Gleanings of the Week Ending October 26, 2024

/

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

A new era of treating neurological diseases at the blood-brain-immune interface – Investigating the connection of neurological diseases and a toxic immune reaction caused by blood that leaks into the brain….in particular, how fibrid (a blood protein) is responsible for setting of this detrimental cascade.

Antifungal resistance is not getting nearly as much attention as antibiotic resistance – yet the risks to global health are just as serious – Just as with antibiotics for farm animals, tons of fungicides are used annually to protect crops, of which some work the same way as antifungals used in humans. And just as bacterial resistance develops…fungi develop resistance too. Combating drug-resistant fungal infections is a complex problem. An important factor is that diagnoses of infections are often delayed – if they are even diagnosed at all. Simple tests for fungal infections are rarely available.

Nikon Small World Contest Celebrates 50 Years of Photographic Excellence Under the Microscope – Great images….the natural world that we can see only with assistance…an art form too.

So Last Season: The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion and Textile Waste Exports - The last ten years have seen a dramatic increase in the production of single-wear garments—which has contributed to an excess of textile waste and consequent health impacts for the individuals who work in the textile manufacturing industry. Every aspect of the creation of fast fashion garments is unsustainable, from the creation of plastic-derived textiles to the construction of pieces by underpaid and overworked exploited laborers. Up to half of American textile waste is shipped to nations overseas. Adopting more sustainable wardrobe practices not only helps us move away from fast fashion, but also significantly lowers our individual carbon footprints and waste production.

Plastic pollution harms - Nano- and microplastic particles (NMP) are increasingly polluting urban and rural landscapes, where bees and other beneficial insects encounter them… it can damage their organs and cause changes in their behavior, preventing them from properly performing ecosystem services such as pollination and pest control.

British Ecological Society Photo Contest Celebrates the Breadth and Beauty of the World’s Biodiversity – I liked the variety of selections in this photo contest.

Introducing Six Steps to Calm: Our science-backed, stress-busting email course – From BBC…I subscribed…plan to take the course!

Your diet can change your immune system — here’s how - There is still much more work to do to unpick the effects of specific diets on the immune systems of those with different health conditions. However, a growing group of immunologists are optimistic that the mechanistic insights they are uncovering are the first steps towards personalized diets for a range of medical conditions.

US air pollution monitoring network has gaps in coverage - Most of the harmful effects from outdoor air pollution in the U.S. are linked to inhalation of fine particulate matter (PM). These suspended particles, like soot or liquid aerosol droplets, are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, garnering the designation PM2.5. In February 2024, to better protect Americans from health burdens caused by inhaling particles, the EPA adopted a more stringent standard for PM2.5. The EPA tracks compliance with air pollution standards through a network of about 1,000 costly and highly accurate monitoring stations placed in cities and towns nationwide. People of color and people with low socioeconomic status living in the U.S have fewer monitoring stations than other areas to measure air pollutants, meaning they may not be fully protected by the tighter air pollution standards.

Researchers Parse the Future of Plankton in an Ever-Warmer World - Climate change is hitting our oceans hard, making them warmer and more acidic, while radically altering currents. The outlook for plankton is mixed. As the planet warms, the diversity of the menagerie in many spots is increasing. But certain species are losing out, including big juicy plankton thought to be important for food webs and carbon sequestration. And, in the long term, plankton numbers may plummet as climate change starves them of nutrients. Meanwhile research continues: which plankton species are where but also exactly when, since shifts in bloom timing can also have big knock-on effects for fisheries. And the viruses that attack plankton seem to be on the rise as waters warm — another factor with as-yet unknown consequences.

Life Histories of North American Birds

/

The 6 early volumes of Arthur Cleveland Bent’s 23 volume work, Life Histories of North American Birds are available on Internet Archive. The work was published from 1919-1968…the later volumes completed posthumously after his death in 1954. The volumes available are from before 1930.

Bent evidently traveled extensively and interacted with 100s of people to compile the histories…quite an undertaking – more so since it was done before the computers! He started the work when he was 44 years old and spent the 44 remaining years of his life working on it. The work includes numerous photographs; I provide two from each book below but there are many more – well worth browsing these volumes - and the text is interesting as well.

 Life histories of North American diving birds

A more detailed biography of Bent’s life can be found here.

Field Trip to Springfield Wastewater Treatment and Landfill

/

The last field trip on the Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) training schedule was to the Springfield Wastewater Treatment Plant and Landfill.

The wastewater treatment plant that we toured was the smaller of the two that handle Springfield’s sewage. I was surprised that the smell of the place was not as bad as I expected. Maybe it was not as bad because it was a cool morning, but I expect that it primarily was because of the improvements in technology since I last toured a plant over 50 years ago! Now they have a lot more filters and blowers. There are challenges of materials that shouldn’t be in sewage – small items that get flushed (including wipes) that are still solid when then get to the plant and those are taken out early. There are anaerobic and aerobic basins where microbes do the work of cleaning the water. Sometimes there are enough oils that they must be put back through the process. Once the sludge is taken out, the water is clear and the microbes remaining are killed using UV light before the water leaves the plant for the river; the water released from the plant is about the same water quality as the river and there is monitoring to make sure that is true.   

