Extinction, Extinction: How it Was and How to Stop it From the Miocene to TodayLiliana Davalos
The central question of our time is whether we can manage global ecosystems to support us today and into the future. While many current challenges, such as massive carbon dioxide emissions or nitrogen fixation, are unprecedented, others have in fact been unfolding for thousands of years. Here I show the results of studies combining the fossil record with DNA analyses and advanced statistical techniques to discover the footprint of human activities deep into the past. Using the islands of the Caribbean as a microcosm offers crucial lessons for the future: the signature of human landscape transformation on biodiversity is extinction, and it would take nature millions of years to restore what was lost over only a few hundred years.
Environmental protection is critical to maintain ecosystem services essential for human well-being. It is important to be able
to rank countries by their environmental impact so that poor performers as well as policy ‘models’ can be identified. We
provide novel metrics of country-specific environmental impact ranks – one proportional to total resource availability per
country and an absolute (total) measure of impact – that explicitly avoid incorporating confounding human health or
economic indicators. Our rankings are based on natural forest loss, habitat conversion, marine captures, fertilizer use, water
pollution, carbon emissions and species threat, although many other variables were excluded due to a lack of countryspecific
data. Of 228 countries considered, 179 (proportional) and 171 (absolute) had sufficient data for correlations. The
proportional index ranked Singapore, Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, Thailand, Bahrain, Malaysia, Philippines and Netherlands
as having the highest proportional environmental impact, whereas Brazil, USA, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India,
Russia, Australia and Peru had the highest absolute impact (i.e., total resource use, emissions and species threatened).
Proportional and absolute environmental impact ranks were correlated, with mainly Asian countries having both high
proportional and absolute impact. Despite weak concordance among the drivers of environmental impact, countries often
perform poorly for different reasons. We found no evidence to support the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis of a
non-linear relationship between impact and per capita wealth, although there was a weak reduction in environmental
impact as per capita wealth increases. Using structural equation models to account for cross-correlation, we found that
increasing wealth was the most important driver of environmental impact. Our results show that the global community not
only has to encourage better environmental performance in less-developed countries, especially those in Asia, there is also a
requirement to focus on the development of environmentally friendly practices in wealthier countries.
Extinction, Extinction: How it Was and How to Stop it From the Miocene to TodayLiliana Davalos
The central question of our time is whether we can manage global ecosystems to support us today and into the future. While many current challenges, such as massive carbon dioxide emissions or nitrogen fixation, are unprecedented, others have in fact been unfolding for thousands of years. Here I show the results of studies combining the fossil record with DNA analyses and advanced statistical techniques to discover the footprint of human activities deep into the past. Using the islands of the Caribbean as a microcosm offers crucial lessons for the future: the signature of human landscape transformation on biodiversity is extinction, and it would take nature millions of years to restore what was lost over only a few hundred years.
Environmental protection is critical to maintain ecosystem services essential for human well-being. It is important to be able
to rank countries by their environmental impact so that poor performers as well as policy ‘models’ can be identified. We
provide novel metrics of country-specific environmental impact ranks – one proportional to total resource availability per
country and an absolute (total) measure of impact – that explicitly avoid incorporating confounding human health or
economic indicators. Our rankings are based on natural forest loss, habitat conversion, marine captures, fertilizer use, water
pollution, carbon emissions and species threat, although many other variables were excluded due to a lack of countryspecific
data. Of 228 countries considered, 179 (proportional) and 171 (absolute) had sufficient data for correlations. The
proportional index ranked Singapore, Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, Thailand, Bahrain, Malaysia, Philippines and Netherlands
as having the highest proportional environmental impact, whereas Brazil, USA, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India,
Russia, Australia and Peru had the highest absolute impact (i.e., total resource use, emissions and species threatened).
Proportional and absolute environmental impact ranks were correlated, with mainly Asian countries having both high
proportional and absolute impact. Despite weak concordance among the drivers of environmental impact, countries often
perform poorly for different reasons. We found no evidence to support the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis of a
non-linear relationship between impact and per capita wealth, although there was a weak reduction in environmental
impact as per capita wealth increases. Using structural equation models to account for cross-correlation, we found that
increasing wealth was the most important driver of environmental impact. Our results show that the global community not
only has to encourage better environmental performance in less-developed countries, especially those in Asia, there is also a
requirement to focus on the development of environmentally friendly practices in wealthier countries.
