[ By Steph in Home & Garden & Tricks & Hacks. ]
It’s officially time to start planting in most growing zones of the continental U.S. – how will you make your garden grow this year? These 12 easy, natural DIY pest repellants and fertilizers will enrich your soil and prevent damaging insects and slugs from undoing all your hard work. Safe for organic gardens, these homemade garden recipes and fertilizing tips will give you your best growing season ever.
Castile Soap Spray Insecticide
(image via: drbronner.com)
Is there anything castile soap can’t do? The gentle vegetable oil-based soap makes a gentle and effective insecticidal spray for the garden. Dr. Bronner’s, the company that makes the most prevalent brand of castile soap, recommends filling a spray bottle with water and adding a tablespoon of either unscented or peppermint castile soap and a pinch of either cayenne pepper, cinnamon or powdered garlic. This mixture will kill aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies and spider mites.
Manure
(image via: kristine paulus)
There are few things better for enriching the soil in your garden than plain old rotted manure. You can purchase bags of manure fertilizer at most garden centers or, if you have chickens, goats or rabbits as backyard pets, you can use their droppings, too. Rabbit droppings have the highest nitrogen content and can safely be added directly to soil, but droppings from other animals should be composted before use.
Garlic Spray Insecticide
(image via: mullica)
Garlic spray acts as a deterrent, encouraging insects to move on to more appetizing plants. Unlike many other types of insecticidal garden sprays, garlic can safely be applied to the leaves of plants. Drop the cloves from an entire bulb of garlic into the blender along with two cups of water, puree until finely blended and set it aside for a day. Then, strain out the pulp, mix the garlic liquid with a gallon of water and add it to a sprayer.
Nettle Tea
(image via: la catholique)
Nettles aren’t a pleasant plant to brush up against – their leaves are covered in stinging hairs that inject histamine and other chemicals into the skin, producing a stinging sensation. But dig them up (with gloves on, of course), put them in a 5-gallon bucket, cover them with water and in three to four weeks you’ll have glorious liquid plant food that experts swear by. Nettles.org.uk has the full recipe.
Tomato Leaf Spray
(image via: shelly and roy)
Tomato leaves are packed with alkaloids, which can be an effective repellant for aphids, corn earworms and Diamondback moths. Go Green Ninja recommends soaking 1 to 2 cups of chopped or mashed tomato leaves in two cups of water overnight, straining it through a fine mesh and adding two more cups of water before spraying it on the plants in your garden. Keep this mixture away from pets, as tomato leaves can be toxic.
Egg Shells as Fertilizer & Pest Repellant
(image via: tuchodi)
Egg shells are a multi-purpose aid in the garden, acting as both fertilizer and pest repellant. Add crushed eggshells to the bottom of planting holes, particularly when planting tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, or dry them out and blend them into a fine powder and spread them around the base of plants. Placing crushed eggshells (with sharp edges intact) in a ring around the base of a plant will deter slugs, snails and cutworms.
Slug Beer Trap
(image via: steve r)
Put a little beer in a saucer or yogurt cup (buried to the brim) in your garden, and slugs will come out from all over for an all-night yeast-consuming fest. Too bad they’ll fall in and drown, but hey – otherwise, they’d be eating all of your precious garden plants. Simple, cheap and the perfect way to dispose of all the dregs left behind after a party.
Coffee Grounds as Fertilizer
(image via: how can i recycle this)
Don’t toss those used coffee grounds! They could be adding lots of nourishing nitrogen to your soil. Contrary to popular belief, used coffee grounds are not acidic; they can act as a safe substitute for nitrogen-rich manure in the compost pile. They can also be mixed into soil as an amendment or spread onto the surface of the soil.
Hot Pepper Spray
(image via: oceanaris)
Hot pepper is a natural deterrent for many types of pests in the garden. To make your own homemade pepper spray, combine 6-10 hot peppers and two cups of water in a blender and blend on high speed for 1-2 minutes, pour the liquid into a storage container to sit overnight and then strain out the pulp. Add this liquid to one quart of water in a sprayer, and spray your plants liberally every week or after each rain.
Grass Clippings
(image via: qfamily)
Want a beautiful, effortlessly green lawn? Don’t pick up those grass clippings when you mow the lawn! It’s that simple. Grass clippings are free fertilizer, adding precious nitrogen back to the soil. Short grass clippings decompose quickly, so as long as you mow often enough, they won’t stick around so long that they build up to unmanageable levels.
Beneficial Nematodes
(image via: amazon)
It sounds illogical, but sometimes, adding more bugs to your garden will help decrease the total population. Beneficial nematodes are tiny organisms that can kill hundreds of species of soil-dwelling insects including notorious garden pests like weevils, cucumber beetles and vine borers. You can buy them online, or at your local garden center. To use them you water your garden, then mix the packet of live nematodes with cool distilled water according to the directions on the package. Pour the solution into a sprayer and apply it to the soil.
Compost
(image via: kirsty hall)
Compost is the single easiest and most effective way to make your garden lush and productive, and all it takes is your kitchen scraps and some nitrogen-rich dry materials like grass, leaves or straw. You can compost even if you live in an apartment – get some urban composting tips here.
