Friday, 31 July 2015

TODAY IN HISTORY

Texans head for the thrills at Six Flags

On this day in 1961, amusement park lovers “head for the thrills” as Six Flags Over Texas, the first park in the Six Flags chain, opens. Located on 212 acres in Arlington, Texas, the park was the first to feature log flume and mine train rides and later, the first 360-degree looping roller coaster, modern parachute drop and man-made river rapids ride. The park also pioneered the concept of all-inclusive admission price; until then, separate entrance fees and individual ride tickets were the standard. During its opening year, a day at Six Flags cost $2.75 for an adult and $2.25 for a child. A hamburger sold for 50 cents and a soda set the buyer back a dime.
The park, which took a year and $10 million to build, was the brainchild of Texas real estate developer and oilman Angus Wynne Jr., who viewed it as a short-term way to make a buck from some vacant land before turning it into an industrial complex. Wynne reportedly recouped his personal investment of $3.5 million within 18 months and changed his mind about the park’s temporary status. With 17.5 million visitors in its first 10 years, the park became the Lone Star State’s top for-profit tourist attraction. Today, average annual attendance at the park is over 3 million.
One of Six Flags’ unique aspects was that it wasn’t just a random collection of rides; it was developed around a theme: the history of Texas. The park’s name was a nod to the six flags that had flown over the state at various times–France, Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, Texas and the United States. The park’s rides and attractions were grouped into six themed sections that represented the cultures of these governments and enabled visitors to experience everything from cowboy culture to Southern belles and pirates. Originally, the park was to be called Texas Under Six Flags, before it was decided that Texas should never be under anything.
Angus Wynne sold Six Flags in 1969 and in the coming years, the company expanded and was resold. Today, Six Flags, Inc. is the world’s largest regional theme park company and owns and operates 30 theme, water and zoological parks in North America. In 2005, almost 34 million people spent a combined 250 million hours at Six Flags parks.

Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen
 
On this day in 1774, dissenting British minister Joseph Priestly, author of Observations on Civil Liberty and the Nature and Justice of the War with America, discovers oxygen while serving as a tutor to the sons of American sympathizer William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, at Bowood House in Wiltshire, England.
Joseph Priestley shared the liberal religious and political philosophy of many of America’s revolutionary leaders, including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, all of whom became his friends and correspondents. Priestley first met Franklin while both were living in London during the 1760s. Both were Renaissance men with established reputations as scientists and political philosophers and they embarked on an enduring friendship. In 1774, Franklin and Priestley attended the first Unitarian sermon given at the first Unitarian church founded in London. Unitarianism evolved out of a dissenting Christian tradition that denied the concept of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. Unitarians instead believed that God was one being and that Christ was a human spokesman of God’s truth. Priestley had been born into a dissenting (non-Anglican Protestant) family and gradually found his way to Unitarianism by the early 1760s. Franklin’s views were very similar and sympathetic to Unitarians, but he never joined a Unitarian congregation.
Although still living in England, Priestley endorsed both the American and French revolutions, authoring pamphlets in support of each. On the second anniversary of Bastille Day, a mob in Birmingham, England, burned Priestley’s home, including his first-class scientific laboratory and the Unitarian church where he preached. As a result of the attack, he decided that he could no longer live in England and immigrated to the United States in 1794.
Priestley settled in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where he lived until his death in 1804. While there, Priestley established the first Unitarian church in Philadelphia, where then-Vice President John Adams attended his sermons.

