Osmotic Power

Time.com

I hadn't heard of osmotic power until I read about it it Time magazine.  For those of us looking for an energy solution that doesn't involve oil, gas, or growing plants at the expense of food crops needed to feed the seven billion and counting of us now on the planet, this sounds very interesting.
As I am sure we all remember from high school chemistry, osmosis occurs when a liquid passes from a region where it is highly concentrated through a semipermeable membrane to a region of lower concentration.  In doing so, it raises the volume of the lower concentration fluid which means energy is produced.
Where does this reaction occur all over the planet?  Where ever fresh water and the more concentrated salt water meet, that is at any place that a river runs into the ocean.  The saltwater molecules can pull fresh water through the membrane, increasing the volume in the saltwater tank.  The resultant build up of pressure of water is used to run a turbine.
Prototype plants are running in Norway and Japan.  So far they are only able to generate less that a watt of energy per square meter of membrane, far below the 5 watts which would begin to make it cost effective.  Newer membranes are necessary to make it cost effective.

Fun with Ladybugs

Bored?  Try playing with a Lady Beetle.  There is a video titled "Ladybug plays with sprinkles" on Wimp.  I am not sure that "play" is the word to use.  This one seem quite intent on eating what it perceives are something more like its favorite food - aphids.

from Wikimedia

Ladybugs (or ladybirds as they are called in Europe) are members of the Coccinellidae family. They are neither a bug or a bird, but actually a beetle.  They come to mind especially during the winter when they move into the house with us on Bull Creek, flying around, walking on us and occasionally biting, then producing an odor when squished as a reflex response.

Their habit of eating aphids and scale insects (and chasing the odd sprinkle) is considered to be of considerable benefit.  They also require pollen which they obtain from mustard plants, buckwheat, coriander, red or crimson clover, carrot family plants and legumes.

As I was growing up, we liked to watch ladybugs in the summer and we didn't see them in the winter,  (and yes, the light bulb had been invented by then.)  They seek shelter, looking for warmth in woodpiles, sheds and houses, only to become active on sunny warm days or when we turn up the heat.  So why are we seeing so many of them indoors now?  Immigration, or rather importation may be part of the answer.

The Asian lady beetle, or Japanese ladybug (Harmonia axyridi) was imported to the US multiple times since 1918 to control aphids but really became established starting in 1988.  It spread in the Midwest over the next 5 years while separate introductions in the Northeast and Northwest US hastened their spread.

There is no doubt that the Asian lady beetle is effective in helping to control aphids and scale insects. It also is controlling the native lady beetle populations by out-competing them and occasionally eating them.  The long term consequences of this on our native species is not yet known.

"Many people now view this species as a nuisance,[5] partly due to their tendency to overwinter indoors and the unpleasant odor and stain left by their bodily fluid when frightened or squashed, as well as their tendency to bite humans." (Wikipedia).

So when does an introduced species cross the fuzzy line into an invasive species?  That is usually in the eye of the beholder.  I guess it depends on whether they are eating your aphids or your neck.

The Other Vulture

from Wikimedia

Driving down Highway W, we came around a curve and were startled by the sight of large black birds taking wing above a dead roadkill carcass.  As they  settled in the nearby bare trees,  we could count 25 birds, all looking at us with bored expressions.  Their distinctive size and gray heads were typical of Black Vultures, a rarity for us along Bull Creek where we usually see Turkey Vultures.

It turns out that Black Vultures are different in several interesting ways.  For one, they hunt only visually and therefore are commonly found in open territory rather the wooded hills like ours.  They do however keep their eyes open for congregating Turkey Vultures which usually means a free meal.  They are more aggressive and will run Turkey Vultures off, taking over their dinner.

Turkey vultures are a common sight, circling over Bull Creek or settling down over a nice dead carcass.  In addition to being common, they are readily identifiable by their bald red heads.  Since they hunt both with their keen vision and acute sense of smell, they forage over forested land where they don't have to compete with Black Vultures as often.

Since both vultures rely of dead animals for their food they may go days without eating.  They make up for this with a Henry VIII habit of gorging prodigiously when food is available.  They appear to be immune to the bacteria infesting dead animals, although they do prefer to have their meals recently dead.  Their bald heads help in plunging head first into the body cavities to get to the good stuff.

Turkey vultures will glide on thermals with their wings held still in a V shape as they tip from side to side.  Black vultures tend to fly with alternating a series of flaps, then gliding with their wings out straight.  The difference has to do with their design.  While weighing approximately the same, Turkey Vultures have a low wing load, meaning they have the longer wingspan in proportion to their weight.  This allows them to ride the thermals with much less effort.  For this reason, Black Vultures tend to start out later in the morning when the sun warmed earth creates stronger thermals to lift them up.