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Nature’s Schedules: How Animals Really Spend Their Time
[ By Delana in Animals & Habitats & Art & Design & Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Animals in the wild lead busy, busy lives. They have so much to do that it is frankly amazing that we see them without little day planners or digital organizers. As a public service, these are the facts that animals can’t tell you themselves: how they really spend their days.
Elephants, as we all know, find it almost impossible to forget anything. But surprisingly, they do not devote much time each day to retaining memories. Most of their days, as it turns out, are spent eating. It takes a lot of time to find enough peanuts to fill up those big tummies.
Contrary to popular belief, jellyfish do not spend all day plotting to ruin your trip to the beach. In fact, the vast majority of their days are spent just lazily floating in the water and waiting for food to come to them.
Spiders aren’t the conniving monsters some people think they are – but nor are they unpaid advertisers of the virtues of farm pigs. Their days are spent mostly resting, though the chart does not differentiate between innocent rest time and rest time used to lure unsuspecting flies into traps.
Of course, not every animal’s schedule hides a surprise. Pandas, quite predictably, spend every moment of every day being adorable. Now that is sound scientific information. (Totally accurate pie charts via Jeff Wysaski and Pleated Jeans)
7 Carnivorous Wonders of the Plant World
[ By Steph in 7 Wonders Series & Animals & Habitats & Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Death traps that seduce insects, frogs and even mice with juicy-looking flesh and sweet nectar and then melt their bodies with acids, carnivorous plants are deceptively beautiful and totally fascinating to watch. Though some botanists once thought that carnivorous plants caught insects purely by accident, we now know that they evolved a taste for flesh often out of necessity, growing in places with nutrient-poor soil. These 7 types of carnivorous plants stand out for their unusual trapping mechanisms or bizarre eating habits, like one that happily consumes the droppings of small animals.
Mouse-Eating Pitcher Plants
(images via: wikimedia commons)
Jug-like plants half-full of rainwater, acids and enzymes, pitcher plants secrete nectar along their rim to lure in prey – typically insects and the occasional amphibian. But sometimes, they have an appetite for food of a larger and meatier variety. A newly-discovered species named Nepenthes attenboroughii, named after the British naturalist and television host David Attenborough, has been known to eat not just little mice but also larger rats. Their pitchers can be as large as a football and are often found to contain giant centipedes and spiders up to four inches long.
The Beautiful and Deadly Sundew
(images via: wikimedia commons)
Covered in dewdrops that sparkle in the sun, Drosera – commonly known as sundews – are beautiful ornamental plants. They’re also deadly, attracting insects with that ‘dew’ on the tips of their tentacles and then trapping them with the sticky mucilage, releasing enzymes to digest them. It can take up to fifteen minutes for the insect to die. The nutrient ‘soup’ that is left behind by the dissolved insect is then absorbed into the leaves of the plant. All species of sundew are able to move their tentacles , bending in toward the center of the leaf to bring the insect into contact with as many glands as possible.
Pitcher Plant Eats Shew Poo
(image via: discover magazine, wikimedia commons)
The Giant Montane Pitcher plant, Nepenthes rajah, is the largest meat-eating plant in the world. It’s big enough to trap rats – though it doesn’t do it very often. But there’s another taste it prefers to that of meat: poop. Specifically, the waste of the tree shrew.
When there aren’t enough bugs around, Nepenthes rajah is perfectly happy serving as a toilet for the tree shrew. It uses nectar to lure the shrews close and then collects their waste in its giant pitcher. Scientists believe that the plant’s pitcher has evolved to this perfect tree shrew toilet size specifically for the development of this strange symbiotic relationship.
Butterworts: The Flypaper Plant
(images via: wikimedia commons, emmc)
Members of the genus Pinguicula have a special ability: trapping insects on the surface of their leaves just like flypaper, liquefying their prey and then absorbing it. Commonly known as ‘butterworts’, these plants form pretty stemless rosettes, sometimes growing a single blossom on a long stem. Many can cycle between being carnivorous and non-carnivorous depending on the season. These plants have specialized glands scattered across the surface of their succulent leaves that produce visible wet droplets, which draw in bugs like mosquitoes that are in search of water. For the unfortunate bug who chooses to land upon this little plant, struggling is not just futile, but counterproductive – it causes the insect’s body to come into contact with more sticky glands which trap it even further. Like the poo-eating pitcher plant, butterworts have learned to take what they can get: they also digest pollen that lands on their leaves.
Bladderworts: Deceptively Innocent
(images via: cascade carnivores, wikimedia commons)
They look like ordinary aquatic plants, and even have lovely little yellow flowers that sprout forth above the surface of the water. But Utricularia – also known as bladderworts or bladder traps – have extremely sophisticated traps that can even pull in slippery, wriggly prey like tadpoles. Along its long stems, generally submerged in pond water or lying in damp boggy soil, bladderworts have little pouch-like traps which, when set, are under negative pressure relative to their environment. When their ‘trapdoor’ is triggered by potential prey, the water surrounding the trap is sucked in, and when full of water, the traps ‘close’. This trapping mechanism makes it possible to catch larger prey, slowly sucking in a tadpole by its tail and ingesting it bit by bit. Mosquito larvae, nematodes and water fleas are also common prey. Bladderworts grow all over the world in virtually any wet environment, and even sometimes grow in the damp bark on trees in South American rainforests.
