Event, Saturday, September 30, 2006: National Public Lands Day

National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands American’s enjoy. In 2005, nearly 90,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, planted trees and plants, and removed trash and invasive plants. Join us Saturday, September 30, 2006 for the 13th annual National Public Lands Day and help us care for our land. We invite everybody from federal land management agencies to state parks and playgrounds in local neighborhoods to participate.

Check their Get Involved page to learn more. Activities in your area may be coordinated by a local organization. For example, in New York City the activities are being coordinated by Partnership for Parks, a joint program of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and the private, non-profit CityParks Foundation.

Thanks to RESTORE, the weekly email newsletter of the Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER), for bringing this to my attention.

Links:

Blog: Endangered Ugly Things

I’ve recently discovered this new blog, just launched in August of this year. The author, Garfman, explains his/her inspiration in the inaugural blog entry:

Take a good look at the WWF website, (World Wildlife Fund, not the other one) and what do you see? The giant panda, of course. Tigers. Gorillas. Cetaceans. The token reptile, a sea turtle. Generally cute and/or fuzzy, or, failing that, sleek and “handsome”. Notice a pattern?

Pulling up the Ohio Endangered Wildlife List, I discovered that among the listings was a species of midge. A midge! You know, the relatively inconspicuous insects that go largely unnoticed by anyone except entomologists–unless you’re swatting at a cloud of them. If that wasn’t enough, they were joined by endangered lampreys, beetles, clams, and some of the aforementioned snakes. Well, that settled it. These were as imperiled, and at least as important as the black bear, whose stories have peppered state news. Where were the American burying beetle news features? The “Save the Wartyback Mussel” t-shirts? The Ohio lamprey plush toys?

Garfman intends to publish one species profile a week. So far, we’ve seen:

  • Thamnophis radix radix, the eastern plains garter snake.
  • Neoceratodus forsteri, Queensland (or Australian) lungfish
  • Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, eastern hellbender
  • Sphenodon punctatus, tuatara
  • Lepidurus packardi, vernal pool tadpole shrimp
  • Cyclura lewisi, Grand Cayman blue iguana

Now, I happen to be quite fond of the squamates, but I recognize that others are not, so there’s a need to highlight their perils and needs for protection and conservation. The Indiana Bat is another species on the Ohio list which is largely misunderstood, if not outright feared, and therefore deserving of special attention.

I think Garfman can go “uglier.” Hagfish is about as gross as you can get, but they’re not on the Ohio list. Lampreys are a close second, and they’re on the list.

What would be your top choice for an endangered “ugly” species?

Links:

Do Corridors Encourage Biodiversity?

The experimental area, showing the five cleared patches, with two connected by a corridor.
Credit: North Carolina State University

Corridors are a technique intended to allow species to travel between otherwise isolated habitats. A research study, recently published in Science magazine, examined the question of whether or not corridors actually encourage dispersion of species and, if so, the extent of that effect. The abstract describes it this way:

Habitat fragmentation is one of the largest threats to biodiversity. Landscape corridors, which are hypothesized to reduce the negative consequences of fragmentation, have become common features of ecological management plans worldwide. Despite their popularity, there is little evidence documenting the effectiveness of corridors in preserving biodiversity at large scales. Using a large-scale replicated experiment, we showed that habitat patches connected by corridors retain more native plant species than do isolated patches, that this difference increases over time, and that corridors do not promote invasion by exotic species. Our results support the use of corridors in biodiversity conservation.

The study has been widely covered in the press. More information about the methodology and outcomes of the study is available from these reports:

To perform the research, the scientists collaborated with the U.S. Forest Service at the Savannah River Site National Environmental Research Park, a federally protected area on the South Carolina-Georgia border. Most of the Savannah River Site is covered with pine plantations. The U.S. Forest Service created eight identical sites, each with five openings, or patches, by clearing the pine forest. A central patch was connected to one other patch by a 150-meter-long, 25-meter-wide corridor, while three other patches were isolated from the central patch – and each other – by the surrounding forest. The patches are home to many species of plants and animals that prefer open habitats, many [of] which are native to the historical longleaf pine savannas of this region.

You can see these patches in the photo above. The dumbel-shaped opening at the top center of the photograph is the two corridor-connected patches. Over the several years of the study, the number of species in the patches joined by the corridor was greater than in the disconnected patches:

The researchers surveyed all plant species inside connected and unconnected patches from 2000 to 2005; nearly 300 species of plants were found. When the study began, there was no difference in the number of species between connected and unconnected patches, the scientists say. After five years, however, patches with a corridor retained high numbers of species, while those without a corridor lost species.

Corridors provided the largest benefit to native species while having no effect on the number of invasive plant species. Invasive species seem to already be everywhere, not needing corridors for their spread, or remain where they originated, [lead author, Ellen] Damschen says. These results indicate that using corridors in conservation should provide benefits to native species that outweigh the risk of furthering the spread of exotic species.

