Fossil offers ultra rare piece of evidence showing a dinosaur eating a mammal

Edmonton, Canada (SPX)

Dec 22, 2022

An international team of researchers has uncovered an extremely rare piece of evidence that dinosaurs ate mammals. The foot of a small mammal about the size of a mouse was found preserved inside the gut contents of a Microraptor zhaoianus, a small feathered dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period, according to a new study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. There is a lone earlier report of a dinosaur specimen with mammalian gut contents, however, that report pertains to a species that isn't closely related to Microraptor.

It's extremely rare to find conclusive evidence of a dinosaur's diet because of how difficult it is for a dinosaur's gut contents to be preserved, says Corwin Sullivan, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and co-author of the paper.

"There was always interest in [Microraptor's] diet because there had been previous specimens that contained remains of different vertebrates inside the rib cage, but we have the first one that contains parts of a mammal," he notes.

The Microraptor was found within Jurassic and Cretaceous lake deposits in what is now northeast China.

Previous Microraptor specimens from this area have been found with gut contents of a fish, bird and lizard, indicating that these small dinosaurs had diverse diets. However, it remains unclear whether Microraptor consumed the contents in a predator-prey relationship or by scavenging. Researchers can only say conclusively that Microraptor was carnivorous.

Sullivan says information about dinosaurs' diets is a key piece in the puzzle to learning more about what was going on at the time they roamed the Earth.

"We're slowly gathering pieces of information about these past ecosystems and the animals that inhabited them. So what this discovery does is fill in a little bit of information in that it's showing the diet of Microraptor was even broader, even more generalist, than we thought previously."

"That tells us something about this animal and, by extension, tells us that there were generalist carnivores in these ancient ecosystems - that that niche existed."

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Fossil_offers_ultra_rare_piece_of_evidence_showing_a_dinosaur_eating_a_mammal_999.html.

Increasing forest cover in the Eifel region 11,000 years ago resulted in the local loss of megafauna

Mainz, Germany (SPX)

Dec 22, 2022

Herds of megafauna, such as mammoth and bison, have roamed the prehistoric plains in what is today's Central Europe for several tens of thousands of years. As woodland expanded at the end of the last Ice Age, the numbers of these animals declined and by roughly 11,000 years ago, they had completely vanished from this region. Thus, the growth of forests was the main factor that determined the extinction of such megafauna in Central Europe.

This is the conclusion reached in a study conducted by Professor Frank Sirocko of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), together with researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, the University of Wollongong in Australia, and the University of Gottingen.

The project involved the analysis of sediment layers taken from two Eifel maars, i.e., former volcanic craters that had subsequently become lakes. The researchers used these to reconstruct landscape changes and megafauna abundance in the area over the last 60,000 years. The results showed that human hunters and large mammals had actually co-existed here over several thousand years.

"The sediments from the Eifel maars have provided us with no evidence that it was humans who were responsible for the eradication of these animals," stated Sirocko. The so-called overkill hypothesis discussed in North America could thus not be confirmed for Central Europe.

Previous vegetation and animal populations can be identified from pollen and fungal spores in sediments

For the purpose of their study, the research partners used sediment cores from the Eifel maars that Sirocko and his team had systematically drilled and archived over the past 20 years. The recent article published in Scientific Reports details the investigation of pollen and spores present in the cores obtained from Holzmaar lake and the infilled maar of Auel located in the Volcanic Eifel. While pollen documents the vegetation of the past, fungal spores provide evidence of the presence of large mammals because certain mold fungi only colonize the dung of bigger herbivores.

On the basis of the grains of pollen, the researchers established that some 60,000 to 48,000 years ago the Eifel region was covered by spruce woods that succumbed to several cold phases, which transformed the landscape into more open forest steppe. This kind of terrain remained predominant from 43,000 to 30,000 years before the present. Subsequently, the forest tundra of the Eifel became an Ice Age polar desert where only grass grew.

The megafauna fecal fungal spores show that it was these environments which were continuously inhabited by large mammals from 48,000 to some 11,000 years ago. Datable bones found in caves in Belgium and gravel deposits in the Rhine valley document that mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bison, horses, reindeer, and giant deer found the cold phases more accommodating. The sparse forests of the warmer phases were the preferred habitat of red deer, elk, and the European bison.

Development of woodlands deprived megafauna of their food source

The primary cause of the decline and eventual extinction of large mammals in Central Europe was the growth of forests. "As the trees began to take over, the large herbivores lost access to their main staple food, namely grass," explained Sirocko. Neither the extreme climatic fluctuations of the last 60,000 years nor local volcanic activity and associated fire events appear to have played a role in their extinction.

At the same time, the arrival of modern humans in Central Europe 43,000 years ago also had little effect on the presence of local megafauna. Instead, times at which extensive numbers of large mammals were living here coincided with periods in which there was a denser population of humans.

"This is most apparent some 15,000 years ago. At that time, we find the largest herds of megafauna along with the archaeologically confirmed presence of human hunters in the Rhine valley," Sirocko pointed out. The Magdalenian culture site at Gonnersdorf in northern Rhineland-Palatinate has been extensively excavated by the Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz - Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology (RGZM) in Mainz.

The researchers claim that even in this period, towards the end of the last Ice Age, grassed landscapes were still spreading. This was the era in which the solar irradiation of the Northern Hemisphere began to increase and global sea levels started to rise, eventually flooding the formerly land regions in the English Channel and the North Sea and thus presumably progressively forcing the herds of megafauna away to seek refuge in Central Europe.

"The many late glacial maar lakes and silted-up swamps in dried-out maars in the Eifel region must have proved particularly attractive to megafauna," concluded Sirocko. "And it was the resultant large herds that must have enticed the late Ice Age hunters."

Sediments of the Eifel maars do not substantiate the overkill hypothesis

According to the research team, the fact that hunters and megafauna occupied the same region concurrently demonstrates that human beings did not cause the disappearance of large mammals from Central Europe - in other words, the maar sediments of the Eifel region do not furnish proof that the overkill hypothesis put forward for North America can be corroborated here.

The large mammals migrated away only when birch forests began to predominate in the terrain 13,300 years ago. From 11,000 years ago there is no longer evidence of the presence of large herds of megafauna as thick woods had taken over the Eifel, a setting in which large mammals could not survive.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Increasing_forest_cover_in_the_Eifel_region_11000_years_ago_resulted_in_the_local_loss_of_megafauna_999.html.

Climate change supercharges threat from forest-eating bug

Helsinki (AFP)

Dec 5, 2022

Deep in the Finnish woods, the moss and blueberry shrubs hide a deadly threat to the boreal forests that are as important to the planet as the Amazon rainforest.

With chunks of their bark peeling off and needles falling from dying branches, more and more trees are being killed by the spruce bark beetle, which is venturing further and further north with climate change.

The tiny brown insects attack the Picea abies, one of Finland's most common tree species, and can cause massive damage to forests.

Burrowing through the bark to lay their eggs, the beetles eat their way around the spruce and kill it by stopping water and nutrients reaching the higher branches.

"The species has caused huge damage across Central and Eastern Europe, especially since 2018," Markus Melin, a scientist at the Natural Resources Institute Finland, told AFP.

With climate change, the risk of the beetle spreading is a "lot higher now", Melin added.

"We have to accept it and adapt to it. Things are changing fast up here."

While the threat is greatest in southern Finland, the sweltering summer of 2021 saw bark beetle damage "unusually high up north" in the Kainuu region of northern Finland.

- 'Nasty loop' -

"It is well known that the spruce bark beetle is one of the species that benefit most from global warming," Melin said.

The beetles thrive on weakened trees. Hot summers mean there are more water-starved spruce, while warm winters mean there is no frozen ground to brace the trees against storms.

Warm weather also speeds up the life cycle of the beetles, meaning they can reproduce faster.

"Extreme warm summers benefit the bark beetle directly. They have less mortality, reproduction is faster," Melin said.

While the beetles normally go for weak trees, once their numbers reach a tipping point they can start attacking healthy ones.

