Invasive Mussels

The current spread of “non-native mussels” in the Great Lakes has caused “massive, ecosystem-wide changes.” Lake Michigan and Huron being the two most affected, because they are “two of the world’s largest freshwater lakes,” according to University of Michigan-led study. The two muscles in charge of this disturbance are the zebra and quagga. They are “stripping the lakes of their life-supporting algae, resulting in a ecological transformation.” One of the serious side effects off this is that, the fish are not able to stay alive and then the lakes will lose all of their once fishing ground worth multibillion dollars.

The shocking part about all this being how big the changes really are just from the two mussels. “These are astounding changes, a tremendous shifting of the very base of the food web in those lakes into a state that has not been seen in the record history of the lakes,” said Mary Anne Evans. Because of these enormous changes there needs to be something done, and ASAP. It’s hard to imagine how many mussels are needed to cause something like this, but the quagga mussel “can thrive from shore in mud bottomed waters. Each fingernail-size quagga mussels filter about a quart of water a day, and billions of them blanket the bottoms of Lake Michigan and Huron down depths of nearly 400 feet.” The biggest problem is trying to figure out how to stop this issue and worrying about how big the quagga population will get before it is too late.

This problem relates to Ecology because it has to do with a lifecycle in the environment and is causing big changes in the environment too. Ecologists would probably look into this and try to find different ways to remove a lot of the zebra and quagga populations and in the mean time stop the fishing in the great lakes while they replenish. Otherwise there will eventually be nothing left in the great lakes because once the mussels are eating everything else’s food and once the mussels run out of algae they will die because there will be no food for them.

I think this is interesting because this is a huge problem that needs to be taken care of right away but it doesn’t seem as though anyone is doing anything about it. And the public should be made more aware because people who live around the lakes might be able to help the best they can.

University of Michigan. "Invasive mussels causing massive ecological changes in Great Lake."

ScienceDaily, 17 Apr. 2011. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.

http://cdn-5.psndealer.com/e2/dealersite/images/vsmarine/zebra-and-quagga-mussel190.jpg (PHOTO)

Global Catastrophic Amphibian Declines Have Multiple Causes, No Simple Solution (Extra Credit)

In recent studies researchers have found that amphibians at at the front end of the race to those that are becoming extinct. They have found that there is no one single cause but that there are many causes to this. The rates are linked to natural forces such as competition, predation, reproduction, and disease. What makes this very important to know is that they have linked this to realizing that Earth is in one of its major extinction episode which is comparable to five other mass extinctions that were in this planet’s history. Amphibians are not evolving fast enough to keep up with other animals which are leading them to the verge of extinction. Andrew Blaustein a professor of zoology at Oregon State University and an international leader in the study of amphibian declines says,"With a permeable skin and exposure to both aquatic and terrestrial problems, amphibians face a double whammy," he said. "Because of this, mammals, fish and birds have not experienced population impacts as severely as amphibians -- at least, not yet.” There are many efforts being made to find out what the true reason is that is making this happen. The studies have often focused on one cause or many others such as fungal diseases, invasive species, an increase in ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion, pollution, global warming, etc. All these cause are reasons why this could be happening to the amphibians but they often overlap each other which is making hard to narrow it down to just one or two causes.

This is related to class because we have talked about everything influence one another and this is just something that is being influenced in a very negative way. The way we have treated the environment is finally showing an impact to amphibians which is something that is negative because these creatures have been around for a long time which shows that we are really damaging the environment. This is also showing that there will need to be many changes that we make and that there will be many changes to the environment if this continues. Our activity has made it hard for the amphibians to survive in these conditions and that is something to say since they have been around well before the dinosaurs and have survived through ice ages and asteroid impacts. This is very important to know because we need to see how our actions are affecting the life on the planet, and also to question what animal will be next on the near extinction list.

source:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110425153633.htm

Extra Credit Blog "Can Wasps Squash the Stink Bug Plague?"

According to Sabri Ben-Achour from National public Radio, the brown marmorated stink bug has become a major threat to farmers in the mid-Atlantic states. Introduced from Asia in the 1990s, this bug has spread at plague like proportions in the United States and feed on farmer’s fruits and vegetables leaving them damaged and disfigured. For farmer Bob Black, the stink bug destroyed over 50% of his Pink Lady apples. Because this bug is so detrimental to his livelihood, Black has tried using fertilizers to kill the bug but they are resistant to it.

