Category: Environment

Four decades ago, fishermen in the southern regions of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, employed a destructive fishing method: blasting the reefs with dynamite to stun fish and easily collect them. This practice severely damaged the vibrant coral ecosystems, leaving behind rubble where new coral larvae struggled to take root.

Despite such drastic devastation, these reefs are experiencing a revival, thanks to the collaborative efforts of local residents, Indonesian and British scientists, and the introduction of an innovative device known as the “Reef Stars.” These structures, resembling six-legged spiders the size of coffee tables, have played a pivotal role in the reef’s recovery, showing results so promising that new research indicates these rehabilitated areas closely resemble their healthy neighboring reefs.

The interconnected metal stars create a steel and coral lattice that covers significant areas, effectively forming a hybrid, cyborg-like reef. Recent research indicates that these hybrid reefs show promising signs of recovery, resembling healthy reefs in various key indicators.

The findings, published in March in Current Biology, showed that reefs replanted just four years prior exhibited similar levels of carbonate exoskeleton production as natural reefs, and the coral cover increased from 17% to over 50%—comparable to healthy reefs.

The reliance on specific, fast-growing coral types preferred by restorationists has been a weakness in places like Florida, where a recent underwater heatwave decimated many transplanted corals. Fortunately, the Indonesian approach benefits from greater genetic diversity among the corals used and more favorable ocean conditions. While other global reefs have suffered from this problem, the corals in Indonesian waters have remained comparatively healthy.

A New Hampshire distillery is tackling the invasion of green crabs along the East Coast by creating “Crab Trapper,” a unique crab-flavored whiskey.

Will Robinson the product developer at Tamworth Distilling shared with NPR’s Kai McNamee: “People are going to hear crab whiskey, and I’d venture to say three-quarters of them are going to go, ‘No, absolutely not,'” said Robinson. “But if you can get them to taste it, they totally change their tune for the most part.”

“Crab Trapper” is crafted from a crab stock base, distilled under vacuum, and infused with spices such as mustard seed, coriander, and cinnamon, along with a bourbon base, resulting in a distinctive flavor that Steven Grasse, the distillery’s owner, describes to Food & Wine’s Mike Pomranz as a “briny and better Fireball.” Each bottle incorporates about a pound of crabs.

The European green crab, Carcinas maenas, introduced to the U.S. East Coast around 200 years ago, has become one of North America’s most formidable invasive marine species, according to Gabriela Bradt, a marine biologist at the University of New Hampshire. With a voracious appetite and high reproductive capacity, these crabs pose a significant threat to local marine life.

Despite historically being controlled by New England’s cold winters, rising temperatures over the past decade have led to a population surge. While green crabs are a delicacy in some European regions, such as Venice, New England has been slower to adopt them as a food source. The NH Green Crab Project at the University of New Hampshire is investigating the potential for establishing a fishery and market for these crabs in the U.S.

Currently, crabbers lack financial motivation to catch green crabs in quantities significant enough to reduce the invasive species’ population. However, the introduction of new products utilizing the crab, such as fishing bait, whiskey, fish sauce, and others, could start to change that.

Grasse emphasizes the distillery’s commitment to sustainability and the inspiration drawn from local wildlife for their product innovations. The success of “Crab Trapper” whiskey, an unexpected yet sustainable twist on Fireball, is certainly a unique flavor combination in spirit production.

A study published in Nature suggests that bumblebees possess the ability to teach each other complex behaviors.

In this research, bees were trained to solve a puzzle in exchange for a sugary reward. Remarkably, these trained bees were able to pass on their acquired skills to other bees, indicating that bees can engage in social learning of behaviors previously thought to be beyond their capacity.

The concept of culture, often discussed in human context, refers to socially learned behaviors that persist over time. Evidence suggests that animal culture, like human culture, can involve cumulative learning, where new behaviors build upon existing ones.

While human cumulative culture involves behaviors of considerable complexity, previously thought beyond individual discovery, such phenomena had not been observed in invertebrates.

Alex Thorton, a co-author of the study, points out the unique attribute of human species: the progressive improvement of skills and technologies through the spread and refinement of innovations.

Unlike humans, bumblebees rely on social learning to acquire non-natural behaviors like string-pulling and ball-rolling for rewards. To investigate their capacity for learning complex behaviors, researchers designed a challenging two-step puzzle box.

Despite ample time, individual bees from different colonies couldn’t independently solve the puzzle. However, after just two days of training, demonstrator bees could successfully complete the task, often requiring rewards at the initial step. Subsequently, untrained bees quickly learned the puzzle-solving technique from the demonstrators without needing a reward, suggesting social learning and potential cultural transmission among bumblebees.

Check out the bees in action below:

A solar eclipse is slated for April 8th, 2024, cutting across North America instead of remote regions like the Indian Ocean. These celestial events, occurring when the moon passes between the Sun and Earth, hold great fascination for skywatchers.

Total solar eclipses are relatively rare, happening roughly once every year or two, often in areas with few inhabitants. This upcoming eclipse, nicknamed “The Great North American Eclipse,” will be visible across Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

During a partial eclipse, the Moon partially obscures the Sun, leaving crescents visible. Millions will experience the “path of totality,” where the sky darkens during daylight hours, reminiscent of the 2017 eclipse.
The eclipse will commence in Mexico and traverse several US states before reaching Canada. Though the total eclipse phase lasts only a few minutes, the entire progression takes about three hours. Despite the Sun’s immense size compared to the Moon, they appear similar in size from Earth due to their respective distances.

It’s crucial for observers never to directly gaze at the Sun during an eclipse, as it can lead to eye damage or blindness. Specialized eclipse glasses or solar viewers, readily available on platforms like Amazon, provide a safe means of observing the event and may even reveal phenomena such as coronal mass ejections.

Wow, this video shows the encroaching border of the Sahara desert and the tremendous effort to keep it at bay.

The transformation is shocking!