Best of our wild blogs: 2 Aug 09

Life History of the Great Mormon
from Butterflies of Singapore

Raffles’ Malkoha building nest
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Placid at Pasir Ris
from wild shores of singapore

East coast lagoon - Where are the fish?
from Singapore Nature

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Malaysia To Impart Knowledge To Indonesia To Fight Haze

Bernama 1 Aug 09;

KUCHING, Aug 1 (Bernama) - Malaysia is to impart knowledge of peatland management and 'zero burning' techniques to the authorities of the province of Riau in Sumatra, Indonesia as part of efforts to have greater collaboration in tackling haze in the region.

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas said as part of the cooperation between Malaysia and Indonesia under the Memorandum of Understanding on Transboundary Haze Pollution of June last year, Malaysia is assisting Riau, an area that has many forest fires and is closest to Peninsular Malaysia, to develop peatland management in tackling peat soil fires which cause haze.

"I will be going to Riau from Aug 7-9 to look at the work carried out by our Malaysian team on the ground.

"Beside that, I will continue the discussion with our counterparts on fire fighting. We need to enhance our cooperation and take concrete actions to end the annual return of the haze," he told reporters after officiating the inaugural Malaysian Peat Society Seminar and Meeting themed "Peatland 2009" here Saturday.

On integrated peatland management in Riau, Uggah said Malaysia is to put up 'check dams' to maintain the water level in the peatlands.

"Experts have advised that better management of the water level of peatland will help to reduce peat soil and ground fires. During the dry season, the water level will go down by between 10 to 15 metres and the top part of the peatland could easily catch fire. So, we must manage the water level to avoid peat soil fires," he said.

Beside that, he said the ministry had sent a team to Riau to teach local farmers new land clearing methods and also the implementation of 'zero burning' techniques to prevent open burning on agricultural land.

On the National Action Plan on Peatlands, Uggah said the ministry will present the draft of the plan to the Cabinet by the end of the year.

"I believe with this action plan to look into the wise use of peatlands in an integrated manner we can better manage our peatlands," he said.

He added that the plan would provide the platform for more scientific work on the country's tropical peatlands which was still very much lacking.
-- BERNAMA

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'Electric' ants seen in UK for first time

Aleisha Scott, The Independent 2 Aug 09;

A species of super ant with a fatal attraction to electricity has been discovered marching through Hidcote Manor gardens in Gloucestershire, one of England's finest National Trust properties. It is thought to be the first time Lasius neglectus, known as the Asian super ant, has been recorded in the UK, although the ants have been spotted in Germany, Hungary, France, Spain and Poland.

The species was first identified in Budapest 20 years ago and looks like a common black garden ant. Colonies at Hidcote have now been formally identified as Lasius neglectus, after investigation by English Heritage and the National Trust into infestations within the estate. The Asian super ant can form super-colonies, with many queens and interconnected nests spreading over a hectare. The queens breed with males from their own nest and quickly set up self-sufficient nests, even when separated from the main colony. The species is highly dependant on aphid honeydew and is associated with a range of tree species. Like American fire ants, their compulsion to follow electricity is stronger than their need for food or drink. Swarms of ants around electrical cables can cause blackouts.

Simon Ford, a nature conservation adviser for the National Trust in Wessex, said 35,000 ant carcasses were found inside just one electrical junction box in Hidcote. "The ants themselves pose little direct threat, as they don't bite people or pets. But their habit of creating super-colonies means they pose a threat to native species by outcompeting them for food and space, and the attraction to electrical circuitry means they could pose a fire risk," he said.

The super ant has so far proven resistant to traditional insect poison, so the National Trust is now working with pest controllers looking into options including bait systems and controlling their food source – aphids. Brian Ridout, an English Heritage entomologist, said their resemblance to the common ant may mean they have gone unnoticed at the estate for some time.

Fire risk 'super' ants discovered
BBC News 1 Aug 09;

Ants believed to have a "kamikaze attraction" to electricity have been discovered in one of England's finest National Trust gardens.

Colonies of lasius neglectus, the so-called Asian super ant, have being found at Hidcote Manor, near Chipping Campden, in Gloucestershire.

It is thought to be the first recorded sighting in the UK, although they have been spotted in mainland Europe.

They are naturally drawn to electrical currents so can pose a fire risk.

The species was first identified in Budapest 20 years ago. The ants look like a common black garden variety.

English Heritage and the National Trust carried out investigations into infestations within the Hidcote estate to identify them as lasius neglectus.

The Asian super ant is highly-dependent on aphid honeydew and is associated with a wide range of tree species.

