Preserving Earth's Symphony: Navigating Biodiversity, Conservation, and Climate Change

In the intricate choreography of life on our planet, biodiversity conducts a symphony of interconnected ecosystems. However, this delicate harmony faces a formidable foe — climate change. In this exploration, we delve into the heart of environmental conservation and biology, uncovering the challenges of biodiversity loss, ongoing conservation endeavors, and the profound impact of climate change on ecosystems.

Biodiversity Loss: The Silent Threat Unveiled

Biodiversity, the lifeblood of ecosystems, is under siege. Human activities, from habitat destruction to over-exploitation, accelerate the extinction rate, jeopardizing the stability of our natural world. Explore the ramifications of this silent erosion and its implications for the future of our planet.

Conservation Efforts: Safeguarding Nature's Legacy

Meet the unsung heroes of biodiversity conservation. From rewilding initiatives to community-led projects, discover the innovative strategies employed by conservationists to protect endangered species and restore balance to ecosystems. These efforts not only preserve biodiversity but also empower communities to become stewards of their natural surroundings.

Climate Change: Disrupting Ecosystem Harmony

Unravel the intricate web of climate change and its far-reaching consequences. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and altered climate patterns are reshaping ecosystems at an unprecedented pace. Witness the cascading effects on migration, food webs, and the delicate dance of flora and fauna in the face of climate adversity.

Innovations in Conservation Biology: Adapting for Tomorrow

Embark on a journey into the realm of cutting-edge solutions. Scientists and conservationists are leveraging the power of biology to develop adaptive strategies against climate change. Explore stories of resilience, from assisted migration to the creation of climate-resilient habitats, showcasing how innovation can be the key to a sustainable future.

As the custodians of Earth's legacy, we stand at a crossroads. This article serves as a rallying call, urging readers to champion biodiversity, support conservation initiatives, and advocate for policies that prioritize our planet's well-being. Let us unite to restore harmony to the symphony of life, ensuring a resilient and sustainable future for generations to come.

The Best Fresh Water Fish Can Breed In USA

The Best Fresh Water Fish Can Breed In USA 

There are many freshwater fish species that can be bred in the USA, depending on the specific conditions and goals of the breeding program. Here are some popular freshwater fish species for breeding in the USA:

 

01. Rainbow trout

02. Brook trout

03. Brown trout

04. Channel catfish

05. Bluegill

06. Largemouth bass

07. Crappie

08. Perch

09. Hybrid striped bass

10. Tilapia

Rainbow trout, brook trout, and brown trout are popular choices for recreational and commercial aquaculture in the USA due to their high demand as game fish and their adaptability to different water conditions. Channel catfish is another popular aquaculture species due to its high growth rates and hardiness. Bluegill and crappie are popular species for stocking in ponds and small lakes for recreational fishing. Largemouth bass is another popular game fish species that is commonly bred in the USA. Hybrid striped bass is a cross between striped bass and white bass and is a popular species for commercial aquaculture due to its fast growth and high demand in the market. Finally, tilapia is a tropical freshwater fish that is popular for aquaculture due to its adaptability to a wide range of environmental conditions and high protein content.

Human monkey conflict in Sri Lanka over last 50 years

 

Human monkey conflict in Sri Lanka over last 50 years

Sri Lanka has been facing human-monkey conflict for several decades, particularly in the central hill areas of the country where large populations of toque macaque monkeys (Macaca sinica) live. The conflict has intensified over the last 50 years due to various reasons such as habitat destruction, fragmentation, and conversion of forest areas into agricultural land, urbanization, and tourism development.

As a result, monkeys have been forced to venture into human settlements in search of food and water, leading to a significant increase in human-monkey interactions. This has resulted in various negative consequences for both humans and monkeys. For instance, monkeys have been known to raid crops, damage property, and even attack humans, causing injuries and sometimes even death. Additionally, human activities such as feeding the monkeys have led to behavioral changes in the animals, leading to a further escalation of the conflict.

 Efforts to mitigate the human-monkey conflict in Sri Lanka have been ongoing, including the implementation of various management strategies such as translocation, sterilization, and population control measures. However, these have not been entirely successful in resolving the issue, and the conflict continues to be a significant problem in many parts of the country.

How to Make Homemade Soap just 10 min, Even If You're a Beginner

 

            How to Make Homemade Soap just 10 min, Even If You're a Beginner

Easy Production of Soap

Ingredients required: 01. Caustic soda (NaOH) 50 g 02. 120 ml of water 03. 240 ml of coconut oil 04. A fairly large bowl 05. A beater

How to make:

First take an empty bowl, add 120 ml of water and 50 g of caustic soda and mix well with a beater. Always use a glove when mixing. Add 240 ml of coconut oil to the well mixed mixture and mix well again with a beater for about 10 minutes. Then pour into molds and keep for 24 hours. After 24 hours the prepared soap can be removed from the mold.

