May18

Space Whisky

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Vanishing Spirits Photo: Ernie Button

Vanishing Spirits
Photo: Ernie Button

File under ‘new frontiers in the Scotch whisky market’: Ardberg distillery partnered with commercial space research company NanoRocks to study the effects of near-zero gravity on the maturation process of whisky. Vials of organic chemical compounds from the Ardberg distillery, along with samples of different kinds of oak wood, were sent into space in late 2011 for a two-year trip. The whisky-makers hope to get a fresh perspective on how terpenes, large molecules that are primary constituents in many essential oils and building blocks of some flavor compounds, interact with charred wood in space.

Ardberg Galileo

Ardberg Galileo

In the interim, Ardberg has released the 12-year-old Galileo bottling to celebrate this experiment. Whatever the results of the space trip on whisky production, Ardberg Galileo has done pretty well on Earth – it was the winner of World’s Best Single Malt at the 2013 World Whiskies Awards.

All of this is a good excuse to show these super-spacey photographs by artist Ernie Button, who lets different kinds of single malt Scotch whisky dry in the bottom of a glass, illuminates the residues with light, and takes a picture. If you are lucky enough to be going to the Islay Whisky Festival (24 May – 1 June), you can see an exhibition of Button’s work.

More:

Ardberg

Gallery of Ernie Button’s work

 

Vanishing Spirits Photo: Ernie Button

Vanishing Spirits
Photo: Ernie Button

May17

Torrey Pine

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Trail through Torrey Pines forest Photo: James Forte

Trail through Torrey Pines forest
Photo: James Forte

I’m having one of those expat moments today, and find myself feeling a little homesick for my own native habitat of the California coast, so I thought I’d write about one of my favorite trees that grows only there. The rarest known wild pine tree in the North America is the Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana), which grows exclusively on a small area of the coast north of San Diego, and in a small grove on one Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands.

The two existing habitats of the Torrey pine

The two existing habitats of the Torrey pine

Although it has been theorized that the tree’s range once extended up the coast as far north as Oregon, by the time the tree was described in 1858 by botanist John Torrey (for whom the tree is named), there were less than 300 individual trees found during the course of the Mexican-American Boundary Survey which had gathered the samples.

It’s a tree adapted to very harsh conditions in the wild. Slow-growing, it sends its tap roots exploring through the clefts and cracks of cliffs where there is very little dirt. A small seedling can have a 2-foot (60 cm) root, an adult tree of 60 feet (19 m) can have a tap root three or four times that length. The large pine cones take years to mature, and the tough pine nuts dropped on to the ground only gradually and over a period of years – these are too indestructible to be eaten by most birds,  can be viable for up to ten years, and in an unprotected habitat, would best burst into germination only after being cracked by a  fire. The tenacious adaptations of this tree to a dry, coastal environment are part of what make it so fragile in the wild.

The tree was named the Solitary Pine by early Spanish explorers, but during the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the pine rooted itself in local lore. Rather than being commercially and residentially developed as all of the neighboring lands were, this small coastal area found supporters who wanted to preserve the tree and its habitat. I have little doubt that without this intervention, the Torrey pine would be another extinct species we would read about but never see in the wild.

The Torrey pine is widely planted in southern California, but the ornamental and cultivated trees often look quite different from the preserved wild ones found in Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. The cultivated trees are tall, straight and have rounded heads, while the wild trees are smaller, with the crooked, windswept forms that make them so memorable. At least, for me.

View from Torrey Pines reserve Photo: Norman Koren

View from Torrey Pines reserve. A great spot to observe marine wildlife – also along the migratory path of whales.
Photo: Norman Koren

More:

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve website

May16

Going South

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Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) Via: Earthisland.org

I’ve been fortunate to have seen gray whales off the California coast. They are a majestic sight, even from a distance, when they make their annual migration along their regular route between northern feeding grounds and southern breeding havens.

