Usurbilgo atez-ateko bilketa-sistema, eredugarria Madrilgo Ingurumen Ministerioarentzat

Iturria: Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente


(Luego el PP dando la matraca y montando follón. Parecen de los que quemaban conenedores...)

Buenas prácticas

Buenas prácticas

 

 

 

 

 

(...) (...) (...)

 

 

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• Recogida puerta a puerta en Usurbil. Recogida puerta a puerta en Usurbil.+ info
  

El Gobierno pretende vetar el Sistema de Retorno sin opción a que se demuestre su viabilidad

Iturria: Retorna

Miércoles 18 Abril 2012 - 12:51

Retorna expresa su preocupación por la intención del Ministro Arias Cañete de derogar un artículo de la reciente Ley de Residuos por las presiones del sector industrial.

Ante la intención anunciada por el Ministro de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente Miguel Arias Cañete de derogar el artículo 21.2 de la Ley de Residuos y Suelos Contaminados aprobada en julio del 2011, Retorna, entidad sin ánimo de lucro integrada por ONG ambientales, asociaciones de consumidores, sindicatos y la industria del reciclado, quiere denunciar los graves perjuicios económicos, medioambientales y sociales que esta medida supondría sin antes haber evaluado la viabilidad de la implantación de un Sistema de Retorno de envases de bebidas (SDDR) en España. Esta decisión supondría el veto a la reutilización de envases de bebidas y la renuncia a la posibilidad de triplicar los índices de recogida selectiva de este tipo de residuos, pasando del 35% actual a un 90% sin costes añadidos.

Esta medida, que pretende ser aprobada mediante decreto ley, un procedimiento que niega la opción a un debate real sobre el presente y el futuro de la gestión de nuestros residuos, es consecuencia directa de las reticencias y los argumentos contrarios al Sistema de Retorno que tanto los Sistemas Integrados de Gestión (SIG) actuales como algunos agentes de la distribución y envasadores han vertido. En este sentido, desde Retorna denunciamos las presiones al Gobierno por parte de este colectivo, que deseamos no culminen en el veto al Sistema de Retorno sin antes darle la opción de demostrar su viabilidad. Esto supondría la imposición de los intereses empresariales de unos pocos por delante de los del resto de sectores de la sociedad.

Desde Retorna, reiteramos la necesidad de proteger una ley que consideramos de vital importancia para mejorar la preocupante situación actual de los residuos en España. El Sistema de Retorno, a diferencia de los SIG, prioriza, tal y como indica la Directiva Marco Europea sobre  Residuos, la prevención, la reutilización y el reciclaje frente al vertido y la incineración. En este sentido, esta misma semana el Comisario de Medio Ambiente Janez Potocnik, anunciaba la intención de la Comisión Europea de asegurarse que todos los estados comunitarios cumplan con los objetivos de recuperación marcados a través de una legislación vinculante. “Los residuos tienen demasiado valor como para eliminarlos simplemente y una gestión correcta de los mismos puede hacer que ese valor vuelva a inyectarse en la economía”, declaraba Potocnik.

Reiterando nuestra intención de promover un debate abierto por encima de un proceso de toma de decisiones unilateral, nos complace anunciar que las conclusiones del “Estudio Económico sobre la viabilidad de la implantación del SDDR en España”, realizado por la Consultora Británica Eunomia, firma especializada en Medio Ambiente y proveedora de la Unión Europea, le serán presentadas a Federico Ramos, Secretario de Estado de Medio Ambiente, el próximo 25 de abril en una reunión de trabajo. Asimismo, los medios de comunicación tendrán acceso al mismo estudio en la mañana del 26 de abril, en un desayuno de prensa que se celebrará en Madrid. Este evento podrá seguirse en directo mediante videostreaming en la página web de Retorna.

Iturria: El Correo

«elegir entre el gas y el agua»

'Fracking ez' cifra en 2.119 los pozos necesarios para sacar gas

La plataforma alertó en las Juntas Generales del riesgo de contaminación de este sistema

18.04.12 - 02:22 -

MARTA PECIÑA | VITORIA.

