Practical and portable, this is the ultimate field guide to the world’s cetaceans. This is the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date guide to whales, dolphins and porpoises. Containing more than 500 accurate illustrations – complete with detailed annotations pointing out the most significant field marks – this new field guide covers all 93 species and every subspecies in the world.
The informative text, produced in collaboration with many of the world’s most respected whale biologists, is accompanied by distribution maps, size demonstrations, dive sequences and additional information such as comparisons of silhouettes and illustrations of barnacles, lice and callosities.
Cetacean expert Mark Carwardine kindly took the time to discuss this new field guide with us, discussing how the outlook for cetaceans has changed since he first began to study them, why he chose to use illustrations over photographs and what he is working on now.
What inspired you to write this new field guide and how does it differ from your previous handbook?
The Handbook of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises was the culmination of a life’s work, really, and took six years to research and write. It was designed as a comprehensive reference book to be used at home or in the office – and, consequently, weighs almost as much as a small porpoise. The pocket-sized Field Guide to Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises is an abbreviated (and fully updated) version, focusing more on identification, and it has been designed specifically to take into the field. Since our knowledge of cetaceans has improved so much, with new behaviour and many new species described in recent years, previous field guides (my own included) are drastically out of date. I think a new guide was desperately needed.
Your book includes a number of threatened species, including the functionally extinct Yangtze river dolphin and the vaquita, many of which we may lose entirely over the next decade. How has the outlook for whales, dolphins and porpoises changed since you first started to study cetaceans?
There’s no doubt that for many cetacean species, if not most, the outlook is worse than it was when I started working in this field. Some – the humpback whale is a good example – are doing surprisingly well, against all odds. But many others are not. The vaquita, we believe, is down to the last 10 individuals and is almost certainly the next (after the Yangtze river dolphin) doomed to extinction. Sadly, though, it’s not alone. The North Atlantic right whale comes to mind – there are fewer than 350 survivors and, with numbers continuing to decline, we fear for its future. Countless others are on the verge of extinction or have all but disappeared from many of their former haunts. Sometimes, I am surprised that any survive at all, given the shocking number of threats they face, such as commercial whaling and other forms of hunting, myriad conflicts with fisheries, pollution, habitat degradation and disturbance, underwater noise, entanglement in or ingestion of marine debris, ship strikes and climate change.
This field guide is full of beautiful and detailed illustrations. Why did you choose to include these rather than photographs?
I prefer the use of illustrations in field guides, because I think they demonstrate the key identification features more effectively. Also, there is a huge amount of variation within each species of cetacean – geographical variations, races and sub-species etc – and good photographs do not exist of many of the most critical ones!
Relatively little is known about the population estimates or trends of many of the species listed in this book. Why do you think this is the case, and is there ongoing research taking place to fill these knowledge gaps?
It’s true to say that our knowledge of cetaceans has grown from virtually nothing to just a little bit – despite decades of wild whale research. They are incredibly difficult animals to study, because they spend most of their lives underwater, often live far out to sea and regularly travel vast distances. They are even more difficult to count. I take people to see the friendly grey whales in San Ignacio Lagoon, Mexico, every year and we have fun trying to estimate the number of whales within the relatively small lagoon. Everyone comes up with wildly different numbers. Just imagine trying to estimate the number of minke whales, for example, in the North Atlantic. In some cases, a species is so rare that we know every individual and have an accurate population size. But in many cases it’s an informed guesstimate. The key thing is to be able to compare these guesstimates from time to time and place to place to get relative population trends. And, with some exceptions, I do think we have a pretty good idea about which species are declining and which are doing relatively well.
Minke whale with a satellite tag, image by Oregon State University via Flickr
Is there anything that you are currently working on or do you have any plans for future projects that you would like to tell us about?
Well, I’ll never stop spending as much time with whales, dolphins and porpoises as possible! And I’ll be keeping the field guide up-to-date, of course, for future editions. But I’ve also been working on a book closer to home, called RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds, which will be out early next year (to tie in with the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch). It started as an excuse during lockdown to photograph my own garden birds but, as I developed and discovered more tricks and techniques, it gradually turned into a book. One thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to travel to far-flung corners of the world to take great pictures of wildlife. Indeed, some of the most memorable and eye-catching images I’ve ever seen – especially while judging umpteen wildlife photography competitions over the years – have been of common and familiar species taken close to home. Yet these more ‘ordinary’ subjects tend to be ignored by many photographers. They are considered too obvious or insufficiently compelling (although I’ve never understood why because, by any standard, many of our garden birds are strikingly beautiful). While there are countless awe-inspiring images of polar bears and humpback whales, when was the last time you saw a truly inspirational image of a house sparrow or a robin, for example? Exactly. Hopefully, that’s where this book will help and inspire.
In the Spring 2022 issue of Conservation Land Management (CLM) Dr Helen Rees, Director of the Biotechnology group at ADAS, provides an introduction to environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis and its potential uses in conservation. Here you can read a summary of the article.
Animals naturally shed DNA into the environment via, for example, faeces, saliva, urine and skin cells, and this DNA (collectively known as eDNA), can be extracted from environmental samples, such as water, sediment and soil, for genetic analysis. It is possible to screen for species-specific DNA in these samples, and its successful detection determines the recent presence of the target species at the site from which the sample was collected. eDNA analysis therefore offers a non-invasive method for ecological surveys, and as DNA can persist in the environment from a few days to a couple of weeks, it can be used to indicate that a species has visited a site even after it has moved on.
Pros and cons of the technique
30ml ladle used to collect water samples. Image credit: Claire Baker
One of the main advantages of eDNA analysis is that the target species does not have to be caught, disturbed or even seen to get a positive identification. Not only is this method less invasive for the animal, but it also saves the surveyor a great deal of time in the field when monitoring species that are elusive, rare or require a licence to survey. It can also be a cost-effective method in comparison to traditional techniques, mainly due to the simplicity of collecting samples and the low-cost sampling equipment used.
eDNA analysis has proven to be a robust technique, but errors can occur. If there is any cross contamination between samples either in the field or the laboratory, for instance, this can lead to false-positive results, and so a carefully controlled laboratory set up is imperative to prevent contamination during the different stages of eDNA analysis.
How eDNA analysis is used – great crested newts
Water samples added to tubes of preserving fluid. Image credit: Claire Baker
One of the most well-known examples of how eDNA is being used in the UK is for the detection of the great crested newt. A study commissioned by Natural England and led by the Freshwater Habitats Trust demonstrated a detection rate of 99% for eDNA testing, but only 76%, 75% and 44% for bottle trapping, torching and egg searching respectively. eDNA techniques are particularly useful when used on ‘borderline’ ponds where the presence of great crested newts is unlikely based on the habitat. In this instance, a negative eDNA result quickly confirms this assumption, but traditional bottle-trapping/torching surveys would need to be repeated multiple times to confirm that newts are absent.