The Cobra Lily
(images via: wikimedia commons, marlin harms)
Fictional Species: Tribute to the Surreal ‘Land Shark’
[ By Delana in Animals & Habitats & History & Trivia & Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Although our world is full of all kinds of amazing creatures, unbelievable animals and wonderful wildlife, we sometimes find ourselves enamored of fictional creatures. Such was the case with the Land Shark: that lovable but tricky shark that lied his way into homes and offices to devour the residents within. Thirty-six years after the Land Shark’s debut on Saturday Night Live, the weird animal still inspires giggles.
Land Shark
Tags: Land Shark
Above is one of the first SNL appearances of the terrifying Land Shark. Unlike sea sharks, the truly scary part of this animal is his ability to fool his quarry into letting him into their homes. Little did these poor souls realize that opening the door to the friendly-sounding telegram delivery man or plumber would be the last thing they ever did.
The video game Armed and Dangerous paid homage to the legendary land shark with its fantastic “Land Shark Gun.” In the game, you can shoot at enemies with a gun that sends the iconic Land Shark out for a quick bite of lunch consisting of your unfortunate foe. Upon reaching the unlucky enemy, the land shark bursts out of the ground to chomp down on the tasty human flesh.
University of Applied Science at Augsburg student Frank Robnik made this video to illustrate the qualities of the land shark’s famous cousin the Graboid. Graboids starred as the villains in all of the Tremors movies. Despite looking more like worms, the Graboids have the ferocity and insatiable hunger of sharks. Despite being fictional just like the land sharks, Graboids have enjoyed similar cult hero status – but clearly their fans are people who have never lost a loved one to either vicious creature.
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Bark At The Moon: A History Of Soviet Space Dogs
[ By Steve in Animals & Habitats & History & Trivia & Science & Research. ]
Among the many noteworthy achievements of the Soviet Union’s space program was the first launch of an animal – a dog named Laika – into earth orbit on the world’s second successful satellite. “Muttnik” wasn’t the only dog star: over 50 canine cosmonauts helped set the stage for the USSR‘s side of the great Space Race. This is their story.
Cold War, Hot Dogs
(image via: Telstar Logistics)
World War II had ended and the Cold War had just begun – and both the United States and the Soviet Union worked feverishly to establish viable ballistic missile and manned space programs with the help of captured German rocket scientists. While the Americans used captured V2 rockets to launch fruit flies, a monkey and a mouse into suborbital space between 1947 and the summer of 1950, the USSR decided dogs would be the ideal space-pioneering animals.
(images via: Spacebooks, Wikipedia, All Experts and Want It All)
Dogs could be trained to deal with long periods of inactivity required in preparation for a launch and would also tolerate wearing a cumbersome space suit in a small confined space. As well, stray dogs were chosen for their perceived hardiness and females were preferred due to simpler sanitation solutions.
(images via: Alaxanda Hulme and Russian Wikipedia)
In early 1951, two dogs named Tsygan (above, top) and Dezik rode a Soviet-built copy of the V2 rocket 110 km (68.35 miles) into space. The pressurized capsule containing the dogs parachuted back to Earth and both Dezik and Tsygan were none the worse for wear. At least, for the moment: Dezik did not survive his next mission later that year. Both dogs can be seen today, stuffed and mounted, at the Cosmonaut Memorial Museum in Moscow.
Giant Leaps For Mankind
(images via: Aerospace Medical Association and Cali1Socal)
The officially recognized border between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space is 100 km, or about 62 miles, and between 1951 and 1956 the Soviet Union conducted 15 launches with 9 different dogs to at least that altitude. Another 11 launches to 200 km (124 miles) took place between 1957 and 1960. In 1958, three intrepid dog-monauts soared to 450 km (280 miles). Not all the canine crewmen survived these suborbital flights but the vast majority did, paving the way for the manned missions of the 1960s.
(images via: TIME, JWZ and Soviet Space Dogs)
Not only did Soviet space dogs succeed superbly in pushing the envelope of early space exploration by making suborbital space flights in the 1950s, many of them ascended in pairs such as Lisa and Ryzhik, Smelaya and Malyshka, and Bolik and ZIB. That odd last name is an acronym for “Zamena ischeznuvshemu Boliku” or “Substitute for Missing Bolik.” It seems the real Bolik ran away just days before his scheduled flight and a local stray was drafted as an instant replacement.
(image via: Realmagick)
Nearly 30 missions over a 10-year period may seem a lot for the Soviets, whose reputation for risk-taking and less than thorough testing is perhaps overstated. Consider that the United States launched a chimpanzee named Ham into space on January 31, 1961. Ham’s mission was followed a mere 3 months later by the first launch of an American astronaut, Alan Shepard, and both missions were suborbital.
Laika Rock(et)
(images via: NLM, Novareinna and The Siren Sound)
The October 1957 launch into orbit of Sputnik 1 shocked the world in general and the United States in particular – the Space Race was on! It wouldn’t be until January 31 of 1958 that the USA was able to place their first satellite, Explorer 1, into Earth orbit. The success of Explorer 1 was somewhat overshadowed by the startling success of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 2 which launched on November 3, 1957. Not only did the rather large satellite achieve orbit, it carried a passenger: Laika (Russian for “Barker”), a 6 kg (13 lb) female stray with distinctive floppy ears.
