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Australian Dung Beetle Project
The Australian Dung Beetle Project (1965–1985), conceived and led by Dr George Bornemissza of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), was an international scientific research and biological control project with the primary goal to control the polluting effects of cattle dung. Background and inception Upon his arrival to Australia from Hungary in 1951, Dr Bornemissza, an entomologist and ecologist, noted that Australian farmland was covered in a large number of cattle dung pads. This was in contrast to the fields of Europe where the dung was removed and recycled back into the soil by various species of dung beetle (coprids). Native Australian species of beetle had co-evolved alongside marsupials such as the kangaroo and wombat, which produce small, hard, dry and fibrous pellets of dung. Cattle were relatively recently introduced to Australia by European settlers in the 1880s and produce large, soft, moist dung pads. Native beetles, with a few ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bornemissza
George Francis Bornemissza (born György Ferenc Bornemissza; 11 February 1924 – 10 April 2014) was a Hungarian-born entomologist and ecologist. He studied science at the University of Budapest before obtaining his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria in 1950. At the end of that year, he emigrated to Australia. There he first worked in the Department of Zoology at the University of Western Australia for 3 years, before pursuing a career with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Bornemissza was known for his work on the Australian Dung Beetle Project (1965–1985) while working at CSIRO's Division of Entomology. He wrote scientific papers and books based on his research and contributed a collection of mounted beetle specimens to the Australian National Insect Collection and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. In 2001 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to Australian entomology. Ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania. South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, with unique biomes, plant and animal life. With over 60 million people, the country is the world's 24th-most populous nation and covers an area of . South Africa has three capital cities, with the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town respectively. The largest city is Johannesburg. About 80% of the population are Black S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasite
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes. There are six major parasitic strategies of exploitation of animal hosts, namely parasitic castration, directly transmitted parasitism (by contact), trophicallytransmitted parasitism (by being eaten), vector-transmitted parasitism, parasitoidism, and micropredation. One major axis of classification concerns invasiveness: an endoparasite lives inside the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.Sayre, April Pulley (1999), ''Africa'', Twenty-First Century Books. . With billion people as of , it accounts for about of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, tribalism, Scramble for Africa, colonialism, the Cold War, neocolonialism, lack of democracy, and corruption. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quarantine
A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been exposed to a communicable disease, yet do not have a confirmed medical diagnosis. It is distinct from medical isolation, in which those confirmed to be infected with a communicable disease are isolated from the healthy population. Quarantine considerations are often one aspect of border control. The concept of quarantine has been known since biblical times, and is known to have been practised through history in various places. Notable quarantines in modern history include the village of Eyam in 1665 during the bubonic plague outbreak in England; East Samoa during the 1918 flu pandemic; the Diphtheria outbreak during the 1925 serum run to Nome, the 1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak, the SARS pandemic, the Ebola pandemic and extensive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountains. It has a reputation as an academic city and center of research, being home to the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), the University of Pretoria (UP), the University of South Africa (UNISA), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Human Sciences Research Council. It also hosts the National Research Foundation and the South African Bureau of Standards. Pretoria was one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Pretoria is the central part of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality which was formed by the amalgamation of several former local authorities, including Bronkhorstspruit, Centurion, Cullinan, Hammanskraal and Soshanguve. Some have proposed ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buffalo Fly
''Haematobia exigua'', its common name being buffalo fly, is a fly of the family Muscidae. The species is vastly present in Australia, inhabiting Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. It is widely considered a pest, and continues to cause much damage to livestock; as they are of the genus Haematobia, buffalo flies must feed off the blood of mammals to survive, cutting through the skin with two separate mouthparts. In 1928-1930, Australian entomologists Ian Murray Mackerras and Mabel Josephine Mackerras Mabel Josephine (Jo) Mackerras (née Bancroft) (7 August 1896 – 8 October 1971) was an Australian zoologist, entomologist and parasitologist. Her research and life's work contributed to entomology, veterinary medicine and medical science. T ... did substantial research into buffalo fly, increasing knowledge into methods of their control. Josephine Mackerras' research on blowfly infestation led to many papers being published, both alone and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bush Fly
''Musca vetustissima'', commonly known as the Australian bush fly, is a species of fly found in Australia. It is the specific fly that has given rise to the expression "Aussie salute". Description The Australian bush fly is a dung fly that is closely related to the bazaar fly (''M. sorbens''). The adults are attracted to large mammals for fluid for nourishment and feces for oviposition. A study showed that there is a low survival rate for eggs and larvae of this species in cattle feces because of infrequent rainfall. The study also showed that parasites and predators have caused a low survival rate. According to a study, the Australian bush fly can spread harmful bacteria. The Australian bush fly can also spread the pathogens ''Salmonella'' and ''Shigella''. Most of the bacterial populations per fly occurred in a farm environment, while an urban environment was the lowest. A standard composition that contains small amounts of trimethylamine and indole, blended with large ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horn Fly
''Haematobia irritans'', the horn fly, is a small fly (about half the size of a common housefly). It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. It is of the genus ''Haematobia'' which is the European genus of bloodsucking flies. ''Haematobia irritans'' is a native of Europe but has been introduced to North America and is considered a potentially dangerous livestock pest. Appearance ''H. irritans'' is the smallest of the biting muscids, gray in color, approximately in (4.0 mm) in length. Both the male and female have slender, black, piercing mouthparts which project forward from the bottom of the head. They often aggregate densely on cattle, each fly oriented with its head in the same direction as hair tips of that site on the host. Horn flies typically have eyes that are dark reddish brown. Egg laying, habitat and feeding The horn fly lays eggs in fresh cow manure, and the female is known to lay her eggs in the feces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state geographically located within the tropics. Hawaii comprises nearly the entire Hawaiian archipelago, 137 volcanic islands spanning that are physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania. The state's ocean coastline is consequently the fourth-longest in the U.S., at about . The eight main islands, from northwest to southeast, are Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lānai, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii—the last of these, after which the state is named, is often called the "Big Island" or "Hawaii Island" to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands make up most of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the United States' largest protected area ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events, the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants have an anthropogenic source – that is, a source created by human activities. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution. In 2015, pollution killed nine million people worldwide (one in six deaths). This remained unchanged in 2019, with little real progress against pollution being identifiable. Air pollution accounted for of these earlier deaths. Major forms of pollution include air pollution, light pollution, litter, noise pollution, plastic pollution, soil contamination, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Runoff
Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when the soil is saturated by water to its full capacity, and the rain arrives more quickly than the soil can absorb it. Surface runoff often occurs because impervious areas (such as roofs and pavement) do not allow water to soak into the ground. Furthermore, runoff can occur either through natural or man-made processes. Surface runoff is a major component of the water cycle. It is the primary agent of soil erosion by water. The land area producing runoff that drains to a common point is called a drainage basin. Runoff that occurs on the ground surface before reaching a channel can be a nonpoint source of pollution, as it can carry man-made contaminants or natural forms of pollution (such as rotting leaves). Man-made contaminants in run ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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