"It becomes a nasty loop," Melin said.

If foresters do not react in time by removing weakened spruce, "suddenly there are so many beetles that they can attack healthy trees" further speeding the "cycle of destruction", Melin said.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Climate_change_supercharges_threat_from_forest-eating_bug_999.html.

Turtles and see-through frogs on agenda at wildlife summit

By Francisco Jara

Panama City (AFP)

Nov 22, 2022

A global wildlife summit in Panama will decide whether to take measures to protect the translucent glass frog and 12 types of freshwater turtles in its final week, which kicked off Monday.

Conservation experts and delegates from more than 180 nations began the week with a decision to maintain a ban on the trade of white rhinoceros horn, despite a request from Eswatini that was backed by Japan and several other African countries.

The tiny nation, formerly known as Swaziland, had argued the money from the sale of rhino horn would aid in conserving the threatened species.

Delegates also authorized the export of Brazil's broad-snouted caiman and the saltwater crocodile from the Philippines for animals raised in captivity, but a ban on cross-border trade in Siamese crocodiles raised by Thai farmers was left intact.

The meeting in Panama City began on November 14 to discuss 52 proposals to modify protection levels set by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The fate of several unique amphibians will be up for debate before the meeting wraps up on Friday.

"Freshwater turtles are among the main groups that are trafficked in the countries, and there is high pressure for international trade," said Yovana Murillo, who heads a program against wildlife trafficking in the Andes, Amazon and Orinoco region for the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru want to list two species of matamata turtles, which live in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, on CITES Appendix II, which requires the tracking and regulation of trade.

Doris Rodriguez of Peru's forestry service told AFP that the striking matamata turtles, with their beetle-like appearance, have become sought-after pets and "face many threats."

These include habitat destruction, pollution, illegal trade, and being hunted for their meat and eggs.

- Glass frog -

Delegates will also debate regulating the trade of the nocturnal glass frog, found in several rainforests in Central and South America.

The amphibian is an increasingly popular pet. Some are a lime green color, while others have translucent bellies and chests.

"They are being collected for their beauty. They are being trafficked and some are in critical danger," said Rodriguez.

CITES, in force since 1975, regulates trade in some 36,000 species of plants and animals and provides mechanisms to help crack down on illegal trade. It sanctions countries that break the rules.

The meeting of the parties to the convention takes place every two or three years.

On Friday, delegates rejected a request by Zimbabwe to allow the ivory trade to resume in some southern African countries, a decision lauded by conservation NGOs.

Another hot issue up for debate is the possible addition of protections for two major shark families, which could upend Hong Kong's controversial shark fin trade.

- Beleaguered porpoise -

The conference has seen fierce debate over the vaquita, a species of porpoise that lives in Mexico's Gulf of California and is at risk of extinction.

On the eve of the summit, CITES issued an ultimatum to Mexico, to show progress in protecting the world's most endangered marine animal by February 2023, or face sanctions against its fish exports.

Washington has argued that its neighbor is not doing enough to protect the vaquita, while Mexico countered it had boosted naval surveillance in the Gulf.

Good news also emerged from the summit: the Aleutian cackling goose was moved from the list of most threatened species to those no longer threatened with extinction, after its numbers increased.

"This is a positive story about the recovery of a species," highlighted the president of the committee which approved the move, Britain's Vincent Fleming.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Turtles_and_see-through_frogs_on_agenda_at_wildlife_summit_999.html.

Beekeepers feel sting in northern Syria

June 29, 2022

Ahmed Read Jamus

The Syrian war has had a clear impact on the beekeeping sector along with its honey production and trade in northwestern Syria, as beekeepers have lost important pastures and vital projects over the years.

With the relative calm prevailing in the area recently, beekeepers in the Aleppo countryside — which is under control of the Syrian opposition — now hope to compensate for their losses.

Although the opposition-controlled countryside of Idlib and Aleppo, namely Afrin, is rich in flowers and nectar and the climatic conditions are suitable for beekeeping and honey production, beekeepers still face challenges.

Ahmed al-Ahmed, an agricultural engineer and beekeeper in the Aleppo countryside, told Al-Monitor, “There are common diseases that affect beehives, such as American and European foulbrood, and Nosema — which is one of the most dangerous.”

Ahmed noted that the failure to rationalize the use of pesticides by farmers causes great harm to bees that depend on field flowering crops such as coriander, anise and black seed.

The Syrian native bees (old breed) are distinguished by their adaptation to local environmental conditions, quality, resistance and vitality. However, beekeepers in the Aleppo countryside have started abandoning local breeds that have low production and fierce tempers and have resorted to hybrid breeds (yellow and black) that are more productive and calm. Beekeepers have also started bringing in queens, bringing the production of one hive to over 50 kilograms of honey annually compared to about 35 kilograms for the local breed. The price of the local hive ranges from $30 to $40, while the price of the hybrid hive is $125 at the beginning of spring and $60 after the end of spring.

Ahmed explained, “Demand for hybrid breeds is very high, although the native breed is globally registered among the pure breeds. However, the government paid no attention to it in terms of establishing special reserves for vaccination, which led to a decline in breeding and an even lower production.”

According to estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued in September 2019, beekeeping was a traditional industry in Syria before the war in 2011, and there were over 700,000 beehives producing honey and royal wax.

The report also stated that a beekeeper could live off of his production if he owned at least 100 hives, which could produce an average of 20 to 25 kilograms of honey per year per hive.

Mohammed al-Hussein, head of the Free Beekeepers Association in Aleppo's countryside, lost many hives and huge sums of money after trying to establish 170 divisions (a project to propagate new hives from a large hive for a new year). He succeeded in making 140 divisions only by spring. And he had to combine two or more hives to form a productive hive, merging 104 hives into 43 hives to achieve reasonable productivity.

“Beekeepers have incurred huge losses over the past two years due to climatic conditions and weather fluctuations that affected pastures and flowering, negatively affecting production in addition to leading to a decrease in the number of hives due to the decline in green spaces and the difficulty of choosing the right place to feed the bees and preserve the hive,” Hussein told Al-Monitor.

“Many beekeepers have also been displaced and local authorities offer no support, which is much needed, especially in the time of pandemics and diseases that affect bees, with the exception of negligible support provided by the Turkish government, which offered 200 hives one time in 2017,” he added.

Hussein pointed out that the 140-member Free Beekeepers Association was established in 2017 via individual efforts after the area was liberated from the Islamic State. The association was licensed by the Syrian opposition-affiliated interim government and the Free Aleppo Provincial Council affiliated with the Syrian opposition.

The association aims to exchange experiences, information and consultations, in addition to organizing lectures and seminars on beekeeping and on ways to combat diseases and improve breeds and pastures, without receiving any support from any official or unofficial body, he added.

Hussein said that there are no official statistics on the number of hives, apiaries and honey production in the countryside of Aleppo since many have left this profession due to heavy losses or displacement.

He added, “One of the most important obstacles facing beekeepers is the high prices of imported medicines and equipment. For example, the price of hive wood used to cost $24 and currently costs $42. This is in addition to the decline of green spaces and pastures. Previously, we could roam freely from Daraa in southern Syria to the coast and the mountains in western Syria to find the nectar of citrus fruits and the western countryside of Damascus to find anise, as well as along the Euphrates River, and Raqqa in northeastern Syria where the cotton season blossoms. Currently, the spaces and pastures are very narrow in the countryside of Aleppo.”

The price of a kilo of honey in 2020 was about $6 wholesale and $8 retail. This year it reached $8.5 wholesale and $10 retail, but the demand has become very low, Hussein noted.

Providing markets for honey, facilitating imports and securing queen bees, providing vaccination centers and equipment, and imposing control over the spread of adulterated honey are among the solutions that could solve many problems, he said.