(images via: Niki McCretton Presents, Niqqi’s Blog, First Second Books and Libraridan)
The American press had a field day with Laika’s successful launch, dubbing both the dog and capsule “Muttnik”. The embarrassing first attempt by the USA to launch a satellite – the televised launch pad explosion of Vanguard TV3 in December of 1957 – was ridiculed as Flopnik, Oopsnik and Kaputnik to name a few.
(images via: Aaron George Bailey and The Student Room)
Laika’s mission was intended to last 10 days but unfortunately, the heat shielding on Sputnik 2′s exterior was damaged during the launch phase and temperatures inside the capsule soared to 40 °C (104 °F). Though telemetry received at mission control indicated that Laika had calmed down somewhat from the stress of the launch and was eating food, by 5 to 7 hours into the flight life signs were no longer being received.
(images via: Tedstrong, Manoakua and ICA)
Laika’s fate was not fully disclosed until October of 2002, almost 45 years after the mission and over a decade after the USSR itself ceased to exist. At the time, fledgling animal rights groups protested the concept of sending a dog into space with no thought of retrieval. It seems even the scientists who planned Laika’s mission had qualms over it. In 1998 one of these scientists, Oleg Gazenko, expressed his regret by stating “Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it… We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.” Today, Laika’s heroic yet tragic life has made her both a symbol of courage and a figure of sadness.
Dog Stars
(images via: EnglishRussia and Nuclear_Art)
Belka (“Squirrel”) and Strelka (“Arrow”) have also made the leap to pop culture, though their tail, er, tale lacks the tragic component of Laika’s short but vivid life. Belka and Strelka’s adventure began on August 19, 1960, securely seated inside Sputnik 5) along with 1 rabbit, 2 rats, 42 mice, an unknown number of flies, plus some plants and fungi.
(image via: Blog Serius)
The launch was uneventful and the capsule orbited the Earth for one day before safely parachuting down to the welcoming steppes of Soviet Central Asia. Belka, Strelka, and their fellow biota were the first creatures to orbit the Earth and return alive. Preserved for prosperity in Russia are the taxidermised Belka and Strelka along with their dented but undaunted space capsule.
(images via: Foxunk, WN.com and The Beet Goes On)
Belka and Strelka star in not one, but TWO animated feature films. One is titled “The Real Adventures of Belka and Strelka”, a portion of which can be seen here:
The Real Adventures of Belka and Strelka, part1, via Belkaistrelkacom
The other boasts a higher caliber of animation (think Rango) and the wonders of 3D. Touted as “an epic space adventure across the third dimension”, Space Dogs 3D was released in 2010. You can check out the trailer here:
Space Dogs 3D – Movie Trailer, via Epicpicturesgroup
The Ruff Stuff
(images via: KenhSinh Vien and Visualrian)
Though Laika may be the best known of the nearly 60 Soviet space dogs and Belka & Strelka have been immortalized in film, others have also achieved a measure of fame. Last (literally) but certainly not least, are Veterok and Ugolyok. Launched on February 22, 1966, the pair spent 22 days orbiting the Earth orbit before landing safely on March 16: their endurance record would not be surpassed until June of 1973, by human astronauts aboard Skylab 2. Veterok and Ugolyok would be the last of a long line of Soviet space dogs going back over 16 years.
(image via: SFF Audio)
The USSR may have lost the Space Race but it was the fault of their hardware, not their “software”: loyal, hardworking cosmonauts both canine and human. Through their – dare I say it – dogged determination, the Soviet space dogs helped make the airless void above a safer place for their best friends… us.
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Prehistoric Inspiration: California Desert Sculpture Safari
[ By Delana in Animals & Habitats & Art & Design & History & Trivia. ]
In a stretch of inhospitable desert 90 miles east of San Diego, a dry wind caresses the dramatic curves of a mammoth, whispers through the bared teeth of a sabertooth tiger, whips at the terrifying claws of a raptor. These imposing figures are both the history and the future of this plot of land: a history buried deep beneath the sands and a future imbued in the scrap metal structures that stoically greet visitors to this unassuming parcel of land called Galleta Meadows Estate.
The story of Galleta Meadows Estate – the modern story, anyway – began in the 1990s when multimillionaire Dennis Avery purchased a fabulously-priced huge parcel of land near Borrego Springs but had no concrete plans for it. The new landowner decided to listen to the land itself to figure out what belonged there.
The answer came to him after he learned that the area was known for the great archaeological secrets buried in the sands. Fossils from the Pliocene, Pleistocene and Miocene eras could be found in large numbers nearby, so Avery realized that he needed to use the land to recall its own history. He enlisted the help of Mexican artist Ricardo Arroyo Breceda to create a scrap metal zoo of pre-historic creatures right there in the middle of the desert.
Breceda’s creations are up to 4 meters tall and made of wire and hammer-pounded scrap metal. They are wild broncos, tortoises, camels, dinosaurs, sloths and tapirs among other wild creatures of long, long ago – all part of a strange safari frozen in time. A few humans even make appearances: gold miners and farmers who pay homage to the more recent history of the region.
