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Bleaching Is Affecting a Big Part of the Great Reef

March 24, 2016 By Tara Hamilton Leave a Comment

Bleached coral is not the same thing as dead coral, but changes must be made for their recovery.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – According to the latest images, bleaching is affecting a big part of the great reef. If Australians don’t do something soon, they will lose an even larger part of the Reef Barrier, thus involuntarily killing off a wide variety of underwater species.

The bleaching phenomenon is a reaction of the coral to the environmental stress. Coral, at its roots, is white. The bright colors people are used to are given by algal pigmentation. In other words, coral lives in an entirely symbiotic relationship with a type of unicellular alga-like flagellate protozoa.

When the intracellular endosymbionts are lost, the coral returns to its natural, white color. Some scientists believe that the phenomenon takes place because of environmental stress like high irradiance, harmful chemicals, sediments, and freshwater.

Bleached coral is not the same thing as dead coral. While it may be a bit difficult to create proper conditions for the return of the zooxanthellae, it is not impossible. Because the defense mechanism expels the Symbiodinium while under stress, it could also welcome it back when the conditions seem proper again.

In the last 15 years, the Australian Reef Barrier has seen its share of bleaching, but the things that are happening now seem to be out of control. After news of the bleaching spread, Steven Miles, the environment minister decided to take a look at the reef situation in the northern parts of the barrier personally.

The things he has seen left him in awe. The bleaching is affecting a big part of the great reef, white coral being the only landscape divers can see for a long stretch. After realizing that the situation is harsh, Miles officially called on Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister.

According to Dr. Miles, the State is doing everything in its power to protect the natural wonder listed in the World Heritage. But in order to make sure that the authorities are properly notified, he even suggested the Prime Minister to take a look at the situation. Furthermore, he urged Turnbull to gather his team of consultants and come up with a policy to take on climate change.

But Miles is not the only official concerned with the current state of the reef. Justin Marshall, a member of the Coral Watch UQ team, supported him while making the call.

The professor described the coral situation as “just shocking”. Furthermore, he urged the Australian people to go and convince themselves just how much bleaching is affecting a big part of the great reef.

Image source: Wikimedia

Fairy Circles Are Scientifically Explained

March 17, 2016 By Melissa Gansler Leave a Comment

Bald patches in the grass are not caused by fairies as people thought, but by the absence of water.

(Mirror Daily, Unites States) – It seems that fairy circles are scientifically explained by the dispersion of underground water patches. But that doesn’t stop the Namibian, and now the Australian population to take a guess at a more spiritual explanation for the empty circles that used to appear in grass-covered lands.

Some speculated that the circles appeared wherever God places his feet, others preferred to look at the landscape mystery as a definitive sign of extraterrestrial visits.

There were even people who believed fairies gathered at night and performed ritualistic dances that softened the grass and created the circular bald spots.

But the favorite folklore interpretation of the phenomenon must be the one dictating that a fierce dragon once ruled the Namibian land. And with its firesome breath, it used to devastate everything in sight. And the flames he used to spit were so potent that the grass never grew back in the places where they fell.

Then the scientists came in and started analyzing the facts behind the occurrences. Three theories were devised, but none was as appealing as the thought of a mighty dragon, dancing fairies or ET dialing home.

According to the researchers that study the fairy circles, they could be produced by carbon monoxide that is rising from beneath the Earth’s surface, destroying the vegetation it encounters on its way. The second theory dictates that there might be insect colonies, especially termites and ants, dwelling just beneath the surface and munching on the roots of the plants.

The third and proven theory was that the grass somehow organizes itself in such a pattern in order to gain access to underground water sources.

The explanation was found by Stephen Getzin, head of the Ecological Modelling Department at the Environmental Research Centre of Helmholtz, Germany. The researcher was studying the mysterious patches that suddenly appeared in Australian territory after years of being exclusive in the Namibian area.

While analyzing the grass distribution from a helicopter, Getzin started to suspect that the grass’ pattern is similar to that of underground water deposits.

In order to demonstrate his theory, he compared the fairy circles with other curious vegetation formations that sprout on the Earth’s surface. There are tiger bush labyrinths in the arid parts of Australia, North America and West Africa which react in the same way as the circles.

But the German scientists admits that there are still more vegetation occurrences that cannot be explained, not yet that is. So even though fairy circles are scientifically explained, there are other phenomena that are still attributed to mythological beings.

Image source: www.wikimedia.org

Humans Ate Giant Bird’s Eggs to Extinction

January 31, 2016 By Joe Hennessey Leave a Comment

Humans may have led to the extinction of the Australian megafauna

(Mirror Daily, United States) – There have been various ways in which animal went extinct in time but this is a first: humans ate giant bird’s eggs to extinction.

A very long time ago, there lived a giant bird that laid huge eggs of about 3.5 pounds each. Apparently humans found those eggs to be tasty and nourishing for they ate them all, which obviously led to the extinction of the giant bird.

This giant bird we’re speaking was called by scientists Genyornis newtoni and was about seven feet tall, weighing around 500 pounds. It looks like in those times, this wasn’t the only giant animal around. Many other populated the earth and are collectively called megafauna.

The megafauna, although giant animals were in other places of the world as well, was located in Australia. For example, another massive animal in the past was a 1,000 pound kangaroo or a wombat as big as a car. However, their big size was of no help for them when the humans arrived. Humans back then were agile hunters with a huge appetite so the animals had no chance, about 85% going extinct soon after the humans’ arrival.

Although scientists knew about the Australian megafauna, they were never quite sure about how the animals went extinct. Thanks to this new research made by a team of Australian and American scientists, they now have evidence that the humans had something to do with it. The evidence consists in burns found on some eggshell fragments. As we know, the humans are the only ones playing with fire, so they were clearly responsible.

So far, it was believed that the megafauna could have been affected by some climate changes, a form of severe continental drying that happened about 40,000-60,000 years ago. However, it seems that even more dangerous climate changes have happened previously, so the animals couldn’t have gone extinct because of this.

Although it is not sure when humans first arrived to Australia, the first signs of their existence on this continent dates back to about 47,000 years ago, while the eggshells found by the scientists have an age in between 44,000 and 54,000 years.

The way the eggshells were burnt, more on one side than the other, indicated that they were cooked rather than caught in a wildfire. Eggshells of emu birds have also been found previously displaying the same marks of burning which means this new theory is much more likely to be true.

Image source: www.bing.com

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