The responsibility for addressing the problems facing the beekeeping sector falls primarily on the shoulders of the Ministry of Agriculture in the interim government. The ministry is currently working on developing cooperative programs with local councils and organizations with the aim of planting nectar trees that benefit bees. The ministry is also deploying efforts to protect natural reserves in the Afrin mountains in Aleppo's countryside, on the Syrian-Turkish border.

Basem Mohamed Saleh, director general of Agriculture, Livestock, Irrigation, Food Security and Livelihoods Projects in the interim government, told Al-Monitor, “The lack of capabilities and funding prevents us from supporting the beekeeping sector in terms of establishing reserves and providing supplies and facilities.” 

He noted that the directorate has presented many supportive projects to local organizations, but the latter are currently focused on projects related to growing wheat.

Saleh added, “The beekeeping sector is heading toward further deterioration, especially since honey is considered a complementary and not an essential material. So there is weakness in sales, disposal and consumption in a society that already lacks the minimum necessities of life.”

Saleh stressed that the absence of agricultural guidance and awareness and the migration of agricultural experts has left farmers and beekeepers in a dire situation, especially since many unqualified people have been randomly prescribing pesticides and medicines that affect bees and destroy entire hives.

Source: al-Monitor.

Link: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/05/beekeepers-feel-sting-northern-syria.

Indonesian zoo breeds dozens of endangered baby Komodo dragons

Surabaya, Indonesia, June 28 (AFP)

Jun 28, 2022

An Indonesian zoo has welcomed dozens of new baby Komodo dragons hatched in captivity in recent months as part of a breeding program, its director said Tuesday, offering hope for efforts to conserve the endangered species.

The world's largest living lizards are found only in Indonesia's World Heritage-listed Komodo National Park and neighboring Flores, and just 3,458 adult and baby species are left in the wild according to estimates.

The fearsome reptiles, which can grow to three meters (10 feet) in length and weigh up to 90 kilograms (200 pounds), are threatened by human activity and climate change destroying their habitat.

But a breeding program in Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya is trying to change that, successfully breeding 29 dragons in incubators between February and March.

"We have habitats that mirror the Komodo's natural habitat, including its humidity and temperature," zoo director Chairul Anwar told AFP.

The newborns were hatched from two female Komodo dragons after their eggs were placed in incubators to prevent them from being eaten by their mothers or other Komodo dragons.

Female Komodos can fertilize an egg without the need for a male dragon.

The zoo started the program in the 1990s as part of the effort to conserve the species in a city located more than 700 kilometers (434 miles) away from the dragon's natural habitat.

After the spate of births this year, Surabaya Zoo now houses 134 Komodo dragons, the largest population group outside of its habitat in the cluster of islands east of Bali, Anwar said.

In a report last year, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature warned the endangered species' habitat was expected to shrink by 30 percent in the next 45 years due to rising sea levels.

Anwar said the dragons will not be released back into the wild on Komodo or Flores until conditions improve.

"Komodo Island is still working to rejuvenate the forests," which feed the dragon's declining natural prey such as deer, he said.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/afp/220628103934.dw76yos7.html.

Vietnam Halts Scuba Diving off Popular Island to Protect Coral

Monday, 27 June, 2022

Vietnam has banned swimming and scuba diving at a popular central tourist spot in an attempt to revive its damaged coral reef, officials said Monday.

The communist nation boasts more than 3,200 kilometers of coastline with crystal clear waters, vibrant sea life and sandy beaches that are a huge tourism draw, AFP said.

Coral reefs across Southeast Asia have been badly hit by global warming, with scientists warning their degradation could have devastating environmental and economic knock-on effects.

Recent photos taken off Hon Mun island -- about 14 kilometers from the city of Nha Trang and popular with divers thanks to its diverse ecosystem -- showed the reef bleached and damaged.

"The Nha Trang bay management authority decided to halt swimming and scuba diving activities in areas around Hon Mun island," officials said.

In a statement they said the ban was to "evaluate the condition of sensitive area so that an appropriate plan to enact the sea conservation area" could be made.

Effective from Monday, the ban would last "until further notice", they added.

Around 60 percent of the coastal bed in the area was covered by living coral in 2020, according to state media, but more recent findings showed that had shrunk to less than 50 percent.

Previously local authorities blamed the shrinking ecosystem on climate change, noting that powerful storms in 2019 and 2021 had damaged the coral.

They also blamed illegal fishing, dredging, construction of industrial parks and waste disposal.

Divers expressed anger over the decision to close the waters.

"Swimming and diving activities were the least influence on the coral reefs, compared to other activities," diver Nguyen Son, from Ho Chi Minh City, told AFP.

"The ecosystem (around Hon Mun) should have recovered after two years of pandemic," said diver Trinh Ngoc Sang.

"Without proper management, the fishing vessels came in and destroyed the sea bed," he told AFP, recalling the sight of rubbish and dead coral during a recent dive.

"It would take dozens of years for the coral reefs to be restored, so they want to close it throughout?"

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that 4.5 million people in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean region could be affected by damaged coral reefs.

The reefs support about 25 percent of marine biodiversity.

Vietnam's decision follows a similar move in Thailand, which restricted access to Maya Bay -- immortalized in the Leonardo DiCaprio film "The Beach" -- to give the local ecosystem a chance to recover.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3726746/vietnam-halts-scuba-diving-popular-island-protect-coral.

Canadian Gold Miners Find Rare Mummified Baby Woolly Mammoth

Sunday, 26 June, 2022

Miners in the Klondike gold fields of Canada's far north have made a rare discovery, digging up the mummified remains of a near complete baby woolly mammoth.

Members of the local Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation named the calf Nun cho ga, which means "big baby animal."

Paleontologist Grant Zazula said the little tyke, which retained its skin and hair, "is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified ice age animals ever discovered in the world."

"I am excited to get to know her more," he said in a statement.

The baby mammoth's remains were discovered during excavation through permafrost south of Dawson City in Canada's Yukon territory, which borders the US state of Alaska.

The animal is believed to be female and would have died during the ice age, more than 30,000 years ago when woolly mammoths roamed this region alongside wild horses, cave lions and giant steppe bison.

The discovery marks the first near complete and best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth found in North America.

A partial mammoth calf, named Effie, was found in 1948 at a gold mine in Alaska's interior.

A 42,000-year old mummified infant woolly mammoth, known as Lyuba, was also discovered in Siberia in 2007. Lyuba and Nun cho ga are roughly the same size, according to the Yukon government.

It noted that the Yukon has "a world-renowned fossil record of Ice Age animals, but mummified remains with skin and hair are rarely unearthed."

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3724866/canadian-gold-miners-find-rare-mummified-baby-woolly-mammoth.

Cuba Zookeepers Celebrate Birth of Rare Baby White Rhino

Saturday, 25 June, 2022

The zookeepers at Cuba's National Zoo are especially proud of Ale, a pudgy, gray-brown baby white rhinoceros born earlier this month on the outskirts of capital Havana.

For starters, he's cute. Baby rhinos look similar to adults, but have a stub in place of the horn and thus, are more docile in appearance.

But the white rhino is also a threatened species, and zoos the world across have been asked to reproduce them in captivity in the hope of creating a gene bank that will help preserve the species should it go extinct in the wild.

"It is a great privilege for us to be able to contribute to the rescue of a species as threatened as the white rhinoceros," said Alexander Arango, a Cuban zoo specialist in exotic wildlife, as he watched the newborn graze on a patch of grass beside his mother, Katherine.

Cuba, says Arango, now has the second largest population of white rhinos of any zoo in Latin America - a total of 8 – thanks to Ale and the birth of his sister, Mel, in 2019. Before that, it had been nearly two decades since the previous birth.

In a Caribbean island nation with limited resources and far from Africa, the increasing success in reproduction is a point of pride, the zookeepers told Reuters.

White rhinos, among the largest land mammals, have suffered in recent years as poaching has increased across their home range, primarily across southern Africa. That has put more pressure on zoos to maintain the species, the zookeepers said.

