voltagegate | May 16, 2007This post discusses an article published in PLoS Biology reviewing Cornell Ecologist Josh Donlan's idea of importing African analogs of extinct North American vertebrates like the American lion and the mammoth in the hopes that filling these niches will restore and stabilize lost ecosystems. Two questions from my end: Are these non-native organisms truly analogous to their extinct American cousins and is it too late to make such a bold move?
Ecologists have been debating about whether or not they know enough to begin rebuilding long-lost ecosystems by replacing extinct large vertebrates with…
voltagegate | May 15, 2007I can't wait to see these guys again. Freakin' amazing guitar work and just sloppy enough to avoid pretension. They're touring with the Deftones this summer.
Me and my ex-music editor (*sniffle*), Steph saw them last July at the Ottobar in Baltimore. Tom Erak, the lead singer is a very cool guy. She got to chat with him after the show.
Steph has caught the blogging bug too, and started a punk news blog as an extension of her stuff at TBL. She goes to way more shows than she can cover in the paper, so Typing for Miles provides an outlet for her insatiable, relentless music writing.
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 14, 2007"The most important thing is to actually think about what you do. To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society. That's key, and that underlies everything else."
-Jane Goodall
voltagegate | May 13, 2007Found this on TED the other day. Edward Burtynsky presents some staggering images, especially of China's growing industry.
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, 2007James (I should say Dr. James...) deserves some grats; he has officially finished his "PhD journey."
Go over to Direction Not Destination and give him some props.
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 12, 2007We are still "in the lab" so to speak with the final results of the Blogger Bioblitz. All of the data crunchers and digital cartographers are involved in academia in one way or another and this is crunch time. So, stay tuned and we'll have the final tabulation in the next week or so.
In the meantime, Jenn has shared some impressive preliminary results of plants, fungi and mosses at the Google Group. You can read them below the fold.
Here is some metadata from our compiled BioBlitz records. This only includes data mailed out to us as of 5/5/07, and only includes plants, algae, mosses, fungi,…
voltagegate | May 12, 2007The second edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors, a new blog carnival about environmental education, is up at Alone on a Limb. For number two, Terrell takes us on a nature walk through school, even giving Oekologie a shout out. Thanks, all.
Have you written anything about environmental education lately? Have any plans to? Submit a post using the Blog Carnival form.
Tip: Julie
voltagegate | May 10, 2007The final issue of The Bottom Line came out yesterday, the last one with my name under "editor in chief" on the tombstone.
This past weekend, I got a phone call from Jared, one of our own choose-your-adventure style serial fiction writers (Q.U.E.S.T. - don't ask me what it stands for...) at TBL. I have made a couple of appearances in their story so far, and he was wondering how I should meet my end: Should they rush in to save me from pain and death or should I meet my end at the hands of their nemesis as they rush in to save me?
"Oh, I would much rather die in the last issue," I said.
"…
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 8, 2007Send me your best ecology and environmental science posts from the past month and I'll compile 'em in the first themed edition of Oekologie. I've been reading about the early botanical and zoological writings of ancient civilizations lately, particularly Arabic and Greek, and I thought it would provide a nice frame for the carnival (I've done the history bit before in Tangled Bank #71 with the Enlightenment).
So, early ecological writings is the word for Oekologie #5. Now I just need a bunch more submissions...
EDIT: I should mention that I'm looking for just ordinary ecology/env sci posts…
voltagegate | May 8, 2007Science Daily posted a few stories on climate change in the past two days, all three of equal interest.
The first study looks to the melting of the ice sheets that once covered the British Isles and how that affected ocean currents thousands of years ago. Will the same be true of Greenland's melting glaciers?
According to a revision article published in Science, ocean circulation during the last ice age was very different to present day circulation. The formation of deep water currents in the North Atlantic was much weaker and the flow of warm water from the Gulf Stream decreased. This led to…
voltagegate | May 8, 2007Heather* has been working on a few politically charged editorial comics for the Union of Concerned Scientist's second annual Science Idol contest:
We're looking for your creative take on the issue of political interference in science. Submit one-panel or multi-panel print cartoons that address the misuse of science on a specific issue or in general. But before you put pen to paper, please check out the contest guidelines to make sure you're on the right track.
Grand prize is $500 bucks, cartoon featured on the cover of the calendar featuring all 12 finalists and a lunch in DC with Tom Toles.…
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.