https://www.fws.gov/media/ecological-risk-screening-summary-asian-swamp-eel-monopterus-albus-high-risk

(...)There are negative impacts of introduced populations documented from peer-reviewed literature for this species, specifically in Florida where significant declines in the abundance of native fishes and decapods were found following the introduction of M. albus. M. albus is regulated in multiple U.S. States. M. albus has also been introduced beyond its native range in Asia and there have been reports of negative economic impacts due to burrowing behavior that has damaged rice fields in the Philippines and Japan. The History of Invasiveness for M. albus is classified as High due to the multiple established nonnative populations that have led to negative impacts.

https://people.com/invasive-asian-swamp-eel-threatens-florida-wildlife-and-ecosystem-12066812

“We have no way to remove this animal from the wetlands,” Florida International University Associate Professor and aquatic ecologist Nathan Dorn said in a March presentation. “If someone wants to come up with a great trap, I’ll try it.”

Dorn’s laboratory, which studies Everglades restoration and focuses on Asian swamp eels, confirmed their discovery at the Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in 2025, noting that the species might have reached the area the year before.

The fish has since taken out a massive portion of the crawfish, frog and small fish populations that Florida’s heralded long-legged wading birds rely on.

NPR

Colorado wants to get producers to be responsible for a battery's end-of-life path.

And ensure that valuable minerals from EV batteries get recycled into new batteries (or if the batteries are still good, reuse them for power storage banks).

Second, the Cretaceous period witnessed the most extensive radiation of major dinosaur groups. Ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, hadrosaurids, and derived coelurosaurian theropods like tyrannosaurids and dromaeosaurids appear and diversify only in the Cretaceous. No true ceratopsids or hadrosaurids are known from the Jurassic. These groups developed complex anatomical adaptations such as advanced chewing mechanisms, kinetic skulls, and elaborate cranial ornamentation that have no precedent in the earlier Mesozoic.

Third, the Cretaceous saw the full geographic colonization of all major landmasses. By this time, continental drift had created substantial geographic isolation, driving divergent evolution and regional endemism. For example, abelisaurids thrived in South America, India, and Madagascar, while tyrannosaurids evolved exclusively in Laurasia. This pattern contrasts with the Jurassic, when the supercontinent Pangaea limited geographic separation and therefore reduced evolutionary differentiation.

The Cretaceous fossil record contains the best examples of complex food webs involving dinosaurs, mammals, birds, reptiles, and angiosperms. Hadrosaurids like Edmontosaurus and Corythosaurus exhibit highly specialized dental batteries with hundreds of closely packed teeth capable of processing fibrous plants. Ceratopsids like Triceratops show evidence of herd behavior and niche partitioning. The co-occurrence of multiple apex predators in Late Cretaceous formations, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, Dakotaraptor, and Acheroraptor, indicates trophic structures far more intricate than those observed in Jurassic ecosystems.

The rise of angiosperms during the Cretaceous also reshaped terrestrial ecology. Molecular clock estimates and palynological records suggest that flowering plants originated in the Early Cretaceous and underwent explosive diversification by the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur herbivores adapted rapidly to this botanical revolution. The evolution of shearing jaw mechanics in hadrosaurs and complex gut contents in nodosaurids suggest an advanced digestive ecology closely tied to angiosperm consumption. These plant-dinosaur interactions were largely absent during the Jurassic, which was dominated by gymnosperms and simpler feeding strategies.

Cretaceous theropods also displayed the greatest morphological experimentation. Derived maniraptorans such as Velociraptor, Microraptor, and Troodon show evidence of feathers, semi-lunate carpal bones, and advanced neurological structures. Fossils from the Yixian Formation and other Lagerstätten in China reveal a continuum from non-avian theropods to true birds. This includes taxa such as Archaeopteryx, Confuciusornis, and Ichthyornis, which document critical stages in the evolution of flight, endothermy, and avian respiration. The evolution of powered flight and the origin of birds occurred exclusively in the Cretaceous, not the Jurassic.

