Ecology and the Environment

New Scientist has put together a handy dandy reference guide to the most common claims being leveraged by the naysayers around here. I can't tell you how many arguments I've seen in these forums based on the same, repeated misinformation. Perhaps we can stop trying to rearticulate every single rebuttal to every bit of misinformation being circulated, and just link these clear and concise replies in the future: http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462 I used to enjoy the global warming threads, but now they're just gotten boring and repetitive

I am a marine science student doing a study on the treatment of cyanide in the marine environment. Would like to know what a good treatment for a major spill would be, how long the area would remain toxic and if possible the effects of the treatment on life (if any left in the area). The type of spill I am researching is cyanide from mining practices. Any help on these question or any information regarding cyanide would be greatly appreciated. I have refered to the internet and scientific journals with no real luck. Thanks for the time.

When considering the biodiversity of an aquatic system after a human caused disaster (chemical spill). What would be a adequate measure of biodiversity. In the past I have used Margelef’s index to study species richness Dmg = (S-1)/ln N. This however does not take into account influences or stresses placed upon the population / ecosystem or the reducing of the population due to death and or emigration. Is there such a measurement that can predict future loss or is a before and after study design needed to test impacts?

When would you have liked to live? The warm, sunny Jurassic? The icy-hot Pleistocene? I might like Miocene Europe. It's nice and warm as far north as Scotland, the climate is even and not too extreme, and no meter long dragonflies.

WHY...my big questions is...."WHY is it difficult to understand....that it is indeed us humans who have accelerated the global warming....and still contributing to it?" One of the threads asked for a scientific opinion..so being a budding environmental scientist...let me just try explaining. There are several ways in which we humans have (and are still) contributing to the global climate change (a.k.a global warming). But...lemme just explain one... Now I hope all here accept the fact that Carbon...in most of its form..is a greenhouse gas...and that the more it is in the atmosphere...greater will be the warming. Nature has been, over a period of severa…

Current theories suggest that the major ice ages are caused by irregularities in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, it’s polar attitude, and an additional wobble for good measure. Calculations show that, given the Earth’s historical orbit and attitude, these correlate nicely with corresponding periods of glaciation, it would seem providing us with a basis to predict future ice ages. But how sure are we of our facts ? As with many other factors relating to climate change, we really need to establish which changes lead and which changes lag. It seems very likely that the cyclic variation in the mass of ice building up at each of the poles disproportionately, would inevit…

This is purely hearsay, but maybe others will back it up. I heard through someone who got this from BBS that recent satellite photos show 50% of the CO2 in the atmosphere comes from two specific areas on the globe: Nigeria and Siberia. Both these places have problems with natural gas that leaks out of their oil wells. It's a poisonous gas and so they have to burn it in order to get rid of it, and this adds to the greenhouse gases. Russia says it does this because it doesn't have the technology to handle the gas in any other way. Shell is responding to this by implementing a technology that will liquefy the gas which will help in storing it safely. It is apparently a v…

It seems that, as with many other scientific analysis, only those temperature measurements conforming reasonably with the norm during the past 150,000 years are being considered for this period. Spurious or wildly fluctuating results would appear to have been excluded from consideration when reaching conclusions, presumably on the basis that they were considered to be unreliable and perhaps, I suspect, because they did not conform to the current argument. In principle it might seem reasonable to analyse a significant sample of results, were it not for the fact that other evidence indicates there were indeed some very dramatic fluctuations during this period, dwarfing …

In the past 4,000 years the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere increased from 277ppmv to 379ppmv which increased its atmospheric percentage concentration from 0.053% to 0.054%. It therefore follows that that the concentration of some or all of the other constituents must have reduced by a compensating amount. Since CO2 is not the most powerful of GHGs, it is very possible that the concentration of other GHGs will have been reduced, dampening the effect of the increase in CO2. For instance if water vapour were to decrease by 0.01% this would more than offset the effect of any CO2 increase. Do we have any data on this ?

Is there any way for humans to prevent reaching the carrying capacity or rise it to an infinite level? In time it seems like the only way we won't reach a carrying capacity is if we either stop our exponential growth or figure out a system to reuse valued resources.

