Just 3 seconds

Sorry work has been getting on top of me for the last few weeks and it's not going away quite yet, so there is a video from Prince Ea which is very thought provoking to keep you ticking over till I can get round to writing a better post.

Batteries - How can we store energy

Energy is extremely hard to store, currently there are not may options for power storage, you can either store potential energy is the form of a dam or electrical energy in batteries. However these are not very feasible methods as dams require certain geography and years of planning and building, while current batteries are unable to store anywhere near the amount of energy needed for commercial use.

A Canadian group have been working on a solution to this problem and it's well worth having a read about it if you have a spare few minutes. This is something you could be seeing put into practice in the very near future.

Check out the link

http://www.sciencealert.com/underwater-balloons-could-give-us-a-new-way-of-storing-renewable-energy

Invasive Species - When Aliens Attack

Invasive species are devastating to the environment

Some people refer to a thing known as the ‘Rule of 10s’ this states that if 100 organisms are introduced to a new area 10 of them will be capable of surviving without input and of those 10 only  1 is going to cause a truly significant problem. So when you look at the numbers like that you have to ask yourself how likely invasive species are going to cause a problem. Well the problem is with better connection between everywhere in the world, thousands of invasive species have been able to move into new areas where they are all having very significant effects.

Now it’s hard to talk about invasive species in a general sense as every situation is different and is being dealt with differently.

An example of an invasive species in the UK is the grey squirrel, now this is something everyone who lives in the UK should already know about. In the 1870s they were introduced from the eastern side of North America which is their native range and since then they have expanded across the UK. In 2014 it was estimated that they possessed a population size of 2,520,000 within the UK. There are serious competitors to the native red squirrel this is due to their ability to store more fat than the red squirrels meaning that they are more likely to survive tough winters and be in a better condition afterward. Also their ability to produce more offspring whilst also living at higher densities, results in uncontrollable competition which the red squirrel is simply unable to match. It’s not just the competition they provide which has led to the decreased red squirrel numbers however, a virus known as squirrel pox has increased red squirrel decline by an estimate 17-20 times. This disease has been able to spread throughout the UK thanks to the extensive range of the grey squirrels which acts as a vector for the disease continuously introducing it to the few remaining isolated red squirrel populations.

A further example of an invasive species which has covered an entire country and has been mentioned before on this blog, is the mosquito fish Gambusia holbrooki, which was introduced into Australia in the 1920s, in the hope that it would control mosquito larvae. It is now present in every state except the Northern Territories and vastly affects the food web dynamics preying on aquatic invertebrates and breeding till it is the most dominant species in the pond. It also has an adverse effect on amphibians due to the fact that it attacks tadpoles and fin nips them which reduces the area of their tail and so prevents them from escaping from predators. There is not much to be done about this invasion as if a pond is drained gambusia always returns due to its resilience to droughts.

New Zealand as a country has been hit extremely hard by invasive species, owing to the fact that it has been separated from other land masses for so long means that in evolutionary terms many of the niches are occupied by organisms which are not adapted to predators and competition. This is issues being faced by many other isolated Islands such as Hawaii which distance for large land masses has made their ecology completely unique and so unable to cope with invasive species.

Within the US there are around +150 known invasive species which includes plants, reptiles, insects, molluscs, mammals, birds as well as pathogens (which are not usually thought of as an invasive species). One of the most well-known cases of invasive species within the US is the Burmese Pythons which can now be found in the Florida Everglades. A population which is believed to have become established due to the escape or release of captive pet, over 2000 were removed from 2002-2015 but it is believed that this effort made no kind of significant impact on population numbers despite extensive efforts.

Finally it is not simply invasive animals which cause problems and disrupt the stability of ecosystems, the introduction of invasive plants can cause equally as many problems to both native plants and animals. A quick example of this would be Japanese Knotweed which was introduced into Britain by the Victorians as an ornamental garden plant and has again spread from gardens into rural Britain, resulting in an estimated cost of £1.5billion to bring it under control.

As you can see invasive species are a serious issue and one which costs nearly every country billions of pounds a year through either loss of economic income or attempts in controlling and eradicating the invading species. In most cases however the damage has been done with many native species having become extinct due to the introduction of a new organism.

However there is always more work to be done on this front as with each new invasive species new threats are created and new diseases introduced resulting in different native species being put under pressure.

You can do something though, something as simple as thinking about what you are planting in your garden and whether its spread will be detrimental to your local environment will help. As well as this there are groups which are easily found in the internet local to you which need the help of volunteers to remove invasive species, so if you have some spare time that would be a good option to look into.

Thanks for reading

Side note – I only just brushed the surface of the effect that each of the invasive species mentioned in this post has and if you are interested there are countless studies being conducted, some of which have been running for many years to show the full extent of the introduction of an invasive species.

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The Ethiopian Wolf - An animal on the edge

The Ethiopian wolf is a amazing animal but unfortunately it is now down to  an overall populations of fewer than five hundred individuals. As the name would suggest it is endemic to Ethiopia, specifically the few remaining mountain ranges which possess suitable Alfroapline grasslands above 3200m in altitude.

