On March 20-21, 2014, plant scientists will organize the International scientific and practical conference “Botany and ecology to create a comfortable human environment”, which will be held on March 20-21, 2014 at Park Inn by Radisson Hotel Heathrow, London, U.K.
Sacculina is a parasitic arthropod from a crustacean subtype. The process of its development can serve as an excellent plot for a horror movie. “Alien” in the animal world The larva of the female parasite (which looks so innocent), travels for some time in the water column in search of suitable “prey” (nauplius stage). After 4-5 days, a small chitinous shell begins to appear in it (cypris stage). From this point on, sacculina has only one goal – to find a suitable crab as soon as possible, to gain a foothold on it and develop further.
One of the components of the successful breeding of tarantulas is their early sex determination. Males of spiders mature much earlier than females, so by the time when females mature, they already lose the ability to reproduce, as a result of which synchronization of individuals of a different sex from one cocoon is not possible. When it comes to popular spiders, this is not a problem, you can always find a younger male and grow up, but there are also such types of bird spiders that are quite rare on sale and it would be a pity to miss the opportunity to get offspring from them. If one learns to determine the sexual identity of the spiders at the first ages and to create the appropriate conditions for individuals of different sexes in the future, then it may happen that both sexes mature at the…
Written by Ben Connor, policy officer at the British Ecological Society. This piece was originally posted on the BES blog. A comprehensive 25-year strategy to protect and enhance England’s natural capital is required if the Government is to meet its commitment for this generation to be the first to leave the natural environment in a better state than it inherited. Business as usual is not an option, with long-term trends indicating that our natural capital is in decline, presenting a profound risk to our future wellbeing and prosperity. New legislation, backed by close collaboration between the public sector, business and civil society, will be required to ensure that this strategy is delivered. Those were the headline recommendations of the third and final report of the Natural Capital Committee, released yesterday and formally launched at the Royal Society last night. The report represents the culmination of three years’ work by the Committee –…
Daija Angeli, project officer for the Society of Biology’s special interest group the Natural Capital Initiative, attended a meeting of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee on the valuation of natural capital on 25th February 2014. Here is what she learned: How do we value our nature? The concept of natural capital is often used to describe the economic value of nature, and has been explored as a way to ensure that nature is protected and to assign priorities. This was the focus of discussion at a recent meeting of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, which tackles issues where science and politics meet. Three talks by experts on natural capital spoke about recent research and policy developments before chair Andrew Miller MP opened the debate to the audience. Environmental economist Julian Harlow (Defra) pondered not how, but why we value natural capital. We have failed to protect the environment based on…
In advance of Professor Adam Hart’s 24 hour lecturethon, David Urry from the Society of Biology shares his experiences of building a bee hotel. I am not the most practically minded person in the world, but I do enjoy a bit of D.I.Y. After coming across an old picture frame and backing board in the garage, I did what any amateur naturalist (and even more amateur handy man) would do, and decided to convert it into a bee hotel for solitary bees and insect overwintering site. There are over 200 species of solitary bee in the UK, most of which go largely unnoticed to the untrained eye. Normally slightly smaller than their social cousins, they are no less active and ubiquitous and are common visitors to gardens and parks all over the UK. Within the 200 species found, a variety of life history strategies are represented as different species go…
by Rebecca Nesbit, Press Officer, Society of Biology Panda conservation is not ‘greenwash’ read the headline of BBC Nature’s thought-provoking write-up of the Biology Week debate ‘should we save the panda’. This referred to the evening’s extensive discussion about the use (and misuse) of pandas in conservation PR. Whether or not you think it is important to make popular animals a conservation priority, the belief that pandas attract more conservation resources than they use is a common reason for voting that we should indeed save the panda. As poster boys, charismatic species can attract money and increase the profile of conservation (and conservation organisations). It is surprisingly complicated to determine whether, overall, the panda brings in more money for conservation than it uses. Zoos raise money for conservation in the wild, but would people who paid for entry into a zoo still come if there were no pandas to…
Guest post by Catherine O’Connor, Epidemiologist for the Health Protection Services, discussing the badger cull As an epidemiologist, my job is to understand the how, what, when, where and whys of disease transmission. Though we now possess much fancier tools than those used by the father of epidemiology, John Snow (he of the Broad Street pump and cholera fame), it is by tackling these age-old questions that we attempt to understand and ultimately eradicate disease. But sometimes it’s not as easy as just removing a pump-handle. For humans we have two main methods of controlling infectious diseases, either we protect the susceptible individuals or we quarantine infected individuals. Often methods are used in combination for maximum effect. For animals, we have one additional control measure in our repertoire: culling. Culling animals is used not just to control disease (enzootic and zoonotic) but also to reduce human-animal conflicts…
Guest blog by Sive Finlay, a PhD student from Trinity College Dublin who recently won Best Biology Student at the 2012 SET awards for her undergraduate project Bee populations are in severe decline, an alarming and worrying trend when you consider their vital importance as commercial and ecological pollinators. Research and media attention often focuses on afflictions of honeybees such as the Varroa mite and colony collapse disorder. However, parasites are also major contributors to the plight of the bumble bee. Bumble bee queens spend 6-9 months in diapause, a hibernation-like state which allows them to survive harsh winter weather. My research demonstrated that queens have reduced immune function during this time, leaving them vulnerable to infections and parasitic attack. Sphaerularia is a common yet poorly studied nematode which is found primarily in the Northern hemisphere, infecting up to 50% of queen bumble bees in some areas. Adult female Sphaerularia present in…
by Zara Gladman, PhD student at the University of Glasgow and intern at the Society of Biology In my last blog I waxed lyrical on the wonders of crayfish, those large freshwater invertebrates that grace our rivers, lochs and your M&S sandwiches. Today I’d like to discuss one of the biggest threats to aquatic biodiversity: the introduction of non-native crayfish to new ecosystems. For the past four years, my life has been devoted to learning everything I can about one such invader, the North American signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus, pictured right). Originally from western North America, this species was imported into Sweden for aquaculture in the 1950s and 60s. Thereafter, introductions were made to several other countries including the UK. Today, the signal crayfish is the most widespread non-native crayfish species in Europe. This is not good news for our native plants and animals. Signal crayfish are large, mobile “keystone…