#and breed and breed and ravage the native plants

[c-kiddo]

was watching springwatch last night and there was a rly cool thing about the capercaillies and trying to help them repopulate via providing carcasses for the pine martens (who were successfully reintroduced) so that they'll eat that and not the capercaillie eggs. and thats very very cool if itll work. also 3 birds 1 stone, because you can use the invasive deer for food, feed the pine martens, and protect capercaillie nests all in one

[undercoverbisexualfrog]

TMNT - The 10 Dimensions

A few times in tmnt 2012 (and tmnt as a whole I think but I’ve really only paid attention to 2012), the 10 dimensions have been brought up. From what I know, this includes the different turtle shows/movies/universes and dimension X. But y’know what here’s my take on it.

The 1st Dimension - Oblivisci Ruler/s: N/A A Few Native Species: N/A Description: Oblivisci translates to ‘to forget’ in Latin. It is named so since it’s become known as ‘the lost/forgotten world.’ Formerly, it was a land thriving with greenery, animals, and life. This is the first and so far only full dimension to be taken over by the Kraang. Since then, it’s been completely deserted. All it is now is a barren wasteland.

The 2nd Dimension - The Crystal Colony Ruler/s: Prince Kito A Few Native Species: The Quartz People, Ruby Roses, Sapphire Salamanders, Emerald Elephants Description: A land made of crystal and gems of all shapes, colours, and sizes. The animals, plants, and people are all crystals too. This world was ravaged by the Kraang years ago and is still recovering from the damage done. The king and queen are dead and have left their teenage son in charge. Much of the land is destroyed, but under the rule of the struggling prince, it’s starting to recover.

The 3rd Dimension - PrimeVerse Ruler/s: Depends on the planet A Few Native Species: Humans, Mutants, Salamandrians, Aeons, again it depends on the planet Description: The largest of the 10 dimensions. PrimeVerse’s main location is the Prime (original/comic) Turtle’s world. Every other tmnt variation and maybe even the fanfics are all alternate world that branch off PrimeVerse. In TMNT 2012, all the non-canon season 5 things are branches too. There’s not much else to say, this is just the primary place that the shows takes place.

Branches are alternate world that are connected to one of the 10 dimensions. There is an infinite amount of them.

The 4th Dimension - Dōbutsu Ruler/s: N/A A Few Native Species: Anthropomorphic Animals, which include rabbits, cats, bears, and more Description: Usagi’s world. This is the world that appears in like every tmnt version, so again, not much to say.

The 5th Dimension - The Overworld Ruler/s: Lord Oriri Solar Knight and Lady Cadere Lunar Knight A Few Native Species: Celestials, cherubs, the Souls of the Good Description: This is basically just Heaven. The celestials are a breed of supernatural creatures from the skies who preside over the Souls of the Good. The rulers of the Overworld are a set of twins who embody the sun and moon. Oriri and Cadere also choose who goes to the Overworld and who goes to the Netherworld.

The 6th Dimension - The Netherworld Ruler/s: Kavaxas A Few Native Species: Demodragons, imps, the Souls of the Bad Description: It’s honestly just Hell. Demodragons are a species originally from the 7th dimension who have been cursed to damnation for their whole existence. They, specifically their leader Kavaxas, preside over the deceased souls of the wicked.

The 7th Dimension - Terra Mirandi Ruler/s: The Five Houses A Few Native Species: There’s a lot, but I guess gorgons, witches, unicorns, cyclopses, Description: Terra Mirandi translates to ‘Land of Wonder’. It’s known as the magic dimension. Mythical creatures of all sorts are from here, from mermaids to dragons to centaurs, fairies, yokai, and so much more, even some breeds of imps and cherubs. Terra Mirandi is run by five houses, or families, each of which govern over a portion or 'kingdom' named after them. The five houses are as follows:

The House of Amros - Cupids. The name is a combination of amor, meaning love in a few different languages, and eros, the god of love. The House of Azyrath - Hellhounds, a breed of anthropomorphic wolves with wings and fire powers. I tried incorporating the word 'wrath' into the name as fire is associated with anger. The House of Venora - An anthropomorphic deer species known as Florebou. They are also responsible for the changing of seasons. Venora is a combination of venison (deer meat) and flora. The House of Thalassa - Siraelia, a crossbreed between sirens and cecaelia. The name means sea in Greek since sirens are Greek. They rule the seas of Terra Mirandi. The House of Polilla - Humanoid white witch moths who are actually witches. Polilla translates to moth in Spanish since this particularly moth species are found in Latin America.

The 8th Dimension - The Digital Gates Ruler/s: Madame Tempestra A Few Native Species: Cyberfolk, digital bugs Description: The Digital Gates is a world almost completely cut off from outer interference. It’s really sophisticated but also cyberpunk style. The only thing that’s ever left the Digital Gates are bugs (like bugs on computers y’know). Tempestra rules the place and forbids anything else leaving for fear of exposig themselves to the Kraang and giving them a way in.

The 9th Dimension - Metamorphis Ruler/s: Changes A Few Native Species: Changes Description: Metamorphis is the world of change. Sometimes it’s daily, hourly, monthly, doesn’t matter. Nothing stays the same for long here. From the citizens, to the flora and fauna, the geography, everything changes at some point.

The 10th Dimension - Dimension X Ruler/s: Kraang Prime, Utrom Council A Few Native Species: Utrom/Kraang, Kraathatrogons, Rock Soldiers, Scatterpillars, Squibbles Description: Ah yes, Dimension X at last. This is the world of the Kraang. Like with dimensions 3 and 4, there isn't much to say about here that we don't already know from the show. All I'll add is that they've been trying to take over the 10 dimensions from the 1st to 9th, but so far have only gotten to the first 3.

[furmity]

Antipodean Europaganism: part 1

In the southern hemisphere, deosil is anti- clockwise. The Left Hand Path is the Right. The moon grows to fullness like 🌘🌕🌒, and his face appears upside- down to a northern perspective.

The seasons are opposite, but it's not necessarily so simple as turning the sabbat dates around. The seasons mean different things, this continent has its own cycles. What do European reconstructed traditions mean here?

Like myself, my practices aren't really their origin anymore: they're Australian. Reconstruction of a historical paganism only goes so far when Australia is nothing like northwestern Europe. I've not yet firmly settled on an annual calendar, the mystery continues to be revealed.

I live in a "Mediterranean" climate, it feels very cold to me today at 12°C. It will not snow here but it rains and rains: everything is green. Frogs are singing in the creeks which dry away in early summer. Some native plants are blossoming. My garden's orange tree is laden and ripe. Mushrooms are everywhere. The serpents are in their holes, yes, but the land cannot be said to be "sleeping" through the winter.

Really it's a time of plenty... or, it's one spoke of a fertile wheel that never really has a fallow time. Something flowers all year, something fruits, something breeds. All the native trees are ever-green. I live in an agricultural part of the country, and something is always coming into season.

Summer is the harsh time. The Australian sun is utterly, utterly fierce. All this green grass will dry and die, the Bush will burn explosively with all the eucalyptus oil. While winter meant the threat of starvation to my ancestors, here in summer we may run out of water, we may lose everything in the fire... And yet! the ash fertilises the soil, certain native plants need the flames to seed....

So, how to celebrate this turning wheel? Back-to- front and inside- out? The sun will be reborn in a few days time, I will keep a vigil to guard the house from the howling terrors of midwinter... but are they really more frightening than the ravages of midsummer? The phrase "kind as summer" doesn't mean anything to me.

It can seem so silly to see snowflake ornaments up in our summer Christmas, but I take it in the same spirit as burning candles and Yule logs on the longest night: we call back the cold to see us out of the heat. But what is the mythic seasonal drama that plays out around me?

To what degree are my gods omnipresent in the world? Known by many names by many cultures into Proto Indo- European prehistory: the sky, the thunder, the sea, the fertile land and rich harvest- they are here, but the gods of dark, snowy winters are not. I don't have a god for the bake of an Australian summer, the burning bushland... only the sun herself. She rises, she falls, I miss her full glory now but cower away from it when she returns to full strength.

It all hinges on what I think the gods really are, what celebrating the seasons is supposed to really mean. It depends how brave I am in creating a practice entirely my own and specific to this place.

ALL of this is getting the easy musings out of the way. Much of it is cut from a draft I struggle and struggle with because it's the hardest question of all: Tarndanya is the Country of the Red Kangaroo, but what can I respectfully do with that information?

What does any of this mean on stolen, colonised land? What do the real owners think of me seeing Green Twins, skogsrå and trolls in their country? What does the genius loci make of the likes of me, crying out for songs and ceremonies it will never see again? What can I do at all except say at the opening of every ritual:

I stand on Kaurna land, acknowledging their continued relationship with the lands and waters. I honour the Elders past, present, and emerging. I remember the unceded sovereignty of this Country, and I say sorry.

The land IS the Dreaming, and such knowledge as remains is not for me at all.

[ezatluba]

Tasmanian devils, known for their ferocious temperaments, have been plagued by a contagious facial cancer in recent decades.

Tasmanian devils return to mainland Australia for first time in 3,000 years

Scientists hope the scrappy predators' reintroduction can balance ecosystems ravaged by invasive species.

JASON BITTEL

OCTOBER 5, 2020

It’s been 3,000 years since the Tasmanian devil’s raspy shriek rang through the forests of mainland Australia. But now, thanks to a dogged reintroduction effort, 26 of these endangered tiny terrors have returned.

No bigger than a lapdog, these marsupials are famous for their ferocity and powerful jaws, which can reduce large carcasses to smithereens in minutes. But in the 1990s, the species was hit with a contagious and deadly mouth cancer, causing its only remaining wild population, on the Australian island state of Tasmania, to drop to just 25,000 animals.

It’s unknown why the species disappeared from Australia millennia ago, but it’s likely due to human actions—when early hunters killed off most of the continent’s megafauna, the devils had nothing left to eat.

