Well, even though Twelfth Night has not yet arrived, the holidays are more or less over and the work of a new year has begun. As regular readers of the Nature News in Review may have noticed, there was no post last week in order to allow the Nature Blog Network team (or at least me) to spend a little more time with family and friends. However that’s all in the past now and it’s everyone’s respective shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone, and any other appendage to whatever other piece of machinery might be applicable.
Flora
Corpse flower’s steamy film scenes are quite revealing.
Director of Kew Garden’s proclaims that at no other point in history have plants been so important to people.
Fauna
Coral reef growth is slowest ever; global warming and the increasing acidity of seawater are to blame.
A controversial idea that space impacts may have wiped out Woolly Mammoths and early human settlers in North America has received new support.
Natural Resources and Public Policy
Kerala is recreating Salim Ali’s famous bird survey.
The call to restore the prohibition of concealed, loaded firearms in America’s national parks echoes throughout editorial columns nationwide.
Podcasts
BirdNote –Big Year, Honeyguides, wrens, chickadees, hawks, and more
(IMPORTANT NOTE: due to the present economic mess throughout the world, BirdNote, a non-profit, has lost the support of a major donor. If you enjoy BirdNote and want it to continue, please consider making a small donation to them through their website.)
Birdwatch Radio – the Audubon Christmas Bird Count
Ecological Society of America Podcast – plant defense mechanisms, inside the EPA
Nature Stories – iceberg wrangling
Ray Brown’s Talkin’ Birds – “keeping your tabby away from your troglodytes”
Sierra Club Radio – “best of” retrospective
World on the Move (BBC) – World on the Move concluded their year-long series of podcasts with their final episode on 16 December, 2008. However their site is still active and remains a great resource to use in order to locate older BBC stories pertaining to natural history topics.