The largest of the six remaining populations is found

in the Bale Mountains and it is made up of 210 individuals with 113 of them being mature individuals capable of breeding. The age which wolves are capable of breeding is 2 years old and once they reach this age they have the potential to breed once a year till 10-12 years of age. Each brood is contains on average between 3 to 6 pups with the chances of each pup making it through their first year being 45% for females and 55% for males. However not every individual has the opportunity to breed, only 57% of females get to
breed, this is due to the pack system which the Ethiopian wolf employs much like most canine species only the Alpha female of each group breeding each year.

A Wolfs diet consists nearly completely of rodents (96%) which are found thr

oughout the mountain ranges they inhabit, specifically this takes the form of giant mole rats and Blick’s grass rats. However they have also been known to feed on other small mammals such as Starck’s hares and Rock Hyrax and it is these prey items which makes up the remainder of the wolves diet (4%).

The Ethiopian wolf populations have been experiencing significant population declines for a number of reasons, such as disease, hunting, habitat lost and cross species breeding. The main two disease which are effecting wolf populations are the rabies virus and CDV (canine distemper virus). There were serious outbreak of CDV in 2005/6 and 2010 and these cases produced a fatality rate of 43% and 68%. These numbers are extremely significant especially now the population in now less than 500 individuals, for instance if there is another outbreak of CDV within the next few years this could take the population dangerously close to an unviable population. Rabies outbreaks also increase mortality rates significantly with an outbreak in 1991-92 killing 77% of remaining individuals in the Bale Mountains and with the increase of feral dogs in the area there is increasing risks of further outbreaks.

Another pressure which is attributes to the decline of the Ethiopian wolf is the loss of habitat, there is now only around 4200km² of suitable habitat left for this wolf and this is spread out between the six remaining populations with only 2779 km² of the available area being used by the remaining population. Habitat declines are mainly due to the increase of farming in the area, the high altitude grasslands provide fertile pastureland for local’s livestock. As the human population continues to increase there is a higher demand for free land for food production and at the current rate of use the Ethiopian wolf is destined for extinction.

It’s not only an expanding human population in the area which is causing the decline of Wolves, feral dogs are also causing population declines as well as hybridisation of genetics when the two species come into contact.  Although only a few cases of this happening have so far been observed this dilution of the gene pool will affect the ability of the wolfs population to increase.

 There is a conservation effort in progress to attempt to prevent the extinction of the Ethiopian Wolf, for instance the Bale Mountain population has been continually monitored for the past 30 years sadly despite these efforts the population is still declining.

Hopefully in the very near future this will change giving the Ethiopian Wolf a chance to escape extinct.

Thanks for reading

Check out these videos 

Logging - An avalanche of effects

Logging is an environmental issue that has very far reaching effects; many people will know that millions acres of trees are cut down every single year across the world from the rain forests of Amazon to the tundra of Russia.

I’m not planning on actually focusing on the removal of tree while this is the major issue as they play extremely significant effect on the ecosystem for things such as carbon storage, food and shelter. However once removed a process starts, an entire cascade effect or avalanche which is started by the removal of trees.

The first impact on the habitat when trees are removed starts instantly, the topsoil becomes unstable, this means that the thin nutrient rich layers of topsoil is at risk. The topsoil is lost within a couple of years owing to the fact that it is no longer secured by roots and also because water will move through it faster speeding up the process of leaching. Leaching occurs when water from rain moves through the exposed and unsecured topsoil, as it moves it carries away nutrients and organic matter either in solution or suspension. This matter is washed into water systems where it can cause a boom in productivity of aquatic life or given excessive quantities cause a crash due to excessive siltation. However this is only a one off situation as after a year or so all the nutrients are removed and so the ecology of the water system is affected.

It does not just end there however as after the initial boom there is a lack of interaction between riparian areas (area within influence of the river) and the aquatic life. A study was conducted between these exchanges of both biotic and abiotic factors; it was found that when these interactions were prevented invertebrates such as riparian based spider population crashed massively as significantly fewer aquatic invertebrates emerge to start their new life stage due to lack of nutrient sources from within the river reducing population size. Also feeding systems within the rivers were affected and some more generalised species populations increased while others more specific niche based organisms crashed due to the new habitat created.

Deforestation also affects human populations as the removal of trees effect the water cycle. Forests act as a sort of biological dam, the rain fall is caught up in the forest either held within the plants before being transpired, or as suspended ground water. This means that rainfall is steadily released into the water ways thus controlling flow rates. Removal of the trees however prevents this process and so rain proceeds into rivers faster without being stalled, resulting in extreme and quick fluctuation it river level. These changes in river levels can increases the risks of flash flooding in villages, towns and cities which are commonly found on large water ways lower in the catchment area. The faster movement of this water through the water cycle also results in the areas which have been deforested being drier overall with a lack of ground water.