The landfill is uphill from the wastewater plant; the landfill is a high hill so there are great views of the countryside around it.

It was a learning experience…I took notes. The landfill is 1200 acres of land with 213 acres active (i.e. there is plenty of buffer between the landfill and neighboring properties). We learned about the landfill’s construction that protects groundwater; the liner under each cell of the landfill is 5 foot thick: compressed aggregates, felt, plastic, leachate pipe (to drain of liquids) surrounded by river gravel, and finally felt. Each cell of the landfill is 5-10 acres. The leachate pipes are connected to a sewage line that takes the fluid down the hill to the wastewater treatment plant. The temperature in the landfill is 100-120 degrees and that is monitored via wells that are extended as pile gets higher. There are 16 ground water wells near the landfill that are checked every 6 months. They have increased the number of gas wells from 97 to 148; at present the methane is flared because it is not clean enough to put into natural gas pipelines (and it evidently is expensive to get it clean enough). The landfill had been projected to last 100 years when was expanded to 213 active acres but then the pandemic happened, and the projection is now 50 years (we are sending a lot more to the landfill since the pandemic). The city is more actively trying to divert yard waste away from the landfill and promote composting of food scrapes/waste.

The landfill layers quickly become anaerobic because of the heaps of trash piled and compacted. There is a lot of plastic that does no decompose easily even in aerobic conditions and even things that would decompose in aerobic conditions don’t in anerobic. These hills of trash are going to be where they are built for a very long time.

I am thinking about what further changes I will make after this experience. My family tends to have more recycle than trash. The change for me might be that I take more of my recycle to the recycling center rather than doing my curbside bin. Evidently there are lots of things that can happen during mixed stream recycle processing that can result in materials to the landfill.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 19, 2024

/

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Antarctic 'greening' at dramatic rate - Vegetation cover across the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold over the last four decades… fundamental changes to the biology and landscape of this iconic and vulnerable region.

Is cleaning with baking soda better for the environment? – Maybe not…and it might not be very good at some types of cleaning either.

Meet Milagra, a Rare Condor Rescued as an Egg and Newly Released Back into the Wild – A success at Arizona’s Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.

Landslides, Thousands Of Downed Trees, Undercut Roads Along Blue Ridge Parkway – Lots of repairs for the National Park Service after Hurricane Helene. Some damage is severe enough (i.e. more than just clearing mudslides and debris) that it will take time to repair. The fall foliage will come and go.

In Search of Microbes That Weave Colors into Moroccan Carpets - A scientist’s quest for microbes that produce purple pigments led to the vibrant world of natural dyes for women in the Atlas Mountain region of Morocco creating sought after traditional woven carpets…it’s a great intersection of biology and traditional artistry! The findings are compiled into a 48-page open-source guidebook, also translated into English, which described their project, introduced microbial dyeing, and catalogued recipes for plant dyes.

Dementia diagnostic markers change with time of day - Biomarker levels (p-tau217) were at their lowest in the morning when participants woke and highest in the evening.

Great Lakes Water Quality Project Seeks to Restore Coastal Vegetation - Returning certain croplands to perennial vegetation to reduce runoff and limit erosion.

'A warmer, sicker world': Mosquitoes carrying deadly diseases are on an unstoppable march across the US - West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), malaria and dengue…The mosquitoes that carry these diseases are thriving in a warming world.

Extinct Volcanoes Could Be Source of Key Metals Needed for Clean Tech - Rare-earths lurking under extinct volcanoes may be easier to extract. The iron-rich magma that formed some extinct volcanoes would be up to 100 times more efficient at concentrating rare-earths than the magma found in active volcanoes today. By one estimate, demand for rare-earths is set to grow fivefold by the end of this decade so finding them closer to home could contribute to more rapid conversion to clean technologies.

See Newly Discovered Nazca Drawings That Depict Llamas, Human Sacrifices and More - With the help of artificial intelligence, researchers have found hundreds of ancient artworks carved into the pebbled ground of Peru’s Nazca Desert in 6 months compared to 430 found between 1927 up to before the use of AI.

Fredrik Robert Martin and Oriental Carpets

/

A History of Oriental Carpets was produced by Fredrik Robert Martin based on his collection experiences in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Its three volumes are well-illustrated and easy to browse although I found myself wanting to zoom in on a lot of the images!

