Freshwater Fish of the World – A Status Report
Written by Michael Ricciardi

In may not be a great surprise to learn that fish are the most species-rich vertebrate group on the Planet–with an estimated 32,500 member species. But what is surprising is that 43% of these species are found in freshwater habitats, such as lakes and rivers.

This rich diversity of freshwater species is all the more startling when one considers that freshwater systems represent just one hundredth of one percent (.01%) of the Earth’s surface water. According to Fishes of the World (J.S. Nelson), over 5000 new species of freshwater fish have been discovered in just the past three decades–a time period marked by expanded exploration of fish habitats and better understanding of “taxonomic boundaries” (mostly, due to more accurate genetic analysis).

One might suppose that many of these newly discovered fish–many quite rare–are endangered, but in fact, only a small fraction of these “newer” fish have contributed to the increase in overall threatened species (H.L. Jelks et al, Fisheries 33). While rarity is often correlated with extinction risk, some rare and ancient species (like the powan and pollan fish of the British Isles) have survived since the end of the last Ice Age. Invasive species, habitat fragmentation or loss (from both human and natural causes), and even reckless collecting are the leading causes of imperiled freshwater fish worldwide.

According to the same 2008 study noted above (Jelks et al), nearly 40% of freshwater species in North America are either at risk of disappearing or have already vanished. Representing some 761 distinct species, 230 are deemed “vulnerable”, 190 are threatened, 280 are endangered, and 61 are extinct (or extinct in the wild). These numbers represent a 90+% increase over a 1989 assessment of freshwater species. And these trends are consistent with assessments in Europe.

Making matters worse are increasing demands for water resources and on-going or predicted impacts from climate change. Ecologists and biologists have long suggested remedies: restoring habitat, implementing better resource management practices, limiting harvests of vulnerable species, restricting transport of threatened fish, and controlling pollution. This latter remedy is often the most difficult to effect. Land run-off (from farm land or home waste water) and other effluent often promote eutrophication (an over-supply of metabolic nutrients, like phosphates) which can inhibit same-species recognition, which can lead to interbreeding. This blurring of specie boundaries makes it more difficult to track individual species, and thus to implement specific conservation strategies (see: Seehausen, van Alphen, and Witte).

But what makes freshwater fish conservation so challenging is the fact that freshwater fish diversity is a function of freshwater fish rarity. Often, rare species–like the Picote de Tequila (Zoogoneticus tequila), a live-bearing fish found only in a small, 4 meter wide pool in Ameca Basin in Central Mexico–are found in isolated locales, or scattered , small lakes or ponds. In many cases, a quite small population of breeding adults supports the entire species population. In the case of the Picote fish, the entire population of 500 is preserved by just 50 adults.

Still, these rare and small populations manage to hang on. It has been suggested that the evolution of freshwater fish has been safe-guarded because of their rarity. Their small numbers and isolated habitats have nurtured unique adaptations–like sperm storage in guppies–that manage to secure the species long-term survival. Additionally, isolation means less exposure to competition (from other species) and predation, as well as pathogens. It is also thought that many such freshwater fish are so well-adapted to their local habitats that their genomes have fewer, disadvantageous mutations. In this regard, strategies to repopulate rare, freshwater fish species in situ using their zoo-bred relatives are being seriously discussed. It is not known how the native species would be affected by this strategy–whether added genetic diversity would promote its survival, or whether the introduction of genes selected for under domestic (zoo) conditions would actually weaken the species, and hence its odds of survival.

Primary reference material for this article: Threats to Freshwater Fish, by Anne E. Magurran, Science Magazine, 4 September, 2009.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
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Arctic ice to vanish in summer, report says
LONDON, England (CNN) — New data released Thursday suggests that the Arctic Ocean will be “largely ice free” during summer within a decade.

The report, complied by the UK-based Catlin Arctic Survey and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is the latest research into ice thickness in the Arctic.

Researchers predict that within 20 years ice cover will be completely gone during the warmer months.

The expedition, which was completed in May, was led by UK explorer Pen Hadow.

He and his team collected data by manually drilling into the ice and noting its thickness along a 450-kilometer route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea.

They found that the area surveyed was comprised almost exclusively of first year ice.

Scientists think this is significant because traditionally the region has been made up of much older, thicker ice.

“Discovering this area of younger ice provides another body of information that supports the rapidly emerging scientific consensus that it’s going to be nearer 10 years from now that we will see roughly 80-85 percent free waters in the Arctic Ocean,” Hadow told CNN.

Measurements taken by Hadow and his team report that the ice-floes were on average 1.8 meters thick — which, according to scientists, is too thin to survive next summer’s ice melt.

Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the UK’s University of Cambridge said: “With a large part of the region now first year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable. The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone.”

Professor Wadhams, who has analyzed the expedition data, added: “The Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consensus view that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years, and much of that decrease will be happening within 10 years.”

Martin Sommerkorn from the WWF International Arctic Program believes that the changes in sea-ice cover in the region are likely to increase global temperatures further.

