bootstrap analysis

firefly watch!

Who doesn't like watching fireflies? Now you can contribute to a study on the distribution of fireflies via Firefly Watch, a citizen science project of the Museum of Science in Boston.

environmental news link dump

Good news:

• Everglades to benefit from purchase of U.S. Sugar property (with caveats).
• Brazil's new environmental head seizes cattle grazing on illegally deforested Amazonian land; seizure will also benefit government's food program for the poor.

Bad news:

• Invasive mussels found in Lake Mead. Bad, very bad.
• Fancy toilets use  4% of household energy in Japan.

No news:

• The White House refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened. Remember when you were a child and you didn't want to hear what your parents were telling you? You put your hands over your ears and loudly chanted nonsense words. Yep.
• McCain releases vague green government plan, 8 months after Obama outlines his broader and more specific proposal.

unsettling bathroom product

One of these items is used to unplug toilets. Not sure if the other is intended to unplug or plug.

help wanted (and needed)

Recently, I received the resume of a man who has been chronically underemployed for as long as I've known him. I think I might know why. I'm not sure how a person with a PhD has failed to learn these resume tips:

• Resumes should be no more than two pages, not five.
• Do not note it took you 7 years as a full-time student to earn your doctorate, especially if it was in a soft science and did not involve any field or lab work.
• Do not go back 35 years, listing every summer job you ever did, including a month as a camp counselor in 1975.
• Maybe "puppetry" should not be listed as a special skill.
• Under professional involvement, do not list every task you did for an organization as separate items.
• And above all, do not list deceased people as references. And admit it. Referring potential employer to a letter that resides in your undergraduate file from the early 1970s.

national pollinator week: what's on your flowers?

June 22-28 is the 2nd Annual National Pollinator Week, an event sponsored by the Pollinator Partnership. The fact that so many of the world's pollinators are in deep trouble is finally starting to make the news. There are, of course, many bats, birds, and other animals that perform pollination services. Aside from declines in those populations, people are hearing more about the problems with our most familiar domestic insect pollinator, the honey bee. There is a real crisis, too, with wild insect pollinators, especially bumblebees.

Reasons for declines in these pollinators include habitat loss/destruction/degradation and introduced pathogens and parasites. Pesticides are also a likely culprit, but unmanaged wild pollinators are relatively poorly studied in this regard, and there is a lack of historical baseline data to fully assess impacts of chemicals on various species. Another worry is possible loss of synchrony with blooming plants due to climate change.

Some great resources on pollinators and their conservation:

• The National Academy of Sciences released a status report on North American pollinators which can be read online.
• The Pollinator Partnership also has a great page of information.
• Your tax dollars at work: the National Biological Information Infrastructure pollinators web site.
• The Xerces Society's Pollinator Conservation Program.

People often forget that flies are important pollinators. Regular Bootstrap readers will recall that last year I began my "Diptera in the Yard" project, and that I think many species of flies are remarkably cool. In honor of National Pollinator Week, I thought I'd do another photo essay on flies, featuring some that perform pollination duties.

The family Syrphidae is huge and includes many lifestyles, but at least 1000 are known to be pollinators. You have most likely seen "flower flies" like this Helophilus fasciatus. This one is a female -- her eyes don't touch at the top. Male flies have bigger eyes that generally meet.

These horny little flies are also Syrphids, Toxomerus marginatus. Like most Syrphids, the larvae are predaceous; Toxomerus larvae feed on aphids or other small insects.

Most of the really good bee and wasp mimics are Syrphids (the top photo is of a bumblebee mimic, Mallota; there is another photo in my other post). However, the Bombyliidae are known as the bee flies. They are typically hairy and have a long proboscis. The most familiar bee fly is Bombylius major. Here are a couple of other bee flies. The first is this whimsical fly in the genus Geron.

 

And this is Aldrichia ehrmanii, a species which was recently very common in my area.

Tachinid flies are the ones that lay their eggs on butterfly or moth caterpillars. The larvae burrow into the caterpillar, feed on the host, and drill their way out when ready to pupate, killing the caterpillar. About 2000 species are known to be pollinators (the adults, that is). For example, the only place I've seen seen these Archytes tachinids is on flowers.

 

So starting this week, stop and take a look at the diversity of pollinators in your garden, your nearby park, and the empty lot down the street, and give them a little more appreciation for what they do and their role in the ecosystem.

Hey -- what's on your flowers?

cracking up, again

Why can't I find a comfortable pair of hiking boots that don't crack at the sides? I have wide feet, very high arches, and sciatica and I need comfy boots that keep my feet dry and not too hot. These Danners were the most comfortable boots I've ever had, but just like every other boot they end up failing at the bend of the foot.

recent interesting or distressing news

Stuff that has accumulated while I was doing other things. I'm just going to let it all out.

