|  Author | Topic: Mitigating The Collapse of Gaia III (Read 5,396 times) |
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« Reply #60 on Aug 27, 2010, 10:35am » | |
Supercomputers Help Track Species Affected by Gulf Oil Spill
ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2010) — To establish a baseline for measuring and predicting the biological impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a LSU ichthyologist and an Ohio biomedical informatics researcher are using Ohio Supercomputer Center, or OSC, systems to help map data on the extent of the spill and chemicals and the distribution of various fish species.
"We know very little about deep-sea life and even less about the interactions between this biota and these toxic chemicals," said Prosanta Chakrabarty, curator of ichthyology at LSU's Museum of Natural Science. "The northern Gulf of Mexico is home to more than 600 species of fish, and new ones are being described every year. Through our efforts and by making the informatics tools available over the web, our aim is to map baseline data about nearly every northern Gulf of Mexico species that may be impacted."
Several universities and federal agencies, including NASA, NOAA and USGS, are focused on tracking the oil and dispersants on the surface of the Gulf and in shallow waters and marshes. To complement these efforts, the researchers are repurposing a computer application that was designed to track infectious diseases to collect and reinterpret data for oil, dispersants and fish, including those at great depth.
"We have developed DEPTHMAP (depthmap.osu.edu), a web-accessible mapping application for historical species collection records, to combine baseline information about the range of these species with respect to data on the extent of the spill," said Daniel Janies, associate professor of Biomedical Informatics at The Ohio State University. "From museum records, wildlife and fisheries collections data, we can measure the impact of this spill on marine species with various habitats, life histories and ranges."
Janies has created several applications to track the avian influenza virus (H5N1) -- and, more recently, to monitor the H1N1 virus -- on a real-time geographic information system. Janies and his colleagues teamed up with OSC staff to tune these codes to run on the center's IBM Cluster 1350 Glenn system, which features 9,500 cores and 24 terabytes of memory.
Now, wildlife data are being mapped onto a similar real-time geographic information system to show researchers which species' habitats are located in the region of the Gulf affected by the spill over time.
"Without historical baseline data like that we are mapping, future faunal surveys will not illustrate the impact of this deep-water oil spill," said Janies. "We will make the maps and underlying informatics tools we develop available to a wide community of users via the web, such that other resource managers and researchers can leverage our efforts for a wide variety of species of interest."
The species being tracked will include commercially important grouper, snapper and croaker species, as well as ecologically important species near the bottom or top of the food chain, including batfishes and sharks. Data collected at intervals since the spill began is being incorporated and compared to show changing distributions, deaths, lost spawning seasons and year classes, and, potentially, extinctions.
"Unfortunately, the deployment of an unprecedented amount of dispersant at the well-head a mile below the surface has created plumes of oil microdroplets that are known to be toxic," said Chakrabarty. "The majority of the millions of gallons of oil that was introduced to the Gulf environment resides subsurface. While treatment of the surface oil can be conducted by burning and skimming, there is no treatment for subsurface oil and no plans from BP or the federal or state government to treat subsurface oil."
Chakrabarty and Janies hope to collect and integrate several types of information during this project:
* How the expanding spill will affect migrating and spawning organisms that travel through the Gulf. This information will help wildlife officials better manage these situations (e.g., saving vulnerable eggs and larvae of blue-fin tuna);
* Which species of organisms migrating at great depths will be most severely impacted by concentrated plumes of sub-surface oil and dispersant (e.g., pancake batfishes that feed on the vulnerable layer of plankton now covered in chemicals);
* The interaction between important fisheries and non-commercial and commercial fishes in sites of subsurface oil plumes (e.g., deep ocean coral species in Louisiana and Florida that are in the path of the plumes);
* How the plumes might affect the life-history stages of different fish species.
"Although the toxic effects of oil and dispersants and how they break down with sunlight are well understood, their effects below the surface are not known," said Chakrabarty. "Oil and dispersants break down in contact with sunlight and the rich microbial community of the warm waters near the surface. However, the deep sea is very cold, under high pressure and extremely dark. We don't know how oil and dispersants break down under these conditions, but evidence suggests that it will be incredibly slow."
Note: Co-developers of the application and its use cases include Jori Hardman, The Ohio State University, Biomedical Informatics; and Calvin Lam, The Ohio State University, Biomedical Informatics.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825111359.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Mitigating The Collapse of Gaia III
« Reply #61 on Aug 27, 2010, 11:38am » | |
North Korea Opens Its Doors to Agroforestry
ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2010) — In a country where good news is scarce, a pioneering agroforestry project in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is restoring heavily degraded landscapes and providing much-needed food for communities living on the sloping lands.
Jianchu Xu, East-Asia Coordinator for the World Agroforestry Centre, which has been providing technical expertise and training for the project since 2008, said agroforestry -- in this case the growing of trees on sloping land -- is uniquely suited to DPR Korea for addressing food security and protecting the environment.
"What we have managed to achieve so far has had a dramatic impact on people's lives and the local environment," Jianchu explains.
"Previously malnourished communities are now producing their own trees and growing chestnut, walnut, peaches, pears and other fruits and berries as well as medicinal bushes," Jianchu explains. "They have more food and vitamins and are earning income through trading."
Following the collapse of the socialist bloc in 1989 and a lack of subsidies for agriculture in DPR Korea, famine and malnutrition became widespread in rural areas.
DPR Korea is a harsh mountainous country where only 16% of the land area is suitable for cultivation. In desperation in the 1990s, people turned to the marginal sloping lands but this had a price: deforestation for cropping land and fuelwood left entire landscapes denuded and depleted of nutrients.
In an effort to reverse the situation, an innovative and pioneering project began in 2002 involving the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Korea's Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection. The World Agroforestry Centre was later brought in to provide technical advice.
Suan County has since expanded to 65 user groups in seven counties, with several hundred hectares of sloping land now under sustainable management. And the project is still growing.
A system of establishing user groups with one representative from each family has enabled demonstration plots to be set up and a large number of households to benefit from knowledge about growing multi-purpose trees. Such trees can improve and stabilize soils as well as provide fertilizer, fodder or fruits.
Most of the people farming the sloping lands are pension workers with little agricultural experience. The agroforestry systems they are now implementing and the techniques they have learnt are significantly increasing tree cover on the slopes as well giving them a diversity of crops.
