islands – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Teams on Tour: Great Sporting Trips Around the World

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2012Holidays 'n Travels, Sportsall blacks, american rivals, anna mathews, ashes, australia, Bangladesh, british, british empire, british grand prix, cricket, Dubai, energy, Europe, exotic location, favourite athletes, formula 1, france, golf, grand national, hong kong, horse racing, India, irish lions, islands, italy, new zealand, organised tours, Pakistan, passion for sport, popular, royal ascot, ryder cup, silverstone, six nations, South Africa, springboks, travel, travelling abroad, twickenham, uk, united kingdom, usa, west indies, wimbledon, world of rugby

Passion for sport is unrivalled in its energy and dedication and so it’s no wonder that people are so keen to travel the world to see their favourite athletes and teams play abroad. These tours offer a unique opportunity to follow your sport and see some great global destinations at the same time.

Travelling abroad to follow your favourite sport is a unique and highly rewarding experience, allowing you to experience a different country, engage with their culture and discover the wonders of how other peoples and nations watch and enjoy sports. Organised tours are often the best way to get involved with international sport as they do an excellent job of combining all the necessary aspects without any hassle for your tickets to all the most important sporting events, accommodation and transport to make getting there very easy and scheduled free time to allow you to explore the surroundings of your destination. (more…)

Exhaustive Family Tree for Birds Shows Recent, Rapid Diversification

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2012Natureanalysis, arne mooers, avian diversity, basic hypotheses, behavioral innovation, biodiversity expert, bird species, birds, bumblebees, canada, diversification rate, dna data, earth, eurasia, evolution, evolutionary history, extinction, family tree, fossil, g h thomas, geographic context, geographic space, geographical information, global phylogenies, global picture, habitats, islands, j b joy, k hartmann, life, mainlands, north american, simon fraser university, south america, Space, tasmania, time, tropical species, tunafish, walter jetz, western hemisphere, yale, zeitgeist

A Yale-led scientific team has produced the most comprehensive family tree for birds to date, connecting all living bird species — nearly 10,000 in total — and revealing surprising new details about their evolutionary history and its geographic context.

Analysis of the family tree shows when and where birds diversified — and that birds’ diversification rate has increased over the last 50 million years, challenging the conventional wisdom of biodiversity experts.

“It’s the first time that we have — for such a large group of species and with such a high degree of confidence — the full global picture of diversification in time and space,” said biologist Walter Jetz of Yale, lead author of the team’s research paper, published Oct. 31 online in the journal Nature. (more…)

The Original Twitter? Tiny Electronic Tags Monitor Birds’ Social Networks

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2012Nature, Sciencearchipelago, bird, brian otis, broadcast, costa rica, crow, drexel university, ecology, encounternet, forest, frequency, galapagos islands, german, internet, islands, john burt, lysanne snijders, Netherlands, new caledonia, radio tracking, radio transmitter, scotland, social behavior, social mobility, social network, South Pacific, st andrews, Technology, university, Washington, wireless sensor, woodland bird

If two birds meet deep in the forest, does anybody hear? Until now, nobody did, unless an intrepid biologist was hiding underneath a bush and watching their behavior, or the birds happened to meet near a research monitoring station. But an electronic tag designed at the University of Washington can for the first time see when birds meet in the wild.

A new study led by a biologist at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews used the UW tags to see whether crows might learn to use tools from one another. The findings, published last week in Current Biology, supported the theory by showing an unexpected amount of social mobility, with the crows often spending time near birds outside their immediate family. (more…)

Global Warming Refuge Discovered Near At-Risk Pacific Island Nation of Kiribati

By Guest PostApril 29, 2012Environmentanne cohen, chlorophyll level, climate change, climate model, climate scientist, coral, coral reef, david garrison, eastern pacific, ecosystem, equatorial pacific, equatorial undercurrent, euc, fish, galapagos islands, gilbert islands, global ocean, global warming, islands, kiribati, kristopher karnauskas, nutrient, ocean temperature, pacific islands, pacific reefs, regional model, satellite map, scylla, sea-level rise, tropical pacific, whoi

Ocean currents may mitigate warming near handful of equatorial islands

Scientists predict ocean temperatures will rise in the equatorial Pacific by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems.

But a new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a way that mitigates warming near a handful of islands right on the equator.

Those islands include some of the 33 coral atolls that form the nation of Kiribati. This low-lying country is at risk from sea-level rise caused by global warming. (more…)

‘Lost’ Bats Found Breeding on Scilly

By Guest PostJune 19, 2011Naturebat detectors, brown long eared bat, fiona mathews, ios bat group, islands, isles of scilly, lost species of bat, mike gurr, monterey pine tree, pipistrelle colony, plecotus auritus, radiotracking, scilly area of outstanding natural beauty, soprano pipistrelles, st mary, the whispering bat, university of exeter, wiltshire bat group, woodland

*A University of Exeter biologist has discovered a ‘lost’ species of bat breeding on the Isles of Scilly.*

*A pregnant female brown long-eared bat is the first of its species to be found on the islands for at least 40 years.*

It was discovered by Dr Fiona Mathews, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter, a postgraduate student and a team from the Wiltshire Bat Group.

The Scilly Isles Bat Group called in Dr Mathews and her team to help them find out more about bats on the islands. The researchers set up a radiotracking study, with funding from the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, to monitor the islands’ bat activity. (more…)

Tag Archives: islands

Teams on Tour: Great Sporting Trips Around the World

Exhaustive Family Tree for Birds Shows Recent, Rapid Diversification

The Original Twitter? Tiny Electronic Tags Monitor Birds’ Social Networks

Global Warming Refuge Discovered Near At-Risk Pacific Island Nation of Kiribati

‘Lost’ Bats Found Breeding on Scilly