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Leaflet Let’s go on a nature walk...
El Niño
El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (commonly called ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific, including off the Pacific coast of South America. El Niño Southern Oscillation refers to the cycle of warm and cold temperatures, as measured by sea surfac temperature, SST, of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Health and Social Effects Effects Extreme weather conditions related to the El Niño cycle correlate with changes in the incidence of epidemic diseases. For example, the El Niño cycle is associated with increased risks of some of the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, such as malaria, dengue, and Rift Valley fever[citation needed].
ENSO may be linked to civil conflicts. Scientists at The Earth Institute of Columbia University, having analyzed data from 1950 to 2004, suggest ENSO may have had a role in 21% of all civil conflicts since 1950, with the risk of annual civil conflict doubling from 3% to 6% in countries affected by ENSO during El Niño years relative to La Niña years.
El Nino affects the global climate and disrupts normal weather patterns, which as a result can lead to intense storms in some places and droughts in others. It is thought that there are several different types of El Niño events, with the canonical eastern Pacific and the Modoki central Pacific types being the two that receive the most attention.
Taxonomy and Evolution Lifecycle The oldest known mosquito with an anatomy similar to modern species was found in 79-million-year-old Canadian amber from the Cretaceous. Two mosquito fossils have been found that show very little morphological change in modern mosquitoes against their counterpart from 46 million years ago. These fossils are also the oldest ever found to have blood preserved within their abdomens.
Like all flies, mosquitoes go through four stages in their lifecycles: egg, larva, pupa, and adult or imago. In most species, adult females lay their eggs in stagnant water; some lay eggs near the water's edge; others attach their eggs to aquatic plants. Each species selects the situation of the water into which it lays its eggs and does so according to its own ecological adaptations. Such differences are important because certain ecological preferences keep mosquitoes away from most humans, whereas other preferences bring them right into houses at night.
The Mosquito is small, midge-like flie that constitute the family Culicidae. Females of most species are ectoparasites, whose tube-like mouthparts (called a proboscis) pierce the hosts' skin to consume blood. The word "mosquito" is Spanish for "little fly".
Mosquito
The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants a
known species native mainly to the tropical Americas, with a few species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, Pitcairnia feliciana.
These inferior ovaries characterize the Bromelioideae, a subfamily of the Bromeliaceae. Many bromeliads are able to store water in a structure formed by their tightly-overlapping leaf bases.
Cultivation and Uses
Humans have been using bromeliads for thousands of years. The Incas, Aztecs, Maya and others used them for food, protection, fiber and ceremony, just as they are still used today. European interest began when Spanish conquistadors returned with pineapple, which became so popular as an exotic food that the image of the pineapple was adapted into European art and sculpture. Only one bromeliad, the pineapple (Ananas comosus), is a commercially important food crop.
Description
Bromeliads are plants that are adapted to various climates. Foliage takes different shapes, from needle-thin to broad and flat, symmetrical to irregular, spiky to soft. The foliage, which usually grows in a rosette, is widely patterned and colored. Leaf colors range from maroon, through shades of green, to gold. Varieties may have leaves with red, yellow, white and cream variations. Others may be spotted with purple, red, or cream, while others have different colors on the tops and bottoms of the leaves. Root systems vary according to plant type. Terrestrial bromeliad species have complex root systems that gather water and nutrients, while epiphytic bromeliads only grow hard, wiry roots to attach themselves to trees and rocks.
Bromeliaceae
Tree Frog
A tree frog is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees,
known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia have given rise to tree frogs, although they are not closely related to each other.
Description
As the name implies, these frogs are typically found in trees or other highgrowing vegetation. They do not normally descend to the ground, except to mate and spawn, though some build foam nests on leaves and rarely leave the trees at all as adults. Many tree frogs can change their color for better camouflage. For instance, the grey tree frog (Hyla versicolor) can change its color from green to grey to yellow. Tree frogs are usually tiny as their weight has to be carried by the branches and twigs in their habitats. While some reach 10 cm (4 in) or more, they are typically smaller and more slender than terrestrial frogs.
Family
Here are some families or genera that Tree frogs are members of. Hylidae or “true� tree frogs, occur in the temperate to tropical parts of Eurasia north of the Himalayas, Australia and the Americas. Rhacophoridae, or shrub frogs, are the tree frogs of tropical regions around the Indian Ocean: Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia east to Lydekker’s line. A few also occur in East Asia. Centrolenidae, or glass frogs, are potentially closely related to hylids; these translucent frogs are native to Central and South America.
The American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) is a large species of flamingo closely related to the greater flamingo and Chilean flamingo. It was formerly considered conspecific with the greater flamingo, but that treatment is now widely viewed as incorrect due to a lack of evidence.
Distribution
The American flamingo breeds in the Galรกpagos, coastal Colombia, Venezuela and nearby islands, Trinidad and Tobago, along the northern coast of the Yucatรกn Peninsula, Cuba, Hispaniola, The Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The population in Galapagos differs genetically from that in the Caribbean, and the Galapagos flamingos are statistically smaller and lay smaller eggs. Its preferred habitats are similar to that of its relatives: saline lagoons, mudflats, and shallow brackish coastal or inland lakes.