 A history of oriental carpets before 1800 pt 1 (1906)

A history of oriental carpets before 1800 pt 2 (1906)

A history of oriental carpets before 1800 pt 3 (1908)

Missouri Master Naturalist Field Trip (1)

/

Last weekend was probably the best of the Missouri Master Naturalist training field trips. The location was a privately own mixed forest, old fields, a cemetery and a creek: a place with history and almost 30 years of restoration work. It was a scenic drive of about 20 miles from my house…quickly going to 2 lane road…then a road without a center stripe….and then a single lane gravel round with some low vegetation in the center which I heard brushing on the bottom of my car.  

There were three rotations with lunch between the second and third ones. The day started out cool but was close to 80 by the time we ended so I was pleased to do the walking rotation first. It was focused on native trees and plants…and fungi.

There were lots of black walnuts on the ground….and looking up…it was easy to see which tree was producing them since there were still nuts on the trees.

As we walked along the road – there were several fungi to see on rotting logs.

There were familiar leaves and bark….and heart shaped leaves of wild ginger. The leaves on the ground were brown but there was color in the leaves still on the trees.

The millstone from the old mill (broken into two pieces) was near the entrance to the cemetery…brought there when it was found in the creek. Both areas are reminders of the history of the place as much as a place along the creek we were told about over lunch where many arrowheads had been found (a place there they were made over many hundreds of years before Europeans arrived).

Our guide for fungi had brought some other specimens found elsewhere to share with us since the drought had reduced what we would see otherwise on our walk.

The hour past very quickly and we headed back to our next rotation which was journaling…I’ll post about that tomorrow.  

Dallas and Back – October

/

I made my monthly trek to Dallas and back late last week. It was a cold morning as I left Missouri…getting away well before 6 and my nav system routing be around a nighttime road closure before I even made it to the highway! It was almost sunrise by the time I made my first rest stop. The color in the sky changed even in the short time I was in the building getting a protein shake for breakfast.

The color was mostly faded when I stopped the second time although it was still within the hour after sunrise.

The drive was uneventful although it seems like there is more active construction on some parts of my route than a month ago. Perhaps they are trying to reach a milestone before winter weather or maybe previous work had been hampered by very high temperatures in southern Oklahoma and Texas.

I visited with my dad and then headed to the hotel to relax…recover from getting up a little earlier than usual and driving for almost 7 hours.

The next morning, I was up and ready for a breakfast at the hotel at 6:30 then arrived to visit my dad shortly after 8 AM. We took a walk around the block. The weather was coolish (he wore a quilted vest over his long-sleeved shirt) and the sun was bright. Some of the houses had fall/Halloween decorations. The bald cypress trees I had noticed last time I walked with him were beginning to lose their needles. They will be ‘bald’ soon!

I was on the road heading home shortly after 10. The drive between the assisted living residence in Dallas and the border between Texas and Oklahoma is the most stressful part of the route – the speed limit is 70 mph for most of the way and people are trying to go that fast and beyond even when the traffic is too heavy to allow that safely.

I got home by about 5:30 and my husband informed me that we might be about to see the aurora after it got dark. We went out about 8…and there it was…faint but definitely some color in the Missouri sky!

Sustaining Eldercare – October 2024

/

A big worry in any group living situation with older people – something contagious going around - seemed to be happening in late September. Dad developed upper respiratory congestion and was not feeling well at all; the medication his doctor prescribed made his balance even more precarious but appeared to help him otherwise. No one else in the assisted living residence had it so it might have been a seasonal allergy flare up. He is the only resident that goes outdoors on a regular basis – for his walks around the block and to help water plants around the patio. He is back to normal at this point and the family is very relieved.

We are continuing to enjoy jigsaw puzzles with him. There are some clues that don’t work for him anymore – like tiny writing on a puzzle piece; his eyesight is not good enough to read the words.

One of my sisters took a closer look at his toothbrush and electric shaver recently. The toothbrush needs to be replaced, and the electric shaver looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned for a long time. Since both of those things are items we need to provide for him, we should have been monitoring them more closely. We are good about the things we do for him daily (like putting out clothes for the next day) but probably need a list of things we check periodically (like the toothbrush and electric shaver)! The other toiletries – like toothpaste and lotion and soap – were already on our radar and there are extras of those things already available under the sink of his bathroom.

He has been living in the assisted living residence for 10 months now. My sisters and I are still tweaking how we best support him…some is just to be expected since we want to be responsive as his needs change, but other tweaks are discoveries for us of things we should have been doing proactively all along (like checking the toothbrush and the electric razor).

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 12, 2024

/

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Who Was Buried in Spain’s Megalithic Necropolis of Panoría? - More women than men were buried in Panoria, where human remains were interred in collective burials between 4,100 and 5,600 years ago.

On Navajo Lands, Ancient Ways Are Restoring the Parched Earth - Traditional rock and stick structures, similar to those used by Native peoples long before Europeans arrived on the continent, are not only delivering water to crops they are also restoring the watershed and those of neighbors, helping to sequester carbon, and reviving this high-desert ecosystem…. an opportunity to begin developing localized food economies.