1914 
First World War erupts

Four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France orders a general mobilization, and the first German army units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France. During the next three days, Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain all lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and the German army invaded Belgium. The “Great War” that ensued was one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and civilians.
On June 28, 1914, in an event that is widely regarded as sparking the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was shot to death with his wife by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ferdinand had been inspecting his uncle’s imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian nationalists who wanted these Austro-Hungarian possessions to join newly independent Serbia. Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism once and for all. However, as Russia supported Serbia, an Austria-Hungary declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention.
On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed. On July 29, Austro-Hungarian forces began to shell the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia’s ally, ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. France, allied with Russia, began to mobilize on August 1. France and Germany declared war against each other on August 3. After crossing through neutral Luxembourg, the German army invaded Belgium on the night of August 3-4, prompting Great Britain, Belgium’s ally, to declare war against Germany.
For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. Most patriotically assumed that their country would be victorious within months. Of the initial belligerents, Germany was most prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its military leaders had formatted a sophisticated military strategy known as the “Schlieffen Plan,” which envisioned the conquest of France through a great arcing offensive through Belgium and into northern France. Russia, slow to mobilize, was to be kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany attacked France.
The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French rallied and halted the German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near Paris. By the end of 1914, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight. On the western front–the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium–the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition.
In 1915, the Allies attempted to break the stalemate with an amphibious invasion of Turkey, which had joined the Central Powers in October 1914, but after heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to retreat in early 1916. The year 1916 saw great offensives by Germany and Britain along the western front, but neither side accomplished a decisive victory. In the east, Germany was more successful, and the disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and immediately set about negotiating peace with Germany. In 1918, the infusion of American troops and resources into the western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies’ favor. Bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with an imminent invasion, Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in November 1918.
World War I was known as the “war to end all wars” because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict–the Treaty of Versailles of 1919–forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork for World War II.



Ooni: Tradtional Rites Begin In Ile-Ife

There were mixed feelings in Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Friday, July 31, 2015, as traditional rites preparatory for the official pronouncement of the demise of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, began.
Daily Independent gathered that the royal palace of Ile-Ife, which has been shut since Tuesday, July 28, 2015, when the report of the demise of the Ooni was leaked in the press, has been reopened for residents of Ile-Ife to have access to the royal court so that they would no longer be left in the dark, especially regarding on-going traditional rites in the town.
Although the Ife Royal Traditional Council had maintained that the Ooni of Ife was alive and responding to treatment in a hospital in the United Kingdom, it was reliably gathered that certain conditions suggesting the demise of the Ooni are yet to be performed by the traditional chiefs.
Among the conditions include the closure of the main market in Ile-Ife; cutting down the branches of all trees in the heart of Ile-Ife; ringing the spiritual bell around the ancient town; opening the inner door of the palace court, to signify that the palace is vacant; and the “Oro” festival, indicating the passage of the monarch.

Google's latest science camp for kids starts on July 13th


If you want your kids to learn something while they're out of school but would rather not ship them to some distant summer camp, Google is about to come to your rescue. It's kicking off the latest edition of its annual Camp Google on July 13th, and this year's virtual educational event promises themed weeks that might just sate your young ones' curiosity on big scientific subjects. They'll learn what the ocean is like through underwater panoramas, for example, and watch live video chats with astronauts. The whole shebang is free, so it won't hurt to tune in if you want your children to go back to school knowing more than they did when they left.

Genes influence academic ability across all subjects, latest study shows

Around 60% of differences in GCSE results can be explained by genetic factors, with the same genes responsible for maths, science and the humanities

The study suggests that a weakness in one subject is most likely to be caused by environmental factors, such as teaching, as the genes affecting ability for different subjects are the same.
The study suggests that a weakness in one subject is most likely to be caused by environmental factors, such as teaching, as the genes affecting ability for different subjects are the same. Photograph: Barry Batchelor/PA

