Fig Wasp and Nematode Interaction:

This 1993 David Herre paper discusses how increased opportunities for parasite transmission will promote the evolution of increased virulence. This is in contrast to the usual assumption that parasites and other disease-producing organisms tend to evolve benign relationships with their hosts.

The model system used to demonstrate this point is the natural history of fig-pollinating wasps and the nematodes that parasitize these wasps. This system is useful because the foundress wasps that remain within the fig fruit may be counted and their lifetime reproductive success can be measured.

In Herre’s experiments, 11 species of Panamanian fig wasps were studied. The nematode virulence of different population structures (i.e. vertical vs. horizontal transmission) were determined by comparing the relative reproductive success of infected versus uninfected single foundress wasps.  It was found that the nematode species with the greatest estimated virulence were associated with host wasp species that are characterized by population structures providing the most frequent opportunities for horizontal transmission of their parasites. This is evidence that counters the theory that parasites and other disease-producing organisms tend to evolve benign relationships with their hosts over time.

The links provided below explore the fig-wasp life cycle in more detail.

Fig Wasp Life Cycle:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/insects-arachnids/fig-wasp.htm

• fig wasps play an essential role in the fig’s life cycle, as the plant’s only pollinator
• fig plant provides wasp with source of food and shelter
• the fig fruit is a syconium, and is like an inverted flower
• fig wasp climbs to center of syconium through ostiole
• enzyme in fig is ficin, which breaks down wasp carcass into protein
• some vegetarians and vegans refuse to eat figs and fig products

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfkiYfrStrU

• David Attenborough video

http://www.esa.org/esablog/field/the-story-of-the-fig-and-its-wasp/

• a fig is not actually a fruit, it is an inflorescence
• the seeds are the ovaries of the fig
• this tree-wasp relationship is a well-known example of coevolution
• parthenocarpic – seedless

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/food-and-drink/news-fig-nursery-and-mausoleum-fig-wasp

• there are several varieties of fig and fig wasps

References:

1. Herre, E.A., Population Structure and the Evolution of Virulence in Nematode Parasites of Fig Wasps. Science, 259, 1442-1444 (1993)

2. Image reference: http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/insects-arachnids/fig-wasp1.htm

I am now venturing into the unknown abyss of being a self-employed technical writer and web content consultant and editor. In addition to working for clients as a technical writer, web content editor and offering audio transcription services, I will also be offering a whole suite of Web and SEO / Social Media products and services.

Please take the following survey to let me know which products and/or services are of interest to you! Thanks for taking the time to read this posting and please also consider filling out the survey.

http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/1484438/Self-Employment-Idea-Information-Gathering

Photo by Keith M. Williams/flickr

It’s no secret that the habitat of our more Northern creatures is declining due to increases in overall temperature. It is also true that in the history of the earth, there have been closings and openings of waterways and formation and then subsequent retreat of glacial ice sheets; however, it is the rate at which Arctic ecosystems are now changing that is of concern (Root et al. 2003, Overpeck et al. 2005, Walsh 2008). Research is now being done to explore what the effects of melting ice and loss of habitat are on Arctic species populations.

One such paper was written by the Ecological Society of America (Moore and Huntington in 2008, Ecological Applications pp. S157-S165). In this paper, the authors explore how recent changes in Arctic climate may challenge the adaptive capability of more northern adapted species, such as some species of whales, walrus seals and polar bears. The issue is that other species of whales and seals only seasonally occupy the Arctic and subarctic, but are now more easily able to encroach into these northern habitats due to climate change. For example, killer whales can now more easily access northern Arctic habitats and compete with resident northern whale species there for prey and habitat. In the paper, the authors take a two-step approach to examining the impacts and resilience of Arctic marine mammals to climate change: a conceptual model that accounts for ecological scale of the species, and resilience scenarios relative to climate change in four Arctic regions (1 p. S158).

It is interesting to explore what the impact is on more northern species, when species that are less-well adapted to colder areas are able to infringe on these areas due to a warmer climate.