Like the fertilizers, this brown marmorated stink bug is highly resistant to predation because “they simply arrived without their natural enemies” (npr). In Asia their main enemy was the Trissolcus wasp. To combat this plague of stink bugs, scientists are now working on growing insects in petri dishes to see if they can fight invasive pests that have gone ramped, specifically the stink bug. These insects are grown carefully in light, temperature and humidity controlled conditions. They are specifically exposing the predatory wasp to the stink bug because in Asia they successfully destroy the bug. The wasps lay their eggs inside of the stink bug eggs and the wasps hatch and feed on the bug and when the bug egg hatches all that is left is the wasp. The scientists are hoping that this experiment will help the farmers like Bob Black to save their crops and not have to worry anymore about the mamorated stink bug.

This article relates to our class because it describes how a new species is introduced into another environment and then unexpected consequences occur because of it. This stink bug spread like the plague in the United States and now new experiments need to be conducted to rid the States from the bug. It is the perfect example of how one ecological event ultimately leads to another. Also, it briefly talks about how experiments are conducted, under what conditions, and what the experiment hopes to achieve. I liked this article because I had no idea stink bugs were such a huge problem to farmers, or even a that they were problem at all. Hopefully this new experiment will be the answer to farmers. Lets also hope that introducing this wasp, like the stink bug, will not bring about equally negative consequences in the future.

Blog By: Kaitlyn McHugh

Article & Picture Reference: Sabri Ben-Achour, npr – April 26, 2011

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/26/135635100/can-wasps-squash-the-stink-bug-plague? ft=1&f=1025

Controlling Temperature

Coral Bleaching occurs because of two different reasons. First it happens when the densities of zooxanthellae decline and the other time it occurs is when the concentration of photosynthetic pigments within the zooxanthellae fall. The reason this bleaching is a very bad thing is because if the bleaching is not too bad the coral will recover over time maybe over a span of a few months. But if the bleaching is terrible it will never recover and the coral will eventually die. Scientists have come up with a few ideas on why this is happing to our coral reefs. First of all one major similarity between all the ideas is that the extreme ocean temperatures are the leading reason, the higher than normal temperatures is making it difficult for them to live healthy because it is a change in their habitat. Not only the high temperature forces bleaching if there is any sudden change in temperature getting colder will also induce bleaching. These temperature changes do not even have to be that large it only takes 2 degrees Celsius increase over a span of 5- 10 weeks to cause bleaching and it only needs to drop 4 degrees to cause bleaching.

This relates to our course because we had a chapter on coral bleaching. Chapter three went in depth on corals and coral bleaching and that was the first time I have ever heard about this problem amongst our coral reefs. However this is not the only problem that they are going thru. This is just one of the many threats to the coral reefs around the world.

Personally this is something that will be very hard to control and try to fix. With how easily they can be affected by slight changes of temperatures it will be tough to control. To try to save the corals I think we should try to not affect the temperature of the water in any way, so just let it be whatever temperature it is and we should try to control the destruction of the coral. People break coral by diving or boating around the reefs and breaking off pieces accidently and those are the accidents that we should control because we have much more control over those than over the temperature of the water.

http://www.marinebiology.org/coralbleaching.htm

Photo 1 http://oceanicdefense.blogspot.com/2009/07/coral-bleaching-likely-in-caribbean.html

Photo 2 http://www.supergreenme.com/go-green-environment-eco:Coral-Bleaching

Photo 3 http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/09/massive-coral-bleaching-damages-95-of-corals-in-philippines.php

Endangered Grey Nurse Sharks

Travis Santa Barbara
Extra Credit Blog
Principles of Ecology

 The article Grey Nurse Shark- 300 left and continuing by Kate Davey is an in depth look into the grey shark and its population decrease during the mid 20th and early 21st century. The grey nurse shark is listed as Critically endangered under Commonwealth legislation. What Davey is trying to explain in this popular article is that these fierce looking fish are actually not a threat to humans and that with the decrease in population mainly due to human interaction; the grey nurse shark could in fact become extinct. Due to that fact that they often resemble a man-eating fish such as a great white or tiger shark, the grey nurse shark is in fact not a man-eater. The grey shark is known to feed on other small fish populations found on the ocean floor. Though because of their image, during the mid 20th century they were commercially hunted to a point where in the early 21st century there were around 500 left on Australia’s east coast.

Now, the grey shark population is continually decreasing mainly due to incidental capturing and fish netting. Also many people illegally hunt these fish for recreational sports. Davey explains that there have been efforts made to help the population survive. Some of these efforts are restrictions on fishing gear and the fining and arresting of any individuals that are found to be hunting these grey sharks. Though with fishing still occurring in the areas in which these fish feed, there will continually be incidental killing and furthering deteriorating of this population. Davey explains that more efforts have been made to help save this once though to be man-eating fish. So due to human disturbance, the marine ecosystem has been altered ultimately tying into what we have talked about in class.

