Meet this organization - Ducks Unlimited - who are working with landowners and ranchers in the southern US Great Plains to conserve water and landscapes along the Platte River, supporting the Ogallala aquifer in the process.
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River migration This photo from above catches several stages in river evolution. In a meandering river system like this one, river meanders grow outward by eroding away at a cutbank. Sediment moved away from the cutbank often is deposited on a point bar on the inside of a growing meander – the sand bars stand out clearly in this photo, showing meanders in various states of growth. River meanders grow outward through this process until eventually the meander gets so big that the river breaks through and establishes a new, shorter course. When that breakthrough happens, it often strands the old meander as an abandoned channel known as an oxbow lake. -JBB Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/maitri/73035629/
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chaitdeshphotography
I don’t generally post videos but there’s one that comes up every few months that needs to be shared... Watch till the end.. Enjoy!
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Caution!! Crabs Crossing!!
Every year at the beginning of the wet season, around October or November, the Christmas Island red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis), begins its migration from the forest to the coast to breed. Although only endemic to Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, there is estimated to be more than 120 million red crabs on the rain forest floor of Christmas Island(National Geographic). The migration of the crabs is usually synchronised throughout the Island, with the rain providing moist conditions enabling them to make the long and difficult journey.
The mass migration is headed by the males, quickly followed by the females. The crabs spend several painstaking weeks scuttling to the ocean, which can be as far as 9 km away.
In order to mitigate human interference with the migration, road closures and designated “crab crossings” are put in place and local radio stations report on the crabs movements.
-Jean
Image source: https://bit.ly/2Sl1Zif Check out this great video on the migration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sJ7zXUdtUkg For more information, including their life cycle go here: http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/christmas/nature-science/fauna/red-crabs.html
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A bird of beauty
One of South America's iconic avians is the Scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber), also found in the islands of the Caribbean, though there is some dispute over whether it truly forms a separate species or is a sub species of the common white ibis, since they have been proved to cross breed (creating pale orange hybrids), but tradition remains strong as it was initially described as separate by the grandfather of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus himself. Despite the cross breeding, the two froms still exist in the wild, including in the regions where their ranges overlap. The scarlet colour comes from carotene like substances in their crustacean rich diet and isn't present in juveniles, but comes in as these waders dip into the water to catch their favourite prey (though they also eat insects). In zoos beetroot or carrots are part of their diet to keep the hue rich and vibrant. They grow to around a half metre long, and live in flocks of 30 or so for roughly a decade and a half. These sub flocks also congregate in groups of many thousands when food resources are plentiful.
They can fly long distances chasing wetlands around the seasons, and their range goes from southern Brazil through to Florida, (where they were introduced from the Caribbean), though their main range is the annually flooded grassland plain known as the Llanos in Colombia and Venezuela (see http://bit.ly/2oMZ7ML).
Loz
Image credit: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
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AFRICA’S GREAT MIGRATION HURDLE
In the plight to conserve Africa’s wildlife, there are many different challenges. Though Africa’s grazing megafauna are well adapted to the diverse landscape of the continent, they are presently experiencing a relatively unheard-of threat – fences. In ecology, habitat fragmentation is broadly known as the unfavourable partitioning of wildlife habitat, which is often by man-made structures or development. Some species can survive in smaller patches of habitat, but migratory species can be severely impeded and wire fences contribute greatly to this issue. The African savannah has become a highway for many important megafaunal migrations, including the Great Migration, which consists of almost 2 million animals trekking gradually from the Serengeti to the Masai Mara in Kenya. The Masai Mara reserve is home to indigenous nomadic tribes that have, for a long time, been involved in the stewardship of the land and fauna in the Greater Mara region. However, economic turmoil in the country as well as urbanisation have recently led to a switch from the nomadic lifestyle to individuals claiming land for cattle rearing and farming. The rising conflicts between farmers in the region have resulted in the erection of wire fences in areas where wild animals roam.
