Stories tagged ecology
Eutrophication: Agricultural run-off rich in fertilizers stimulates rampant growth of algae.
Courtesy NASA
Human populations effect lakes
Human sewage and fertilizer runoff effects the health of lakes. It often causes huge algal blooms, kills fish, and creates other problems.
Long term study of "cultural eutrophication" released
For 37 years researchers have examined the best ways to control this "cultural eutrophication" process of lakes by varying the levels of phosphorous and nitrogen added to the lake.
After completing one of the longest running experiments ever done on a lake, researchers from the University of Alberta, University of Minnesota and the Freshwater Institute, contend that nitrogen control, in which the European Union and many other jurisdictions around the world are investing millions of dollars, is not effective and in fact, may actually increase the problem of cultural eutrophication.
Time to rethink current practices for healthy lakes
"David Schindler, professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, and one of the leading water researchers in the world, wants to change current practice in controlling nitrogen runoff by stating that
"Controlling nitrogen does not correct the polluted lakes, and in fact, may actually aggravate the problem and make it worse."
This study done by the University of Alberta, University of Minnesota and the Freshwater Institute appears in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: PhysOrg.com
Tags : Save your marriage – and the planet
Trouble in paradise?: Would your pending divorce impact the quality of this natural scene? May a little, but a researcher says that the growing number of divorces across the world are having negative environmental impacts.
Courtesy justinrussellHere’s one more good reason to avoid getting a divorce: it’s not green.
A Michigan State researcher has discovered that there are significant environmental costs to our planet when people divorce. Boiling it down to the bare facts, divorce creates more households with fewer people living in them using up more energy and natural resources.
One stat shared in the study says that Americans spend $3.6 billion a year on water usage through the extra housing units that are needed for people who are no longer living together as married couples.
The study also states that households of divorced couples are less efficient when it comes to heating and air conditioning issues. For instance, the same amount of energy is used to heat a home with two or people living in it.
As the study’s results have been released, however, others are raising questions on other matters of household size. Critics of the study say that it doesn’t look at the environmental factors impacted by those who choose not to marry or those who are living alone due to the death of a spouse. Likewise, the study didn’t address the household environmental impact of people who choose to live together and are not married.
So what do you think? Is there any validity to a study like this? Should environmental impacts be a consideration when assessing personal relationships? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.
The woolly adelgid, a small insect transported from Asia in the 1920s, is killing hemlock trees in the Smoky Mountains.
Danny told me so.
Bottled water: Photo by DannymanI saw this photo on dannyman's website.. He was illustrating that he refills his collection of bottles with tap water and that he thought bottling water in New Zealand and transporting it to North America was immoral. This quote also made me think.
I read that San Francisco recently enacted a ban on spending any further money for bottled water by city departments–currently the city spends $500,000/year on bottled water.
Drink tap water and save $1400/yr.
If you drink 8 glasses of water per day your cost per year is 49 cents (in New York). Buying that water in bottles could cost you $1400. Americans spent more than $10 billion on bottled water last year. The cost to the environment needs to be addressed, too. Transporting a gallon of water from France to Chicago burns about a cup of petroleum. Four out of five of the 30 billion throwaway bottles of water per year end up in landfills.
We switched to tap water.
I noticed that my wife recently switched to drinking tap water cooled in our refrigerator. She still kept buying cans of carbonated water for me, though. Last month I made the switch, too. What about you?
Read more:
New York Times
ABC News
Some Science Buzz writers specifically go looking for science stories to write about. Then there are lazy folks like me, who just surf the web as per usual, and when something sciencey crosses our path, we bookmark it.
Over the last several weeks, I’ve been running across a lot of stories on energy. None of them seemed big enough to merit its own story, but they are too good to completely ignore. So, here’s a potpourri:
America’s energy needs keep growing. Producing energy by burning coal or oil pollutes the environment. Nuclear energy is much cleaner, but it produces radioactive waste. Now a government-funded project in Tennessee is trying to recycle the waste from nuclear power plants to produce a new type of fuel—one that could produce up to 100 times as much energy, and produce 40% less waste.
One old technology that may be making a comeback is gasification—turning organic material, such as coal, into a gas which can be burned for energy. It’s cleaner than burning coal directly for energy—a lot of the pollutants are captured and re-used. And, you can gasify any organic material, including plants and farm waste.