There are currently two known populations of gray whales: One on the eastern rim of the Pacific Ocean, a group that is estimated at around 22,000 individuals and migrates between Baja California and Alaska; the other a small group of around 130 that migrates along the western Pacific rim from northern Russia to somewhere Hainan Island off the Chinese coast. Gray whales used to populate the North Atlantic Ocean as well, but the population along the North American coast is assumed to have been hunted to extinction during the 18th century.

The existing populations haven’t experienced the kind of migration confusion suffered by some animals due temperature fluctuations and climate change. Until recently.

Over the past couple of years, two whales have been spotted in the Atlantic Ocean. One was seen off the coast of Israel. The other, last week, was photographed off the coast of Namibia – the first recorded image of a gray whale in the Southern Atlantic and in the Southern Hemisphere.

Graphic shows possible routes taken by the gray whale now off Namibia, and another that showed off Israel in 2010. Credit: Uko Gorter

Graphic shows possible routes taken by the gray whale now off Namibia,
and another that showed off Israel in 2010.
Credit: Uko Gorter

It is being speculated that the whale in Southern Atlantic waters likely got lost while feeding in the normally frozen Northwest Passage. Most of the discussion surrounding an ice-free Northwest Passage has focused on the viability of new shipping routes, the potential for resource exploitation, new areas for tourism. After all, the search for a northerly trading route was a major driver in sea exploration for centuries.

With the discovery of these lost whales, attention is beginning to focus on the changes this might bring to a wide variety of animal and plant species.

Possible Northwest Passage shipping routes Image: NASA

The Passage has been partially ice-free over the past four years, and it’s possible the Namibian gray whale just kept moving east until it reached the Atlantic. It seems unlikely that it will be able to return the way it came.

This is probably a sign of things to come. There will be the sudden disappearances, the animals and plants that find new territories. Some creatures will make unexpected appearances, some will get lost.

And some will just head south.

Gray whale off Namibia
Photo: John Paterson/Namibia Dolphin Project

More:

Pete Thomas Outdoors article

May15

Wall of Sound

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Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) Image via: 123rf.com

Common Blackbird (Turdus merula)
Image via: 123rf.com
Listen to a blackbird sing here.

It started raining today after a few days of sun, and the birds outside in the garden are berserk with spring joy. There’s a symphony of birdsong that I can hear even through shut windows. The chorus changes, rises, falls, and is (rarely) silent for just a moment, as if all the birds are catching their breath at an agreed pause in the music.

The calming effect of birdsong has always been known. In our technological age,the effect we could usually only get by being outside, or having a window open where birds are singing, is being implemented in a variety of ways. Our human predisposition, won over the millennia, is to assume that when birds are singing, we are safe – it’s only when they all stop singing that we need to be concerned. Birdsong heralds the dawn, when birds slowly fall silent in the evening it is time to rest.

I noticed when flying through a few airports recently – in the UK and in the United States – that birdsong filled some of the corridors upon arrival. I thought it was a funny but oddly pleasant choice of background noise, but as it turns out it was calculated and intentional. Researchers and marketers are figuring out how to implement birdsong soundscapes to do everything from calm frazzled travellers, raise office productivity, relax patients in doctors’ offices and improve sales.

Some birds, like songbirds and parrots, are able to alter and modify their vocalizations, learn new tunes. According to Erich Jarvis, a researcher in neurobiology at Duke University, “Vocal learners all have a connection, or pathway, between neurons in the forebrain — a brain region that helps control vocal learning — and neurons in the brainstem, which control the muscles involved in producing innate vocalizations.” These birds share this type of pathway with a few mammals, including humans.

I’m not sure what this means for our ability to communicate directly with our avian friends.

I’ve been told, however, that a friend’s cockatoo once landed on his knee, set her eyes on him beadily, and said, “I can talk.” “Yes, you can talk,” responded my friend. The bird clucked, then went on, “I can talk. Can you fly?”

Just in case you haven’t heard it in a while, you can test the effects of birdsong for yourself. Here’s an good hour of the stuff. The video has a nice discussion of the difference between bird calls and birdsong.

