|
Study on Global Warming Rings Alarm Bells Global warming could cause ice at
both poles of the Earth to start melting this century, driving up sea
levels, according to a major study published by the British government. The
study, "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change", collates evidence presented by
scientists at a conference staged a year ago ahead of the 2005 Group of
Eight (G8) summit, where Britain placed global warming high on the agenda.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair added his voice to the warning yesterday.
"It is clear from the work presented that the risks of climate change may
well be greater than we thought," Blair said in the study’s foreword. "It is
now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with
industrialization and economic growth from a world population that has
increased six-fold in 200 years, is causing global warming at a rate that is
unsustainable." The consensus view among scientists, the document warned, is
of large-scale and irreversible disruption to the planet’s climate system if
temperature rise by more than 3 degrees Celsius above current levels. The
international conference, which took place in Exeter, southwest England, was
the biggest gathering of climate scientists since a landmark report in 2001
published under UN auspices. An increase of 2.7 Celsius above present levels
could trigger melting of the Greenland ice cap, the latest study said. It
said increasing acidity in the ocean would be likely to reduce the capacity
to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and affect the entire marine
food chain. Bacteria Aiding Global Warming, Experts say Yomiuri Shimbun The level of carbon dioxide in the
Earth’s atmosphere is likely to grow more than expected as soil bacteria, in
response to rising to rising temperatures, break down more organic material
and produce more CO2, according to results by an international research
team. The phenomenon will in turn accelerate global warming, and the team’s
findings serve as a renewed warning to the international community about the
need to further reduce CO2 emissions. It is estimated by scientists that the
average global temperature in 2100 will be 1.4 degrees to 5.8 degrees higher
than in 1990. According to the research team, however, the temperature in
2100 will be even higher, by up to 1.5 degrees more than current estimates.
The team of researchers from seven countries, including Japan, Britain and
the US, will publish the report in a US scientific journal. The result also
will be included in the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental
Panel for Climate Change scheduled to come out next year. Current estimates
on global temperature rise have been based on the amount of CO2 discharged
by industrial activity. Changes caused by rising temperatures in plant
photo-synthesis or the activity of bacteria will also increase CO2 density,
which had not been previously factored in. The new report was formed after
piecing together the results of 11 research teams, including the Frontier
Research Centre for Global Change and is the first international validation
of the ecological effect of bacteria on climate change. The team found that
discharged CO2 from organic material such as leaves and animal bodies broken
down by bacteria is larger than the absorbed CO2 from plant photosynthesis.
In addition, less CO2 will be absorbed by the ocean due to rises in water
temperature. ‘Study Climate Change Impact on Crops’ Noted scientist and adviser to the
Indian Space Research Organisation, M.G.K. Menon urged agriculture
scientists over the weekend to study the impact of climate change on crops.
He also made the point that genetic modification was not a panacea.
Delivering the 44th Convocation Address of the post-graduate school at the
Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), Dr. Menon said changes in crop
quality due to climate change could be of significance. "There can be a
major impact of events, including temperature rise and water availability.
Crop, climate and water cycles have to be poorly understood, as also spatial
and temporal scales of rainfall including distribution in growing season and
relative availability of water from stream flow or ground water. A great
more research to obtain primary information is called for as also modeling
exercise," he said. Global Warming Advancing at an Unsustainable Rate: Blair The threat posed by climate change
may be greater than previously thought, and global warming is advancing at
an unsustainable rate, Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair said in a report
published today. The government-commissioned report collates evidence
presented at a conference on climate change hosted by Britain’s
Meteorological Office last year. It says scientists now have "greater
clarity and reduced uncertainty" about the impacts of climate change. In a
foreword, Mr. Blair said it was clear that "the risks of climate change may
well be greater than we thought." "It is now plain that the emission of
greenhouse gases, associated with industrialisation and economic growth from
a world population that has increased six-fold in 200 years, is causing
global warming at a rate that is unsustainable," he wrote. Over the next
century, global warming is expected to raise ocean levels, intensify storms,
spread disease to new areas and shift climate zones, possibly making
farmlands drier and deserts wetter. The United Nations-backed
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says temperatures rose by about
1°Fahrenheit (0.6°C) during the 20th century. Computer modeling predicts
increases of between 2.5° and 10.4°Fahrenheit (1.4°C and 5.8°C) by the year
2100, depending on how much is done to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists have warned of climatic "tipping points" such as the Greenland
and West Antarctic ice sheets melting and the Gulf Stream shutting down. In
the British report, the head of the British Antarctic Survey, Mr. Chris
Rapley, warned that the huge west Antarctic ice sheet may be starting to
disintegrate, an event that could raise sea levels by 16feet (five meters).
