Transcript

3.20.25 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radiowized Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader
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is Kelly Taylor. Before we begin, I will share with
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you a reminder. RADIOI is a reading service intended for
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people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
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it difficult to read printed material. Our first article comes
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from the Weather Channel. Tropical forests are struggling to keep
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up with climate change. Study reveals tropical forests are a
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crucial part of helping our planet maintain balance, but they
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are adapting too slowly to keep pace with climate change.
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Often referred to as the lungs of the Earth, tropical
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forests play a critical role in regulating our global climate,
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but as our planet warms, these crucial tropical forests aren't
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adapting quickly enough to keep pace with climate Changeists from
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Wake Forest University and the University of Oxford's Environmental Change
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Institute have published a groundbreaking study in the Journal's Science
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that highlights the vulnerability these forests are facing. The health
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of our tropical forests is directly linked to the health
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of our planet. While they cover less than six percent
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of the Earth's land surface, they contain more than half
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of the world's animal species. These forests absorb vast amounts
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of carbon dioxide, acting as a natural buffer against climate change.
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Scientists believe that by twenty one hundred, temperatures in the
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region could rise up to seven point two degrees fahrenheit,
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with rainfall decreasing by as much as twenty percent. This
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could push tropical forests further out of balance, increasing their
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vulnerability to extreme climate events. The study focused on trees
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in both mountainous and lowland regions, revealing that the trees
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in the mountainous regions adapted better to climate change, most
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likely due to the bigger climate swings at higher elevations.
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In lowland forests, changes in plant traits such as leaf
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thickness and drought resistance indicate some adaptation. However, these shifts
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are happening at less than eight percent of the speed
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required to keep up with climate change. This lag increases vulnerability,
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making forests more susceptible to extreme weather, drought, and biodiversity loss. Quote.
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The superpower of tropical forests is that, for the past
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sixty million years, trees could rely on animals to pollinate
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them and move their seeds, says Miles Silman, co author
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of the study. Quote, we are rapidly removing the animals
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that disperse the plants and make all the other ecological
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interactions happen. The loss of fauna and the law of
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large tracts of habitat are kryptonite for tropical forests. If
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tropical forests fail to adapt quickly enough, their ability to
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store carbon and reli and regulate climate will weaken. This
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could lead to increased carbon emissions, accelerating climate change. Also,
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species unable to cope with the changing climate may decline
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or disappear, leading to a loss of biodiversity that could
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have cascading effects on ecosystems. Quote. If we know what
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species of trees are doing better or worse, and what
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set of traits they have, then we know what they
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can withstand. It will help inform what conservation actions should
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be encouraged and where funding should be allocated, says lead
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author Jesus A. Agire Gutierrez. To protect these vital forests,
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conservation efforts must focus on reducing deforestation, promoting biodiversity, and
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restoring degraded areas. While trees may not be able to
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move fast enough on their own, strategic human intervention such
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as assisted migration and reforestation could provide the lifeline these
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forests need. The next article is from the Guardian and
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the headline reads too many urban deer is an impending disaster.
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Still we owe them an apology. This is from March eighteenth,
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Heart Racing. I hauld my breath and brace to witness
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the impact. This is written by Kylie Moore. By the
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way the spindly fawn crosses first, tottering its way across
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the two lane artery that borders my house, I watch
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a truck approaching in the opposite direction and wait for
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it to slow down. Will it The doe waits until
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the last moment, deciding the best time to cross the road.
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Is when the truck is almost upon her. She darts out,
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her white tail raised high in alarm. The bay window
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where I curl up with my dog in a good
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book happens to provide the perfect vantage point for near
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miss carnage. On a daily basis, I don't even have
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to watch to know what's happening. Sometimes I hear the
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screeching of breaks a honking horn. I know how it ends.
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A deer limping around with its leg in an awkward angle,
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a carcass piled unceremoniously on the side of the road.
