Penguins: disturbing decline in population in Antarctica

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States has just published a report which revealed alarmingfigures on penguin populations in Antarctica. According to thisstudy the root cause of this is climate change, which affected the amount of krill available, the main food of penguins.

The Adélie penguin populations and Chinstrap PenguinsenAntártida come dragging in recent years a disturbing rate ofannual decline of 2.9% and 4.3% respectively. And to extrapolatethis to a longer-term analysis, the result is even worse: somecolonies have been reduced to 50% the number of individuals inthe past 30 years.

The clearest result of this drastic population decline is thereduction of one of their main food source, krill (crustacean). Theamount of krill in the sea has been declining in the 80's and isestimated to have come down between 75% and 80% in the Antarctic Peninsula due to ecosystem changes resulting fromglobal warming.

Thanks to BLOGVERDE

Saolas: create a nature reserve in Vietnam to save these mysterious cattle

For those who never heard of him, the saola is considered theworld's strangest mammals. Only 19 years ago that the specieswas discovered by Western science and are virtually unknownsince it does not survive in captivity. Today the cattle, which islisted as critically endangered, Vietnam will have a protected areain the Natural Park Saola "which is expected to recover itspopulation.

The saolas belong to the family of cattle and are related toantelopes and cows. MontañasAnnamitas live only in Vietnam andLaos, low tropical forest ecosystem that years ago was intended to protect because of the high degree of vulnerability of biodiversity.Like many other animals of their main threats are poaching.Currently it is estimated that the population can go from a fewhundred specimens (at best) until just a few dozen (at leastoptimistic forecasts.)

With this new "Saola Natural Park, located in Quang Nam, east ofVietnam opens a protected corridor that will connect to the Xe SapNational Park in Laos.

Source: WWF

THANKS TO BLOGVERDE

Invasive clams in Great Lake

Several factors tend to alter an ecosystem, and while many of themare related by the action of man, sometimes resulting from a sudden increased occurrence of invasive species that tend to alterthe pre-existing balance, affecting the quality of life native speciesand creating conditions that can cripple even the creatures that live there.



This is exactly what is happening in the U.S. Lake deGreat Lake,where a myriad of fish species are being affected by the advance and rapid reproduction of two invasive species of clams (Zebraand Quagga Type) causing the destruction of algal populations.

There are several factors which caused this sudden invasion froma link to changes in Lake Michigan to the migration of thesespecies reproduced rapidly due to a marked contrast in theamount of food found in Great Lake.

These species of clams have a rather small, so their diet is mainly based on small algae and other unicellular organisms calleddiatoms.

Via: Science Dail

Thanks to BLOGVERDE

WWF celebrates its 50 birthday with stamps of threatened animal species

The WWF environmental group, currently one of the leading environmental advocacy organizations in the world, turns 50 in 2011. And to celebrate, in the United Kingdom have launched a collection of ten postage stamps of the most endangered animal species, which include the African elephant, black rhino and polar bear. Also appearing on the stamps commemorating the Lycaon, a mammal of Africa with very similar features to those of a dog deemed the carnivore with a greater degree of sociability and cooperation, and the Russian Amur leopard, the most endangered big cat across the globe, because in order to ensure the survival of the species would need 100 copies and are currently just over 30.

The Iberian lynx, mountain gorillas, red pandas, golden lion tamarin and the Siberian tiger complete the list.

Thanks to muyinteresante

A year later, helping the animal victims of Haiti

A year after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) takes stock of all the hard work to provide assistance to animals and rebuild the veterinary infrastructure of that country, looking for that Haitians are better prepared to protect animals from which both depend.

After the earthquake, the WSPA and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) came together to form the Coalition for Animal Rescue in Haiti, an effort to better coordinate the work of animal welfare organizations. Acting as one, members of the coalition worked closely with Haitian government officials, United Nations and other international agencies to address the country's most pressing problems in their animals. When organizing a team of mostly Haitian, the Coalition established a rapport with government officials.

In one year, the Coalition for Animal Rescue in Haiti has established a mobile veterinary clinic that allows veterinarians trained to move through the earthquake-affected areas and provide medical care to tens of thousands of dogs, cats, goats, horses, cattle and other animals. Through the clinic, the team offered the vaccine and treatments directly to more than 50,000 animals, thus ensuring economic recovery of the families who depend on them for sustenance. The coalition also has helped rebuild vital infrastructure in Haiti, as the National Veterinary Laboratory facilities, and has also established 12 refrigeration units powered by solar energy, which are of vital importance for the storage and distribution of vaccines to temperatures appropriate, making possible vaccination of any animal, even in the remotest parts of the country.

