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Desertification Effects, Causes, And Examples : Top 10 List

January 5, 2015 in Animals & Insects, Geology & Climate, Humans, Plants

Desertification is a process of land-degradation by which a region becomes progressively drier and drier — eventually becoming desert. Or, to put it another way — desertification is the process by which previously biologically productive land is transformed into wasteland.

There’s actually currently something of a debate over the use of the term though. As it stands, the most widely accepted definition is probably the one that’s now printed in the Princeton University Dictionary — which defines it this way: “The process of fertile land transforming into desert typically as a result of deforestation, drought, or improper/inappropriate agriculture”

There are a number of different causes/mechanisms behind the process, such as deflation (the loss of stabilizing vegetation, and of top soil); erosion; and soil-salinity-rise (via irrigation mostly). Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Afri tribe, Agriculture, Carthage, Crete, deflation, deforestation, Desertification, desertification causes, desertification civilizational collapse, desertification deforestation, desertification effects, desertification examples, Egypt, Extinction, famine, Greek Dark Ages, Harappan civilization, Horqin Sandy Land China, Indus Valley civilization, late Bronze Age Collapse, Lesvos Greece, Mycenaean palatial civilization, Overgrazing, Ozymandias, Roman Empire, Sea Peoples, Soil erosion, Völkerwanderung
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Deep Sea Fish — Black Dragonfish, Long-Nosed Chimaera, Blobfish, Hatchet Fish, Giant Oarfish, Barreleye Fish, Sloane’s Viperfish, Etc

May 18, 2014 in Animals & Insects

Deep-sea fish are some of the most interesting types of animals on the planet, and yet there isn’t really all that much known about many of them. And, for that matter, they haven’t really worked their way into the public imagination in the same way that most land animals, and large sea-surface-living species have. This article seeks to remedy that — detailing some of the most interesting species, as well as providing beautiful(!?) images of these species.

For more information and images, see: Deep Sea Animals & Life — Fundamental Patterns, Convergent Evolution, & Other Worlds

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Tags: barreleye fish, black dragonfish, blobfish, deep sea, deep sea fish pictures, Deep-sea fish, frilled shark, Giant oarfish, hatchet fish, long- nosed chimaera, oarfish, Sloane's viperfish, weird fish
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3-D Structure Of The Genome Determines How Genes Are Expressed, Research Finds

August 4, 2013 in Animals & Insects, Humans, Plants

The three-dimensional structure of the genome determines how genes are expressed, new research from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of Washington has found.

For the new research, the genome’s 3D structure was analyzed in detail and at high resolution, which yielded new insight into how/why some genes are expressed and others aren’t. Some background — there’s somewhere around three meters worth of DNA tightly folded within the nucleus of every one of the human body’s cells. Depending on the ‘folding’, some genes are ‘expressed’, while others aren’t.
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Tags: gene expression 3-d structure of genome, Seattle's University of Washington, Structure of genome gene expression, Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, three-dimensional structure of the genome
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Overfishing Causing Jellyfish Population Boom, Research Finds (+Recent Examples Of Overfishing)

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.