Ecology & Zoology

An Ecological Analogy

Deleted due to this websites censorship ...

Blog Post - Anonymous - Jan 3 2009 - 7:12am

Species and diversity

In my recent post on Mexican dry forest, I mentioned the fact that about 80% of the species in the genus Bursera were endemic to Mexico.  Things like that tend to jump out at you.  Why are there so many species in one area, relative to the rest of its rang ...

Blog Post - Ian Ramjohn - Dec 21 2008 - 10:41am

Where does species diversity come from?

If you set out to answer questions about species diversity, there are two questions you need to consider- how is diversity generated, and how is diversity maintained? ...

Blog Post - Ian Ramjohn - Dec 27 2008 - 12:45am

Competition And Coexistence

In a closed system (and the biosphere as a whole is a closed system) the only way to generate additional species is through evolution.  While the evolution of new species is a necessary condition for the generation of diversity, it isn't good enough o ...

Article - Ian Ramjohn - Dec 28 2008 - 2:14am

Plant blindness and common names for plants

There's a discussion going on over at Wikipedia regarding the naming convention for articles about plants.  In general, article titles are supposed to be the "most common" name for the thing in English.  But when you're trying to compil ...

Blog Post - Ian Ramjohn - Dec 30 2008 - 2:55am

Berry Go Round #12

The 12th edition of Berry Go Round, the botanical blog carnival, is now online at Foothills Fancies.  Lots of good reading to be had. ...

Blog Post - Ian Ramjohn - Dec 30 2008 - 12:22pm

Holiday Science Tidbits

First, a neat little toy:  build your own squid! I won't give anything else away... Second, in the spirit of ending the old year and beginning the new, I like this synopsis of the best science stories of 2008, from Science.  Some nice videos too. ...

Blog Post - Mrs. H. - Jan 1 2009 - 2:12pm

Mother Nature Bounces Back After Indonesia Tsunami

A team of scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has reported a rapid recovery of coral reefs in areas of Indonesia, following the tsunami that devastated coastal regions throughout the Indian Ocean four years ago today. The ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 4 2009 - 12:12pm

Were Dinosaurs Warm Blooded?

During the 1990’s there was a lot of discussion (yelling?) over the question of whether or not Dinosaurs were endothermic, that is, warm blooded. In the regular media there is still a pretty solid leaning toward the idea that they were. I’m inclined to sa ...

Article - Nicholas Horton - Jan 5 2009 - 3:24pm

Herbicide Use And Potato Reproduction Not Adequately Tested, Says Study

Herbicide use should increase crop yields, that's the whole point, and herbicides and pesticides do that, given the output in food production that has matched the population increases over the last two centuries.  But there may be a problem in how som ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 7 2009 - 10:45am