Blommersia angolafa, a newly described species of frog from Madagascar, has the unique habit of rearing its eggs and tadpoles in fallen leaf litter. More via the BBC:
After mating, female frogs lay clutches of 2-10 yellowish eggs within a brown jelly onto the insides of dead leaves of three different palm species.
The frogs lay their eggs a few millimetres above the surface of water pooling in the leaf, which then hatch into tadpoles.
During their surveys, the researchers found egg clutches, tadpoles, new metamorphosised froglets and adult males and females within the dead leaves, including males calling out for a mate.
More often than not, males were found alongside the eggs and tadpoles, suggesting that males may guard the eggs and offspring.
No B. angolafa frogs were found living among the crowns of the palm trees or anywhere outside the dead leaves on the forest floor.
Nor did any other frog species inhabit the dead leaves.
Four other frog species are known to reproduce in fallen dry plant matter: three species breed in the fruit capsules of the Brazil nut tree, while another breeds in tree holes, empty nuts and occasionally snail shells.
But B. angolafa is the first known to breed in fallen dead leaves.
A new species of frog, bright reddish-orange in color, has been discovered in a national park in southern India’s Western Ghats mountain range.
Named Raorchestes resplendens, the frogs are physically unlike any known member of the frog family. They are distinguishable not only by their bright-colored bodies but also their multiple glands and extremely short limbs.
This new species of frog is restricted to less than 3 square kilometers of the highest mountain peak of the Western Ghats, Anaimudi, in Eravikulam National Park. The team of scientists that discovered this species called for “immediate conservation” of the Raorchestes frogs.
More than a month has passed since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, operated by BP, blew up, spewing immeasurable quantities of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and frustrating all efforts to contain it. An inspector general’s report to be released this week said that federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil, and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports.
Video: Oil Washes Ashore on La. Island:
Video: Jeffrey Brown talks to Admiral Thad Allen of the U.S. Coast Guard for the latest on the spreading contamination and the government’s role in the response:
The figure of 5,000 barrels a day or 210,000 gallons that BP and the federal government have been using for weeks is based on satellite observations of the surface. But NASA’s best satellite-based instruments can’t see deep into the waters of the Gulf, where much of the oil from the gusher 5,000 feet below the surface seems to be floating.
Federal officials testified in hearings on Tuesday that they were putting together a crack team to get to the bottom of big the spill really is. That effort comes a month after the April 20 explosion that triggered the unprecedented oil spill in deep waters of the United States. Experts say knowing that amount is crucial for efforts to cap the broken wellhead and to monitor and clean up the oil.
Steve Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, earlier this month made simple calculations from a video BP released on May 12 and came up with a flow of 70,000 barrels a day, NPR reported last week. Werely on Wednesday told a House Commerce and Energy Committee subcommittee that his calculations of two leaks that show up on videos BP released on Tuesday showed 70,000 barrels from one leak and 25,000 from the other.
He said the calculation could be off by 20 percent — meaning the spill could range from between 76,000 to 104,000 barrels a day. But Wereley said he would need to see videos that were not compressed and showed the flow over a longer period so that it would be possible to get a better calculation of the mix of oil and gas from the wellhead.
The low-ball estimates by BP, and the failure of the U.S. government to determine official estimates could save BP millions in court. More via McClatchy.
Legal experts said that not having a credible official estimate of the leak’s size provides another benefit for BP: The amount of oil spilled is certain to be key evidence in the court battles that are likely to result from the disaster. The size of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, for example, was a significant factor that the jury considered when it assessed damages against Exxon.
“If they put off measuring, then it’s going to be a battle of dueling experts after the fact trying to extrapolate how much spilled after it has all sunk or has been carried away,” said Lloyd Benton Miller, one of the lead plaintiffs’ lawyers in the Exxon Valdez spill litigation. “The ability to measure how much oil was released will be impossible.”
“It’s always a bottom-line issue,” said Marilyn Heiman, a former Clinton administration Interior Department official who now heads the Arctic Program for the Pew Environment Group. “Any company wouldn’t have an interest in having this kind of measurement if they can help it.”
The size of the spill has become a high stakes political controversy that’s put the Obama administration and the oil company on the defensive. In congressional testimony Wednesday, an engineering professor from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., said that based on videos released Tuesday he estimated that the well was spewing at 95,000 barrels of oil, or 4 million gallons a day into the gulf.
The BP oil spill is unprecedented. The image below reminds me of looking down at a puddle with a huge oil sheen in the middle of it. Instead, the Gulf of Mexico is the puddle, and the oil sheen is the result of poor federal government oversight of natural resources. The situation is extremely disheartening.
The BP oil spill illustrates how humanity can impact the environment on a large scale. If the environment is negatively impacted, then our well-being is negatively impacted. As a result, in order to preserve a future environment that bears fruit or resources (or a healthy economy) for our children to use (or capitalize from), it’s in everyone’s best interest to be an environmentalist.
Furthermore, it’s easy to visualize the BP oil spill and become disgusted by the impacts that are easily observed. However, some anthropogenic activities aren’t readily observable. For example, the anthropogenic release of trapped carbon into the atmosphere and the subsequent changes to the climate are too abstract for some individuals to grasp. Also, all the oil leaking from our automobiles every second into the environment on an aggregate scale impacts the environment negatively—just like the BP oil spill. Therefore, we must be cognizant on how our everyday activities might impact our human environment and make changes accordingly. The federal government has a responsibility to drive these changes too.
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