Ecological Interests

Proof that horizontal gene transfer can occur in Eukaryotic organisms

2012-02-03T06:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120201093100.htm

It has been thought that for a long time that Horizontal gene transfer only occurred in Prokaryotic organisms. Horizontal Gene Transfer is the process of crossing genes, DNA, without sexually reproducing. This process never occurred in Eukaryotic organisms, since they need to sexually reproduce to cross genes. According to Ralph Bock and Sandra Stegemann their is genetic information stored in the green chloroplasts that can be crossed with each other by horizontal gene transfer. Sandra Stegemann says "We found a completely identical version of the chloroplast genome from N. tabacum in the two other species. The new chloroplasts had kept their entire genetic information and fully ousted the old ones. They were even inherited by the next generation." This experiment was brought about by transferring genes of plants of the same species, which is what is shown in the picture above. It is known in gardening that people will try to plant a different species of a plant onto a different species of a tree in hopes that they will both grow together. As an outcome the two plants will fuse together and the seeds that fall off and grow end up having the same traits as the two parents. This phenomenon was the basis for the research and is the basis for what the researchers plan to do for the future. They plan to find out why this horizontal gene transfer occurs in plants and to find the pathways that cause it to happen.

This research was published in: S. Stegemann, M. Keuthe, S. Greiner, R. Bock. Horizontal transfer of chloroplast genomes between plant species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1114076109

Fungi may be our friends in tackling lead pollution

2012-01-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120112134318.htm

According to Geoffrey Gadd, a researcher at the University of Dundee, "The idea that fungi and other microbes may attack it and change its form is quite unexpected." The heavy metal, lead, is an important structural and industrial material that becomes harmful when leaked into the environment. This can cause people to be poisoned either through the water or through the plants. In the research I am doing on heavy metals in plants, one of the metals we are using is lead, the plants that grow in lead actually grow well. This can cause most people to think that the plant they are eating is healthy, but actually has lead that can cause their brain to shut down in painful ways. According to the researchers the they "carefully examined lead shot after it had been incubated with and without fungi. In the presence of fungi, the lead shot began to show evidence of pyromorphite formation after one month's time. That stable lead-containing mineral continued to increase in abundance with time. Minerals found on the surface of lead shot incubated without fungi represented less stable forms as a result of normal corrosion." It is said that not all species of fungus can transform the lead, but their are many that can. The researchers next steps are to find out why the fungus can transform the lead and to find ways to use it to rid of lead poisoning in the environment.

The findings reported online on January 12 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

"Miracle tree" extracts could supply developing nations with clean drinking water

2012-01-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120118112005.htm

Moringa oleifera aka-"The Miracle Tree"

According to Stephanie B. Velegol and colleagues the tree named the "Miracle Tree", located in equatorial regions of the world, has the ability to remove harmful bacteria from the drinking waters found in developing worlds. This is done by taking an extract of the moringa protein from the plant, which is positively charged, and mixing it with the negatively charged sand. This discovery opens up the possibility that bringing clean water to third world countries is not only possible, but can be cheap too.

This discovery was funded by the National Science Foundation, and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

One of the most endangered species on earth let back into the wild

2012-01-24T05:57:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120118111704.htm

Southern River Terrapin (Scientific name: Batagur affinis)

In 2000 the Southern River Terrapin was first seen in the Sre Ambel river after being considered extinct for many years. The species was only left with 200 in its population after hunters hunted the species for 20 years. These turtles were hunted to be sold on the black market to buyers in China as food. In 2011 this particular turtle in the picture was caught by local fishermen and brought to a wildlife reserve were it was monitored and nurtured. Recently this turtle was brought back into the wild by the combined help of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Cambodian Fisheries Administration, and Wildlife Reserves in Singapore. This turtle along will continued to be monitored by satellite by conservationists as they seem this is a great opportunity to have the species itself be brought back from endangerment. The turtle along with others was released into the coastal mangrove forests of Southeastern Cambodia in a 175 square mile area for the turtle to roam and repopulate. Dr. Sonja Luz, a Deputy Director of Cambodia's Fisheries Administration's Conservation Department, noted that "This project will contribute greatly to a much brighter future for this critically endangered terrapin. Hopefully, more public awareness and education opportunities will arise from this and allow us to create better protection tools and a safer environment for these amazing reptiles."

To me this is great news that a species that was once considered extinct due to humans hinting them for food and money still has a chance of recovery to be brought back into nature again. I believe that more regulation should be placed onto the hunting of wildlife as it can severely harm the environment and cause irreversible damage to species. It was only luck that hunters didn't notice the 200 that were left or they could have been extinct with no second chance.

Two species fight for title of "smallest vertebrate"

2012-01-21T06:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.livescience.com/17896-smallest-vertebrate-controversy-frog-angler-fish.html?utm_content=marleybonez&utm_campaign=seo%2Bblitz&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social%2Bmedia

male angler fish

Paedophryne amanuensis

Turns out their is more than one way to measure a vertebrate and these two species are proof. It was recently thought that a tropical frog, with the scientific name Paedophryne amanuensis, was the smallest vertebrate known at an average of 7.7 millimeters (0.30 inches) long. A researcher at the Burke Museum at the University of Washington argues that the male fish, called the angler fish, is the smallest vertebrate at a length of 0.8 millimeters (0.03 inches). So, to end the argument a group of researchers came up with the idea of measuring the mature species. This included both the male and female of the species to see if both of the sexes are about the same in length. The measurement of the frog species is the same for both male and females. The male angler fish measures at 0.8 millimeters, while its female counterpart measures at 46 millimeters.