Their compulsion to follow electricity is stronger than their need for food or drink.

Swarms of ants around electrical cables can cause blackouts.

Brian Ridout, English Heritage entomologist and architectural conservator, said they may have gone unnoticed for some time.

"The behaviour of the ants didn't agree with that of any known UK species," he said.

"Our suspicions were confirmed when samples were sent to the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona which has been studying major infestations of them in Spain.

"They look just the same as the common black garden ant, although there will be ten to a hundred times as many of them."

The National Trust said 35,000 ant carcasses were found in one electrical junction box at Hidcote.

'More prolific'

Simon Ford, nature conservation advisor for the National Trust in Wessex, said: "The ants themselves pose little direct threat to us as they don't bite people or pets.

"Their habit of creating super-colonies means they pose a threat to native species by out-competing them for food and space, and their attraction to electrical circuitry means they could pose a fire risk.

"Researchers have feared for several years that this species would make it to the UK, and while the Hidcote colony is the first case recorded, it is not clear if it is the first in the UK or indeed that it is the only one.

"It is very likely the ants are more prolific."

The super ant is resistant to traditional insect poison so the National Trust is now working with pest controllers to investigate other options, including bait systems.

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An Underwater Fight Is Waged for the Health of San Francisco Bay

Malia Wollan, The New York Times 1 Aug 09;

SAN FRANCISCO — Chela Zabin will not soon forget when she first glimpsed the golden brown tentacle of the latest alien to settle in the fertile waters of San Francisco Bay.

“I had that moment of ‘Oh God, this is it, it’s here,’ ” said Dr. Zabin, a biologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. “I was really hoping I was wrong.”

The tentacle in question was that of an Asian kelp, Undaria pinnatifida, a flavorful and healthful ingredient in miso soup and an aggressive, costly intruder in waters from New Zealand to Monterey Bay.

The kelp, known as wakame (pronounced wa-KA-me), is on a list of “100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species,” compiled by the Invasive Species Specialist Group. Since her discovery in May, Dr. Zabin and colleagues have pulled up nearly 140 pounds of kelp attached to pilings and boats in the San Francisco Marina alone.

Every year the damage wrought by aquatic invaders in the United States and the cost of controlling them is estimated at $9 billion, according to a 2003 study by a Cornell University professor, David Pimentel, whose research is considered the most comprehensive. The bill for controlling two closely-related invasive mussels — the zebra and the quagga — in the Great Lakes alone is $30 million annually, says the United States Federal Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force.

Many scientists say that San Francisco Bay has more than 250 nonnative species, like European green crab, Asian zooplankton and other creatures and plants that outcompete native species for food, space and sunlight.

“Here you’ve got a veritable smorgasbord of habitats from shallow and muddy to deep water,” said Lars Anderson, a lead scientist with the United States Agriculture Department. The Oakland port ranks as the fourth busiest in the nation, and ships bring in tiny hitchhikers from across the globe to take up residence in the bay.

Most invasive aquatic species arrive stuck to hulls or as stowaways in ballast water. Wakame first arrived at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2000, Dr. Zabin and other scientists said. A year later it had moved south into Baja California and north as far as Monterey Bay, where scientists in scuba suits yanked it off boat hulls and marina moorings.

“It’s just like gardening, you can pull out all the weeds you want, but there will always be that little dandelion seed that will sprout and recolonize,” said Steve Lonhart, senior scientist at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The kelp, which can grow an inch a day, could spread as far north as Canada before the water becomes too cold to sustain it, Dr. Lonhart said.

Native to the Japan Sea, wakame has now spread to the Mediterranean and elsewhere along European coastlines, and to New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, where the fetid smell of rotting kelp has kept beachgoers from parts of the coast.

Wakame harms native kelp, mucks up marinas and the undersides of boats, and damages mariculture like oyster farming.

Money to help eradicate invasive species is difficult to come by on both state and federal levels, particularly in a state facing an unprecedented financial crisis and cuts to programs. “When there is a big wildfire, no one stops and asks, ‘Who is going to pay for this?’ They just fight the fire,” Dr. Anderson said. “We don’t have that kind of automatic response with invasive species.”

On weekends, Dr. Anderson trolls Tomales Bay, 50 miles north of here, in a sea kayak, looking for wakame’s wide leaves.

John Finger is owner of Hog Island Oyster Farm, which has beds in 160 acres of Tomales Bay. His beds yield 2.5 million oysters per year, worth $6 million, Mr. Finger said. Of wakame’s approach, he said, “It seems inevitable that it will show up here.”

Though wakame has not yet been spotted in the bay, Mr. Finger said he was pre-emptively training his staff on how to identify and remove the kelp. “This is just another sign of how small the world is,” he said.