Mr. Rapley said a previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report
playing down worries about the ice sheet’s stability should be revised. "The
last IPCC report characterised Antarctica as a slumbering giant in terms of
climate change," he wrote. "I would say it is now an awakened giant. There
is real concern." Mr. Blair’s vow to put climate change at the centre of the
international agenda during Britain’s leadership of the G-8 and the European
Union last year met with limited success. He was unable to overcome the Bush
administration’s antipathy to the Kyoto climate-change accord — rejected by
the US government on the grounds it would damage the economy. British
ministers have also acknowledged that Britain was unlikely to meet its own
target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2010. According to the World
Meteorological Organisation, 2005 missed becoming the warmest year on record
by the merest fraction of a degree Celsius. The past decade, 1996-2005, is
the warmest on record (if 1996 is taken out of the calculation). The earth's
surface has warmed by about 0.6 degrees C since the late 1800s, and the
temperature is expected to increase by another 1.4 degrees to 5.8 degrees C
by 2100. The culprit is `greenhouse gases,' notably carbon dioxide, methane,
and nitrous oxide. These are accumulating to unprecedented levels in the
atmosphere as a result of profligate burning of fossil fuels, industrial
processes, farming activities, and changing land use. The greenhouse gases
act like a blanket around the Earth, trapping too much of the heat that
would otherwise have escaped into space. If the Earth warmed further by more
than one degree C, it would be warmer than it has been in a million years.
James Hansen, a doyen of the science of climate change, recently warned that
if carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels continue rising at about two
per cent a year (as in the past decade), the additional warming would be two
to three degrees C this century, implying changes that would mean
practically a different planet. Global warming is likely to trigger
disastrous changes in rainfall and snowfall patterns. More violent storms,
floods, and droughts could occur. Melting polar icecaps would raise
sea-levels and inundate vast areas. Already, there are indications that
glaciers in the mountains of all continents, which feed many important
rivers, are receding. There is a growing global consensus about the threat
posed by climate change. The disagreement is on how to go about altering
human activities that unleash greenhouse gases. The United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, signed by 189 countries (including India), set
the goal of stopping dangerous human interference with the climate system.
Under the subsequent Kyoto Protocol, most industrialised countries committed
themselves to legally binding cuts in their total greenhouse gas emissions.
