Ecology and the Environment

Okay having analysed all the top predators on wildlife and biology documentaries, I've seen people narrate upon tigers, lions, bears, wolves, crocodiles and sharks and all...but why is the leopard barely mentioned? In my opinion there is not an animal that's more accomplished in hunting as it, it's very adaptable and versatile...what do you all think?

Hi, I am a new user on scienceforums.net. I am a current college freshman and am taking a class this semester called Nature, Culture, and Politics. One requirement of the course is to submit a short version of a 15 page research paper to an audience beyond my class. I chose to submit my short version on this forum because it is relevant to the topic of ecology and the environment. The paper is about oil drilling in the Alaskan Arctic and takes into account environmental, cultural, and political issues associated with oil development. The short version is posted below. Thanks to anyone who reads, comments are appreciated. Limiting Damage to Nature and …

I am merely an interested observer and not a knowledgeable person on the possible effects of global warming on the Thermohaline Circulation where heat is brought to Northern Europe. I have wondered if a disturbance of the THC (called AMOC in the following article) would lead to temperature differences in Northern Europe. The worst case scenario in a collapse could mean temperature drops of up to 9 Centigrade. Any comments or information from the better read on this topic? Link and also this downloaded article: Link to Article

They cannot survive boiling, because they would be ripped apart by the expanding steam. But they can survive >100°C easily. Here's an article (in Nature) about bacteria surviving >250°C in deep sea hydrothermal vents.

Some people think the more species a community embrace, the more function the community can perform. Is that mean the more is better? I think a community has an optimal species to perform best: A community show the maximum productivity when there are 100 species, not 10 or 100. How do you think? Do you agree or disagree that the function of a community is simply proportional to its biodiversity?

So I actually joined scienceforums a while back but haven't posted in a few years (in case you're wondering why I didn't introduce myself). Anyways, I was lurking about and saw the post above, which had led to a lively discussion about whether or not climate change is anthropogenic. I don't really want to discuss that. Rather, I'm interested in this whole concept of the global Malthusian dilemma and its perceived effect on the environment. Here's the deal: John Bongaarts wrote a paper in 2009 that seems to suggest fertility rates have been declining in all parts of the world since approximately 1980. (Proc. Royal Soc. B; 364, 2985-2990) Both he and the U.N. suggest…

I've developed an iPhone/iPad app which generates random coordinates within a grid: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gridgen/id446631612?ls=1&mt=8 If you have any suggestions on how to improve it let me know. I am also considering developing other apps which have similar ecology functions for use in the field. Here are a few codes to get it for free to kick things off: NXFYY3H499JH W9X7FLN9NF77 FY6NANHTNJML Just enter them in the redeem section in the app store or itunes.

Why is most of the banana leaves torn?

I must admit that my topic of interest is inspired by various forms of organic agriculture especially those idealized by Masanobu Fukuoka and the world of permaculture. Both of which encourage one to create their own plant community of edibles which requires minimal tending (fertilization, weeding, pesticides, & tilling) due to a fine balance between the natural functions of all species in accordance with their environment. In this setting plants grow in proximity to different species instead of in neat rows of monocultures, weeds and other pest species are given value, and there is a natural succession of species through out the season. Much like that of a "natural" …

I have checked several imagery providers none of which seem to to provide imagery of the ocean where on may find a picture of this colossal floating garbage patch. I would quite like to be able to examine this phenomena. If any one has been able to find it, or may know a provider which has such imagery please inform me. Chemkid

I dont know if this goes here but I need opinion of someone who knows something about bacteria and general science. This is one small business idea that i am developing and it goes something like this: If i create plastic cocoon/seal around car and i put dehumidifier in it - will i only dehumidify car or i will remove odors like cigarette smoke, sweet etc. Or if i dehumidify the car and then humidify it again with some kind of anti bacteria resole will that humidity penetrate deeper into car and in some way sterilize it. I have watched some shows i think it was brainiacs where they created something similar with sleeping mattress. They removed like a liter of sweet. …

In a previous thread about how human altruism fits into evolutionary imperitives and this was mentioned by some one. I.E. Sacrifice of one individuals reproduction enhances the survival of the species. But it occured to last night either in a dream or when I was half alseep that we may be looking at this from the wrong perspective. Altruism implies the suppression of an individual imperative for the good of the collective. But worker ants simply don't have the ability to reproduce and therefore have no individual imperative to do so. So is it really altruism from their perspective. Perhaps we need to look at it from the perspective of the ant queen who as …

Hi everyone, I've been looking for articles and publications of the traits, that can cause a certain weed species (on crops) to evolve herbicide resistance much more likely and faster than other species, e.g dormancy, outcrossing, fecundity, mortality, competition etc. I haven't found that many articles yet, and perhaps there aren't that many to be found. There are many articles telling how different herbicide levels and treatments can affect evolution of resistance, but my focus is on weed ecology. If someone has any ideas, I would be most happy to hear from you! You can e-mail me the citation blackunicorn.jp@gmail.com Thankyou!

