Ecology and the Environment

I am currently undertaking a third year undergrad project on reintroduction programmes in the u.k. The problem is, the more I research, the more depressed I get! Are they really a drain on resources and time which would be better spent on holding on to the species we have left? Any thoughts gratefully received......

Can anyone give me any information about the basic tools used in ecosystem modeling and Universities that have programs specifically for computer modeling of land based forest ecosystems. I'm specifically interested in nutrient, water, and energy interactions between plants and animals on a small scale, local ecosystem. I'm curiuos about questions like: Do modeling techniques invoulve Databases? What databases are used? etc. Actually... I say etc. but that's about the only question I have since I know so little...

What is the scientific explanation for this?

http://scienceblogs.com/islandofdoubt/2007/05/be_afraid_be_very_very_afraid_1.php?utm_source=mostemailed&utm_medium=link New estimates show that arctic ice may almost completely melted by 2020

Can carbon that has been taken from waste tyres be put back into the soil

Hi everyone. I have a few questions and would appreciate your help. I was never any good at biology in school so ... these might be stupid questions. sorry... 1) I was in the park one day and overheard a lady say "Not many people know that plants release oxygen only in the morning. By late afternoon, they release a lot of CO2". >>>>>>>>How true is this? 2) An article on TheScientist.com http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57668/ mentioned that savannnas release a lot of carbon in to the atmosphere, and therefore, they are important. My question is, a. How do savannas release a lot of carbon - is this what the lady in the…

I know this is crude, but I am really curious as to how these things are measured so here goes: How many trees would one person need in a year to have enough oxygen to live? That is: Picture a very basic version of Biosphere 2, all complete except there is no oxygen / no oxygen source. Pretend Biosphere 2 is only 10 sq m big. What is the MINIMUM number of plants one person would need to have enough oxygen for a year? - or what is the volume of oxygen an individual consumes per year, and what is the volume of plants that could supply this oxygen? Wait a minute...how would the bodies of water form in Biosphere 2 the first place.... Im sure somebody ou…

As you know, the Earth is growing at a steadyfast rate. The more vaccines and cures we discover means that the death rate of the world is declining.Eventually the problem will be that the birth rate of the world by a wide margin outweigh the death rate. My question is: Do you think we'll have enough societies,homes,job,food to support such a big population? How do you think we should solve it? (and I don't mean killing or limiting births) Also, what about the enviroment? Do you think we can handle trying to preserve the enviroment and preserving society?

There was a whole issue of Science dedicated to the idea of capturing and storing CO2 that is emitted when we burn fossil fuels. Is our best option to pursue this strategy while continuing research on alternative energy sources? I understand the need for this I guess, but even if we can minimize leakage from underground storage, etc. to me this just highlights the need to really directly address our entropy crisis once and for all...what do you all think?

I'm curious if their has been any research done on endangered animals genetic diversity. This concerns me when I hear on the news that there are less then X amount of a species. Is there a critical limit to how many animals must exist to preserve diversity? Even if we brought their numbers back, wouldn't they still be a "living dead" species? And if there is some kind of limit has research been done on saying that, as heartless as this sounds, this animal isn't worth saving? Also, has anyone had any kind of progress of mutating a species a little tiny bit to create some diversity? Any literature on this matter would be of interest. Thank you very much.

Recycling involves processing used materials into new products in order to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.Recycling is a key component of modern waste management and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy. Recycling involves processing used materials into new products in order to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of …

One day I was cleaning an old plastic container stained by tea. The way I cleaned it was to leave it in the sun (sealed water tight, 2gallon, clear blue tint container) after filling it with hose water (exposure cleaning). I then noticed that green algae had started growing(a noticeable thin layer say 2mm thick, average) at the bottom of the container(in partial sun)... It did clean the container, after about a month. I then re-filled the container to see if algae grew again(full light this time, algae on the bottom like before), it did. This algae: What are the odds that its dangerous to ingest(the algae it self in large quantities)? More importantly, what a…

Hello folks! I'm sorry if you find the content of my post totally irrelevant or unuseful to you, but I would really appreciate it if you could help me. Next year I'll be a 3rd-year student in Enviromental Science and I must start thinking which direction I should choose, namely what I should specialise on. The problem is that I like everything! What I mean is that I don't find any organisms disgusting or uninteresting; instead I believe that all kinds of organisms are equally interesting and beautiful, each in their own way.. for example, fungi, bacteria, animals, plants. The thing is that I have to choose some courses in the next 2 years accordingly to what …

