Earth ChangesS

Fish

Man-made noise is blamed for driving whales to their deaths

bottlenose whale
© unknownA northern bottlenose whale stranded in Scotland
Scientists say man-made noise equipment, including anti-seal sonar devices used in fish farms, is driving deep-water animals such as whales to shore, where they die.

A northern bottlenose whale was washed up dead on a beach in Prestatyn, North Wales, on Saturday morning, the tenth of the species to become trapped or stranded on British shores this year.

Scientists are blaming not just military sonar, but a large range of man-made noises that they fear are driving the normally deep-water animals to shore.

The week before, another of the 10m (33ft) whales became trapped in a small Scottish loch. Rescuers managed to push the distressed animal out of Loch Eil and halfway to safety but on Friday morning the whale was found dead.

Binoculars

Birds in Captivity Lose Hippocampal Mass

Birds
© Developmental NeurobiologyMicrographs demonstrating the difference in size of the hippocampal formation in a bird from the wild, left, and captivity. Neither brain pictured was at the volumetric extreme of its group.
Being in captivity for just a few weeks can reduce the volume of the hippocampus by as much as 23 percent, according to a new Cornell study.

Caged birds may still sing, but being in captivity for just a few weeks can reduce the volume of the hippocampus by as much as 23 percent, according to a new Cornell study. The hippocampus is the part of the brain involved in spatial learning and memory tasks.

The research, by psychology graduate student Bernard Tarr and professor Tim DeVoogd, indicates that the hippocampus is highly sensitive to some or all of the environmental conditions that change in captivity -- including, among other things, social stimulation, exercise, food-storing opportunities and stress. The article is online at the journal of Developmental Neurobiology's Web site.

The results provide new clues that could help researchers better understand human stress disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which have been linked in previous studies of mammals to decreased hippocampal volume.

Bell

What happened to global warming?

Earthcoolnasa
© NasaAverage temperatures have not increased for over a decade
This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

So what on Earth is going on?

Binoculars

First Spider Known to Science That Feeds Mainly on Plant Food

Spider
© R. L. CurryAdult female Bagheera kiplingi eats Beltian body harvested from ant-acacia.
There are approximately 40,000 species of spiders in the world, all of which have been thought to be strict predators that feed on insects or other animals. Now, scientists have found that a small Central American jumping spider has a uniquely different diet: the species Bagheera kiplingi feeds predominantly on plant food.

The research, led by Christopher Meehan of Villanova University and Eric Olson of Brandeis University, has revealed the extraordinary ecology and behavior in Bagheera kiplingi, which lives throughout much of Central America and southern Mexico. There, the spider inhabits several species of acacia shrubs involved in a co-evolutionary mutualism with certain ants that has long been a staple of ecology textbooks: the ants fiercely guard the plants against most would-be herbivores, while the acacias provide both housing for the ants via swollen, hollow spines and food in the form of nectar (excreted from glands at the base of each leaf) and specialized leaf tips known as Beltian bodies. The Bagheera spiders are "cheaters" in the ant-acacia system, stealing and eating both nectar and - most remarkably - Beltian bodies without helping to defend the plant. The spiders get the job done through active avoidance of patrolling acacia-ants, relying on excellent eyesight, agility, and cognitive skills.

How do the spiders get around the ants that are supposed to be guarding the acacias and gobbling up the Beltian bodies themselves?

Bizarro Earth

China: 200 Tibetan Herdsmen Stranded by Snow Storm

More than 200 herdsmen and some 1,000 heads of livestock had been stranded by strong snowfall in Ali Prefecture, the local armed police said yesterday.

The week-long snowfall accumulated to about 30 centimeters on the ground in Pulan County of Ali, with some areas suffering from one-meter-thick snow, according to Xing Xiuyin, head of an armed police detachment stationed in the region.

Heavy snow cut off the roads connecting some townships in the county.

