2
   

WildClickers #72: Green, the color of life

 
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Wed 12 Jul, 2006 05:31 pm
aktbird57 - You and your 298 friends have supported 2,466,743.4 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 120,616.6 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (120,616.6)

American Prairie habitat supported: 53,887.2 square feet.
You have supported: (13,273.7)
Your 298 friends have supported: (40,613.5)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,292,239.7 square feet.
You have supported: (171,821.2)
Your 298 friends have supported: (2,120,418.5)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 Aktbird57 .. 1517 56.625 acres
0 Replies
 
Amigo
 
  1  
Reply Thu 13 Jul, 2006 05:29 am
Very Happy Click
0 Replies
 
danon5
 
  1  
Reply Thu 13 Jul, 2006 08:13 am
Hi all.

clicked.

ul, Mexico sounds great - it is good you love HOT weather.
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Thu 13 Jul, 2006 02:09 pm
Ul,

May we know where in Mexico, so that we might travel with you vicariously?
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Thu 13 Jul, 2006 02:11 pm
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/07/12/news/state/31-parks-warming.txt

"U.N. takes up proposal to declare Glacier Park in danger

By SUSAN GALLAGHER
Associated Press

HELENA -- A proposal for the United Nations to declare Glacier National Park and Canada's adjacent Waterton Lakes National Park in danger from climate change signals a need for greater study of the climate issue, a U.N. committee says.

The World Heritage Committee meeting in Lithuania this week took up the proposal to declare the parks, together known as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, endangered. The U.S. Geological Survey has said Glacier park has 27 glaciers, down from about 150 in 1850, and over the past century the mean summer temperature there has risen by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit.

The committee neither accepted nor rejected the call for a finding of endangerment but "basically said, 'We acknowledge we have a problem. Let's study it to death,"' said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. It is one of a dozen groups that last winter petitioned the U.N. to declare Waterton-Glacier in danger.

It is a World Heritage Site, a U.N. designation for some of the globe's places where the cultural or natural heritage is of "outstanding value to humanity."

The World Heritage Committee must "do whatever we can to protect World Heritage" and "this is what we are trying to do by initiating more studies and sharing experience," Chairman Ina Marciulionyte said in a news release.

Besides the Waterton-Glacier petition, proposals to declare four other World Heritage sites around the world in danger also were before the committee.

In answer to all, it invited a study of alternatives to listing and said it is possible that on a case-by-case basis, sites eventually could be put on an endangered list, according to the release. The panel also adopted some recommendations on ways to respond to climate change at World Heritage locations.

The recommendations "recognize that climate change has measurable affects" on the sites, committee press officer Gina Doubleday said Wednesday.

Oregon law professor Erica Thorsen wrote the Waterton-Glacier petition and said earlier this year that listing would require the World Heritage Committee to identify ways of mitigating effects from climate change.

Other sites that were proposed for listing are Belize Barrier Reef in the Caribbean; Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia; Huarascan National Park in Peru; and Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park, best known for Mount Everest."
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Thu 13 Jul, 2006 07:55 pm
Anyone for a virtual trip through Mexico for the next thread?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

aktbird57 - You and your 298 friends have supported 2,468,382.4 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 120,780.4 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (120,780.4)

American Prairie habitat supported: 53,934.0 square feet.
You have supported: (13,297.1)
Your 298 friends have supported: (40,636.9)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,293,667.9 square feet.
You have supported: (171,868.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (2,121,799.9)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 Aktbird57 .. 1518 56.662 acres
0 Replies
 
ul
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 06:11 am
Danon,
I am practicing daily for Mexico- it has been 90F and more these last 2 weeks. Very Happy :wink:

Susan, we will visit the village where we support the education of some children.
That's the area.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9527/mapzip1qg.gif

wayfarer- ready for Bastille Day?
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 07:21 am
Thanks Ul. I thought so. Now I can research the area.
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 09:42 am
http://images.livescience.com/images/060711_turtle_eggs_04.jpg

Leatherback Sea Turtle Lays Her Eggs

Once categorized with mythical sea creatures, the leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is perhaps the most majestic reptile alive. Rather than a typical hard shell, it is covered with leather-like skin, optimal for deep-diving and withstanding cold temperatures.