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From where I sit in Missoula, Montana. We have a
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tenuous at best existence with urban deer, hitting them with
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our cars, bothering them with our dogs, and grumbling when
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they eat our garden vegetables. This is true throughout the country,
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from West Virginia to Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Deer can
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live pretty much anywhere with food, water, and cover to
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hide from predators. White tailed deer, hunted to near extinction
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in the nineteenth century, have staged an impressive comeback. Their
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over abundance is now considered a nuisance and to some
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even a crisis. One Audubon New York forest manager said
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the organization considered surging deer populations, which eat all the
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shrubs and tree ceilings in sight, as bad for Eastern
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forest bird habitat as the climate crisis. As bad as
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the climate crisis. Scientists from the National Park Service agree
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too many deer are an impending disaster. Deer and dense
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urban areas may have all they need to be perfectly
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content with a home range the size of eight blocks,
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said Travis Gallo, professor of Urban ecollegy and conservation at
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the University of Maryland. Gallo and his team have spent
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two field seasons hanging out in arcs in the middle
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of the night, attaching GPS collars to deer. He's currently
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working to overlay their movements with cell phone data, pinpointing
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exactly where the lives of humans and deer meet. Living
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in our midst deer do their best to adapt to
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our rhythms, but that's not always a fool proof way
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to minimize conflict. Human collisions with deer increase by sixteen
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percent in the week following the autumn clock change, marking
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the end of daylight saving time. The time switch leads
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to peak traffic volumes shifting from before sunset to after sunset,
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putting commuters and deer together in the dark. Researchers estimate
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that year round, daylight saving time would prevent more than
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thirty six thousand deer deaths, thirty three human deaths, and
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thousands of injuries to both parties. I wonder if there's
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a better way to live alongside deer in all their forms.
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Cute neighborhood critter, garden, pest even reservoirs for COVID nineteen
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and tickborne ill diseases. Have any communities cracked the code,
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The booming Utah city of Eagle Mountain is a good
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place to start. Rapid development in recent years isn't usually
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good for deer. Quote in housing humans we evict deer,
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says author Bin Goldfarb. Research from twenty sixteen found that
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residential housing development is actually worse for mule deer populations
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in Colorado than oil and gas development, but rather than
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steam roll wildlife, public officials had taken a decidedly dear
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friendly approach. Dear friendly ordinances are written into zoning codes
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and transportation plans which require wildlife crossings over new roads,
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and that developers install dear friendly fencing and lighting in
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certain designated habitat areas. No new construction is allowed on
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ridge lines and in seasonal washes, and the town is
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one of few with a municipal wildlife biologist. More than
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twenty miles of tall fences are being built even before
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the neighborhoods around them spring up to shepherd migratory deer.
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A protected corridor will guide deer directly through dense subdivisions
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with room to eat and sleep too. It's a stunningly
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proactive approach and a chance most exciting cities will never
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have to do things right the first time. Humans are
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trying to guide deer and other wildlife over and under
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our infrastructure in other ways, too. Wildlife crossings have been
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gaining steam since the nineteen fifties, with projects in the
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works or recently finished in Washington, Colorado, and more. The
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world's largest wildlife crossing will open next year in southern California,
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spanning ten lanes of traffic. Elsewhere in the US, city
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officials are trying to coexist with deer by keeping their
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populations in check. Deer thrive in our neighborhoods, where our
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presence often means limited predators and never ending meals of
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ornamental plants, gardens, and bird feeders. It's kind of paradise
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minus the cars. Road mortalities are the biggest threat to them,
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Gallo said, so attracting them into neighborhoods deliberately or accidentally
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puts them in danger. Staten Island to New York City,
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where city officials are paying experts millions to catch and
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administer the ungulate version of a vasectomy, is at the
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forefront the city's deer vasectomy program. Again in twenty sixteen,
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and it appears to be working. The Parks Department set
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in twenty twenty four that deer populations were down almost
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fifty percent. Deer collisions have also declines substantially, as have
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sightings of black leg black legged ticks, which spread lime
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disease and other diseases. But servid birth control isn't cheap.
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Keeping the program running through twenty twenty nine all costs
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two and a half million dollars. Perhaps a more common
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way to control urban deer populations is through urban hunts.
