“Linnaeus, letting fall his hand on a bunch of Moss at his side, exclaimed, ‘Underneath this palm is material for the study of a lifetime’; and if this is true of a handful of Moss, the treasures of a township must be inexhaustible. We need not seek for new worlds to conquer.“ — Timothy Otis Fuller, “A Sketch of the Flora of Needham”, 1886
Above from: Rowlands, Gwilym, Judith Brown, Bradley Soule, Pablo Trueba Boluda, and Alex D. Rogers. “Satellite surveillance of fishing vessel activity in the ascension island exclusive economic zone and marine protected area.” Marine Policy 101 (2019): 39-50.
I’d love to see what this does in various kinds of regression. It may be possible to set up some kind of iterative regression scheme, where a normal regression with uniform weights is first done, and then the residuals are used to define a set of alternative weights via the Tukey Loss Function. Then the weighted regression is done, producing another set of residuals, and a new set of weights is defined. This should (eventually) settle down.
The Tukey loss function, also known as Tukey’s biweight function, is a loss function that is used in robust statistics. Tukey’s loss is similar to Huber loss in that it demonstrates quadratic behavior near the origin. However, it is even more insensitive to outliers because the loss incurred by large residuals is constant, rather than scaling linearly as it would for the Huber loss.
In the above, I use $latex r$ as the argument to the function to represent “residual”, while $latex c$ is a positive parameter that the user has to choose. A common choice of this parameter is $latex c = 4.685$: Reference 1 notes that this value results…
“We, the undersigned businesses and investors with a major presence in the U.S., applaud your administration’s demonstrated commitment to address climate change head-on, and we stand in support of your efforts.
“Millions of Americans are already feeling the impacts of climate change. From recent extreme weather to deadly wildfires and record-breaking hurricanes, the human and economic losses of the past 12 months alone are profound. Tragically, these devastating climate impacts also disproportionately hit marginalized and low-income communities who are least able to withstand them. We must act now to slow and turn the tide.
“As business leaders, we care deeply about the future of the U.S. and the health of its people and economy. Collectively, our businesses employ over 7 million American workers across all 50 states, representing over $4 trillion in annual revenue, and for those of us who are investors, we represent more than $1 trillion in assets under management. We join the majority of Americans in thanking you for re-entering the U.S into the Paris Agreement and for making climate action a vital pillar of your presidency. To restore the standing of the U.S. as a global leader, we need to address the climate crisis at the pace and scale it demands. Specifically, the U.S. must adopt an emissions reduction target that will place the country on a credible pathway to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
“We, therefore, call on you to adopt the ambitious and attainable target of cutting GHG emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030.
“A bold 2030 target is needed to catalyze a zero-emissions future, spur a robust economic recovery, create millions of well-paying jobs, and allow the U.S. to “build back better” from the pandemic. New investment in clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation can build a strong, more equitable, and more inclusive American economy.2 A 2030 target will also guide the U.S. government’s approach to more sustainable and resilient infrastructure, zero-emissions vehicles and buildings, improved agricultural practices, and durable carbon removal. Finally, the commitment would inspire other industrialized nations to set bold targets of their own.
“Many of us have set or are setting emissions reduction goals in line with climate science since the establishment of the Paris Agreement. The private sector has purchased renewable energy at record rates and along with countless cities across the country, many have committed themselves to a net zero-emissions future.3
“If you raise the bar on our national ambition, we will raise our own ambition to move the U.S. forward on this journey. While an effective national climate strategy will require all of us, you alone can set the course by swiftly establishing a bold U.S. 2030 target.
“Mr. President, we ask that you invest in a resilient, economically sound, net zero-emissions future for all. You can count on our support.”
We lost Samwise earlier this month, to lymphoma, probably by everybody’s assessment, including veterinarians, due to exposure to herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides earlier in his life. He was a noble, and wonderful cat. He was smart. He could open doors having door knobs. He could open big drawers under our platform bed, climb in, and close them behind him. He loved knocking pens off of desks. And he hunted, but captured things gently and alive, and always released them. Sure, he might have wanted them to run to chase them again.
