Rutger's English Blogg

 

How do we increase biodiversity? By cutting down a number of beeches, so the light comes down to the ground. Then other plants could grow there. Plants need light to live. The beeches blocks the light for other plants, The leaves also covers the ground effectively. If we change beech forest to a park the biodiversity increases. But even an area of low Biological Diversity has its charms, the trees are impressive.

When man interferes in a right way in a natural ecosystem the biodiversity increases. We can have a pasture with richer flowering and species richness of up to 50 different species per square meter. This species richness will never be without human interference. Urban Emanuelsson writes about this in his book about biodiversity in Europe "The early 1900s conservationists put the wildlife high. They were often heavily influenced by an American wilderness romantic attitude. Also, significant portions of today's conservation has ideological wilderness character. Humans just destroy if she comes into context. That many of Europe's most species-rich habitats would be "created" by man can be a bit difficult to accept for those conservationists. "Furthermore, he writes that it is this way of thinking that has led to the international regulations for national parks that have been established. The rules say that national parks should be as untouched by humans as possible, which eventually leads to the cultural landscape is not managed and eventually diappear in growth of certain trees. He also writes "In addition, the critics of natural environment protection wonders a little mockingly if cultural landscapes habitat really is so precious. They're not original and therefore not worthy of protection. "

 

Our Swedish ecosystem is not so original, a few thousand years old maximum.
Before the ice had scraped the area clean.

 

Below you see an area with greater biodiversity than a beech forest.

 

In his book, Paul Ehrlich wrote "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate. ". "As dark as the religious predictions. He still drives the same way and in the recent interview in The Guardian, he says that his most predictions have come true. Have advocates strong population reduction, additional tax on children and luxury tax  on children's items such as diapers, etc.. He advocates sterilizing, better contraception and more abortions.

 He has been in Gothenburg and received the Volvo Environment Prize, which was established in 1990, The Volvo Environment Prize. The price has through the years been distributed to some deserving people, writes Lars Bern on Newsmill, but the lasting impression is that it is tainted by the jury often picked out pure prophets of doom with a weak foothold in a virtual reality. Other prophets of doom who received this award are John Holdren and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber by Lars Bern et al. see
http://www.newsmill.se/artikel/2011/11/01/volvo-rykte-skadas-nr-man-prisar-domedagsprofeter

Another doomsday celebrity who has been in Gothenburg and won an award is Al Gore. But this time it was not Volvo price but "Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development."

The world and  love pessimists  but optimists are those that promote development. Yields of grains have risen more than expected. Latest in this area is the forecast of an increase in global yields of 7% in the case of wheat and other cereals. Despite intense drought in the U.S. and elsewhere yields will increase. The threat that extreme weather will increase is just a doomsday threat. As long as man has existed, good weather is regularly interrupted by storms, typhoons and other disasters but man has always bounced back. Think of the late 1600s when it was at its coldest during the Little Ice Age. Failed harvests, one-third of the Finnish population died of starvation. Then we could not send  a lot of corn there. Today, with a world that has been given access to the western technology, we can do it if we just will. Often we are told that society is more vulnerable today because of technology, but in many situations it is the opposite. We know  for examples of how quickly Europe recovered after World War II. When Gustav Vasa took revenge on people from Småland after the war Dackefejden it took over a hundred years before the province recovered according to Wilhelm Moberg's "My Swedish History".  According to Wikipedia, it took decades.

 

 

 

The headline in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet is: Replace beef with swine and chicken would be a disaster

It states, "A resource-conserving agriculture based on humus-building ley (extended cultivation) with nitrogen-fixing crops and fodder whose value is refined by grazing animals such as cows and sheep. Improved grassland means that carbon sequestration in soil. Ley humus-building properties can eliminate climate impact from ruminants. This applies in particular those cattle that are not driven to excess by using too much concentrate in the form of grain and imported soy protein. The cows and other ruminants such as sheep and goats eat the fiber-rich, soil fertility-building forage plants such as clover and grass in the long term is necessary to maintain the balance of humus soils. The cows refines it for us humans not edible for both milk and meat and recirculates back valuable organic fertilizer. "