More:

Jarvis Lab – Neurobiology of Vocal Communication

BrainFacts.org article – Connecting Birdsong to Human Speech by Mary Bates

BBC article – The surprising uses for birdsong by Denise Winterman

Wonderful site of birdsong from around the world – xeno-canto.org

May14

Chatty Plants

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The Secret Life of Plants (1973, Harper & Row)

The Secret Life of Plants
(1973, Harper & Row)

I remember back in the early 1970s when a book came out called The Secret Life of Plants (P. Tompkins, C. Bird). The book discussed alternative views of plant life, including suggestions that plants were sentient beings, and that by talking to them, we could not only become more relaxed horticulturalists, but the plants would be happier, too. It inspired my mother to have the occasional chat with the African violets on the kitchen windowsill for an entire summer. I can’t speak for the violets, but my mother definitely got bored, and the violets didn’t seem any better or worse for all the encouraging words.

Overall, the notion that plants were sentient, conversation-capable creatures was chalked up to the post-1960s lovey-dovey wish for interconnectedness rather than given credence as having any firm basis in scientific methodology.

But thirty years of research, changed perspectives and better equipment have been showing that plants can, indeed, communicate in a variety of ways, both with other plants and with animals, mostly insects.

There’s this, about plants talking between species:

Larch roots with mycorrhizal fungi. All the white roots on the Larch seedlings in picture are 'Friendly Fungi' roots, the thicker red/brown roots are the Larch's roots. This fungal network increases the volume of soil explored by the plant by up to 700 times. Via: Buckingham Nurseries, UK

Larch roots with mycorrhizal fungi. All the white roots on the Larch seedlings in picture are ‘Friendly Fungi’ roots, the thicker red/brown roots are the Larch’s roots. This fungal network increases the volume of soil explored by the plant by up to 700 times.
Via: Buckingham Nurseries, UK

A new study released this month shows that when plants are connected via an underground network of the common mycorrhizae fungi, the fungi act as “a conduit for signalling between plants, acting as an early warning system for herbivore attack.” The signals not only warn of an attack, they also work to attract enemies (in this case, a specific kind of wasp) of the attacking pests (aphids). Mycorrhizae fungi inhabit the roots of many plants, providing nutrients in exchange for carbon, but this communication takes the relationship a step further. Once alerted by plants under attack, uninfested plants that were connected to the network could start mounting their defences.

A 2001 study published in Science talked showed tobacco plants (Nicotiana attenuata) fighting herbivore attacks by releasing volatiles to attract predators, which would then come and feed on the eggs of attacking pests. The plants were able to reduce pest populations by up to 90%.

Fine, but this is still in the realm of chemical communication. It’s unseen, and it’s not like the plants are actually talking to each other in the sense that we understand vocal communication.

And then there’s this:

Monica Gagliano, plant acoustics researcher. CREDIT: University of Western Australia

Monica Gagliano, plant acoustics researcher.
CREDIT: University of Western Australia

A study in BMC Ecology provides evidence that chili seeds, known to grow more vigorously when in the presence of basil plants, do so even if cut off from any chemical or light-related signals with those ‘beneficial’ plants, indicating some form of ‘alternative signaling channel’. Monica Gagliano, a plant acoustics researcher, suggests that vibrations are the signaling mechanism, which would imply that plants can hear. Or at least, they are responsive to minute sound vibrations.

And finally, there are the people who listen to trees:

From LiveScience: “Air bubbles form when a tree is trying to suck moisture out of dry ground during droughts. As leaves on a tree collect carbon dioxide, they open their pores, a process that leaves them vulnerable to water loss. Lab experiments at Grenoble University in France have isolated ultrasonic pops, which are 100 times faster than what a human can hear, in slivers of dead pine wood bathed in a hydrogel to simulate the conditions of a living tree. The race is now on between researchers to create equipment capable of listening to tree sounds.”

Why? So we can better identify trees that are in distress. Earlier studies have shown that bark beetles may be able to hear which trees are more vulnerable to attack during drought conditions due to the air bubbles that form. Humans might be able to listen to the trees to assist them.