Megadiverse flowering plant family on isolated islands – A high number of evolutionary events -- occurred in the aster family (daisies, sunflowers, and asters) within relatively short time periods on many islands worldwide.

Why is Mount Everest so big? New research highlights a rogue river – but deeper forces are at work - Everest is around 250m taller than the other great peaks of the Himalayas. It is also growing by about 2mm each year – roughly twice as fast as it has been growing on average over the long term. The Arun river’s course changed around 90,000 years ago, eroding away rock that was weighing Everest down – and the mountain has bounced up in response, by somewhere between 15 and 50m. However, the “fundamental cause” of the peak’s size is the tectonic processes that create mountains.

Researchers Grow an Extinct Plant From a 1,000-Year-Old Seed - Israeli researchers have grown the seed of a previously unknown species of flowering plant into a mature tree. In the late 1980s, archaeologists excavating caves in the northern Judean desert discovered a well-preserved but mysterious seed that had likely been carried there by animals. The seed could be dated to between 993 C.E. and 1202 C.E. and that it was a unique member of the commiphora family, a flowering plant known for its aromatic resins. Chemical analysis of the leaves shows an abundance of medical properties in the leaves, and its lack of fragrance matches descriptions of the tsori in the Bible.

Rare and Elusive Australian Bird, Once Thought Extinct for 100 Years, Discovered by Indigenous Rangers and Scientists – Night parrots are generally difficult to detect—a fact that has been long recorded in Indigenous culture. The elusive species creates tunnels and nests in dense spinifex bushes and emerges at night to forage for seeds.

5 things to know from this week’s big report on cannabis - A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine finds the disconnect between the states and the federal government is leading to fragmented policies, and risks to the public. 5 takeaways:

  1. People consume cannabis more regularly than alcohol in the U.S.

  2. Weed and vapes can be super potent and that’s not always disclosed

  3. You can get psychoactive hemp products even in states where cannabis is illegal

  4. Research on cannabis is stifled

  5. Cannabis can be dangerous, but people hear more about its benefits than risks

Biodiversity Becoming a Top Priority - A survey of 300 landscape architects, designers, and landscape architecture educators in the U.S. found that 96 percent of landscape architects are familiar with the impacts of the biodiversity crisis. 45 percent have made biodiversity conservation a top priority of their practice and another 41 percent consider biodiversity as part of their organization’s environmental ethos.

Medical imaging breakthrough could transform cancer and arthritis diagnosis - A new hand-held scanner developed by University College London researchers can generate highly detailed 3D photoacoustic images in just seconds, paving the way for their use in a clinical setting for the first time and offering the potential for earlier disease diagnosis (cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis). What a boon if this could become the new standard…avoiding waiting for an imaging appointment, having to sit still for a long time, and higher cost of current technology!

Incredible Winners of the 2024 Natural Landscape Photography Awards – Couldn’t resist this collection of beautiful images to finish off the gleanings for this week.

Robert Ellice Mack’s Children of the late 1800s

/

The week’s eBooks are full of illustrations of children – mostly outdoors. They are probably somewhat idealized but are a window into the view people had of what children should be doing in the late 1800s. Certainly children were outdoors more often then than most children are today.

All round the clock

Sweet nature and other poems, with illustrations

Robert Ellice Mack was the editor of the books – selecting poem written by others and illustrations from several artists. There are other books from him that have been digitized; a good list is on University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books Page for him.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 5, 2024

/

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Ten Striking Images from the Bird Photographer of the Year Awards – Great images…and the titles/descriptions add to their impact.

From wastelands to wetlands: The fight to save Sri Lanka's natural flood buffers – Transforming garbage patches into biodiverse wetlands in Colombo. About 15 years ago, these ecosystems were degraded and filled with rubbish. Residents organize weekly collection runs, piling up sorted waste at a small collection unit which the municipality sends off for recycling. School kids volunteer, kayaking through the lake to dig up invasive water hyacinth. Ancient kingdoms thrived in a well-managed wetland system where people used them for transport and to grow food. Today, Colombo is home to four wetland parks and several other recreational spaces linked by wetlands.

Eye on the Fertile Crescent: Life Along the Mideast’s Fabled Rivers - The Tigris and Euphrates, the fabled waterways that pour through the heartlands of Eurasian civilization, through the Fertile Crescent, from their chilly headwaters in the mountains of Turkey through vast watersheds in Syria, Kuwait, and Iran, to finally empty into the Persian Gulf at the sweltering marshland shores of Iraq. A series of pictures along the rivers today.