Leatherbacks are the largest of the sea turtles reaching up to 70 inches in length. They're also the fastest moving and deepest diving and can dive to 1230 meters for food, the same depths as a whale.

These photographs were taken during the most extraordinary time of the adult turtle's life: Nesting, during which the female is in a state of complete hypnosis. This trance-like state, along with her blindness to red light, allowed us to stroke her body and head, and witness the egg-laying close up.

After slowly emerging from the ocean, she dug a deep cavity with her rear flippers. She then laid her eggs, visibly straining in each contraction through her Lamaze-style breathing. When she finished, she covered the nest until its plot was indistinguishable. Although the tears in the center right photograph were mucosal extract to moisten her air-exposed eyes, it was difficult not to attribute them to pain and utter exhaustion.

Classified as a critically endangered species, this female is presumed to be one of only 200 turtles that nested on that Panamanian beach in 2005. Undoubtedly the dinosaur among the seven sea turtle species, creatures such as this leatherback are powerful reminders of the magnificent megafauna that walked the earth millions of years ago.
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 09:44 am
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 09:45 am
Bet you didn't know this.


ECOLOGY/EVOLUTION: Subsidy from the Sea
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Andrew
M. Sugden

Migratory species, by virtue of their movements, can be agents of
nutrient
transport between ecosystems. For example, stable isotope studies have
shown that the carcasses of salmon can be a rich source of nutrients
not
only for the mountain streams in which they die but also for adjacent
terrestrial habitats. Merz and Moyle have quantified the nutrient
subsidy
of Pacific salmon to Californian grape growers. They show that
cultivated
vines as well as native streamside vegetation bordering on salmon
spawning
grounds derive about 20% of their foliar nitrogen from marine sources
via
returning salmon. This is a classic example of what has become known as
an
ecosystem service--in this case, one of substantial economic and
oenological value. -- AMS

Ecol. Appl. 16, 999 (2006).
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 09:47 am
ehBeth,

Just saw your question. I'll do it, but give me some time to do some research first so that I can open it with some pent up material.
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 09:52 am
Massive chunk falls from Eiger mountain

A large section of stone broke away and tumbled down a famous Swiss Alps mountain Thursday, shrouding a resort in dust but causing no injuries, officials said.

Stone from the east face of Eiger mountain fell hundreds of feet in a thundering, 15-minute avalanche, Grindelwald rescue chief Kurt Amacher told TV station SF DRS.

The more than 20 million cubic feet of stone came to rest on a mountainside, sending up a cloud of dust that shrouded nearby Grindelwald resort for hours. Amacher said no one was injured and no buildings were hit in the rock fall.

Rock on the Eiger had been crumbling in recent days because glacial ice that had been holding it together had melted, geologists said.

A 100-foot-high rock formation on the Eiger known as the "Madonna" collapsed earlier Thursday.

The Eiger's north face, which towers over Grindelwald, with a mile-high sheer wall and a summit at 13,025 feet is considered one of Europe's greatest challenges to mountaineers.


From the Associated Press
0 Replies
 
danon5
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 03:19 pm
ul, that will be such a great visit.

sumac, my goodness, rogue waves. It is amazing how these things are just being known.

clicked
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 05:04 pm
As usual, quite a bit of interesting information to browse through.

~~~~~~~~~~~

aktbird57 - You and your 298 friends have supported 2,469,997.9 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 120,967.8 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (120,967.8)

American Prairie habitat supported: 53,957.4 square feet.
You have supported: (13,297.1)
Your 298 friends have supported: (40,660.3)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,295,072.7 square feet.
You have supported: (171,868.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (2,123,204.7)

~~~~~~~~~

1 Aktbird57 .. 1519 56.702 acres
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Jul, 2006 05:59 pm
Ul,
You can practice for Chicago too. It will be HOT!
0 Replies
 
ul
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Jul, 2006 02:19 am
Very Happy Chicago is civilized- they have A/C.
Clicked.
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Jul, 2006 04:11 am
Ul,

I know that you will be pretty much offline once your holiday begins, unless the Chicago hotel has every room wired.