Douglas fir trees Image via: TerraDaily

Douglas fir trees
Image via: TerraDaily

Did I mention that mycorrhizae fungi networks are vast and complex in many natural habitats? Who knows just how complicated these conversations might be?

My mother would have been so thrilled to know her conversation wasn’t entirely one-sided. She just needed to know how to understand the signals.

African violet Via: Buffalo Niagara Gardening

African violet
Via: Buffalo Niagara Gardening

More:

Ecology Letters study – Underground signals carried through common mycelial networks warn neighbouring plants of aphid attack by Z. Babikova, L. Gilbert, T. Bruce, M. Birkett, J.C. Caulfied, C. Woodcock, J.A. Pickett, D. Johnson

BBC News article – Fungus network ‘plays role in plant communication’

Science AAAS study (2001) – Defensive Function of Herbivore-Induced Plant Volatile Emissions in Nature by A. Kessler & I.T. Baldwin

Discover Magazine article (2002) – Talking Plants by S. Russell & M. Aguilera-Hellweg

BMC Ecology study – Love thy neighbour: facilitation through an alternative signalling modality in plants by M. Gagliano & M. Renton

LiveScience article – Sound Garden – Can plants actually talk and hear? by Becky Oskin

LiveScience article – Thirsty Wood’s Distress Call Heard in Lab by Elizabeth Howell

May13

Blue Monday

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Today, in a bit of a departure, I’ll be posting four news items together that, while seemingly disparate, all belong to a certain narrative for me. I try to stay positive, for the most part, about the options and solutions to environmental challenges, but I hope readers will understand that we all need the occasional day off now and then. And here we go.

Item 1:

According to a well-publicized new study, unless immediate action is undertaken to mitigate climate change, we stand to lose up to approximately half of all animal and plant species by the year 2080. This is not future science – this is within the lifetimes of people who are living today. It’s important to note that the species in question are not only those currently considered endangered – this study is about all species, including ones we consider common and unthreatened today.

Figures A and B show the loss of animals and plants, respectively, by 2080, if nothing is done to reduce emissions. Black areas show a nearly 100% loss of species richness. Figures C and D show reduced losses with mitigation, if emissions peak in 2016 and are reduced by 5% each year thereafter. CREDIT: R. Warren et al / Nature Climate Change Via: LiveScience

Figures A and B show the loss of animals and plants, respectively, by 2080, if nothing is done to reduce emissions. Black areas show a nearly 100% loss of species richness. Figures C and D show reduced losses with mitigation, if emissions peak in 2016 and are reduced by 5% each year thereafter.
CREDIT: R. Warren et al / Nature Climate Change
Via: LiveScience

From the LiveScience article:

“It’s not too late to do something to prevent the widespread loss of species, however. The study found that if emissions are slowed and ultimately begin being reduced by 2017, about 60 percent of the losses can be avoided, Warren said. If emissions peak in 2030 and are reduced after that, about 40 percent of the losses could be avoided.

A decline in plants and animals means a decline in the services these organisms provide, such as recycling of nutrients, purification of air and water, pollination, as well as draws for ecotourism and recreation, she added.”

Item 2:

The once common Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita), which ranged across Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, has been endangered for some time now. It is one of the only non-wading kinds of ibis, preferring steppes and fields over wetlands. There were four remaining birds left in Syria – that number is now down to one sole individual. ‘Zenobia’, the last Syrian female to return from the annual migration to Ethiopia, was spotted at the Palmyra breeding site this year.

Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) Image via WildlifeExtra.com

Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita)
Image via WildlifeExtra.com

Reasons for the decline are not clear, and researchers have attempted to monitor the birds in spite of the ongoing conflict in Syria.

The ibis was considered to be one of the first birds released by Noah off the Ark as a symbol of fertility, and in ancient Egypt the bird symbolized excellence, glory, honour, and virtue, as well as the signifier of the soul. This is what it looks like when an animal, common into the 20th century (although extinct in Europe for some time) finally reaches the end of the line. It will likely be up to zoo breeding programs to keep this species extant on the planet.

