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Overfishing Causing Jellyfish Population Boom, Research Finds

May 16, 2013 in Animals & Insects, Humans

Jellyfish populations around the world have been increasing in recent years, and several very large jellyfish blooms have been reported since the early 2000s. The cause of these, and the general population increase, has remained somewhat unclear until now though. Is it simply observation bias? Cyclic population change? Warming waters? Changing currents?

But now, thanks to new research from the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), the causes have become clear. The primary cause is overfishing, and with it the decline of many ecologically important species. Many significant predators of jellyfish, such as tuna and sea turtles, have seen their numbers plummet in recent years as a result of overfishing. And with their decline, jellyfish have begun to see their populations grow. But perhaps far more important than that decline, though, is the overfishing of small pelagic fish, such as sardines and herring, which are the main competitors of jellyfish.

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Tags: fish extinction, giant leatherback sea turtle extinction, increasing numbers of jellyfish, Jellyfish, jellyfish overfishing, jellyfish population boom, jellyfish population explosion, jellyfish sea turtle extinction, overfishing, overfishing effects, overfishing negative effects, sea turtle extinction effects, tuna extinction
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Did Life Originate In Brinicles? Icy Sea Stalactites Provide Environment Conducive To Emergence Of Life

May 3, 2013 in Animals & Insects, Geology & Climate

Did life on Earth originate in the almost otherworldly environments of brinicles — the icy sea stalactites that grow near the Earth’s poles? These rather strange looking tubes of ice could very possibly have been where life on the Earth originated, according to new research published in the journal Langmuir.

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Tags: Brinicles, Brinicles origin of life, Brinicles origins, exo life Europa, icy moons life, life on earth brinicles, life on Europa, life on Titan, sea stalactites
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Massive Arctic Greening Within Only A Few Decades? Transformation Could Make The Arctic The Center Of Human Activity

April 2, 2013 in Geology & Climate, Plants

The Arctic will experience a massive “greening” in the coming decades as a result of rising temperatures and climate change, new research from the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation has found. The research shows that rising temperatures will cause total plant cover area in the Arctic to increase significantly, with wooded areas increasing in size by as much as 50% in only a few decades. This rapid increase in vegetation will result in accelerated warming within the region and also globally.

“Such widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation would have impacts that reverberate through the global ecosystem,” said Richard Pearson, primary author of the paper and a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

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Tags: American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, Arctic fossil fuel reserves, Arctic future, Arctic future climate change, Arctic greening, Arctic ice climate change, arctic vegetation climate change, Arctic war climate change, climate change arctic, climate change effects, Climate change local effects, future of the Arctic, Global warming Arctic
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Marine Reptiles, Origins In Europe? Fossil Placodont Discovered In Netherlands

March 28, 2013 in Animals & Insects, Fossils

The origin of one of the first groups of marine reptiles, the Placodonts, is now becoming clear, thanks to the new discovery of a fossil skull in the Netherlands. The 246-million-year-old skull, discovered in the region that was once the Tethys Ocean, shows that these highly specialized marine reptiles, one of the earliest saurians, very likely originated in Europe.

The placodonts lived for about 40 million years or so in the flat coastal regions of the Tethys Ocean, from around 250 million years ago to 210 million years ago. Possessing their “trademark” crushing teeth, they fed primarily on shellfish and crustaceans, but were likely opportunistic predators as well. The distinctive features of these teeth really make them stand out in the fossil record; “the upper jaw had two rows of flattened teeth – one on the palate and one on the jawbone – while the lower jaw only had one set of teeth ideal for crushing shellfish and crustaceans.”

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Tags: arctic climate dinosaurs, early marine reptiles, Europe climate during dinosaurs, first marine reptiles, fossil Placodont, fossil reptiles, fossil skull Netherlands, Marine reptiles, marine reptiles origins, Netherlands fossils, Palatodonta bleekeri, Placodont origin, placodonts, prehistory warmer Europe, Tethys Ocean, University of Bonn, University of Zurich, Winterswijk fossil
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Extinction, Mass Extinctions, Extinct Species, And The Ongoing 6th Great Mass Extinction

March 7, 2013 in Animals & Insects, Fossils, Humans, Plants

Extinction, is the process by which a species, genus, or family, becomes extinct, no longer existing and living in the world. It is the abolition and annihilation of something that previously existed in the world. In the case of biology, it refers specifically to the end of an evolutionary line, or a branch on the tree of life.

The actual moment of extinction is considered to be when the last individual representative of that species or group is no longer living. But functional extinction can occur considerably earlier than that, as a result of loss of genetic diversity, range, or an ability for the group to recover and breed.

Most types of life, especially animals, are closely tied to their ecological niches and environments. With a loss of their living environment, and its accompanying species, extinction is almost inevitable for many types of life. Species diversification and emergence typically doesn’t occur in these circumstances, it usually happens within healthy ecosystems. The long-period of time that follows large extinction events when no new species emerge is referred to as a dead zone .

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Tags: 6th extinction event, 6th great mass extinction event, Aiolornis incredibilis, Anthropocene mass extinction, bee extinct, bison latifrons, Camelops, causes of extinction, civilization extinction, climate change extinctions, dead zone extinction, deforestation extinct animals, deforestation extinction, dire wolf, effects of extinction, Elasmotherium extinction, Elasmotherium unicorn, End Cretaceous mass extinction, end-Permian mass extinction, endangered animals, engineer species, extinct animals, extinct animals Australia, extinct animals North America, extinct megafauna animals, extinct plants, extinct species, Extinction, extinction event, extinction rate, giant armadillo, giant birds, giant kangaroo, habitat fragmentation extinctions, Holocene mass extinction, Homotherium, human extinction, Irish Elk, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, keystone species, Macoun's Shining Moss, mass extinction, mass extinctions, megafauna mass extinction, Megalania, Meiolania, Miracinonyx, Moa, modern rate of extinction, Oncorhynchus rastrosus, Ornimegalonyx, over-fishing extinctions, over-hunting extinction, Panthera leo atrox, pollinator extinction, saber tooth salmon, saber-toothed cats, Sivatherium, sixth great mass extinction event, Smilodon extinction, species emergence extinction, Stellar's Sea Cow, Tasmania thylacine, Tasmanian tiger, teratorns, the American cheetah, the American lion, the Haast's eagle, Thylacine extinct, Tyrant Sea Bear, unicorn extinction, unknown animals, Wonambi
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