As scavengers, devils play a crucial role in maintaining a balanced, healthy ecosystem—which is why scientists have been trying so hard to bring them back.

“We've worked for over a decade to get to this point,” says Tim Faulkner, president of AussieArk, a species recovery organization. The group collaborates closely with the nonprofits Global Wildlife Conservation and WildArk to orchestrate the release of captive-raised animals into a thousand-acre fenced area called Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary, just north of Barrington Tops National Park in eastern Australia.

Despite their fearsome reputation, “they’re no threat to humans or agriculture,” he adds.

Tasmanian devils, Sarcophilus harrisii

Even still, reintroducing animals is uncertain business, so the scientists did a soft launch of 15 devils in March of this year. The team used radio-collars to check in on the released devils, as well as put out kangaroo carcasses for food as the animals adjusted to their new home. After all of the devils showed signs of thriving, the scientists felt optimistic enough to release another 11 individuals on September 10—and now they beasts are mostly on their own.

“They're free. They're out there,” says Faulkner. “We’ve got some basic means of keeping an eye on them. But essentially, now it's over to the devils to do what they do.”

Fighting off invaders

To prepare for the devils’ arrival, Faulkner’s team fenced off a large chunk of protected eucalyptus forest, took out invasive plants, cleared leaf litter that can lead to forest fires, and used humane lethal control to remove red foxes and feral cats—introduced predators that have devastated the continent’s small mammal populations. (Read how quolls, a cat-size marsupial, were reintroduced to mainland Australia.)

Tasmanian devils enter their new home in the eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia.

Feral cats don’t prey on the devils—in fact, it’s the felines that might need to be concerned.

“The presence of devils on the landscape seems to put the cats off a bit,” says David Hamilton, a devil expert and research assistant at the University of Tasmania who was not involved in the reintroduction project. Devils don’t usually eat cats, but instead force them to hunt during dusk and dawn to avoid run-ins with the nocturnal devils.

It may seem minor, but this small shift in behavior can actually protect night-dwelling native species, such as bandicoots, several species of which are considered endangered in Australia. Interestingly, bandicoot populations increase where devils are more prominent than cats, says Hamilton. (Learn more about invasive species and their impact on the environment.)

This is exactly what Faulkner and others hope Tasmanian devils will do Australia—stabilize the continent’s ecosystems against invaders.

But it’s “a big unknown” what will happen when the devils go up against red foxes, which are larger than cats and more equal in size to devils, Hamilton cautions.

There’s also the question of whether reintroducing devils will have unforeseen consequences for other sensitive species. For instance, in 2012, an introduced population of devils in Maria Island, off the coast of Tasmania, led to the disappearance of several short-tailed shearwater colonies.

Feral cats and common brushtail possums, both non-native to the island, were already preying upon the seabirds, and though the devils started suppressing those predators, they also began eating the seabird eggs and hatchlings too.

“Theoretically, they shouldn’t have a negative impact [in Australia],” says Hamilton. “But you have to think about the entire ecosystem when you’re doing things like this, and that’s a big ask.���

This is why it’s particularly important that the reintroduction is starting off inside an expansive but fenced-off environment, he adds.

‘Ecological blink of an eye’

Assuming all goes well, the triad of conservation organizations plans to release 40 additional devils into the same protected forest over the next two years. And they’ll have company.

As the ferocious Tasmanian devil battles a fatal cancer outbreak, Australian biologists are breeding a viable, cancer-free population in captivity.

Since removing the cats and foxes, Faulkner’s team has also begun releasing other imperiled native species into the same habitat, including Parma wallabies, long-nosed bandicoots, long-nosed potoroos, and rufous bettongs. (Learn about the silent decline of the platypus, Australia’s beloved oddity.)

AussieArk plans to release even more of those species over the next six months, in addition to eastern quolls, brush-tailed rock wallabies, and southern brown bandicoots.

These tiny mammals are crucial to keeping their environment clean and healthy by dispersing seeds and reducing wildfire intensity by digging up leaf litter and speeding up its decomposition.

“It really comes down to these smaller, terrestrial ecosystem engineers that turn over leaf litter,” Faulkner says. “A bandicoot turns over an elephant’s [weight] of soil each year. One bandicoot.”

If the experiments prove successful, there are 370,000 acres of protected land nearby into which the reintroductions could expand, he adds.

“I really believe that over time, we'll see the devil become a normal part of mainland Australia,” says Faulkner. “It was here 3,000 years ago. You know, that's an ecological blink of an eye.”

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

The fast-moving fires that swept through Western United States have wiped out critical populations of endangered species and incinerated native habitats that may take years to recover, if they recover at all.

Fire is a critical part of ecosystems in the West,  and many plants and animals depend on it to thrive, but the heat and intensity of the wildfires now ravaging California, Oregon, Washington and other Western states are so destructive that wildlife in some areas may struggle to recover.

“Some of these places we set aside may be fundamentally impacted by climate change and may not be able to come back,” said Amy Windrope, deputy director of Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. “That’s just a reality.”

Wildlife officials all over the West are grappling with how to respond now that the existence of  habitats set aside for threatened species appear to be imperiled by megafires made worse by climate change.

Fire that raced through the sagebrush steppe country of central Washington this month destroyed several state wildlife areas, leaving little more than bare ground. The flames killed about half of the state’s endangered population of pygmy rabbits, leaving only about 50 of the palm-sized rabbits in the wild there.

The fires also destroyed critical breeding grounds for endangered sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse, and officials estimate the fast-moving flames may have wiped out 30 to 70 percent of the birds. The survivors are left without the critical brush cover they need to raise young.

In Oregon, the fires have largely raged in western pine forests, prompting different concerns. Several endangered and threatened species, including the northern spotted owl and the weasel-like pine marten, depend on the mature mountain forests that bore the brunt of the fires.

The impact of hundreds of thousands of acres of barren slopes may spread well beyond the fires’ reach and remain once the flames are out. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is bracing for winter rains that could wash ash and silt into local streams and impact endangered salmon.

[phroyd]

WASHINGTON — Humans are transforming Earth’s natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival, a sweeping new United Nations assessment has concluded.

The 1,500-page report, compiled by hundreds of international experts and based on thousands of scientific studies, is the most exhaustive look yet at the decline in biodiversity across the globe and the dangers that creates for human civilization. A summary of its findings, which was approved by representatives from the United States and 131 other countries, was released Monday in Paris. The full report is set to be published this year.

Its conclusions are stark. In most major land habitats, from the savannas of Africa to the rain forests of South America, the average abundance of native plant and animal life has fallen by 20 percent or more, mainly over the past century. With the human population passing 7 billion, activities like farming, logging, poaching, fishing and mining are altering the natural world at a rate “unprecedented in human history.”

At the same time, a new threat has emerged: Global warming has become a major driver of wildlife decline, the assessment found, by shifting or shrinking the local climates that many mammals, birds, insects, fish and plants evolved to survive in.

As a result, biodiversity loss is projected to accelerate through 2050, particularly in the tropics, unless countries drastically step up their conservation efforts.

The report is not the first to paint a grim portrait of Earth’s ecosystems. But it goes further by detailing how closely human well-being is intertwined with the fate of other species.

“For a long time, people just thought of biodiversity as saving nature for its own sake,” said Robert Watson, chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services,which conducted the assessment at the request of national governments. “But this report makes clear the links between biodiversity and nature and things like food security and clean water in both rich and poor countries.”

A previous report by the group had estimated that, in the Americas, nature provides some $24 trillion of non-monetized benefits to humans each year. The Amazon rain forest absorbs immense quantities of carbon dioxide and helps slow the pace of global warming. Wetlands purify drinking water. Coral reefs sustain tourism and fisheries in the Caribbean. Exotic tropical plants form the basis of a variety of medicines.

But as these natural landscapes wither and become less biologically rich, the services they can provide to humans have been dwindling.

Humans are producing more food than ever, but land degradation is already harming agricultural productivity on 23 percent of the planet’s land area, the new report said. The decline of wild bees and other insects that help pollinate fruits and vegetables is putting up to $577 billion in annual crop production at risk. The loss of mangrove forests and coral reefs along coasts could expose up to 300 million people to increased risk of flooding.

The authors note that the devastation of nature has become so severe that piecemeal efforts to protect individual species or to set up wildlife refuges will no longer be sufficient. Instead, they call for “transformative changes” that include curbing wasteful consumption, slimming down agriculture’s environmental footprint and cracking down on illegal logging and fishing.

“It’s no longer enough to focus just on environmental policy,” said Sandra M. Díaz, a lead author of the study and an ecologist at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina. “We need to build biodiversity considerations into trade and infrastructure decisions, the way that health or human rights are built into every aspect of social and economic decision-making.”

Scientists have cataloged only a fraction of living creatures, some 1.3 million; the report estimates there may be as many as 8 million plant and animal species on the planet, most of them insects. Since 1500, at least 680 species have blinked out of existence, including the Pinta giant tortoise of the Galápagos Islands and the Guam flying fox.

Though outside experts cautioned it could be difficult to make precise forecasts, the report warns of a looming extinction crisis, with extinction rates currently tens to hundreds of times higher than they have been in the past 10 million years.“Human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before,” the report concludes, estimating that “around 1 million species already face extinction, many within decades, unless action is taken.”

Unless nations step up their efforts to protect what natural habitats are left, they could witness the disappearance of 40 percent of amphibian species, one-third of marine mammals and one-third of reef-forming corals. More than 500,000 land species, the report said, do not have enough natural habitat left to ensure their long-term survival.

Over the past 50 years, global biodiversity loss has primarily been driven by activities like the clearing of forests for farmland, the expansion of roads and cities, logging, hunting, overfishing, water pollution and the transport of invasive species around the globe.

In Indonesia, the replacement of rain forest with palm oil plantations has ravaged the habitat of critically endangered orangutans and Sumatran tigers. In Mozambique, ivory poachers helped kill off nearly 7,000 elephants between 2009 and 2011 alone. In Argentina and Chile, the introduction of the North American beaver in the 1940s has devastated native trees (though it has also helped other species thrive, including the Magellanic woodpecker).

