In science news this week: What’s Killing Sea Otters? Scientists Pinpoint Parasite Strain Genetic Link Found Between Deadly Pathogen and Wild and Feral Cats on Land; Bird Bonanza: Sooty Shearwater Migration; San Francisco Zoo brings red-legged frogs back to Yosemite; Radio show: Managing Shasta Dam For Cold- and Warm-Water Fish; Beaver reintroduction key to solving freshwater biodiversity crisis; Tiny Toxins: How Algal Blooms Affect Coastal Systems Through a Complex Web of Interactions; Salt marshes’ capacity to sink carbon may be threatened by nitrogen pollution; and more …
What’s Killing Sea Otters? Scientists Pinpoint Parasite Strain Genetic Link Found Between Deadly Pathogen and Wild and Feral Cats on Land: “Many wild southern sea otters in California are infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, yet the infection is fatal for only a fraction of sea otters, which has long puzzled the scientific community. A study from the University of California, Davis, identifies the parasite’s specific strains that are killing southern sea otters, tracing them back to a bobcat and feral domestic cats from nearby watersheds. The study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, marks the first time a genetic link has been clearly established between the Toxoplasma strains in felid hosts and parasites causing fatal disease in marine wildlife. … ” Read more from UC Davis here: What’s Killing Sea Otters? Scientists Pinpoint Parasite Strain Genetic Link Found Between Deadly Pathogen and Wild and Feral Cats on Land
Bird Bonanza: Sooty Shearwater Migration: “Mid-summer to mid-fall is a time when our Santa Cruz office and the rest of the Monterey Bay witnesses the arrival of thousands of international visitors. These aren’t sight-seeing tourists or traveling scientists, but rather a type of seabird called the Sooty Shearwater (Ardenna grisea). Sooties are deceptively unassuming birds at first glance – something like a small, drab seagull – but two things make them truly remarkable: distance and numbers. Every year these long-distance athletes undertake a round-trip flight of a staggering 40,000 miles – something that happens when your breeding ground is in one hemisphere and your feeding ground is in another. The birds transverse the entire Pacific Ocean in a figure eight pattern, starting from their nesting areas near New Zealand, then heading eastward, sometimes as far as Chile, before cutting northwest towards Japan, Alaska, or California to forage, then looping back to the Southern Hemisphere. It represents the longest animal migration ever recorded electronically by scientists. … ” Read more from FishBio here: Bird Bonanza: Sooty Shearwater Migration
San Francisco Zoo brings red-legged frogs back to Yosemite: “A healthy population of red-legged frogs is hopping in Yosemite National Park, helped by a reintroduction program with the San Francisco Zoo. The zoo on Monday released the last of more than 1,000 red-legged frogs into the park as part of a four-year effort to reintroduce the once-threatened species, the San Francisco Examiner reported. At 2 to 5 inches long (5 to 13 centimeters), red-legged frogs are the largest native frogs in the West and once were found throughout California. The frog’s population began declining 50 years ago after the introduction of predatory, non-native bullfrogs, exacerbated by increasing water drainage and raccoons. … ” Read more from PhysOrg here: San Francisco Zoo brings red-legged frogs back to Yosemite
Radio show: Managing Shasta Dam For Cold- and Warm-Water Fish: “Managing a river is no easy feat. Consider the needs for water released at Shasta Dam into the Sacramento River: salmon need cold water, sturgeon need warm water, and irrigators just need water. Recent research shows that all three needs can be met in all but the most drought-stricken years. How? That’s our main question for the researchers, Eric Palkovacs at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and Liam Zari, a doctoral student at Cornell University.” Listen at Jefferson Public Radio here: Radio show: Managing Shasta Dam For Cold- and Warm-Water Fish
Monterey: A study in Elkhorn Slough reveals the increasing threat of climate change to salt marshes: “There’s one more thing climate change and rising sea levels are affecting: salt marshes. Between crabs burrowing into the marshes and rising oceans, a recent study led by Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in collaboration with NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System found that it is not crabs alone that are potentially causing problems for the nation’s salt marshes. … ” Read more from Monterey Weekly here: Monterey: A study in Elkhorn Slough reveals the increasing threat of climate change to salt marshes
Salt marshes’ capacity to sink carbon may be threatened by nitrogen pollution: “Deep in the waterlogged peat of salt marshes, carbon is stored at much greater rates than in land ecosystems, serving as an offset to climate change due to carbon dioxide (CO2) build-up in the atmosphere. However, a new study indicates that a common pollutant of coastal waters, nitrate, stimulates the decomposition of organic matter in salt marsh sediments that normally would have remained stable over long periods of time. This increase in decomposition, which releases CO2, could alter the capacity of salt marshes to sequester carbon over the long term. The study, led by scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, and Northeastern University, is published in Global Change Biology. … ” Read more from Science Daily here: Salt marshes’ capacity to sink carbon may be threatened by nitrogen pollution
