Rewilding & Conservation News and Discussions

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caltrek
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caltrek
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Serendipity on the Shore
October 4, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) For marine ecologist Kyle Emery, it was just another day on the job. Surveying the beach and kelp forest at Arroyo Quemada with his trusty drone, he was conducting research at a Santa Barbara Coastal Long-Term Ecological Research (SBC LTER) site, where scientists regularly measure the productivity and condition of the giant kelp stands and the organisms that live among them.

Little did Emery know that a casual conversation with a trio of people strolling on the sand would result in a generous gift to the LTER and related kelp forest research.

“As I was surveying, a couple and their friend approached me and asked some questions about the project and what research is going on at the site, out in the kelp forest and on the beach,” recalled Emery, a UC Santa Barbara Ph.D. graduate turned NSF Ocean Sciences postdoctoral fellow now based at UCLA . Ever the friendly researcher with a knack for public engagement, Emery told them about the kelp beds and the creatures that rely on them and on the kelp wrack that washes onshore, as well as the mission of the LTER to understand kelp forest ecology.

“They were curious about the project in general, and they mentioned being interested, and if they could learn more and contribute,” Emery said. “I talk to people while doing fieldwork all the time, but rarely do I encounter folks interested in becoming more involved.”

The couple, it turns out, included Bradford Jones — co-founder of venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures — and his partner, Julie Black. Their contribution? A $3 million gift to establish the Santa Barbara Coastal Research Fund, an endowment created to support SBC LTER leadership, undergraduate scholars, graduate and postdoctoral fellows and program operations. The funds will also go toward expanding research at the LTER and related work at UCSB’s Marine Science Institute.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/966852
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caltrek
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We Need to Stop Thinking of Insects as ‘Creepy Crawlies’ and Recognise their Keystone Role in Ecosystems
October 25, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) We need to stop thinking of insects as creepy crawlies and focus on the huge benefits they bring to people and the natural environment, scientists say.

The widespread and deeply engrained cultural perception of insects as creepy crawlies is a key factor holding back the public’s appreciation of the role they play within ecosystems. This perception is in part reflected in government biodiversity policy inaction across the globe, they argue.

This point is among a range of actions highlighted as part of a new paper published in Ecology and Evolution produced by an international team of entomologists which outlines a ‘battle plan’ including steps needed to prevent further insect losses across the globe.

Led by Dr Philip Donkersley of Lancaster University and co-authored by scientists from the University of Hong Kong, the Czech Academy of Sciences and Harper Adams University, the paper is a call to action targeted at other entomologists to step up advocacy for insects.

Despite 30 years of intergovernmental reports highlighting biodiversity targets, global insect abundance, biomass and diversity continues to decline. The paper considers the lack of progress in protecting insects and why meaningful change has not happened.
Read more of the EurekAlert study here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/969068

For the detailed paper in Ecology and Evolution: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.9417
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caltrek
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Well, here is an angle to "rewilding" that I did not expect to see. At least not so soon in real time.

A Second Chance for The Sumatran Rhino?
November 10, 2022

Introduction:
(Eurasia Review) Malaysia’s last male Sumatran rhino, Kertam, died in 2019. Now, a team from the Max Delbrück Center has successfully grown stem cells and mini-brains from his skin cells. As they report in iScience, their goal is to create sperm cells that may help to save the endangered species from extinction.

The Sumatran rhinoceros was once found across large parts of East and Southeast Asia. Today, poaching and habitat destruction have decimated the population of the world’s smallest and most ancient rhino species, leaving only a few dozen individuals living in the rainforests of Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo. As a result, mating encounters between males and females are increasingly rare.

The last of their kind in Malaysia

The Sumatran rhinoceros, which is the only surviving rhino species with hair, has been considered extinct in Malaysia since 2019 following the death of male Kertam and, just a few months later, female Iman. But a team of Berlin scientists led by Dr Vera Zywitza and Dr Sebastian Diecke, head of the Pluripotent Stem Cells Platform at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin, are not content with this. They and their international partners have an ambitious goal: to turn skin cells taken from now deceased Sumatran rhinos into stem cells, from which they can then derive egg and sperm cells to be used in assisted reproduction – in this case, fertilization in the laboratory. The embryos bred in the petri dish, which will be the offspring of Kertam and other already deceased or infertile individuals, will be carried to term by surrogate rhino mothers.