Homemade soaps in this way with the use of natural coconut oil, is high quality. It costs only $ 0.2

Watch the video below

How to make soap at home

 

How to culture Drosophila melanogaster

 

INTRODUCTION

Drosophila melanogaster is a tiny, common insect that lives near rotten or unripe fruit. It is used for research in genetics and behavior for more than a century. Drosophila melanogaster goes through a complete metamorphosis, which comprises an egg, larva, pupa, and then emergence as a flying adult. Drosophila melanogaster eggs are not fertilized immediately after mating with male flies. During mating, female Drosophila melanogaster receive and store sperm in their sperm storage reservoirs, known as the seminal receptacle and spermatheca. Drosophila melanogaster sperm are "giant sperm," measuring 1.76 mm in length, 300 times longer than human sperm. Sperm can be stored for up to two weeks inside the bodies of female flies, with those stored in the seminal receptacle being used first, followed by those stored in the spermatheca. Sperm and egg fusion occurs only when the egg is going to be laid. The entire sperm penetrates the egg at the anterior pole, and the embryo's growth is seen in the gut area. The chorion is an opaque outer membrane that coats the egg's translucent and chitinous vitelline membrane. A pair of filaments protrude from the egg's anterodorsal surface. This pair of filaments keeps the egg from sinking into soft food where it might be placed. Drosophila melanogaster's lifespan changes based on its surroundings. When the conditions for survival are favorable, they can live for more than 100 days. Nonetheless, Drosophila melanogaster females have a life span of 26 days, and males have a life span of 33 days.

The temperature has a significant impact on the length of a Drosophila melanogaster's life cycle. The easiest way to grow flies is also at room temperature. However, the optimum rearing condition is a temperature of 25°C and 60% humidity. According to our experiment in room temperature generation time is 10 days from egg to adult.

MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR 11 FLY CULTURE BOTTLES:

2.9 grams Agar

4.8 grams Sugar

5 grams Corn flour

9.6 grams Dried killed yeast

515 ml Water

15.5 ml Nipagin solution

Beaker

11 dry McCartney Bottles

Cotton wool

PROCEDURE: 

1. Preparation of artificial diet to culture Drosophila melanogaster

Add Agar (2.9 g), Sugar (4.8 g), Cornflour (5 g), Dried killed yeast (9.6 g), and Water (515 ml) into a beaker and boil the mixture until it gets light yellowish colour. While boiling the mixture should stir well. After the mixture gets light yellowish colour, turn off the Bunsen burner. Then stir the mixture carefully and add Nipagin solution (15.5 ml) to it. After that pour the equal amounts of prepared media into 11 McCartney Bottles and allow to get cool and solidify. It should fill the culture bottles 1/5th to 2/5th full. (The culture bottles containing artificial diet should plug with non-absorbent cotton wool for future use.)

 

2. Culture Drosophila melanogaster in the artificial diet containing McCartney Bottles

Collect 6 to 8 Adult Drosophila flies (male and female) from the natural environment and introduce them into 3 to 4 culture bottles containing an artificial diet (2 flies for each culture bottle).  Close the bottles with flies and artificial diet with the use of muslin cloth. Then allow the flies to lay eggs inside these culture bottles. After the adults emerge from eggs you can transfer those adult flies to other artificial diet containing McCartney Bottles to avoid overcrowding in culture bottles. Observe the life stages and time taken for each life stage of Drosophila melanogaster

OBSERVATION:

At room temperature of 29°C, Drosophila melanogaster can complete its life cycle in this artificial diet within 10 days. More generations can be produced within this artificial diet very quickly. Therefore this artificial diet is suitable for Drosophila melanogaster culture. Small larvae can be seen in the culture media after the eggs hatch. In the larval stage, there are three instars. In addition, as the larvae feed they disrupt the smooth surface of the media and so by looking only at the surface one can tell if larvae are present. After the third instar, larvae move up the culture vial to pupate. All organs degenerate (histolysis) and reorganize into adult shapes throughout the pupal stage (metamorphosis). Adult flies emerge from pupal cases 10 days following egg-laying.

Two days after the introduction of flies to the culture bottle, female flies will lay eggs.

Two days after egg-laying- the eggs will hatch and produce the first instar larva

Three days after egg-laying - the second instar larva can be observed.

Four to five days after egg-laying- the third instar larva can be observed

Seven days after egg-laying- Pupa can be observed

Ten days after egg-laying- Eclosion (adults emerge from the pupa case).

How to culture Paramecium sp.