Cuba's National Zoo is a favorite attraction for Cubans, with 1,473 specimens of more than 120 species, including large animals such as elephants, rhinos and giraffes.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3723276/cuba-zookeepers-celebrate-birth-rare-baby-white-rhino.

Water scarcity in Jordan threatens nature reserve of rare Arabian gazelle

Melissa Pawson

April 25, 2022

The famous Arabian oryx, a distinctive white gazelle with long black horns, is not hard to spot in the Shaumari reserve. From across the scrubland, a herd of around 20 oryxes could be seen clustered around a water pipe where a small leak has caused the vegetation to grow up green and lush.

The oryxes' survival depends on the careful management of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) at Shaumari reserve. Previously extinct in Jordan, 11 of the gazelles were reintroduced to the reserve in the east of Jordan in the late 1970s. The population has since grown to around 110 individuals in what has been hailed as a successful reintroduction program.

However, ensuring the oryxes’ well-being has been getting harder in recent years, said reserve manager Ashraf Al-Halah. “The plants here do not depend on rain, they depend on floods. But we’re noticing a change in the flooding frequency,” he told Al-Monitor.

Al-Halah explained that while the semi-arid area used to get around four or five floods a year, the water has decreased. “We received just one this year, and the last year there was none,” he said.

The lack of water is putting animal populations at risk. Al-Halah blames increased water harvesting outside the reserve.

According to Al-Halah, the RSCN was not consulted by the authorities when water collection ponds were constructed nearby, including one pond just three kilometers away in 2015.

Al-Halah said that talks on the impact of water collecting on the reserve have begun this month between the RSCN and the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Al-Halah added that until surveys are conducted, they will not be able to start negotiations about a potential solution.

Last summer, there was a row between the RSCN and the Energy Ministry over the ministry’s plans to start copper mining in the Dana Nature Reserve. The mining plans have since been put on hold.

Al-Halah warned, “If we destroy these treasures, or destroy this heritage, it cannot be recovered.” He cannot envision a solution that doesn't involve the decommissioning of the nearby water collection ponds. He said, “We will take the conclusions [of the surveys, when done] to the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Water and tell them [that] this will destroy us,” he said.

Downstream lies the Azraq wetlands reserve, an oasis that serves as a crucial stopover for migratory birds. The wetlands are also drying out dramatically.

“This is the first year I witnessed no flooding,” said Hazem Hreisha, who manages the Azraq wetlands reserve. “This is the problem. The wetlands depend on permanent freshwater.”

The Azraq wetlands used to be fed by a natural spring. However, as the groundwater was depleted, the spring dried up in the early 90s.

The oasis is now supplied by water pumped in by the Jordan Water Authority under an agreement signed in 1993, for the provision of 1.5 to 2.5 million cubic meters annually. Hreisha told Al-Monitor that the RSCN paid the water authority a one-time fee of $250,000 to secure the agreement.

However, the reserve is currently only receiving 600,000 cubic meters per year and the flow often stops on summer days. Hreisha explained that the oasis has shrunk to a tenth of its original size and needs more water to be restored to being a resilient ecosystem.

“This is the government’s responsibility,” he added. “It’s not a large quantity to provide.”

When asked if the RSCN is communicating with the Water Ministry and Irrigation about the deficit, Hreisha replied, “Every year.” He said, “They respond that they have a lot of commitments with the local community.”

As millions around the world show their support for the environment on Earth Day, Hreisha said he hopes international advocacy will pressure the government to prioritize Jordan’s nature reserves.

According to UNICEF, Jordan is the second most water-scarce country in the world. Ministry of Water and Irrigation data states that each person in the kingdom has access to around 61 liters of water per day, compared to the roughly 350 liters used by the average American.

Dawoud Isied is a hydrogeologist and CEO of Straight Light Consultants, an environmental firm. He told Al-Monitor that the current situation in the wetlands is not sustainable. “If the government needs more water, they will stop [pumping to the reserves] for people. Humans are the priority.”

He added that over-pumping is heavily straining Jordan’s water resources. He said that the Azraq basin can safely provide 30 to 35 million cubic meters per year, but twice that amount is being taken.

Isied said that destroying the water collection ponds around the reserve would not necessarily recharge the depleted aquifer, though decommissioning some would help. He said, “The sustainable solution is to use [what floodwater still comes], which is around 40 to 60 million cubic meters a year,” to recharge the aquifer and bring water to the wetlands.

Isied explained that his company has been testing a method called managed aquifer recharge in another area, with some success. “That is, I hope, the solution to the water problem in Azraq,” he said.

Engineer Hesham Halal Al-Hesa, director of the Dams Administration in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, told Al-Monitor that the water collection sites around Azraq actually benefit the local area. He stated that larger solutions than simply ending collection at the ponds are needed to address the country’s water scarcity.

Bewilderingly, he added that the Azraq area actually needs “more water harvesting because it recharges the aquifer and [provides] drinking water for the animals … and controls flood risk management.”

Al-Hesa added that the ministry is searching for additional water resources as well as working on “efficient management of water distribution.”

Al-Monitor was directed to contact an engineer in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation who is the point of contact for the project, but no responses were forthcoming.

Hreisha feels the Ministry of Water and Irrigation should be doing more to ensure the future of the reserves. “This is part of the natural heritage in Jordan,” he said. The ministry “should provide and also search for new techniques, new technologies, new alternative resources.”

Source: al-Monitor.

Link: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/04/water-scarcity-jordan-threatens-nature-reserve-rare-arabian-gazelle.

Cities of the future may be built with algae-grown limestone

Boulder CO (SPX)

Jun 24, 2022

Global cement production accounts for 7% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in large part through the burning of quarried limestone. Now, a CU Boulder-led research team has figured out a way to make cement production carbon neutral-and even carbon negative-by pulling carbon dioxide out of the air with the help of microalgae.

The CU Boulder engineers and their colleagues at the Algal Resources Collection at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have been rewarded for their innovative work with a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). The research team was recently selected by the HESTIA program (Harnessing Emissions into Structures Taking Inputs from the Atmosphere) to develop and scale up the manufacture of biogenic limestone-based portland cement and help build a zero-carbon future.

"This is a really exciting moment for our team," said Wil Srubar, lead principal investigator on the project and associate professor in Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and CU Boulder's Materials Science and Engineering Program. "For the industry, now is the time to solve this very wicked problem. We believe that we have one of the best solutions, if not the best solution, for the cement and concrete industry to address its carbon problem."

Concrete is one of the most ubiquitous materials on the planet, a staple of construction around the world. It starts as a mixture of water and portland cement, which forms a paste to which materials such as sand, gravel or crushed stone are added. The paste binds the aggregates together, and the mixture hardens into concrete.

To make portland cement, the most common type of cement, limestone is extracted from large quarries and burned at high temperatures, releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide. The research team found that replacing quarried limestone with biologically grown limestone, a natural process that some species of calcareous microalgae complete through photosynthesis (just like growing coral reefs), creates a net carbon neutral way to make portland cement. In short, the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere equals what the microalgae already captured.

Ground limestone is also often used as a filler material in portland cement, typically replacing 15% of the mixture. By using biogenic limestone instead of quarried limestone as the filler, portland cement could become not only net neutral, but also carbon negative by pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it permanently in concrete.

If all cement-based construction around the world was replaced with biogenic limestone cement, each year, a whopping 2 gigatons of carbon dioxide would no longer be pumped into the atmosphere and more than 250 million additional tons of carbon dioxide would be pulled out of the atmosphere and stored in these materials.

This could theoretically happen overnight, as biogenic limestone can "plug and play" with modern cement production processes, said Srubar.

"We see a world in which using concrete as we know it is a mechanism to heal the planet," said Srubar. "We have the tools and the technology to do this today."

Limestone in real time

Srubar, who leads the Living Materials Laboratory at CU Boulder, received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2020 to explore how to grow limestone particles using microalgae to produce concrete with positive environmental benefits. The idea came to him while snorkeling on his honeymoon in Thailand in 2017.

