ecosystem importance (Introduction)
by David Turell 
, Tuesday, December 07, 2021, 19:28 (864 days ago)
Another example:
https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/ANx0W552sO2qYa-xkQ0jSJ1NDhU?.intl=us&.p...
"Part of what makes the Serengeti so special is the astonishing array of life it contains—a deeply interconnected web of thousands of animal and plant species. There are, of course, the safari favorites—elephant, lion, rhino, hippo, cheetah (pictured above), and giraffe. But there are multitudes of creatures that get little attention—the African fish eagle (a near doppelganger for the American bald eagle), the tree hyrax (a tiny distant relative of the elephant), and a hundred species of dung beetles (which navigate by the Milky Way).
***
"Since the 1970s, scientists have understood that the key bellwether for the health of the Serengeti is the wildebeest. The ecosystem relies disproportionately on the more than one million wildebeest moving steadily clockwise around the region, following the pattern of seasonal rains. This spectacular interactive map explains how the migration causes everything to flourish—trees and grasses, insects and birds, predators and prey.
"But the surge of human activity has squeezed the wildebeest migration routes, raising concerns about this crucial piece of the Serengeti puzzle. According to Joseph Ogutu, a Kenyan statistician whose specialty is counting wildlife populations and modeling how they will change, the number of wildebeests migrating from Tanzania into Kenya is declining, and those that do come are spending up to one and a half months fewer per year than they used to.
"In addition to the wildebeest, Kenyan conservationist and Nat Geo Explorer Paula Kahumbu points out other animals that serve as barometers to the Serengeti’s health. The greater kudu, common duiker, bushbuck, bushpig, giant forest hog, oribi, colobus monkey, sable antelope, roan antelope, and black rhino are all species that safari guides report have disappeared or nearly disappeared in recent years.
"To change course, Ogutu cites the need to reduce fencing in key areas and enact better policies regarding grazing, but he especially emphasizes the need to set aside land to protect the wildebeest migration route because, as Tanzanian ecologist Tony Sinclair has pointed out, “Without the wildebeest, there would be no Serengeti.”
Comment: as usual too many humans are getting in the way. This is a beautiful example of an important very complex system which is an answer to why dhw thinks God made too many animals on His way to producing humans. All those animals are necessary for the proper balance. Just imagine the chaos if all the lions disappeared, as the absent wolves in Yellowstone.
ecosystem importance: geckos special diet
by David Turell , Wednesday, January 05, 2022, 20:23 (835 days ago) @ David Turell
Geckos in a very hot climate find food:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/spider-gecko-earth-hottest-landscape
"Surface temperatures in the Lut Desert in Iran, home to the Misonne’s spider gecko (Rhinogecko misonnei), soar past 65° Celsius more frequently than anywhere else on the planet. The extreme heat makes it difficult for life to thrive, and for years, ecologists have regarded the desert as mostly barren.
"To find out how the geckos sustain themselves in this desolate oven, entomologist Hossein Rajaei of the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany and colleagues analyzed the stomach contents of six geckos using DNA metabarcoding (SN: 4/18/16). The technique compares chunks of DNA with a species identification database, like a bar code scanner in a grocery store. “It’s very accurate, very comprehensive and very trustable,” Rajaei says.
"Within the geckos’ digestive soup stewed DNA from 94 species, about 81 percent of which hail from outside the Lut Desert, the team reports November 18 in the Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research.
"The majority of these outsiders were winged insects such as flies, moths and wasps that migrate through the desert from bordering temperate landscapes. The remaining species — arachnids, arthropods and more moths — are endemic to the Lut, but are elusive in its heart, where the geckos were collected. The unexpected diversity highlights that there’s more living in this desert than meets the eye, Rajaei says.
"The findings underscore the importance of intertwined food webs for animals to survive in hostile habitats, says Robert Pringle, an ecologist at Princeton University who was not involved in the research. “The movement of insects from outside the immediate area subsidizes the geckos and helps them to persist in this extreme desert environment,” he says."
Comment: same old. All ecosystems are complex and required by all living organisms for food energy. This clearly explains the huge branched bush of life that evolution created, a point dhw disputes when he laughs at the theory that God wanted to create humans and their food. We are here. Of course He did.
ecosystem importance: antibiotic resistance
by David Turell , Saturday, January 08, 2022, 18:45 (832 days ago) @ David Turell
All part of eat or be eaten:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/drug-resistant-bacteria-hedgehog-mrsa
"Beneath the prickly spines of European hedgehogs, a microbial standoff may have bred a dangerous drug-resistant pathogen long before the era of antibiotic use in humans.
"It’s no question that antibiotic use accelerates drug-resistance in bacteria that colonize humans, says Jesper Larsen, a veterinarian at Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen. But, he says, these microbes had to get the genes to give them resistance from somewhere, and scientists don’t know where most of these genes come from.
"Now, for one type of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, Larsen and colleagues have tracked its evolution to hedgehogs hundreds of years ago. On the skin of these critters, a fungus that produces natural antibiotics may have created the environment for drug resistance to evolve in the bacteria, the researchers report January 5 in Nature.
***
“'There is no doubt that our usage of antibiotics is the main driver of resistance in human pathogens,” says Anders Larsen, a microbiologist at Statens Serum Institut who was also was part of the team. “This is a very special case where we can just track it back to an origin.”
"But that doesn’t explain how the hedgehogs’ S. aureus developed resistance. The team got a clue from a 1960s research study about Trichophyton erinacei, a fungus that causes “hedgehog ringworm” in humans. That study reported that T. erinacei on hedgehog skin killed some S. aureus but not others that were resistant to penicillin. Growing T. erinacei in the lab, the researchers identified two penicillin-like antibiotics pumped out by the fungi.
"This findings suggests that hedgehogs are a MRSA reservoir because “they’re living cheek by jowl with organisms that are producing penicillin,” says Gerry Wright, a biochemist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, who was not involved with the study. (my bold)
***
"The history of antibiotics in the last century is a cycle of new drug discoveries shortly followed by microbial resistance cropping up to those drugs. That shouldn’t be a surprise, Wright says. “Because antibiotics have been on the planet for billions of years, and resistance is billions of years old,” he says." (my bold 2)
Comment: None of this is surprising information. The Earth is a giant restaurant. All life must have continuous energy supply to live. From the theodicy viewpoint it is impossible to create life not needing energy supplies. All organisms live in their own organized ecosystem, the complexities of which have been shown here. They have developed since the start of life and its diversification. The MRSA staph aureus happily live in their own ecosystem until they try to eat in the wrong places and then there is a battle. Stay in their system and nothing goes bad or wrong. In an eat or be eaten world it is only logical that all organisms have defense systems as this article shows, in case the wrong folks mix together. In dhw's imagined God's free-for-all world this outcome is ordained to happen. In the real God's reality, it is required by necessary diversification to form sustaining ecosystems for the food supply. So I view bad infectious diseases as unescapable bad luck, not my God's doing.
As an aside, in the theodicy arena of discussion, this does not enter the realm of metabolic errors, which have been discussed in the past
ecosystem importance: antibiotic resistance
by David Turell , Monday, January 10, 2022, 18:43 (830 days ago) @ David Turell
I'm not sure I've seen a reasonable response to this comment:
The Earth is a giant restaurant. All life must have continuous energy supply to live. From the theodicy viewpoint it is impossible to create life not needing energy supplies. All organisms live in their own organized ecosystem, the complexities of which have been shown here. They have developed since the start of life and its diversification. The MRSA staph aureus happily live in their own ecosystem until they try to eat in the wrong places and then there is a battle. Stay in their system and nothing goes bad or wrong. In an eat or be eaten world it is only logical that all organisms have defense systems as this article shows, in case the wrong folks mix together. In dhw's imagined God's free-for-all world this outcome is ordained to happen. In the real God's reality, it is required by necessary diversification to form sustaining ecosystems for the food supply. So I view bad infectious diseases as unescapable bad luck, not my God's doing.
As an aside, in the theodicy arena of discussion, this does not enter the realm of metabolic errors, which have been discussed in the past
I've not copied the previous entry but the source article is there for review
ecosystem importance: example of pathogens fight hosts
by David Turell , Friday, January 14, 2022, 19:06 (826 days ago) @ David Turell
Breaking up the mitochondrial membrane:
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-pathogens-mitochondrial-defense-mechanisms.html
"Mitochondria are known as energy suppliers for our cells, but they also play an important role in the defense against pathogens. They can initiate immune responses, and deprive pathogens of the nutrients they need to grow. A research team led by Lena Pernas of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany, has now shown that pathogens can turn off mitochondrial defense mechanisms by hijacking a normal cellular response to stress.
"To survive, pathogens need to acquire nutrients from their host and counter host defenses. One such defense comes from host mitochondria, which can deprive them of nutrients they need and thus restrict their growth. "We wanted to know how else mitochondrial behavior changes when mitochondria and pathogens meet in cells. Because the outer membrane of these organelles is the first point of contact with the pathogens, we took a closer look at it," explains Lena Pernas, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing.
"The researchers infected cells with the human parasite Toxoplasma gondii and observed live under the microscope what happens to the outer compartment of mitochondria. "We saw that mitochondria in contact with the parasite started shedding large structures from their outer membrane. This was so puzzling to us. Why would mitochondria shed what is essentially the gateway between them and the rest of the cell?" says Xianhe Li, first author of the study.
"But how does the parasite get the mitochondria to do it? The research team was able to show that the pathogen has a protein that functionally mimics a host mitochondrial protein. It binds to a receptor on the outer membrane of mitochondria, to gain access to the machinery that ensures proteins are transported inside the mitochondria. "In doing so, the parasite hijacks a normal host response to mitochondrial stress that, in the context of infection, effectively disarms the mitochondria" Pernas said. "Other researchers have shown that a SARS-CoV-2 virus protein also binds to this transport receptor. This suggests the receptor plays an important role in the host-pathogen interaction. But further investigation is needed to better understand its role during different infections.'"
Comment: its eat or die out there. This is another example of the war over food supply. It has been and will be continuous in every ecosystem. We humans are top predators, and must always recognize not to damage our food systems. Our advantage is that we can think, analyze, and correct mistakes.
ecosystem importance: example of pathogens fight hosts
by David Turell , Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 19:04 (822 days ago) @ David Turell
Phages killing bacteria used in therapy:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2304997-phage-therapies-for-superbug-infections-ar...
"The use of bacteria-killing viruses known as phages to treat antibiotic-resistant infections is starting to take off in Belgium. More than 100 people have now been given phage therapies there, thanks to a regulatory system that makes it easier for doctors to prescribe them.
***
"One of the doctors, Anaïs Eskenazi, decided to try phage therapy. A sample of the bacterium was sent to the Eliava Institute in Tbilisi, Georgia, to find a phage that could kill it. The Eliava Institute has been using phage therapy to treat infections since the 1920s.
"By February 2018, the woman was still not improving, and she was finally treated with the phage in combination with antibiotics. Within weeks, her condition improved, and her broken femur finally began to heal. She is now able to walk again, usually with crutches, and is taking part in sports such as cycling.
"Despite results such as this, there are several obstacles to using phage therapy more widely. Phages are specific to particular bacteria, and those bacteria can quickly evolve resistance, says Ben Temperton at the University of Exeter, UK. Evolving or “pre-adapting” phages, as the Eliava Institute did, reduces resistance but takes time.
“'Patients have typically been on a long journey of failed antibiotic regimens before phages are considered,” says Temperton.
***
“'When possible, doctors should prefer the use of pre-adapted phage with antibiotics to obtain the phage-antibiotic synergy, which makes the treatment very effective,” Eskenazi says.
"These issues make it hard to get regulatory approval. At the time the woman was treated, Eskenazi had to get special approval to try phage therapy. This remains the case in most countries, which is why phage therapies are rarely used."
Comment: This article is of interest at several levels. A new use for bacteriophages and looking at ecosystems to find enemies for specific organism-borne disease to find inventive
treatments.
ecosystem importance: deep under arctic ice
by David Turell , Wednesday, February 09, 2022, 20:16 (800 days ago) @ David Turell
Newly found persistent remnant of oldder life:
https://www.sciencealert.com/sponges-in-one-of-the-world-s-most-barren-habitats-survive...
The bottom of the Arctic Ocean, below the permanent sea ice, is not a friendly place for life.
"Down there in the cold dark, nutrients and vegetation are sparse; it's expected that any life that does manage to eke out an existence under these conditions would be likewise thin on the ground.
"Scientists were very surprised to discover, therefore, a thriving and dense population of sponges occupying inactive volcanic seamounts at mesopelagic depths in the Central Arctic Ocean.
"'Thriving on top of extinct volcanic seamounts of the Langseth Ridge we found massive sponge gardens, but did not know what they were feeding on," says marine biologist Antje Boetius
***
"'Our analysis revealed that the sponges have microbial symbionts that are able to use old organic matter," explains Teresa Morganti of the Max Planck Institute
"'This allows them to feed on the remnants of former, now extinct inhabitants of the seamounts, such as the tubes of worms composed of protein and chitin and other trapped detritus."
"Sponges are very simple yet successful life forms. They have no muscles, no nerves, no organs. They do, however, have one trait that helps them adapt to and survive in such a wide range of environments: just like us they rely on the help of their microbiomes, but to an even greater extent.
"In their porous bodies, they host diverse communities of microbes, such as bacteria, microalgae and archaea. Up to 40 percent of a sponge's volume can be symbiont microbes.
"These microbes can contribute to their host's metabolism quite significantly, through such mechanisms as photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation, the disposal of excretion or the production of antibiotics, that the host wouldn't be able to do on their own. This turned out to be the case with the arctic sponges, too.
***
"When the seamounts died and cooled, so too did the ecosystems that relied on them, leaving behind their remains. Very little in the ocean, however, goes to waste, even the remains of extinct organisms. Where there's a resource, a niche will often emerge.
"'The microbes have just the right toolbox for this habitat," says marine microbiologist Ute Hentschel of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany.
"The microbes have the genes to digest refractory particulate and dissolved organic matter and use it as a carbon and nitrogen source, as well as a number of chemical energy sources available there."
"It's a marvelous and peculiar ecosystem, demonstrating yet another way life can carve out a place for itself even in the most difficult places to do so.
"'This is a unique ecosystem. We have never seen anything like it before in the high Central Arctic," Boetius says.
"'In the study area, primary productivity in the overlying water provides less than one percent of the sponges' carbon demand. Thus, this sponge garden may be a transient ecosystem, but it is rich in species, including soft corals."
"But, the researchers noted, the discovery also highlights how much biodiversity may be unknown to us in habitats inhospitable to humans.
"In places like the Arctic, under the horrifying threat of climate change, understanding the biodiversity will be essential for trying to protect it, the team says."
Comment: there are ecosystems everywhere starting at the bottom of life's forms with simple forms like sponges. Theses systems are stacked one upon another and as the complexity of life increases, in the higher stacks organisms like us humans benefit with our food supply. Only God's method of evolution produced this arrangement, food for all. dhw does not understand how important this arrangement must be.
ecosystem importance: reintroduce top predators
by David Turell , Sunday, February 20, 2022, 16:36 (789 days ago) @ David Turell
Benefits cited in new study:
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-reintroducing-large-mammals-world-ecosystems.html
"Reintroducing just 20 species of large mammals could help to restoring the world's biodiversity.
