tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39476285450137173562024-03-05T20:08:39.399-08:00Plant LifeJennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-14950913999059560832010-08-16T11:10:00.000-07:002010-08-16T11:10:05.964-07:00Fern Canyon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEplWziClIzAINKd5FaRUTAcCVlMl53HzVgVHAIObKg-7V26D39JfU9kZiJ0OT60UIB1i8l7L8gWZ4_XTXJAqUssC4lT9YYXfQLsxWTIshuA65gsqINQV2bb5KOgWz-1zSpgoeYXhomw7N/s1600/Summer+200978.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEplWziClIzAINKd5FaRUTAcCVlMl53HzVgVHAIObKg-7V26D39JfU9kZiJ0OT60UIB1i8l7L8gWZ4_XTXJAqUssC4lT9YYXfQLsxWTIshuA65gsqINQV2bb5KOgWz-1zSpgoeYXhomw7N/s320/Summer+200978.JPG" /></a></div>A few photos from the archives- my work at Fern Canyon<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPVNCkZGjtRBBIZ-U9f0z17Zgw5lwwvJx1cORLkyHIuGWRCWhOYuinVol51H-7pdWPvLTa3Svv4H3gul1thTeNg97dJaTmE7VfXgtX-Qsgiv8ffr-TsiVqWsDpWx3AVl9GYSOUs_CBSjk/s1600/Summer+200976.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPVNCkZGjtRBBIZ-U9f0z17Zgw5lwwvJx1cORLkyHIuGWRCWhOYuinVol51H-7pdWPvLTa3Svv4H3gul1thTeNg97dJaTmE7VfXgtX-Qsgiv8ffr-TsiVqWsDpWx3AVl9GYSOUs_CBSjk/s320/Summer+200976.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjj4cFWXjdJPMSFtUF5O0Jo0SbSEaAhOW6CGJcuG1B0-0bqWzcJih9UiT4z-3LCcyI7BJtoUBFXfIjkIsL8s-GRuzYLj83FCkjQlJmSxakkQXBEcN1H0H3XQF7Zxo7ZNNX6wDkoJw8GZt/s1600/Summer+200965.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjj4cFWXjdJPMSFtUF5O0Jo0SbSEaAhOW6CGJcuG1B0-0bqWzcJih9UiT4z-3LCcyI7BJtoUBFXfIjkIsL8s-GRuzYLj83FCkjQlJmSxakkQXBEcN1H0H3XQF7Zxo7ZNNX6wDkoJw8GZt/s320/Summer+200965.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEfUYoovLm3xKcWthuixWIEgda5gSqhIpJ-c_PGJiyVpUJLFaSWR7dEOsVehnQOXX_dT18SgB4DVauMgUB4uGV7hyphenhyphenFLSpMZJ_eVlfhUYZ7Q1lukKWl7pHqUQmHUUVyb7iBA9rR_TPiM2uH/s1600/Summer+200954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEfUYoovLm3xKcWthuixWIEgda5gSqhIpJ-c_PGJiyVpUJLFaSWR7dEOsVehnQOXX_dT18SgB4DVauMgUB4uGV7hyphenhyphenFLSpMZJ_eVlfhUYZ7Q1lukKWl7pHqUQmHUUVyb7iBA9rR_TPiM2uH/s320/Summer+200954.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-9LfmNZy7gN_uTofpOJ0D7DsyJ_CuvAEj17Lrc5Wy2L1IHW7m17Zqzqfda55doCb2VbsyqiJHz3UCQ3WlNHd8G0ns_5h0bsvrksf7UsSSIi2YNVJpa_kIPsaHfzfgPEc3vxN618j5j4nt/s1600/Summer+200948.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-9LfmNZy7gN_uTofpOJ0D7DsyJ_CuvAEj17Lrc5Wy2L1IHW7m17Zqzqfda55doCb2VbsyqiJHz3UCQ3WlNHd8G0ns_5h0bsvrksf7UsSSIi2YNVJpa_kIPsaHfzfgPEc3vxN618j5j4nt/s320/Summer+200948.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6zmjtwmwYB93tMbp4maZUZOvJv49hbk3_Sqm2hfiJZaC1UAustISXPYiI_ww6iYhsDuLi6gDs8chbBOzyLjsPuM8waDq3_cVnDCj4HLKEJOri9AxF3csHWXSWNbiS1WysniT6g6d_kkb6/s1600/Summer+200950.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6zmjtwmwYB93tMbp4maZUZOvJv49hbk3_Sqm2hfiJZaC1UAustISXPYiI_ww6iYhsDuLi6gDs8chbBOzyLjsPuM8waDq3_cVnDCj4HLKEJOri9AxF3csHWXSWNbiS1WysniT6g6d_kkb6/s320/Summer+200950.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvxJN4sA908c0tl1FwKa2i4mIUdUEuLOF2mgaOAlZh2ePVwdXVNW_s5WGggIhqGXPmJWWFWKULB6HBuLdOcj8AB9mXc9MPo3aWkieabr5AcogFDIweEdAHnQWHIv4xhE7Wx58esh7tiwxD/s1600/Summer+200929+%281%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvxJN4sA908c0tl1FwKa2i4mIUdUEuLOF2mgaOAlZh2ePVwdXVNW_s5WGggIhqGXPmJWWFWKULB6HBuLdOcj8AB9mXc9MPo3aWkieabr5AcogFDIweEdAHnQWHIv4xhE7Wx58esh7tiwxD/s320/Summer+200929+%281%29.JPG" /></a></div>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-73099347953762420602010-08-09T16:21:00.000-07:002010-08-09T16:21:20.361-07:00Novel Ecosystems and the face of the AnthropangaeaThis article says it all- from the importance of genetic diversity to recognizing that sometimes landscapes with very few native species can provide real value. There is a battle brewing among the scientific community that asks, <br />
"What will the future of forests on the human dominated Anthropangaea look like?"<br />
<br />
Article found in Nature Magazine...<br />
RAGAMUFFIN EARTH<br />
A small group of ecologists is looking beyond the pristine to study the scrubby, feral<br />
and untended. Emma Marris learns to appreciate ‘novel ecosystems’.<br />
Joe Mascaro, a PhD student in a T-shirt and<br />
floral print shorts, is soaking in the diversity<br />
of the Hawaiian jungle. Above, a green canopy<br />
blocks out most of the sky. Aerial roots<br />
wend their way down past tropical trunks, tree<br />
ferns and moss-covered prop roots to an understorey<br />
of ferns and seedlings. The jungle is lush,<br />
humid and thick with mosquitoes. It is also as<br />
cosmopolitan as London’s Heathrow airport.<br />
This forest on Big Island features mango<br />
trees from India (Mangifera indica); Cecropia<br />
obtusifolia, a tree with huge star-shaped leaves<br />
from Mexico, Central America and Colombia;<br />
rose apples (Syzygium jambos) from southeast<br />
Asia; tasty strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum)<br />
from the threatened Atlantic coast of<br />
Brazil; and a smattering of Queensland maples<br />
(Flindersia brayleyana) from Australia. It also<br />
has candlenuts (Aleurites moluccana), a species<br />
that humans have moved around so much<br />
that its origins have become obscure. There is<br />
at least some native Hawaiian representation<br />
in the form of hala, or screwpine (Pandanus<br />
tectorius), which is pictured on the crest of<br />
Punahou School, where US President Barack<br />
Obama studied. There are no Hawaiian birds<br />
here though. Mascaro sees plenty of feral pigs,<br />
descendants of those brought by settlers from<br />
other parts of Polynesia or from farther afield.<br />
The soil is black and rich. Mascaro likes it here.<br />
Most ecologists and conservationists<br />
would describe this forest in scientific jargon<br />
as ‘degraded’, ‘heavily invaded’ or perhaps<br />
‘anthropogenic’. Less formally, they might<br />
term it a ‘trash ecosystem’. After all, what is it<br />
but a bunch of weeds, dominated by aggressive<br />
invaders, and almost all introduced by<br />
humans? It might as well be a city dump.<br />
A few ecologists, however, are taking a second<br />
look at such places, trying to see them<br />
without the common assumption that pristine<br />
ecosystems are ‘good’ and anything else<br />
is ‘bad’. The non-judgemental term is ‘novel<br />
ecosystem’. A novel ecosystem is one that has<br />
been heavily influenced by humans but is not<br />
under human management. A working tree<br />
plantation doesn’t qualify; one abandoned<br />
decades ago would. A forest dominated by<br />
non-native species counts, like Mascaro’s<br />
mango forest, even if humans never cut it<br />
down, burned it or even visited it.<br />
No one is sure how much of Earth is covered<br />
by novel ecosystems. To help with this article,<br />
Nature asked Erle Ellis at the University of<br />
Maryland, Baltimore County, who produces<br />
maps of ways that humans use Earth, to take<br />
a stab at quantifying it. Defining novel ecosystems<br />
as “lands without agricultural or urban<br />
use embedded within agricultural and urban<br />
regions”, Ellis estimates that at least 35% of the<br />
globe is covered with them (see map, overleaf).<br />
Their share of the planet will probably expand,<br />
and many ecologists think that these novel ecosystems<br />
are worthy of study and, in some cases,<br />
protection.<br />
For one thing, some novel ecosystems seem<br />
to provide a habitat for native species — sometimes<br />
crucial habitat, if all that the species originally<br />
had is gone. They also often do a good<br />
job of providing ‘ecosystem services’, those<br />
things that nature does that benefit humanity,<br />
such as filtering water in wetlands, controlling<br />
erosion on hillsides, sequestering carbon from<br />
the atmosphere and building soil. Provision of<br />
ecosystem services is a popular argument for<br />
preserving intact ecosystems, but many of its<br />
advocates blanch a little when it comes to making<br />
the same case for these ‘weedy’ areas.<br />
Mascaro actually prefers novel ecosystems<br />
to some native ones that are so vulnerable to<br />
damage by humans that they require intense<br />
management to maintain in their ‘pristine’<br />
state. He sees the latter as museum-piece parks.<br />
“Do we value the fact that nature contains a list<br />
of things that were there 1,000 years ago, or do<br />
we value it because it has its own processes that<br />
are not under human control?” Mascaro asks.<br />
For him, the value is in the processes.<br />
Watching such processes unfold has scientific<br />
merit to many researchers. Novel ecosystems<br />
are often ideal natural experiments for<br />
studying things such as community assembly<br />
— how species find their way to a place and<br />
which species become permanent residents<br />
— and evolution of species in response to one<br />
another. In essence, it takes a dynamic ecosystem<br />
to study ecosystem dynamics, and these<br />
novel ecosystems are the planet’s fastest movers.<br />
Mascaro bets that all the rules of thumb and<br />
general relationships developed over the years<br />
by ecologists working in ‘intact’ or ‘historical’<br />
ecosystems will probably also apply in these<br />
new assemblages, but no one knows for sure,<br />
because no one has studied them much.<br />
There are some questions about the ways in<br />
which things might be different in novel ecosystems.<br />
Will landscape types remain the same,<br />
with forests replacing forests and grasslands<br />
replacing grasslands? Will novel ecosystems<br />
evolve faster? Will they be dominated by one<br />
species, as many who study invasive species<br />
fear? Will species composition oscillate wildly<br />
for decades or even longer? “We can’t know<br />
except to observe it,” says Mascaro.<br />
Havens of biodiversity?<br />
One of the first researchers to see the importance<br />
of the scrubby parts of Earth was Ariel<br />
Lugo, a forest-service ecologist in Puerto<br />
Rico. In 1979, Lugo was managing researchers<br />
who were measuring the ground covered<br />
by trees within pine plantations that were not<br />
being actively managed. His technicians came<br />
back to headquarters sweaty and discouraged.<br />
“They said that they couldn’t measure the trees<br />
without clearing all the new undergrowth,”<br />
says Lugo. “They said it was impenetrable. I<br />
thought they were wimps.”<br />
The idea that ecosystems dominated by<br />
pine, an invasive species, were so thick that his<br />
workers couldn’t even walk through them went<br />
against a central assumption of ecology: that<br />
native forests will be the lushest. Millennia of<br />
co-evolution should have created an ecosystem<br />
in which almost every niche is filled, converting<br />
the available energy into trees and other species<br />
in the most efficient way. Conservationists<br />
also generally assume that native ecosystems<br />
contribute best to ecosystem services.<br />
Lugo went to see for himself. Sure enough,<br />
the pine plantations were bursting with vigour,<br />
far more so than nearby native-only forests<br />
of the same age. Lugo did a systematic study<br />
of the pine plantations and some mahogany<br />
ones, and found that the plantation understoreys<br />
were nearly as species rich, had greater<br />
above-ground biomass (the sheer weight of all<br />
the living things) and used nutrients more efficiently<br />
than the native forest understoreys. He<br />
submitted his results to the journal Ecological<br />
Monographs1. Reviewers were horrified. In the<br />
end, it took almost a decade to get the paper<br />
past peer review.<br />
Since then, Lugo has found many novel ecosystems<br />
in Puerto Rico and elsewhere that are<br />
much more diverse than native forests, but that<br />
are largely ignored by ecologists. “That diversity<br />
doesn’t count because they are the wrong<br />
species,” says Lugo, shaking his head. He’s<br />
found alien trees that, by creating a shaded canopy<br />
on parched, degraded pastureland, make<br />
possible the establishment of native trees that<br />
could never cope with such an environment on<br />
their own. As a result he now finds it difficult<br />
to despise invasive trees as he thinks his colleagues<br />
do, and even embraces the change. “My<br />
parents and their parents saw one Puerto Rico,”<br />
he says, “and I am going to see another Puerto<br />
Rico, and my children will see another.”<br />
Lugo wasn’t the only researcher thinking<br />
along these lines, but it was not until 2006 that<br />
the new approach gained a manifesto — and a<br />
name. Lugo and 17 other researchers published<br />
