Category Archives: environment

Louisiana: St. Bernard Parish Water Supply Tests Positive for Naegleria Fowleri (Again)

image

Photo

via Louisiana: St. Bernard Parish Water Supply Tests Positive for Naegleria Fowleri (Again).

Study: Mowing dry basins can boost mosquito activity, West Nile risk

A recent University of Illinois study on the risk of West Nile virus with “dry” water-detention basins in Central Illinois indicated that mowing these dry basins worsens mosquito problems.

The researchers said mowing wetland plants inside basins that have not properly drained can cause a rapid increase in Culex pipiens mosquito populations, which can carry and transmit West Nile virus.

“We suspect bacteria quickly colonize the waterborne debris, and mosquito larvae feed on the bacteria,” Brian Allan, a University of Illinois entomology professor and co-author of the study, said.

“After aquatic plants were mowed in the basins, we saw a large increase in the number of Culex pipiens mosquito larvae in the basins, which had relatively few before mowing,” postdoctoral researcher Andrew Mackay, another author of the study, said. “And perhaps more importantly, we caught about twice as many adult Culex mosquitoes in traps at basins after these plants were mowed, compared with basins where the aquatic vegetation was left intact.

“We had observed that these phragmites-invaded basins would become colonized by large communal roosts of birds, and we thought that was important because birds are the natural reservoir hosts of West Nile virus,” Mackay said.

“Instead, we found that the presence of a communal bird roost actually decreased West Nile virus risk,” Allan said. “That may be because these wetland roosts include a variety of bird species, many of which are not good reservoirs of the virus. They don’t amplify the virus like other bird species more associated with residential areas do — the American robin, for example.

“We measured mosquito abundance, and we measured West Nile virus prevalence in the mosquitoes we collected in this field study, and we were able to show that it’s these mowed areas where you actually get the highest West Nile virus risk to people in the surrounding landscape,” Allan said.

via Study: Mowing dry basins can boost mosquito activity, West Nile risk.

Smoke Goes Around the World : Image of the Day

{Ten extra points if you can guess what happens to a variety of air pollutants – grin} “Summertime wildfires in Alaska and Canada occur every year, with some inter-annual variations,” said Hiren Jethva, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. But the distance traveled by the smoke varies greatly. Aerosol concentration and height, as well as wind patterns and speed, are just some of the factors that determine the course of a plume’s atmospheric journey.

Jethva and colleagues first used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite to observe the long-range transport of the July 2015 plumes. Jethva noted that the plumes were often located over lower-level clouds for much of the period shown above. Researchers have found that when aerosols are located over clouds, or any other bright surface, they can impart a net warming effect on the climate. That, in turn, can affect the stability of the atmosphere and the lifetime of clouds.

via Smoke Goes Around the World : Image of the Day.

Genetically engineered moths could be released in Britain to save crops

“So, who is pretending that all unintended consequences which could have a monstrous negative effect have been accounted for? The person who thought it would be a good idea to import rabbits or camels to Australia?”

Research shows that releasing moths which only produce male offspring causes population crashes

 

via Genetically engineered moths could be released in Britain to save crops.

Bird Flu Cost the US $3.3 Billion and Worse Could Be Coming – Phenomena: Germination

As I reported earlier, animal-health authorities suspected—and virus analysis is now confirming—that while the flu was originally brought to the US by wild birds migrating down from Canada, most of the spread within the US was due to people and vehicles inadvertently carrying the virus from farm to farm.

via Bird Flu Cost the US $3.3 Billion and Worse Could Be Coming – Phenomena: Germination.

“Maryn is an excellent reporter and researcher. I think she will find or has already found and will report soon that if some wild birds were involved in the transmission of avian influenza, they most likely acquired it from domestic industrial flocks in China, Korea. Wherever industrial poultry is practised across the globe, this flu is developing, mutating in the industrial settings and being transmitted more by commerce, than migrating birds that come in contact with infected industrial birds.”

Pope Francis, in Ecuador, Calls for More Protection of Rain Forest and Its People – The New York Times

Pope Francis on Tuesday called for increased protection of the Amazon rain forest and the indigenous people who live there, declaring that Ecuador must resist exploiting natural riches for “short-term benefits,” an implicit rebuke of the policies of President Rafael Correa.

In his final stops of a busy day, Francis made environmental protection a central theme, invoking the biblical tenet for humans to be guardians of creation, while praising the way of life of indigenous peoples living in the rain forests. Several indigenous leaders attending Francis’ final event of the day have been fighting the policies of Mr. Correa to expand oil exploration in the Ecuadorean Amazon.

via Pope Francis, in Ecuador, Calls for More Protection of Rain Forest and Its People – The New York Times.