KZYX The Ecology Hour

We talk with Dr. Marc Epstein, Senior Insect Biosystematist at the California Department of Food and Agriculture for Lepidoptera, about moths and their taxonomy. Dr. Epstein has worked for the last twenty two years at the Plant Pest Diagnostics Center in South Sacramento and is also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. While identifying Lepidoptera of potential threat to agriculture, he researches their evolution and classification with an emphasis on the moth family Limacodidae, and the history of entomologists who were his predecessors. He is author of “Moths, Myths, and Mosquitoes: The Eccentric Life of Harrison G. Dyar, Jr.”, published in 2016 by Oxford University Press.

Mountain Lions are a frequent topic of conversation in Mendocino County, and there is often concern about them preying on livestock or pets. We talk with Dr. Quinton Martins, principal investigator for the Living with Lions project, a partnership between Audubon Canyon Ranch and True Wild. Dr. Martins explains why Mountain Lions are so secretive, why they hide their food (and even their scat!), and how to prevent them from preying on livestock.

Eleven years ago, a mysterious disease killed most of the adult starfish off California and Oregon. The most severely affected, Sunflower Seastar, was the main predator limiting the spread of Purple Urchins. The sudden disappearance of a key predator triggered a "trophic cascade" that led to an ongoing ecological crisis, including the collapse of the kelp forests. After a decade of painstaking research, the pathogen responsible for Seastar Wasting Disease has finally been identified.

Just when you think you've got life all figured out... scientists find something that redefines the whole concept. Ecology Hour hosts Bob Spies and Tim Bray talk with Dr. Karen Lloyd, Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California, about her research into alien life forms right here on Earth - what she calls "Intraterrestrials" in her new book. Some of these organisms challenge our basic understanding of life: their metabolic processes function so slowly that individuals may live for hundreds of thousands of years. Some of them can breathe Arsenic; others eat methane and produce formaldehyde. Their discovery has created a new and wild frontier in scientific research, and Dr. Lloyd is in the vanguard.

We hear a lot about the immediate effects of a major oil spill, but what happens later? Our guest Dr. Jeffrey Short is a biochemist who has investigated ecosystem effects of major spills. Working with our host Dr. Robert Spies after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, he discovered that large quantities of oil persisted in the subsurface long after the spill - a finding that was quite controversial at the time. More recently he came out of retirement to work on assessing the damage from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, where he showed that the official estimates of bird mortality were at least an order of magnitude too low. That mortality in turn caused a dramatic population increase in Menhaden, the key link in the Gulf of Mexico food chain and the second-largest commercial fishery in the US. The population explosion has led to malnourishment and greatly decreased the economic value of the fishery, as well as its ecosystem function.

Robert Jamgochian and Doug Nunn talk about the SONAR program (School of Natural Resources) they created and ran at Mendocino High School for several years. Students learned how to follow scientific protocols, collect field data, analyze it and write up their findings in scientific reports. Many have gone on to pursue education and careers in environmental law, engineering, or biology. Some were active in getting the Big River estuary included as a Marine Protected Area.

In the last few weeks, many sick and dying California Sea Lions began showing up on central California beaches, even hauling out at Pier 39 in San Francisco. They were victims of Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning, aka Domoic Acid Toxicosis. What is domoic acid, where does it come from, and why is it affecting so many marine mammals? For answers we turn to Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Director of Pathology at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. He is at the front lines in the response to this outbreak, in addition to many other novel diseases affecting marine mammals, and explains what is happening and why.

Birds invest considerable effort in the reproductive processes and have evolved myriad ways to improve their chances of success. The entire process of mating, nest-building, brooding, and rearing young consumes enormous amounts of energy, often leaving the parent birds nearly worn-out by the time their young reach independence. It is perhaps no wonder, then, that a few birds have developed a way to avoid most of that expense by getting other birds to do most of the work. Brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, which then hatch and rear them unwittingly.The most widespread and abundant brood parasite in North America is the Brown-headed Cowbird. Dr. Mark Hauber studies Cowbirds and other brood parasites around the world, focusing on questions of recognition, social function, and the complex interactions between the parasites and their victims. He is a Professor at the University of Illinois in the Department of Animal Biology, School of Integrative Biology, where he runs the “Cowbird Lab” and conducts some fascinating research. He is also Harley Jones Van Cleave Professor of Host-Parasite Interactions in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior. Dr Hauber addressed the central question of recognition: How does a Cowbird chick, raised entirely by another species, know it is a Cowbird?

Join us for a follow up on a past episode on residential decarbonization., with some state forest news starting the hour:Segment 1: Richard Gienger on the Board of Forestry:www.savejackson.orgwww.pomolandback.comwww.mendocinotrailstewards.orgTo send comments to the Board of Forestry:Publiccomments.@bof.co.govSegment 2: Sonoma Clean Power Resources for improved home efficiency:https://sonomacleanpower.org/programs/diy-toolkithttps://scpadvancedenergycenter.org/https://switchison.org/Evan Mills’ resource sheet here and his full, updated report, Kermit Was Right.A net zero community in Vermont here.Segment 3: Matt Simmons on Wind Power and the Grid in Humboldt:~The Environmental Protection Information Center Blog

Gray Whales have recently been spotted off Mendocino. On The Ecology Hour this week, we replay a great discussion from June 2022 with Dr. James Harvey of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, who gave us a great overview of their lives and their fantastic migrations.

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