"Introducing these animals back into their historic ranges across the world could create the conditions necessary to allow these species to expand their ranges to cover over a quarter of the planet. This would help to restore ecosystems, lock away excess carbon dioxide and boost populations of other species.
"Lead author Dr. Carly Vynne says, "Our results give both hope and scope for reversing the depletion of intact fauna groupings via proactive, strategically implemented restoration programs.
***
"Reintroducing large mammals to their historic ranges is a common aspect of rewilding, where attempts are made to restore ecosystems to a 'natural' state which can regulate itself.
***
"This is the case for predatory mammals such as wolves, whose reintroduction is often controversial among some. However, studies do show that these animals have a significant impact on the environment through controlling herbivore populations, allowing plants and scavengers to flourish.
"As well as carnivores, the reintroduction of herbivores can also have significant impacts through dispersing seeds, recycling nutrients and helping to control fire by grazing.
"The researchers behind the current study wanted to investigate where the reintroduction of large mammals would have the greatest impact, and how it could be achieved. They found that only 20 key species, including 13 herbivores and seven predators, were needed to help biodiversity bounce back across the world."
Comment: makes the same point I've expressed in the past. Ecosystems provide the necessary food for all. They are complex and delicate and easy to damage. It is obvious a vast bush of life is necessary to set up these systems. I view this as one of God's major purposes as He created evolution with preparation for humans
ecosystem importance: basic role of zooplankton
by David Turell , Friday, February 25, 2022, 01:51 (785 days ago) @ David Turell
A good review:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2022/02/24/an-o...
"Though they might not be Olympic swimmers, many zooplankton participate in the largest migration on the planet, traveling the hundreds of meters between the sun-filled surface waters and the dark depths on a daily basis.
For many species, this epic trek is the key to surviving in the water column. “It’s like playing hide-and-seek on a football field,” Osborn said. “You’re out in this huge three-dimensional space with no structure and nothing to hide behind, and getting found usually means getting eaten.” To steer clear of predators, zooplankton will retreat to deeper, darker waters during the day and only venture to the surface for food under cover of night.
"Not every species moves on the same schedule, and researchers are still untangling all the reasons for this journey. What is clear is that when zooplankton migrate, many other species — including other zooplankton — take advantage of the daily pattern.
***
"Many other animals that feed on zooplankton, like fish, follow the migrators in search of a meal. And the animals that eat those zooplankton predators, like seals, toothed whales and sea turtles, get in on the action, too — meaning that the zooplankton’s game of hide-and-seek is responsible for the daily dynamics of the entire system.
"Those bigger animals have little choice but to trail the zooplankton up and down the water column. The entire marine food web relies on them. Where zooplankton go, everyone else follows.
“'Zooplankton are essential for a healthy ecosystem,” said Paula Pappalardo, an ecologist who studies plankton biodiversity at the museum. “The tiny zooplankton will eat the phytoplankton, which get their energy from the sun through photosynthesis.” (my bold)
"Those zooplankton are eaten by larger zooplankton, which are eaten by fish, which are eaten by marine mammals, seabirds and humans — making zooplankton crucial for survival far beyond the shoreline. Some colossal ocean creatures, like baleen whales, even feed on zooplankton directly, producing a vast web of predators and prey with zooplankton at its center. (my bold)
"All that eating, waste-producing, growing and dying also means that zooplankton play a critical role in the global carbon cycle. “They are very important for what’s known as the biological pump,” Pappalardo said. “Because of their vertical migration, zooplankton help move organic matter to deeper waters, and their fecal pellets and decomposing bodies sink through the ocean as part of the marine snow. Those processes transport carbon down the water column and eventually it gets buried in ocean sediments,” a key step in the movement of carbon around the planet.
"So many intricately connected processes means that jostling the zooplankton population, particularly through human disturbances like climate change, could have cascading consequences.
“'Everything seems to be in a delicate balance out there,” Osborn said. “If you really imbalance something, it’s probably going to have a pretty huge effect, and we don’t know what the downstream changes are going to be.'”
Comment: Another amazingly complex ecosystem that is part of a precise feeding setup designed by God to solve the problem that every living one has to eat. dhw demands all sorts of God 'purposes'. well this is an important one He had to see was designed properly to fill the food need. On the way to evolving humans God had to work on all the side issues/ purposes that were required to keep the whole evolutionary process going properly. Who would have thought that all those weirdly shaped zooplankton were so important unless curious humans did the research. The lesson to be learned is that all the oddballs in reality are there for God's reasons. Example, no human parts are vestigial. No human outthinks God.
ecosystem importance: benign top predators
by David Turell , Monday, March 07, 2022, 16:25 (774 days ago) @ David Turell
A new view:
https://www.sciencealert.com/animals-have-evolved-to-avoid-overexploiting-their-resourc...
"in a recent study published in Ecology Letters, my colleagues and I show – using complex predator-prey models – how this delicate equilibrium between predator and prey could have evolved.
"Prudent predation means that a predator species has evolved to avoid consuming as much and as aggressively as its own physical limits permit. Effectively – though not knowingly – prudent predators are restraining themselves for the benefit of other members of their species, as well as for future generations.
"Even when predators are prudent in their natural habitat, they may overexploit the prey around them if they are moved to places where they don't belong. An example is the Indo-Pacific lionfish, whose populations have rapidly expanded in and around the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
"Lionfish feed on smaller fish and shellfish that live in reefs. They are such ferocious predators that ecologists became concerned that, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, few other fish species would survive their presence. Instead, something else happened.
"Lionfish populations suddenly began falling in Gulf of Mexico reefs, while their native competitors remained. It appears that, because lionfish overexploit their prey, they are not such strong competitors after all.
"These dwindling lionfish populations are therefore experiencing evolutionary pressure to feed less ferociously, so they can occupy reefs longer and have more opportunities to spread to other reefs. Eventually, we expect them to adapt to their new habitat by becoming prudent predators."
Comment: Ecosystems are designed to control themselves as this shows.
ecosystem importance: single gene theory
by David Turell , Friday, April 01, 2022, 20:06 (749 days ago) @ David Turell
One keystone gene can destroy a vital species:
https://newsakmi.com/news/science/a-single-gene-in-one-species-can-cause-other-species-...
"But what if ecosystems not only hinge on a single species but can be made or broken by a single gene? In a study published on Thursday in Science, researchers have demonstrated the existence of what theycall a “keystone gene.” The discovery may have implications for how scientists think about the ways ecosystems, and the species in them, persist over time.
"In the lab, the researchers built several miniature ecosystems that consisted of just four species each. At the bottom of the food chain was Arabidopsis thaliana, a small annual plant that is a favorite study organism among biologists (its genome was sequenced more than 20 years ago). In each ecosystem, the plant served as food for two species of aphids, which in turn fed a parasitoid wasp.
***
"As the team expected, the ecosystems with more genetically diverse plants turned out to be more stable. For each plant with a different genetic makeup that the researchers added to the mix, the insects’ extinction rate fell by nearly 20 percent, compared with monocultures.
"But what stunned the researchers was that this result seemed to hinge on a single gene. Regardless of diversity, if systems contained plants with a certain variant, or allele, of the AOP2 gene, the extinction rate of the insects decreased by 29 percent, compared with systems without it. Essentially, if you change that AOP2 allele, you lose the insects. Increasing genetic diversity helped the insects because it increased the likelihood of the aphids encountering plants with this one critical gene variant. “We expected the diversity effect,” says lead author and University of Zurich ecologist Matt Barbour. “But the unexpectedly large effect of the single gene—that was surprising.”
***
"Conservation biologists have long known that diverse ecosystems are greater than the sum of their parts and that, in particular, they are more stable. Likewise, more genetically diverse populations of species are more likely to survive, thanks to an increased ability for them to adapt to a changing environment. The effect is akin to diversifying an investment portfolio: one cannot be sure which genes are going to lead to greater success as a population, so the more options one has, the more likely it is that something will come through.
"But the new findings point to a mechanism that could make genetic diversity critical for sustaining ecosystems. If specific gene variants—keystone genes—are lost from populations, other species could go extinct, not just the genes’ owners. “It isn’t really about genetic diversity but that, in having a diverse genetic pool, you’re increasing the chances of finding that singular important mutation,” Germain says. “That’s one of the things that’s cool about this paper—it might be something that not many ecologists have thought that much about.”
"Barbour says he does not suspect that keystone genes hold everyecosystem together. “I don’t expect them to be common,” he says. “But when they’re there, they’re going to be important.'”
Comment: the reason I presented this article is dhw's attitude about the need for food energy when he does not see to recognize how vital each system is for life to exist. These scientists did the study because of their concern that we might lose important systems. They are a vital part of the the living system that has been evolved over time that must support life. There is plenty of evidence about how humans unthinkingly damage systems
ecosystem importance: system 3.2 byo
by David Turell , Friday, April 15, 2022, 20:29 (735 days ago) @ David Turell
Found in a deep mine:
https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/15_april_2022/MobilePagedArticle...
"Beneath the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains, home to South Africa’s original gold rush, lies something more scientifically valuable than any precious metal: Earth’s first land ecosystem, trapped in a 3.2-billion-year-old rock formation called the Moodies Group. In roadcuts and mineshafts, scientists had already glimpsed fossilized remnants of the slimy microbial mats thought to have covered the ancient rivers, beaches, and estuaries. Now, they are drilling into the terrain for the first time, retrieving fresh samples of what may have been Earth’s first microbial producers of oxygen.
"The cores the team has already extracted, from deposits 200 meters below the surface, are rich in fossilized slimes. “We’ve drilled through hundreds of meters of them,” Heubeck says. Their nature, however, is a mystery.
"Other ancient microbial fossils in the Moodies Group, found in what were marine and subsurface deposits, probably fed on sulfates or used a primitive form of photosynthesis to feed on iron. But those metabolic pathways would not have worked well in the Sun-soaked shallow waters in which the slimes lived. Heubeck believes these microbes were early ancestors of cyanobacteria, which some 800 million years later flooded the atmosphere with oxygen in what’s called the Great Oxidation Event. “The production of oxygen appears to be a process invented early in Earth’s history,” he says.
"It’s a controversial claim. If oxygen producing photosynthesis had evolved so early, some researchers argue, the Great Oxidation Event would have promptly followed. But evidence for early “oxygen oases” has grown. Geochemists have found mineral deposits from well before the Great Oxidation Event that needed oxygen to form. And genetic analysis of cyanobacteria suggests they evolved, on land, around the same time as the Moodies Group, says Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo, a paleobiologist at the University of Bristol who is unaffiliated with BASE. “The genomic record is independent and consistent with the idea that those were early ancestors of cyanobacteria.'”
Comment: that there may be oxygen production at that early stage is fascinating. Note that ecosystems formed so early. They must be present at all times for life to survive. dhw poopoos their importance as they relate to eventual human arrival. God understood exactly what He had to do in the time it took for Him to evolve humans by His designs.
ecosystem importance: parasite good influence
by David Turell , Sunday, May 22, 2022, 16:09 (698 days ago) @ David Turell
Just of the opposite of which one might think:
https://www.sciencealert.com/non-deadly-parasites-suck-for-individuals-but-can-also-hav...
"'Parasites are well known for their negative impacts on the physiology and behavior of individual hosts and host populations, but these effects are rarely considered within the context of the broader ecosystems they inhabit," says Washington University biologist Amanda Koltz.
"Koltz and colleagues analyzed data from the well-studied plant, caribou and helminth (parasitic worm) system, using computer modeling and a global meta-analysis. They found that the non-lethal effects of some parasites, such as reduced feeding in hosts, had a more significant impact than lethal effects because they occur more commonly. (my bold)
"As these parasites and their impacts are so widespread, it all can add up to big consequences globally.
"Obviously, when lethal parasites wipe out populations it can have knock-on impacts on the surrounding environment, similar to predators taking their prey out of the picture. Removing either can completely alter an ecosystem's dynamics.
"...in the 19th century the rinderpest virus killed up to 90 percent of all domestic and wild cattle in sub-Saharan Africa, but a population increase after a successful vaccination campaign saw a decline in fire frequency – thanks to less undergrowth which the cattle ate – which in turn allowed more trees to grow.
"This is an example of a trophic cascade – an ecological domino effect triggered by changes to one part of the food chain that end up having much broader ramifications. In this case, the change in the trophic cascade shifted the sub-Saharan region from being an overall carbon source to a carbon sink, thanks to its increase in tree density.
***
"In the almost 60 studies the researchers analyzed, the helminth infections consistently put the caribou off their food, reducing their feeding rates (awesome for the plants they eat). In turn, this impacted the mammals' body condition and body mass, but on average did not impact their breeding or survival.
"What's more, the team's modeling suggests that when the helminth impacted a caribou's survival or feeding rate, it had a stabilizing effect on the plant-herbivore cycle, but if the parasitic worm impacted the herbivore's ability to breed, it was more likely to destabilize the system.
"'Given that helminth parasites are ubiquitous within free-living populations of ruminants, our findings suggest that global herbivory rates by ruminants are lower than they otherwise would be due to pervasive helminth infections," explains Koltz. "By reducing ruminant herbivory, these common infections may contribute to a greener world."
"'In short, diseases of herbivores matter to plants," concluded Washington University disease ecologist Rachel Penczykowski.
"Of course, this is just a single example in one system, and experimental fieldwork will be needed to establish the accuracy of the modeling and reveal the true scale of the trophic cascade impacts.
***
"'Our work highlights how the little things that can be unseen, like herbivore parasites, can shape large-scale processes like plant biomass across landscapes," says Classen." (my bold)
Comment: dhw diminishes the true understanding of why ecosystems had to evolve and stabilize by repeatedly stating his view of my theories as 'God only wanted humans and their food'. What a lack of understanding the point! The evolutionary process had to develop a giant interlocking bush of ecosystems, all related to each other. Recently I copied an article on Ediacaran ecosystems. They were always vital and served their purpose of providing food for all. That is why the question from dhw that 'God could have made humans at once and didn't' makes no sense upon real refection. Evolving over time means ecosystems evolving over time to support the developing complexity of organisms.
ecosystem importance: protecting diversity
by David Turell , Monday, May 23, 2022, 18:33 (697 days ago) @ David Turell
An alarmed study to analyze impending diversity loss:
https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/anticipating-changes-in-biodiversity-on-an-inc...
"Human activity is producing an extensive and persistent effect on Earth. The accumulating evidence of changing disturbance regimes linked to human activity is alarming. Large shifts in features of individual disturbances and disturbance regimes are occurring, with further changes predicted for the future. Indeed, climate change and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, urban air pollution, and contamination of oceans by plastic waste have dramatically raised awareness that both biodiversity and the human civilization face an existential environmental crisis. For example, wildfires have increased in area, intensity and frequency over the last two decades, impacting human lives, crops, and biodiversity. Twenty of the hottest years in history have occurred in the past 22 years, and extreme events like heat waves are projected to increase in frequency by more than an order of magnitude as climate change continues. All these changes in disturbance regimes are occurring concurrently with anthropogenic alternations of the global ecosystem such as global rises in temperatures, increased mass pollution events, deforestation and defaunation of ecosystems, and more wildland conversion for human use. Some, if not all, of these trends are expected to continue, while it is also likely that new disturbance regimes will arise, including the possibility of new types of disturbances that involve plastics, toxins, and agricultural chemicals. Although these trends seem inevitable in the short term, the design of mitigations strategies or policies for conservation could benefit from frameworks that can anticipate biodiversity changes under disturbed regimes.