But I will be starting a thread on Mexico, or at least places in Mexico. Or as ehBeth suggested, a virtual tour.

If you get online from time to time, I am sure that you would have much to contribute.

Meanwhile,

Pumped Up on Carbon Dioxide, Vines Strengthen Their Grip


"Pumped up on carbon dioxide, vines strengthen their grip

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 15, 2006; A01



Vines -- poison ivy, Japanese honeysuckle, kudzu -- snake through the back yard, girdling trees and strangling shrubs, thriving, scientists say, on the same pollution they blame for global warming.

From backyard gardens to the Amazon rain forest, vines are growing faster, stronger and, in the case of poison ivy, more poisonous on the heavy doses of carbon dioxide that come from burning such fossil fuels as gasoline and coal.

Complaints about vine infestation have increased tenfold in a decade, said Carole Bergmann, forest ecologist for the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, which serves Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Vines have choked gardens, ruined brickwork, disrupted bird habitat and clogged paths, ponds and air conditioning and electronic equipment.

"The woods they used to know have just changed character," Bergmann said. "They're covered with vines. The trees are being weakened and falling over -- or strangled."

That leaves scientists worried that the forest of the future could become a weedy tangle of hyper-vines choking off the trees, which absorb more carbon dioxide.

As vines become stronger, they also grow more various, a problem researchers say is at least partly attributable to climate change.

"Fifteen years ago, kudzu" -- known as the vine that ate the South -- "would not survive in the D.C. area," Bergmann said, because the climate was too cold. "Now it survives even up in New York."

For six years, Jacqueline Mohan has worked at Duke University to study elevated carbon dioxide levels' effect on woodland life.

Pumping carbon dioxide through pipes into a North Carolina pine forest, Mohan found that poison ivy grew at 2 1/2 times its normal rate, an increase five times the average gain for trees. The noxious vine grew thicker, used water more efficiently and became far more allergenic to humans.

"Poison ivy is fascinating, with its medical implications. But what's really important scientifically is these woody vines have been increasing in abundance all over the planet [and] inhibiting the growth and regeneration of the forest," said Mohan, who released her findings last month.

"This work suggests that atmospheric carbon dioxide is at least partially responsible."

But the vines also hint at a tantalizing solution to global warming: Perhaps scientists can engineer a plant that would absorb extraordinary amounts of carbon dioxide and clean the air without throwing forests wildly off kilter.

"There's some reason for optimism that we could use vegetation to stave off global warming," said William H. Schlesinger, an expert on climate change and dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. "But there's no telling that the mix you come to is going to be stable or functional the way today's ecosystems are."

Trees and plants play a vital role in soaking up carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere. Scientists are trying to determine whether plants can keep pace with -- or perhaps even begin to reverse -- the rise in carbon dioxide.

For 20 years, Bert Drake has been exposing marsh grasses to twice as much carbon dioxide as normally found in the atmosphere. On a recent day, he strolled the wooden decking that winds through his laboratory, a swath of Chesapeake Bay marsh at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater.

Drake said his research suggests that most plants grow faster on higher levels of carbon dioxide -- including plants already used as alternative fuels, such as switch grass. If burned instead of fossil fuels, these plants, the theory goes, could form a defense against climate change.

But whether every plant will grow faster in those conditions, or how fast, or at all, is maddeningly unpredictable.

At Edgewater, Drake found that most grasses grow about 35 percent faster in the altered atmosphere. But they are able to grow much faster than that, a variance he can't fully explain. Similarly, his experiments on oak trees in Florida found that each oak species responds differently to the same carbon dioxide overload.

"It's quite imaginable that we could make an oak tree [that is] more efficient at trapping carbon dioxide for us," Drake said. "But until we know a lot more about how each species responds, we can't make solid predictions."

In a Prince George's park, poison ivy, Japanese honeysuckle and other vines wind around most vertical surfaces and creep across the ground, looking for more.

