Tag: Ecology

Climate change

Climate breakdown could cause British apples to die out, to be replaced by varieties from New Zealand and Japan. British apples are struggling as there is not enough time for the trees to lie dormant in winter and conserve energy for growing fruit. Traditional apple trees need about 1,000 hours below 6°C but above freezing. The Met Office announced in January that 2022 had been the sixth warmest year on record.

Habitat destruction

Half of the wetlands in Europe, the continental US and China have been lost in the past 300 years, according to a new study. Researchers found that some areas, including the UK, Ireland and Germany, have lost more than 75%. In total, an area the size of India has disappeared globally. More than 60% of these losses were driven by drainage for growing crops on uplands. Other reasons included the conversion to paddy fields, the creation of urban areas and peat extraction.

According to a report by The Wildlife Trusts, HS2 Ltd is “undervaluing” the amount of damage it is doing to the environment while overvaluing the benefits of its compensation measures. Phase 1, covering 140 miles between London and the West Midlands, will cause 7.9 times more nature loss than accounted for, with Phase 2a causing around 3.6 times more. The report found watercourses, ponds and trees that have been missed out from the data produced by the firm, along with problems with how nature is being valued. Well-established, tree-lined and species-rich hedgerows were given lower nature value than the new hedgerows that HS2 Ltd is going to plant.

Erosion of beaches along the south-east coast of Australia is having a significant effect on local biodiversity. Some beaches in the area are becoming increasingly vulnerable to coastal erosion caused by successive years of La Niña events. A study monitoring the shoreline between Noosa’s Main Beach and Coolum found that the shoreline has retreated by about 20 metres, while the sand dunes have receded between 7 and 10m and have been vertically eroded by 2–3m.

Extinction Risk

Sea turtles are under threat from warming seas and hotter beaches, according to new research. Australian scientists have suggested that marine turtles are unlikely to be able to change their nesting behaviour enough to mitigate the effects of higher sea surface temperatures. As the sex ratio of turtle hatchlings is determined by the temperature of the nests, warmer beaches will yield more females, impacting population dynamics. Higher temperatures have also been linked to lower hatchling success rates.

More than 33% of America’s biodiversity is at risk of disappearing, including 40% of animals and 34% of plants. A new report by NatureServe found that 41% of American ecosystems are at risk of collapse, with California, Texas and southeastern states the most threatened. The main threats include habitat degradation and land conversion, invasive species, damming and polluting of rivers, and climate change.

The lynx is facing extinction in France, as the population is down to 150 adults at most. DNA tests have shown that the cats’ genetic diversity is so low that they will become locally extinct within the next 30 years unless there is urgent intervention. The species is under pressure from habitat loss, inbreeding, poaching and traffic collisions. The tests have shown that the population has a level of diversity equivalent to only 38 animals, and there are now calls to either introduce more lynxes from healthier groups or replace poached lynxes and exchange orphaned lynx cubs being cared for at wildlife rescue centres in various regions.

Pollution

Emissions of the five most harmful air pollutants dropped in 2018 across the European Union, including nitrogen oxides and ammonia. The new European Environment Agency report for 1990-2018 showed an overall trend of steady but slow progress by EU member states in reducing emissions of the main air pollutants present in Europe. The five most harmful air pollutants dropped between 1.6-6.7% between 2017 and 2018.

Policy

Costa Rica has announced an all-out ban on hammerhead shark fishing. Including smooth hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead and great hammerhead, this executive decree prohibits the capture, transportation, storage or sale of hammerhead sharks or their byproducts. Experts are saying this should have occurred in 2013 when hammerhead sharks were listed under CITES, as the animals were hunted for their fins and populations have declined by around 90% since then.

New discoveries

A new silent frog species has been described, found in Tanzania’s Ukaguru Mountains. Researchers discovered this species during an expedition in search of another species, the Churamiti maridadi tree toad. While frogs usually use sound to attract a mate, the males of this new species have tiny spines on their throats. Nearly 25% of all vertebrates in the Ukaguru Mountains are found nowhere else, meaning conservation of the area is essential.

Deforestation

Human activity has degraded more than a third of the Amazon rainforest. New research has shown that up to 38% of the forest has been affected by human actions, with the four key disturbances being fire, selective logging (including illegal practices), extreme drought and edge effects (the changes that occur in areas next to deforested areas). The level of degradation is far greater than previously understood and not only has consequences for the climate crisis and biodiversity loss but also Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

More extreme thunderstorms resulting from climate change are likely to cause a greater number and frequency of ‘windthrow’ events in the Amazon rainforest, where trees are uprooted or damaged due to severe weather. These fallen trees then decompose on the forest floor which has a huge impact on the carbon budget and carbon dynamics of the rainforest. Scientists are now working on better models which will help them to understand how forests will fare under different emissions scenarios.