But there was a deep soul there. And his death is a statement of how random and arbitrary life is in this universe. I do not believe in a God because if She existed, she would have to be judged psychotic. Ergo, She doesn’t exist. It’s nothing but the sound of random Hydrogen atoms.
I miss him deeply. He was my friend. He was companion while I worked hours at my computer, patient and loving. And he would convince me to accompany him out on adventures on our property, which I also so deeply miss.
So, in his memory, with love and hurt and gratitude, I offer Larkin Poedoing Pink Floyd‘s “Wish You Were Here”.
References to scientific and veterinary literature on lymphoma in cats and dogs:
Gavazza, Alessandra, Silvano Presciuttini, Roberto Barale, George Lubas, and Biancaurora Gugliucci. "Association between canine malignant lymphoma, living in industrial areas, and use of chemicals by dog owners." Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 15, no. 3 (2001): 190-195.
Takashima-Uebelhoer, Biki B., Lisa G. Barber, Sofija E. Zagarins, Elizabeth Procter-Gray, Audra L. Gollenberg, Antony S. Moore, and Elizabeth R. Bertone-Johnson. "Household chemical exposures and the risk of canine malignant lymphoma, a model for human non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma." Environmental Research 112 (2012): 171-176.
Tranah, Gregory J., Paige M. Bracci, and Elizabeth A. Holly. "Domestic and farm-animal exposures and risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a population-based study in the San Francisco Bay Area." Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Biomarkers 17, no. 9 (2008): 2382-2387.
Reif, John S. "Animal sentinels for environmental and public health." Public Health Reports 126, no. 1_suppl (2011): 50-57.
Deziel, Nicole C., Mary H. Ward, Erin M. Bell, Todd P. Whitehead, Robert B. Gunier, Melissa C. Friesen, and John R. Nuckols. "Temporal variability of pesticide concentrations in homes and implications for attenuation bias in epidemiologic studies." Environmental health perspectives 121, no. 5 (2013): 565-571.
Poppenga, Robert H., and Frederick W. Oehme. "Pesticide use and associated morbidity and mortality in veterinary medicine." In Hayes' Handbook of Pesticide Toxicology, pp. 285-301. Academic Press, 2010.
Pimentel, David, Anthony Greiner, and Tad Bashore. "Economic and environmental costs of pesticide use." Environmental toxicology: current developments (1998): 121-151.
I celebrate by offering a dance celebration from the Wampanoag Nation, neighbors of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag.
And, then, a video sketch and capture of Wampanoag Day at Aptucxet:
I quote Timothy Otis Fuller at this time from the top right of my blog pages, saying in his 1886 “A Sketch of the Flora of Needham”:
“Linnaeus, letting fall his hand on a bunch of Moss at his side, exclaimed, ‘Underneath this palm is material for the study of a lifetime’; and if this is true of a handful of Moss, the treasures of a township must be inexhaustible. We need not seek for new worlds to conquer.“
They might need not, but Europeans, in their deep ignorance and to their shame, did. And to the very limited degree I can, I bow to Buddha and ask forgiveness, of the Massachusett, the Wampanoag, the Haudenosaunee, whose land I was privileged to reside upon, cherish, and learn of their history for 40 years, and all First Nations, indigenous people who my ancestors so aggrievedly harmed.
with the photos and remarks from 2021-03-03 and 2021-03-10.
The photos are in time order from earliest to latest, top to bottom, left to right. Timestamp and geographic location are stamped in the lower right on the images. The survey began in earnest about 9th-13th December 2020. Images earlier than than were documenting site selection.
A couple of points of note.
First, there is green growth seen at many instances, and close-ups of these have been recorded. There are also several instances of egg-like features, but I do not yet know if these are archegonia or not. I need to become familiar with archegonia from the various genuses and spend some time with a hand lens.
Second, the classification of Site 1, instance C as Myurella julacea was incorrect. It is a Thuidium, probably Thuidium recognitum. I need to get a sample and verify. This has been reflected in all cases in the spreadsheet.
More time could have been spent at Sites 1, 3, and 4. A lot of time was invested in finding these features and learning how to use the Olympus TG-6 to take macro-photos of them. I will devote more time on 17th March to checking status, and devoting time to hand lens, while taking oral notes, and taking specimens of these back.
