Animal

Climate change is depleting deep sea oxygen, but tides are helping to keep the ocean healthy

Retrieved on: 
Dienstag, April 23, 2024
Heat, Wind, Water, Climate change, Farm, Research, Animal, Growth, Nutrient, Phytoplankton, Reproduction, Oxygen, Nature Communications, Celtic Sea, Aquaculture

That’s one reason an oxygen deficit deep in the oceans is a problem – and climate change is making it worse.

Key Points: 
  • That’s one reason an oxygen deficit deep in the oceans is a problem – and climate change is making it worse.
  • This is important because creatures in the ocean are reliant on oxygen to survive in the same way as animals on land are.
  • The tides act to stir up deep water nutrients, which promote the growth of microscopic plants known as phytoplankton.
  • Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue.

Why don’t female crickets chirp?

Retrieved on: 
Dienstag, April 23, 2024
Sun, Noise, Female, Human, Male, Plant, Leg, Behavior, Kid, Grasshopper, Arthropod, Firefly, Butterfly, Animal, Singing, Spider, Toy

Why don’t female crickets chirp?

Key Points: 
  • Why don’t female crickets chirp?
  • Among crickets, males are the only ones that make noise because females don’t have sound-producing structures on their wings.
  • But the female can hear very well and will come to a male who is signaling to her from some distance away.
  • You can learn to recognize them with a little practice, even if you never find the actual crickets.

Robert Adamson’s final book is a search for recognition and a poetic tribute to his love of nature

Retrieved on: 
Dienstag, April 23, 2024
ABC, Face, Philosophy, Elder, Empathy, Ageing, Life, History, Baruch Spinoza, Observation, Nature, Manuscript, Food, Hawkesbury River, Spin, Theology, Human, Magpie, Poetry, Shivering, Love, Autobiography, Imagination, Literature, Taronga Zoo, Classical pantheism, Anxiety, Argonauts, Animal, Parent, Terror, Domestication, Book

Birds and Fish: Life on the Hawkesbury – Robert Adamson (Upswell) In 2004, Adamson published Inside Out: An Autobiography.

Key Points: 
  • Birds and Fish: Life on the Hawkesbury – Robert Adamson (Upswell) In 2004, Adamson published Inside Out: An Autobiography.
  • Adamson grew up in Neutral Bay on Sydney’s lower north shore, which afforded him ample opportunity to pursue his interest.
  • It is a terrifying, beautiful scene, recounted not by the fallen boy, of course, but the poet he became.
  • What I think I was aiming for when I stared into each bird’s eyes was some flicker of recognition, some sign of connection between us.
  • What I think I was aiming for when I stared into each bird’s eyes was some flicker of recognition, some sign of connection between us.
  • Theories of recognition have a long history, which in the Western tradition date back at least as far as Hegel.
  • Read more:
    Poetry goes nuclear: 3 recent books delve into present anxieties, finding beauty amid the terror

Blunt and honest

  • This was the year of Mr Roberts, the teacher who introduced me to poetry and what they called nature studies.
  • This was the year of Mr Roberts, the teacher who introduced me to poetry and what they called nature studies.
  • It helped, too, that Mr Roberts “knew a bit about birds” and that he was encouraging about projects and assignments.
  • The young Adamson lights up, a recognition undimmed, even when a new teacher tells him “to forget [his] ambition”.
  • Nature was blunt and honest.
  • There was no third party, no good manners, no god involved – no reasoning or theology, let alone spelling and maths.
  • Nature was blunt and honest.
  • It is to do with the field of being; you can project yourself back to the original lores, rites and rituals.
  • It is to do with the field of being; you can project yourself back to the original lores, rites and rituals.


Craig Billingham has previously received funding from The Australia Council for the Arts (now Create Australia).

Vastly bigger than the Black Summer: 84 million hectares of northern Australia burned in 2023

Retrieved on: 
Dienstag, April 23, 2024
Research, Climate change, Season, Conference, Burns, Government, Great Sandy, Black Summer, Social media, Foot, History, Wildfire, Arson, Atmosphere, Fire, Rain, Animal, NT, Weather, Coal

Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires that tore through 10 million hectares in southeast Australia.

Key Points: 
  • Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires that tore through 10 million hectares in southeast Australia.
  • My research shows the 2023 fires burned more than 84 million hectares of desert and savannah in northern Australia.
  • In just a few weeks of September and October, more than 18 million hectares burned across the Barkly, Tanami and Great Sandy Deserts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Why did this happen?

  • When it dries out, grass becomes fuel for fires.
  • For example, you can see the pattern of more fire following wet years repeating at periodic intervals over the past 20 years of fire in the Northern Territory.
  • In this way, La Niña is the major driver of these massive fires in the desert.
  • In the NT alone, more than 55 million hectares burned in 2011, compared with 43 million in 2023.