In the full article Helen describes how eDNA analysis works behind the scenes in the laboratory, including an explanation of how the polymerase chain reaction – a key part of eDNA analysis – works and how its results are interpreted. The advantages and drawbacks of using eDNA are discussed in greater detail, and further examples of how this technique is applied to the survey of other species are also given.
Image credit: Helen Rees
ADAS eDNA kits
NHBS has partnered with ADAS to provide you with the kits and analysis you need for the 2022 season. ADAS is the only laboratory to correctly identify all samples in every great crested newt eDNA proficiency test to date, and can also provide analysis to identify bat species from collected droppings. A range of services are available under a tiered pricing system to ensure that you get your results when you need them. Take a look at the kit options below to find out more.
Other articles featured in the Spring 2022 issue include:
Habitat translocations: risks, advantages and key considerations, by John Box
Conserving breeding goldeneye in Scotland through nestbox construction, by Peter Cosgrove, Kate Massey, Dawn Anderson and Donald Shields
Godney Marshes: small-scale rewilding in the Somerset Levels, by Alasdair Cameron
Consideration for tree management in urban areas, by Steve Cox
Review: Author’s update – The new Environmental Land Management scheme
In this and every issue you can expect to see Briefing, keeping you up to date with the latest training courses, events and publications, and On the ground which provides helpful tips or updates on products relevant to land management. Other features that regularly appear in CLM include Viewpoint, a similar length to our main articles, but here authors can voice their own views on various conservation issues, and Review, which can include letters from readers or updates from our authors.
CLM is published four times a year in March, June, September and December, and is available by subscription only, delivered straight to your door. Subscriptions start from £22 per year. Previous back issues are also available to purchase individually (subject to availability).
If you are involved in a conservation project and think your experiences could be useful to other practitioners, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in writing for CLM feel free to contact us – we will be happy to discuss your ideas with you.
In 2019, the most comprehensive survey ever of adders was published. According to ‘Make the Adder Count’ the species will disappear from most of Britain in the next 15-20 years unless we take action now. But despite being a priority conservation species under the Biodiversity Action Plan, not a single nature reserve in Britain has been specifically designated to protect adders. The Secret Life of the Adder contains a 10-point action plan which, if implemented, could help to restore the adder to its former range across Britain. With a foreword by BBC’s Iolo Williams, this book is a story of our time, one which typifies the age of extinction through which we are all living and are all responsible.
Author Nicholas Milton recently took the time to discuss his new book with us, explaining the inspiration behind it, his opinion on current ecological guidelines and his advice to naturalists that might want to get involved in reptile monitoring.
Could you tell us a bit about your background and what inspired you to write The Secret Life of the Adder: The Vanishing Viper?
I graduated with a degree in Environmental Science in 1989, and then worked in the environmental movement. My first job was with the RSPB and afterwards I worked for the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (now sadly defunct), The Wildlife Trusts and Greenpeace. I’ve been fascinated by adders since childhood and at the RSPB I was lucky enough to spend time with the late Ian Prestt. As well as being the Director of the RSPB, Ian was also a leading authority on adders (his M.Sc. was on vipers as he liked to call them). Every week we would go looking for adders and he taught me a lot about them. Sadly, Ian passed away in 1995 and since then the adder population has crashed. This was confirmed in 2019 when the most comprehensive survey ever of adders was published. ‘Make the Adder Count’ showed that the species will disappear from most of Britain in the next 15-20 years, so I decided that in Ian’s memory I had to do something about it. The book is my attempt to conserve the species using a 10-point adder action plan, and wake up the government, its nature conservation agencies, the media and the public to its plight before it is too late.
Credit: Nicholas Milton
As well as authoring this book, you work as a freelance journalist for a variety of publications. Among your work are articles promoting the conservation and public image of the adder. How have you found the reception of such pieces?
It’s not easy to make the case for a venomous snake in Britain because we live in a small and crowded island with increasingly little space for wildlife. Every year there are a plethora of completely irresponsible adder ‘horror’ stories in the media which reinforce the mistaken impression that the adder is a dangerous species. No one has died from an adder bite in over 40 years and these stories rarely, if ever, mention that the species is on the verge of extinction. In reality the adder is a shy and sensitive snake which will always avoid interaction with people unless it is molested. The good news is attitudes towards adders are slowly changing, spearheaded by organisations like the Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK and the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust who do fantastic work telling people about how wonderful adders are and conserving their remaining colonies.
There are many beautiful photographs in The Secret Lives of Adders, a notable majority of which have been taken in-situ. This is in contrast to images in many other herpetological titles. What were the reasons behind this decision?
I can’t claim credit for most of the images in the book which were taken by the photographer Roger McPhail. He very kindly donated them for free as he wanted to help conserve the species. By being taken in-situ the pictures really help to bring home how amazing adders really are.
Credit: Roger McPhail
In the first chapter, you give an overview of how our tumultuous relationship with reptiles and amphibians in the UK has changed over the last hundred years (and beyond). Do you feel that our native herpetofauna is sufficiently catered for in ecological guidelines today?
The history of the adder in Britain is sadly one of relentless persecution, from Biblical times to the point we have arrived at today where the species could be extinct across most of Britain in the next 15-20 years. There are a lot of good guides to our herpetofauna but not many address the difficult conservation issues facing our reptiles and amphibians, from climate change and persecution to the release of millions of non-native pheasants and uncontrolled dogs on nature reserves. I expect the book will prove quite controversial as it advocates a 10-point adder action plan which includes protecting in law all remaining adder sites, reporting sensational and negative news stories to the press regulator, banning dogs from sites where adders occur and making it illegal to release game birds within a mile of adder colonies.
Credit: Nicholas Milton
Over the course of your career you have written several books, including natural history titles and a historical biography. How does writing in two such different fields compare?
I love writing about history and wildlife – my first two books were ‘Neville Chamberlain’s Legacy’ which included his love of wildlife (his way of coping with Hitler was to go birdwatching in St. James’s Park) and the Role of Birds In World War Two (How Ornithology Helped To Win The War) which has just been published by Pen and Sword. History books require painstaking research and you are often working with a limited amount of material. In contrast with natural history books, you can access new research, talk to experts in the field and build in your own observations, allowing you to really write from the heart. What all the books have in common though is how important wildlife is to all of us in terms of our mental health and the solace it brings even in the most challenging times.
Chapter three – The Ecology of the Adder – gives a fascinating view into the lives of these enigmatic reptiles. What advice would you offer to naturalists who would like to proactively contribute to monitoring and/or conservation efforts, or just to observe them in the field?
Adders are truly amazing. They are our only venomous snake which means they hold a very special place in our wildlife – it would be a tragedy if they went extinct across most of Britain in our lifetime. While we know a lot about the secret life of adders from research, there is still much we need to learn about how our dwindling populations are reacting to new threats like climate change and the millions of pheasants we release into the countryside every year. So amateur naturalists can really help us by monitoring sites where they occur. Anyone who is interested in doing this should join the Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust or the British Herpetological Society and submit any sightings to Make the Adder Count.