Hacen falta 2.119 pozos para sacar el gas del subsuelo alavés a través del sistema 'fracking', según explicó ayer Mikel Otero, portavoz de la plataforma contra este sistema de extracción, en su comparecencia en las Juntas Generales de Álava. La cifra se obtiene de las reservas estimadas en territorio alavés, de 180.000 millones de metros cúbicos. Los argumentos que desgranó Otero pretendían demostrar que el Gobierno vasco se ha convertido en principal impulsor del proyecto, pero que en él, sólo se tienen en cuenta las variables económicas y técnicas en cuanto a su rentabilidad, mientras que las medioambientales han quedado apartadas. Puso como ejemplo, que «los nueve permisos que se tramitan en Álava afectan al 90% del territorio».

 

El portavoz de 'Fracking ez Araba' explicó, asimismo, que este sistema exigirá millones de metros cúbicos de agua, «que quedará contaminada en el subsuelo alavés». Este material corre el riesgo de «afectar a los 55 pozos abiertos para otras actividades» y apostó por «elegir entre el gas y el agua».

Otero asumió que las actuaciones realizadas hasta ahora son reversibles, «pero no cuando se empiece a fracturar», e insistió en los riegos de esta actividad. Se remitió a los estudios realizados en Estados Unidos, donde la técnica lleva implantada ya varios años. Recordó los accidentes que se producen por desbordamiento de las balsas que contienen lo materiales contaminantes, la filtración de gas a los pozos ya existentes, los problemas de sellado y alertó de que «durante el primer año se obtiene el máximo rendimiento, pero luego la tasa productividad baja entre un 60 y un 80%, así que la vida útil de un pozo viene a ser de siete años y para seguir extrayendo el gas, hay que construir uno nuevo». Cada pozo ocupa una superficie de unas dos hectáreas en el terreno.

Otero recordó que la extracción del gas alavés no debería ser una cuestión económica, sino de «apuesta por otro modelo energético». Puso como ejemplo los casos de Francia o Bulgaria donde «han prohibido está técnica» o el de Dinamarca «donde también hay gas de este tipo, pero han decidido que en 2050 toda su energía procederá de fuentes renovables».

Por otra parte, los grupos municipales del PNV y Bildu mostraron su malestar con los ponentes elegidos para las jornadas sobre fracking organizadas la próxima semana por el Gobierno vasco, la Diputación y el Ayuntamiento.

Clues to Species Decline Buried in Pile of Bird Excrement

Iturria: Sciencemag

by Helen Fields on 17 April 2012, 7:01 PM |

 

Hidden treasure. Chimney swifts (bottom left) roosted in this chimney until it was capped in 1992; researchers dug out their poop and studied the hard remains of insects they'd eaten (top right).