Hi SF (I'm hoping this abbreviation is used...), I'm currently working on an ecological dataset that includes large amounts of geographical distribution information for a lecturer. Each species has a list of countries/regions that it is known to inhabit and one of my jobs is to interpret and condense this information into more generic terms, for instance; "France, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgeria" would get condensed into something like "SW Europe". This is VERY time consuming as trying to reconcile some of the strange patterns like "Spain, Turkey, Thailand, South Africa" ends up making my job rough. What I'd like to have is an application which l…

Hello, I'm interested in the relationship of the ratios of pregnancy length, amount of time before the infant is independent of the parent and the average life span. For example, a dog is pregnant for 9 weeks, the puppy weens for 8-12 weeks, and then lives for 10-12 years. Does anyone know which animals (humans included - i know it's difficult to decide when a child is independent from it's parents) have the longest/shortest pregnancy in relation to life span. Also, which animal spends the most/least time dependent on it's parents in comparison to it's life span. Thanks!

I am interested to know how much electricity over a certain amount of time (say instantly to about ten seconds) it would take to kill your average garden type weed (roots and all). How does the electricity actually kill the weed (other than simply frying it)? Do you know of any commercial products that can do this already? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Is it possible to cross a Rose plant with a Tomato plant ?

I thought i could get everyones thoughts on this massive problem in the world today. I'm not sure if people are even interested in talking about this but i said i'd check anyway!! Here in Ireland, we are quickly running out of landfill space to put all our waste. what are we going to do? Is incineration the way to go? I want to know if the rest of the world has this kind of problem.

A number of popular game fish and food stock fish were recently placed on the threatened list, IIRC. With such a healthy component of peoples' diets disappearing from the menu, it's pretty much inevitable to have a detrimental impact on the health of the world's people. Not only will they be missing an excellent source of low fat protein that will inevitably be replaced by saturated fats, articial additives, and the like, but also the only substantial source of Omega 3 fats in coldwater fish. There are already a number of stocking and fish farming projects in the world. I wonder how big of an impact they have on a worldwide scale, probably nominal, at best. Since Om…

An area is considered to be a rain forest, based primarily on the amount of annual rainfall in that area (hence the name). What's the minimum amount of average annual rainfall before a given area is considered a "rain forest," by ecological standards? For example, according to this link right here, Miami, Florida gets over 58 inches of rain per year? Does it, technically, qualify as a rain forest, even though there isn't a whole lot of "forest" in the area?

Geologically/Ecologically speaking, what types of environments will produce oxidizing conditions, and similarly, which ones will tend to produce reducing conditions? (I understand the chemistry, so I don't need a lecture on redox reactions, I'm just a little naive as to how they are generated on a larger scale)

Does anyone know why most cyanobacteria are not able to grow in acidic conditions, but algae such as Dunaliella spp. are? They both use chlorophyll, which if I am not mistaken, is acid-labile.

Oxygenation is part of the death process and is also part of the life process. But you don't want to overdose on Oxygen, do ya? We take antioxidants for our health which prevent oxidization, the "rusting" of the body. Why do we take them? Is it foolish or does it mean anything? If it means something, then what is the teaching behind it and does it apply to oxygenating water? There is also Ozone, which would kill you if you consumed it directly I believe, many times more powerful as Chlorine as a disinfectant, but they put it in a good deal of water because it dissipates in 20 minutes - - Logic would make you think that it might leave a residue or create a byp…

i found a plant who bark is effective against the disease of some kind .can i regularly cut the bark of tree.what happened if we do so.are forest department of any country give me permission of manufacturing drug with the plant bark.give me some suggestion regarding this topic

This weekend I went to the arboretum with my 4-year old nephew and he found the free seeds that they were giving away to grow flowers. He took a pack and seemed interested in doing it, so I thought I might try to do this with him as a way to show him how to plant and grow a flower. Except the seeds he got seemed like they were fairly complicated to grow, with instructions for different seasons and different times of day. So I'm wondering if someone could suggest a type of flower that could easily be grown by itself in a small pot, something that I could let him plant and water perhaps once or twice a day, without much more maintenance than that. Just a little "starter…