All told, three-quarters of the world’s land area has been significantly altered by people, the report found, and 85 percent of the world’s wetlands have vanished since the 18th century.

And with humans continuing to burn fossil fuels for energy, global warming is expected to compound the damage. Roughly 5 percent of species worldwide are threatened with climate-related extinction if global average temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the report concluded. (The world has already warmed 1 degree.)

“If climate change were the only problem we were facing, a lot of species could probably move and adapt,” Richard Pearson, an ecologist at the University College of London, said. “But when populations are already small and losing genetic diversity, when natural landscapes are already fragmented, when plants and animals can’t move to find newly suitable habitats, then we have a real threat on our hands.

The dwindling number of species will not just make the world a less colorful or wondrous place, the report noted. It also poses risks to people.

Today, humans are relying on significantly fewer varieties of plants and animals to produce food. Of the 6,190 domesticated mammal breeds used in agriculture, more than 559 have gone extinct and 1,000 more are threatened. That means the food system is becoming less resilient against pests and diseases. And it could become harder in the future to breed new, hardier crops and livestock to cope with the extreme heat and drought that climate change will bring.

“Most of nature’s contributions are not fully replaceable,” the report said. Biodiversity loss “can permanently reduce future options, such as wild species that might be domesticated as new crops and be used for genetic improvement.”

The report does contain glimmers of hope. When governments have acted forcefully to protect threatened species, such as the Arabian oryx or the Seychelles magpie robin, they have managed to fend off extinction in many cases. And nations have protected more than 15 percent of the world’s land and 7 percent of its oceans by setting up nature reserves and wilderness areas.

Still, only a fraction of the most important areas for biodiversity have been protected, and many nature reserves poorly enforce prohibitions against poaching, logging or illegal fishing. Climate change could also undermine existing wildlife refuges by shifting the geographic ranges of species that currently live within them.

So, in addition to advocating the expansion of protected areas, the authors outline a vast array of changes aimed at limiting the drivers of biodiversity loss.

Farmers and ranchers would have to adopt new techniques to grow more food on less land. Consumers in wealthy countries would have to waste less food and become more efficient in their use of natural resources. Governments around the world would have to strengthen and enforce environmental laws, cracking down on illegal logging and fishing and reducing the flow of heavy metals and untreated wastewater into the environment.

The authors also note that efforts to limit global warming will be critical, although they caution that the development of biofuels to reduce emissions could end up harming biodiversity by further destroying forests.

None of this will be easy, especially since many developing countries face pressure to exploit their natural resources as they try to lift themselves out of poverty.

But, by detailing the benefits that nature can provide to people, and by trying to quantify what is lost when biodiversity plummets, the scientists behind the assessment are hoping to help governments strike a more careful balance between economic development and conservation.

“You can’t just tell leaders in Africa that there can’t be any development and that we should turn the whole continent into a national park,” said Emma Archer, who led the group’s earlier assessment of biodiversity in Africa. “But we can show that there are trade-offs, that if you don’t take into account the value that nature provides, then ultimately human well-being will be compromised.”

In the next two years, diplomats from around the world will gather for several meetings under the Convention on Biological Diversity, a global treaty, to discuss how they can step up their efforts at conservation. Yet even in the new report’s most optimistic scenario, through 2050 the world’s nations would only slow the decline of biodiversity — not stop it.

“At this point,” said Jake Rice, a fisheries scientist who led an earlier report on biodiversity in the Americas, “our options are all about damage control.”

Phroyd

[nasa]

5 Things: How Hurricanes Have Changed Puerto Rico’s Forests

In September 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico, knocking out critical infrastructure and ransacking the island’s forests. In April and May 2018, a team of our scientists took to the air to take three-dimensional images of Puerto Rico’s forests using Goddard’s Lidar, Hyperspectral, and Thermal Imager (G-LIHT), which uses light in the form of a pulsed laser. By comparing images of the same forests taken by the team before and after the storm, scientists will be able to use those data to study how hurricanes change these important ecosystems.

Here are five ways scientists say the hurricanes have changed Puerto Rico’s forests since making landfall eight months ago:

1. The Canopy Is Bare

One word defines the post-hurricane forest canopy in El Yunque National Forest: Open.

“The trees have been stripped clean,” said NASA Goddard Earth scientist and G-LiHT co-investigator Doug Morton. He was there a year ago, months before the hurricanes would ravage the area. When he returned to the forest in April 2018 to gather measurements of trees on the ground to complement the airborne campaign’s lidar work, he could now see from the mountainside downtown San Juan, which is 45-minutes away by car.

And no canopy means no shade. “Where once maybe a few flecks of sunlight reached the forest floor, now the ground is saturated in light,” Morton said, adding that such a change could have profound consequences for the overall forest ecosystem. For example, some tree seedlings that thrive on a cool forest floor may whither now that daytime temperatures are as much as 4 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than they were before the hurricane. Meanwhile, as we shall see, other plants and animals stand to benefit from such changes.

“Who are the winners and losers in this post-hurricane forest ecosystem, and how will that play out in the long run? Those are two of the key questions,” said Morton.

2. Palms Are on the Rise

One species that’s basking in all that sunlight is the Sierra Palm, said Maria Uriarte, a professor of ecology at Columbia University who has researched El Yunque National Forest for 15 years. “Before, the palms were squeezed in with the other trees in the canopy and fighting for sunlight, and now they’re up there mostly by themselves,” she said. “They’re fruiting like crazy right now.”

The secret to their survival: Biomechanics.

“The palm generally doesn’t break because it’s got a flexible stem—it’s got so much play,” Uriarte said. “For the most part, during a storm it sways back and forth and loses its fronds and has a bad hair day and then it’s back to normal.” By contrast, neighboring trees with very dense, strong wood, like the Tabonuco, were snapped in half or completely uprooted by the force of the hurricane winds.

“Palm trees are going to be a major component of the canopy of this forest for the next decade or so,” added Doug Morton. “They’ll help to facilitate recovery by providing some shade and protection as well as structure for both flora and fauna.”

3. Vines Are Creeping Opportunists

Rising noticeably from the post-Hurricane forest floor of El Yunque National Forest are woody vines called lianas. Rooted in the ground, their goal, Morton says, is to climb onto host trees and compete for sunlight at the top. That, combined with the fact that their weight tends to slow tree productivity potential, means they are literally a drag on the forest canopy. As lianas can wind their way around several trees, regions with more of these vines tend to have larger groupings of trees that get pulled down together.

“There’s some indication that vines may be more competitive in a warmer, drier, and more carbon dioxide-rich world,” Morton said. “That’s a hypothesis we’re interested in exploring.”

4. Endangered Parrot Populations Have Taken a Hit

The endangered Iguaca is the last living native parrot species of Puerto Rico. The island’s two Iguaca aviaries have reported a substantial number of deaths in the wild due to the hurricanes. In the forests of Río Abajo, in western central Puerto Rico, about 100 of the roughly 140 wild parrots survived; in El Yunque National Forest in the eastern part of the island, only three of the 53 to 56 wild parrots are known to have pulled through.

“It was a huge blow,” said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Tom White, a parrot biologist stationed at the aviary in El Yunque, which took the brunt of Hurricane Maria’s Category 5 winds. Some of the parrots died from injuries received during the storm, while others likely died from increased predation from hawks because there were no longer canopies for them to hide in. The rest succumbed to starvation. The Iguaca subsists on flowers, fruits, seeds, and leaves derived from more than 60 species—but for several months following the storm, the forest was completely defoliated.

Despite the setback, White said he’s optimistic that the Iguaca will rebound. In Río Abajo, the number of wild Iguaca are enough that they should rebound on their own; in El Yunque there are about 227 birds at the aviary—a strong number for continued breeding and eventual release into the forest once conditions improve enough. “One of their main fruit comes from the sierra palm, and they’re now flowering and starting to produce again,” White noted. “It’s probably going to take about another year for things to level out, but the forest is gritty.”

5. Lizards and Frogs: A Mixed Response

When Hurricane Maria stripped the leaves off of trees, changes in the forest microclimate instantly transformed the living conditions for lizards and frogs. Species have reacted differently to the event based on the conditions they are adapted to, said herpetologist Neftali Ríos-López, an associate professor at the University of Puerto Rico-Humacao Campus.

For example, some lizard species are naturally suited to the forest canopy, which is warmer and drier. “After the hurricane, those conditions, which were once exclusive to the canopy, have now been extended down to the forest floor,” Ríos-Lopez said. “As a result, these lizards start displacing and substituting animals that were adapted to the once cooler conditions on the forest floor.”

Likewise, among frog species the red-eyed coquí, with its resistance to temperature and humidity fluctuations and its ability to handle dehydration better than other coquí species, has benefited from the warmer, drier conditions in the forests after the storm. Traditionally a grassland species, they are expanding from the lowlands to the mid- and even high parts of the mountains, Ríos-Lopez said. “Physiologically, what was a disadvantage for that species when the whole island was forested now finds itself in a positive position.” Conversely, forest-acclimated coquí frog species have declined.

That said, as the forests recover, so will many of the species whose numbers have dwindled following the storms. “It will take many years, decades, I would guess,” Ríos-Lopez said.

Our scientists are working with partners from universities and government to use G-LiHT airborne data to inform ground research on forest and other ecosystems not only in Puerto Rico but also throughout the world. To follow their campaigns and keep up with the latest news, find them here: https://gliht.gsfc.nasa.gov.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

[heartmylifes]

Timour and the Emperor Baber

Even after the ravages of that conqueror, however, Timour and the Emperor Baber, who had a right to judge of the comparative excellence of the countries of the East, bear witness to the beauty of Sogdiana. Timour, who had fixed his imperial seat in Samarcand, boasted he had a garden 120 miles in extent. Baber expatiates on the grain and fruit and game of its northern parts; of the tulips, violets, and roses of another locality; of the streams and gardens of another. Its plains are said by travellers to abound in wood, its rivers in fish, its valleys in fruit trees, in wheat and barley, and in cotton.

