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Bizarro Earth

US: Invasive fish and mussels team up to transfer toxic substances into Great Lakes walleyes


PhysOrg
Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:55 UTC
Image
© David JudeA round goby.
Two notorious Great Lakes invaders -- the zebra mussel and the round goby -- now play a central role in transferring toxic chemicals called PCBs up the food chain and into Saginaw Bay walleyes, one of that region's most popular sport fish.

The links between zebra mussels, round gobies and contaminated Saginaw Bay walleyes is a disturbing example of unanticipated problems that can occur when non-native species get loose in the Great Lakes, said University of Michigan fishery biologist David Jude, lead author of a paper on the topic published online today in the Journal of Great Lakes Research.

"This zebra mussel-to-goby link in Great Lakes contaminated areas is one of the main conduits of PCB transfer to top aquatic predators such as the walleye, and it plays a substantial role in PCB transfer to birds, mammals and reptiles in the region as well," said Jude, a research scientist at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Between 2005 and 2007, Jude's team collected walleyes, round gobies and various other fish species, as well as zebra mussels and zooplankton, in the Tittabawassee River, the Saginaw River and Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. Then they measured levels of PCBs in all those organisms - the first such study in the Saginaw Bay region.

"Though the levels of PCBs in Saginaw Bay walleyes have declined sharply in recent years, these toxic substances continue to show up at levels high enough to warrant concern," Jude said.
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Info

US: Brucellosis in Wyoming elk on the increase


The Casper Star-Tribune
Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:11 UTC
Green River -- Brucellosis appears to be increasing in several elk herds in northwestern Wyoming, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study.

The study's data suggests that enhanced elk-to-elk transmission in free-ranging populations may be occurring because of denser elk clusters during winter.

The study also said that elk populations inside and outside of the Greater Yellowstone area that traditionally did not maintain brucellosis may now be at risk because of population increases.

The new study on brucellosis -- a bacterial infection of cattle, elk and bison -- appeared in the March publication of Ecological Applications, said USGS spokeswoman Suzanna Carrithers.

The magazine is a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

Brucellosis causes miscarriages in cattle. The disease is present in many elk and bison in the greater Yellowstone region, known as the last reservoir for brucellosis in the United States. The disease can be transmitted from wildlife to cattle.

The presence of the disease within livestock herds has resulted in additional testing requirements and trade restrictions in past years in both Wyoming and Montana.

Both states have had to institute strict testing and quarantine procedures to regain federal brucellosis-free status.

Paul Cross, USGS disease ecologist and lead author of the study, said elk-to-elk transmission of brucellosis may be increasing in new regions around Yellowstone.

He noted several cattle herds have been infected in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana since 2004.
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Frog

Giant Lizard Discovered in the Philippines

Jim Gomez
The Associated Press
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:38 UTC
Image
© Arvin C. Diesmos/AP PhotoA golden-spotted monitor lizard rests on a tree trunk in the Sierra Madre mountains, Philippines.
Researchers have concluded that a giant, golden-spotted monitor lizard discovered in the forested mountains of the Philippines six years ago is a new species, according to a study released Wednesday.

The 6.5-foot (2-meter) -long lizard was first spotted in 2004 in the Sierra Madre mountains on the main island of Luzon when local researchers saw local Agta tribesmen carrying one of the dead reptiles.

But it took until last year to determine it was a new species. After capturing an adult, researchers from the University of Kansas and the National Museum of the Philippines obtained DNA samples that helped confirm the lizard was new to science.

The Northern Sierra Madre Forest Monitor Lizard or Varanus bitatawa feasts on fruits and snails rather than carcasses, unlike many monitors, including its larger relative, the Komodo dragon, according to American and Filipino researchers who wrote about the discovery in Wednesday's peer-reviewed Royal Society journal Biology Letters. It spends much of its time in the treetops and has unique claws that allow it to reach its favorite fruits.
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Blackbox

'Oriental yeti' discovered in China


Telegraph UK
Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:26 UTC
Image
© Photo: CENThis bizarre creature dubbed the oriental yeti has baffled scientists after emerging from ancient woodlands in remote central China.
A creature dubbed the 'oriental yeti' is being examined by scientists after emerging from ancient woodlands in remote central China.

The hairless beast was trapped by hunters in Sichuan province after locals reported spotting what they thought was a bear.