Description
The American flamingo is a large wading bird with reddish-pink plumage. It lays a single chalky white egg on a mud mound, between May and August; incubation until hatching takes from 28 to 32 days; both parents brood the young. Their life expectancy of 40 years is one of the longest in birds. Adult American flamingos are smaller on average than greater flamingos but are the largest flamingos in the Americas. They measure from 47 to 57 inches tall. The wing coverts are red, and the primary and secondary flight feathers are black. The bill is pink and white with an extensive black tip. The legs are entirely pink.
American Flamingo
Volcanic Eruptions Types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists.
Eruption Mechanisms
There are two types of eruptions in terms of activity, explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions. Explosive eruptions are characterized by gasdriven explosions that propels magma and tephra. Effusive eruptions, meanwhile, are characterized by the outpouring of lava without significant explosive eruption.
Magmatic Eruptions
Magmatic eruptions produce juvenile clasts during explosive decompression from gas release. They range in intensity from the relatively small lava fountains on Hawaii to catastrophic Ultra-Plinian eruption columns more than 30 km (19 mi) high, bigger than the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 that buried Pompeii.
Wind Power
Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power
generators for electricity. Wind power, as an alternative to burning fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, consumes no water, and uses little land.
Environmental Effects
The environmental impact of wind power when compared to the environmental impacts of fossil fuels, is relatively minor. Compared with other low carbon power sources, wind turbines have some of the lowest global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated. While a wind farm may cover a large area of land, many land uses such as agriculture are compatible with it, as only small areas of turbine foundations and infrastructure are made unavailable for use. Aesthetic aspects of wind turbines and resulting changes of the visual landscape are significant. Conflicts arise especially in scenic and heritage protected landscapes.
History
Wind power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind. For more than two millennia wind-powered machines have ground grain and pumped water. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands, and in arid regions such as the American mid-west or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided water for live stock and steam engines.
A bog is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often
mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Bogs have distinctive assemblages of animal, fungal and plant species, and are of high importance for biodiversity, particularly in landscapes that are otherwise settled and farmed.
Distribution and Extent
Habitats
Bogs are widely distributed in cold, temperate climes, mostly in boreal eco- There are many highly specialised animals, fungi and systems in the Northern Hemisphere. The world's largest wetland is the peat plants associated with bog habitat. Most are capable of bogs of the Western Siberian Lowlands in Russia, which cover more than tolerating the combination of low nutrient levels and a million square kilometres. A 2014 expedition leaving from Itanga village, waterlogging. Sphagnum moss is generally abundant, Republic of the Congo discovered a peat bog "as big as England" which along with ericaceous shrubs. Orchids have adapted to stretches into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. these conditions through the use of mycorrhizal fungi to extract nutrients.
Peat Bog
Citrus Fruit
Citrus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae.
Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important cropslike oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and limes. Some researchers believe that the origin is in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeast India, Burma (Myanmar) and the Yunnan province of China, and it is in this region that some commercial species such as oranges, mandarins, and lemons originated.
History
At various times, citrus plants were thought to be native to Asia (where they were first domesticated), Europe, and Florida. But the European oranges (such as the bitter orange) were originally brought from India at around the time of Alexander the Great, and the "native" oranges of Florida actually originated with the Spanish Conquistadors. The lemon reached Europe during the time of classical Rome.
Name
The generic name originated from Latin, where it referred to either the plant now known as Citron (C. medica) or a conifer tree (Thuja). It is somehow related to the ancient Greek word for cedar. This may be due to perceived similarities in the smell of citrus leaves and fruit with that of cedar. Collectively, Citrus fruits and plants are also known by the Romance loanword agrumes (literally "sour fruits").
Geography
India comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, and part of the Indo-Australian Plate. India's defining geological processes began 75 million years ago when the Indian plate, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift caused by seafloor spreading to its south-west, and later, south and south-east. Simultaneously, the vast Tethyn oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the Eurasian plate. These dual processes, driven by convection in the Earth's mantle, both created the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to uplift the Himalayas.
Etymology
The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu. The latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as "The people of the Indus."
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country
India
by area, the second-most populouscountry (with over 1.2 billion people), and the most populous democracy in the world.
Ginger
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or simply ginger, is widely used as a spice or a folk medicine.
Horticulture
Ginger produces clusters of white and pink flower buds that bloom into yellow flowers. Because of its aesthetic appeal and the adaptation of the plant to warm climates, it is often used as landscaping around subtropical homes. It is a perennial reedlike plant with annual leafy stems, about a meter (3 to 4 feet) tall. T The fragrant perisperm of the Zingiberaceae is used as sweetmeats by Bantu, and also as a condiment and sialagogue.
Uses
Ginger produces a hot, fragrant kitchen spice. Young ginger rhizomes are juicy and fleshy with a very mild taste. They are often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or cooked as an ingredient in many dishes. They can be steeped in boiling water to make ginger tisane, to which honey is often added; sliced orange or lemon fruit may be added. Ginger can be made into candy, or ginger wine, which has been made commercially since 1740. Powdered dry ginger root is typically used as a flavoring for recipes such as gingerbread, cookies, crackers and cakes, ginger ale, and ginger beer. Fresh ginger may be peeled before eating. For longer-term storage, the ginger can be placed in a plastic bag and refrigerated or frozen.