Other issues include the loss of sea ice due to melting, and therefore its loss in ability to serve as 1) platforms, 2) marine ecosystem foundations and 3) barriers to non-ice adapted marine mammals and human commercial activities (1). In the ice-obligate and dependent category, the polar bear provides the clearest example: reductions in sea ice remove their hunting and resting platforms and likely reduce survivorship of ringed seals, which are their primary prey (Derocher et al. 2004, Laidre et al. 2008) (1 pg. S159).

Links:

 A Landsat-7 Mosaic of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (Natural Resources Canada)

Images and short descriptions of 13 animals of the Arctic – including foxes, polar bears and owls!

Videos:

A short video of Arctic animals (by ArcticKingdom1)

References:

1). Moore, SE, Huntington, HP, Arctic Marine Mammals and Climate Change: Impacts and Resilience. Ecological Applications, 18(2) Supplement (2008), pp. S157-S165

Welcome to MASIT (Medical and Scientific Information Technology), the website and blog for Jacquie – a Vancouver technical writer and web content specialist. Please read my blog postings below, or check out my services and skills listed here. For further information, please contact me at admin @ masit.ca – enjoy!

There are very many different types of wildflowers along the west coast of British Columbia (also including farther north and south). Some are just interesting to look at because they are unique and beautiful. Others have medicinal properties and/or are edible. They have long-standing uses by the native aboriginal peoples, and it is estimated that literally thousands of traditional medicines are derived from plants present along the west coast region. This is why the pristine beauty and hidden treasures of this area are definitely worth conserving, and should be left as undisturbed as possible.

Below is a sampling of some of my favourite kinds, just because they are beautiful, intriguing, interesting and/or unique.

Star-flowered False Solomon’s Seal

Smilacina racemosa

http://www.prairiemoon.com/images/D/Smilacina-racemosa-Solomons-Plume-flower.jpg

Perennial with star-like flowers. The fruit is a round, greenish-yellow berry with 3 or 6 blue-purple stripes, changing to dark blue or reddish-black at maturity. Berries are edible but not especially tasty.

http://www.turtlepuddle.org/pix/Flowers/watermellon-berry-flowers.jpg

Clasping Twistedstalk

Streptopus amplexifolius

Perennial with greenish-white, bell-shaped flowers that have flaring tips. The fruit is an oval-oblong berry (yellow to red, sometimes turning dark purple). According to Pojar and MacKinnon, most aboriginal people regard the plants and berries as poisonous.

http://www.hillkeep.ca/images/Erythonium_albidum_copyright_Scott_Peterson..jpg

White Fawn Lilly

Erythronium oregonum

Perennial with mottled leaves.
According to Pojar and MacKinnon, Erythronium comes from the Greek erythros for red, in reference to some pinkish-flowered species that were used in ancient times to make a dye.

http://appliedeco.org/images/gallery/fritillaria-affinis-2.jpg/image_preview

Chocolate Lilly

Fritillaria lanceolata

Perennial, with a pretty and unique flower.
The bulbs were eaten by Coast Salish, including the Squamish, Sechelt, Halq’emeylem and Straits Salish. These plants are quite rare in many places and should be left undisturbed.

http://methowconservancy.blogspot.ca/2012/07/scenes-from-spring-season.html

Mountain Lady Slipper

Cypripedium montanum

Very elegant flower design, but threatened by over-collecting. This orchid reportedly takes 15 years to flower.

http://ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.ca/2012/09/another-visit-to-lake-elizabeth.html

Ladies’ Tresses

Spiranthes romanzoffiana

Flowers are arranged in a spiral fashion around the spike.

http://lindberglce.com/SYRPAssoc/flowersBig/800pics/B107_060326.jpg

Miner’s-Lettuce

Claytonia perfoliata

Annual, with slender taproot and leaves forming a disk around the stem, above mid-length. This species is extremely variable in size, colour and shape of leaves, and size of flowers. Called miner’s-lettuce because early miners and settlers used it as a salad vegetable.

http://www.naturefg.com/images/a-plants/silene-vulgaris.jpg

Bladder Campion

Silene vulgaris

Sepals are about one cm long, fused into a chalice. This appears to be a weedy, introduced species.

http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/images/84710deaf1883c289389039/original.jpg

Shepherd’s Purse

Capsella bursa-pastoris

This is a common weed, originally from Europe and found in places where there is human-caused disturbance. It has been used in Europe as a source of edible greens and spicy seeds.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Tiarella_cordifolia2.jpg

Foamflower

Tiarella trifoliata

Perennial, with three leaflets that are irregularly lobed and coarsely toothed. Tiarella species are called “foamflowers” because the flowers appear like specks of foam.