Finally the effects of deforestation are detrimental to human advances; already there are around 7,000 medical compounds which are derived from plants. It is also important to remember  that I’m not talking about herbal medicine or Chinese medicines, because these are a con, if they are helpful the active molecule would have already been isolated and concentrated into modern medicine. It is still unknown to the exact extent of medical cures the forests of the world contain but with an estimated 28,000 species expected to become extinct in the next 25 years due to deforestation  it is likely that many of them will be lost forever.

So what can you do?

Simply try to avoid all types of tropical woods for furniture and other applications especially Sapelee, Wenge, Ebony, Brazilian Mahogany and Burmese teak, will help as it is demand for these exotic products which are truly driving the process of deforestation. Also try to make sure that the wood in the products which you do purchases is sourced from a sustainable managed sources. The FSC for instance certify groups who support responsible forestry, so look for their logo.

Thanks for reading

Check out  this article - Just goes to show what we can still learn for nature to benefit humanity 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34466220

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Decline of Amphibians

I want to talk to you about the Green and Golden Bell frog (Litoria aurea) today.  This is an amphibian which is native to New South Wales (NSW) Australia and an invasive species in both New Zealand and New Caledonia. It’s also the species which I spent almost a year focusing on during my time in Australia for my professional training year, so a species I know quite a bit about. Now although many of you will have no idea what a Bell frog is and are unlikely ever to see one in the wild, the contents of this post is extremely relevant. This is because all amphibians across the world have all been struggling. In fact 34% of amphibians are endangered while 22.5% are data deficient (there is not enough information on them to deduce their conservation status), Bell frogs are in the same boat as they too are endangered in NSW.

The decline of amphibians has been down to a number of different selection pressures some of which a specific to particular species and while others cover a broad range of species, such as habitat destruction, the spread of disease and also the introduction of invasive or ‘alien’ species.

The Bell frog is under pressure for all these categories, habitat destruction is a key factor along NSW, as agriculture and development has been expanding along the central coast as the population expands. This expansion means that the remaining Bell frog populations are fragmented into several isolated populations, in some cases they are refined to just a single pond such as in the case of Avoca Lagoon. This fragmentation is a problem as it stops migration and immigration of individuals between populations; this means areas are unable to be repopulated after a disaster. However the development in the area is not always a bad thing as in the case of the redevelopment of Sydney Olympic Park has meant that two new self-sustaining populations have been created whilst maintaining a third successful population. Although the recent planning permission of a 4^th coal terminal on Kooragang Island in Newcastle means the populations found there will be under even more pressure in future years.

Invasive species are also an issue for the Bell frog as the introduction of a mosquito fish in 1920s (Gambusia holbrooki) has dramatically increased tadpole mortality. This is not direct predation however as the fish aren’t big enough to directly predate on the tadpoles but they do conduct a process called fin nipping. This reduces the area of a tadpole tail and so reduces their ability to escape from larger predators and search for food. These fish are an extreme problem in Australia and have successfully spread across the whole of Australia except from the Northern territories.

The third main reason the Bell frog populations are in decline like many amphibians around the world is due to the spread of the Chytrid Fungus, Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis. This fungus is thought to have originated from Africa, due to the movement of people and produce across the world it has been found on nearly every continent. Although some frogs are capable of surviving being infected by this fungus such as the African Long Clawed frog, while to many other frog species contracting this is fatal. The Fungus can be contracted at any life stage from spores which are suspended in the water. The fungus basically affects the epidermis of the frog, which is vital for the survival of an amphibian as they absorb water and oxygen through their skin. There are currently many people looking into a method to control and treat the spread of this fungus, and research is looking into the effects of salinity and heat on the survival of Chytrid.

So like I said at the beginning this post mainly focuses on the Green and Golden Bell frog but the selection pressures being put on this species are either the same or similar to many amphibians which are under pressure throughout the world.

Thanks for reading

Check out these videos

 Not a Bell Frog but pretty cool piece of footage

Ghost Fishing - The never ending catch

It’s been quite I while since I’ve posted on here so sorry about that, but things have been mad for me for the last month or so.

Right I’m going to get straight into the topic this week which is something many of you might not have been thinking about, ghost catching. Ghost catching is a process which has been going on for many years all since the development of non-biodegradable nets and happens across our oceans and inland waterways and has a massive ecological effect on the environment.

So starting at the beginning ghost catching is a secondary process of fishing whether it is commercial or recreational fishing. Now as many people will know millions of tonnes of fish are removed from our oceans and waterways every single year with around 4.1 billion people in the world relying on fish as their primary source of protein throughout the world. Just to give you

a few numbers 90 million tonnes of wild fish were removed from oceans in 2012 and this number does not take into account those fish which are farmed such as salmon. It’s important to remember that fisheries do not only have to feed more people, they are also needed to provide more fish per person. The average consumption of fish per person growing from 9kg to 16kg per year from 1960s-1997 and this is a trend which is continuing to grow. The number does not just stop there however as these numbers are only the fish
which are landed in the ports, many more millions of tonnes of fish are also caught and then returned to the sea either dead or dying. This is known as bycatch and can take the form of either over catch for a fishing quota or non-target species which in some cases takes the form of dolphins and turtles.

