New studies show how to save parasites and why it's important:
Unlike the many charismatic mammals, fishes and birds that receive our attention (and our conservation dollars), parasites are thought of as something to eradicate—and certainly not something to protect.
But only 4% of known parasites can infect humans, and the majority actually serve critical ecological roles, like regulating wildlife that might otherwise balloon in population size and become pests. Still, only about 10% of parasites have been identified and, as a result, they are mostly left out of conservation activities and research.
An international group of scientists wants to change that. About a dozen leading parasite ecologists, including University of Washington's Chelsea Wood, published a paper Aug. 1 in the journal Biological Conservation, which lays out an ambitious global conservation plan for parasites.
"Parasites are an incredibly diverse group of species, but as a society, we do not recognize this biological diversity as valuable," said Wood, an assistant professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. "The point of this paper is to emphasize that we are losing parasites and the functions they serve without even recognizing it."
The authors propose 12 goals for the next decade that could advance parasite biodiversity conservation through a mix of research, advocacy and management.
"Even though we know little to nothing about most parasite species, we can still take action now to conserve parasite biodiversity," said Skylar Hopkins, paper and project co-lead and an assistant professor at North Carolina State University.
[...] Traditionally, the field of disease ecology assumes one of two paths: That we are either heading toward a future of more disease and massive outbreaks or toward a future of parasite extinction. This paper shows that both trajectories are happening simultaneously, Wood explained.
Journal Reference:
Chelsea L. Wood et al. How host diversity and abundance affect parasite infections: Results from a whole-ecosystem manipulation of bird activity, Biological Conservation (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108683
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday August 03 2020, @03:01PM (35 children)
"Scammers and con artists are an incredibly diverse group of people, but as a society, we do not recognize this diversity as valuable."
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @03:11PM
There's a painful parasite problem plaguing people. It's the Pelosi parasite.
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Monday August 03 2020, @03:34PM (20 children)
Well in a corrupt society, parasites could help relieve the mafiosos of their money. I think you are trolling as i do not think you can compare a human society to a natural world eco system.
Regardless here is what my fortune cookie has to say. Maybe it fits the topic:
Reality is not something that just happens to you. Reality is something you make. --Michael David Crawford
(Score: 3, Touché) by Grishnakh on Monday August 03 2020, @04:04PM (14 children)
>Well in a corrupt society, parasites could help relieve the mafiosos of their money. I think you are trolling as i do not think you can compare a human society to a natural world eco system.
Well, my comparison made we wonder if we really can compare them. Perhaps they're more alike than you realize. After all, ages ago, if you asked any educated person if they thought that parasites were important in the ecosystem, they'd probably say "no", and now scientists are saying that they (at least some of them) do seem to have some important role. Perhaps the same is true in human societies? After all, in many societies, black markets arose because the political leadership refused to address a serious need or desire of many of the people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @04:27PM (12 children)
I think you're getting confused. A black market is a capitalist thing. Amoral supply and demand - pay money, get stuff.
Actual society level parasites are corruption and/or the inherited wealth douchbags skim a living without doing any labor. These days it is a moral high ground to never lift a finger- you're "very smart" if you game others into carrying your costs.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2020, @06:21PM (11 children)
Odd. In a free market capitalistic society, what need is there of a free market? (NOTE: I recognize that the US does NOT have a free market.)
Black markets seem to thrive in communist countries, and in countries that attempt to prohibit certain items. Neither of which is a healthy market. The more regulation, the blacker the market gets, I think.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @08:49PM (6 children)
"The more regulation, the blacker the market gets, I think."
Think harder. Alcohol is very highly regulated yet I have never once encountered black market alcohol. Perhaps you are mixing up regulation and criminalization.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2020, @09:14PM (5 children)
If you've never encountered black market alcohol, you should take up residence in a "dry county" in the US South. Which reminds me of an anecdote:
De Queen Arkansas has a pretty high Mexican/Latino population. De Queen is in Sevier County, a "dry county". People routinely drive over the Oklahoma state line, where you will find three stores selling alcohol, in the first two or three miles. The owner of one of those beer joints was happy to sell beer, or whatever else, to anyone with green. But, if a Mexican with Arkansas plates bought more than the "legal" supply of alcohol, he would be on the phone informing De Queen police of the make/model/year vehicle, and quantity of alcohol. There was never a phone call regarding a white, or a black person purchasing "too much" alcohol.