(all images via: Galleta Meadows)
Galleta Meadows Estate is now a tourist attraction that accompanies Avery’s golf course, tourist resort and country club which share that parcel of land. The sculptures are scattered through Galleta Meadows, inviting tourists to explore the area and discover every one of them.
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Red Tides: When Tiny, Toxic, Single-Celled Animals Attack!
[ By Steve in Animals & Habitats & Food & Health & Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Red tides kill huge schools of fish, poison oyster and shellfish beds, and leave swimmers’ skin itchy, irritated and inflamed. Is this fearful phenomenon a case of nature running amok, or is human activity at least partly to blame?
Roll Tide!
(images via: Water Babies, Alan Guisewite and Underwater Times)
Crimson tides are cool when you’re sitting in a stadium cheering on your team. In the ocean or the odd freshwater lake, not so much. Though they may appear exotic and beautiful – especially at night in some cases – red tides often mean bad news for sea creatures and those who consume them… like us.
(images via: Island Nature, Life In Freshwater and CNRS)
Let’s clear up a few misconceptions. Red tides aren’t tides per se, and their appearance bears no relation to the sea’s natural tidal cycle. The term “red tide” originated at a time when observers didn’t have the technology to look closer – MUCH closer – at what was tinting the water red.
(images via: Expateek and Worth1000)
Though it’s probable that red tides have been appearing for many thousands of years, if not longer. The toxic red tides that continue to plague Florida’s coasts in modern times were first documented in the ship’s logs of 16th century Spanish explorers. Speaking of plagues, the phenomenon may have been noted even earlier, in the Bible’s Old Testament. The first of the Ten Plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians was described in the Book of Exodus thusly: “… and all the waters that were in the river turned to blood. And the fish that were in the river died, and the water stank.”
Whip It, Whip It Good
(images via: Marine Science, Underwater Times and Pixdaus)
With the invention of the microscope, biologists were for the first time able to determine the nature of red tides and the type of tiny creatures that produce them. Turns out the culprits are dinoflagellates, a type of protist or single-celled creature that has characteristics of both plants and animals. The term “dinoflagellate” is derived from the Greek word dinos, meaning “whirling”, and the Latin word flagellum which translates to “whip.”
(images via: Coastal Care, Sir Francis Drake Highschool, Rashid’s Blog and Green Prophet/M.Godfrey)
Basically, these tiny creatures propel themselves through the water by whirling and whipping a threadlike extension of their bodies. Though some dinoflagellates are semi-transparent and colorless, others are tinted various shades including red. When the populations of dinoflagellates boom; or “bloom”, as is often stated, their abundance can change the hue of large expanses of ocean to red, pink, purple, orange, gold – and every hue in between. The spectacular red tide bloom just above was caused by dinoflagellates of the species Noctiluca Scintillans, and occurred just off the coast of New Zealand.
(image via: NASA Earth Observatory)
Red tides are often reddish but their color depends on both the concentration and the type of the responsible protists. Photosynthetic algae can burst into huge greenish blooms that can be seen from orbit. Red tides and other harmful algae blooms (HABs, for short) have also been spied by satellites, as the image above shows: check out Florida’s southwest coast.
(images via: Microbial Life, Growing Algae and NASA Earth Observatory)
Being the color of blood alone was enough to worry ancient mariners but the effects of red tides sealed their reputation as harbingers of death and destruction – to sea life, at least. Some (but not all) of the dinoflagellates responsible for red tides produce a potent neurotoxin that is released when they’re ingested. A single dinoflagellate pumps out a tiny amount of toxin, but multiply that by multi-billions and you’ve got poison in the poisson… pardon my French.
Selfish Shellfish
(images via: Slate, Smithsonian NMNH and FEIS)
Massive fish kills – at times numbering in the millions – are often associated with red tide events but it’s what lies beneath that concerns health-conscious seafood consumers. Commercial shellfish such as clams, scallops and oysters can survive red tides but in doing so, they concentrate the neurotoxins in their tissues.
(images via: Lonelee Planet and Serious Eats)
Eating contaminated shellfish (which aren’t red, by the way) can induce symptoms of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), the effects of which are similar to those induced by toxins ingested in poorly prepared Fugu (Puffer fish) at sushi restaurants.
(images via: Kleepet, The National Academies and LIFE)
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) has been noted on both the east and west coasts of the United States and a range of dinoflagellate species have been implicated as the original source of the toxins – the species of dinoflagellate known as Alexandrium Fundyense is blamed for red tides in the American northeast coast and the Gulf of Maine.
(images via: Texas Parks and Wildlife, BC/CDC and Alaska Tsunami Papers)
It’s not even necessary to EAT contaminated seafood in order to be adversely affected by red tide toxins. The red tide organism Karenia Brevis, which blooms on a near-annual basis in the Gulf of Mexico, exudes a neurotoxin known as Brevitoxin. Winds blowing inshore can pick up the toxin as an airborne aerosol, causing people living up to several miles inland to suffer respiratory irritation, coughing, sneezing, and tearing. The aerosol can affect marine mammals such as seals, manatees and whales as well. The Humpback whale shown above right washed up on a Massachusetts beach after feeding in a red tide.
(images via: Coastal Care)
In response to the perceived dangers red tides can cause, both the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department regularly issue and update online status reports on red tides along their respective coastlines.