Deaths From Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Could Reach 39 million by 2050 - In 1990, 1.06 million deaths were attributable to antimicrobial resistance. For kids ages 5 and younger, deaths attributable to antibiotic resistance declined by more than 50 percent between 1990 and 2021, mostly due to vaccination, water and sanitation programs, some treatment programs, and the success of those. For patients ages 70 and older, the number of deaths increased by more than 80 percent during the same period. The team estimates that deaths among children will be cut in half by 2050, but deaths among seniors will double. New superbugs can emerge or disappear at a moment’s notice, and scientists still don’t have a good understanding of what causes these unpredictable swings. We urgently need new strategies to decrease the risk of severe infections through vaccines, new drugs, improved health care, better access to existing antibiotics and guidance on how to use them most effectively

Why Are Black Bears Thriving? - Their adaptability has made them one of the world’s most abundant bear species, and also the one faring the best in an increasingly human-dominated landscape.

These Ancient Egyptian Barracks Paint a Vivid Picture of Military Life During the Reign of Ramses II – Mudbrick rooms… evidence of soldiers’ daily provisions, accessories and toiletries, like ivory applicators for kohl eyeliner, necklaces of carnelian and faience beads shaped like pomegranate blossoms, and scarabs engraved with deities’ names. Weaponry demonstrates the place was well armed and may even have been able to produce some weapons on site.

People aren't volunteering as much these days: What gives? - In recent years, giving back to their community hasn't played as big a role in many Americans' lives. The 2008 recession had the biggest dampening effect on volunteering in areas with the most economic growth and above average income equality. When we talk about economic development for communities, we shouldn't divorce that from the civic development of communities. (I was surprised that the study did not find an impact on volunteering from the COVID-19 pandemic…maybe it is too early to see the impact?)

The Largest Prehistoric Structure South of the Sahara - Long after the Kingdom of Zimbabwe’s demise in the 15th century, Great Zimbabwe’s legacy endures. Shona people conducted rites here through the 19th century, and one of the stolen stone eagles that formerly adorned the city graces Zimbabwe’s flag. There are 10 million Shona people around the world today—and there is much to learn about their Bantu-speaking ancestors, who first settled Great Zimbabwe in the 4th century C.E. They farmed, mined iron, and kept cattle, a culinary staple that also denoted social class.

See an Ancient Egyptian Temple’s Brilliant Colors, Newly Revealed Beneath Layers of Dust and Soot - Restoring parts of the 2,000-year-old Temple of Edfu—and shedding new light on what the richly decorated house of worship looked like in its prime: paint and traces of gold leaf.

Brain vasculature changes important for predicting cognitive impairment - A study showing that several measurements of the brain, including blood flow and the brain's ability to compensate for the lack of it, are better predictors of mild cognitive impairment than risk factors like hypertension and high cholesterol. The researcher and its participants are in Oklahoma.

eBotanical Prints – September 2024

/

Twenty more books were added to my botanical print book collection in September - available for browsing on Internet Archive. These 20 books covered a range of botanical topics: woody plants, flower seasons, plant fossils, mushrooms, trees, ferns, a plant lore conference, and grasses as well as plants of particular places (English Lake Country, Santa Catalina Island, Yucatan, West Indies, and the District of Columbia).

The whole list of 2,963 botanical eBooks I’ve browsed over the years can be accessed here. Click on any sample images below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume.

Enjoy the September 2024 eBotanical Prints!

Our woodlands, heaths, and hedges : a popular description of trees, shrubs, wild fruits * Coleman, William Stephen * sample image * 1866

The romance of nature : or The flower-seasons illustrated * Meredith, Charles(Mrs); Twamley, Louisa Anne * sample image * 1839

Flora fossilis insubrica : studi sulla Vegetazione di Lombardia durante i tempi geologici  * Sordelli, Ferdinando * sample image * 1896

Florule Toulousaine * Sudre, Henri * sample image * 1907

An history of fungusses, growing about Halifax V 1-2 * Bolton, James * sample image * 1788

An history of fungusses, growing about Halifax V 3-4 * Bolton, James * sample image * 1791

The tree book : a popular guide to a knowledge of the trees of North America and to their uses and cultivation * Rogers, Julia Ellen * sample image * 1907

The Ferns of the English Lake Country : with a list of varieties * Linton, William James * sample image * 1893

Flora of Santa Catalina Island (California) * Millspaugh, Charles Frederick; Nuttall, Lawrence William * sample image * 1923

Plantæ Yucatanæ. (Regionis Antillanæ) Plants of the insular, coastal and plain regions of the peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico V1 * Millspaugh, Charles Frederick; Chase, Agnes * sample image * 1903

Plantæ Yucatanæ. (Regionis Antillanæ) Plants of the insular, coastal and plain regions of the peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico V2 * Millspaugh, Charles Frederick; Chase, Agnes * sample image * 1904

Old and new plant lore; a symposium * Chase, Agnes; Hitchcock, Albert Spear * sample image * 1931

The genera of grasses of the United States : with special reference to the economic species * Hitchcock, Albert Spear * sample image * 1920

A text-book of grasses with especial reference to the economic species of the United States * Hitchcock, Albert Spear * sample image * 1914