Several of the user groups have started their own nurseries so that they can be self-sufficient and produce their own planting materials.
Initially a European consultant was engaged to provide advice on sloping land management, but in 2008 SDC brought the World Agroforestry Centre's China office into the project.
"With similar experiences and history, our Chinese staff were well-placed to work in DPR Korea," explains Jianchu. "It was important to have people with an understanding of the technical, institutional and socio-political context."
There are very few international organizations operating in DPR Korea, and most of these are providing emergency relief. "With our strong focus on capacity development, we have established a good reputation," adds Jianchu. So much so that the Centre is now negotiating a memorandum of understanding with the government and there are plans to establish an office in the country.
According to Jianchu, one of the most important aspects to ensuring the project is sustained is capacity development at all levels.
"As well as the user groups, we are providing training to multi-disciplinary working groups comprising representatives from the national academy, agricultural universities, forestry research and planning institutes, and staff of the Ministry."
"There is an enormous need to improve knowledge and skills in DPR Korea in the area of natural resource management and to nurture young scientists," says Jianchu. SDC is now investing in this area. Each year over the past few years, a handful of students from DPR Korea have undertaken studies with the Center for Mountain Ecosystem Studies, jointly run by the World Agroforestry Centre and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and hosted by the Kunming Institute of Botany in China. Some could be considered for a doctoral program in the future.
To further support the up-skilling of DPR Korea scientists and the up-scaling of agroforestry, the Centre will soon publish an agroforestry manual. Work is also underway on an agroforestry policy for sloping lands management and an agroforestry inventory.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100827082328.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Mitigating The Collapse of Gaia III
« Reply #62 on Aug 30, 2010, 7:17pm » | |
The Frozen Zoo aiming to bring endangered species back from the brink
San Diego Zoo began collecting ski samples from rare animals in 1972 in the hope they might be used to protect these endangered species in the future. A breakthrough in stem-cell technology means that day is getting closer
o Paul Harris
o The Observer, Sunday 29 August 2010
![[image]](http://a.imageshack.us/img199/1803/northernwhiterhinoceros.jpg "[image]")
There are only eight northern white rhinoceroses left in the world, but the Frozen Zoo hopes to boost the population. Photograph: Benedicte Desrus / Alamy/Alamy
The inside of a metal box filled with liquid nitrogen and frozen to -173C (-280F) is hardly the ideal habitat for a large African mammal. But, as a test tube is fished out of the frigid container amid a billowing cloud of white gas, a note written on its side is unequivocal about its contents. "This is a northern white rhino," says Scripps research scientist Inbar Ben-Nun as she reads out the label and holds the freezing vial with thick gloves that look like industrial-grade oven mitts.
Ben-Nun is holding no ordinary scientific sample. For the frozen cells in that test tube could one day give rise to baby northern white rhinos and help save the species from extinction. They would be living specimens of one of the most endangered species on Earth, who after a few months would be trotting into wildlife parks, and maybe, just maybe, helping repopulate their kind on the African grasslands. No wonder that the place where the sample came from is called the Frozen Zoo.
The Frozen Zoo was founded in 1972 at San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research as a repository for skin-cell samples from rare and endangered species. At the time that the first samples were collected and put into deep freeze it was not really known how they would be used and genetic technology was in its infancy. But there was a sense that one day some unknown scientific advance might make use of them and it was better to be safe than sorry. Now, thanks to a team at the nearby Scripps Research Institute, that day has come a lot closer.
Genetic scientists at Scripps, working from an anonymous-looking building in a business park in San Diego's northern suburbs, have succeeded in taking samples of skin cells from the Frozen Zoo and turning them into a culture of special cells known as induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells. Stem cells are a sort of all-purpose building block of life that can then become any other sort of cell. By creating IPS cells from a species it is now theoretically possible to use them to create egg cells and sperm cells. Those two could then be combined via in vitro fertilisation to form a viable embryo. And long-dead animals whose species are almost extinct could create new life. The breakthrough, so far, has come with creating IPS cells for the silver-maned drill monkey, a primate native to just a few parts of West Africa and which is the continent's most endangered monkey. On 1 June this year, the stem cells morphed into brain cells, proving their viability.
"The Frozen Zoo was a wonderful idea. They just thought: 'Well, something might happen, so we should preserve some samples for the future'," says Dr Jeanne Loring, who is leading the Scripps team of which Ben-Nun is a part. "This is the first time that there has been something that we can do."
The implications of Loring's breakthrough are clear for those trying to save endangered animals. If the technology is perfected and IPS cell cultures can be established for many of the species held in the Frozen Zoo, then conservationists will not just have to rely on preventing extinction by coaxing a few remaining individuals to breed. Instead, cell lines preserved in the Frozen Zoo can be added to the possible gene pool, increasing the chances of healthy reproduction.
"If we could use animals that were already dead – even from 20 years ago – to generate sperm and eggs then we can use those individuals to create greater genetic diversity. I see it as being possible. I see no scientific barrier," Loring says.
It has also raised another prospect among some observers: that of a Jurassic Park scenario. If viable cell samples could be harvested from the remains of extinct animal species, such as stuffed Tasmanian tigers in museums or the woolly mammoth corpses dug up from the Siberian tundra, then perhaps scientists would one day be able to reverse extinction. It is not a prospect that many scientists involved want to encourage. But ever since news of Loring's work with the drill monkey cells was revealed, the Jurassic Park headlines have been coming thick and fast.
Loring's lab at Scripps holds samples from the northern white rhino and the drill monkey, but the real Frozen Zoo, just a few miles away, is on a much larger scale. Housed in a building inside San Diego Zoo, its freezers contain samples from 8,400 animals, representing more than 800 species. They include Gobi bears, endangered cattle breeds such as gaurs and bantengs, mountain gorillas, pandas, a California grey whale and condors. The entire gigantic menagerie is housed in four deep-freeze tanks, representing a staggeringly important slice of some of the world's most rare wildlife.
Dr Oliver Ryder, the geneticist who heads the Frozen Zoo programme, welcomes the news of Loring's work, which itself built on a breakthrough in 2007 by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka. For Ryder it is confirmation that the zoo's founding as a sort of "bet" on the science of the future now has great prospects of paying off. "We wondered if one day pigs would fly. Well, now pigs are flying. I am very excited by the results," Ryder says.
