In 1958, the SciFi film The Blob terrorized movie goers. Now an actual blob various appendages has been videotaped in the South Atlantic ocean. In this instance, the blob is actually a giant jellyfish first discovered in the 1960’s but rarely observed.

It’s still creepy.



";" alt=""> The Blob Jellyfish from the South Atlantic (credit: YouTube)

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Kate Raworth, of Oxfam, has attempted to place natural resources, social equity, and the health of the planet into an easily understood, and interactive, circular matrix. Her provocative discussion paper is:

A Safe and Just Space for Humanity: can we live within the doughnut? 

and described in this short video:



";" alt=""> Kate Raworth (credit: Oxfam)



Raworth readily admits that no country meets all the parameters for living in a sustainable fashion. It may be an impossible goal. At least she has made a worthy attempt...

Ecological food webs are intricate, remain stable due to their biological complexity, but can be easily disrupted if over stressed. Some the most delicate food webs exist in the oceans where forage fish are the foundation for all life higher up the chain.

Forage fish feeding structures nourish sea birds, tuna, penguins, and marine mammals like whales and dolphins worldwide. Often called “trash fish” or “bait fish” small fish species like krill, menhaden, and anchovies are essential to the life of the oceans. They are under increasing pressure from over-harvesting for industrial uses such as fish meal for feeding commercial aquaculture farms and processed into dietary supplements. Estimates made in 2010 of menhaden populations off the Atlantic coast determined that this species had been reduced to only eight percent of its maximum potential due to industrial overfishing.

The Lenfest Foundation, in association with the Pew Environmental Trust, has just...

Here at Riled Up we feel strongly about restoration of damaged lands. There certainly is no lack of places needing attention but none more so than the currently dry delta of the Colorado River.

A campaign is underway to Restore the Colorado River Delta , a landscape so degraded that water from the river no longer reaches the Sea of Cortez at the Gulf of California. A petition is gathering signatures to  support an effort to begin the process of river restoration.

The petition requires only a few additional signatures to reach the 5000 goal to be able to add a private voice of concern to current river negotiations between the United States and Mexico. Approval of a new compact would allow a small amount of Colorado River water to again reach the Gulf and help restore the wildlife, delta ecosystem, and economy of the border region.



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Microbes, insects, and bugs are everywhere. They are found at the top of Mount Everest, attached to marine corals in the oceans, even in hotel beds around the world annoyingly.

Now new critters have been identified underground in two highly unlikely places---an insect discovered deep in a cave over a mile deep near the Black Sea and an ancient bacterial colony buried six feet beneath a hyper-arid desert in South America. These bugs definitely deserve the designation of an extremophile.

The first discovery was made by researchers from Chile and Spain when strange bacteria and primitive microorganisms were found living in a layer below hyper-saline surface soils of the Atacama Desert. According to one of the field scientists: "We have named it a 'microbial oasis' because we found microorganisms developing in a habitat that was rich in rock-salt and other highly hygroscopic compounds.” Hygroscopic materials attract and hold water gathered from...

Silene is a genus of wildflowers typical of cold regions of Europe, North America, and elsewhere. Silene species are  common high Arctic and Alpine mountain environments. They hybridize easily to produce plants with pale pink flowers, thus are often called pinks. Hybrid Silenes are grown as favorite garden plants.

Russian scientists have now announced the propagation of a Silene species kept dormant for more than 30,000 years in Siberian permafrost. Their horticultural feat was just published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). With assistance from laboratory micro-propagation techniques, preserved seeds and leaves were revived and brought into flower. The original material may have been collected by Siberian squirrels and buried in their burrows for winter munching. The plant material was likely frozen quickly, survived...

Few are likely to have heard of Vulcanoctopus hydrothermalis, a white octopus, or the mosh-pit piles of hairy-chested yeti crabs living thousands of feet below the ocean surface living beside massive black smokers. They are just two of the striking marine creatures spotted by researchers using undersea robots off Antarctica. Their discovery was just reported by the online journal, PloS-Biology, and they continue to extend our understanding of extreme life existing next to hydrothermal vents deep in the worlds oceans.

According to the Antarctic expedition leader Alex Rogers of Oxford University, seeing the diversity of life near the undersea hot springs was "almost like a sight from another planet".

Rogers and his team used a robot called ISIS to scout the sea floor to see the springs of black, smoky water that can attain temperatures exceeding 700 degrees Fahrenheit. The hydrothermal vents occur along cracks in the ocean floor where the continental plates grind together and produce scalding temperatures and boiling water rich in dissolved minerals. The vents give rise to huge mineralized chimneys that support a vast diversity of strange life forms. Some of the organisms were observed for the first time in Antarctica because these hot, extreme, ecosystems were only discovered in the late 1970’s near the Galapagos and as this was the first dive near the ice-bound continent. More creatures will surely to be discovered in future dives....