Back in San Francisco, Dr. Zabin and colleagues from nonprofit groups and state and federal agencies have been pooling resources and volunteers, donning scuba and snorkeling equipment and filling black plastic trash bags with the kelp.

But before trucking it to the landfill, Dr. Zabin plans to ship some to Texas. “I got an e-mail from a guy who wants to use it to make biofuel,” Dr. Zabin said. “Maybe he could just come and vacuum it up.”

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Climate threat to Australian heritage sites

Josh Gordon, The Age 2 Aug 09;

THE Federal Government has warned that Australian icons such as the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park, the Tasmanian wilderness, Carlton Gardens and the Sydney Opera House could be damaged irreparably if the Coalition fails to support Labor’s emissions trading scheme.

Less than two weeks before a Senate vote on the Government’s climate change legislation, a government report to be released today has found Australia’s 17 world heritage sites could be devastated by lower rainfall, rising sea levels, higher sea and land temperatures, ocean acidification and extreme weather events.

It warns that the Opera House, which is 3.5 metres above sea level, could be swamped by high tides. Eighty per cent of Kakadu’s freshwater wetlands could be lost and the Great Barrier Reef would face "catastrophic" coral bleaching by 2050.

A senior Labor source said the report would mark the beginning of a campaign to pressure Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull on climate change and emissions trading.

"We’ll be pulling every policy lever and using every means at our disposal to argue a case to protect jobs and protect the environment by tackling climate change," the source said.

The Coalition is deeply divided over the issue of climate change. Mr Turnbull has endorsed Labor’s target to cut emissions by up to 25 per cent by 2020 but, facing significant disunity in his ranks, he is refusing to clarify whether his party will support Labor’s legislation until after the US position is finalised and Copenhagen global climate talks are concluded in December.

The report, prepared by the Australian National University for the Department of Environment, said that with continued warming there would be "substantial reductions" in rainforests, declines in the abundance of native flora and fauna and potential damage to architecture.

It said temperatures in Australia were likely to rise by up to 5 degrees by 2070 under a high emissions scenario, with a 10 per cent fall in average rainfall, lower stream flows, worsening water security and quality and more cyclones. By 2030, sea levels were likely to rise by about 17 centimetres.

"Higher sea and land temperatures, sea level rise and ocean acidification, and prolonged drought pose a significant threat to marine and terrestrial biodiversity across Australia’s World Heritage estate," the report concludes.

"Climate change effects are likely to exacerbate the current problems associated with human-induced changes to the landscape through deforestation, fire, urban expansion, water extraction and tourism, as well as … the spread of exotic pests and diseases."

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong had to defend the Government’s emissions trading legislation at the ALP’s national conference yesterday.

In one of the rowdier sessions during the three-day talkfest, Senator Wong’s speech was interrupted by Labor protesters angered by concessions being offered to the coal industry, but it also drew strong and vocal support from members of the audience.

Senator Wong said: "We need to act now to protect Australia’s unique environment, especially these World Heritage sites that support so many Australian workers in the tourism and hospitality industry.’’ She said efforts to reduce carbon pollution were essential to securing Australia’s prosperity.

"In 11 days, the Parliament will vote on legislation to start reducing carbon pollution for the first time ever.’’

The government report singled out Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, warning they could face deterioration from higher temperatures and drought. But it said the World Heritage-listed location would be among the least affected of the 17 Australian sites. Environment Minister Peter Garrett said it was the first comprehensive report by any country into the impacts of climate change on all its World Heritage properties.

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New UK 'crisis satellites' launched

BBC 1 Aug 09;

A rocket has been launched from Kazakhstan carrying two British-built satellites which will help monitor natural disasters.

The UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 spacecraft will join four platforms already in the sky that together form the Disaster Monitoring Constellation.

The network obtains rapid pictures of areas struck by natural calamities - such as floods, earthquakes and fire.

The imagery is used by governments and aid agencies to co-ordinate relief.

The two satellites headed for orbit aboard a Dnepr rocket which was launched from Baikonur cosmodrome, Russia's Strategic Space Troops said.

The Dnepr, a converted Soviet-era SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, was also carrying four other foreign satellites, including the United Arab Emirates' first space platform, known as DubaiSat-1.

Map resource

"After a major disaster, the first thing you need to do is supply the relief workers with an up-to-date map," explained Philip Davies, from manufacturers Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL).

"If there's been a big flood, there will be landslides, roads will have been washed away and bridges will be down. So you need a new map that shows you how to get around the area; and it's the satellite imagery that helps you do that."