A Manual of Farm Grasses * Hitchcock, Albert Spear * sample image * 1921

Manual of the grasses of the West Indies * Hitchcock, Albert Spear * sample image * 1936

The Grasses of Hawaii * Hitchcock, Albert Spear * sample image * 1922

Flora of the District of Columbia and vicinity. By A.S. Hitchcock and Paul C. Standley, with the assistance of the botanists of Washington * Hitchcock, Albert Spear; Standley, Paul Carpenter * sample image * 1919

Flora Americae Septentrionalis, or, A systematic arrangement and description of the plants of North America V1 * Pursh, Federick * sample image * 1814

Flora Americae Septentrionalis, or, A systematic arrangement and description of the plants of North America V2 * Pursh, Federick * sample image * 1814

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 4

/

There were 2 Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) training evenings during week 4. The topics for the first one were migratory birds and wildlife management. Both lectures were informative, and I read 3 publications from the Missouri Department of Conservation afterward:

 Missouri Bird Conservation Plan Technical Section

Missouri Bird Conservation Plan Outreach Plan

Missouri Wildlife Management Plan

The topics for the second evening were Birds of Missouri (also Project Feederwatch), capstone projects and Botany. I took a bowl of show-and-tell materials that is the beginning of some collecting for my MMN capstone project (an educational trunk for trees). The red seeds of the magnolia that look a lot like red M&Ms and the size comparison between acorns (pin and white oak) and cones (hemlock and shortleaf) were the biggest hits…fun to share.

The follow-up from this class is to be ready to participate in Project Feederwatch at my house beginning in November; it will be something my husband and I will do together.

One of the handouts was a booklet Fifty Common Trees of Missouri (from the Missouri Department of Conservation) which I promptly looked at and checked the trees I’ve seen in the field in my Identifying Woody Plants class (30 of the 50 although the introductory lectures we have before going into the field have covered more of the 50).

I still need to browse the handouts from the two sessions.

There are also some things I can do to move along my capstone project…and I need to remember to keep track of the hours I am spending doing that.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 28, 2024

/

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The ancient practice of 'good fire' is reviving Nebraska's birds, bears and berries - In its original shape, the once wide, but relatively shallow Platte River provided an open space for the (sandhill) cranes to roost, while also keeping an eye on predators. These four-to-five-foot tall birds with wingspans of six-to-seven feet found abundant plants and insects to eat on the Nebraskan prairies. Lightning strikes brought occasional wildfires, which cleared out dead material and refreshed native plant life. Fire suppression is not always a good thing…

Giant Slab of Bog Butter Recovered in Ireland – Nearly 50 pounds! It is being analyzed by the National Museum of Ireland. It would be interesting to know how long it had been in the bog.

How Agroforestry Could Help Revitalize America’s Corn Belt – 8,200 hazelnut saplings growing with flocks of chickens in narrow grass paddocks between the rows of fledgling trees…. By combining food-bearing trees and shrubs with poultry production it is an example of agroforestry — an ancient practice that intertwines annual and perennial agriculture. Other forms include alley cropping, in which annual crops including grains, legumes, and vegetables grow between rows of food-bearing trees, and silvopasture, which features cattle munching grass between the rows. An acre of land under agroforestry can sequester five metric tons of CO2 annually, versus one ton for an acre of corn or soybeans. As the region’s vast corn and soybean operations continue hemorrhaging soil and fouling water and climate change proceeds apace, they may find themselves looking for new directions sooner than later.

Humans Pollute the Environment With 57 Million Tons of Plastic Each Year - Uncollected waste is the biggest source of plastic pollution, with at least 1.2 billion people living without waste collection services forced to ‘self-manage’ waste, often by dumping it on land, in rivers, or burning it in open fires. This “self-managed” plastic waste makes up more than two-thirds of the modeled plastic pollution. The study also calculated the largest contributors to plastic pollution in the world: India is in first place, producing 10.2 million tons a year; Nigeria is in second; Indonesia is in third; and China—which had been ranked in first place according to other models—instead comes in fourth. The U.S. ranks 90th, with more than 52,500 tons of plastic pollution produced annually.

One of world's fastest ocean currents is remarkably stable - There is growing scientific and public interest in the global Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a three-dimensional system of ocean currents that act as a "conveyer belt" to distribute heat, salt, nutrients, and carbon dioxide across the world's oceans. This study found that Florida Current, the beginning of the Gulf Stream system and a key component of the AMOC, has remained stable for the past four decades. Understanding the state of the Florida Current is very important for developing coastal sea level forecast systems, assessing local weather and ecosystem and societal impacts.