In other threads on this blog, we’ve discussed some of the downsides of ethanol-- increased demand for corn causes farm prices to shoot up. A report from Brazil outlines some of the other potential problems, from pollution created in its manufacture, to destroying large ecosystems to raise the crops that will be turned into ethanol.
When drillers go looking for oil, they look for large pockets of liquid trapped in the earth, surrounded by non-porous rock. This is sometimes called “easy oil”—ready to refine as soon as it comes out of the ground. But there are vast amounts of oil in porous rock, like sand or shale. Miners have to dig up vast amounts of oil-soaked rock, and then separate the usable oil from the sand. It’s a very expensive process. But, as the price of crude oil keeps climbing, we are getting to the point where shale oil makes sense. And what’s even better, some of the largest deposits in the world are found here in North America.
The article linked above describes a shale oil operation in Canada. There are also operations underway in the
United States. And there’s another project underway in Israel.
Prairie grasses: This experimental plot contains four species of prairie plants. The nearby plots, going clockwise, contain eight species, four species, and 16 species. (Photo courtesy David Tilman, University of Minnesota)
Ecosystems containing many different plant species are more productive and better able to deal with stresses such as climate extremes, pests, and disease. Those are the findings, published in last week’s issue of Nature, of University of Minnesota ecologist David Tilman and colleagues Peter Reich and Johannes Knops.
It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The debate about whether or not diversity stabilizes ecosystems has been going on for 50 years! But Tilman’s experiment is the first to collect enough data, over enough time and in a controlled environment, to confirm the hypothesis.
Tilman, Reich, and Knops spent 12 years studying 168 9-meter-by-9-meter experimental plots at the Cedar Creek Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site near Cambridge, Minnesota. Each plot was randomly planted with 1-16 perennial grasses and other prairie plants. Over the 12 years of the study, temperatures and rainfall varied, but the plots with more species and more root mass did better than the others. (Why root mass? Roots store nutrients and provide a buffer against climate variations. And perennial prairie plants have far more root mass than annual plants, such as corn and other crops.)
Experimental plots: This aerial photo shows the individual nine-meter by nine-meter plots. (Photo courtesy David Tilman, University of Minnesota)
So what does it mean?
Two things. First, biodiversity does matter when it comes to healthy ecosystems. Second, biodiversity is decreasing worldwide as human populations increase and forests and prairies have been replaced with farm fields, buildings, and roads. Tilman thinks that increasing diversity may be the key to both restoring ecosystems and meeting the energy needs of people around the world.
In a National Science Foundation press release, Tilman said:
”Diverse prairie grasslands are 240 percent more productive than grasslands with a single prairie species. That’s a huge advantage. Biomass from diverse prairies can, for example, be used to make biofuels without the need for annual tilling, fertilizers, and pesticides, which require energy and pollute the environment. Because they are perennials, you can plant a prairie once and mow it for biomass every fall, essentially forever.”
This experimental plot contains four species of prairie plants. The nearby plots, going clockwise, contain eight species, four species, and 16 species. (Photo courtesy David Tilman, University of Minnesota)
Please contact us if you have questions about the rights on this image.
This aerial photo shows the individual nine-meter by nine-meter plots. (Photo courtesy David Tilman, University of Minnesota)
Please contact us if you have questions about the rights on this image.
Why not consider becoming a bird-bander or net runner at Lee and Rose Warner Nature Center? Join us for a Bird-Banding Volunteer Open House! Learn about this special volunteer program at Warner in person and see if it's for you. Banders are responsible for setting up mist-nets, regularly checking them to carefully remove ensnared birds, taking nets down and assisting in the bird-banding process. Typically, a Warner “primary bander” delivers a 30-minute program on banding to school program groups while banding captured birds. Net runners assist with bird retrieval and data entry. A love of birds, the outside, and being around children is useful. No banding experience is necessary, but a willingness to learn and ability to hike through the woods is required.
- Registration: Call 651-433-2427 to register. Registration is required.
- Cost: No fee. Refreshments will be provided.
- When: Saturday, May 13, 2006 from 9:00-10:30 a.m.
- Where: Warner Nature Center (feel free to call for directions).
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