Earthweek: A Diary of the Plant (August 30, 2013)

Pumping Midwest Dry
A vast Midwest groundwater reserve that lies beneath eight U.S. states is being drained so rapidly for agriculture and other activities that it could be mostly used up within 50 years, researchers warn.  A team from Kansas State University found that a portion of the High Plains Aquifer, called the Ogallala Aquifer, will be nearly 70 percent drained by 2060 if current use and recent climate conditions prevail until then.  Once depleted, the aquifer could take between 500 and 1,300 years to completely refill, given current rainfall patterns.  But the researchers say that if reducing water use becomes an immediate priority, it could still be possible to use the aquifer's resources and increase net agricultural production through the year 2110.
Sandy Shrtfall
The Sunshine State's 633 miles of tourist-attracting beaches are beginning to suffer from a shortage of sand unlike anything ever seen before.  For decades, constant erosion by tides, hurricanes and other forces has been replaced with offshore sand sucked up from the nearby ocean floor.  But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers warns that even that source is running out in some spots.  Miami-Dade County will use up its offshore resources by next Feburary.  And since the "Sun and Fun Capital of the World's beaches are key to its tourist-driven economy, officials are considering trucking in sand from mines in central Flordia.  Neighboring Broward County is considering the use of crushed glass as a source of fake sand.  But some worry it won't have the same sparkle or allure as the fine silica created by Mother Nature.  Other states have used recycled glass, but mainly to cover small areas like sand traps on golf courses.
Howling Respect
Wolves howl because they care about pack mates who are away, Austrian scientists have discovered.  When individual captive wolves were removed from their pack for long daily walks, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna found that those left behind would individually call out more when they had a stronger relationship with the missing pack mate.  This was especially true if the absent wolf had a higher social ranking.  The howling rate was found to be directly related to how much "quality time" the howler and the missing wolf had spent together.  Since the amount of howling was found to not be related to the level of the stress hormone cortisol, researchers concluded that the vocalizations are used to "maintain contact and perhaps to aid in reuniting with allies."
Tropical cyclones
Tropical Storm Fernand triggered  landslides and flooding in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz that killed at least 13 people.
*   Southern Baja California received heavy rain and strong winds from tropical storms Ivo and Juliette, which passed only a few days apart.
*   Tropical Storm Kong-Rey drenched already-soaked parts of Taiwan and southern Japan.
Earthquakes
The English seaside city of Blackpool was jolted by a rare quake, centered just offshore beneath the Irish Sea.  The 3.3 magnitude tremor was felt as far away as Dublin and northern Wales.
*   Earth movements were also felt in northeastern New York, northern Nevada, northern India and along China's Sichuan-Yunnan border.
Atacama Flurry
An area known as one of the driest places on Earth received a rare snowfall and flood-producing rains, which were reportedly the heaviest in three decades.  Some parts of Chile's Atacama Desert have never recorded any rainfall, while the region's average annual precipitation is only about 0.6 inches.  The desert is parched because nearly all the moisture blowing in from the Pacific is blocked by the Andes mountain range to the west.  The cold waters of the Humboldt Current offshore also produce a generally arid zone.  But a bitterly cold Antarctic blast that chilled much of southern South America during late August also brought in enough moisture from the south to trigger the snow and brief downpours in the Atacama.
Roach Escape
At least 1.5 million cockroaches escaped a breeding facility in eastern China's Jiangsu province, infesting nearby farmland and homes.  The province's board of health investigators are at a loss on how to rid the region of the pests.  Wang Pengsheng began raising the insects so their extracts could be sold as a traditional Chinese medicine treatment for cancer and inflammation, and to allegedly improve immunity.  He had been raising the roaches on a diet of fruits and biscuits when something destroyed the plastic greenhouses he was using for the enterprise.  The Nanjing-based Modern Express reports that the escaped hexapods would damage their crops and bring diseases.  Local authorities were working to calm those fears.