The Minimal Scientist

Science made simple with Peppermint the candy cane zebra. Environment, geography and more.

[theminimalscientist]

Amphibian diversity in the Waterfalls of Lubuklinggau City, South Sumatra

Waterfalls and other watery locations are more often than not, frequented by amphibians, which are an integral part of any ecosystem. The pa...

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The environment in the 2020 pandemic

We all know how devastating Covid-19 was to humans globally, it held nothing back, showing no discrimination. Whilst the most obvious impact...

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Protected areas are essential in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.

https://theminimalscientist.blogspot.com/2021/04/forest-loss-in-global-protected-areas.html

[theminimalscientist]

New blog post. Learn about clouds of a different kind https://theminimalscientist.blogspot.com/2021/02/pyrocumulonimbus-clouds.html

#theminimalscientist #environment #climatechange #climate #clouds #fire #peppermint #zebra

[theminimalscientist]

Look to the clouds, let them fill you with lightness and carry away your fears. Clouds in Pitman's shorthand.

[theminimalscientist]

Naive geography: the incorporation of people's knowledge about their surroundings into GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and cartography. In this term 'naive' means instinctive. It's used to assist in decision making.

[theminimalscientist]

Many organisms evolved to live in a niche. That is they have adapted to one or more specific characteristic of a habitat. This served them well as it meant there was more resources for them, such as food. However, climate change is changing many aspects of the planet and making many of these niche adaptations obsolete or work against the species they once served.

Sarker, S., Yadav, A.K., Akter, M., Hossain, M.S., Chowdhury, S.R., Kabir, M.A. and Sharifuzzaman, S.M., 2020. Rising temperature and marine plankton community dynamics: Is warming bad?. Ecological Complexity, 43, p.100857.

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Any change from the natural habitat will increase pressure on everything particularly natural resources such as water and soil fertility. Even careful management has an impact, it would just hopefully have a lower impapct

German, L.A., Hepinstall-Cymerman, J., Biggs, T., Parker, L. and Salinas, M., 2020. The environmental effects of sugarcane expansion: A case study of changes in land and water use in southern Africa. Applied Geography, 121, p.102240.

Also posted on my portfolio https://www.tumblr.com/blog/katietinkerportfolio

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Agricultural management plans have a habit of trying to exclude nature. Understandable when crops are ravaged by insects, but there are other ways. Working with nature rather than to exclude it are regularly found to positively influence crop productivity.

Rodríguez-San Pedro, A., Allendes, J.L., Beltrán, C.A., Chaperon, P.N., Saldarriaga-Córdoba, M.M., Silva, A.X. and Grez, A.A., 2020. Quantifying ecological and economic value of pest control services provided by bats in a vineyard landscape of central Chile. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 302, p.107063.

[theminimalscientist]

The depth of canyon's mean that once something, such as rubbish, enters them it won't leave until the canyon river enters the ocean. And when fresh and seawater mix this debris can be dragged into the deeper currents and further out to sea.

Pierdomenico, M., Casalbore, D. and Chiocci, F.L., 2020. The key role of canyons in funnelling litter to the deep sea: a study of the Gioia Canyon (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea). Anthropocene, p.100237.

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A one or two degree change in temperature may not feel like much in day to day life, but when you live in ice those degrees suddenly make a huge difference. We often forget bacteria when we think of #climatechange however, they are an integral part of the ecosystem.

Lim, P.P., Pearce, D.A., Convey, P., Lee, L.S., Chan, K.G. and Tan, G.Y.A., 2020. Effects of freeze-thaw cycles on High Arctic soil bacterial communities. Polar Science, 23, p.100487.

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Conservation image

By thinking with a one track mind or with a small vision the effectiveness of #conservation projects will be lower. Chuenpagdee, R., de la Cruz-Modino, R., Barragán-Paladines, M.J., Glikman, J.A., Fraga, J., Jentoft, S. and Pascual-Fernández, J.J., 2020. Governing from images: Marine protected areas as case illustrations. Journal for Nature Conservation, 53, p.125756.

[theminimalscientist]

As a #environmentalscientist I am privileged to have learnt about the ins and outs of our planet at one of the top UK universities. I worked hard to gain my BSc and MSc, but there are so many talented and curious minds out there who are not as well placed and no matter how hard they work or want to work/study they won't have that opportunity. We as a #environmentalscience community can sign petitions, speak out and most importantly include people of colour in our discussions and research pieces, whether as university members or as citizen scientists. Both communities provide enormous amounts of data and knowledge.

You may have seen a previous post talking about traditional knowledge, this paper focuses on orchid species loss in China, there are so many people of such varied background who cannot share this knowledge so it is being lost.

We need to open doors for them for we (white's) are on the side of the padlock and they cannot get through without us first removing this lock. Education should not be a way of ranking people it should be for all people everywhere. Western countries have begun the degradation of our planet, but it will take us all to fix it by bringing knowledge, passion and creativity together from all walks of life.

No matter the colour of your skin, how you identify or who you love, we are all human, different in so many amazing ways, but still human.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBIt96EB5bQ/?igshid=dw7lnk2jqqgp

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Precautionary principle

Our actions now can and do have significant impacts on the future. We should be mindful of what we do and live more by the precautionary principle.

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Benthic organisms

Benthic organisms (those that live on/in river or sea beds) are really important for aquatic ecosystems . Not only are they food, but they help clean both the floor and other larger organisms.

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Environmental forensics

Everything we do leaves a mark. #environmental #forensics is used to identify what happened on a plot of land including any chemical spill and who is the likely culprit.

[theminimalscientist]

Using technology to improve agriculture.

Birnie, R.V., Robertson, R.A. and Stove, G.C., 1982. Remote sensing for agricultural research and monitoring operations. Agriculture and Environment, 7(2), pp.121-134.