But Ryder does not appreciate some of the wilder headlines that have sprung from the potential implications of the research. The words "Jurassic Park" get short shrift from the plain-spoken scientist. He has little time for those who advocate bringing back long-dead species or those fringe figures who dream one day of recreating a dinosaur just like in Steven Spielberg's movie. Apart from the fact that the science of extracting viable DNA for such animals is virtually impossible, he believes it distracts from the Frozen Zoo's primary aim: to stop species becoming extinct in the first place. "What would be the benefit of bringing back something that has been extinct for some 10,000 years? It is intriguing and evocative but it plays to human hubris. What's the motivation? Is this for personal benefit or society saying: 'We have arcane powers and the world is our oyster'?" he asks.
When it comes to species still on the brink, with perhaps just a few individuals left, however, Ryder is insistent that humanity has a duty to save them and that the Frozen Zoo can play a crucial role. Especially close to Ryder's heart is one of the species that Loring is working on: the northern white rhino. There are just eight of the animals left alive on earth and not all of them are viable breeders. To put it bluntly: the northern white rhino's gene pool is more accurately a rapidly drying-up gene puddle. But, if Loring's work succeeds in creating northern white rhino IPS cells and then turning them into sperm and eggs, that gene pool can be deepened again.
It is a race against time. Unlike with the drill monkey, Loring's efforts with rhino cells have not yet worked. But at least Loring thinks she knows why. The drill monkey samples were coaxed into becoming IPS cells using viruses loaded with carefully selected human genes that can trigger that reaction. Loring suspects it worked with drill monkeys because – as fellow primates – they are genetically close enough to humans for the introduced human genes to work properly. Rhinos, she thinks, may be too distantly related. However, she plans to try again, this time perhaps using genes from a closer animal relative to the rhino, the horse.
Ryder makes no secret of how emotionally attached he is to saving the northern white rhino while there are still living animals, rather than just reviving some later entirely from a test tube. He recalls witnessing the birth of a female northern white rhino more than 20 years ago and watching it being introduced to its herd: something that would be lost for ever if the last northern white rhino died before Loring's technology is perfected. "I saw her meet the rest of the rhino herd. There was a clear sense of how to meet the baby. If we wait until there are no white rhinos and then one is created from a test tube, to whom are we going to introduce it?" he says. "My feelings about the rhino come straight from the heart. I am not ready to give up on this rhino."
Sadly, it is already too late for other species. The Frozen Zoo already holds samples from animals that are now extinct. One such is the po'ouli bird, a species of honeycreeper that lived in Hawaii and was only discovered in 1973. Unfortunately, the last recorded sighting of the po'ouli was in 2004, and it is thought to be extinct, assailed by habitat loss and the introduction of disease by humans. Now it resides only in the Frozen Zoo in the form of its skin cells preserved and frozen. Ryder, sticking with his belief that there is no point in rescuing the already extinct, hopes instead that studying the po'ouli bird's genes will help conservationists prevent other related and endangered species from following the same path. "Maybe we cannot bring back the po'ouli, but we can use its secrets to help others," he says.
Ryder believes the importance of the Frozen Zoo cannot be overestimated in the face of the vast pressures that humanity is putting on the creatures with which it shares the planet. In fact the Frozen Zoo's collection of samples is so valuable that a secret duplicate collection has been established in case a natural or manmade disaster were to strike the original. "No time that people have kept something safe in just one place has it worked. This is a globally important depository and its importance is not going to decrease. Over time there is going to be a big disaster. So we have to insure against that," he says. He is also keen on reaching out to other, smaller frozen zoos that exist elsewhere, such as one at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans and one at the University of Nottingham. He hopes one day a global network of frozen zoos will be established to provide the ultimate insurance policy to carry the earth's rarest animal species into the future. "Having a duplicate site is an important step but in the long run we need to have a global network," he explains. "The future will thank the present generation for saving what we can save. We have to look beyond the current moment. People who are not yet born will greatly appreciate what we can do."
That opinion holds true for Loring, too. Her success in creating IPS cells has the potential to unlock the whole Frozen Zoo as a powerful tool for breeding and conservation. She is already thinking of getting a third species from the zoo to add to the Scripps research on drill monkeys and the northern white rhino. She, too, is seeing the big picture and says there is a moral imperative to use the animals kept in the Frozen Zoo to preserve rare species as part of a living, breathing global ecosystem.
"The idea of doing it has become a reality," Loring says. "This is something that can be done and should be done. We should make up for the damage that we have caused."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/29/frozen-zoo-san-diego-rhino
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Mitigating The Collapse of Gaia III
« Reply #63 on Sept 1, 2010, 5:31am » | |
Tracking Marine Animal Travel
ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2010) — Scientists are gaining a deeper understanding of marine mammal travel patterns using a large-scale tracking network. A new Public Library of Science (PLoS) collection, created in conjunction with the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (POST) Program and the Census of Marine Life (CoML), will highlight the variety of ways scientists are using this large POST network to trace marine animal movement in the Northeast Pacific Ocean.
The PLoS POST Collection launches on August 31st.
POST provides a tool for researchers from agencies, universities and other organizations to track marine and diadromous animals along the continental shelf of the west coast of North America. An array of acoustic receivers are deployed in lines, situated in strategic positions along the coast, running perpendicular to shore and out to the edge of the shelf. The array currently extends over 3,000km, stretching from Alaska, through British Columbia and as far south as California. To date, nearly 16,000 individual animals, representing 18 different species, have been tagged.
"POST provides an incredible economy of scale for researchers wanting to track marine animals on the West Coast. Where they would normally have to buy, deploy and maintain a massive equipment infrastructure, POST makes it as simple as researchers just tagging and releasing the animals," said Jim Bolger, POST's Executive Director.
For the past eight years, independent researchers have been tagging animals with acoustic pingers that each emit a unique identifier. When a tagged animal crosses a POST line, it is detected by at least one receiver in the line. As the animal makes its journey, each detection tells the story of the where and when of its movements along the coast. In some cases, researchers are even able to estimate survival of the group of animals tagged, as the lines are laid out in such a fashion that almost all of the tagged individuals are detected as they pass a line.
Bolger explains the impact of the project saying, "POST has brought scientists another tool to directly test hypotheses about where marine animals go, where they die and what factors are affecting their behaviour. And sometimes tracking the animals bring surprising results that turn conventional wisdom upside down."