He saw firsthand in coral reefs how nature grows its own durable, long-lasting structures from calcium carbonate, a main component of limestone. If nature can grow limestone, why can't we? he thought.

"There was a lot of clarity in what I had to pursue at that moment. And everything I've done since then has really been building up to this," said Srubar.

He and his team began to cultivate coccolithophores, cloudy white microalgae that sequester and store carbon dioxide in mineral form through photosynthesis. The only difference between limestone and what these organisms create in real time is a few million years.

With only sunlight, seawater, and dissolved carbon dioxide, these tiny organisms produce the largest amounts of new calcium carbonate on the planet, and at a faster pace than coral reefs. Coccolithophore blooms in the world's oceans are so big, they can be seen from space.

"On the surface, they create these very intricate, beautiful calcium carbonate shells. It's basically an armor of limestone that surrounds the cells," said Srubar.

Commercializing coccolithophores

These microalgae are hardy little creatures, living in both warm and cold, salt and fresh waters around the world, making them great candidates for cultivation almost anywhere-in cities, on land, or at sea. According to the team's estimates, only 1 to 2 million acres of open ponds would be required to produce all of the cement that the U.S. needs-0.5% of all land area in the U.S. and only 1% of the land used to grow corn.

And limestone isn't the only product microalgae can create: microalgae's lipids, proteins, sugars and carbohydrates can be used to produce biofuels, food and cosmetics, meaning these microalgae could also be a source of other, more expensive co-products-helping to offset the costs of limestone production.

To create these co-products from algal biomass and to scale up limestone production as quickly as possible, the Algal Resources Collection at UNCW is assisting with strain selection and growth optimization of the microalgae. NREL is providing state-of-the art molecular and analytical tools for conducting biochemical conversion of algal biomass to biofuels and bio-based products.

There are companies interested in buying these materials, and the limestone is already available in limited quantities.

Minus Materials, Inc., a CU startup founded in 2021 and the team's commercialization partner, is propelling the team's research into the commercial space with financial support from investors and corporate partnerships, according to Srubar, a co-founder and acting CEO. Minus Materials previously won the university-wide Lab Venture Challenge pitch competition and secured $125,000 in seed funding for the enterprise.

The current pace of global construction is staggering, on track to build a new New York City every month for the next 40 years. To Srubar, this global growth is not just an opportunity to convert buildings into carbon sinks, but to clean up the construction industry. He hopes that replacing quarried limestone with a homegrown version can also improve air quality, reduce environmental damage, and increase equitable access to building materials around the world.

"We make more concrete than any other material on the planet, and that means it touches everybody's life," said Srubar. "It's really important for us to remember that this material must be affordable and easy to produce, and the benefits must be shared on a global scale."

Source: Space Daily.

Link: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Cities_of_the_future_may_be_built_with_algae_grown_limestone_999.html.

A Top-notch Hospital in Doha Is Busy: Only Falcons Allowed

Sunday, 27 March, 2022

At first glance, the Souq Waqif clinic in the historic center of Doha, the capital of Qatar, could be any other state-of-the-art hospital.

Nurses in blue scrubs move briskly through the bright wards, conducting rounds. Radiology and operating rooms whir with the beeps and blinks of monitors. Specialists squint at X-rays and masked doctors make incisions with all the high-tech tools of modern surgery on hand.

There's just one thing: The rooms are filled with falcons.

In Qatar, the desert birds are among the nation's most pampered residents.

Long revered across the Arabian Peninsula for their ferocity and hunting prowess, falcons today serve as sheikhly status symbols recalling a Bedouin past. The bond between falconers and their falcons has been an inspiration since the Paleolithic period, when drawings of the creatures first appeared on cave walls, according to The Associated Press.

Although less fashionable now than in the days of yore, the art of falconry is still passed down from one generation to the next in Qatar and other sheikhdoms of the Arabian Gulf. With demand growing in recent years, clubs that teach the sport have sprouted up across the region. Falcons compete in an increasing number of races and beauty contests.

“The establishment of the hospital was to support the hobby and heritage of raising falcons ... it’s a pastime that stretches its veins into multiple generations,” Souq Waqif hospital director Dr. Ikdam Al Karkhi recently told The Associated Press. “Keeping them alive and well is an essential duty.”

Public hospitals like Souq Waqif offer expert care to sick and wounded hawks, roughly 30,000 a year. The marbled reception area bustles with owners and handlers bringing their birds in for check-ups, medical tests, feather replacements, orthopedic surgeries — and even something akin to mani-pedis.

Falcon nail filing is very serious business, as birds transplanted from the desert wild to homes in Doha or bred in captivity cannot easily find sharp surfaces on which to trim their talons.

During a falcon’s hunt, the cornered prey at times puts up a fight, clawing and attacking falcon and hobbling its wings. Each of a falcon’s feathers is vital to its flight, necessitating careful feather replacement after a scuffle.

Doctors pull from a bank of shed feathers to find one that perfectly matches the wounded bird’s breed — plumage of the same pattern, length and color.

“If these damaged feathers remain, it can cause loss or reduction of the bird’s fitness,” Al Karkhi said. “They must be treated.”

Hospital surgeons treat other casualties of the hunt, too. Falcons’ beaks and talons suffer damage from all that swooping and plunging and gobbling.

“If a person is neglecting their bird, it’s a huge problem,” said Hamad Al Mehshadi, a falcon festival manager taking his raptor for a regular medical checkup. “When one holds onto their bird, it is something else. The love of the bird is extraordinary.”

Today, the Souq Waqif still sees a steady stream of 150 falcons a day — a sign that the echoes of Qatar’s ancient past are not lost.

“Even the look that a falcon and its owner share, it’s different than any other look,” Al Karkhi said. Falconers “feel the loyalty of this bird — a fierce warrior in the wild and yet a pet in my hand.”

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3556411/top-notch-hospital-doha-busy-only-falcons-allowed.

Endangered bat not seen in four decades found in Rwanda

Kigali (AFP)

March 9, 2022

A critically endangered species of bats not sighted in 40 years has been found in Rwanda, with the "incredible" discovery delighting conservationists who had feared it was already extinct.

But the Hill's Horseshoe Bat was in fact still clinging to life in Rwanda's Nyungwe Forest -- a dense rainforest that is home to endangered mountain gorillas -- the consortium behind the discovery said.

There had been no information on the population of the mammals and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2021 listed them as critically endangered.

Rediscovering the lost species "was incredible", Jon Flanders, director for Bat Conservation International (BCI), said in a statement late Tuesday.

"It's astonishing to think that we're the first people to see this bat in so long."

The Texas-based non-profit had partnered with the Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association to conduct surveys in the jungle starting in 2013.

In 2019, after a 10-day expedition scouring the caves in the forest, the scientists found the bat.

"We knew immediately that the bat we had captured was unusual and remarkable," BCI's chief scientist Winifred Frick said.

"The facial features were exaggerated to the point of comical."

But it took them another three years to verify its species.

The creatures of the night have long been infamous as fanged monsters or vectors of disease, with the coronavirus pandemic doing little to improve that image after scientists said Covid-19 likely originated in the animals.

From the tiny two-gram "bumblebee bat", to the giant Philippine flying fox with its 1.5-metre (five-foot) wingspan, bats make up a fifth of all terrestrial mammals.

Some 40 percent of the 1,321 species assessed on the IUCN's Red List are now classified as endangered.

Human actions -- including deforestation and habitat loss -- are to blame.

For the researchers in Rwanda, the elusive discovery marks the beginning of a new race to save the once lost species from disappearing again.

"Now our real work begins to figure out how to protect this species long into the future," said Flanders.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Endangered_bat_not_seen_in_four_decades_found_in_Rwanda_999.html.

Balkanatolia: the forgotten continent that sheds light on the evolution of mammals

Paris, France (SPX)

Feb 23, 2022

A team of French, American and Turkish palaeontologists and geologists led by CNRS researchers1 has discovered the existence of a forgotten continent they have dubbed Balkanatolia, which today covers the present-day Balkans and Anatolia. Formerly inhabited by a highly specific fauna, they believe that it enabled mammals from Asia to colonize Europe 34 million years ago. Their findings are published in the March 2022 volume of Earth Science Reviews.