Item 3:

A strange hunting free-for-all seems to have occurred in Australia’s state of Victoria over the past weekend. An estimated 50-150 duck ‘hunters’ entered a private wetland area and apparently shot anything with wings that moved – including hundreds of endangered birds. Most of the birds, legal and illegal alike, were left behind. I admit that I have nothing against legitimate and legal hunting – it’s what humans have been doing for a very long time. But playing video game shooting with live animals as targets and leaving the dead and dying behind is not hunting, it is a strange kind of violent self-indulgence.

Bird bodies recovered from a hunting spree in Victoria Via: The Age

Bird bodies recovered from a hunting spree in Victoria
Via: The Age

After long consultations with a number of hunting groups, Victoria recently reassigned the administration and compliance of duck hunting season from Department of Sustainability and Environment to the newly created, pro-hunt Game Victoria. In the case of this hunt, Game Victoria was monitoring a different area entirely for anti-hunt protesters, rather than following up on a tip that large numbers of reckless shooters were likely to show up at the Box Flat wetland site.

It matters who we allow to run the administration of wildlife areas. And if those authorities are working at cross-purposes with conservation authorities, a single day can wipe out years of conservation efforts, not to mention financial investment in wildlife protection.

Item 4:

The UK government under David Cameron has appointed a well-known climate change skeptic and former oil company executive, Peter Lilley, to advise the Prime Minister on key foreign policy issues. According to The Guardian, “he will be present at meetings of the prime minister’s new policy board at which such issues are discussed. The government is also involved in crucial United Nations international negotiations aimed at forging a new global agreement on cutting emissions, and equally vital discussions on the future of EU energy policy, to be decided in the next year.”

Mr. Lilley doesn’t disagree with the basic science behind the concept of global warming, rather he is skeptical of the actual impact of global warming itself and the necessity for immediate mitigation action. He has numerous supporters, both in and outside of the government.

When the leadership of an influential and industrial nation like the United Kingdom chooses a climate change skeptic as a key advisor on international issues, it is important news that bears watching.

Now ending my Blue Monday.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Image: borealnz via flickr

Image: borealnz via flickr

More:

Nature Climate Change study – Quantifying the benefit of early climate change mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss by R. Warren, J. VanDerWal, J. Price, J. A. Welbergen, I. Atkinson, J. Ramirez-Villegas, T. J. Osborn, A. Jarvis, L. P. Shoo, S. E. Williams & J. Lowe

LiveScience article – On the Brink: Climate Change Endangers Common Species by Douglas Main

The Age article – Hunter warned of bird massacre by Melissa Fyfe

Conservation group to save the Northern Bald Ibis in Morocco

The Guardian article – Climate change sceptic to advise David Cameron on foreign policy by Fiona Harvey

Thanks to Rob Cairns (Twitter: @robbiepoet) for the duck-hunting story.

May12

Blossoms and Bubbles

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Different types of wine From: Winefolly.com

Different types of wine
From: Winefolly.com

I found this Wine Folly poster via Paul Dorset’s blog, so thanks Paul for the great pointer to a great wine blog. As it turns out, I’ve managed to try quite a few of these – and I think there are a few I’ve tried that aren’t listed.

For Mother’s Day, I will be raising my glass to all the wonderful mothers I know!

Here’s a bunch of flowers – I took this at a nearby friend’s house yesterday after an evening of – what else? – champagne and good conversation. The wisteria has burst out all over our area in eastern France and many walls are alive with purple.

Photo: PK Read

Photo: PK Read

And speaking of purple and bubbles, NASA recently released this image of cosmic wind bubbles at the center of the Milky Way. Just thought I’d include it here.

Bubbles of gas and particles, 25,000 light years high – that emerge from the centre of the Milky Way, on either side of the galactic plane after being blown at supersonic cosmic winds during star formation. Go here for more information. Image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center via New Scientist

‘Fermi’ bubbles of gas and particles, 25,000 light years high – that emerge from the centre of the Milky Way, on either side of the galactic plane after being blown at supersonic cosmic winds during star formation. Go here for more information.
Image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center via New Scientist

Have a good Sunday!