Bycatch is not what I want to write this post about however as I’ve said before I want to talk about ghost fishing. So finally a description, ghost fishing is fishing which is done via gear such as nets and hooks which have been lost or dumped in the sea or rivers. Unlike human fishing the organisms which this lost gear catch are not used for anything and simply rot.

So the main point to remember is ghost fishing equipment is catching fish 24 hours a day 7 days a week, or nearly. This equipment will fish and trap organisms and these death fish will attract large predators and scavengers which it will also trap. This continues till the nest gets weighed down by the number of bodies and is pull to the ocean floor, and then it stops fishing. However this does not mark the end though, as once the bodies have rotted away the net will rise again and then the whole process starts over. This ghost fishing is an endless cycle and is set to continue for hundreds of year until the nets break up.

This is a terrible thing and it is important to remember to those nets do not just catch fish, sea birds, mammals and crustaceans are affected from this equipment. The process of ghost fishing also takes place in inland waterways and in some cases animals such as swans and otters can be caught up in recreational fishing lines and hooks.

So what can you do about this? Well unless you are a heavily experienced diver I suggest you do not going hunting for nets to remove. There are certain steps open to everyone however which will help the situation for instance, if you are a keen fisherman always attempt to retrieve all your gear is you get it stuck. Also is you visit the coast and see netting on the beach please remove as much as possible and dispose of it responsibly, so they are not washed back out to sea to continue ghost fishing.

Thanks for reading

Check out these links!

This link relates to general farming but make sure you keep an eye on the number of marine creatures at the top!

http://www.adaptt.org/killcounter.html

Just a bit more information about ghost fishing

http://www.fao.org/fishery/topic/14798/en

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Viral videos - Are they harmless?

Check out this link guys.

I've briefly touched on the effects of tourism on animals in the post about elephants and how some go through the process of crushing. This article points out it does not have to just be tourism in the country which effects animals across the world, social media also plays a large role with viral videos sometime bring unwanted attention to threatened and endangered species.

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/viral-videos-and-pictures-of-exotic-animals-harm/

Thanks for reading

Salmon

With the last post being about dams I believe it appropriate to talk about salmon in this post.

The salmon is an amazing creature, it is born in fresh water before migrating down to the sea and adapting for a salt water life before then returning to fresh water to breed and die. This is not a simple process it requires some serious changes within the physiological structure of the salmon so as they are capable to maintain the composition of their body fluids. To be able to cope with these extreme changes in salinity salmon alternate the amount of fluid they intake, freshwater fish avoid water gain by producing large amounts of urine which they do not excrete to raise their osmotic potential, while fish which are leading a marine existence change their habits and consume more water so as to produce dilute urine leaving their body fluids with a lower osmotic potential which is then filled by the salt water. In addition to this process marine fish are capable of secreting excess salt through their gills while fresh water fish are capable of absorbing salt.

Salmon do not just change their methods of maintaining their body fluid osmolality they also go through changes in their diets throughout their lives. Upon hatching the tiny salmon feed on invertebrates and plankton, once mature however the adult salmon is a large predator located near the top of the food chain, it is capable of catching larger prey such as squid, shrimp and other fish.  Depending on the sub species of salmon they can grow from 4 to 110 pounds and vary in length from 20inches to 5ft, with Cherry salmon being the smallest and Chinook salmon being the largest.

Once salmon reach sexual maturity they begin the long journey back to the same stream they were born in. This journey marks the start of the end for a salmon and it is triggered by day length and water temperature. Once entering fresh water salmon stop feeding and their stomach and the rest of their digestive tr

act begins to disintegrate so as to maximise the space available for egg development. Male salmon also undergo physiological changes and their snouts develop into a longer hooked shape called a kype, they also change colour and become redder.

Once the salmon reach the same area in which they were hatched, which is usually an area of shallow well oxygenated water, they can breed. A female then attach their eggs to vegetation or rocks before males release their sperm into the water for external fertilization, this is a milky fluid and in some areas has been known to fill the streams before dispersing. After spawning the majority of salmon die within the following few days, some females do remain alive long enough to guard their nests for a couple of weeks but none remain alive for the entire gestation period of the eggs which is  around four months.

This process of mating and then dying is not uncommon in the natural world, it is known as semelparity or suicidal reproduction, many plants as well as insects, frogs, lizards and a handful of mammals exhibit this behaviour.  Semelparity is generally the outcome due to complete exhaustion and depletion of resources it an attempt to maximise breeding success, which is the ultimate aim of any organism. The death of the previous generation is also beneficial for the following generation as it means a reduction in competition for resources such as food and shelter.

Finally global climate change has already had effects on migratory fish such as salmon; this is due to the fact that longer hotter and drier summers mean that river levels are lower and so salmon struggle to reach their spawning grounds high upstream.

 Although many of you may have already known a lot of this information I hope you found out a few new things, let me leave you with the fact that the highest recorded salmon jump is 3.7m (12ft) at Orrin Falls.