A couple years ago my family had a pool in our backyard. It was fairly big, and about 4.5 feet deep. Anyways, we left it untreated for quite some time. The water got dirty, turned green, froze in the winter, and thawed out again in the spring. That's when I noticed all of the things that lived in it. It was actually pretty fascinating, and I have a lot of questions. The first life to appear in the pool was algae, and that doesn't surprise me much. Soon after there were snails, though. Where exactly did they come from? I don't think I've ever seen another snail in the area where I live, so how did they get in my pool? After snails came some sort of spider that glided o…

For those interested, Wikipedians have tracked those scientific bodies who are conspirators in the Great Global Warming Swindle. When global warming nutjobs talk about the "scientific consensus", here's who's involved: (GFDL text courtesy Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change) Statements by organizations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) In February 2007, the IPCC released a summary of the forthcoming Fourth Assessment Report. According to this summary, the Fourth Assessment Report finds that human actions are "very likely" the cause of global warming, meaning a 90% or greater probability.[2] "The …

IPCC WGII Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability Quote: "The progressive acidification of oceans due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to have negative impacts on marine shell forming organisms" It has been reported that the increased acidity of the oceans, caused by the current CO2 levels, is preventing crustacea from properly forming their shells and that this will subsequently prevent CO2 extraction in the form of calcium carbonate precipitate sediment. Whilst the dissolving CO2 in water causes some dissociation and an increase in pH, this would seem to be at odds with geolog…

Birdstrike Control Program is seeking a motivated individual to fill a position for Wildlife Control Manager at a military airfield in Kansas. This position requires a polished professional with an education and experience in wildlife management techniques, wildlife ecology, and population data collection. Field experience and knowledge of bird/wildlife behavior are a must. Experience in a broad range of wildlife control techniques, airfield safety protocol, and dog behavior are a plus. Significant field and training requirements and excellent personal skills necessary as well as professional experience in dealing with government permit agencies (USDA, Fish &…

Why are herbaceous stems green?

http://www.earthsky.org/blog/51179/scientific-consensus “The final IPCC report carries an authority and depth far beyond that of any individual scientist or small group of scientists, no matter how gifted or experienced.” -- Bruce A. Wielicki, of NASA’s Langley Research Center, Principal Investigator for CERES, a project that uses Earth-orbiting satellites to monitor how clouds affect our climate. “There cannot be a 100% proof as you have in mathematics.” -- Colin Price, Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Science at Tel Aviv University “The best way out of the dilemma of which expert to believe is to undertake the task of understanding the sci…

How does xylem tissue in angiosperms differ from xylem tissue in gymnosperms?

Where is the majority of greenhouse gases concentrated? Is it more or less evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere or do they reside in their own distinct layer high above ground level?

Ok, I figured this is the best place for an attempt to get some action. There are plans afoot in Aus. to build dams on the Mary and Burnett rivers. The problem is that these two rivers are the *only* habitat of Neocerotadus forsteri, the Australian lungfish. This huge and scientifically invaluable species is *not* good at dealing with disruptions to its nesting, and these dams may wipe them out. This species is also unique even among lungfish: the african and south american species only have thin, tendril-like fins, while this species has large, fleshy lobe fins, like are seen in fossil lobe-fins. A post on a science blog detailing the creature's plight A seco…

Hi there, was looking for a meterology forum but there doesnt appear to be one, so i thought i'd try on this one. I'm currently trying to identify the principle monsoon climate regions, in terms of the continents or countries affected, and then explain how they relate to the changing position of the ITCZ. I have identified the principle monsoon regions (e.g south central asia, west africa, the americas) - but am struggling to directly correlate the ITCZ to them. In strict terms, monsoon means the reversal of wind patterns - and not the more colloqiual 'perpetual rainfall'. I guess I could talk about how the ITCZ brings rain to these regions - but what I thin…

I have just arrived on SFN and would like to open with those related to the problem of the Diadema antillarium plague that has so much effect on the marine world of the Canary Islands...this counter plague is of course the inundation of Diadema and not a plague upon it... As a marine ecologist and scuba instructor the factor of Diadema plays a vived impression on visiting divers and causes great ecological stress although at the same time there are intersting symbiotic relations with other species...what is interesting for me is any opinion regarding the best or preferred way to dismantle some 20-30 Diadema per square meter or if there is a useful way to enter into a …

hey everyone i had a question about fungi. When dealing with warm vs cool environments, illumainated vs shadded environments and dry vs wet environments which one for each three gives the fungi a more cummulative richness. To say for each three, which gives a more rich community or environment.

the technique of efficient and rapid non-tube plant cloning one picece of leaf may become lots of plants The unique technique of efficient & rapid non-tube plant clone(TERNPC), which was invented by Professor Li changxiao, can be extensively used all over the world; it can be applied to most of the plants for rapid propagation, and it will be a leading trend of the Plant rapid reproduction industry. The success for rapid propagation of a species of plants may bring fast development of a certain industry. From the very beginning of the initial invention for this unique technique 18 years ago, there have been more than 700 species of plants propagated by this t…

I've recently written a report on this topic, while there is some problems in the passage, spoke by my professor. would anyone like to have a look at the passage? If so, would you mind leave your email address and I will send it to you... (I do not agree with my professor...)

this is just and idea where I live there is a lot of animal waste do to the fact that there are a lot of dairies what if we build a large aneroic digester to process the waste by creating methane gas then use that to create clean safe energy