SVT and our partners at Harvard Conservation Trust, Town of Harvard, Littleton Conservation Trust, Town of Littleton, and Boxborough Conservation Trust held a BioBlitz at conservation lands in the three towns. These are just some of the species we observed.
SVT and our partners at Harvard Conservation Trust, Town of Harvard, Littleton Conservation Trust, Town of Littleton, and Boxborough Conservation Trust held a BioBlitz at conservation lands in the three towns. These are just some of the species we observed.
Presentation used to teach graduate class about Conservation Science and some of the leading Environmental Education authors that have shaped the history of both conservation and ecological thought: Leopold, Carson, E.O. Wilson, Muir, Ehrlich, Meyers and Mac Arthur. A comparison between important ecological terms are included in the presentation such as Keystone verses Umbrella species; the Edge Effect verses SLOSS; lastly Conservation Biology compared to Restoration Ecology.
This is a Quiz conducted at Govt.Medical College in the 3rd week of June .The Quiz is about environment ,I have not included any question on plants .Hope you will enjoy this set..
Labs without Borders: Methods for Extracting, Amplifying, and Sequencing in t...Liliana Davalos
Genomic methods have revolutionized current understanding of the evolution and ecology of bats worldwide. At the same time, air travel restrictions and concerns about emerging diseases have made transporting bat tissues an increasingly expensive and fraught pursuit. To both overcome these restrictions and build capacity in high biodiversity countries, we implemented field-based molecular protocols. First, we sequenced the prokaryotic microbiome of multiple individuals in the field using a standard centrifuge, mini-PCR and mini-gel rigs, and a MinIon sequencer. Modifications to lab protocols included: 1) centrifugation steps robust at high- or mini-centrifuge speed, 2) extending proteinase-K incubation at ambient temperature and evaluating the elimination of ethanol in clean-up during extraction, 3) using lyophilized mastermix in amplification, and 4) eluting in molecular-grade water in library prep. The lack of a high-sensitivity method for quantifying DNA, however, limited the efficiency of multiplexing and reduced the life of the cell in sequencing. Second, we generated mtDNA barcodes using a cheaper, hybrid approach of extracting and amplifying in the field, with subsequent lab-based Sanger sequencing. We added a temperature control ceramic mug and Qubit fluorometer to the kit. By modifying standard procedures, and substituting some equipment with modestly priced consumer products (e.g., the mug), our protocols make critical steps in molecular genetics field-accessible, and open possibilities for future research on genomics, transcriptomics, and disease surveillance in bats.
Past, present, and future of deforestation in the northwestern AmazonLiliana Davalos
With the largest extent of tropical forest in the world, the dynamics of forest loss and fragmentation in Brazil have been the focus of attention for over 50 years. Global shifts in trade to the Pacific and growing infrastructure, however, threaten the western end of the forests in the Andean region, including the Amazon. Research combining spatial and socioeconomic analyses, as well as exploring the 20th-century history of the region, reveals three surprising findings. First, wedges of deforestation are strongly associated with directed colonization projects more than 40 years old. Second, although pastures are the end state of much formerly forested land, demand for beef is a poor predictor of this process and urbanization following infrastructure upgrade is a better correlate. Finally, coca cultivation, widely believed to be a motor of forest loss, contributes little to the process both directly and indirectly. Instead, the clearing of these forests corresponds to the transformation of nominally state-owned forests into private properties, and occurs in tandem with local urbanization and despite overall rural depopulation.
Twenty million years of extinction and survival in the Caribbean (v.2)Liliana Davalos
Whether equilibrium dynamics between extinction and processes generating new species governs biodiversity, or instead stochastic changes shape diversity over time is one of the central questions in evolutionary biology. But tests of equilibrium dynamics since MacArthur and Wilson formulated their model have primarily involved colonization and extinction, neglecting speciation. Analyses using recently developed algorithms fitted to branching times for both extant and extinct bats from the Greater Antilles reveal a 20-40-million year equilibrium between high extinction rates offset by both colonization and speciation. Since at least 13 species have gone extinct over the last 20,000 years, however, this fauna is no longer in equilibrium. It would take millions of years for dynamics were to restore the lost diversity to their equilibrium preceding the Holocene. There is a longstanding debate on whether this pulse of mammalian extinction, which extended to all of North America, is linked to human colonization, or instead corresponds to the loss of island area and climate change at the end of the last glaciation. On the islands, however, humans only arrived a few thousand years ago, providing an opportunity to test these hypotheses. Bayesian models of the difference between faunal last appearance and human first appearance, together with the largest database of archaeological and paleontological radiocarbon dates reveal the majority of extinction events occurred after human arrival. While some large bodied species were lost soon after human colonization and may have been hunted, others may have been vulnerable to pre-Columbian agriculture, and many more to predators introduced during European colonization. The demise of the Caribbean mammal fauna as a result of increasing human transformation of local ecosystems provides lessons for our own time and the extinction events today and into the future.