Like turkey, deer and raccoon, vultures have adapted to the expanding human population.  They frequent highways looking for road kill and are now known to sometimes drop in on unguarded picnic food.  So the next time you are out and see the "buzzards" circling, just remember that they are probably just curious - it doesn't signify a personal health risk.

The January 13 News-Leader MDC article on Black Vultures is at this site.

Die-offs Part of Life

First it was blackbirds falling from the sky, then it was reports of a mass die-off of 83,000 drum (fish) in Arkansas.  Bloggers across the country wrote alarming columns of doom, labeling the crisis "Aflockalypse".

Die-offs are part of life and occur frequently around the world.  There are on average 163 events like this reported every year to the federal government.  The Boston Globe quotes statistics from the US Geological Survey.

The US Geological Service’s website lists about 90 mass deaths of birds and other wildlife from June through Dec. 12.  Five list deaths of at least 1,000 birds and another 12 show at least 500 dead birds.

The largest was near Houston, Minn., where about 4,000 water birds died between Sept. 6 and Nov. 26 from infestations of various parasites.

In birds alone, possible factors include lightening, hailstorms, fireworks confusing the flock, massive flocks flying into power lines, disease, toxins, etc.  The very flocking behavior that is an effective defense against aerial predators may predispose flocks to fly into buildings, power lines and wind turbines in large numbers.  In one episode in 1996, 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada.  (Yahoo.com)

So why has this phenomena hit the news so dramatically now?  Instant, constant and dramatic news.  Even days later there are hysterical articles about the growing numbers.  Google Maps even can show you up-to-date maps of where they are occurring and refer you to each story (latest listing, 26 events). (see this Google Site)

"Blame technology," says famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson.  With the Internet, cell phones and worldwide communications, people are noticing events, connecting the dots more.  "This instant and global communication, it's just a human instinct to read mystery and portents of dangers and wondrous things in events that are unusual," Wilson said. "Not to worry, these are not portents that the world is about to come to an end."  News-Leader

Unlike White Nose and Colony Collapse, this is not the end of the species.  It is an opportunity to study what went wrong and to improve our relationship with the ecosystem.

An Awful Beauty

Smithsonian- Click to enlarge

This month's Smithsonian Magazine has an article titled Devastation from Above featuring pictures of the awful beauty of pollution as seen from the air.

J. Henry Fair is a photographer with a deep environmental commitment. He had worked industrial jobs until he could develop a career in photography.  He has since shot album covers for Yo Yo Ma and Cecilia Bartoli.
 
Unable to see what was behind the fences at major industrial sites, he chanced to see the effects while on a commercial airline flight.  He then took to the air in small aircraft, photographing sites from 1000 feet.  He is publishing the results of years of work in  The Day after Tomorrow due out this February.

"His goal is not to indict- he doesn't identify the polluters by name - but to raise public awareness about the costs of our choices.  Such advocacy groups as Greenpeace and Rainforest Alliaince have used Fair's work to advance their causes.  He is a real asset to the national environmental movement," says Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, who contributed an essay to Fair's book  A Fair photograph, he adds, "takes the viewer in an artistic context, to an intellectual  place that he or she didn't expect to go.  My aluminum foil comes from that?  My electricity comes from that?  My toilet paper comes from that?"

The picture above shows a waste-treatment pond at a Louisiana mill that manufactures paper towels.  The circles form around aerators that churn the water to speed digestion of organic byproducts.

The there is more in the online story from Smithsonian Magazine including an interview and a sampling of his other pictures.

American Robins Rock

Wikimedia

If you don't believe that American Robins rock, watch one closely in your yard.  You will see that as they hop around the yard, they "rock" their head from side to side.  It used to be felt that they did this to hear insects and worms, but we now know that they find their prey by sight.


Robins come to mind in winter on Bull Creek where they suddenly appear in large flocks.  They tend to move from tree to tree in the morning, coming in one at a time until there are thirty plus birds, then moving on, following the crowd with no apparent plan.  Later in the day when it warms up they will congregate in the fields, looking for any cold hearty insect foolish enough to come to the surface.  In the evening, they congregate in large flocks, especially in our cedar forest where they can escape the wind.

The American Robin (Turdus-migratorius) has probably made accommodation to humans equaling the European Starling.  So far they have become successful suburbanites, hang out on golf courses without damaging them, and even had the song Rockin Robin written about them.

They received their name from early European settlers who were reminded of a unrelated smaller European "robin".  Actually, it would be better named the American Thrush, but what sane ornithologist would be willing to face the public ire by renaming it after what happened when astronomers downgraded Pluto?