Credit: Nicholas Milton
In chapter five – Conserving Adders – you mention the importance of rewilding to the recovery of adders. We hear plenty about reintroductions of beavers and birds of prey, but the movement’s potential benefits to our more overlooked wildlife can often be forgotten. How can rewilding projects help our reptiles?
Rewilding targeted to the right places could help adders a lot. Rewilding tends to be associated with high profile species but it is also a way of helping all our wildlife. In the case of adders, Make the Adder Count showed that 90% of the sites where adders now occur in Britain have 10 or less adult snakes. This makes them very vulnerable to any catastrophic event, such as the destruction of their hibernaculum and also genetic defects due to inbreeding. As sites are often isolated from other colonies, joining together the small and scattered populations must now be a conservation priority, particularly in those areas where the species is on the verge of local extinction.
Trophic interactions may prevent species from adapting quickly to climate change. A new study has found that predator-prey interactions cause some species, particularly large predators, to shift their ranges more slowly than changes in climate conditions. These large-bodied top predators will stay longer than smaller prey in historical habitats, partly because of the arrival of new food sources that have already shifted their ranges. Thus, they continue to occupy areas where the conditions mean they are less likely to thrive, potentially reducing growth and reproduction rates.
New discoveries
The first evidence of meningitis is Greenland sharks has been found. A stranded shark, thought to be around 100 years old, was found in March of this year. A post-mortem was carried out and showed that her brain contained a type of Pasteurella bacterium, which likely caused the meningitis. This rare occurrence is an exceptional opportunity for scientists to learn about this cryptic and endangered species, which usually occupies waters up to 2,600m below the surface of the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. In other shark news, several major brands have been found to sell cat food that contains protected and vulnerable sharks, including silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis). Researchers found that 31% of the 144 samples from 45 cat food products contained shark meat.
A number of new or rediscovered species have been found recently, including a tropical plant species (Gasteranthus extinctus) found in Ecuador, believed to be extinct for almost 40 years, and six of the world’s smallest frogs, which have been discovered in Mexico. These frogs, part of the Craugastor genus, may be classed as endangered, with calls for them to be better protected as they face a number of threats, including habitat damage and chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease that is severely impacting amphibian populations across the world.
Policies
Dogger Bank, the UK’s largest sandbank, has been given protection from bottom trawling. Despite being labelled as a Marine Protected Area (MPA), the occurrence of bottom trawling at this site has tripled over the last few years. This activity has serious environmental impacts, through the destruction of seabed habitats, the release of carbon usually stored in the sediment and the disturbance of marine species that rely on these areas. Now, four bylaws have been introduced, coming into effect in June, which will ban bottom trawling in Dogger Bank, as well as Inner Dowsing, Race Bank and North Ridge. However, there is criticism that only four of 64 offshore benthic MPAs are receiving this protection and only parts of Inner Dowsing are covered by the bylaws.
Conservation and ecology
Extinctions and habitat fragmentation may have contributed to the reduction in nutrient transport by wildlife. Stocks of phosphorus, a key ingredient used in fertilisers in modern agriculture, are diminishing. A new study has shown that, historically, wildlife transported a large proportion of phosphorus back to the land after it was washed into rivers and out into the ocean. With reduced species abundance and the erection of man-made structures such as dams and fences blocking natural migration routes, this process is being hindered, potentially creating an impending shortage of fertilisers. By restoring habitat connectivity and promoting biodiversity, these natural pathways may be mended.
In the lead up to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November of last year, as well as the months that have followed, we have been writing a series of articles looking at some of the toughest global climate crisis challenges that we are currently facing. This article looks at the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, their impacts, and how they are affected by climate change.
Storm damage from Storm Emma at Holyhead marina, Wales in 2018 by Hefin Owen via Flickr
What are extreme weather events and why do they occur?
Extreme weather events can be split into four categories: geophysical (i.e. tsunami), meteorological (i.e. storms, tornadoes), hydrological (i.e. floods) and climatological events (i.e. extreme temperatures, drought, wildfires). They are usually defined as unusual, unexpected, unseasonal or severe weather. This extreme weather often has a significant impact on us and the environment, causing damage, loss of livelihood and even loss of life.
There is debate as to how much climate change is responsible for our changing weather patterns. There are a variety of causes for extreme weather, including tectonic plate shifts, changes in air pressure or movement, ocean temperatures, atmospheric moisture content, the reflection rate of solar radiation and even the tilt and orbit of the Earth. These are natural variations that cause naturally occurring extreme weather, therefore, the occurrence or even intensity of these events cannot only be blamed on climate change.
How does climate change affect extreme weather events?
Many studies on weather events around the world have connected the increase in intensity and frequency of extreme heat, drought and rainfall to human influence. The picture is more complex for tropical storms (hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones). It is expected that these events will become more intense due to human influences, such as sea-level rise and anthropogenic warming. It is thought that these tropical storms will occur less frequently, however, although there is no consensus.
The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases due to human activities is causing an increase in average global temperatures. This leads to other impacts, such as glacial and sea ice melting, which is affecting the global ocean circulation. This circulation acts as a conveyor belt, transporting cold water from the poles to the equator and warmer water and precipitation from the tropics back to the poles. A disrupted circulation, for instance due to the weakening of the Gulf Stream, could cause extreme weather events such as far colder winters in western Europe.
Actions such as deforestation can also cause changes in extreme weather events, as removing large sections of forest can impact the movement of water in the atmosphere. This can change precipitation patterns both locally and globally – if occurring on a large enough scale. Increased precipitation can cause flooding, whereas a decrease in rainfall can lead to drought. For more information, check out our previous Climate Challenges article on the local and global implications of deforestation and its relation to climate change.
Increasing land temperatures may push ecosystems to the brink of collapse. High land surface temperatures in Europe on 25th July 2019 by European Space Agency via Flickr
What are the impacts of extreme weather events?
The damage from extreme weather events to both humans and the environment can be catastrophic. Beyond the direct loss of life, there is an impact on livelihoods, homes and other buildings, roads and infrastructure. The costs of these events can be incredibly high, and it can take years or even decades for areas and countries to recover from the worst of these events. This will only get worse as they become more intense and more frequent, as there will be more damage and less time to recover between events. During February of this year, a series of successive storms, including Dudley, Eunice and Franklin, brought widespread damage, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and millions of pounds in repair and clean-up costs.
Many cities are not built to withstand weather conditions outside of the norm for the area and, therefore, may not have the infrastructure in place to deal with certain extreme weather events. This was evident during the 2021 snowstorm in Texas, United States, where the state’s power supply was not equipped to deal with the record low temperatures. This led to many power outages for over 5 million people, with the total loss of life reported as 210 people.