The large-scale system is made available free of charge and the database, complete with value added mapping and visualization tools, serves as a clearinghouse for data gathered across the entire POST array and similar local networks. The web portal is not only useful for the scientists performing the telemetry studies, but also interested citizen scientists wondering what marine animals are doing in their neck of the sea.
The first publications in the PLoS POST Collection contain articles published in PLoS ONE and PLoS Biology and highlight some of the ways that this tool can be used to deepen our understanding of where animals go, and where they die, in the ocean. As POST evolves and the database grows, the information in hand will have even more power; where correlates to environmental data may reveal distribution and behavior changes relative to climate change, and a new perspective on species interactions and trends in movement patterns will be gained through meta-analyses of a massive data set. It is the hope of all involved that this collection inspires new and novel uses of the POST array, illuminating the world under the waves and contributing to the conservation and management of important species.
The POST Collection will be featured, along with other Census of Marine Life collections, in the pilot version of the PLoS Hub for Biodiversity, to be launched later this year. This groundbreaking resource will aggregate relevant articles from a range of open-access sources including our own journal websites and PubMed Central. Please check out the call for articles to find out more about publishing your Biodiversity research in the PLoS journals.
The freely available collection is availablle at: http://ploscollections.org/coml/post
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100831172441.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Mitigating The Collapse of Gaia III
« Reply #64 on Sept 1, 2010, 5:42am » | |
Extensive Relict Coral Reef Found in Southern Pacific
![[image]](http://a.imageshack.us/img20/6050/48942860reef13219618.jpg "[image]")
The ancient reef surrounds Lord Howe Island
ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2010) — Coral reefs are sensitive to climate change and track sea level. New observations show that an extensive coral reef existed in the southern Pacific Ocean thousands of years ago. Woodroffe et al. used multi-beam sonar, coring, and dating to examine a relict reef discovered in water about 20-25 meters (65-82 feet) deep around Lord Howe Island in the southern Pacific Ocean.
![[image]](http://a.imageshack.us/img299/774/48943140reef2highres232.jpg "[image]")
The modern reef appears in red, the ancient one in orange
They found that the reef thrived from about 9,000 to 7,000 years ago and covered an area 20 times larger than the modern reef, which is the southernmost Pacific coral reef. About 7,000 years ago, the reef was drowned, probably due to abrupt sea level rise, and then shrunk to its modern extent.
The observation shows the extent to which reefs grew 9,000 years ago. Today coral reefs exist mainly in shallow seawater with sea surface temperatures greater than 18 degrees Celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit), at latitudes near the equator. The relict reef shows that corals previously existed at southern latitudes farther from the equator.
The researchers note that as ocean temperatures warm due to climate change, the relict reef could become a substrate for new coral reef growth.
Authors of the study include: Colin D. Woodroffe, Michelle Linklater, Brian G. Jones: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia; Brendan P. Brooke, Cameron Buchanan, Richard Mleczko: Geoscience Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia; David M. Kennedy, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand; Quan Hua, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, Kirrawee, New South Wales, Australia; Jian-xin Zhao, Radiogenic Isotope Facility, Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Journal Reference:
1. Colin D. Woodroffe, Brendan P. Brooke, Michelle Linklater, David M. Kennedy, Brian G. Jones, Cameron Buchanan, Richard Mleczko, Quan Hua, Jian-xin Zhao. Response of coral reefs to climate change: Expansion and demise of the southernmost Pacific coral reef. Geophysical Research Letters, 2010; 37 (15): L15602 DOI: 10.1029/2010GL044067
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100831094714.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Mitigating The Collapse of Gaia III
« Reply #65 on Sept 1, 2010, 6:06am » | |
Free as a Bird? Human Development Affects Bird Flight Patterns and Populations
ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2010) — It may seem like birds have the freedom to fly wherever they like, but researchers at the University of Missouri have shown that what's on the ground has a great effect on where a bird flies. This information could be used by foresters and urban planners to improve bird habitats that would help maintain strong bird populations.
"Movement of individuals influences nearly every aspect of biology, from the existence of a single population to interactions within and among species," said Dylan Kesler, assistant professor in fisheries and wildlife at the University of Missouri's School of Natural Resources. "Movement determines where individual birds procreate. How they spread across the landscape affects who meets whom, which in turn dictates how genes are spread."
Kesler has found that non-migrating resident birds tend to travel over forest "corridors," which are areas protected by trees and used by wildlife to travel. Birds choose to travel over forests because they can make an easier escape from predators as well as find food. Man-made features such as roads, as well as gaps forests from agriculture or rivers, can restrict birds to certain areas. When forests are removed, bird populations become isolated and disconnected, which can lead to inbreeding and weaker, more disease-prone birds.
Earlier this summer, Kesler and MU graduate student Allison Cox tagged 33 juvenile red-bellied woodpeckers in Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest. Kesler chose to study the red-bellied woodpecker because the bird lives in the same area year-round and is very loyal to specific sites. The tags used by the researchers enable their team to track the birds' daily flights using radiotelemetry and GPS technology. The tags are designed to fall off the birds after four months. The summer and fall months are important because this is when young birds are most active, establishing territories and finding mates, studies say.
The research team also hopes to discover more about natal dispersal, the time interval between when a bird moves from where it is hatched to an area where it will breed. Very little is known about what influences natal dispersal.
"In many territorial resident birds, natal dispersal is the only time an individual bird makes a substantial movement from one location to another," Kesler said. "Natal dispersal is, therefore, integral to gene flow among populations, colonizing vacant habitat, inbreeding avoidance and maintaining optimal population densities."
This year's work builds upon research Kesler has been conducting since 2005 on three species of woodpeckers and two Pacific island kingfishers. The study is funded by a University of Missouri program to encourage new faculty. Results will be published this fall in conservation-oriented science journals. Results from Kesler's previous research about dispersal appeared in the nation's top ornithological journal, The Auk, and another paper will soon be published in Behavioral Ecology.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100831164946.htm
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: Mitigating The Collapse of Gaia III
« Reply #66 on Sept 1, 2010, 6:15am » | |
Researchers Develop Simulation to Better Understand the Effects of Sound on Marine Life
![[image]](http://a.imageshack.us/img838/4739/100831172130large959219.jpg "[image]")
UCSD structural engineering professor Petr Krysl has designed modern computational methods that give a 3D simulated look inside the head of a Cuvier’s beaked whale. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - San Diego)
ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2010) — A combination of the biology of marine mammals, mechanical vibrations and acoustics has led to a breakthrough discovery allowing scientists to better understand the potential harmful effects of sound on marine mammals such as whales and dolphins.
