Like sediment cores, ice samples and tree rings, bat excrement can be used to study the climate of the past

Guano, a sticky brown paste and a staple in many tropical caves, is a festering compilation of a colony’s droppings, remnants of nearby plants, fruits and insects, as well as the odd fallen bat. Guano piles can reveal exactly what the bats were eating as well as details about the environment the bats were exposed to. Conditions in the soil, water and atmosphere are consumed, processed and left—via the bats’ digestive system—in accumulating layers on the floor, like pages in an ever-expanding book. After years of accumulation, paleoclimatologists can read the details of that record to recreate the environmental conditions of the past.

The lead levels in the guano core experienced a sharp uptick after 1760, as the fingerprint of coal combustion that propelled the Industrial Revolution began impressing into the atmosphere. Zinc and mercury levels followed suit, rising around the same time. The team could even identify the environmental impacts of much older civilizations, as mercury’s fingerprint first appeared around 1400 B.C., when mining of cinnabar, a reddish-tinged mercury ore, became fashionable among pre-Incan societies in the central Peruvian Andes.

As metals revealed the impact of industry, the composition of certain stable isotopes—a useful proxy for the plant varieties in the bats’ diet—revealed the evolution of agriculture in the region. When the Taíno people first arrived on the island in 650 B.C., they planted maize, represented in the guano by a rise in the isotope carbon-13. The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the early 16th century brought disease and death, but also sugarcane. Either the bats or their prey seem to have been quite partial to a nearby plantation, which pushed carbon-13 levels in the guano higher still. Shifting levels in nitrogen isotopes revealed the introduction of manure-based fertilizers around 3,000 B.C., and later the transition to synthetic fertilizers with less nitrogen toward the end of the 19th century.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-bat-guano-reveal-thousands-years-human-impact-environment-180974029/

PermeateFree said:

Like sediment cores, ice samples and tree rings, bat excrement can be used to study the climate of the past

Guano, a sticky brown paste and a staple in many tropical caves, is a festering compilation of a colony’s droppings, remnants of nearby plants, fruits and insects, as well as the odd fallen bat. Guano piles can reveal exactly what the bats were eating as well as details about the environment the bats were exposed to. Conditions in the soil, water and atmosphere are consumed, processed and left—via the bats’ digestive system—in accumulating layers on the floor, like pages in an ever-expanding book. After years of accumulation, paleoclimatologists can read the details of that record to recreate the environmental conditions of the past.

The lead levels in the guano core experienced a sharp uptick after 1760, as the fingerprint of coal combustion that propelled the Industrial Revolution began impressing into the atmosphere. Zinc and mercury levels followed suit, rising around the same time. The team could even identify the environmental impacts of much older civilizations, as mercury’s fingerprint first appeared around 1400 B.C., when mining of cinnabar, a reddish-tinged mercury ore, became fashionable among pre-Incan societies in the central Peruvian Andes.

As metals revealed the impact of industry, the composition of certain stable isotopes—a useful proxy for the plant varieties in the bats’ diet—revealed the evolution of agriculture in the region. When the Taíno people first arrived on the island in 650 B.C., they planted maize, represented in the guano by a rise in the isotope carbon-13. The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the early 16th century brought disease and death, but also sugarcane. Either the bats or their prey seem to have been quite partial to a nearby plantation, which pushed carbon-13 levels in the guano higher still. Shifting levels in nitrogen isotopes revealed the introduction of manure-based fertilizers around 3,000 B.C., and later the transition to synthetic fertilizers with less nitrogen toward the end of the 19th century.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-bat-guano-reveal-thousands-years-human-impact-environment-180974029/

> Jamaica … analyzed a 129-centimeter-long (4.2 feet) guano core extracted (with some difficulty) from the Jamaican cave. The research team wanted to see if they could detect traces of human activity. Radiocarbon dating put the base of the core at around 4,300 years old, long before the first humans arrived on the island. Gallant’s team then looked for shifts in a range of metals and isotopes—chemical elements with varying numbers of neutrons in their atoms’ nuclei—that could indicate human influence.

Good stuff. We ought to do this more often. Know any bat caves around here with metre high beds of guano?

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

Like sediment cores, ice samples and tree rings, bat excrement can be used to study the climate of the past

Guano, a sticky brown paste and a staple in many tropical caves, is a festering compilation of a colony’s droppings, remnants of nearby plants, fruits and insects, as well as the odd fallen bat. Guano piles can reveal exactly what the bats were eating as well as details about the environment the bats were exposed to. Conditions in the soil, water and atmosphere are consumed, processed and left—via the bats’ digestive system—in accumulating layers on the floor, like pages in an ever-expanding book. After years of accumulation, paleoclimatologists can read the details of that record to recreate the environmental conditions of the past.

The lead levels in the guano core experienced a sharp uptick after 1760, as the fingerprint of coal combustion that propelled the Industrial Revolution began impressing into the atmosphere. Zinc and mercury levels followed suit, rising around the same time. The team could even identify the environmental impacts of much older civilizations, as mercury’s fingerprint first appeared around 1400 B.C., when mining of cinnabar, a reddish-tinged mercury ore, became fashionable among pre-Incan societies in the central Peruvian Andes.