Credit: Chris Grooms/Queen's University; (bird, left inset) Bruce Di Labio

In 2009, while searching for ways to help endangered birds, research technician Chris Grooms heard that a chimney on his university campus used to host a migratory species known as the chimney swift. When he investigated, he found a pile of bird excrement 2 meters deep. The poop lay at the bottom of a five-story-high chimney and had been deposited over 48 years by the birds, which had roosted there until the top was capped in 1992. Now, Grooms and his colleagues have dug into that pile of guano, revealing new clues about why the chimney swift and other species like it have begun to disappear.
Grooms volunteers for an environmental group in Ontario, Canada, that's trying to conserve local wildlife. He also works in a lab at Queen's University in Kingston that studies sediments in lakes. As dirt and dead things sink to the bottom of these bodies of water, they preserve a record of environmental conditions. Grooms wondered if the same thing had happened with his pile of bird poop. He brought the idea to the head of the lab, ecologist John Smol. Smol was intrigued: "It could be 2 meters of bird poop, or it could be a pretty important story."
The researchers entered the chimney through a little door near the bottom that was only big enough to crawl through. Behind the door was the wall of poop. It took 2 days to dig out enough of the crumbly, dark-gray, dry excrement so that the researchers could stand up. After 20 years, the poop had lost its smell, but the researchers wore respirators just in case some pathogen was hanging around.
With the help of radioisotopes produced by nuclear bomb tests, which linger in sediments and can be used for dating, the researchers worked out that the deposit built up between 1944 and 1992. A team at the University of Ottawa measured levels of DDE, a chemical that comes from the pesticide DDT, to see if DDT affected what insects the birds were eating. Another set of samples went off to Joseph Nocera, a conservation biologist at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in Peterborough, who sorted out insect remains. Most were beetles; the next most common remains were from the Hemiptera, an order known as "true bugs" that includes stink bugs and cicadas.
As DDE increased through the lower layers of the deposit, beetles showed up less often in the birds' diets and true bugs became more common, the researchers report online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. This result agrees with other reports that DDT is hard on beetles, while true bugs can evolve resistance quickly. The change in diet may also help explain why chimney swifts have declined so precipitously, Nocera says.
Canadian surveys have found that the number of chimney swifts dropped 95% between 1968 and 2005. Some researchers have suggested that part of the reason is that chimneys like this one, swifts' preferred habitat, have been capped or redesigned, making it harder for birds to get in. But the new work suggests that the decline may be diet related. Beetles generally contain more calories than do true bugs. Swifts need a ton of energy—they spend a lot of time on the wing, looking for food. A change in their diet, like substituting less-nutritious true bugs, could have a big impact. DDT was banned in the 1970s, but the beetles never seem to have gotten back their original place in the food web, Nocera says.
Nocera thinks DDT and other pesticides may have effects far beyond their well-known impacts on the eggshells of large birds, such as taking away the foods that chimney swifts, barn swallows, flycatchers, and other insect-eating birds relied on. He says he doesn't know of any other studies that have looked at a pile of bird poop on the scale of decades—other studies have looked at older guano. There are probably many more archives like this in the chimney swift's range, he says, and this study shows that it's possible to get useful information out of them.
Çağan Şekercioğlu, a conservation ecologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, agrees with the team's conclusions. Pesticides get more concentrated as they move up the food chain, which means they can be worse for insect-eating birds than for birds that eat fruit or nectar, he says. Still, Şekercioğlu says he would have liked to see more discussion of how the loss of nesting and roosting sites—like the chimney in this study—affected chimney swift populations. But "it's a very good historical data set," he says. "We don't have that opportunity for almost any other bird species. It's a brilliant idea and very well thought out, and the fact that they found this potential link to DDT is fascinating."

Counting Penguins From Space

Iturria: Sciencemag

by Erik Stokstad on 13 April 2012, 4:16 PM | 1 Comments

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Credit: (left) DigitalGlobe; (right) British Antarctic Survey

Counting penguins isn't as hard as it might sound. (Hey, hold still!) Someone snaps a photograph of a colony and then marks up the picture to make sure that they aren't missing or double counting anybody. What is hard is getting to remote places, especially Antarctica. So a new approach is to use satellite images, and today researchers report the results of the first such comprehensive study. Scientists have found twice as many emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) as previously thought to exist, roughly 595,000 (plus or minus 81,000). They also came across seven new colonies (one shown at left), bringing the total to 44. To get the new number of birds, they had to enhance the images with a technique called pansharpening, which allowed them to distinguish between shadows, guano, and actual penguins. "This is a leap forward but it doesn't change the conservation concern [about] emperor penguins and many other species," says penguin expert P. Dee Boersma of the University of Washington, Seattle. "Unfortunately with climate warming and variation, we are likely to be studying the decline of emperor penguins. Satellite mapping will allow scientists to determine where the decline are occurring and by how much."

Wildlife Thriving After Nuclear Disaster? Radiation from Chernobyl and Fukushima Nuclear Accidents Not as Harmful to Wildlife as Feared

Iturria: Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Apr. 11, 2012) — Radiation from the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents may not have been as harmful to wildlife as previously thought.

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New research by Professor Jim Smith, of the University of Portsmouth, and colleagues from the University of the West of England has cast doubt on earlier studies on the impact on birds of the catastrophic nuclear accident at Chernobyl in April 1986.
Their findings, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, are likely to also apply to wildlife at Fukushima in Japan following its nuclear disaster in 2011 and represent an important step forward in clarifying the debate on the biological effects of radiation.
Professor Smith, an environmental physicist at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: "I wasn't really surprised by these findings -- there have been many high profile findings on the radiation damage to wildlife at Chernobyl but it's very difficult to see significant damage and we are not convinced by some of the claims.