UK-DMC2, as the name suggests, is Britain's second contribution to the constellation. Deimos-1 is owned by a Spanish imaging company.

The pair joins orbital assets that belong to Algeria, China and Nigeria (a Turkish satellite is no longer operational after finishing its mission).

The spacecraft picture the Earth at resolutions between 4m and 32m, across an ultra-wide 600km-plus swath.

When they fly over their home territories, the satellites acquire a range of data for domestic use - everything from urban planning to monitoring locust swarms, the BBC's Jonathan Amos reports.



But when the platforms fly across the rest of the globe, they gather imagery which is pooled and sold on to commercial users.

Every so often, however, a major disaster will strike some part of the globe and the DMC constellation will be tasked with gathering emergency pictures as fast as possible.

Recent deployments have included the Australian bushfires in February this year, and after the major cyclone that hit Burma in May 2008.

"The biggest use of the DMC was after the Asian tsunami is 2004," said Mr Davies.

"We used the fact that it's a constellation and can cover very wide swaths to image the entire Indian Ocean coastline.

"Other satellites may have been able to deploy high resolutions at particular locations, but we were the only system that could cover the entire coastline at a reasonable resolution."

The UK-DMC2 platform carries some improvements over the previous DMC satellites, including an enhanced camera sensor to deliver better ground resolution, and X-band transmitters that will enable the spacecraft to download data 10 times as fast as its orbital cousins.

The 96kg, 60cm cube is also carrying a student experiment called Poise, which was developed by pupils at Shrewsbury School, in Shropshire.

The experiment will measure variations in the ionosphere - the outermost layer of the atmosphere. These variations can affect the accuracy and safety of satellite navigation (sat-nav) systems.

SSTL is famous for producing the very first spacecraft for Europe's forthcoming sat-nav system, Galileo.

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Nissan unveils zero-emission hatchback "Leaf"

Chang-Ran Kim, Reuters 1 Aug 09;

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co took the wraps off its much-awaited electric car on Sunday, naming the hatchback "Leaf" and taking a step toward its goal of leading the industry in the zero-emission field.

Japan's No.3 automaker and its French partner, Renault SA, have been the most aggressive proponents of pure electric vehicles in the auto industry, announcing plans to mass-market the clean but expensive cars globally in 2012.

Nissan will begin selling the first Leaf cars in the United States and Japan in the latter half of next year, adding more models in rapid succession.

Twinning the car's unveiling with the inauguration of Nissan's new global headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn drove up to the stage in a sky-blue Leaf prototype, carrying former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and two other guests to greet a throng of journalists who made the trip from all over the world.

"We celebrate today the start of a new chapter of our company's life," Ghosn said.

Nissan is returning to the port city of Yokohama, where it was founded in 1933, after being based in Tokyo's posh Ginza district for the last 41 years.

Hit by sliding vehicle sales worldwide since the financial crisis hit last year, Nissan has suspended its goals set under a mid-term business plan, with the exception of its aggressive push into the electric car business.

Nissan did not announce pricing for the five-seater Leaf, but Ghosn said the price, without the expensive lithium-ion battery that Nissan expects to lease, would be within the range of a comparable gasoline-engine car.

Other automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen AG have also announced plans to launch electric cars in the next several years, but expect implementation to take time due to the vehicle's high cost, limited driving range and long charging times.

Nissan's Leaf will have a cruising range of 160 km (100 miles) and a top speed of over 140 km/hour (76 mph).

(Editing by Dean Yates)

FACTBOX: Nissan's first mass-volume electric car "Leaf"
Reuters 1 Aug 09;

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co on Sunday unveiled the prototype of its first mass-volume electric car, the "Leaf," which is due to go on sale in the United States and Japan in the latter half of 2010, followed by a global launch in 2012.

Here are some facts about the car:

- Name: Leaf

- Class: medium-sized hatchback

- Seating: 4-5 passengers

- Cruising range: 160 km (100 miles)

- Top speed: over 140 km/hour (87 mph)

- Battery: Laminated compact lithium-ion battery developed and manufactured by Automotive Energy Supply Corp (AESC), a joint venture between Nissan and the NEC Corp group.

- Charging time: 8 hours on 200V; 16 hours on 100V; 30 minutes with three-phase 200V fast-charge station

- Powertrain layout: front motor, front drive

- Other features: Dedicated IT system that shows on the navigation map the driving radius within range of remaining charge in the car's batteries. The driver can also check on the state of charge online or on a cellular phone, find charging stations within range or use a timer function to turn on the air conditioner or begin charging using cheaper electricity available at night.

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Editing by Dean Yates)

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