ecology
worldsfair | May 15, 2007"Ecology is a study of interactions or relationships between organisms and the environment; the connectedness between living systems and non-living systems on the Earth. Ecology is, in a sense, a historical field, founded upon the Earth's far reaching and ever evolving natural history."
(Click here to go to post)
voltagegate | May 15, 2007Welcome to the 5th edition of Oekologie, the 'sphere's only blog carnival focusing on ecology and environmental science. We are always looking for hosts (especially for October) and contributors, so please check out those tabs if you're interested in either.
Some of you may know that I have a tendency to mix in some history when hosting science carnivals. So, for the first themed edition of Oekologie, we will be using ancient and medieval Arabic nature writing to frame our moving monthly mag of biological interactions in the environment.
Zoology One of the most famous Arabic zoological…
voltagegate | May 14, 2007Oekologie #5 will be published here tomorrow late morning early afternoon. If you've written anything about ecology and/or environmental science (I stress the science bit; politics to a minimum here) please send in your submissions via e-mail: thevoltagegate [at] gmail.com.
The theme will be ancient zoological and botanical writings, just to let you know. Don't worry about theming the posts, I'll take care of the "framing."
voltagegate | May 12, 2007I was pointed to an interesting video experiment this morning called Ecolanguage, which attempts to describe complex systems - societal, economical and ecological - through the use of simple animations and symbols. It's a neat idea, up to date, and well researched, but I suppose that the specific parameters of each system could be debated. See for yourself. I think there's a definite need for alternative descriptive methodologies, and this fits neatly into that "niche."
Thus far, the producer of these video shorts has about a dozen posted at YouTube; two of the best are posted below.
Nature…
voltagegate | May 12, 2007From Ontario to Greece to Panama, what are participating bloggers finding out in the field? This thread will be constantly updated throughout the week, blog carnival style, compiling all of the bioblitzes that are being conducted. Please contact me if you have something up; I'll make sure I add it to the list.
Don't forget to check out all of the participant's photos at the Flickr group (over 300 photos now).
For info about the Blogger Bioblitz, follow the links:
Read more about the blitz
Visit the forum
See submission guidelines
Join the Flickr group
Find a field guide online
Download a…
voltagegate | May 10, 2007Not according to the Bay Journal:
The annual winter dredge survey, which is used to estimate blue crab numbers in the Bay, suggests that the crab population still shows no sign of rebounding from the low level of abundance that has marked most of the last decade.
The total number of crabs estimated to be overwintering in the Chesapeake Bay in 2007 was similar to the abundance observed in 2006, but abundance in 2007 remained below the 17-year survey average.
The abundance of young-of-the-year crabs--those less than 2 inches across the carapace--declined significantly in 2007, and is among the…
voltagegate | May 9, 2007Global warming is not only stripping corals of their food source, it is opening the door to rapid, widespread infection.
A group of researchers (led by a Dr. John Bruno) published a paper in PLoS Biology this week looking into a possible correlation between the spread of white syndrome among schleractinian corals and warmer temperatures at the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The study found a positive correlation between warmer temperatures and outbreak.
More on schleractinian corals and how global warming is affecting them below the fold.
Schleractinian corals - such as the brain coral pictured -…
voltagegate | May 7, 2007"We then try to justify what we do by trying to make it sound as if it has some "useful" application. But, really, we do it because it is fun. Nature is entertainment-the greatest show on earth. And that is not trivial, because what is life, if it isn't fun? I think that the greatest contribution we could make would be to help make life more interesting."
-Bernd Heinrich
voltagegate | May 7, 2007As part of a school project, these students took the chapter on biomes in their biology text and produced a series of videos about biomes, but not just any biomes. These students chose to present the biomes of the Lord of the Rings.
Join Gandalf and Frodo below the fold as they revisit a not-so-perilous Middle Earth, where wargs, oliphaunts and huorns are just functional groups in an ecosystem.
Intro
Tundra
Taiga
You can find the rest of the series on YouTube.
clock | May 6, 2007Tatjana Jovanovic is a fellow escapee from Serbia and a fellow biologist. She got her MS in Biology at the University of Belgrade and has collected enough data before emigrating to be able to immediately get a PhD if someone would sponsor her here. She is currently in Arizona, but she is moving to North Carolina later this year. She will send you her impressive CV on demand - her publications range from immunology to pest control, but most of it is focused on small rodents, their avian predators and the dynamics of predator-prey relationships. She has combined lab and field work, from…
voltagegate | May 4, 2007The Ecological Society of America published a special open access issue of Frontiers in Ecology on Wednesday, focusing on sustainability in light of unprecedented human mobility, aka globalization.
