Food webs — the network of trophic (eating) interaction among the many species sharing a habitat or biome — is a much studied aspect of ecology. Food web and other similar phenomena such as dispersal syndromes are epiphenomena of evolution, resulting from the negotiation of competitive and cooperative interactions among many individuals. Indeed, the food web is the gross-level movement of energy within the ebb and flow of entropy and life-based energy capture. This flow of energy is fundamental to all life systems.
The delicacy or vulnerability of a particular habitat … the potential susceptibility or resistance to perturbation … may depend on the details of this network of interactions. If everything ultimately depends on a basal food type that goes extinct, for example, there could be big trouble.So, just as understanding any aspect of life requires that we examine historically ancient, no longer extant systems, we need to understand ancient food webs. But, a valid study of food webs requires a certain level of detail that is often absent from the data available for ancient systems.Moments ago, a study of Cambrian food webs came out in PLoS Biology. Continue reading Cambrian Food Webs
Tag Archives: Earth Science
Nature and Conservation News
Canadian panel: Climate change is threat to polar bears from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — A scientific committee that advises Canada’s government on endangered species said Friday that climate change is a threat to the survival of the polar bear, but the species does not face extinction.
[…]
Narwhals more at risk to Arctic warming than polar bears from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — The polar bear has become an icon of global warming vulnerability, but a new study found an Arctic mammal that may be even more at risk to climate change: the narwhal.
[…]
Ancient Soft Parts: Dinosaur and Elephant Tales
Some of my colleagues are downplaying the recent paper in science showing a: that mastodons are elephants and b: that birds and dinosaurs … in particular Tyrannosaurus rex and turkeys … are related. (See here and here, for instance)Yes, it is true that these phylogenetic findings are wholly uninteresting, being exactly what we expected. But that is WHY these particular phylogenies were carried out.You see, the research is being done with organic material that is very very old, and is amazingly, remarkably, unexpectedly and astoundingly preserved. The point of using this material to test a phylogeny that we already know is actually to test the material … the organic stuff in the ‘fossils’ … to see if it is for real.And yes, indeed, it is. Bits of rotted flesh from a mastodon and an old dinosaur exist. Ick.Here are the ancient elephant and the dinosaur resting comfortably on their phylogenetic laurels: Continue reading Ancient Soft Parts: Dinosaur and Elephant Tales
Earthquake Dangers
Did you ever notice how when there is one earthquake in the news, more follow right away, often leading to the impression that earthquakes come in clusters? Well, maybe they do come in clusters, but if they do, it is not the cluster you are observing on the news. That is entirely an effect of copycat journalism.The recent earthquake in Illinois was, unfortunately for the journalistic appetite, not followed by any other really interesting earthquakes. So instead, we have two news items about earthquakes that have not happened … yet … Continue reading Earthquake Dangers
Bell Museum Events Tonight and This Weekend
The Bell Museum, in Minneapolis, has some fun stuff planned. Continue reading Bell Museum Events Tonight and This Weekend
CO2 Emissions
Happy Earth Day
Happy Earth Day, Earth! Do you recognize any of these locations? Continue reading Happy Earth Day
What’s in the air?
Good question … what IS in the air?The simple answer is that the air … the Earth’s atmosphere … is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with a tiny amount of some other gases including water vapor. Then, there’s dirt. I want to talk a little about the oxygen, one of the other gases (carbon dioxide to be exact), the water vapor, and the dirt. Continue reading What’s in the air?
Climatology of Global Ocean Winds Atlas
Check out the new Climatology of Global Ocean Winds Atlas:
You can drill down to various segments of the planet (well, the oceans) and loot at wind patterns in great detail, with nice rose plots and everything. (Click on the picture to go to the site.)
Winds are the largest source of momentum for the upper ocean, affecting the full range of ocean movement, from individual surface gravity waves to complete current systems. Ocean winds modulate air-sea exchanges of heat, moisture, gases, and particulates. This modulation regulates the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean, which establishes and maintains both regional and global climates.
(From the users manual)So this is important stuff. And fun. Enjoy.
Dust in the Central Mediterranean
Earthwide Shakedown
Is the earth falling apart? Have they started using the Hadron Colider early and not mentioned it to anyone? Are we experiencing a Global Coincidence? Have science reporters suddenly gotten interested in earthquakes? There must be some explanation for the nearly simutaneious occurrence of a powerful 7.1 earthquake in the southern ocean, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano Exploding, an earthquake hitting near Rome, and unusual earthquakes off the coast Oregon all within one blogging cycle….Details: Continue reading Earthwide Shakedown
The Human Footprint (NGS)
Sunday, April 13th, 9pm ET/PT
Above-Average Hurricane Season Predicted
A noted hurricane researcher predicted Wednesday that rising water temperatures in the Atlantic will bring a “well above average” storm season this year, including four major storms.The updated forecast by William Gray’s team at Colorado State University calls for 15 named storms in the Atlantic in 2008 and says there’s a better than average chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the United States.An average of 5.9 hurricanes form in the Atlantic each year.”The Atlantic is a bit warmer than in the past couple of years,” said Phil Klotzbach, a member of the forecast team. “That is something we would like to keep an eye on.”[source]
Hydrothermal Vents
Did sexist white males cause the extinction of the woolly mammoth, or was it climate change?
Ever since 3,599 years ago humans have been asking the question “Why did our furry elephant go extinct?”What caused the woolly mammoth’s (not to be confused with the also-woolly mastodon) extinction? Climate warming in the Holocene might have driven the extinction of this cold-adapted species, yet the species had survived previous warming periods, suggesting that the more-plausible cause was human expansion.The woolly mammoth went extinct less than four thousand years ago. The bones of miniaturized woolly mammoths have been found in Siberia dating to about 3,600 years ago. Indeed, woolly mammoths, the furry elephant of the north, was around recently enough that it overlaps with the invention of writing by humans, and is depicted in a drawing on the wall of at least one example of a dynastic Egyptian building, along with a number of other unusual (for Egypt) but perfectly real animals. Continue reading Did sexist white males cause the extinction of the woolly mammoth, or was it climate change?