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Highway Through Amazon Worsens Effects of Climate Change, Provides Mixed Economic Gains

By Guest PostJune 10, 2012EnvironmentAmazon, Amazon rainforest, amazonian, amazonian university, biodiversity hot spot, Bolivia, brazil, brazilian families, carbon emission, climate change, environmental change, highway, interoceanic highway, jeffrey hoelle, migration, pando, peru, plant, population growth, rainforest, rio 20, rubber tappers, south america, southwestern amazon, stephen perz, university of florida, wildlife

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Paving a highway across South America is providing lessons on the impact of road construction elsewhere.

That’s what a University of Florida researcher and his international colleagues have determined from analyzing communities along the Amazonian portion of the nearly 4,200-mile Interoceanic Highway, a coast-to-coast road that starts at ports in Brazil and will eventually connect to ones in Peru. (more…)

Green-Glowing Fish Provides New Insights into Health Impacts of Pollution

By Guest PostApril 23, 2012Environmentbisphenol a, breast, change gender, charles tyler, contraceptive pharmaceutical, decrease, endocrine disrupting chemicals, environmental estrogens, ethinyloestradiol, fluorescent fish, genetic system, green fluorescent signals, humans, industrial detergents, industrial product, male fish, nonylphenol, oestrogen hormone, oestrogenic chemicals, okhyun lee, plastics, reproductive problems, river, sperm count, testicular cancer, tetsuhiro kudoh, transgenic zebrafish, ucl, university college london, university of exeter, wastewater, wildlife, zebrafish

Understanding the damage that pollution causes to both wildlife and human health is set to become much easier thanks to a new green-glowing zebrafish.

Created by a team from the University of Exeter, the fish makes it easier than ever before to see where in the body environmental chemicals act and how they affect health.

The fluorescent fish has shown that oestrogenic chemicals, which are already linked to reproductive problems, impact on more parts of the body than previously thought.

The research by the University of Exeter and UCL (University College London) is published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. (more…)

Milkweed Loss Hurts Monarchs

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2012Environment, Natureagricultural field, glyphosate herbicides, herbicide, john pleasants, karen oberhauser, Mexico, midwestern farm, milkweed, minnesota, monarch butterfly, monarchs, plant, university of minnesota, wildlife

*Loss of milkweed in Midwestern farm fields harms butterflies, a study shows*

If you’re a gardener, milkweed may not be at the top of your list.

But if you love Minnesota’s state insect—the monarch butterfly—maybe it should be.

Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed, but the plant is disappearing from what used to be a prime reservoir: Midwestern farm fields. A new study by University of Minnesota monarch expert Karen Oberhauser and her Iowa State colleague John Pleasants ties a decade-long decline in monarch populations to the loss of milkweed from the corn and soybean fields that blanket the region. (more…)

Ancient Trash Heaps Gave Rise To Everglades Tree Islands

By Guest PostMarch 24, 2011Environmentalligators, birds, carbonate, charcoal, chmura, ecological richness, Environment, everglades, florida everglades tree islands, gail chmura, garbage mounds, human artifacts, margo schwadron, maria theresia, marshes, nesting site, panthers, perched carbonate layer, prehistoric humans, shark river slough, south florida, tree island, water control systems, wildlife

SANTA FE, N.M.— Garbage mounds left by prehistoric humans might have driven the formation of many of the Florida Everglades’ tree islands, distinctive havens of exceptional ecological richness in the sprawling marsh that are today threatened by human development.

Tree islands are patches of relatively high and dry ground that dot the marshes of the Everglades. Typically a meter (3.3 feet) or so high, many of them are elevated enough to allow trees to grow. They provide a nesting site for alligators and a refuge for birds, panthers, and other wildlife. (more…)

Wildlife Die-Offs are Relatively Common, Recent Bird Deaths Caused by Impact Trauma

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2011Naturearkansas, arkansas bird analyses, autopsy, avian botulism, avian cholera, bat species, baton rouge, beebe, bird deaths, david e green, die off, impact trauma, internal hemorrhaging, jonathan sleeman, la, lead poisoning, louisiana, necropsies, new year eve, newcastle disease, North America, parasites, pathologist, pesticide tests, red winged blackbird, starvation, west nile virus, wildlife

Large wildlife die-off events are fairly common, though they should never be ignored, according to the U.S. Geological Survey scientists whose preliminary tests showed that the bird deaths in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve and those in Louisiana were caused by impact trauma.

Preliminary findings from the USGS National Wildlife Health Center’s Arkansas bird analyses suggest that the birds died from impact trauma, and these findings are consistent with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s statement. The State concluded that such trauma was probably a result of the birds being startled by loud noises on the night of Dec. 31, arousing them and causing them to fly into objects such as houses or trees. Scientists at the USGS NWHC performed necropsies—the animal version of an autopsy—on the birds and found internal hemorrhaging, while the pesticide tests they conducted were negative. Results from further laboratory tests are expected to be completed in 2-3 weeks. (more…)

Biodiversity Loss: Detrimental to Your Health

By Guest PostDecember 4, 2010Environment, Healthanimal extinctions, biodiversity, disease emergence, ecologist, ecosystems, felicia keesing, forests, global biodiversity, hantavirus, Health, infectious diseases, josh rosenthal, lyme disease, pathogens, plant, sam scheiner, species loss, transmission, west nile virus, wildlife

*Infectious diseases on the rise as species disappear*

Plant and animal extinctions are detrimental to your health.

That’s the conclusion of a paper published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature by scientists who studied the link between biodiversity and infectious diseases. (more…)

Say No to plastic bags

By ShamsMay 27, 2008Environmentmicrobes, petrochemicals, plastic bags, sewage, wildlife

In one-week time China is going to join the countries that banned plastic bags. Currently Chinese carry about 3 billion bags each day. Multiply it with 365. It’s 1095 billion bags (>1 trillion) a year. Reuters news.

(more…)

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