Hunter Lu Chin explained: "It looks a bit like a bear but it doesn't have any fur and it has a tail like a kangaroo."
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Better Earth

Hostile volcanic lake teems with life

Ana Belluscio
Nature.com
Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:06 UTC
Lake
© MARÍA EUGENIA FARÍASIt looks peaceful, but Laguna del Diamante's waters are deadly.
Argentinian investigators have found flamingos and mysterious microbes living in an alkaline lagoon nestled inside a volcano in the Andes. The organisms, exposed to arsenic and poisonous gases, could shed light on how life began on Earth, and their hardiness to extreme conditions may hold the key to new scientific applications.

In 2009, a team led by María Eugenia Farías, a microbiologist at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Tucumán, Argentina, discovered living stromatolites in the Socompa and Tolar Grande lagoons high in the Andes (see 'High window on the past'). Stromatolites - collections of photosynthetic microorganisms and calcareous concretions - are thought to have been common more than 3.5 billion years ago.

After that discovery, scientists in Argentina decided to look at lakes and lagoons in the Puna de Atacama, a desert plateau that sits more than 4,000 metres above sea level, in an attempt to understand what life might have looked like on the early Earth.
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Blackbox

A killer in the bat cave

Shaoni Bhattacharya
New Scientist
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:23 UTC
Corpse upon corpse they lie, a carpet of emaciated, fungus-ridden carcasses. Where once healthy animals hung in slumber from the cave roof, now there is a mass grave on the floor. It is a scene that is repeated throughout the eastern US, from Vermont to West Virginia. America's bats are in crisis, under threat from a mysterious killer.

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Bizarro Earth

Mysterious Whale Die-Off Is Largest on Record

Jeremy Hsu
LiveScience
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:10 UTC
Mass death among baby right whales has experts scrambling to figure out the puzzle behind the largest great whale die-off on record.

Observers have found 308 dead whales in the waters around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina's Patagonian Coast since 2005. Almost 90 percent of those deaths represent whale calves less than 3 months old, and the calf deaths make up almost a third of all right whale calf sightings in the last five years.

"This is the single largest die-off event in terms of numbers and in relation to population size and geographic range," said Marcela Uhart, a medical veterinarian with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). She represents an associate director in Latin America for the WCS Global Health Program.
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Bizarro Earth

Australia: New South Wales facing huge locust plague

Brad Markham
ABC News
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:01 UTC
Image
© Brad MarkhamLocust eggs discovered on a property near Parkes in September 2009
There're fears NSW could be facing its worst locust plague since 2004.

Heavy rains have triggered a surge in locust activity. The pest has already ravaged early oat crops in the state's south. Some of the biggest clusters of baby locusts ever seen in NSW have been found in the far-west around Tibooburra.

The state's locust coordinator Simon Oliver is urging all landholders to check their paddocks for the pest.

"We've had good rain across NSW over the past three months," he says. "That's led to strong pasture growth and as a result the locusts have reinvigorated themselves. We're now finding large numbers in most parts of western NSW."
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Info

Common Toads Can Predict Earthquakes, New Study Finds


Islington Gazette
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:35 UTC
Common toads (Bufo bufo) can detect impending seismic activity and alter their behaviour from breeding to evacuation mode, suggests a new study in the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) Journal of Zoology.

Researchers from The Open University reported that 96 per cent of male toads in a population abandoned their breeding site five days before the earthquake that struck L'Aquila in Italy in 2009. The breeding site was located 74 km from the earthquake's epicentre.

The number of paired toads at the breeding site also dropped to zero three days before the earthquake. No fresh spawn was found at the site from the date that the earthquake struck to the date of the last significant aftershock (magnitude >4.5).

Breeding sites are male-dominated and the toads would normally remain in situ from the point that breeding activity begins, to the completion of spawning.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Grasshopper Invasion Feared This Summer

Matt Joyce
Associated Press
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:13 UTC
Grasshopper
© Scott Schell/University of Wyoming
Some Western, Plains states could see worst outbreak in 30 years

Newcastle, Wyoming - Grasshopper infestations have taken on mythic tones here on the arid prairie of northeastern Wyoming - they blanket highways, eat T-shirts off clotheslines and devour nearly every scrap of vegetation on ranches and farms.

The myth may come closer to reality this summer than at any time in decades in several states in the West and the Plains.

A federal survey of farm areas taken last fall found high numbers of adult grasshoppers in parts of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho. Each female lays hundreds of eggs so that high count could turn into costly grasshopper infestations this summer.

Well-timed cool and wet weather to stifle the young grasshoppers when they hatch around May and June.
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