Don’t You Make My Red Tide Blue
(image via: The Jetpacker)
“Red tides at night, red tides at night, oh OH…” Can you see a red tide at night? Yes and no… the customary red hue is invisible by night but a different color is often easily and spectacularly evident: blue! many red tide organisms are also bioluminescent – that is, they produce and emit ghostly blue light through through a chemical reaction that occurs within their bodies.
(images via: The Olsons, Comcast Forums and Photoshelter)
Wave action, stormy weather and other sorts of disturbance will provoke these tiny creatures to pump out blue light, but swimmers should keep in mind light isn’t the only thing dinoflagellates can produce.
(image via: Panoramio/Joeyrigatoni)
Waves washing onto beaches can also bring dinoflagellates onto dry land. The tiny creatures can remain alive for some time on or in wave-soaked beach sand, and tales have been told of beachcombers leaving eerie blue footprints as they stroll along the seashore.
Red Tides, Dead Zones… Red Zones?
(image via: Harmful Algae)
Red tides and other algae blooms are prompted by a sudden influx of nutrients into lakes or oceans – yes, even lakes can experience red tides, as seen in the photo of an Italian alpine lake above.
(images via: WIRED and Mongabay)
Nitrate- and phosphate-rich agricultural runoff is one such nutrient source. Not only can runoff spark red tides, over a period of time the result can be a marine “dead zone” like the one in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
(images via: Esquire and Shorecrest)
Excess fertilizer, untreated sewage, farm waste and other organic material washed down the Mississippi river pour into the Gulf, cause massive algae blooms, and deoxygenate the water as billions of protists die and sink to the ocean floor. Similar scenes occur with regularity on the coasts of dense urban conglomerations such as Hong Kong (above).
(images via: Daily KOS, National Geographic and WN.com)
Nutrients aren’t always organic or farm-related, however. Scientists have established a distinct correlation between windblown dust from the Sahara Desert and algae blooms in coastal Florida waters: the iron oxide in the dust acts as a nutrient to certain types of algae.
(image via: National Geographic)
El Niño events and natural upwelling of nutrients caused by ocean currents also play a role in the formation of red tides but it can be stated that without human activity, there would be a corresponding reduction in the frequency and severity of many red tides and algae blooms.
I Sea Red
(images via: Coastsider, Harmful Algae and Daily Telegraph)
If red tides have one saving grace, it’s their redness: it acts as a giant, liquid STOP sign for those who would normally enjoy seafood and shellfish oblivious to any consequences. To that we can probably add their often quite astonishing beauty, as illustrated in the many striking images that accompany this article.
(images via: MSauder and North County Times)
Better red than dead? Absolutely – not a single human fatality has occurred over the long history of Florida’s frequent red tides so look, admire and enjoy nature’s colorful show… and don’t plan any clambakes.
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Libya’s Landlocked Lakes: Wet Spots In A Sea Of Sand
[ By Steve in Animals & Habitats, Geography & Travel, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Libya is one of the hottest, driest countries on Earth, but even in the midst of the Sahara’s windswept desert dunes one can find an oasis or two… or more! The Ubari Lakes offer intrepid travelers a refreshing splash of unexpected beauty that’s more than just a mirage.
Libya: So Hot Right Now
(images via: New York Times)
Libya today is about 90 percent desert with most of the fertile areas being on the northern coastline bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Starting from the coastal plains where most of Libya’s population live, the farther south one goes the hotter and drier it gets… with a few rare and wonderful exceptions. These would be the Ubari Lakes, a dozen and a half shimmering mirrors of water surrounded by some of the most hostile terrain on the planet.
(image via: Climate Sanity)
The Ubari Lakes are the poster kids for natural climate change and owe their existence and perseverance to a variety of chronic geological and meteorological factors. The lakes, found in the southwestern Libyan province of Fezzan, were once one big lake (we’re talking Lake Superior size or larger) known as Lake Megafezzan.
(images via: Temehu and Climate Sanity)
Though the Sahara region has been steadily drying out for tens of thousands of years, Lake Megafezzan managed to hold out against desertification until finally giving up the ghost approximately 3,000 years ago.
(image via: National Geographic)
Though most of Lake Megafezzan’s bed is now scoured by rolling waves of sand dunes, isolated micro-lakes persist in the face of relentless evaporation because the valleys they’re situated in dip into the Sahara’s extensive underground water table.
South Of Tripoli, East Of Eden
(images via: Zora Aster, Traveldudes, Let’s Buy It and Crack Two)
Archeologists have discovered abundant evidence that what is today the horrifically hot Sahara Desert was once a fertile, temperate region well-watered by meandering rivers and freshwater “palaeolakes”. Rock carvings and paintings left by the region’s ancient human inhabitants as much as 12,000 years ago depict giraffes, hippos, crocodiles and other wetland creatures, leading some pundits to speculate the idyllic region was the inspiration for the biblical Garden of Eden.
(images via: Tanarout, Crack Two and Temehu)
The Ubari Lakes are not filled with fresh water – a fact that parched travelers must have found annoying to say the least. Dissolved minerals in the lakes become concentrated by evaporation and with no rivers to replenish them, water is drawn out of the aquifer.