Pollution

England’s coast faces multiple threats from dredging, sewage and pollution. The Environment Agency has warned that dredging will likely increase around the coast, with pollution and sewage adding pressures to coastal ecosystems. In 2021, three quarters of shellfish waters around England failed to meet aspirational standards for environmental protection, with dredging and pollution coming under increased scrutiny following mass die-offs of crabs and lobsters. The findings from the EA report published last week suggest that dredging was unlikely to be the cause but this has been criticised by some scientists. There are now calls for stronger targets to cut pollution, a ban on destructive fishing in marine protected areas, and stricter penalties for sewage discharges.

The UK government has allowed ’emergency’ use of a banned bee-harming pesticide for the third year in a row, just days after the EU tightens protections against emergency deregulations. The neonicotinoid thiamethoxam is lethal to bees, and the authorisation comes just a month after the UK government advocated for a global reduction target at COP15. UK guidance states that emergency applications should not be granted more than once and the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides once again advised against allowing thiamethoxam to be used, but was again ignored by the government.

A new study has found plastic in the scat of fishing cats living near Colombo, Sri Lanka. The plastics varied in size from microplastics to larger macroplastics and were believed to have been ingested via their prey. Only six of the 276 samples taken were found to contain plastics but this is still a concern for the vulnerable species. Further research is needed to assess any potential health impacts on the species.

Extinction Risk

An investigation has found that endangered sharks are being sold as ‘flake’ in South Australian fish and chip shops. According to the study, less than a third of servings meet seafood labelling standards. Out of 96 fish and chip shops and 10 fresh fish retailers, only 29 servings were actually gummy shark, one of only two shark species that Australian Fish Names Standard says can be sold as flake in Australia. Three servings were narrownose smooth-hound, a critically endangered shark; two were the endangered shortfin mako; one was smooth hammerhead, considered vulnerable; 19 were the critically endangered school shark; and 15 servings were whiskery shark.

Gillnets in Bangladesh are a major threat to both the Ganga River dolphin and the Irrawaddy dolphin. Entanglement in nets, along with boat propeller strikes, killed 130 Ganga River dolphins between 2007 and 2016. Since 2002, the manufacture, marketing, import, hoarding, carrying, possession or use of any kind of gillnet is prohibited but they are still widely used by fishers due to their effectiveness at catching large numbers of fish. There are currently only 2,000 Ganga River dolphins and 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins left in Bangladesh.

Research

A study has suggested that reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions in England and Wales by 2050 could lead to an extra 2 million years of life. Many of the proposed policies in the UK will reduce harmful environmental factors such as air pollution, as well as encouraging healthier behaviours such as a balanced diet and exercise. These policies, if implemented, would result in significant reductions in mortality across English and Welsh populations. Retrofitting homes with insulation, reducing red meat consumption, replacing car journeys with walking or cycling, and reducing air pollution could also lead to people living with fewer health conditions.

Conservation

Seagrass restoration trails have begun in Cornwall. The first round of planting for the project, taking place in the River Fal, has been completed, and is the first attempt by Cornwall Wildlife Trust to restore seagrass meadows. A group of volunteers spent more than 120 hours collecting over 4,000 seeds last summer and planting them. It is hoped that this project will expand to an area 10 times the size used in the first round of trails.

Pollution

Global NGOs are joining forces to accelerate the campaign to end plastic pollution. The World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Initiative and waste charity WRAP are planning to work together to deliver a circular economy for plastics. This supports international negotiations to deliver a new Plastics Treaty, which began last November and aims to crack down on plastic waste by mid-2025.

Citizen science

Buglife, a conservation charity, is appealing for the public’s help to find a rare beetle in the woodlands of Devon and Cornwall. The blue ground beetle (Carabus intricatus) has only been seen at 15 sites across the south-west of England and south Wales. The species was identified at two new sites on Dartmoor in 2022 but the charity would like people to help find out if it is living in more locations. Buglife is asking for people to take pictures if they think they have spotted the beetle, and to send them to the Dartmoor Blue Ground Beetle project online.

