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Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) on Board ISS – NASA/SVS (2017)

March 20, 2017 at 10:54 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Global Patterns, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

NASA’s Cloud-Aerosol Transport System is a remote-sensing instrument installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015. Using LIDAR technology it scans a vertical slice of the atmosphere for natural as well as human made aerosols and clouds. The near-real-time data transmitted from the ISS enables CATS team to process it within six hours. One of the natural aerosol sources is volcanoes. In April 2015, the CATS instrument provided a detailed profile of the south Chilean volcano Calbuco when it […]

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A Leafcutter Ant Colony in Barro Colorado Island

February 13, 2017 at 6:10 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Filmed on Jan 28th 2017 during the dry season. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institue (STRI) Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama. Leafcutter ants are an impressive group with more than 40 different species. All evolved and diversified in the New World at around 12 million years ago. Phylogenetic evidence suggests their evolution could go back as far as 50 million years ago when America separated from Africa. A mature colony can have more than 8 million workers collectively farming a subterranean fungus. […]

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Climatic Dynamics of Monsoons – NASA SVS (2016)

September 30, 2016 at 10:18 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Global Patterns, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

The monsoon was noticed for the first time in India. It is a seasonal rain and wind pattern that occurs in many places on our planet. The quasi-regular atmospheric pattern is hugely influential in Human history. The first truly global economy was established in the Indian ocean by sea faring merchants who traveled from Africa and middle east all the way to Indonesia and Malaysia and back. Predictability of the wind patterns around the Indian Ocean was the defining factor. […]

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Carolina Anole Lizard Changing Color

August 18, 2016 at 10:44 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

You can watch the gradual color change in this Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) from green to brown over 4 mins. Summer of 2011 was drier than usual in Athens, GA. Annual rainfall (37.11 inches) was lower than the 1981-2010 average (46.66 inches). The month of July was particularly hot. Average monthly temperature was 81.9 F (above 1895-2012 average of 80.0 F). Reptiles in such conditions have a rather fast metabolism and burn calories fast. This female lizard was a […]

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Giant Ichneumon Wasp (Megarhyssa macrurus) Ovipositing

April 3, 2016 at 1:49 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Giant Ichneumon wasp (Megaryssa macrurus, Linneaus 1771) ovipositing. 10th of August 2013, Georgia State Botanical Garden, Athens, GA. 3:47 pm. This observation has been registered in iNaturalist.org with ID# 418639. Oviposition marks the beginning of the life cycle of all insects including parasitoid wasps. Females of Megarryhssa macrurus (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) are specialized to lay their eggs in the burrows of wood eating Pigeon Tremex Horntail (Tremex columba) larvae between June and September. Only one egg is deposited per host larva […]

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Visitors of Jerusalem Thorn (Paliurus spina-christi)

March 18, 2016 at 1:07 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

The Jerusalem Thorn (Paliurus spina-christi) is a native evergreen bush of the Mediterranean basin belonging to the Buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). As you might have already guessed from its scientific name, this is the plant depicted as a torture device (the crown of thorns) on prophet Jesus Christ’s head. The genus Paliurus is quite recognizable by its orbicular-winged fruit. The fossil record for the genus is widespread in the Northern Hemisphere and goes back to the middle Eocene epoch (~34 million […]

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Visitors of Starry Rosinweed – Silphium asteriscus (Asteraceae)

March 11, 2016 at 2:00 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

A brief record of the insect visitors on a starry rosinweed in less than half hour period during August 14th 2010 at the State Botanical Garden in Athens, GA. Visitors/pollinators included long-horned bee (Melissodes bimaculata), Juvenal’s duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis), Carder bee (Anthidium illustre), Fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus), Scoliid wasp (Scolia nobilitata), another long-horned bee belonging to genus Melissodes and Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis). In this short observation, the last visitor of the flower was a Silvery Checkerspot with rather beat […]

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Global Aerosol and Dust Dynamics – NASA SVS

December 13, 2015 at 10:43 pm / Global Patterns, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