However, the United States, which emits much greater quantities of
greenhouse gases than any other country, and Australia have refused to
ratify the Protocol. India, China, and other developing countries have
argued they cannot accept binding cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions
without being provided suitable technology and adequate financial help. But
doing nothing cannot be an option for developing countries, which according
to one study will be putting out more greenhouse gases than the wealthy
nations by 2020. India can do much more by way of establishing good public
transport in all important cities and towns — making the railways the
preferred mode for long-distance transport of goods and encouraging the
development and adoption of cleaner technologies as well as of renewable
energy. This process of change must receive wholehearted support from the
public and the political system "Urban Development cannot Supersede Ecology Concern" The Supreme Court has held that
urban development and economic growth can not supersede concern for
environment protection. Sustainable development could be achieved only by
way of protecting environment and conserving natural resources for the
benefit of the humanity and future generations. A Bench consisting of
Justice Ruma Pal and Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, quoting an earlier decision
said "the aesthetic use and the pristine glory of the natural resources, the
environment and the ecosystems of our country cannot be permitted to be
eroded for private, commercial or any other use." The Bench noted that in
the absence of any legislation, the Executive acting under the doctrine of
public trust could not abdicate the natural resource and convert them into
private ownership or commercial use. Writing the judgment, Justice
Lakshmanan said, the responsibility of the State to protect the environment
was now a well-accepted notion in all countries. The Bench said: "Article
48-A of the Constitution mandates that the State shall endeavour to protect
and improve environment and Article 51-A enjoins that it shall be the duty
of every citizen to protect and improve national environment, including
forests, lakes and river." The Bench said "these two Articles are not only
fundamental in the governance of the country but also it shall be the duty
of the State to apply these principles in making these laws. These two
Articles are to be kept in mind in understanding the scope and purport of
the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the
Constitution and also various laws enacted by Parliament and State
Legislatures." The Bench was of the view that "the debate between the
development and economic needs and that of the environment is an enduring
one, since if environment is destroyed for any purpose without a compelling
developmental cause, it will most probably run foul of the executive and
judicial safeguards." In order to achieve a more rational and management of
resources and to improve the environment, States should adopt an integrated
and coordinated approach to their development planning so as to ensure that
development was compatible with the need to protect and improve environment.
The Bench said economic development should not be allowed to take place at
the cost of ecology or by causing widespread, environmental destruction ad
violation. The court was dealing with a petition filed by intellectuals
Forum, Tirupathi seeking a direction for preservation and restoration of
status quo ante of two ancient tanks on the outskirts of Tirupathi town
since the two tanks were converted for housing purposes and development into
a township. Disposing of the petition, the Bench felt that since much
development had taken place in the two tanks, it would not be possible to
restore status quoante. Sometimes solutions to large
problems can be fairly simple. Take the energy problem. Solutions focus on
redesigning the automobile, boosting the use of nuclear and other clean
energy and so on. But we could make a simpler start, says Matt Prescott, a
British environmental scientist. He wants a complete ban on the traditional
light bulb. The cheapest way for developing countries to make optimum use of
limited energy suppliers, and for developed countries to achieve cuts in
their carbon dioxide emissions, says Prescott, is to augment energy
efficiency. As a first step, he suggests making light bulbs – a major source
of waste in energy consumption – museum pieces. This could even encourage
people to ‘aim higher’ increasing efficiency in everything from hot water
systems to home insulation, thereby cutting Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.
After all, it is domestic energy consumption that causes more than 25 per
cent of the global GHG emission of carbon, sulphur and nitrogen dioxide.
Recent research indicates that the wider use of ‘green lighting’ can cut
this dramatically. Compact fluorescent light bulbs, for instance, use only
about a quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs to produce the same
number or more lumens. That they also last about ten times longer than
regular bulbs is a bonus. Compact fluorescents may be more expensive
initially, but the long-term savings would surely offset this. Light
emitting diodes (LEDs) also offer an excellent alternative to the light
bulb. It makes sense in energy-starved countries like India to have
regulated energy-efficiency campaigns that could reduce waste and pollution,
and stimulate innovation. Let’s start with light. The public should be made
aware of concepts like ‘task lighting’: concentrating light only where it’s
needed. This avoids waste of energy and since task lighting uses lower watt
bulbs, you don’t annoy others in the area either with an intrusively bright
light. The government could kick off the process by providing tax incentives
to manufacturers to market more efficient fluorescent bulbs. Hole in Ozone Layer Expected to Increase Adam David The hole in the earth's ozone layer
could grow significantly over the next few years, re-igniting fears over
skin cancer, cataracts, and damage to vulnerable plant life. According to
scientists in Germany, changes in the sun's activity have delayed natural
repairs to the layer of gas high in the stratosphere, and are about to
trigger further ozone loss. They say the ozone layer, which shields the
earth from the worst of ultraviolet radiation, will not begin to recover
until the end of the decade. Martin Dameris, who led the research at the
Institute for Atmospheric Physics in Wessling, Germany, said: "The ozone
hole will stay around for another four to five years. We can't expect it to
start to recover until 2010 and then it will take another 40 to 50 years to
repair completely." Ozone depletion is a largely forgotten problem since the
Montreal protocol successfully reduced levels of CFC chemicals in the
atmosphere, after British scientists in Antarctica reported they were
destroying ozone. But some experts have been puzzled by the layer's slow
recovery. The German team pins the blame on the 11-year solar cycle, which
makes the amount of solar radiation striking the earth periodically rise and
fall. Scientists already knew the cycle influenced ozone, but Dr. Dameris
says its role in controlling the layer's recovery has been overlooked.
