Benefits to the Planet
Fruit-eating fish does far-flung forestry
Species’ seed-dispersal skills go the distance
by Susan Milius March 2011
In the Amazon, Johnny Appleseed may be a fish.
When rivers in the Amazon Basin flood into surrounding forests and savannas, a fruit-eating fish called a tambaqui proves itself a champion at excreting seeds in distant new homes, says Jill T. Anderson of Duke University in Durham, N.C. In extreme cases, seeds hitchhiking with the fish can land almost 5.5 kilometers from the mother tree..
Tree Planting TambaquiThose distances put the tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) into the ranks of elephants and big birds for long-distance planting, Anderson and her colleagues report in an upcomingProceedings of the Royal Society B.
In tree reproduction, distance matters, especially as loggers, farmers and builders clear more and more patches of forest. Fruit-eaters are “the mobile links that keep forest fragments connected,” says ecologist Pedro Jordano of the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain. Otherwise patches could become so isolated they lose healthful genetic diversity.
Biologists have begun to gather evidence on how much impact a seed-courier fish might have on a terrestrial forest. The tambaqui, also called a gamitana, is one of roughly 200 known fruit-eating fish species worldwide and gets its chance to forage in the floodplains where rivers swell over their banks and cover some 250,000 square kilometers for months each year. “In some places, you can canoe in the tree canopy,” Anderson says.
New Amazon monkey species discovered in remote Colombian fores
Researchers believe the species may be critically endangered and that the felling of forest for agriculture threatens their habitat. By Nancy Lopez, AP
A new Amazon monkey species has been discovered in Colombia, and researchers said Thursday they believe the small, isolated population is at risk due to the cutting of forests that are its home.
The find was announced by Conservation International, a group that helped finance the research in remote rain forests that until recently were considered too dangerous for scientific work due to the presence of leftist rebels.
IN THE FAMILY: The Caqueta titi monkey is the size of a cat, has grayish-brown hair, but does not have a white bar on its forehead as many of the other species of titi monkeys do. (Photo: Javier Garcia/AP)
Crude Oil No Longer Needed for Production of Plastics
Tiemersma found an apparently very simple solution for one of the biggest problems in producing ethene from natural gas. If you want to produce plastics from natural gas then you first of all need to convert the natural gas into ethene. That can currently be done but one vital problem occurs: the process generates an incredible amount of heat, too much to remove easily. Consequently the conversion of natural gas is far too expensive and consumes a lot of energy. Yet natural gas is not only used for the production of ethene. It is also the raw material for syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. And the production of syngas happens to require a lot of heat. "What would be more logical than combining the two processes?" thought Tymen Tiemersma.
Reviving the spirit of Rio
In two years' time, Rio de Janeiro will host another Earth Summit - 20 years after the first.
The idea was proposed in 2007 by Brazil's President Lula da Silva at the UN General Assembly.
It was clear to President Lula and to a growing number of others that the world has changed enormously since 1992, when the world agreed to Agenda 21 - the blueprint for creating a sustainable way of life in the 21st Century.
Rio 2012 could provide much-needed new momentum to international co-operation, not only on environment and sustainable development, but also on the problems that underpin the global financial crisis.
How interfering humans helped Amazon diversity
Don't tell Sting, but human activity may not be all bad news for the Amazon. A study of South American savannahs suggests that even before Europeans arrived, farmers were changing ecosystems with a landscaping method previously unrecognised in the region. What's more, the pre-Columbian alterations may have increased biodiversity.
"Human actions cannot always be characterised as bad for biodiversity," says Doyle McKey of the University of Montpellier 2, France. "Some might be good."
McKey and his colleagues came to their conclusion after studying some strange features of the savannahs of French Guiana. These plains are flooded during the rainy season, dry and parched in the summer, and often burned by fires. It was while walking through this landscape that McKey started wondering about undulations in the terrain.