Chernobyl atomic power station, after nuclear catastrophe. Radiation from the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents may not have been as harmful to wildlife as previously thought. (Credit: © Hellen Sergeyeva / Fotolia)

"We can't rule out some effect on wildlife of the radiation, but wildlife populations in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl have recovered and are actually doing well and even better than before because the human population has been removed."
Until now, scientists had thought radiation had a dramatic effect on bird populations following the Chernobyl disaster because it had caused damage to birds' antioxidant defence mechanisms. But Professor Smith and colleagues have, for the first time, quantified this effect. Their study modelled the production of free radicals from radiation, concluding that the birds' antioxidant mechanisms could easily cope with radiation at density levels similar to those seen at Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Professor Smith said: "We showed that changes in anti-oxidant levels in birds in Chernobyl could not be explained by direct radiation damage. We would expect other wildlife to be similarly resistant to oxidative stress from radiation at these levels.
"Similarly, radiation levels at Fukushima would not be expected to cause oxidative stress to wildlife. We believe that it is likely that apparent damage to bird populations at Chernobyl is caused by differences in habitat, diet or ecosystem structure rather than radiation.
"It is well-known that immediately after the Chernobyl accident, extremely high radiation levels did damage organisms. But now, radiation levels at Chernobyl are hundreds of times lower and, while some studies have apparently seen long-term effects on animals, others have found no effect.
"Some Belarussian and Ukrainian scientists who live and work in the Chernobyl exclusion zone have reported big increases in wildlife populations since the accident, due to the removal of humans from the area."
Professor Smith has studied contamination at Chernobyl for more than 20 years and regularly visited the exclusion zone for his research. He is author of a major book about the incident, Chernobyl: Catastrophe and Consequences, and is a former member of the International Atomic Energy Agency Chernobyl forum.

Scientists Determined First-ever Census for Emperor Penguins

Iturria: National Science Foundation



Press Release 12-071
Scientists Determined First-ever Census for Emperor Penguins

High-resolution satellite images estimate emperor penguin numbers in Antarctica

Penguin census doubled previous estimates. Credit and Larger Version

April 13, 2012

View a video with Michelle LaRue of the University of Minnesota.
A new study using satellite mapping technology reveals there are twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than previously thought.
The results provide an important benchmark for monitoring the impact of environmental change on the population of this iconic bird, which breeds in remote areas that are very difficult to study because they often are inaccessible with temperatures as low as -58 degrees Fahrenheit.
Reporting this week in the journal PLoS ONE, an international team of scientists describe how they used Very High Resolution satellite images to estimate the number of penguins at each colony around the coastline of Antarctica.
Using a technique known as pan-sharpening to increase the resolution of the satellite imagery, the science teams were able to differentiate between birds, ice, shadow and penguin poo or guano. They then used ground counts and aerial photography to calibrate the analysis.
Lead author and geographer Peter Fretwell at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which is funded by the U.K.'s Natural Environment Research Council, explains, "We are delighted to be able to locate and identify such a large number of emperor penguins. We counted 595,000 birds, which is almost double the previous estimates of 270,000-350,000 birds. This is the first comprehensive census of a species taken from space."
On the ice, emperor penguins with their black and white plumage stand out against the snow and colonies are clearly visible on satellite imagery. This allowed the team to analyze 44 emperor penguin colonies around the coast of Antarctica, and seven previously unknown colonies.
"The methods we used are an enormous step forward in Antarctic ecology because we can conduct research safely and efficiently with little environmental impact, and determine estimates of an entire penguin population, said co-author Michelle LaRue from the University of Minnesota and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
"The implications of this study are far-reaching: we now have a cost-effective way to apply our methods to other poorly-understood species in the Antarctic, to strengthen on-going field research, and to provide accurate information for international conservation efforts."
NSF manages the U.S. Antarctic Program through which it coordinates all U.S. scientific research on the southernmost continent and aboard ships in the Southern Ocean as well as related logistics support.
Co-author and BAS biologist Phil Trathan noted, "Current research suggests that emperor penguin colonies will be seriously affected by climate change. An accurate continent-wide census that can be easily repeated on a regular basis will help us monitor more accurately the impacts of future change on this iconic species."
Scientists are concerned that in some regions of Antarctica, earlier spring warming is leading to loss of sea ice habitat for emperor penguins, making their northerly colonies more vulnerable to further climate change.
Trathan continued, "Whilst current research leads us to expect important declines in the number of emperor penguins over the next century, the effects of warming around Antarctica are regional and uneven. In the future, we anticipate that the more southerly colonies should remain, making these important sites for further research and protection."
This research is a collaboration between BAS, University of Minnesota/NSF, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Australian Antarctic Division.