A group of researchers from the Demark and Kenya teamed up to track the progression of fence erection over the past 31 years to determine the extent to which fencing has impacted the region both culturally and environmentally. They found that areas that were previously fenced and utilised as homesteads have expanded gradually over the years. The most startling result seen, however, was that fencing in the Greater Mara region increased sporadically from 2014 to 2016, with fences popping up in previously unoccupied regions between settlements and the reserve, threatening to encroach further toward protected areas. What does this mean for the animals that depend on the region for food and water? How will migration patterns be affected? According to the authors, the patterns of fencing seen here will dismantle the intricate system that has remained protected for thousands of years. Culturally, the shift in and abandonment of environmental stewardship will likely spell disaster for this highly specialised ecosystem. Large declines can already be seen in the numbers of migrating animals and further losses will see extensive secondary ecosystem effects. Some of the grazers prefer to feed in the outer regions of the reserve, where cattle generally forage as well. Farmers have therefore fenced off their grazing lands, cutting off access to a number of species. Large numbers of wildebeest also migrate between the Greater Mara and Loita plains. The Greater Mara serves as dry season refuge due to the high levels of rainfall and extended foraging periods but the region where the Loita herds graze has been so densely fenced that most wildebeest cannot access the area.
The situation appears dire if the trends in fence erection continue but the authors are hopeful that changes in conservation policies to drive community-based natural resource management may help to restore migratory patterns and provide a number of socio-economic benefits such as secured access to land, institutional support, employment and profits from ecotourism, to stewardship communities. Ultimately, more information is needed on the land use dynamics within the area and communities-based stewardship needs to be incentivised to ensure a long-lasting solution. However, action needs to be taken as soon as possible to restore the damage already inflicted on the ecosystem and to prevent further encroachment by educating and rewarding compliant farmers.
KR.
References:
Løvschal et al., 2017, Fencing bodes a rapid collapse of the unique Greater Mara ecosystem. Nature: Scientific reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep41450.
Image: http://bit.ly/2lILjlJ
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Rather amazing that those are shadows in the opening shot. Original caption:
natgeoVideo by @florianschulzvisuals | There is hardly a greater wildlife spectacle left in North American then the massive caribou migration of the Porcupine Caribou herd. Every year about 200 000 caribou migrate to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to give birth to their young. Migrating close to 3000 miles it is the longest migration route of any land mammal. The reason: The caribou are dependent on the nutrient rich vegetation that the coastal plain provides. The current GOP tax bill would allow oil drilling in this pristine wilderness. Opening up the Refuge has often been attempted by drilling supporters but never received congressional approval. This time around the situation is different. As the measure is tied to the budget process the bill only needs 51 votes – not the usual 60. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge could become a reality, destroying one of the greatest wild places in the country that has often been called the Serengeti of the north. In my work, I specialize in the last wild place on the planet and those become increasing rare. I think it would be devastating to see one of the greatest wilderness gems be destroyed over a few months worth of the nation’s oil.
Migrating red crabs, Christmas Island
395 birds slammed into a building
These photographs were shared by the Galveston Police Department after a day when severe weather, bird migration pathways, and human construction all converged in Galveston, Texas last week. Although it is somewhere between difficult and impossible to do a national survey, estimates from a variety of organizations suggest that each year, several hundred million birds die in the United States from striking glass windows on buildings. The numbers thought to be killed by cars and cats are on the same order of magnitude.
Most of the birds killed on Thursday, March 4 were warblers. These birds have a north to south migration path that takes them from Central America up to North America for summer nesting, bringing them through the Texas coastline. Stormy weather that day is thought to have pushed the flying birds to lower altitude, and lights left on in the building after dark may have drawn them in or distracted them, leading to hundreds of collisions. The dead birds were collected and catalogued by local animal control, and their bodies will be sent to nearby universities for future research purposes.
It is possible to build structures that minimize bird strikes – angling windows during construction, turning lights off at night, and putting materials on windows so birds can see them are all techniques that can reduce strikes or reduce the lethality of them when they occur. However, few buildings are designed with this in mind. This massive strike is just one example of the type of strike that kills an estimated 1 million birds per day in the United States alone.