***
"In ecology, disturbance is an event in time that disrupts the structure of a community by changing resources, substrate availability, or the physical environment. It is considered a major factor influencing biodiversity. While a disturbance may result in inhibition, injury, or death for some individuals in a community, it also creates opportunities for other individuals to grow or reproduce. Further, disturbances can profoundly alter trajectories of ecosystem dynamics and lead to unpredictable or undesired ecosystem responses. Indeed, how disturbance relates with stochastic and deterministic assembly mechanisms remains largely unknown, particularly under fluctuating disturbances. Given the growing human population and its impact on natural and engineered ecosystems, management and conservation practices are faced with increasing frequencies and magnitudes of various disturbances that occur on different scales. However, despite increases in the frequency, duration, and scale of disturbance events, predicting the outcome of disturbance remains a challenge. Thus, understanding how or why disturbances might enhance or reduce ecosystem vulnerability is an important area of concern as ecosystems are faced with rapid-paced environmental changes. (my bold)
***
"In a nutshell, we found stochastic assembly processes to be more important at intermediate disturbance frequencies where the highest α-diversity was also observed, together with high β-diversity dispersion across within-treatment replicates as predicted by the ISH. Furthermore, we observed that a peak in the relative contribution of stochasticity preceded the formation of a peak in α-diversity across a disturbance frequency range. This means that community assembly patterns during succession under disturbance can act as an early warning of upcoming patterns in diversity. Plus, stochastic assembly operating at intermediate levels of disturbance could be the reason why higher diversity does not necessarily mean better function. While these findings are encouraging, further research in a variety of ecosystems and scales is needed to validate the broad applicability of the ISH, which is why we encourage the scientific community to explore this framework." (my bold)
Comment: while not exactly on my point about the importance of diverse ecosystems and possible damage, the authors are developing a formula for future study and I've skipped that portion of the paper. What is clear is the degree of alarm. dhw's tunnel view of humans and their food simply tries to remove the problem from consideration. Life must have a diverse food supply at all times, all during the process of evolution. Viewed from the position of a progressive designer, he would understand the problem, provide a very diverse bush of complex ecosystems all through evolution from bacteria until the final arrival of an anticipated huge human population, huge because of the human extraordinary mental capacity. In dhw's view God dawdled along the way instead of getting right to it. What history presents is what I accept as God's doing. From that viewpoint, it makes perfect sense to a believer but apparently not to an outsider.
ecosystem importance: death of a kelp system
by David Turell , Friday, July 22, 2022, 22:52 (637 days ago) @ David Turell
A great example of ecosystem importance:
https://oceanbites.org/the-death-of-an-ecosystem-understanding-the-collapse-of-northern...
"Wild kelp forests thrive in Monterey Bay, but two hundred miles north of Monterey, off the coast of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, the ecosystem collapsed in 2014. The shallow waters rapidly transformed from a lush, vibrant forest into a desolate swath of urchin barrens, an ecosystem marked by masses of sea urchins and little else. Kelp die-off is normal in small patches, but the drastic decline in kelp forests that year occurred along hundreds of miles of continuous coastline.
***
"Kelp forests rely on the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich seawater to maintain the ecosystem’s species richness and complexity. The persistence of warm, nutrient-poor waters after 2014 could have been one factor that contributed to the dwindling of kelp forests. But the scientists knew—from the satellite data—that kelp forests had survived a warming period in the 1990s, so they guessed that warming could not be the only circumstance leading to the kelp’s demise.
***
"The structure of kelp forests provides varied habitats that are ideal for a diverse set of animals. Abalones, snails, and sea urchins feed on the kelp’s leaves, while fish, sharks, and sea otters take shelter and hunt within the dense stems.
"Sea otters and sunflower stars prey on sea urchins, which are voracious consumers of kelp. Having been wiped out by settlers in the 1800s, sea otters no longer grace the waters off northern California and thus do not threaten the region’s urchins. Though the loss of sea otters decreased the resiliency of kelp forests, sunflower stars were enough to keep the sea urchin population in check. In 2013, however, a disease called sea star wasting syndrome appeared along the Pacific coast. The malady turned sea stars to mush, and anyone walking the rocky beaches that year could find the stars on shore, slimy and dismembered. The disease ravaged sunflower star populations. With neither sea otters nor sunflower stars to hunt them, sea urchins took over the coastline and devoured the remaining kelp.
***
"Will kelp forests recover now that ocean temperatures are cooling off? Scientists are doubtful. The local extinction of sunflower stars may have degraded the ecosystem’s resiliency beyond repair. Studies have shown that urchin barrens are a stable ecosystem—one that is not altered by slight changes to the system. Small decreases in the urchin population (or small increases in kelp growth) will not be enough to reverse the ecosystem back to kelp forests."
Comment: ecosystems are vital for the health of the living planet. That is a designing God saw to it th at a very diverse bush of life was developed as evolution progressed to humans. Looking back there were ecosystems satisfying the need for food from the beginning of evolution through all ensuing stages. dhw denigrates this as God providing 'humans (plus food)', as if that was all that was necessary for God to do. The obvious history tells us the logical otherwise.
ecosystem importance: in the sea pollination
by David Turell , Thursday, July 28, 2022, 21:01 (631 days ago) @ David Turell
A little critter crustacean pollinates seaweed:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2331419-small-woodlouse-like-crustacean-pollinates...
"A small woodlouse-like crustacean seems to help fertilise red seaweed in rock pools, much as a bee pollinates flowers. This suggest that such behaviour is more common in the oceans than we thought, and animal-mediated pollination may even have first evolved there.
We tend to associate pollination with insects like bees and flowering plants on land, but crustaceans have been found to pollinate seagrass underwater. Now Myriam Valero at the Sorbonne University’s Roscoff Biological Station in France and her colleagues have shown that a very similar thing happens with the red seaweed Gracilaria gracilis, which is actually a type of algae.
"During the seaweed’s life cycle, you can have individuals that are either male or female. It was already known that water currents can carry spermatia – the seaweed’s version of sperm – from male individuals to reproductive organs on nearby female seaweed. Each fertilisation event generates a bulb-shaped structure that is visible to the naked eye, called a cystocarp, on the female seaweed.
***
"By counting the number of cystocarps on female seaweed, the team discovered that there were 20 times more fertilisation events in the presence of the little crustaceans than there were in its absence. This suggests that the crustaceans pollinated the seaweed.
"The team then imaged the crustaceans that interacted with the seaweed and found spermatia attached to the abdomen and legs of the animals, showing that the animals could carry it around when they travel from male to female seaweed."
Comment: another example of an important part of an ecosystem. Just like bees on land.
ecosystem importance: in a newly found carbon cycle
by David Turell , Friday, August 12, 2022, 16:54 (616 days ago) @ David Turell
Sea bottom discovery:
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/scientists-discover-an-immense-unknown-hy...
"...in a study published last year, researchers uncovered a completely unknown cycle of natural hydrocarbon emissions and recycling facilitated by a diverse range of tiny organisms – which could help us better understand how some microbes have the power to clean up the mess an oil spill leaves in the ocean. "Just two types of marine cyanobacteria are adding up to 500 times more hydrocarbons to the ocean per year than the sum of all other types of petroleum inputs to the ocean, including natural oil seeps, oil spills, fuel dumping and run-off from land,"
***
:These hydrocarbons, primarily in the form of pentadecane (nC15), are spread across 40 percent of Earth's surface, and other microbes feast on them. They're constantly being cycled in such a way that Love and colleagues estimate only around 2 million metric tons are present in the water at any one time [by]A species of the globally distributed marine cyanobacteria, Prochlorococcus.
***
"Analysing their data, they found concentrations of pentadecane increased with greater abundance of cyanobacteria cells, and the hydrocarbon's geographic and vertical distribution were consistent with these microbes' ecology. Cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus are responsible for around a quarter of the global ocean's conversion of sunlight energy into organic matter (primary production) and previous laboratory cultivation revealed they produce pentadecane in the process. Valentine explains the cyanobacteria likely use pentadecane as a stronger component for highly curved cellular membranes, like those found in chloroplasts (the organelle that photosynthesise). The cycle of pentadecane in the ocean also follows the diel cycling of these cyanobacteria – their vertical migration in the water in response to changes of light intensity throughout a day. Together, these findings suggest the cyanobacteria are indeed the source of the biological pentadecane, which is then consumed by other microorganisms that produce the carbon dioxide the cyanobacteria then use to continue the cycle. Earth's natural hydrocarbon cycle."
Comment: remember, it is cyanobacteria that maintain oxygen in the atmosphere. This is a vital ecosystem.
ecosystem importance: Antarctic top predator
by David Turell , Saturday, August 27, 2022, 19:18 (601 days ago) @ David Turell
Leopard seals:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220826165022.htm
"The combination of the extreme climate in Antarctica, the species' solitary habits and their lethal reputation makes leopard seals one of the most difficult top predators to study on Earth. Marine biologists have now gathered baseline data on the ecology and physiology of the leopard seal, the enigmatic apex predator of the Antarctic.
***
"Kienle (first author) and the team documented the flexible behaviors and traits that may offer leopard seals the resilience needed to survive the extreme climate and environmental disturbances occurring around Antarctica.
"This study greatly increases our understanding of leopard seals' life history, spatial patterns and diving behavior," Kienle said. "We show that these leopard seals have high variability (or, flexibility) in these different traits. Across the animal kingdom, variability is vital for animals adapting and responding to changes in their environment, so we're excited to see high variability in this Antarctic predator."
"Adult female leopard seals are much larger than adult males; in fact, females are 1.5 times larger and longer.
"The team measured one of the largest leopard seals ever, an adult female they nicknamed "Bigonia," who weighed 540 kg (1,190 lbs.).
Female-biased sexual dimorphism (where females are larger) is unusual among marine mammals, a diverse group that includes polar bears, whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions, but leopard seals are the most extreme example of female-biased dimorphism among the 130+ species of marine mammals.
"Why females are larger than males is not known, although Kienle explained other studies show that larger females are better at defending feeding areas, as well as stealing prey from smaller seals. Larger females also eat bigger, energy-rich prey, including fur seals and penguins, while males and smaller females often eat smaller prey like krill and fish. This suggests that the larger body size in adult females is beneficial and offers a selective advantage that Kienle and team will continue to explore.
"From the movement data, female leopard seals spent more time "hauled out" -- or coming out of the water to rest on ice or land -- than males."
Comment: an isolated ecosystem with its top predators. Recent entries have referred to this as a food web. How does this relate to humans? The fish the seals eat affect the food webs of fish we eat. They are all interconnected.
ecosystem importance: New Zealand's story
by David Turell , Sunday, September 04, 2022, 16:16 (593 days ago) @ David Turell
A top predator always appears:
https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2022/how-giant-eagle-dominated-ancien...
"New Zealand has long been known as a place for the birds — quite literally. Before people arrived 700 years ago, the archipelago hosted an idiosyncratic ecosystem, nearly free of mammals. More than 200 bird species filled a food web all their own. Rather than cows or antelopes, there was a family of flightless birds known as moa. And in place of apex predators like tigers, New Zealand had Haast’s eagle.
***
"Scientists now believe that this superlative bird was one in a wave of feathered invaders that conquered New Zealand over a relatively short period. And this was not the only wave of invasions. Haast’s eagle — despite being gone for centuries — has revealed that we live in a much more connected world than we once thought, says biologist Michael Knapp of the University of Otago, who has studied the eagle. If such seemingly isolated islands have repeatedly attracted so many incoming species, he says, then “natural invasions” must be a major force in ecosystems across the world.
***
"New Zealand retained unusual species — including, famously, the flightless kiwi. Combined with these extant oddballs, the moa fossils helped to establish the idea that New Zealand was a lost world, a place where ancient creatures, sheltered by distance from the rest of the world, managed to survive mass extinction events. Later geologists confirmed that these rocky islands had once been a part of a supercontinent they called Gondwana, but split away about 80 million years ago. In 1990, a television series described New Zealand’s islands as “Moa’s Ark,” popularizing the catchy name of the long-held model of how its bird-filled ecosystem came to be.
***
"Knapp notes that other raptors, perhaps owls or falcons, could have fed on the islands’ smallest birds. But there were plenty of moa running around, ranging in size from turkeys to ostriches — too big to be picked off by most raptors. “That’s huge amounts of meat that isn’t taken,” Knapp says. Such a scenario would have quickly selected for the largest eagles, who would have had the easiest time consuming such prey.
***
"Knapp uses Haast’s eagle and Eyles’s harrier as case studies in a paper published in the 2021 Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics; these are illustrative examples of “natural invasions,” he thinks. Australian species cross the Tasman Sea quite often, but they typically struggle to compete against the islands’ existing species. But when cooler temperatures killed some forests, these new arrivals found a familiar ecological niche — one that no New Zealand species had yet evolved to fill.
***
"The one thing that’s never mysterious about Haast’s eagle is what species wiped it out. Perhaps the eagles were hunted. Certainly, the moa were, which would be enough to doom the predator. “If you're evolving to fit a specific and very rare niche, then you have a hard time when that niche is gone,” Knapp says. One way or another, human beings take the blame.
"So while you could take the recent wave of Australian immigrants as a reminder that ecosystems adapt — that life goes on as new species fill the gap — this story is also cautionary. Evolutionary history is full of strange twists and turns, but also dead ends."
Comment: every ecosystem in the world is the same. A top predator niche will always be filled. It solves the problem of food supply for all. All the while, dhw worries about all those evolutionary branches that did not lead to humans. Simple concept: they all led to the necessary ecosystems of today, supporting a hungry human population approaching eight million!!! Great evolutionary design!
ecosystem importance: the role of krill
by David Turell , Thursday, September 08, 2022, 15:34 (589 days ago) @ David Turell
from an environmental study of oceans and heat absorption:
https://www.sciencealert.com/just-one-ocean-is-absorbing-nearly-all-the-excess-heat-the...
"In fact, the Southern Ocean alone could account for virtually all global ocean heat uptake, with the Pacific and Atlantic basins losing any heat gained back into the atmosphere.
"One significant ecological impact of strong Southern Ocean warming is on Antarctic krill. When ocean warming occurs beyond temperatures they can tolerate, the krill's habitat contracts and they move even further south to cooler waters.
"'As krill is a key component of the food web, this will also change the distribution and population of larger predators, such as commercially viable tooth and ice fish. It will also further increase stress for penguins and whales already under threat today." (my bold)
Comment: even tiny krill are important in our food web. The point is clear: every living thing plays a role in the food web. The entire bush of life, with multiple unrelated genetic forms, creates the food web and is just as important a result of evolution as the appearance of humans. The planning by design is superb: enough food for a rapidly expanding human population. It shows how God plans for the future. This website in Wikipedia shows the exponential growth since 1700 AD:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population
"From the beginning of the early modern period until the 20th century, world population has been characterized by a faster-than-exponential growth. For the period of Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, roughly 500 BC to AD 1500, there was also a general tendency of growth (estimated at a factor 4 to 5 over the 2,000-year period)."