-NSF-

Media Contacts Deborah Wing, NSF (703) 292-5344 dwing@nsf.gov

Program Contacts Alexandra Isern, NSF (703) 292-7581 aisern@nsf.gov


The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget is $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards nearly $420 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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Asian 'phoenix' lived with the dinosaurs

Iturria: ABC Science

AFP

If it flew it may have had wingspan greater than that of the albatross (Source: Marj Kibby/Flickr)

Related Stories

• Dinosaur-bird connection a thing of the past, Science Online, 25 May 2010
• Fossil sheds new light on 'dino-bird', Science Online, 12 May 2010
• Dinosaur bird was equipped to fly, Science Online, 06 Nov 2008

Palaeontologists have found the fossilised remains of a giant bird that lived in Central Asia more than 65 million years ago, a finding which challenges theories about the diversity of early birds.

The creature may have been taller than an ostrich if it had been flightless and, if it flew, had a greater wingspan than that of the albatross, according to a report in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters.
The scientists have named the bird Samrukia nessovi, after a mythological Kazakh phoenix known as the samruk, and after Lev Nessov, a celebrated Russian palaeontologist who died in 1995.
The estimate is based on a pair of mandibular rami, or the upright part of an L-shaped lower jawbone, that were found in Late Cretaceous sediment in Kyzylorda, southern Kazakhstan.
The bones measure 275 millimetres, indicating a skull that would have been a whopping 30 centimetres long.
What the bird ate and whether it flew are unclear because the evidence is so sketchy.
But if the two bones are a guide, the beast would have stood up to three metres high and weighed more than 50 kilograms if it had been flightless.
If it flew, the bird would have weighed at least 12 kilograms, with a wingspan of at least four metres.
The avian was "an undisputed giant," says the study.

Incomplete fossil record

Birds are believed to have evolved from tiny two-footed dinosaurs called theropods at the start of the Cretaceous era, around 150 million years ago.
The prevailing theory, based on usually-incomplete fossils, is that they remained extremely small for tens of millions of years.
Of more than 100 types of early birds that have come to light, only one - Gargantua philoinos, which lived around 70 million years ago - was large-bodied. The others were crow-sized or smaller.
And even the claim for G. Philoinos is under attack. Some scientists argue the fossil was really that of a pterosaur, or flying reptile, rather than a bird.

Whimbrel Flies Through Hurricane During Canada-Brazil Migration

Iturria: ABC News

By JOHN BERMAN (@johnsberman) , JARED WIENER AND ENJOLI FRANCIS

Aug. 29, 2011

A whimbrel named Chinquapin that flew through Hurricane Irene during its annual migration from Canada to Brazil last week is resting up for a few days in the Bahamas before continuing on its way, researchers told ABC News today.
Fletcher Smith, a research biologist at the College of William and Mary's Center for Conservation Biology in Williamsburg, Va., said that he and a team of scientists had been tracking Chinquapin -- a shorebird that breeds in the high Arctic and spends its winters in Brazil -- since the spring of 2010 to learn more about its migratory routes.
Last week, the bird -- outfitted with a satellite transmitter backpack that allowed those at the center to note his movements -- flew right through Irene and then disappeared from the monitors as scientists watched helplessly.