The quince, pomegranate, fig, apricot, and almond all flourish in it. Its melons are the finest in the world. Mulberries abound, and provide for a considerable manufacture of silk. No wine, says Baber, is equal to the wine of Bokhara. Its atmosphere is so clear and serene, that the stars are visible even to the verge of the horizon tours bulgaria. A recent Russian traveller says he came to a country so smiling, well-cultivated, and thickly peopled, with fields, canals, avenues of trees, villages, and gardens, that he thought himself in an enchanted country.

Arab in our Indian armies

He speaks in raptures of its melons, pomegranates, and grapes.t Its breed of horses is celebrated; so much so that a late British travellerf visited the country with the special object of substituting it for the Arab in our Indian armies. Its mountains abound in useful and precious produce. Coal is found there; gold is collected from its rivers; silver and iron are yielded by its hills; we hear too of its mines of turquoise, and of its cliffs of lapis lazuli, and its mines of rubies, which to this day are the object of the traveller’s curiosity.f I might extend my remarks to the country south of the Oxus and of its mountain range, the modern Affghanistan. Though Cabul is 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, it abounds in pomegranates, mulberries, apples, and fruit of every kind. Grapes are so plentiful, that for three months of the year they are given to the cattle.

This region, favoured in soil and climate, is favoured also in position. Lying at the mouth of the two great roads of emigration from the far East, the valleys of the Jaxartes and the Oxus, it is the natural mart between High Asia and Europe, receiving the merchandize of East and North, and transporting it by its rivers, by the Caspian, the Kur, and the Phasis, to the Black Sea. Thus it received in former, days the silk of China, the musk of Thibet, and the furs of Siberia, and shipped them for the cities of the Roman Empire. To Samareand, its metropolis, we owe the art of transforming linen into paper, which the Sogdian merchants are said to have gained from China, and thence diffused by means of their own manufacturers over the western world.

A people so circumstanced could not be without civilization; but that civilization was of a much earlier date. It must not be forgotten that the celebrated sage, Zoroaster, before the times of history, was a native, and, as some say, king of Bactria. Cyrus had established a city in the same region, which he called after his name. Alexander conquered both Bactria and Sogdiana, and planted Grecian cities there. There is a long line of Graeco-Bactrian kings; and their coins and paterae have been brought to light within the last few years. Alexander’s name is still famous in the country; not only does Marco Polo in the middle ages speak of his descendants as still found there, but even within the last fifteen years Sir Alexander Burns found a man professing that descent in the valley of the Oxus, and Lieutenant Wood another in the same neighbourhood.

[fashionphotograpybg]

Timour and the Emperor Baber

Even after the ravages of that conqueror, however, Timour and the Emperor Baber, who had a right to judge of the comparative excellence of the countries of the East, bear witness to the beauty of Sogdiana. Timour, who had fixed his imperial seat in Samarcand, boasted he had a garden 120 miles in extent. Baber expatiates on the grain and fruit and game of its northern parts; of the tulips, violets, and roses of another locality; of the streams and gardens of another. Its plains are said by travellers to abound in wood, its rivers in fish, its valleys in fruit trees, in wheat and barley, and in cotton.

The quince, pomegranate, fig, apricot, and almond all flourish in it. Its melons are the finest in the world. Mulberries abound, and provide for a considerable manufacture of silk. No wine, says Baber, is equal to the wine of Bokhara. Its atmosphere is so clear and serene, that the stars are visible even to the verge of the horizon tours bulgaria. A recent Russian traveller says he came to a country so smiling, well-cultivated, and thickly peopled, with fields, canals, avenues of trees, villages, and gardens, that he thought himself in an enchanted country.

Arab in our Indian armies

He speaks in raptures of its melons, pomegranates, and grapes.t Its breed of horses is celebrated; so much so that a late British travellerf visited the country with the special object of substituting it for the Arab in our Indian armies. Its mountains abound in useful and precious produce. Coal is found there; gold is collected from its rivers; silver and iron are yielded by its hills; we hear too of its mines of turquoise, and of its cliffs of lapis lazuli, and its mines of rubies, which to this day are the object of the traveller’s curiosity.f I might extend my remarks to the country south of the Oxus and of its mountain range, the modern Affghanistan. Though Cabul is 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, it abounds in pomegranates, mulberries, apples, and fruit of every kind. Grapes are so plentiful, that for three months of the year they are given to the cattle.

This region, favoured in soil and climate, is favoured also in position. Lying at the mouth of the two great roads of emigration from the far East, the valleys of the Jaxartes and the Oxus, it is the natural mart between High Asia and Europe, receiving the merchandize of East and North, and transporting it by its rivers, by the Caspian, the Kur, and the Phasis, to the Black Sea. Thus it received in former, days the silk of China, the musk of Thibet, and the furs of Siberia, and shipped them for the cities of the Roman Empire. To Samareand, its metropolis, we owe the art of transforming linen into paper, which the Sogdian merchants are said to have gained from China, and thence diffused by means of their own manufacturers over the western world.

A people so circumstanced could not be without civilization; but that civilization was of a much earlier date. It must not be forgotten that the celebrated sage, Zoroaster, before the times of history, was a native, and, as some say, king of Bactria. Cyrus had established a city in the same region, which he called after his name. Alexander conquered both Bactria and Sogdiana, and planted Grecian cities there. There is a long line of Graeco-Bactrian kings; and their coins and paterae have been brought to light within the last few years. Alexander’s name is still famous in the country; not only does Marco Polo in the middle ages speak of his descendants as still found there, but even within the last fifteen years Sir Alexander Burns found a man professing that descent in the valley of the Oxus, and Lieutenant Wood another in the same neighbourhood.

[hopegooday]

Timour and the Emperor Baber

Even after the ravages of that conqueror, however, Timour and the Emperor Baber, who had a right to judge of the comparative excellence of the countries of the East, bear witness to the beauty of Sogdiana. Timour, who had fixed his imperial seat in Samarcand, boasted he had a garden 120 miles in extent. Baber expatiates on the grain and fruit and game of its northern parts; of the tulips, violets, and roses of another locality; of the streams and gardens of another. Its plains are said by travellers to abound in wood, its rivers in fish, its valleys in fruit trees, in wheat and barley, and in cotton.

The quince, pomegranate, fig, apricot, and almond all flourish in it. Its melons are the finest in the world. Mulberries abound, and provide for a considerable manufacture of silk. No wine, says Baber, is equal to the wine of Bokhara. Its atmosphere is so clear and serene, that the stars are visible even to the verge of the horizon tours bulgaria. A recent Russian traveller says he came to a country so smiling, well-cultivated, and thickly peopled, with fields, canals, avenues of trees, villages, and gardens, that he thought himself in an enchanted country.

Arab in our Indian armies

He speaks in raptures of its melons, pomegranates, and grapes.t Its breed of horses is celebrated; so much so that a late British travellerf visited the country with the special object of substituting it for the Arab in our Indian armies. Its mountains abound in useful and precious produce. Coal is found there; gold is collected from its rivers; silver and iron are yielded by its hills; we hear too of its mines of turquoise, and of its cliffs of lapis lazuli, and its mines of rubies, which to this day are the object of the traveller’s curiosity.f I might extend my remarks to the country south of the Oxus and of its mountain range, the modern Affghanistan. Though Cabul is 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, it abounds in pomegranates, mulberries, apples, and fruit of every kind. Grapes are so plentiful, that for three months of the year they are given to the cattle.

This region, favoured in soil and climate, is favoured also in position. Lying at the mouth of the two great roads of emigration from the far East, the valleys of the Jaxartes and the Oxus, it is the natural mart between High Asia and Europe, receiving the merchandize of East and North, and transporting it by its rivers, by the Caspian, the Kur, and the Phasis, to the Black Sea. Thus it received in former, days the silk of China, the musk of Thibet, and the furs of Siberia, and shipped them for the cities of the Roman Empire. To Samareand, its metropolis, we owe the art of transforming linen into paper, which the Sogdian merchants are said to have gained from China, and thence diffused by means of their own manufacturers over the western world.

A people so circumstanced could not be without civilization; but that civilization was of a much earlier date. It must not be forgotten that the celebrated sage, Zoroaster, before the times of history, was a native, and, as some say, king of Bactria. Cyrus had established a city in the same region, which he called after his name. Alexander conquered both Bactria and Sogdiana, and planted Grecian cities there. There is a long line of Graeco-Bactrian kings; and their coins and paterae have been brought to light within the last few years. Alexander’s name is still famous in the country; not only does Marco Polo in the middle ages speak of his descendants as still found there, but even within the last fifteen years Sir Alexander Burns found a man professing that descent in the valley of the Oxus, and Lieutenant Wood another in the same neighbourhood.

[ladykazanlak]

Timour and the Emperor Baber

Even after the ravages of that conqueror, however, Timour and the Emperor Baber, who had a right to judge of the comparative excellence of the countries of the East, bear witness to the beauty of Sogdiana. Timour, who had fixed his imperial seat in Samarcand, boasted he had a garden 120 miles in extent. Baber expatiates on the grain and fruit and game of its northern parts; of the tulips, violets, and roses of another locality; of the streams and gardens of another. Its plains are said by travellers to abound in wood, its rivers in fish, its valleys in fruit trees, in wheat and barley, and in cotton.

The quince, pomegranate, fig, apricot, and almond all flourish in it. Its melons are the finest in the world. Mulberries abound, and provide for a considerable manufacture of silk. No wine, says Baber, is equal to the wine of Bokhara. Its atmosphere is so clear and serene, that the stars are visible even to the verge of the horizon tours bulgaria. A recent Russian traveller says he came to a country so smiling, well-cultivated, and thickly peopled, with fields, canals, avenues of trees, villages, and gardens, that he thought himself in an enchanted country.