Growth of Solar Continues to Defy Predictions - The world is set to install a third more solar capacity this year than it did in 2023, surpassing forecasts by both industry experts and independent analysts. China is driving the bulk of the growth. Through May, India installed more solar capacity than it did in the whole of last year, and in the U.S., new tax breaks are giving the industry a significant boost. Solar manufacturing has jumped fourfold since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

Birds Form Surprising Relationships with Other Avian Species During Migration - The researchers found that songbirds tended to show up together rather than avoid each other. American redstarts and magnolia warblers reliably appeared together in the researchers’ nets in spring and fall. The same thing happened with ruby-crowned kinglets and white-throated sparrows. The presence of other birds with similar foraging behavior or similar food preferences may signal to newcomers where the good habitat is, helping them refuel more quickly.

Residents in San Joaquin Valley breathe chemical pesticides - A new study found 22% of adults and 10% of children who participated in an air-quality study in California's San Joaquin Valley were breathing detectable levels of pesticides. Participants in this study served as citizen scientists, going about their normal days while wearing the backpacks to collect the samples.

Creative ways communities are reducing food waste – Returning oyster shells to the water in Alabama, collecting food waste for composting in almond orchards in California, gleaning fruit at the end of the season to supply the needy in New Hampshire-Massachusetts, and using underused land to grow free food in Washington.

Only Two US Metro Areas Are Affordable for Homebuyers - Before the Covid-19 pandemic, 20 U.S. states were considered affordable home-buying markets for most households. Today, just two metro areas remain ‘affordable’ by that definition issued by the National Association of Realtors — and no entire states fit the bill. The two metro areas are Youngstown and Akron, Ohio. Home prices have increased by 47% nationwide just since 2020, according to a June report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. A major factor is that there aren’t many homes for sale.

Some Gene Stratton-Porter eBooks

/

I browsed 4 Gene Stratton-Porter books recently; I had read several of her books before eBooks existed but had only recently looked at the list of her books on Internet Archive…and realized I’d missed the 4 that are this week’s eBook picks. They are all well illustrated…worth browsing for the illustrations as well as reading. They still have relevance with natural places even more challenged than when she wrote. Hopefully the appreciation of nature in our lives is still strong enough to prompt increased conservation although even in her lifetime the Limberlost Swamp was gone, drained so that the land could be used for agriculture.

 Homing with the birds: the history of a lifetime of personal experience with the birds in1920

Moths of the Limberlost: With Water Color and Photographic Illustrations from Life in 1912

Music of the wild, with reproductions of the performers, their instruments and festival halls in 1910

What I have done with birds in 1907

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 3

/

Week 3 of my Missouri Master Naturalist Training included my first Springfield Plateau Chapter monthly meeting. There is not an equivalent to it in Maryland, so it was a new experience. The first part of the evening was networking over a potluck light dinner. I met a Master Naturalist that teaches high school biology and got some tips on my capstone project that is part of the training.

Then there was a lecture on prairie reconstruction/restoration on private land that started in the mid-1980s. The target was established by a land survey done in 1835 that noted the types and sizes of trees at ½ mile intervals. Most of the area around Springfield tended toward savannah (prairie with some trees). Most of the trees noted in the survey were oaks and hickories. There are 385 plant species now growing on the reconstructed prairie…that has a Floristic Quality Assessment score of 4.2 which compares favorably with other restored/reconstructed prairies in the area. But maybe the greatest joy is from seeing red-headed woodpeckers returned to some of the snags!

There was a short break before the business meeting (more networking). I learned a lot about the chapter from the business meeting…the committee reports were enlightening and I talked with 3 of the committee leads after the meeting. I already have my first Missouri Master Naturalist volunteer gig scheduled…and have ideas on the committees most relevant to the type of volunteering I want to do. There are hours to support the chapter too that I need to think about since that type of volunteer hours is not something I did in Maryland.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 21, 2024

/

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Congaree National Park to Remove Feral Hogs – There were feral hogs in the park when I visited in 2008!

Witness 1.8 billion years of tectonic plates dance across Earth’s surface in a new animation – I watched the video twice…the first just enjoying the overall moves. The second time I watched for how North America moved over time.

What Are the Best Policies for Reducing Carbon Emissions? - A systematic analysis of more than 1,500 climate policies from around the world found that only 63 were successful, reducing average emissions by 19 percent on average. Policies are more effective when implemented with a variety of other policies, instead of alone. In the U.K., banning coal-fired power plants worked when it was combined with tax or price incentives. The same was true for banning combustion engine cars in Norway. The study also found that successful strategies differed between countries—in developed countries, carbon pricing was effective, while regulation was successful in developing countries.

How thyroid hormone fuels the drive to explore - Research in mice sheds light on how thyroid hormone alters wiring in the brain. Findings reveal that thyroid hormone syncs up the brain and body to drive exploratory behavior. Too little thyroid hormone slows down metabolism and can result in symptoms of depression, while too much speeds up metabolism and can lead to symptoms of mania. The receptor for thyroid hormone is expressed by cells throughout the entire brain, including in areas of the cortex responsible for high-level cognition like planning and decision-making.

