Murmur of the Breeze in the GM Trees?

An Israeli GM company is planning to improve the efficiency of wood production for paper production, pellet burning in electricity generating stations and even fuel manufacture for cars by planting Eucalyptus trees with inserted genes to enhance their growth (in terms of circumference) rate so they mature in 5.5 rather than 7 years (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/15/gm-trees-bred-world-energy?INTCMP=SRCH). The company reportedly suggest that countries with good growing conditions for the trees, in terms of climate and soil, could benefit economically. Brazil might be an obvious contender. Although the trees might help to reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide when growing, it sounds as if their use is likely to put a lot of the greenhouse gas back. It should be noted that monocultures of plants (crops) are typically more prone to disease (although I suspect that the claim will be made that resistance can be rapidly engineered) than mixed assemblages. An area of concern is the obvious fact that areas of varied forest would have to be removed to make way for the GM planting. This would remove not only plant species but any the animal species associated with them, with obvious effects on biodiversity. I confidently predict that the GM Eucalyptus forests will not feature populations of Koalas!

Miracles of Miracles

There seem to be two broad responses to the BBC 'Miracles of Nature' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2012/45/richard-hammonds-miracles-of-nature.html). One is 'why is petrol-head Richard Hammond aka 'hamster' being given responsibility for such a programme, knowing as little as he does about the natural world?' The other is that 'It is nice to see an engineering enthusiast being turned on by the extraordinary abilities developed in animals by evolutionary processes'. I expected to belong to the first group but find myself liking the scenarios developed in the programme and their potential for changing attitudes. The hamster is amusing and shows fear and wonder in appropriate amounts. I particularly enjoyed programme 2 ('Super-Senses) as it featured one of my former Masters students, Kate Evans (http://www.elephantsforafrica.org/kate-evans.html), showing Hammond that African elephants have the potential to communicate using infra-sound over long distances through rocks (although the mining application was a bit contrived).

Water, Water Everywhere!

This seems to have been a very wet Autumn (to go with a very wet Summer). I suspect that the wetness will be reflected in insect and bird numbers when Spring comes around again.

Birder's Bonus 122

In Loughor, a Eurasian nuthatch (Sitta europaea) keeps returning to the bird feeder in the garden.

Seeing the Changes 533

The wet Autumn produced masses of fungi in Loughor. We also had our first hailstones of the winter.

They All Fall Down?

It has been pointed out that ash dieback disease is only one of the latest imported conditions to have substantial detrimental effects on UK trees (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/31/biosecurity-nature-hurricane-sandy-ash?INTCMP=SRCH). Biosecurity seems very weak in the UK with fungal infections of other trees including the Horse chestnut, Processionary moth caterpillars decimating oak trees in the SE and long-horn beetles arriving from China in wood packaging around imported stones. It has even been noted that it is highly likely that the replanting of native trees from UK seeds can involve their transport to the Netherlands where they are grown up before being repatriated. It is pretty obvious that there is much scope for improving the biosecurity of our native habitats.

Ash to Ashes?

It looks as if it might be curtains for yet another UK tree species with the discovery of the ash die-back fungus Chalara fraxinea in a Woodland Trust area in East Anglia (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/24/ash-dieback-disease-east-anglia?INTCMP=SRCH). The Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is a common stand alone tree and can be a major component of hedgerows. The fungus can easily spread tens of kilometres as spores on the wind. Although the fungus has been recorded in the UK previously, it has, thus far, been limited to garden centres and imported trees (now banned) and its eradication has been relatively easy. Now it's into wild populations, the spread of the disease will be almost impossible to contain. A substantial proportion of the Ash in Danish forests has already disappeared.