Beaver reintroduction key to solving freshwater biodiversity crisis: “Reintroducing beavers to their native habitat is an important step towards solving the freshwater biodiversity crisis, according to experts at the University of Stirling. New research from the Faculty of Natural Sciences has provided further support to previous work that has shown beavers have an important impact on the variety of plant and animal life. The latest study, led by Dr Alan Law and Professor Nigel Willby, found that the number of species only found in beaver-built ponds was 50 percent higher than other wetlands in the same region. ... ” Read more from Science Daily here: Beaver reintroduction key to solving freshwater biodiversity crisis
Tiny Toxins: How Algal Blooms Affect Coastal Systems Through a Complex Web of Interactions: “Think summertime and the mind usually wanders to warm thoughts of sand, sunscreen, and fireworks. But increasingly summertime fun is being interrupted by algal blooms. From the Atlantic seaboard to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Great Lakes to the Pacific coast, harmful algal blooms are shutting down beaches, killing fish, birds, and other wildlife, and contaminating drinking water. The economic impacts of an algal bloom can be severe, especially if the algae become toxic. … ” Read more from Berkeley Lab here: Tiny Toxins: How Algal Blooms Affect Coastal Systems Through a Complex Web of Interactions
Water harvester makes it easy to quench your thirst in the desert: “With water scarcity a growing problem worldwide, University of California, Berkeley, researchers are close to producing a microwave-sized water harvester that will allow you to pull all the water you need directly from the air — even in the hot, dry desert. In a paper appearing this week in ACS Central Science, a journal of the American Chemical Society, UC Berkeley’s Omar Yaghi and his colleagues describe the latest version of their water harvester, which can pull more than five cups of water (1.3 liters) from low-humidity air per day for each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of water-absorbing material, a very porous substance called a metal-organic framework, or MOF. That is more than the minimum required to stay alive. ... ” Read more from UC Berkeley here: Water harvester makes it easy to quench your thirst in the desert
Improved oxidation is water wizardry against drought: “Nothing beats summer heat better than diving into a pool or sipping a cold glass of lemonade. Luckily, like Hogwarts wizards, water engineers are working to ensure that water to beat the heat will be available, though the source might be unexpected. Increasingly, California’s water will come from transforming the water we flush down our toilets, sinks, and washing machines into sparkling, pure water. Indeed, potable water reuse seems like a no-brainer. So why don’t we do it? In some places, we already do, and those places have lessons for the rest of the state and beyond. Haizhou Liu, an associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering at UC Riverside has been collaborating with researchers at the Orange County Water District to find ways to seek and destroy more of the pesky pollutants that can squeak through even the most advanced purification systems, with support from the National Science Foundation….” Read more from the Confluence here: Improved oxidation is water wizardry against drought
Shifting Baseline Syndrome: “As a native Minnesotan, I know all the different types of snow – fluffy powdery snow, crusty snow, slushy snow, sticky snow that’s perfect for snowballs and tunnels, and of course ice, too. And though Minnesotans may agree on the different types of snow, opinions differ on what constitutes “a lot” of snow, or which winter months are the snowiest. This is because winters in Minnesota have changed dramatically in the past 50 years. My parents’ recollection of winter as a kid is much different than mine, which will be different even from kids’ born in the past decade. This “standard” of what we consider winter can also be thought of as a baseline. This baseline is shifting. … ” Read more from EnviroBites here: Shifting Baseline Syndrome
The case for retreat in the battle against climate change: “When it comes to climate change, moving people and development away from at-risk areas can be viewed, not as a defeat, but as a smart strategy that allows communities to adapt and thrive. That’s the case for carefully planned “managed retreat” made by three environmental researchers in an article published Aug. 22 in the Policy Forum section of the journal Science. The article was written by lead author A.R. Siders of the University of Delaware, with co-authors Miyuki Hino and Katharine J. Mach of Stanford University and the University of Miami. … ” Read more from Science Daily here: The case for retreat in the battle against climate change
Maven’s XKCD Comic Pick of the Week …
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About Science News and Reports: This weekly feature, posted every Thursday, is a collection of the latest scientific research and reports with a focus on relevant issues to the Delta and to California water, although other issues such as climate change are sometimes included. Do you have an item to be included here? Submissions of relevant research and other materials is welcome. Email Maven