1. Davey, Kate. "Grey Nurse Shark- 300 Left and Counting." Underwater (2003). Web. 22 Apr. 2011. <http://underwater.com.au>.

2. Stow, Adam, Kyall Zenger, David Briscoe, and Michael Gilings. "Isolation and Genetic Diversity of Endangered Grey Nurse Shark Populations." Biology Letters 2.2 (2006): 308-11. Web. 22 Apr. 2011. 

Extra Credit Blog: Penguins on the Decline

Residing in the West Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean penguins are strikingly different than their other penguin relatives. With a black stripe and colored spots (typically black and pink) on the chest, have patterns of spots unique for every penguin, just like human fingerprints. In recent years, the penguin populations have been on a significant decline. For much of that time, the reason seemed to be because of the melting of their icy habitat as a result of global warming. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography conducted a study delving deeper into the issue. Although it is true that the decline in penguins are in part caused by the melting of the sea ice, there are other contributors. "While the researchers say that ice loss does affect penguins, they say the more important problem appears to be a decline in the population of Antarctic krill [in which penguins prey on are] tiny shrimplike crustaceans that dwell in vast schools." Reported in June, the penguins are not just competing with other neighbors in the ocean, they are also competing with humans. "Krill, it turns out, are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, used in dietary supplements. They are also used to make animal feed and to nourish the world’s growing aquaculture industry." With the decline of krill, there is less food for the penguins to eat, therefore, they must seek out other sources of food to eat, and when there is not enough food for them to eat, it results in their death.


According to Dictionary.com, Ecology is the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. Penguins are a primary species found in the southern oceans, and the New York Times article, "Follow the Krill: A New Theory on Penguins' Decline" written by David Jolly indicates that the declining of penguins is a serious matter. The Southern Ocean penguins are on the road to extinction, a critical ecological problem. Therefore, this article adequately relates to this course.


I really enjoyed reading about this issue. You never truly know how bad a situation is until you read up about it and do some research. The penguins are in danger down in the south and it is imperative that we do something about it. By overfishing for krill, we are taking away a food source for a key species, which will eventually become extinct as a result of something preventable. This issue needs to be more vocalized to spread awareness and help alleviate this preventable issue.


Picture Sources:

• http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/04/13/business/penguin/penguin-blog480.jpg
• http://www.petsfoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Freedom-For-Penguins5.jpg
• https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBJFST_a6LclNzp0vpGSxUgPRTN5MIc8dmV_rw6RJ-BMhPv_q0N-ADsPvCUZ5VDEw5Gta0wzT0lhb_6kU0RoCiimrF_uzqwOMTSBT21Rtics2j6L4Nek2BjKHXpQ4II-5di9t62xD-9DwG/s1600/1Amap.jpg
  

Article Sources:

• http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/follow-the-krill-a-new-theory-on-penguins-decline/
• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ecology

The Gulf Oil Spill: One Year Later And The Effect On Animals

Thousands of square miles of the Gulf of Mexico are contaminated with chemicals killing many species but leaving scientist still questioning how much damage has been done one year after the BP Oil Spill. One thing that scientist are aware of is the effect on the bottlenose dolphin. In the last year, high numbers of bottlenose dolphins have been dying in the Northern Gulf waters. Since 2010 many different types of bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore from the Northern Gulf waters and they range from premature to newborn calf’s.

According to scientists, the BP oil spill is one of the main suspects of these bottlenose dolphins’ deaths, but they also think there could be other unexplained reasons. The coordinator of the Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Blaire Mase, revealed this information this March. Only a handful of these bottlenose dolphins have come ashore covered in oil. There was a recent study from the University of British Columbia saying that the number of whale and bottlenose dolphin deaths from the BP oil spill could actually be fifty times higher than the official tallies results putting these bottlenose dolphin deaths into the thousands.

I believe that this current event topic relates to our course because of the human interaction causing an ecosystem to be disrupted. The whole point of this course is to study the effects on ecosystems after they have been disrupted by a foreign influence. Possibly thousands of bottlenose dolphins have been killed and thousands of ecosystems have been disrupted due to the BP oil spill. If it was not for the human interference in this aquatic environment, this ecosystem would not be disrupted and thousands of species would not have been altered.

I believe that the BP oil spill will have serious long-term effects on this aquatic environment and could possibly disrupt our ecosystem as well. I think that BP was right to step up and take responsibility for this issue but they will have to do a lot more to fix the damage that has been done. In my opinion, it will take years of oceanic cleaning to get anywhere close to the way this environment was before BP stepped in and began this major problem. I believe we should also take this disaster as a lesson to learn to prevent future aquatic disasters.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/pictures/110420-gulf-oil-spill-anniversary-animals-birds-science-nation/