Research

A chemical that is used in the production of toilet paper and ‘forever chemicals’ has been found in the bodies of orcas. A team of scientists have analysed tissue samples from six southern resident orcas and six Bigg’s whales that were stranded along the coast of British Columbia from 2006 to 2018. The team, made up of scientists from The Institute for the Ocean and Fisheries, British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, found that the chemical accounted for 46% of the total pollutants identified. This toxic substance can interact with the nervous system and influence cognitive function.

A new study has suggested that more than three million years of evolutionary history has been lost in Madagascar due to extinctions. Urgent conservation action is needed to prevent another wave of extinctions as, if all currently threatened mammals also go extinct, it is predicted that it would take more than 20 million years for new species to evolve naturally to replace those lost.

Conservation

Beavers are set to be released into Hampshire for the first time in 400 years. A pair will be released at Ewhurst Park estate near Basingstoke, which is being restored for nature and sustainable food production. Beavers were given legal protection in England in 2021, formally recognising them as native wildlife. This keystone species will help to create new wetlands on the estate, which will provide new habitats for dozens of bird and insect species.

Over 5,000 fish from endangered species have been released into the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers in Cambodia. The ceremony was held by the Cambodian government and the Wonders of the Mekong project at the Chaktomuk River in Phnom Penh, which is connected to both of the larger rivers. The species released included Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas), giant barbs (Catlocarpio siamensis) and striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus). It is hoped that they will reproduce and increase the rare fish populations in both rivers.

A new herd of Dartmoor ponies have been brought in to boost the population on Thetford heathland in Norfolk. Fifteen ponies have joined the 119 others that currently live in the area and will help to deliver conservation grazing programmes across the nature reserves, including East Wretham Heath. These selective grazers will create a rich variety of different heights and species of vegetation, helping birds such as nightjars and stone curlews.

Extinction risks

The scientists who led the research into the mass die-off of crabs and lobsters along the north-east coast of England say they have not been questioned by the panel investigating the disaster. The review panel is due to send its findings to ministers this week, but they have also been excluded from examining government processes as part of its inquiry. This is raising questions about the potential limitations and reliability of the forthcoming results.

Queensland, Australia, has been urged to end its shark nets and drum lines programme, as scientists call these lethal methods “ineffective” and inhumane. In 2019, Humane Society International won a legal challenge to stop the use of lethal drum lines in the Great Barrier Reef park, but as of 1st December 2022, the Queensland government has only spent $505,000 on replacing the old drum lines with ‘Smart’ catch-and-alert ones. Last year, 15 humpback whales were caught in shark nets, as Queensland does not remove them during whale migration season.

Climate change

UK wildlife was ‘devastated’ by extreme weather in the UK. The National Trust’s annual audit revealed that 2022 was a dire year for animals, including amphibians, mammals, birds and insects. Due to strong storms, heatwaves and cold snaps, many species and habitats were effected. The wildfires during the hot summer destroyed many heathland areas in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, impacting rare species such as sand lizards and smooth snakes. This potential ‘new norm’ of extreme weather is creating major challenges for UK biodiversity.

2022 will be the warmest year on record in the UK, according to the Met Office. Provisional figures hint that the annual average temperature from last year will exceed the previous record set in 2014. The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 2003, with temperature trends showing that the UK is hotter since we began burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This new record is showing that climate change is having a real impact.

Unseasonably warm weather is expected this January, with at least eight countries across Europe experiencing record high temperatures. The warmest January day on record was recorded in Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia. The Czech Republic saw temperatures of 19.6°C, compared with the usual average of 3°C.

Extinction risks

Polar bears are vanishing from the ‘polar bear capital of the world’ in Canada. The western Hudson Bay is considered a stronghold for this species but government research is showing that there has been a dramatic decline in numbers. Every five years, researchers count the number of bears in the area and extrapolate population trends, with the last count in 2021 estimating 618 bears, down from 842 five years earlier. The reveal showed significant declines in adult females and subadult bears between 2011 and 2021, possibly due to displacements to neighbouring regions or hunting. The bears’ sea-ice habitat has also been disappearing, with the far north of the world warming up to four times faster than the rest of the planet.

New discoveries

A pink coloured variant of the Monotropastrum humile plant, native to East and Southeast Asia, has been discovered to actually be a new species. A 20-year study determined how exactly these plants different, with specimens collected throughout Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam. Originially, there was thought to be only one species in this genus in the world, so this new discovery has deepened our understanding of the plants in the Monotropastrum genus. As this newly recognised species is rare and therefore presumably endangered, the information from this study will hopefully be used to inform conservation efforts.

