{"id":4161,"date":"2010-10-26T17:29:25","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T21:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=4161"},"modified":"2010-10-26T17:29:25","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T21:29:25","slug":"from-the-community-mapping-whale-acoustics-photographing-the-mosquito-heart-and-measuring-fly-suction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2010\/10\/26\/from-the-community-mapping-whale-acoustics-photographing-the-mosquito-heart-and-measuring-fly-suction\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Community: mapping whale acoustics, photographing the mosquito heart and measuring fly suction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Addressing plastic pollution, raising wolves for reproductive success, images of the mosquito heart to advance malaria research, mapping whale habitats and acoustics to visualize obstructions in whale communication, the potential environmental impact of space tourism and sloth anatomy to understand the evolution of mammal backbones. Here is news in ecology from the month of October.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Permanency of plastic:<\/strong> In a recent TED video (above), Dianna Cohen of the Plastic Pollution Coalition addresses the current status on worldwide plastic production and pollution, and she encourages consumers to use alternative materials, drink less bottled water and consider sustainability when purchasing containers. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/dianna_cohen_tough_truths_about_plastic_pollution.html\">Read more<\/a> at \u201cDianna Cohen: Tough truths about plastic pollution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Wolf nannies:<\/strong> In a study published last week in <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences<\/em>, researchers examined the effects of non-breeding wolves that help raise pups, also called nannies, on reproductive success later in life. Dave Mosher explained in <em>Wired Science <\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">that \u201c\u2026nannied females grew up smaller but enjoyed reproductive lifespans nearly double that of non-nannied she-wolves. Males cared for by pack members outside of their parents grew bigger than other pups, yet their sex lives were almost halved.\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/wiredscience\/2010\/10\/red-wolf-puppy-nanny\/\">Read more<\/a> at \u201cWolf Nannies Shorten Sex Lives of Male Pups.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Mosquito heart:<\/strong> Sarah Zielinksi of Smithsonian\u2019s <em>Surprising Science <\/em>blog described the basics of a mosquito heart\u2014complete with a fluorescent photo that won the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nikonsmallworld.com\/\">Nikon Small World<\/a> photography competition\u2014in a recent post. \u201cA mosquito\u2019s heart isn\u2019t like ours,\u201d she said. \u201cFor one, it pumps a clear liquid called hemolymph, usually towards the head but sometimes in the opposite direction. The heart takes up around two-thirds of the insect\u2019s entire circulatory system, which is just a long tube that runs from its head to its tail.\u201d According to the article, the images could be used to further research on the spread of malaria. <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.smithsonianmag.com\/science\/2010\/10\/22\/inside-a-mosquitos-heart\/\">Read more<\/a> at \u201cInside a Mosquito\u2019s Heart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Mapping acoustics:<\/strong> According to research published by scientists at Scripps Whale Acoustic Lab, \u201canthropogenic ocean noise levels have risen markedly\u2014doubling every decade for the past 50 years,\u201d wrote Elizabeth Grossman in a recent <em>Scientific American<\/em> article. The scientists attributed the recent increase in noise pollution to a spike in the volume of shipping traffic and offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration. Wrote Grossman, \u201cThis finding is startling to scientists who study cetaceans and other marine life, as it is becoming clearer that whales rely heavily on the integrity of their acoustic habitat.\u201d Read more at \u201cNoise Reduces Ocean Habitat for Whales\u201d and see the above video of obstructions in whale acoustics due to human activity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Space travel and the environment:<\/strong> Companies like Virgin Galactic are making space tourism possible for consumers worldwide; however the price is hefty on both the customer\u2019s wallet and possibly on the environment. As David Shiga wrote in a <em>New Scientist<\/em> article, \u201cSpace tourism could have major consequences for Earth\u2019s climate. New computer simulations suggest soot emitted by the rockets could raise temperatures at the poles, significantly reducing seasonal ice cover there.\u201d The article mentions, however, that there are still uncertainties. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/dn19626-space-tourism-could-have-big-impact-on-climate.html\">Read more<\/a> at \u201cSpace tourism could have big impact on climate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Also, small fish get <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/10\/26\/science\/26obseaweed.html?ref=science\">bolder<\/a> as predators decline, designers help to visualize <a href=\"http:\/\/www.visualizing.org\/visualizations\">data<\/a>, compiling climate change <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/badastronomy\/2010\/10\/26\/climate-change-the-evidence\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BadAstronomyBlog+%28Bad+Astronomy%29\">evidence<\/a>, how <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.sciencenews.org\/view\/generic\/id\/64604\/title\/Why_flies_can_drink_and_drink#video\">flies<\/a> pump fluids when they drink, lions and people living <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nationalgeographic.com\/blogs\/news\/chiefeditor\/2010\/10\/big-cats-grantee-laly-lichtenf.html\">together<\/a>, aggressive male cichlids propel <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2010\/10\/21\/malawi-cichlids-%E2%80%93-how-aggressive-males-create-diversity\/\">diversity<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livescience.com\/animals\/sloths-neck-vertebraes-rib-cage-101021.html\">sloth<\/a> has rib-cage bones in its neck, hemp as <a href=\"http:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=22384\">biodiesel<\/a> and how the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/10\/26\/science\/26creatures.html?_r=1&amp;ref=science\">king cobra<\/a> measures up to other snakes.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\" style=\"width: 1px;height: 1px;overflow: hidden\">&lt;embed src=\u201dhttp:\/\/c.brightcove.com\/services\/viewer\/federated_f8\/1399191810\u2033 bgcolor=\u201d#FFFFFF\u201d flashVars=\u201dvideoId=622729472001&amp;playerId=1399191810&amp;viewerSecureGatewayURL=https:\/\/console.brightcove.com\/services\/amfgateway&amp;servicesURL=http:\/\/services.brightcove.com\/services&amp;cdnURL=http:\/\/admin.brightcove.com&amp;domain=embed&amp;autoStart=false&amp;\u201d base=\u201dhttp:\/\/admin.brightcove.com\u201d name=\u201dflashObj\u201d width=\u201d510\u2033 height=\u201d550\u2033 seamlesstabbing=\u201dfalse\u201d type=\u201dapplication\/x-shockwave-flash\u201d swLiveConnect=\u201dtrue\u201d pluginspage=\u201dhttp:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/shockwave\/download\/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\u201d&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Addressing plastic pollution, raising wolves for reproductive success, images of the mosquito heart to advance malaria research, mapping whale habitats and acoustics to visualize obstructions in whale communication, the potential environmental impact of space tourism and sloth anatomy to understand the evolution of mammal backbones. Here is news in ecology from the month of October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,48],"tags":[1017,1018,533,1019,1020,57,235,1021,364,1022,37,1023],"class_list":["post-4161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","category-ecology-and-society","tag-acoustics","tag-flies","tag-mosquito-borne-diseases","tag-noise","tag-plastic","tag-pollution","tag-reproduction","tag-sloths","tag-snakes","tag-space-travel","tag-whales","tag-wolf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161","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=4161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}