Earthwatch Expeditions Visited by 'A Year on Earth'

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This inland waterway provides habitat for an astounding abundance of African mammals, birds, fishes, amphibians, and reptiles. The Nile crocodile, an efficient predator growing to a length of six meters, is at the pinnacle of this tropical wetland food web. History has shown that Okavango's crocodile population is sensitive to exploitation by hide hunters and crocodile farmers. This study will supply the information needed to successfully plan for and manage the crocodiles. Dr. Alison Leslie and her informed and motivated field staff lead the research in a comprehensive scientific research and monitoring program on Okavango crocodiles.

Video - Could Global Warming Be a Blow to Crocs?

Lakes of the Rift Valley

Kenya's second-largest freshwater lake and an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot, Lake Naivasha could deteriorate beyond recognition in this generation. Naivasha's spectacular wildlife, including the densest population of African fish eagles on the continent, are paying the price for the lake's economic and tourist allure. To the north, Lake Bogoria has witnessed a sudden die-off of lesser flamingoes and Lake Baringo has chocolate-brown water from soil erosion. Are Rift Valley lake ecosystems unraveling?

Bahamian Reef Survey

In the 21st century, coral reefs are at serious risk of decline if current trends in climate change, coastal development, and other environmental stressors continue. One of the biggest problems is coral bleaching, when symbiotic algae living within the colonial animals are tossed out during environmental stress, leaving the coral colorless and without nutrition. If prolonged, bleaching kills coral with drastic impacts on marine biodiversity, fisheries, tourism, and shore protection. Also, there are coral diseases, which have been increasing with alarming regularity. Scientists John Rollino, Dr. Garriet Smith, and Thomas McGrath are in their 14th year of their search for better understanding of the reefs and the causes of coral afflictions.

Pantanal Otters

The Pantanal's abundance of otters is of growing interest to visitors to the area, who have their own impact on the ecosystem, and otters are among the most popular animal sights. Recent studies in neighboring Peru indicate that otters are highly sensitive to human disturbance and that poorly managed human visitors can result in degraded habitat and decreased numbers of otters. The Pantanal is the home of two coexisting species of otters, the neotropical river otter (Lontra longicaudis) and the giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), both of which are endangered and poorly known.

Costa Rican Sea Turtles

For over 65 million years, leatherback sea turtles have migrated the earth's oceans. Their habitat spans the globe from the North Atlantic near the Arctic Circle to the South Pacific around New Zealand. They are the largest living marine reptiles, with a shell length of 6-8 feet and weigh between 650 - 1,200 pounds. The leatherback sea turtle may live for up to 40 years. In 1980 there were over 115,000 adult females, but now there are fewer than 25,000 worldwide. In the Pacific Ocean, the leatherback sea turtles are close to extinction.

Origins of Angkor

Ancient settlements dot rural Thailand, many of them large and complex enough to indicate sophisticated social organization, technology, and trade as early as 2000 B.C. Historians typically attribute the rise of the magnificent Angkor civilization to external, especially Indian, influences. But Drs. Charles Higham, Nigel Chang and Rachanie Thorsarat believe that scholars have underrated the sophistication of Southeast Asia's indigenous culture.

Video - Teams Explore Roots of Angkor Civilization

Sri Lanka's Temple Monkeys

Sri Lanka's Temple Monkeys
Photo © Copyright David Barron/oxygengroup

Toque macaques are medium-sized, brightly colored, and socially active monkeys. Dr. Wolfgang Dittus and colleagues have been studying these monkeys in the Nature Sanctuary and Archaeological Reserve for the past 36 years, making it one of the world's longest-running primate behavior studies. For all the macaques born since 1968, they know the identities, birthdays, kinships, and a whole detective's dossier of other details about these toque macaques. Dittus's research is clarifying the relationships among the monkeys' ecology, behavior, environment, heredity, social standing, and disease, in influencing individual survival and reproduction.

Malaysian Bat Conservation

Since the mid 1990s, Malaysia has been losing its rainforests at a rate of 2.4 percent a year to logging, agriculture, and resort development; and with the rainforest, Malaysia is losing bats. Rainforest bats are adapted just for forest living: Their short, rounded wings allow them to weave in and out of dense vegetation and their sophisticated echolocation allows them to home in on insects in the dense vegetation. Today, 31 species in Malaysia are listed on the IUCN Red List of threatened and endangered species. Not only are bats a key component of Malaysian biodiversity, but they also provide valuable pollination and seed-dispersal services and do a booming business in insect-removal.

Projects visited by Arsen, Jamie and Tyler but not shown in the final film.

Grey Whale Migrations: Mexico

Gray whales were the first great whales to be removed from the endangered species list, but their future is by no means certain. They typically spend their summers feeding in the plankton-rich waters of the Bering and Chuckchi Seas and winters in the warm lagoons off Baja California, where their calves are born. But recent evidence suggests that some of these whales are feeding in the winters and mating in the fall, challenging the assumptions underlying gray whale conservation plans. Dr. William Megill, Dr. Lei Lani Stelle, and colleagues are taking a new look at how much gray whales are eating at each end of the migration, and what impact varying prey abundance will have on the whales.

A Year on Earth Photo Gallery from this project

Video - Grey Whales Missing from North Pacific Feeding Grounds

Wildlife of the Mongolian Steppe

The largest mountain sheep in the world, with impressive, spiraling horns, argali inhabit the cold, arid grasslands and mountains of central Asia. These majestic mammals appear to be declining and are listed as threatened or endangered throughout their range. Mongolia's democratization a decade ago has led to rising livestock levels and an increase in poaching, both by subsistence hunters for meat and commercial hunters for horns used in traditional Chinese medicine. Legal trophy hunting adds to the mortality, and the high fees hunters pay have so far contributed almost nothing to the conservation of argali populations.

A Year on Earth Photo Gallery from this project

Climate Change in the Rainforest

The Earth is headed for warmer conditions than it has experienced in thousands of years, with potentially catastrophic impacts on areas of high biodiversity such as Queensland's unique rainforest. Models predict that local temperatures will rise about 3.5 degrees centigrade in the next century, resulting in a nearly 50 percent extinction rate among endemic species and a dramatic decline in the distribution of surviving species. A lifting cloud base caused by climate change, called "cloud stripping," is already evident and in other parts of the world has lead to amphibian declines and birds shifting their ranges higher into the mountains.

A Year on Earth Photo Gallery from this project

Crocodiles of Cuba

American crocodiles range from southern Florida to Peru, but these impressive, aquatic reptiles, growing to a length of five meters, are not considered common. Crocodiles have struggled to survive, against the threats of hunting and wetland destruction. The American crocodile's largest population in the world is here, a patchwork of mangrove swamp, estuaries, palm savannahs, and tropical hardwood forest in eastern Cuba. Their high population density, with more than 300 nests concentrated on six small beaches, makes this population ideal for a study of American crocodile natural ecology and behavior.

A Year on Earth Photo Gallery from this project