Makes my case. dhw agrees we need the food, and then denigrates its importance by complaining about all the past branches of evolution that were dead ends or somehow unrelated the human directed branches. dhw is blind to the beautiful planning which anticipated human population growth.
ecosystem importance: the role of bees
by David Turell , Thursday, September 08, 2022, 20:20 (589 days ago) @ David Turell
How they pollinate:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/09/220907143342.htm
"In the paper, which was recently published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, scientists said biodiversity of the bee population is critical to maintaining the ecosystem function of crop pollination, which is critical to humanity's food supply.
"'We found that biodiversity plays a key role in the stability of ecosystems over time," said Natalie Lemanski, lead author on the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS). "You do actually need more bee species in order to get stable pollination services over a growing season and over years."
"The researchers said they discovered different bee species pollinated the same types of plants at different times of the year. They also found that different bee species were the dominant pollinators on the same kind of plants in different years. Because of natural fluctuations in bee populations, researchers said, all bee species present were needed to maintain a minimum threshold of pollination during lean years.
"'This research shows that abundance [of a species] matters, but bee diversity matters even more," said Michelle Elekonich, the deputy division director of the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Biological Sciences, which funded the study. "It's not the same bees that are abundant at a given point in time, and variety is necessary to provide balance during a growing season -- and from year to year."
"Lemanski said the study offers substantiation to a long-standing concept ecologists refer to as the "insurance hypothesis." The idea is that ecosystems probably benefit when nature "diversifies the portfolio," supporting multiple species of a category of a plant or animal, rather than relying on one dominant species.
"'We found that two to three times as many bee species were needed to meet a target level of crop pollination over the course of a growing season compared to a single date," Lemanski said. "Similarly, twice as many species were needed to provide pollination over the course of six years compared to a single year."
***
"'The magnitude of increase in species needed over multiple years was remarkably consistent among crop systems when considered over the same interval of time," Lemanski said. "In addition, the fact that the relationship between timescale and the number of species needed did not level off suggests that even longer time series, spanning multiple seasons, may further bolster the need for biodiversity to ensure reliable ecosystem service.'" (my bold)
Comment: 'diversity' of active bees is the key. Let's translate that into theory. Years ago both dhw and I agreed it is bush of life, not a simple tree. That huge bush is the evidence of planning for the needed diversity. Yet dhw refuses to see the real picture of all leading to our food supply.
ecosystem importance: microplastic danger
by David Turell , Sunday, September 18, 2022, 16:12 (579 days ago) @ David Turell
Carrying dangerous chemicals into our food:
https://www.sciencealert.com/study-shows-how-microplastics-can-easily-climb-the-food-ch...
"Just as with heavy metals in the ocean, it turns out nanoplastics – plastic particles less than one micrometer in size – can also move up the food chain. These particles are primarily the result of bigger plastic pieces being weathered down by natural processes – sometimes by the animals ingesting them.
"Researchers from Europe, led by biologist Fazel Monikh from the University of Eastern Finland, demonstrated this process in a laboratory by feeding tiny 250 nm particles of polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride to lettuce (Lactuca sativa).
***
"But the images revealed nanoplastics in the gills, liver, and intestines of the fish, in the mouth and guts of the insects, and accumulated in the leaves of the lettuce.
"Moreover, the two plastics behaved differently as they journeyed through the food chain. The lettuce took up slightly less polystyrene, so less of this plastic flavor was passed on compared to the polyvinyl chloride.
"Properties like the size, shape, and surface chemistry of the particles could all influence the different impacts they have on life, the researchers explain. For instance, some earthworms might be more likely to break down polyethylene in the soil before it gets taken up by a plant.
"'Our results show that lettuce can take up nanoplastics from the soil and transfer them into the food chain," says Monikh. "This indicates that the presence of tiny plastic particles in soil could be associated with a potential health risk to herbivores and humans if these findings are found to be generalizable to other plants and crops and to field settings."
"Microplastics, including the smaller nanoplastics, are now ubiquitous in every environment, from the deepest ocean trenches, the highest mountains, and the remote isolation of Antarctica. They're in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.
"Microplastics are passing through our bodies every day, but researchers say there's no need for panic, as there are clearly no short-term, immediate impacts on us; it's the long-term exposure and high concentration levels that remain a concern.
"The particular concern about these tiny particles is that they're small enough to pass through many more physiological barriers, unlike their larger particles of origin. Some have already been shown to cause potential toxicity in plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates.
"Monikh and colleagues also demonstrate how these plastics can attract a protein cover on their surface as they pass through various life forms. How this changes their impact is completely unknown.
"'Further research into the topic is still urgently needed," Monikh concludes."
Comment: we inherited an evolved food chain of interlocking ecosystems, in which we are creating dangers. Those systems come from all the diversity in the current bush of life, evolved from all past bushes of life. Planned for human use by God.
ecosystem importance: less frogs, more mosquitos
by David Turell , Tuesday, September 20, 2022, 17:19 (577 days ago) @ David Turell
Every form in an ecosystem is related to every other form:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2338764-amphibian-deaths-in-central-america-led-to...
"A fungal skin disease that caused amphibian numbers to plummet in Costa Rica and Panama lowered the number of amphibian tadpoles that were eating mosquito larvae, causing the insects to flourish and spread malaria
"Collapsing populations of many frogs, toads and salamanders has been linked with a large rise in malaria cases in Costa Rica and Panama.
"Amphibian tadpoles eat huge numbers of mosquito larvae, with these insects being responsible for the spread of malaria. A fungal disease that triggered a decline in amphibians probably allowed mosquito populations to flourish.
***
"The finding shows that changes within ecosystems can have unexpected consequences. “Predicting these things ahead of time is pretty difficult,” he says.
"Frogs and several other amphibian species in many parts of the world have been suffering catastrophic collapse in numbers due to the arrival of a fungal skin disease called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, also known as Bd or chytrid fungus. Although some species of frogs and toads seem to be evolving resistance to the fungus, it may have driven 200 of the world’s 7800 species to go extinct in the past 40 years.
"The fungus first arrived in the northwest of Costa Rica in the early 1980s, spreading south and east, before moving eastwards through Panama in the 2000s. There was a surge of malaria in both countries shortly after the fungus’ arrival, with Panama, for instance, seeing a five-fold rise in cases."
Comment: this shows now delicately balanced ecosystems are. Ecosystems are the result of the massive diversity of organisms created by the bush of life evolution developed.
ecosystem importance: new single cell organism import
by David Turell , Sunday, October 02, 2022, 16:40 (565 days ago) @ David Turell
Just discovered:
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-discovery-microscopic-species-tree-life.html
"Scientists have discovered several very rare species of microorganisms, some of which have never been seen before and others which have escaped the curious eyes of scientists for over a hundred years.
"The discovery of these elusive species, published in the scientific journal PROTIST, was made by an unconventional duo who never met in person; Professor Genoveva Esteban of Bournemouth University and James Weiss, an independent scientist operating in his private lab in Warsaw, Poland, with his two cats.
***
"Microorganisms are made up of only one cell and are at the bottom of the food chain. They live all around us and can be found in any habitat, from small puddles to vast oceans; there is still a great deal to discover about them.
"'Biodiversity at a microscopic level is not as widely understood as other areas of nature, despite the fact that whole ecosystems depend on it," explained Professor Esteban.
"'Some of these species are completely new and others have not been seen for over a century. We documented many curious behaviours on them and carried out DNA analysis of them for the first time.
"'This means we can understand more about their relationships with other microbes and find new branches for them on the tree of life," Professor Esteban continued.
The very rare and new microorganisms include Legendrea loyezae.
***
"They have also discovered, a new Lacerus, meaning "having irregular edges" due to serrated appearance of the cell edges, as well as a new Apertospathula, meaning "ventral mouth opening".
***
"'Most organisms on the tree of life are microscopic. In fact, most life on Earth has always been microscopic. Microorganisms were the first predators on Earth, their greedy appetites were one of the leading factors of the evolution of more complex life in the early ages of Earth," Weiss explained.
"'As prey developed better defences, predators needed to develop better ways of catching them. After the evolution of multicellular, complex life they became the main food source for others such as krill and plankton, which in turn are food for larger species. If the organisms at the very bottom were removed, all other parts of the food chain above them would collapse too," he added. (my bold)
[/color]
***
"After isolating the microorganisms in each sample, they were able to study their DNA and identify those that were new to science and others which were extremely rare, and they needed a specialist. Dr. Demetra Andreou, a molecular ecologist at Bournemouth University also brought her expertise to the team."
Comment: Note my bold. It covers the Darwinist fairy tale for evolution, but it contains a kernel of truth in red. Ecosystems start at their bottom and their bottoms must survive.
ecosystem importance: Neanderthal disappearance
by David Turell , Tuesday, October 04, 2022, 18:34 (563 days ago) @ David Turell
A study in Iberia:
https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/videos/ecosystem-productivity-affected-the-spatiotem...
"One of the main hypotheses proposed to explain the decline of Neanderthals is directly related to the abrupt, rapid and sharp climatic oscillations during MIS3, since they could have pushed ecosystems towards catastrophic results. Furthermore, the rapid colonization by modern humans into Europe, coexisting with Neanderthals for several millennia, may not have created a favourable scenario for the latter, posing a threat to their behavioural flexibility and resilience as a species. Thus, the influence that these two factors might have played on the diverse ecosystems the Neanderthals exploited, and therefore their subsistence strategies, are poorly understood. At the end of the day, independent of the technology and culture they might have developed, feeding was a necessity for survival. Thus, in our SUBSILIENCE project, funded by the European Research Council (Ref. 818299), assessing subsistence strategies, including the types of hunted prey and the ways those herbivores were exploited, and which kinds of climates and environments both humans species had to face are critical for evaluating the success of our species on the one hand, but the decay of Neanderthals on the other.
***
"Understanding how, during stadial and interstadial phases, in the different ecological regions of Iberia, climate change affected Net Primary Productivity (NPP) is relevant to estimating ecosystem carrying capacity. NPP is the biomass of all plant species, which is the basis of herbivore diets. In turn the herbivores were the main contributors to human diets. However, this approach has never been thoroughly understood, especially considering the spatio-temporal variations that environments underwent during the Pleistocene.
***
"Our results reveal that, in the Eurosiberian region of northern Spain, a significant drop in the available biomass of secondary consumers coincided with the disappearance of Neanderthal groups, while the arrival of the modern humans in this particular region, a few millennia afterwards, coincided with an increase in herbivore carrying capacity. It is in the three Mediterranean regions (supra, meso and thermo), where the most stable conditions and the highest biomass of medium and medium-large herbivores are observed during the 20,000 years covered by this study, even during stadial phases. Ungulates such as red deer, ibex or horse, among others, composed the main daily protein intake for both human species. Whether the meso and thermomediterranean regions, in particular, provided a more stable ecological scenario that could have extended Neanderthals' persistence there until 32,000 years ago in La Boja and Cova Anton sites in Murcia (SE Spain), would explain the longer persistence of Neanderthals in the meridional latitudes of Iberia. However, while the cause/s of the final Neanderthal remain/s unknown, this study advances our knowledge of how and why human species and ecology varied spatiotemporally in SW Europe during the period between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago."
Comment: if you cannot eat you got to leave or die!!! Helps explain the Neanderthal die out. And again, tells us ecosystems come and go, and leave dead ends!!
ecosystem importance: Earth's microbiome importance
by David Turell , Wednesday, October 05, 2022, 20:02 (562 days ago) @ David Turell
A new important study:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-022-01228-3.epdf?sharing_token=UPAAePzKGa5mEOZh9...
"Microbial life represents the majority of Earth’s biodiversity. Across disparate disciplines from medicine to forestry, scientists continue to discover how the microbiome drives essential, macro-scale processes in plants, animals and entire ecosystems. Yet, there is an emerging realization that Earth’s microbial biodiversity is under threat. Here we advocate for the conservation and restoration of soil microbial life, as well as active incorporation of microbial biodiversity into managed food and forest landscapes, with an emphasis on soil fungi. We analyse 80 experiments to show that native soil microbiome restoration can accelerate plant biomass production by 64% on average, across ecosystems... Harnessing the planet’s breadth of microbial life has the potential to transform ecosystem management, but it requires that we understand how to monitor and conserve the Earth’s microbiome."
"Global estimates of the Earth’s biodiversity include 5 million to 7.7 million unique species of animals1,2, 500,000 plants3, 6 million to 8 million terrestrial fungi4,5 and up to 1 trillion species of prokaryotes6. The Earth microbiome—the full complement of pro- and eukaryotic microbial life—represents the majority of Earth’s biodiversity. Microbial life was the first to inhabit our planet7 and will probably be the last. Microbes regulate the major biogeochemical cycles on Earth, to the extent that signatures of microbial biogeochemical activity underpin efforts to discover extraterrestrial life8. By regulating global nutrient cycles, greenhouse gas exchange, and disease transmission and protection, the Earth microbiome provides an essential life-support system to our planet. A functioning Earth without a functioning microbiome is nearly unimaginable. Yet, like all other domains of life, there is increasing evidence that the Earth microbiome is under threat. Early indicators come from soil fungi, which live a dual life as both micro- and macrobiological organisms9. A century of monitoring shows a remarkable 45% decline in mushroom-forming mycorrhizal fungi across Europe, probably due to land conversion and intense nitrogen pollution10,11. Anecdotal reports of fungal species extinctions around the world are increasingly pervasive12 but require additional and repeated monitoring efforts." (my bold)
***
"Biodiversity–ecosystem stability relationships are some of the most reproducible patterns in ecology95–99. As a result, there is mounting effort to increase the aboveground macrobiological diversity of our managed landscapes. Despite these lessons from aboveground ecosystems, there is increasing danger of repeating the mistakes of macrobiological agriculture at the micro scale, with consequences for indigenous microbial taxa100. For example, given the potential of microbial inoculations to promote plant productivity, there is an exploding landscape of microbial inoculant companies advocating for the large-scale application of single species or very low-diversity non-native microbial consortia. Most recently, a startup has announced ambitions to inoculate over 1 million hectares of agricultural land primarily with a single species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus101. While some microorganisms are present across many ecosystems, mass application of single species may result in a loss of genetic and ecological diversity, and is unlikely to account for ecosystem-specific requirements, for example, in types and rates of soil processes... The ‘Effective Microorganisms’ initiative began over 40 years ago in Japan, and has built native and biodiverse consortia of bacteria and yeasts, which have been shown to enhance crop productivity in most cases103,104. Essentially, a particular combination of functional groups of microorganisms is sourced from the local environment, grown in co-culture, and then applied as a solution directly to plants or soil103. This work has been replicated in multiple environments, using locally sourced microbial communities to enhance agricultural outcomes105,106. Ultimately, we should move towards approaches that can use locally sourced, native and biodiverse communities of soil organisms to achieve outcomes. These approaches are possible and may have greater potential than reductionist ones107... Manipulative experiments and meta-analysis have demonstrated that microbiome diversity and network complexity can enhance multiple ecosystem functions, generating fundamentally more stable and productive ecosystems114–118. These findings suggest that embracing native microbial biodiversity and complexity within managed ecosystems may allow for greater production, while also allowing these systems to remain reservoirs of significant microbial diversity. But how can this be achieved? Here we offer three actions that, if taken, we believe could fundamentally change how the world values and applies microbial biodiversity, in particular for managed ecosystems."