-JBB
Image credits: Galveston County Animal Control http://bit.ly/2pzYWEO http://wapo.st/2q44vhb
Reference: http://bit.ly/2p6UZu2
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On The Wing
It’s springtime in the Northern Hemisphere and around the world, birds are making their ways back to their nesting places. Spring migration is even more spectacular sight than fall migration, because rather than trickling southward by species, birds return to the north en mass. Birders everywhere seek and gather in the best areas to see, enjoy, photograph, and tally birds. In the United States, one of the first stops along the route home for migratory birds is the upper coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from the panhandle of Florida to the southern tip of Texas. For many avian species, the coastline is the first dry land they sight after flying as much as 18 hours, 600 miles (966 km) straight across the Gulf. Growing up along the coast, a familiar sight in the late winter was that of controlled burn-offs of patches of coastal wetlands. Marsh grasses, invasive species, and other plants that had died and dried out over the winter would be burned away to reveal green shoots beginning to sprout, improving feeding areas for migratory water fowl. School kids with B.B. (ball bearing) guns were informed that shooting at birds (except for during regulated hunting seasons, in designated areas) was illegal. The “Migratory Bird Treaty Act”, between the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, and the former Soviet Union (first enacted in 1916; renewed and amended in 1936, 1960, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1986, and 1989) officially made “taking, killing, or possessing migratory birds” unlawful.
Along the way, both coming and going, migratory birds face numerous difficulties and loss of life, both natural and anthropogenic (human-caused). Migratory birds are threatened by collisions with man-made structures (more than a billion birds die each year in North America alone from colliding with glass-fronted buildings), disease, poisoning, becoming entrapped or entangled in nets and plastic trash, drowning in oil, tar, or brine pits, or evaporation ponds, electrocution on power lines, or natural predation. Millions of acres of bird habitat are lost or become degraded every year, through development, deforestation, the filling in or draining of wetlands, and poor agricultural practices. Loss of habitat also increases due to changes in the landscape as a result of climate change. Habitat loss can only be reversed by habitat restoration, conservation, and protection of the areas needed by the birds. Mitigating habitat loss and conserving populations of migratory birds cannot be accomplished by a single entity, but requires coordinated efforts by governments, industry, conservation organizations, and the general public.
In 2006, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), in order to create awareness of the importance of migratory birds, the need for conservation of the birds and their habitats, and the threats that the birds face, established “World Migratory Bird Day”. The designated theme for this year is “Their Future Is Our Future”, with the intention of focusing on the connections and interdependence of humans and nature. The official day this year is May 10, 2017, but different areas celebrate on slightly different dates (In the U.S., it will begin on Saturday, May 13th). In accordance with this, many places along migratory routes have established festivals celebrating the birds that pass through, with exhibits, educational programs, and local bird-watching expeditions.
If you go to your browser and type in “spring bird migration”, a whole host of links will pop up. A little bit of scrolling will help you to find out if your hometown lies along a migratory flyway. If you’d like to get more specific, you can search for migratory waterfowl, migratory songbirds, tropical bird migrations, and more.
Citizens can become directly involved in efforts to conserve migratory birds by:
• Participating in citizen science bird monitoring programs; • Keeping cats indoors; • Using bird feeders that make it difficult or impossible for cats to reach the birds; • Making your yard more bird-friendly by providing clean water, plants with flowers for nectar and insects (for birds to feed to their young), fruit-bearing plants, and plants with nesting habitat and materials; • Working with your community to make or remodel parks and green belts in urban areas that can provide food and habitat for birds; • Reducing the use of chemicals around homes or business, include pesticides and weed killers; • Reducing energy and water use; • Reducing, reusing, and recycling materials such as plastics, metals, and glass; • Buying and using bird-friendly, shade-grown, organic, free trade coffee and chocolate; • Encouraging businesses with glass-fronted buildings and bright nighttime lighting to turn off the lights. (The U.S. Lights Out program, which began in Chicago, is estimated to save around 10,000 birds a year.) • “Adopt” a migratory bird species from a flyway near your home and become an advocate for that species (This is a terrific idea for classes of school children.) Work to restore the birds’ habitat, educate the people in the community, &/or volunteer at a nature center or preserve.