Georgia Department of Natural Resources

This whimbrel named Chinquapin is reportedly... View Full Size

"We were all walking around on pins and needles hoping that the bird made it through," Smith told ABC News today. "We had to wait a full 48 hours before the next set of data points came in."
Thankfully Friday, they got a single signal from the bird. He was apparently alive and well -- and in the Bahamas.
Birds Travel Up to 3,500 Miles
Chinquapin left Canada's Upper Hudson Bay on Aug. 22. Chinquapin was flying over the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday when he encountered Irene, then a Category 3 storm with 110 mph winds.
Whimbrels stand about 1.5 feet tall and are frequent long-haul fliers. They can travel up to 3,500 miles without rest and at speeds of up to 50 mph. Smith said that whimbrels were almost double their weight before they migrated.
"The whimbrel is able to survive the hurricane because of the tremendous fat stores that they're able to put on," Smith said. "They're able to expend the amount of energy that it takes to fly through the hurricane."
He said that scientists still did not know how Chinquapin managed to stay in the air and not be tossed off course or killed as had happened to other migratory birds in severe storms.
Chinquapin flew around Tropical Storm Colin in 2010 while a second bird flew into the storm and died, according to center director Bryan Watts.
"There are probably very few birds that could actually fly right through the eye of the hurricane and make it to landfall," Smith said. "You can only speculate that it must have been exerting a lot of energy to get through the hurricane eye."

It's No Sweat for Salt Marsh Sparrows to Beat the Heat If They Have a Larger Bill

Iturria: Science daily

ScienceDaily (July 20, 2011) — Birds use their bills largely to forage and eat, and these behaviors strongly influence the shape and size of a bird's bill. But the bill can play an important role in regulating the bird's body temperature by acting as a radiator for excess heat. A team of scientists have found that because of this, high summer temperatures have been a strong influence in determining bill size in some birds, particularly species of sparrows that favor salt marshes.

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See Also:

Plants & Animals

• Birds
• Nature
• Bird Flu Research

Earth & Climate

• Severe Weather
• Weather
• Exotic Species

Reference

• Whooping Crane
• Japanese Crane
• Common Eider
• Swordfish

The team's findings are published in the scientific journal Ecography, July 20.
Scientists at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute and colleagues examined five species of sparrow that inhabit salt marshes on the East, West and Gulf coasts of North America. While these marshes are very similar in makeup and structure, the main difference among them is summer temperatures. Focusing on 10 species and subspecies of tidal salt marsh sparrow, the team measured 1,380 specimens and found that the variation in the sparrows' bill size was strongly related to the variation in the daily high summer temperatures of their salt marsh breeding habitats -- the higher the average summer temperature, the larger the bill. Birds pump blood into tissue inside the bill at high temperatures and the body's heat is released into the air. Because larger bills have a greater surface area than smaller bills, they serve as more effective thermoregulatory organs under hot conditions. On average, the study found the bills of sparrows in marshes with high summer temperatures to be up to 90 percent larger than those of the same species in cooler marshes.
"It is known that blood flow is increased in poorly insulated extremities in some animals, like a seal's flippers, a rabbit's ears and the wattles of a turkey helping hot animals to cool down. The bill of a bird can function in much the same way allowing birds to dump heat," said Russ Greenberg, director of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and lead author of the research. "Being able to cool down and not loose excess body moisture is particularly important since these birds live in an environment with direct sun and limited access to fresh water."
The scientific theory known as Allen's Rule states that warm-blooded species from colder climates usually have shorter limbs or appendages than the equivalent animals from warmer climates. The team's new findings are a new example of Allen's Rule that confirms the importance of physiological constraints on the evolution of vertebrate morphologies, even in bird bills.
The research team is working with physiologists from Brock University in Canada, employing thermal imaging to develop a more detail picture of how song sparrows that live in dunes and marshes along the Atlantic coast use their bills to stay cool.

A green reform of the CAP is needed now!

Iturria: BirdLife International


BirdLife Europe, in collaboration with the EEB (European Environmental Bureau), launched a video giving a series of indisputable arguments to green the CAP.




The short film entitled ‘Why we need a green reform of the CAP now” was launched at a conference organised by BirdLife Europe and the EEB in March at the Danish Parliament on the theme “The new CAP: the right path to sustainable farming”.
The animation showcases a range of impacts of the current Agriculture Policy, and issues it is facing, through the use of data illustrations:

• Biodiversity loss in farmlands,
• Soil deterioration,
• Human and animal health problems due to the use of pesticides,
• Water contamination and scarcity,
• Huge GHG emissions generated by the agriculture sector,
• The huge portion of food wasted annually in the EU.

The video also denounces the fact that the CAP does not support enough sustainable practices, necessary for our long term food security.
European citizens’ money should be used to build a healthier agricultural system and the upcoming reform is the opportunity to bring the necessary changes for a sustainable CAP, in terms of the environment but also in terms of food security.
This tool is just one of the many ways in which BirdLife Europe calls on European decision makers to take the facts into account and to green the CAP now!