Comment: the article is filled with examples of how to improve this basic diversity at the bottom of our Earth's primary ecosystem. It came from God's dead ends, despite dhw's objections to dead ends as useless. He needs a big re-think.
ecosystem importance: a new system found
by David Turell , Sunday, October 23, 2022, 17:55 (544 days ago) @ David Turell
Five hundred meters below sea surface:
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-discovery-ecosystemthe-zonecreating-oasis-life.html
"The Nekton Maldives Mission, involving researchers from the University of Oxford, has found evidence of a previously undescribed ecosystem—"The Trapping Zone"—that is creating an oasis of life 500 meters down in the depths of the Indian Ocean. The discovery has been hailed as highly significant by the Maldives Government.
"Video evidence from Nekton science cameras aboard the Omega Seamaster II submersible, combined with collected biological samples and extensive sonar mapping, indicate that in this zone predators such as sharks and other large fish feed on swarms of small organisms known as micro-nekton.
"These are marine organisms that can swim independently of the current and typically migrate from the deep sea to the surface at night and dive back into the deep at dawn (known as The Vertical Migration). But in this area, the micro-nekton become trapped against the subsea landscape at the 500m mark.
***
"Marine ecosystems are defined by both the topography and ocean life. "This has all the hallmarks of a distinct new ecosystem," explained Professor Alex Rogers (University of Oxford) who has spent over 30 hours underwater in the mission's submersibles observing The Trapping Zone during the expedition. "The Trapping Zone is creating an oasis of life in the Maldives and it is highly likely to exist in other oceanic islands and also on the slopes of continents."
***
"Analysis of the video and biological data is ongoing in the Maldives, Nekton's UK headquarters in Oxford, and at partner laboratories. The discovery could have important implications for other oceanic islands and the slopes of continents, sustainable fisheries management, the burial and storage of carbon and, ultimately, climate change mitigation.
"President of the Maldives H.E Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, says that "the discovery of The Trapping Zone and the oasis of life in the depths surrounding the Maldives provides us with critical new knowledge that further supports our conservation commitments and sustainable ocean management, and almost certainly support fisheries and tourism.'"
Comment: an important identification. This system has effects on other systems
ecosystem importance: dhw's 'humans plus food' derision
by David Turell , Saturday, January 14, 2023, 16:59 (461 days ago) @ David Turell
dhw has constantly complained about my theory that God had a purpose to produce humans and a proper food supply as a goal after starting life by evolving humans and a huge bush of life for human food. A reason is here:
https://www.sciencealert.com/skipping-meals-could-be-much-worse-for-you-than-we-realize...
"In the hustle and bustle of modern existence, it can be all too easy to skip a meal or two. You might even do it deliberately. A new study suggests going without one of the standard three meals a day might have a serious downside.
"In a study of 24,011 US adults over 40, only having one meal a day was linked to a higher mortality risk in general. Skipping breakfast was associated with a greater risk of dying from a cardiovascular disease (CVD), while skipping lunch or dinner was associated with a greater risk of all-cause mortality, including a rise in CVD risk.
"There was even a problem for those who ate all three meals but had them too close together. Eating two adjacent meals within 4.5 hours of each other was also shown to be linked to increased all-cause death risk.
"While the study seems to complicate messages that suggest intermittent fasting could be good for you, the data highlights the importance of regular refueling stops for the body.
"'Our research revealed that individuals eating only one meal a day are more likely to die than those who had more daily meals," says epidemiologist Yangbo Sun from the University of Tennessee.
"'Based on these findings, we recommend eating at least two to three meals spread throughout the day."
"Around 30 percent of the study participants regularly had fewer than three meals a day. According to the data, those who were younger, male, non-Hispanic Black, with less of an education and a lower family income, were more likely to skip meals.
"Meal-skipping was also more prevalent among those who smoked more, drank more alcohol, were more food insecure, who ate less nutritious food, had more snacks, and took in less energy overall.
"This study isn't comprehensive enough to determine if meal skipping actually causes earlier death, only that there's an association worthy of further research. It's possible that other factors are involved, affecting both eating habits and mortality risk."
Comment: we don't know why God wanted to create us, but He knew what our food supply had to be adequate, so the huge bush of life had to be created with us. dhw is simply illogical.
ecosystem importance: dhw's 'humans plus food' derision
DAVID: dhw has constantly complained about my theory that God had a purpose to produce humans and a proper food supply as a goal after starting life by evolving humans and a huge bush of life for human food. A reason is here:
https://www.sciencealert.com/skipping-meals-could-be-much-worse-for-you-than-we-realize...
QUOTE: "In the hustle and bustle of modern existence, it can be all too easy to skip a meal or two. You might even do it deliberately. A new study suggests going without one of the standard three meals a day might have a serious downside.”
DAVID: we don't know why God wanted to create us, but He knew what our food supply had to be adequate, so the huge bush of life had to be created with us. dhw is simply illogical.
This must be the silliest headline and distortion in the history of the AgnosticWeb. All organisms have to have food. What I constantly complain about is your theory that your God’s only purpose for starting life was to produce humans plus food but he then proceeded to design countless numbers of life forms, 99% OF WHICH DID NOT LEAD TO HUMANS PLUS FOOD BUT WERE, ACCORDING TO YOU, “DEAD ENDS”. “MISTAKES”, “WRONG CHOICES” AND “FAILED EXPERIMENTS”. According to you, the huge present bush which provides us with our food descended from the 1% of his past designs which were not dead ends, mistakes, wrong choices, and failed experiments. This excellent article tells us why we need three meals a day. It does not tell us that an all-powerful God had to design the brontosaurus plus millions and millions of extinct dead ends, mistakes, wrong choices and failed experiments in order to design us and our food. I am embarrassed for your sake to leave this for people to read. If you wish, I can use my editorial powers to delete your post and this response – but I’ll leave them if you want me to.
ecosystem importance: dhw's 'humans plus food' derision
by David Turell , Sunday, January 15, 2023, 17:46 (460 days ago) @ dhw
DAVID: dhw has constantly complained about my theory that God had a purpose to produce humans and a proper food supply as a goal after starting life by evolving humans and a huge bush of life for human food. A reason is here:
https://www.sciencealert.com/skipping-meals-could-be-much-worse-for-you-than-we-realize...
QUOTE: "In the hustle and bustle of modern existence, it can be all too easy to skip a meal or two. You might even do it deliberately. A new study suggests going without one of the standard three meals a day might have a serious downside.”
DAVID: we don't know why God wanted to create us, but He knew what our food supply had to be adequate, so the huge bush of life had to be created with us. dhw is simply illogical.
dhw: This must be the silliest headline and distortion in the history of the AgnosticWeb. All organisms have to have food. What I constantly complain about is your theory that your God’s only purpose for starting life was to produce humans plus food but he then proceeded to design countless numbers of life forms, 99% OF WHICH DID NOT LEAD TO HUMANS PLUS FOOD BUT WERE, ACCORDING TO YOU, “DEAD ENDS”. “MISTAKES”, “WRONG CHOICES” AND “FAILED EXPERIMENTS”. According to you, the huge present bush which provides us with our food descended from the 1% of his past designs which were not dead ends, mistakes, wrong choices, and failed experiments. This excellent article tells us why we need three meals a day. It does not tell us that an all-powerful God had to design the brontosaurus plus millions and millions of extinct dead ends, mistakes, wrong choices and failed experiments in order to design us and our food. I am embarrassed for your sake to leave this for people to read. If you wish, I can use my editorial powers to delete your post and this response – but I’ll leave them if you want me to.
Your complaint about God using an evolutionary method is a complaint only God can answer because He chose to evolve humans, rather than using a direct creation. The problems you describe above are all true analyses of how messy evolution really is. God chose to use it. It was His problem child. Early in the life of this website, you raised the issue by asking why God evolved us instead of using direct creation. My response has always been it is God's choice for His own unrevealed reasons. You have used the messiness of evolution to obviously denigrate God by accusing me of doing it in my descriptions of God's actions, and as you write above. But look at the result He achieved, humans with our complex brain, the most complex creation in the universe. God knew what He was doing. Your human analysis of Him is wrong.
I use the human/food articles as a way to enter this subject of dispute. Slightly tortured I admit.
The post must remain. We are dear friends in a deep dispute that can reach a resolution by continuing our discussion at the level of both sides admitting evolution is messy, but God chose it.
ecosystem importance: dhw's 'humans plus food' derision
DAVID: […] He knew that our food supply had to be adequate, so the huge bush of life had to be created with us. dhw is simply illogical.
I have kept this thread separate in order to deal with your scurrilous attack!
DAVID: Your complaint about God using an evolutionary method is a complaint only God can answer because He chose to evolve humans, rather than using a direct creation.
That has nothing to do with the headline and your previous article, so first let’s get the “humans plus food derision” out of the way. Nobody in his right mind – whether theist, atheist or agnostic - will disagree that every life form, including humans, needs an adequate food supply. There is no derision. In the context of your own theory, it makes perfect sense that if your God wanted to design humans, he would also have had to design food for humans to live on. There is no derision. Since I also believe in evolution, and since we are discussing the purpose, methods and nature of your God, it makes perfect sense that if he exists, he used evolution to produce our bush of food. There is no derision. But an article recommending three meals a day does not prove your nonsensical theory that your God's sole purpose was to design us and our food supply, and therefore he designed every single life form, 99% of these designs being mistakes or failures although he was in full control and knew exactly how to achieve his purpose.
Secondly, if God exists, I have no complaint about his use of evolution to produce whatever he wanted to produce. The rest of your response simply reverts back to your new theory of evolution, as dealt with on the “David’s theory” thread, except for one important question, which you keep refusing to answer. I will lead into this. When I first proposed experimentation as one of my three alternative theistic explanations of evolution, you pooh-poohed the idea as “humanising” your all-powerful, all-knowing God, because he didn’t need to experiment and because every single design was an “absolute requirement” for us humans and our food. When you eventually had to agree that every single design could not have been an “absolute requirement” for us humans and our food, you switched to your current belief that your God did indeed experiment, and 99% of his experiments were mistakes or failures (a radical extension of my theory). And so my repeated question to you is: why do you think a God who makes countless mistakes, conducts countless failed experiments, makes wrong choices and is responsible for a complete mess before at last he is lucky enough to be offered the right conditions and survivors to fulfil his one and only purpose, is less “human” than a God who gets what he wants without making any mistakes at all – as in my three alternative theories?
DAVID: The post must remain. We are dear friends in a deep dispute that can reach a resolution by continuing our discussion at the level of both sides admitting evolution is messy, but God chose it.
I do not admit that your all-powerful God would have chosen a messy way to fulfil his one and only purpose. If he is all-powerful, then either your interpretation of his purpose is wrong, or your interpretation of his method is wrong. You have agreed in the past that all three of my theistic theories make perfect sense, and your only objection is that they “humanise” him. Hence my question above, which so far you have refused to answer. However I do, of course, share your personal sentiments, and once more hasten to assure any dubious readers that David and I have remained firm friends throughout the last 15 years!
ecosystem importance: dhw's 'humans plus food' derision
by David Turell , Monday, January 16, 2023, 19:57 (459 days ago) @ dhw
DAVID: […] He knew that our food supply had to be adequate, so the huge bush of life had to be created with us. dhw is simply illogical.
dhw: I have kept this thread separate in order to deal with your scurrilous attack!
DAVID: Your complaint about God using an evolutionary method is a complaint only God can answer because He chose to evolve humans, rather than using a direct creation.
dhw: That has nothing to do with the headline and your previous article, so first let’s get the “humans plus food derision” out of the way. Nobody in his right mind – whether theist, atheist or agnostic - will disagree that every life form, including humans, needs an adequate food supply. There is no derision. In the context of your own theory, it makes perfect sense that if your God wanted to design humans, he would also have had to design food for humans to live on. There is no derision. Since I also believe in evolution, and since we are discussing the purpose, methods and nature of your God, it makes perfect sense that if he exists, he used evolution to produce our bush of food. There is no derision. But an article recommending three meals a day does not prove your nonsensical theory that your God's sole purpose was to design us and our food supply, and therefore he designed every single life form, 99% of these designs being mistakes or failures although he was in full control and knew exactly how to achieve his purpose.
Secondly, if God exists, I have no complaint about his use of evolution to produce whatever he wanted to produce. The rest of your response simply reverts back to your new theory of evolution, as dealt with on the “David’s theory” thread, except for one important question, which you keep refusing to answer. I will lead into this. When I first proposed experimentation as one of my three alternative theistic explanations of evolution, you pooh-poohed the idea as “humanising” your all-powerful, all-knowing God, because he didn’t need to experiment and because every single design was an “absolute requirement” for us humans and our food. When you eventually had to agree that every single design could not have been an “absolute requirement” for us humans and our food, you switched to your current belief that your God did indeed experiment, and 99% of his experiments were mistakes or failures (a radical extension of my theory). And so my repeated question to you is: why do you think a God who makes countless mistakes, conducts countless failed experiments, makes wrong choices and is responsible for a complete mess before at last he is lucky enough to be offered the right conditions and survivors to fulfil his one and only purpose, is less “human” than a God who gets what he wants without making any mistakes at all – as in my three alternative theories?
To see my refutation, see today's privileged planet entry. And a bit of an apology: I knew all along the importance of the evolution of the Earth to prepare for us, but I never provided the deep understanding the current entry provides now. The bush of life is much more than food. It also evolved the current Earth we need!!!
DAVID: The post must remain. We are dear friends in a deep dispute that can reach a resolution by continuing our discussion at the level of both sides admitting evolution is messy, but God chose it.
dhw: I do not admit that your all-powerful God would have chosen a messy way to fulfil his one and only purpose. If he is all-powerful, then either your interpretation of his purpose is wrong, or your interpretation of his method is wrong. You have agreed in the past that all three of my theistic theories make perfect sense, and your only objection is that they “humanise” him. Hence my question above, which so far you have refused to answer. However I do, of course, share your personal sentiments, and once more hasten to assure any dubious readers that David and I have remained firm friends throughout the last 15 years!
Do not confuse the issue!! God's choice of a messy system does not make Him messy or incompetent or bumbling. We are here in a properly prepared planet. Evolution is a messy process when life is the subject.
ecosystem importance: dhw's 'humans plus food' derision
by David Turell , Monday, January 16, 2023, 21:05 (459 days ago) @ David Turell
Jow humans have changed the Earth the past 10,000 years and adapted to it:
https://phys.org/news/2023-01-years-humans-today.html
"While humans have been evolving for millions of years, the past 12,000 years have been among the most dynamic and impactful for the way we live today, according to an anthropologist who organized a special journal feature on the topic in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Our modern world all started with the advent of agriculture, said Clark Spencer Larsen, professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University.
"'The shift from foraging to farming changed everything," Larsen said.
"Along with food crops, humans also planted the seeds for many of the most vexing problems of modern society.
"'Although the changes brought about by agriculture brought plenty of good for us, it also led to increasing conflict and violence, rising levels of infectious diseases, reduced physical activity, a more limited diet, and more competition for resources," he said.