"Feed production to livestock reared by conventionally grown cereals a burden on the climate through the production and use of fertilizers and other inputs that require fossil energy. Cereal monoculture without ley is devastating for the environment also by humus supply in the soil decomposes and the carbon content contributes to global warming, while soils fertility declines. Much of today's grain production goes to today's one-sided and in certain regions concentrated feeding and slaughter of pig and chicken production, whose manure surplus also over fertilize oceans with reactive nitrogen and phosphorus in addition to damage to biodiversity, ranks as one of the greatest environmental problems. "

He is saying that grasslands means carbon sequestration. Common fields decreases soil carbon, bacteria converts humus in the fields to CO2.

The grass cow grazing becomes both carbon dioxide, methane and meat. The methane will be after a few years oxidized to CO2 in the atmosphere. This carbon will eventually be grass through photosynthesis. And the grass also store carbon in the soil. The grasslands are building up a stock of carbon in the soil through the roots.

It's fun to read a scientist who really know their subject as opposed to those that only focus on one thing that Elin Röös do with the methane from organically raised livestock. Link to meat guide. http://www.kottguiden.se/images/Kottguiden_Version_1_0.pdf

The article is written by Artur Granstedt  associate professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/byta-notkott-mot-svin-och-kyckling-vore-katastrof_8151424.svd?utm_source=sharing&utm_medium=clipboard&utm_campaign=20130508

 

 

 

 

The Delta is 39 000 km2, it is rich in biologic diversity despite the intesive agriculture. Over 10, 000 new species have been described there in recent times. A quarter of Vietnam's arable land are available here. Just below 18 million inhabitants. It is

Vietnam rice bowl. Attempts to regulate the river and build power plants upstream affect sediment transport and then sea waves erodes the coastal strip.
Erika Bjerström on SVT went to Vietnam and documented this but called it climate change.
The technique she used was to interview a fisherman who had their leased land destroyed by the waves. For him something gruesome happened, the climate must have changed was his thought and he had certainly like others heard about rising sea level. Most likely, he has not heard of diminishing quantities of sediment to the delta or that the delta sink even if it is slow. The salt water increases in wells, we also heard.

Bildkälla Wikipedia http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullh%C3%A5rig_nosh%C3%B6rning

This Wikipedia article says that "The 3.5-meter-long animal was exposed early to hunting by man, which perhaps led to its extinction, although no one can say for sure. Woolly rhinoceros was hunted even by Neanderthals. It was confirmed by findings in cave ofGudenus in Lower Austria. where species disappeared about 10,000 years ago. The youngest known fossils are 8,000 to 10,000 years old, found in Ukraine. Finds from the cave Kesslerloch in Switzerland confirms that the species which lived on for 12 - to 14 000 years ago. " Man is hinted to be the one that was the reason that this animal died out. Our textbooks are even more confident about this.
More recently, they have found a skull of a rhino 3.7 million years old on the Tibetan highlands which led to a theory that the rhinos evolved in Tibet and was originally adapted to cold climates. The great horn the animal maybe used as a snow shovel.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Woolly_rhino_fossil_hints_at_origins_of_Ice_Age_giants_999.html

One of the researchers says "Cold places, Such as Tibet, Arctic, and Antarctic, are where the most unexpected discoveries will be made in the future," said Xiaoming Wang from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. "These are the Remaining That frontiers are still largely unexplored."

It is interesting to read the latest research on the woolly rhinoceros and why it went extinct out. http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/135/1351170424.pdf

The research article was titled "Extinction chronology of the woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis in the context of late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions in northern Eurasia."
The rhino was fully adapted to the tundra climate the article says "an animal adapted to feeding on low-growing herbaceous vegetation and a dry climate with minimal snowfall." Researchers have tried to follow how this animal gradually as a result of climate change become extinct. It does not seem to have found their way back to Tibet. Heating made the treeless landscape with minimal snowfall disappeare gradually.