How can fires be managed?

  • The sophisticated use of fire in Australia’s highly flammable tropical savannas has been recognised as the world’s best wildfire management system.
  • It also hinders the spread of fire because areas subject to more recent fire have insufficient fuel to carry new fires for many years.
  • Even though large fires still ripped through these deserts in 2023, by mapping the fuel reduction fires and overlaying the spread of subsequent wildfires, we can see the 2023 fires were limited by previous burns.
  • For example, the fire spread animation below shows fires moving through a complex mosaic comprising fuel of different ages.
  • Read more:
    Invasive grasses are worsening bushfires across Australia's drylands

    The fires of greatest concern to government agencies were the Barkly fires that threatened the town of Tennant Creek.

  • Read more:
    Indigenous rangers are burning the desert the right way – to stop the wrong kind of intense fires from raging

Preparing for the future

  • Desert fire management is still under-resourced and poorly understood.
  • Read more:
    Our planet is burning in unexpected ways - here’s how we can protect people and nature


Rohan Fisher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Curious Kids: who makes the words? Who decides what things like ‘trees’ and ‘shoes’ are called?

Retrieved on: 
Dienstag, April 23, 2024
Well, Name, Wood, Language, Shoe, Human, Tree, Drinking, Alphabet song, Letter, Animal, Typesetting
Key Points: 



Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? - Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria
Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? - Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria

  • Let’s start with the first part of the question: who makes words?
  • Well, there’s no official person or group that’s responsible for making words.
  • Mostly, it’s a matter of reusing words, or parts of words, and transforming them into new products.

Creating words out of ‘tree’ and ‘shoe’

  • One is to add things called “suffixes”, which are letters we add to the ends of words to change their meaning slightly.
  • It’s also possible to combine whole words to make new ones.
  • These types of words are called “compound words” — they are often written as two words (“apple tree”), but sometimes one (“shoelace”).
  • This is when we mix words together (sometimes they’re called “frankenwords”, itself a blend of “Frankenstein” and “word”).


Treerific (“tree” has been squished with “terrific” to convey something wonderful that is related to trees)
Shoenicorn (“shoe” has been squished with “unicorn” to mean an unicorn with magical shoes)

  • Words and parts of words can combine and recombine to create a never-ending number of new words.
  • We can also build words from the first letters of other words.
  • Finally, English is also a word pirate that steals words from other languages — more than 350 in fact.
  • This term for this is “borrowing” — curious, because English has no intention of ever giving these words back!

Early examples of trees and shoes

  • Okay, so what about the second part of the question: why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes?
  • Here’s a very early example of “tree” from an ancient poem written more than a thousand years ago.
  • This was spoken about 2,500 years ago, but unfortunately nothing survives of the language, or perhaps people weren’t into writing things down back then.
  • We can go even further back in time to the grandparent of English — a language called “Proto-Indo-European”.

The very beginning of trees and shoes

  • For centuries, people have wondered how words like “tree” and “shoe” were invented.
  • There are lots of ideas around, but we’ll never know for sure because people have been speaking for more than 30,000 years.
  • Remember what we could do earlier with just the two words “tree” and “shoe’!


Kate Burridge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Taylor’s clues and Ripley’s secrets – what you should see and listen to this week

Retrieved on: 
Freitag, April 19, 2024
Amorality, Psychiatry, Human, Noise, Music, Darkness, National Library of Wales, Mental health, Research, Sale, Politics, Talent, Design Museum, Suicidal ideation, Ambiguity, Animal, Love, Music of Wales, Emotion, National library, Singing

Over the past few weeks, Taylor Swift has planted clues about her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, which is finally released today.

Key Points: 
  • Over the past few weeks, Taylor Swift has planted clues about her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, which is finally released today.
  • The announcement of the album at this year’s Grammys took everyone, including her devoted Swifties, by surprise.
  • A popular theory among Swifties is that track five on her albums is where she really exposes her raw emotions.
  • Read more:
    I've researched Clara Bow – it's no wonder the actress inspired Taylor Swift's new album

What lurks beneath

  • In the film Sometimes I Think About Dying, protagonist Fran also has a lot going on beneath her calm surface.
  • A shy and withdrawn office worker, her days are filled with menial tasks and painfully mundane experiences.
  • The monotony of it all allows for moments where her mind wanders into darkness, imagining the various ways she could die.

