General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - January 2022

Jan 2022

Feb 02, 2022

Alien Hammerhead Flatworm Named after Pandemic

Scientists have discovered an alien hammerhead flatworm species that looks a bit like a miniature king cobra, or perhaps an itty-bitty snake with a moustache. The researchers found the tiny creatures hunting snails in France and Italy, and they've named the invaders after the COVID-19 pandemic.
These new hammerhead flatworms are among two newly described species found in countries that researchers believe are not part of their native range so they were very likely introduced there by humans.
Scientists dubbed the first soil-dwelling predator species Humbertium covidum, with covidum being a reference to COVID-19 as an "homage to the numerous casualties" of the pandemic and because much of the 55-page study was written during lockdowns.

Feb 01, 2022

India's First Geo Park to Come Up In Madhya Pradesh

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) approved the setting up of the country's first geo park at Lamheta village on the banks of the Narmada River in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
The estimated cost of this project is Rs. 35 crore and there is a provision to sanction additional funds if required, as the area around the upcoming geo park will be developed.
A geopark is a unified area that advances the protection and use of geological heritage in a sustainable way and promotes the economic well-being of the people who live there.
This site is already there in the UNESCO geo-heritage tentative list for the conservation of the natural heritage. Several dinosaur fossils had been found in the Narmada valley, particularly in the Bhedaghat-Lameta Ghat area of Jabalpur.

Jan 31, 2022

NASA Ocean Melting Greenland Mission

The ocean waters are melting the glaciers in Greenland as much as the warm air is melting them from the above. The Ocean Melting Greenland mission, generally referred to as OMG mission was launched by NASA. It was a five year mission. It ended on December 31, 2021. The mission mainly measured the ice loss in Greenland.
As per the study, if all the Greenland ice melts, then the global ocean level will increase by 7.4 metres.
The ice in Greenland is melting five times faster than they were 25 years ago.
There are more than 220 glaciers in Greenland. The ocean waters are melting them at faster rate.
The mission conducted a complete survey of the sea floor in the coasts of Greenland. It measured the ocean temperature year to year, place to place and top to bottom.
A complete map of the ocean was created. The mission measured the salinity of the water at different depths.
It also studied how the salty Atlantic water impacted the ice melting in Greenland.

Jan 30, 2022

Australia's New Plan to Protect Great Barrier Reef

Australia launched a new plan to protect the climate-ravaged Great Barrier Reef.
Government launched a USD 700 million package for protecting the Great Barrier Reef, in a hope of preventing vast network of corals from being removed from World Heritage list of UNESCOS'.
The Plan will help in avoid the reef from being placed on UNESCO's "in danger" list.
When the United Nations had earlier threatened to downgrade World Heritage listing of reef in 2015, Australia had created a "Reef 2050" plan and invested billions of dollars into protection. The measures are believed to have stopped the pace of decline. however, much of reef system has already been damaged.

Jan 28, 2022

Kerala Gets its First-ever Scientific Bird Atlas

Kerala Bird Atlas (KBA), the first-of-its-kind State-level bird atlas in India, has created solid baseline data about the distribution and abundance of bird species across all major habitats, giving an impetus to futuristic studies. It is being conducted as a citizen science-driven exercise with the participation of over 1,000 volunteers of the birdwatching community KBA has been prepared based on systematic surveys held twice over 60 days a year.
Conducted as a citizen science-driven exercise with the participation of over 1000 volunteers of the bird watching community, KBA was prepared based on systematic surveys held twice over 60 days a year during the wet (July to September) and dry (January to March) seasons between 2015 and 2020.

New Lizard Species Discovered in Arunachal Pradesh

A team of researchers from India and Russia unearthed an unknown group of lizards of the family of skinks from Arunachal Pradesh. The team comprised researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore (NCBS), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai (BNHS), Abasaheb Garware College, Pune (AGC) and Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat (VNSGU) and Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow (LMSU).
The new genus and species, Protoblepharus Apatani, was discovered by the team who earlier discovered the Salazar pit viper and several other new species of snakes and lizards from the state, which were found during their expedition in 2019.

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