Bits of Ecology

Iron fertilisation geoengineering affects deep sea ecology too

Ocean iron fertilisation, one of the most discussed CDR geoengineering proposals, deliberately tries to stimulate biological activity in the upper ocean. New research shows this in turn affects ecology at the ocean floor too. Let’s just hope sea cucumbers don’t … Continue reading →

Antarctic krill promotes CO2 uptake by plankton through iron fertilisation

Iron is very rare in the upper layers of the world´s oceans, where photosynthesis is possible and therefore biological activity and concentration of living biomass is highest, making the mineral a growth-limiting nutrient in 40 percent of the world’s oceans, … Continue reading →

Today’s paradox: hunt for oxygen-rich seas may be bad news for hypoxic plankton

Certain types of plankton have adapted themselves to living in water with low oxygen content, so they can hide away from fish when digesting [through anaerobic glycolysis] and meanwhile suppressing their metabolism. Only at night, when in search for food, … Continue reading →

CCD threatens supply of healthy foods more than staple and fast foods

‘Some 35 percent’ of the foods we eat [and two-thirds to three-quarters of the crop foods] are derived from flowering plants and trees that depend on pollination by insects. This often-cited percentage is used to stress the importance of bees … Continue reading →

Extrapolating lab study on yeast: species may evolve around deadly environmental change within 50-100 generations

If however survival conditions are optimal, like a gradual increase of the environmental stressor, ‘modest’ inter-population contact – and indeed if such extrapolation from a microorganism to a blue whale would be as legitimate as the researchers in their Science … Continue reading →

Oceans to enter Holocene Mass Extinction

The cumulative effect of environmental threats like climate change, ocean acidification and overfishing, brings the world’s interconnected ocean close to a phase of extinction of marine species that is ‘globally significant’ and unprecedented in human history, an international panel of … Continue reading →

Flower biodiversity linked to CCD – bees on fast food are unhealthy, susceptible to pests

Just recently Colony Collapse Disorder was back in the news. Swiss scientists conducted an experiment to look into claims (even) cell phones may have something to do with CCD. They concluded bees don´t like the buzz. Most specialists however agree … Continue reading →

Another forest study points to negative climate feedback

And this one may really present some good news for the climate, as it isn’t a Petri dish case, but very much in vivo. But don’t get overexcited. A group of Finnish researchers studied forest sites in 68 nations and … Continue reading →