This then brings up the question, which of the two species is the smallest? To me both sexes of a species should be taken into account, so the frogs would be the smallest to me. What do you people think is the smallest of the two? Leave your response in the comments section below.

Europe's birds suffer due to climate changes

2012-01-18T15:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120116095527.htm

According to Åke Lindström, a Professor of Animal Ecology at Lund University in Sweden, the number of birds and butterflies have increased northward. This is due to the increase in temperature in a northward shift of 250 km. The butterflies themselves have moved a total distance of 114 km northward, while the birds have moved a total distance of 37 km northward. This could cause a problem to the environment if the butterflies move too far away from the birds, or the birds don't move toward where the butterflies are located. The butterflies are a food source for the birds during the birds mating season, so this change in where the warm weather is located can cause bird populations to starve from lack of food and diminish in population number size. Åke Lindström quoted by saying "Over the past 50 years the main factors affecting bird and butterfly numbers and distribution have been agriculture, forestry and urbanisation. Climate change is now emerging as an increasingly important factor in the development of biodiversity."

To me this is a good example that our climate is changing due to us taking and abusing the planets resources. By taking resources from the environment we cause the environment to alter itself, so it can adapt to the lack of resources. Yet we never give the same resources back to the environment and if this keeps continuing the species in our environment will die off and become extinct even if we try to fix it. You can put them in a habitat to preserve them, but if the habitat itself is changed due to the lack of its own resources, then their is no hope if saving the species. Now this all could happen if we don't do anything to fix it and reverse it. I suggest we find alternate ways to use energy that we take for granted, such as using solar power instead of oil. We can even use research to find out ways to renew the soil, so the soil we grow crops on doesn't die out in years time. The environment changes won't affect us as we can learn to adapt to it, but if the species we cope with die out due to our own needs, then our world can be a much more empty and less beautiful place.

"Nourishing Gene" found in plants brings hope for increased crop seed yield.

2012-01-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120113102054.htm

Researchers at the University of Warwick in collaboration with the University of Oxford and with the biotech research company Biogemma have all identified a uniparental gene called Meg 1. This gene is identified in mostly plants, but has been identified in some human genes. This gene can regulate the development of the placenta to control the supply of maternal nutrients during fetal growth. This means that this gene can regulate how much nutrients are used in the plants that are mass produced and need a proper amount of nutrients to grow. Such as rice, which is used by more than 60% of the world for a main dish. According to Dr Jose Gutierrez-Marcos, an Associate Professor in the University of Warwick's School of Life Sciences commented on the finding by saying "These findings have significant implications for global agriculture and food security, as scientists now have the molecular know-how to manipulate this gene by traditional plant breeding or through other methods to improve seed traits, such as increased seed biomass yield. To meet the demands of the world's growing population in years to come, scientists and breeders must work together to safeguard and increase agricultural production." The discovery of this gene not only will help with keeping up with the demands of agricultural products, but also helps unravel the mysteries behind the gene pathways that regulate the nutritional content of seeds. This unraveling is what the researchers hope to discover as they learn more of Meg 1 and of other related genes.

This research was published in Current Biology under the title Maternal control of nutrient allocation in plant seeds by genomic imprinting.

Molecule found in earth's atmosphere could "cool the planet"

2012-01-13T18:26:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120112142232.htm

According to researchers from the University of Manchester, the University of Bristol, and the University of Sandia a bi-radical was discovered in earth's own atmosphere to be able to cool the planet. A bi-radical is a free radical or compound that contains two unpaired electrons. According to the researchers this was done by the chemical itself releasing powerful oxidizers such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to clean up the pollutants in the atmosphere. This chemical was first hypothesized to exist back in the 1950's, but due to our advancements in technology since then researchers have been able to use a unique apparatus that can rid of particular atoms of the same chemical make-up, but of different arrangements. Over the last 100 years the earths climate temperature has increased by 0.8 degrees Celsius with two-thirds of it coming from the last 30 years.

This does not mean global warming or the idea of global warming will go away anytime soon, but this does mean a step in the right direction towards a much grander scale of fixing our world . If they can find a way to clean up the atmosphere, then our air would be cleaner for people to breath with and greenhouse gases would be less effective than they have been for the past 30 years. I myself don't see it happening anytime soon, but in the future something like this could happen with enough time and research.

These findings and more have been published as a paper in the scientific journal called Science.