• New York Times: Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy. How do flaming idiots like this get on school boards?
  

  “I believe a lot of incredible things. The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the god that created the universe.” But Dr. McLeroy says his rejection of evolution — “I just don’t think it’s true or it’s ever happened” — is not based on religious grounds. Courts have clearly ruled that teachings of faith are not allowed in a science classroom, but when he considers the case for evolution, Dr. McLeroy said, “it’s just not there.”

• Nature: Stuck in the Mud. The Environmental Protection Agency must gather data on the toxicity of spreading sewage sludge. Sixty percent of the biosolids left over from sewage treatment in the U.S. are used as fertilizers. "In what can only be called an institutional failure spanning more than three decades — and presidential administrations of both parties — there has been no systematic monitoring programme to test what is in the sludge." Reports implying it was safe are under question despite stories like this, the EPA is still dragging its feet.


• New York Times: Where Breathing is Deadly.  Nobody denies the earthquake in China is a tragedy. But Nick Kristoff notes that as many Chinese die every month from air pollution as died in this earthquake. He also recounts his visit to the "village of dunces" where effluent from a fertilizer factory has poisoned the drinking water and the town has a large number of mentally retarded residents.


• PLoS ONE: Pollutants Increase Song Complexity and the Volume of the Brain Area HVC in a Songbird. This paper has been reported on elsewhere, but still merits mention. This study looked at European Starlings exposed to endrocrine distrupting chemicals (specifically, estrogen mimics) which are concentrated in sewage effluent setting ponds that birds often forage in. The starlings developed longer and more complex songs due to a change in brain physiology.  Female starlings preferred these males, even though the immune systems of the males were compromised. This could have disturbing reproductive consequences for birds feeding on these types of contaminants, which are surprisingly ubiquitous in the environment. An excellent and deeply frightening primer on this issue is Theo Colburn's Our Stolen Future.  This is a book I routinely recommend to my friends.


• The Independent (via Birder's World Field of View): The Great Migration Crisis. Population declines of so many species of migrant birds are so sharp and dramatic that ornithologists think the whole system of bird migration between Europe and Africa may be breaking down. 


• PLoS ONE: Parasitoid increases survival of its pupae by inducing hosts to fight predators. One of the most interesting dramas in the grassroots jungle, to me, is the world of parasitic wasps and their caterpillar hosts. Female wasps lay their eggs into the body of a caterpillar, which lives while the wasp larvae eat them alive. The caterpillars typically die once the wasp larvae exit to pupate. Researchers in Brazil found a species of moth whose caterpillar does not die, but guards the cocoons of the wasp larvae. Carl Zimmer explains this in his usual lucid and elegant style -- go check it out. Hat tip to BugGirl. 

There's more! But I'll get to it later...

table of contents alert (14): invasive species edition

Observations of herbivore attack on garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) in southwestern Ontario, Canada.  C. N. Yates and S. D. Murphy. 2008. Biological Invasions 10:757-760.
Of all the invasive plants at my study sites, Garlic Mustard must comprise the most biomass of all the non-woody species. It has profound effects on the forest, and I hate dealing with it from March until September.

So it was with interest that I read this paper regarding the observation of several species of insects feeding on Garlic Mustard. Not surprisingly, all are European species first recorded in North America from the mid to late 1800s. First was the Diamondback Moth (Plutella xylostella). This moth is a pretty serious pest of other Brassicaceae, especially cabbage and mustard. Eggs and larvae of all instars were found on Alliaria, indicating its suitability as a host plant. Meadow Spittlebugs (Philaenus spumarius) were observed feeding on the fruiting stalk, and a stem-mining weevil (Ceutorhynchus erysimi) was observed feeding on leaves of first and second-year plants, and all life stages were found on Alliaria.

The paper was a nice, albeit brief, overview of herbivory of Alliaria. However, there was a mysterious lack of detail regarding the observations made by the authors. Southwestern Ontario is a big region, but there were no additional details of where the observations took place or how widespread they were. Nor was there mention of when they occurred (not even the year!), if all the insects were found in the same patches or feeding on the same or neighboring plants, or if they were isolated cases. While it's good to know that Garlic Mustard may end up becoming a host for various established insects in North America, these missing details seem quite important, and it's surprising to me the editor let the paper through with these gaping omissions.

Effect of an invasive ground cover plant on the abundance and diversity of a forest floor spider assemblage. T. L. Blutman and D. J. DeWitt. 2008. Biological Invasions 10:749-756.
Although limited to certain areas, there is also lots of Vinca minor (periwinkle, myrtle) in the forest on our campus, as well as in the little patch of habitat behind our house that belongs to our neighborhood association.  This very interesting paper looked at ground-dwelling spiders in Vinca invaded and non-invaded sites in southwestern Michigan. These types of spiders are extremely important predators of litter arthropods, helping to stabilize forest floor invertebrate communities and playing a critical role in the energy flow and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems.

