#food web

[lake-lady]

[troythecatfish]

[prose2passion]

new paper on open access - this sounds important, and I don't think that simplifying the food web is a good thing ...

[ytcomments-archive]

[alliterative-endlessknot]

We're back! Well, the podcast is, anyway! A new episode is up, talking about the history of ecology and the terms food web and food chain. Apologies for the unscheduled hiatus, it's good to be back at it!

(The wrong audio was up briefly; delete & re-download for the right one!)

[artymcartist]

Its my last 20ish days of high school and I am fighting to pass rn so Ill probably be off n on with just school doodles

Now Im nervous about college, I don't know if I wanna do it anymore. I could honestly happily live a mediocre life just doodling shit on the internet and working some random job

But, I've already been accepted in and working in automation would be amazing, I'm just worried about everything going wrong and its making me shut down WAHFSBBS

Sorry, rant over, here's an assignment I finished last night

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Summer Spittlebugs

This time of year it’s not unusual to be walking through a garden or meadow and suddenly come across what looks like a wad of spit or foam stuck to the stem of a plant. This wasn’t left by some uncouth person, nor is it the remnants of some pesticide or other chemical. Instead, it’s the active shelter of a spittlebug!

As the name suggests, these insects create these foamy conglomerations. They then use them as shelter while they feed on the sap of the host plant. There are literally thousands of species within the superfamily Cercopoidea, consisting of the three families Aphrophoridae, Cercopidae, and Clastopteridae. They’re also colloquially known as froghoppers, though the nymph stage that is found within the spit doesn’t yet hop.

The spit protects the nymphs in a few ways. It’s a visual cover to keep predators from seeing them. If a predator should try to eat the spit, nymph and all, it will find that the foam has a rather awful taste. And it can offer some protection from heat and sunlight on hot summer days. It’s made of waste material from digested sap; one nymph can cycle three hundred times its body weight in sap through its system in one hour.

While sap isn’t exactly a calorie-dense food, spittlebug nymphs have secret allies that were only recently discovered. It turns out that they have not one but two species of bacteria living in their digestive systems. In a symbiotic relationship, the bacteria take shelter there while helping the spittlebug acquire extra nutrition. How? By turning glucose from the sap into crucial amino acids that the nymph needs. Other insects that survive on sap also have these sorts of bacteria, but only one species each rather than two.

Adult spittlebugs are also pretty remarkable. They’re even better jumpers than fleas considering their larger size. Some still retain aposematic coloration that warns away predators. And while they may only live a few weeks after molting into their adult form, the females of some species can lay several dozen eggs before she dies.

Here’s the thing: the vast majority of spittlebugs aren’t going to seriously harm your plants. They don’t take enough sap, and aren’t going to hide in their foamy homes long enough to be a concern. If you have a LOT of them on one plant, they may cause a bit of distortion of the plant’s tissues, temporarily weaken its immune system or open it to diseases through the wounds, but this is a rare situation. And the spittlebug species that don’t produce bad-tasting secretions are potential food for other animals, so they do have an ecological role to play.

Occasionally species like the meadow spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius) may carry the bacteria Xylella fastidiosa which can cause widespread diseases in agricultural crops like Pierce’s disease or olive quick decline syndrome. But the plants in your garden are not likely to suffer the same fate, especially if you’re growing a nice variety of species rather than an entire plantation of one thing.

Finally, I want to advocate for biodiversity rather than the kneejerk reaction “It’s a bug on my plant–kill it!”. You want bugs in your garden (especially native species), because that means it’s an active ecosystem that supports local life. If you determine that you have a non-native species like the aforementioned meadow spittlebug, then all you need to do to get rid of it is hose down the affected plants as needed; pesticides won’t penetrate through the spit anyway, and a hose is faster, cheaper, and safer. Otherwise, native species of spittlebug are not going to cause you any issues, will be gone in a few weeks, and have a place in their ecosystem, too. So enjoy the fact that you’ve created a good home for wildlife, and marvel at these insects with a rather unique strategy for survival!

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[plethoraworldatlas]

This video is about an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT group of sea wolves! There's a possibility they are reforming a food web dynamic humans have never recorded before!

[wayti-blog]

""The amount of kelp on the reef changes through time in a way where the peaks and low points in abundance across several kelp forests are matched together," said lead author Jonathan Walter, a senior researcher at the University of California, Davis, and its Center for Watershed Sciences. "That's what we refer to as synchrony. It is related to the ability of systems to persist in the face of changing environmental conditions. A little asynchrony allows systems to be resistant to fluctuations and therefore more stable."

The study uncovers the role of synchrony in the beach food web, with broader implications as the climate shifts in ways that might change how linked ecosystems perform their functions.

Revealing synchrony's role in these ecosystems fills a key knowledge gap in our understanding of the connection of reef and beach.

"The kelp forest and the beach are both highly dynamic ecosystems," said co-author Jenny Dugan, a coastal marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara. "How the dynamics of those two ecosystems interact and behave is the key question here, especially with the beach system so dependent on the kelp forest.""

"Though a natural and ubiquitous phenomenon, synchrony and its implications are not yet fully understood."

continue reading article

[niennawept]

wait, what the fuck do the Eagles in Middle Earth eat anyway? Like they are MASSIVE. What the heck does the Middle Earth food web look like? Or are you gonna tell me they don't eat and they're just magic? Because I will be grumpy with you.

[bumblebeeappletree]

Malaria-carrying mosquitoes kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. Scientists have found a way to get rid of them by spreading a gene to wipe out mosquito populations. But is it a good idea?

Reporter: Louise Osborne

Video Editor: David Jacobi

Supervising Editor: Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann, Kiyo Dörrer & Joanna Gottschalk

Special thanks to: Wadzanayi Mandevenyi and Naima Sykes

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #Malaria #Extinction

Read more:

Malaria facts: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sh...

Mosquitoes with gene drives study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146...

International treaties on biosafety: https://bch.cbd.int/protocol/

What purpose do mosquitoes serve? https://blog.nwf.org/2020/09/what-pur...

A world without mosquitoes: https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a

Control of invasive species: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/...

The promise of gene drives: https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...

Gene drives tested in mammals: https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158... 

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:48 Why are mosquitoes dangerous?

02:26 The fight against mosquitoes

06:53 Concerns and cons

7:54 Stopping the spread

8:36 Impact on the ecosystem

[pixel-2763]

this girl asked my science teacher if because vegans are primary consumers because they only eat plants, and she was a secondary consumer because she eats plants and meat, if she could, with the logic of a food web, eat a vegan. my poor science teacher had no answer for her. it's not even like she doesn't like vegans either she just wanted to know

[alliterative-endlessknot]

Happy #EarthDay! To celebrate, here’s our video about the Food Web, and how it’s a better model for ecosystems than the food chain. We made it for our friend the Roving Naturalist’s channel, and she has a lot more videos there that you should check out!

[laneylee1]

A Comprehensive Resource on Food Chains and Energy Pyramids

A Comprehensive Resource practice exercise where students learn about the food web, food chains, and energy pyramids. The image showcases the information about the food web and pyramids reading worksheet. Visit for more.

[banjo-toad]

I am so tired

I wish 

Often

That I might lay down 

And let the earth 

Have me

Become the soil

At the foundations 

Of the forest's food web

I am better this way

Harmless