I see two problems with generalizing the favorable results from this study. First, the study looked at clearings in forests. As the press release notes, the species are those which prefer open regions. These are more likely to be “opportunistic” species adapted to colonizing disturbed areas such as those arising from fires. I would expect such species to “travel” well, since they must locate these open areas before they regain significant woody plant cover.

The second problem I see with generalizing these results is that it’s looking at the wrong kind of corridor. The single greatest threat to biodiversity is habitat loss arising from human activities, such as development, logging, mining, farming, and so on. These activities create the inverse relationship: “patches” of forest or other undisturbed habitat separated, divided, and chopped up by human activities, ie: clearings. The corridors we need, and which ecologists and others strive to implement and preserve, connect forests and other habitats separated by clearings, not clearings separated by forest.

Links:

Original Link (defunct): http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/2006/august/144.html

News, September 11, 2006, NYC: A Green Roof Grows in Long Island City

Silvercup Studios is most famously home to Tony Soprano; since last July the former bakery, located next to the Queensboro Bridge, also became the site of New York’s largest green roof. In 2002 landscape architect Diana Balmori conducted a study of the city’s rooftops to identify the best area where green-roof construction could have an impact not just on an individual building but an entire neighborhood. The study revealed that Long Island City would be the most promising neighborhood for clustering these environmentally friendly roofs, which help clean the air, reduce storm-water runoff, lower energy consumption, and ultimately reduce the heat caused by urban congestion.

There is enough suitable flat roof space in Long Island City to cover more than 26 million square feet with green-roof technology—or 667 acres, nearly the size of Central Park. Known as pancake roofs, the countless flat-topped warehouses were mostly built before 1955, when structures were generally overengineered; therefore they can withstand rooftop vegetation without additional support.

The green-roof system on Silvercup is a modular one built by GreenTech, a company based in Roswell, Georgia, which donated a third of the modules for the project. Unlike plantings directly on the roof—a more common type of green-roof system—the interlocking modules can be moved and replaced (see “Green How-To” on page 100). Covering 35,000 square feet required 1,500 modules filled with a lightweight soil and then planted with 20 different varieties of sedum. Sedum is heat and drought resistant because it retains a high percentage of water in its shallow root system. Therefore it absorbs and holds more rainwater, reducing storm-water runoff and minimizing landscaping maintenance. Irrigation is needed to get the plants established, but they eventually become self-sustaining.
View From the Bridge, Lisa Chamberlain, Metropolis Magazine

If there was any doubt …

I am nerdier than 89% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

“11% scored higher (more nerdy), and 89% scored lower (less nerdy). What does this mean?

Your nerdiness is:

High-Level Nerd. You are definitely MIT material, apply now!!!.”

Only 89. (Sigh!) I’m not as nerdy as I used to be. 20 years ago I’m sure I would have scored much higher. But then, I also once thought Mensa might be a way to meet people.

“Thanks” to Pharyngula for bringing this to my attention and helping me waste another 10 minutes of my life.

News, August 22, 2006: Happy Birthday, Ozone Hole

Most recent analysis of the Southern Hemisphere total ozone from the an instrument on board the NOAA polar orbiting satellite. In austral spring the analysis shows the “ozone hole” (values below 220 Dobson Units) over Antarctica and the Antarctic Ocean.
Credit: NOAA

NOAA, NSF OBSERVE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF OZONE HOLE ‘SUCCESS STORY’

August 22, 2006 — Twenty years ago this month, four teams of scientists from NOAA, NASA and two universities arrived in Antarctica seeking to determine the cause of a “hole” in the Antarctic ozone layer. Their efforts helped determine the chemical basis for the ozone loss and formed the scientific basis for the resulting international treaty phasing out the production of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which has led to a decline in ozone-depleting gases. …

The ozone layer is a thin, invisible layer of the Earth’s atmosphere about 15 miles thick. A British Antarctic Team first looked at results that showed a decline in stratospheric ozone over Antarctica in 1985, and doubted their findings. After rechecking their data and their instruments, they determined that there was a hole in the ozone. …

Theories about the cause included solar activity that affected the magnetic field, atmospheric motions and chemical reactions involving chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which had been used since the 1930s as refrigerants and propellants, such as aerosol sprays. … The work conducted by the Antarctic team in the 1986 field study was the first to show that a chemical reaction triggered by the CFCs was indeed the cause. Scientific papers have been published recently showing early signs of a leveling off of ozone loss, linked to the success of international agreements to control CFC emissions worldwide.

Media, PBS: design:e2 (the economies of being environmentally conscious)

… the series introduces us to the inventive leaders and technologies
driving sustainable practices worldwide in the design of buildings where we
live, work, and play.

The first episode, “The Green Apple,” [ie: New York City] demonstrates
how the ubiquitous skyscraper can surprisingly be a model of environmental
responsibility. In the second episode, architect and activist Sergio
Palleroni continues his mission to provide design solutions to humanitarian
crisis regions. “The Green Machine” follows Mayor Richard M. Daley as he strives
to make Chicago “the greenest city in America.” The fourth episode takes
the notion of the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) to grand proportions by
turning Boston’s “Big Dig” waste into spectacular residential design.
“China: from Red to Green?” depicts a country at its tipping point and finds a
sustainable solution in Steven Holl’s Beijing project. The final episode,
“Deeper Shades of Green,” presents some of the most remarkable visionaries who
are changing the face of architecture and environmentalism: Ken Yeang, Werner
Sobek and William McDonough. Check your local
listings
to find out when these episodes will air on your PBS station.