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Too many deer in an area can eat themselves out
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of house and home, nibbling vegetation before it can ever
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grow back. That happened in Rock Creek Park, seventeen hundred
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acres of leafy refuge in the middle of Washington, d c.
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Trained biologists with the National Park Service have been strategically
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killing deer there under the cover of night with silenced
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weapons since twenty thirteen. With fewer deer, the park's seedling
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density is more than double. In the suburbs of Washington,
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trained hunters can use bow and arrows to kill deer
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with homeowner's permission. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and towns throughout Arkansas have
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similar programs. Archers are chosen by a lottery system to
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hunt deer, which often number in the three hundreds per
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square mile. Gallos said that scientifically, he supports culling programs
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as an innovative, creative approach to balancing ecosystems. I struggle
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with the idea of full throated approval, and I know
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I'm not alone in that hesitancy. It feels wrong to
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lay out and all you can eat buffet, then punish
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deer for taking advantage of it. A pilot urban deer
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hunting program in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was supposed to start
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in January, but opposition from residents mostly concerned about the
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fate of their children, not the deer, postponed the pilot
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until at least the fall. I hate seeing deer scamp
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across the road, but I love finding them sleeping in
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my sideyard as silent house guests. Their tawny bodies lay
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curled up only a few feet from where I lay
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swaddled in my own bed. Quote. This is the way
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wild animals mostly live among us, opinion writer Margaret Wrinkle
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wrote in The New York Times, quote, they are right
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there crouched under a bush, curled up beneath a tool shed,
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tucked next to the trunk of an evergreen end quote.
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Sometimes I startle them when I go outside to start
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my car in the winter, I stumbled across them on
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my daily dog walks too. I love watching them pull
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crab apples off trees in the fall and warily eye
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me with big black eyes when I walk by. I
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love knowing they're there, and I hate watching them almost
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get hit by cars on a daily basis. I want
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to say I'm sorry, Sorry for growing tantalizing food in
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my backyard and fencing it off. Sorry for my dogs
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spooking you on walks, Sorry for being right there in
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your way just as much as you are in mine.
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Now let's turn to BBC Wildlife. Why do cats have
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slit shaped pupils? And how high can the best feline
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high jumper leap? Here? Nineteen wildcat facts that will boggle
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your mind From March the eighteenth. Did you know that
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jaguars hunt crocodiles or that no cat can both roar
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and perr Whether they're sprinting at eye watering speeds, leaping
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across massive ditches, or even boasting tails long enough to
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double as a ic winter garment. These fascinating predators never
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fail to impress or surprise. Here are ten facts about
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wildcats that reveal just how remarkable they are. Well, it's
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actually more than ten, it's nineteen wildcat facts. Number one,
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not all big cats roar. Of the five species of
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big cat lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, and snow leopard, one
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cannot roar. The snow leopard instead communicates using purrs, mews,
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and other sounds associated with wildcats. Number two. Cats are
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obligate carnivores, which means they need to eat meat in
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order to remain healthy. Three. Among the big cats, the
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lion is the only social one. The other species of
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big cats live solitary lives in the wild, while lions
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nearly always live in groups called prides of up to
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thirty adults and their offspring. Number four. Cats often have
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slit like pupils, which can more rapidly open incl meaning
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they can adapt from different light conditions more quickly. The
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majority of cats and dogs also have a reflective layer
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behind the retina called the tapatum that allows for enhanced
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night vision. Number five. The snow leopard has an extremely
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long tail, which provides balance and also offers additional warmth
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during the colder seasons when the animal can wrap it
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around its body. Number six. Cheetahs are the fastest animal
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in the world, running up to speeds of ninety four
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kilometers per hour. Not only are they fast, they also
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have impressive acceleration, increasing their speed by ten kilometers per
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hour in a single stride. While they are large cats,
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they are not classified as a big cat in the
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same way as lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars and snow leopards,
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which belong to the panthera group. Number seven. The tiger
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is usually considered to be the largest cat species, weighing
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in it up to three hundred kilograms and measuring three
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meters long in captivity. The world's largest cat is Hercules,
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a lion tiger hybrid called a lager at Myrtle Beach
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Safari in California. He measures three point three meters in
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length and weighs four hundred and eighteen kilograms. Number eight.