Arab in our Indian armies

He speaks in raptures of its melons, pomegranates, and grapes.t Its breed of horses is celebrated; so much so that a late British travellerf visited the country with the special object of substituting it for the Arab in our Indian armies. Its mountains abound in useful and precious produce. Coal is found there; gold is collected from its rivers; silver and iron are yielded by its hills; we hear too of its mines of turquoise, and of its cliffs of lapis lazuli, and its mines of rubies, which to this day are the object of the traveller’s curiosity.f I might extend my remarks to the country south of the Oxus and of its mountain range, the modern Affghanistan. Though Cabul is 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, it abounds in pomegranates, mulberries, apples, and fruit of every kind. Grapes are so plentiful, that for three months of the year they are given to the cattle.

This region, favoured in soil and climate, is favoured also in position. Lying at the mouth of the two great roads of emigration from the far East, the valleys of the Jaxartes and the Oxus, it is the natural mart between High Asia and Europe, receiving the merchandize of East and North, and transporting it by its rivers, by the Caspian, the Kur, and the Phasis, to the Black Sea. Thus it received in former, days the silk of China, the musk of Thibet, and the furs of Siberia, and shipped them for the cities of the Roman Empire. To Samareand, its metropolis, we owe the art of transforming linen into paper, which the Sogdian merchants are said to have gained from China, and thence diffused by means of their own manufacturers over the western world.

A people so circumstanced could not be without civilization; but that civilization was of a much earlier date. It must not be forgotten that the celebrated sage, Zoroaster, before the times of history, was a native, and, as some say, king of Bactria. Cyrus had established a city in the same region, which he called after his name. Alexander conquered both Bactria and Sogdiana, and planted Grecian cities there. There is a long line of Graeco-Bactrian kings; and their coins and paterae have been brought to light within the last few years. Alexander’s name is still famous in the country; not only does Marco Polo in the middle ages speak of his descendants as still found there, but even within the last fifteen years Sir Alexander Burns found a man professing that descent in the valley of the Oxus, and Lieutenant Wood another in the same neighbourhood.

[sky-hunters]

Booking for 2021 Season with Skyhunter Outfitters LLC Commences Soon

2020 has been a slow year for many sectors and industries. Due to Covid-19, many things have come to a standstill and looks like it is going to take time for everything to get back into shape. Just like everything else, Even Skyhunter Outfitters LLC had to take a break for some time and get adjusted to the Covid-19 situation. However, the booking for the 2021 season have been started and those who want to be a part of the thrilling activity can contact the outfitters at the earliest.

The hunt that is carried out is not for one of the native species, but instead for Feral Hogs an invasive species of animals rapidly invading and destroying the American farmland and wilderness alike. These animals were introduced for sport hunting by the Spanish settlers years ago. These animals escaped in the wild and were bred with the domestic pigs that were abandoned or had fled from the farms. The resulting animal is the one that we encounter today and is known by the name feral hogs, feral pigs, razorbacks, wild hogs and other names. Weighing anywhere between 150 and 450 pounds, these animals are fast-breeding and fast-maturing omnivores who eat small native reptiles, mammals and eggs of ground birds. They also ravage the land uprooting plants and trampling the ground causing the ground to become barren and loose causing soil erosion. Their ill effects are felt equally on the wildlife as it is on the farmlands.

Since they are also very aggressive, mobile, and fast-breeding, the traditional means of hunting and wildlife management techniques to quell their numbers have proven futile. That is why in 2011, the House Bill was introduced by Texas allowing for the use of Helicopters and Private Contractors to minimize their numbers. That is where we can make a difference. Skyhunter Outfitters LLC can facilitate for you to hunt these animals as much as you want from the safety of our powerful Bell 206 helicopters and armed with a powerful weapon. We provide a complete hunting experience with an evening of our home-style Southern hospitality followed by a good night’s rest and proper aerial gunnery and safety briefing before beginning the hunt. While on the hunt, you get professional-grade weapons and plenty of ammo to help you shoot down hogs as much as you want. You can make it a solo trip, a family vacation, or even a corporate team building.

Chris Hitt is the pilot who also heads the Skyhunter Outfitters and one of the finest pilots you can find to support you during the hunting expedition. Chris has plenty of experience from his earlier stint as a pilot of US Army Cavalry Scout flying with the 6th Cavalry 10th Combat Aviation Brigade. He has flown the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior gathering ample experience in Aerial Scouting and Gunnery with being a Certified Mountain Master Gunner. He briefs the hunters before each hunt and also flies them expertly to improve their chances of hitting their targets during the hunt. Chris is also well versed with wildlife management techniques having been mentored by his father Mike who is an experienced hunter and landowner. Mike spent a lot of time working for Coca-Cola, being an expert in logistics and he liaisons with farmers and landowners to get real-time information to Chris and the hunters.

The professional and supportive attitude of Skyhunter Outfitters and the warm hospitality is sure to make this a memorable experience for hunters flying with them.

For more information visit https://sky-hunters.com/

[cykosis]

pt 1

this is part one!

part 2 is here

Under the cover of night, Calus knew he would be safe.  He looked back at his home, at the faint lights of Garudia, he felt a significant heaviness in his chest.  Leaving home was the goal of every young adult, but he was hardly under the same circumstances.

           He was sick.  He was deadly.  He slowed his gait a bit, squinting under the ill light of twilight, and examined his hands out in front of him.  Maybe it had all been a delusion; maybe he could go home now.

           Though he knew there was a negative chance of that being true, the disappointment that flooded him when he saw the black dots of mold on his hands up to his wrists.  It was still true; he was still decomposing from his affliction. Disappointed, he picked up his pace and crossed his arms tightly over his chest to hide his mold-ridden hands from anyone who may be looking.

           Milstrun was an organism native to this planet, one that had evolved alongside humanity for what people believed to be the origin of humanity itself.  It had been first spotted in the central continent of Kylan, which had since been reduced to a toxic wasteland.  Somehow during the spread of humanity to the rest of the continents; Serason in the west, Tylal in the north, Nise in the east, and an alleged fifth continent far to the south where Calus knew he would never go, it had spread as well, but only to Serason.

           Serason had since been isolated from the rest of the world, as nobody knew how to contain this invasive organism that behaved more like a parasite than a fungus, copying genetic material, contorting internal organs into a breeding ground.  For eons, Serason had been uninhabited.

           Recently, he knew, or at least in the past two hundred years as he had become certain, milstrun had retreated out of the center of the continent.  In its place, immigrant settlers had created the town of Yvas, which is where Calus had been born twenty-one years ago.  Cases had dropped, though milstrun was obviously still a threat to the people who lived here.

           There was no way to survive an infestation of milstrun, Calus knew that.  That is why his parents and community had isolated him in a tiny home outside the limits of Garudia, to keep the death toll to just him.

           It was strange, he thought, how everyone had kept him in there.  Nobody had necessarily told him they looked forward to seeing him again; he knew it was due to his affliction, but that did not make the swirling thoughts of inadequacy leave his mind.

           Were his parents already working on replacing him? Grief nearly took him over, but he assured himself it did not matter.  Who was he to run back there, raise holy hell, perhaps take down all Garudia with him because his parents wanted a child?  He knew people needed to reproduce to survive, knew he was not the only child they could have.

           All the same, it did his heart no favors to think on this.

           Even if he could rip the fungus out of himself, though, he knew it would do no good.  For when he had been making his escape, people had tried to stop him. And in his rage, he had killed them. It had only been two guards, and perhaps another person would know he’d done what he needed to do, but somehow that knowledge escaped Calus himself.

           The problem was not so much he had killed them, but how he had done it.  Had he broken their skulls in, stabbed them through, even poisoned them, it would not haunt him so.  But this was not the case; he had done what no human should have been capable of doing. He personally had reached out to defend himself, and the milstrun had sprung from him, eviscerating, and effectively vaporizing his targets within minutes.

           Their screams still rang in his ears, despite how hard Calus tried to shake them away.  People weren’t supposed to be able to do that.  Milstrun was supposed to kill its host, not kill everyone else for its host.

           Calus knew he could control it; he’d spent some of his three mile walk thus far releasing and retracting it, studying the tendrils that came from his body like spears made of black tar.  There on his fingertips, there were dark patches of mold it sprang from.

           The tendrils themselves were thin, about the same thickness of his fingernails.  As they expanded from his body, they split and doubled every few centimeters, if he was measuring correctly.  They could ravage the body from multiple angles, slipping through protective measures such as clothing or armor through the tiny gaps to feast on the warm organic material contained within.

           But the worst aspect of all, he had decided as he continued, was that it fed him the nourishment it gained from others. When it happened, it was unlike any sensation he had ever felt before.  Surges of thick energy flooded his body, his senses seemed to work better, and the coldness he’d felt since infection subsided.  Unfortunately, it came at the high price of killing someone.

           That was why he was out here, though.  He was going to go back to the swamp where he knew he contracted the fungus, and it would come down to which organism was stronger. If he could eradicate the milstrun from here, if he could be the only person still affected by it, he would be helping innumerable people.  Normal people couldn’t be around it, but he could.  At best, perhaps he would gain absolute control over the fungus.  At worst, he would become a number on its death toll.  Either way, he had nowhere else to go.

             It was well into the dawn of the next day until he saw the limits of the swamp, concealed by thick trees that stood alongside the mountain path at the edge of northwestern Serason.  Years ago, he had been foolish enough to go near those trees, and it had caused all of this.  Now, three years later, he was coming back with something of a grudge.  Milstrun had taken so much from him; he wasn’t sure what he could do, but he was going to do something.

           Checking to ensure nobody was tailing him this far, he slipped between the trees and into the glowing ecosystem within.

           Swamps occupied by milstrun were special in the fact that their biodiversity was something of legends.  Though it was deadly to humans and mammalian creatures, plants seemed to thrive under its rule.  Trees sprouted up at record speeds, the soil was rich with nutrients, and the system itself would seem to fight back when people would try to tear down the trees that kept its swamps contained.  In recent years, development of regions where swampland was prevalent had completely stopped, leaving Serason in a sort of purgatory when it came to foundation.

