From the Community: Colonizing the oceans, fact-checking nursery rhymes and urbanizing mollusks
Aquanaut describes plans to colonize the sea for education and conservation, a pitcher plant previously thought to be carnivorous has been wildly reclassified and the first condor egg in 100 years discovered in California. Here are news stories and studies on ecological science from the second week in March:
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Sealab 2010: Former NASA aquanaut Dennis Chamberland plans to use his knowledge of ocean exploration and conservation to colonize the vast underwater ‘Aquatica’ (above). Read more in “The Aquatic Life of Dennis Chamberland: One Man’s Quest to Colonize the Sea.”
Banking on exotic plants: Despite the billions in crops and ecosystem services lost annually to invasive plants, the U.S. horticulture industry is profiting from the durability of these species. Read more in “Profiting from invasive plants: the challenge of controlling the horticultural industry.”
From carnivorous plant to repository: The giant montane pitcher plant of Borneo, previously thought by botanists to be the largest meat-eating plant in the world, has been reclassified. It seems the plant has actually evolved to feed off of tree shrew droppings instead of the shrews themselves. Read more in “Giant meat-eating plants prefer to eat tree shrew poo.”
Exaggerations in ‘Jack and Jill’: U.K. advertisements are being rebuked after the Advertising Standards Authority declared that the featured nursery rhyme re-writes exaggerate the threat of global warming. One ad read, “Rub a dub dub three men in a tub, a necessary course of action due to flash flooding caused by climate change.” Read more in “Government rebuked over global warming nursery rhyme adverts.”
Rethinking Beekeeping: Due to the drop in bee populations—2010 is anticipated to be the worst year so far—beekeepers are lightening the work load for the pollinators. Read more in “Bees are busier than ever as disease besieges colonies.”
Also, the first condor egg in 100 years, an interview with an Amazon grassroots conservationist, kicking off python season and snail graffiti.