The main video featured above consists of three interrelated parts produced separately by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) which has been producing highly engaging visualizations based on actual and simulated data about global processes running our planet. First narrated visualization shows transport of dust from the Africa to South America between 2007-2013 where the Sahara desert is the source and the tropical Amazon basin is the sink. The scale of interaction between the driest and the wettest places on earth […]

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Aerosols and Cloud Formation – NASA/SVS

December 13, 2015 at 10:42 pm / Global Patterns, NatureDocumentaries.org, Video

When and where clouds form are important for climate science. Long-term observations have shown that at any given time less than 10 percent of the Earth’s skies are clear with no clouds. We most certainly want to know what is going on in the major 90 percent fraction covered with clouds of some type. Some clouds reflect the sun’s radiation while others trap outgoing heat that would otherwise be emitted to space. Tiny solid and liquid particles suspended in the […]

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Common Mallow Pollinated by Dagger Fly

October 4, 2015 at 7:05 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Common Mallow (Malva neglecta) Pollinated by Dagger Fly (Empididae). Filmed on 2015 May 12th, in Postacı Halil sokak Ferahevler, Istanbul. When the talk subject comes to pollination the buzzing image of bees appear in our heads. Yet, many other insect groups contribute to the pollination service including flies (Diptera). Here you can see a dagger fly (it is also known as dancing fly) visiting an edible wild plant the common mallow (Malva neglecta). Dagger flies may not appear to be […]

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Dagger Flies (Empididae) Mating with Nuptial Gift

October 4, 2015 at 7:05 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Dagger flies Mating. Filmed in Sami Dino Parkı, Ferahevler, İstanbul on May 12th 2015. Male hilarine flies (Diptera: Empididae: Empidinae) present their mates with silk-wrapped gifts. The nuptial gift keeps the female busy during copulation. The silk around the gift is produced by specialized cells located in the foreleg basitarsus of the male fly. Here in this observation the hind legs of the male appear to have multiple functions: They form a resting platform for the female and at the […]

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Aristotle’s Silkworm (Saturnia pyri) in Endemic Liquidambar Forest

August 19, 2015 at 10:02 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Filmed in Günlüklü forest, Fethiye, Turkey on May 27th 2015. A Turkish version of this article was published in the Atlas Magazine. Saturnia pyri is the largest moth in Europe. It lives in Southern Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa but it occasionally makes a northward move. It was recorded in England only once in 1984. Its caterpillars are polyphagous and feed on many different tree species such as blackthorn, ash, walnut, poplar, plum, apple, pear and cherry (please […]

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Red Goat Moth (Cossus cossus) Caterpillar Searching for Pupation Site

May 16, 2015 at 4:28 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

Recorded on May 4th 2015 at the Atatürk Arboretum of Istanbul University, Bahçeköy, Türkiye. The individual in the recording most probably belongs to Cossus cossus gueruenensis reported from Asia Minor. The caterpillar has reached its final growth stage as a caterpillar and is frantically searching for a place to burrow itself in the forest floor to become a pupa. Pupation is the final stage of a caterpillar before metamorphosing into adult butterfly form. The developmental transformation in these insects has […]

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Rapid Worker Recruitment in Aphaenogaster Ants

March 27, 2015 at 12:43 pm / Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

In this short observation a single worker drags a yellow jacket wasp (Vespula spp.) until a point close to the nest and then switches to a different task. She leaves to recruit more workers as a scout. Until the first recruits arrive two other workers tend the prey. The location of the prey must have been close to the nest because a third worker joins them 55 seconds after the scout leaves. Based on the time stamp of the unedited […]

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Crippled Cranefly Orchid (Tipularia discolor) (2014)

March 23, 2015 at 3:12 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Crippled Cranefly Orchid (Tipularia discolor). Recorded on August 9th 2014, Georgia State Botanical Garden, Athens, GA, USA. The genus Tipularia has three species. Crippled cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor) is the only species found in North America. The other two species are Asian found in the Himalayas and Japan. Tipularia discolor grows in organic humus-rich soils of closed canopy oak-pine forests in the Eastern United States. It is protected as Threatened, Endangered, or Rare in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania. […]

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