a paper called “Novel ecosystems: theoretical<br />
and management aspects of the new ecological<br />
world order”2 suggesting that such systems were<br />
worth scientific attention. To demonstrate the<br />
depth of resistance to the idea, the published<br />
paper quoted referees’ comments on the submitted<br />
manuscript: “One reviewer commented<br />
that the examples are ecological disasters, where<br />
biodiversity has been decimated and ecosystem<br />
functions are in tatters, and that ‘it is hard to<br />
make lemonade out of these lemons’.” But Lugo<br />
and his colleagues saw it in a different light: “We<br />
are heading towards a situation where there are<br />
more lemons than lemonade,” they wrote, “and<br />
we need to recognize this and determine what<br />
to do with the lemons.”<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPv34i9sTXJ5_dlD_I-lAA0UIGLRh3tdUrF21-j1lM2YrKQjO7W8XpQM_zCg4xHrvvwos8W5QUzFy_3tPH4tLvH2gAdwPivDiYNVbZyQUDNrZSXZdnBQAJxr3P5AdD2x4yGaAw-QiBuAKC/s1600/Map+of+novel+ecosystems.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPv34i9sTXJ5_dlD_I-lAA0UIGLRh3tdUrF21-j1lM2YrKQjO7W8XpQM_zCg4xHrvvwos8W5QUzFy_3tPH4tLvH2gAdwPivDiYNVbZyQUDNrZSXZdnBQAJxr3P5AdD2x4yGaAw-QiBuAKC/s400/Map+of+novel+ecosystems.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>GLOBAL COVERAGE<br />
The amount of land taken up by novel ecosystems, defined as unused lands<br />
embedded within agricultural and urban landscapes.<br />
Lemons can have their own value, says restoration<br />
ecologist Richard Hobbs, lead author of<br />
the paper and now at the University of Western<br />
Australia in Crawley. Some novel ecosystems,<br />
he says, are “alternative stable states”, relatively<br />
entrenched ecosystems that would be very difficult<br />
to drag back to historical conditions.<br />
Around the time the paper came out, Mascaro<br />
became interested in Lugo’s work and set<br />
out to see if his results could be replicated on<br />
the windward side of Hawaii’s Big Island. Were<br />
the many novel ecosystems on the islands nurturing<br />
any native species? Were they providing<br />
ecosystem services? He studied 46 forests<br />
growing on lava flows of varying ages at various<br />
altitudes and dominated by a variety of species,<br />
including albizia (Falcataria moluccana),<br />
a fast-growing tree from southeast Asia, and<br />
Australian ironwood (Casuarina equisetifolia).<br />
He found that, on average, the forests had as<br />
many species as native forests. But by and large<br />
they weren’t incubating natives as they seemed<br />
to in Puerto Rico3.<br />
Part of the reason for the difference may lie in<br />
the uniqueness of Hawaiian flora, which evolved<br />
in isolation for up to 30 million years4. Not many<br />
plants got to Hawaii in the first place, so competition<br />
and predation pressures weren’t very<br />
fierce. Without having to worry about being<br />
eaten by anything larger than an insect, raspberries<br />
and roses lost their thorns and mints lost<br />
their minty defence chemicals. When people<br />
introduced plants from other parts of the world ,<br />
along with their attendant herbivores, Hawaiian<br />
plants couldn’t compete.<br />
Futuristic perspective<br />
But Mascaro’s results didn’t put<br />
him off the novel-ecosystem<br />
concept. For one, he found<br />
that in many measures of forest<br />
productivity, such as nutrient<br />
cycling and biomass, novel forests<br />
matched or out-produced<br />
the native forests. They might<br />
not be ‘natural’ in the eyes of<br />
purists, but they are behaving<br />
exactly as they should . “These<br />
ecosystems, like it or not, are<br />
going to be driving most of<br />
the natural processes on Earth,” he said at the<br />
2008 Ecological Society of America meeting<br />
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It’s a message that<br />
Peter Kareiva, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy<br />
in Seattle, Washington, wants to see<br />
move from the academic world to the world<br />
of conservation management. “You hear conservationists<br />
talk about what they want to save,<br />
what they want to stop,” he says. “They should<br />
talk about what they want the world to look like<br />
in 50 years.” Studies of novel ecosystems could<br />
help conservationists to “face the facts and be<br />
strategic”, Kareiva says, rather than trying to<br />
beat back the unceasing tide of change.<br />
Kareiva is a great fan of the ecosystem-services<br />
argument for preserving nature. But he<br />
admits that the problem of what to do when<br />
novel ecosystems provide better services than<br />
the native ones is “a question we don’t talk<br />
about that much”. Nevertheless, he is willing to<br />
imagine a world in which, for example, exotic<br />
strains of the reed Phragmites are allowed to<br />
thrive in US wetlands because they provide a<br />
great habitat for birds, rather<br />
than be torn out in an expensive<br />
and potentially fruitless attempt<br />
to return native vegetation to<br />
dominance.<br />
Ecosystem-service arguments<br />
are powerful enough to<br />
get some ecologists to abandon,<br />
or at least put to one side, their<br />
deep distrust of novel ecosystems.<br />
Like many of his peers,<br />
Shahid Naeem, an ecologist at<br />
Columbia University in New<br />
York, says he “would love to get rid of every<br />
invasive species on the planet and put all the<br />
native species back in their place”. Yet he’s willing<br />
to see what can be made of novel ecosystems<br />
as he feels an imperative to improve conditions<br />
for the billions of humans on Earth.<br />
The idea that novel ecosystems provide<br />
welcome diversity has also gained traction.<br />
Thinking on ‘invasive species’ has mellowed<br />
significantly since the field was first established<br />
in the 1950s. Newer work by the likes of Mark<br />
Davis at Macalester College in Saint Paul,<br />
Minnesota, and Dov Sax at Brown University<br />
in Providence, Rhode Island, has shown that<br />
the vast majority of species that humans move<br />
around can slot into new ecosystems without<br />
driving anything else extinct, and that the common<br />
vision of invasive plants forming dense<br />
monocultural stands that take over everything<br />
else in their path is actually the exception. Yet<br />
the newcomers in novel systems can still be a<br />
genuine worry.<br />
Peter Vitousek, an expert on Hawaiian<br />
biodiversity at Stanford University in California,<br />
would put albizia forests in the category<br />
of dangerous invaders, because they wipe out<br />
stands of the native ‘ōhi‘a tree (Metrosideros<br />
polymorpha). He acknowledges the services<br />
that novel ecosystems provide and that “they<br />
may even support native biological diversity in<br />
some important circumstances”. But, he adds,<br />
“as with many good ideas, [tolerance of novel<br />
ecosystems] can be taken to an extreme at which<br />
it is no longer useful. I think most of the albizia-<br />
dominated stands of Hawaii represent that<br />
extreme.” His point is well illustrated where one<br />
of Mascaro’s albizia forests abuts a native ‘ōhi‘a<br />
forest. The albizia trees on the boundary actually<br />
lean out towards the ‘ōhi‘a — growing sideways<br />
to escape the shade of the next row in, encroaching<br />
on the natives’ sunlight and looking poised<br />
to usurp them. It is a menacing spectacle, and an<br />
apt symbol for their tireless expansion.<br />
Mascaro grants the point. “I can understand<br />
where a manager wants to bulldoze an<br />
albizia forest if they are worried that it is going<br />
to exterminate an ecosystem type that is the<br />
last on Earth,” he says. “If we want to debate<br />
whether to use or conserve novel ecosystems,<br />
we will always have to deal with the risk they<br />
pose to other systems. But at the moment, we’re<br />
scarcely debating it at all.”<br />
Novel ecosystems are likely to cause at least<br />
some extinctions. For example, species that<br />
have evolved dependent relationships with<br />
other species are less likely to do well in a world<br />
in which the pot is stirred and everything is<br />
redistributed. Hawaiian honeycreepers, beautiful<br />
birds that often feed only on one type of<br />
flower, are not doing well; several are already<br />
extinct. So for those who care about slowing<br />
or stopping the rate of such extinctions, novel<br />
ecosystems are a net negative .<br />
James Gibbs, an ecologist at the State<br />
University of New York in Syracuse, subscribes<br />
to this view. “I think celebrating [novel ecosystems]<br />
as equivalent or improved is not appropriate.”<br />
As an example, he points to Clear Lake<br />
in Northern California, where the number of<br />
fish species has risen from 12 to 25 since 1800.<br />
Sounds like a success story. But, says Gibbs,<br />
species that were found only in that lake were<br />
replaced with fish that are common elsewhere<br />
— so there was a net loss in biodiversity. A similar<br />
caveat may hold for the genetic diversity<br />
hidden within a species. Forests dominated by<br />
the offspring of a handful of exotic colonizers<br />
could be less genetically diverse than forests<br />
that have sat there for thousands of years.<br />
A question of values<br />
In the end, the question of novel ecosystems,<br />
like so many questions in ecology and conservation,<br />
boils down to what<br />
should be valued most in<br />
nature. For people who value<br />
processes, such as Mascaro,<br />
novel ecosystems are great<br />
hubs of active evolution. For<br />
those who value ecosystem<br />
services, any novel ecosystem<br />
could be better or worse than<br />
what came before depending on<br />
how it operates. For those who<br />
care about global extinctions or about preserving<br />
historical ecosystems, they are bad news.<br />
Gibbs says he values the exquisite complexity<br />
of ecosystems that have evolved together over<br />
thousands or millions of years. “Why are we<br />
worried about the extinction of languages, the<br />
roots of music, all these weird cuisines?” he<br />
asks. “There is something about diversity and<br />
our need to steward it. It is the subtlety and the<br />
nuance and complexity that makes life interesting.”<br />
Novel ecosystems seem, to him, to lack<br />
this value, to be samey and artificial, “sort of<br />
like eating at McDonalds” .<br />
To Kareiva, though, that attitude is “one of<br />
the reasons the conservation movement is failing.<br />
To think there is some kind of garden of<br />
Eden pristine ecosystem. There is none! That<br />
view is just going to get us nowhere.”<br />
Indeed, the Garden of Eden view, in which<br />
ecosystems are static, is no longer widely held.<br />
Th is means that novel ecosystems, far from<br />
being a new phenomenon, simply represent<br />
the latest changes on a dynamic Earth. Gradual<br />
climatic changes and sheer randomness mean<br />
that some species wander around continents<br />
over vast timescales, fleeing glaciers, splitting<br />
up and reforming . This is why Davis and some<br />
others do not like the ‘novel’ label. “Ecosystems<br />
are always new, from one year to the next,” says<br />
Davis. “Ecosystems are always encountering<br />
new species — it might be not<br />
from another country but from<br />
100 metres upstream. Much<br />
more accurate would be to refer<br />
to these as ‘rapidly changing’<br />
ecosystems — but I guess that<br />
is not catchy enough.”<br />
Standing in his Hawaiian<br />
forest, Mascaro is all too aware<br />
of change — and it is something<br />
he values, even if humans did<br />
have a hand in the process. He never swore allegiance<br />
to preserving ecosystems as they were<br />
before humans arrived, as many conservationists<br />
of an older generation did. “People come<br />
up to me and say ‘it sounds like you’ve given<br />
up,’” says Mascaro. “I want to say ‘I never took<br />
up arms, my man’. This isn’t about conceding<br />
defeat; it is about a new approach.” ■<br />
Emma Marris writes for Nature from<br />
Columbia, Missouri.<br />
1. Lugo, A. Ecol. Monogr. 62, 2–41 (1992).<br />
2. Hobbs, R. J. et al. Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 15, 1–7 (2006).<br />
3. Mascaro, J., Becklund, K. K., Hughes, R. F. & Schnitzer, S. A.<br />
Forest Ecol. Manage/ 256, 593–606 (2008).<br />
4. Ziegler, A. Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology and Evolution<br />
157 (University of Hawaii Press, 2002).<br />
See Editorial, page 435.<br />