¿De dónde viene y para dónde va la deforestación en Colombia?Liliana Davalos
Talk given at ICESI university in Cali, Colombia on 17 July. En las últimas décadas la deforestación en Colombia a menudo se explica como una consecuencia, directa o indirecta, de los cultivos ilícitos. Sin embargo, la influencia de los cultivos ilícitos y especialmente de los sembrados de coca sobre la deforestación requiere un contexto con otras actividades agrícolas, además de comparaciones entre los tres países productores: Colombia, Perú y Bolivia. Esta presentación examina los resultados de múltiples estudios sobre deforestación para evaluar el impacto de los ilícitos sobre la deforestación utilizando modelos cuantitativos. Aunque los cultivos de coca son responsables de una fracción importante de la deforestación directa, esta es mínima comparada con otras actividades, especialmente la praderización de todas las regiones forestales del país. Al mismo tiempo, la coca actúa como punta de lanza de la frontera agrícola en la Amazonía y puede tener consecuencias nefastas para la flora y fauna endémica de bosques andinos y del Chocó biogeográfico. Ya que el PIB de ganadería se desplomó al dispararse la pérdida de bosque, tampoco es el mercado del ganado el responsable de la deforestación, por lo menos en el departamento del Guaviare. Por tanto la praderización en Guaviare y probablemente en otras regiones está más ligada a la urbanización y desarrollo de mercados locales de tierras que a la ganadería. La principal conclusión de este análisis es que la causa última de buena parte de la deforestación es la conversión de la reserva forestal a propiedades privadas en zonas de rápido desarrollo. Paradójicamente, la coca es ancilar a este motor de deforestación.
Nexos desarrollo - cultivos ilícitos y tres propuestas para el siguiente sigloLiliana Davalos
Talk given as part of the cultural program of Banco de la República in Cali and Medellín, Colombia on 17 and 18 July. The talk includes three approaches to tackle the challenge of tropical deforestation for the next 100 years.
Comparing Evolved Extractive Text Summary Scores of Bidirectional Encoder Rep...University of Maribor
Slides from:
11th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering (IcETRAN), Niš, 3-6 June 2024
Track: Artificial Intelligence
https://www.etran.rs/2024/en/home-english/
Remote Sensing and Computational, Evolutionary, Supercomputing, and Intellige...University of Maribor
Slides from talk:
Aleš Zamuda: Remote Sensing and Computational, Evolutionary, Supercomputing, and Intelligent Systems.
11th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering (IcETRAN), Niš, 3-6 June 2024
Inter-Society Networking Panel GRSS/MTT-S/CIS Panel Session: Promoting Connection and Cooperation
https://www.etran.rs/2024/en/home-english/
Travis Hills' Endeavors in Minnesota: Fostering Environmental and Economic Pr...Travis Hills MN
Travis Hills of Minnesota developed a method to convert waste into high-value dry fertilizer, significantly enriching soil quality. By providing farmers with a valuable resource derived from waste, Travis Hills helps enhance farm profitability while promoting environmental stewardship. Travis Hills' sustainable practices lead to cost savings and increased revenue for farmers by improving resource efficiency and reducing waste.
Nutraceutical market, scope and growth: Herbal drug technologyLokesh Patil
As consumer awareness of health and wellness rises, the nutraceutical market—which includes goods like functional meals, drinks, and dietary supplements that provide health advantages beyond basic nutrition—is growing significantly. As healthcare expenses rise, the population ages, and people want natural and preventative health solutions more and more, this industry is increasing quickly. Further driving market expansion are product formulation innovations and the use of cutting-edge technology for customized nutrition. With its worldwide reach, the nutraceutical industry is expected to keep growing and provide significant chances for research and investment in a number of categories, including vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and herbal supplements.
Toxic effects of heavy metals : Lead and Arsenicsanjana502982
Heavy metals are naturally occuring metallic chemical elements that have relatively high density, and are toxic at even low concentrations. All toxic metals are termed as heavy metals irrespective of their atomic mass and density, eg. arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, thallium, chromium, etc.