But, yeah, black market alcohol is a thing here in the south.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 03 2020, @10:36PM (4 children)
I'm sure it is. Those southerners do like to regulate people's behaviour don't they?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2020, @10:59PM (3 children)
Mostly the Baptists, and a few other churches thrown in. They have to save people from themselves.
In recent years, more and more counties are voting to go "wet". Each county was "authorized" some number of liquor licenses, and they were auctioned off to high bidders. The various churches would bid, and if they won a license, they would put that license somewhere that the sun never shines, and the county would get no beer after all.
The dummies in Little Rock finally understood what was happening, and decreed that if you didn't USE the license (as intended) within some limited time, it would be revoked, and auctioned off again. I guess the churches can still tie up a license for as much as a year, but they can't get them all, and they can't keep them long.
Little River county, where I live, has been wet since the 2016 referendum. It's nice - I seldom want a beer, but when I do, it's only a five mile drive to the nearest EZ-Mart, instead of 25 miles into Texas, or going to Oklahoma, where they have near-beer.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 03 2020, @11:35PM (2 children)
Thanks, very interesting.
Strange how those Christians are happy to corrupt the will of the voters for their own ends.
I am going to assume Little River County is where the band come from.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 04 2020, @12:28AM (1 child)
Little River band? https://reallittleriverband.com/ [reallittleriverband.com] They aren't even Murican! Buncha furriners from Oz, I think. ;^)
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday August 04 2020, @01:01AM
I know, but it was a good story
(Score: 4, Touché) by Opportunist on Tuesday August 04 2020, @01:07AM (2 children)
Black markets exist wherever something that is in demand is outlawed or regulated. Independent of government systems or economic systems. There is a black market for drugs, there's a black market for human workforce.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @04:02PM (1 child)
This sounds clever... but if you think about it, it's wrong.
Pretty much every market is regulated to some degree. For example, you can't sell "milk" and have it be industrial waste.
It's not just a market being regulated. It's not even a market being outlawed. (There is no market for Smallpox... yes, some people would love to buy it, but they can't, so no "market" exists.)
I think there is something more sophisticated to determining if a black market exists. (It probably involves a disconnect between the law and individual people's morality, plus the ease of creation or transportation.) All I know is that it's more complicated than regulation/outlaw = black market.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday August 04 2020, @11:34PM
There's no market for Smallpox because the potential buyers are few and far between, as are the potential sellers. But you can of course declare your industrial waste as milk and sell it. People will die from it and you will be charged with manslaughter or murder. That's not the main reason why there is no black market for that, though, the main reason for this is that there is pretty much zero demand for industrial waste declared to be milk, hence nobody who'd want to pay money for that.
Morality only matters in terms of price. Items that are highly immoral may fetch a higher price. That's pretty much all morals do here, because they limit the amount of people who would be willing to buy sell a particular good. The price may also be higher because the social stigma of trading in that good may be further limiting the amount of people willing to trade in the product.
Aside of that, a black market follows the same rules as any other market: Supply and demand.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 04 2020, @04:38AM
Many things are more noticeable by their restriction or absence. Just because you don't see the need of a free market in a society that has them, doesn't mean the need doesn't exist. After all, you still need air the same whether or not someone is trying to strangle you.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 03 2020, @05:08PM
https://youtu.be/4GaMo9vzz78 [youtu.be]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Monday August 03 2020, @04:15PM (3 children)
i do not think you can compare a human society to a natural world eco system.
Well that's a load of crap!
Humans are as natural as everything else in the universe. Where do you get such whack ideas?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday August 04 2020, @01:13AM (2 children)
We are not. For example, we replaced evolution with culture. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but far from natural. If we worked "naturally", a lot more people would die early, fail to propagate and certain "civilization diseases" wouldn't be as prevalent as they are.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday August 04 2020, @02:16AM
What makes 'culture' unnatural? The idea is absurd. Everything we do is natural. Everything that exists can be nothing but 'natural'. The microwave, disco ball, all of it. Civilizations rise and fall just like any other anthill. We aren't that special, just more complex.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @09:19PM
You're falling for the old "human supremacy". We're not any different from the other animals, and it's just as intellectually dishonest and idiotic to adopt such a position as it is to believe in any "racial" supremacy.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Monday August 03 2020, @07:33PM
>Reality is not something that just happens to you. Reality is something you make. --Michael David Crawford
Interesting model of the universe, but it doesn't explain mosquitoes, nor systemd.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @04:22PM (8 children)
> Scammers and con artists
Bankers and welfare monkeys.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @04:29PM (7 children)
Huh? You literally picked the opposites.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/02/illness-obesity-racism-who-gets-blamed-for-our-crises-the-poor-of-course [theguardian.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2020, @06:23PM
Two groups of parasites might find a symbiotic relationship. I don't see bankers and welfare recipients as opposites, in this context.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 03 2020, @06:23PM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @06:29PM (1 child)
The bank bailout crew and welfare "entitled" impose on the rest of us in the same manner. Stop dignifying scum in suits and insulting the working class.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:26PM
+1
As someone said earlier before Runaway disappeared in his own navel: Actual society level parasites are corruption and/or the inherited wealth douchbags skim a living without doing any labor. These days it is a moral high ground to never lift a finger- you're "very smart" if you game others into carrying your costs.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Monday August 03 2020, @07:48PM
Banks thrive on you needing money. Social parasites use your money (GP was probably not referring to poor people who need social money to reboot their life). They are partners, not opposites.