“There is no garden<br />
of Eden pristine<br />
ecosystem. That<br />
view is just going to<br />
get us nowhere.”<br />
<br />
450<br />
Vol 460|16 July 2009<br />
NEWS FEATURE NATURE|23 © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved<br />
453<br />
Vol 460|16 July 2009Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-29829544239974635152010-08-05T16:26:00.000-07:002010-08-16T10:26:31.975-07:00Translational EcologyIt's difficult to define oneself in any field, but sometimes I find it especially hard to define myself, as I wear a number of different hats in my work. Landscape designers don't conduct ecological surveys, and ecologists aren't called upon to draft construction documents. Good to know I'm not the only one who is working to build a bridge between the gulf that separates science and action.<br />
<br />
<strong><nobr></nobr> </strong> <span>William H. Schlesinger</span> from Science Magazine in this week's edition writes:<br />
"Ecology is well into its second century as an organized scientific<sup> </sup>discipline, rich with observations, experiments, and a general<sup> </sup>understanding of how the natural world works. Today's environmental<sup> </sup>scientists have a powerful array of tools and techniques to<sup> </sup>measure and monitor the environment and to interpret vast and<sup> </sup>diverse data. Yet despite producing an enormous amount of new<sup> </sup>information, ecologists are often unable to convey knowledge<sup> </sup>effectively to the public and to policy-makers. Unless the discoveries<sup> </sup>of ecological science are rapidly translated into meaningful<sup> </sup>actions, they will remain quietly archived while the biosphere<sup> </sup>degrades.<sup> </sup><br />
Global warming, the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, invasive species—these<sup> </sup>are but a few of the issues concerning environmental scientists<sup> </sup>and, increasingly, the public. What is needed is a new partnership<sup> </sup>between scientists and advocacy groups that conveys ecological<sup> </sup>information accurately and in ways that stakeholders (including<sup> </sup>policy-makers, resource managers, public health officials, and<sup> </sup>the general public) can understand. Just as physicians use "translational<sup> </sup>medicine" to connect the patient to new basic research, "translational<sup> </sup>ecology" should connect end-users of environmental science to<sup> </sup>the field research carried out by scientists who study the basis<sup> </sup>of environmental problems. Translational ecology requires constant<sup> </sup>two-way communication between stakeholders and scientists. It<sup> </sup>should continually alert scientists to aspects of the environment<sup> </sup>in need of study to produce new data, while clearly synthesizing<sup> </sup>what is already known from field studies and its relevance to<sup> </sup>policy. The partnership's purpose should be to ensure that all<sup> </sup>stakeholders know the implications of scientific discoveries<sup> </sup>and understand their impact on alternative ecological diagnoses.<sup> </sup><br />
<a href="" name="F2"><!-- null --></a> <br />
<table align="right" bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="4"><tbody>
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<tr><td bgcolor="#ffffff"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;"> <img alt="Figure 2" border="0" height="144" src="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol329/issue5992/images/small/329_609_F2.gif" width="158" /> </span></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#ffffff"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica;"> CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO</span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table></td></tr>
</tbody></table><sup> </sup> Good examples of translational ecology involve interdisciplinary<sup> </sup>teams of scientists, engineers, public health experts, and members<sup> </sup>of the end-user community. A recent study of the environmental<sup> </sup>impacts of mountain-top–removal mining involved a collaboration<sup> </sup>between ecologists and public health experts.<a href="" name="RFN1"></a><sup><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/329/5992/609?cookietest=yes#FN1">*</a></sup> Earth Justice<sup> </sup>and other nonprofit groups used this material to convince the<sup> </sup>U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue new guidelines<sup> </sup>that will severely limit most such mining practices. In earlier<sup> </sup>years, research by wetland ecologists helped the EPA outline<sup> </sup>how to recognize and delineate wetlands, based on soil characteristics.<sup> </sup>Other scientists are now working with advocacy groups to help<sup> </sup>policy-makers understand the implications of human perturbations<sup> </sup>of the global nitrogen cycle. And we can be sure that scientific<sup> </sup>analysis of the impacts of deep-water petroleum extraction will<sup> </sup>also be forthcoming—in this case, unfortunately, as a<sup> </sup>retrospective.<sup> </sup><br />
Translational medicine grew from the recognition that basic<sup> </sup>research findings were not moving effectively into the development<sup> </sup>of drugs and treatments. To overcome this problem, in 2006 the<sup> </sup>U.S. National Institutes of Health established a Consortium<sup> </sup>for Transforming Clinical and Translational Research, which<sup> </sup>grants Clinical and Translational Science Awards. These awards<sup> </sup>have recently been increased to over $250 million for the next<sup> </sup>5 years, expanding the consortium to 55 institutions nationwide.<sup> </sup>Translational ecology should similarly connect the end-users<sup> </sup>of environmental science with the major funders of environmental<sup> </sup>research.<sup> </sup><br />
This week, the Ecological Society of America concludes its annual<sup> </sup>meeting in Pittsburgh. The world's largest international organization<sup> </sup>of ecologists can play a critical role in spurring translational<sup> </sup>ecology. It has drawn together more than 3000 scientists, policy-makers,<sup> </sup>and citizens to explore the causes and consequences of this<sup> </sup>year's theme, global warming. Many of the sessions call for<sup> </sup>ecologists to take charge and improve science education and<sup> </sup>literacy, so that issues related to global warming are not misunderstood.<sup> </sup>Connecting ecology to stakeholders in these and other ways should<sup> </sup>enhance the understanding and application of ecological concepts,<sup> </sup>ensuring that scientific rigor is brought to bear on the world's<sup> </sup>many environmental challenges."<br />
<br />
Original story at Science <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/329/5992/609?cookietest=yes">HERE </a><br />
<span>William H. Schlesinger is president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. </span>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-26640719811488629722010-07-05T11:23:00.000-07:002010-08-16T10:27:32.044-07:00Beam-Raising at Columbia Science and Natural Resources CenterWe recently celebrated the raising of the last beam for the new Science Center at Columbia College in Tuolomne County, California. This building will be LEED Gold, which is fitting for a building placed atop a former gold mine in the foothills of the Sierras. The main features of the building are the geothermal wells to heat and cool the building, large solar panels, plus the centralized preparation room for the science labs. Outside in the landscape, we selected plants native to the foothills and county of Tuolomne to restore surrounding habitat and shade the hardscapes. My contribution to the project was awarded the highest possible number of LEED points for landscape water efficiency and site development. <br />
I see this place as a nurse site to reintroduce plants that were missing from the surrounding landscape due to the degradation suffered during the gold mining days. Not only did we chose plants that were missing from this community, but we also chose plants that would provide food and shelter for animals of the foothills. What added to the complexity was finding plants that fit these requirements and were also available in the nursery trades in the quantities we need for this project. <br />
When we undertook this project, we intended to preserve all the trees between the building and roadway, and as part of this the key trees had been given special names so as to give them more significance in the planning process. This helped keep us all on the same page when later in the process, other professionals assigned the trees their own numbering systems, which ordinarily could have made things really confusing. Here we are three years after the initial planning process began, and unfortunately bark beetles have hit the region hard as a result of climate change, in ways we have yet to imagine. Our Sentinel Pine became infected very recently, and there is no cure for the diseases the insects bring with them. The Sentinel was a loss we all mourned, as the building footprint had been determined originally by our desire to keep this, the site's largest pine, standing tall and providing shade for the hard surfaces below it. <br />
Designers are rarely asked to consider the future of a project or product after their ideas have manifested themselves in the physical, let alone years into the future. On my projects I try to incorporate the history of a place- in this case, the gold mine and even the time before this- as well as possible outcomes for the future to create a long view that guides my decision process. In this case climate change threw me for a loop, and I imagine many other people have been experiencing unanticipated outcomes as a result of human factors they hadn't considered. What happens, for example, if predictions come true and we in California lose so many of our key species? Will we no longer even have redwoods, or oak forests? And if not, what will there be, if anything? <br />
These are questions that continue to vex me, but I counter these uncertainties by incorporating into my plans ecological principles such as redundancy, genetic variation, and adaptation. In the end, if I have done my job well, no one will even know I was there at all.<br />
<br />
<embed flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fjrobinberry%2Falbumid%2F5488612048303415569%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" height="267" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"></embed>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-46734378769513363082010-06-30T10:41:00.000-07:002010-08-16T10:30:50.634-07:00Columbia Child Development CenterWe recently celebrated the opening of the Child Development Center in Tuolomne County, California. The team (myself included) designed this center on the campus of Columbia College to allow mothers to continue their education by providing a fun place for their children while they're at class. The place is revolutionary on many levels. The five building center mimics a village in the rural foothills, with each age group in their own miniature house. Rather than sequestering operation away in a different area, each building has two classes united by a kitchen with washer and dryer in the center, so the children are never far from the sounds they associate with home. It seems as if it were designed by the children themselves, with doors and windows, even the sinks and toilets, set at their height. My favorite part is that the center was set in the middle of a mature oak forest, with no grade changes, so the buildings are on piers to prevent damage to the root systems of the trees. These trees, aside from being loved by the children, will serve the purpose of keeping the buildings cool in the summer, part of our LEED design. The photos where you can't see the buildings for the trees- that's the point! I was brought on the projects as an ecologist with the goal of preserving as many trees as possible. <br />
<embed flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fjrobinberry%2Falbumid%2F5488617412185433153%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" height="267" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"></embed><br />
<br />
For more on this project see my other post<br />