           In here, he could see the majesty for all it was worth.  The trees extended up, nearly blocking the sun entirely, though it was far from dark within.  Gleams of bioluminescence illuminated the plants it was strung into, setting a soothing green over the environment.  The water, though clearly stagnant, gave off a similar eerie glow.  Faint shades of red, purple, and blue were dotted through the glow, revealing that the plants here had a substantially different appearance than ones outside.  Calus had seen flowers in such colors, but never ferns and grasses.

           An overwhelming sense of peace came over him, exiling concerns of the danger that could be lurking within.  What would possibly live here?  Certainly not a mammal, certainly not a human, and he was sure even reptiles and amphibians would stand nary a chance against him and the milstrun.

           He hadn’t realized it before, due to him being trapped in the attitude of this being a curse.  But this was incredible; he knew the reality of his situation had not quite hit him.  He was unstoppable; nobody could come after him when he was the host to such a dangerous plant.  If only this power did not come with the knowledge, he would be lonely.

           Would he be?  Calus stepped to the water’s edge, peering down into the green glow. Despite being infected for so long, he hadn’t transmitted it to anybody else.  For years before his skin had begun rotting, he had been around his family, and they were fine.  He hesitated before looking back, acting as though he would really turn around and leave this sanctuary.

           People wouldn’t want to be around him; he knew that. When Garudia had found out he’d been infected, the denizens had sharply turned against him.  Claimed they had been experiencing nausea, dizziness, any symptom they could throw at him to say no, he was contagious, he needed to be put away.  Slowly, he turned back to the water and stared aimlessly downwards.

           This wasn’t fair, but Calus knew well enough to not gripe about that.  Everyone knew life wasn’t fair; it was childish to proclaim it as though the world did not know.  It was nobody’s fault he had gotten infected, not even his own.  It was nobody’s fault milstrun shredded through life itself to feed. All the same, he could not help but feel the suffocating sensation of depression weighing him down.

           To snap himself out of this, Calus knelt and placed his hand into the water, moving it to see what lay below the thick scum resting atop it.  The water was cool and inviting, though the slickness of it made his stomach turn.

             In the gaps between the scum, the light became nearly blinding.  He squinted hard once more, until the muscles around his eyes screamed in agony.  Deep, deep down, there was blackness.

           But not the blackness of a muddy floor; no, this was pure darkness.  Pure black, stretching the entire length.  It was milstrun; he knew it was.

           To his knowledge, however, milstrun did not exist independently of host organisms.  If it were truly infecting the ecosystem, there shouldn’t be this abundance of life.  Even if the plants had somehow evolved to handle the infestation, he’d never heard of milstrun benefitting an ecosystem.  In Kylan, milstrun had toxified the entire continent, making it inhospitable to all forms of life.  It was said even microbial life was incapable of sustaining itself on the bare rock foundation that was Kylan today.

           Yet here it was, the largest mass of milstrun he’d ever seen in his life.  It felt as though it were calling to him, asking him to reach closer.  Outside of himself, he obliged immediately.

           Deeper onto the bank he went, stretching with all his might to try and touch this awe-inspiring amalgamation.  If he could only just touch it, he would be able to see how powerful he was.  If he could only just touch it, he would be able to do anything he wanted.  But it was always just out of his reach; always just beyond where his fingers could brush against.  He paused and took inventory of his position, where he was centimeters from stepping into the water.  He knew, it wasn’t worth getting damp and dirty over, but the desire for this unknown strength urged him on.

           Despite his desire, he could not bring himself to go all the way in the water.  He could not bring himself to step down into that water, thinking of all the unknown creatures that could be lurking just below the surface.  His hand he could easily remove; if he were vulnerable, there was no telling what could ambush him.

           This cyclical thinking was getting him nowhere. Of course there would be danger here; hadn’t that been what he’d been counting on?  Safety from the outside world, knowing he could combat any opposing forces on his own?  With a deep breath, he moved closer, keeping one foot on dry ground as he maneuvered slightly into the water, stretching as far as his body would allow him.

           It made no difference; it was still too far below him.  Calus released an irritated sigh, groaning as loudly as he could.  Why was this so difficult?  Why couldn’t milstrun thrive somewhere else, a grassland perhaps? Or, if it had to be aquatic, it could at the very least be in water that didn’t look as though it were teeming with aggressive pathogens.

           He paused before he took another step closer, nearly stumbling and falling over into the water.  As he lifted his hand from the water and shook it dry, wiping the slime absentmindedly on his clothes, he realized something.  There was no reason for him to be struggling like this; he had all the reach he needed.  Carefully, he placed his hand back under and willed the milstrun to bridge the gap between them.

           When the two connected, it felt like a surge of energy coursing between them.  Warmth spread through Calus’s body, filling him with a tingling feeling.  His body felt pulled from reality; he was on another plane of consciousness, between him and this fungus.  It was unlike anything he could have imagined would come from such a morbid organism.

           Thoughts and knowledge which he could not comprehend at the rate which they were passed between the two flooded him, making him feel as though his very mind was expanding.  It was everywhere in him, comforting him and nourishing him.  It was warmth he could only describe as wholeness, for in this moment, he felt connected to something so deeply it felt beyond life itself.  This was where he belonged; it was welcoming him, showing him the truth that lay in the vast randomness of the universe.

           But in an instant, it was ripping out of him, feeling like it was pulling knives through his veins.  Everywhere, the shredding fire of haphazard retreat, with no thought to the body it was occupying.  

           And it was not only the pain of retreat, but the drag of that warmth with the knives out of his body.  If the pain had not already rendered him paralyzed, he would be ripping into his circulatory system to rip the milstrun out of his body himself.  It went on for ages, rendering him mute and stunned, until all at once it was gone, and Calus was left in peace to release the repressed screams.

           Though alarms were screaming in his mind, he could not feel the emotion of fear.  His eyes were wide, he knew his pupils were dilated to hell and back; he could feel the sting in his muscles, but he could not…feel afraid.  It was as though his brain and body were now two separate entities, and while his body had to endure this pain, his brain was ignorant and unbothered.

           He knew he wasn’t dead; he could still feel stimulation from the outside world.  But he, his mind, his very being, was locked behind some mental glass wall.  Of course he was able of executing commands, as he verified with conjuring up milstrun just to make sure he could.  He was entirely functional, just now with the absolute absence of emotion.

           To test it, he tried to think back on Garudia, and the crisis he’d been having the whole way here.  About how his parents had abandoned them, surely, they didn’t love him, they didn’t care if he was dead.  Likely, they were celebrating the fact they no longer had to worry about him. And where rawness had formed over his heart, now there was nothing.  It felt like a barrier protecting his heart, keeping back any emotional stimulation.

           He was free.  The milstrun, it had taken his insecurity.  It had given him the world, it had given him strength beyond his comprehension, and all it had cost was emotions that were doing him more peril than good in the first place.  Now he had challenged fate twice and come out unscathed.  No, less than unscathed.  Fate had bent to him, had felt such amazement over his potential that they had blessed him with the power of life and death.

           Milstrun couldn’t hurt him.  It wasn’t a theory anymore; it was reality.  The largest organism he’d ever seen, and it had given him everything.  If he went to Kylan, he could only imagine the strength that would be lent to him.

           That’s what he needed to do.  He needed to go to Kylan.  The most direct way would be to travel by sea from Virolia, the easternmost city on Serason.  It had been developed a few years earlier, primarily by immigrants coming in from the outside continents since it was the only coastline.  Milstrun couldn’t thrive in habitats surrounding saltwater, so it was questionably the only permanent civilization in the country despite being so new.

           His parents hadn’t wanted to move to Virolia for arguably trivial reasons; they didn’t like the sound or smell of the ocean. Now, Calus wondered if they regretted their decision.

             It would be probably two months before he reached Virolia, yet that felt like too soon.  Somehow, he had imagined there would be legions of people, all somehow keenly aware of his ability, waiting to flag him down.  It didn’t seem right that he’d be able to stumble on such power and immediately be able to get another boost.  His parents had always told him life would be difficult, and maybe that would be true if he hadn’t been dealt such a hand by fate.

[ezatluba]

The Mindo harlequin frog is one of 25 species in the Atelopus genus, one of the hardest hit by the chytrid fungus.

‘Extinct’ toad rediscovery offers hope amid amphibian apocalypse

If the Mindo harlequin toad has developed resistance to chytrid disease, that may be a sign that the global epidemic is abating.

JASON BITTEL

APRIL 27, 2020

Melissa Costales stood in the dark, listening to the sounds of insects chittering in the cloud forests of northern Ecuador.

It was August 2019 and Costales, a conservation biologist at University of New Brunswick, had traveled with colleagues to a private reserve in search of rainfrogs—small, brown amphibians that look like fallen leaves. As the cool of the night set in, the team had already found nearly a dozen rainfrog specimens, a good haul by any standards.

Then one of the scientists noticed a bright fleck of green on a low-hanging leaf, and everyone crouched down in awe.

“There it was,” says Costales, “the legendary Atelopus mindoensis!”

Before that night, A. mindoensis—commonly known as the Mindo harlequin toad—hadn’t been seen alive in 30 years. Most believed the species to be extinct, a victim of the fungal disease called chytrid.

Over the past three decades, chytrid has ravaged amphibian populations worldwide. The disease disrupts the animals’ ability to absorb oxygen and water through their skin, and it has hit species within the Atelopus genus harder than most. (Read more about the debate over the “amphibian apocalypse.”)

But the rediscovery of the Mindo harlequin toad could mean there’s hope yet for this family of amphibians, experts say.

“The fact that it has reappeared after 30 years is possibly because they have become resistant to [chytrid],” says Costales, who recently published a study on the discovery in the journal Herpetological Notes.

