NHPR peers at Great Bay under the Microscope

New Hampshire Public Radio’s show “The Exchange” recently featured the Great Bay area and discussion concerning it’s current state and ecological health.

****************************************************************

Full disclosure – I admittingly have a great deal of personal interest in this topic considering: a) I’m from NH and have always loved the coast and its associated regions b) I’m a marine and freshwater biologist/ecologist by training, and c) I worked for the NH Coastal Program, part of NH Dept. of Environmental Services as an intern for six months.

*****************************************************************

Great Bay is a large tidal estuary with many significant rivers serving as tributaries. The region is home to a significant variety of wildlife and yields a variety of important ecological habitats.

(To learn more, check out links and information at the SaveGreatBay blog)

Last year the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) released a report about the health of the local region using several environmental indicators. The basic gist of the report was that the system is in decline in part due to increases in things like pollutants and excess nutrients making their way into the estuaries, often by way of stormwater runoff. (Read the report here)

This feature on “The Exchange” examines the intrinsic value of a region like Great Bay, how it’s being impacted, and what can be done to address the damage.

Access the audio of the program featuring NHPR’s environmental reporter Amy Quinton, Ted Diers, director of the NH Coastal Program (part of the NH Dept. of Environmental Services), and Judith Spang, Democratic state representative from Durham.

You’ll hear about some interesting solutions to storm water runoff from pervious pavement to oyster restoration (to see a successful oyster project currently helping to clean Boston’s water, click here).

So check it out and perhaps weigh in with your own thoughts.

Also, perhaps peruse Prep’s recently released Piscataqua Region management and conservation plan.

I Like My Frogs… Small

A teeny new species of frog was discovered inside a Bornean (from Borneo) pitcher plant. So not only did the discovering scientist find something novel and undescribed, he found it petite. Nothing piques the public’s interest like micro-sized animals. Unfortunately this frog, who grows to the mere pittance of a half inch in length,is not currently the smallest frog species known to us. That distinction belongs to the Cuban Eleutherodactylus iberia, which can comfortably sit on a dime.

With big discoveries this small, just imagine what we could be missing…

Read more here:

• Micro Frog Found in Search for World’s Lost Amphibians (treehugger.com)

I Will Never Complain About Traffic Again – Wait, That’s Not True…

Beijing currently has cars stuck on stretches of highway for the ninth day in a row.

According the Wired.Com blog, Autotopia:

“Whatever traffic hell you endured getting to work this morning is nothing compared to what’s happening in Beijing, where a mammoth traffic jam is entering its ninth day with no relief in sight.

Thousands of trucks have jammed National Expressway 110 since Aug. 14, creating a traffic jam stretching 100 kilometers. Authorities attribute the mess to highway construction exacerbated by accidents and breakdowns. Police are trying to keep tempers from flaring in what is the second massive jam to tie up the highway in the past month.”

Wonder if this is a valid excuse for missing work for a couple weeks…

Make it Count

So someone just posted this incredible proposal on reddit:

I managed to track it down to the blog it was originally posted on: http://www.angelaandithyle.com/blog/2010/07/26/me-and-you-and-you-and-me/ which appears to belong to the wonderfully artistic couple pictured above. Just a little browsing has left me intrigued and addicted which I suppose is a reasonable state. I mean, check out their bio:

the inevitable bio

angela likes to paint.

ithyle likes to sing.

angela likes #6699CC.

ithyle likes #FF9900.

angela is an over gifter.

ithyle is a good package wrapper.

angela paints her toenails pink.

ithyle paints his toenails black.

angela startles easily.

ithyle relishes the fact that angela startles easily.

angela likes road trips.

ithyle likes bicycle trips.

angela likes what ithyle orders at dinner.

ithyle eats whats left of angela’s dinner.

angela likes to eat more than her fair share of tofutti cuties.

ithyle laments this.

The Money Lists Strike Again

Someone commented on the radio the other day about how infatuated we are with lists. I’m not sure if this was directed specifically at Americans or high-content consumers in general. But, many blog guides to naming your posts in a catchy manner suggest the tried and true method of putting a number in your title: “10 tried and true ways for raising the domestic hippo”,”8 days to a more neurotic you…” – you get my gist.

So griping on pause just for a smidgen (although I really think smidgen should be spelled like pigeon), U.S. News produced a list of 15 things you shouldn’t be paying for.  Okay, un-pause: why, oh why, am I bothering to listen to someone who tells me to use the  library to save on the cost of buying books? I believe we have the power of common sense to figure this out.

But all negativity aside, there is useful information out there that are pearls of wisdom I have yet to unearth on my own.

Let me know about groups like Freecycle where people embrace re-using and re-ducing by swapping their stuff. Post me your websites where I can learn how to travel on less money, or how I can get a Biology job next summer somewhere exotic. Let me know where I can get coupons online without buying the Sunday paper, and I will be your friend forever.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110384/things-you-shouldnt-be-paying-for?mod=bb-budgeting

Repost TampaBay.com: Woman Gets Ride on Back of Shark

A woman swimming in the Atlantic off Behune Beach found herself picked up and carried on the back of a shark, news-journalonline.com reports.

“My first thought was ‘I hope this is a manatee,’ ” Judy Fischman told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “Then I saw the black tail. … Then I saw other sharks and I thought, ‘My God, how am I going to escape a whole group of sharks?’ ”

She started punching the animal, “then a wave came. All of a sudden they were gone,” she said. “They probably realized I’m not food and let go. Maybe they thought I was a seal. I had on a black bathing suit.”

Getting Plural with an Octopus – It’s Complicated

Since I talk about these guys once in a while, just thought you should know!

AP says Northern Lights Possible

A recent news release from Associated Press indicates residents ranging from Maine to Michigan should keep an eye turned toward the sky this night and next (August 3rd/4rth) for possible Northern Lights. There’s been some recent sun activity (i.e. storms) that means us more southern folks may actually get to enjoy this primarily far northern phenomenon!

See AP press release in the Portsmouth Herald here.

It Flows Like a River…

some science news this week.

First up, rivers on the seafloor. According to the UK Telegraph, apparently researchers have found channels on the sea bed with water of much different density and salinity than surroundings water coursing through them:

If found on land, scientists estimate it would be the world’s sixth largest river in terms of the amount of water flowing through it.

The discovery could help explain how life manages to survive in the deep ocean far out to sea away from the nutrient rich waters that are found close to land, as the rivers carry sediment and nutrients with them.

The scientists, based at the University of Leeds, used a robotic submarine to study for the first time a deep channel that had been found on the sea bed.

They found a river of highly salty water flowing along the deep channel at the bottom of the Black Sea, creating river banks and flood plains much like a river found on land.

Dr Dan Parsons, from the university’s school of earth and environment, said: “The water in the channels is denser than the surrounding seawater because it has higher salinity and is carrying so much sediment.

“It flows down the sea shelf and out into the abyssal plain much like a river on land. The abyssal plains of our oceans are like the deserts of the marine world, but these channels can deliver nutrients and ingredients needed for life out over these deserts.

“This means they could be vitally important, like arteries providing life to the deep ocean.