Research

Researchers have found a ‘shark graveyard’ at the bottom of the ocean in one of Australia’s newest marine parks. Fossilised teeth dating back to an ancient ancestor of the megalodon were found in samples taken from this site, along with 750 teeth representing a number of other predatory species. These were a mix of modern and ancient sharks and will help scientists better understand both past and present life in the ocean.

Conservation

Eastern quolls have been released into the Australian bush in New South Wales, over sixty years after they were declared extinct on the mainland. The 10 individuals were released into a NSW nature reserve, bolstering an insurance population of quolls. The Barrington population is the largest on the mainland and was established through the Tasmanian Quoll Program. Special fences have been erected to keep out cats, foxes and pigs, as feral invasive predators are thought to have been the cause of the initial population decimation.

Conservation

The province of Limburg in the Netherlands will be restoring the habitat of the critically endangered garden dormouse over the next four years. In the Netherlands, this species (Eliomys quercinus) is only found in the southern Limburg area, although it is found across other parts of Europe, including France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and areas of south eastern Europe. The species relies on contiguous hedges and bushes, avoiding open fields, with a food preference for blackberries, common hazel, elderberries, gooseberries and red currants. Habitat loss and fragmentation are thought to have been the cause of the decline in both their abundance and range.

Extinction risks

There have been a number of news stories relating to the mass die-offs of crustaceans off the North East and Yorkshire coasts, the first of which occurred in October 2021. Fishers and campaigners are protesting against further developments on the River Tee, where they believe dredging disturbed toxic chemicals and caused the mass deaths. Both the government and Tees Valley Combined Authority rejected this claim, with Defra suggesting naturally occurring algae was the most likely cause. Defra is organising an independent panel that will reinvestigate by January, and MPs are now calling for the inquiry to be open and collaborative, ensuring independence in the process.

Policy

Campaigners call for biodegradable plastic to be included in English single-use cutlery ban. The ban, expected to be announced in the coming weeks, comes after Scotland and Wales already legislated to ban various single-use plastics, including those described as biodegradable. Many ‘bioplastics’ are environmentally damaging and won’t break down in the natural environment, despite being termed biodegradable.  

A report from the House of Lords has said that access to green space needs to be prioritised when deciding how to use land. The cross-party House of Lords land use in England commission has laid out its priorities for a land use framework. This would divide up the land in England and decide where is best for different types of agriculture, as well as carbon sequestration, nature restoration and recreation. The report, published on Tuesday last week, highlights the need for greater access to the natural world for the public, as it is ‘important for health and wellbeing, especially in urban and peri-urban locations near where people live’.  

Research

New research has found the structures and binding environments of pigments bound to a protein responsible for photosynthesis at sea. Using cryogenic electron microscopy, the team studied a marine macroalga, Sea Staghorn (Codium fragile), which uses a protein termed a ‘photosynthetic antenna’ to efficiently utilise the blue-green light that reaches the ocean floor. The mechanism by which this is achieved has not yet been fully understood but this new research is contributing to a better understanding.

A breakthrough in nuclear fusion energy has been announced by US scientists. Physicists have been pursuing the technology for decades as it promises a potential source of near-limitless clean energy. The fusion experiment, which took place at the National Ignition Facility in California produced more energy than was put in, but experts say there is still some way to go before fusion powers homes. Nuclear fusion works by taking pairs of light atoms and forcing them together, which releases a lot of energy. This process, while giving off small amounts of short-lived radioactive waste, produces no greenhouse gas emissions and therefore would not contribute to climate change.  

Pollination loss removes healthy food from global diets. New research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found that this increases chronic diseases causing excess deaths. Inadequate pollination, due to reduced biodiversity, has led to a 3-5% loss of fruit, vegetable and nut production, linked to an estimated 427,000 excess deaths annually from lost healthy food consumption and associated diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers.

COP15

Eels are facing a population collapse after the annual fishing negotiations for key EU waters ended in quotas higher than those scientists have recommended. Conservation groups and scientists recently called for all EU eel fisheries to be closed to allow populations space to recover. However, the European Commission only agreed to extend the closure of eel fisheries at sea from the current three-month closure to six months. This will cover juvenile eel migrations and mature eels swimming between the sea and rivers. This decision came as the UN COP15 biodiversity summit, which ended on Monday 19th December, attempted to bring countries together to agree on targets to ensure the survival of species and stem the collapse of ecosystems across the world. A number of conservationists and scientists believe this decision is at odds with EU leaders’ proclaimed ambitions to protect biodiversity at COP15. 