Thanks for reading

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Dams- The way forward or a step in the wrong direction?

Sorry for the delay in this post as I’ve recently been away in the middle of nowhere for things related to my degree, but I’m back now.

I mentioned about dams in a previous post concerning river health but I did not go into any kind of detail on them, as I believe it to be suck a big topic that it requires a post all of its own. Dams are an extremely controversial topic as they can be seen as both good and bad in different people’s eyes.

There are a number of different reasons dams are built in some cases it’s due to the requirement of water storage for large population, to help drain areas of marshes so as to provide more land for agriculture and development on or to provide a power source which is not dependent on fossil fuel or nuclear power. Now it is the reason for the dam in my eyes which either make it a good investment or not, and also the area which it is going to be built.

It is always important to remember that a dam does not just effect the immediate environment behind it which becomes flooded upon completion of the dams. Dams have repercussions which stretch for hundreds of miles or even for the entire river.

Dams change ecosystems in a number of different ways; the first thing I’m going to bring up is how they disrupt the movement of sediment down the river. This works in two different ways, firstly sediment is held up above the dams and as the water slows the sediment which is held in suspension, settles out of the water and build up. Although this may appear good it’s not all amazing as these sediment can built up and bury aquatic plants and other forms of life and as the water builds behind the dam the bottom of the resulting lake can become baron and lifeless. In fact a study conducted by the World Bank in 1987 estimated that around 1,100 cubic kilometers of sediment was accumulated behind the world’s reservoirs. That amount of

sediment equated to almost 1/5 of global storage capacity at the time. The area below dams is also effected by the loss of the sediment however as a key source of nutrients is lost, the river in some cases tries to replace these lost nutrients by extensive erosion below the dam. Typically this erosion could be anything up to several meters within the first few years of the dam’s first closure.

Now onto a positive though, as if you block a river you capture a lot of potential energy as the water is stopped. This water can then be released and feed through turbines and produce clean electricity, the Three Gorges Dam in central China is the world’s largest power producing facility of any kind. Personally I’m all for alternative energy sources and believe that our dependence on fossil fuels needs to be reduced as fast as possible.  For instance in the UK 21% of its total energy used is produced through renewable energy sources and of that 21% hydroelectric power makes up 21%. That’s the third highest renewable energy source closely following biomass then wind power. This is nothing however compared to places such as Mozambique and Nepal both of which produced over 99% of their energy needs through hydroelectric power in 2012.

A third use of dams or a secondary use of hydroelectric power dams if for water storage, this is of course necessary due to the increasing population numbers and the ‘wasteful’ sort of culture we live in. For instance people within the UK use on average 150 liters of water a day personally; this is a number which has been growing by 1% every year since 1930. Also when the amount of water used to produce food and other products used by an individual each day is factored in you will actually be consuming 3400 liters a day.  This is of course a major issue and so dams are created to feed large populations with water when required. However still in some cases these dams still are not enough to fulfill the demand, this situation has been addressed by things such as reducing the amount of water lost through evaporation. California for instance as filled a number of their reservoirs with thousands of black plastic balls like those found in ball pits so as to shield the water from the heat of the sun to reduce evaporation.

These reservoirs also produce a build-up of sediment like any dam, but along with that they also reduce the amount of water flowing down stream.  Although not all the water is held up and dams are constantly producing a compensation flow, there is still drastically less water going downstream the majority of the time. This affects general health of the ecosystem below reducing both the biodiversity and carrying capacity of river, it will also affect the seasonal residents of the river, for instance migratory fish such as salmon first of all struggle to reach the dam and then being unable to reach their spawning sites. Furthermore the large amount of still water provide efficient breeding grounds for disease vectors, more of which can be read about in the link below which focuses on Malaria.

Finally there are the economical effects of dams. Now hydroelectric dams clearly have a form of economic income through the production of electricity but the creations of dams change a rivers physiology completely. This can result in the loss of river features such as rapids, and meadows and fertile land above the dam which becomes flooded. Uganda has and is still currently building dams across sections of the White Nile which contains several sections of world class white water which attract thrill seekers from across the world to raft and kayak. However the creations of the first and now the second dam have flattened out large sections of the White Nile and reduced income from tourism in that form.  

It’s always a gamble whether the socioeconomic effects of a dam are worth building it and it is not a standard answer. Ever individual case is different and based on a series of variables such as effects to the environment surroundings, human benefit vs human loss and potential of the dam if built.

So if there is a dam being created close to you or anywhere else in the world you cannot simply make a blanket decision, research and knowledge is needed to create sensible opinion. 

I’ve only skated over the pros and cons of dams and extra reading can never hurt, if you have any good sources for or against dams please comment.

(As a side note – It is also important to remember the creation of a dam is extremely costly to the environment. For instance huge machinery is used to divert water courses, and the millions of tonnes used to produce the dam produce vast amounts of CO₂)

Thanks for reading!