Back in the day, in my place, when you wanted to open a shop, you had to deal with the institutions. Which sure attracted corruption like any power given to institutions, but the placement of businesses is so overt that few risked being considered corrupt because of authorizing too much stuff. When people closed shop they had a valuable license that compounded their pension funds.
Then EU comes, and NO! Freedom! everybody can open whatever! liberalism! privatization!
So, guy X goes to the bank.
- director
- wat
- lend me money
- why
- want to open restaurant
- good idea
- thank you
- because your business depletes an already stretched out consumer base
- is that a good thing
- for you, no, for us yea
- because you will eat up my house if i fail
- and because if you don't fail somebody else will have problems and come here asking "lend me money"
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday August 04 2020, @01:09AM (1 child)
Not really. No later than 2008 bankers became welfare monkeys of the worst kind, the kind that is the most expensive with the least ROI.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:32PM
Difference is that one group has to jump through hoops to get pennies for food, while the other gets the money fire hose any time they lose a 50-50 bet.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday August 03 2020, @08:00PM
Given recent political events in the US, I can think of quite a few more colorful substitutions in that sentence (pun not intended).
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday August 03 2020, @08:24PM
I recommend the following allegorical [crunchyroll.com] and actual [theguardian.com] treatments of parasites to better understand their place in biological and social environments.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Monday August 03 2020, @09:50PM
Don't worry, Congress is three steps ahead of you!
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday August 03 2020, @11:16PM
Yes, they help us strengthen our immune system.... Well, that's the theory anyway, doesn't seem to really work, advertising is huge business.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Touché) by VLM on Monday August 03 2020, @05:19PM (3 children)
Is this another story about the rioters in Portland?
(Score: 2, Touché) by nostyle on Monday August 03 2020, @06:06PM
I think you may have gotten backwards who is leeching off whom. Here's a clue... follow the [tax] money. As if anyone really needed a weapon in orbit.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 03 2020, @10:52PM
I think the people of Portland managed to get the violent criminals from Heimatschutz to go home.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday August 04 2020, @01:02AM
No, it's something about organisms that balloon and becomes a parasitic pest.
I think it's about government officials.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @05:48PM (1 child)
all species have to get past ‘peak human’ . in about 50 years human numbers are predicted to finally decline. For Africa There is only one way:
Zoos and Nature Parks will have to function as a Noah’s Arc To repopulate the wild after human numbers decline
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday August 03 2020, @09:52PM
>in about 50 years human numbers are predicted to finally decline
lol what a pessimist. They haven't prepared all this health terrorism for nothing. Covid rc2 and/or the vaccine are out next autumn or in some years (covid 19 was the rehearsal), definitely not 50. Meatbags are on the way out, and we bots don't have to lift a mechanical finger.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday August 03 2020, @08:33PM (2 children)
Do humans serve critical ecological roles? Or what kind of ecological roles, period? One important role is sciencifying the concepts of "ecology" and "ecological roles", I guess.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2020, @12:58AM
St Greta the Grumpy definitely fills an important ecological role.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday August 04 2020, @01:04AM
Well, we regulate wildlife and keep its populations from ballooning.
I guess our role is that of parasites.
(Score: 2) by rob_on_earth on Tuesday August 04 2020, @11:25AM
If you have a stable stomach there is
http://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
(not daily any more, more like monthly)
and the truth about life on Earth is how the parasites control everything, since the beginning and continue to do so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_Rex [wikipedia.org]