#ecosystem

He Built a Rainforest Ecosystem in His HouseDr. Plants got a big glass tank and built an entire world inside in just a year! He started with water and soil and light, and added plants, snails, crustaceans, and more and let it grow as it will. He kept adding predators and prey to balance the species inside, just like nature does. That's pretty cool in itself, but he recorded the interesting behaviors he noticed in the animals species up close to share them with us, which is the coolest part of this video. We get to see how these creatures live their lives, which includes cannibalism and parthenogenesis. The rainforest is thriving so much that he had to equip extra tanks for the overflow! You will start watching this video thinking that you might like to try something like this, but as it goes along, it becomes clear that Dr. Plant put a lot of work and a lot of biology education into this, not to mention money. We're just glad he's sharing it with us! -via Digg#rainforest #ecosystem #aquarium #terrarium

Horseshoe Crabs Usefulness to Humans Puts Them in DangerHorseshoe crabs don't have immune systems like we do. They don't produce antibodies to fight off infection. Instead, they rely on the chemistry of their blue blood. It contains limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL), which inactivates bacterial endotoxins. This compound is used in the pharmaceutical industry to test vaccines, drugs, and medical devices. Every year, American biomedical companies harvest a half-million horseshoe crabs to harvest their blood. They don't take all the blood, and they return the crabs to the sea, but still about 30% of them die from the experience. Also, by missing mating season, these crabs will not produce 80,000 eggs each, which not only reduces their descendants but also deprives seabirds of their normal diet of crab eggs. In the Delaware Bay, the horseshoe crab population is only 25% of what it was in 1990. Fortunately, scientists have developed an artificial substitute for LAL, recombinant Factor C (rFC), that performs just as well for human drug testing. Unfortunately, while rFC is used in China and the European Union, it has yet to be approved for use in the US. Read about the efforts to save both horseshoe crabs and develop new drugs and vaccines at The Verge.Find even more information on horseshoe crabs at TYWKIWDBI.#horseshoecrab #drugs #blood #ecosystem #pharmaceutical

Recreating a Lost Generation of Ancient Trees for Biological DiversityTrees can live thousands of years if they aren't cut down for wood or to clear the land, and no matter how many trees we plant, we cannot replenish the supply of thousand-year-old trees. As useful as young trees are, a tree near the end of its life is uniquely essential to the world's biodiversity. An example is Big Belly Oak, a 1100-year-old tree in England's Savernake Forest.While an ancient tree like this is impressive at a distance, take a look inside and you will see something even more intriguing.Oak polypore fungi and stag beetle larvae feast on the dead heartwood, adult stag beetles sup the sugary liquid from the "sap runs", the living layers of wood which transport water and minerals throughout the tree. Hover flies lay eggs in water-filled rot holes, rat-tailed maggots devour leaf litter and violet click beetles eat up wood mould that is rich with faeces and other remains, accumulating over a century. Knothole moss and pox lichen cling to the bark in rainwater channels. Barbastelle bats hibernate in crevices and under loose bark. Woodpeckers and nuthatch enlarge holes for nesting, while owls, kestrels, marsh tit and tree-creeper move in to ready-made cavities. These rich pockets of life are a secret world, a diverse habitat teeming with insects, fungi, lichen, birds and bats. The ancients of our forests provide essential food and shelter for more than 2,000 of the UK's invertebrates species. In Savernake Forest alone, these trees are home to nearly 120 species of lichen, more than 500 species of fungi, and other important wildlife such as the elusive white-letter hairstreak butterflies.Such trees fill environmental niches around the world. But while we can't plant ancient trees, conservationists from several different organizations have developed techniques for artificially aging trees for the purpose of supporting these other species. At least one technique ages a tree 100 years in just two years time. Read how this may work to recreate ancient natural ecosystemsat BBC Future. -via TYWKIWDBI #tree #environment #habitat #ecosystem

Don't Release Pet Goldfish into Lakes: "They Grow Bigger Than You Think" and Threaten the EcosystemOfficials of the city of Burnsville, south of Minneapolis in Minnesota, implored the public not to release their pet goldfish into ponds and lakes."They grow bigger than you think and contribute to poor water quality by mucking up bottom sediments and uprooting plants," the officials tweeted on Jul 9, 2021. They also added a few photos of giant goldfish that were recently caught in Keller Lake.According to Daryl Jacobson, natural resource manager for the city of Burnsville, people thought that the small goldfish in a home aquarium would remain that size in a lake. But they tend to match their environment and could grow much larger. "They are a tough species. They can survive under ice, with low oxygen and in unclear water," he added in an interview with USA Today.By the way, the largest goldfish caught in the wild was a 9 lb (4 kg) goldfish caught in South Carolina in 2020.#lake #goldfish #fish #ecosystem #invasivespecies