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The five big cat species were assessed and categorized by
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the IUCN Red List, and the tiger was a species
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most threatened with extinction. It's listed as endangered. The other
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big cats were listed as vulnerable, that's lion, leopard and
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snow leopard, and near threatened the jaguar Number nine. In
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the Wildlife Kingdom, purring and roaring are mutually exclusive, so lions, tigers, leopards,
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and jaguars are incapable of purring, while every other cat
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can but can't roar. Number ten. Not all cats hate water.
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Jaguars in particular are fans of water. They often live
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near water and are good swimmers. As a result, there's
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an entire new category of prey available to them. They
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will eat crocodiles and other aquatic animals. There's even a
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cat that can swim underwater and specializes in diving for
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its prey. Meet the fishing cat. We named it one
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of the weirdest wild cat species in the world. Number eleven.
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Snow Leopards have been known to leap up to nine
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meters six times their body length. In fact, the longest
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jump recorded for any feline was eleven point seven meters
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by a snow leopard leaping over a ditch and was
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observed by a team of Russian biologists. Number twelve. Tiger
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habitats have been destroyed by human activity the world over,
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and as a result, they have lost an estimated nine
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five percent of their historical range, and what's remaining is
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still under threat. One of the world's largest tiger populations
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is found in these sun Bardens. I'm sorry, sun Darbans,
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a large mangrove forest area on the coast of the
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Indian Ocean. Rising sea levels caused by climate change are
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threatening to wipe out these forests and the last remaining
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habitat for this tiger population. Thirteen. Cats were first domesticated
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four thousand years ago in ancient Egypt. Cats were initially
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valued for their ability to kill rodents and venomous snakes,
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but tomb paintings show that many of these stea lions
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were also household pets and a part of family life. Fourteen.
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Vying for first place in the smallest cat in the
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World category are the rusty spotted cat and black footed cat,
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which are very close in size, measuring thirty five to
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forty eight centimeters and thirty five to fifty two centimeters
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in length, respectively. Number fifteen. The jaguar has the strongest
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bite of any big cat relative to its size. Research
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by Adam Hartstone Rose and other colleagues at the University
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of South Carolina who compared the byte forces of nine
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different cat species, reveals that a jaguars byte force is
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only three quarters as strong as a tiger's byte force.
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Cats number sixteen. Cats marked their territory long before we did,
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emerging in Eurasia thirty million years ago and twenty five
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million years before our ancestors first appeared in Africa. Seventeen.
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Cats possess a third eyelid, which provides additional physical protection
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for the delicate cornea and helps to lubricate and clean
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the eyeballs. Eighteen. Black panthers are not a species as such,
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but rather melanistic leopards and jaguars. The levels of the
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pigment melanin and in an individual determines how dark they are,
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as the more pigment an animal has, the darker it is.
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In many African countries, black panthers are revered and considered
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symbols of power, darkness, death, and rebirth. And number nineteen.
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There are lions in India. Ask people to name an
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African animal who will probably be a close call between
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lions and elephants. However, lions are also found in Asia,
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though with one small population of about six hundred and
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seventy lions living in Gear National Park in northwest India.
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Now an article from Scientific American a headline reads, wildfires
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threaten astronomy last summer. I this is by Peter McMahon,
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and many others around the world watched in horror as
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wildfires reduced nearly a third of the town of Jasper, Alberta,
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to ashes and incinerated some one hundred fifty square miles
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of the surrounding Jasper National Park. Although I now live
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and work in Tucson, Arizona, the devastation still felt personal.
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Jasper is part of a dark sky preserve I helped
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to create in the Canadian Rockies, and is where my
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wife and I spent nine years building a stargazing tour
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company and planetarium. The disastrous convergence of two forest fires
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in late July saw three hundred foot high flames launch
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charred pine cones and embers out ahead of the blaze.