By vaccinating animals against serious zoonotic diseases such as rabies and Newcastle disease, the Coalition for Animal Rescue in Haiti has indirectly protected humans as well. By offering treatment for animal parasites, have prevented outbreaks of diarrhea, which may have exacerbated the problem of cholera.

The Coalition for Animal Rescue in Haiti also launched a public awareness campaign to educate Haitians about disaster preparedness and health issues related to pets and livestock, and has worked closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Development Rural to build capacity to support and monitor animal health. The team has worked with the ministry when surveillance of suspected cases of rabies and will be able to react quickly in the event of another emergency. It has also begun training to veterinarians in order to build a risk-reduction efforts based on the community to help prepare for the future.

Thanks to ELESPECTADOR

A website reports the impact of climate change and its effects on birds

Disclose the impact of climate change on habitats of Catalonia, Spain from its effects on bird populations is the aim of the new website www.ecco.cat, driven by the Catalan Institute of Ornithology

Forest Technology Centre of Catalonia has also collaborated on this project, which has been dubbed Information Server on the Effects of Climate Change.

The ultimate aim of the project, according to its leaders, is to facilitate public understanding and awareness of social problems through examples coming on the consequences of global warming.

Thus, on page explains what climate change and its effects and provide data on their involvement on bird populations in Catalonia, predictions and mapping of the distribution provided for four species at mid-century under different scenarios emission of carbon dioxide (CO2).

In addition, users can perform a test of personal attitude toward global warming "and leave your comments and questions, which will be answered personally.

Climate change is considered the main environmental problem facing humanity and more and more apparent effects on ecosystems.

The birds are emerging as good indicators of these effects, as indicated by the results that are beginning to see, in Europe and in Catalonia.

"That's why this project has been developed to disseminate how through the birds and the studies that have been made can have a state of affairs on the effects of climate change on our country", say project leaders .

Thanks to ELESPECTADOR

Naked protesters simulate killing of animals in Barcelona

Message: How many lives to a shelter?

BARCELONA - About fifty animal advocates rallied Sunday lying completely naked in a square in Barcelona to denounce the "cruelties" inflicted on the animals whose skins are used to make garments.

"How many lives for a coat?" Asked a sign of a young woman lying among the demonstrators at the Plaza de Sant Jaume, in the historic center of Barcelona.

Those who lay on the floor were smeared with red paint that simulated blood, symbolically representing the remains of dead animals to make fur coats.

"People are sensitive to the suffering of animals is the fur garments as acts of cruelty and pain, not as objects of luxury. The animals need their fur, we do not," said Leticia Olivares, a spokesman for the international advocacy group of AnimaNaturalis animals, which organizes the event.

Millions of foxes, minks, otters, beavers, bobcats and other species are bred in captivity in small boxes, or captured and killed in very brutal conditions, such as drowning or electrocuting them, to make fur coats, the group said.

Spain and Greece, Germany and Italy are important fur, according AnimaNaturalis. In Spain, breeding farm animals whose fur is used to make clothes are usually in the north, and the fur industry is implanted in Catalonia

DECEMBER 10. INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE LAW OF THE ANIMALS.

Practiced cruelty to animals, as well as the cruelty committed against the people, has the same meaning for those who suffer, the pain is incomprehensible. And the same origin: the same cruelty.

On Sunday 12 December and to mark the International Day of Animal Rights, Plasencia Ecologists in Action will hold a series of activities in the Plaza Mayor of the town in order to raise public awareness about animal sentience and respect for nature.

The events will begin at 11 am with the presentation of an information booth which illustrates the history of suffering Artik, the Siberian husky at the hands of those entitled to her protection suffered brutal abuse. Also it will perform a mini Canine Education Workshop, which will present the basic skills to understand and comprehend, the dogs and the basic rules to develop a respectful relationship. Finally, at 12 hours calls for a concentration in the same place to express the revulsion at animal abuse.

Although the law sets out rules to know, protect and respect animals as living beings and part of the same common nature in order to give appropriate treatment and to avoid unnecessary suffering, the practice persists, not infrequently, in return the worst image of human nature: cruelty to which is subject to the weakest. You need to realize that the mistreatment of animals is a stimulus, and early warning, development of other undesirable behaviors. For this is the task of society to promote educational processes that demonstrate a sense of respect and protection for animals as living creatures and sensitive part of our nature. Develop educational programs where children form sensitive to nature and animals in order to help form good men and most likely responsible pet owners and protectors of nature ...

And also because of the holiday season, Ecologists in Action notes that "An animal is not a toy," the avalanche of acquiring pet as a Christmas gift, of which a large percentage end up being abandoned. Also worth recalling the various problems that are causing the "fashion" of acquiring exotic animals as pets, so we encourage you not to buy animals such as spiders, reptiles, parrots and other exotic birds and wild animals are not exotic ( partridge, finches).

