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Regrowing forests naturally

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Deforestation is one of the major causes of climate change and restoring and enhancing forests is a major activity around the world as a way to mitigate its effects.  There are high-profile initiatives to plant millions of trees, but these projects are often ill-conceived and poorly managed.

One of the most dramatic failures was the planting of over a million mangrove seedlings on the Filipino island of Luzon back in 2012.  A study 8 years later found that fewer than 2 percent of the trees had survived.  The rest died or were washed away.

The causes of failure in tree planting programs include planting of trees that become vulnerable to disease, competing demands for land, changing climate, planting in areas not previously forested, and a lack of aftercare including watering seedlings.

A multinational study recently published in Nature has found that forests could regrow naturally on more than 800,000 square miles of land around the tropics without the need for planting trees by hand.  This is an area larger than Mexico.

The researchers mapped areas where forests would be likely to regrow – areas where soils are healthy and where there is already forest nearby to supply seeds.  In some places, lands are so degraded that it is necessary to plant trees by hand, but this is costly and prone to failure.  Forests that regrow naturally tend to fare better and make better habitats for wildlife.

The effect of regrown forests on the climate would be very substantial.  If these forests were allowed to grow for three decades, they would absorb enough carbon to offset 50 years of emissions by Australia, the home of the lead researcher of the study. 

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Tropical Forests Could Regrow Naturally on Area the Size of Mexico

Photo, posted February 16, 2018, courtesy of Jason Houston / USAID via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Flower power in agriculture

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Agriculture is the world’s largest industry.  When managed sustainably, agricultural operations can provide many environmental benefits, such as protecting watersheds and habitats, and improving soil health and water quality.  Sustainable agriculture also embraces biodiversity by minimizing its impact on wild ecosystems and incorporating numerous plant and animal varieties into farm ecosystems.

A new study of farms in India has demonstrated the power of incorporating flowers into farming practices.  According to the research by ecologists from the University of Reading in the U.K. and the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in India, planting flowers beside food crops attracts bees, boosts pollination, and improves both the yield and quality of crops.

 The study, which was recently published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, is the first of its kind in India.  The researchers focused on moringa – which is a nutrient-packed superfood native to South India, and bees – the plants’ essential pollinators. 

Working alongside farmers, the researchers planted marigold and red gram crops alongside moringa trees across 12 moringa orchards.  They found that flower-visiting insect numbers and diversity were 50% and 33% higher, respectively, in orchards with floral interventions compared to those without them.  Floral interventions also led to larger moringa pods and a 30% increase in harvestable fruits.

India has many crops of high economic and nutritional value.  The study highlights how farmers can significantly improve crop pollination services and boost yields, while also managing their lands in a more sustainable manner.

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Flower power on Indian farms helps bees, boosts livelihoods

Floral interventions on farms boost pollinators and crop yields

Photo, posted June 24, 2008, courtesy of Jim via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wind turbines and bats

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Collisions with wind turbines are one of the leading causes of bat mortality in North America and Europe.  Most bat fatalities are caused by bats colliding with the rotating blades of wind turbines.  Fatalities are highest during autumn migration and on nights with low wind speeds.

According to a recent study, land-based wind turbines kill as many as 880,000 bats a year and are wiping out so many threatened bats that some species may become endangered unless preventative action is taken.

The big challenge is that bat conservation experts and scientists don’t know how to stop or reduce turbine collisions.  They don’t really know why bats are interacting with turbines to the extent that they are.  Do turbines attract bats?  Do turbines’ bright lights or just their silhouettes stimulate an attraction response?

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $8 million to five research centers to develop strategies for deterring bats from wind turbines. 

One of these is Bat Conservation International, which is an organization whose mission is to accelerate research to address knowledge gaps in bat ecology and behavior and develop technologies and industry methods to reduce fatality of bats at wind farms.  Among the approaches to be tested is limiting the use of nighttime lighting on wind farms to make migrating bats less likely to fly through blades. 

Another team at Boise State University is designing ultrasonic noisemakers to scare off bats. 

In announcing the new program, the Department of Energy states that wind energy must be appropriately and responsibly sited, which includes the protection of wildlife and their habitats.

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Experts Seek to Spare Bats From Wind Turbine Collisions

Photo, posted January 10, 2013, courtesy of Tom Shockey via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Chasing The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker | Earth Wise

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The ivory-billed woodpecker is or was the largest woodpecker in the United States. The last unassailable sighting of the bird was in 1944.  Since then, there have various reports of glimpses of the bird or of hearing its distinctive sounds.  But there has not been anything resembling proof that the bird still exists.

Despite this, the ivory-billed woodpecker has been legally protected under the Endangered Species Act.  There has been a proposal to end that protection and formally declare the species extinct.  Because of the controversy surrounding the bird, a final ruling on its status has been repeatedly delayed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Very recently, a peer-reviewed study in the journal Ecology and Evolution makes the case that the ivory-billed woodpecker still exists and that it is premature to declare it extinct.  The study cites visual encounters by expert observers, audio recordings, tree-damage, and rather grainy video evidence.  The authors claim that there is intermittent but repeated presence of birds that at least look and behave like ivory-billed woodpeckers.