Book Reference:

1. Plants of Coastal British Columbia including Washington, Oregon & Alaska. Pojar and MacKinnon; Lone Pine publishing, 2004.

I enjoy spreading the word about interesting science, and I’m hoping to delve into some subjects that I’m not as familiar with this year, such as physics and astronomy. Here is your opportunity to give me some of your own ideas for science-based blog posts! Write to me at admin @ masit.ca if you have anything you’d like to see me write about on here in the coming months.

Ideas:

• Northern Mountain Ecosystems in a Warming Climate
• Earth’s Moon – Interesting Facts
• Plastics Recycling – How energy efficient is the plastics recycling process?
• Early Scientist Overview – Female
• Coyotes – Behaviour and interaction with humans

Tofino is known for its great surfing beaches and community, but there are also some fabulous places to hike. One such place is the Big Tree Trail located on Meares Island about half a kilometre across the water from Tofino. This trail features some of the largest and oldest Western red cedar trees in the world with widths up to 20 feet.

Meares island is a tribal park of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations and got its name in 1862 from George Henry Richards, captain of the HMS Hecate, in honor of John Meares. This island was blockaded to prevent logging by the MacMillan Bloedel company in 1984. As a result of this protest, the Big Tree trail was created with a board walk for the first 1.2 km of the trail.

The board walk takes you to some of the oldest trees in Canada. Two of which are Western red cedar trees and are in the range of 1000-1500 years old. They are known as the hanging garden tree and poster tree, and are just two of the large trees that you will see along this trail.

For those looking for an adventure, continue on past the managed trail area, and follow around to your right to circle back towards the dock. This area is quite muddy, and is difficult to walk in some places. A few other smaller trails lead down to the mudflats. The mudflats are interesting to look at, but you should return towards the direction of Morpheus island and back on the main trail which takes you back to the water taxi dock.

On the trip back to Tofino, you will see the village of Opitsat along the shoreline of Meares island, which is said to be 5000 years old.

Opitsat and Esowista are the two reserves in the area where the Tla-o-qui-aht people reside. With the crystal clear blue waters and fresh forest air this is definitely not a hike to be missed while visiting Tofino.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tla-o-qui-aht_First_Nations
http://www.tourismtofino.com/trails
http://tofinohiatus.com/adventure-hiking/big-tree-trail-meares.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meares_Island
http://www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth/meares-island.php

Find me on Twitter:  @jacbird and @masitblog

It is often easy to ignore the effects of climate change when those effects don’t have a direct impact on your immediate surroundings. However, if you take a closer look at the more northern habitats, you will see how climate change is affecting both the local tundra ecosystems and the animals who call that area home. One such animal is the collared pika – a mammal that resembles a small bunny and is part of the same order as rabbits (Lagomorpha). The effect that climate change is having on this mammal is currently being studied by University of Alberta researchers David Hik and Scott Williamson.

David Hik’s research emphasizes plant-herbivore-climate interactions in northern alpine and tundra ecosystems, while Scott Williamson is involved in research on elevation dependent warming (4). Scott Williamson’s research contributions on elevation-dependent warming were published in the journal Nature Climate Change in April, 2015
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n5/full/nclimate2563.html

The collared pika is a species of pika that lives in the more extreme northern climates. They have adapted to this colder climate through a combination of different behavoiurs. They burrow under thick snow packs in the winter, which allows them to survive these colder months since they don’t hibernate (2). Collared pikas also gather food in the summer months and store it in a separate pantry or “cache” over the winter (2). In the summer, they hide from predators and shield themselves from the heat in rock “talus” sites at the base of landslides (3).

The food that they gather and store, mostly consists of green grasses and the leaves of alpine meadow plants (2). However, a combination of lower temperatures and other global warming trends is negatively affecting their food supply and ability to shelter themselves from the cold in snow packs. This is a concern considering that their populations are already dropping by 90% over the winter months, as observed by David Hik (2).