It is also said that "Its final extinction probably Relates to Lateglacial interstadial warming and Increased precipitation (especially snowfall) accompanied by the replacement of low-growing herbaceous vegetation by shrubs and trees. The survival of woolly rhinoceros in northeastern Siberia When it had disappeared Further west May related to the lateral persistence of open vegetation in That Region. The timing of its final extinction could related to the fact That the Lateglacial interstadial was Significantly warmer than any other event in the previous 50 millennia. "

That one can find that the sparse befolningen at the time, sometimes hunted rhinos does not mean that man was the cause that this cold-adapted animals disappeared.

The following maps shows the distribution at different times. More maps are available in the research report.

Places with rhino fossils older than 46 000 years. Color differences on the rings has to do with security in time datings.

Fossil finds when ice age had its maximum.

Fossil finds at the end of the ice age.

 

 

http://lagmansnatursida.se/dbarkiv/2013/vecka19/db13maj07.htm

 

The giraffes started to fight as giraffe males usually do when they fight over females. See the following figure. They fight by swinging their necks at each other. The sound they bashed each other could be heared in a long distance.

Seahorse is a small fish that is fascinating. There are about 35 species of seahorse. the largest can be 30 cm, the smallest four cm long. One seahorse has the record as the world's slowest fish. It swims by 0,016 km/h villket is 16 meterin one hour. Its way to reproduce itself is special. The females have eggs and this is what defines a female. The female lays eggs in the male's belly where they are also fertilized. After a month, the development of the eggs, it's time for the hatched seahorses to "be born".

"Birth" of sea horses

 

In the blog Mongabay I read an interesting article on the Asian tapir. http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0423-hance-malaysia-tapir.html .
Tapir's is an animal that lives in rainforests, a shy animal that is hard to spot. It has said to be endangered but they have not really had good knowledge of how many animals there are today.
It is now estimated that there are about 2000 tapirs in the Malaysian forests after setting up camera traps. With these camera traps they could show that there were more than they thought. It is about 9.5 animals/100 km2 and there are still large areas that remain in Malaysia that can accommodate this animal. In these forests they chops down trees randomely and it does not seem to affect these animals negatively. The tapir can weigh up to 540 kg. The three species found in South America are smaller and have a brownish fur.
Range of the species according to the IUCN red list http://maps.iucnredlist.org/map.html?id=21472

 

The climate is well amongst the best example of the cycles of nature. Heat Periods succeeded by colder periods. There are short-term fluctuations and volatility in the longer time. Saw recently a new chart with snow fluctuations in Antarctica which then is translated to SMB (surface mass balance) How much it snow, how much it sublimates (when the sun shines snow disappearing as water vapor directly, no melt in between). In fact Antarctica is so cold that there are no the formation of meltwater lakes on the ice as in Greenland. Only at the edges and on the West Antarctic Peninsula close to South America does it melt in the usual way. Would it melt elsewhere it freezes almost immediately. Antarctic ice mass can only significantly be reduced by iceberg calvings that flows into the sea, where the ice melts.
Let's look at a graph of suface mass balance reflecting precipitation.

 

Today, when it becomes warmer the treeline is moving north in Siberia. That it gets warmer is manifested in longer growing season, spring comes earlier, but as in Sweden the height of summer heat does not increase, the average temperature in July does not rise. See chart of July's temperature from the Kola Peninsula. The lower part shows recruitment of pines at the tree line in a couple of periods. The average temperature in July has declined since the 1930s as well as in Sweden. In Sweden, the average temperature in July, about two degrees cooler in the late 1900s, compared with 30, 40 and 50s. But the tree line is moving north because of longer growing season and this causes problems for the nomadic peoples of northern Russia. But still the treeline has not reached areas where there was forest in the Middle Ages and during the Holocene Termal Maximum (HTM).

