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Species Extinction Rates Have Been Overestimated, New Study Claims

By Guest PostMay 29, 2011Natureafrica, asia, biodiversity, canada, center for tropical forest science, central america, China, earth, environmental decision making, experience a rain forest, extinction debt, extinction rates, fangliang he, global extinction, guangzhou, habitat loss, killing the dinosaurs, mathematical proof, meteor, photosynthesis, plant biomass, risk of extinction, south america, species area relationship, species extinction rates, stephen hubbell, sun yat sen university, tropical forest ecologist, university of Alberta

*However, researchers say, global extinction crisis remains very serious*

The most widely used methods for calculating species extinction rates are “fundamentally flawed” and overestimate extinction rates by as much as 160 percent, life scientists report May 19 in the journal Nature.

However, while the problem of species extinction caused by habitat loss is not as dire as many conservationists and scientists had believed, the global extinction crisis is real, says Stephen Hubbell, a distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA and co-author of the Nature paper. (more…)

Before the Explosion – Volcano’s Warning Tremors Explained

By Guest PostFebruary 26, 2011Environmentalaska, ash, ash column, atmosphere, central america, david bercovici, forecast deadly eruptions, frequencies, magma wagging, mark jellinek, mathematical model, model, new zealand, phenomena in nature, pyroclastic flows, strange phenomenon, the caribbean, tremors, volcanoes, volcanologists, yale university

No matter their size or shape, explosive volcanoes produce tremors at similar frequencies for minutes, days or weeks before they erupt. In the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Nature, researchers at Yale University and the University of British Columbia describe a model that explains this strange phenomenon — and may help forecast deadly eruptions.

When such volcanoes erupt they can shoot hot ash up to 40 kilometers into the atmosphere and cause devastating destruction when the ash column collapses and spreads as “pyroclastic flows”. Prior to most of these explosive eruptions the volcanoes shake slightly but measurably, and the shaking becomes more dramatic during the eruption itself. This tremor is one of the primary precursors and warnings used by volcanologists for forecasting an eruption. (more…)

Frog Killer Caught in the Act: Measuring Life’s Data Loss in Panama by Barcoding

By Guest PostJuly 20, 2010Nature1980, amphibian, andes in colombia, andrew crawford, barcoding, batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, central america, cerro piña, chytridiomycosis, costa rica, cryptic, DNA, el cope, eldredge bermingham, fungal disease, fungal pathogen, golden frogs, hemiphractus fasciatus, karen lips, library of alexandria, panama, panamanian marsupial frog, pristimantis adnus, smithsonian tropical research institute

The first before-and-after view of an amphibian die-off has just been published by scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

(more…)

Tag Archives: central america

Species Extinction Rates Have Been Overestimated, New Study Claims

Before the Explosion – Volcano’s Warning Tremors Explained

Frog Killer Caught in the Act: Measuring Life’s Data Loss in Panama by Barcoding