Two Islands One paradise - Beautiful St. Kitts and Nevis

   
  buckleysboyz.info
  Nature and Environment
 

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. Manufactured objects and human interaction are not considered part of nature unless qualified in ways such as "human nature" or "the whole of nature". Nature is generally distinguished from the supernatural. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the galactic.
   The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or "the course of things, natural character." Natura was a Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals, and other features of the world develop of their own accord.This is shown in the first written use of the word φύσις, in connection with a plant. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socratic philosophers, and has steadily gained currency ever since. This usage was confirmed during the advent of modern scientific method in the last several centuries.
   Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" may refer to the general realm of various types of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects – the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth, and the matter and energy of which all these things are composed. It is often taken to mean the "natural environment" or wilderness – wild animals, rocks, forest, beaches, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. This more traditional concept of natural things which can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the artificial, with the latter being understood as that which has been brought into being by a human or human-like consciousness or mind.

 

     Environment may refer to:

·        Environment (biophysical), the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism

·        Natural environment, all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth

·        Built environment, constructed surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging from the large-scale civic surroundings to the personal places

·        Social environment, the culture that an individual lives in, and the people and institutions with whom they interact 

·        Environmental science, the study of the interactions among the physical, chemical and biological components of the environment

·        Environmental psychology

·        Environmental determinism

·        Environmental policy

·        Environmental quality

Environmental art

Science

Natural sciences
Physical sciences Chemical sciences Biological sciences Cognitive sciences
Behavioural sciences
Neural-(Decision sciences) Social-(Communication sciences)
Psychology including Social Psychology Cognitive organization Theory and Consumer Psychology Anthropology Organizational behaviour
Psychobiology Management science and Operations research Organization studies & Psycho-Economics Social networks
Social neuroscience Ethology Memetics Organizational ecology
Social sciences
Sociology Economics Political science Economic sociology

 Green Sea Turtle 
 http://www.nature.org/animals/reptiles/animals/greenturtle.html
Green Turtle
The green turtle ranges worldwide where sea temperature does not dip below 68 F and can be found in the coastal waters of at least 140 countries. Supplementing its diet of sea grasses and seaweeds with jellyfish and crustaceans, the green turtle is the only sea turtle to consume large quantities of plants. It is also the slowest turtle to mature, presumably because its diet is low in protein. Female green turtles mature at between 26 and 40 years of age, depending on available food sources, and can live for more than 50 years.
   Because of the distance between ideal underwater pastures and breeding beaches, green turtles often migrate hundreds of miles to mate and nest. Every 2 to 3 years, females return to the beach where they were hatched to lay a clutch of approximately 100 eggs, which incubate for 2 to 3 months. Upon hatching, the young turtles dash to the sea, where many of them fall victim to predators on both land and sea.
   Once a key ingredient in one of Winston Churchill’s favorite soups, London Alderman’s Soup, the culinary popularity of the green turtle has been somewhat diminished since it became internationally recognized as an endangered species. However, despite protections, it continues to be hunted for its distinctive green fat and muscle, used in soups and steaks, and its eggs. Egg collection still occurs at more than 40 percent of breeding beaches, and intentional hunting affects almost 50 percent of populations.

Hawksbill Sea Turtle 
http://www.nature.org/animals/reptiles/animals/hawksbill.html

The source of many of our great-grandmothers’ tortoiseshell combs and hair pieces, the hawksbill turtle can be found in tropical and subtropical coastal waters across the globe. Found in the waters of 82 nations, the largest populations center in the Caribbean Sea, the Seychelles, Indonesia and Australia. Individuals often migrate hundreds of miles to nest at the beaches where they were born.
   Hawksbill females are exceptionally fast nesters, able to complete a nest of about 130 eggs in 60 to 90 minutes. Temperature is essential in sex determination. A nest of 86.5 degrees F or greater for instance will produce only females. Those hatchlings that evade predation and human harvesting typically spend 1-3 years at sea before moving closer to shore, along reefs and bays. Although hawksbills are omnivores, as they age their diet increasingly relies on sponges, which makes their meat poisonous [to humans]. This dietary preference performs the important ecological function of preventing sponges from crowding out other species on coral reefs.
   Unfortunately, those tortoiseshell heirlooms came at a steep price. Today’s population of hawksbills turtles is less than 10 percent of what is was a century ago, which in turn was a mere fraction of previous levels. The main factor in the turtle’s brush with extinction was human hunting and egg harvesting. Indonesia alone exported more than 700,000 specimens as tortoiseshell and stuffed curios between 1970 and 1986. After being labeled as Critically Endangered by the World Conservation Union, the species’ prospects have brightened. An international trade ban on tortoiseshell has slowed hunting, and ecotourism makes the animals more economically valuable in the sea than on the bathroom counter.

 


Leatherback Sea Turtle
http://www.nature.org/animals/reptiles/animals/leatherback.html 
Leatherback Turtle - Dermochelys coriacea
The leatherback is something of the sea turtle par excellence, the fastest swimming and largest turtle on earth, laying the largest and heaviest clutches of eggs, migrating the greatest distances, and the fastest growing of all reptiles, among various and sundry other superlatives.  An adult can weigh as much as 1,300 pounds and dive as deep as a whale, around 4,000 feet.  It is among the widest ranging vertebrates in the world, found as far north as Newfoundland and Norway, as far south as New Zealand, Argentina, and the tip of South Africa.
   Its most distinctive features are its lack of scales, claws and horny shell. Unlike other sea turtles, the leatherback’s shell resembles hard rubber, which is advantageous in deep dives because it compresses, rather than shattering. Unsuited for much prey with its weak, scissor-like jaws, the turtle feeds primarily on jellyfish, which it stores and wrings of water in its extremely long esophagus. This diet fuels amazingly fast growth, 7 to 13 years to adult size.                                        
Leading sea turtles in otherleatherback turtle at water's surface categories, it is sadly unsurprising that this sea turtle is also near the forefront in the race to extinction. The IUCN lists the leatherback as Critically Endangered, the Pacific and Indian Ocean populations in particular danger. The main threats facing the species are beach erosion and development, egg harvesting and accidental entanglement in fishing equipment

Did You Know?

· The largest leatherback on record (a male) stranded on the coast of Wales in 1988 and weighed almost 2020 lbs (916 kg).

· Leatherbacks can dive deeper than 3900 ft (1200 m)!

 
  Today, there have been 110 visitors (387 hits) on this page!  
 
Intelligence plus character - that is goal of true education - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
This website was created for free with Own-Free-Website.com. Would you also like to have your own website?
Sign up for free