All of the articles agree on one thing: Ecology itself needs to be more effectively globalized, placing sound science in the hands of effective communicators and policy makers.
Two articles discuss this in greater detail, both worth a look: the introduction and a short paper reviewing applied ecological knowledge.
chaoticutopia | May 3, 2007
As my week of bioblitzing was wrapping up, so were my classes. Add to that an eager 6-year-old, who wanted to help with spring preparations by cleaning the pond-with windex-and you can see, I've been busy.
I never did get around to counting the flora in my two bioblitz locations, but I have no regrets. This has been a wonderfully enlightening experience for me. While my counts don't show it, I managed to stumble onto one of the richest ecological niches in my area. I've visited site A at Standley Lake regularly since moving to this part of town. Now, I'll be visiting site B (B is for…
chaoticutopia | April 30, 2007
Geese at Standley Lake (soft pastel and charchol on canvas) by Karmen Lee Franklin, 2007
It seems that in life, nothing ever turns out as expected. Over the past week, which was, of course, National Wildlife Week, I participated in the Blogger Bioblitz. The experience was loads of fun, quite educational, and full of surprises. By the last day, I'd sort of given up on counting (overwhelmed by the diversity I'd discovered) and switched into artistic mode... but the surprises kept coming.
I dropped by both sites A and B over the weekend. I completed a small count at the beaver ponds at site B…
voltagegate | April 30, 2007From Ontario to Greece to Panama, what are participating bloggers finding out in the field? This thread will be constantly updated throughout the week, blog carnival style, compiling all of the bioblitzes that are being conducted. Please contact me if you have something up; I'll make sure I add it to the list.
Don't forget to check out all of the participant's photos at the Flickr group (over 300 photos now).
For info about the Blogger Bioblitz, follow the links:
Read more about the blitz
Visit the forum
See submission guidelines
Join the Flickr group
Find a field guide online
Download a…
voltagegate | April 29, 2007After the past month of planning, promoting and actually surveying, today is the last day of the Blogger Bioblitz (B3). But that doesn't mean we're quite done.
Sara, Jenn and I will be tabulating data over the next week or so, getting a final count of species and shipping the data off to Madhu and Greg for mapping. We're hoping to have everything complete in the first couple weeks.
The link list of B3 posts will be updated tomorrow morning, when I'm sure all the posts are in. If I have missed anyone, e-mail me.
I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone involved. It started with just one idea and…
chaoticutopia | April 27, 2007
Tracking wildlife in my neighborhood wetlands this week made me reflect on the complex network of organisms in a habitat. Everything in an ecosystem is so intimately tied together, that a single species can have drastic effects on the entire habitat. The ecosystem, like all systems containing that elusive chaotic aspect, has sensitive dependence on the initial conditions... like a fractal. In the fractal or in nature, one small change can ripple through the entire set. For an example, I took two copies of the classic Mandelbrot set, and laid one atop the other. Then, I used slightly…
voltagegate | April 26, 2007"Humanity did not descend as angelic beings into this world. Nor are we aliens who colonized Earth. We evolved here, one among many species, across millions of years, and exist as one organic miracle linked to others. The natural environment we treat with such unnecessary ignorance and recklessness was our cradle and nursery, our school, and remains our one and only home. To its special conditions we are intimately adapted in every one of the bodily fibers and biochemical transactions that gives us life."
-E.O. Wilson
chaoticutopia | April 25, 2007
The rain finally stopped this afternoon, so I decided to head over to Site A for a 15 minute bioblitz. The lake seemed deserted when I arrived. No other people were interested in climbing around in the mud, and all of the fauna was hiding. Far away, I heard a meadowlark and what sounded like a frog, but otherwise, all was quiet. I walked around a little, and decided I had better mark off a square, and start counting the many clumps of prairie grass along the trail. Unfortunately, in early spring, when it is just sprouting from the ground, prairie grass is notoriously difficult to identify. I…
voltagegate | April 25, 2007"There should be more attention paid to scientific research in the ecology area, and I think that such attention to proper environmental concerns would make the public feel much better about it."
-Thomas R. Cech
chaoticutopia | April 24, 2007
In theory, conducting a bioblitz was going to be a simple enterprise. I would go to one of my chosen spots, count the organisms as I went along, noting them in my book and, if possible take a photograph. I figured the two places I'd chosen would be relatively barren. In the tall grass prairie (especially one that has been mowed) you expect lots of grass, the occasional shrub or succulent, and the standard plains fauna, mostly passing birds and a profusion of prairie dog mounds. Site A is one of my regular haunts, and I knew I'd spot, at best, some waterfowl or wildflowers there.
I chose…