Climate change in mountains dramatically effects elks, plants, and birds

2012-01-12T07:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120110140235.htm

According to the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Montana study the decline in snowpack in mountains in Arazona has caused a dramatic change to the plant and bird population. In this deciduous environment the plants and animals would normally thrive on areas in a mountain that had a lot of snow pack. The elk population would not be able to reach those bird and plant populations in the winter due to the snow pack. But, for the last 22 years the snow pack has been decreasing, which caused the elks to be able to go to places they couldn't go due to the snow pack. The elk now eat the plants and disrupt the bird nests that thrived in snow pack areas of the mountain. The elk eating the plants and disrupting the birds nests causes both of those populations to decrease in size and for some birds to not nest in the area, which was once an area the birds would naturally nest in. It would cause those birds to seek other areas of the mountain, that had snow pack, to thrive off of and to be away from the elk. All of this occurs due to the climate in some parts of the world, especially this one in Arizona, changing and becoming warmer over the past 22 years. The researchers do not link this to global warming, but do admit that the warmer climate change has caused these problems to occur.

To me this does not relate to global warming, but is a sign that the mountains of Arizona need to be better taken care of so the climate can go back to what it once was. If it doesn't change I can hypothesize that the area will become completely different and cause species that once thrived their to not exist their anymore. Also, it can cause the environment to die out, since species that once helped benefit the environment would not exist to fill in the gap the environment needs to be able to co-exist properly.

A quote by USGS Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit scientist Thomas Martin about the climate change-"This study demonstrates that the indirect effects of climate on plant communities may be just as important as the effects of climate-change-induced mismatches between migrating birds and food abundance because plants, including trees, provide the habitat birds need to survive"

A world uncovered by 1st Antarctic deep-sea vent dive

2012-01-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=yeti-crabs-ghost-octopus

Scientists at Oxford University have performed the first deep-sea dive in Antarctica. Before this dive deep sea vent dives were done all over the world, but this was the first time hydrothermal vents were discovered in Antarctica. As Jon Copley, a professor of earth and ocean science at the University of Southampton, who participated in the research said about this exploration "It's only quite recently that we've been able to be bold enough, really, to head to the poles".

Underneath the surface of the ocean are black smoked geysers that average at a temperature of 382 degrees Celsius compared to the temperature of the water around them at 0 degrees Celsius. In the deep end of the ocean sun light is barely reachable for the ocean life, so the species must adapt to alternate sources of energy to survive. Such as, using CO2 as an alternate source of energy for the non-existent sun light. As shown in the picture yeti crabs all bundle together to hunt for bacteria that gathers on them to eventually be eaten by the yeti crabs themselves. Though, the seven armed sea stars prey on the yeti crabs just as the yeti crabs prey on the bacteria for food. As Alex Rogers, a professor of zoology at Oxford University, said about the deep-sea world "We were absolutely stunned to see the animal communities, because they were so different from the hydrothermal vents seen elsewhere".

This research was eventually published in the journal PLoS Biology.

Gerp's mouse lemur Discovered On Madagascar

2012-01-08T13:37:00.001-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120107151247.htm

A new species called Gerp's mouse lemur, scientific name Microcebus gerpi, was discovered on the eastern island of Madagascar in the Sahafina Forest. Scientists of the Institute of Zoology of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover captured several of these lemurs. They documented their measurements and took pictures of these species. These species of lemurs are considered giants due to their body mass of 68 grams, while most mouse lemurs have a body mass of 44 grams. Once data was recorded the lemurs were placed back into the wild, but raises new theories that their are new species to be discovered in the Sahafina Forest. To me this is great news that new species are still to yet be discovered on our planet. It shows that the world still has mysteries and marvels to yet be discovered. I for one hope to discover and study new species one day as my studies in the field of ecology deepen.

The researchers from Hanover/Germany, and Madagascar published their discovery together in the journal Primates.

Opportunistic mimicry between marble jawfish and mimic octopus

2012-01-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120104153747.htm

It was documented by Godehard Kopp of the University of Gottingen, Germany. In the article it states that the marble jawfish performs a form of mimicry to the mimic octopus to collect food and protect itself from predators the same way the octopus does. The jawfish is the same color as the octopus, so it blends itself near the tentacles of the octopus. The octopus seems to either not notice or not care of the jawfish's presence as the jawfish doesn't seem to be a threat to the octopus. The jawfish won't hurt the octopus, so they seem to coexist with each other. The octopus on the other hand can adopt characteristic undulating movements of other fish, and display bold brown-and-white color patterns. Due to this it can survive itself from predators in the shallow waters.

Wild Chimpanzees Inform Ignorant Group Members of Danger

2012-01-08T13:35:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111229131234.htm

Researchers, Catherine Crockford, Roman Wittig and colleagues, originally concluded that Chimpanzees did not have the brain complexity to point out the less intelligent and gifted in a group. But, according to their research, the Chimpanzees could point out the less intelligent in the group and create specific calls to warn them of danger. While the ones that are more aware of danger will not be warned as much with a call. This brings up the theory that the chimpanzees could have complex enough brains to have the same skills that humans already naturally contain.

Our global ground water is dropping drastically

2012-01-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337097/title/Groundwater_dropping_globally

According to this article our global ground water is dropping since many countries, including America, are using them faster than the water can refill in those areas.

Figure: This shows the amount of ground water in America as of resent.
This picture was taken by NASA and the German Aerospace Center and have been working together since 2002.