Jersey site that was last Neanderthal home is studied

An ice age site said to be one of the last known places Neanderthals lived is being studied to assess storm damage.

La Cotte in St Brelade, Jersey, was hit by south-westerly storms including winds of up to 100mph in February.

A British archaeological team commissioned by the Societe Jersiaise will examine the storm damage.

Dr Matt Pope, from the Institute of Archaeology, UCL, said it needed to consider the best solution for long-term preservation.

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Effort saves thousands of bees after storm downs tree housing hive

When the box elder tree fell on Dave Miller’s property west of Denmark in the town of Glenmore during Wednesday’s storm, a massive honey beehive in the trunk was uncovered.

Thousands of bees, honeycomb filled with honey, and brood (larvae and pupae) were exposed. Knowing the importance of bees and the fact that bees have been dying at an alarming rate, he hoped that they could be saved.

After making a few phone calls, four people from the Manitowoc County Beekeepers Association, (Gary Sydow, David Estes, Jane Michalek, and Richard Miller), arrived and began the process of removing the 60,000-plus bees from the tree.

Gary Sydow, the leader of the group, brought along his bee collecting system. Using an old Kirby vacuum cleaner, five-gallon buckets, duct tape and hoses, the bees were removed.

The bees were drawn through the hose into the five-gallon buckets, separated by a screen. The screen stopped the bees from going into the vacuum cleaner. The amount of suction was controlled by the two red vents on the bucket. Too much suction would hurt the bees. Not enough suction and the bees would not be drawn up into the buckets.

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50% of coral has disappeared from The Great Barrier Reef in the last 27 years

Controlling crown of thorns starfish outbreaks will help save the reef
October 2012. The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral cover in the last 27 years. The loss was due to storm damage (48%), crown of thorns starfish (42%), and bleaching (10%) according to a new study published by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville and the University of Wollongong.

Stop the starfish
"We can't stop the storms but perhaps we can stop the starfish. If we can, then the Reef will have more opportunity to adapt to the challenges of rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification", says John Gunn, CEO of AIMS.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/GBR-starfish.html

Storms turn Port Phillip Bay into marine graveyard

A LIVE and lethal tiger snake and floundering freshwater turtles have joined dead penguins, a wallaby and fish washed up on Melbourne's beaches after Victoria's storms.

Summer deluges have been blamed for killing many forms of marine life as well as flushing land-based animals into Port Phillip Bay.

A live tiger snake was plucked from the sand at Williamstown beach, dead penguins have washed up at Altona and Port Melbourne while dead fish are floating off Elwood.

At Sandridge beach, which is closest to the mouth of the Yarra River and has been closed since Christmas, lifesavers have been collecting rubbish.

As well as contaminating and killing animals in and around waterways, the deluges have caused beaches to be closed and summer sporting and recreational events to be scuttled.

SuperSprint Gatorade Triathlon Series organisers said it had been a "major disappointment" they were forced to cancel the swimming leg of their competitions at St Kilda in November and again in December after EPA reports ruled the quality of the water unsafe to swim in.

"It was ridiculously disappointing for 2000 participants at both events who had to complete a running leg instead because of the quality of the water," said event marketing manager, Pierre Meneaud.

Ironically, the Dolphin Research Institute has again had to cancel its "i sea, i care" campaign, its biggest program of the year that highlights the bay's health.

Director Jeff Weir said the type of pollution pouring into the bay - silt, sediment, toxins, and household and garden chemicals - threatened its future.

"The bay is a living breathing biological filter and all the different invertebrates living on the seabed plus the seagrasses are helping keep it clean," Mr Weir said.

"But silt and sediment and toxins and debris are all smothering that natural filtering system."

Contaminated rivers and creeks pouring into the bay along with the run-off from hundreds of storm water drains should be a wake-up call to Victorians about the vulnerable state of the jewel in Victoria's crown, he said.

The EPA beach report on 36 bay sites yesterday listed 22 as poor and not suitable for swimming and 14 as fair. Not one was good.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/summer-deluges-leave-port-phillip-bay-filthy/story-e6frfq80-1226239587847#ixzz1j3nXh0kD

'Worst ever' storm damage at Edinburgh botanic garden

By Huw WilliamsBBC Scotland reporter

The Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh has been counting the cost of this week's severe weather.

Hundreds of panels have been smashed in glass houses.

The garden is repairing them as quickly as possible, but it will take much longer to replace more than 40 trees blown over in the storms.

They include some specimens which were hundreds of years old, and others which were important in the history of the collection.

They include a Chinese Tree of Heaven which was collected at the beginning of the 20th Century by the pioneering plant hunter Joseph Rock.

Dr Ian Edwards from the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh (RBGE) told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "it's very sad to see some of my personal favourites, everybody's favourite trees, that have been damaged."

He said the damage was the worst he could remember in almost 30 years of working at the garden.

And if trees are important to humans, they are even more vital to wildlife.

Dr Edwards demonstrated that with a huge native oak which had stood more than 15m (45ft) tall, but had been felled by the winds.

"It's a lovely big specimen tree. Or it was. It's now lying sadly on its side," he said.

"But even though this is a big tree the roots don't go down very deep. They actually only go down about two metres (6ft) into the ground.

Read more:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-16427921