Reporting their findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the
team says: "We do not expect recovery, but a return to stronger ozone
depletion and deeper ozone holes in the next few years in line with the
expected lower solar activity." The sun's activity is expected to fall until
the "solar minimum" in 2007-08. An observed increase in ozone between 1997
and 2003 is partly explained by a surge in solar activity from 1997 to 2001,
they say: "We do not believe a sustained reversal of ozone depletion started
in the late 1990s. A recovery is only pretended." They reached their
conclusions using a computer model that looked at how the sun's activity and
material spewed into the atmosphere by volcanic eruptions affected ozone.
They say the computer correctly predicted levels of ozone from 1960 to 2003,
making them confident it can accurately forecast what will happen next. Ann
Webb, an ozone scientist at Manchester University, England, said it would
take decades for the ozone layer to recover fully because the banned CFCs
degrade slowly in the atmosphere. Some chemicals introduced to replace CFCs
still damage ozone, she said, and there are worrying signs that climate
change may be making the situation worse. Scientists are particularly
worried that increased amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the
lower atmosphere could start to cool the stratosphere, accelerating ozone
loss. Deep Joshi Finally, things seem to be looking
up for Nainital’s lush green oak forests, which was getting lost to Bana – a
dangerous stem parasite. Thanks to the forest dept’s 18-day-long massive
‘Bana Eradication Programme’ which got underway here on Friday last, the
drive has kindled new hopes among the people. This, in fact, is the second
phase of the Rs. 12 lakh ‘Bana Eradication Programme’, which was initiated
last year as part of the centrally-sponsored multi-crore Nainital Lake
Region Conservation Project. The programme aimed at eradicating Bana from
the oak forests will also be taken up next year, informed the Divisional
Forest Officer (DFO), Nainital, Ashok Mehar. He told Hindustan Times that
foresters engaged in the task succeeded in ridding as many as 5,000 oak
trees of the dangerous stem parasite during last year alone. "We hope to rid
as many oak trees of the lethal parasite this year as well", the DFO said.
Around 21,000 oak trees on the hills surrounding this famous tourist town
were infected with Bana or Taxillus loranthus vestitus, he added. The forest
official, however, informed that in the current phase the ‘Bana Eradication
Programme’ was simultaneously being undertaken in the city’s polytechnic
area as well as the Snow View ridge. Mehar stated that the technique
employed earlier for removal of Bana had been slightly changed. "Earlier, we
used to cut the entire branch infected with Bana", the DFO said. "Now, only
the stem parasite is removed and the branch it has infected is left intact",
he added. Besides, as a precautionary measure the foresters engaged in the
‘Bana Eradication Programme’ were also simultaneously surveying all the oak
trees from which Bana had been removed last year. The initiative was being
taken to check whether these trees were still uninfected, informed the
official. He dubbed as baseless the allegations made by the ecological
experts last year that the foresters abandoned the infected branches of the
oak trees instead of having them properly burnt to ashes. "Those engaged in
the task of eradicating Bana this time around have been strictly directed
not to cut the infected branches", the DFO said. He, however, clarified that
the stem parasite was being properly burnt after being removed from the
branches of the oak trees. The menace of Bana, according to experts, is
spreading fast in the oak forests of Nainital, thanks to birds. The seeds of
the stem parasite, which have a sweet taste, are very sticky. Incidentally,
birds love to eat these sweet stickly seeds. When birds nibble at these