CW
Image by author (Juvenile brown pelican at Port Aransas, Texas)
Sources
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Marine ecosystems heading pole-wards.
Throughout the oceans, plankton and the animals that feed off them are seeking cooler waters as the world warms. As this ecological transformation happens before our eyes over the coming decades everything we thought we knew about the distribution of life in the oceans is going to change beyond recognition. On a more practical level, fisheries will shift from one country's territorial waters into another, exacerbating existing conflicts over this resource that billions rely on as their main source of protein.
A review paper published by scientists from 17 institutions in 8 countries summarised decades worth (in some cases up to three centuries) of global data contained in over 1,700 peer reviewed studies covering 857 species, in order to examine the shift in the lifestyles of marine organisms during this period. It was published in Nature Climate Change, and was the first ever study undertaken on a global scale, in preparation for the next IPCC report due out next year.
Most previous studies were local and focussed on one or a few species over a limited time period. Their database will also serve as a baseline from which to assess future changes as the transformation of the oceans continues. They studied the distribution, movements, demography and life cycle of marine ecosystems and their changes through time.
The results were a bit of a shock, showing two universal trends. The sea is warming at one third the rate of the land, so they expected the migration rate to be slower in marine ecosystems, but the opposite turned out to be true by an order of magnitude. Rates of climate change related ecosystem migration on land are now increasingly understood, averaging six Km a decade, while those at sea are shifting at an average of 72Km a decade. This figure hides many outliers, some creatures are not moving at all, while others are moving at tremendous rates.
Two types of life show the largest reactions; phytoplankton are shifting at 471Km a decade, and the bony fish we all like to eat at 277. This has obvious implications for fisheries worldwide, since many are located in various nation's exclusive economic zones. As the researchers point out: ' Changes in life events and distribution of species indicates we are seeing widespread reorganization of marine ecosystems, with likely significant repercussions for the services these ecosystems provide to humans". The slowest movers include crustaceans and algae, but even they are moving at tens of Km per decade.
The other main trend is seasonal, animals are responding to the advent of spring, and breeding earlier (by an average four days). This creates a chain effect, if the plankton bloom earlier and in a different place, the young fish that feed off them have to adjust or risk snapping the temporal and spatial links that hold the whole ecosystem together. It is unknown to what extent these increasing changes will disrupt marine ecosystems, and ongoing studies will be necessary to follow events as they develop. Migrations in search of food are also coming earlier, as the animals strive to catch up with their prey.
While many think that the impact of global warming is something to worry about in the future, this study demonstrates that major adjustments in lifestyle are happening already all around the globe. From the coasts to the deep, the tropics to the Arctic, plankton to whales, this first global level study surprised scientists with the speed and magnitude of the transformation so far. The scientists correlated 82% of their observations with anthropogenic global warming induced changes, confirming their conclusions using multiple lines of evidence and demonstrating that the results of a series of regional studies scaled up to global level.
I leave you with their final conclusion: ' recent climate studies show that patterns of warming of the upper layers of the world’s oceans are significantly related to greenhouse gas forcing. Global responses of marine species revealed here demonstrate a strong fingerprint of this anthropogenic climate change on marine life. Differences in rates of change with climate change amongst species and populations suggest species’ interactions and marine ecosystem functions may be substantially reorganized at the regional scale, potentially triggering a range of cascading effects'.
