain/ altering the function of the ecosystem.

Despite there being pros and cons to the existence of the honey bee, I believe that the bee is an important component of the ecosystem and and humans, as a part of the ecosystem, benefit greatly from bees' efforts.

To learn more information about the pros and cons of they honey bee, please read the following articles:

http://www.sustainweb.org/foodfacts/bees_are_important/

http://greenplanetethics.com/wordpress/why-bees-and-bees-pollination-are-important-to-the-ecosystem-and-humans/

http://www.vegetus.org/honey/ecology.htm

posted by Christine Ikekwere at 11:18pm

Discussion Question Re-posted

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Cheetah: An Example of Genetic Bottleneck

Today, the small remaining cheetah population remaining in Africa faces many pressures which threaten the continuing existence of the species. Cheetahs first evolved in North America over 8 million years ago and dispersed around the globe over time, evolving into many different species and subspecies. 12,000 years ago during the last glacial maximum, large glaciers caused cheetahs to become locally extinct everywhere except for Africa. However, the few surviving cheetahs all shared similar genetics, creating a genetic bottleneck within the population. Genetic bottlenecks threaten a population due to the many complications of inbreeding, which include more common defects and less resistance to disease. The idea of cheetahs experiencing a genetic bottleneck has been tested scientifically. Results from testing cheetah DNA indicate that the cheetah did in fact experience a genetic bottleneck 12,000 years ago (Menotti –Raymond and O’Brien, 1993). In addition to the challenges posed by low genetic diversity, the cheetah also faces pressures from an increasingly fragmented habitat, and competition for food from both humans and other large cats.

Work cited:

Menotti-Raymond, M. "Dating the Genetic Bottleneck of the African Cheetah." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 90.8 (1993): 3172-176. Web. .

Work Referenced:

Gugliotta, Guy. "Rare Breed | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine." History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian Magazine. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. .

Posted by Isaac Reback at 2:28 PM