I was once a danfo driver, says Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has appealed to members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria against allowing themselves to be used by kidnappers to perpetrate evil.
Speaking on Thursday during the swearing-in of the new State Executive of the union in Ado Ekiti, the governor, who said he was once a ‘danfo driver’ appealed to the drivers to be orderly and not to be desperate.
He said, “Please, I want to commend you for contributing immensely to the development of the state’s economy, but don’t allow yourselves to be used by evil doers. You can see that some kidnappers were paraded recently. Information from them revealed that they have been using some of your members.
“I was once a driver like you. I used the money I got from driving to sponsor myself for HND at Ibadan Polytechnic, but I did not get desperate. All I’m saying is that being a driver you can make it in life. You will become what you want to become in life with hard work. Don’t join evil gang for you to get rich overnight, try and rise through the ladder like we did.”
He cautioned drivers against reckless driving, reminding them of the ‘don’t drink and drive’ rule.
“Though I am part of you, if you breach the law, I won’t save or spare you. You will be arrested and prosecuted by the security agents,” he said.
The governor, who recalled that he united the two unions — RTEAN and National Union of Road and Transport Workers — during his first term, said the occasion was a sign that good things were coming to Ekiti.
“We should emulate this kind of occasion. This is very good. We will always identify with this kind of achievements. You are doing a good job for this country. I don’t want to be the enemies of drivers, I want to be your friend.”
He also thanked the unions for standing by him during the failed impeachment plot against him by the former 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers.
Fayose, who had earlier spoken at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Institute of Strategic Management, appealed to leaders to focus attention on how to banish poverty that is killing the potential of many Nigerians.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Strategies for Poverty Alleviation’, Fayose said his desperate bid to banish poverty in the land had propelled him to pioneer the stomach infrastructure concept that had become a brand in the country.
“In tackling poverty, the first thing to do is to empower the people. But before empowerment, you must make them look healthy through provision of food. Let them get access to you as a leader, this will give them a sense of belonging and relief.
“Some of the projects being executed by MDGs centred on poverty alleviation. Poverty has become a serious issue in Nigeria. That was why my government made the payment of salaries the first thing, because this will keep the people and the economy going.
“I receive close to 200 to 300 calls and messages daily on stomach infrastructure thing. Though 90 per cent of it is about money, we should not shy away from the fact that the concept has become a way of life in Nigeria as a good weapon to tackle poverty among the common people.”

5 senators sue Saraki, Ekweremadu

Five All Progressives Congress [APC] Senators, Abu Ibrahim, Kabiru Marafa, Ajayi Boroffice, Gbenga Ashafa, and Suleiman Othman Hunyuki, have approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to challenge the election of the SenatePresident, Abubakar Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.
In an originating summons filed by their legal team headed by Mamman Mike Osuman and Dele Adesina, both SANs, the aggrieved Senators urged the court to declare their election a nullity as it violates section 60 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended]and rule 110 of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 [as amended].
They argued that the Senate Standing Orders 2015 upon which Saraki and Ikweremadu were elected, is a product of invalid, illegal, unconstitutional and want them to be set aside.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole has fixed August 5, for hearing.

32-yr-old man commits suicide over wife’s infidelity in Bayelsa

 CREDIT: Vanguardngr.com

A 32-year-old man, Tuesday in Yenagoa, committed suicide after drinking an insecticide, known as Sniper, after he learned that his wife was having an extra-marital affair at Ikolo in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
suicide-cartoon
The deceased, identified as Amatari Christmas, was married to Tombara, an indigene of Ayama in the same local government area. They have two children.
Vanguard gathered that the incident has provoked anger among indigenes of the community, with some kinsmen of the deceased threatening to invoke their ancestors to deal with the unfaithful woman and her lover, identified as a suspected cultist and an indigene of Ayama.
A kinsman of the deceased, who gave his name as Francis, said their late brother, on getting wind of claims of infidelity against his wife, decided to monitor her activities in the community.
Francis said: “On Monday, the husband went to fetch vegetable in large quantities for his wife to sell. After harvesting the vegetable, the husband told the wife to return home after market to prepare dinner for the family.
“However, the dead husband became worried and suspicious at about 7p.m. when the wife did not return as instructed and went in search of her at his in-law’s house.
“At the mother in-law’s house, he was told she had gone to the father’s place at Ayama. At Ayama, a concerned friend took him to the home of his wife’s lover, where he caught them in bed.”
According to him, the wife’s lover, a suspected cultist in the area, had threatened to deal with the aggrieved husband who for fear of his life, hid himself in an uncompleted building before going home to drink the deadly substance after locking out his two children.
When contacted on the development, the spokesman of the state Police Command, Asinim Butswatt, said he was yet to be briefed on the incident.