Loz
Image credit, humpback whale breaching just off South Shelter Island, Juneau, Alaska: Gilfoto, Wikimedia Commons.
http://www.imedea.uib.es/noticias.php?nid=MTI2Ng%3D%3D http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/3353/20130806/oceans-warm-marine-life-moves-poleward-changes-breeding-patterns.htm http://climatetimes.com/article/marine-species-head-cooler-waters-planet-warms http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/sea-creatures-race-toward-cooler-waters/ http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/08/climate-change-is-sending-marine-life-to-the-poles-in-search-of-colder-waters/ Original article, paywall access: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1958.html
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Humpback season off the Hawaiian Islands
Caution!! Crabs Crossing!!
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Ancient arthropod adventurers
“See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! They are waiting on the shingle – will you come and join the dance?” - Lewis Carroll, “The Lobster Quadrille”
Arthropods (the group that includes crabs, trilobites and insects) have been coordinating their movements for a very long time. One modern example is the migration of the Christmas Island red crab: these land crabs normally live in nooks and crannies in the damp rainforests of Christmas Island, but one remnant of their fully-aquatic past is that their larvae cannot develop on dry land. So, once every year, the millions of crabs living on the island simultaneously make the pilgrimage to the sea to mate, turning roads and beaches bright red with their numbers.
A very different sort of migration is that of the Caribbean spiny lobsters, which periodically wend their way across the sea floor; not as a massed group, but in strict single file. In this uncanny sort of conga dance, each individual keeps in contact with the group by touching the tail of the one in front. These ‘queues’ may consist of fifty or more individuals. Unlike the red crabs they are not going to spawning grounds, but are probably simply seeking to escape the cold by moving to deeper waters.
But how long have animals been moving together like this? It is rare for animal migrations to be preserved in the fossil record, but now a team of researchers think they have found the earliest example; in a set of blind trilobites from Poland, approximately 365 million years old.
These trilobites were buried in long, straight lines, each individual nose-to-tail (or cephalon-to-pygidium) with the others. This puzzling arrangement has been interpreted in several different ways, but by analogy with today’s lobster queues a new study suggests that maybe, just maybe, these trilobites were scuttling across the seafloor in a similar way, keeping in contact by touch because they could not see.
The researchers have also discovered that the queues contain trilobites of two slightly different shapes. It is possible that these represent different sexes, and that the trilobites might, like the Christmas Island red crabs, have been migrating in order to reproduce. Indeed, small immature forms of the same species are found near the mature adults, leading to the exciting possibility that these fossils represent a trilobite ‘nursery’ to which the adults travelled at mating season.
If this is indeed the correct interpretation, then it seems that behaviour remarkably similar to that of modern arthropods was occurring as far back as the Devonian period. And this also demonstrates how fossil evidence and modern zoology can be united to tell us a surprising amount about the daily lives of animals that have been long extinct.
- Lithops
Image credits: Adrian (Red crab migration), Neil DeMaster (Caribbean spiny lobster) https://flic.kr/p/hEvcFV https://flic.kr/p/h44MSq Sources: https://www.christmas.net.au/experiences/red-crab-migration.html http://usa.oceana.org/blog/creature-feature-caribbean-spiny-lobster http://www.bio.fsu.edu/herrnlab/migration.html Błażejowski, Błażej et al. "Ancient Animal Migration: A Case Study Of Eyeless, Dimorphic Devonian Trilobites From Poland". Palaeontology 59.5 (2016): 743-751
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A problem of synchronisation
A new study has revealed some of the effects of climate change on Britain's wildlife, showing how desynchronisation is already a problem facing some members of the ecosystem. The issue is simple, imagine you are a migratory bird used to returning to Albion's shores every year in time to breed. In a normal year your arrival is timed so that your favourite foodstuff, whether grubs or berries are plentiful, and the next generation will be numerous. If global warming means that the grubs are appearing two weeks early in the destination country, that migratory species faces a tough year. Similarly some kinds of fish are born in time to synchronise with specific plant foods, which are appearing earlier in the year and also affecting their numbers.
While this may not seem like much, it is a real problem for ecosystems, and one that will get worse as the climate alters during the coming decades. If such a problem knocks out a keystone species for example, then that particular food web will be compromised. Even if species survive, the changes could disrupt food webs into a state of unbalance by changing relationships between its different layers (eg primary plant production, herbivores, predators) affecting their amount of offspring and long term survival. As the world warms these effects are expected to become a real challenge and many vulnerable ecosystems have already been identified.