<a href="http://greenmyplanet.blogspot.com/2007/12/value-of-tree.html">http://greenmyplanet.blogspot.com/2007/12/value-of-tree.html</a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-31205910919793656962010-06-21T17:00:00.000-07:002010-08-16T10:27:51.576-07:00Honey bees: the queen<span style="background-color: red;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Now for the most important member of any beehive: the Queen. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglnrv6orTVPNcWTEH8PCbHdu8BuUwYy1VdCNBLGCidXk9d-lvTX6D9soKM8qzC6oaD9H_6rFtH0NusF5znLbQlfRAWsj_50dtLTrk91xZTBqxV0u-wghqOdpeETZyJAH_mrzOTzlTuNlk1/s1600/Queen+bee+marked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglnrv6orTVPNcWTEH8PCbHdu8BuUwYy1VdCNBLGCidXk9d-lvTX6D9soKM8qzC6oaD9H_6rFtH0NusF5znLbQlfRAWsj_50dtLTrk91xZTBqxV0u-wghqOdpeETZyJAH_mrzOTzlTuNlk1/s320/Queen+bee+marked.jpg" /></a></div>There is only one queen bee in every hive, and she is responsible for the production of all other bees. She is easily spotted in the hive if you know to look for her long abdomen.<br />
A queen starts out as an egg, identical to the rest of the eggs of all the other female bees of a hive. What makes this egg develop into something special is that as a larvae she hatches and develops inside a larger sized cell in the honey comb- called a queen cell or a supercedure cell.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnmAQpy6NJV_VnQ1spyxQDuUYi_eIE5IRWIkfbeX6XdTCIcIsiriwOaRoWy_ufly-e-695AsKbDxLOo-DwPWvSRNNb1fnlIsayOnTApQGmaq2jS5WZEviTUfPXnWNQ3kkFwhx8Zh0IzYrs/s1600/Queen+Cell+04.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnmAQpy6NJV_VnQ1spyxQDuUYi_eIE5IRWIkfbeX6XdTCIcIsiriwOaRoWy_ufly-e-695AsKbDxLOo-DwPWvSRNNb1fnlIsayOnTApQGmaq2jS5WZEviTUfPXnWNQ3kkFwhx8Zh0IzYrs/s320/Queen+Cell+04.JPG" /></a></div>This extra room allows her to grow larger and she develops over a longer period of time. The large cell signals that bees who feed her to give her extra protein in the form of pollen, and an extra dose of royal jelly. Royal jelly is fed to all baby bees, and this substance is made up of protein, sugar, water, fats, vitamins and minerals. It is this extra royal jelly and the large queen cell that allows a bee to have fully developed sex organs. The queen exudes with these sex organs a group of pheromones which allow her to control the behavior of the rest of her hive. These pheromones have many different effects, from keeping the hive calm to telling them how healthy the queen is, and how to develop the new comb they are making.<br />
As many of you know, we have several of our own hives, including a hive that my Honey and I caught as a swarm in our neighborhood. This hive has not been dong well, due mostly to the terrible weather we had while the swarm was transitioning into their new home. In the massive die-off of the hive we lost more than 75% of the bees, including the queen. It was awful, but we decided to keep an eye on the remaining hive and see what would happen. <br />
When the weather changed and the bees began to emerge again in their new home, they quickly started to realize that their queen was gone. Her pheromones had worn off, telling the workers to prepare new queen cells. They built these cells outside of the typical comb, pointing the openings downward. Then they simply took unhatched eggs and placed them in the new queen cells. We watched as they did this, and soon we had a couple of capped queen cells. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrm8a7mkP23RfAIIrZ05cHC-pB2WeYxayVqBlXIruRVaZ-BTDC7NXPfjD0itWSeKAuiUeVw2AmQAtkVRQry6KytPwpoMFXX1cI2nSl26b-x22hW0X96X-wVzcd4ob8_Wh3PMWvIB3tB7ei/s1600/queen+cells.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrm8a7mkP23RfAIIrZ05cHC-pB2WeYxayVqBlXIruRVaZ-BTDC7NXPfjD0itWSeKAuiUeVw2AmQAtkVRQry6KytPwpoMFXX1cI2nSl26b-x22hW0X96X-wVzcd4ob8_Wh3PMWvIB3tB7ei/s320/queen+cells.jpg" /></a></div>When there are more than one of these queen cells, it's a battle for the fittest when the new queens begin to emerge. The virgin queen who survives the fight will leave the hive to mate with the male bees of another hive before she returns to spend the rest of her life laying eggs and being fed and groomed by the workers, her daughters. She only mates one time, but may mate with many males. She will carry that sperm with her the reset of her life, using it only to fertilize the female worker bees of her hive.<br />
When a new queen returns to a hive without a queen, she begins to restore life of the hive back to normal. <br />
We monitored our new hive, and a little more than two weeks after we discovered we needed a new queen, there she was- furry in her newness. She quickly began filling the ready comb with eggs, and the hive is recovering rapidly in this warm weather. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLhKWT3J-MjZ4ePJsiYPA84w1qVluRPfLjJkAXkrjrW5wpBsmw13b_7FIrXA2klKQUWEwv7tqvZNUE7M3B8KyT17N_WnGoT5aplBybTFDoPIjRweFg3Xr5EZQ5aSXOc0FBhSJ5EKcAWil/s1600/virgin+queen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLhKWT3J-MjZ4ePJsiYPA84w1qVluRPfLjJkAXkrjrW5wpBsmw13b_7FIrXA2klKQUWEwv7tqvZNUE7M3B8KyT17N_WnGoT5aplBybTFDoPIjRweFg3Xr5EZQ5aSXOc0FBhSJ5EKcAWil/s320/virgin+queen.jpg" /></a></div>This queen here in the center is newly hatched, and you can tell this because she is unusually fuzzy. As she ages the fur will wear off and she will become more shiny.<br />
Now this new queen-making is not just confined to those hives who may have lost queens. The making of a new queen is the way this super-organism reproduces itself, and the hive gets the urge in the spring to split and make two. Some beekeepers say this need to reproduce can be minimized by giving the bee hive extra room in the spring as their numbers increase, but even with extra hive boxes the wary beekeeper should be checking her hives every week during the spring for those queen cells. <br />
If a new queen hatches into a hive that already has a queen, when she returns mated her mother will sense she is there by the extra pheromones. The old queen will take half her workers and leave the hive to her daughter as a legacy ensuring her survival. The flight of the old queen with her bees to a new place is the swarm. In nature this urge to swarm allows bees to reproduce and meet the pollination needs of the land, and bees would move into dead trees and rock crevices nearby. But in the city bees can move into places they aren't wanted, so it is important for beekeepers to keep an eye on their hives by checking regularly for those queen cells. Any cells must be removed before they hatch, the cycle taking a total of 16 days. <br />
<br />
Tune in to the next article for more about swarms, coming soon.Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-77413877532736690312010-06-10T18:54:00.000-07:002010-08-16T10:28:05.779-07:00Honey Bees: Life of a worker beeFor the next article in this series on honey bees I'll be describing their life cycles. <br />
First, each bee in a hive is not considered an individual in the way we think of, say, a human in their community. We think of each <b>hive</b> as the individual, or superorganism. Queens and the males- drones, have specific jobs that do not change as they age, their roles being the female and male sex organs of the hive. The rest of the bees, the female worker bees, are responsible for a step in the series of roles as they develop through the stages of their lives. <br />
All worker bees hatch from a fertilized egg that has been laid in an empty cell of the honey comb. These cells are usually grouped in clusters located in the center of a frame of comb, with cells full of pollen and then honey surrounding them on the outside edges of the frame. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbF83GqTQ8bQiM1-rybBpTwPC7H7BM8J0YYDOB3scobDMcVNFVlVVHfK4XzY6JI-sGOUS5oBNtDoLuHQoXvmdFxcCMbAcUv89_rD3bilCWmgbsED0604pMIKZuzb4k_qlEOM9Bwq6T-SHC/s1600/frame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbF83GqTQ8bQiM1-rybBpTwPC7H7BM8J0YYDOB3scobDMcVNFVlVVHfK4XzY6JI-sGOUS5oBNtDoLuHQoXvmdFxcCMbAcUv89_rD3bilCWmgbsED0604pMIKZuzb4k_qlEOM9Bwq6T-SHC/s320/frame.jpg" /></a></div>The baby bee hatches first as a grub-like larvae. She will stay in her individual cell as she grows. These babies are fed by their sisters until they are ready to pupate, at which point their older sisters cover up the end of their cell and they metamorphose into the adult while<br />
closed away.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbWmF5gU332Jvd8JrYM73SC5NLMCXiXycglC_7flTxVXCIXZub5VKIg1LjSpilz2cm8NNnPXv8S66pKvi6KBXM1slC1j_2yweDu8y5k2EqHmYmCvWcTQSP-OhMweGORI2TRnRCDKFI7Kw/s1600/Drohnenpuppen_81b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbWmF5gU332Jvd8JrYM73SC5NLMCXiXycglC_7flTxVXCIXZub5VKIg1LjSpilz2cm8NNnPXv8S66pKvi6KBXM1slC1j_2yweDu8y5k2EqHmYmCvWcTQSP-OhMweGORI2TRnRCDKFI7Kw/s320/Drohnenpuppen_81b.jpg" /></a></div><br />
When the new baby bee emerges from her cell, she has her adult body like her older sisters, but is covered in a fuzzy fur that makes her easy to spot in the hive. Her first role in life is to tend to various tasks in the hive, from feeding her younger sister larvae to tending the queen or cleaning the hive. These bees do not leave the hive yet and haven't yet learned to fly, and so they tuck their new wings close to their bodies.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8-FA9fsveOapDnXu1wVCSkF2srYFUKbPtbGh53if9NJ9EPaAf9N64jXG9RdFFcV02VoP-sqs9zcXikpvIwvg63D934jrc6QvZdoyGW2HRNbOkBqLLZaWa_7QiLZmhq65GMZHhavMnsPh/s1600/Nurse+bee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8-FA9fsveOapDnXu1wVCSkF2srYFUKbPtbGh53if9NJ9EPaAf9N64jXG9RdFFcV02VoP-sqs9zcXikpvIwvg63D934jrc6QvZdoyGW2HRNbOkBqLLZaWa_7QiLZmhq65GMZHhavMnsPh/s320/Nurse+bee.jpg" /></a></div><br />
As the bees age they change roles again and become field bees. In the hive the bees are easy to spot, since they look like your quintessential bee- less hair and wings held out ready to fly. You'll see these bees as they leave the hive their first time, where they fly up circles in a flight to orient themselves to the hive and their surroundings. As they become accustomed to the outside world, these bees venture further and further in search of nectar and pollen to bring back to the hive, traveling up to three miles. When they find it, they return to the hive laden with their treasures.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrkV_QH8xPoErfnfSu2maVWX9XRGUCMaTkY2bcmv48jURtZkwQfjeRbRto5HPCHha3T-AyGnrBR1JWhBw-1nOVW5-OXcejQTGVv2L0Cn93SaKzyk8S5tb730_BsNcZcB_6oOlawb0BbUcy/s1600/Field+bee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrkV_QH8xPoErfnfSu2maVWX9XRGUCMaTkY2bcmv48jURtZkwQfjeRbRto5HPCHha3T-AyGnrBR1JWhBw-1nOVW5-OXcejQTGVv2L0Cn93SaKzyk8S5tb730_BsNcZcB_6oOlawb0BbUcy/s320/Field+bee.jpg" /></a></div><br />
When a field bee has found a particularly tasty spot, she reports it to her hive mates with what we call a 'waggle dance'. This communication is not completely understood by humans, but we do know that is a representational language they use to tell other bees where the sweet spots are. I think it looks like the happy dance I do when I get a new contract for work. <br />
When these field bees return with pollen they are met by hive bees who take the pollen and store it in comb. When they return with nectar they exchange it with the hive bees who deposit it in a different section in the comb. <br />
As a bee ages and gets closer to the end of her life, her role changes again. She uses her flight experience to protect the hive, acting as a guard bee. When we go through the hives it is the guard bees who fly against the hoods of our bee suits. Funny thing though- the guard bees are programmed to fight off attackers such as bears, and so they don't go for our hands but our eyes. With a hood and a docile hive, I usually go gloveless so I can add touch to the experience- this way I crush fewer bees and I can feel the temperature of the hive. The hive bees will simply move out of the way of my fingers, while the guard bees buzz around in the air. A bee who stings ends her life for the sake of her hive, so it is rare that honey bees, who are accustomed to people tending their hives, will be aggressive towards humans.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzI0YbcIsy_YNVml0Xxn6wDIvgtvpo1XLPqMITJAgYlFgE7yXsks_maWP_Wbe7SrR184oFzenFLw59b2WFVFiHlUFH-1xQtqRZcA8VQS6xWlhlvFPbVLV5wyz34AJ92__6_wsLA4Anmi50/s1600/+Queen+bee+cage+bare+hand+fingers.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzI0YbcIsy_YNVml0Xxn6wDIvgtvpo1XLPqMITJAgYlFgE7yXsks_maWP_Wbe7SrR184oFzenFLw59b2WFVFiHlUFH-1xQtqRZcA8VQS6xWlhlvFPbVLV5wyz34AJ92__6_wsLA4Anmi50/s320/+Queen+bee+cage+bare+hand+fingers.JPG" /></a></div> This is my hand, and I'm holding a cage with one of my queens in it, covered by her worker bees. (No humans were harmed in the making of this photo)<br />