Scientists have documented a handful of amphibians that have developed a resistance to chytrid. Among them: Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs, variable harlequin frogs, and common rocket frogs.

But as has been the case with coronavirus in humans, there hasn’t been enough testing to know the true scope of the recovery, says Jamie Voyles, a disease ecologist at the University of Nevada in Reno.

“We know from lots of diseases, including the current pandemic, that infectious diseases and outbreaks tend to subside,” says Voyles, who wasn’t involved in the new discovery. “There’s an outbreak stage, but then frequently, there's a drop-off in terms of the severity of disease within a population. And so we have experienced a similar thing with amphibians.”

Outbreak survivors?

There are 25 species of Atelopus in Ecuador, and all of them are currently classified as either threatened, critically endangered, or presumed extinct. More than half of the species haven’t been seen since the 1980s.

The reappearance of the Mindo harlequin toad makes it the ninth species in the Atelopus genus to come back from the dead, so to speak, since 2003. (Read more about the starry night toad’s rediscovery.)

Like many of its kin, the half-inch-long toad is striking. It’s the color of a fresh lime with a few brown spots. Its eyes are jet black, with irises that look like they’ve been wrapped in gold foil.

After Costales and colleagues made the discovery last August, they saw toads five more times when they returned to the same reserve, whose name they’re keeping confidential. Three of the sightings were of juvenile toads, which means the species is reproducing—a good sign, Costales says.

Though chytrid is know to be present in the vicinity, two of the toads that the team captured did not test positive for it. This could be because the toads never come into contact with the fungi—but it also might that these amphibians have evolved a way to fend off chytrid spores.

The lesser long-nosed bat is one of only a few bat species that feeds almost exclusively on nectar. In Mexico, these bats drink nectar from agave plants, which inadvertently helps tequila producers pollinate their agave crop.

The black-footed ferret is the only ferret native to North America. These long, slender rodents feed primarily on prairie dogs, which they hunt at night. They spend 90 percent of their time underground, usually in a den stolen from a prairie dog.

The Vancouver Island marmot is Canada’s most endangered native species and most beloved. These cat-sized rodents dens hibernate during the winter and spend most of the summer months foraging for edible grasses and flowering plants.

Both male and female turquoise parrots have brightly-colored plumage, but males sport slightly brighter colors. These tiny ornate birds tend to travel in pairs or small groups, but flocks of up to thirty individual have been observed.

The Morelet's crocodile, also called the Mexican crocodile, were once hunted for their skin, which can be used to make wallets, coats, and shoes. Now these crocodiles are protected throughout their Central American range.

The Przewalski's horse is the last truly wild species of horse. It’s never been successfully domesticated nor does it descend from domesticated linages.

Giant pandas are endangered and changing that has been an uphill battle for conservationists. These rotund bears breed infrequently and raise one cub at a time.

Averaging roughly five feet in height, whooping cranes are the tallest birds in North America. Because their bones are hollow, whooping cranes are surprisingly light, rarely weighing more than 15 pounds.

Although the island fox is one of the smallest foxes on earth, it is the largest terrestrial mammal living on California’s Channel islands. Four to five pounds in weight, it’s similar in size to a house cat.

Blue iguanas are tough, large-bodied lizards that live long and reproduce often. These exceptionally rare reptiles can reach upwards of five feet in length and weigh more than 25 pounds.

“It’s certainly possible that this is what would be called a relic population,” says Voyles, “meaning that it had gone through a bottleneck of some sort, and what we’re seeing are the survivors after the outbreak.”

Hold your harlequins

“I think this is super-exciting,” says Cori Richards-Zawacki, a herpetologist at the University of Pittsburgh and Voyles’ collaborator.

“Every Atelopus species that is 'rediscovered' highlights the importance of continued surveillance, and the opportunity we have to learn from these resilient creatures about the mechanisms of recovery after epidemics," she said by email. (Learn about “ground zero” of the amphibian apocalypse.)

The rediscovery of the Mindo harlequin toad could also serve as a reminder to exercise caution before declaring a species extinct, says Richards-Zawacki: “It's hard to get funding to survey for endangered species, but near impossible to get funding to survey for extinct species.”

That’s why Costales is working to make sure the Mindo harlequin toad doesn’t slip through the cracks again.

She and the Zoology Museum of the University San Francisco de Quito have already begun to assemble a monitoring program for the species. In the future, Costales hopes to raise enough money to buy and protect some land near where the healthy A. mindoensis was found.

“Although the newly found toads are not infected with the chytrid fungus,” she says, “their survival is not guaranteed.”

[wineanddinosaur]

Why the Wines of the Future Will Be Made From Hybrid Grapes

Most of the wines drunk today are made from a single species of grape vine, Vitis vinifera. Through time, various crossings — both accidental and deliberate — have given rise to thousands of different varieties from this species, each with its own unique flavor signatures and preferred habitats. So we have the likes of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Merlot, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Sauvignon Blanc — all from vinifera, but all distinctly different. It’s estimated that around 98 percent of all wine consumed today is made from vinifera vines. So what of the 2 percent that doesn’t come from this species? It turns out that there’s an interesting story here: We may be about to see the rise of the hybrids.

What Is a Hybrid?

The term “hybrid” refers to vines that are the result of a cross between two species. The term is used as a catch-all, but frequently involves crossing native vines from North America or Asia with vinifera; however, it can also refer to accidental crosses of native vine species. When Europeans first traveled to North America they took their vines with them, but the vines failed to flourish in their new home.

The problem was a set of diseases that European vines had no resistance to, but that American vines had co-evolved with. These included the root-munching aphid phylloxera and two fungal diseases called powdery and downy mildew. Later, in the mid- to late-19th century, these diseases would jump to Europe and cause havoc. Phylloxera, in particular, almost ended wine production worldwide until a solution was found. The fix involved grafting the European vines onto rootstock from American vines. The only way to deal with the two fungal pests turned out to be spraying the vines with sulfur and copper, two chemical treatments that are still used today.

Vinifera Isn’t Very Green

The legacy of this transatlantic disease spread is that the vinifera varieties we all know and love aren’t very sustainable. To keep disease at bay vineyards need to be sprayed many times each season, either with the more traditional remedies of copper and sulfur, or with more modern systemic fungicides. Now, though, we are seeing growing concerns about the environmental impact of viticulture, and this is leading some winegrowers to explore the potential for working with hybrids that carry natural resistance to these fungi. The problem? The wine world still has a horrible bias against hybrids, which are regarded as a low-quality option compared with vinifera.

Before grafting was proposed as a solution, one idea for reviving phylloxera-ravaged vineyards was to replant with hybrid vines. Lots of work went into breeding them — the so-called French-American hybrids, but no one was convinced by the quality of the wines they produced. They were described as having a “foxy” taste, a term that has been misunderstood: They have a distinctive flavor, and this is described as foxy, but the term was originally used to describe the fondness foxes have for grapes from Vitis labrusca, an American species, rather than any resemblance between the wines and the smell of foxes. Methyl anthranilate and 2-aminoacetophenone are the aroma compounds that are typical of labruscas (such as Concord, Niagara, Catawba, and Delaware), which do have a distinctive flavor. But this isn’t shared by all hybrids.

The Hybrid-Vinifera Divide

New York’s Finger Lakes is one region where the hybrid-vinifera divide is quite clear. Before Prohibition, New York State had a thriving wine industry that dominated U.S. wine production — based entirely on hybrids. But after Prohibition ended, attention shifted west to California, which quickly came to dominate the U.S. scene, in part because of its more liberal liquor laws. New York carried on making wine with hybrids, but in the 1950s and ’60s Dr. Konstantin Frank, an immigrant from Ukraine, encouraged the planting of vinifera in the more favored sites — those that were protected from the extreme cold of winter by proximity to one of the lakes.

This was a great success, and now the likes of Riesling, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Franc are doing very well in the Finger Lakes. It has, however, created a two-speed industry where the hybrids make the cheap, sweet commercial wines and vinifera vines make more serious dry wines that have built the current reputation of the region. Hybrids are still grown here because there are some sites that get too cold in the winter for vinifera to grow. Another advantage of hybrids is that they’re tough and can survive much lower temperatures without winter damage, which may help them gain traction as hybrids continue to grow in popularity.

In many regions where this winter hardiness isn’t called for, hybrids that once formed the mainstay of the industry have almost disappeared. New Zealand is a good example. Back in 1960, six of its top 10 varieties were hybrids, including its top three — Albany Surprise, Baco 22A, and Seibel 5455. And in Canada’s Niagara region, the only significant relics of its hybrid past are Vidal (used mainly for ice wine) and Baco Noir.

PIWIs: A Way Forward?

A recent trip to Germany’s Mosel wine region told a different story, though. I drove up the slopes behind the village of Kröv, in a region that’s famed for producing some of the world’s top Rieslings. This is where winegrower Jan Matthias Klein has plans to plant a vineyard with a difference, in a place called Kröv Paradies. Rather than Riesling, the mainstay of the vineyards in the area, he’s going to plant two hectares with PIWI vines over the next couple of years. He showed me the plot where the schist soils are already under preparation.

What are PIWIs? The name stands for Pilzwiderstandsfähige and they are specially bred fungus-resistant grape varieties with at least 85 percent vinifera in their genomes. These are technically hybrids, but the people behind PIWIs don’t like you to refer to them that way. PIWI International is the organization responsible for promoting these varieties. Founded in 1999, it now has more than 550 members from 21 countries in Europe and North America.

Klein makes two lines of wines in his winery, Staffelter Hof. The first is a more classical range, from organically grown grapes. And then there’s his line of natural wines, which have cartoon-like labels and are made without any sulfite additions. But even though he farms organically, he — like everyone else there — has to spray copper and sulfur far more often than he’d like to. The PIWIs could be a solution: They’re bred for resistance to the fungal diseases that cause so many problems for vinifera. He works naturally in the winery, and this would allow him to work much more naturally in the vineyard, too. His plan is to fence off this two-hectare plot and have sheep doing the weed control. “No machines will be allowed in the vineyard,” he says. “I want to work more naturally and less intrusively, and I want to reduce the CO2 footprint.”