The large team (including members of 17 organisations) analysed over 10,000 long term (1960-2012) ecosystemic datasets (eg fish spawning or plant flowering dates)from 812 different species representing all of the major biomes of the Isles. They matched the data with temperature and rainfall in the relevamnt area after splitting it into the three main levels of the food web and added in modelling to demonstrate which parts of the British ecosystem are most sensitive to warming.
The results show a large potential for disruption combined with a poor predictive understanding of the likely consequences, along with some already relevant effects. Ione species particularly affected is the cuckoo, which as we know parasites other birds by slipping its eggs into nests. They have not changed their migration date much as the world warms, but their host species are nesting much earlier, and by the time the cuckoos arrive the chicks are born, making it hard to perform their naughty reproductive trick.
The study also demonstrated that temperature rather than rainfall was the prime driver behind the observed effects, and that sensitivity to this disruption is very variable between species. The top level of the food chain is generally more gastronomically versatile, a predator will try and eat anything it dares take on, while the middle level (seed eating migratory birds for example) is much more vulnerable to rising temperatures. The study also provides valuable baseline data on the current state of play against which to assess future change.
Loz
Image credit: Vogelartinfo
http://bit.ly/295eXwD Original paper: http://go.nature.com/29bf61r
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Pop-up Wetlands
At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, seemingly endless flocks of birds pass overhead as they head south to their winter feeding grounds. Birds primarily make these seasonal journeys in search of food, but now climate change is making their travel more hazardous. As extended droughts along the major flyways reduce the availability of food supplies, many birds arrive at their normal resting grounds to find them severely depleted or gone entirely.
Migration is always a trade-off between the greater availability of food in more tropical regions and the stress and physical costs of exertion the long flights take. Although many species of birds are affected by changing climate conditions, some of those most affected by the lingering drought along the flyways are the waterfowl.
Coastal Texas, part of the North American Central Flyway, is normally a winter home to around 2 million water birds. However, massive development in areas like the Katy prairie lands and mandatory water restrictions for rice farmers in the region have greatly reduced the wetland areas available for wildlife. Organizations like the Texas Prairie Wetlands Project and the Gulf Coast Joint Venture are using satellite images, cropland data, and wetlands inventory data to develop new habitat for migrating water birds, but this will take time.
In California, part of the Pacific flyway, where more than 90% of the native wetlands are gone, they are already implementing a temporary fix. Along with the loss of wetlands also comes a drastic reduction in the insects, fish, and plants necessary for migratory birds to replenish energy expended in flight. In 2013, thousands of birds died from starvation and disease when they arrived to find the Lower Klamath River Wildlife refuge dry, the water diverted to sustain salmon runs further downstream.
To prevent further episodes of this type, the Nature Conservancy-California, NASA, Cornell University Ornithology Lab, and other academic institutions have banded together to form “BirdReturn”. Farmers in key migration areas submit bids based on how much participation would cost them and TNC-California pays them to flood their fields for specific two-week periods, creating temporary habitats for the birds.
Leasing 57 sq km (14,000 acres) of rice farms in 2014, BirdReturn temporarily flooded rice fields, using satellite data and on-the-ground observations to locate and time these “pop-up wetlands” with the progress of the flocks. Although the current El Niño has brought some drought relief, conservationists say that without the creation of these avian rest stops, birds would be forced to keep on flying, exhausting themselves in their search for food and water.
CW
Images
http://bit.ly/1Y0Udav
Sources
http://climate.audubon.org/
http://bit.ly/1NGeDCx
http://bit.ly/1PlVVlh
http://bit.ly/1SEIjQG
http://bit.ly/1L7qWld
http://bit.ly/1MSZ8Zn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_migration
http://n.pr/1km0DCK
http://n.pr/1Y0Ume4
http://bit.ly/1O9bLv2
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