Sparrows Change Their Tune to Be Heard in Noisy Cities

Iturria: Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2012) — Sparrows in San Francisco's Presidio district changed their tune to soar above the increasing cacophony of car horns and engine rumbles, details new Mason research in the April edition of Animal Behaviour.
 

"It shows a strong link between the change in song and the change in noise," says David Luther, term assistant professor in Mason's undergraduate biology program. "It's also the first study that I know of to track the songs over time and the responses of birds to historical and current songs."
The study, "Birdsongs Keep Pace with City Life: Changes in Song Over Time in an Urban Songbird Affects Communication," compares birdsongs from as far back as 1969 to today's tweets. Plus, the researchers detail how San Francisco's streets have grown noisier based on studies from 1974 and 2008.
Luther wrote the study with Elizabeth Derryberry, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane University and a research assistant professor at Louisiana State University's Museum of Natural Science. "We've created this artificial world, although one could say it's the real world now, with all this noise -- traffic, leaf blowers, air conditioners," Luther says. "A lot of birds are living in these areas, and what, if anything, is this doing to their songs?"

White crowned sparrow. (Credit: © Brenton W Cooper / Fotolia)

Turns out, quite a bit.
Just as we raise our voices to be heard when a car speeds past, birds making their homes near busy intersections have to tweet a little louder, Luther says. But it's more than just whistling the same tune and turning up the volume. Most birds stopped singing some old songs because those ditties couldn't cut through the racket. The bird they studied is the white-crowned sparrow, a small bird that sports a jaunty white cap with black stripes. Only male birds were studied.
Even birds from the same species don't sing the same song. "Some bird species sing in different dialects just like the way people talk differently if they are from Texas or California or New York, even different parts of New York," Luther says. The sparrows warble in low, medium and high frequencies.
"It's the really low hum where almost all of this human-made noise is -- in this very low bandwidth. The birds can often sing at the top end of that low bandwidth," says Luther, whistling a lively bird tune, "and if there's no traffic around, that's just fine. But if they're singing and there's this," he says, making a low humming noise, "the lowest portion of that song gets lost, and the birds can't hear it."
So the birds changed their tune. Sparrows in the Presidio used to sing in three distinct dialects when famed ornithologist Luis Baptista made his recordings in 1969. When Luther worked with Baptista some 30 years later, those song stylings had dropped to two, with one higher-range dialect clearly on the way to be the only song in town. "One dialect had basically taken over the city," says Luther, adding that it is officially called the "San Francisco dialect."
Songs need to be heard, not just because they sound pretty -- birds use them to talk to each other, warn away rivals and attract mates. "If you go into a bird's territory and play a song from the same species, they think a rival competitor has invaded its territory," Luther says. "It's just the same way if you're in your house and you hear strange voices, as if someone broke in." If the rival bird can't hear the song and vamoose, then it may come to bird fisticuffs. That can lead to injury or death. To do the study, the researchers found territories of 20 sparrows in the Presidio where there's lots of traffic, especially in the morning rush hour when the birds do most of their singing. They set up an iPod speaker, shuffled the sparrow songs from 1969 and 2005 and waited for a reaction.
The result? "The birds responded much more strongly to the current song than to the historic song," says Luther, adding that the sparrow flew toward the speaker while chirping a "get out of here" song. "The (current) songs are more of a threat."  Chirps from 1969 didn't raise a feather. "They don't think that bird is as much of a threat," he says.
This study sets up the next one, Derryberry says. The next question is whether the females care about these changes or if any song will do. "We want to understand if the females discriminate between these songs as well," she says. White-crowned sparrows are interesting birds because their songs changed with the noise environment, Derryberry says. "Here's a bird that's able to hang around," she says. "A lot of species haven't been able to adapt to and live in an urban environment."

Iturria: Nature

Largest feathered dinosaur yet discovered in China

04 Apr 2012 | 18:00 BST | Posted by John Whitfield | Category: Uncategorized

Credit: Brian Choo

Posted on behalf of Leila Haghighat.