Just a few links

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/how-big-dams-are-poisoning-arctic-methylmercury

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/dams-sub-saharan-africa-linked-increase-malaria-rates

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/california-drought-thousands-black-plastic-balls-released-into-reservoir-stop-water-shortages-1515378

http://www.internationalrivers.org/it/sedimentation-problems-with-dams

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Geckos

A Gecko is a wide term used by many to describe a small lizard when you see them on holiday or around your house. Geckos belong to the infraorder Gekkota and are found across the world in warm climates. They come in many different colours and sizes ranging from 1.6 to 60cm in length when fully grown including the tail.

I will give you a bit more general background into geckos in a bit but the real reason I wanted to bring geckos to your attention is because of their amazing feet. It does not jump to the for front of most people minds but have you ever wondered how they are able to climb walls and glass without any signs of effort and hang from the ceiling stationary for hours? It’s a really cool answer but you have to look incredibly closely at their feet and know a tiny bit of physical chemistry.

When you look at their feet you’ll see that there are microscopic hairs like structures which are the secret to geckos amazing spiderman ability. These microscopic hairs are how the gecko ‘stick’ to the walls, using van der Waals forces which are also known as London forces. These forces are electrostatic interactions between the molecules making up the hairs on the feet and the molecules on the other surface. They occur because of the presence of either two permanent or instantaneously induced dipoles, dipoles are formed by the electron configuration of the molecules due to covalent and ionic bonds drawing electrons to ‘one’ side of the nucleus and uncovering the positively charged protons. The electrons of other molecules in this case the hairs on geckos feet are then attracted to the exposed positive charge nucleus.

This is not the only fact which is interesting with geckos, like many different lizards geckos will throw of their tails in an attempt to escape from predation. This process is not as easy as it sound however; the actual name of this defence mechanism is called autotomy. This defence mechanism is made possible thanks to the geckos tail containing ‘fracture planes’ which are areas within the tail either between the vertebrae or the centre of the vertebrae depending on the species. This is a last resort however because the loss of a tail is extremely costly as they contain the majority of a geckos fat reserves, so once lost juvenile geckos stop growing while a new tail develops and adults cease being reproductively active. The tail is so important in fact that some geckos will return to it after time and proceed to eat it so as to limit the resources lost.

Over a quarter of all known lizard species, 26.8% of the 5600 different species fall under the category of geckos. The majority of them are also nocturnal and have evolved to have specially shaped lenses which help magnify the little available light and allow them to see up to 350x better than a human eye in the dark. Sticking with the eyes no known species of geckos possess an eyelid, instead they has a thin transparent membrane which covers the eyes. This membrane is to help keep the eye clean aided by the tongue.

Thanks for reading

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Plastic food

I've already posted about the waste which is currently circulating in our oceans however I just want to draw this article to your attention to reinforce the message.

Even if you do not read the article just open it up to have a look at the top picture.

It is shocking

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/99-all-seabird-species-will-likely-be-eating-plastic-2050

Thanks for reading!

For a Laugh

Just a joke article however it does focus in on an important issue. With today social media facts are sent round which are completely rubbish. For instance I saw one recently on FaceBook claiming mars would appear the same size as the moon on the 27th August this year. This is of course a hoax however it is amazing how many people were commenting on how they could not wait to see it, without thinking about it for even a fraction of a second.

I'm not attempting to call these people stupid at all. All I wanted to say is you should never ever read anything on the internet and just assume it to be true, just a quick google search will usually verify the information from another source.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/scientists-earth-endangered-by-new-strain-of-fact-resistant-humans

 Thanks for reading

check out this video for a bit more of a laugh at Benedict Cumberbatch trying to say penguins

GM Food - Good or Bad?

GM food is today's topic and as I’m sure you are all aware this is an extremely controversial issue. It has most recently been in the headlines due to the fact that it has been banned in Scotland, there will be more about that in a bit.

I want to start however by telling you my opinion on GM foods, I’m all for them and personally believe that they are and will be an answer for increasing food production as demand increases. So sorry if there is any bias in this post but I truly believe they are the way forward and I plan to explain why.

Now as everyone should know GM stands for genetically modified, this means that changes have been introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering. It is the whole idea of changes which causes concerns in some groups, a few of the larger organisations against GM foods are Greenpeace, some religious groups/individuals and as stated before the Scottish government. Their main arguments and dislikes of GM food are that it is not natural and ‘against gods will’ and the more scientific argument being that could open up the food type to new form of disease or  the GM  crop might out compete the native species if it was able to reproduce.

I want to start however by talking about the domestication of animals instead of plants, which most people assume to be the focus of GM food. Genetic modification has been going on for many thousands of years, since man first captured and domesticated animals, they have been breeding for bigger, or improving the production of their products such as milk. This in its essence is what genetic modification is, the difference now days is genetic manipulation is done in labs targeting specific genes instead of broad guesses like domestication employs.  This is a sort of GM food which many of the people against seem to forget about, it’s not just food however where animals have been genetically modified, animals such as dogs have been undergoing the same process for many years. If you now look at any modern day dogs compared to wolves there is a stark contrast between the two species. Dogs have been going through genetic modification or human directed evolution just like animals used in food production and this sort of genetic manipulation is of very little concern to many people, some do not even connect this selective breeding with the term genetic modification. 