Magnify

Sulfur Dioxide, Earthquakes Show Mayon Volcano More Restive

Sulfur dioxide emission and quakes showed clear signs that Mayon volcano continues to be on a heightened state of restiveness, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Monday.

A Phivolcs bulletin on Monday said the volcano released 853 tons of sulfur dioxide during the past 24 hours, a reading which was way above the 505 tons a day recorded on Sunday.

The sulfur dioxide disgorge from Mt. Mayon indicated a fluctuating trend ranging from 350 to 853 tons per day.

There were 505 tons per day recorded on Oct. 10; 761 tons on Oct.8; and 350 tons on Oct. 7.

Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, said that "350 tons per day to 853 tons per day during the past five days is an indication that magma is intruding into the volcano's vent."

Cult

If you can't convince the adults, scare the children: Ministers target climate change doubters in prime-time TV advert



Climate change sceptics are to be targeted in a hard-hitting government advertising campaign that will be the first to state unequivocally that Man is causing global warming and endangering life on Earth.

The ยฃ6 million campaign, which begins tonight in the prime ITV1 slot during Coronation Street, is a direct response to government research showing that more than half the population think that climate change will have no effect on them.

Ministers sanctioned the campaign because of concern that scepticism about climate change was making it harder to introduce carbon-reducing policies such as higher energy bills.

The advertisement attempts to make adults feel guilty about their legacy to their children. It features a father telling his daughter a bedtime story of "a very very strange" world with "horrible consequences" for today's children.Climate change sceptics are to be targeted in a hard-hitting government advertising campaign that will be the first to state unequivocally that Man is causing global warming and endangering life on Earth.

Cloud Lightning

California: Typhoon remnants threaten to bring Central Valley flooding, mudslides, weather service says

typhoon Melor weather map
© The Weather Channeltyphoon Melor
The remains of super typhoon Melor, which is barreling across the Pacific at high speed today, threaten to bring flooding to some areas of California's Central Valley and mud slides in recently fire-ravaged areas, the National Weather Service reports.

Up to 6 inches of rain could fall starting Tuesday in the foothills and mountains east of the Sacramento Valley in the season's first major storm for Northern California, meteorologist Felix Garcia of the National Weather Service said.

The valley could see up to 2 inches of rain during the entirety of the storm, he said.

The snow level will stay above 7,000 feet or 8,000 feet, meaning virtually all the precipitation will be in the form of rain, Garcia said.

Areas where fires occurred may suffer more.

Magnify

Killer Earthquakes Shake Scientific Thought

Earthquake
© AP PhotoIndonesian soldiers crawl under a collapsed building during a rescue attempt in the Sumatran city of Padang on October 2 after a 7.6-magnitude quake toppled buildings in the area late on September 30. A sudden cluster of massive earthquakes which has shaken Asia-Pacific communities and likely left thousands dead has also jolted some scientists, who are starting to question conventional thought.
A sudden cluster of massive earthquakes which has shaken Asia-Pacific communities and likely left thousands dead has also jolted some scientists, who are starting to question conventional thought.

Experts who dismissed notions that far-away quakes could be linked are beginning to think again after huge tremors rocked Samoa and Indonesia on the same day, followed by another major convulsion in Vanuatu.

Some 184 people died in the terrifying tsunami which smashed Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga on September 30, while thousands are feared dead after parts of Indonesia's Padang city were reduced to rubble just hours later.

On Thursday, thousands of panicked people fled the coast as a rapid succession of large quakes off Vanuatu set off a tsunami warning for much of the South Pacific.

The "remarkable" sequence has prompted veteran earthquake-watcher Gary Gibson to tear up his theory it was all down to chance and search for a possible connection.

Better Earth

Al Gore Challenged at Environmental Conference

The director of Not Evil, Just Wrong, a documentary challenging Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, dares to ask a question at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference. Apparently Mr. Gore only allows the 'right kind' of questions to be asked of him.