Environmentally, habitats can be impacted. They can be altered or even destroyed, leading to the extinction of many species that are unable to rapidly adapt, particularly if their distribution is already restricted. It is usually generalist, resilient species that are able to adapt and survive this level of disturbance, therefore specialist species are more likely to become extinct. After a major disturbance event, ecological succession can take place and species recolonise the area. This phenomenon begins with pioneer species, such as plants, lichens or fungi, and the animals that rely on them, before developing in complexity to a stable ‘climax community’. This habitat can be vastly different from the original, depending on the species that survived the original event and those nearby that can recolonise the area. The climax community can also take decades or even centuries to develop, therefore the biodiversity of the area may be reduced or altered for an extended period of time.
Successive storms during winter in late 2015 to early 2016 caused widespread flooding across Great Britain and Ireland. Image by Andrew Gustar via Flickr
What can be done?
Similarly to many of the climate challenges in this series, the solution relies on limiting the rise of global average temperatures. This can be achieved through a combination of methods, many of which were discussed at the COP26 in November 2021. Some of these methods, such as switching to renewable energies and moving towards more sustainable agriculture, are already underway in the UK.
More work needs to be done, however, as even the 1.5°C limit in the rise in global average temperature that the Paris Agreement is aiming for could still have a huge impact on the climate. At 1.5°C, 14% of the world’s population will be exposed to severe heatwaves at least every five years. Rainfall will become more erratic, leading to more flooding, droughts, and reduced water availability. Extreme weather events will be more likely to occur and at a higher intensity.
While the impacts of a 1.5°C rise are thought to be less than those of a 2°C rise, they will still be devastating to many countries and people. And so it is key that countries begin to build resilience against extreme weather, support those most vulnerable and begin to protect and restore habitats. Countries were asked to produce an ‘adaptation communication’ for COP26, outlining what they are currently doing and their future plans to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Changes in wind patterns due to climate change could increase the amount of extreme snow that parts of Britain receive. Snowfall in Riverside, Cardiff, South Wales by Jeremy Segrott via Flickr
COP26 pledges
Following COP26, 90% of the world’s economy is now striving for net zero emissions, with many aiming for 2050; over 100 world leaders signed both The Glasgow Leader’s Declaration on Forest and Land Use and the Global Methane Pledge; and more than 40 countries signed the Coal Pledge, which aims for nations to move away from coal power by the 2030s for major economies and 2040s for developing countries. In addition, multiple countries, companies, philanthropic foundations and international development banks pledged funding to move away from financing fossil fuels and towards renewable energies.
While there are a number of faults with some of these pledges, with criticism over the perceived lack of strict accountability, a peer-reviewed study has found that these new policies could help to keep global warming below 2°C. This will hopefully limit the impact of climate change on extreme weather events, but to keep within the target of 1.5°C, far more needs to be done. The IPCC announced that emissions would need to peak before 2025 and significantly decline by 2030. Read more about the outcomes of COP26 in our blog: Climate Challenges: COP26 Round Up.
Summary
Extreme weather events are unusual, unexpected, unseasonal or severe weather. They can cause massive damage and destruction to both us and the environment.
Due to climate change, many extreme weather events may become more frequent and more intense. This will cause more damage and allow less time to recover, potentially pushing both communities and ecosystems beyond the point they can survive.
The solutions rely on reducing the rise in global average temperatures by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
Even at a rise of 1.5 degrees, the impact of extreme weather could increase. Therefore, a strategy of adaptation and protection for those most vulnerable is needed.
The policies and pledges signed at COP26 last year may be enough to keep global average temperatures below 2°C, but far more is needed to limit the rise to 1.5°C.
Otherlands is the exquisite portrayal of the last 500 million years of life on Earth. Palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday takes readers on an exhilarating journey into deep time, interweaving science and creative writing to bring to life the unimaginably distant worlds of Earth’s past. Each chapter is an immersive voyage into a series of ancient landscapes, throwing up mysterious creatures and the unusual landscapes they inhabit.
Thomas Halliday has kindly taken the time to answer a few questions for us below.
Could you begin by explaining what you mean by ‘otherlands’? How did your fascination with these ‘otherlands’ begin and what drew you to write about this?
The word ‘otherlands’ came about in trying to come up with a title that reflected some level of familiarity and strangeness. It falls somewhere between the idea of something being ‘otherworldly’, but also recalls ‘motherland’ – a safe, familiar home. I think all palaeobiologists, whatever subdiscipline they are part of, have the shared goal of understanding how life used to be. Biomechanists might concentrate on the engineering of a skeleton to understand the behaviours it would have been capable of, and phylogeneticists are interested in how living things are related and changed over time, but all of it adds up into a picture of past life. I’ve always been more interested in big picture, ecological questions rather than the minutiae of anatomy – as important as anatomical knowledge is – and so writing through an ecological lens made most sense to me. In essence, it’s just putting down on paper what we as a community have discovered about life at different points, which is a useful exercise in bringing together science from groups who don’t necessarily read one anothers’ papers. I can’t visit these places except through some creative process – whether that’s a painting, an animation, or text. And I can’t paint or animate.
It is a great feat of work to bring Earth’s deep past to life and to render the unseeable things seeable through prose. How did you approach such an immense task from not only a literary perspective, but a philosophical and scientific perspective too?
Every site in the book has some kind of layout in my mind. It may be known to a fairly high degree of accuracy scientifically – the extent of the playa lake in Moradi, just over 250 million years ago in what is now Niger – is sketched out in papers on that site, so we can get an estimate of how big it was, and which way the water was flowing from. In others, our knowledge is a bit more generic but I have a mental map of where the different beats take place. The line of the story in each place moves through that space, which means that I can be consistent in timing, sights and so on. I think this internal consistency of a place is essential to making it seem immersive. Most of the actual visual descriptions of the animals and plants I use, though in my own words, are no more detailed or evocative than those of other writers, so if I have managed to create a better sense of things being ‘seeable’, as you suggest, then I think that it is everything else around it that make the scene believable. If the scene has been describing the smell of a limestone cave, that colours the subsequent description of the next animal, because mentally you begin to frame it as seen while emerging into the light. We experience an environment through all our senses, and so appealing to those other aspects of reality brings out the realness of an organism.
Credit: Penguin Random House
One of the things I most appreciated about Otherlands was how you focus on landscapes, the settings that are necessary for life to evolve, versus our society’s sensationalised image of the prehistoric world that typically conjures up images of monstrous creatures. What is it that draws us to the dinosaurs compared to the often forgotten plants, fungi, invertebrates and other species?
I blame Gideon Mantell. Well, not really, but the early pioneers of popular geology at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century drew crowds because of the enormous creatures they could put on display. The first fossil animals to be displayed in sensationalist shows were mastodons – relatives of elephants – and giant ground sloths. You have to remember that this is a pre-Darwinian time, when extinction has only recently been recognised, and when the timescale of the age of the Earth is still very much debated. They drew in the crowds with claims of antediluvian monsters from some barbaric era, and I think a lot of the popular depictions of the past have remained since then. If you think of the most influential European and American artistic works featuring palaeontology over the last – Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, Disney’s Fantasia, all the way through the Ray Harryhausen B-movies to Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, there’s a common thread of violence and peril, which is undoubtedly a crowd-pleasing approach but doesn’t really reflect what biology is typically like.