An international team of researchers from San Diego State University, UC San Diego, and the Kolmården Zoo in Sweden has developed an approach that integrates advanced computing, X-ray CT scanners, and modern computational methods that give a 3D simulated look inside the head of a Cuvier's beaked whale.
"Our numerical analysis software can be used to conduct basic research into the mechanism of sound production and hearing in these whales, simulate exposure at sound pressure levels that would be impossible on live animals, or assess various mitigation strategies," said Petr Krysl, a UC San Diego structural engineering professor who developed the computational methods for this research. "We believe that our research can enable us to understand, and eventually reduce, the potential negative effects of high intensity sound on marine organisms."
The results of this research were recently published in PLoS ONE by Krysl, Ted W. Cranford, an adjunct professor of research in biology at San Diego State University; and Mats Amundin, a researcher at Sweden's Kolmården Zoo. Sponsors of the research include the office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Environmental Readiness Division.
The model the researchers have developed creates a 3-dimensional virtual environment in which they can simulate sounds propagated through the virtual specimen and reveal the interactions between the sound and the anatomy. By having a virtual "peek" inside the whale's head, the scientists are able to better understand and see how sound may impact or potentially harm marine life.
"Humans introduce considerable amounts of sound and noise into the oceans of the world," Krysl said. "Many marine organisms make acute use of sound for their primary sensory modality because light penetrates so poorly into water. The primary focus of our work is Cuvier's beaked whale because some have stranded and died in the presence of Navy sonar. The discoveries we made with regard to the mechanisms of hearing in the beaked whale also apply to the bottlenose dolphin and, we suspect, to all types of toothed whales and perhaps other marine mammals."
Krysl and his colleagues have been studying the effects sound has on marine life for the past nine years.
"This research program has a very strong experimental component, which has successfully generated digital models of the anatomy of a beaked whale, and has identified mechanical parameters of the biological tissues in the organs of a beaked whale," Krysl said. "We are continuing our current line of research on the beaked whale and conducting validation experiments with the bottlenose dolphin. We plan additional modeling refinements that will allow us to investigate the entire sound pathway from the sea water to the entrance to the cochlea. These projects address several primary objectives in the Navy's plan to understand demographics, acoustic exposure thresholds, and mitigation strategies for living marine resources."
The area of research that deals with noise in the ocean has indeed been growing rapidly with concerns over the rising levels of ocean noise resulting from shipping, petroleum exploration and production, and military exercises, Krysl said.
"We have recently seen that other researchers are adopting our methodology for analyzing the impact of sound on marine mammals, although we are currently the only group producing significant results," he said. "This project significantly advances our knowledge of the basic biology of marine mammals. Hearing is an essential sensory ability for life under water -- sound is used for hunting, navigating, and social interaction. The applied significance of our research has to do with the Navy's need to use sonar. Consequently, the Navy needs to be able to answer questions such as, 'Is sonar safe to use and under what conditions?' and 'Can we minimize the impact on marine life and how?' This is not possible without a basic understanding of biology and acoustics of the ocean inhabitants."
Journal Reference:
1. Ted W. Cranford, Petr Krysl, Mats Amundin, Andrew Allen Farke. A New Acoustic Portal into the Odontocete Ear and Vibrational Analysis of the Tympanoperiotic Complex. PLoS ONE, 2010; 5 (8): e11927 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011927
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100831172130.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
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"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
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« Reply #67 on Sept 2, 2010, 4:01pm » | |
2 September 2010 Last updated at 17:52 GMT
NYC sky-scrapers dim lights to help migratory birds
By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News
![[image]](http://a.imageshack.us/img827/8876/48957702newyorknightbbc.gif "[image]")
Manhattan skyline at night (Image: BBC) The Lights Out initiative in New York City is entering its fifth year
A growing number of New York sky-scrapers are switching off their lights to help reduce the number of birds hitting the high-rise buildings.
The "lights out" project - organised by NYC Audubon - runs until 1 November, when migratory birds are expected to have completed their autumn migrations.
The Empire State and Chrysler buildings are among those dimming their lights.
An estimated 90,000 birds each year are killed in the city as a result of striking glass-fronted buildings.
Organisers of the annual initiative, now in its fifth year, say the bright lights disorientate the migrating birds and override their natural navigational cues.
NYC Audubon - a group that works to protect wild birds and their habitats within the city - is calling on owners and tenants in high-rise buildings to turn off lights on unoccupied floors or unused space between midnight and dawn.
It is also asking late workers to drawn blinds or use desk lamps rather than using ceiling-mounted lighting.
A similar project in Toronto, Canada, suggests that "across North America, more birds die from collisions each year than succumbed to the Exxon Valdez oil spill", which claimed the lives of in excess of 250,000 birds.
NYC Audubon also quotes the findings of a study at Chicago's Field Museum, which showed the number of birds killed by striking the building at night fell by 83% when the lights were switched off at night.
During the migration season, about 30 volunteers will be patrolling a number of buildings at night.
"The monitoring and research improves our understanding of the causes behind urban bird [strikes], and studies ways to prevent future [strikes] from occurring," explained Susan Elbin, director of conservation for NYC Audubon.
Among the species that appear to be particularly affected are white-throated sparrows, common yellow throats and ovenbirds, figures suggest.
Although there is no direct evidence, anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that at night - especially in foggy or rainy weather - birds fly at lower altitudes, leaving them more vulnerable to flying into well-lit, glass-fronted high buildings.
"We don't know the true scope of the problem," said Glen Phillips, NYC Audubon's executive director.
"Birds fall on to high floors, their bodies never reach the ground. Plus, predators, wind currents, traffic, all make it hard for us to collect and monitor deaths."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11141196
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #68 on Sept 2, 2010, 7:18pm » | |
Ozone Depletion: Paving the Way for Identification of Rogue CFC Release
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010) — A new discovery by scientists at the Universities of East Anglia and Frankfurt could make it possible in future to identify the source of banned CFCs that are probably still being released into the atmosphere.
Using mass spectrometers, the researchers analysed air samples collected in the stratosphere by balloons belonging to the French space agency, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). They discovered the largest chlorine isotope enrichment ever found in nature.
