ApocaDocuments (9) for the "Species Collapse" scenario from this week
[see full week] ~ [see full Species Collapse scenario and stories]
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Sat, Mar 8, 2008
from Wildlife Conservation Society:
Mercury Threatens Next Generation Of Loons
"A long-term study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the BioDiversity Research Institute, and other organizations has found and confirmed that environmental mercury -- much of which comes from human-generated emissions -- is impacting both the health and reproductive success of common loons in the Northeast." ...
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I feel a new idiom emerging ... "as endangered as a loon."
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Sat, Mar 8, 2008
from NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service:
Mysterious Eel Fishery Decline Blamed On Changing Ocean Conditions
"American eels are fast disappearing from restaurant menus as stocks have declined sharply across the North Atlantic. While the reasons for the eel decline remain as mysterious as its long migrations, a recent study by a NOAA scientist and colleagues in Japan and the United Kingdom says shifts in ocean-atmosphere conditions may be a primary factor in declining reproduction and survival rates." ...
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No more eels for meals? What other fish dish will fill my bummy tummy?
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Sat, Mar 8, 2008
from San Francisco Chronicle:
Delay in polar bear policy stirs probe
"The Interior Department's inspector general has begun a preliminary investigation into why the department has delayed for nearly two months a decision on listing the polar bear as threatened because of the loss of Arctic sea ice. A recommendation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne was to have been made in early January by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on whether to declare the bear threatened. But when the deadline came, the agency said it needed another month, a timetable that also was not met." ...
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Generally speaking, the Bush Administration eschews timetables.
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Sat, Mar 8, 2008
from Globe and Mail (Canada):
Tadpoles, sun, and ozone
"A number of studies have suggested that higher levels of ultraviolet radiation -- due to ozone depletion -- can damage frog DNA.... [A] team at the University of Ottawa's Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics has found that even a slight increase in ultraviolet B radiation -- similar to what would hit frog eggs on a spring day in Ottawa -- can be disastrous. Many of the tadpoles exposed to low levels had physical abnormalities that would be deadly in the wild, such as kinked tails that forced them to swim in circles, or bloated abdomens. It appeared as if they could eat, but not defecate, biologist Vance Trudeau says. Unlike those in the control group, very few of the tadpoles exposed to UVB developed into frogs." ...
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Imagine: little tadpoles, swimming around in circles, not knowing what's wrong.
The spiraling-down metaphors are
a little too obvious.
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Fri, Mar 7, 2008
from Windsor Star (Canada):
Bird decline shocks experts
Birds that eat flying insects are in a shocking and mysterious decline, says the co-editor of the new Atlas of Breeding Birds in Ontario.
"It is an alarm bell," Gregor Beck, a wildlife biologist and the book's co-editor, said this week.... "It's really scary because we're not certain what's going on or why," Beck said. "There's not going to be a simple fix to this one." ...
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"No simple fix." No, not for this one, or for so many others.
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Wed, Mar 5, 2008
from Star-Ledger (NJ):
Bats continue to de-hibernate and starve to death
"Last year, when we first found this, we lost up to 18,000 bats. This year we're talking about [losing] 400,000. We've found problems in almost every cave in [NY] state, with one exception in Syracuse," said Hicks, the mammal specialist for the New York Endangered Species Unit. ...
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Spring can't come soon enough.
(Wait, maybe that's not so ideal...)
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Tue, Mar 4, 2008
from PhysOrg.com:
Eastern Hemlock on the ropes from invasive species
"Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is an aesthetically and ecologically important species of tree found from eastern Canada to the Great Lakes states and south along the entire Appalachian mountain range. Since the hemlock tends to grow alongside streams, it plays an important role in regulating water temperature, and its loss could affect the many species of fish and insect life that inhabit mountain streams.
The tree is threatened by the prolific spread of an exotic insect known as the hemlock wooly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), which kills the trees in as few as four years. In the past decade, the hemlock wooly adelgid has infested more than 50 percent of the eastern portion of the hemlock's range, and the number is expected to grow because the adelgid, an introduced species from Asia, has no natural predators in North America." ...
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"Where have all the hemlocks gone?"
Gone to heaven, every one...
ApocaDoc
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Tue, Mar 4, 2008
from BBC (UK):
Loch Ken in crisis over crayfish
"A warning has been issued of a "looming" crisis on a Scottish loch due to the advance of a major predator.
American signal crayfish, which can eat young fish and destroy their habitat, have been found in increasing numbers at Loch Ken in Dumfries and Galloway.
Bob Williams of the Glenkens Business Association said the problem was having a "major impact" on trade in the area." ...
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It's also having a "major impact" on Loch Ken's internal ecosystem... but I guess it only matters if Euros are involved.
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Mon, Mar 3, 2008
from The Tribune, Chandigarh, India:
Toxins, sand mining threatens gharials
"Between December 2007 and February 2008, as many as 105 gharials have been reported dead. However, the reason for the decline in their numbers is attributed to possibility of nephro-toxin entering the food chain and loss of habitat due to illegal sand mining." ...
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A nephro-toxin? Sand mining? Gharials have been around since the Cretaceous. Note: a nephrotoxin is something that ruins the liver. And yes, even gharials have livers.
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