And if you really want to help alleviate animal cruelty, you can adopt a pet (dog, cat ...) from an abandoned animal shelter. Before their rejection is the best gesture from abuse.

Thanks to EXTREMADURAPROGRESISTA

The extinction of species increases the occurrence of infectious diseases

The disappearance of all species, from bacteria to mammals, represents a threat to human health because it increases the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases, according to a study released yesterday by the journal Nature.
Protecting biodiversity is more than fighting for the environment as a rich variety of animal and plant species in ecosystems helps prevent infectious diseases, according to the detailed study by experts from the universities of Princeton (New Jersey) and Cornell ( New York) and the New York Bard College.
The work of these scientists, entitled "Impact of Biodiversity in the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases, reveals a direct connection between the two, to point out that the loss of species in ecosystems such as forests and woodlands resulting in an increase in pathogens.
Experts say that animals, plants and microbes that tend to disappear when destroyed biodiversity are those that dampen the transmission of infectious diseases like West Nile virus, Lyme disease and hantavirus.
"We knew about specific cases in which an increasing biodiversity decline in the incidence of disease, but we have found that this pattern is much more general. This decline increases the transmission of a wide range of infectious systems," said Felicia Keesing, environmental expert at Bard College in New York and one of the authors of the study.
This paper shows that this pattern is for different types of infectious entities such as viruses, bacteria and fungi, and a wide range of organisms that host, whether human, animal or plant.
"As species disappear, the disease transmission rates can be accelerated. If you protect biodiversity can reduce the incidence of established pathogens," said Professor meanwhile Drew Harvell, an expert in ecology and evolutionary biology Cornell University said in a statement.
The study's authors insist that, in cases such as Lyme disease, which can be transmitted to humans by ticks that carry certain animals, their incidence is higher in ecosystems where biodiversity has been reduced.
They claim, for example, that in places where there is opossums intact communities, the rate of transmission of disease to humans is reduced, because the ticks are capable of surviving in these animals. If the presence of these mammals decline, increases the chance of infection.
The study also shows that the protective effect of different species is clearest in the land than the oceans, and that they produce "a new equation in respect to the transmission of diseases, climate change and biodiversity" , according to Harvell.
"Outbreaks of disease are accelerating due to global warming and this happens when we do not know the direct links in the chain of transmission of diseases," said the expert from Cornell.
In the work of these scientists and experts also made an appeal to authorities to carry out a follow-up "more rigorous" areas where there are large numbers of domesticated animals or farmed, whether land or marine.
"That would reduce the ability of infectious diseases jumping from animals into wild habitats to domestic and then to humans," said Andrew Dobson on the other hand, a professor at Princeton University.

Thanks to SPECTATOR

Cuba discovered in a strange seashell-shaped ball vuvuzela

By: EFE

Is one of a thousand marine species have been inventoried in the peninsula of Guanahacabibes.

An odd-shaped seashell vuvuzela ball has been discovered by a Spanish-Cuban team of researchers in Guanahacabibes (Cuba), 750 km south of the platform "Macondo", the oil spill has caused a major ecological disaster the history of mankind.

The finding has occurred in the reef ecosystem Guanahacabibes, where the research team performed since 2006 the inventory of marine shellfish waters are home to the peninsula, according to Efe recounts one of the researchers, Leopoldo Moro, Biodiversity Service Canary Islands Government.

Leopoldo Moro noted that this curious shell, a true living fossil "worthy of being the mascot of the last Football World Cup in South Africa", has proposed a new genre, "Globocornus, Globus = globe, ball, and cornus = trumpet (trumpet ball). "

It has also dedicated his discovery to Charles Darwin on the occasion of celebrating the International Year of Biodiversity and the 150 anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species ", a masterpiece that changed the view of life on the planet, details marine biologist.

So the snail has been dubbed "Globocornus darwini" and is one of a thousand marine species have been inventoried in the peninsula of Guanahacabibes by this team of Spanish and Cuban researchers found among the authors of the discovery, Jesus Ortea, University of Oviedo, and Jose Espinosa, Institute of Oceanology of Cuba.

Both are leaders of a team which also includes, in addition to Leopoldo Moro, Manuel Caballer, the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC) that during the past six years have prepared the inventory marine western tip of Cuba.

According to Leopoldo Moro accurate, this area is considered a "hot spot" of biodiversity because the larvae are carried by ocean currents toward the American coast of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida, larvae that have the task of restoring the immediate future marine biodiversity oil affected by the disaster, he said.

In parallel, and the underwater cave Brains in the Canary island of Tenerife, the same research team has discovered another cave snail, the "Neritilia nataliae" the third Atlantic species of a genus with representatives in Sao Thome and the Caribbean.

