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Ring-necked Pheasant / Photo by Mike Guyant (USFWS) |
Birds and birding
Nature and science blogging
Environment and biodiversity
- New research highlights the agricultural importance of wild pollinators, which are in steep decline for a variety of reasons. Wild pollinators are twice as effective as honey bees at pollinating crops and are better at providing cross pollination. A second study estimates that half of the native bee species in the U.S. went extinct during the 20th century.
- Shell will not drill in the Arctic in 2013 due to continuing problems with its drill ships.
- While numerous politicians continue to deny the existence of climate change, the US Navy is forging ahead with plans to address climate change, from switching to renewable fuels to adapting to changed ocean conditions.
- Highlands, New Jersey, is considering a plan to raise its downtown to cope with storms and rising sea levels.
- Low-lying areas along the East Coast are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of subsidence, and climate change is already costing residents of those areas a lot of money.
- A study by Oceana found widespread mislabeling of seafood, with over one third of the fish sampled bearing the wrong label. Most fish labeled "white tuna" are actually escolar, a fish that can cause uncontrolled diarrhea.
- Earlier this week a sensationalized photo of a sea lamprey caught in New Jersey made the rounds. Less well publicized was the news that the sea lamprey genome has been sequenced.
- In Puerto Rice, the coquí, a tiny tree frog, is becoming emblematic of the need to address climate change. Coquí species are threatened by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, whose spread is aided by climate change, and three coquí species have already gone extinct.