DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 11, 2016

Predators Key to Ecology

Without Sea Otters the marine entire ecosystem tends to collapse.

The question that intrigued Estes when he began his marine studies in the Aleutians in the 1970s was straightforward: given its voracious appetite for urchins, crabs and the like, what was the ecological consequence of that calamitous drop in sea otters numbers last century? To find an answer, he began surveying sea floors around islands where sea otters had survived and others where they had disappeared and had yet to be reintroduced.

What Estes found was striking: around islands that now lacked sea otters, sea urchins – their main prey – had increased in size and in numbers with devastating consequences. The forests of kelp that once grew there in profusion had disappeared. Instead huge urchins littered the barren sea floor, having consumed every kelp plant in sight.

By contrast, near islands where sea otters survived or had been reintroduced, kelp flourished. The discovery was important given the nourishment kelp’s underwater forests provide for fish and other sea animals. “Kelp forests, with their high biomass and extreme productivity are key controlling elements of coast ecosystems,” says Estes.

Closer to Extinction

Greed drives another highly intelligent creature to the edge of extinction.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published an assessment this week that found hunting, habitat destruction and degradation, and habitat fragmentation to be the biggest drivers of Bornean orangutan population loss, Mongabay reported.

The authors wrote that "the combined impacts of habitat loss, habitat degradation and illegal hunting equate to an 86% population reduction between 1973 and 2025," according to Mongabay.

Only 59.6 percent of Borneo's forests were suitable for orangutans in 2010. Most of the land, Mongabay reported, is protected by Indonesian, Malaysian and Brunei governments. But illegal logging and uncontrolled burning continues to threaten the population.

"This is full acknowledgement of what has been clear for a long time: orangutan conservation is failing," Andrew Marshall, one of the authors of the assessment, told Mongabay.

Even with the remaining forest, it might not be enough to sustain the current Bornean orangutan population, Mongabay said:

Speaking of Greed

The most likely candidate to be Great Britain’s next prime minister is very cozy with the American right wing.  That is not a good sign for the majority of British citizens.  And, certainly a disaster from the perspective of environmental action of issues like climate change.

A controversial rightwing American lobbying group that denies climate change science and promotes gun ownership paid for the Tory prime ministerial hopeful Andrea Leadsom to fly to the United States to attend its conferences.

The American Legislative Exchange Council – Alec – is a neoconservative organisation with close links to members of the Tea Party movement. Championed by supporters of the free market, it has been attacked by critics for exerting a “powerful and undemocratic” influence on US politics.

It is part funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, David and Charles, whose empire spans mining, chemicals and finance. Leadsom’s links to the council will be scrutinised closely by those trying to gauge her political leanings.

In the US the council produces hundreds of putative bills that it seeks to have made into law by US legislators who attend its conferences, where they are treated to generous corporate hospitality at lavish cigar parties.