These new varieties are doing well in blind tastings locally. They are still quite niche. “Quality-wise they’re on a par with traditional varieties,” says Klein. “Maybe not Riesling,” he adds with a smile. The varieties he will plant are Muscaris, Souvignier Gris, Sauvitage, Sauvignac, Saturnois, and Donauriesling.

Not far from Kröv is Traben-Trarbach, where Markus Boor of Weingut Louis Klein is also taking an interest in PIWIs. His focus isn’t on making natural wines, but about 10 percent of his production is PIWIs. His varieties include Sauvignac, Donauriesling, Cabernet Blanc, and Johannita.

“It’s the future,” he says. “For anything other than Riesling we have to plant PIWIs.” A tasting through the cellar showed that there’s nothing second-rate about these PIWIs. Typically, he says, he’ll spray these vines two or three times a year, whereas the Riesling needs spraying eight to 12 times. “We’ve had years without spraying the PIWIs,” Boor says, although it is necessary to spray occasionally just so they keep their resistance.

Interestingly, though, it could be the natural wine movement that helps propel hybrids into the mainstream. In Vermont, Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber’s La Garagista winery has achieved global acclaim on the back of wines made by new-generation hybrids such as La Crescent, Marquette, Frontenac Gris, Frontenac Blanc, and Frontenac Noir, which are well suited to the humid summers and freezing winters of the local climate. And in New York’s Finger Lakes, a collaboration pair of pét-nats made by Nathan Kendall and natural wine guru sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier under the Chëpika label, made with Delaware and Catawba, has made people realize that even the old-school 19th-century labruscas can make something sought after.

It may take some time for the wine world to open its mind to resistant varieties, but the current situation isn’t sustainable. Our longtime addiction to Vitis vinifera grapes — used in the vast majority of today’s wines — with its attendant spray regimes, is simply no longer justifiable. It’s time to recognize the progress made by the grape breeders, and to get behind these new resistant varieties.

The article Why the Wines of the Future Will Be Made From Hybrid Grapes appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/wines-of-future-hybrid-grapes/

[johnboothus]

Why the Wines of the Future Will Be Made From Hybrid Grapes

Most of the wines drunk today are made from a single species of grape vine, Vitis vinifera. Through time, various crossings — both accidental and deliberate — have given rise to thousands of different varieties from this species, each with its own unique flavor signatures and preferred habitats. So we have the likes of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Merlot, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Sauvignon Blanc — all from vinifera, but all distinctly different. It’s estimated that around 98 percent of all wine consumed today is made from vinifera vines. So what of the 2 percent that doesn’t come from this species? It turns out that there’s an interesting story here: We may be about to see the rise of the hybrids.

What Is a Hybrid?

The term “hybrid” refers to vines that are the result of a cross between two species. The term is used as a catch-all, but frequently involves crossing native vines from North America or Asia with vinifera; however, it can also refer to accidental crosses of native vine species. When Europeans first traveled to North America they took their vines with them, but the vines failed to flourish in their new home.

The problem was a set of diseases that European vines had no resistance to, but that American vines had co-evolved with. These included the root-munching aphid phylloxera and two fungal diseases called powdery and downy mildew. Later, in the mid- to late-19th century, these diseases would jump to Europe and cause havoc. Phylloxera, in particular, almost ended wine production worldwide until a solution was found. The fix involved grafting the European vines onto rootstock from American vines. The only way to deal with the two fungal pests turned out to be spraying the vines with sulfur and copper, two chemical treatments that are still used today.

Vinifera Isn’t Very Green

The legacy of this transatlantic disease spread is that the vinifera varieties we all know and love aren’t very sustainable. To keep disease at bay vineyards need to be sprayed many times each season, either with the more traditional remedies of copper and sulfur, or with more modern systemic fungicides. Now, though, we are seeing growing concerns about the environmental impact of viticulture, and this is leading some winegrowers to explore the potential for working with hybrids that carry natural resistance to these fungi. The problem? The wine world still has a horrible bias against hybrids, which are regarded as a low-quality option compared with vinifera.

Before grafting was proposed as a solution, one idea for reviving phylloxera-ravaged vineyards was to replant with hybrid vines. Lots of work went into breeding them — the so-called French-American hybrids, but no one was convinced by the quality of the wines they produced. They were described as having a “foxy” taste, a term that has been misunderstood: They have a distinctive flavor, and this is described as foxy, but the term was originally used to describe the fondness foxes have for grapes from Vitis labrusca, an American species, rather than any resemblance between the wines and the smell of foxes. Methyl anthranilate and 2-aminoacetophenone are the aroma compounds that are typical of labruscas (such as Concord, Niagara, Catawba, and Delaware), which do have a distinctive flavor. But this isn’t shared by all hybrids.

The Hybrid-Vinifera Divide

New York’s Finger Lakes is one region where the hybrid-vinifera divide is quite clear. Before Prohibition, New York State had a thriving wine industry that dominated U.S. wine production — based entirely on hybrids. But after Prohibition ended, attention shifted west to California, which quickly came to dominate the U.S. scene, in part because of its more liberal liquor laws. New York carried on making wine with hybrids, but in the 1950s and ’60s Dr. Konstantin Frank, an immigrant from Ukraine, encouraged the planting of vinifera in the more favored sites — those that were protected from the extreme cold of winter by proximity to one of the lakes.

This was a great success, and now the likes of Riesling, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Franc are doing very well in the Finger Lakes. It has, however, created a two-speed industry where the hybrids make the cheap, sweet commercial wines and vinifera vines make more serious dry wines that have built the current reputation of the region. Hybrids are still grown here because there are some sites that get too cold in the winter for vinifera to grow. Another advantage of hybrids is that they’re tough and can survive much lower temperatures without winter damage, which may help them gain traction as hybrids continue to grow in popularity.

In many regions where this winter hardiness isn’t called for, hybrids that once formed the mainstay of the industry have almost disappeared. New Zealand is a good example. Back in 1960, six of its top 10 varieties were hybrids, including its top three — Albany Surprise, Baco 22A, and Seibel 5455. And in Canada’s Niagara region, the only significant relics of its hybrid past are Vidal (used mainly for ice wine) and Baco Noir.

PIWIs: A Way Forward?

A recent trip to Germany’s Mosel wine region told a different story, though. I drove up the slopes behind the village of Kröv, in a region that’s famed for producing some of the world’s top Rieslings. This is where winegrower Jan Matthias Klein has plans to plant a vineyard with a difference, in a place called Kröv Paradies. Rather than Riesling, the mainstay of the vineyards in the area, he’s going to plant two hectares with PIWI vines over the next couple of years. He showed me the plot where the schist soils are already under preparation.

What are PIWIs? The name stands for Pilzwiderstandsfähige and they are specially bred fungus-resistant grape varieties with at least 85 percent vinifera in their genomes. These are technically hybrids, but the people behind PIWIs don’t like you to refer to them that way. PIWI International is the organization responsible for promoting these varieties. Founded in 1999, it now has more than 550 members from 21 countries in Europe and North America.

Klein makes two lines of wines in his winery, Staffelter Hof. The first is a more classical range, from organically grown grapes. And then there’s his line of natural wines, which have cartoon-like labels and are made without any sulfite additions. But even though he farms organically, he — like everyone else there — has to spray copper and sulfur far more often than he’d like to. The PIWIs could be a solution: They’re bred for resistance to the fungal diseases that cause so many problems for vinifera. He works naturally in the winery, and this would allow him to work much more naturally in the vineyard, too. His plan is to fence off this two-hectare plot and have sheep doing the weed control. “No machines will be allowed in the vineyard,” he says. “I want to work more naturally and less intrusively, and I want to reduce the CO2 footprint.”

These new varieties are doing well in blind tastings locally. They are still quite niche. “Quality-wise they’re on a par with traditional varieties,” says Klein. “Maybe not Riesling,” he adds with a smile. The varieties he will plant are Muscaris, Souvignier Gris, Sauvitage, Sauvignac, Saturnois, and Donauriesling.

Not far from Kröv is Traben-Trarbach, where Markus Boor of Weingut Louis Klein is also taking an interest in PIWIs. His focus isn’t on making natural wines, but about 10 percent of his production is PIWIs. His varieties include Sauvignac, Donauriesling, Cabernet Blanc, and Johannita.

“It’s the future,” he says. “For anything other than Riesling we have to plant PIWIs.” A tasting through the cellar showed that there’s nothing second-rate about these PIWIs. Typically, he says, he’ll spray these vines two or three times a year, whereas the Riesling needs spraying eight to 12 times. “We’ve had years without spraying the PIWIs,” Boor says, although it is necessary to spray occasionally just so they keep their resistance.

Interestingly, though, it could be the natural wine movement that helps propel hybrids into the mainstream. In Vermont, Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber’s La Garagista winery has achieved global acclaim on the back of wines made by new-generation hybrids such as La Crescent, Marquette, Frontenac Gris, Frontenac Blanc, and Frontenac Noir, which are well suited to the humid summers and freezing winters of the local climate. And in New York’s Finger Lakes, a collaboration pair of pét-nats made by Nathan Kendall and natural wine guru sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier under the Chëpika label, made with Delaware and Catawba, has made people realize that even the old-school 19th-century labruscas can make something sought after.

It may take some time for the wine world to open its mind to resistant varieties, but the current situation isn’t sustainable. Our longtime addiction to Vitis vinifera grapes — used in the vast majority of today’s wines — with its attendant spray regimes, is simply no longer justifiable. It’s time to recognize the progress made by the grape breeders, and to get behind these new resistant varieties.

The article Why the Wines of the Future Will Be Made From Hybrid Grapes appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/wines-of-future-hybrid-grapes/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/why-the-wines-of-the-future-will-be-made-from-hybrid-grapes