CFCs were banned in most countries because of their depletion of the ozone layer. Due to their long lifetimes, their atmospheric concentrations are expected to decline only slowly. However, the observed decline is even slower than what scientists predicted. The likely reasons for this are the continued use of CFCs and emissions from old refrigerators, air conditioning units and waste disposal.
"We are particularly excited by this discovery because this is a totally new observation for atmospheric chlorine," said Johannes Laube, of the University of East Anglia's School of Environmental Sciences.
"Potentially, the technique we developed could enable us to identify remaining sources of CFCs in the atmosphere and to measure human contributions to naturally occurring ozone-depleting gases."
The measurements were obtained from samples brought back by the stratospheric balloons, but the research group has now started experiments in a laboratory where they replicate the reactions in the stratosphere.
"We try to measure the isotope effect in our laboratory in simulated stratospheric conditions," says Dr Jan Kaiser, also of the School of Environmental Sciences. "We do need to do more method development work and gather additional information before we can identify the fingerprint of the isotope in this way, but this discovery opens the door to that possibility."
Journal Reference:
1. J. C. Laube, J. Kaiser, W. T. Sturges, H. Bönisch and A. Engel. Chlorine isotope fractionation in the stratosphere. Science, September 2, 2010
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100902141610.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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« Reply #69 on Sept 3, 2010, 7:41am » | |
‘Green Wall’ Technology Could Double the Plant Diversity of the River Thames Through London
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010) — Only half the number of plant species that could blossom along the walls of the River Thames finds a suitable place to grow, yet this could potentially double with the introduction of 'green wall' technology, according to a presentation at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)'s international conference.
Research conducted by Simon Hoggart and Rob Francis from the Department of Geography at King's College London found that the river holds a much broader range of seeds in its water and sediment than can be found growing along its central London foreshore and embankments. Although the river walls already support almost 90 plant species, many more do not have anywhere to grow because the walls do not provide a suitable habitat.
"As any gardener knows, plants are adept at growing in unlikely places -- between train tracks, shooting up through cracks in tarmac -- but when it comes to the sheer concrete or sheet metal of city river walls, they really struggle to get a root-hold," Simon begins.
Simon is due to begin work with Thames21 trialling cost-effective new technology that has the bonus of not requiring major building works. "We're going to be testing 'green wall' technology which involves attaching specially-designed frames to the river walls. It has previously only been used on dry land to encourage plant growth, but we think it has the potential to double this aspect of the Thames's biodiversity," Simon explains.
Simon's research findings have helped secure funding through a partnership with Thames21 -- a waterways charity that uses volunteers in the city to clean 'waterside grot-spots' and create new habitat for wildlife.
"Although the river is one of the cleanest urban waterways in Europe, the section that runs through London has very little riverbank habitat, so the biodiversity in these areas is much lower than it should be. The embankments are designed to flush water and detritus through London and protect the city from flood," Simon explains. "We found only 53% of the seeds in the seed bank were growing on the river walls. Improving this section of river could have an extremely positive effect for the health of the river, creating a 'green corridor' that would benefit the whole river food web."
Rivers are amongst the most biodiverse landscapes and yet they are coming under increasing pressure from human development. "Demands for clean water for consumption and industry are only going to increase in coming years which is why it is important we keep a regular health check on our river systems and trial new technologies as soon as possible."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100902121218.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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« Reply #70 on Sept 3, 2010, 9:14am » | |
Getting a Tail Up on Conservation? New Method for Measuring Lizard Weight from Size
![[image]](http://a.imageshack.us/img62/3157/100901132203large293268.jpg "[image]")
Chameleon. (Credit: iStockphoto/Yevgen Antonov)
ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010) — Lizards are an important indicator species for understanding the condition of specific ecosystems. Their body weight is a crucial index for evaluating species health, but lizards are seldom weighed, perhaps due in part to the recurring problem of spontaneous tail loss when lizards are in stress.
Now ecological researchers have a better way of evaluating these lizards. Dr. Shai Meiri of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology has developed an improved tool for translating lizard body lengths to weights. Dr. Meiri's new equations calculate this valuable morphological feature to estimate the weight of a lizard species in a variety of different ecosystems.
"Body shape and body size are hugely important for the understanding of multiple ecological phenomena, but there is a need for a common metric to compare a multitude of different species," he says.
Building a lizard data bank
In a study published recently in the Journal of Zoology, Dr. Meiri evaluated hundreds of lizard species: long-bodied, legless species as well as stout, long-legged species; some that sit and wait for prey, others that are active foragers. Based on empirical evidence, such as well-established behavioral traits, he built a statistical model that could predict weights of lizards in a reliable, standardized manner, for use in the field or at the lab.
For the study, Dr. Meiri looked at a large sample of lizards -- 900 species in 28 different families -- and generated a dataset of lizard weights, using this dataset to develop formulae that derive body weights from the most commonly used size index for lizards (the length of the head and body, or "snout-vent length"). He then applied a species-level evolutionary hypothesis to examine the ecological factors that affect variation in weight-length relationships between different species.
Predicting post-disaster damage to the environment
How can this standardized metric protect our environment? "It can help answer how lizard species may react if there were major shifts in the availability of food due to climactic changes," he says.
In the future, zoologists will be able to use Dr. Meiri's method to better predict which communities of animals will shrink, grow or adapt to changing conditions, even after massive environmental disasters like the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Journal Reference:
1. S. Meiri. Length-weight allometries in lizards. Journal of Zoology, 2010; DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00696.x
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100901132203.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #71 on Sept 3, 2010, 10:39am » | |
Are Wolves Saving Yellowstone's Aspen Trees from Elk?
ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010) — Previous research has claimed that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 is helping restore quaking aspen in risky areas where wolves prowl. But apparently elk hungry for winter food had a different idea. They did not know they were supposed to be responding to a "landscape of fear."
According to a study set to be published in Ecology, a journal of the Ecological Society of America, the fear of wolf predation may not be discouraging elk from eating aspen trees after all.
Previous thinking went like this: Aspen are not regenerating well in Yellowstone National Park. Elk eat young aspen. But wolves eat elk. Elk will learn to avoid high-risk areas that wolves frequent. Plants in those areas -- such as aspen -- will then get a chance to grow big enough so that elk cannot kill them. Eventually, an entire habitat is restored because of a landscape of fear.