Welsh up-and-comers and Italian greats

  • Singing is deeply woven into Welsh culture and traditions and it’s home to many greats – Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals and Manic Street Preachers to name a few.
  • I’ve been listening to one of their recs, Cerys Hafana, whose minimalist electronic folk draws on traditional Welsh music to create hypnotic tracks.
  • Read more:
    Enzo Mari at the Design Museum explores how the giant of Italian design saw his work as a political act


Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

Climate change makes life harder: in South Africa it’s likely to bring heatwaves, water stress and gender-based violence

Retrieved on: 
Donnerstag, April 18, 2024
Research, Water supply, Electricity, Climate change, Farm, Farmer, Disaster, Woman, Unemployment, Heat wave, Incidence, Livestock, Life, Air conditioning, Climate, Food, Food security, Drought, Death, Poverty, Flood, Biodiversity, Plant, Investment, Tourism, Water, Kruger National Park, Forestry, Heat, Coal, DSM-IV codes, Animal, Government, Sewage, Agriculture

Human-induced climate change made the severe 2015–2017 drought three to six times more likely.

Key Points: 
  • Human-induced climate change made the severe 2015–2017 drought three to six times more likely.
  • Our new report on Climate Change Impacts in South Africa has found that as Earth warms, people living in South Africa will face reduced incomes, less food and water security and a higher cost of living.
  • Our findings, based on a synthesis and review of existing research on climate change, are that climate change and socioeconomic risks threaten to bring about a huge change to this status.
  • Combating the impacts of climate change in South Africa requires adaptive measures, such as changing the way we farm, coordination by the government and international commitment to reduce emissions.

Heatwaves

  • Farm workers will be exposed to more extreme temperatures working outside and others will suffer from heat stress in their living and working environment.
  • Here's how

    Extreme weather threatens the plants and animals that attract tourism, and directly damages infrastructure at nature reserves, adventure destinations and parks.

  • Rising temperatures are projected to reduce visitor numbers to South Africa’s national parks by 4% by 2050, affecting the Kruger National Park most.

An agricultural crisis

  • Smallholder farms are often located in areas with less fertile soils or limited infrastructure, leaving these farmers more vulnerable to climate change.
  • Arable land suitable for growing crops is concentrated in just 12% of South Africa’s land area.
  • Therefore, any extreme event that reduces production – such as drought – can be expected to reduce job security and income for farming households and agricultural workers.

Water

  • Drought and floods damage transport links, public buildings, and water and energy infrastructure, and challenge the provision of basic services.
  • During the water crisis that followed the 2015–2017 drought, for example, reservoirs serving 3.7 million people around Cape Town dropped to 20% of capacity, leading the government to impose water restrictions.

An increase in gender-based violence

  • These gender inequalities include a high incidence of gender-based violence and a higher likelihood of poverty among women.
  • Research in other parts of the world has also linked rising temperatures with an increase in gender-based violence.

Solutions


Much of the country’s economic future hinges on the speed with which investments in renewable energy can replace coal and provide affordable and reliable electricity. Slowing down climate change will take a huge global effort and progress has been limited. The only alternative is to be prepared and adapt to the projected changes.
Peter Johnston receives funding from United Nations, NORCE, NRF

Things that go buzz in the night – our global study found there really are more insects out after dark

Retrieved on: 
Donnerstag, April 18, 2024
Pollination, Temperature, Bee, Wetland, Environment, Science, Moth, Ant, Swimming, Climate, Sleep, Research, News, Thermoregulation, Human, Water, Honey, Literature, Pest control, Data, Animal, Wasp, Agriculture

We searched for meaningful comparisons of insect activity by day and by night.

Key Points: 
  • We searched for meaningful comparisons of insect activity by day and by night.
  • Our global analysis confirms there are indeed more insects out at night than during the day, on average.
  • And now we know for sure, we can make more strident efforts to conserve insects and preserve their vital place in the natural world.

Building a global dataset of sleepless nights

  • We narrowed these down to studies using methods that would not influence the results.
  • For instance, we excluded studies that collected insects by using sweep nets or beating branches, as these methods can capture resting insects along with active ones.
  • These include pitfall traps (for crawling insects), flight interception traps (for flying insects) and aquatic drift nets (for swimming insects).


Eventually, we honed in on 99 studies published between 1959 and 2022. These studies spanned all continents except Antarctica and encompassed a wide range of habitats on both land and water.

What did we find?


We found more mayflies, caddisflies, moths and earwigs at night. On the other hand, there were more thrips, bees, wasps and ants during the day.

  • In these aquatic areas, there could be twice as many insects active during the night.
  • In contrast, land-based insects were generally more active during the day, especially in grasslands and savannas.
  • We also found insects were more active at night in warmer parts of the globe, where there are higher maximum temperatures.

Findings underscore the threats to nocturnal insects


Insects perform many vital “ecosystem services” such as pollination, nutrient cycling and pest control. Many of these services may be provided at night, when more insects are active. This means we need to curtail some of our own activities to support theirs. For instance, artificial lighting is detrimental to nocturnal insects.

