The Environment Chronicle

Notable environmental events between 2017 and 2017 Deselect

  1. Lichen of the Year 2017 is the Variospora flavescens.

  2. Moss of the Year 2017 is the Comb-moss (Ctenidium molluscum).

  3. Bird of the Year 2017 is the tawny owl or brown owl(Strix aluco).

  4. The Franconian Forest in Northern Bavaria, Germany was chosen as Forest of the Year 2017.

  5. Butterfly of the Year 2017 is the Pale Clouded Yellow (Colias hyale).

  6. The slow worm (Anguis fragilis) is the reptile of the year 2017.

  7. Insect of the year 2017 is the praying mantis (Mantis religiosa).

  8. Wild bee of the year 2017 is the large scarbius bee (Andrena hattorfiana).

  9. Diaphanoeca grandis is the Protozoan of the Year 2017.

  10. Poisonous plant of the year 2017 is the bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis).

  11. Animal of the Year 2017 is the hazel dormouse or common dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius).

  12. Algal researchers nominated the Blue-Green Rock Dweller Chroococcidiopsis for the alga of the year 2017. The single celled organism lives inside rocks and lichens, survives extreme climatic conditions and makes hostile environments accessible – today and most likely thousands of millions of years ago as well. While doing so, it paved the way for plants and animals. The blue-green rock dweller, belonging to the cyanobacteria lives like all algae, from sunlight, and is of great interest to ecologists, biotechnologists, and desert- and space researchers.

  13. Mollusc of the year 2017 ist the round-mouthed snail (Pomatias elegans).

  14. In the past the Förderkreis Sporttauchen e.V. selected the water plant of the year. Since 2011 the national divers' associations of Germany, Austria and Switzerland resume this task. The European white water lily is the water plant of the year 2017.

  15. Microbe of the Year 2017 is the Halobacterium salinarum. Halobacterium salinarum is a model organism for the halophilic branch of the archaea. It is rod-shaped, motile, lives in highly saline environments, and is one of the few species known that can live in saturated salt solutions.

  16. The average Arctic sea ice extent was 8.6 percent below the 1981-2010 average for January 2017, and the average Antarctic sea ice extent was 22.8 percent below the 1981-2010 average. For both regions this was the smallest January sea ice extent since the satellite record began in 1979. 

  17. Laboratory animal of the year 2016 is the rat.

  18. On 22 March 2017, the Global Nature Fund announced, the choice of the Lake Steinhude in Lower Saxony, Germany as Living Lake of the Year 2017.

  19. Flower of the Year 2018 is the common poppy (Papaver rhoeas).

  20. Orchid of the Year 2017 is the White Helleborine (Cephalanthera damasonium).