Over the last 15 years, the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone was heralded as a great success, not only because it reestablished the species, but also because wolves were expected to help restore a healthier ecosystem through such cascading indirect effects on other species.
But this recent study led by Matthew Kauffman, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, suggests that aspen are not benefitting from the landscape of fear created by wolves, and that claims of an ecosystem-wide recovery of aspen are premature.
"This study not only confirms that elk are responsible for the decline of aspen in Yellowstone beginning in the 1890s, but also that none of the aspen groves studied after wolf restoration appear to be regenerating, even in areas risky to elk," said Kauffman.
Because the fear of wolves does not appear to be benefiting aspen, the authors conclude that if the Northern Range elk population does not continue to decline -- their numbers are 40 percent of what they were before wolves -- many of Yellowstone's aspen stands are unlikely to recover. "A landscape-level aspen recovery is likely only to occur if wolves, in combination with other predators and climate factors, further reduce the elk population," Kauffman said.
Predators play an important role in ecosystems, said Kauffman, and can influence plants by altering how many herbivores there are (by eating the herbivores) or by changing the behavior of herbivores (deterring them from areas where predators lurk). He adds, however, that considerable scientific debate exists regarding the importance of these two ways in which predators influence their prey. And this is especially true for large carnivores.
To complicate matters, predators use different hunting strategies -- there is the sit-and-wait strategy (as with a spider in a web, or a rattlesnake waiting for a mouse to leave its burrow) and the more active, go get 'em strategy (think cheetahs and wolves). "So, given that it takes a lot of energy to avoid a predator -- energy that could be used to stave off winter starvation -- we wanted to find out whether the prey of active-hunting predators such as wolves demonstrated risk-induced changes in areas where they foraged for food," Kauffman said.
To do this, the authors analyzed tree rings to discern when, in the last century, aspen stands stopped regenerating, examined whether aspen stands have begun to regenerate now that wolves have been reintroduced to the park and tested whether any differences in aspen regeneration were occurring in areas considered safe or risky for foraging elk. They used a landscape-wide risk map of elk killed by wolves over the first 10 years of wolf recovery. Finally, the authors experimentally fenced in young aspen suckers to compare the protection afforded to them by wolves versus that of a physical barrier that prevented elk browsing.
"The results were surprising and have led us to refute several previous claims regarding interactions among wolves, elk and aspen in Yellowstone," Kauffman said.
The tree rings showed that the period when aspen failed to regenerate (1892 to 1956) lasted more than 60 years, spanning periods with and without wolves by several decades. "We concluded from this that the failure of aspen to regenerate was caused by an increase in the number of elk following the disappearance of wolves in the 1920s rather than by a rapid behavioral shift to more browsing on aspen once wolves were gone from the park," said Kauffman.
Surveys of current conditions indicated that aspen in study stands exposed to elk browsing were not growing to heights necessary to make them invulnerable to elk. The only places where suckers survived to reach a height sufficient to avoid browsing were in the fenced-in areas. In addition, aspen stands identified as risky from the predation risk map were browsed just as often as aspen growing in less risky areas.
"This work is consistent with much of what researchers have learned from studying wolves and elk in Yellowstone," Kauffman said. "Elk certainly respond behaviorally to the predation risk posed by wolves, but those small alterations to feeding and moving across the landscape don't seem to add up to long-term benefits for aspen growing in areas risky to elk."
The paper, "Are wolves saving Yellowstone's aspen? A landscape-level test of a behaviorally mediated trophic cascade," will be published online in Ecology. Co-authors on the study are Matthew Kauffman (USGS), Jedediah Brodie (University of Montana) and Erik Jules (Humboldt State University).
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100901111636.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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« Reply #72 on Sept 3, 2010, 10:48am » | |
Britain Leads World for Environmentally Friendly Burials
ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2010) — Britain is leading the world in green burials as more and more people decide to be laid to rest in woodlands, meadows, farmlands and other habitats which are rich in wildlife -- and there are no laws preventing it as there are in many other countries.
New research to be presented at the international conference in London of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) shows that people choose green burials because of sustainability, to be in a pleasant, peaceful place which means something to them, or because local cemeteries are full.
Dr Richard Yarwood, and a team from the University of Plymouth's School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, who conducted a national survey of green burial sites, forecast that the number will continue to grow. In 1993, there was one in Carlisle; now there are more than 200 sites across the UK, mostly in the south east and south west.
Dr Yarwood said: "All the sites report a high demand, not only locally but also from people who have a connection to a place through holidays or family.
"Our survey shows that more than half of the sites are owned by local authorities and the rest by companies, landowners and charitable trusts. About a fifth are business opportunities, often linked to farm diversification. The sites are unregulated, but need planning permission.
"No two sites offer the same service and this individual approach is exactly what people want. Different practices at different sites reflect our changing views to burial, mourning and remembrance."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100903092729.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #73 on Sept 3, 2010, 11:12am » | |
Snail Mail Beats Phones to Help Feds Sustain Ample Fish Stocks in US Coastal Waters
ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010) — Old-fashioned snail mail with a postage stamp might be the answer for federal officials struggling to keep the waters off the U.S. coast from being overfished.
Anglers who fish for fun in U.S. coastal waters say the federal government currently relies on questionable data to determine which ocean locales are overfished and subsequently placed off limits to recreational and commercial fishing so stocks can rebuild.
The government through the National Marine Fisheries Service has relied heavily on a home telephone survey since the 1970s to random-digit dial coastal households for information about fishing trips.
Now a pilot study in North Carolina has found a new way to calculate recreational fishing activity in the ocean -- and it's proven promising as a method to replace calling people on the phone, according to statistician Lynne Stokes, one of five researchers who conducted the North Carolina pilot study.
The study is part of a national overhaul of the way the Fisheries Service collects and reports on recreational fishing data known as the Marine Recreational Information Program, or MRIP. The Fisheries Service is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the lead federal agency mandated with protecting and conserving marine life and habitat off the nation's coasts.
In fact, the study found that the new questionnaire mailed to selected households via the U.S. Postal Service netted a higher response rate and more complete data, said Stokes, a professor in the Department of Statistical Science at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Snail mail is the new telephone
The mail survey asked recreational anglers for the same information as the phone survey -- how often they had recently gone fishing off the coast."It's kind of like back to the future," said Stokes. "This study showed that the mail survey data collection for this particular survey is quite promising. The data was better and we got a higher response."
