sfnatureblog.com
SFNature: Purple Sea Urchins: Survivors in an Acidic Ocean?
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2013/11/purple-sea-urchins-survivors-in-acidic.html
Sunday, November 17, 2013. Purple Sea Urchins: Survivors in an Acidic Ocean? What happens to ocean animals as increasing carbon dioxide acidifies the ocean? Can populations evolve quickly enough to survive? Experiments by Melissa H. Pespeni and colleagues, in the Palumbi laboratory at Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, showed surprisingly fast adaptation in larval populations of the purple sea urchin, Strongolocentrotus purpuratus. Sea urchin life begins when females and males release millions ...
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SFNature: January 2012
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2012_01_01_archive.html
Tuesday, January 10, 2012. AGU 2011 New Imaging for Hydrothermal Vents. Tube worms at Endeavor Hydrothermal Vent Field, northeastern Pacific Ocean. Photo courtesy of NOAA. In fact, throughout the world's oceans, an assortment of unusual invertebrates, often astounding versions of familiar characters like snails, crabs, and lobsters, reside at hydrothermal vents in proximity to an underwater realm akin to hell. Minerals precipitated from hydrothermal vent fluids, photo courtesy of NOAA. Additionally, arme...
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SFNature: An Unlikely Outcome
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2012/04/an-unlikely-outcome.html
Sunday, April 1, 2012. Can you find two salamanders in this picture? Not becoming a meal is the basis for many salamander adaptations, physical, chemical, and behavioral. The California Slender Salamander, Batrachoseps attenuatus. Is no exception: it employs a mix so potent that a snake vs salamander encounter resulted in a surprising outcome. Escape behaviors noted by Stebbins in the 1972 edition of California Amphibians and Reptiles. Paper by Brodie et al. In a set of experiments conducted at the Unive...
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SFNature: Xylem: The Code of Plants
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2014/01/xylem-code-of-plants.html
Thursday, January 2, 2014. Xylem: The Code of Plants. Xylem: The Code of Plants mixes lightweight botany with mathematical puzzles to crowdsource verification of critical software. Screenshot courtesy of UCSC. Xylem: The Code of Plants. Is one of five games created under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of their new Crowd Sourced Formal Verification (CSFV) program. The Island of Miraflora contains various regions. Screenshot courtesy of UCSC. Sound effects fit the game's...
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SFNature: Sudden Oak Death: Deadly Invasive Continues Sweep
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2013/01/sudden-oak-death-deadly-invasive.html
Sunday, January 20, 2013. Sudden Oak Death: Deadly Invasive Continues Sweep. Mature coast live oaks may become a relic of the past; they are susceptible to a single-celled, infectious organism called a water mold. Coast live oaks are especially susceptible when situated close to California bay laurel trees. Speaking in November of 2012 at Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Stuart Koretz, MD, PhD, addressed this topic from an epidemiological and general scientific point of view. Bears some chara...
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SFNature: February 2012
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2012_02_01_archive.html
Thursday, February 9, 2012. Backyard Nature: Slender Salamanders. The legs of slender salamanders are minute, giving them a snake-like appearance. With their skinny bodies and miniscule legs, slender salamanders (genus. Garden habitat for slender salamanders: Substantial leaf mulch with flower pots and a planter serving as cover objects. However, in the 37 years between the publication of the 1966 first edition of Robert C. Stebbins' authoritative Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. Scientist...
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SFNature: October 2012
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2012_10_01_archive.html
Tuesday, October 9, 2012. The striking black-and-white wing pattern of a Willet in flight, photo by Mike Baird. Upon takeoff, the drab, grey, unnoticed Willet, Catoptrophorus semipalmatus,. Marbled Godwit with black-dipped beak, photo by Dick Daniels. When not in flight,Willets have a drab appearance, photo by Bruce Tuten. Interestingly, the Western Willet subspecies flies from summer inland breeding areas to wintering grounds both coasts. Meanwhile the slightly smaller Eastern Willet subspecies, rat...
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SFNature: Robbing Nectar
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2013/07/robbing-nectar.html
Friday, July 12, 2013. A female California carpenter bee,. Flowers produce nectar to lure pollinators inside. When entering to partake, an insect brushes past the flower's anthers, which bear the pollen. Some pollen sticks to the insect and is transported on to the next flower. To put it succinctly, nectar is payment for a job, and that job is pollination. But what if you're an insect too big to crawl inside a nectar-bearing flower – perhaps many times too big? A male mountain carpenter bee,. Join scienc...
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SFNature: Undercovert Identification
http://www.sfnatureblog.com/2012/10/undercovert-identification.html
Tuesday, October 9, 2012. The striking black-and-white wing pattern of a Willet in flight, photo by Mike Baird. Upon takeoff, the drab, grey, unnoticed Willet, Catoptrophorus semipalmatus,. Marbled Godwit with black-dipped beak, photo by Dick Daniels. When not in flight,Willets have a drab appearance, photo by Bruce Tuten. Interestingly, the Western Willet subspecies flies from summer inland breeding areas to wintering grounds both coasts. Meanwhile the slightly smaller Eastern Willet subspecies, rat...