Tags: , ,
,
,
,
,

Event, August 9, 2006, South Street Seaport, NYC: “Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion” Author Lecture and Book Signing

When: Wednesday, August 9, 2006, 7 pm

Where: South Street Seaport, Melville Gallery (213 Water Street between Fulton & Beekman).

Who: Alan Burdick presents Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion

Description: Now as never before, exotic animals and plants are crossing the globe, borne on the swelling tide of human traffic to places where nature never intended them to be. As alien species jump from place to place and increasingly crowd native and endangered species of existence, biologists speak fearfully of “the homogenization of the world.” Never mind bulldozers and pesticides: the fastest-growing threat to biological diversity may be nature itself. Out of Eden is a dazzling, personal journey through this strange and shifting landscape. He follows world-class scientists – invasion biologists, “mix-o-ecologists” – and a global cast of alien species, to ask: What exactly is nature? What is natural? Book signing.

Info: Suggested donation $5. For more information call 212.748.8568.

Links:

News, July 27, 2006: Male Mantids Say, “Love Me, Don’t Eat Me!”

Favorite quote: “The act of sexual cannibalism in praying mantids is an example of extreme conflict between the sexes”:

In a paper in the August issue of The American Naturalist, Jonathan Lelito and William Brown (SUNY-Fredonia), study male risk-taking behavior in a praying mantis by altering the risk of cannibalism and observing changes in male behavior. They find that the males are able to assess the risk of cannibalism and become more cautious in the presence of particularly hungry females.

“We know that hungry females are more likely to cannibalize and a head-on orientation makes it easier for her to attack the male with her predatory front legs,” says Brown.

Lelito and Brown thus varied female hunger and physical orientation in order to assess how male mantids respond to variation in the risk of cannibalism. They found that males responded to greater risk by slowing their approach, increasing courtship behavior, and mounting from a greater – and possibly safer – distance.

“This shows that male mantids actively assess variation in risk and change their behavior to reduce the chance of being cannibalized,” explains Brown. “Males are clearly not complicit, and the act of sexual cannibalism in praying mantids is an example of extreme conflict between the sexes.”

Citation: Jonathan P. Lelito and William D. Brown, “Complicity or conflict over sexual cannibalism? Male risk taking in the praying mantis Tenodera aridifolia sinensis.” The American Naturalist 167:263

I learned of this from SEED Magazine’s “I Can’t Believe It’s Science” feature.

Links:

Biodiversity News, August 2, 2006: NASA, Lasers, and Woodpeckers

1826 watercolor by John James Audubon

Lasers, dark mysterious wilderness, extinct species … almost sounds like a sequel in a well-known series of movies in which dinosaurs eat people. But no, this is real science!

In June a research aircraft flew over delta regions of the lower Mississippi River to track possible areas of habitat suitable for the ivory-billed woodpecker [Campephilus principalis], one of the largest and most regal members of the woodpecker family. The project is supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland used NASA’s Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) onboard the aircraft. The instrument uses lasers that send pulses of energy to the Earth’s surface. Photons of light from the lasers bounce off leaves, branches and the ground and reflect back to the instrument. By analyzing these returned signals, scientists receive a direct measurement of the height of the forest’s leaf covered tree tops, the ground level below and everything in between.

LVIS project researcher Ralph Dubayah, a professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Geography [said]. “Lidar technology like LVIS measures the vertical structure of the trees and ground, setting it apart from other remote-sensing systems that provide detailed horizontal information that tells us little about whether a green patch of forest is short or tall, for example. When identifying habitats, the vertical structure of the vegetation is of paramount importance to many species, including a bird like the ivory-bill.”

Thematic map showing the survey area in the White River Wildlife Reserve.
Credit: NASA.

Satellite image of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. The White River, the focus of this summer’s survey, is at the left of the image.
Credit: NASA image by Robert Simmon, based on Landsat 7 data provided by the Global Land Cover Facility.
Image acquired December 23, 2001 from NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite

Links:

I picked up this story through the Birding News Feed. It was variously reported by

Sidebar: Why I hate ads on the Web. The following were all ads displayed on the various story items:

  • Woodpecker Control: Helpful links for woodpecker control.
  • Woodpecker Deterrent: The Attack Spider scares them away. Sound-activated, fast. It works!
  • Get Rid of Woodpeckers: Wide Variety Woodpecker Deterrents Affordable Woodpecker Repellents

This is why there are no Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers, people: You’re scaring them all away!

On a more positive note, it seems that, after I’ve scared them all off, I could still buy one of my very own:

  • Ivory Billed Woodpecker: Browse a huge selection now. Find exactly what you want today. [I just want one standard plumage male Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, please. Gift-wrapped.]