Vinca is already known to inhibit seedling recruitment of trees and forbs in the forest. It also has a dramatic effect on spiders, depressing species diversity and evenness, and reducing the activity-abundance by a whopping 49%. For example, vagrant sheet-building spiders were common in non-invaded sites, but nearly absent from Vinca areas, and sit-and-wait spiders such as crab spiders were greatly reduced. On the other hand, the wolf spider Pirata montanus was not found in native sites, but was abundant in invaded ones. The changes in the physical structure of the litter/soil microhabitat from thick leaf litter, seedlings, and small plants to shaded, tangled vines is thought to be responsible for these spider community changes. 

Diamondback Moth photo from Wikimedia Commons.
Vinca photo by Richard Old, XID Services, Inc., Bugwood.org.

it's dead duck (and penguin) day

I'm not sure where I originally encountered the paper, "The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)" which was published in the Dutch journal Deinsea. It may have well been through the Annals of Improbable Research, which I regularly read, as opposed to the Deinsea itself, which I had never previously heard of. At any rate, it was via the Improbable Research blog that I read about Dead Duck Day, when the subject of the paper is quietly commemorated.

The dramatic/traumatic event described in the paper (PDF here) is summarized in the abstract:

On 5 June 1995 an adult male mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) collided with the glass façade of the Natuurmuseum Rotterdam and died. Another drake mallard raped the corpse almost continuously for 75 minutes. Then the author disturbed the scene and secured the dead duck. Dissection showed that the rape-victim indeed was of the male sex. It is concluded that the mallards were engaged in an ‘Attempted Rape Flight’ that resulted in the first described case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard.

This episode (or, more accurately, the peer-reviewed publication describing it) was awarded the Ig Noble Prize in Biology in 2003. It has long been my goal to publish a piece of research so esoteric and improbable as to receive this prize. (Given the general lack of academic support at work, publishing any research feels improbable most of the time, but that's another story.)

So every June 5 some staff members of the museum note the passing of the victim. On this day, the 12th annual event, the public is invited for a short ceremony at the scene of the crime incident scientific observation, and the curator will even haul out the scandalized, but now stuffed, immortalized, and memorialized Mallard for a bit of contemplative scrutiny. Should you be in the Netherlands, please attend, and report back.

As for the penguins, today and for the next year, people in my area will be celebrating the demise of a population of Penguins from Pittsburgh. Welcome back to Hockeytown, Lord Stanley!

Photo of a "pair" of Mallards having a bro-mance by jvverde, published under a Creative Commons license.

all the things i can't tell you

Just enough people know who I am to prevent me from writing about some of the most interesting, dramatic, or bitch-worthy things that have been going on in my life, aside from spending 32 of the last 36 days in the field.

• Stress-inducing family drama involving elder care, serious health issues for the cared for and the caregiver, conflicting wishes, legal issues, and, of course, money.
• Wedding news, both recent and upcoming, of people I care about very much, and all my conflicted feelings about them (good and bad) that are none of my business anyway.
• A follow up on my friend who tried to kill himself. That situation troubles me deeply, since I've had no resolution. Although he's completely recovered, I gather, he is also quite completely out of my life, which I never would have expected. I literally still have nightmares about this whole thing.
• Tales of paranoia, plots, pomposity, pissiness, and power at work. It's the pits.
• Obnoxious behavior by members of the public I have to deal with. If there's a silver lining in my future retirement, it's finally being able to tell people what I think of them as a private citizen and not a semi-public face representing two well-known employers. Ignorance, rudeness, selfishness. Three traits that don't sit well with me.

So although I'll still be busy the next couple weeks wrapping up the worst "normal" spring migration I can remember, I will be posting more often, just not anything juicy or compelling, at least on a personal level.

just checking in

May is my tough month. I've been really busy lately...so busy, I didn't even take this picture. My husband snapped this portrait of a beautiful Magnolia Warbler he banded over the weekend. I thought this would look nice holding the space here at Bootstrap.

Sign border fence petition

I've long been meaning to write about how outrageous the Texas border fence is, and how harmful to wildlife. I took this photo on my last trip to south Texas in February, a trip in which I once again visited Audubon's Sabal Palm Sanctuary which will be on the "Mexican" side of the fence when the wall is built. You can read about many of the various damaging and misguided aspects of the fence at the No Texas Border Wall web site and blog.

Audubon now has a quick online petition you can sign expressing your objection to the fact that the Department of Homeland Security waived more than 30 environmental and public health laws, including the Endangered Species Act, to authorize construction of this fence. Go do it.

Hat tip to The Birdchaser.