Hi, All.
LW, I'm not into horse throwing, but I've decided to come in to bat - LOL! The name of the thread is "Inherent Viral Purpose" and I'm now wondering if humans have one...Soon, there may be no "food for thought..."
Albert Einstein quote: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
The chytrid fungus is now decimating the bat population of north-east America. It's noted that it is this fungus which has been taking it's toll on amphibian populations around the globe -
CLICK.
Chytrids are parasitic fungi of eucaryotic algae and blue-green algae. Scientists have pinpointed the fungus linked to white-nose syndrome, the mysterious ailment that has wiped out large populations of bats in the northeastern United States. The fungus, found on the wings, ears, and muzzles of infected bats, is a member of the Geomyces genus. "Many of these bats were malnourished, dehydrated, basically starving, [but] otherwise seem to look normal." Because bats typically have only one pup a year, they are in a poor position to recover from population plunges. "If this is transmissible, it could really wipe out the flying, nocturnal insectivores section of the ecosystem." Wikipedia – “The chytrids are the most primitive of the fungi and are mostly saprobic, which means the fungus eats chitin and keratin. Many chytrids are aquatic and found in fresh water. There are approximately 1,000 chytrid species, in 127 genera, distributed among five orders. The chytrid fungus, Batrachchytrium dendrobatidisis responsible for a recently discovered disease of amphibians known as chytridiomycosis. Discovered in 1998 in Australia and Panama, this disease is known to kill amphibians in large numbers, and might be the principal cause for the worldwide amphibian decline since the 1990s. However, the precise cause and process of the amphibian deaths is still unknown. ...But it’s basically evolution by natural selection is what is responsible for infectious diseases. Evolution? Only, now, it's the rocket-assisted variety... These bats ate millions of tons of insects each year and now these bats aren’t going to be out on the landscape controlling insect populations. Instead of the white-nose fungus affecting only bats, the fungus is really affecting the whole ecosystem in the Northeast and it will just continue to get worse and worse as this progresses.” Some bats migrate to warmer climates during the winter, while others hibernate. One species travels 2,400 miles (3,862.4 kilometers) each year! Insects— About 70 percent of all bats eat insects: flies, mosquitoes, beetles, and cockroaches. A colony of bats in Texas eats 500,000 pounds (226,796 kilograms) of mosquitoes nightly!
This chitin-/keratin-loving fungus is a necessary digestive aid in the diet of herbivores, but may now be failing to reach its target via its natural, and beneficial, delivery system. A quick check of the food chain evidences the relatively recent introduction of genetically modified, fungal-resistant crops. Enhancement of the ability of these flora to resist fungal and insect attack may have destroyed the previously symbiotic (host/parasite) relationship with the result that a beneficial, natural link has been broken. Instead, the insect population (which just happen to be the main food source for both the frog and many bat populations) now appear to have become a "viral carrier" to higher levels of the food chain, with deleterious effects. In addition, further damage is occurring:
bees are likely being taken out by the adverse consequences of genetically modified pollen on their food-supply, while the cross-pollination effect is also killing the Monarch butterfly
caterpillars.
Beneficial insects are being disastrously affected. The natural inverterate predators, such and amphibians and bats, are also being wiped out. The result: no bees or bats = drastic reduction in crop pollination (although nowhere near as effective, there's always the wind, of course) resulting in an explosion of the remaining insect populations and the decimation of not only crops, but natural flora...oh, and let's not forget the increase in the incidence of insect-borne diseases.
While this could well be jumping to conclusions, no matter what the cause, the
horse has bolted...in the short-term, exponentially dire consequences await the higher trophic levels...
Some sources for anyone who's interested:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com.au/news/2008/10/081031-bat-fungus.html http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/211/12/v http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-bat.html http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e33/9.htm http://bugs.bio.usyd.edu.au/Mycology/Taxonomy/chytridiomycota.shtml http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070529-frog-fungus.html