Northern habitats are currently being affected by the global warming trend of “shrubification,” which is having an impact on the survival of collared pikas. Shrubification is the colloquial term that describes the process of shrub expansion into more northern areas and at higher altitudes. These shrubs are able to expand farther north due to factors such as lower temperatures, soil disturbances and herbivory (1). For example, reduced temperatures allow for enhanced soil nutrient uptake. Landscape and soil disturbances also contribute to increased shrub abundance and distribution. Grazing herbivores have an impact on shrub distribution by altering seed production and seedbed size, transport of seeds and soil fertilization (1).

This process of shrubification is causing the already endangered collared pika populations to dwindle further due to decreasing their food sources and reducing the snow pack cover.

The advancement and canopy thickening of shrubs is causing a reduction in albedo (or, sun reflectance off snow), which contributes to warmer temperatures. It also takes longer for the snow to melt under shrubs, which then covers the meadow plant seedlings for a longer time and delays the growing season (2).

In combination with this, the lower temperatures are also causing more rain and ice and less snow. This then leads to reduced snow pack thickness, and when the rain freezes, it covers any winter vegetation with an impenetrable shell of ice (2). Therefore, the collared pikas face many challenges in their alpine habitats.

To help these creatures, make sure that you are doing all that you can, such as driving less, recycling, drinking water from reusable bottles and reducing your overall energy consumption. These fluffly little bunny-like creatures will surely thank you!

References:

1. Myers-Smith, I. H., Forbes, B. C., Wilmking, M., & Hik, D. S. (2011, December 20). Shrub expansion in tundra ecosystems: Dynamics, impacts and research priorities. Environ. Res. Lett., 6. http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/6/4/045509/meta

2. Pratt, S. (2016, Spring). Swim or Sink. New Trail (University of Alberta Alumni Magazine), 16-28.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collared_pika

4. https://www.ualberta.ca/science/about-us/contact-us/faculty-directory/david-hik

5. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/growth-of-arctic-shrubs-may-accelerate-global-warming-study-finds/article25333574/

6. https://www.ualberta.ca/news-and-events/newsarticles/2015/april/mountains-warming-faster-say-researchers

7. http://esseacourses.strategies.org/module.php?module_id=99

Find me on Twitter: @jacbird and @masitblog

A different kind of writing…

I have been busy doing a different kind of writing recently, among some other projects that involved writing resource industry training documents. Please check out my latest music compositions that I have been working on. This is a little different than science and technical writing, but it still falls within the writing domain (although a tad more on the creative end of the spectrum). Click on the link below to check out my recordings.

Jacquie’s Composition Playlist

Find me on Twitter: @jacbird

Please take a look here at my recent projects and showcases. The Flipbook was a team project, completed for the Scarfe Digital Sandbox. Other science blog postings were written for both the UBC Faculties of Applied Science and Education.

Flipbook Project Showcase – by the Project Team 2021

Click below to check out the Scarfe Sandbox Flipbook:

https://online.fliphtml5.com/xgpvc/ygvv/#p=1

Geering Up’s People-focused Workshops 2022

An overview of the UBC Faculty of Applied Science’s Geering Up program – taking a look at their people focused workshops and initiatives.

https://apsc.ubc.ca/news/2022/geering-ups-people-focused-workshops

Storytelling for STEM Subjects – by Jacqueline 2021

This post explains the concept of teaching science and tech by using storytelling methods. Some relevant examples are also discussed, including the First People’s Principles of Learning.

https://scarfedigitalsandbox.teach.educ.ubc.ca/storytelling-for-stem-subjects/

Honing Pattern Recognition Skills through Dance – by Jacqueline 2021

Another resource post that demonstrates and explains the concept of pattern recognition through learning dance steps. Pattern recognition is useful in mathematics, computer science, scientific discovery and research – and more specifically in biogeography and evolutionary biology. 

https://scarfedigitalsandbox.teach.educ.ubc.ca/honing-%e2%80%afpattern-%e2%80%afrecognition-%e2%80%afskills-through-%e2%80%afdance/

Find me on Twitter: @jacbird