Enough on animals however as when you talk about GM food lots of people's minds instantly just to a crop of some kind. I just wanted to point on the fact that some form of genetic modification has been going on for many thousands of years.

The first argument for GM food I’m going to bring to your attention is Golden rice; this is famous cases, which causes much up roar. It is strongly opposed by Greenpeace as they argue that “GE (genetically engineered) 'Golden' rice is environmentally irresponsible, poses risks to human health, and could compromise food, nutrition and financial security.” While others believe it’s amazing and in 2015 it was awarded Patents for Humanity award as it can save 2.7 million children under 5.

Golden rice has been developed to produce β-carotene which is then providing those who eat it with vitamin A. Vitamin A is vital for developing children so they are able to develop good vision and an strong immune system. 250 million preschool and pregnant women are vitamin A deficient across the world, due to the majority of their diet being rice or other carbohydrate rich foods which do not contain any β-carotene. A 50g (dry weight) of Golden rice can now provide ~60% of the Chinese recommended nutrient intake of vitamin A for 6-8 year olds, which is why it’s capable of saving so many lives.

Now onto Scotland has completely ban the use of GM foods within their borders, but they aren’t  the  only European country to have at least some form of  ban on GM foods whether it is just one particular crop or a collection of crops. For instance the majority of countries in Europe have banned the cultivation of Monsanto’s maize MON 810, it is however used across most of the rest of the world because it has been genetically modified to be more resistant to insect attack. They achieved this by inserting MON810 into the plant which produces the protein Bt toxin which is poisonous to insects in the Lepidotera order. It is cases such as this that anti GM food protestors argue against as they believe this new poison will be damaging to the environment and ecosystem.

Scotland has banned the cultivation of all GM food, because “it refuses to gamble with the future of our £14 billion food and drink sector”, and because there was, “no evidence” of any form of demand for GM food in Scotland. This is a questionable declaration from Scotland as GM food have done so many good things across the world saving so many lives, and although the service GM food provide are not needed in Scotland, this sort of publicity is generally bad for GM food.

So overall I’m all for GM food and I hope I have persuaded you that they are well worth using.

I want to leave you with a couple of different facts; carrots used to be purple and are now orange thanks to genetic modification of the

Dutch who wanted them to be the same colour as their nation. Also the bananas which people eat everyday are nothing like the original wild bananas whose body was filled with large inedible seeds. The process of genetic modification has been going on for many thousands of years and no one has raised an eyebrow, it is only once the process is sped up in a lab that people find issue with.

Thanks for reading

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Solar Power A Start

This article has just been put up on science alert and it's well worth a read.

http://www.sciencealert.com/india-establishes-world-s-first-100-percent-solar-powered-airport

Renewable energy needs to start playing a more substantial role in the worlds energy demand if we want to reduce and slow climate change.

Solar panels for houses are a brilliant idea and if you have the money I urge you to get them, it is an investment which will return the money you put in with free electricity and an small income (depending on the feed in tariff you are on) when any excess power you produce if feed into the national grid. However personal power use is nothing compare to some commercial use and so it falls to large business such as this airport to step up to begin to make a change.

 Thanks for reading.

another article worth a read

http://www.sciencealert.com/new-tool-lets-australians-predict-how-much-energy-their-rooftop-solar-will-generate

Check out this video of the first solar powered plane to fly round the world.

It shows just what we can achieve with solar power!

Golden mole

I wanted to write about the Golden mole this week as I was chatting about it a couple of weeks ago, and it’s something I don’t believe many people know about.

The Golden mole is found in southern Africa and can be found under nearly all environments such as grass lands, forests, swamps and deserts. It is extremely comparable to the European mole with a similar physiology such as strong powerful forelimbs and large feet and claws to aid with digging and a narrow streamline body to help them speed through the soil.  Although the Golden mole is so similar to the European Mole they are found in completely different families, the European mole is part of Talpidae while the Golden mole is found in the family Chrysochloridae. It does not just stop there however these two moles both also show extreme similarities with the marsupial moles found in Australia.

So the question is how are these animals so very similar? As it isn’t just the same physiology which they share, they also share similar diets, behaviour, senses and habitats. The answer is a process called coevolution or convergence, this is when two different unconnected animals move in to fill the exact same niches which dictates their evolution paths and so they both become closely associated to the other species. This kind of evolution isn’t uncommon and cases can be seen in insects, birds and even plants with similar methods of dealing with problems being seen everywhere.

Sadly there are already 10 of the 21 different species of Golden Mole which are classed as threatened to critically endangered according to the IUCN. The majority of these species of Golden moles which are suffering is due to human activity. As is always the case fragmentation and degradation of habitat are causing population declines. This generally takes the form of things such as urbanisation, agriculture and destructive forms of mining destroying indigenous forest and grass lands. There is also a lack of information on 3 of the 21 species so the conservation status of these species is classed as unknown but it is extremely likely that like many other animals they too are experiencing pressure on their populations.