Thanks to Elespectador

Nine rescued the 58 stranded whales in northern New Zealand

Nine pilot whales have been rescued from a group of 58 who were stranded on Friday on a beach in northern New Zealand, official sources said today.

Authorities found only 15 of the whales alive and managed to return 13 to sea for the weekend, but four stranding again and died, said Sioux Campbell, spokesman for the Department of Conservation.

"Fortunately, we have not seen the whales today, which is good news. We are very happy to have saved the whales with the help of the community," said Campbell.

About 70 volunteers worked tirelessly to keep afloat and breathing mammals despite weighing a ton and a half.

Two years ago, more than one hundred pilot whales were caught on the beach in New Zealand, Australia and the neighboring sees each year hundreds are killed marine mammals in their costs.

Scientists do not know the reason why some species of whales end their days on the beaches, and shuffled the possibility that sonar attracted by large ships or to follow a group leader disoriented by illness.

Thanks to ELESPECTADOR

Scientists Spot column of 35 km. spill residue BP

The oil spill from the well damaged in BP in the Gulf of Mexico released a hydrocarbon column of over 35 kilometers long and 200 meters high, situated at 1,100 meters deep, according to a study published today in Science.

The study, conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), said that the explosion and sinking of the rig Deepwater Horizon in April created a column of waste as natural degradation is very slow.

The WHOI team calculated the size of the column from 57,000 chemical analysis, made in June during an expedition aboard a submarine capable of exploring the ocean up to 4,500 meters deep.

"Not only have we demonstrated conclusively that there is a column, but we have defined its origin and approximate structure," said Richard Camilli Science, one of the scientists from WHOI, which indicated that the columns of waste were far , mere theories in the literature "scientific.

Camilli, who is also the lead author of the study, added that the levels of hydrocarbons detected in the column are "significant."

The team traveled in a zigzag column 19 times to determine its size, shape and composition, the study said.

During the tour, sampled through a tool that measures ocean conductivity, temperature and water depth.

Once in the laboratory, they found that the samples, but colorless and odorless, contained concentrations of hydrocarbons, including benzene, toluene, and xylene-etibenzeno more than 50 micrograms per liter.

This conclusion contrasts with that obtained by the U.S. government, which last August 4 presented a scientific report according to which 74 percent of the 4.9 million barrels of oil that spilled into the ocean has been collected since April , burned, vaporized or decomposed by natural processes.

"It has spread a rumor that the particles were being degraded oil naturally and easily. We have not seen that. We have seen that are still there," Camilli said.

However, scientists found "dead zones", ie areas of the spine devoid of oxygen which could not survive fish or other marine animals.

However, for the WHOI geochemist Benjamin Van Mooy, the study gives cause for alarm.

"If oxygen samples tell us that microbes are not close to degrading the oil well, oil could persist for a while. So it is possible that oil is transported considerable distances before being dissolved," he said.

EFE | CANALCLIMA.com

Espectador

Japan and Australia hosting 500,000 species unidentified marine

Australia and Japan host more than half a million marine species not yet identified by scientists, who work piece before they disappear because of global warming.

"Australia has a tremendous ecological interest, from coral reefs to the ocean floor," said Jesse Ausubel, a researcher at the Australian study, titled "What lives in the sea."

The rich ecosystem Australian bathed by three oceans and four seas, which extends from the Tropic of coral to the South Pole ice, hosts some 250,000 unidentified species.

"This is a great diversity of habitat and oceans that have only been partially investigated," said Alan Butler, of the Organization for Scientific and Industrial Research of Australia.

Most of the 33,000 species listed by scientists in Australia were birds, seabirds and marine mammals, and new fish and sharks, which represent 20 percent of marine life to discover.

In the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Australia, live in the greatest number of species such as corals, dolphins, sea turtles and pigs.

For its part, Katsunori Fujikura, the Agency for Technology and Earth Sciences and Sea of Japan, said oteadas 155 000 species have been in the waters of his country, a mere 30 percent of the total, only 33,000 have been officially registered .

"The cause of such diversity is undoubtedly due to the variety of natural environments found in Japanese waters," said Fujikura.

The Japanese marine environment, covering an area 11 times larger than its land mass, home to coral and marine ecosystems to 10 kilometers deep.

Due to the strong currents, only 5.6 percent of the species in Japan are unique on the island, while 19 percent of the 17,000 New Zealand marine species limit their habitat around the islands.

90 percent of marine life in Antarctica is more than a mile beneath the surface of the ocean and only 11 percent 9000, has been studied species.

"Most of the species in the Antarctic Ocean are rare. Half of the species on the seabed have been spotted only once or twice," said Huw Griffiths, a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey.

The research at the South Pole is essential to understand the process of climate change, as it is the regions most affected by global warming.

EFE | CANALCLIMA.com

Thanks to SPECTATOR