Jeevika announces film competition

Perhaps you would like to participate in the Jeevika South Asia Livelihood Documentary Competition for 2007. If so, then here are the guidelines :

Jeevika Entry Form & Guidelines

Jeevika is open to all: young filmmakers are particularly encouraged to participate.

The Entry can be in any language with English subtitles, in any format, any length

There is no cut-off date: Entries made in any year can be submitted.

Entry Deadline: 31 May 2007

Awards & Festival: 20-23 July 2007

Awards : Prizes worth Rs 2 lakhs.

For more information contact: Nidhi Chadha,
Centre for Civil Society, K-36 Hauz Khas Enclave,
New Delhi 110016; Tel: 2653 7456/ 2651 2347
www.ccs.in , mailto:jeevika@ccs.inhttp://www.ccs.in/jeevika/submit-entries.htm

image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_film_cameras#Super_8_Film_Camera_photos

New species of sea anemone found

A new species of sea anemone has been discovered in the Pacific Ocean by University of Ohio researchers. The sea anemone was discovered inside the mouth of a dead whale. It looks a bit like a human molar tooth

Dr Meg Daly has named the new species Anthosactis pearseae. She's not sure how old it is because sea anemones live for hundreds of years. Dr Daly works as assistant professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State University and runs one of the world's few laboratories that are specialized in studying sea anemones.

Source: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/newanem.htm

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Haeckel_Actiniae.jpg

The 49th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur of 1904, showing various sea anemones classified as Actiniae.

The healing effects of urban biodiversity

The results of a collaborative study carried out by researchers at the University of Sheffield and De Montfort University in Leicester prove that a green space rich in biodiversity has a more healing effect on people than just ordinary green spaces which have just a few species of organisms.

Says Dr Richard Fuller, lead author of the study, "Our research shows that maintaining biodiversity levels is important in our increasingly urbanised world, not only for conservation, but also to enhance the quality of life for city residents.

Summing up their findings in a recent issue of Biology Letters, the team write, " we demonstrate that greenspace users can more or less accurately perceive species richness depending on the taxonomic group in question".

Interesting isn't it? What is the relevance of this study for India?

Urban green city spaces must buzz with life and Indian city green spaces can certainly do with more butterfly parks, bird parks, and parks with mini forests.

It's about time biodiverity enriched ecotherapy found a place in the family physician's green bag of healing cures isn't it?

Source: http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/74702733g5411mg8/

Southern Ocean's carbon mopping role reduced

The world's oceans work as powerful air purifiers by mopping up as much as 70-80% of the air pollutants produced worldwide due to industrial activities. A study published in this week's issue of Science reveals that the Southern ocean sink's ability to soak up carbon dioxide has reduced significantly.

The collaborative research team led by Dr Corinne Le Quéré involved the University of East Anglia, the British Antarctic Survey, and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. The team looked at carbon dioxide levels absorbed and released by the ocean at 11 monitoring spots in Antarctica and on islands in the Southern Ocean.

The researchers found that between 1981 and now, the ability of the oceans to serve as carbon dioxide absorbing sinks has been gradually reducing with a yearly reduction working out to as much as 0.08 gigatonnes. That's pretty significant when you observe that the world's oceans store upto as much as 0.1 to 0.6 gigatonnes of carbon annually.

Source: Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO2 Sink Due to Recent Climate Change
Corinne Le Quéré, Christian Rödenbeck, Erik T. Buitenhuis, Thomas J. Conway, Ray Langenfelds, Antony Gomez, Casper Labuschagne, Michel Ramonet, Takakiyo Nakazawa, Nicolas Metzl, Nathan Gillett, and Martin HeimannPublished online 17 May 2007 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1136188] (in Science Express Reports)

700 new species discovered in Antartic deep sea

A three year study carried out between 2002 and 2005 that involved scientists from 17 international institutions have discovered more than 700 new species of marine organisms in the deep sea region surrounding Antartica. The study has been published in the current issue of Nature.

Lead author of the study Professor Angelika Brandt from the Zoological Institute and Zoological Museum, University Hamburg says, “The Antarctic deep sea is potentially the cradle of life of the global marine species. Our research results challenge suggestions that the deep sea diversity in the Southern Ocean is poor. We now have a better understanding in the evolution of the marine species and how they can adapt to changes in climate and environments.”

The study which was part of the ANDEEP project (Antarctic benthic deep-sea biodiversity) has been mainly funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG) and BMBF.

Source: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/News_and_Information/Press_Releases/story.php?id=304

Image source: IMSI ClipArt