The Free

Eureka! and Oh Shit! moments as Microbe Science takes off

Climate Change is Putting World’s Microbiomes at Risk?

Researchers are only beginning to understand the complexities of the microbes in the earth’s soil and the role they play in fostering healthy ecosystems. Now, climate change is threatening to disrupt these microbes and the key functions they provide.

by jim robbins. from Environment 360 with thanks

The spores of an opportunistic soil fungus, Penicillium sp. View gallery. Photo: PNNL

In 1994, scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory moved soil from moist, high-altitude sites to warmer and drier places lower in altitude, and vice versa. In 2011, they returned to the sites and looked again at the soil microbes and found that they had done little to adapt functionally to their new home. That’s a bad sign, experts say, for a world convulsed by a changing climate. Continue reading “Eureka! and Oh Shit! moments as Microbe Science takes off”

Bees in Europe recover after pesticides restricted

Bee populations in Europe see improvement after three toxic neonicotinoid herbicides are partly banned from their environment

by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer

Some resurgence in honey bees

After banning the herbicides clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, three years ago, Europe is already beginning to see a resurgence in bee populations. All three of these herbicides are still being used in the USA, where honeybee populations continue to rapidly decline.

If the rest of the world doesn’t begin cutting back on herbicide use significantly, as Europe has already started to do, then pollination of important vegetable and herb crops will likely diminish by 33 percent or more in the coming decade.

This will directly influence agricultural economy, limiting the availability of a large assortment of healthy crops that were once made readily available through the tedious work of natural pollinators.

Nature’s best pest control mechanisms already coexist in the environment. By continuing to take wide scale chemical approaches to the annihilation of pests, we throw off the intricate balance that is needed to sustain healthy ecosystems for future agricultural abundance. Continue reading “Bees in Europe recover after pesticides restricted”

Coal rail transport line sabotaged in Avon Gorge (UK)

reblogged from Via 325.

Attacking UK’s coal transport system – Severing the lines that feed the machine

Severing the lines that feed the machine is not impossible. When people take up civil uprising in the UK, if people are able to shove their obligations to one side to open up an avenue, they mainly have the ability and possibility to be able to grasp their will for something new. The war is not over when those moments stop, it sparks up in little raptures here and there, showing that we are not crushed, things can be brought to a grinding halt again, even for a split second.

It just takes a few bright spirits and we see it clear, when the smug confidence of authorities is knocked, a few pins get hit out and things can be seen in a different light. Out of synch and off balance, everything no longer appears structurally sound, life feels more up for grabs.

The new horizon peaked through our cloudy day, Sunday 6th March, and we hope this uncomplicated act of sabotage we have undertaken exposes the vulnerability of their complex matrix. Continue reading “Coal rail transport line sabotaged in Avon Gorge (UK)”