Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Ocean Acidification: Impact On Key Organisms Of Oceanic Fauna May Be Worse Than Predicted
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Source: CNRS (Délégation Paris Michel-Ange))
15 Sep 2009
Photo credit: C. Maier, LOV

In addition to global warming, carbon dioxide emissions cause another, less well-known but equally serious and worrying phenomenon: ocean acidification.

Researchers in the Laboratoire d'Océanographie at Villefranche (LOV) (CNRS / UPMC) have just demonstrated that key marine organisms, such as deep-water corals and pteropods (shelled pelagic mollusks) will be profoundly affected by this phenomenon during the years to come.

Two studies have been published in the journal Biogeosciences.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Articles
>>>Impact of ocean acidification on a key Arctic pelagic mollusc (Limacina helicina). Biogeosciences. 2009 September; 6(9): 1877-1882.
>>>Calcification of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa under ambient and reduced pH. Biogeosciences. 2009 August; 6(8): 1671-1680.

Life Without Bumblebees? It's Not Just Honeybees That Are Mysteriously Dying
AlterNet - www.alternet.org (Source: Earth Island Institute)
15 Sep 2009
A Federman

Bombus franklini, a North American bumblebee, was last seen on August 9, 2006. Professor Emeritus Robbin Thorp, an entomologist at UC Davis, was doing survey work on Mt. Ashland in Oregon when he saw a single worker on a flower, Sulphur eriogonum, near the Pacific Crest Trail.

He had last seen the bee in 2003, roughly in the same area, where it had once been very common. "August ninth," Thorp says. "I've got that indelibly emblazoned in my mind."

Thorp had been keeping tabs on the species since the late 1960s.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Bat experts watch health of Northwest colonies
Seattle Times - seattletimes.nwsource.com
14 Sep 2009
S Doughton
Photo credit: Erika Schultz/The Seattle Times

The tiny male bat didn't expect to wind up in a biologist's hand when he set out in search of a nighttime snack along Box Canyon Creek.

After being snagged in a net, weighed and measured, the unhappy creature gnashed its teeth and squirmed as Pat Ormsbee stretched its wing for inspection.

The light from a headlamp shone through the translucent tissue, revealing bones tinier than toothpicks.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>Salazar Announces Guidelines to Protect Endangered Indiana Bat from Surface Coal Mining Impacts [includes coal mining guidelines]

Widespread Occurrence of Intersex Bass Found in U.S. Rivers
USGS Newsroom - www.usgs.gov/newsroom
14 Sep 2009

Intersex in smallmouth and largemouth basses is widespread in numerous river basins throughout the United States is the major finding of the most comprehensive and large-scale evaluation of the condition, according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research published online in Aquatic Toxicology.

Of the 16 fish species researchers examined from 1995 to 2004, the condition was most common by far in smallmouth and largemouth bass: a third of all male smallmouth bass and a fifth of all male largemouth bass were intersex.

This condition is primarily revealed in male fish that have immature female egg cells in their testes, but occasionally female fish will have male characteristics as well.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Widespread occurrence of intersexnext term in black basses (Micropterus spp.) from U.S. rivers, 1995–2004. Aquatic Toxicology. 2009 Aug 13. Epub ahead of print.

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: AFP