That doesn’t quite explain why many fossil mammals or crocodilians, for instance, are poorly known by the public. Dinosaurs do have the advantage of being typically very large compared with the biggest land animals of today – and indeed the recent past – so if you’re going into a museum it’s a lot harder to miss the big Diplodocus than the display of fossil horsetails. There is something awe-inspiring in size, but I hope that people can take the time here to recognise the wonder in the very small things that are going around. I do of course have dinosaurs in the book, but because they have been covered so extensively, I didn’t want to deal with many of the clichés. There’s a dinosaur hunting for food, sure, but it ends in failure. The big tyrannosaur has a drink and scratches off some dandruff against a tree. There’s more to dinosaurs than violence.
I was struck by the level of detail that is revealed from the fossil record, to the point that we can know the presence of different types of insects based on the distinct ways in which they damage leaves. As you collated such an array of research for the book, were there any particular findings that captivated your imagination the most?
One piece of information that I really enjoyed learning about, just because of the implications throughout, was one that I picked up at a conference talk (and which has since been peer reviewed and published). Oviraptorosaurs are a group of dinosaurs that have been associated with nests for a long time. The name means ‘egg thief reptiles’ because it was initially assumed that they were eating the eggs, but more and more finds have accrued, including of parents sitting on the nests at the time of burial, that show that these are their own nests that they are caring for. We can reconstruct how the nests were built based on the arrangement of eggs and the nest mound – a ring of eggs was laid, and then buried, and another ring later added. But what is wholly remarkable is that we can chemically analyse the eggshells even now, and identify different isotopic ratios of calcium in each layer. The isotopic pattern is a sort of chemical signature that is tied to the individual mother that provided the raw material for the eggshell. What this means is that each nest contains the eggs of more than one mother. There are a couple of possible explanations for this, but the best modern example of communal nesting like this is in ostriches, where a single male builds and guards each nest, and several females lay eggs in the same nest. In ostriches, the males then rear the chicks once hatched – I don’t go so far as to claim this for oviraptorosaurs, as this could only be speculation, but I think the best examples of fossil record detail are those where a preserved detail of chemistry opens up a whole trove of behavioural implication.
Thomas Halliday. Credit: Desiree Adams, Penguin Random House
Scientist Robert H. Cowie writes: “Humans are the only species capable of manipulating the biosphere on a large scale. We are not just another species evolving in the face of external influences. In contrast, we are the only species that has conscious choice regarding our future and that of Earth’s biodiversity.” Speaking to this, how can our current epoch defined by destructive human influence be compared to these past worlds, and what lessons might be learned?
Our epoch is known as the Holocene, and makes up the last 11,700 years of geological time. Human environmental influence extends past the beginning of the Holocene, but recently it has been both accelerating and fundamentally changing in type. With deep ocean dredging and drilling, we are disturbing ecosystems that had until now never encountered us, plastic is pervading every part of the biosphere, we are altering the atmosphere globally, and our consumption of resources has boomed. When we look to the past, we find a few occasions when some similar traits can be observed. New chemicals in an environment – from oxygen in the single-celled earth of the Proterozoic to wood in the Carboniferous – have disturbed the balance of the world, but ultimately incorporated in fundamental processes. The Great Oxygenation Event is widely suggested to have caused a turnover in microbial communities as those oxygen-intolerant species retreated to environments this new toxic gas could not reach. The delay between the origin of wood and the development of lignin-digesting bacteria has been suggested as a reason for the preponderance of peat forming swamps in the Carboniferous, although this is disputed. Whatever the reason, the laying down of peat – and then coal – changed the atmosphere radically, which led to greater aridity worldwide, ultimately destroying the suitable environment for the very trees that had caused that change. But the biggest effect we are having is that of disturbance, and for that we have to look to mass extinction events for parallels. Earth has existed in all kinds of climatic states over its history, but mass extinctions have occurred during times of sudden transition. From the end-Ordovician, when glaciers rapidly advanced and retreated from the poles, to the end-Permian, when unfathomably large volcanic eruptions deoxygenated the oceans and threw greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, to the end-Cretaceous, when the aftermath of a meteorite impact darkened the skies for years, rapid change is typically bad. Although life eventually returns, it can take millions of years, and the species that thrive afterwards are rarely those that had thrived before.
Our effects are often extreme and rapid, and part of the problem is that they are done with a short-term mindset. Some human modifications – such as the pre-Columbian cultivation of the Amazon rainforest, the development of clam gardens, or well-managed meadowlands – have increased diversity locally, and are sustainable in the long term. We mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking that humans can only be destructive, or that we are separate from the ecosystems we live in. But, looking to the past, it is clear what the consequence of destructive behaviours is. This is the Earth we live in, and we are part of this world, but worlds can change in a moment.
This book is a timely reminder of the impermanence of life on Earth, evocatively revealing the fragility of our existence. As a researcher of the past, what do you see for our future?
People often assume that I might answer this question in terms of biology of life after humanity, or of the evolutionary direction humans are heading in. Although speculation can be fun, I don’t think that’s a useful way of thinking, because as Earth history shows us, the broad strokes of biology will remain the same. There will always be the same patterns of energy flow through ecosystems, and amazing adaptations to environments so complex that to form any predictions of the truly long term is futile. But we must think ahead to our immediate future. Nobody is suggesting that humankind will become extinct any time soon – we are too generalist, too adaptable to any environment to suffer that kind of loss. But that doesn’t mean that people, societies, cultures will not suffer under the environmental change that is already underway. And of course, portraying climate change as something that is future is itself untrue; we have been feeling the effects of climate change for decades already, especially those of us in low-lying island nations, those prone to storms, or dependent on seasonal ice. The effects will continue to accrue and to spread, but I remain optimistic that we will do what needs to be done – cease extraction of fossil fuels, move to a less all-consuming society, and support less wealthy countries in improving quality of life through renewable energy rather than repeat the errors we have repeatedly made. I am optimistic, and hopeful, but it is not something that will just happen. I see hard work, and that it will be entirely worth it.
Online wildlife trade in Myanmar is on the rise. A WWF report found that the enforcement of bans on the wildlife trade has weakened following a 2021 military takeover, with dealings increasing by 74% from 2020 to 2021. Over 173 species were traded, 54 of which are threatened with extinction. Future studies are planned to better understand the role Myanmar has in the global trade in endangered species.
There is hope for the red-tailed phascogale recovery program after a catastrophic population decline following the arrival of cats and foxes to Australia. Now found in just 1% of their original range, these small marsupials were once abundant across much of the country. Fourteen captive-bred individuals were released in the Mallee Cliffs National Park last week, joining 60 others released last year. It’s hoped that the refuge could eventually boost the national population by around 20%.