THE DEVIL'S CHANGE

The New DSS Director is a stake holder in APC. How on earth will justice come from such a person? Wake up Nigerian electorates. Unless you are criminal minded like them

If you must dine with the devil, you must prepare for his endless lies. Since power changed hand in Nigeria, politics has been nothing else but about promoting one fabricated story and the other. We have seen a sudden cleaning out of a free and fair system which is now replaced with a biased polity. If you are not part of the ruling party, consider yourself the victim. Nigeria can only go back in time under a government with such an objective; to witch-hunt the opposition instead of focusing on the promise made to the electorates. Let's not forget in a hurry that this past election was nothing close to free and fair as it was marred by all levels of corruption. One had hoped Jega would at least pull off a decent exercise. It is now clear to all honest Nigerians that this whole program was masterminded by agents of destruction in the guise of "CHANGE"

Let us talk about enhancing economic growth in a torn nation like Nigeria. What can be done to restore the dignity of the nation? There will never be successful governance when one region is favored above the others. For Nigeria to progress the whole nation must be taken along. If you must fight corruption, fight it tooth and nail starting with your immediate party. That way the country will see appreciate your sincerity. If this present government fails, democracy must be terminated. Maybe it is time to restructure the style of governance adopted

Root radar: How parasitic plants know when to attack

Dave Nelson, an assistant professor of genetics at UGA, is researching plants that eat other plants.
Credit: UGA
An international team of researchers led by scientists at the University of Georgia has discovered how parasitic plants, which steal their nutrients from another living plant, evolved the ability to detect and attack their hosts. Their findings, published recently in the journal Science, could lead to new techniques to control the thieving weeds.
There are thousands of parasitic plant species, but the most burdensome for humans are those that infiltrate farmland and destroy crops. Parasite infestations reduce crop yields by billions of dollars each year, particularly in developing nations where access to advanced herbicides and other control methods is limited, according to the researchers.
"In the simplest terms, these are plants that eat other plants," said David Nelson, co-author of the paper and assistant professor of genetics in UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "The seeds of some parasitic plants, like witchweed for example, can lie dormant in soil for more than a decade, waiting to grow until they detect the presence of a host. We wanted to understand how the parasites know other plants are nearby so we could develop new ways of combating them."
As plant roots grow, they release hormones called strigolactones into the soil. This is a signal that normally helps fungi form a beneficial connection to the plant, in which they each trade nutrients. But the seeds of parasitic plants also possess the ability to sense strigolactones, which prompt them to germinate, attach to the host root and syphon off nutrients.
"It's kind of like root radar," said Nelson, who is also a member of UGA's Plant Center. "But the incredible thing is that this strigolactone detection system seems to have evolved from plant genes that normally control a seed's ability to detect fire."
When a forest burns, compounds in the smoke and ash leach into the soil. Many plants have evolved the ability to detect these compounds, which signal that their competition--large shady trees or dense ground cover--has been destroyed and it might be an opportune time to grow.
Nelson and his colleagues found that during the evolution of parasitic plants, the smoke detector gene duplicated and some copies switched to become strigolactone detectors. This critical switch is what allows the parasites to recognize and attack nearby hosts.
"Now that we understand the fundamental genetics that give parasitic plants this ability, we can develop new ways to help farmers fight them," Nelson said.
Researchers may, for example, develop synthetic compounds that interfere with the receptors that parasitic plants use to sense strigolactones, making them blind to the presence of a host.
Or, it might be possible to create chemicals that mimic strigolactones. If these were sprayed over a field prior to the normal growing season, farmers could trick the parasitic plants by making them grow when there are no hosts present, a strategy known as suicidal germination.
Ultimately, the researchers hope that their discovery can serve as the foundation for an easy and affordable treatment that farmers in developing countries can use to boost their food production.
"The process that parasitic plants use to sense their hosts has been a mystery in our field for more than 50 years," Nelson said. "This could open the doors to a lot of useful new technologies to help those in greatest need."
Other researchers involved in the study include Charles Bond, University of Western Australia; Ken Shirasu, RIKEN; and Jim Westwood, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Georgia. The original item was written by James Hataway. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