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Next article: the queen beeJennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-18557993260801639242010-06-03T09:26:00.000-07:002010-08-16T10:28:20.759-07:00Honey bees: the hive boxes<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkd1fMjygK8Y8OjveCHiVq_s9aYSnydNGdWwdfiO5-CDoXox0R1lbjqU0iTWCQb-Il43SF72P71att8HzKS7ORZnJMZjMqFt6E-71e4zJi2lGWE6yI7j1zSuFnJNSJzN4p0X92vnN0jGK4/s1600/honey-bee-hive%5B1%5D.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478608659241733746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkd1fMjygK8Y8OjveCHiVq_s9aYSnydNGdWwdfiO5-CDoXox0R1lbjqU0iTWCQb-Il43SF72P71att8HzKS7ORZnJMZjMqFt6E-71e4zJi2lGWE6yI7j1zSuFnJNSJzN4p0X92vnN0jGK4/s400/honey-bee-hive%5B1%5D.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 400px; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
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Last night at a fundraiser for the Headlands Center for the Arts, I ran into a friend who has been reading my postings on Facebook on my beekeeping. She confessed to knowing almost nothing about bees. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who find it a mystery. So I've decided to go through the basics so that more people can be informed.<br />
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First, beekeeping has undergone changes in the centuries up to now, and the traditional round beehive image that most people associate with bees and honey is no longer in widespread use. Instead, most beekeepers, commercial and amateur alike use a system of stacked boxes with frames in them. The frames can be removed for inspection and honey extraction. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xYeCoWEYRgNQX0wVPH2k-nKEJi1l_Sft0zybQT3PDM1XYSxsjHTQOnyP7lTQrrU7gRrAlSSpWCPF1alciDPU9cCXgLEeR_0cdi2tyTG0rl9GPpYLL-azHGHskiV_60Pb1XZB4hz2STyo/s1600/IMG_9770.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478610950124697442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xYeCoWEYRgNQX0wVPH2k-nKEJi1l_Sft0zybQT3PDM1XYSxsjHTQOnyP7lTQrrU7gRrAlSSpWCPF1alciDPU9cCXgLEeR_0cdi2tyTG0rl9GPpYLL-azHGHskiV_60Pb1XZB4hz2STyo/s400/IMG_9770.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; height: 400px; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
The frames have a distance between them that calculates the space bees need to form a single layer of honeycomb on the frame and then ha e enough space to pass through. This is called "bee space" and is typically 3/8 of an inch. Frames are molded to have a preformed honeycomb impression and then dipped in bees wax to give the bees a headstart on making comb. It is part of this boost we humans give the bees that frees up more time for them to make extra honey for us. <br />
This frame in the photo here is a perfect brood frame, with the spacing of baby bees in the center of the frame with honey on the outside.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8klrJuOjqOX5iO__qIxtaMAUkHZ19CuV5MqsuQWJHeqkaAbfDyt246BUz7cK6MFok8GRCzhdMByeE7SeI1YMLe1m8bQXV7p58p7ERMHxtfM_WQkdOhcDJdT2uTZyiHLhJTKCS88_Lzhc/s1600/Perfect+bee+frame+brood+honey.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478607901909603122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8klrJuOjqOX5iO__qIxtaMAUkHZ19CuV5MqsuQWJHeqkaAbfDyt246BUz7cK6MFok8GRCzhdMByeE7SeI1YMLe1m8bQXV7p58p7ERMHxtfM_WQkdOhcDJdT2uTZyiHLhJTKCS88_Lzhc/s400/Perfect+bee+frame+brood+honey.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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The boxes for the frames are stacked on top of one another and have different depths depending on what use they will have. Typically the bottom frame and box assembly is what we call a deep hive body, and this is where the heart of the bee colony lives. The queen moves freely throughout the box laying eggs and making new worker bees. The hive body is sometimes all the beekeeper starts out with in the spring, and the bees have lived in just this one box all winter. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggN0tnl8wcfQf3CUnyLx3ODiAakdDm3ZOO_WCRQc8FhOA-Y5NerwSpWBxkNMiwPGLwnMjuO2mN4wPY-LriIrm9PPEWathFusgSvjhwQ5OlvAXueGPncoOGyLTnPWy-pQVFAWsZS3fiormQ/s1600/IMG_9805.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478609665846039986" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggN0tnl8wcfQf3CUnyLx3ODiAakdDm3ZOO_WCRQc8FhOA-Y5NerwSpWBxkNMiwPGLwnMjuO2mN4wPY-LriIrm9PPEWathFusgSvjhwQ5OlvAXueGPncoOGyLTnPWy-pQVFAWsZS3fiormQ/s400/IMG_9805.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
As spring begins, the queen starts laying more eggs to ramp up for the summer. Beekeepers begin adding more boxes to the top of the first hive body. Frames that are for honey are shallow to be more lightweight, we call this box and frame assembly a medium super. The queen is excluded from these boxes, and without eggs in the comb the bees fill them with honey. <br />
Honey is basically processed nectar from plants. The bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers and bring it back to the hive. Nectar is gathered into the bee's mouth, where it mixes with enzymes from the bee that start the process of becoming honey. The nectar is then deposited into the cells of the honeycomb and then dehydrated to remove the water. This finished product, honey, is the main source of food for the adult bees. <br />
Pollen is like protein, and this is fed to the growing baby bees. While most Native bees do not make honey, all bees eat pollen, and they have a few different ways of carrying the pollen. If you look at a honey bee, you can see pollen carried in the special pouches on their hind legs. This pollen, like honey, is also stored in cells. <br />
When a beekeeper is extracting honey, they take the frames out and with a hot knife they slice the caps off the honey cells and use an extractor to spin out the honey into buckets before then pouring the honey into jars. The frames are then put back into the hive boxes where the bees repair the edges and fill them with honey again.Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-66040760424326732432010-05-27T11:49:00.001-07:002010-08-16T10:28:51.088-07:00Design for Wildlife part 1, Design for Bees<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3JwbXSQDrej0Rk9xpjJNo-LwEJKlN7F8Fc8VGYlV4kigP9u5eHem247dip6qLMQKPQFnSvF3ck2h73Sij6oRWqs9ZDuzVKfMIpVrK5x68ZbUsD7SqPxBfkTy2yaqKsdZ_ocyzDVgy4mCh/s1600/Bee+at+faucet.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478604858095707794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3JwbXSQDrej0Rk9xpjJNo-LwEJKlN7F8Fc8VGYlV4kigP9u5eHem247dip6qLMQKPQFnSvF3ck2h73Sij6oRWqs9ZDuzVKfMIpVrK5x68ZbUsD7SqPxBfkTy2yaqKsdZ_ocyzDVgy4mCh/s400/Bee+at+faucet.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
Honey bees have been getting press coverage lately with Colony Collapse Disorder, a yet undetermined affliction that has killed more than a third of the US bee population every year for the last four years. Honey bees have co-evolved with humans for centuries, and a collapse of these pollinators would mean a reduction by 1/3 of all the food produced in the United States. This is a serious matter that is just one piece of evidence of how broken our national food production is in this country, but I'll save that for another blog entry. What's certain about this is that we will become increasingly more dependent on the pollination of native bees for our crops. Most people are familiar with honey bees and bumble bees, but many of the small flying insects who frequent flowers are also bees. In fact, 3/4 of the planet's plants need insect pollination for reproduction, an evolution that occurred long before humans domesticated honey bees. <br />
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There are over 1600 species of native bees in California, with over 80 in the San Francisco Bay Area alone. They come in all color ranges, from metallic shades of blue and gold to fuzzy red, stripey green and black. The female Valley Carpenter Bee, reminds me of an orangutan with her gorgeous orange fur. Her mate is blue and shiny.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJWr-J9fFRwNbg_IRq2TElv3Ko59w-YGtkx6ZYY1gM_VqKxp7TFjwk7vNT99lZxK3xm0o_hrWQaepCRUJLPWm0HqHc71i7n42k_3BfRqYZZGrgEmpDM5KitP15NaL5dzDnLcDlR-PxaH5/s1600/Halictus+escholzia01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJWr-J9fFRwNbg_IRq2TElv3Ko59w-YGtkx6ZYY1gM_VqKxp7TFjwk7vNT99lZxK3xm0o_hrWQaepCRUJLPWm0HqHc71i7n42k_3BfRqYZZGrgEmpDM5KitP15NaL5dzDnLcDlR-PxaH5/s320/Halictus+escholzia01.JPG" /></a></div>This bee in the poppy in Halictus escholzia, a sweat bee. <br />
Bees have a wide size range, from smaller than your pinky nail to the length of your thumb, often in the same family. The little bee down here is the smallest of San Francisco's carpenter bees, Ceratina acanthus.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZtFIsAr3PkM20oTmvQT0cO2_I517W8W1rQVcYSQT90bjtl4vc2h9juR9XUDmyzw-mN6depNGfZ7RWPbpkGLXgwUEp-1ZWtQ6InlTC4ynYeifcvUmn6Qggo3g8j8hWj4QXfPuo5ERWii2t/s1600/11032009100.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478604411784990274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZtFIsAr3PkM20oTmvQT0cO2_I517W8W1rQVcYSQT90bjtl4vc2h9juR9XUDmyzw-mN6depNGfZ7RWPbpkGLXgwUEp-1ZWtQ6InlTC4ynYeifcvUmn6Qggo3g8j8hWj4QXfPuo5ERWii2t/s400/11032009100.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; height: 400px; width: 300px;" /></a> <br />
Recently I had the pleasure of catching a bee called Megachile while at a friend's garden, and it buzzed with more ferocity than a cellphone on vibrate in my fingers but did not sting me. Why not, you ask? Honey bees and bumble bees have stingers, but these bees, like many animals, rely on bluff to protect them, since they sacrifice their own life to sting. If you think bees are dangerous then you have them mixed up with their cousins the wasps and hornets, who are aggressive and sting multiple times. Bumble bees and honey bees are social and live in hives of many thousands of individuals, meaning that they have a reason to protect the rest of their sisters in their hive by stinging. As a beekeeper I can assure you that even when opening up the lid of their boxes these bees rarely sting. They've been selectively bred to be gentle. <br />
The rest of our native bees are solitary, most not even possessing a stinger at all. The solitary bees differ from honey bees in more ways than just that. Solitary bees have a shorter season when they're actively pollinating flowers, and have often evolved to coincide their life cycle with the flowering cycle of the native plants they pollinate. Many bees are specialists and feed only on one plant or one family of plants, such as the Sunflower bee Diadasia enavata, who pollinates many plants in the sunflower family. Scientists and farmers have been experimenting with these and other specialized pollinators such as the megachile family of bees. The short season of the bees can be be extended by staggering the times bees hatch, they do this by keeping sone of the nests in shade, and bringing them out to warm in succession, and as the nests warm the baby bees hatch.<br />
If you want to have these amazing creatures in you garden, it isn't the size of your planting bed that will entice them- as most only need 16 square foot of space to lure them in to explore. What bees need most are plants that have evolved to time their flowering to the bees, habitat, and water. <br />
Gordon Frankie and his Berkeley Bee Garden group have been working to give the public more information on native bee habitat. Check out their website for hours of information, including plant lists and beautiful photos. <br />