When Professor Seba says New England has the poorest set of solar and wind resources compared to California and Texas, he primarily means wind, and that’s all land-based. Offshore wind in New England is an amazing resource.
I am inviting anyone with an interest in mosses and lichens to join in, particularly if you live in the “greater Massachusetts area”. Because of pandemic, there’ll be no in-person meetups for a while, but I’d like to schedule an organizational meeting hosted on my Zoom channel.
The notion is that we get together and talk mosses and lichens and promote interest in them. Each meeting would feature a member — or someone from outside the Meetup — talking about their experience, teaching us, talking about a project, their art, their photography, or books about mosses they’ve read (*). And this would be followed by a Q&A.
After pandemic, we’ll move back outdoors, doing guided tours.
Disclosure: I am not any kind of authority on mosses and lichens. I’m very much an amateur, although my scientific and engineering background makes it easier for me to set up and follow through on scientific experiments than some. I’m still learning common New England mosses. You can see a project I’m doing and some of the equipment and references I use here.
Hopefully, this Meetup will begin to remedy the dearth of organized interest about mosses. There’s also a dearth of professional bryologists and lichenologists. I hope that amateur organizations like this, in association with state parks, national parks, and local communities, can generate more interest, particularly among students.
(*) I am finishing a Kindle version of the book Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The book tells of mosses from an indigenous people’s perspective, and also contains much solid science, and beautiful hand sketched illustrations. It also makes great physical science connections, like Kimmerer’s discussion of the importance of living in a boundary layer for mosses. This is something seen in aquatic life, as documented in the book Life in Moving Fluids by the late Professor Steven Vogel. Vogel didn’t mention mosses at all. That’s understandable, but it’s great to see Professor Kimmerer remedying the oversight. Given the kinds of research Vogel did, I can see all kinds of projects exploring this possible with respect to mosses.
Cohen, Judah, Xiangdong Zhang, J. Francis, T. Jung, R. Kwok, J. Overland, T. J. Ballinger et al. "Divergent consensuses on Arctic amplification influence on midlatitude severe winter weather." Nature Climate Change, 10(1), 2020: 20-29.
Ayarzagüena, Blanca, Lorenzo M. Polvani, Ulrike Langematz, Hideharu Akiyoshi, Slimane Bekki, Neal Butchart, Martin Dameris et al. "No robust evidence of future changes in major stratospheric sudden warmings: a multi-model assessment from CCMI." Atmospheric chemistry and physics 18, no. 15 (2018): 11277-11287.
The photos are in time order from earliest to latest, top to bottom, left to right. Timestamp and geographic location are stamped in the lower right on the images. The survey began in earnest about 9th-13th December 2020. Images earlier than than were documenting site selection.
On 24 Feb 2021, snow obscured all but instances 4D, 3A, 3B, and 3D. Site 2 had all instances obscured, but a small portion of an adjacent similar patch was visible and photographed. Much of the work at Site 3 was only possible by approaching the instances from the stream rather than the shore.
Hopefully there will be enough melt next week to get many more instances photographed. As of late on 25 February, instances 4C and 4E are also visible.
For a guy who has spent most of his professional career developing, studying, and improving engineered systems, software, and applying mathematics to them, the idea of devoting a substantial part of the rest of his life to the study of bryophytes and, more specifically, the subdivision Bryophytina may seem an oddity. After all, I’ve launched a multiyear longitudinal field study of four sites with mosses the main act. Why?
It might begin that Bryophytina as a phylogenetic group originated during the Ordovician period, about 450 million years ago. They are suspected of having changed the Earth’s climate at the time. Nevertheless, as a botanical subdivision, they have seen everything, and have amazing adaptive capabilities, to extreme moisture, to dessication, to heat, to cold. They are both simple in their biological plans, yet innovative, and prudent if not wise.
There is also evidence mosses changed everything, weathering rocks during the Ordovician, when they are believed to have emerged, and that rock drew down atmospheric CO2 which, at the time was around 3000 ppm, about 8 times what it is today: P. Porada, T. M. Lenton, A. Pohl, B. Weber, L. Mander, Y. Donnadieu, C. Beer, U. Pöschl, A. Kleidon. High potential for weathering and climate effects of non-vascular vegetation in the Late Ordovician. Nature Communications, 2016; 7: 12113 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12113.