UNDERSTANDING YOUR ECOSYSTEM

An ecosystem consists of the biological community that occurs in some locale, and the physical and chemical factors that make up its non-living or abiotic environment. There are many examples of ecosystems -- a pond, a forest, an estuary, a grassland. The boundaries are not fixed in any objective way, although sometimes they seem obvious, as with the shoreline of a small pond. Usually the boundaries of an ecosystem are chosen for practical reasons having to do with the goals of the particular study.
The study of ecosystems mainly consists of the study of certain processes that link the living, or biotic, components to the non-living, or abiotic, components. Energy transformations and biogeochemical cycling are the main processes that comprise the field of ecosystem ecology. As we learned earlier, ecology generally is defined as the interactions of organisms with one another and with the environment in which they occur. We can study ecology at the level of the individual, the population, the community, and the ecosystem.
Studies of individuals are concerned mostly about physiology, reproduction, development or behavior, and studies of populations usually focus on the habitat and resource needs of individual species, their group behaviors, population growth, and what limits their abundance or causes extinction. Studies of communities examine how populations of many species interact with one another, such as predators and their prey, or competitors that share common needs or resources.
In ecosystem ecology we put all of this together and, insofar as we can, we try to understand how the system operates as a whole. This means that, rather than worrying mainly about particular species, we try to focus on major functional aspects of the system. These functional aspects include such things as the amount of energy that is produced by photosynthesis, how energy or materials flow along the many steps in a food chain, or what controls the rate of decomposition of materials or the rate at which nutrients are recycled in the system.
 

Components of an Ecosystem

You are already familiar with the parts of an ecosystem. You have learned about climate and soils from past lectures. From this course and from general knowledge, you have a basic understanding of the diversity of plants and animals, and how plants and animals and microbes obtain water, nutrients, and food. We can clarify the parts of an ecosystem by listing them under the headings "abiotic" and "biotic".
   
ABIOTIC COMPONENTS
BIOTIC COMPONENTS
Sunlight Primary producers
Temperature Herbivores
Precipitation Carnivores
Water or moisture Omnivores
Soil or water chemistry (e.g., P, NH4+) Detritivores
etc. etc.
All of these vary over space/time
By and large, this set of environmental factors is important almost everywhere, in all ecosystems.
Usually, biological communities include the "functional groupings" shown above. A functional group is a biological category composed of organisms that perform mostly the same kind of function in the system; for example, all the photosynthetic plants or primary producers form a functional group. Membership in the functional group does not depend very much on who the actual players (species) happen to be, only on what function they perform in the ecosystem.
 

Processes of Ecosystems

This figure with the plants, zebra, lion, and so forth illustrates the two main ideas about how ecosystems function: ecosystems have energy flows and ecosystems cycle materials. These two processes are linked, but they are not quite the same (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Energy flows and material cycles.
Energy enters the biological system as light energy, or photons, is transformed into chemical energy in organic molecules by cellular processes including photosynthesis and respiration, and ultimately is converted to heat energy. This energy is dissipated, meaning it is lost to the system as heat; once it is lost it cannot be recycled.  Without the continued input of solar energy, biological systems would quickly shut down. Thus the earth is an open system with respect to energy.
Elements such as carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorus enter living organisms in a variety of ways. Plants obtain elements from the surrounding atmosphere, water, or soils. Animals may also obtain elements directly from the physical environment, but usually they obtain these mainly as a consequence of consuming other organisms. These materials are transformed biochemically within the bodies of organisms, but sooner or later, due to excretion or decomposition, they are returned to an inorganic state. Often bacteria complete this process, through the process called decomposition or mineralization (see previous lecture on microbes).
During decomposition these materials are not destroyed or lost, so the earth is a closed system with respect to elements (with the exception of a meteorite entering the system now and then). The elements are cycled endlessly between their biotic and abiotic states within ecosystems. Those elements whose supply tends to limit biological activity are called nutrients.
 