Phenomics assisted breeding in crop improvementIshaGoswami9
As the population is increasing and will reach about 9 billion upto 2050. Also due to climate change, it is difficult to meet the food requirement of such a large population. Facing the challenges presented by resource shortages, climate
change, and increasing global population, crop yield and quality need to be improved in a sustainable way over the coming decades. Genetic improvement by breeding is the best way to increase crop productivity. With the rapid progression of functional
genomics, an increasing number of crop genomes have been sequenced and dozens of genes influencing key agronomic traits have been identified. However, current genome sequence information has not been adequately exploited for understanding
the complex characteristics of multiple gene, owing to a lack of crop phenotypic data. Efficient, automatic, and accurate technologies and platforms that can capture phenotypic data that can
be linked to genomics information for crop improvement at all growth stages have become as important as genotyping. Thus,
high-throughput phenotyping has become the major bottleneck restricting crop breeding. Plant phenomics has been defined as the high-throughput, accurate acquisition and analysis of multi-dimensional phenotypes
during crop growing stages at the organism level, including the cell, tissue, organ, individual plant, plot, and field levels. With the rapid development of novel sensors, imaging technology,
and analysis methods, numerous infrastructure platforms have been developed for phenotyping.
Observation of Io’s Resurfacing via Plume Deposition Using Ground-based Adapt...Sérgio Sacani
Since volcanic activity was first discovered on Io from Voyager images in 1979, changes
on Io’s surface have been monitored from both spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.
Here, we present the highest spatial resolution images of Io ever obtained from a groundbased telescope. These images, acquired by the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large
Binocular Telescope, show evidence of a major resurfacing event on Io’s trailing hemisphere. When compared to the most recent spacecraft images, the SHARK-VIS images
show that a plume deposit from a powerful eruption at Pillan Patera has covered part
of the long-lived Pele plume deposit. Although this type of resurfacing event may be common on Io, few have been detected due to the rarity of spacecraft visits and the previously low spatial resolution available from Earth-based telescopes. The SHARK-VIS instrument ushers in a new era of high resolution imaging of Io’s surface using adaptive
optics at visible wavelengths.
ANAMOLOUS SECONDARY GROWTH IN DICOT ROOTS.pptxRASHMI M G
Abnormal or anomalous secondary growth in plants. It defines secondary growth as an increase in plant girth due to vascular cambium or cork cambium. Anomalous secondary growth does not follow the normal pattern of a single vascular cambium producing xylem internally and phloem externally.
What is greenhouse gasses and how many gasses are there to affect the Earth.moosaasad1975
What are greenhouse gasses how they affect the earth and its environment what is the future of the environment and earth how the weather and the climate effects.
ESR spectroscopy in liquid food and beverages.pptxPRIYANKA PATEL
With increasing population, people need to rely on packaged food stuffs. Packaging of food materials requires the preservation of food. There are various methods for the treatment of food to preserve them and irradiation treatment of food is one of them. It is the most common and the most harmless method for the food preservation as it does not alter the necessary micronutrients of food materials. Although irradiated food doesn’t cause any harm to the human health but still the quality assessment of food is required to provide consumers with necessary information about the food. ESR spectroscopy is the most sophisticated way to investigate the quality of the food and the free radicals induced during the processing of the food. ESR spin trapping technique is useful for the detection of highly unstable radicals in the food. The antioxidant capability of liquid food and beverages in mainly performed by spin trapping technique.
Seminar of U.V. Spectroscopy by SAMIR PANDASAMIR PANDA
Spectroscopy is a branch of science dealing the study of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter.
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy refers to absorption spectroscopy or reflect spectroscopy in the UV-VIS spectral region.
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy is an analytical method that can measure the amount of light received by the analyte.
33. On extinction
• No single cause
• Before humans
• Deglaciation
• Area loss
• After humans
• Hunting
• Ecosystem change
• Invasive species
Photo by Jon Flanders
38. A matter of time
• Were illegal markets
the start of
deforestation?
• If not, how did
deforestation begin?
Etter et al. 2008 Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr.
43. High
Low
Probability of coca
c
Time to model
• Measure influence of
the development
projects
• If projects set the
stage for illicit crops
• Distance from
projects should
decrease probability
of crops
Davalos et al. 2016 Bioscience
45. On forest loss
• Incomplete development
has consequences
• Roads transform the
landscape
• Roads are needed
anyhow
• Protect forests
• Parks, easements
46. A simple model based
on fire
Armenteras… Dávalos 2017 Ecol. Appl.