And when I say they’ve seen everything, I mean everything. Mosses arose before the evolution of lignin-formation, so before vascular plants and especially trees. And, to quote Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Earth was a different planet” for much of the time:
These are all taken from:
Bender, Michael L. Paleoclimate. Vol. 8. Princeton University Press, 2013.
Parrish, Judith Totman, and Gerilyn S. Soreghan. "Sedimentary geology and the future of paleoclimate studies." Sedimentary Record11 (2013): 4-10.
Present day mosses obtain many of their nutrients and water from the air, and raindrops, having basic or absent vascularization, some with rhizoids and relying upon cation exchange to obtain nutrients. They have amazing abilities to withstand both drowning and floods as well as desiccation. The moss Polytrichum, for example, rolls its laminae (leaves) up and together to retain water when it is drying out. Note: Laminae are generally but one cell thick!
Mosses come in amazing varieties, and have conquered every land habitat imaginable. In the Arctic they can be the dominant flora (Pope, 2016). They coexist with many creatures, yet are rarely grazed. They are for the most part, heartily communal plants, also coexisting with lichens and each other.
To me, I think the most intriguing aspect is as subjects for quantitative inquiry, counting, and measurement. Mosses are sessile, unless disturbed by water or fauna, such as squirrels scampering up trees. They make interesting photographic subjects, not only by themselves, but as part of a microhabitat. There is the opportunity to try to understand an ecology more completely than is possible in bigger niches, and perhaps to model.
Finally, it turns out we need to more carefully documenting their life cycles, and especially their phenology. On the latter, despite the urgings of Tuba, Slack, and Stark (2011) and others, it hasn’t been studied in depth. Longitudinal studies of the kind I’ve launched aren’t common. They don’t fit well within undergraduate or graduate timelines: They made need a decade or more of dedication, and that means dealing with transitions between students and problems with requiring originality in research, something which afflicts many fields. It seems to me that bringing the phenology of Bryophytina within the scope of the USA National Phenology Network is a reasonable way to proceed.
Instance A is Platylomella lescurii (Pope, 2016, p 199, bottom, key only; Jenkins, 2021, p 141, habitat depicted on p 20, “Moss Map 8”). Instance B is Sphagnum fimbriatum (Pope, 2016, p 40, from the key on p 37; Jenkins, 2020, p 152). Instance A is interesting because the Platylomella suffered a good deal of erosion from flowing water even in the short time after I began observations, as can be seen below:
Platylomella tenax showing water erosion
I captured an MP4 showing the oscillations in lescurii created by the flowing waters:
Jenkins (2020, p 141) says “found on rocks in streams, usually submerged a high water”. Platylomella is partly submerged here. A question is why does it erode since the habitat is suitable? Perhaps this is typical for Platylomella and permits it to propagate vegetatively? The other question is that the growth of this Platylomella community looks like it took more than a year. Why did it get eroded now? Or does it often get eroded and just grows back?
This post is simply a matter of record, as are the additional rows in the spreadsheet. There were no observations on these days and no photos taken. This is due to appreciable snowfall which is masking visual access to the sites.
Interested readers should monitor the above spreadsheet.
When observations resume, a new weekly report will be posted here.
I am expecting to do a field survey to check on the sites on Wednesday, 24th February 2021, no matter what the local conditions appear to be.
Bitcoin needs its own dedicated four dozen nuclear reactors with dedicated water supply. It doesn’t have that at present. Whatever its financial benefits, surely this is unsustainable: The current greenhouse gas emissions to support this rival that of many small countries, combined. Running at the intensity shown above for a single hour produces 6100 (metric) tonnes of CO2 at the electrical generating efficiencies the United States had in 2019, as reported by the U.S. EIA. That’s 54 million metric tonnes (“MMTs”) of CO2per year. That works out to about 0.3% of a single ppm (*) of CO2 in atmosphere every year, just for Bitcoin mining!
(*) This is corrected for the fraction that persists in atmosphere, which is about 45% of the original quantity.
Are we supposed to congratulate GM for embracing the electric car literally two months after they were suing California so they could make worse gas-powered cars?
ecoquant