  • In the hottest regions of the globe such as the tropics, the warming trend may further reduce the activity of nocturnal insects that struggle to cope with heat.
  • Read more:
    Insects will struggle to keep pace with global temperature rise – which could be bad news for humans


The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Draft guideline on good agricultural and collection practice (GACP) for starting materials of herbal origin - Revision 1

Retrieved on: 
Donnerstag, April 18, 2024
Reproduction, SCOPE, Eating, Pesticide, Convention, Change control, Confusion, Alkaloid, Climate, Fungus, Directive (European Union), Ethylene oxide, Wind, Wood, Glass, European Medicines Agency, HMPS, QDG, Hygiene, Water, Marketing, Fertilizer, Legislation, Manure, Distillation, Risk, Education, Committee, Compost, Draft, Policy, Person, EMA, Seed, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, Collection, Freezing, GMP, Risk assessment, GACP, Sunlight, Fermentation, Personal protective equipment, Animal, Herbal, Herbicide, Weather, INTRODUCTION, Documentation, Regeneration, Decontamination, EudraLex, Disease, International trade, European Pharmacopoeia, Part, Livestock, Public, Inhalation, Knowledge, Seedling, Factorization of polynomials, Record, Plant, Skin, API, Irrigation, Part Two, Soil, Directive, Pharmacopoeia, Codex, Guideline, Temperature, Attention, Hydrocarbon, Pyrrolizidine alkaloid, Polychlorinated biphenyl, Growth, Rotation, Incineration, Environment, Humidity, Smell, Ventilation, Light, Bird, Mineral, Fumigation, Pyrrolizidine, SOP, Housing, Smoking, Atmosphere, Postharvest, Rain, Liver, QWP, Medicinal plants

REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 14

Key Points: 
    • REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 14

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      Guideline on Good Agricultural and Collection Practice (GACP) for starting materials of herbal origin
      EMA/HMPC/246816/2005

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      EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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      This guideline on Good Agricultural and Collection Practice (GACP) for starting materials of herbal origin

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      1.

    • Due to the inherent
      complexity of medicinal plants and herbal substances the quality of these starting materials requires an
      adequate quality assurance system for the collection and/or cultivation, harvest, and primary
      processing.
    • (either outdoor, indoor or in greenhouses) should be carefully considered, since each of the mentioned
      types could have several problems and advantages.
    • The used cultivation method may be dependent on
      the final application of the herbal medicinal product.
    • primary processing of herbal substances that are used for the preparation of herbal medicinal products.
    • medicinal plants and herbal substances, ensuring that they are handled appropriately throughout all
      stages of cultivation, collection, processing and storage.
    • their preparations are exposed to a large number of environmental contaminants of both biotic and
      abiotic origin.
    • to existing wildlife habitats and must adhere to CITES (Convention on International Trade in
      Endangered species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
    • https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/bd537ccf-9271-4230-bca1-2d...
      4 https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/fd318dd6-2404-4e67-82b0232...
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    • Where possible, stable varieties and cultivars naturally
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      resistant or tolerant to disease should preferably be used.

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      The application should be carried out only by qualified staff using approved equipment.

    • The following should be noted:

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      Damaged plants or plant parts need to be excluded or limited in accordance with a specific
      pharmacopoeia monograph, where relevant.

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      directly to the sun (except in cases where there is a specific need) and must be protected from
      rainfall, insect infestation, etc.

    • The label must be clear, permanently fixed and made from

      6

      Reflection paper on the use of fumigants (EMEA/HMPC/125562/2006)

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      non-toxic material.

    • Certain exudates that have not been subjected to a specific treatment are

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      also considered to be herbal substances.

    • European Pharmacopoeia General Monograph ?HERBAL DRUGS? 07/2017:1433

      Are obtained by subjecting herbal substances to treatments such as
      extraction, distillation, expression, fractionation, purification, concentration
      or fermentation.

EMA/FVE info session on restrictions for the use of certain antimicrobials in animals, Online, European Medicines Agency, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 23 May 2024, 15:00 (CEST) to 23 May 2024, 16:00 (CEST)

Retrieved on: 
Donnerstag, April 18, 2024
Location, Public, Regulation, EMA, Human, Risk, AMR, Science, Veterinarian, Agency, WHO, Animal, Cisco Webex, Vaccine

During this session, participants will have the opportunity to engage with experts who contributed to the development of the available guidance.

Key Points: 
  • During this session, participants will have the opportunity to engage with experts who contributed to the development of the available guidance.
  • Registration
    Please register for the webinar using the below online form:
    EMA/FVE info session on restrictions for the use of certain antimicrobials in animals
    Please note this event will be recorded and published on the EMA website.
  • By registering for this event, you are consenting to EMA to process your personal data in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.
  • EMA's data protection notice below explains how personal data is processed by the Agency and via the tool Webex: