Ecological world

                        Voting for the Public Award of the REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest is open 1-28 February 2017. Voting is open to all members of the public. The REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest was launched in 2016 and received over fifty project submissions from across Europe. The aim of the contest is to recognize groundbreaking projects and ideas addressing food waste. Public Award: REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest Vote Now:  Public Award REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest (link is external) (link is external)  of the REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest and have the opportunity to present their project at the  REFRESH Food Waste 2017 Conference (link is external) (link is external)   on 18 May 2017 in Berlin. (link is external)  (Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain) and organizes the contest and the conference. Each person can vote once pe...

Hank introduces us to ecology - the study of the rules of engagement for all of us earthlings - which seeks to explain why the world looks and acts the way it does. The world is crammed with things, both animate and not, that have been interacting with each other all the time, every day, since life on this planet began, and these interactions depend mostly on just two things... Learn what they are as Crash Course Biology takes its final voyage outside the body and into the entire world.  Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a new Crash Course in ECOLOGY! 

A newly discovered species of gecko has tearaway skin that leaves predators with nothing but a mouthful of scales when attacked. Many lizards can detach their tails when attacked, but fish-scale geckos have large scales that tear away with ease. The new species is a master of this art, say scientists, having the largest scales of any known gecko. The reptile, named  Geckolepis megalepis ,  is described in PeerJ . The skin of fish-scale geckos is specially adapted to tearing. The large scales are attached only by a relatively narrow region that tears with ease. In addition, beneath the scales there is a pre-formed splitting zone within the skin itself. Image copyright F. GLAW Image caption When grasped by a predator, fish-scale geckos lose not just their scales but also the skin underneath Although several other geckos are able to lose their skin like this if they are grasped firmly, fish-scale geckos are able to do so actively - and at the slightest...

A recent review of studies of submarine canyons has identified that they are at risk from human activities, and require better protection. Remains of fishing gear over corals and other benthic fauna on Porcupine Bank. Credit: ICM-CSIC, DOSMARES cruise 2013. The review was published in the journal  Frontiers in Marine Science  by a team of scientists that are part of the International Network for submarine Canyon Investigation and Scientific Exchange (INCISE). INCISE is an initiative that aims to bring together scientists working on all aspects of submarine canyon research, and to stimulate discussions across disciplines. Submarine canyons are major geomorphic features of continental margins, and nearly 10,000 large canyons are estimated to exist around the world. Recent multidisciplinary projects focused on the study of canyons have considerably increased our understanding of their ecological role, the goods and services they provide to human...

The Amazonian rainforest was transformed over two thousand years ago by ancient people who built hundreds of large, mysterious earthworks. Geoglyph photos. Credit: Jenny Watling Findings by Brazilian and UK experts provide new evidence for how indigenous people lived in the Amazon before European people arrived in the region. The ditched enclosures, in Acre state in the western Brazilian Amazon, were concealed for centuries by trees. Modern deforestation has allowed the discovery of more than 450 of these large geometrical geoglyphs. The function of these mysterious sites is still little understood -- they are unlikely to be villages, since archaeologists recover very few artefacts during excavation. The layout doesn't suggest they were built for defensive reasons. It is thought they were used only sporadically, perhaps as ritual gathering places. The structures are ditched enclosures that occupy roughly 13,000 km 2 . Their discovery challenges assump...

W e find it ironic that so much effort and so many resources are put into the exploration of outer space, at a time when humans are progressively using resources to depletion and when so little is known about the biological diversity of the earth. Why is there all this publicity about ancient life discovered on the planet Mars when there are regions of the Earth where life has yet to be explored? Life at the extremes of environmental conditions are to be found on the Earth. For example, studies of life atgreat depths in the oceans has hardly begun. Recently, an entire new kingdom of deep organisms, the Archaea, has been recognised; although discovered some decades ago, genetic analysis has shown them to be quite unlike any other kind of life (Earle, 1996). We have been concerned to read of proposals for using deep oceans for disposal of global  waste that is inert or rich in metals or even in organic compounds (but not industrial organic compounds). Quite rightly, ...

      H ow often have you seen those wonderful advertisements inviting you to have a holiday on a tropical island ( Fig. )What is it about islands, whether in the tropics or polar regions, that suggests romance, excitement and adventure? Is it because of a sense of escape from the pressures and stress of a bustling way of life, or the opportunity to savour sun-soaked beaches, or the adventure of rocky unexplored shores, or perhaps the chance of seeing unique island wildlife? It is for all these reasons that there is a growing tourist industry for many islands around the world. The wildlife of islands, especially oceanic islands , has long been of special significance in biology , ecology , conservation and biogeography. Studies of island species have also been of historical significance for evolutionary biology. Many of the world's islands have high levels of endemic flora and fauna; that is, taxa found only on a particular island and no other place.  Isla...

    B iogeography has had a very important role to play in the development of our understanding of biology. For example it was biogeography that was the key to developing the theory of the evolution of life.  Today, not only does biogeographical research have important applications in a world of rapidly increasing human population densities and diminishing resources, it has crucial applications for conservation and sustainable use of many levels of biological diversity. If we are to make the best uses of limited resources for conservation we must know much more about the geography and ecology of the many kinds of biological diversity. Some questions in biogeography may seem rather academic.  For example, why are certain species and certain groups of organisms foundinrid scale? localities and nowhere else? What has caused these patterns on a world Why is it that for many groups of organisms there are fewer and fewer species in the north and in the south com...

E cology and biogeography  In 1870, the German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) first coined the term 'ecology' and defined it as 'the total relations of the animal both to its inorganic and organic environment'. In some ways that encapsulated what ecology is today; the study of the interactions between organisms and their environment; but also including (1) the study of the abundance of organisms in space and time and (2) the processes in biological communities. Early in the 20th century, ecology emerged from natural history and wildlife manage-ment as a science.  Developments in early ecology occurred simultaneously in both North America and Europe. Landmarks in early animal ecology text-books included Arthur Pearse's Animal Ecology (published by McGraw-Hill in 1926) and the work of Charles Elton (Animal Ecology, published by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1927).  Much of the stimulus for the emergence of plant community studies came from the work of Tansle...

T here are approximately million named species of living oganisms. The total number of living species is of course not known and we can only estimate what the figure might be. Estimates range from about 11 to 30 million or more. What is certain is that human impacts are causing species to become extinct faster than they can be named. Also of concern is our lack of knowledge about the named species. Scientists have intensively investigated only 10 per cent of plant species and a far smaller proportion of animal species (information from the World Commission in Environment and Develop-ment 198- publication Our common Future, Oxford University Press).  There are many terms used to refer to different groups of animals, plants and other kinds of living organism such as fungi, bacteria and viruses. The classification of biota (living organisms) has been reviewed and changed many times as a result of new information. In 1969, R. H. Whittaker of Cornell University suggested...

P rotection focuses on fundamentals upon prevention of wood damage by fungi, and protection and preservation of wood (e.g., Willeitner and Liese 1992; Eaton and Hale 1993; Palfreyman et al. 1996; Murphy and Dickinson 1997; Zujest 2003; Goodell et al. 2003; Muller 2005).  Protection in the broader sense comprises non-chemical methods like organizational measures and measures by design, use of naturally durable woods, application of antagonisms, or wood modifications that do not affect the environment. Preservation predominantly stands for chemical measures.   The conditions for the development of wood fungi and protection principles that can be deduced from them. The principle of the wood protection consists of changing at least one of the three life prerequisites of fungi in wood in such a way that the development of fungi is impossible or at least inhibited. Fungal attack can be prevented   (Willeitner and Schwab 1981; Erler 2002; Willeitner 2000, 2003; Go...

B iogeography : the nature of the subject, its history and its applications  In 1994, an article in the journal New Scientist proclaimed that 'Since biogeography holds the key to the survival of life, it deserves more attention' (Bowman, 1994). That statement is a very fitting opening to this first chapter. Biogeography is about the geography of plants, animals and other or-ganisms, that is, the study of the geographical distribution of plants, animals and other organisms.  Biogeographical research helps us to understand the patterns and processes of distribution and the factors that cause and maintain those patterns and processes. The patterns of distribution that we find today amongst living organisms have been determined by many things, including the following: Evolution Physiological and behavioural adaptations Dispersal mechanisms and levels of dispersal abilities Competition between species Ecological succession Climate change Sea level changes Moving conti...

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