<a href="http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/">Link</a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-66274185108487250812009-08-27T11:42:00.000-07:002010-05-27T12:21:47.677-07:00The New Environmental MovementIt was bound to happen that after the initial wave of new business opportunities for 'greenies' crested. In the downturn of the market, many of us involved in the green <span style="font-style:italic;">building</span> industry, for example, wound up with too much free time on our hands as the demand for buildings came to a screeching halt.<br />Competition has been fierce for the few projects out there- a few months ago I was part of a team in competition with more than a dozen firms for a public project that had budgeted less than $5 million for its museum. Word in the news is the economy is ready to dig itself out, and we can expect recovery soon. Good news for folks like me who have had to look to other skills to pay the bills. <br />These past two weeks for me have been marked by a few friends in the green job sector declaring they are getting out of the business and going to something more rewarding- such as teaching high school chemistry. Many cite that the movement for sustainability is in good hands and they can stop trying so hard, while others are disgruntled or disillusioned by the undermining of core values and bureaucracy clogging the real progress. <br />I'm seeing a schism in the environmental movement. There are those who have their hearts in saving the planet, those who distrust big business and their government, those who believe that we must do everything to stop global climate change including making enormous sacrifices. On the other hand are the businesses making profits from new opportunities and funding, those who make fortunes out of providing others with theories on how to be green, and the latest wave of celebrities making career comebacks by promoting sustainability. The irony here is that the most diehard of the group were unprepared for their movement to become so mainstream, and now that its taken off, some are being left behind by the new boom.<br />It seems were are in for an overhaul as a movement. One of those who will no doubt have a lasting impact on where environmentalism will take its next turn is none other than the pioneer Stewart Brand, with his latest book <span style="font-style:italic;">Whole Earth Discipline: A Ecopragmatist Manifesto</span>. <br />I consider myself an informed scientist when it comes to environmental issues. At the urging of a friend many years ago, I began to rely on my science news from primary research publications rather than hearsay and standard news reports. In fact, I've found in the past few years that much of the information passed on from one greenie to another just doesn't jive with what the research is showing, and have found myself more and more reluctant to call myself an environmentalist. <br />Brand has made it his mission to examine the core values of the environmental movement and root out its myths in this latest book. He seems to be asking the question, "What has the environmental movement done for the world?"Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-53420212446227965772008-03-24T18:09:00.000-07:002008-12-12T22:15:56.067-08:00Earth Hour 2008<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7fJFiOdbybZCiG_IoDkDN8hmNj0gVZW20YDFqLeFzwTbImowkWPYl3bIdp3p9gVoIRXvU8N4Chm7LJjT1xlDdr7vxHVxSnbpRtUhzdl-bOTnCRYbGtE2EpB-6PT7VhIJ5Y1dAOa1YTG1/s1600-h/800px-Big_dipper.triddle.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7fJFiOdbybZCiG_IoDkDN8hmNj0gVZW20YDFqLeFzwTbImowkWPYl3bIdp3p9gVoIRXvU8N4Chm7LJjT1xlDdr7vxHVxSnbpRtUhzdl-bOTnCRYbGtE2EpB-6PT7VhIJ5Y1dAOa1YTG1/s400/800px-Big_dipper.triddle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5181483651053475410" border="0" /></a><br />Accouncements of this fun activity have been popping up all over the 'net, but perhaps you haven't heard of it yet, so I figured I'd give it some coverage.<br />Last year, folks in Sydney Australia gathered together and made announcements for everyone to turn their lights off city wide for an hour. The event was to document how much energy was saved during that time and to send a message to the world about the need for action to slow global warming.<br />This year's event is worldwide, with cities from around the globe joining in, like Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tel Aviv, and yes, San Francisco.<br />Even if you do not live in SF, you can participate in sending the message. First, check out the website, and second, find out events near you.<br />For those of us here in the Bay, lights out 8 pm on Saturday the 29th. Make a party of it, and then, go outside and up look at all those bright stars.<br />For the <a href="http://www.earthhour.org/">Earth Hour website</a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-50573312782700533442008-03-22T22:37:00.000-07:002008-12-12T22:15:56.267-08:00Sudden Oak Death is Spreading into our National Parks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/rogue/swofidsc/hot/oakdeath.html"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjbcE94sp9LR-p9a7breBKGvSKyj6OmgQprlcqzFigkPudhTbQexAVV4jLcSifImkMnvGawKfmwYGOtq1Q9V7KuWUrhRIqgS_L3uG3n7WQLnLcSMRVsYpRjtPj24QQSJOFvwd_15vd7G2g/s400/camort.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5180814516623594962" border="0" /></a><br />One of my clients, Dave Deppen, tipped me off to this article a few days ago. For those of you folks out there who haven't yet heard about Sudden Oak Death (SODs), this is a good place to start learning. <span id="rds_global"><span id="rds_global"><br />Point Reyes National Seashore is a 71,000-acre preserve on a peninsula that juts out from the San Andreas fault, the western-most tip of the lower 48 states. This spot is a favorite destination for whale watchers, bird lovers, and hikers. Unfortunately, these same visitors are inadvertently spreading a deadly fungal disease into pristine oak forests, on the bottoms of their shoes. So far the park has seen a 75% mortality rate in tan oak forests, the most susceptible to SODs. Park officials warn that the loss of these oaks has far reaching effects, from reduced habitat for animals to increased fire risk. One solution is to close the park during wet winter months when the disease is most likely to spread, according to researchers.<br />Sudden oak death was first discovered in Mill Valley in 1995, reportedly through infected nursery stock from Europe. SODs is a fungus that oaks of Europe are resistant to, but the genetics of our American live oaks are of a different enough lineage that it has proven fatal. Since its discovery, the disease has spread to 14 California counties, a few in Oregon and California, and cases have been reported in other states as far as the midwest. As of yet there is no known cure for the disease.<br />There are simple things we can all do to help prevent the spread of SODs, most importantly by not introducing it on our hikes. Shoes, tools, tires, and anything else that come into contact with the soil can and should be disinfected before travelling to a new place. Being careful not to transport infected wood is important. Also, being sure to buy plants from reputable nurseries that have passed inspection can prevent you from bringing it home to your own garden. Remember, plant material and soil are vectors for the disease, and there are many carriers of the disease, including a long list of native plants.<br /><br />For starters, check out the Marin IJ article <a href="http://www.marinij.com/ci_8529665?source=rss">here</a><br />Then, if you'd like to know more, go to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_oak_death">Wikipedia site</a>, with photos and links to more sites, including host plant lists and maps.<br /><br /><br /></span></span>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-50318249230532122722008-03-22T21:52:00.000-07:002008-12-12T22:15:56.498-08:00Biomimetics: Design by Nature<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Moloch_cc03.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ43wavjALQgcQItP6f_XYtZk6Hz2Jv2DQgl6JH1RRDS6Q_OPBpXNrZUmBD10HM_7ZQsw22zpdllBHMC7M-sBbodUOOp5Gs5LkMqIGzveJWCtTo5_nWDjFiY5wZYdMzDCODu2iJonq1RLu/s400/Moloch_cc03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5180800454900667842" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div class="printpage_subtitle">"What has fins like a whale, skin like a lizard, and eyes like a moth? The future of engineering."<br /><br />This article was sent to me from Nick Beck, friend and fellow Biologist at the Design Table (BaDT- pronounced BAT). National Geographic's Tom Mueller follows acclaimed evolutionary biologist Andrew Parker as he scours the globe looking for nature's solutions to some of our most pressing problems. We start out in the deserts of Australia, studying a tiny lizard that absorbs water through its skin and funnels it into its mouth at a stunning rate. Marvels such as this give engineers a clue as to how to solve the issue of clean drinking water where that resource is scarce.<br />He is but one of many biologists who practice Biomimicry, myself included. Researchers in Biomimicry have made cell phone screens easier to read, improved solar panels, revolutionized industries such as carpetting, made buildings that cool themselves, and changed the way engineers think about transportation. And that's just the beginning.<br /><br />For the entire article, <a href="http://sso.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/04/biomimetics/tom-mueller-text">link here</a><br /></div> <div class="spacer"><img src="http://sso.nationalgeographic.com/img/clear.gif" border="0" /></div>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-58815658337849311372007-12-21T20:49:00.000-08:002008-12-12T22:15:56.636-08:00Happy Solstice Everyone!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt4rdaipVFGQw24Yuv3GHpF4jmVQ2zYP6dLczoODLWme2lXN4QqBHbqpPDrtPudQITHRJxASPii3ZmOWSpuu2ao0ZZKJZfyDO9xpZZznbqy_gT0dqn88tULn6Yrk9Mo6zdHnkBpLYfboBn/s1600-h/Hibernation.png"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt4rdaipVFGQw24Yuv3GHpF4jmVQ2zYP6dLczoODLWme2lXN4QqBHbqpPDrtPudQITHRJxASPii3ZmOWSpuu2ao0ZZKJZfyDO9xpZZznbqy_gT0dqn88tULn6Yrk9Mo6zdHnkBpLYfboBn/s400/Hibernation.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146660919590867618" border="0" /></a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-42552978605413292772007-12-21T20:33:00.000-08:002008-12-12T22:15:57.142-08:00Special Announcement: Solar is Now Cheaper than Coal<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKo7GJ8MlbA-ttkwxheP1YmJ8zNwHlBZBIqXBsHji9PSyxFpIQ40lQPjo8dZkK3qBthKLt2DmD7jRjIQiZALyA4hdg39pphkdxmiuEZcgycEgwm5ZLGbBrLM2Z2NWJUZnOdrR7-4ORjiOc/s1600-h/Nanosolar.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKo7GJ8MlbA-ttkwxheP1YmJ8zNwHlBZBIqXBsHji9PSyxFpIQ40lQPjo8dZkK3qBthKLt2DmD7jRjIQiZALyA4hdg39pphkdxmiuEZcgycEgwm5ZLGbBrLM2Z2NWJUZnOdrR7-4ORjiOc/s400/Nanosolar.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146654361175806546" border="0" /></a><br />Yes, that's right. The race has been on for the company who could break the United States of their coal addiction, with even Google jumping in to get it started. A Silicon Valley start-up called Nanosolar has cracked the code and developed what the blog <a href="http://www.solveclimate.com/blog/20071219/1-watt-itunes-solar-energy-has-arrived"><span style="font-style: italic;">Solve Climate</span></a> is calling "the iTunes of solar." They shipped their first solar panels at $1 a piece. How did they manage to make solar panels so cheap? They focused on the manufacturing process instead of working on the technology, as so many others who are trying to lower the cost. Nanosolar had developed a way to speed up the manufacturing process, by printing solar cells on sheets of aluminum. Bot only does this breakthrough speed up the process by a hundred fold, it also reduces the amount of material by as much. Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen is reserving the first three commercially-viable panels. One is staying on display at company HQ; one has been donated to San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation. And the other is on sale at eBay, according to the article.<br />Check out the original story in <a href="http://www.solveclimate.com/blog/20071219/1-watt-itunes-solar-energy-has-arrived">Solve Climate</a>, and have a chuckle at how much people are willing to pay on eBay for the limited edition release of the $1 solar panel.Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-12196769342807949842007-12-18T14:00:00.000-08:002010-08-16T10:29:35.321-07:00The Value of a TreeI asked in the last article the question "How much is a tree really worth?"<br />
A few weeks ago I found myself asking that very same question while working on a project just west of Yosemite, in Tuolomne county. I have been working as the ecological consultant and landscape designer on a 5 building college facility, nestled beneath a mature oak forest. We've been designing what we hope will be the coolest Child Care Facility ever, where kids will have a connection to nature and a desire to protect it and other natural places when they get older.<br />
We're shooting for LEED certification on this, and the oaks are a key aspect of the 'greenness' of the project. In fact without them, our goal of eliminating the need for summer air-conditioning and reducing our cost to build and maintain the facilities would never be possible.<br />
These are amazing trees, most sporting trunk diameters of three feet of more, and canopies that stretch out as far as 50 feet! Many of the trees are spaced so closely together that they have combined their shapes to form single arching canopies, their roots just as surely entwined with one another. With summer temperatures reaching sometimes in the hundreds for days at a time, these oaks will provide much needed shade for the buildings. <br />
