I’ll be completely honest – when it comes to ornithology, lepidoptery, ecology, and even ichthyology, I’m able to keep tabs on recent developments fairly effectively. However I am very weak in botany and its associated disciplines and tend not to always follow recent developments in those areas as closely. This is not out of disinterest in any way – it’s simply not an area in which I have as much experience as the others previously mentioned. Thus I would appreciate it greatly if knowledgeable persons reading the Nature Blog Network Blog would send suggestions on list servers, websites, societies, and other sources of communication pertaining to the subject. That said, here are a few items of interest from the week ending November 22, 2008:
Flora
To the dismay of national culinary aficionados, Turkey is losing its tradition of poppy cultivation in the name of fighting the international opium trade.
Ethnobotanist Nancy Turner to be the keynote speaker at Botany & Mycology 2009 in Snowbird, Utah.
Fauna
Nature Blog Network member Birdchaser reports on a serious threat to hawks who fly near the stacks of methane burners in Oklahoma.
With the deciphering of the genome for the Wooly Mammoth, are we on the brink of “Pleistocene Park?”
Natural England, the RSPB and Anglian Water hope to bring the Sea Eagle back to the skies over England.
Natural Resources and Public Policy
Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California to head the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.
Outgoing Bush administration deals one last massive slashing blow to the Endangered Species Act and other environmental protections.
Will the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas carry out a plan that would see Bluefin Tuna fishing suspended completely in the Mediterranean for a year or more?
Podcasts
Birdwatch Radio – interviews from influential birdwatching community members recorded at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival
Ecological Society of America – why some birds opt out of flying
Nature’s Voice – is there finally an explanation to the declining numbers of House Sparrows in England?
Nature – decoding the mammoth genome
World on the Move (BBC) – whale sharks and curlews.
