Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (MBI) a leading provider of natural pest management products for water and agriculture applications, announced that Zequanox was highly effective at controlling invasive zebra mussels in Deep Quarry Lake located in DuPage County, Illinois.
Zequanox, the industry’s only environmentally compatible molluscicide, was applied within barrier systems in three locations throughout the lake. Results showed that treated sites experienced an average mussel mortality of 97.1 percent compared with 11.2 percent mortality in the control (i.e., untreated) sites.
photo: TPWD
In the study, funded in part through a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, three sets of paired treatment and control sites were set up within the lake to evaluate the effectiveness of Zequanox. Zequanox was so effective at controlling the invasive mussels that the study concluded after just one month. The study also showed that the application of Zequanox had no impact on water quality and no adult or juvenile fish mortality was observed 24 hours after product application.
S. Texas is Top Ocelot Stronghold
The rare ocelot was thought to have vanished from Texas when biologist Mike Tewes first began to search for the elusive cat 30 years ago.
Photo: TPWD
Dr. Mike Tewes, Regents Professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, said, "When I started the project there were several biologists, wildlife biologists, that told me they didn’t exist in Texas, and a few said if they do exist they are very rare and you will never catch one, so I was pretty apprehensive at the beginning of the research, and that is why I was really elated when I caught the first one."
Biologists estimate no more than 80 ocelots remain in the United States, all in deep South Texas, but thanks to Mike Tewes discovery of their existence three decades ago efforts are being made to save the critical habitat required for their survival.
---Valley Central.com
Fish Poop Underrated as a Nutrition Source
Fishes play a far more important role as contributors of nutrients to marine ecosystems than previously thought, according to researchers at the University of Georgia and Florida International University.
In a pair of papers in the journal Ecology, the research shows that fish contribute more nutrients to their local ecosystems than any other source-enough to cause changes in the growth rates of the organisms at the base of the food web.
Jacob Allgeier, a doctoral student in the UGA Odum School of Ecology, and Craig Layman, associate professor at Florida International University, led the study, which took place in the waters of a large bay on Abaco Island, Bahamas.
Most tropical coastal ecosystems are nutrient limited, meaning that the system’s primary food sources such as algae and sea grasses need to have enough nitrogen and phosphorus-in the right proportions-to grow and thrive.
Fish excrement plays a vital nutritional role in fertilizing sea grass and other aquatic vegetation. photo: Univ. of Georgia
"We’ve been thinking about the role of fish and the nutrients they’re excreting in these ecosystems for a while now," Allgeier said. In marine food webs, fish are usually thought of as predators, he explained, consuming microorganisms, plants and smaller animals. But fish have another important, although often overlooked, role in the system. Through excretion, they recycle the nutrients they take in, providing the fertilizer sea grass and algae need to grow. Current Issue Table of Contents