Building a structure in a mature forest is no easy task. It is well known that oaks trees suffer greatly form the impacts of development, from damage to their roots to alteration of the way water moved on the land they have grown up on. There are many different professionals who work as a team when planning any building project, and this one has the added responsibility of ensuring the health of these oaks. Normal projects involve altering the land dramatically, as when trenching to lay utilities, grading to make flat surfaces for foundations and handicap accessibility. Here we are not able to do any of that without first considering the effect on the oaks. Our buildings will be unique and attuned to their habitat, with special features such as piers over roots, which I like to think of as buildings on their tiptoes, that allow the buildings to rest on the land without altering it. <br />
We are now in the process of awaiting permitting, and eventually the plans will go for public bid. It is an unfortunate fact that in the contracting world, the low bidders are the ones who get the contracts. This often means cutting corners wherever possible, including 'accidentally' losing trees to reduce the labor time needed to move materials and equipment carefully on a site. With all this special design put into preserving trees, the architect and I decided to write into the specifications penalties that would make construction think twice about causing our mascots any harm. I found I was crouched over my specifications asking myself, "How much are these trees worth if we had to replace one?"<br />
I started reviewing the tree protection specification from other LEED buildings. Not much help there, this is a quiet revolution we're waging with this project. The numbers I came up with, when applied to my project, gave the average value of their cooling services at about $25,000 each, a negligible loss considering the value of the project itself. Then I factored in the service of providing the key element in the landscape and what that would take to replace. Then the value of keeping the campus lake free of soil runoff by stabilizing the hillsides. I got some figures on replacement of the trees, and was astounded to find the price of a mature oak at half the size would cost $36,000. This is just the price of tree and installation, without any of the administrative costs factored in.<br />
In the end, the architects and I decided on a number that would make each tree worth around $100,000, though this value is by no means complete. I wince to think of any value attached to an organism that has taken so long to reach this size. I think of the Miwok Indians who must have planted these trees and then nursed them to maturity, knowing that future generations would be able to harvest the acorns, an essential part of their traditional diet.<br />
Evaluating ecosystems services is a great technique to preserving functioning, intact ecosystems because it helps people realize their monetary value in this profit-driven economy. A growing body of economic and scientific evidence shows that humans simply cannot design systems that perform these core services better, be it filtering our air and water, providing the necessary pollination for more than 2/3 of our food supply, or even growing the natural products we get from the forests and oceans. This is another important tool in our arsenal when we as designers and scientists wage the quiet revolution.Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-89886756996757309322007-12-17T15:21:00.001-08:002010-08-16T10:29:56.392-07:00How Much is a Tree Worth?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3SMH8ecgWTJj5fkt-FJIu-htKXXVwZbHkp5hBWTEPZjv-BdCsWMlXcbluWqdt19nB9hRKX0rG-jEH5yNmgGwoaaU3nVCPMZkjOh6uQ1iwRnKGgUvVxPhQBDn08NOe61TWlG04iIO3zEn/s1600-h/forest_vs_oil_palm-400.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3SMH8ecgWTJj5fkt-FJIu-htKXXVwZbHkp5hBWTEPZjv-BdCsWMlXcbluWqdt19nB9hRKX0rG-jEH5yNmgGwoaaU3nVCPMZkjOh6uQ1iwRnKGgUvVxPhQBDn08NOe61TWlG04iIO3zEn/s400/forest_vs_oil_palm-400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145094467708604978" border="0" /></a><br />
As an ecologist I never thought I'd be in such high demand!<br />
Today while perusing my blogs I found this short piece on Costa Rica and their new program to reduce their carbon emissions to zero by the year 2021. An ambitious plan for a country that has lost more than a dozen amphibians due to habitat loss.<br />
Costa Rica is a land known for its natural beauty, rainforests, and 5% of the world's species. Ecotourism is one of the leading industries in this tiny country, but one must not forget that the main economic force guiding this country is agriculture.<br />
According to the article in Treehugger, "Just days ago, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias planted the 5 millionth tree of the year near his office in the capital San Jose...By the end of 2007, Costa Rica will have planted nearly 6.5 million trees, which should absorb 111,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year."<br />
While this may be a wonderful idea, one must ask: What kind of trees are they planting, and how could they possibly take place of all the trees felled each year to make way for soybeans and other crops?<br />
"<span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif,arial;font-size:85%;">Costa Rica is facing a wood shortage and must now import wood from other countries to meet domestic demand. And currently, there are no incentives for allowing abandoned agricultural land to regrow naturally into forest, so farmers are either shifting their agricultural land use to or planting native or exotic tree species for reforestation incentives," according to rainforest advocates at <a href="http://www.blogger.com/mongabay.com">mongabay.com</a><br />
And just how much carbon can a new tree absorb in comparison to a mature forest? The EPA, who I trust as the right arm of the Bush administration (yes there is some sarcasm here), claims, "</span> Carbon sequestration rates vary by tree species, soil type, regional climate, topography and management practice. In the U.S., fairly well-established values for carbon sequestration rates are available for most tree species. Soil carbon sequestration rates vary by soil type and cropping practice and are less well documented but information and research in this area is growing rapidly. Pine plantations in the Southeast (US) can accumulate almost 100 metric tons of carbon per acre after 90 years, (Do we have 90 more years?) or roughly one metric ton of carbon per acre per year," and they go as far as to say that carbon sequestration capabilities are reduced as a forest matures, as if to say plantations are better than natural forests. Costa Rica and the US aren't the only countries with faulty logic.<br />
<span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif,arial;font-size:85%;"><br />
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<tr> <td><span style="font-size:78%;"> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-5292544863418232"; google_alternate_ad_url = "http://primates.mongabay.com/ads/adsense300.html"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; google_ad_format = "300x250_as"; google_ad_type = "text_image"; //2007-04-04: 300-environment, news google_ad_channel = "6919188231+6818334511"; google_color_border = "FFFFFF"; google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; google_color_link = "337700"; google_color_url = "000000"; google_color_text = "000000"; //--></script> <script style="display: none;" type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><br />
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</tbody></table>Officials from the Indonesian ministry of agriculture and the palm oil industry have been touting that palm plantations sequester more carbon than native rainforests. </span>Not so, according to Mongabay.<br />
"<span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif,arial;font-size:85%;"> As is the case with any plant, oil palm trees do sequester carbon sequester carbon as they grow -- carbon is a basic building block of plant tissue. Nevertheless, the process of clearing forest in order to establish a plantation releases more carbon than will be sequestered by the growing oil palms. So while a new oil palm plantation may grow faster -- and sequester carbon at a higher annual rate -- than a naturally regenerating forest, in the end the oil plantation will still store less carbon (50-90 percent less over 20 years) than the original forest cover."<br />
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Not to mention that fact that these trees planted will not match the loss of habitat due to clear cutting of the rainforests.<br />
Nice try, Costa Rica, but you still have a long way to go, including fair analysis of the full range of ecosystem services an intact forest provides- from clean air and water, to biodiversity and products from the forest. How much is a tree really worth?<br />
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For the abbreviated article on Costa Rica in <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/costa_rica_plan.php">TreeHugger</a><br />
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<span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif,arial;font-size:85%;"> </span>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-70302807930546201812007-11-15T15:34:00.000-08:002007-11-15T15:35:48.643-08:00Hair and Mushrooms Help Volunteers Clean OIl Spill in SF<a href="http://tinyurl.com/3457eo"><b>http://tinyurl.com/3457eo</b></a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-77634623593945012832007-10-13T10:42:00.001-07:002007-10-13T10:42:51.503-07:00Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-3988275692546499342007-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:002008-12-12T22:15:57.636-08:00DNA increases LED power<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXsXnhB1yGrDg3qD1knShPYrKY6yFvJFWRHOkXvuiBC4F6X8xn71kzaPQ0Dj_yy7czRunmbRPTu25V2rCds_h-SR6ZPaucgl5TcB2wKa5nGPk_2M6e9mnIudbp_9pQr2t5iiegbPXjtr1z/s1600-h/view.jpeg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXsXnhB1yGrDg3qD1knShPYrKY6yFvJFWRHOkXvuiBC4F6X8xn71kzaPQ0Dj_yy7czRunmbRPTu25V2rCds_h-SR6ZPaucgl5TcB2wKa5nGPk_2M6e9mnIudbp_9pQr2t5iiegbPXjtr1z/s400/view.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5120877634065844450" border="0" /></a><br />Andrew Steckl has revealed an intriguing new piece of evidence that nature has more power than humans have yet to imagine. His work on photonics at the University of Cincinnati has focuses on intensifying the light produced by LEDs with biological material.<br />“Biological materials have many technologically important qualities — electronic, optical, structural, magnetic,” says Steckl. “DNA has certain optical properties that make it unique. It allows improvements in one to two orders of magnitude in terms of efficiency, light, brightness — because we can trap electrons longer.”<br />His big idea- using salmon sperm. His main focus is on creating products that are more environmentally sustainable. This material is a readily available bi-product of the fishing industry, and is thrown away by the ton.<br />Steckl believes that the use of biological materials has the potential to improve all our current electronic technologies, plus close the loop between industry and waste.<br />For the original article <a href="http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=7089">link here</a><br />For the hype at Tree Hugger and ignorant comments from the peanut gallery <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/09/salmon_sperm.php">link here</a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-82540790138085973232007-09-18T06:37:00.000-07:002007-09-17T23:00:29.149-07:00Fungus Reveals New Forms of Energy ProductionA surprising discovery published back in May reveals that some fungi can create energy with the help of melanin, a pigment also found in human skin. The fungi was first discovered within the contaminated chambers of the Chernobyl reactor, where the flourishing black masses were first observed by scientists <span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.aecom.yu.edu/home/faculty/profile.asp?id=7654">Ekaterina Dadachova</a></span> and her colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City.<br />In laboratory conditions, it was found that the fungi Cryptococcus neoformans, when exposed to radiation, uses this energy as a plants would use light, to produce growth. Scientists have long known certain fungi can digest plastics, oils and asbestos. Now they are hopeful that this breakthrough could provide insight as to how to deal with nuclear waste and produce food in conditions with high radiation levels. But this discovery is also important in that so far it was thought that only plants could make food through photosynthesis.