{"id":3633,"date":"2010-06-21T12:27:19","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T16:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=3633"},"modified":"2010-06-21T12:27:19","modified_gmt":"2010-06-21T16:27:19","slug":"from-the-community-attacking-aphids-quiet-birding-and-cloud-seeding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2010\/06\/21\/from-the-community-attacking-aphids-quiet-birding-and-cloud-seeding\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Community: attacking aphids, quiet birding and cloud seeding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMenopausal\u201d aphids sacrifice themselves for the colony, Gulf oil spill myths debunked, the benefits of (and new considerations for) hiking, bee hives add to sustainable cuisine in San Francisco and the masters of disguise in the animal world\u2014photos included. Here is the latest in ecological science from the third week in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Aphid attacks: <\/strong>Female aphids inhabiting witch hazel plants are tasked with reproduction; however, once these aphids mature beyond reproductive capabilities, they take on another role: defenders. In these \u201cmenopausal\u201d aphids\u2019 last throes, they defend the colony from ladybird larva by sticking themselves to the predator with a waxy secretion (see above video), permanently securing both the ladybird and themselves to the plant to die. Read more<\/a> at \u201cSuicidal menopausal aphids save their colony by sticking themselves to predators.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Oil spill myths: <\/strong>Smithsonian\u2019s Surprising Science<\/em> blog recaps the five most common misconceptions about the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and sets the record straight. The myths are \u201coil spills are rare, shallow water drilling is safe, BP\/the government\/the military can just shut off the oil whenever they want, building barrier islands will protect wetlands [and] the Gulf coast will be better than before.\u201d Read more<\/a> at \u201cFive Myths of the Gulf Oil Spill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Quiet birding:<\/strong> Those hiking through bird habitats for the view should take note of a recent study published in Biotropica<\/em>. It turns out that the very birds the hikers came to see were scared off by the sound of human voices; animal sightings decreased by as much as 37% in the presence of human voices. The study suggests that hikers should remain completely silent when visiting a bird habitat to avoid causing the birds to change their behavior at the sound of human voices. Read more<\/a> at \u201cHiking quietly benefits birds\u2026 and birders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Oil takes whale: <\/strong>On June 15, crew on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations\u2019 ship Pisces<\/em> discovered<\/a> a dead sperm whale floating 77 miles south of the Deepwater Horizon spill site. \u00a0An estimated 1,600 sperm whales move through waters near the site of the well. Scientific American<\/em>\u2019s podcast 60-Second Earth<\/em> reports on the incident in \u201cWill the Oil Spill Kill Sperm Whales?\u201d Listen here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other amenities: <\/strong>The hotel Fairmont San Francisco has added \u201cfour nascent beehives, each containing approximately 20,000 bees, in the garden outside the hotel lobby. When the beehives mature in four to eight weeks, they are expected to each house up to 50,000 bees.\u201d The garden will soon also include several herbs, such as rosemary and basil. Read more<\/a> at \u201cEighty thousand bees check in to San Francisco hotel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, camouflaged animal photos<\/a> (from March), H1N1 evolves<\/a> between humans and pigs, British newspaper apologizes<\/a> to climate scientist, climate skepticism<\/a>, aircraft seeding clouds<\/a> in flight and the future of the whaling<\/a> ban.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMenopausal\u201d aphids sacrifice themselves for the colony, Gulf oil spill myths debunked, the benefits of (and new considerations for) hiking, bee hives add to sustainable cuisine in San Francisco and the masters of disguise in the animal world\u2014photos included. Here is the latest in ecological science from the third week in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2,48],"tags":[845,127,846,52,55,56,816,847],"class_list":["post-3633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-research","category-ecology-and-society","tag-aphids","tag-birding","tag-cloud-seeding","tag-deepwater-horizon","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-gulf-oil-spill","tag-h1n1","tag-whaling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}