 

 

The Endangered Species Act became law on December 28, 1973. That makes the law 38 years old today and appropriate for some recognition of accomplishments over the years. The ESA was a pioneering piece of American environmental legislation.

The Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It was designed to protect critically imperiled plant and animal species from extinction as stated in its charter as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.”

Since the Act went into effect, combined efforts by public agencies such as the Fish & Wildlife Service, private conservation foundations like the Center for Plant Conservation, numerous biological researchers, and concerned individuals have helped in the identification, designation,...

Blue is a rare color in the plant world. Evolution has produced many plants that showcase yellow, red, orange, maroon, and white blooms but few that are true blue. The reason for blue being a rarity in the botanical world is because the eyes of pollinators see colors in the ultraviolet and blue would appear almost invisible to a butterfly, bee, or other insect and the flower wouldn’t get pollinated. Definitely a strong selection pressure to eliminate blue from a population.

 Thelymitra crinita, or the Blue Lady Orchid, is a beautiful exception from Australia. The Blue Lady Orchid, a terrestrial forest endemic, is found only in the remote Southwestern corner of Australia. This region of OZ is recognized as one of the world’s biological hotspots for rare and endemic species. 



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We are almost totally dependent on the work of bees. Without them we would be in real and serious trouble.

The little colonial insects that have been cultivated since the time of the Greeks pollinate everything edible from fruits: peaches, pears, apples, grapes and kiwi; vegetables: tomatoes, celery, beets, onions, and peppers; tree crops: coffee, lemon, limes, cocoa, and coconuts; to nuts: almonds, cashews, walnuts, and macadamia. We wouldn’t have any cotton for cool clothing without bees.

Someone in South Florida doesn’t like our little buzzing friends and committed bee homicide by poisoning 2300 bee hives set out to pollinate row crops. Florida Today reports that test run by the USDA  found  insecticide used to kill roaches, ticks and flees in a mixture of white sugar and water in a container set to feed the bees. The bee hives were decimated and their honey useless....

At Riled Up, we have paid close attention to the status of tigers and the demand for their body parts in China. The “lords of the jungle” continue to loose out to the Chinese mythology of their aphrodisiac properties and extinction in the wild is not un-imagined. The Diane Rehm Show focused an entire program on the problem of effective tiger conservation and the primary need for enforcement of conservation laws in Asian nations, the tigers natural range.



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Whenever a species believed extinct is rediscovered it is good news. Typically a reported extinct bird, reptile, or rare palm is re-discovered in a remote hiding place to great celebration. Now a gigantic sponge has joined the list, the famous Neptune’s Cup of tropical Asia. Researchers spotted the sponge in shallow waters during a routine diving trip near Singapore.

Neptune’s Cup were huge sponges that were first discovered in 1822. They grew so large they were used as kids bath tubs.



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The killing of sharks continues unabated. Reports have surfaced from the Malpelo Wildlife Sanctuary, a Colombian marine reserve, that perhaps 2000 sharks were discovered slaughtered for their fins within the reserve. Malpelo National Park and the wildlife sanctuary are consider one of the finest marine national parks in the world and a prime destination for diving and ecotourism. Shark fins are consumed in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and elsewhere in Asia as an expensive soup.

According to Colombian tourist publicity: Malpelo National Park lies 330 miles west of the Colombia Mainland requiring a lengthy journey to reach a volcanic oceanic plateau topped with a rocky island and numerous underwater sea pinnacles. The National Park was established in the year 1995 and covers nearly one million acres of seascape. Malpelo NP is prime wildlife...

Orchids are found from the tropics to the arctic and can appear as miniaturized to monster sized forms. Now, the first night blooming species has been discovered on New Britain Island, a volcanic island off Papua New Guinea. The new orchid, Bulbophyllum nocturnum, was just described by researchers at the Kew Gardens in England and the Center for Biodiversity Naturalis in The Netherlands. It doesn’t have a common name as yet.



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The Imperial Woodpecker, is a large bird related the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and stands 2 feet tall. It was observed in a Mexico’s Sierra Madre Oriental mountains once by an amateur birdwatcher. The bird hasn’t been observed since the original footage was captured by Dr. William Rhein in 1956. The woodpeckers forest habitat has experienced considerable illegal logging and drug smuggling since, making the woodpecker either highly endangered or now extinct.

The original footage was finally released and re-broadcast from Science Friday here:

 





Imperial Woodpecker in Mexico, 1956 (credit: Dr. William L. Rhein)







It may never be known if the woodpecker still exists in the wild but that would be a good to think possible.



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