Stokes was a member of a National Research Council panel that was asked by the government to critique its existing "Coastal Household Telephone Survey."
The Coastal Household Telephone Survey is carried out regularly by the National Marine Fisheries Service to routinely assess fish stocks in U.S. coastal waters.
Survey critical to fisheries management
Fisheries scientists rely heavily on survey data to determine which areas off the coast are overfished for specific types of fish.
The service manages overfishing in various ways, including by imposing annual limits on the amount and type of fish that can be caught and by declaring moratoriums on fishing.
A new law requires the NOAA Fisheries Service to step up protection and conservation. But anglers say it's unfair to use unreliable data to set limits and moratoriums on fishing -- which causes hardship for the nation's massive recreational fishing industry.
There are 13 million recreational saltwater anglers in the nation, according to the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation. Recreational fishing has an $82 billion annual impact on the nation's economy and supports 533,000 jobs, according to the American Sportfishing Association.
The nation's coastal waters are divided into eight Regional Fishery Management Councils created in 1976 to manage the fishery resources within the federal 200-mile limit off the coast. The councils are: New England, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Pacific, North Pacific and Western Pacific. The closing this year of the red snapper fishery in the South Atlantic council area has sparked intense controversy.
NOAA has said that U.S. fisheries contribute more than $35 billion annually to the economy, with an estimated $20 billion spent on recreational fishing alone each year.
Mail survey shows promise
Results of the study were presented as "A Pilot Test of a Dual Frame Mail Survey of Recreational Marine Anglers" in August at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Statistical Association in Vancouver.
Other researchers included Nancy Mathiowetz, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; J. Michael Brick, Westat; William R. Andrews, NOAA Marine Recreational Information Program; and Seth Muzzy, ICF/Macro.
The researchers chose North Carolina because the state has had a saltwater recreational fishing registry for some time. The purpose of the research is to improve both survey coverage and response rates.
"Phone responses are declining at an alarming rate," Stokes said, partly due to the jump in households that only have cell phones. "People are just less cooperative with phone surveys."
The survey was mailed to 1,800 anglers and included a $1 cash incentive, with a reminder postcard one week later. The rate of response was higher to the mailed surveys than to phone surveys, Stokes said, which is consistent with a general U.S. phone survey trend since the 1980s.
The experiment also showed that a large fraction of North Carolina anglers do not live in coastal county households, which are the only ones directly covered by the current phone survey. Efforts to improve coverage by adding interviews with anglers from registry lists are easier by mail than phone since duplicates are easier to identify, she said.
Solution for shortcoming
A shortcoming of the mailed survey is the inability to get real-time information, which allows the NOAA Fisheries Service to respond quickly to overfishing. Stokes said that problem may be able to be resolved by providing a revised forecast, similar to routinely released economic data for unemployment, job claims, manufacturing and consumer confidence.
Evidence was found that the mail survey suffers from what Stokes described as "avidity bias": People who fish a lot and who are licensed to fish are more likely to respond. The researchers will address that in a revised survey by asking people for information about other recreational activities as well.
Eventually the NOAA Fisheries Service survey will tap anglers on the National Saltwater Angler Registry. A new federal law requires anyone planning to recreational fish in the ocean be signed up with the registry, which the NOAA Fisheries Service launched in January.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100901121511.htm
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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« Reply #74 on Sept 4, 2010, 1:40am » | |
Green roofs offer antidote to urban heat island effect, say researchers
Researchers at Columbia University have demonstrated that a layer of plants and earth can cut the rate of heat absorption through the roof of a building in summer by 84%
* Andy Extance for environmentresearchweb, part of the Guardian Environment Network
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 September 2010 10.49 BST
![[image]](http://a.imageshack.us/img15/3397/greenroofinnewyork00723.jpg "[image]")
Columbia University has confirmed that a green roof saves energy by insulating Con Edison's training centre in Long Island City, Queens. Credit: Con Edison Photograph: Con Edison
Green roofs, like the one pictured above, benefit more than just their owners, according to Stuart Gaffin, a researcher at Columbia University. "They are a win-win on so many fronts," he said.
Perhaps the greatest overall benefit of green roofs comes in tackling the "urban heat island" effect, which Gaffin suggests is responsible for two-thirds of New York's localized warming over the last century. The conventional black rooftops that he calls "tar beaches" are major contributors to this phenomenon, absorbing and re-radiating the sun's energy as heat. "We're going to want to cool regional climate down, especially where people are living," Gaffin noted. "So we're going to have to confront the urban heat island effect."
While conventional roofs can reach temperatures of 80 °C at 1.00 p.m. even outside of high summer, green roofs always stay closer to ambient temperatures. "These [conventional roofs] are almost dangerously hot spaces," Gaffin told environmentalresearchweb. "That's a huge heat load that we can get rid of."
Plants in green roofs regulate their temperatures through evapotranspiration. "They evaporate copious amounts of water," Gaffin explained. "That takes a lot of energy and means it's a great way to stay cool." Eliminating extreme temperature cycles allows green roofs to be designed as relatively low maintenance options. They experience less thermal expansion and contraction stress, leading to predictions of at least a doubling of lifespan compared to black roofs.
The urban heat island effect is often used by critics of climate research to suggest that measured temperature rises don't indicate global warming. "Generally the climate research community avoids even using urban weather stations, or attempts to make corrections, because you know that's a warming bias," Gaffin explained.
The Columbia team is considering whether meteorological stations on green roofs might provide improved measurements for urban studies, however – although even this wouldn't enable them to assess climate change. The US National Weather Service recommends placing sensors at least 100 feet from paved or concrete surfaces. "One of the major restrictions says 'don't put them near black asphalt rooftops'," Gaffin explained. "When you put green roofs up, they are like meadows in the sky."
White is another roof colour used to fight both the urban heat island effect and global warming in general, by simply reflecting light back into space. This offers cheaper installation than green roofs, but needs special maintenance to prevent dirt reducing its effectiveness. Together, Gaffin expects green and white to replace black roofs. "I think the way we're going to cool things down in cities is going to be a combination of vegetation and brighter surfaces," Gaffin said. "There's going to be a contribution from both."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/green-roof-urban-heat-island
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
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John F. Kennedy |
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