seeds some of these get stuck to their beaks and from there to the stems and
branches of the oak trees. The Amazon may be a
biodiversity-rich haven but it’s more like a desert when it comes to soil
microbes, while and arid desert is like a teeming microbial Amazon. At least
this is what two US researchers have found. Noah Fierer and Robert Jackson
of Duke University studied the diversity of soil bacteria in 98 locations in
South and North America and found that the acidic soils of the Amazon
rainforests harbour fewer bacterial species than the neutral soils of
deserts. "Qualitatively, there was no clear relationship between soil
bacterial diversity and plant diversity at the continental scale," they said
in a paper that appeared in the early online edition of the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences on 9 January this year. While the
temperature and latitude of an area largely determine its plant and animal
diversity, this cannot be said to be true of soil bacteria, they said. Their
studies revealed that the primary factor governing the diversity of soil
bacteria is soil pH, which is a measure of acidity/alkalinity. The pH scale
ranges from 0 (very acidic) to 14 (very alkaline or basic). A pH value of 7
indicates the neutral state. "Although soil bacteria have been studied for
centuries, fundamental questions (about their existence and diversity)
remain unanswered," said Fierer. "We probably know more about the organisms
in the deepest ocean trenches than we know about the organisms living in the
soil in our backyards. We step on soil every day, but few people realize
that ‘dirt’ supports a complex community of micro-organisms that plays a
critical role," he added. Soil microbes belong to two main categories –
bacteria and fungi. The diversity of fungi is known to a large extent,
thanks to several earlier studies. But very few extensive scientific studies
have been carried out on soil bacteria. "Given their importance, it was
really surprising that no one had tried to systematically explore the
pattern of diversity of soil bacteria on a continent-wide scale. Part of the
reason is that such a survey is technologically challenging, and it’s
logistically challenging as well," Jackson said. Soil microbes are crucial
for the cycles that make nutrients available to plants and animals, and for
much of the respiration that returns carbon back to the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide. They also give off most of the important trace gases, such as
methane, found in the atmosphere. It is estimated that a gramme of arable
soil has 100 million microbes belonging to 10,000 species. According to J.C.
Tarafdar, a soil microbiologist with the Jodhpur-based Central Arid Zone
Research Institute, it is known that the diversity of soil bacteria is
higher in neutral soil condition, while fungi are dominant under acidic
conditions. The soil in tropical forests remains acidic because of
large-scale decay of organic matter such as fallen leaves and trees. The US
researchers assessed the microbial diversity of their samples by performing
"DNA fingerprinting" that would reveal the diversity of a particular kind of
DNA called ribosomal DNA. This DNA varies considerably among bacterial
species, and so can be used as a type of genetic "barcode" to differentiate
species. While the technique did not tell the researchers how many microbial
species existed in each sample, it did give them a comparative measure of
their diversity, said Jackson. The analyses revealed large differences among
the samples in terms of diversity. The scientists then correlated that
diversity with environmental factors, including latitude, temperature and
soil pH. "As biologists and ecologists, the factors that we think of
typically as controlling plant and animal diversity didn’t seem to correlate
with the diversity of microbes," said Jackson, "Instead, the factor that
correlated best with diversity was the pH of the soil they were growing in.