“Such a loss of Arctic sea ice has recently been assessed to set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself,” Sommerkorn said.

“Arctic sea ice holds a central position in our Earth’s climate system. Take it out of the equation and we are left with a dramatically warmer world,” he added.

Hadow fears that the current climate models developed by scientists may not be extreme enough. But he is hopeful that this new data will spur world leaders into action.

“We are now in a loss period,” Hadow told CNN. “Maybe losing this sea ice, this roof on the top of our planet in going to be an important moment, a big visual aid to the science that in combination can bring about some sort of global agreement on emissions.”

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

How Green Is the New Sprint ‘Reclaim’ Phone?
Written by Timothy B. Hurst

The new green-themed Reclaim made by Samsung is more than your standard phone with slick green branding — though there’s a bit of that too.

What’s green (or blue), smaller than a deck of cards and will remind you to unplug the charger from the wall after charging? The Reclaim, the new green-themed smart phone made by Samsung for Sprint, is loaded with a bunch of green content, a handful eco-conscious accessories and an attention to sustainable packaging that make it more “green” than most other phones out there.

But you can’t just slap a case made from forty percent corn plastic, dip it in green paint and call it green, can you? The folks at Sprint sent me the new Reclaim so I could answer those questions myself.

The Phone
Out of the box, I was first struck by the small size and light weight of the Reclaim. As I test-drove it, I barely noticed the 3.5-ounce phone in my pants pocket. I even found myself looking for it a couple of times even though I had it right there on me. But for a small phone, it packs a pretty good punch.

Easy to navigate and operate, with Sprint’s one-click navigation which brings features like GPS navigation, messaging and web portals like Facebook and Google to the front and center of your interface.

While some like this stuff front and center, an electrician friend of mine who recently got the phone told me he didn’t want all of the shortcut keys on his main screen, telling me they were too big and that he just wanted a picture of his daughter up there.

The phone had good sound and video quality on an especially large screen for such a small device. The 3G speed was a little clunky at times, but that can at least be partially to be explained by the weakish Sprint signal at my house where I did most of the tinkering with the features

A 2.0 megapixel camera with portrait mirror for capturing mobile video and the ubiquitous twenty-first century self-portraits. The Reclaim is also smart enough to ask you if you want to share the pic you just took on the internet via flickr, facebook and YouTube. Have other digital media? A well-placed Micro SD memory card slot on side makes transferring digital audio and pictures a snap.

It took me a little while to get accustomed to the slide-out QWERTY keyboard—particularly the fact that it didn’t need to stay open after dialing a phone call and that closing the slider wouldn’t end a phone call—the functionality of the slider was smooth and well-engineered.

The Green Parts
Built from 80 percent recyclable material with 40 percent of the phone casing made from corn-based bio-plastic. The Reclaim is 80 percent recyle-able material, not recycle-ed material. That is fairly normal. The bulk of material in most other cell phones can also be recycled and that’s why there is a market for used cell phones.

To Sprint’s credit, included in the box is a postage-paid cell phone recycling bag for you to drop your old phone in the mail to be scrapped for e-waste (which I filled three old phones sitting in a drawer I’ve been meaning to recycle).

Sprint has committed to recycle ninety percent of the phones they make by 2017. With current recycling rates at roughly one-third, Sprint admits they have a long way to go but are also quick to point out that they have collected roughly 18 million phones thus far and have increased recycling rates substantially over 2007.

I like the idea of the green content portals. Easily-accessed content from Planet Green including Best of Green, Five Simple Things, All Things Green and a Green Glossary from Planet Green. These shortcut keys access fast-loading pages of green content and info. Don’t expect links, images, flash, etc. These are fast-loading pages that provide quick access to basic green info, and for that purpose they are excellent.

I was also too-easily amused by the chirps, ribbits and other preloaded eco-sonic ringtones that keep with the Reclaim’s green theme.

Fortunately, the instruction manuals were not big, glossy tomes reprinted in seven languages. Only the “essentials” in manual literature were included in the package, but considering that several pages were filled with full-color images of people enjoying their new phone way too much, even that seemed a bit too much.

The paper that was included in the package was printed with soy inks on a paper stock that clearly had some percentage of recycled content in it, but nowhere on the package was that clearly labeled or otherwise discerned. Other than the plastic FedEx package the phone arrived in, the package itself has very little plastic, only two small bags.

Festooned with a litany of certification labels and brands, Sprint has clearly made some attempts to get the Reclaim some green cred — and most of it is deserved. Overall, I think Sprint has done more than pull of a green marketing coups. They have taken real steps towards cleaning up an industry that contributes an incredible amount of material into the global e-waste stream.

That is not to say there isn’t any room for improvement. Cutting back even more on printed materials and packaging waste and giving more attention to labeling and transparency would make the Reclaim even greener.

If this phone does anything, it helps show an industry that little steps can make a big difference when they are being manufactured at thousands of pieces at a time. Hopefully leading us to the day where a phone that pays attention to sutainability and cradle-to-cradle principles will become the norm, rather than the exception.

Sprint's Reclaim Phone

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com