The Transformation of Energy
The transformations of energy in an ecosystem begin first with the input of energy from the sun. Energy from the sun is captured by the process of photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is combined with hydrogen (derived from the splitting of water molecules) to produce carbohydrates (CHO). Energy is stored in the high energy bonds of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP (see lecture on photosynthesis).
The prophet Isaah said "all flesh is grass", earning him the title of first ecologist, because virtually all energy available to organisms originates in plants. Because it is the first step in the production of energy for living things, it is called primary production (click here for a primer on photosynthesis). Herbivores obtain their energy by consuming plants or plant products, carnivores eat herbivores, and detritivores consume the droppings and carcasses of us all.
  
Figure 2 portrays a simple food chain, in which energy from the sun, captured by plant photosynthesis, flows from trophic level  to trophic level via the food chain. A trophic level is composed of organisms that make a living in the same way, that is they are all primary producers (plants), primary consumers (herbivores) or secondary consumers (carnivores). Dead tissue and waste products are produced at all levels. Scavengers, detritivores, and decomposers collectively account for the use of all such "waste" -- consumers of carcasses and fallen leaves may be other animals, such as crows and beetles, but ultimately it is the microbes that finish the job of decomposition. Not surprisingly, the amount of primary production varies a great deal from place to place, due to differences in the amount of solar radiation and the availability of nutrients and water.
For reasons that we will explore more fully in subsequent lectures, energy transfer through the food chain is inefficient. This means that less energy is available at the herbivore level than at the primary producer level, less yet at the carnivore level, and so on. The result is a pyramid of energy, with important implications for understanding the quantity of life that can be supported.
Usually when we think of food chains we visualize green plants, herbivores, and so on. These are referred to as grazer food chains, because living plants are directly consumed. In many circumstances the principal energy input is not green plants but dead organic matter. These are called detritus food chains. Examples include the forest floor or a woodland stream in a forested area, a salt marsh, and most obviously, the ocean floor in very deep areas where all sunlight is extinguished 1000's of meters above. In subsequent lectures we shall return to these important issues concerning energy flow.
 Finally, although we have been talking about food chains, in reality the organization of biological systems is much more complicated than can be represented by a simple "chain". There are many food links and chains in an ecosystem, and we refer to all of these linkages as a food web. Food webs can be very complicated, where it appears that "everything is connected to everything else", and it is important to understand what are the most important linkages in any particular food web.
 

Biogeochemistry

How can we study which of these linkages in a food web are most important? One obvious way is to study the flow of energy or the cycling of elements. For example, the cycling of elements is controlled in part by organisms, which store or transform elements, and in part by the chemistry and geology of the natural world. The term Biogeochemistry is defined as the study of how living systems influence, and are controlled by, the geology and chemistry of the earth. Thus biogeochemistry encompasses many aspects of the abiotic and biotic world that we live in. There are several main principles and tools that biogeochemists use to study earth systems. Most of the major environmental problems that we face in our world toady can be analyzed using biogeochemical principles and tools. These problems include global warming, acid rain, environmental pollution, and increasing greenhouse gases. The principles and tools that we use can be broken down into 3 major components: element ratios, mass balance, and element cycling.
1. Element ratios
In biological systems, we refer to important elements as "conservative". These elements are often nutrients. By "conservative" we mean that an organism can change only slightly the amount of these elements in their tissues if they are to remain in good health. It is easiest to think of these conservative elements in relation to other important elements in the organism. For example, in healthy algae the elements C, N, P, and Fe have the following ratio, called the Redfield ratio after the oceanographer who discovered it:
C : N : P : Fe = 106 : 16 : 1 : 0.01
Once we know these ratios, we can compare them to the ratios that we measure in a sample of algae to determine if the algae are lacking in one of these limiting nutrients.
 

2. Mass Balance
Another important tool that biogeochemists use is a simple mass balance equation to describe the state of a system. The system could be a snake, a tree, a lake, or the entire globe. Using a mass balance approach we can determine whether the system is changing and how fast it is changing. The equation is:
NET CHANGE = INPUT + OUTPUT + INTERNAL CHANGE
In this equation the net change in the system from one time period to another is determined by what the inputs are, what the outputs are, and what the internal change in the system was. The example given in class is of the acidification of a lake, considering the inputs and outputs and internal change of acid in the lake.
 