In the scientific journal iScience, the team led by first author Zywitza and last author Diecke has now reported an initial success: they have generated induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells for short, from Kertam’s skin samples. These cells have two key advantages. First, they are able to divide infinitely and therefore never die; and second, they are able to transform into any cell type in the body. For their recently published study, the group has already grown brain organoids, also called “mini-brains,” from Kertam’s iPS cells.
Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/10112022 ... an-rhino/
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ConcepcionMoore wrote: Sat Oct 08, 2022 4:10 pm Is it true that Giant Pandas are at risk of disappearing? I plan to do some research about it since I am a student at the university of biology and environmental protection. It is important to bring original information, so I would be thankful to collect data from this forum. Anyway, I don't get sad because I have ----link removed----- to avoid problems and be a student who is quiet about her work due to the free online plagiarism checker. However, I am waiting for your suggestions on the topic in DM.
So it was an advertisement bot for some plagerism checker this whole time. Here I was hoping you were some deep learning experiment or someone just having fun with an AI.
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erowind wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 8:56 pm
ConcepcionMoore wrote: Sat Oct 08, 2022 4:10 pm Is it true that Giant Pandas are at risk of disappearing? I plan to do some research about it since I am a student at the university of biology and environmental protection. It is important to bring original information, so I would be thankful to collect data from this forum. Anyway, I don't get sad because I have ------link removed------- to avoid problems and be a student who is quiet about her work due to the free online plagiarism checker. However, I am waiting for your suggestions on the topic in DM.
So it was an advertisement bot for some plagerism checker this whole time. Here I was hoping you were some deep learning experiment or someone just having fun with an AI.
That's for catching that, Erowind. The bot has been banned.
To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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Sildenafil 500g ----link removed-----
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caltrek
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Fifteen Ways to Reforest the Planet
November 14, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Scientists are calling for a ‘decade of global action’ to reforest the planet, following the overnight publication of a themed international journal led by researchers from Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast.

The landmark issue of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions reveals the latest scientific advances in forest restoration with the aim of benefiting people as well as nature.

“This paves the way for evidence-based, on-the-ground action plans for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration,” said Professor Andy Marshall of UniSC’s Forest Research Institute.

Professor Marshall said it was exciting to see the strong focus on forests at this week’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) underway in Egypt, with Australia joining world leaders in committing to halting forest loss and land degradation by 2030.

He said the recommendations in the new journal issue combined research findings with knowledge and experience from many countries.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/970883
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caltrek
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To Prevent the Next Pandemic, Restore Wildlife Habitats
November 16, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) ITHACA, N.Y. – Preserving and restoring natural habitats could prevent pathogens that originate in wildlife from spilling over into domesticated animals and humans, according to two new companion studies.

The research, based in Australia, found that when bats experience loss of winter habitat and food shortages in their natural settings, their populations splinter, and they excrete more virus. When populations break up, bats move near humans to agricultural and urban areas.

“Pathogen Spillover Driven by Rapid Changes in Bat Ecology,” published Nov. 16 in Nature and combines multiple datasets over 25 years. The data includes information on bat behavior, distributions, reproduction and food availability, along with records of climate, habitat loss and environmental conditions. The study predicts when Hendra virus – an often-fatal illness in humans – spills over from fruit bats to horses and then people.

The researchers found that in years when food was abundant in their natural habitats during winter months, bats emptied out of agricultural areas to feed in native forests, and away from human communities.

A second paper, “Ecological Conditions Predict the Intensity of Hendra Virus Excretion over Space and Time from Bat Reservoir Hosts,” published Oct. 30 in Ecology Letters, used data from the Nature study to reveal ecological conditions when bats excrete more or less virus.
Read more of the EurekAlert here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/971201

To read the Ecology Letters article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epd ... /ele.14007
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Nevada toad in geothermal power fight gets endangered status
Source: AP

By SCOTT SONNER today

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A tiny Nevada toad at the center of a legal battle over a geothermal power project has officially been declared an endangered species, after U.S. wildlife officials temporarily listed it on a rarely used emergency basis last spring.

“This ruling makes final the listing of the Dixie Valley toad, ” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a formal rule published Friday in the Federal Register.

The spectacled, quarter-sized amphibian “is currently at risk of extinction throughout its range primarily due to the approval and commencement of geothermal development,” the service said.

Other threats to the toad include groundwater pumping, agriculture, climate change, disease and predation from bullfrogs.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/technology-s ... m=HomePage
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