Countries have agreed to protect 30% of land and sea, decrease environmentally harmful subsidies and increase financing for nature restoration and protection. This goal is set to be achieved by the end of the decade, with initial responses from green groups being broadly positive. A new biodiversity fund will be formed, to sit within the UN’s existing Global Environment Facility, pooling together development aid, private sector money, philanthropic donations and funds raised through the use of digital sequence information of genetic resources. Additionally, rich countries have committed to increasing international aid for biodiversity to $20bn annually by 2025, then to $30bn by 2030.

Conservation

More than 20,000 bison, in 65 herds, are now owned by 82 Native American tribes across the US. Once roaming North America’s Great Plains in the tens of millions, bison were slaughtered to near extinction by European settlers. Previously, conservation efforts for this species have excluded Native Americans but now this cultural connection is being rekindled, increasing food security, reclaiming sovereignty and improving land management.

More than 50 shark species are to be given protection from over-exploitation. Nearly 200 countries voted to add them to the list of species protected under global trade rules. This includes tiger sharks, blacktip sharks, the bonnethead and blue sharks. The two shark families, requiem sharks and hammerhead sharks, that these species belong to make up over 50% of the trade in shark fins for soup, with many species threatened with extinction. By listing them on CITES, trading products that contain these species will be much harder. 

The largest-ever dam demolition will restore hundreds of miles of historical salmon habitat. Four ageing dams are set to be destroyed along the Klamath River in California and Oregon, a win for the Native American tribes and environmentalists that have been fighting for this for years. This $500 million proposal was approved in November and the project is slated to began next year, with the biggest removals taking place in 2024.

Cranes fledge young on the Suffolk coast for the first time. The RSPB recorded two successfully raised chicks at Snape Wetlands Nature Reserve by a pair of cranes. Only around 65 pairs breed in Britain each year. This is a great sign for the relatively new reserve: the original 82ha graslland was converted to wetland and reedbed between 2008-2014. The RSPB has said it will continue to manage the wetlands to encourage more cranes to breed at the site.  

New discoveries

A new seaweed species has been discovered more than 100 metres below the surface of the Antarctic Ocean. The red algae, Palmaria decipiens, was found by a team that included researchers from the University of Aberdeen using a remotely operated vehicle. The project, funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, set out to clarify the maximum depths that seaweed could grow in Antarctica. Samples were collected for further examination and DNA sequencing was then used to confirm the type of seaweed.  

Extinction risk

The Mount Ballow mountain frog, only discovered earlier this year, is already facing extinction, despite living in a World Heritage rainforest. Scientists have warned that the species could become extinct by 2055 due to the impacts of climate change reducing the availability of suitable habitats. These frogs are currently stranded on an ‘island in the sky’ due to habitat loss within the upland mountain rainforests of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, and occupy a very narrow niche. 91% of this ecological niche would be lost under a worst-case scenario of three degrees warming, according to lead author Liam Bolitho. 

Calls for a ban on eel fishing from an intergovernmental scientific organisation are challenging the UK and EU to step up on the extinction crisis. Juvenile populations of this snake-like fish have crashed by between 95-99% since 1980. The Internation Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) now advise that fisheries catch no European eel in 2023. With the UN Biological Conference currently taking place, now is the time for European countries to make the right commitments.

Climate Change

A survey has found that 80% of Scots fear climate change impacts on Scotland’s nature. The research, conducted for charities network Scottish Environment LINK, also found that pollution and ocean warming are also major fears. Just over 1,000 Scots were interviewed between 31st October and 6th November. Nearly a third of those polled stated thay were “very concerned” about the impact of climate change on Scotland, with 50% saying they were “quite concerned”. Just 14% put that they were “not that concerned”, and only 3% stated they were “not at all concerned”.

Policy

A number of MPs are backing the bill to ban trophy hunting overseas, in hopes to protect many endangered animals that are being hunted to the brink of extinction. Support currently includes the MPs for East Yorkshire, North Devon and Milton Keynes. The bill, which has cross party support, would ban British hunters from bringing ‘trophies’ of endangered and vulnerable animals into Britain. The bill has passed its second reading and it is now preparing for the committee stage of its progress through Parliament, which is expected to take place in the New Year.  

