#world biodiversity

[hleavesk]

penguins at KING GEORGE ISLAND, Antarctica 

(source: associated press | 11 dec 2023)

[reasonsforhope]

"Over 10,000 square miles of additional protected area will be added to the Heard and McDonald Islands in Australia’s far southern territorial waters.

Coupled with other expansions of existing marine sanctuaries, it puts Australia on course to have 52% of its ocean territory protected, more than any other nation, by the end of the current administration’s term.

“This is not just a huge environmental win for Australia, it’s a huge environmental win for the world,” said Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. “This is a unique and extraordinary part of our planet. We are doing everything we can to protect it.”

Located over 2,000 miles south of the Australian continent, Heard and McDonald Islands make up about 144 square miles of volcanic terrain that represent one of the most remote places on Earth.

They are important breeding grounds for 19 species of bird, including 4 species of penguins, but dozens of other bird species take refuge there. It is a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site, and a RAMSAR Wetland in addition to being an Australian national marine sanctuary.

The quadrupling of the sanctuary borders amounts to 11.5 thousand square miles, (30,000 sq km) of additional protection, but represents one-tenth of the total proposed expansions of marine protected areas.

Under the current guidance, prepared by nationally sanctioned scientific surveys, the total marine protected areas will make up an area the size of Italy.

The current administration of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking to establish a new environmental protection agency, as well as set a high bar for the country’s commitments to an international philosophy of conservation governance known shorthand as “30×30” or “30 by 30,” which states that to prevent the worst effects of general environmental degradation worldwide, 30% of land and waters should be under protections. Often the second thirty refers to a hypothetical 2030 deadline."

-via Good News Network, October 10, 2024

[amnhnyc]

It’s World Orangutan Day! Weighing up to 200 lbs (90.1 kg), the orangutan (genus Pongo) is the largest arboreal animal on the planet! This tree-dweller is also Asia’s only great ape. The critically endangered primate is mostly herbivorous, with a diet that consists of flowers, nuts, and fruit. This species’ historic range in Southeast Asia has shrunk down to just two islands—Borneo and Sumatra—and their population has dipped sharply in the last century. Because they live in lush tropical forests, orangutans are especially vulnerable to deforestation, an ongoing threat as agriculture encroaches on their habitat. 

Photo: Eric Kilby, CC BY-SA 2.0, flickr 

[probablyasocialecologist]

Making worlds is not limited to humans. We know that beavers reshape streams as they make dams, canals, and lodges; in fact, all organisms make ecological living places, altering earth, air, and water. Without the ability to make workable living arrangements, species would die out. In the process, each organism changes everyone’s world. Bacteria made our oxygen atmosphere, and plants help maintain it. Plants live on land because fungi made soil by digesting rocks. As these examples suggest, world-making projects can overlap, allowing room for more than one species. Humans, too, have always been involved in multispecies world making. Fire was a tool for early humans not just to cook but also to burn the landscape, encouraging edible bulbs and grasses that attracted animals for hunting. Humans shape multispecies worlds when our living arrangements make room for other species. This is not just a matter of crops, livestock, and pets. Pines, with their associated fungal partners, often flourish in landscapes burned by humans; pines and fungi work together to take advantage of bright open spaces and exposed mineral soils. Humans, pines, and fungi make living arrangements simultaneously for themselves and for others: multispecies worlds.

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldDolphinDay:

Plate VIII from Giant Fishes, Whales, and Dolphins, field guide #SciArt from 1949.

A. Common Porpoise B. Commerson's Dolphin C. White-beaked Dolphin D. Common Dolphin

Biodiversity Heritage Library

[cubbihue]

me: i am doing very important things. big deep research for my story. lots of research. research you woudlnt even believe. for my story. important work. very important for my story.

my google tab:

[strawlessandbraless]

All rise for her majesty, the Piglet Squid 🐽 🦑 👑

Squid Squad (Squad being the scientifically correct term for a group of squid)

[thoughtlessarse]

Global wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 73% in 50 years, a new scientific assessment has found, as humans continue to push ecosystems to the brink of collapse. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the steepest average declines in recorded wildlife populations, with a 95% fall, according to the WWF and the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet report. They were followed by Africa with 76%, and Asia and the Pacific at 60%. Europe and North America recorded comparatively lower falls of 35% and 39% respectively since 1970. Scientists said this was explained by much larger declines in wildlife populations in Europe and North America before 1970 that were now being replicated in other parts of the world. They warned that the loss could quicken in future years as global heating accelerates, triggered by tipping points in the Amazon rainforest, Arctic and marine ecosystems, which could have catastrophic consequences for nature and human society. Matthew Gould, ZSL’s chief executive, said the report’s message was clear: “We are dangerously close to tipping points for nature loss and climate change. But we know nature can recover, given the opportunity, and that we still have the chance to act.”

continue reading

[rumade]

Golf courses being turned into publicly accessible woodland 💖

[bornulhu]

The common forest of Koolu world. With all its critters. Both during the long winter and the short spring, in which a lot more of the cold blooded invertebrates come out of hiding.

[wuntrum]

nudibranchs are SOOOO crazy. top 5 little guys of all time

[hleavesk]

(source: reuters | 20 sep 2023)

Tasmanian tiger.

Because of humans, the species is now extinct.

But that does not mean scientists have stopped learning about it. In a scientific first, researchers said on Tuesday they have recovered RNA - genetic material present in all living cells that has structural similarities to DNA - from the desiccated skin and muscle of a Tasmanian tiger stored since 1891 at a museum in Stockholm.

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Ce qu'on appelait autrefois la prairie

[distractionactivated]

Resolutely not reblogging a post about the UK biodiversity crisis to point out that drastic declines in biodiversity in the last 20-100 years do not, necessarily, mean that the entire history of human cultivation of nature here is catastrophic. Like, I get the point the person was making and I also think that the 'we made this green and pleasant land' rhetoric is usually thinly-veiled nationalist chauvinism, but also please think about the statistics you're using.

If your stats all point to the major damage being in the last century or two, this relates to industrialisation, industrial farming, power consolidation, and un/deregulation, not the activities of ordinary farmers 500 years ago or whatever. Therefore, it's not actually countering the points the 'green and pleasant land' chuds are talking about.

[punksatawney-phil]

Fully convinced that the lack of promotion around Strange World was not just because it had amazing representation (though that is, as usual, part of it)

It was because it’s cli-fi that had the potential to reach mainstream audiences on a massive scale.

Changing societal priorities to adapt to catastrophic environmental change?? Shifting from industrial to biodiverse agriculture??Ecosystems as living things?? Degrowth as a necessary and messy step before sustainable regrowth?? They didn’t want anyone getting any ~ideas~ about environmental justice

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldTunaDay:

"TUNA LEAPING OVER MR. BERRY'S BOAT." Plate 18 in the fun-titled book Fish stories alleged and experienced, with a little history natural and unnatural by C. F. Holder & D. S. Jordan, 1909. Biodiversity Heritage Library.