<br />And what does this mean for the melanin in our bodies- is it possible that this plays some unknown role in humans?<br />Dadachova pointed out to Technology Review that "The mechanism of this process needs to be established. It took at least two decades and the work of several research groups to determine the mechanism of photosynthesis."<br /><br />For the abstract in <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17520016&itool=iconfft&itool=pubmed_docsum&query_hl=1">PubMed.com</a><br />Check out the interview with Dadachova in <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/duncan/17611/">Technology Review</a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-24242703444901375502007-09-17T09:33:00.001-07:002008-12-12T22:15:57.655-08:00Nuclear Energy Revisited<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-XMyGo-_ybwefvuHFNd9q17pAZ7KyLggvU2xjLSFHRxbWpLMX-ixMjYwbDiRNX-ltDVx7U8Z7tON0ovRxsKjwN6SqgsU0O3YJ8T5EIe9SMaeMynwkTa6p6FIcE7RHXdipxBf9ORZiENSu/s1600-h/300px-Three_Mile_Island_(color)-2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-XMyGo-_ybwefvuHFNd9q17pAZ7KyLggvU2xjLSFHRxbWpLMX-ixMjYwbDiRNX-ltDVx7U8Z7tON0ovRxsKjwN6SqgsU0O3YJ8T5EIe9SMaeMynwkTa6p6FIcE7RHXdipxBf9ORZiENSu/s400/300px-Three_Mile_Island_(color)-2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111224076693171154" border="0" /></a><br />Friday I attended a lecture on Nuclear Energy as a green power source, hosted by the Long Now Foundation. Nuclear energy is green? So say the experts, Dr Gwyneth Cravens and Dr. Richard Anderson.<br />Coal is the largest source of energy in our country, accounting for 51% of the total production. Nuclear is at 20%, hydor is 7%, and alternatives make up the rest of the whole. Hydro is currently maxed out, and coal accounts for an estimated 24,000 deaths in the United States per year, in addition to the damage atmospherically.<br />According to the experts, when comparing the environmental advantages of nuclear energy over coal, there is no doubt that nuclear energy is a safe and viable alternative. Uranium is plentiful and readily available. The size of the power plants is extremely small compared to the vastness of coal plants. Nuclear can provide the base load required of power plants, the available power so when demands spike, there is enough power to meet immediate demands. Unfortunately, wind and solar cannot provide the base loads. And nuclear energy creates virtually no atmospheric pollution, in fact, it creates hardly any waste at all. The amount of spent energy left over if a person received their power from nuclear their entire life could fill one coke can. With coal, a person would fill nine train cars full of waste in their lifetime. Now multiply that by the number of people out there. Where will we put all that waste?<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:78%;"></span><br />One of the big concerns about nukes is their potential to expose people to radiation. The lecturer said she had her fears, and researched this possibility quite extensively. The Three Mile Island accident resulted in successful containment and cleanup, and injured no one. The nuclear plants she visited emit approximately .09 millarems per year (millarems is a factor that calculated human safety). She pointed out an interesting fact- there are .1 millarems in a banana. In some urban areas in the United States, the Bay Area for example, people are exposed to thousand times more millarems per year, from naturally occurring radiation.<br />Cigarettes expose humans to astounding amounts of radiation, and the lecturer claimed that most nuclear scientists would recommend quitting smoking as the number one way to reduce your radiation exposure.<br />Chernobyl seems to be the best example of a bad accident involving nuclear power. Indeed, Chernobyl is not a good example of potential accidents, as it was built without any containment fields, without the proper subterranean design found elsewhere, built from inferior materials, and without the proper safety features. It was the worst of the worst, and when the reactor began to malfunction, workers who were not properly trained interrupted the only safety measure that would have prevented the meltdown- they turned off the water.<br />The threat of terrorism is negligible, according to the experts. They pointed out the incredible safety meausres at plants, the building construction that would stop any air attack, and the fact that stealing the enriched fuel for making bombs would be impossible to accomplish, as the sheer weight of the material and the immediate personal danger alone are too gargantuan.<br />Its not life someone can slip a piece of enriched uranium in their pocket and sneak off with it.<br />The last point of the lecture was the disposal of nuclear waste. First off, nuclear engery is now 98% efficient when spent fuels are reprocessed. This means that previously disposed materials could be reclaimed and reused. That technology is always improving. A new storage facility in New Mexico, located in a salt deposit thousands of feet below the earth's surface has been created by the military, and the only thing stopping us from safely storing material here is politics.<br />It seems the biggest obstacle to creating more power plants and reducing the effects of coal and global warming are public opinion and the fact that we are producing no young nuclear physicists. We simply cannot ramp up quickly enough to slow global warming.<br />While I must admit I was surprised, and still hold some skepticism about the safety of storing spent nuclear waste, I found myself imagining a world where the power was nuclear. It seems like something we greenies should definitely start looking into, instead of immediately rejecting the idea, as I did once.<br />For a link to the <a href="http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/">Long Now Lecture Series</a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_Nuclear_Generating_Station">For the Wiki on Three Mile Island</a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-4163149955735017822007-08-20T09:00:00.000-07:002008-12-12T22:15:57.863-08:00Animals Can Smell CO2<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiTDs36dcOlIp6yP1ij5XDpQuJb1GKkrZ37HGYG7XLWqs04XldzGsV06O04e0QfwAsFj0LZIjBf7zCAShBEeaDo07be1E3Z5PO4WU1-X8VHMHigiiy7QOCuCdYKxofwZ-kqpsyYqAyEn-H/s1600-h/070813-9.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiTDs36dcOlIp6yP1ij5XDpQuJb1GKkrZ37HGYG7XLWqs04XldzGsV06O04e0QfwAsFj0LZIjBf7zCAShBEeaDo07be1E3Z5PO4WU1-X8VHMHigiiy7QOCuCdYKxofwZ-kqpsyYqAyEn-H/s400/070813-9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100815985890629858" border="0" /></a><br />There are folks out there who swear that ticks are some of the most fascinating creature on the planet in terms of their specialized adaptations and cool body gadgets, but I'm starting to have a real appreciation for mice these days.<br />This article in today from Nature features a group of scientists who have discovered that mice can smell Carbon Dioxide as keenly as humans smell sulpher gas. In experiments where mice could make choices on where to run, they chose those areas with lower concentrations of CO2, and when exposed to extreme levels, actually exhibited distressed and aggressive behavior as a result.<br />Though the article doesn't say exactly why mice detect CO2, they do say that the sensitivity is great enough to be able to detect the carbon in human exhalation. I imagine these stealthy little creatures actually seeking out the dwellings of people in search of food.<br />There aren't any plans in the making yet for using the CO2 mouse detection in any practical application, but this is nonetheless an important discovery.<br /><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070813/full/070813-9.html">For the original article in Nature </a>(get it while it's still available!)Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-84185942498606974462007-08-18T22:16:00.000-07:002008-12-12T22:15:58.057-08:00Can an Event Like Burning Man Go Green?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicTDnp97V8JTImbgia2d7Nf1gawznNJ6LGSunujqnOw75PMAVMx8TSd1GFskX3iNU1kWAUdLpFOgigirlb7dQJLtrJ-kica-aAnHy7Ig1qxI6nYV9hWzyzfFjWL7NcqeKpiXW7W91Bn0_L/s1600-h/pixievision.28888.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicTDnp97V8JTImbgia2d7Nf1gawznNJ6LGSunujqnOw75PMAVMx8TSd1GFskX3iNU1kWAUdLpFOgigirlb7dQJLtrJ-kica-aAnHy7Ig1qxI6nYV9hWzyzfFjWL7NcqeKpiXW7W91Bn0_L/s400/pixievision.28888.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100281301116983506" border="0" /></a><br />Ok, so I've been bad lately, leaving my readers hanging and not writing. But I have a good excuse: I'm working too hard in preparation for going to <a href="http://www.burningman.com/">Burning Man</a>!<br />I hope you all have heard about it by now, since I seem to be the last BM virgin on the planet here in the Bay Area. Now why would a sensible woman like me go to a crazy pagan orgy with tons of people, drugs and art in the desert, you ask? It's not just the party that intices me, you can be sure of that!<br />I've written in the past about the new urban revolution going on, with folks who believe we can revitalise our cities, making them walkable communities with less impact on the environment. It seems the cities of history benefited from the lack of planning and architects, growing slowly over time and organically, making them better places to live.<br />It may sound crazy, but this is my reason for being interested in Burning Man and Black Rock City, the ultimate temporary city. I'm curious as to how a place can be built in a week with little planning and permitting, a place that is filled with 40k people, yet still walkable, with a central meeting place and organized events. It sounds like a blast, and what better way to test the limits of new urbanism?<br />So I'm headed east in 10 days, with plenty of water and costumes. I've borrowed all I can in an attempt to curb my consumption, and I'll be decorating my bike with crepe paper instead of fake fur. I'll recycle everything I can, of course, and offset the carbon from my trip through <a href="http://www.terrapass.com/index.html">TerraPass</a>. I've made arrangements with a photographer friend of mine, and the two of us are going to document the event. More to come on that later....<br />In the meantime, for all you Burners out there, check out the official <a href="http://www.burningman.com/environment/blog/">BM Environmental Blog,</a> with tips on how to make your experience more eco-friendly.<br />If you're going, I will be camping with a group at 6:30 and B, with a big shiny Airstream trailer in the corner of our site. My name is June Bug on the Playa, so come look me up, and we can talk ecology.Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3947628545013717356.post-31854161401110807572007-08-01T08:57:00.000-07:002008-12-12T22:15:58.221-08:00Frito Lays and Chip Carbon Count<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwP9W6oqe-Tssyuc4bFINZsqfiL3Mnwr_kQzX8HQPLdCkiDTVFq2MiPQB5GCTJKDrA-FxpwPtoZ3VwxR1MWLNu_8QSxiMSTb1MQAuNMeOXbntOJo6BEsavdsROs22LX2PlLrXb5BlZw8l-/s1600-h/walkers.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwP9W6oqe-Tssyuc4bFINZsqfiL3Mnwr_kQzX8HQPLdCkiDTVFq2MiPQB5GCTJKDrA-FxpwPtoZ3VwxR1MWLNu_8QSxiMSTb1MQAuNMeOXbntOJo6BEsavdsROs22LX2PlLrXb5BlZw8l-/s400/walkers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5093764465600504258" border="0" /></a><br />Frito Lays sells under the name Walkers in the UK, where chips are called crisps. The biggest difference you'll find these days between the two names is the carbon rating on the Walker's bag, letting consumers know the amount of carbon created in producing the snack.<br />According to Terra Pass, "Walkers have been working with a government-funded organization called <a href="http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/default.ct">The Carbon Trust</a><a href="http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/default.ct"> </a>to calculate the carbon emissions caused by one bag of chips. It is the first company to begin carbon-labeling as part of a pilot scheme to label products with their environmental impact."<br />The shocking news is that to produce a 34.5 gram bag of chips, 75 grams of carbon are produced.<br />Check out the rest of the article for more statistics and pretty charts.<br /><a href="http://www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/2007/07/chips-arent-for-carbon-free-carbon-labeling-hits-the-shelve.html">TerraPass newsletter link here</a>Jennifer Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12433347280242360893noreply@blogger.com0