John Blatchford's Blog

Posted by John Blatchford

My biological articles fall into many categories, such as:

Articles About Whales and Where to Watch Whales

• Whale evolution and classification and a blog about whales are both good ways to ‘get at’ my many whale biology articles.

• Watching whales off Vancouver Island, or looking for Humpbacks in the Pacific are both fairly specific topics – how to combine whale watching with a boating vacation is much more general.

Articles About Global Warming and Effects of Climate Change

• My article about the effects of carbon dioxide level increase (sea temperature and ocean acidification) on coral reefs is probably the most important article I have ever written – it is a pity that very few people ever read it.

• Other articles, such as the one about tundra reindeer, or the one about the effects of warming the southern oceans on krill try to show how far-reaching the effects will be.

There are many ways that amateur naturalists can help.

Articles that are just plain Interesting

Obviously I find all the topics I write about interesting, but sometimes the number of readers or expansive nature of their comments, shows that others also find a few of them fascinating. The tongue-eating parasite, the horsehair snakes, the blood-squirting cricket, and civet cat poo coffee(!) are four that fall into this category.

An earlier blog – 'engaging public interest in the life sciences' – tries to explain why I choose to write biological articles.

Posted by John Blatchford

Orangutan and Habitat Loss

I found my most recent article (about the Orangutan and Habitat Loss) very difficult to write objectively – I almost abandoned it because I got too emotionally involved! Then I realised that if I didn’t do my ‘little bit’ I couldn’t really expect anyone else to. Looking back I suppose many of my articles are a bit like this.

The Society of Biology

The ‘Institute of Biology’ merged with the ‘Biosciences Federation’ earlier this year, forming the new Society which has as one of its main aims: “engaging and encouraging public interest in the life sciences”. As a ‘Fellow’ of the Society I feel this as a moral obligation, and as a life-long educator it seems quite a natural thing to attempt.

Engaging Public Interest in the Life Sciences

How to do it is the problem! There is little point writing articles if nobody reads them, and writing in such a way that ‘Google’ will put them on the first page of the search results (where people might find them) involves a lot of scampering up a very steep learning-curve.

Also the topics need to be intrinsically interesting. Some of my articles certainly are about interesting things, for example the one about a parasite that eats fish tongues, but the trick would be to find a topic that could both interest people AND get them involved in some way.

If any reader has suggestions for suitable topics (that are likely to be of interest and also lead to beneficial public involvement) I would love to hear them!

Posted by John Blatchford

The Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is having a hard time in England, with only an estimated ten to twenty thousand pairs left in the year 2000 – about a 60% drop since the 1960’s.

The cause might a reduction in insect numbers, either as suitable insect food for the cuckoos, or as food for the Dunnocks, Meadow Pipits, and Reed Warblers that cuckoos usually choose as hosts (cuckoos are brood parasites – laying their eggs in the nests of other birds).

Whatever the reason for the worrying crash in the cuckoo population, it is almost certainly due to human activities.

Creationism and Evolutionists

Creationists would probably see the Common Cuckoo as a bird specially created for life in England, while those who believe in evolution by natural selection would understand it as a species that has evolved over time to fill a niche in the English countryside.

Human Activities and Species Decline

Maybe creationists would see human beings as having every right to influence their environment in a way that is detrimental to other creatures, and maybe evolutionists would see human beings as just one more species – one capable of influencing the distribution (and in many cases survival) of other others. But surely the real issue is that mankind is impoverishing the natural environment – whichever view is held.

Our grandchildren, or their children, might well grow up in a land where the cuckoo rarely heralds the English spring, and they will certainly see fewer wild species than our parents and grandparents.

In my own view this is something to be taken very seriously indeed. While it can be argued that humans have always exerted a similar effect on their immediate environment, that environment now spans the globe. Pollution is worldwide, habitats are being destroyed at an ever-increasing rate, and climates are changing.

• If all life was created specially, then we are systematically destroying a large part of it.

• If all living things evolved gradually over time, then we are changing the environment too fast for most species to adapt.

Mass extinction due to human activities is very close, and – however the living world came to be – there is little time to address the problem. The creationist/evolutionist debate pales into insignificance in the face of this crisis.

Posted by John Blatchford

Habitat loss is bringing many species close to extinction. Urban and industrial development, pollution, and climate change all play their part, and often the combination of effects is greater than predicted.

Some of my recent articles look at specific cases to show how this all works.

Royal Society Lecture 2009

The coral reef crisis shows the enormous effects that increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide can have on the marine environment. ('Coralline algae' looks in a bit more detail at what might happen soon.)

The full report can be downloaded as a pdf and read at leisure – it makes scary reading!

The talk Professor John Veron gave to the Royal Society is also available as a webcast – ‘Is the Great Barrier Reef on deathrow?’.

Carbon dioxide enters the oceans through the recently discovered ocean surface film, and the implications of this on water acidification are not yet understood.

Urban Development

The wild axolotl is close to extinction, largely due to the fact that its only habitat is now surrounded by Mexico City. It could easily be reintroduced from captive stocks, but this might not be a good idea (explained in ‘Reintroducing endangered species often dangerous’).

Loss of mangrove forests worldwide is another serious problem, and selecting a suitable ‘flagship species’ is suggested (in this case the Proboscis Monkey).

Illegal logging is responsible for loss of forest habitats, and it is an ironic fact that many newly discovered rainforest species are endangered the moment they are discovered. My Kipunji article looks at this in a bit more detail.

Climate Change

Increasing temperatures affect the distribution of many creatures, and sometimes seemingly trivial changes can have surprising effects. The relationship between an ant and the Large Blue butterfly show one such unexpected consequence. See also my article about the effects of climate change in the arctic tundra.

Synergies

Very often it is difficult to point to any single factor that is causing habitat loss or endangering a species. This is because the accumulation of many small changes can add up to a crisis – the small stresses work together ‘synergistically’. In other words the combined effect is greater than would be expected from simply adding all the small effects together.

This is very well explained in the document produced by the working party studying the coral reef crisis. It is essential reading – download it!

Posted by John Blatchford

Complex ecosystems have evolved over long periods ot time, and while concentrating on particualr 'flagship species' to help conserve them is useful, it is essential that their full complexity is understood if they are to remain intact.

Flagship Species

A single animal (or plant) species, usually rare and charismatic in some way, is often chosen to ‘front’ conservation efforts to save habitats and ecosystems.

The Giant Panda focuses attention on preserving China’s wild mountain bamboo ecosystems – but people ‘miss the point’ if they think that keeping a lot of pandas alive and well in zoos addresses the same issue (unless habitat restoration and eventual liberation back into the wild is the plan).

Preserving a threatened habitat will help the entire ecosystem, and in this way the well-known flagship species will thrive – indicating the success of the venture.

Complexity of Ecosystems

There is always ‘more than meets the eye’ to an ecosystem. Take the case of the red ants necessary for the survival of the Large Blue Butterfly as an example. Heath grassland, which looks good to human eyes, might be just a little bit too long (due to a decline in grazing by rabbits and sheep) for one particular species of red ant upon which the butterfly depends for survival. Understand this and management is possible – ignore it and a nice-looking, but impoverished, ecosystem will be produced.

Global Warming

As climates change around the world many species are extending their range. The European Carpenter Bee, for example, now seems to be moving north into Britain. Surely this means that many stable ecosystems are being invaded by, what are (in effect) ‘invasive species’.

Habitats have always been changing, and ecosystems adapting to the changes – but human effects (of habitat destruction and global warming) are forcing change at an unprecedented rate.