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New volcano island natural lab for life

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spiders are also first to make it to new land masses. that spells nope.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Should be educational to record any accumulation of floating garbage and rubbish on these pristine shores.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"Biologists will be able to observe the starting poing of colonization, yes, but "evolution"? How?"

It makes sense to me, you can't really see evolution happening but by studying how a new environment is created you can see its starting point. Organism colonizing the island will have different selection pressures than those on already mature habitats and that will select for different traits. It may not bring phenotypic changes in the researcher's lifetimes (nor in their grandchildren's) but when they appear scientists will have a detailed description of the conditions that originated them.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

"“We biologists are very much focusing on the new island because we’ll be able to observe the starting point of evolutionary processes,”"

That is kind of a strange statement. Biologists will be able to observe the starting poing of colonization, yes, but "evolution"? How? That is a completely different time frame. A mistranslation perhaps?

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

A very strange sentence. I'm always willing to learn something new. Please explain this.

Jimizo: The point I was making is that the global warming group keeps saying that it is man who is changing the pattern of the weather and how the earth works. While I will admit that man does at times pollute the earth and we need to be better stewards in regards to making sure that we are not killing off various plants and animals, the earth will continue to be here in some form, whether we kill each other off.

I would like to see the long term effects on how this island will affect the ocean currents in the area, and will that have an impact in the long run on how the ocean temperatures vary in that location, and will that kill off or enhance marine species as well as the flora and fauna that will eventually develop on the island.

Despite all of the mess that we do to the earth, it still is able to keep on making new lands, and we are finding new species and about more about the ones we know of.

That's what I meant.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

china will claim it has belinged to them for the last 300 years and produce maps to show it.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Will form a new Prefecture? Or will be part of a existing Perfecture. Some lawyers will make money out of it!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

'Funny thing, even with all of the so called global warming, the earth managed to make something new.'

A very strange sentence. I'm always willing to learn something new. Please explain this.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Could also be a good experiment to see how long it takes before China claims this as their own territory?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just what the doctor ordered... a brand new island offering a "warm" reception to the US base presently on Okinawa... ;-)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I hope that the big money tourist industry doesn't try to start booking tours to this place, and let nature take it's natural course. If anything, you will see the so called "green" people who argue for sustainable measures will be the first ones in line to try to develop an "eco" tour of this place to show us how things should be if only we paid our carbon tax.

Funny thing, even with all of the so called global warming, the earth managed to make something new.

Good luck to the researchers and I hope that their work will provide valuable insight on how we came to be on this planet.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

helped by rotting bird poo and hatchling vomit.

A better term for bird poo is guano, and hatchling vomit is regurgitation.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Surely the island would be equally interesting as a study in how bureaucrats and construction companies can find bogus reasons to shore up the coastline with tetrapods and concrete walls.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

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