Cutthroats and Cottonwoods: Protecting the South Fork of the Snake - The South Fork contains the largest cottonwood gallery in the West. In the fall, the leaves on the tall-timbered giants lining the banks bounce in the breeze like gold coins exploding from the pot at rainbow’s end. Native Yellowstone cutthroat trout are in the South Fork. Most of the cutthroats spawn in tributaries contributing to the South Fork but they are found throughout and the farther you float, the bigger they get…. a river that is as it should be. Consistently wild.

Nutrition and healthy aging: The role of protein quality in combatting muscle loss - Aging may reduce our ability to digest, absorb and utilize the nutrients in food. It is important to consider increasing the amount and improving the quality of protein (probably higher than what is currently recommended for the general population) we consume. For example – research showed that consuming higher-quality (whey and pea) protein supplements at breakfast and lunch increased muscle-building in older adults by almost 10 per cent. However, collagen protein — a supplement heavily marketed towards older adults — did nothing to bolster muscle-building in older adults.

Flash Flood Roars Through Frijoles Canyon at Bandelier National Monument – One of my favorite places in New Mexico……hope I can visit again sometime when it isn’t flooded!

Cooler Communities for All - Four key design strategies to reduce urban temperatures:

  • Increase tree percentage in parks and green spaces

  • Provide shade

  • Use plant materials and water instead of hardscape

  • Switch to green ground cover, including grasses and shrubs

This Massive Egyptian Observatory Is Unlocking Celestial Secrets of an Ancient Culture - Archaeologists in Egypt have just uncovered a truly stellar find—a sixth century B.C.E. astronomical observatory in the ancient city of Kafr El-Sheikh. The observatory, made from mud bricks, is the largest and oldest of its kind in the region, spanning nearly 10,000 square feet. It was in ancient Egypt that the 365-day calendar was born, and the 24-hour day. They completely mapped the night sky, and had their own constellations and zodiac, some signs of which are still recognized today.

Looting of the Sudan National Museum – more is at stake than priceless ancient treasures - It was founded in 1959, ahead of the construction of the Aswan High Dam. A Unesco-led salvage campaign was launched in 1960 to protect and preserve the ancient monuments that would be flooded by the dam, which would alter the landscape of the Nubian region. The reported loss of parts of this collection represents a profound and multi-layered tragedy for future generations.

Frank Finn eBooks

/

Enjoy 11 well-illustrated eBooks this week by Frank Finn from the early decades of the 1900s. Most of them are about birds and there is a skew toward Asia since the author spent almost a decade in India. The Wikipedia article was shorter than I expected so I searched further and found an obituary in Nature from 1932 which was more informative. These books are freely available on Internet Archive and worth browsing!

The world's birds a simple and popular classification of the birds of the world

The wild beasts of the world

Bird Behavior physical and physiological

Sustaining Elder Care – September 2024

/

The past month has been challenging with one sister still traveling and another exposed to COVID (disrupting her visits to my dad). We have still sustained our goal for someone in the family to see him every day.

He is changing a bit too…often wanting to go to bed much earlier than usual. That compresses the time for us to have a good visit with him. Sometimes he will get up when one of us arrives and work on the puzzle or go for a walk if it is still light outside. It helps that the weather is not quite as hot as it was in August.

I found 9 puzzles at a used book/puzzle sale done by the Springfield MO libraries and my sister that it traveling has purchased puzzles at some of the places she visited. One of the ones I found might be kept until closer to Christmas rather than leaving it for him to do now.

The staff at his assisted living home has encouraged us to proactively reduce the clutter in his room so his day-to-day activities are less confusing to him. We’ve cleared surfaces by putting some things in enclosed storage areas and reduced the numbers of linens (he had more than double what he needed!). We took away shoes and clothes that he doesn’t wear any more. We tried to transition him from jeans to pull-on type pants and discovered that he wants to stay with the jeans!

His medical team which makes house calls for his checkups has done bloodwork, and he is in good health. But he is over 90 and some days he feels better than others.

One of my sisters is looking for ways to use his television screen to provide visually interesting slideshows; he is not interested in watching television shows or the news anymore. Hopefully we can do some experimenting over the next month to see if we can develop another activity he can enjoy.

Buckyball and Compton Gardens

/

We visited the Buckyball at The Momentary on our only evening in Bentonville. There were not many people around; we enjoyed reclining on the wooden seats and taking pictures/videos….until we realized how many mosquitoes there were!

It was a Sunday evening, so the eating places were closed…we walked around the nearby garden area. The lights were still on the sculptures. If I return the area, I’ll plan to be there on an evening when businesses are open!

The next morning we walked in Compton Gardens. A few weeks previously when my daughter was there, she had seen lots of butterflies and goldfinches. We didn’t see any goldfinches but there were a few skippers (one was a tawny edged skipper) and a great spangled fritillary butterfly around.

The gardens had been damaged by a tornado recently and some trails were still closed. Some critical cleanups had been done. I took a picture of a recently cut stump and counted the rings in the image. The tree was more than 70 years old!