"'We didn't get to where we are now by happenstance. The problems we have today with warfare, inequality, disease and poor diets, all resulted from the changes that occurred when agriculture started," Larsen said.
"The shift from foraging to farming led humans, who had led a mostly transitory life, to create settlements and live a much more sedentary existence.
"'That has had profound implications for virtually every aspect of our lives back then, now, and going forward," he said.
"Growing food allowed the world population to grow from about 10 million in the later Pleistocene Epoch to more than 8 billion people today.
"But it came at a cost. The varied diet of foragers was replaced with a much more limited diet of domesticated plants and animals, which often had reduced nutritional quality. Now, much of the world's population relies on three foods—rice, wheat and corn—especially in areas that have limited access to animal sources of protein, Larsen said.
***
"'This is evidence of humans adapting genetically to be able to consume cheese and milk, and it happened very recently in human evolution," he said. "It shows how humans are adapting biologically to our new lifestyle."
***
"Research reported in this PNAS issue also reveals how these first human communities created the ideal conditions for another problem that is top-of-mind in the world today: infectious disease. Raising farm animals led to the common zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted from animals to people, Larsen said."
Comment: this shows that living humans are transforming the Earth to a greater degree than previous top predators. All part of evolving the earth to fit it for humans.
ecosystem importance: new Australian study
by David Turell , Sunday, February 05, 2023, 15:46 (439 days ago) @ David Turell
Especially in drier areas:
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-hidden-food-web-exists-in-the-desert-and-it-thrives-on-d...
"Living in an arid region is a precarious business. Harsh conditions make growing tough for plants, meaning every shoot and leaf is all the more precious, even when they're dead and decaying.
"A new study conducted at Boolcoomatta Station Reserve in outback South Australia has demonstrated the importance of vegetative leftovers in fueling a desert ecosystem – and revealing an unintuitive alliance between termites and dingoes.
***
"Drier periods are a lot less exciting and consequently have attracted less attention."
"But these dry times are important, as they dominate life's existence in arid environments.
***
"Brown food webs are those where the primary food source is decaying vegetation rather than living plants. This rotting plant tissue is recycled back into food energy for the rest of the web when consumed by detritivores, like termites and worms, which are nutriment for small vertebrates.
"Brown webs exist in most habitats, but their impact may be more obvious in areas with fewer resources, like drylands and deserts.
"The researchers found the plots of land which were exposed to kangaroo overpopulation and feral goats showed reduced amounts of both decaying plant material and living vegetation. This caused a cascade of responses throughout the entire web.
"'We found that less dead biomass due to overgrazing herbivores can lead to a reduction in termites," explains Wijas.
""Fewer termites, the principal decomposers in these environments, could ultimately result in a reduction in the number of lizards and small mammals in arid ecosystems, as many of these small vertebrates feed on termites."
***
"In the desert, however, as there's already such a small amount of plant growth that herbivores gobbling up too much of the vegetation means there are not enough leftovers to become the dead plant stuff that feeds detritivores.
"This cascades into fewer small scurrying lizards and mammals like dunnarts – teeny marsupials native to Australia – that feed on the detritivores, and less food for the larger animals such as eagles and snakes that eat the scurriers in turn.
"It's long been established that kangaroos are over-abundant across arid Australia. This problem has arisen, at least in part, because there's a critical component of both the green and brown food webs missing from the equation: an apex predator.
"Humans eradicated dingoes from much of the arid landscape to protect grazing sheep, even going so far as to construct a massive, 5,600-kilometer-long (3,490 mile) dingo fence across south-eastern Australia.
"'Kangaroos occur in large numbers across much of arid Australia because populations of their principal predator, the dingo, have been suppressed. The creation of artificial water points to supply water to livestock, and inadvertently to kangaroos, have also helped kangaroos to survive through dry periods," explains Letnic.
***
"Removing dingoes from the landscape has driven native Australian grasslands to give way to problematically overabundant woody shrublands. These provide cover from which feral cats and foxes can pounce out and devour native endangered marsupials unchecked. The excess grazing has changed the shapes of sand dunes, and the difference in vegetation patterns can even be seen from space.
"Yet, unbeknownst to much of the public, culling of one of the most crucial parts of the arid continent's natural food webs continues under the guise of a 'wild dog problem'.
"While more work is needed to confirm the results, as plot sizes in the study were small and the team did not directly link the abundance of termites to vertebrate numbers, the new findings add to mounting research revealing just how reliant different species within ecosystems are on each other, even those seemingly unconnected, like dingoes and termites.
"'Our findings are one of the first to show in arid ecosystems that where herbivores were excluded, there was greater biomass of dead grass. In turn, there were more termites and predators of termites inside the exclosures," concludes Wijas."
Comment: always the same, poor human judgement in removing top predators. Ecosystems reform automatically to every change, rarely for the best. Humans are top predators of their Earth-wide ecosystem. These systems studies help us learn to use our position wisely.
ecosystem importance: evolution of predators
by David Turell , Friday, September 29, 2023, 20:30 (203 days ago) @ David Turell
Appeared very early:
https://phys.org/news/2023-09-animal-evolution-predatory-lifestyle.html
"...the researchers were able to show that the young life stages (larvae) of the small sea anemone Aiptasia actively feed on living prey and are not dependent on algae. To capture its prey, the anemone larvae use specialized stinging cells and a simple neuronal network.
"In the early embryonic development of multicellular organisms, gastrulation plays a key role. "In its simplest form, the gastrula develops from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, forming a larval stage with gut and mouth; imagine pushing a ball inwards at one side. All animals pass through this gastrula stage, which could also have existed at the beginning of animal evolution," explains Prof. Holstein, a development and evolutionary biologist
"Ira Mägele, a member of his research group, succeeded in proving that already in the late gastrula stage, the larvae of the Aiptasia sea anemone capture prey of suitable size with their stinging cells, ingest them with their mouth and digest them in their primitive gut.
"The Aiptasia sea anemone is a model system for research on endosymbiosis in corals and other cnidarians. "Corals live in nutrient-poor waters and as larvae or young polyps, take up symbiotic algae cells. In Aiptasia, however, this process is important for adults but does not lead to growth and settlement of the larvae, suggesting that nutrition is a critical step in closing the life cycle," states Holstein.
"Laboratory studies of the nutritional conditions showed that the food for the tiny Aiptasia larvae had to be small enough and alive. Nauplius larvae of Tisbe copepods, 50 to 80 micrometers small, are of similar size to Aiptasia larvae, making them an ideal food.
"The larvae increase continually and rapidly in size, followed by settlement on the substrate and metamorphosis into primary polyps. "In this way, we were able to grow mature polyps as well as their descendants for the first time," explains Mägele.
***
"As Prof. Holstein underscores, the data obtained paint a new picture of the predatory lifestyle as a primary characteristic of the cnidarian gastrula. Evolutionary theorist Ernst Haeckel (1834 to 1919) first posed the "gastrula hypothesis."
"'But Haeckel's hypothetical gastrula was a particle-filtering life form, like sponges. In contrast, the predatory gastrula of Aiptasia and other cnidarians possess specialized stinging cells used for capturing prey," says Holstein.
"The predatory lifestyle of gastrula-like forms with extrusive organelles that excrete toxins and are likewise found in single-celled organisms and simple worms, could have been a critical driver of the early evolution of multicellular organisms and the development of complex, organized nervous systems, according to Holstein."
Comment: dhw's worry that God invented a dog-eat-dog predatory lifestyle is shown here, and the Garden of Eden is gone. Trilobites ate what was available:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/fossil-of-a-trilobite-discovered-with-its-las...
See the photo.
ecosystem importance: tropical insects role
by David Turell , Wednesday, October 11, 2023, 19:51 (191 days ago) @ David Turell
Aquatic insects at the shoreline:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231009191700.htm
"A team of researchers from Queen Mary University of London and the University of Campinas in Brazil has found that tropical forest ecosystems are more reliant on aquatic insects than temperate forest ecosystems and are therefore more vulnerable to disruptions to the links between land and water.
***
"They found that the spiders were consuming more aquatic insect prey in the tropics than in the UK, resulting in higher overall dietary diversity in the tropical food-webs, on-land. Their results indicated that tropical terrestrial animals are more reliant on and impacted by emerging aquatic insects. This suggests tropical environments are more vulnerable to future disruption to the interconnections between land and water.
"'Our findings show that we cannot simply apply knowledge from research in temperate zones to protect tropical ecosystems," said Dr. Pavel Kratina, senior author of the study and Senior Lecturer in Ecology at Queen Mary University of London. "That tropical ecosystems are more vulnerable to disruptions to the links between land and water is worrying considering the increasing human pressures on tropical freshwater ecosystems, which are among the most threatened in the world."
"Emerging aquatic insects can become a pathway for negative human impacts to move from one environment to another. For example, polluting a stream may reduce insect numbers, which may in-turn reduce availability of nutritious food for land-based predators. Tropical aquatic insects are under threat of catastrophic declines because of human activity and climate change -- the researchers' results suggest this would have cascading consequences across tropical environments.
***
"The researchers' study stresses the need for greater protection of riparian buffers and broader consideration of the links between ecosystems, rather than considering different habitats in isolation, particularly in the tropics."
Comment: in ecosystems the relationships are important down to the tiny midge. Whatever is eating insects becomes meals for the next predators on the ladder until it reaches the jungle cat. Some of it becomes human food, the supply of which is globally threatened. My next banana is threatened by a loss of aquatic insects. In creating a huge bush of life, God intentionally supplied humans their food supply.
ecosystem importance: cicadas' reapearance helps forests
by David Turell , Friday, October 20, 2023, 16:18 (182 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by David Turell, Friday, October 20, 2023, 16:33
Many changes:
https://www.sciencealert.com/cicadas-mysterious-and-dramatic-life-cycle-can-re-wire-ent...
"While the natural phenomenon of the periodical cicada is well known, the impact of this and similar 'biomass pulses' on local ecosystems has never been adequately mapped.
***
"Stuffed to the brim with cicadas, many birds lost their appetite for oak-feeding caterpillars. Plasticine models of the grubs used to gauge predation rates revealed a marked drop in consumption in 2021, with bird strikes declining from around 30 percent to just 10 percent for several months.
"One of the site's most common caterpillar, the grub of the raspberry bud dagger moth (Acronicta increta), showed a marked change in size following the Brood X emergence, with as much as a 50-fold increase in the proportion of large larvae. Presumably, with so many cicadas on offer, the choicest of caterpillars found themselves with a temporary reprieve.
"Moving further down the food chain, a relative rise in oak-feeding herbivores is bound to be bad news for the oak trees. Sure enough, the summer of 2021 saw a spike in damage to the leaves of the immature oaks.
"Just what this might mean in the long term isn't clear. Though prior research on acorn-producing oaks strongly suggests that an increase in herbivores could constrain that season's production of new trees.
***
"'Our study demonstrates that periodical cicada emergences can 'rewire' forest food webs, altering interaction strengths and pathways of energy flow that affect multiple trophic levels," the researchers write in their published report. (my bold)
"Even beyond predation, the deaths of vast numbers of periodical cicadas provide the soil with a pulse of nutrients.
"Meanwhile, as the next brood of cicadas nestle in for a long rest, their burrows loosen and aerate the soil, almost as an apology to the trees above for the brief disruption they'll bring to the ecosystem when they too eventually emerge."
Comment: all tightly organized ecosystems have effects like this. All ecosystems show this knock-on effects even from small changes. It is my conjecture that all ecosystems are interrelated so tightly that changes in one will affect others. And all of this affects the borderline human food supply. Note this opinion:
https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/library/item/20_october_2023/414...
"Although periodical cicada emergences are short-lived phenomena, lasting for only 5 to 6 weeks, they can initiate a cascade of ecological impacts that propagate up and down the food chain. By providing abundant living prey to predators, carcasses to scavengers and decomposers, and an infusion of nutrients into both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, these brief yet intense events initiate a wide range of responses that can last from days to years and can occur immediately or with a considerable time lag. For instance, analyses of long-term data collected by the North American Breeding Bird Survey revealed that populations of some species were abundant only during emergence years and subsequently declined (for example, black- and yellowbilled cuckoos), whereas others were scarce during emergence years but increased substantially the following year, and then stabilized (for example, tufted titmice and gray catbirds). Migratory birds exhibiting cicada-mediated numerical responses can potentially extend the cicadas’ legacy across continents when they travel to distant overwintering sites, affecting recipient communities through “cross-boundary subsidy cascades." (my bold)
ecosystem importance: fungi's positive ecosystem effect
by David Turell , Friday, October 20, 2023, 19:47 (182 days ago) @ David Turell
How does an infection help? It does:
https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/mycorrhizal-fungi-influence-global-forest-dive...
"I was introduced to the Janzen-Connell hypothesis and negative conspecific density dependence (CDD) around 2015, when I was working on my Master’s degree. It was fascinating that pathogens, by definition harmful organisms, could actually generate and sustain community level plant diversity. Specialized (or relatively specialized) pathogens could create a zone of repulsion under adult trees, reducing the recruitment of their offspring, and leaving space for other species. This negative ‘conspecific density dependence’ (CDD), prevents any one species from dominating and allows a diversity of species to establish. I was working with a professor and her PhD student to see whether this applied within species – are species more successful when grown under genetically more dissimilar individuals of the same species? Because I was excited by all things mycorrhizal fungi, I was hired as a work study student to score all the seedling roots for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (the mycorrhizal relationship 70-80% of plant species worldwide depend on).
***
"In this study, we used census data across 43 large-scale forest inventory plots worldwide, including nearly 3 million stems and over 4,000 species. Ultimately, we found that EM tree species show weaker negative CDD, likely due to greater host specificity or pathogen protection compared to tree species associating with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. This, coupled with the well-known global latitudinal gradient in mycorrhizal types – with ectomycorrhizal plants increasing with absolute latitude – suggests forest mycorrhizal strategy is an essential component of the overall weakening of CDD and lower tree diversity observed at higher latitudes. We also showed that both mycorrhizal types exhibit positive conmycorrhizal feedbacks, with trees benefitting from the presence of heterospecific neighbors that form the same mycorrhizal type, potentially by tapping into shared neighboring mycorrhizal fungi. This positive mycorrhizal feedback at the community level may explain why many forest stands exhibit mycorrhizal bimodality globally, with stands where both mycorrhizal strategies coexist occurring far less than expected by chance. Collectively, these findings suggest that mycorrhizal interactions may play a foundational role in global forest diversity patterns and structure. These findings bring to light the important role of the forest fungal microbiome, mutualisms, and positive feedback in maintaining global patterns of forest biodiversity." (my bold)
Comment: More evidence of how delicately it all fits together. And the underlying issue is maintaining a tenuous food supply for humans.
ecosystem importance: soil dwelling organisms
by David Turell , Wednesday, October 25, 2023, 21:05 (177 days ago) @ David Turell
The inhabitants make our rich soils:
https://evolutionnews.org/2023/10/hidden-service-animals-earthworms-are-only-the-beginn...
"Without earthworms, scientists at Colorado State calculate, we would have 25 percent less food productivity from plants. How much food service do they provide for us? About 140 million metric tons is the estimate.
