ApocaDocuments (5) for the "Species Collapse" scenario from this week
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Sun, Apr 4, 2010
from South Bend Tribune:
Local beekeepers worry about downward trend
Last winter, he lost more than half of his colonies.
It's a trend noticed around the region and the country.
"We're all losing bees, lots of bees," beekeeper Jerry Shaw said.
Shaw's collection once topped 600 hives. Now he's down to 200. He suspects Colony Collapse Disorder is responsible for the population decline.
"You'll generally have quite a bit of honey left, but there are no bees," Shaw said....
"We think the deaths are caused by viruses, parasitic mites, diseases and pesticide residue, or a combination of those things," said Michael Hansen of the Michigan Department of Agriculture. "The big problem is more colonies of bees are dying now than they did 10 or 20 years ago. "
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These bees got the blues: they're leaving their honeys behind.
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Sun, Apr 4, 2010
from BBC:
Non-native animals cause rural problems, charity warns
A number of non-native mammal species are damaging the UK countryside by eating crops and threatening wildlife, a conservation charity has warned.
A report by the People's Trust for Endangered Species identified 14 problem species including rats, American mink and muntjac deer.... According to the report, two of the UK's fastest declining native species - the red squirrel and the water vole - which has declined by 90 percent - are under threat by mammals introduced by humans in the last two centuries.
American minks prey on water voles while grey squirrels, which were introduced to the UK in the 19th century carry the deadly squirrelpox virus and outcompete the native red squirrel when it comes to hunting for food and habitats.... The report also warned that global trade and a changing climate could lead to the invasion of more alien species. ...
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I'm confused: if the climate is shifting, what's invasive, and what's new-natural-environment?
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Sat, Apr 3, 2010
from Scientific American:
Are cadmium-contaminated insects killing endangered carnivorous plants?
Around the world carnivorous plants are on the decline, the victims of habitat loss, illegal poaching and pollution. But now a new factor has come to light: The very insects the plants rely on for food may be poisoning them.
According to new research by Christopher Moody and Iain Green of Bournemouth University in England, prey insects could be contaminated with toxic metals such as cadmium that, when ingested by meat-eating flora, affect the plants' growth.... Cadmium is widely used in fertilizers, metal coatings, electronics, batteries and other products. Both metals can accumulate in the environment, and thus in insects, through improper waste disposal. ...
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It's tough, going vegan.
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Tue, Mar 30, 2010
from New Scientist:
A killer in the bat cave
CORPSE upon corpse they lie, a carpet of emaciated, fungus-ridden carcasses. Where once healthy animals hung in slumber from the cave roof, now there is a mass grave on the floor. It is a scene that is repeated throughout the eastern US, from Vermont to West Virginia. America's bats are in crisis, under threat from a mysterious killer.
The first sign that something was up emerged in February 2006, when a caver photographed hibernating bats with white muzzles at Howe's Cave in Albany, New York state. Soon afterwards bats were observed behaving strangely - waking from hibernation early and in a state of serious starvation. Some even ventured out of their roosts during daylight to search for food. Inside the caverns, the floors were littered with bodies, most with the characteristic fuzzy white mould growing on their noses, ears and wings... The fungus has recently been identified as Geomyces destructans.... It is the prime suspect and the focus of an intense research effort. Even so, there remains the possibility that it is not actually the killer but just an opportunistic pathogen hitching a ride on the back of some other deadly foe.... "It terrifies everybody in the bat community," says Emma Teeling at University College Dublin, Ireland.... The most promising candidate kills the fungal spores on culture plates and does not harm healthy bats, but it does not seem to cure sick ones. "[It has] very strange results on the pathology of WNS bats," is all Barton will say. ...
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I'm sure ubiquitous pesticides wouldn't weaken bat immune systems. After all, they're birds.
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Tue, Mar 30, 2010
from LiveScience:
Mysterious Whale Die-Off Is Largest on Record
Mass death among baby right whales has experts scrambling to figure out the puzzle behind the largest great whale die-off on record.
Observers have found 308 dead whales in the waters around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina's Patagonian Coast since 2005. Almost 90 percent of those deaths represent whale calves less than 3 months old, and the calf deaths make up almost a third of all right whale calf sightings in the last five years.
"This is the single largest die-off event in terms of numbers and in relation to population size and geographic range," said Marcela Uhart, a medical veterinarian with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).... Only a few clues have emerged so far regarding the cause of death, such as unusually thin layers of blubber on some dead calves. Whale calves typically have lower chances of survival during their first year of life, but the high rate of death at Peninsula Valdes is unique.
Southern right whales are baleen whales that filter their tiny prey from the water with their comb-like mouths.... ...
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I wonder if they've checked the whale baleen for a plastic coating?
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