A critically endangered Sumatran rhino was born in Indonesia, the first ever in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park. There are estimated to be fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild, with only nine in captivity. This rhino calf is also a third-generation captive-born Sumatran rhino, which is the first ever recorded for this species, representing a hope for the future of this species.
A new use of genomic techniques is aiming to expand information on sharks’ recent history to help researchers assess how they may respond to climate change and pressures related to the fishing industry. In a study focusing on shortfin mako sharks (Isurus oxyrinchus), researchers collected more than 1,000 samples of jaws and vertebrae from museums, national fishery institutes and personal collections, spanning three centuries. Around half underwent genomic analysis, and the results showed that their genetic diversity has not reduced significantly in recent years, potentially due to high levels of connectivity between different populations allowing for continued gene flow. This is potentially a cause for optimism about the long term prospects of mako sharks.
The South West Marine Ecosystem conference series has been running for more than a decade, bringing together those involved in marine conservation, scientists and managers to share information to improve understanding, future monitoring and management.
This series of webinars on the state of the south-west’s seas presented a number of topics, including cetaceans, climate change, seals, south-west fisheries in 2021, marine and coastal birds, fish and turtles, oceanography and plankton, seashore and seabed, water quality and marine protected areas. These webinars give a well-rounded update on the south-west marine ecosystem, its processes, challenges and successes. We were very pleased to be able to support and attend this series of webinars. Below is a summary of some of the engaging and thought-provoking talks from what was an insightful and educational programme.
Seals:
The Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust (CSGRT), who work to survey, record and process data for the identification and monitoring of seals within the south-west, discussed the current state of the grey and common (harbour) seal populations in the region. The webinar highlighted the threats seals face in south-west waters, including entangling and disturbances. There was a large number of disturbances seen in 2021, with almost 1,500 seals affected. These disturbances can be caused by a number of human activities, including noisy walkers, dogs, beachgoers, kayaks, SUPs, small watercraft, commercial fishing boats and local trip boats. The impact of instances such as entanglement and disturbances are cumulative, having severe consequences on the survivability of seals.
Marine impact deniers, apathy, misconceptions and the general prioritisation of humans over wildlife seriously impact the conservation efforts for seals in the UK, but CSGRT are working to counteract this within the south west. Through conservation activities, censuses and public awareness campaigns, the CSGRT has managed to promote best practices amongst a number of companies to reduce their chances of causing disturbances. They have also been working with Natural England and National Trust to install trail cameras, checked and monitored by a local volunteer, to record the response of seals to the presence of people.
The south-west marine ecosystem is home to a vast number of seabirds. Regionally, there is also a mixed picture of the health of seabird populations, with population recovery and decline in different species across Lundy, the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset.
In 2021, RSPB staff and volunteers reassessed the abundance and distribution of cliff-nesting seabird populations on Lundy, forty years after the initial census in 1981. They found over 27,000 breeding seabirds on the island, mainly auks and Manx shearwaters. In 2000, the seabird population was approximately 6,000, but since the removal of rats in 2004 populations have been able to make an amazing recovery. Historically, however, the area supported around 80,000 birds, suggesting that further conservation efforts and surveys are needed.
In the Isles of Scilly, rat removal on certain islands has also contributed to an increase in some seabird numbers and breeding success, such as for the Manx shearwater. The number of breeding pairs of kittiwakes, however, has been declining over the last few decades, and last year, for the first time in living memory, there were no kittiwakes nesting on the Isles of Scilly.
In Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, certain seabirds are also declining, including a steep decline in the main wintering population of black-necked grebes in Carrick Roads, Cornwall. There is no obvious reason for this decline, as there are fewer disturbances and better management of the area. In Exmouth, Devon, occupied kittiwake nests have been increasing since 2000, but their breeding success has been reducing since 2018, from an average of 1.05 to 0.43 overall across all 3 plots monitored. In Dorset, several species are struggling, even with close management and conservation. On Chesil Beach, only 3 little tern chicks successfully fledged from 48 nests, 155 eggs and 102 chicks.
In the near future, there are several key areas that need addressing to help seabird conservation efforts in the south west. More standardised recording is needed in key estuarine sites, to ensure that there is proper data on populations such as the black-necked grebes. Additionally, there needs to be closer monitoring and increased take-up of nest recording for widespread seabirds, as well as management of possible tourism disturbance.
Seashore and Seabed:
Using information harvested from observations on social media and other sources, Keith Hiscock of the Marine Biological Association presented the state of the seashore and seabed of south-west seas in 2021. By comparing current sightings with previous records, such as the recording of Poecilochaetus serpens in 2021, where it was previously noted in 1902, the persistence of species and biodiversity within these areas can be analysed. They were able to see the gains and losses of species on the seashore and seabed, for example lower numbers of crawfish (Palinurus elephas) in areas where significant numbers had been seen in the last few years, and increases in abundance and extent of other species, including Zostera noltii and Z. marina.
They were also able to note the presence of new species within areas of the south west, including the Mediterranean feather duster worm (Sabella spallanzanii), and the increasing abundance and extent of non-native species, such as the Pacific oyster (Magallana gigas). The number of non-native species within south west waters has continued to grow, with the range and abundance of some species already present also increasing. The very slight increase in the presence of warm water species suggests that ocean warming is having an effect, but it is not having a marked impact on biota composition. Overall, this webinar called for a better process for the systematic recording of events and change in south-west seas.
Our thoughts
This year’s webinar programme was an enlightening insight into the ecosystem of the south west, as well as the ongoing conservation efforts undertaken by multiple different groups and volunteers across the region. For those who were unable to attend the live lectures this year, recordings of each are available on the South West Marine Ecosystems youtube channel. Further information about conferences can be found on their website, along with an archive of their previous conferences.
Grassland habitats are areas of vegetation dominated by grasses. Similarly to heathland, grassland can be divided into lowland and upland (above 200m). The type of sediment can also be used to classify grassland habitats, such as calcareous (lime-rich soils), acidic (sands, gravels and siliceous rocks) and neutral (clay and loam soils). They are often maintained by human intervention, through mowing, fertilising, drainage, burning or chemical treatments, as well as livestock grazing. They can also be maintained by natural processes such as grazing or browsing, or due to exposed conditions at the coast or at high altitudes where shrub and tree growth is limited.
Grassland can also be separated into unimproved, semi-improved and improved. This refers to the amount of agricultural interference in the habitat. Improved grasslands have undergone high modification or intensive agriculture, and thus typically have fewer species with a limited variety of grasses and flowering plants. (white clover, perennial ryegrass and other agricultural species usually cover more than 50% of improved grasslands). These habitats are covered more in-depth in another blog: The NHBS Introduction to Habitats: Farmland.