"Earthworms help establish healthy soils by supporting plant growth in multiple ways — building good soil structure, assisting in water capture and aiding in the beneficial churn of organic matter that makes nutrients more available to plants. Other research has also shown that earthworms can facilitate the production of plant-growth-promoting hormones and help plants protect themselves against common soil pathogens.
"These services are delivered by soft, squishy annelid worms that are easily crushed. The soil is their dark utopia. Moving about with radial and longitudinal muscles, they “worm” their way through each crevice, plowing the soil in a way that helps plant roots navigate to nutrients the worms have made available.
***
[A picture of muscles] "They are impressions of radial worm muscles just 1 millimeter in diameter. The structure allows the muscles to “introvert” like a plunger as the worm stretches and squeezes. They are works of art.
"These particular muscles are not from earthworms (annelids) but from cycloneuralians, “a group of animals that includes roundworms, horsehair worms, mud dragons, and many other creatures.” This kind of structure is required for worms to navigate through the tight spaces in their environments. And they were detected in fossils from the early Cambrian!
"In this study, the researchers described three phosphatized and millimeter-sized specimens from the early Fortunian Kuanchuanpu Formation (ca. 535 Ma) of China. Among them, one specimen (NIGP179459) is better preserved, and consists of five successively larger rings that are interconnected with 19 radial and 36 longitudinal structures. The rings were compressed to certain degrees, implying that they were pliable when alive.
"Muscles imply nerves and coordination by a central nervous system. A diagram further down in the article shows the arrangement of seven kinds of radial and longitudinal muscles. The musculature in annelids (which also abruptly appeared in the Cambrian Explosion) is no less wondrous. (my bold)
***
“This work supports the evolution of scalidophoran-like or priapulan-like introvert musculature in cycloneuralians at the beginning of the Cambrian Period.” (my bold)
***
"Soil organisms mediate unique functions we rely on for food, fiber, and human and planetary health. Despite the significance of soil life, we lack a quantitative estimate of soil biodiversity, making it challenging to advocate for the importance of protecting, preserving, and restoring soil life. Here, we show that soil is likely home to 59% of life including everything from microbes to mammals, making it the singular most biodiverse habitat on Earth. Our enumeration can enable stakeholders to more quantitatively advocate for soils in the face of the biodiversity crisis. (my bold)
"This is twice previous estimates for soil biodiversity. Some 98.6 percent of annelids live underground; other species include fungi, plants, and isoptera (termites). The services they provide to the biosphere are incompletely understood. In a companion piece in PNAS, Richard Bardgett remarks about the new estimate:
***
"...the estimate that 59% of all species inhabit soil, with several taxonomic groups being almost entirely soil-based, points to soil being the most speciose, but poorly explored, habitat on Earth. This staggering level of species richness in soil, combined with growing awareness of the functional importance of soil biodiversity for supporting ecosystem services, their resilience to environmental change, and of its sensitivity to multiple global change factors, provides a strong basis to advocate for explicit inclusion of soil biodiversity in international strategies for biodiversity conservation and the protection of threatened soil species.
"...it’s a sobering thought to realize that much of our livelihood depends on hidden service animals under our feet.
***
"Free-living organisms and microbes that live their lives on and in the ocean’s top meter of seawater are thought to play vital roles in ocean ecosystems, nutrient cycles, oxygen production, the carbon pump, and other earth processes. Yet, surprisingly, relatively little is known about these vital marine communities — collectively known as neuston — their evolution, how they develop, how they affect their environment, and how their environment affects them."
Comment: dhw take note. God planned for our food supply back in the Cambrian. God knows what He is doing. dhw has no idea, except to criticize God's choice of action.
ecosystem importance: if barren, add llamas
by David Turell , Friday, October 27, 2023, 22:03 (175 days ago) @ David Turell
Tried and worked in Peru:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/melting-glacier-peru-llamas-climate
"When glaciers melt, they leave behind barren landscapes that can take decades to support plants and animals. But a new study found that within just three years, such exposed land was revitalized by llamas, whose activity nourished the soil and fostered plant growth.
"By the foot of Peru’s shrinking Uruashraju glacier, researchers partnered with local farmers to capture and herd llamas on four designated plots. For three days a month from 2019 to 2022, the llamas (Llama glama) grazed the plots, fertilizing them with dung and dispersing viable seeds from droppings and fur.
"By the end of that time, the otherwise arid and easily eroded soil stabilized, grew richer in nutrients and supported 57 percent more plant cover than before, geographer Anaїs Zimmer and colleagues report September 24 in Scientific Reports.
"Such a revival of the ancestral Andean practice of camelid herding could potentially cushion the crops, animals and livelihoods of local communities from the impacts of climate change, says Zimmer, of the University of Texas at Austin.
"As is the case worldwide, glaciers are disappearing in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca mountains at an unprecedented rate. And as the ice shrinks, nearby ecosystems wither: They lose access to summertime supplies of freshwater and sometimes encounter harmful acidic minerals in rocks once covered by the glaciers.
" Llamas may help counter some of these effects. Their transformation of the land, as seen in the new study, could reduce rock weathering and help the soil hold onto more moisture, thus limiting the acidic runoff that can poison farmers’ crops. Such contamination is one reason local farmers partnered with the researchers. The animals’ behavior could one day even generate new pasturelands as soil quality improves.
***
"...the size and speed of the changes the llamas helped bring about surprised the researchers. From 2021 to 2022, the average amount of plant cover in the llama plots grew from about 9 percent to nearly 14 percent — faster than it did in four control plots. Four new types of plant species also moved into the experimental plots over the course of the study.
"The research underscores the valuable roles animals play in shaping landscapes, says ecologist Kelsey Reider of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., who was not involved with the new research. Sprinkling nutrients such as phosphorus over the soil can produce similar effects on plant growth, she says, but “the animals themselves are doing a lot.”
"For one, animal poo is special: It holds onto both moisture and microbes. For another, in grazing and trampling on plants, the llamas weed out dominant plants, making space for new species."
Comment: it is not always a top predator that is needed. This shows the effect any living organisms have on transforming the Earth.
ecosystem importance: herbivory's influence
by David Turell , Friday, November 03, 2023, 16:07 (168 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by David Turell, Friday, November 03, 2023, 16:39
All ecosystems are based on vegetation availability:
https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/library/item/03_november_2023/41...
"Restoring vegetation in degraded ecosystems is an increasingly common practice for promoting biodiversity and ecological function, but successful implementation is hampered by an incomplete understanding of the processes that limit restoration success. By synthesizing terrestrial and aquatic studies globally (2594 experimental tests from 610 articles), we reveal substantial herbivore control of vegetation under restoration. Herbivores at restoration sites reduced vegetation abundance more strongly (by 89%, on average) than those at relatively undegraded sites and suppressed, rather than fostered, plant diversity. These effects were particularly pronounced in regions with higher temperatures and lower precipitation. Excluding targeted herbivores temporarily or introducing their predators improved restoration by magnitudes similar to or greater than those achieved by managing plant competition or facilitation. Thus, managing herbivory is a promising strategy for enhancing vegetation restoration efforts.
***
"Our findings offer insights toward achieving myriad restoration commitments. Massive revegetation efforts are being implemented globally, including the Bonn Challenge, Africa’s Great Green Wall, and the Blue Carbon Initiative. By demonstrating global, substantial impacts of herbivores on the abundance and diversity of vegetation under restoration, our study suggests that revegetation efforts, if implemented merely by removing the cause of degradation, recreating abiotic conditions, or planting propagules, are unlikely to achieve maximal outcomes. Rather, substantial improvements can be achieved by comanaging herbivory (by either plant- or consumer-based approaches). By revealing climates and other moderators of variations in herbivore effects at restoration sites, our study can help restoration practitioners pinpoint where and when managing herbivory may be particularly crucial, including in the tropics, where global priority areas for vegetation restoration are concentrated, and in hot, dry regions as well as in the years ahead with respect to future climates. Indeed, as climate change and human activities, which are often beyond the immediate control of local managers, continue to disrupt food webs and affect vegetation through top-down processes, managing herbivory may become increasingly relevant and tractable for enhancing recovery and resilience.
Comment: all of Earth is covered by ecosystems based on vegetation, eaten by herbivores who are eaten by carnivores. All in a neat balance. And all provides human food, which is not in balanced supply at this time. That is why these studies aerev so important.
Another review emphasizes main points:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGwHVPSSpjSNmWLvBGwQPrpDrJJ
"Restoration projects around the world aim to rectify the damage people have done to the planet’s ecosystems. But while they often prevent further habitat losses, they’re not so great at actually bringing back wild spaces. According to a new survey of almost 2600 restoration projects published in this week’s issue of Science, there’s one thing that these projects mostly neglect that could more than double plant regrowth: bringing back ecosystem predators.
"The team’s meta-analysis revealed that hungry herbivores are one of the main barriers to restoration success—yet only 10% of the projects examined included any means of limiting their damage. And that, the authors found, is where predators shine. While excluding plant-eaters roughly doubled the amount plant life that grew at a site, introducing predators increased vegetation abundance by a whopping 372% for projects involving planting native species. (my bold)
“'If we want more plants, we have to let more predators in or restore their populations,” study coauthor Brian Silliman says in a press release. “It’s like learning a new gardening trick that doubles your yield.'”
ecosystem importance: managing vegetation from invasion
by David Turell , Friday, November 03, 2023, 16:20 (168 days ago) @ David Turell
An analytic study:
https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/meta-analysis-identifies-native-priority-as-a-...
" Biological invasion is considered to be one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss with potential negative socio-economic impacts. Invasive alien plant species are well adapted to rapid establishment and exploitation of the resources of disturbed environments, therefore disturbed and intensively managed habitats may support high levels of invasive species. Ecological restoration – defined by the Society for Ecological Restoration as the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed – is increasingly recognized as a relevant tool to combat land degradation and biodiversity loss, and also invasive alien species. As the invasion problem becomes increasingly serious, there is an urgent need to develop more innovative, effective and proactive strategies to help improve the resistance of restored communities to invasion, limiting the establishment and further spread of invasive alien species.
**
"The long-term results show that seeding with native species has been the best method as opposed to mowing and N immobilization, although our system - open sandy grasslands - still has relatively large remnants in the landscape that act as a source of native propagules. In addition to increasing the richness and cover of target species, seed-based restoration has also been most successful in reducing the cover of invasive alien species, although it has not completely eliminated invasive species.
***
"Based on our quantitative review of 48 papers published in relation to seed-based ecological restoration experiments, we demonstrate the potential of seed-based ecological restoration in controlling the establishment and growth of invasive alien species up to 40 %, that can be increased to 50 % by involving the priority effect. Already providing one week of advantage for native species can visibly suppress invasive alien species, although cannot eliminate them. Seeding functionally similar species generally had a neutral effect on invasive alien species, as also shown by previous reviews in the topic, probably partly due to the fact that resources are often not limiting in restoration and in experimental settings. High-density seeding is effective in controlling invasive alien species, but there can be thresholds above which further increases in seeding density may not result in increased invasion resistance.
"The study also highlights the need to integrate research across geographical regions, global invasive species and potential resistance mechanisms to improve the predictive capacity of invasion ecology and to identify best restoration practices to prevent and control invasive alien species."
Comment: it is increasingly important to create these studies so we can adequately manage all ecosystems properly, providing the huge human population its food supply.
ecosystem importance: sea otter's role
by David Turell , Friday, December 29, 2023, 18:28 (112 days ago) @ David Turell
An amazing influence if present:
https://www.sciencealert.com/thriving-otters-in-north-america-linked-to-nuclear-weapons...
"Three atomic weapons went off at Amchitka in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the largest underground detonation the US has ever set off.
"No humans lived on the island, but the biggest blast, in 1971, killed at least 900 sea otters. The Atomic Energy Commission, the government agency in charge of nuclear research, had predicted at most 240 otters would die.
"If ecologists and others hadn't pushed to relocate some otters before the detonation, it probably would have been much worse.
"'There was pressure from the state of Alaska as well as environmental groups," conservation biologist and author, Joe Roman told Business Insider. "They ended up moving hundreds of otters."
"By the time the AEC was looking at Amchitka in the 1960s, the island's sea otter population was one of only a handful that had survived the sea mammals' near extinction a century earlier.
"Their luscious pelts were prized as "soft gold." In the 1700s and 1800s, hunters killed about one million sea otters to sell their fur.
"The drop in population was alarming, from between 150,000 to 300,000 in the early 1700s to around 2,000 just 200 years later. Russia, Japan, Britain, and the US signed a fur treaty to help protect the animals in 1911. Over the next several decades, sea otter numbers rose to around 30,000.
***
"A US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, Karl Kenyon, had already worked on relocating some otters to areas they'd lived before the 18th century hunting. The detonations at Amchitka were a good reason to move even more, ecologists and biologists thought.
"If the AEC would pay for it, Vania said, the scientists could relocate the otters.
***
"Over the next 50 years, the sea otter populations in many of these locations, like Sitka, Alaska, would go from several dozen to hundreds or thousands. "All the sea otters — of which there are thousands — in Sitka now are the descendants of these airlifted sea otters," Roman said.
***
"'In the absence of sea otters, you have a lot of sea urchins," Roman said. "When you have a lot of urchins, they create what's called urchin barrens."
"The sea urchins eat the kelp holdfasts, which anchor the algae. Roman compares it to sawing down a forest. The kelp eventually disappear.
"One of the otters' favorite foods is sea urchin. And they can eat a lot of them. "They have very high metabolisms," Roman said. "They're eating machines." When the sea urchin numbers drop, the kelp return.
"In Sitka Sound, the sea otters reduced the sea urchin population by 99%. Kelp forests exploded in return.
"The forests provide food and shelter for more than 800 species, including sea lions, harbor seals, lingcod, gobies, moray eels, octopuses, crabs, sea anemones, and brittle stars," Roman wrote.
"The kelp forests are also amazing at capturing carbon, a concern for the warming planet.
"The otters can also affect land animals, Roman wrote, either directly, as food for wolves on Alaska's Pleasant Island, or indirectly, with the kelp forests that attracted birds that prey on fish.
***
"...the US didn't consult indigenous and First Nations people before unleashing the otters. The mammals brought back the kelp forests, but they destroyed a reliable source of food for many people.
"'Sea otters don't just eat urchins," Roman said. "They also eat geoducks and other valuable benthic invertebrates in the area." That includes crabs and clams. "And of course that brings them into conflict with fishers in that area," he said.
"Suddenly, otters appeared where they hadn't been for generations. "So no one remembers having sea otters in that area," Roman said. "They're used to harvesting these invertebrates, and they're quite abundant in the absence of a predator."
"Their voracious appetite is one reason some people call otters the "rats of the sea." For some Alaskans and Canadians, they're seen as a nuisance."
Comment: another example of ecosystem complexity showing how the whole bush of life interrelates and come from a 99.9% evolutionary loss of forms.
ecosystem importance: saving an insect species
by David Turell , Sunday, January 14, 2024, 17:05 (96 days ago) @ David Turell
A stick insect not seen for eighty years on an Australian island:
https://www.sciencealert.com/worlds-rarest-insect-makes-stunning-comeback-after-near-ex...
"Only 20 to 30 'tree lobsters' remain in the wild. This single fragile population was rediscovered in 2001 after the insects were presumed extinct for 80 years.