Research

Tissue loss, decay and death, along with widespread coral bleaching, were reported across the northern coastline of New Zealand last year, impacting hundreds of thousands of specimens. Latest research shows that the most severe impacts on sponges occurred in areas where a prolonged marine heatwave was most intense. These organisms serve a number of important ecological functions, including filtering large quantities of water and moving carbon from the water column to the seafloor. A major loss in coral species would change the community structure of the ecosystem within that habitat, having widespread impacts on a variety of species.

Conservation

Between 2003 and 2019, almost a quarter of Sweden’s remaining unprotected old-growth forest was logged. These rare and ecologically valuable forests are rich in biodiversity and are some of the last remaining areas where we can see how northern landscapes may have looked before humans began altering them. If logging continues at the same rate, all of these old-growth forests will be lost within the next 50 years.

Pollinators, such as bumblebees, are much less likely to land on flowers that have been sprayed with fertilisers and pesticides, as they can detect changes in the electric field around the flower. It was previously thought that the chemicals may affect the insects’ vision and sense of smell, but recent research has now proven that this is not the case. Spraying the plants with chemicals significantly reduces the amount of feeding that the bees undertake.

New discoveries

A tiny species of clam has been found at Naples Point, in southern California, that has never before been encountered in the wild. Prior to this discovery, our only knowledge of this species was from fossil records, and it was presumed to be extinct. This diminutive mollusc, described in 1937 from fossil remains as Bornia cooki, has a shell which is only 10mm wide and a bright, white-striped foot which is used for burrowing.

Climate change

A new review, published in Ecological Monographs, has warned that the effects of climate change on insects is likely to ‘drastically reduce our ability to build a sustainable future based on healthy-functional ecosystems’. Compiled by a team of 70 scientists from 19 countries, the report describes both the short- and long-term prognosis for insects as bleak, and stresses that urgent action at both a personal and policy level is required.

A new analysis from the groups Global Witness, Corporate Europe Observatory and Corporate Accountability reported that 636 fossil fuel lobbyists are registered to attend the COP27 climate talks – a figure that is up 25% from last year. This shows a worrying rise in the influence of the fossil fuel industry at these critical climate talks.

There is increasing concern that the Arctic ocean is becoming warmer and saltier due to climate change. Referred to by oceanographers as ‘spicy’ water, these increases in temperature and salinity are a problem, as they create a layer of water that tends to sit on the surface and not mix with the cooler, less salty (or ‘minty’) water below. This then impacts the formation and maintenance of sea ice.

Citizen science

Keen citizen scientists in the UK are being asked to contribute to a huge study looking at changes in mammal activity in response to climate change. The MammalWeb network, which was founded in 2013 at Durham University, will utilise images from camera traps deployed by members of the public around the country to build a comprehensive picture of the UK’s mammal populations. In doing so they hope to gain better insights into the policies and interventions that are needed the most to conserve these populations.

Research

A new technique developed at the Université de Montréal (UdeM) and the University of Minnesota will allow scientists to gain insights into how species of plant that have been preserved as dried specimens in herbaria interacted with their environment when they were living. By learning more about traits such as leaf structure, chemical composition and water content, it is hoped that more information can be gained about how plant communities have changed over time, and how we might help them to thrive in the future.

Climate Change

100 universities in the UK have pledged to divest from fossil fuels, equating to 65% of the country’s higher education sector. The Fossil Free campaign, led by students, has been active since 2013, with the first institution, the University of Glasgow, announcing its divestment in 2014. Coventry University has become the 100th. Together, the endowments now unavailable for fossil fuel companies are worth more than £17.6bn.

Key UN reports published recently are warning that the world is close to an irreversible climate breakdown. The reports state that global greenhouse gas emissions must fall by about half by 2030 to meet the internationally agreed target of limiting heating to 1.5C or below, but they are still rising. This news comes ahead of the announcement that profits from the world’s seven biggest oil firms increased to nearly £150bn so far this year.

Conservation

The threatened Barberry carpet moth has seen a boom in numbers in a forest in Dorset, with the population trebling in four years. Experts found 50 larvae in Blandford Forest during their most recent survey, compared to just 14 in 2018. The moth was almost extinct in the 1980s, limited to just a single location in the UK. This drop was thought to be due to Barberry bushes being removed by farmers. Both Forestry England and Butterfly Conservation began planting Barberry plants in woodlands and along the edges of farmland in 2007 to try to repopulate the species.

The Center for Biological Diversity is suing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries in the US, as it says the organisation is not protecting endangered Pacific humpback whales from entanglements in drift gillnets. The lawsuit claims that, in the past two fishing seasons, about 12 humpbacks were caught in the California-based drift gillnet fishery, violating the Endangered Species Act. Several other lawsuits have been launched in recent weeks to protect wildlife, including one for the lesser prairie chicken and another for the streaked horned lark.

