SourceDid Passenger Pigeons Expand Wild Ginger Populations During the Holocene? I followed this blog a bit. Like Steve, he likes to speculate on the eco history of Passenger Pigeons. Steve had a book planned on them once. His theory is not that novel but as he says testing it is the rub.
Category: Uncategorized
Desertification of the midwest?
A new University of California San Diego study uncovers a hidden driver of global crop vulnerability: the origin of rainfall itself. Desertification of the midwest?
Mongolia’s New Horizon
Amid these challenges, in April 2024, Mongolia announced a nearly $200 million effort that aims to protect the country’s landscapes while honoring generations of traditional knowledge and supporting sustainable livelihoods and futures. It will take at least 15 years to complete—and a major partnership of government officials, nongovernmental organizations, herders and others—but all told it could amount …
Spinifex Pigeon
In Australia’s arid interior, this tough little bird makes its home among spinifex grasses and red desert stones, thriving where shade is scarce and heat is relentless. It rarely needs to drink, surviving on moisture from seeds and hardy plants. When alarmed, it runs swiftly rather than flies, weaving through thorny clumps with effortless agility …
Wolves use tools?
This made a splash in the media. I am unqualified to judge but as a friend said his dog does stuff like it. CBC report More
Getting rid of fences would be a bonus.
In a study that tracked the movement of beef cattle over two grazing seasons using virtual fencing, cattle wearing the specialized GPS collars stayed within set boundaries more than 99% of the time. High-tech collars keep cattle from straying Getting rid of fences would be a bonus.
AZ and NM vegetation pictures needed.
Non-meme Sunday: If you live in the southwestern USA, my research team needs your help! (tldr; send me pictures of plants in Arizona and New Mexico, esp. from 1990–2005) Hi! My name is Caroline, and I’m a 4th year PhD student in the Ecology and Evolution program at the University of Montana. I study zoonotic …
Armored Catfish and the Amazon river
When a species gets tooled up like that it is living in a tough neighbour. Wade and Booth said the same thing about fish in the Congo River in their iconic book Somewhere Down the Crazy River. A superb map. The Mississippi River boasts over 130 bridges, and the Nile has around nine. But the …
What is real? What isn’t?
It’s a plot device beloved by science fiction: our entire universe might be a simulation running on some advanced civilization’s supercomputer. But new research from UBC Okanagan has mathematically proven this isn’t just unlikely—it’s impossible. Mathematical proof debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation There is some relief in that. Being stuck …
10,000 BC
The map above shows a very rough estimate of the population of each continent in 10,000 BC. The numbers come form Our World In Data, which uses HYDE version 3.3. I would dearly love to know what the biosphere was like then. So much lost since.