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 Humans continue to release greenhouse gases into the air, which causes the equilibrium of the Earth’s atmosphere to break.  As more greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere, the warmer and wetter some climates become, which is perfect for beech trees to prosper. However, this is not necessarily a good thing. These trees are detrimental to the forest ecosystem in Maine, and the people who rely on birch and maple trees for income. Beech trees have a lot less commercial value than other trees that grow in the area. Also, the increase in beech trees is a problem for loggers who need higher quality wood than beech.  The animals that rely on maple and birch trees for shelter and food will die off, causing forest ecosystems to break. This is another example of the negative impacts climate change has. 

Girls Against Climate Change!

I’m Izzykat and remember to bikepenguin !

Penguins, specifically Adelie penguins that live on the Antartic continent, are facing the devastating impacts of climate change. These penguins are obligate birds, meaning it’s essential for them to migrate to the same spots each year.  In the winter, these penguins live on the Western Antarctic Peninsula, which is completley made up of ice. This peninsula, is one of the most rapidly warming places on Earth. As the Earth warms, ice melts, causing the Adelie penguins to lose their homes and most likely lose their lives. From 1970 to now, there has been a shocking 80 percent decline of the population of these penguins. Now the Adelie penguins are labeled “vulnerable,” due to the rapid decline of the species. This is just another sad example of an animal getting severely affected by climate change. 

Girls Against Climate Change!

I’m Izzykat and remember to bikepenguin !

A vegetarian tardigrade was found in a parking lot earlier this week! Microbiologist Kazuharu Arakawa from Keio University collected a moss sample from his apartment parking lot in Tsuruoka City, not knowing that he would discover the 168th species of tardigrade found in Japan. Tardigrades (also known as moss piglets or water bears) have been receiving a lot of attention because of their resistance to extreme heat, cold, and radiation. As I described in a previous post on tardigrades, these creatures resist these otherwise deadly conditions by going into hibernation, called anhydrobiotoic state. This particular water bear is similar to other tardigrades in that it has a pudgy body, eight legs, and a circular mouth. However when researchers looked at the creature’s DNA, they realized it didn’t match any other tardigrade in the world. These specific water bears are actually herbivores eating only algae and other microscopic plants, while other tardigrades in this species (Macrobiotus genus) are carnivores (eating mircoscopic animals). Checkout this cool video of the vegetarian creature pooping out what looks like green algae.

I’m IzzyKat and remember to bikepenguin !

For painting turtles, gender is decided by the temperature of their nesting habitat. This phenomenon has never been a problem, until now. Cooler temperatures favor males, while warmer temperatures favor female births. Currently, painting turtles are hatching mostly female because of the rise of temperature due to climate change. In the last 100 years the average global temperature has risen 1.4 F – enough to favor female turtles to be born over males.  And while painted turtles are not yet endangered, it sure looks like climate change will eventually bring about their extinction.

Girls Against Climate Change !

I’m Izzykat! and remember to bikepenguin!

Scientists have have known that birds are able to see magnetic fields, and utilize this seeing power to navigate their way on their day to day lives, and on long migrations. This “ 6th sense” or magnetoreception birds possess is incredible, however scientists always thought that it was the iron in their beaks that helped them navigate their way. Now however, they realize that birds have a substance in their eyes that gives them the power to see magnetic fields. This substance is a protein called Cry4 that allows the birds to detect blue light. Scientists performed a number of experiments to determine that it was the Cry4 protein that enables birds to see magnetic fields. One of the results compared the amount of Cry4 in robins and chickens. Since chickens don’t migrate and generally stay in one place, there was less Cry4 in their eyes than that in robins, who migrate regularly. These results were published in the journal Current Biology. I think this discovery is amazing, and it shows the superpowers that birds possess. 

I’m IzzyKat and remember to bikepenguin !

A hundred years ago, at the turn of the century, there were one million Western Black Rhinos – today there are zero. Seven years ago the Western Black Rhino was finally declared extinct, and perhaps most sadly its extinction had nothing to do with natural causes, and everything to do with humans.  

The Black rhinos from Africa were most commonly found in Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Sudan and South Sudan.  In the first few decades of the last century, they were hunted for sport. Sports hunting killed many Rhinos, but really this practice was only a needle in the haystack. In the next decades, deforestation and the creation of industrial settlements led many rhinos to lose their homes. Plus, the settlers would kill the rhinos to prevent them from entering their farms and settlements.  By the 1950’s, Chinese doctors believed that shavings of rhino horns dissolved in boiling water was a medicine useful to cure fever, gout, and even cancer.  As a result, from 1960- 1995, 98 percent of Black Rhinos were slaughtered.  Conservation organizations tried to save them. By 1997, only ten were left. By 2003, many conservationists concluded that the species had gone extinct.  In 2011,  the extinction of the Western Black Rhino was officially declared.

Humans are to blame for the loss of the Western Black Rhino.  As a world, we have much to learn from the devastating extinction of this innocent creature.  We must not let the Black rhino (~5000 left), Sumatran rhino (~100), and the Javan rhino (only 67 left as of 2015) undergo the same fate as its cousin.   

I’m Izzykat and remember to bikepenguin !