Paramecium is the most common of the ciliated protozoans. They occur abundantly in waters containing decaying vegetable matter since their food consists mainly of bacteria that decompose dead organic matter. Paramecia are oval in shape and quick moving. Paramecium has a very distinctive slipper-like appearance. Small size, ranging from 25μm to 300 μm. Presence of many surface cilia which are used for swimming and collecting food. They have a semi-transparent appearance and the interior nuclei and food containing vacuoles are readily seen as small globules under the microscope.  They are barely visible to the naked eye, usually white or clear in color, and can reproduce both sexually and asexually. When conditions are favorable, Paramecia reproduce asexually by transverse division at a rate of up to five times daily.

Paramecium culture

Materials:   Dry straw/ hay

                     Dechlorinated water

                     Aquarium water

                     Rice/ crushed biscuits

                     2 beakers (200 ml and 800 ml)

Procedure:

Take 200 ml of dechlorinated into a beaker. Then add dry straw into that same beaker. After three weeks, take a drop of water from that beaker and observe under the microscope to check the growth of Paramecium. After that take aquarium water into another beaker and transfer water with paramecium and dry straw already prepared into that aquarium water-filled beaker. Add Some crushed biscuits and rice into the culture beaker and keep for another two weeks to get maximum growth of Paramecium. The Paramecium will eat bacteria growing off of the food (dry crushed biscuits and rice) which have been added to the culture medium. 

Dechlorinated water and dry hay in an 200ml beaker 

After three weeks, Transfer Culture water into an 800ml beaker that contains aquarium water 

Cultured Paramecium under the microscope (100×)

Click here for locomotion video of Paramecium sp.

Ethogram of guinea pig grooming behavior

Grooming is the act of cleaning. The front teeth, tongue, and back claws of Guinea pigs are used to groom themselves. They demonstrate many grooming techniques, including self-grooming, in order to maintain their bodies clean and maximize their chances of survival. Grooming can also provide psychological benefits by removing dust, debris, and parasites from its fur. Because the body surface serves as a temperature regulator, a sensing organ, a protective device, and a moisture balance.

Ethogram of guinea pig grooming behavior contains the following steps 

Ø  Licking its front feet

Ø  Wiping its face

Ø  Sitting on its haunches

Ø  Wiping its nose

Ø  Bring both front feet over the head from behind the ears all the way to the tip of its nose

Ø  The body is cleaned with teeth and tongue back and forth

Ø  Shake all over as it to remove loose hairs and fur that’s still on its body

Figure 1: Licking front feet   

  Figure 2: Wiping the face   

Figure 3: Sitting on haunches  

Figure 4: Wiping nose                                     

 

Figure 5:  Bringing front feet over the Head from behind the ears  

 

Figure 6: Bringing front feet behind the ears to the tip of the nose 

 Figure 7: The body is cleaned with tongue and teeth

Figure 8: Shaking body to remove loose fur

Click here for a video 

Preparation and maintenance of a pond for carp farming in Sri Lanka

For natural aeration of pond water, the pond should be oriented east to west. The length to width ratio of the pond should be 2: 1 and the depth of the pond should be 1.5 m. The pond wall should be 3 m wide.

In order to prepare a pond, eradication is required. There are two types of eradication: physical eradication and chemical eradication. Physical eradication is achieved by Sun drying for 2-3 weeks until the formation of soil cracks.

Bleaching powder (25g/m²) is used to do chemical eradication. The pond bottom should be thoroughly wetted before bleaching and then bleach for 1-3 days. Then fill the pond to 12 inches with water and after 2 days, water should be released to minimize the bleaching powder toxicity, and water should be filled to 48 inches level again. As another chemical eradication method, can use bleaching powder with urea (1g/m² urea and after 24 hrs 12g/m² bleaching powder). The ponds should be free from aquatic feeds, wild fish, and predators. Ammonia 25g/m² is sometimes used to kill wild fish like stinging catfish. Lime (50 g/m²) is a good pesticide to use.

Fertilization has a bigger role in semi-intensive carp farming. Fertilizers might be inorganic or organic. Organic fertilizer consists of fresh cow manure, poultry manure, green leaves, and compost. For early fertilizing of ponds to grow planktons, cow dung (750g/m²) or poultry manure (250g/m²) could be used. Auxin and cytokinin hormones are found in fresh cow dung and are beneficial to phytoplankton growth. Use 1g of TSP (powder form) and 3g of urea per m² in combination with organic fertilizers for quick results. Weekly manuring is advised if necessary. Before applying fertilizer water level in the pond should be 1.5m and then the water level in the tank should be gradually raised.

After two weeks there is a significant change in color of the pond water (immediately dark brown and then yellow after that green), and after two weeks, excellent culture ponds can be obtained by this method. The visibility of the Secchi disk should be between 25 and 30 cm. Plankton density must be 20-25cm in brood and brood ponds and 45cm in brooders ponds. The pH of the medium can be adjusted by adding lime. Eichhornia sp. can also grow in corner of the ponds to absorb excess ammonia produced by excess feed, however, as Eichhornia sp. is an invasive alien species, that should be planted in small quantities.