"However, conifers have not yet recolonized many areas where trees were present during the Medieval Warm period (ca AD 800–1300) or the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM; ca 10000–3000 years ago). Reconstruction of tree distributions during the HTM suggests that the future position of the treeline due to global warming may approximate its former Holocene maximum position." http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/363/1501/2283.full

July

 

Now that the temperature is at a plateau since 1998 people have begun to talk increasingly about extreme weather. See graph of satellite measured temperature.

 

Wolf territories are increasing and the area smaller. From 15 a few years ago to 27 in last wintwr in Värmland. Now the territories are so close that scientists must take DNA to help keep the territories apart. But it is not only in Värmland wolves reproduce. Up north there are the more place.

"The reindeer is on the road to collapse" http://www.svt.se/nyheter/regionalt/jamtlandsnytt/renhjord-pa-vag-mot-kollaps

"We are quite distressed." Professor Birgitta Åhman at SLU would actually researching reindeer productivity and fitness. But pretty soon she began instead examining the ongoing collapse of the herd as Njaarke Sami right now living through. This according Jamtland News.

Furthermore, says Prof Åhman "From 2007 onwards, she has collected data on a village with reindeer herders. And statistics show that the number of reindeer drops drastically. Among the marked females as she followed through the years, there are not many left. In the group that has its winter foddarea left to mountain terrain was only 26 percent of the tagged females also left summer 2012. Within five years, then 74 percent of the tagged females also disappeared., mainly due to predators, says Birgitta Åhman. Meanwhile no time for the group to reproduce itself. "

- We are quite distressed, says Dana Fjällberg, president of the Sami village.
Wolf meetings in Västra Götaland has also become numerous.
We read: "Hunting dog attacked by wolves outside Stenungsund, April 3, 2013
A wolf took at 15 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, a dog, ten feet from the dog owner Janne Andersson's front door in Ucklum, outside Stenungsund in Västra Götaland. Janne Andersson chased after the wolf 20 yards into the woods, where it stopped and let the dog just meters from him. "

Janne Andersson had his two huntings dogs on the lawn while he was working behind the house. Suddenly, he heard one of the dogs screamed and he ran around the house.
- When I come around the house, I see a wolf lumbering off into the woods with the female in the jaw. The puppy went behind and barking and I run after. After 20 meters I have time to catch up and then stopped the wolf and turned against me. I thought it would take me so I pulled my knife and screamed, when I was standing one meter away from it. It just looked at me, dropped the dog and lumbered away. It was not in a hurry, says Janne Andersson.

Recent meetings with the wolf in Borås, Bollebygd, Kungälv, Stenungsund, Uddevalla, Tidaholm. All in Västra Götaland
Read more at the site Wolf Facts http://www.vargfakta.se/

How many wolves are there in Sweden? Maybe 500, twice as much as the parliamentary decision, max 210 wolves. http://www.vargfakta.se/vargfakta/hur-manga-vargar-finns-det-i-sverige-sommaren-2011/  http://www.vargfakta.se/nyheter/rekord-i-antal-fodda- wolves-in-2012
 
Others believe that there are not that many.

http://www-genfys.slu.se/staff/dagl/varg/Varg.pdf
But the link contains a good discussion of the inbreeding issue. Wolves do well in Sweden, normal groups of puppies and some scientists worry still very much at an inbreeding depression.
It is always the starting point that is important. How healthy were the original animals? That's the important question.

Compare with Przewalski's horse where the original group were 12 horses at the turn of the century and during World War II, one mare plus a number of stallions and now there are about 1,500 horses around the world and of these 300 in freedom in Mongolia. This breed has genetic problems much larger than the Swedish wolves. http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/AC148E/AC148E02.htm
http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/AC148E/AC148E03.htm

Other animals in Sweden has increased a lot from a small number of origin are:
The beaver was reintroduced in 1922 in a small number of specimens from Norway. Today the population of more than 100,000 animals and inbreeding is not spoken of as a problem. Finland has a similar history on the beaver. 