The culmination of the Cretaceous in the Cretaceous Paleogene mass extinction further highlights its biological and geological significance. The Chicxulub impact event, confirmed through iridium anomalies and shocked quartz at the Cretaceous Paleogene boundary, marks one of the most dramatic biotic turnovers in Earth history. This event terminated non-avian dinosaurs, ammonites, and many marine reptiles, and created ecological space for mammalian and avian expansion in the Cenozoic. The magnitude of this extinction underscores how dominant and widespread Cretaceous dinosaurs had become.

In contrast, the Jurassic lacks this degree of diversity, ecological innovation, and evolutionary significance. Most Jurassic dinosaurs were dominated by sauropods, basal theropods, and stegosaurs. While impressive in size, they show relatively conservative anatomical designs. No true hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, or advanced maniraptorans appear in Jurassic strata. Moreover, Jurassic floras were less dynamic, dominated by cycads, conifers, and ferns, which supported less specialized herbivore diets.

I look forward to everyone's input!

"influence" !!!... "either" negatively(-) !!!... ( from the very "VIOLENCE" !!!... at a young age for MANY "YEARS" !!!...) "or"

positively(+) !!!... ( growing up as a "child" in a family environment with "affection" and "love" !!!... )

HOW ???... do we "know" ???...

IF THERE ARE "good" !!!... and "bad" !!!... "genes" ???...

( if <ALL> our "genes" !!!... "create" some "protein-enzyme" !!!... that "only" good <do> !!!...)

HOW ???... the "environment" ???...

( through the "R.N.A.' of the "cells" !!!... )

can they "decide" ???... to"open" or "close" !!!.. if NOT "randomly" !!!... the "genes" !!!...

THANK You !!!...

Kosta - GREECE

I have been observing a relatively large amount of interspecific competition between neotropical migrants and the residential bird species within my area. For context and to my great pleasure, I do live within the pacific flyway. I have not observed this “phenomena” before as it’s primarily between residential species where I live. I have noticed 2 instances, one where a Tree Swallow and a Western Bluebird were somewhat fighting over a nest box, and the other instance was where a hooded oriole and a northern mocking bird were somewhat fighting over a spot on a palm tree, is anyone else noticing this?

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-commercial-tea-bags-millions-microplastics.html

(this website is part of the Science X news network)

Quote

Plastic waste pollution represents a critical environmental challenge with increasing implications for the well-being and health of future generations. Food packaging is a major source of micro and nanoplastic (MNPLs) contamination and inhalation and ingestion is the main route of human exposure.

A study by the Mutagenesis Group of the UAB Department of Genetics and Microbiology has successfully obtained and characterized micro and nanoplastics derived from several types of commercially available tea bags. The paper is published in the journal Chemosphere.

The UAB researchers observed that when these tea bags are used to prepare an infusion, huge amounts of nano-sized particles and nanofilamentous structures are released, which is an important source of exposure to MNPLs.

(....)

The particles were stained and exposed for the first time to different types of human intestinal cells to assess their interaction and possible cellular internalization. The biological interaction experiments showed that mucus-producing intestinal cells had the highest uptake of micro and nanoplastics, with the particles even entering the cell nucleus that houses the genetic material.

The result suggests a key role for intestinal mucus in the uptake of these pollutant particles and underscores the need for further research into the effects that chronic exposure can have on human health.

For example, cockroaches appear if people leave out leftovers. And one has to review and clean up one's inner world, first of all.

What is the lesson about bed bugs?

I know that a species needs a certain minimum population to avoid dangerous inbreeding.  I've heard different estimates, but the 500/5000 rule seems to be one experts consider reliable.

Do all of these creatures have to be currently present?  Could you, for example, have 50 individuals at any one time, but have 5,000 genetically diverse embryos in cold storage, and use artificial insemination to add new genetic material to the herd/pack/etc. every other generation or so?  You would probably have to collect new embryos every once in a while, but it would take a while to cycle through your entire supply of embryos.