Enough with the doom and gloom though, as I want to close on a few amazing facts about the Golden Moles.

A Golden mole is capable of eating up to half its own body weight of insects a day, that is not really that much however as they have an average weight of around 35g. They are also able to reduce their metabolic rate when food is hard to find and so conserve energy and heat by entering into torpor like state.

They are primarily solitary creatures and spend most their lives alone, only grouping to gather to mate. This grouping is achieved by producing sounds such as squeals and clicks to draw each other towards each other using there extremely sensitive hearing.

Finally they are extremely hard to locate and study so most of the information we know about Golden moles is collected from isolating the carcasses of them from owl stomachs. In fact we know so little we do not even have an average lifespan for the majority of species.

Thanks for reading

  

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River waste mistake

Just a quick follow up to the river health post.

This is bound to be over the news and stuff in the next few days as more details are revealed over the events which caused these mistakes.

But here is the first bit of the story

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/epa-accidentally-contaminate-animas-river-millions-gallons-toxic-waste

Thanks for reading

Sell by date

I've posted about food waste before, however I just wanted to bring this article to everyone's attention. In today's world every item bought from commercial shops comes with either a best before date or an expiry date.

Many people follow these date religiously and this results in hundred of thousands of tonnes of perfectly edible food being thrown away every week across the world. The article posted below gives more precise details about how long you can actually store some foods for, some of which may surprise you.

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-vast-majority-of-expiration-dates-are-completely-bogus-here-s-how-long-your-food-really-keeps-for

I usually just ignore the dates on food and simply judge by sight and smell and if the food looks good and smells alright it's good to go. You must also remember if you are cooking the food and you believe it could be slightly dodgy just cook it for longer. As long as the food reaches a high enough temperature for long enough all the bacteria will be killed as their proteins denature. This will make it safe to eat even if the molecular structure of the food has broken down slightly changing the taste.


Thanks for reading

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River Health

This is a problem particular close to my heart as a kayaker, you’d be amazed how much waste and rubbish you will come across if you travel down any river. I’m not just talking about rivers which flow through towns and cities however; even those which are located a fair distance from urban populations always end up with some form of waste released into them.

It’s important to remember waste isn’t always visible; chemicals which are washed into a river via storm drains or run off from farming can be more destructive than filling the river with waste plastic. The waste doesn’t even have to be put into the river either, for instance a landfill near Oxford (UK) releases around 27.5tonnes of ammonium from decaying waste into the River Thames every year. This ammonium once in the water breaks down into nitrogen which triggers excessive plant growth, this is not as great as it sounds. A river is a finally balanced ecosystem and this excessive plant growth has bad repercussions on other organisms. It encourages large algal blooms which block other plants from receiving the necessary sunlight they require, the algae also releases toxins which kill aquatic life such as invertebrates and even fish by direct methods (poor water quality) or indirect methods (starvation).

River balances are not just upset from chemicals seeping from waste sources, deforestation also plays a part. A study conducted in Tasman showed that an area with underlying granite will produce 7 to 10 times more sediment once the trees were removed due to the thin unstable top soil being washed into the river by rains. This sediment reduces the amount light is able to penetrate the water and so kills of plant and therefore other aquatic life, it would also be imputing excess nutrients which would disrupt the ecosystem once the sediment settles and disperses.

I also want you to think about the chemicals you could be adding to the water system, these generally take the form of cleaning products which people pour down storm drain after activities such as washing cars. These chemicals on their own are not a large problem but when you magnify it up for everyone they being to appear in large quantities. These chemicals and other things such as heavy metals which are released from mines and production plants, can go through the food chain and create a problem known as biomagnification  or bioamplification. This is a process where animals low in a food chain absorb or consume these toxic items and then store in within their body, for instance in the liver. This animal along with others are then eaten by a larger predator and then a larger amount of the toxic product is stored. In some cases this can continue until this stored chemical causes problems.

A famous case of bioamplification is DDT which was originally used for mosquito control however it was found to be harmful to many animals and was able to work its way through the food chain up to the apex predator for those food chains such as the Peregrine Falcon which experienced thinner egg shells and higher mortality in younger animals.

You can read more about DDT here

http://sustainable-nano.com/2013/12/17/the-cautionary-tale-of-ddt-biomagnification-bioaccumulation-and-research-motivation/

Or just have a google search about it.

Right so I’ve talked about some of the bad things which are going on in the water systems throughout the world. But what can you actually do?

To start with you can monitor what you release straight into rivers before treatment, sometimes it’s better to pour chemicals you’ve used down the shower or toilet so you know the water is treated before it reaches the environment. Also as always place your rubbish in bins and make sure it’s going to stay in the bin as lots of lighter items such as plastic bags and crisp packets are regularly blown out of bin and into rivers. You can also get involved or start a river cleaning day, these are run everywhere and are surprisingly good fun if you can get a group of mates together.

I know I have not spoken about dams and my views on their pros and cons but that will be coming in another post.

Thanks for reading

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/ten-ways-keep-water-clean-globally-79399.html

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