30% of forests in Sierra Nevada, USA, disappeared between 2011 and 2020. The historic droughts and wildfires that plagued California for more than a decade have severely impacted woodlands. More than half of mature forest habitats and 85% of high-density mature forests have either been destroyed or transformed into low-density forests. These areas usually contain high levels of biodiversity, with a range of different types of trees, but the increasing loss of these mature forests is threatening this biodiversity.

New discoveries

Six new rain frog species have been discovered in Ecuador. Scientists discovered all six species on the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes, in two national parks, within a 20km-radius of deforested areas. There are more than 550 different Pristimantis frog species across Central and South America. All six have been recommended to be added to the IUCN’s red list of threatened species.

A new species of mammal has been found in mainland Britain for the first time. The greater white-toothed shrew, usually found across western parts of Europe as well as the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Alderney, was spotted in Sunderland in 2021. The dead specimen was examined using a DNA test to confirm its species. There is other evidence that this species has been here for a while, with remains found in owl pellets in Ireland in 2007 and photos dating from at least 2015. Research is currently underway to discover how these shrews may have arrived.

Research

A new study has found that bees ‘count’ from left to right. There is a much-debated theory that this direction is inherent to all animals, including humans. However, as the opposite direction has been found in people from cultures that use an Arabic script, it has been suggested that there is a cultural element involved. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, found that after being trained to associate numbers with a sucrose reward, honey bees ordered numbers in increasing size from left to right.

A bar-tailed godwit has set a world record with a 13,560km continuous flight from Alaska to southern Australia, taking 11 days and one hour. The satellite tag recorded the flight of the five-month-old juvenile bar-tailed godwit, which was over 500km longer than the previous record. Juveniles migrate separately from adults, who make the journey up to six weeks earlier, as the juveniles use the extra time to fatten up for the long migration. Bar-jailed godwits can shrink their internal organs to make more space for these extra fat stores.

Hybrid songbirds are found more often in human-altered environments than in natural areas. A new study, published in Global Change Biology, found that hybrids of the black-capped and mountain chickadee, two common North American songbirds, were more likely to be found where humans had altered the landscape in some way. The study looked at observational data from the citizen science site eBird, as well as DNA samples from 196 black-capped and 213 mountain chickadees at 81 sites in North America. While they found a positive, significant correlation between hybrids and areas where humans have disturbed their habitat in some form, the study did not determine why these hybrids were more common in these areas.

Policy

The UK government has delayed its publication of clean water and biodiversity targets, breaching its Environment Act. The targets, which will underpin the country’s nature recovery were meant to be released on 31 October, ahead of the COP27 UN climate talks in November. The delay in publication means the delegation will not have targets to present to other countries. This is stated to be due to the “significant public response” to Defra’s consultation on nature recovery, with no date set as to when the targets will be published. This adds further concern to a number of environmentalists, as the government is currently reviewing over 500 pieces of environmental legislation by the end of next year under the retained EU law bill. If, by the end of this period, any bill has not been amended or retained by parliament, it will fall. Many critics are suggesting that it is unlikely the government will be able to review the thousands of EU laws required within this time.

Pollution

An analysis has found that scrapping nature-friendly farming payment schemes could worsen river pollution in England by up to 20%. Recent sources suggested that the previous government was looking to remove nature restoration from the upcoming scheme intended to replace the EU’s area-based payment scheme for farmers. 86% of rivers in England were deemed to not be in a ‘good ecological condition’, with agriculture being the reason why 40% of water bodies in England failed to meet this status, according to the Environment Agency.

Climate Change

Climate change could force primates such as monkeys and lemurs from the trees to the forest floor. A new study from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance suggests that in warmer temperatures, tree-dwelling primates could begin spending more time on the ground searching for shade and water. Spending more time on the forest floor could increase interactions between these species and humans, as well as domestic animals, increasing the chances of conflict, disturbance and disease transmission. This change in behaviour may also have an impact on other species, as the primates’ diets may become more generalised, changing predator/prey relationships and potentially impacting dispersal strategies.

Extinction Risk

More than a third of hoverfly species in Europe are at risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This assessment, requested and funded by the European Commission, found that intensive agriculture, harmful pesticides, unsustainable commercial forestry, urban development and climate change have been identified as the main threats to hoverflies. 314 out of 890 hoverfly species in Europe are Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered.