Canada Goose was introduced from North America in the 1930s, with a few animals. The population is about 30,000 and no inbreeding problems.
The current Swedish wolf population is mainly based on three individuals who have immigrated since 1980. Now there are over 200 animals that are essentially the offspring of three individuals. It is considered inbreeding as extremely problematic.
The common deer comes from 50 deers that were in Skåne in 1850. Today there are between 600 000 and 800 000.

All animal species are not sensitive to inbreeding.

 

 

 

This video shows a test of the strength in a wing of a jumbo jet. Start from the tip and imagine that the tip is bent eight feet in the air. So much can be bent without breaking. Raise more wing broken. It might be good to know when you fly and the plane goes through an air pocket.

 

 

The first rhinos lived about 50 million years ago. During the Miocene, around 20 million years ago, there were maybe 30 different species of rhinos. In the period before, Oligocene, several predecessors died out. At the time, rhinoceros animals were much more common than today. Today, the hunt for their horns are the biggest problem and to read about the hunt for Rhinos for horns sake is a depressing story. Around the year 1900 there were only about 20 individuals left of the so-called white rhino in South Africa. They were protected in a national park in South Africa. The southern white rhino was considered for a while extinct until a number was found in 1895, Thanks to 100 years of efforts to preserve them, there are now over 20 000 in South Africa, a success story. http://www.savingrhinos.org/White-Rhino.htm

 

These white rhinos have been reintrodused in Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia and Cote d'Ivoire. Recently a calf was born even in Uganda but the hunt for horns is problematic. The coveted horns are used in Chinese and Vietnamese medicine and to handle daggers in Oman and Yemen. The use of daggers has been reduced but the use in Chinese medicine seem to increase.

 

 

"The local species richness has increased throughout the country. The clearest trend is in the mountains and inland areas of Norrland as many southern species expanded their ranges northward. But it is also noticeable in the south where many species that previously had little or incoherent propagation now filled out the poorer areas, says Åke Lindström, zooekolog at the university. "
"The big winners are generalists, that is, species that thrive in many different natural environments. These include wrens, cranes, nuthatch, cuckoo, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Fieldfare, garden warbler and great spotted woodpecker.
- The cuckoo increase is interesting, given that the former was in sharp decline. Now the trend has reversed in the other direction, says Lindstrom. "
"Though completely regimented it is not yet. Happily, all northern species is still  there, despite the increase in temperature., It seems as though most still holds its own." Although some decreases as bluethroat, willow sparrow and maybe patch tit.

 

The same positive messages is coming from botanically knowledgeable inventory in the mountains. See what Leif Kullman writes: http://www.kullmantreeline.com/empty_16.html

MOUNTAIN NATURE'S NEW FACE - A GREEN BREAK IN the NEOGLACIAL

"Plant "mountain hiking" means that the species richness of some high mountain peaks increased by 60-170% over the last 50-60 years, This without a single native species disappeared. Changes to cut through the ecosystem, all levels implied by the standard yellow chanterelles found high up in the mountains (c. 1400 m above sea level), far higher than previously known.
Even around the new and higher timberline flora has added more and more pronounced heat-demanding species, most of which are not normally associated with mountains. Occasional seedlings of oak and elm trees now growing quite near birch tree limit in Jämtland and Härjedalen. Although alder, maple and birch have begun to appear in the upper forest belt. There are at least 8000 years ago "deciduous trees" growing on the corresponding levels in the mountain regions.
The enclosure of the new small birch groves established in the mountains are several representatives of a newly arrived southern forrest flora.Anemone, golden saxifrage milkwort and bracken are some examples. "
"All of the progressive changes of the mountain vegetation described here has occurred despite reideer feading increased significantly over the last 50 years."
"The general impression is that the mountains become greener and plant cover everything lusher and more high grown. Alpine plants flowering has intensified, which attracts several large butterflies, previously rarely seen flying high up in the mountains. Possibly, the growth dynamic in the mountains stimulated not only by higher temperatures . Atmospheric increased levels of carbon dioxide cause in principle a "fertilization effect," which could explain some extreme growth phenomenon. "
Warmer climate entails increased biodiversity, maybe not so strange.