For millions of years during the Eocene Epoch (55 to 34 million years ago), Western Europe and Eastern Asia formed two distinct land masses with very different mammalian faunas: European forests were home to endemic fauna such as Palaeotheres (an extinct group distantly related to present-day horses, but more like today's tapirs), whereas Asia was populated by a more diverse fauna including the mammal families found today on both continents.

We know that, around 34 million years ago, Western Europe was colonized by Asian species, leading to a major renewal of vertebrate fauna and the extinction of its endemic mammals, a sudden event called the 'Grande Coupure'. Surprisingly, fossils found in the Balkans point to the presence of Asian mammals in southern Europe long before the Grande Coupure, suggesting earlier colonization.

Now, a team led by CNRS researchers has come up with an explanation for this paradox. To do this, they reviewed earlier palaeontological discoveries, some of which date back to the 19th century, sometimes reassessing their dating in the light of current geological data. The review revealed that, for much of the Eocene, the region corresponding to the present-day Balkans and Anatolia was home to a terrestrial fauna that was homogeneous, but distinct from those of Europe and eastern Asia. This exotic fauna included, for example, marsupials of South American affinity and Embrithopoda (large herbivorous mammals resembling hippopotamuses) formerly found in Africa. The region must therefore have made up a single land mass, separated from the neighboring continents.

The team also discovered a new fossil deposit in Turkey (Buyukteflek) dating from 38 to 35 million years ago, which yielded mammals whose affinity was clearly Asian, and are the earliest discovered in Anatolia until now. They found jaw fragments belonging to Brontotheres, animals resembling large rhinoceroses that died out at the end of the Eocene.

All this information enabled the team to outline the history of this third Eurasian continent, wedged between Europe, Africa and Asia, which they dubbed Balkanatolia. The continent, already in existence 50 million years ago2 and home to a unique fauna, was colonized 40 million years ago by Asian mammals as a result of geographical changes that have yet to be fully understood. It seems likely that a major glaciation 34 million years ago, leading to the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet and lowering sea levels, connected Balkanatolia to Western Europe, giving rise to the 'Grande Coupure'.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Balkanatolia_the_forgotten_continent_that_sheds_light_on_the_evolution_of_mammals_999.html.

Division of labor in ants goes back over 100 million years

 Jena, Germany (SPX)

Feb 23, 2022

Ants live in states organized according to the division of tasks. There are three castes, each of which has a different role: the queen lays eggs and the males fertilize them, while the workers look after the offspring and deal with finding food and nest-building. In biology, this special behavior is called eusociality, which is developed in a particularly complex way in ants, as it is shown not only in their behavior, but also in their morphology.

Winged females take on the role of the queen, while wingless, infertile females perform the tasks of the workers. But when exactly in their evolution did ants start this unique teamwork? The research team has now established that this cooperative way of life developed in the early Cretaceous period and the scientists present their findings in the research journal Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Ant pupa found in Cretaceous amber for the first time

In their work, the biologists closely examined four fossils enclosed in amber. These were three adult female wingless ants and one incompletely developed pupa - the first ant pupa ever found in Cretaceous amber. "With the help of micro-computed tomography images, we were able to determine that the soft tissues of the insects have been exceptionally well-preserved," explains Dr Brendon E. Boudinot, who is currently working at the University of Jena under a Humboldt Research Fellowship.

"This enabled us to examine the precise structure of the brain and the transverse muscle fibers, for example, and thus compare the four specimens with each other in fine detail."

Sensational discoveries

Based on these insights into the ants' internal anatomy, the researchers were able to draw conclusions about the species - and in doing so to make two spectacular discoveries. First, they established that two of the adult insects belong to a previously unknown species of the extinct ant genus Gerontoformica, which the biologists have now been able to describe more precisely for the first time.

Second, the third adult ant and the pupa are both of the same species: Gerontoformica gracilis.

"As ant pupae are not mobile, it can be inferred that the adult insect carried it," says US entomologist Boudinot. "This brood transport, as it's called, is a unique feature of ant coexistence based on their division of labor. The fossil therefore provides the first material evidence of cooperative behavior from the Cretaceous period: these ants looked after their young together, went in search of food together and had different queen and worker castes."

The fossil representatives of the extinct ant genus are therefore an important "missing link" between today's ants and their closest relatives, confirming that the specialized social system of ants evolved sometime in the early Cretaceous - during the time of the dinosaurs.

New insights into the evolution of ants

The work on the four fossil ants has shown the researchers the wealth of information that can be produced using the high-resolution imaging facilities. "We can now derive new insights into the development of the internal anatomy of fossil insects and clarify much more precisely the relationships of fossil species to each other and to species living today," says Boudinot. For example, how did the two different female forms of ants - queens and workers - develop?

Did the wings regress first and then fertility, did the onset of sterility lead to the loss of the wings or did both developments take place at the same time? Thanks to the new findings and methods, scientists may soon be able to provide answers to such questions about the evolution of ants. There are also new, connected, research questions in the field of sociobiology, for example on the emergence of eusociality.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Division_of_labor_in_ants_goes_back_over_100_million_years_999.html.

Bees, sheep, crops: Solar developers tout multiple benefits

November 04, 2021

MONTICELLO, Minnesota (AP) — Silflower was among native plants that blanketed the vast North American prairie until settlers developed farms and cities. Nowadays confined largely to roadsides and ditches, the long-stemmed cousin of the sunflower may be poised for a comeback, thanks to solar energy.

Researchers are growing silflower at nine solar installations in the Minneapolis area, testing its potential as an oilseed crop. The deep-rooted perennial also offers forage for livestock and desperately needed habitat for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

“We need a lot of plots spaced pretty far apart to measure silflower's effects on pollinators,” said crop scientist Ebony Murrell of The Land Institute, a research nonprofit. “The solar industry is interested in restoring pollinator habitat. This seemed to be a good partnership.”

Solar is a renewable energy source that can help wean the world off fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. But it also could benefit the environment and economy in ways not as well known. As the industry grows, solar arrays will sprawl across millions of acres (hectares) — wasting farmland, critics say. But advocates see opportunities to diversify crop production and boost landowner income, while repairing ecological damage to ground plowed under or paved over.

“There's lots of spaces where solar could be integrated with really innovative uses of land,” said Brendan O'Neill, a University of Michigan environmental scientist who's monitoring how planting at a new 1,752-panel facility in Cadillac, Michigan, stores carbon.

Elsewhere, solar installations host sheep that reduce need for mowing. And researchers are experimenting with crop growing beneath solar panels, while examining other potential upsides: preventing soil erosion, and conserving and cleansing water.

LABS STUDY MIXED USES

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding a quest for best uses of lands around solar farms. The project, called InSPIRE, involves the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and other partners conducting research at 25 sites nationwide.

The U.S. has about 2,500 solar operations on the electric grid, most generating one to five megawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration. A five-megawatt facility needs around 40 acres (16 hectares). While some occupy former industrial sites, larger installations often take space once used for row crops.

Depending on how quickly the nation switches to renewable electricity, up to 10 million acres (4 million hectares) could be needed for solar by 2050 — more than the combined area of Massachusetts and New Jersey, an analysis by Argonne found.

Solar developers and researchers hope projects with multiple land uses will ease pushback from rural residents who don’t want farmland taken out of production or consider solar panels a blight. “We need healthy agricultural communities, but we also need renewable energy,” said Jordan Macknick, the renewable energy lab’s lead analyst for InSPIRE.

BUZZ AND FUZZ

At Cascadilla Community Solar Farm in upstate New York, sheep munch grasses among solar panels while bees and butterflies collect pollen from native flowers. Cornell University researcher Niko Kochendoerfer says initial data from her three-year study shows light grazing produces abundant bees and wildflowers, while keeping plants from shading panels. Some rare bee species are turning up.