3. Element Cycling
Element cycling describes where and how fast elements move in a system. There are two general classes of systems that we can analyze, as mentioned above: closed and open systems.
A closed system refers to a system where the inputs and outputs are negligible compared to the internal changes. Examples of such systems would include a bottle, or our entire globe. There are two ways we can describe the cycling of materials within this closed system, either by looking at the rate of movement or at the pathways of movement.
  1. Rate = number of cycles / time * as rate increases, productivity increases
  2. Pathways-important because of different reactions that may occur
In an open system there are inputs and outputs as well as the internal cycling. Thus we can describe the rates of movement and the pathways, just as we did for the closed system, but we can also define a new concept called the residence time. The residence time indicates how long on average an element remains within the system before leaving the system.
  1. Rate
  2. Pathways
  3. Residence time, Rt
Rt = total amount of matter / output rate of matter (Note that the "units" in this calculation must cancel properly)
Controls on Ecosystem Function
Now that we have learned something about how ecosystems are put together and how materials and energy flow through ecosystems, we can better address the question of "what controls ecosystem function"? There are two dominant theories of the control of ecosystems. The first, called bottom-up control, states that it is the nutrient supply to the primary producers that ultimately controls how ecosystems function. If the nutrient supply is increased, the resulting increase in production of autotrophs is propagated through the food web and all of the other trophic levels will respond to the increased availability of food (energy and materials will cycle faster). 
The second theory, called top-down control, states that predation and grazing by higher trophic levels on lower trophic levels ultimately controls ecosystem function. For example, if you have an increase in predators, that increase will result in fewer grazers, and that decrease in grazers will result in turn in more primary producers because fewer of them are being eaten by the grazers. Thus the control of population numbers and overall productivity "cascades" from the top levels of the food chain down to the bottom trophic levels.
So, which theory is correct? Well, as is often the case when there is a clear dichotomy to choose from, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. There is evidence from many ecosystem studies that BOTH controls are operating to some degree, but that NEITHER control is complete. For example, the "top-down" effect is often very strong at trophic levels near to the top predators, but the control weakens as you move further down the food chain. Similarly, the "bottom-up" effect of adding nutrients usually stimulates primary production, but the stimulation of secondary production further up the food chain is less strong or is absent.
Thus we find that both of these controls are operating in any system at any time, and we must understand the relative importance of each control in order to help us to predict how an ecosystem will behave or change under different circumstances, such as in the face of a changing climate.
 

The Geography of Ecosystems

There are many different ecosystems: rain forests and tundra, coral reefs and ponds, grasslands and deserts. Climate differences from place to place largely determine the types of ecosystems we see. How terrestrial ecosystems appear to us is influenced mainly by the dominant vegetation. The word "biome" is used to describe a major vegetation type such as tropical rain forest, grassland, tundra, etc., extending over a large geographic area (Figure 3). It is never used for aquatic systems, such as ponds or coral reefs. It always refers to a vegetation category that is dominant over a very large geographic scale, and so is somewhat broader than an ecosystem.

Figure 3: The distribution of biomes.
We can draw upon previous lectures to remember that temperature and rainfall patterns for a region are distinctive. Every place on earth gets the same total number of hours of sunlight each year, but not the same amount of heat. The sun's rays strike low latitudes directly but high latitudes obliquely. This uneven distribution of heat sets up not just temperature differences, but global wind and ocean currents that in turn have a great deal to do with where rainfall occurs. Add in the cooling effects of elevation and the effects of land masses on temperature and rainfall, and we get a complicated global pattern of climate.
A schematic view of the earth shows that, complicated though climate may be, many aspects are predictable (Figure 4). High solar energy striking near the equator ensures nearly constant high temperatures and high rates of evaporation and plant transpiration. Warm air rises, cools, and sheds its moisture, creating just the conditions for a tropical rain forest. Contrast the stable temperature but varying rainfall of a site in Panama with the relatively constant precipitation but seasonally changing temperature of a site in New York State. Every location has a rainfall- temperature graph that is typical of a broader region.