"Anytime we move earth" -- for construction or repair projects -- "all we see is invasive species," said Mark Smith, who handles weed management at the Maryland Department of Agriculture. "We are seeing a tremendous variety of things, and we're getting more calls from the public."

In 1999, when the federal government recognized invasive plants as a national problem, Bergmann, of the Parks and Planning Commission, founded Weed Warriors, volunteers who patrol the region, ripping out offenders. Now an army of 500, they can't keep up. Many of the vines -- English ivy, porcelain berry, winter creeper -- were planted by homeowners who prized them as fast-growing, attractive ground cover.

"Just not buying these would really help a lot," she said. "I'd rather see native trees doing well than have some robotic tree developed that a vine can live on and create a super-jungle." "

y
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Jul, 2006 12:06 pm
http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060706_sierra_nevada.html

"Age of the Sierra Nevada Revealed

By Sara Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 06 July 2006
02:12 pm ET



California's Sierra Nevada, an impressive mountain range that includes the popular Yosemite National Park, has done a great job of keeping its age a secret. But now a new study provides evidence that it's at least 40 million years old.

Scientists conducted a chemical analysis of ancient raindrops found in the Sierra during the California Gold Rush in the mid 1800's.

They figured out at what elevation a drop fell by looking at its molecules. In nature, hydrogen and other atoms can come in variations with slightly different masses.

For example, deuterium is a heavier form of hydrogen. Drops of rainwater that contain deuterium isotopes often fall at lower elevations.

"If you have a cloud coming in and dropping out water, as it climbs the mountain its preference is to first drop the heavy water that's rich in deuterium," explained C. Page Chamberlain, professor of geological and environmental sciences at Stanford University. "As you go up in elevation, the raindrops become lighter and lighter. Therefore, the rainwater becomes gradually depleted of deuterium the higher up the mountain range it falls."

These drops of water get trapped into molecules of minerals such as clay, which then provide a geological record that can be compared with modern samples of the same elevation.

If both ancient and modern samples are identical or contain similar isotopes, then their elevation must have been comparable.

As it turned out, the old raindrop samples contained the same molecular ratios as the contemporary drops found at the same altitude, demonstrating that the water fell in the same spot 40 million years ago and that the mountain was as tall then as it is today.

"Determining the height of a now-eroded mountain range has remained frustrating and elusive," said co-author Stephan A. Graham of Stanford University. "Relating the isotopic composition of ancient rainfall to minerals formed in ancient soils provides a powerful way to infer those paleoelevations and is creating a burgeoning set of data from the Himalayas and Tibet, the Andes and now the Sierra Nevada."

The study is detailed in the July 7 issue of journal Science."
0 Replies
 
sumac
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Jul, 2006 12:09 pm
http://www.livescience.com/environment/060714_record_heat.html


" Scorching U.S.: First Half of 2006 Sets Heat Record

By Sara Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 14 July 2006
01:32 pm ET

The average temperatures of the first half of 2006 were the highest ever recorded for the continental United States, scientists announced today.

Temperatures for January through June were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average.

Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri experienced record warmth for the period, while no state experienced cooler-than-average temperatures, reported scientists from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. [Heat Map]

http://images.livescience.com/images/060714_record_temps_01.jpg

Scientists have previously said that 2005 was the warmest year on record for the entire globe.

Last month the United States experienced the second warmest June since weather record keeping began in 1895.

This warming coupled with less than average precipitation caused moderate to extreme droughts in almost 45 percent of the contiguous United States. However, some areas, such as the Northeast of the country experienced record rainfalls and severe floods.

Many experts believe that such weather anomalies are the result of global warming, an average increase in the Earth's atmospheric temperature caused at least in part by human activities.

Other studies reveal consequences of a warmer climate.

According to one study, the amount of land damaged by rising temperature-induced droughts more than doubled in the last 30 years.

Meanwhile, dry conditioned have contributed to more than 50,000 wildfires in the first half of this year, an unusually high number. A study earlier this month suggests climate change has in recent years contributed to more wildfires in the Western United States.

Other studies suggest that warmer oceans and increased moisture could make for stronger hurricanes for many years to come. "
0 Replies
 
 

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