Found throughout North America, they tend to migrate south from Canada to the lower US in winter.  Their migration is thought to be driven more by the availability of food than by the weather. We tend to think of robins pulling at worms in our yard, but in winter they become voracious berry eaters as well.  Their  esophagus is elastic, allowing them to ingest a large amount of berries in a setting, and their intestine is efficient in digesting the waxy coat of winter berries.  They consume large amounts of Eastern Red Cedar berries and are implicated in the spread of cedar trees in abandoned fields and fence lines. In the spring, they are occasionally found drunk on the fermented fruit of bushes such as Pyracantha and Deciduous Holly.  After surviving the hard winter, who can fault them for going on a little "Spring Break".

Answers to a lot of common questions about robins can be found at RobinNotes.  Recordings of Robin's songs and calls and their meaning are at learner.org.
Also read Just A Robin in Missouri Conservationist, written by Carol Davit of the Missouri Prairie Foundation.

Feral Hogs

Feral Hogs- Wikimedia

Like many other invasive species, feral hogs are likely to be with us for the foreseeable future, so we better get to know them better.  The Smithsonian Magazine article this month provides a good introduction.

Our Christian County neighbor had a visit from feral hogs this year.  After seeing large numbers on his game camera, he contacted the Missouri Department of Conservation.  Jeff Harris quickly responded and they began baiting the area with corn.  After a week of 150 pounds of corn daily, the hogs didn't seem to mind the gradual construction of a cattle panel fence around the corn pile.

Feral Hog Trap

Several days after the final panel and trap gate was installed, they were ready.  When the trap was tripped, there were 25 hogs which were captured, killed, and sent off for processing.  With that many wild hogs, there is no way to safely load them up alive.

One question I have been repeatedly been asked was if these were "native Arkansas Razorbacks".  There were no pigs native to North America.  Pigs were introduced to the Western Hemisphere and Australia by humans.  They came to the Caribbean with Christopher Columbus and later Hernando De Soto brought them to Florida.

We think of hogs raised in pens, but free range hogs were common in the Ozarks into the 1950's.  They would let the hogs range over a large area of forested hills, sometimes contained with "hog fence".  When ready for market, they would start corn feeding the hogs in a fenced area or corral much like was used above, then close the gate one day and back up the truck to load them.  As described in a 1920 book:

"A large part of the wild land still constitutes a free range.  Stock law, which makes the owner responsible for all unconfined stock, has been introduced only in the better parts of the border regions, and usually only after a spirited contest between the farmers interested in crop raising and the poorer farmers of the old regime.  Elsewhere whatever land is not under fence is free to anybody's stock.

For the raising of hogs conditions are much better, as the abundance of acorns and other mast makes the average range fairly good.  The region produces few fat hogs, because of the small amount of corn which is fed, but yields a very fair bacon type, which is produced at almost no cost.  In a typical case a farmer sold $500 worth of hogs, to which he had fed altogether only twelve bushels of corn and which had received almost no care.  The half-wild hog of the hills is of lighter weight and worth less than the corn-fed hog.  In 1909 the average value of a hog in corn producing Cooper County was $7.60; in the oak forests of Shannon only $4.20.  The range hogs are remarkably free from disease, and it is claimed that they seldom are attacked by cholera."**

So what about Razorbacks, also called wild boar?   In the 1930's, Eurasian wild boar were imported into Texas for hunting.  They bred with free-ranging domestic animals and escapees that had adapted to the wild.*

The hogs trapped along Bull Creek looked just like domestic pigs.  Left on their own to breed in the wild, they adapt and develop more characteristics of their wild cousins.

"The difference between domestic and wild hogs is a matter of genetics, experience and environment.  The animals are “plastic in their physical and behavioral makeup,” says wild hog expert John Mayer of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. Most domestic pigs have sparse coats, but descendants of escapees grow thick bristly hair in cold environments.  Dark-skinned pigs are more likely than pale ones to survive in the wild and pass along their genes.  Wild hogs develop curved “tusks” as long as seven inches that are actually teeth (which are cut from domestics when they’re born).  The two teeth on top are called whetters or grinders, and the two on the bottom are called cutters; continual grinding keeps the latter deadly sharp.  Males that reach sexual maturity develop “shields” of dense tissue on their shoulders that grow harder and thicker (up to two inches) with age; these protect them during fights."*

There is more interesting information in the magazine article and this Texas video.

*     Smithsonian Magazine
**   The geography of the Ozark Highland of Missouri, Carl Ortwin Sauer., 1920.