Figure 4. Climate patterns affect biome distributions.
We can draw upon plant physiology to know that certain plants are distinctive of certain climates, creating the vegetation appearance that we call biomes. Note how well the distribution of biomes plots on the distribution of climates (Figure 5). Note also that some climates are impossible, at least on our planet. High precipitation is not possible at low temperatures -- there is not enough solar energy to power the water cycle, and most water is frozen and thus biologically unavailable throughout the year. The high tundra is as much a desert as is the Sahara.
 


Figure 5. The distribution of biomes related to temperature and precipitation.

   Summary

  • Ecosystems are made up of abiotic (non-living, environmental) and biotic components, and these basic components are important to nearly all types of ecosystems.  Ecosystem Ecology looks at energy transformations and biogeochemical cycling within ecosystems.
  • Energy is continually input into an ecosystem in the form of light energy, and some energy is lost with each transfer to a higher trophic level. Nutrients, on the other hand, are recycled within an ecosystem, and their supply normally limits biological activity.  So, "energy flows, elements cycle".
  • Energy is moved through an ecosystem via a food web, which is made up of interlocking food chains. Energy is first captured by photosynthesis (primary production). The amount of primary production determines the amount of energy available to higher trophic levels.
  • The study of how chemical elements cycle through an ecosystem is termed biogeochemistry. A biogeochemical cycle can be expressed as a set of stores (pools) and transfers, and can be studied using the concepts of "stoichiometry", "mass balance", and "residence time".
  • Ecosystem function is controlled mainly by two processes, "top-down" and "bottom-up" controls.
  • A biome is a major vegetation type extending over a large area. Biome distributions are determined largely by temperature and precipitation patterns on the Earth's surface.

Review and Self Test

  • Review of main terms and concepts in this lecture.
  • Self-Test for this lecture.

Suggested Readings:

  • Borman, F.H. and G.E. Likens. 1970. "The nutrient cycles of an ecosystem." Scientific American, October 1970, pp 92-101.
  • Wessells, N.K. and J.L. Hopson. 1988. Biology. New York: Random House. Ch. 44.
     
All materials © the Regents of the University of Michigan unless noted otherwise.

HELP STOP SHELL

Dear friends,

Right now, 26 Greenpeace US activists are blocking Shell’s icebreaker ship from heading to the Arctic by occupying a bridge on its route out of Portland.

The icebreaker Fennica is carrying crucial drilling equipment for Shell’s Arctic operation. Without it, Shell is not allowed to drill for oil in the Arctic as per their plans. The ship was scheduled to leave the dock this morning to join the rest of Shell’s oil drilling fleet but 26 courageous activists stepped in.

Let Shell know that these 26 activists are not alone. More than 7 million of us stand by them. Oil drilling in the Arctic? #ShellNo


Shell isn’t just threatening polar bears and walruses with its drilling plans. Arctic ice is already melting fast as global temperatures rise, but Shell wants to exploit the melting ice to drill for more oil.

That’s why they have taken action today. “We have an opportunity here to prevent Shell from exploiting the Arctic. I am just one of the millions of voices who believe that we will succeed” they said from the bridge.

Tell Shell to back off.

Over the last three years, Shell’s attempts to drill for oil in the Arctic have yielded nothing but a terrible safety record. The company has managed to crush its safety equipment and run its drilling rig aground, showing how wildly unprepared it is to drill in unpredictable Arctic conditions.

Shell only has a short window to drill in the Arctic this summer, so every second this protest continues is another second without Arctic drilling. That’s why the activists plan to stay on this bridge for as long as possible.

Show them your support to strengthen their morale for this brave act of protest.

This is a #PeopleVsShell movement and the people will win!

Thanks,

Akshey and the Arctic team
o/c Ndubuisi Okezie-Okeh

Tuesday, 21 July 2015

ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS PART II: List of international environmental agreements

Most of the following agreements are legally binding for countries that have formally ratified them. Some, such as the Kyoto Protocol, differentiate between types of countries and each nation's respective responsibilities under the agreement.