Does this sound plausible?  Or is there a better way to do this?  Assume one reason for doing this is a lack of space--there is room for 50 of these animals (e.g., lions) but not 5,000 of them (i.e., a large rotating space habitat designed as a nature preserve). 

Any thoughts on this?  Thanks in advance.

Besides chemistry, what other scientific disciplines are applied to the field of renewable energy?  Physics? Ecology? 

By the same token, the mountain lion (or cougar) in Texas is not protected at all and there is a green light there to hunt them year-round. Texas doesn't bother to manage its cougar numbers well. 

Here is a message to me via Gun Owners of America email from Mark Jones, an American wildlife biologist, as follows:

This hypothesis gained some notoriety because of novelty, but lacked scientific evidence; in fact some scientists have claimed that in most ecosystems, imbalance is the norm.

I offer below 2 chemical reactions for review by members:

1. Carbon dioxide + Water -> Sunlight -> Glucose + Oxygen [Green Plants]

2. Oxygen + Glucose -> Energy + Carbon dioxide + Water [Plants + Animals]

These are converse reactions in that one is the reversal of the other.

From the chemistry that I know, these 2 reactions are subject to the laws of chemical reactions, a few of which I recall are:   1

1. Increase the reactants and the reaction will speed up

2. Remove the products and the reaction will speed up 

3. Product accumulation means the reaction will slow down

4. Product accumulation and the reaction might reverse

Aren't these the hallmarks of homeostasis, the essence of self-regulation? So do these 2 chemical reactions support the Gaia Hypothesis?

From the Lab to the Sky: Five Things to Know about Biofuel-Powered Flights | Department of Energy

PS- To get rid of all that nasty radioactive waste from nuke power plants, simply load it into a rocket and shoot it into space as soon as enough of it is collected to justify the cost of a rocket shot. 

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/18/growing-share-of-americans-favor-more-nuclear-power/#:~:text=Advocates for nuclear power argue,among both parties since 2020.

2. litter

3. failure to recycle recyclable materials religiously and have a widespread infrastructure that makes this convenient to do 

4. overpopulation

5. overconsumption

6. poverty

7. war

8. hate

9. crime

10. dangerous drugs

11. dangerous chemicals and other hazardous products 

12. displacement of materials to a situation where recovery is not feasilble 

13. waste of resources 

14. ignorance

15. greed

16. selfishness 

Most if not all of these human shortcomings can negatively affect the world environment. True or false? 

Let me explain Number 12. Let's take the rare metal LEAD (a chemical element Pb). Man extracts it by mining from places that nature conveninetly deposited in large masses and then he spreads it thin all over the globe. Lead is scattered all over so that it cannot be practically recycled for use again and again. In some cases, however, lead is actually recycled.  This often occurs with automobile wheel weights and lead-acid car batteries. Lead pipes have been replaced by other materials and I suppose most of that lead also has been put back into the reusable materials pool. Where lead is often not recycled is when it is used as fishing weights and gun projectiles. Billions upon billions of gun bullets are shot worldwide and lead shotgun charges have been fired at ranges and in the field so that the spent lead is hardly practical to try to recover. What hunters and game processors should do is collect the lead slugs from the quarry for recycling. Target ranges for firearms also should have a way of capturing the lead projectiles for practical recovery and recycling. I'm afraid one day man will run out of suitable materials for gun projectiles and fishing weights if he continues to displace such materials by hurling them widely all over the landscape and ocean bottoms of the globe. Often lead sinkers are released for hooked fish reeled in on purpose when trolling for fish. It's not that these materials are lost for good. Matter in the universe is neither created nor destroyed. It's that man purposely puts some materials out of his easy reach for reuse. The same is true for aluminum beer and soda cans that end up in landfills. 

I often think to myself that if I were to start all over again, I would either want to become a civil engineer or an ecologist professionally. I see America's poor infrastructure as a serious problem. It is embarrassingly old-hat as compared with Japan, parts of Asia and in Continental Europe. A bad infrastruture means increased public danger, as from flooding and serious automobile accidents, and an increased burden on resources such as consumed in transportation due to extra fuel, money and time consumed due to inefficiency. America's roads are the absolute pits. Does anybody here agree that infrastructure condtion and design is an important environmental consideration? 

