Archive for the ‘Ecology’ Category

Wildland conservation a tide that lifts all boats

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Conservation areas like national parks are often praised for protecting wildlife but also decried for taking lands and resources away from local peoples, especially those in developing nations. But now another study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,shows that protected areas can be a boon for local residents.

The authors investigated the economic conditions of people living near parks in Thailand and Costa Rica and found significantly less poverty in those areas. Though the data are averaged across the communities—some individuals or families may not benefit from the parks—they are a heartening result for conservation biologists.

This is not the first study to find some human benefit in protecting wilderness. An extensive earlier study found that protected areas attract capital for development, which in turn fosters population growth at the park edges and places greater pressure on the parks themselves.

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Giant worm disappoints—isn’t giant, doesn’t smell of lillies

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

giant Palouse earthworm

The giant Palouse earthworm is the stuff of legends. Reportedly growing up to three feet in length, the worm is also notoriously difficult to track down—so difficult that scientists in the 1990s believed it was extinct. And it supposedly smells like lillies.

But the recent discovery of two specimens of Driloleirus americanus by pedologist Karl Umiker and graduate student Shan Xu has undermined the veracity of the worm’s fairy tale-like qualities. Rather than unearthing two yard-long monsters, the pair found a small juvenile and an adult that “when we stretched it out and relaxed it,” Jodi Johnson-Maynard, Umiker’s supervisor and an associate professor of soil science, told the New York Times, “got bigger…between nine and ten inches.”

And the smell? Nothing like lillies, they report.

The adult worm had to be sacrificed in the name of science (the only sure way to identify the species is through dissection), but its DNA should enable less invasive IDs. The researchers coaxed (if that’s the word) the worms out of the dirt with electric current, placing eight electrodes in a foot-wide circle before giving them the juice. Umiker and Xu were likely surprised when the translucent worms emerged topside—giant Palouse earthworms can burrow 15 feet below the surface.

Photo courtesy of the University of Idaho.

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Move over biofuels: bioelectricity has your number

Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Bioelectricity may help plant-powered transportation boost its efficiency.

Bioelectricity may help plant-powered transportation boost its efficiency.

Biofuels have gone from transportation panacea to pariah in the space of a few years, but plant-derived motive power may be poised for a comeback. New life cycle assessments confirm the inefficiencies of using liquid biofuels for our cars and trucks, but so-called “bioelectricity”—electric power generated from biomass—seems to be a more efficient and climate friendly solution, according to new research published in Science. Battery electric vehicles that recharge using bioelectricity would travel an average of 80% farther per acre of cropland than traditional or hybrid biofuel cars and trucks.

Biofuel vehicles require few modifications to existing internal combustion systems, changes that cost manufacturers only a few hundred dollars at most. The liquid fuels also easily flow through the existing gasoline distribution infrastructure, so most oil companies’ decided to throw their weight behind them. Yet despite these advantages, biofuels production could expand cropland by millions of acres while providing dubious climate benefits. Turning those same crops into power for battery electric vehicles, the studies’ authors say, would help address both of those issues. Biofuels—regardless of source—lose out in part due to the inefficiencies of the internal combustion engine. While electric motors convert electricity to motive force with around 90 percent efficiency, internal combustion engines convert under 40 percent of the liquid fuel’s power to motion.

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