"These wild Lord Howe Island stick insects (Dryococelus australis) currently cling to their precarious existence on a near-vertical volcanic outcrop called Ball's Pyramid.
"Now, San Diego Zoo is inviting visitors to see the extraordinary, extinction-defying Australian animals in person.
"Prone to catastrophic weather events and landslides, Ball's Pyramid is not exactly a safe place for a critically endangered species.
"Here there's only one species of food plant, Melaleuca howeana, for the herbivorous stick insects to graze. These shrubs are being strangled by an invasive vine, which can't be entirely removed as they're holding soil onto the cliffs with their roots.
"So several zoos around the world have been working to bring these large, flightless phasmids down from their metaphorical and quite literal cliff edge.
***
"Lord Howe Island stick insects once clustered on branches of Moreton Bay figs (Ficus macrophylla) and wooly tea trees (Leptospermum lanigerum) of their namesake island home, off the east coast of Australia.
"But the chunky, hand-sized stick insect proved the perfect meal for the rat invasion of 1918. The shipwrecked rats feasted and multiplied and feasted some more, until not a single 'tree lobster' could be found.
"The rats also devoured further native species until they no longer existed on the island, including five birds, two plants, and 12 other invertebrates.
"After no sightings since 1920, the Lord Howe stick insect was declared extinct in 1986. But rumors of insect poop and skin sheds from climbers in the 1960s betrayed the insects' secret refuge on a volcanic sea stack 23 kilometers away from the island.
***
"This incredible feat of survival, despite critically low numbers in such a desolate place, is likely due to the female's ability to clone themselves through parthenogenetic reproduction.
"Researchers were hesitant to put the remaining population at further risk by removing individuals, but in 2003, a rescue team safely extracted four of the black stick insects to begin a breeding program.
"Together, Melbourne, Bristol (now closed), and San Diego Zoos have established a captive population, now numbering in the thousands.
"Since 2019, there has been a massive effort to eliminate the rats on Lord Howe Island with the help of rat-detecting dogs. From endangered land snails to the flightless Lord Howe Woodhen, an incredible resurgence of the island's unique wildlife has followed.
"What is unfolding is an ecological renaissance," Lord Howe Island resident Hank Bower told Laura Chung at The Sydney Morning Herald in 2022.
"'There's a vine which we didn't know what the fruit looked like, people are taking photos of insects and sending them to the Australian Museum who are saying we've only got three of those on record ever but we are seeing hundreds of them. Everything is blooming, all the plants are flowering and we are seeing a carpet of seedlings."
"The zoos hope their now-thriving populations will be used to reestablish the insects back on their island home once it's deemed safely rat-free.
"'This species was once a major converter of vegetative matter and played an important function in the island's ecology as an ecosystem engineer, increasing the richness and speeding up the recycling of nutrients," says NSW state government ecologist Nicholas Carlile.
"'They are currently a missing piece of the puzzle and it would be phenomenal to see them back in the forest someday.'"
Comment: ecosystems support all of life on Earth. Everything living is here for a purpose. Those who do not understand that viewpoint have a confused view as to why species exist.
ecosystem importance: ant and lions
by David Turell , Friday, January 26, 2024, 19:05 (84 days ago) @ David Turell
A surprising mix:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/invasive-ant-lion-dinner-trees-ecosystem
"When big-headed ants (Pheidole megacephala) invade the savanna, they kill off native acacia ants (genus Crematogaster), robbing local whistling thorn trees of their valiant defenders against hungry elephants. Without ants to bite them, the elephants rip up the thorn trees, opening up the grassland, which makes it harder for lions to catch their preferred zebra meals. Lions end up hunting buffalo instead. The findings, published online January 25 in Science, show that invasive species’ effects can be very indirect — and suggest that changes in different low-level mutualisms might also echo up food webs in other ecosystems.
"Over the past 15 years or so, wildlife ecologist Jake Goheen and his colleagues at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya, have been studying how acacia ants protect whistling thorn trees (SN: 6/15/10). When an elephant tries to eat the tree, “ants swarm up inside its nostrils and bite from the inside out,” Goheen says.
"he scientists were also examining what the lions in the conservancy eat as part of a separate study. “One of the things that we found … was that lions are much more effective, they’re more successful with their hunts in areas where tree cover is high,” Goheen says.
"But what happens when tree cover is suddenly low? To find out, Goheen and his colleagues collared six lionesses from the local prides to track their activity and kills. The team also set up experimental plots where big-headed ants had invaded, and where the native ants still held sway.
"The big-headed ant arrived in the conservancy between 2002 and 2005, Goheen says. “We think it probably was imported on produce,” brought into the houses or tourist camps in the area. The invading insects kill local acacia ants wherever they find them. And other studies have shown that without defending ants, pachyderms tore down the thorn trees five to seven times more often.
***
"Areas with big-headed ants, the team showed, had 2.67 times higher visibility than areas without — meaning that lions could see farther, but so could their prey.
Lions relied on the cover of trees to pounce on hapless zebras nearby: Where visibility was low, the probability of a zebra kill was 62 percent. But when visibility was high, the lion’s chance of taking down a zebra dropped to only 22 percent.
"Over the three years of the study, zebra dinners decreased from 67 percent to 42 percent of lion kills. But the lions didn’t go hungry. Instead, they went for beef. Buffalo kills increased from zero to 42 percent of kills over the study period. It’s a risky diet, Goheen says. Buffalo “are big and feisty,” and lions hunting buffalo are more likely to be injured.
"The study shows that “the disruption of a mutualism can have cascading effects on other species in the community,” says Emilio Bruna, a plant ecologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “Those effects can be unexpected and indirect.”
"It’s a clue, Bruna says, that ecologists should be looking out for other pairs like the acacia ant and the thorn tree, where a single special relationship is a foundation for an ecosystem and a single anthill could cause a savanna-wide shift in who is eating who."
Comment: a very important contribution. It is not just a top predator but a little item like an ant on a special tree.
ecosystem importance: toxoplasmosis and wolves
by David Turell , Sunday, January 28, 2024, 15:51 (82 days ago) @ David Turell
Toxoplasmosis changes behavior:
https://www.sciencealert.com/something-strange-happens-to-wolves-infected-by-infamous-m...
"A study of 26 years' worth of wolf behavioral data, and an analysis of the blood of 229 wolves, has shown that infection with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii makes wolves 46 times more likely to become a pack leader.
***
"If you have a cat, you've probably heard of this parasite before. The microscopic organism can only sexually reproduce in the bodies of felines, but it can infect and thrive in pretty much all warm-blooded animals.
"This includes humans, where it can cause a typically symptomless (but still potentially fatal) parasitic disease called toxoplasmosis.
***
"Animals such as rats infected with the parasite start taking more risks, and in some cases actually become fatally attracted to the scent of feline urine, and thus more likely to be killed by them.
"For larger animals, such as chimpanzees, it means an increased risk of a run-in with a larger cat, such as a leopard. Hyenas infected with T. gondii also are more likely to be killed by lions.
"Gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the Yellowstone National Park aren't exactly cat prey. But sometimes their territory overlaps with that of cougars (Puma concolor), known carriers of T. gondii, and the two species both prey on the elk (Cervus canadensis), bison (Bison bison), and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) that also can be found there.
"It's possible that wolves also become infected, perhaps from occasionally eating dead cougars, or ingesting cougar poo.
***
"They found that wolves with a lot of territory overlap with cougars were more likely to be infected with T. gondii.
"But there was a behavioral consequence, too, with significantly increased risk-taking.
"Infected wolves were 11 times more likely to disperse from their pack, into new territory. Infected males had a 50 percent probability of leaving their pack within six months, compared with a more typical 21 months for the uninfected.
"Similarly, infected females had 25 percent chance of leaving their pack within 30 months, compared with 48 months for those who weren't infected.
"Infected wolves were also way more likely to become pack leaders. T. gondii may increase testosterone levels, which could in turn lead to heightened aggression and dominance, which are traits that would help a wolf assert itself as a pack leader.
"This has a couple of important consequences. Pack leaders are the ones who reproduce, and T. gondii transmission can be congenital, passed from mother to offspring. But it can also affect the dynamics of the entire pack.
"'Due to the group-living structure of the gray wolf pack, the pack leaders have a disproportionate influence on their pack mates and on group decisions," the researchers write in their paper.
"'If the lead wolves are infected with T. gondii and show behavioral changes … this may create a dynamic whereby behavior, triggered by the parasite in one wolf, influences the rest of the wolves in the pack."
"If, for example, the pack leader seeks out the scent of cougar pee as they boldly push into new territory, they could face greater exposure to the parasite, thus a greater rate of T. gondii infection throughout the wolf population. This generates a sort of feedback loop of increased overlap and infection.
"It's compelling evidence that tiny, understudied agents can have a huge influence on ecosystem dynamics.
"'This study demonstrates how community-level interactions can affect individual behavior and could potentially scale up to group-level decision-making, population biology, and community ecology," the researchers write.
"'Incorporating the implications of parasite infections into future wildlife research is vital to understanding the impacts of parasites on individuals, groups, populations, and ecosystem processes."
Comment: Every little change in an ecosystem has big consequences. T. gondii is part of the huge diversity of life.
ecosystem importance: imported hippos
by David Turell , Sunday, February 11, 2024, 16:56 (68 days ago) @ David Turell
Developing into a large herd in Colombia:
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/large-and-in-charge-hippos-are-stirring-u...
"An ocean away from their kindred in Africa, a group of invasive hippos roaming the Colombian wild has garnered quite the controversial reputation. The river-dwelling mammals don’t exactly belong in this environment, yet an estimated 91 of them currently inhabit the Magdalena River basin in Colombia.
"As the hippo’s numbers burgeon, the scramble to curtail population growth has reached a boiling point. The consequences that have arisen from the hippos’ presence, scientists warn, will only amplify if the animals aren’t dealt with swiftly.
***
"A 2023 paper published in Scientific Reports estimates that there are 91 hippos currently in the Magdalena River basin and that the population is growing at a rate of 9.6 percent per year. At this rate, there will be 230 hippos by 2032 and over 1,000 by 2050.
"The hippos have impacted the local ecosystem by moving more organic terrestrial matter to aquatic environments. The increased nutrients that they bring by grazing on grass and then excreting in water fertilizes the lakes and rivers, which may lead to eutrophication — caused by an excess of nutrients and associated with harmful algal blooms.
"People who live in nearby agricultural villages, and especially those who access the Magdalena River, could be exposed to danger from the hippos. According to the paper, two people have been attacked and injured by the hippos since 2019. The threats that humans and wildlife face will likely escalate in the future, depending on how the population is managed.
"The first hippos in Colombia — 3 females and 1 male — came at the behest of drug lord Pablo Escobar, who imported them in 1981 from a U.S. zoo. They became a feature of Escobar’s own private zoo at his sprawling estate, Hacienda Nápoles.
"The zoo shut down in 1993 after Escobar’s death, but the hippos remained on site due to challenges transporting them. In the coming years, they reproduced and made the surrounding landscape their home. From 1993 to 2009, 4 hippos turned into 28.
"The initial solution to stop the hippos’ growth was culling, or killing for population control. But when authorities culled a male hippo in 2009, a fierce reaction from animal rights activists followed. Ever since a judicial ruling banned the shooting of hippos, authorities have struggled to commit to alternative methods.
***
"It will take deliberate consideration by authorities to choose the path forward, but the paper’s authors say that delaying for too long could create a bigger impact as the hippo population grows.
"If the population control process doesn’t start soon, the hippos will likely expand into other territories. The ecological impacts and the potential for conflict with humans could enter new levels of severity in the future as a result. Regardless of what option is chosen, it seems that this critical moment has already spawned serious repercussions as the invasive hippos continue to proliferate."
Comment: just like the problems in Australia. Wrong animals in wrong places creates nothing but ecological trouble. The small population start suggests this herd has a poor gene pool which could produce abnormal sickly hippos.
ecosystem importance: reintroduce top predators
by David Turell , Saturday, August 26, 2023, 17:07 (237 days ago) @ David Turell
A lone wolf story:
https://www.sciencealert.com/it-took-just-one-wolf-to-revive-an-entire-forest-ecosystem...
"In 1997, a lone wolf crossed an ice bridge that briefly connected Canada with the remote Isle Royale, which lies off the coast of Michigan in Lake Superior and is renowned for its rich biodiversity.
"His arrival revived the flagging fortunes of the wider wolf population, which had been hit by disease and inbreeding, and triggered cascading effects that improved the health of the overall forest ecosystem, a study in Science Advances showed Wednesday.
"'Issues like inbreeding and low genetic diversity are an important concern for scientists," first author Sarah Hoy, an ecologist at Michigan Technological University told AFP.
"'But this is the first study that shows when you have these genetic issues, they don't just impact the particular population and increase the risk that they will go extinct: they also have these really big knock on effects on all the other species."
"The first wolves arrived on the island in the late 1940s, and their main prey are moose – giving rise to the longest running study of a predator-prey system anywhere in the world.
"But by the 1980s, the wolves were in trouble due to the arrival of canine parvovirus which drove their numbers down from a high of 50 to around 12.
"Though the disease eventually disappeared, the population didn't recover right away. The reason was severe inbreeding, which caused lower reproductive success, as well as poorer health outcomes such as spinal deformities of the kind often seen in purebred dogs.
***
"Enter the immigrant, identified as "M93" by scientists, but affectionately nicknamed "The Old Gray Guy."
"M93 was unrelated to the existing population, and also had the advantage of being unusually large – a big benefit when defending turf from rivals or taking down 800 pound ungulates.
"He quickly became the breeding male in one of the island's three wolf packs and went on to sire 34 pups, greatly improving the genetic health of the population and the kill rate of its prey.
"Moose are voracious herbivores, consuming up to 30 pounds (14 kilograms) of vegetation a day. By reducing their numbers, the wolves helped bring the forest back into balance, which was most notable in the effects on balsam firs – the species commonly used as Christmas trees.
"With fewer moose, the trees began growing at rates not seen in decades, which is vital for the renewal of the forest and the myriad plant and animal species that depend on it.
"The benefits brought by M93's arrival lasted around a decade, then the situation deteriorated once more – ironically as a result of his extreme reproductive success.
"By 2008, two years after his death, 60 percent of the wolf population's gene pool was inherited from M93, which led to a return of genetic deterioration.
"M93 himself began breeding with his daughter after his mate died, and simultaneous inbreeding by other members triggered a rapid population decline until 2015, when there were just two wolves left: a father-daughter pair who were also half siblings.
"Fortunately, a restoration program beginning in 2018 has once more brought balance to the system, and there are currently around 30 wolves and just under a thousand moose on the island.
"For Hoy, a key takeaway is that the same principle of inserting just a small number of individuals could be applied to other imperiled predator populations that suffer from the harmful effects of inbreeding, such as lions or cheetahs, to similarly improve their ecosystems.
"William Ripple, a professor of ecology at Oregon State University who was not part of the research, told AFP it was an "important study" that advances understanding "by showing that genetic processes may limit the ecological effects of a keystone species, the gray wolf.'"
Comment: this shows the delicate balance in ecosystems. All life on Earth is in an ecosystem, each 0f which must maintain its balance with an apex predator.