Living near Edmonton natural areas good for bottled fed babies
Living close to natural green space can mitigate some of the changes in infant gut bacteria associated with formula feeding. Formula-fed babies who live near natural green spaces are more likely to have gut bacteria like that in breastfed babies, according to a new study
“Not every infant can be breastfed,” said Anita Kozyrskyj, pediatrics professor at the University of Alberta. “This is one of the first pieces of evidence for a nature-related intervention that could possibly help promote healthy gut microbial composition in infants who are not breastfed.”
The babies’ postal codes were cross-referenced with the City of Edmonton’s urban Primary Land and Vegetation Inventory, which maps natural green spaces in the city, including natural forest, grasslands, wetlands, lakes, rivers, and ravines.
“We found that the infants who lived within 500 metres of a natural environment were less likely to have higher diversity in their gut bacteria,” she said. “It may seem counterintuitive, but a young breastfed infant has lower gut microbial diversity than a formula-fed infant because formula feeding increases the number of different gut bacteria.” Read more at https://www.folio.ca/living-close-to-natural-green-space-benefits-gut-bacteria-of-urban-formula-fed-infants-study-shows/
Edmonton pigeons both licenced and natural
Pets licenced by the City include 56 pigeon licences with each permit good for up to 75 birds. These are birds of the racing or fancy variety. Fancy pigeons are more ornamental than athletic, revered for their strong bloodlines and strange features.
All pigeons are descendants of the standard rock pigeon, the plump, short-legged, small headed birds that are commonly seen in urban areas. Although not native to North America, the rock pigeon was introduced so long ago, in the early 17th century, they have attained the status of ‘naturalized’.
Although its natural habitat includes cliffs and open scrub vegetation, rock pigeon preferred habitat is urban areas and farmyards. It nests and roosts on tall buildings, bridges, barns, and granaries.
According to the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute this pigeon is very much an urban bird. Its numbers are highest at sites dominated by urban-industry and cultivated human footprint types in the prairie region. Learn more at https://www.abmi.ca/home/data-analytics/biobrowser-home/species-profile?tsn=99003061
94% of wild bee and native plant species networks losts
Climate change and an increase in disturbed bee habitats from expanding agriculture and development in northeastern North America over the last 30 years are likely responsible for a 94 per cent loss of plant-pollinator networks, York University researchers found.
The researchers looked at plant-pollinator networks from 125 years ago through present day. The networks are comprised of wild bees and the native plants they historically rely on, although most of those have now been disrupted. About 30 per cent of plant-pollinator networks were completely lost, which translates to a disappearance of either the bees, the plants or both.
In another 64 per cent of the network loss, the wild bees, such as sweat or miner bees, or native plants, such as sumac and willow, are still present in the eco-system, but the bees no longer visit those plants. The association is gone.
The remaining six per cent of the plant-pollinator networks are stable or even thriving with pollinators such as small carpenter bees, which like broken stems for nest making. Read more and watch the video at https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-07/yu-a9p071420.php
Lady Flower Garden Forest BioBlitz
Lady Flower Gardens in northeast Edmonton is hosting a Forest BioBlitz this Saturday, July 18 from 10am to 2 pm. The BioBlitz will be conducted in the adjacent 75-acre New Jubilee forest which lies along the North Saskatchewan River.
New Jubilee is one of the largest old growth forests within Edmonton city limits. This mixed wood and coniferous forest features a variety of vascular plants, shrubs, and trees that supports a wide diversity of wildlife such as deer, moose, coyotes and over 90 species of birds!
BioBlitz participants will be paired into groups of two with one surveyor and one recorder. Volunteers are needed as either the surveyor of plants or the recorder of the data. It will be helpful if the surveyor (plant identifier) has a good working knowledge of local plants. Learn more and register at https://www.ladyflowergardens.com/bioblitz.html
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If you have a river valley event, job posting, or news that you would like to see published in this newsletter, please send the info to nsrivervalley@gmail.com
Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
780.691.1712
nsrivervalley@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/NSRVCS/
http://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/