North American freshwater fishes are going extinct at an alarming rate compared with other species, according to an article in the September issue of BioScience. The rate of extinctions increased noticeably after 1950, although it has leveled off in the past decade. The number of extinct species has grown by 25 percent since 1989.
The article, by Noel M. Burkhead of the US Geological Survey, examines North American freshwater fish extinctions from the end of the 19th Century to 2010, when there were 1213 species in the continent, or about 9 percent of the Earth's freshwater fish diversity. At least 57 North American species and subspecies, and 3 unique populations, have gone extinct since 1898, about 3.2 percent of the total. Freshwater species generally are known to suffer higher rates of extinction than terrestrial vertebrates.
Extinctions in fishes are mostly caused by loss of habitat and the introduction of nonindigenous species. In North America, there are more freshwater fish species in a typical drainage to the east of the Great Continental Divide than to the west, where a greater proportion of species have gone extinct or are found nowhere else.
Earth Changes
Not normal: people in South Africa couldn't believe their eyes as record snowfall fell across the whole country.
© New Zealand Herald
Helen Bostock holds some of the pumice discovered South West of Raoul Islands.
Helen Bostock holds some of the pumice discovered South West of Raoul Islands.
The stretch of golf-ball-size pumice rocks was first spotted this week by a New Zealand air force plane about 1,000 kilometres northwest of Auckland.
The rocks stretch for about 26,000 square kilometres.
A navy ship took scientists to the rocks Thursday night. Naval Lt. Tim Oscar says the rocks appeared a brilliant white under a spotlight, like a giant ice shelf.
He says it's the "weirdest thing'' he's seen in 18 years at sea.
"The rock looked to be sitting two feet above the surface of the waves, and lit up a brilliant white colour in the spotlight. It looked exactly like the edge of an ice shelf," he said.
Lt. Oscar said he had been briefed by GNS Volcanologist Helen Bostock the previous day when the ship first encountered an area of pumice from an undersea volcano.
© China Daily/ Zhang Di
A gym provides temporary accommodation for dozens of people in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday as Typhoon Haikui bears down.
A gym provides temporary accommodation for dozens of people in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday as Typhoon Haikui bears down.
In Shanghai, the typhoon has left 2 dead and affected 361,000 people, the ministry said, adding that 50 houses were destroyed and 700 others damaged.
In Jiangsu province, Haikui left one person dead and affected 662,000 people, and it destroyed 600 houses and damaged 2,400 others.
The typhoon also affected more than 7 million people in Zhejiang province, with 1.55 million people relocated, and it left one person dead and forced 163,000 others to be evacuated in Anhui province, the ministry said.
Officials and experts have been sent to rainstorm-battered Anhui province in east China to aid in local relief efforts, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Thursday.
Haikui is the third typhoon to wallop China's eastern coast in a week, after storms Saola and Damrey hit the region over the weekend.
© cbssports.com
Multiple lightning strikes occurred behind the racetrack's grandstands and outside one of the gates as fans were leaving, Pocono spokesman Bob Pleban said. It wasn't immediately clear how many of the fans were actually struck by the lightning itself or were injured by related jolts.
"Unfortunately, a member of our raceway family here, a fan, has passed away," Pocono President Brandon Igdalsky said in announcing the death. He provided no details about the victim but expressed condolences to his family.
London - The world is depleting underground water reserves faster than they can be replenished due to over-exploitation, according to scientists in Canada and the Netherlands.
The researchers, from McGill University in Montreal and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, combined groundwater usage data from around the globe with computer models of underground water resources to come up with a measure of water usage relative to supply.
That measure shows the groundwater footprint - the area above ground that relies on water from underground sources - is about 3.5 times bigger than the aquifers themselves.
The research suggests about 1.7 billion people, mostly in Asia, are living in areas where underground water reserves and the ecosystems that rely on them are under threat, they said.
Tom Gleeson from McGill, who led the study, said the results are "sobering", showing that people are over-using groundwater in a number of regions in Asia and North America.
The researchers, from McGill University in Montreal and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, combined groundwater usage data from around the globe with computer models of underground water resources to come up with a measure of water usage relative to supply.
That measure shows the groundwater footprint - the area above ground that relies on water from underground sources - is about 3.5 times bigger than the aquifers themselves.
The research suggests about 1.7 billion people, mostly in Asia, are living in areas where underground water reserves and the ecosystems that rely on them are under threat, they said.
Tom Gleeson from McGill, who led the study, said the results are "sobering", showing that people are over-using groundwater in a number of regions in Asia and North America.
© GNS Science
White Island from Whakatane on Thursday afternoon.
White Island from Whakatane on Thursday afternoon.
Residents throughout the Eastern Bay of Plenty stood outside their homes and gathered near beaches last night to catch a glimpse of the show described as orange flashes similar to lightning, which was lighting up the gloomy sky above the island.
While GNS Science confirmed yesterday afternoon that White Island, which sits 48km offshore and is one of New Zealand's most active cone volcanoes, had erupted, last night's spectacular light show was in fact a lightning storm up to 40km away from the island. Ash from the volcano has drifted as far as Tauranga's coastline, and has coated homes and cars along Papamoa beach.
Volcanologist Brad Scott told The Daily Post last night there was no seismic activity recorded from White Island, which meant the light flashes were not part of the eruption. Instead, he said there was a lightning storm recorded for about four hours until 9.30pm.
"There's a lightning storm about 30 to 40km out behind White Island,'' Mr Scott said.
GNS Science volcanologist Mike Rosenberg was reported last night as saying the crater lake on White Island was drying out, which was causing less water to be pulled into the ash cloud.
That was creating static which was being discharged as lightning.
© GNS Science
Gas readings taken during flights over the central North Island volcano this morning showed the presence of magma under the mountain at an unknown depth.
GNS Science volcanologist Craig Miller said the tests showed another larger magmatic explosion could take place.
It was a now "waiting game" to find out whether that would happen, he said.
"What is does confirm is there is a magmatic source at depth. Whether the magma is going to stay at those unknown depths or whether it's coming to the surface is the question."
If no magma was detected in this morning's tests, it would have meant another eruption was unlikely, Mr Miller said.
© News24
Much of SA is covered in a blanket of snow as the latest cold front sinks its teeth into the country. Share your snow photos with us.
Much of SA is covered in a blanket of snow as the latest cold front sinks its teeth into the country. Share your snow photos with us.
Kenosi Machepa from the SA Weather Service said this when referring to the vast cold front that brought snow to Pretoria for the first time since the late 1960s, reported Beeld.
In the Western Cape, snow fell on mountains in the Boland as well as in towns like Richmond and Touws River while snow was lying thick on the Matroosberg in Ceres.
In Johannesburg, snow was lying up to 20cm deep in some areas while Golden Gate in the Free State got the most snow in six years.
In Bethlehem, snow was up to 70cm deep and schools were closed due to the weather. There was also snow in Mpumalanga and Limpopo while light snow fell in the North West.
The weather office said the cold would continue for another day or two.
© news.nationalgeographic.com
The Obama administration sees no need for a waiver, siding with corn growers - many of them in presidential election battleground states Iowa and Ohio - who continue to support the mandate.
"If not now, when?" Randy Spronk, a Minnesota pork farmer, said of the EPA's authority to defer the ethanol production requirement when it threatens to severely harm the economy of a state or region. "Everyone should feel the pain of rationing."
Spronk, who is president-elect of the National Pork Producers Council, said livestock producers will have to reduce their herds and flocks because feed is becoming scarce and too expensive. Cattlemen and chicken farmers have the same concern.