Semi-improved grassland is a transition category between improved and unimproved grasslands that have undergone some modification through the use of, for example, fertilisers, herbicides and grazing. These habitats have a reduced range of plant species compared to unimproved grassland but a wider diversity than improved grassland.
Unimproved grassland, also termed species-rich, has not been artificially fertilised, ploughed or reseeded. Grassland habitats are considered to be species-rich if they have more than fifteen plant species per square metre, a wildflower and sedge cover of more than 30% (excluding creeping buttercup, white clover and invasive weed species), and less than 10% cover of white clover and perennial ryegrass. Species-rich grassland habitats not only support a large number of flora species but also many fauna species such as invertebrates and birds. They improve and maintain the health of soils, protect against soil erosion, sequester carbon and provide food for browsing and grazing species such as deer and livestock.
Other examples of grassland habitats include lowland meadows, upland hay meadows, montane grasslands, purple moor-grass and rush pasture, marshy grassland, wet grassland and calaminarian grassland.
What species can you find here?
Flora
The number and type of flora species found in grasslands depends on the type and health of the habitat. Unimproved, species-rich habitats can support a huge variety of grasses, wildflowers and other vegetation. They all provide food and shelter for the many different fauna species that can be found in grasslands.
Grassland is dominated by grass cover and the species of grasses present can depend on factors such as soil type, altitude, level of agricultural improvement and maintenance routine. Crested dog’s-tail is found in many grassland habitats. It is a wiry, tufted grass that grows between 15–60 cm tall and is a traditional grazing grass. It is a common species that prefers lowland grassland and is the foodplant of many caterpillar species, such as the large skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus).
Another grass species is quaking-grass, with purple and green heart-shaped flower heads on delicate stems that appear to ‘quake’ or quiver in the breeze. Resembling miniature hops, this plant is also called totter grass, dithery dock, jiggle-joggles, earthquakes and toddling grass. The seeds of this species are a source of food for many bird species, such as yellowhammers and house sparrows.
Grasses are important foraging plants and their leaves and grain are eaten by a wide variety of species, such as small mammals, livestock, deer and many invertebrates. They also provide shelter and nesting materials, often used as the base or weaving material for many bird nests. Grasses can also help to stabilise the soil.
There are thousands of wildflower species in grassland habitats, providing an important nectar and pollen source for many invertebrate species. Cowslip favours dry, calcareous grassland, but is also found in woodland, hedgerows and road verges. It flowers from April to May and its yellow, bell-shaped flowers are encased in a long, green tube-shaped calyx and grow in clusters. The flowers all face one side of the plant and have five petals, each with a small indent on the top edge. Cowslip is particularly important as it is an early food source for many pollinators.
Another example of a wildflower species found in grassland habitats is eyebright. There are multiple eyebright species, including many hybrids, and identification in the field is often difficult. They’re semi-parasitic, feeding on the nutrients of the roots of nearby grasses. This can help control the spread of more aggressive grass species, allowing other wildflowers to grow.
Fungi form an important part of grassland habitats, playing a vital role by breaking down organic matter in the soil and facilitating the cycling of nutrients. They also food for many different species, including insects, mammals, gastropods like slugs and snails, nematodes, bacteria and even other fungi.
Waxcaps are associated with unimproved grasslands that have a short sward and are nutrient-poor, moss-rich and long-established, and occur in both upland and lowland areas. Due to changes in agricultural practices, these habitats have been declining in Europe, and conservation efforts have been made to protect them. These waxcap grasslands are also home to other fungi species including agarics, clavarioid fungi and earthtongues.
Sometimes called the scarlet hood or righteous red waxy cap, the scarlet waxcap can be found across the Northern Hemisphere. They’re found in fields, open woodland, lawns and roadside but they prefer unimproved grassland, where no fertiliser, chemical treatment or ploughing has occurred.
This species is an upright fungus consisting of tubular, unbranched basidiocarps (the fruiting body). They are white with browning at the tips and are very fragile, with smooth, soft and somewhat brittle flesh. They also occur in waxcap grassland and other old, unimproved grasslands.
Shaggy Inkcap (Coprinus comatus)
Mature: Lukas Large via Flickr (cropped). Immature: Simon via Flickr
This fungus, also known as lawyer’s wig, is very common in parklands, grasslands and lawns, with a tall, shaggy cap that begins white before turning browner and grey with age. The cap opens to a bell shape as the gills turn from white to pink and then black, dissolving from the base of the cap until it’s almost completely gone. This dissolving fruitbody breaks down into a black fluid that is full of fungal spores, aiding dispersal. This fluid was historically used as an ink substitute.
Fauna
Diverse grasslands can provide habitats for a wide variety of wildlife. There is a lot of cross over between grassland and farmland species, due to much agricultural land being improved grassland habitats. Grassland is home to several species of birds, such as ground-nesting species and birds of prey. They also support small mammals, reptiles and many grazing and browsing species, such as deer, rabbits and wild horses. They are also important habitats for a huge number of invertebrates, with wildflower-rich habitats supporting many pollinator species.
This common and widespread species feeds on grasses and other plants. They prefer dry habitats and are found in grassland, heathland and agricultural areas, but tend to occur in higher densities in ungrazed areas. Many invertebrate species play important roles in grassland habitats, allowing air penetration and nutrient cycling in the soils and the breakdown of dead organic material. They are also prey for species such as birds, reptiles and some small mammals.
Marbled white (Melanargia galathea)
Topside: xulescu_g via FlickrUnderside: Peter Stenzel via Flickr
Butterflies are another group of invertebrates that are common in grassland habitats, particularly species-rich grasslands, due to the presence of many food plants and shelter provided by scattered scrub. Although some species can be found in multiple different grassland types, the habitat can sometimes be characterised by the presence of different butterfly and moth assemblages.
The marbled white is found in unimproved grassland with tall sward, as well as gardens, road verges and railway embankments, and is widespread in southern Britain. Its range has been expanding northwards and eastwards. Its caterpillars rely on red fescue (Festuca rubra) as a foodplant, as well as sheep’s fescue (F. ovina), Yorkshire-fog (Holcus lanatus) and tor-grass (Brachypodium pinnatum).
Beetles often make up a large percentage of invertebrate assemblages in grassland habitats. They play many important roles in grassland ecosystems, as plant feeders, prey, predators, parasites and scavengers, recycling nutrients from organic matter both into the soil and through the food chain. Bloody nosed beetles are black, flightless beetles that are often found in grasslands and coastal areas, particularly in the south and central UK. Their common name comes from their peculiar defence mechanism. They secrete foul-tasting, bright red hemolymph (a fluid analogous to blood) from their mouth when threatened.
Many birds nest in grassland habitats, such as vulnerable wading birds (lapwing and curlew) and the skylark. A small bird, the skylark has a streaky brown plumage with a small crest. It is listed on the Birds of Conservation Concern 4 (BoCC 4) red list due to its recent population declines. These declines have been associated with agricultural intensification and the resultant reduction of grassland availability and suitability of farmland habitats for breeding and foraging. Birds such as the skylark use grassland as foraging grounds, feeding on seeds and insects. They are prey for other species such as birds of prey and foxes.
