The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: A marine pollution problem that affects all of us

by Ignacio Martín-Fabiani*

*Department of Physics, University of Surrey, GU2 7 XH Guildford, United Kingdom. 

I am part of the Soft Matter Group, where we are particularly interested in all sorts of applications of soft materials. The project I am working on aims to develop new paints and coatings which are more environmentally friendly than the ones in the market. So I could say I am living proof that you can get a salary for watching paint dry! 

Until now, I have been preaching the benefits and wonders of polymers and plastics (find out why I think we live in a world of plastic spaghetti and  watching paint dry is fun). But today´s post is about their main disadvantage: the effect they have on the environment. Nowadays we use disposable plastic at all times: food trays, plastic cups, carrier bags, and wrapping film, are just a few examples. We are generating tons of plastic waste every day. However, a huge amount of these items are not disposed of properly (recycled) and they mostly end up in rivers and, eventually, in the sea.  And once they arrive there, their fate is determined by the sea surface currents, which moves them from one place to another.

Polluted Beach on the Red Sea in Sharm el-Naga, Port Safaga, Egypt.

Via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Biodiversity on Islands (III): Extinction / Biodiversidad en Islas (III): Extinción

by  Nuria Serrano Vinagre

This is the last post of the series about Biodiversity on Islands. After talking about Island characteristics and Island Biogeography, let’s turn to Extinction on islands.

Cíes, by Anxo Resúa on Flickr (some rights reserved)

The rate of extinction on islands is very high; for example the 93% of birds’ extinctions since XVII century were on islands. The high percent of extinctions is explained because of the fragility of the ecosystem. That’s present on:

·         Small populations

·         Unstable demography

·         Genetic problems

·         Extreme environmental conditions

Although there were cases of extinctions by natural causes, during the last 500 years the main responsible is the human, direct or indirectly.

Biodiversity on Islands (II): Island Biogeography

 by  Nuria Serrano Vinagre

In this post, we’re going on with the overview of Biodiversity on Islands. In a previous post, we talked about Island features. Now, let’s move on Island Biogeography to explain how species distribution on islands is.

II. Island Biogegraphy

We would like to summarize the main ideas of the theory of Dynamic Equilibrium on Islands by MacArthur and Wilson (1967).

The key concept is that island biogeography depends on island size and the distance to mainland by processes of extinction and immigration.

Biodiversity on Islands (I): Island ecosystems: characteristics

by  Nuria Serrano Vinagre

In this and next posts, we're going to give you a brief overview of Biodiversity on islands. First of all, a few questions:

Did you know most of the largest and smallest species on the world live on islands? For instance, Galápagos giant tortoise (Geochelone nigra), an example of gigantism, and Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax), an example of dwarfism (Extinct).

Of 592 species of birds, just Scottish Crossbill (Loxia scotica) is the only bird endemic species of United Kingdom (0’17%). However, Hawaii has got 322 species of birds, 53 of wich are endemic (16’2%), as for example 'I'iwi or Scarlet Hawaiian Honeycreeper (Vestiaria coccinea) or Hawaiian Goose or Nēnē (Branta sandvicensis). Why has Hawaii got a smaller number of species than United Kingdom but most of them are endemic?

Over the last 500 years, the majority of documented extinctions have been on islands, as opposed to mainlands, for instance for both terrestrial vertebrates and plants. Why most extinctions occur on islands?

In this review about Biodiversity on islands, we'll try to explain these and other facts. At first, we'll talk about special characteristics of this biodiversity. Then, we'll go on explaining the factors which determine the distribution of species on islands (Island biogeography). Finally, we'll analyze how extinction works on them.