Palaeontologists have found evidence of the largest feathered dinosaur so far. The new species, Yutyrannus huali, is a member of the tyrannosaur family and may provide clues to the evolution of feathers.
In a paper published today in Nature, Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and his colleagues describe finding the fossils of three Yutyrannus in the Yixian Formation of northeast China. The largest specimen is an adult dinosaur that lived 125 million years ago.
At an estimated 9 metres in length and 1,400 kilograms in weight, it is substantially larger than any feathered-dinosaur species documented since the mid-1990s.

Yutyrannus has long and bristly feathers, which the researchers suspect were used for insulation.
Large dinosaurs wouldn’t usually need feathers: their large volume relative to their surface area makes keeping warm no problem, and their weight means that flying is not an option. Even in small carnivorous dinosaurs that have feathers for insulation, the feathers’ texture is like the fuzzy down of a baby chick, according to Xu, who discussed the findings on this week’s Nature podcast.
Climate might explain why Yutyrannus needed extra insulation, says Xu’s colleague Corwin Sullivan.  Geochemical data show that the first half of the Cretaceous period, when Yutyrannus lived, was at least 10 degrees Celsius cooler than the rest of the period.
The discovery of Yutyrannus also adds to the understanding of how feathers have changed over time. “As you go from the most primitive dinosaurs closer to the origin of birds, feathers become more plume-like,” Sullivan explains. Such feathers are better suited to flight than the downy variety.
Xu named the species Yutyrannus huali using a combination of Latin and Mandarin. Roughly translated, it means ‘beautiful feathered tyrant’. His team is currently working on using fossil evidence to identify the colour of the dinosaur’s feathers.

No se puede modificar el catálogo de especies invasoras por motivos deportivos o económicos

Iturria: SEO/Birdlife

02/04/2012

No se puede modificar el catálogo de especies invasoras por motivos deportivos o económicos 
(30/03/2012)

• Ecologistas en Acción, SEO/BirdLife y WWF España no comparten la decisión tomada por el Tribunal Supremo de suspender cautelarmente la aplicación del Real Decreto de especies exóticas e invasoras en lo que se refiere la pesca del black bass o perca americana.

Además lamentan que esta acción, solicitada por una asociación de pescadores, se haya apoyado en la reciente decisión del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente de modificar dicho Real decreto en cuanto a la regulación de especies exóticas invasoras –y muy particularmente en cuanto se refiera a las especies de agua dulce-, y destinada a hacer frente a uno de los mayores amenazas para la conservación de nuestra Biodiversidad. Las organizaciones recurrirán esta decisión y solicitan una respuesta rápida del Ministerio que refuerce este Real Decreto por medio de criterios científicos.

Ecologistas en Acción, SEO/BirdLife y WWF consideran que las dudas del Ministerio sobre la validez del Catálogo de Especies Exóticas Invasoras han alentado un conflicto en el que se están olvidando completamente los criterios técnicos y biológicos y los compromisos internacionales adquiridos por España, frente a intereses económicos o a aspectos de gestión y manejo.

Especies como el black-bass, la trucha arco iris, el lucio son especies exóticas que se han introducido y establecido en nuestros ríos, compitiendo y desplazando a las especies nativas. De hecho, estos tres peces están incluidos en los catálogos de especies invasoras de todas las instituciones internacionales como la Unión Internacional de Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN) o el Convenio de Diversidad Biológica (CBD) e incluso figuran como tal en los textos técnicos sobre el tema, publicados por el Ministerio.

Por lo tanto estas especies piscícolas deben ser catalogadas como especies exóticas invasoras, independientemente de las estrategias de gestión que se puedan articular y en las que se pueda tener en cuenta muchos otros parámetros. Argumentos tales como "fueron liberadas por la administración" o "se han adaptado al medio" o "son de interés para actividades deportivas" no son válidos y no pueden servir como excusa para sacarlos de esta clasificación.

Por ello, Ecologistas en Acción, SEO/BirdLife y WWF exigen al Ministerio que la reforma del catálogo se lleve a cabo urgentemente y atendiendo únicamente a razones técnicas o científicas, como establece la Ley 42/2007, que permitan clarificar y mejorar la norma. La naturaleza del catálogo ha de ser el de avanzar en la lucha contra la expansión de unas especies que constituyen un problema de índole económica, ambiental y sanitaria, además de la segunda mayor amenaza para la biodiversidad de nuestro planeta.