Jennifer Marohasy

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Gilbert’s Potoroo to Survive Syphilis?

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I’ve never seen a Potoroo – apparently members of the genus look like rats and can hop like kangaroos.

The Gilbert’s Potoroo is Australia’s most endangered marsupial and it’s not climate change but rather syphilis that may result in its extinction. At least that’s what an ABC Online article suggests, but when you read a bit further there is reason for optimism because there is a syphilis-free population on Bald Island.

Read more here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2089599.htm

Thanks to both Libby and Woody for the link.

And here’s a link to the Gilbert’s Potoroo’s Action Group website: http://www.potoroo.org/

Murray River Tributary Reduced to Billabongs

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While the Murray River is flowing strongly despite the drought, many of its tributaries are drying up.

Yesterday I visited the Wakool River with Wakool Landholders Association Chairman John Lolicato.

He showed me a spot downstream of Gee Gee bridge where there is still water in deep holes. A bit upstream the river has been reduced to billabongs and further upstream in Possum forest some of the billabongs have dried up.

John Upstream Gee Gee Bridge (copy Wakool River 026).jpg
Downstream of Gee Gee bridge

John's Annie (copy of Wakool River 031).jpg
A billabong that was Wakool river

John has moved some Murray Cod from drying billabongs to larger water holes.

John looking for Cod (copy Wakool River 045).jpg
John looking for some water and stranded fish

Also yesterday, the NSW Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water Phil Koperberg announced that a pulse of water would be released into the Wakool River to provide stock and domestic water and environmental benefits.

Mr Koperberg acknowledged that the Wakool River had not had flows for months due to the severe and extended drought.

“The diversion of water into these systems will provide landholders with access to stock and domestic water for the first time in months, help improve water quality and provide significant environmental benefits to stressed populations of native fish and other aquatic species,” he said.

“The water cannot be used for irrigation and additional deliveries for irrigation are not viable as they would exacerbate additional water losses that cannot be supported.”

Did the Bush Administration Really Censor Science?

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Once again, the press is in a tizzy over the Bush Administration’s “censoring of science.” The case against the Bush Administration this time is that it edited testimony presented to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) by Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The testimony, originally 14 pages, was cut to six.

However, the narrative of a scientific cover-up is overwrought to say the least. The hearing was on the potential impact of global warming on human health, an exercise in speculation. It appears, if press accounts are correct, that what the Bush Administration cut from the director’s testimony was more speculation than settled science.

Read the entire article: Science vs. Expert Opinion: Did the Bush Administration Really Censor Science?

Praying Mantid

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Mantid.jpg

I photographed this praying mantid last night on the flowers of a Wax Jambu Syzygium samarangense. There are around 160 described species of mantid in Australia with the greatest diversity in the tropics.

This large, robust female will produce a soft, foam-like oöthecae that hardens under atmospheric exposure. It may contain hundreds of eggs, each individually housed in a sealed compartment and a day or so after emerging, the nymphs begin to cannibalise one another.

A Review of Sea-Level Change on the Southeast Coast of Australia

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A revised Holocene sea-level curve for the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia, is presented
based on a review of previously published geochronological results for fossil molluscs, organic-rich
mud, mangrove roots and fixed biological indicators. It is supplemented by new radiocarbon and amino acid
racemization-derived ages on fossil molluscs from transgressive sandsheet facies in back-barrier settings within
shallow incised valleys along the southern coast of New South Wales. This data base has been limited to fossils
with accurate descriptions of their facies associations and stratigraphic relationships to present mean sea
level. Results show that sea level during the Holocene marine transgression rose to between −15 and −11 m at
9400–9000 cal. yr BP. Sea level then rose to approximately −5 m by 8500 cal. yr BP and to approximately
−3.5 m between 8300 and 8000 cal. yr BP inundating shallow incised valleys resulting in the deposition of
shell-rich transgressive sandsheets within shallow incised bedrock valleys. Present sea level was attained
between 7900 and 7700 cal. yr BP, approximately 700–900 years earlier than previously proposed. Sea level
continued to rise to between +1 and +1.5 m between 7700 and 7400 cal. yr BP, followed by a sea-level highstand that lasted until about 2000 cal. yr BP followed by a gradual fall to present. A series of minor negative
and positive oscillations in relative sea level during the late-Holocene sea-level highstand appear to be superimposed over the general sea-level trend. However, the precise nature of the oscillations are difficult to quantify because of problems associated with accurately determining palaeotidal and wave regimes, climatic
conditions and the antecedent morphology of the shallow marine environments during the mid Holocene.

Holocene sea-level change on the southeast coast of Australia: a review

Craig R. Sloss
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia, c.r.sloss@massey.ac.nz

The Holocene, Vol. 17, No. 7, 999-1014 (2007)DOI: 10.1177/0959683607082415

Colin V. Murray-Wallace

School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia

Brian G. Jones

School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia

Russia Facing the Worst Ecological Catastrophe Since Chernobyl? A Note from Ann Novek

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30,000 sea birds found dead on the beaches plus at least the same number of birds oil soaked and facing death. A number of dead dolphins are now found dead on the beaches as well. This might have been the biggest ecological catastrophe facing Russia since the Chernobyl catastrophe states one newspaper:

Los Angeles Times: ‘Russian workers point to oil as the problem’