(images via: Crack Two, Travel Webshots, Rediscover and Beautiful Zone)
The water is so super-saturated with salts and carbonates, some lakes take on a blood-red hue from the presence of salt-tolerant algae. In other lakes, swimmers find their buoyancy is exaggerated much like what occurs in the Dead Sea.
Save The Dates
(images via: PSP 88000 and The Contaminated)
Incongruously green vegetation surrounds the shores of the Ubari Lakes, either sprouted from wind-blown seeds or survivors from the Sahara’s ancient wetter era. The salty state of the lake water doesn’t faze the plant life on the shores, however, as most of the larger trees, shrubs and date palms send their roots downward into the easy-to-access aquifer.
(images via: Beautiful Zone and Getty Images)
As for those weary caravans of yesteryear and the scattered settlements of today, they source their water in a similar way: by sinking wells deep enough to reach the water table. It’s an awe-inspiring to consider the water that fills both the Ubari Lakes and the buckets lifted from area wells once fell as rain in what was, by comparison at least, a real Garden of Eden!
Lakes In The Sea
(images via: Temehu and Borut)
The Ubari Sand Sea, that is. One wonders how these smallish lakes keep their heads above water, as it were, after centuries of constant infill from windblown sand? Even though the Ubari Lakes are not exactly shallow, ranging from 7 to 32 meters (23 to 105 ft) in depth, their specific ecology has managed to find a rough balance that allows them to remain relatively constant in size and depth over the long span of recorded history.
(images via: Corbis and Temehu)
Mother Nature may indeed be resilient but the Ubari Lakes are still considered to be threatened and ongoing, natural climate change cannot take all of the blame. Though vast by most any standards, the Sahara’s underground aquifer is no longer being replenished by temperate rains. Some areas of southern Libya have not seen a drop of rain fall in over a decade. Combine this with the increasing use of aquifer water by growing human populations and you have the recipe for a lakeless future.
(images via: Getty Images, Wideview and Wilderness Travel)
Though things are kind of “hot” in Libya right now – and not just the weather – once the political situation settles down the Ubari Lakes should definitely be added to anyone’s exotic travel itinerary. Let’s hope the chance comes soon… should environmental trends continue along current lines, these exquisite lakes may some day be only seen as mirages.
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Furry Forecasters: 7 Amazing Weather-Predicting Animals
[ By Steve in 7 Wonders Series, Animals & Habitats, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Animals have evolved to cope with changing weather conditions and in some cases, have learned to sense when these changes are imminent. These 7 amazing weather-predicting animals offer us more insight into weather’s whimsy than Phil Connors on a good day. Now for today’s fur-cast…
Groundhogs
(images via: Best Week Ever, Uncoverage and Daniel David Allen)
“Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ’cause it’s cooooold out there today.” How do we know? Because every February 2nd, Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most famous groundhog weatherman, crawls out into the chill Pennsylvania air. If it’s sunny out and Phil sees his shadow, we’re in for 6 more weeks of winter.
(image via: Vondrook!)
Some people have a problem with this, most notably the character played by Bill Murray in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day. Says Phil (the weatherman, not the groundhog): “There is no way that this winter is *ever* going to end as long as this groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don’t see any other way out. He’s got to be stopped. And I have to stop him.”
(images via: Milk In The Clock, USA Today and Finding Dulcinea)
“Winter, slumbering in the open air, wears on its smiling face a dream of spring.” Indeed, spring always follows winter regardless of the prognostications of any number of representative rodents, but the tradition has ancient origins in European (especially Germanic) folklore. It should be noted that the National Climatic Data Center has measured the overall prediction accuracy rate of the featured groundhogs to be only 39%. Don’t blame the groundhogs, though, we just might be reading their predictions backwards.
Ladybugs
(images via: Animal World, Worlds Of Disney, eHow and MNN)
Ladybugs (or Ladybird beetles) are commonly found throughout out Eurasia and North America where they are susceptible to seasonal weather. Being cold-blooded creatures, ladybugs tend to swarm when temperatures reach approximately 12-13°C (55°F). A number of old proverbs concern the ladybug’s usefulness as a weather forecaster, one being “When ladybugs swarm, expect a day that’s warm.”
(image via: Sabrina School)
The advent of heated housing has allowed ladybugs to show another side of their weather forecasting ability. As autumn edges towards winter, ladybugs search for a warm and sheltered place to hibernate – such as your home. As the days lengthen and warm spring weather arrives, the ladybugs become active and begin to fly about, looking for an exit to the outdoors.
Cows
(images via: Wonder How To, Prafulla.net and Amazon)
Farmers are extremely cognizant about the need to be weather-wise – in the old days, the weather was literally a matter of life and death. Combine this need with close observation of domestic animals over thousands of years and you end up with the unlikely premise of weather-forecasting cows.
(images via: David Wall Photo, Corbis and Martin LaBar)
Cattle in pasture or on the range are social creatures but the extant of their gregariousness seems to be related to atmospheric conditions. Most obviously, a herd of cows sensing an oncoming storm tend to cluster together for warmth and security.
(image via: WN.com)
Cows exhibit other weather-related habits such as restlessness; a state of anxiety perhaps brought on by sudden changes in air pressure and/or a buildup of static electricity in the air. Cows have also been known to lie on the grass when rain is imminent: possibly they’re shading a dry spot that would be more comfortable during a rainy spell. Then again, these things may just reflect the prevailing bovine moood.