It does make sense, since every biologist knows that when you culture
micro-organisms in the laboratory, the diversity and the health of those
organisms tend to decrease in more extreme pHs." However, Jackson did not
rule out the possibility of microbial "hot spots" that their broad survey
might have missed. The study also suggests that soils with similar levels of
acidity, even if thousands of kilometres apart, have similar bacterial
communities. According to the scientists, this was a first step to a better
understanding of what controls microbial diversity around the world. Such
understanding will offer important insights into the many processes soil
micro-organisms control – including the carbon cycle of decomposing organic
matter and the nitrogen-fixing cycle – both of which free nutrients for
plants. Microbes also control emissions of methane and other gases, many of
which are important greenhouse gases. Drainage Discharge Threaten Yamuna Fish Discharge of effluence into the
Yamuna river, due to cleaning up of choked sump wells of the area, is
threatening the rich aquatic fauna housed in the river, pollution control
board officials say. Discharge of drain water into the river since January
29 is reducing the dissolved oxygen (DO) levels of the water and if the
trend goes on for long, existence, especially of billions of small fish in
the river, will be endangered, they say. The level of DO and bio-oxygen
demand (BOD) has been on a steady decrease the first record of the
parameters on January 25, they said. "On January 25, the DO level at Vishram
Ghat was six milligram/litre and BOD 16.4 mg/litre. The count on January 27
showed DO and BOD levels at four mg/litre and 18.6 mg/litre respectively. On
Feb 2, the DO level slumped alarmingly to 3.8 mg/litre while BOD was at 17
mg/litre," the officials said. Below a DO level of four mg/litre, existence
of small fishes would be endangered, pollution control board officer Kuldeep
Mishra said. He attributed the slump in DO level to direct discharge of
drain water into the river due to cleaning up of the Masani sump well. A
request has been sent to the district administration to ensure discharge of
additional water into the river or to stop the inflow of drain water, he
said. "The threat to aquatic life will be over when the discharge of drain
water into Yamuna stops." Nodal officer of Yamuna Action Plan Rajeev Rautela
said. The "prince of whales," the
northern bottlenose that wandered off from its deepwater habitat and
perished in the Thames, has become a poignant symbol of all endangered
whales and dolphins. The failure of the internationally televised mission to
rescue this 18-foot darling has created a groundswell of sentiment and
opinion in favour of stronger conservation measures. Young people who
watched the juvenile cetacean die pitiably blogged their grief and pondered
solutions to a global issue. The northern bottlenose, variously christened
Willy, Wally, Pete, and Gonzo in the British media, is a member of a family
of deep-diving beaked whales. According to the Royal Society, they frequent
depths of 1500 metres in the North Atlantic Ocean in search of their
favourite squid. Like most other whales, they are an endangered species. The
heart-warming show of compassion in Britain would appear to support the `biophilia'
thesis of noted Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson — humans have an intrinsically
deep yearning for a close relationship with all things natural. In centuries
past, public sensibilities towards such creatures were less civilised;
records show that whales straying into the Thames used to be slaughtered. To
this day, these intelligent and social marine mammals are harpooned or
condemned to die in fishing nets round the world, unseen by most people.
Persistent hunting for oil and meat has decimated populations of the
bottlenose and the right whale in the North Atlantic. Others such as the
minke, fin, sei, humpback, sperm, and pacific grey whales are also under
severe threat. Japan, Norway, and Iceland continue to defy international
opinion and butcher whales. Haunting whale songs (such as those of the
humpbacks), which some compare with western symphonic music, are replaced by
shattering screams from the terrified creatures as they try to escape the
whalers' harpoons, shielding their young. Many are mercilessly struck and
hauled into factory ships to die a thousand deaths. This carnage, often
perpetrated in the name of science, must be fought with all the might of
enlightened public opinion. Member-nations of the International Whaling
Commission must end the massacre when they meet at St. Kitts in June 2006.
The Thames whale has raised the question whether military or other sonar
confused its echolocation system, a factor thought to be responsible for the
stranding of whales in many places. The growing view that sonar use by ships
belonging to military, oil exploration, and fishing fleets must be regulated
needs earnest consideration. More research on whales is an imperative. The
IWC recommends carefully crafted whale-watching programmes as a sustainable
activity. This should provide a viable alternative to coastal communities
that depend on fishing. In addition to economic benefits to the people
involved, promotion of whale-watching will help reduce the terrible loss of
whales and dolphins caught in gill nets. Ocean Space is Shrinking for the Sharks Alok Jha Scientists have found that 70 per
cent of the world's oceans appear to be free from sharks because the animals
cannot live below 3,000 metres. This finding raises fears about their
long-term survival. Being confined to the rest of the ocean leaves sharks at
greater risk of coming into contact with humans. Monty Priede, a marine
biologist at the University of Aberdeen, said: "Sharks are apparently
confined to around 30 per cent of the world's oceans, and all populations
are therefore within reach of human fisheries. Sharks are already threatened
worldwide by the intensity of fishing activity but our finding suggests they
may be more vulnerable to over-exploitation than was previously thought."