Let's look at America's trucking industry, for example, and the national highway system. A poor infrastucture means ineffciency, increased fuel consumption and a greater carbon footprint. 

https://www.trucking.org/highway-infrastructure-funding

However, I would think there are some cases in which a life form can be both a producer and a consumer. There are some plants that in addition to using photosynthesis will also feed off of other life forms as predators, perhaps the best known example would be the Venus Fly Trap. In addition to the Venus Fly Trap there are other plants that also eat insects so I would think they would be both producers and consumers, is that correct?

Does anyone have experience with caping the outlet of sterivex filters without the luer-lok? Looking for a way to do this to avoid leaking. I am trying to extract DNA from the filter, without removing the filter from the capsule. I have tried parafilm and leaking has still been occurring. I also need to be able to open it again to push out the lysate.

Thank you,

This opens up the idea of how long does the darkness have to be and how long can the day length be and not affect the growth, maturity, and fruiting of the plants being cultured. 12 to 10 hours of darkness is necessary to trigger the plant growth/flowering/fruiting but would this still work if you used a 12/24 lighting cycle with e day being 24 hours and the night being 12 to 10 hours to trigger fruiting. 

If this is true, and I have researched it a bit and found no real info on this, (it was a rather light search) could a such a day night cycle allow for less light intensity being as effective as a more intense light over less time?   

So many trade offs here, I wish i had the ability to experiment with this, I am thinking of a small terrarium in a dark closet but where would you get a timer you could use to make the light cycle? Most if not all commercial timers are based on a 24 hour day length, I'm not sure how to get hold of a timer based on a 36 hour day. 

Any suggestions for a plant small enough to mature in a ten gallon aquarium?  

Much littering occurs in close proximity to convenience stores and fast-food restaurants. These could be great places for concerned citizens on patrol with smartphones. 

What are some of your good ideas to seriously deter trashing of our landscape? 

I feel we need much tougher litter laws at federal, state and local levels with more severe penalties for littering. We also need bounty programs that would encourage citizens to report litterbugs into the authorties. Citizens, upon the conviction and fines collections from offenders, could get a kickback on some of the fine money as a reward for helping to bring convicted litterers to justice. Almost everybody nowadays carries a mobile phone with a camera. People have already effectively used phones to report people in public parks with unleashed dogs. Offering reward money to catch litterbugs would surely give people an incentive to report them in and actively be on watch for litterers so as to catch them in the act. 

Bounty money would follow litterers around wherever they go to pounce on them.  Penalties for offenders could include jail time, trash cleanup of streets, fines and public shaming. Billboards in cities could post pictures and names of persons caught littering such as the city hall or local post office. 

Singapore and Tokyo, Japan are some of the most litter-free parts of the world. What is their secret to making people actually give a hoot about not polluting? I think that when there are serious consequences, people actually care. I have not seen any anti-litter campaigns on television since about the 1990's. 

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is at its highest in human history. That’s probably fine for plants like the grasses the hoppers munch. They can turn that atmospheric carbon into carbohydrates and build more plant — in fact, plant biologists once thought all that extra carbon dioxide would simply mean better crop yields. But experiments in crops exposed to high carbon dioxide levels indicate that many food plants contain less of other nutrients than under carbon dioxide concentrations of the past. Several studies find that plants’ levels of nitrogen, for example, have fallen, indicating lower plant protein content. And some studies suggest that plants may also be deficient in phosphorus and other trace elements.

The idea that plants grown in today’s carbon dioxide-rich era will contain less of certain other elements — a concept Kaspari categorizes as nutrient dilution — has been well-studied in crop plants. Nutrient dilution in natural ecosystems is less-studied, but scientists have observed it happening in several places, from the woods of Europe to the kelp forests off Southern California. Now researchers like Kaspari are starting to examine the knock-on effects — to see whether herbivores that eat those plants, such as grasshoppers and grazing mammals, are affected....