Frogs
(images via: Naturfoto-CZ, Dr. Oliver-David Louis Finch, Memegenerator and Rotholl)
Years ago in Germany, kids would catch a certain type of temperate zone tree frog called a Laubfrosch which had a habit of climbing up branches when the weather became warmer. Placing the frog in a glass jar with a tiny wooden ladder inside, the children would watch the frog climb or descend in conjunction with the changing weather. A ribbeting barometer, to be sure!
(image via: Mach Publishing)
Old & busted: Punxsutawney Phil. New hotness: Snohomish Slew! Yes indeed, Snohomish, WA’s resident “GroundFrog” has got the jump on the meteorological marmot in more ways than one, making his annual animal weather prediction every year for the past 6 years on the last Friday of January.
Ants
(images via: WN.com, Di Greenhaw and Able 2 Know)
Anyone who’s seen the 1998 movie A Bug’s Life knows that what for us is a gentle rain shower is, for ants, a catastrophe of biblical proportions. The fact that ants construct their nests underground with the entrance/exit opening at ground level would seem to be a recipe for disaster, yet ants are among the most abundant creatures on the planet.
(image via: Telegraph UK)
Ants have worked out a number of defenses against rainwater ingress but they all depend on one thing: foreknowledge of when rain is going to fall. Y’see, it takes time to build the anthill extra high and, in some cases, put a trapdoor or blocking pebble in place. Sort of like walking down the street when the sky opens up: by the time you buy yourself an umbrella, you’re soaked to the skin.
Sheep
(images via: Images82ask, Hill Shepherd and Mandi859)
Sheep are one of the earliest domesticated animals and shepherding one of the world’s oldest professions – and a family-friendly one at that. Over thousands of years of watching over their sheep, shepherds have noticed a thing or two about how the woolly wonders react to environmental stimuli like oncoming storms. This was (and is) important – one never wants to be accused of crying wolf, especially one wearing cheap clothing.
(image via: Corbis)
Like cows, sheep can sense minute differences in their environment and sudden changes in temperature, humidity and air pressure seem to invoke anxiety. Clustering together before a storm strikes helps keep sheep warm and prevents stragglers from drifting away. Hey, they don’t call it the Herd Instinct for nothing!
Woolly Bear Caterpillars
(images via: Tony the Misfit, Getty Images, That Guy With The Glasses and Jonclark2000)
Woolly Bear caterpillars are the larval stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth, found in the northeastern United States and parts of eastern Canada. These shaggy caterpillars are black on either end with a reddish-brown band in the middle. According to folklore, a wider brown band indicates a warm winter is on the way, while Woolly Bears that are predominantly black are harbingers of a colder, harsher winter.
(images via: The Chronicle Telegram, FOX8 Cleveland and Pixelate Photography and Design)
Not to be outdone by groundhogs and green frogs, the annual Woollybear Festival in downtown Vermilion, Ohio, has been held every autumn since 1973. By all accounts, the Woollybear Festival is a huge success and has grown is size and scope since local TV personality and WJW-TV weatherman Dick Goddard first floated the concept. Over 20 marching bands, 2,000 marchers, hundreds of animals and over 100,000 spectators participated in the 2006 parade, which has outgrown its original location in Birmingham and is now the largest one-day festival in the state.
(image via: A Simple Life)
Are much-maligned TV weathermen about to be replaced by, say, weather-sheep or weather-frogs? Not likely, though groundhogs would probably work for peanuts. That doesn’t mean we should shrug off behavioral manifestations that creatures have evolved over thousands, even millions of years. Besides, if you want a prediction about the weather on any day BUT February 2nd, you’re asking the wrong Phil. Now it’s time to go, gotta beat the weather. Chance of departure today: 100 percent!
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Staten Island Dump Rehabbed into Gigantic Green Space
[ By Steph in Animals & Habitats, Geography & Travel, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
For decades, Staten Island – a borough of New York City – has been associated with stink. That’s because it’s home to Freshkills, the world’s largest landfill, which received its last load of trash in 2001. But the island’s unsavory reputation won’t last long, now that Freshkills is set to be transformed into an incredible green space three times the size of Central Park.
At 2,200 acres, Freshkills will be the largest park developed in New York City in over 100 years, and its environmental mission is illustrated in plans for ecological restoration, a showcase for sustainable strategies like methane harvesting from the buried waste, and possibly even renewable energy demonstrations complete with towering wind turbines.
The new park will have five main areas: Confluence, the cultural and recreational waterfront core of the park; North Park, a natural wildlife area with wetlands, meadows and creeks; South Park, with active recreation spaces like soccer fields, an equestrian facility and mountain biking paths; East Park, a scenic drive through the landscape, and West Park, where an ‘enormous earthwork monument’ is envisioned in remembrance of September 11th.
At its peak, Inhabitat reports, Fresh Kills Landfill received 29,000 tons of trash per day, hauled in on barges from New York City. The same mounds that were once nothing but smelly trash will now serve as grassy hills upon which visitors can picnic, and enjoy views of acre after acre of greenery and waterways. The full build-out will continue in phases for the next 30 years, with projects and facilities opening as they’re completed. The public can currently access the park on free bus tours, which are available between April and November.
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