The average depth of the oceans is 4,000m and bony fish – relatives of cod –
often live at 9,000m. Sharks are present throughout the world and scientists
had hoped they would discover new species deeper down in the oceans. But a
20-year survey has shown that this hope is unfounded. "It's a fact that's
been staring at us in the face but we've never really expressed it properly,
one of the most important things about fish biology in the abyss is that
there are no sharks down there," said Prof. Priede, whose research was
published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. "It poses a
lot of questions about shark evolution: why the shark, which has had plenty
of time in the ocean to evolve, for some reason has failed to colonise the
abyss. There are deep-sea species of shark, for example the lantern shark,
which has lights on its belly, specially adapted eyes, but yet it does not
cope deeper than 2,500 m." But there are cod-like fish swimming around at
6,000m perfectly happy, is a big conundrum that has to be solved."
Scientists suggest that lack of food could be a reason for the absence of
sharks at lower depths. The discovery also raises concerns for their future
as in shallower depths they are more likely to come into contact with
humans, putting them at risk of being over-fished. The Portuguese dogfish,
which can swim down to 3,700m, has been reduced in numbers. Prof. Priede
said: "There’s no doubt they suffer very heavily from fishing, mainly
because they produce relatively few young – you can’t fish for shark in the
way you might fish for herring or mackerel." Scientists Discover Dozens of New Species in Indonesian Jungle Scientists surveying an isolated
Indonesian jungle discovered dozens of new species of frogs, butterflies and
plants, and glimpsed large mammals that have been hunted to near-extinction
else where, the team announced today. The expedition also found rare animals
that were remarkably unafraid of humans during the rapid survey of the Foja
Mountains, an area with over a million hectares of old growth tropical
forest in indonesia’s easternmost Papua province, said Bruce Beehler, a
co-leader of the month-long trip. The long-beaked Echidnas, a primitive
egg-laying mammal, simply allowed scientists to pick them up and bring them
back to their camp to be studied, he said, nothing that the enigmatic
animals were probably so unwary because they never had seen people before.
The December 2005 expedition, organized by the US-based environmental
organization Conservation International and the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences, was funded by the National Geographic Society, the Swift
Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Global Environment
Project Institute. Papua, the scene of a decades long separatist rebellion
that has left an estimated 1,00,000 people dead, is one of Indonesia’s most
remote provinces, geographically and politically, and access by foreigners
is rightly restricted. The 11-member team needed six permits before they
could legally fly by helicopter to an open, boggy lakebed surrounded by
forests near the range’s western summit, where they set up camp at an
altitude of 1500 metres. Beaver of Otter, it Swam with Dinosaurs John Noble Wilford In the conventional view, the
earliest mammals were primitive shrewlike creatures that did not begin to
explore the world's varied environments until the dinosaurs died out 65
million years ago. But scientists reported yesterday that they have found
fossils of a swimming, fish-eating mammal that lived in China 164 million
years ago, well before it was thought that some mammals could have spent
much of their lives in water. The extinct species appears to have been an
amalgam of animals. It had a broad, scaly tail, flat like a beaver's. Its
sharp teeth seemed ideal for eating fish, like an otter's. Its likely
lifestyle — burrowing in tunnels on shore and dog-paddling in water —
reminds scientists of the modern platypus. Its skeleton suggests that it was
about 50 centimetres long, from snout to the tip of its tail, about the
length of a small house cat. The surprising discovery, made in 2004 in the
abundant fossil beds of Liaoning province, China, is being reported in the
journal Science by an international team led by Qiang Ji, of Nanjing
University. In the article, Professor Ji and other researchers from the
Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing and the Carnegie Museum of
Natural History in the US said the fossil skeleton showed that some mammals
occupied more diverse ecological niches than had been suspected in the
Jurassic Period, in the middle of the age dominated by dinosaurs. Thomas
Martin, an authority on early mammals at Senckenberg Research Institute in
Frankfurt, Germany, said the new find pushed back "the mammalian conquest of