Farmers get $300 to $550 per acre yearly to graze sheep at solar sites, increasing farm income while sparing them the cost of renting or buying pasture, said Kochendoerfer, who owns about 400 sheep with her fiance, Lewis Fox. Grazing is less expensive than traditional site management, she said.

Fox has sheep at solar sites from southern Pennsylvania to Vermont. "Certain times of the year ... the sites will be like a butterfly house in a zoo — there’s just butterflies everywhere,” he said. Sheep are feeding at solar installations in more than 20 states, said Lexie Hain, director of the American Solar Grazing Association and Fox's business partner. It's also happening in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, Uruguay and Australia.

VEGETABLES IN SOLAR SHADE

In Longmont, Colorado, Jack's Solar Farm offers another example of solar meeting agriculture. Instead of wheat and hay as before, the farm's 24 acres (about 10 hectares) host 3,276 panels, generating enough power for about 300 homes. Beneath them grow tomatoes, squash, kale and green beans.

Researchers are comparing vegetables grown under panels six or eight feet (about two to 2½ meters) off the ground with others in open sunlight. Results were mixed during the recently concluded initial season but shaded plants appeared to have a longer growing season.

“We don't have to leave the soils underneath our solar panels across our country denuded or just left to weeds,” owner Byron Kominek said. “Elevating the panels a little bit more provides agricultural jobs as well as an opportunity to do more with the land.”

“Agrivoltaics," or growing produce beneath panels, is especially promising in hot, arid regions, say experts who have planted cherry tomatoes and peppers beneath them at the University of Arizona's Biosphere 2 laboratory.

Those crops usually match or exceed ones in a traditional environment, according to the team's findings. With less direct sunlight, they lose less water to evaporation, reducing irrigation demand. And the plants keep panels cooler, boosting performance.

How widely such farming could happen remains to be seen, said Greg Barron-Gafford, a biogeography professor at Arizona. Large-scale agriculture requires mechanized planting and harvesting that might be difficult beneath panels.

“But the vast majority of farms across the country are small farms that are breaking even or losing money,” Barron-Gafford said, adding that leasing land for solar energy while still growing food could generate profits.

POLLINATOR HABITAT

While commercial prospects for agrivoltaics are unknown, scientists say it's certain that solar grounds are ideal for native grasses and flowers that draw pollinators, many facing extinction.

A team led by Oregon State University researcher Maggie Graham reported this year that bees and other insects visit plants partly or totally shaded by panels. They also may pollinate crops in nearby fields, boosting yields.

Compared to farmland, solar sites planted with pollinator-friendly native vegetation would provide a three-fold increase in habitat quality for pollinators, a recent Argonne study concluded. Pollinator-friendly sites would have two-thirds more carbon storage potential, nearly one-fifth less water runoff and 95% less soil erosion than traditionally cultivated land, it said.

Some solar developers are resisting because plants for pollinators are more expensive than lawn used at many sites. But over time that’s offset by lower maintenance, said Reed Richerson, chief operating officer of U.S. Solar, a Minneapolis developer.

The popularity of saving bees and butterflies is attracting the likes of Walmart, which buys power from dozens of pollinator-friendly U.S. Solar installations. More than a dozen states have standards or guidelines based on qualities such as ground cover density and diversity, and the amount of land involved.

“We wanted to avoid greenwashing — planting a little patch of clover and petunias and saying, ‘There’s my pollinator-friendly contribution,'” said Michael Noble, director of Minnesota-based Fresh Energy, which helped develop the standards.

Many more nature-based solar gardens are needed as global warming and species losses accelerate, said Rob Davis, spokesman for Connexus Energy. Three years ago, he said, one of the Minnesota co-op's solar projects risked rejection by a suburban planning commission until supporters brought up the pollinator benefits and their visual appeal.

“The technology of solar energy is unfamiliar and foreign,” Davis said. “But everyone understands what a meadow is.”

Great ape's consonant and vowel-like sounds travel over distance without losing meaning

Warwick UK (SPX)

Oct 01, 2021

Scientists have shown that orangutan call signals believed to be closest to the precursors to human language, travel through forest over long distances without losing their meaning. This throws into question the accepted mathematical model on the evolution of human speech according to researchers from the University of Warwick.

The currently accepted model, developed by mathematicians, predicts that human ancestors strung sounds together in their calls in order to increase their chances of carrying a signal's content to a recipient over distance. Because signal quality degrades over larger distances, it is proposed that human ancestors started linking sounds together to effectively convey a package of information even if it is distorted.

Researchers from the University of Warwick's Department of Psychology set out to collect empirical data to investigate the model. They selected a range of sounds from previously collected audio recordings of orangutan communications. Specific consonant-like and vowel-like signals were played out and re-recorded across the rainforest at set distances of 25, 50, 75 and 100 meters.

The quality and content of the signals received were analyzed. The results are revealed in the study: Orangutan information broadcast via consonant-like and vowel-like calls breaches mathematical models of linguistic evolution published in Biology Letters.

The team found that although the quality of the signal may have degraded, the content of the signal was still intact - even at long distance. In fact the informational characteristics of calls remained uncompromised until the signal became inaudible. This calls into question the existing and accepted theory of language development.

Dr Adriano Lameira, an evolutionary psychologist from the University of Warwick, led the study. He said:

"We used our bank of audio data recordings from our studies of orangutan in Indonesia. We selected the clear vowel-like and consonant-like signals and played them out and re-recorded them over measured distances in a rainforest setting. The purpose of this study was to look at the signals themselves and understand how they behaved as a package of information. This study is neat because it is only across distance that you can hope to assess this error limit theory - it disregards other aspects of communication like gestures, postures, mannerisms and facial expressions.

"The results show that these signals seem to be impervious to distance when it comes to encoding information.

"It calls into question the existing thinking based on the model set out 20 years ago by Harvard scientists. Their work assumes that the signals that our ancestors were using were reaching an error limit - a moment when a signal is received but stops being meaningful. They concluded that our ancestors linked sounds together to increase the chance of content travelling over distance.

"We know sound degrades the further away from the source you are. We have all experienced this effect when shouting for your relative or your friend. They don't hear all the words you say - but they recognize you are talking to them and that it is your voice. By using actual great ape communication sounds, which are the closest to those used by our hominid ancestors, we have shown that although the sound package is being distorted and pushed apart, the content remains unaltered. It's a call to the scientific community to start thinking again about how language evolved."

Dr Adriano Lameira and his team used orangutan calls because they were the first species to diverge from the great ape lineage but are the only great ape which uses the vowel and consonant like sounds in a complex way - giving a parallel with human speech.

His research team is now moving on to deciphering the meaning of their calls. The research involves pulling together all the ways orangutan combine calls, putting the consonant and vowel sounds together to get meaning.

He said: "We still don't know what they are referring to, but right now what is completely clear is that the building blocks of language are present. Although other animal sounds and signals are complex, they are not using the same building blocks. We are focused here on the building of language - exactly the component the great apes use. It gives us the parallel to human language.

"The Harvard model has been the accepted theory for years and if you ask a mathematician if language origins were still a puzzle they'd say no - but evolutionary psychologists are still working on it. But we haven't solved the puzzle either - if anything we have just gone deeper down the rabbit hole.

"We are proposing that mathematical models be applied to the real life data to see what we can come up with together."

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Great_apes_consonant_and_vowel_like_sounds_travel_over_distance_without_losing_meaning_999.html.

Do tourist boats stress out whales? Researchers find out

By Jeremie Richard

Husavik, Iceland (AFP)

Sept 5, 2021

Just off the northern coast of Iceland, scientists are collecting data from whales' breath to find out if they get stressed by whale-watching boats, an industry that has boomed in recent years.

Researchers from Whale Wise, a marine conservation charity, are studying the whales' stress levels in their hormones.

From their small sailboat, a drone lifts off. After six hours of waiting, the scientists have finally spotted a humpback whale.