Several predator species utilise grassland habitats, namely foxes, weasels, stoats and some birds of prey. A number of birds of prey use grasslands to hunt for small mammals and other prey species. Kestrels predate almost exclusively on small mammals, such as voles, shrews and mice. They also occasionally prey on birds, particularly fledglings during the early weeks of summer, as well as bats, lizards and some invertebrates.
The UK has six deer species, although only two are native: red and roe deer. Fallow deer are thought to have been introduced by the Normans and the three other species, Reeves’ muntjac, Chinese water deer and sika, were introduced in the 19th and early 20th centuries. For more information on these species, check out our guide to UK deer identification.
Roe deer are small deer, with a reddish-brown colour during summer and a paler or black colouration in winter. They have a large white rump that becomes less obvious during the winter. Many grassland habitats are maintained by grazing and browsing, where species such as deer feed on the shoots of trees and scrub species that would otherwise encroach on the habitat. In many countries, deer populations are controlled by predators such as wolves, to help reduce the extent of their impact on grasslands. Other habitats are then able to develop, allowing the expansion of woodland, shrubland and heathland. The UK does not have any large predators anymore, however, therefore deer populations are managed through culling to prevent overgrazing.
Species-rich grasslands are highly threatened habitats, as most grassland in the UK is improved or semi-improved. The main threats to grassland habitats are agricultural improvement and development. Ploughing, re-sowing, intensive grazing or mowing and heavy use of fertilisers can fundamentally change soil type and quality. This, along with clearing for development, reduces the quality and area of habitat, which would impact the number and range of flora and fauna they can support. Heavy recreational use can also impact grasslands, particularly fragile vegetation.
Another threat is encroachment from scrub and trees because of abandonment, incorrect or lax maintenance or intentional efforts to increase woodland cover. Woodland is often prioritised over grassland (that is not used for agriculture), as it is seen as more environmentally important, particularly in relation to carbon sequestration. The consequent fragmentation of grasslands is a threat in itself, as habitat patches that are too small or isolated may no longer be able to support viable populations of some species.
Areas of significance
Grassland can be found across the UK but there are some areas of significance such as the Culm grasslands and Rhôs pastures (purple moor grass and rush pastures), East Anglian Breckland and areas of the new forest (lowland dry acid grassland) and the Keen of Hamar in Shetland (calaminarian grassland).
In The Secret Perfume of Birds, evolutionary biologist Danielle Whittaker reveals how she came to dispel the widespread myth that birds cannot smell. Mixing science, history and memoir writing, Whittaker offers a humorous and compelling narrative to describe how birds smell and how scent is important for all animals. The book offers readers a rare opportunity to witness the unfolding journey of scientific research and the surprising discoveries it can make.
Danielle kindly agreed to answer some of our questions below.
How did you find yourself studying the science of avian scent?
I was originally studying how birds might choose their mates on the basis of certain immune genes, following the idea that animals could prefer mates with different genes than their own, leading to offspring with stronger immune systems. I was struggling to sequence these genes, and I complained to a colleague who happened to be studying bird brains. He said, “I don’t know why you’d study that in birds – information about those genes is sensed by smell, and birds don’t have much of a sense of smell.” I had never heard that before, and the idea that a whole group of animals would lack such an important sense seemed absurd to me. So, I started investigating.
The idea that birds lack a sense of smell has persisted for more than a century despite being disproved by yourself and others. How did you navigate tackling long-held assumptions in the scientific community?
I conducted rather slow, incremental research, following where the questions led me. I started out with simple, clearly defined experiments to test the birds’ reaction to odours from other birds. Then moved on to working with chemists to analyze the information content present in the odours given off by birds. Little by little, the scientists who heard about work in this area started to pay attention, and soon more people started researching bird smells!
Pink-sided juncos, female (left) and male (right)
I found the most fascinating part of your research to be the discovery that bird scents are linked to their microbiomes. How did you come to look into bacteria and could you expand on their important role?
When I first talked about my research with my now-collaborator Kevin Theis, he looked at the list of compounds I had found in bird odours and said, “those types of compounds are by-products of microbial metabolism. Have you looked at whether symbiotic bacteria are producing these odours?” I had never thought about that possibility before! Kevin studied the bacteria in hyena scent glands and how they produce the odours used by hyenas when they scent mark. Kevin and I teamed up to study the question in birds and we found out that he was right.
Danielle holding a male lance-tailed manakin in Panama
In this book, you demonstrated the importance of scent in bird reproduction. I wonder if human-related impacts on our environment are influencing changes to the unique scents of different species, with consequences for their reproductive success – is there any current research being done on this?
I am hoping to look at whether adapting to living in urban environments has affected the microbiome, and thus the scent, of bird populations compared to their non-urban counterparts. It’s very interesting to think about the long term consequences of such changes, but I don’t think there is much research about that yet in any animal.
Your work focuses on the dark-eyed junco, a bird commonly seen in North America. Is there a particular reason why you chose to study this species and do you have any plans to study other birds in this way?
I was a postdoc in Dr. Ellen Ketterson’s lab at Indiana University, and she has maintained a long-term study of dark-eyed juncos for many years. I quickly found that juncos were very easy to work with, and I appreciate that, in many ways, their biology and behavior makes them ‘typical’ northern hemisphere songbirds – which means they are a good model for understanding lots of bird species. I have studied odours in other species as well, in particular the lance-tailed manakin in Panamá. I am always interested in new birds!
Banded male Oregon junco
Where will your research take you next? Do you have any plans for further books?
Right now, I’m interested in how social behavior changes animal microbiomes through bacteria sharing, and how that might affect odours. I’m also interested in looking at how microbiomes and odours have changed in urban populations of juncos. Beyond my junco research, my professional life has taken yet another unexpected turn, and I am transitioning to a new job as managing director of the Centre for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX) at Oregon State University, where they study Antarctic ice cores to learn about ancient climate change. Maybe I’ll get to visit Antarctica and write about my new adventures!
Practical and portable, this is the ultimate field guide to the world’s cetaceans. This is the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date guide to whales, dolphins and porpoises. Containing more than 500 accurate illustrations – complete with detailed annotations pointing out the most significant field marks – this new field guide covers all 93 species and every subspecies in the world.
I was originally studying how birds might choose their mates on the basis of certain immune genes, following the idea that animals could prefer mates with different genes than their own, leading to offspring with stronger immune systems. I was struggling to sequence these genes, and I complained to a colleague who happened to be studying bird brains. He said, “I don’t know why you’d study that in birds – information about those genes is sensed by smell, and birds don’t have much of a sense of smell.” I had never heard that before, and the idea that a whole group of animals would lack such an important sense seemed absurd to me. So, I started investigating.