As metals revealed the impact of industry, the composition of certain stable isotopes—a useful proxy for the plant varieties in the bats’ diet—revealed the evolution of agriculture in the region. When the Taíno people first arrived on the island in 650 B.C., they planted maize, represented in the guano by a rise in the isotope carbon-13. The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the early 16th century brought disease and death, but also sugarcane. Either the bats or their prey seem to have been quite partial to a nearby plantation, which pushed carbon-13 levels in the guano higher still. Shifting levels in nitrogen isotopes revealed the introduction of manure-based fertilizers around 3,000 B.C., and later the transition to synthetic fertilizers with less nitrogen toward the end of the 19th century.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-bat-guano-reveal-thousands-years-human-impact-environment-180974029/

> Jamaica … analyzed a 129-centimeter-long (4.2 feet) guano core extracted (with some difficulty) from the Jamaican cave. The research team wanted to see if they could detect traces of human activity. Radiocarbon dating put the base of the core at around 4,300 years old, long before the first humans arrived on the island. Gallant’s team then looked for shifts in a range of metals and isotopes—chemical elements with varying numbers of neutrons in their atoms’ nuclei—that could indicate human influence.

Good stuff. We ought to do this more often. Know any bat caves around here with metre high beds of guano?

Ashford Caves, NSW Some has been mined. Some remains, complete with original surface.

Michael V said:

Ashford Caves, NSW Some has been mined. Some remains, complete with original surface.

Could I hire you to look in to it? I know, I couldn’t afford to, but if I had the money.

Looking up location. About 100 km west of Tenterfield. 40 km south of the NSW-Qld border.

“From 1916 to 1967, at least 3 of the Ashford Caves were sporadically mined for their phosphate -rich bat droppings (guano) which was used as fertiliser. The current entry to Ashford Main Cave is actually the result of an excavation of 1-2 metres of guano from the cave floor and then tunnelling through the bedrock.

“Ashford Main Cave is horizontal in form, allowing easy access for visitors, outside of the summer bat-maternity season. During this period, when thousands of threatened species of bats use the caves as a birthing site, access is limited as disturbance can result in the abandonment and mortality of infant bats.”

(I take that to mean “thousands of bats” not “thousands of species”).
————————————-

PS. Know anything about Buchan canes? Buchan limestone? Buchan Marble?

mollwollfumble said:

Michael V said:

Ashford Caves, NSW Some has been mined. Some remains, complete with original surface.

Could I hire you to look in to it? I know, I couldn’t afford to, but if I had the money.

Looking up location. About 100 km west of Tenterfield. 40 km south of the NSW-Qld border.

“From 1916 to 1967, at least 3 of the Ashford Caves were sporadically mined for their phosphate -rich bat droppings (guano) which was used as fertiliser. The current entry to Ashford Main Cave is actually the result of an excavation of 1-2 metres of guano from the cave floor and then tunnelling through the bedrock.

“Ashford Main Cave is horizontal in form, allowing easy access for visitors, outside of the summer bat-maternity season. During this period, when thousands of threatened species of bats use the caves as a birthing site, access is limited as disturbance can result in the abandonment and mortality of infant bats.”

(I take that to mean “thousands of bats” not “thousands of species”).
————————————-

PS. Know anything about Buchan canes? Buchan limestone? Buchan Marble?

No, sorry.

All animals have an impact on the environment.

Peak Warming Man said:

All animals have an impact on the environment.

True, some more than others and a top predator like ourselves especially in our numbers is not natural.

PermeateFree said:

Peak Warming Man said:

All animals have an impact on the environment.

True, some more than others and a top predator like ourselves especially in our numbers is not natural.

Anything an animal does is natural.

Peak Warming Man said:

PermeateFree said:

Peak Warming Man said:

All animals have an impact on the environment.

True, some more than others and a top predator like ourselves especially in our numbers is not natural.

Anything an animal does is natural.

Except in our case where we have circumvented the law of nature.

PermeateFree said:

Peak Warming Man said:

PermeateFree said:

True, some more than others and a top predator like ourselves especially in our numbers is not natural.

Anything an animal does is natural.

Except in our case where we have circumvented the law of nature.

How do you circumvented the law of nature?

sibeen said:

PermeateFree said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Anything an animal does is natural.

Except in our case where we have circumvented the law of nature.

How do you circumvented the law of nature?

Medical science, agriculture. etc., etc. There are a lot of us, which would not happen if the law of nature ruled.

PermeateFree said:

sibeen said:

PermeateFree said:

Except in our case where we have circumvented the law of nature.

How do you circumvented the law of nature?

Medical science, agriculture. etc., etc. There are a lot of us, which would not happen if the law of nature ruled.

I’m fairly certain that all those things you’ve mentioned comply with the laws of nature.

sibeen said:

PermeateFree said:

sibeen said:

How do you circumvented the law of nature?

Medical science, agriculture. etc., etc. There are a lot of us, which would not happen if the law of nature ruled.

I’m fairly certain that all those things you’ve mentioned comply with the laws of nature.

They don’t if you are living in equilibrium with the environment. We consume far more than the planet can produce, which is why we currently have so many environmental problems.

>>They don’t if you are living in equilibrium with the environment

There has never been a time of equilibrium with the environment even before man arrived.

Peak Warming Man said:

>>They don’t if you are living in equilibrium with the environment

There has never been a time of equilibrium with the environment even before man arrived.

Yes things go up and down, but withing a range where it can recover. When that cannot happen, like top predators unable to catch food and cannot move on, they die. It is as simple as that and we are on the same road.