Attached to the flying device are two petri dishes -- transparent cylindrical containers -- that will collect water droplets from the whale's spray.

The timeframe to collect the sample is short -- the duration of a whale's breath.

This time, the drone flies over the whale carefully, crossing through the spray coming from the whale's blowhole... and mission accomplished. It returns to the sailboat, delivering its precious cargo to the researchers.

Once wrapped in paraffin and frozen, the samples will be sent to a laboratory for analysis.

The researchers aim to collect samples before a whale watching boat arrives and then afterwards, then compare the two samples to determine the direct impact of that encounter on stress levels.

Tourists have been increasingly flocking to the waters of the North Atlantic off Iceland to admire the majestic creatures, though 2020 was a quiet year due to the pandemic.

More than 360,000 whale watchers were registered in 2019, three times the number a decade ago.

Almost a third of them began their whale watching tour in the Husavik harbor, heading for the chilly waters of Skjalfandi Bay.

- Feeding disruptions -

Previous studies on tourism's impact on whales, which were based on behavioral observations, concluded that tourism caused only minor disruptions to the mammals.

The most recent study, from 2011, found that whale-watching excursions were disrupting minke whales in the Faxa Bay near Reykjavik, in the south of the country.

"We found that the minke whales were disturbed in their feeding, but it was only a short-term disturbance," one of the authors of the study, Marianne Rasmussen, director of the University of Iceland Research Center in Husavik, told AFP.

"It didn't affect their overall fitness."

The method used by Whale Wise this summer has been used elsewhere by biologists but this was a first for researchers in Iceland.

"From the samples, you can look at hormones such as cortisol, which is a stress-related hormone, and then you can determine the physiological stress levels of these whales," said Tom Grove, Whale Wise co-founder and a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.

Since 2018, 59 samples have been collected. While a minimum of 50 are needed for a proper analysis, he hopes to collect around 100.

This summer, some of the samples were collected together with French environmental group Unu Mondo Expedition, which travelled to Iceland for a month-long expedition to study climate change issues.

"The whales are important to us, for our lives, because they are part of the ecosystem on our planet," said Sophie Simonin, 29, the organization's co-founder.

"They also absorb enormous amounts of carbon dioxide," she added.

According to a December 2019 study by the International Monetary Fund, a large whale captures an average of 33 tons of carbon dioxide.

While whales are a tourist attraction, they are also hunted in Iceland.

The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986, but Iceland, which opposed the moratorium, resumed its hunt in 2003.

Iceland only bans the hunt of blue whales.

But while the country has established an annual quota of 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales until 2023, no whales were hunted this year for the third straight year, as whalers say it is not financially viable.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Do_tourist_boats_stress_out_whales_Researchers_find_out_999.html.

Cyprus activists: Hunters' lead pellets threaten flamingos

February 21, 2021

LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) — Conservationists in Cyprus are urging authorities to expand a hunting ban throughout a coastal salt lake network amid concerns that migrating flamingos could potentially swallow lethal quantities of lead shotgun pellets.

Martin Hellicar, director of Birdlife Cyprus, said flamingos are at risk of ingesting the tiny pellets lying on the lakebed as they feed. Like other birds, flamingos swallow small pebbles to aid digestion, but can’t distinguish between pebbles and the lead pellets.

“Last year, we had tens of losses of flamingos,” Hellicar said. Cyprus is a key stop on the migration path for many types of birds flying from Africa to Europe. The Larnaca Salt Lake, a wetlands network of four lakes, typically welcomes as many as 15,000 flamingos from colder climates to the southern coast of the island nation in the eastern Mediterranean. They stay through the winter and leave in March. Other water fowl frequenting the lake include ducks, waders and seagulls.

Hunting is banned around most of the salt lake, but hunters are still allowed to shoot ducks in the network’s southern tip. The government's Game and Fauna Service says in the first two months of last year, 96 flamingos were found dead in the Larnaca Salt Lake wetlands as a result of lead poisoning. Cyprus Veterinary Services official Panayiotis Constantinou, who has conducted autopsies on flamingos, said lead from the pellets poisoned the birds.

The high number of deaths is mainly attributed to heavy winter rain two years ago that stirred up the lake sediment and dislodged embedded lead shot. A sport shooting range near the lake's northern tip closed nearly 18 years ago and authorities organized a clean-up of lead pellets in the lakebed there.

But Hellicar says the clean-up was apparently incomplete. A European Union-funded study is underway to identify where significant amounts of lead pellets remain so they can be removed. Preliminary results of the study showed “very high” lead levels in the wetland's southern tip and continued duck hunting there could compound the problem, Hellicar said.

“The problem is pronounced," he said. "The danger is real for the flamingos and other birds that use the area.” Cyprus Hunting Federation official Alexandros Loizides disagrees, saying that hunting in a 200-meter northern swath is not a problem due to the limited number of hunters. He said he’s unaware of any flamingo deaths in the area and faults pesticide and fertilizer runoff from nearby farms for creating any pollution problems hurting wildlife.

“I think the effect of hunting there is very small on the specific part of the lake,” said Loizides. “It’d be a shame for hunters to lose the only area where hunting is permitted near wetlands.” A ban on the use of lead pellets near wetlands has been in force in Cyprus for several years. A similar, EU-wide ban took effect last month but conservationists believe the laws are not being enforced enough.

Pantelis Hadjiyeros, head of the Game and Fauna Service, said it’s less important to ban hunting in the area than to convince hunters to stop using shells with lead pellets. “It should be drummed into people that the use of lead pellets is prohibited near wetlands and that only steel pellets are permitted,” Hadjiyeros told The Associated Press.

UK's chief mouser celebrates 10 years on the prowl

February 15, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Larry the cat, a four-legged inhabitant of London’s 10 Downing St., is marking a decade as Britain’s mouse-catcher in chief on Monday. The tabby cat was recruited by then-Prime Minister David Cameron to deal with a pack of rats seen scuttling close to the British leader’s official residence, and entered Downing Street on Feb. 15, 2011.

The former stray, adopted from London’s Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, was given the title Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, an unofficial pest control post. He was the first cat to hold the rat-catching portfolio since the retirement of Humphrey in 1997, and has loyally served three prime ministers.

But it seems like yesterday that Larry was just another cat — as opposed to a media superstar — said Lindsey Quinlan, the head of cattery of Battersea. “Throughout his time at Number 10, Larry has proven himself to not only be a brilliant ambassador for Battersea but also demonstrated to millions of people around the world how incredible rescue cats are,’’ she said. “His rags to riches tale is yet more proof of why all animals deserve a second chance — one minute they may be an overlooked stray on the streets, the next they could become one of the nation’s beloved political figures, with fans around the world.”

Larry, who has met a number of world leaders, has been largely unfriendly to men but took a liking to former U.S. President Barack Obama. When former President Donald Trump visited in 2019, Larry took a nap under his car.

His grip on the public imagination is clear — and political leaders know better than to ignore that popularity. The tomcat was a sentimental topic of conversation in Cameron’s final appearance in Parliament as prime minister when he said he wanted to quash a rumor that — perish the thought — he didn’t like Larry.

And just to prove it, he whipped out evidence: a picture of Larry lying on his lap. “He belongs to the house and the staff love him very much — as do I,” he said at the time, explaining why he wasn't taking Larry with him after leaving office.

After the December 2019 election, rumors swirled that Larry might be headed for retirement with the news that the new prime minister, Boris Johnson, was a dog man. However, despite the prime minister moving Jack Russell cross Dilyn into Downing Street, Larry remained in office.

Reports of his rodent-killing abilities vary. Larry became known for his occasional scraps with neighboring cats -- especially Palmerston, chief mouser to the Foreign Office across the street -- and fondness for sleep. Palmerston has retired to the country, so things have been a bit quieter of late.

These days Larry, now 14, is often seen by photographers patrolling his turf. Visitors to the building can sometimes find him napping on a ledge above a radiator or sleeping on a floor, where dignitaries occasionally have to step over him.

At the heart of government, he specializes in power naps.