Have y'all seen this study? A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA11 Int J Biol Sci 2009; 5:706-726 To summarize: -Rats were fed three main commercialized genetically modified (GMO) maize (aka corn) (NK 603, MON 810, MON 863) used throughout the world. 1 is tolerant to herbicide Roundup. 2 are engineered to synthesize Bt toxins which are used as insecticides. -All three of these GMO corn strains have been approved for consumption in the US and several countries in Europe. -For the 3 GMO dietary products above, dose-dependent side effects were linked with their c…

Hey, all. I've recently taken an interest into the varying ecological disasters in the rain forest. As such, are there any diseases similar to Dutch Elm Disease that are destroying African rain forest trees?

Do you think how culture encodes its information could be changed to reduce our carbon footprint? For instance, could you change a sign that gives direction to a bathroom to say the same thing but with far less material? Such as some other use of symbols, perhaps just a universal bathroom logo plus arrow. With the internet I could think of such a possibility due to the use of emoticons. The Lol emoticon for instance is beyond famous, and it can represent so much while it itself could be written out with so little. I know it seems like an awkward question, but if you could .zip the alphabet by 50% while retaining full meaning, to me it would just mean our communica…

if heat is related to magnetic force, density etc (vague i know), and the earth really was warming or cooling above normal, wouldnt that shift in the density of matter (warming/cooling) cause the radius of our magnetic field to increase decrease as a result of the thinning/spreading of heated unheated matter? can global warming be measured by gravity? just a thought.

Hey guys, I've just received my first bio assignment of year 12. It's an EEI and the task is to write a formal scientific report based on experimental studies conducted by you on a topic of your choice. Taking into account that the chosen topic is limited to one that can be analysed and re analysed within the time boundary and within the budget constraints. There are also strict guidelines regarding the use of vertebrate animals for research and the conditions under which tests can be conducted on invertebrates and bacteria. I've thought of some possibilities, but im not really sure which would be the best. Here are some of my ideas: The effect of auxins + gibberel…

Oh yes, glorious maggots. Does anyone know what it is they excrete after feeding on carrion? I know of the medical mumbo jumbo about antimicrobial things and what-not, but they must produce something useful to the ground itself, yes?

Large areas of soil in Amazonia have high carbon content hundreds of years after people deliberately built it up, and it offers great fertility. Check out the excitement around charcoal: css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/terra_preta/TerraPretahome.htm , and add the usual first http stuff.

I wonder if there are terminal temperatures? Like terminal velocity, atmosphere must be taken into account if we are talking about temperatures on earth, but how about in space? Imagine an area out of reach of any heat creating body, such as a star (even if there isn't actually such an area). What temperature does the mercury stop falling? Or does it?

Hello everyone. I am currently working on a project and I am going to use the free version of R (cran.r-project.org). I have downloaded this prgram onto my computer and have set up a "practice" data set to get used to the program. Does anyone have any experience with this? If so, I would appreciate any assistance you could offer me. I am having difficulty getting the data into the program.

We drink it, we are made up of it....but what is water? Please share your ideas and opinions.

It is generally accepted that the burbot is extinct in UK waters. The last confirmed sighting of a burbot was on September 14, 1969, in the Old West river, Aldreth, Cambridgeshire. Biologists have been, for a few years now looking into the possibility of reintroducing the species. The university of Southampton has a burbot research centre. To my knowledge, there has been many setbacks to the idea, both political and scientific. There has been similar proposals for wolves in Scotland and wild bore have been reintroduced to areas of the UK. What do you think about reintroducing this species? Or more generally what about the reintroduction of other species?

Hello, I have some questions about ecotoxicology. I need to solve these problems but I really don't know how to start.. 1. A well-biodegradable insecticide is dosed annually at 0,3 active compound/ha. This compound goes 5cm deep in the soil and is suspected to be toxic for soilinvertebrates. There's only 1 NOEC known, namely 50µg/L for Daphnia magna. The insecticide has a half live of 10 days, the LogKoc=3.0, water solubility is 100mg/L and the soil has 2% organic carbon. Is there a risk on short-term for the invertebrates and if so, how long does it take untill the risk can be excluded? 2. The concentrations pentachlorophenol (PCP) in a contaminated stream …