Almost 70% of animal populations have been wiped out since 1970, according to the biennial Living Planet Report. The leading scientific assessment, run by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Zoological Society of London, shows that the abundance of birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles declined, on average, by more than two thirds between 1970 and 2018. The 89 authors are now urging world leaders to reach an ambitious agreement at the upcoming COP15 biodiversity summit and to cut carbon emissions to limit global heating to below 1.5 degrees within this decade.

Alaska has canceled its fall and winter snow crab harvesting seasons after the population declined across the Bering Sea. The cause of the collapse is currently being researched but it is thought that increased predation, combined with stresses from warming waters, may be to blame. Populations of several species, including the snow crab, have also been shifting away from the coast and northwards for the last four decades, impacting Alaskan fisheries and local communities.

New discoveries

A new fish has been discovered in the Atacama Trench off the west coast of South America. The small blue snailfish was spotted by a team of scientists using free-falling landers to sample deep-sea creatures using cameras and traps with bait. The deep-sea species was seen from about 6,000-7,600m deep and, using DNA barcoding and a 3D x-ray technique called microcomputed tomography, the team was able to determine where the species fit within the snailfish family. They were surprised to learn that this new species appears to be a seperate coloniser of the Atacama Trench, as it belongs in the genus Paraliparis, with other species in this genus rarely being found deeper than 2,000m.

Research

A new study has found that wild bees are active in woodland tree-tops, a habitat now thought to play a more significant role in bee conservation than previously thought. Researchers from the University of East Anglia studied bee communities across 15 woodland sites in a farmed landscape in Norfolk in late spring, examining levels of bee activity in four habitats: the canopy and understory of both woodland interiors and exposed woodland edges. They found a diverse community of wild bees utilising the woodland canopy, particularly near flowering sycamore trees. This has implications for bee conservation policies, as nectar producing trees such as sycamores may represent a significant food source for certain bee species.

Catch and release fishing may be having physiological and behavioural impacts on sharks. The practice, an important component of both ecotourism industries and scientific research worldwide, was the subject of a recent study published in Conservation Physiology. Researchers used ‘biologging’ and blood chemistry to explore the impacts of these interactions on two species: the blue shark (Prionace glauca) and the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier). The research shows that short-term capture lead to a significant and rapid increase in body temperature in both species, lasting for between 10-40 minutes post-release. Further research is now needed into the potential longer term effects on the welfare of sharks that are caught using catch and release methods.

Policy

Experts call for legal rights and protections to be granted to non-human entities such as animals, trees and rivers to help tackle climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. A report entitled Law in the Emerging Bio Age states that legal frameworks may have a key part to play in governing human interactions with the environment and biotechnology.

Pollution

Chicken farms may explain the declining health of the River Wye, according to samples taken by citizen scientists. The Wye Salmon Association, with support from the Countryside Charity CPRE, tested soil samples along public footpaths near a tributary of the River Wye in Herefordshire and found that the highest levels of phosphorus were found in soils close to intensive poultry units. High phosphorus levels in river systems have a number of ecological impacts, including eutrophiciation, where excess nutrients cause increased algal and plant growth, which can reduce oxygen levels in the water. Toxic algal blooms can occur, as well as changes in habitat availability, where increased plant growth has covered previously bare gravel or sediment river beds. Campaigners are now calling for stronger regulations around the spreading of manure to limit phosphorus levels in soil.

A new study has revealed the ‘staggering’ scale of lost fishing gear currently drifting in the oceans. These include 25 million pots and traps, 14 billion hooks, and enough nets that, if tied together, could stretch around the world 18 times. Published in Science Advances, this report by researchers from CSIRO and the University of Tasmania used interviews with 451 commercial fishers from seven different countries to ask about what was being lost. They then matched the date from these interviews with data on global commercial fishing to estimate the total annual losses world wide. Ghost nets, as these lost nets are called, are lethal for many forms of marine life, potentially continuing to trap wildlife for years after they’re lost.

Conservation

A rare woodpecker has been spotted in Dorset, despite thoughts that it had died out locally. The lesser spotted woodpecker, whose population has fallen by 83% since 1970, was spotted at Hollis Mead Organic Dairy Farm in Corscombe. There are only thought to be 12 breeding pairs in Dorset according to the Dorset Wildlife Trust. The farm’s managing director believes that the organic approach his farm is taking, including not using insecticides or pesticides as well as leaving the woodland unmanaged, is beneficial for biodiversity.