the waters by more than 100 million years" and "impressively contradicts"
the conventional view. "This exciting fossil," he wrote in a commentary
alongside the report, "is a further jigsaw puzzle piece in a series of
recent discoveries, demonstrating that the diversity and early evolutionary
history of mammals were much more complex than perceived less than a decade
ago. " Despite similarities with some modern animals, the Jurassic mammal
has no modern descendants and is not related to any existing species. It has
been given the name Castorocauda lutrasimilis, Latin for beaver tail and
similarity to the otter. Zhe-Xi Luo, one of the discoverers and the curator
of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie museum, said the specimen was
well preserved, unlike the surviving fragments of bone and tooth of most
mammals from the dinosaur age. Terry Kirby An astonishing mist-shrouded "lost
world" of previously unknown and rare animals and plants high in the
mountain rainforests of New Guinea has been uncovered by an international
team of scientists. Among the new species of birds, frogs, butterflies and
palms discovered in the expedition through this pristine environment,
untouched by man, was the spectacular Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of
paradise. The scientists are the first outsiders to see it. They could only
reach the remote mountainous area by helicopter, which they described it as
akin to finding a "Garden of Eden". In a jungle campsite, surrounded by
giant flowers and unknown plants, the researchers watched rare bowerbirds
perform elaborate courtship rituals. The surrounding forest was full of
strange mammals, such as tree kangaroos and spiny anteaters, which appeared
totally unafraid, suggesting no previous contact with humans. Bruce Beehler,
of the American group Conservation International, who led the month-long
expedition last November and December, said: "It is as close to the Garden
of Eden as you’re going to find on Earth. We found dozens, if not hundreds,
of new species in what is probably the most pristine ecosystem in the whole
Asian-Pacific region. There were so many new things it was almost
overwhelming. And we have only scratched the surface of what is there." The
scientists hope to return this year. The area, about 3,00,000 hectares, lies
on the upper slopes of the Foja Mountains, in the easternmost and least
explored province of western New Guinea, which is part of Indonesia. The
discoveries by the team from Conservation International and the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences will enhance the island’s reputation as one of the
most biodiverse on earth. The mountainous terrain has caused hundreds of
distinct species to evolve, often specific to small areas. The Foja
Mountains, which reach heights of 2,200 metres, have not been colonised by
local tribes, which live closer to sea level. Game is abundant close to
villages, so there is little incentive for hunters to penetrate up the
slopes. A further 750,000 hectares of ancient forest is also only lightly
visited. One previous scientific trip has been made to the uplands - the
evolutionary biologist and ornithologist Professor Jared Diamond visited 25
years ago - but last year’s mission was the first full scientific
expedition. The first discovery made by the team, within hours of arrival,
was of a bizarre, red-faced, wattled honeyeater that proved to be the first
new species of bird discovered in New Guinea - which has a higher number of
bird species for its size than anywhere else in the world - since 1939. The
scientists also found the rare golden-fronted bowerbird, first identified
from skins in 1825. Although Professor Diamond located their homeland in
1981, the expedition was able to photograph the bird in its metre-high
"maypole" dance grounds, which the birds construct to attract mates. Male
bowerbirds, believed to be the most highly evolved of all birds, build large
and extravagant nests to attract females. The most remarkable find was of a
creature called Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise, named after the six
spines on the top of its head, and thought "lost" to science. It had been
previously identified only from the feathers of dead birds. Dr. Beehler, an
expert on birds of paradise, which only live in northern Australia and New
Guinea, said: "It was very exciting, when two of these birds, a male and a
female, which no one has seen alive before ... came into the camp and the
male displayed its plumage to the female in full view of the scientists."
Gujarat: This Year, Migratory Visitors Spreading their Wings Looks like migratory visitors to the state are spreading their wings. In what’s good news for bird-lovers and the Forest Department, the number of migratory birds spotted at water holes across the state this winter seems to be on the rise. |
