deserts – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

In Blown-Down Forests, a Story of Survival

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2012Environment, Naturebiodiversity, black bears, black birch, broken trees, damaged trees, david foster, dead wood, deserts, device, ecological processes, ecosystem, environmental decision, financial, fires, floods, forest, forests blown, grasslands, harvard forest, harvard university, Health, hurricanes, ice storm, intense wind, logging, lter, massachusetts, matt kane, national, native plant, natural events, polar regions, recovery, red maple, salamanders, science foundation, snapped limbs, southbridge, tornadoes, uprooted trunks, wildlife, woodland, woodland landscape

To preserve forest health, the best management decision may be to do nothing

In newscasts after intense wind and ice storms, damaged trees stand out: snapped limbs, uprooted trunks, entire forests blown nearly flat.

In a storm’s wake, landowners, municipalities and state agencies are faced with important financial and environmental decisions.

A study by Harvard University researchers, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published in the journal Ecology, yields a surprising result: when it comes to the health of forests, native plants and wildlife, the best management decision may be to do nothing. (more…)

Close Family Ties Keep Microbial Cheaters in Check, Study Finds

By Guest PostDecember 16, 2011Scienceamoebae, Antarctica, canopies, clonal lineage, cosmopolitan groups, david queller, deserts, dicty, dictyostelium discoideum, e coli, evolution, forest park, genes, jennie kuzdzal fick, joan strassmann, kissing kin, life cycles, multicellular organisms, mutation, national science foundation, obligate cheaters, sam scheiner, sara fox, single cell, slime mold, social amoeba, st. louis, tropical forests, washington university

*Experiments on “slime mold” explain why almost all multicellular organisms begin life as a single cell*

Any multicellular animal, from a blue whale to a human being, poses a special challenge for evolution.

Most of the cells in its body will die without reproducing; only a privileged few will pass their genes to the next generation.

How could the extreme degree of cooperation required by multicellular existence actually evolve? Why aren’t all creatures unicellular individualists determined to pass on their own genes? (more…)

Between the Nightmare of the Gulf and the Magic of Solar Impulse

By PravdaJuly 18, 2010Economy, Sciencealberta, alternative, bp, canada, China, cost efficient, deepwater horizon, deforestation, deserts, electricity, energy, environmental disaster, fort mcmurray, gulf of mexico, largest oil reserve, oil, oil sands, saudi arabia, Scandinavia, solar impulse aircraft, solar plane, solar stoves, sun ray, tar sands, thermo conversion, tibet, tibetan women, tsedang, unicamp data

While the BP Deepwater Horizon well spits tens of thousands of barrels of oil offshore on the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental disaster of proportions never before imagined, a beautiful new kind of bird flies silently in the skies on its first test flight.

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Sandstorms and desertification

By ShamsMarch 22, 2010Environmentasthma, Beijing, deforestation, desertification, deserts, deserts are expanding, eastern china, hazards, northern china, particulate, sandstorm, suspended particles, taiwan, urban, western united states

Saturday, and again on Monday (22^nd March) Beijing and part of eastern China was hit by two successive severe sandstorms originating in northern China. And the fine dust travelled not only to Taiwan, but as far as to the western United States.

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Desertification – Are Deserts Expanding??

By ShamsNovember 24, 20071 commentEnvironmentalternative livelihood, Antarctica, Bedouins, desertification, deserts, Great Saharan Desert, nomads, sand dunes, sandstorms

Deserts are everywhere. In both Americas, Australia, the Great Saharan Desert in Africa, Middle East, India and in China. Deserts are what we understand when we mean ‘deserts’ – unpopulated barren areas as there’s of lack of enough rainfall. That’s true.

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Tag Archives: deserts

In Blown-Down Forests, a Story of Survival

Close Family Ties Keep Microbial Cheaters in Check, Study Finds

Between the Nightmare of the Gulf and the Magic of Solar Impulse

Sandstorms and desertification

Desertification – Are Deserts Expanding??