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The fire generated lightning strikes and down drafts as it moved,
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accelerating the hellish inferno. Roughly twenty five thousand people fled
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before the fire hit, and a fire fighter died battling
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it Unlike some our business endured, but it was not unscathed.
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Smoke had marred our telescopes and other equipment. Insurance claim
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estimates for wild fire related damages in the park may
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eventually top a billion dollars Canadian Yet as damaging as
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this event was, it foretels possibly greater harm and disruption.
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As wild fires have grown in number and intensity in
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recent years, they have increasingly threatened our ability to see
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and study the heavens. If we don't find solutions soon,
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such blazes could top light pollution as the most pervasive
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threat to astronomical observation. Many cherished views of the Cosmos
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could figuratively go up in flames. On a mountain summit
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in Arizona's Sonoran Desert, a dead oak tree, blackened by fire,
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stands about three feet from a dormitory at kit Peak
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National Observatory, where I currently serve as the Visitor center
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operations manager. The charred tree is a reminder of how
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close an earlier disaster came. A lightning strike in June
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twenty twenty two sparked a wildfire that swept across the
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bobo Quivari Mountains, destroying four buildings and approaching within dozens
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of feet of some of kit Peak's twenty two major
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research telescopes. Days after the Jasper tragedy last summer, another
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wildfire forced pre evacuation preparations at kit Peak. With tarps
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at the ready to cover telescopes and safeguard equipment. The
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problem is getting worse. Wildfires have already destroyed several major
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telescopes at Australia's Mount Stromlow Observatory, and in twenty twenty,
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California's Sierra Remote Observatories came close to destruction from a
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wildfire that covered telescope optics in ash and debris. During
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the twenty twenty two fire season, I stood with my
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staff at a stargazing event at the top of the
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Jasper Skytram, looking down the valley as fire snaked across
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the shores of Jasper Lake, fifteen miles away. Although that
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fire never reached the town of Jasper, its smoke sporadically
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scuttled our views for weeks at the Jasper Planetarium originating
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in Alberta, British Columbia, California, and other regions, Smoke from
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such fires can blot out the stars at sites. Even
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thousands of miles away. Meteorologist Alan Rayhill, whose Clear Sky
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Chart is a trusted planning tool for astronomical observers, lamented
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a gloomy forecast to me recently. Quote for the second
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half of this century, we won't see blue sky anymore.
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Between March and December, clear nights have become pretty rare.
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Yet there's hope for those willing to try to adapt.
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More professional and amateur astronomy institutions are finding ways to
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protect against wildfires, their causes, and their effects. Kit Peak
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is installing specialized detectors to provide early warnings for lightning
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strikes on the mountain. It has partnered with a local
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alliance of firefighters, naturalists, ranchers, and others on a master
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plan for future emergency responses. Lowell Observatory and Flagstaff Arizona
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collaborates with local authorities on prescribed burns and strategic fire
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breaks to protect its grounds. Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles
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has upgraded its fire suppression systems and building materials. It
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closed during the wildfires in January but did not come
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under direct threat. At the Jasper Planetarium, we've added a
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radio telescope capable of peering through the murk, offering live
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radio maps of distant galaxies. Fixing the underlying problem, though,
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will require orders of magnitude more effort than simply adapting
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to a new normal. Bob McDonald, science popularizer, fellow astronomy
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enthusiast and Order of Canada recipient points out to me, quote,
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the increase in wildfires and droughts around the world is
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a sign that climate change is no longer an issue
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for future generations. It is in our face, here and now.
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In his recent book, The Future Is Now, McDonald argues
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that COVID shutdowns inspired many to see that we have
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the tools to reverse climate change through alternative energy, carbon
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capture and energy storage. Quote. The smoke is a clear
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signal that it's time to get on with it and
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clear our skies, not just for astronomy, but for human health.
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He told me. That's all for today's Diary of Science
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and Nature. Your reader was Kelly Taylor. Now stay tuned
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for the Health Corner on RADIOI