Stories relating to science and the environment
Friday, October 13, 2017
Taras Oceanographic hosts a series of science lectures at Jupiter High School
The Meet the Scientist Lecture Series is in its 14th season. Hosted by Taras Oceanographic Foundation at Jupiter High School, Jupiter, FL 33458. Below is the upcoming calendar. Click on the image to enalrge, or visit their website from the link above.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Possible antrax outbreak in Namibia kills hippos
Hippo deaths in Namibia
The Daily mail is reporting that 109 hippos have died in the Bwabwata National Park since Sunday last week. The cause of death is suspected to
be a natural outbreak of anthrax. Outbreaks are not uncommon and can occur when
rivers are running low. The hippo population before the outbreak was thought to be 1,300. Hippopotamus are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red list. Veterinarians are still working to confirm the cause of death [anthrax].
To read the full report and read more about what Anthrax is,
you can follow the Link to the full article on Daily
Mail here
The Center for Disease Control also has a page explaining
anthrax, which you can
access here.
The CDC web page also had this graph of the Anthrax life cycle:
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Feedspot's list of top science blogs
Top 100 Science Blogs on the Web
If you are searching for science blogs to
follow, Feedspot offers a list of The Best Science blogs from thousands of top
Science blogs in their index using search and social metrics. Data is refreshed
once a week.
Here are the first few on the list. Follow the link above to
access the entire list of science blogs.
Australia
About Blog -
ScienceAlert features cool and interesting science news and entertainment worth
sharing. It provides the latest science news, opinions, and features from
Australia & New Zealand.
Frequency - about 42 posts per week
Frequency - about 42 posts per week
View Latest Posts ▾
|
New
York City, NY, USA
About Blog -
Scientific American provides latest news and features on science issues that
matter including earth, environment, and space. Get your science news from the
most trusted source.
Frequency - about 56 posts per week
Frequency - about 56 posts per week
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Chagas disease and the link to new host animals
Chagas
Disease is a tropical disease that is spread mostly by the kissing bug. Symptoms can
range from not present to heart failure. 60-70% of those infected do not
develop symptoms past headaches and localized swelling of the bite area.
However 20-30% can develop an enlarged heart which can result in heart failure.
Although Chagas disease is widespread, little is known about
the transmission of the disease (Science
Daily). The parasite is transmitted to varied animal hosts when the kissing
bug bites the animal or human. Infection occurs if the bug feces enters through
the mucous membrane.
A recent study by Georgieva,
et. al., has stated that existing host records are heavily biased towards
well-studied primary vector species. Results of this study show
New host associations for several
groups of arboreal mammals were determined including sloths, New World monkeys,
coatis, arboreal porcupines and, for the first time as a host of any
Triatominae, tayras. A
thorough review of previously documented sylvatic hosts, organized by
triatomine species and the type of observation (associational, antibody-based,
or DNA-based), is presented in a phylogenetic context and highlights large gaps
in our knowledge of Triatominae biology (Georgieva, et. al, p.1).
To read the complete
study and find out the specifics and why this study is important in the
management of this disease, follow this link.
References:
Anna Y. Georgieva, Eric R.L. Gordon, Christiane Weirauch.
Sylvatic host associations of Triatominae and implications for Chagas disease
reservoirs: a review and new host records based on archival specimens. PeerJ,
2017; 5: e3826 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3826
Image credit: By
Greg Hume - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27876162
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Rise of the cephalopod
By © Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0,
A recently study published in Current
Biology, looked at current trends in cephalopod abundance. They state that Cephalopod
populations are extremely variable, can fluctuate wildly and are currently experiencing
a boom in numbers. Squid, cuttlefish and
octopuses have a long history of being able to adapt rapidly to changing
environments.
Researchers investigated long-term trends in abundance using
a global time-series of catch rates. The study revealed cephalopod populations
have increased over the last six decades and were unusually consistent across
taxa. Study datasets spanned the last 61 years (1953 to 2013). Results show increases
of 52% squid, 31% octopuses, 17% cuttlefish and sepiolids populations. One explanation
could be due to elevated water temperatures due to ocean warming. This is
thought to accelerate the life cycle of cephalopods when thermal ranges are not
exceeded and food remains abundant.
To read the complete study [which is open access], follow
the link here [and above]
References:
Doubleday, Zoë A. et al., 2016. Global proliferation of
cephalopods. Current Biology, Volume 26, Issue 10 R406 - R407. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.002
Image credit: By © Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=385705
Friday, August 25, 2017
Human/polar bear conflict study
Alan Wilson - www.naturespicsonline.com
Living in Florida, we often
see human/animal conflicts with black bear and alligators. Western states also
have to contend with grizzly bears. These attacks are well documented and studied. Conversely, polar bear attacks
on humans are rare. Researchers state that concern for a rise in polar
bear conflicts is warranted due to predictions of increasing numbers of
nutritionally stressed bears spending more time hunting [closer to human
populations]. One cause of this is loss of sea ice habitat.
The study done by Wilder,
et. al., 2017 [Polar bear attacks on humans: Implications of a changing climate],
published in the Wildlife
Society Bulletin, found that “from 1870–2014, we documented 73 attacks by
wild polar bears, distributed among the 5 polar bear Range States (Canada,
Greenland, Norway, Russia, and United States), which resulted in 20 human
fatalities and 63 human injuries” (Wilder, et. al., 2017). They also
noted that attacks were mainly from stressed male bears looking for food.
Attacks by females were rare and were in defense of their cubs.
Increases in human/wildlife conflicts result in negative
public perceptions, which usually result in a negative outcome for the animals involved.
Management goals are to educate and develop methods for coexistence. Before
this study, there was no systematic data collected on polar bear conflicts. Folklore and incomplete data help fuel the anxiety over polar bear encounters.
The study, which is very detailed and
gives information about all recorded attacks, characteristics of attacking bears,
bear behavior and seasonality of attacks, and the role of humans in these
attacks, can be found from the reference below.
FAU library users can look up the article through Searchwise here.
References:
Wilder, J. M., Vongraven,
D., Atwood, T., Hansen, B., Jessen, A., Kochnev, A., York, G., Vallender, R.,
Hedman, D. and Gibbons, M. (2017), Polar bear attacks on humans: Implications
of a changing climate. Wildl. Soc. Bull.. doi:10.1002/wsb.783
Image credit: By Alan Wilson - www.naturespicsonline.com:
[1], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38456823
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