One might ask:  why does it matter whether this bird is declared extinct or not?  The answer is that there are limited federal funds for conservation efforts, and they should be spent on saving genuinely endangered species and habitats.  The authors of the new study say that removing federal protection would be bad for any remaining ivory bills, which may be living in some swampy old-growth forests in Louisiana.  Other scientists consider conservation resources expended on the ivory-billed woodpecker to be chasing a ghost.

As is the case for several other notorious objects, one really clear photograph of an ivory-billed woodpecker could solve a long-standing mystery.

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A Vanished Bird Might Live On, or Not. The Video Is Grainy

Photo, posted October 19, 2014, courtesy of James St. John via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Vanishing Arctic Lakes | Earth Wise

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In recent decades, the warming in the Arctic has been much faster than in the rest of the world.  The phenomenon is known as Arctic amplification.  A study by the Finnish Meteorological Institute published in August in Communications Earth & Environment determined that during the past 43 years, the Arctic has been warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the globe.  The result of this amplified warming has been that glaciers are collapsing, wildlife is struggling, and habitats continue to disappear at a record pace.

Research published by the University of Florida has identified a new threat associated with Arctic amplification: lakes in the Arctic are drying up.

Over the past 20 years, many Arctic lakes have shrunk or dried up completely across the entire pan-Arctic region, which spans the northern parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, Scandinavia, and Alaska.

Arctic lakes are essential elements of the Arctic ecosystem and for the indigenous communities that live in the region.  They provide a critical source of fresh water for those communities and local industries. 

The rapid decline of Arctic lakes is unexpected.  Earlier predictions were that climate change would first actually expand lakes in the region as ground ice melted.  Lakes drying out was not expected until much later in this century or even in the 22nd century.  Instead, it appears that thawing permafrost may drain lakes and overwhelm the expansion effect caused by melting ice.  The theory is that thawing permafrost decreases lake area by creating drainage channels and increasing soil erosion.

The finding suggest that permafrost thawing is occurring faster than anticipated, which presents many additional problems.

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As the climate crisis intensifies, lakes across the Arctic are vanishing

Photo, posted June 20, 2014, courtesy of Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Beavers Are Flooding The Warming Arctic | Earth Wise

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The accelerating warming in the Arctic has transformed the region into a warmer, wetter, and more diverse environment.  Warming temperatures have encouraged the increasing growth of vegetation, particularly shrubs that provide beavers with bark to eat and branches to build with.  Warming temperatures also mean that lakes and streams freeze solid for shorter periods of time or not at all, allowing beavers to pursue their construction projects for longer periods during the year.

Prior to the mid-1970s, residents of the Alaskan Arctic encountered few beaver ponds.  In 2018, researchers using satellite imagery mapped 12,000 beaver ponds in Alaskan tundra.

Beavers are causing major changes in the streams and floodplains that many small Alaskan villages depend upon for food, water, and navigation.  As the rodents transform lowland tundra ecosystems, they are eliminating food sources, deteriorating water quality, and making it difficult to navigate waterways.

The migration of beavers across the Arctic landscape is largely a result of climate change.  But it is also becoming one of the factors amplifying climate change.  Scientists are trying to figure out the degree of permafrost thawing that beaver dam-and-den building is causing and how fast these defrosted organic soils will degrade and release trapped carbon and methane.

Beaver dams alter the hydrology of streams by slowing the flow, storing and spreading water to create wetlands, raising the water table, and lowering the oxygen content of the water. 

Climate-driven changes in species distributions affect human well-being as entire ecosystems continue to change.  Shifts in animal habitat stimulated by climate change could have profound consequences across the globe.

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Beavers Are Flooding the Warming Alaskan Arctic, Threatening Fish, Water and Indigenous Traditions

Photo, posted June 12, 2018, courtesy of Peter Pearsall/USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plastic-Eating Bugs | Earth Wise

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27-year-old Miley Cyrus and 30-year-old Liam Hemsworth divorced exactly one year ago, but still continue to remember each other quite often in conversations with reporters. Recently, Miley indulged in nostalgia once again. During a recording Miley Cyrus boyfriend list of the podcast Barstool Call Her Daddy, the singer said that her ex-husband was her first man. It happened almost 10 years before they got married. I didn’t have that with men until I was 16, but I ended up marrying this guy,

According to a new study, microbes in oceans and soils around the world are evolving to eat plastic.  The study by Chalmers University in Sweden was published recently in the journal Microbial Ecology.

The study is the first large-scale assessment of the plastic-degrading potential of bacteria.  There are 95 microbial enzymes already known to degrade plastic. 

The researchers looked for similar enzymes in environmental DNA samples taken from bacteria from 236 different locations around the world. They found that one in four of the organisms analyzed carried suitable enzymes.  Overall, they found many thousands of new enzymes.

The explosion of plastic production in the past 70 years has given microbes time to evolve to make use of plastic.  About 12,000 new enzymes were found in ocean samples and 18,000 in soil samples.  Nearly 60% of the new enzymes did not fit into any known enzyme classes, suggesting that these molecules degrade plastics in ways that were previously unknown.  The large number of enzymes in such a wide range of habitats is an indication of the scale of the problem of plastics in the environment.

The first bacterium that eats plastic was discovered in a Japanese waste dump in 2016.  Scientists tweaked that microbe in 2018 and managed to create an enzyme that was even better at breaking down plastic bottles.

The next step in research is to test the most promising enzyme candidates in the laboratory to investigate their properties and see how effective they can be in plastic degradation.  The hope is to be able to engineer microbial communities with targeted degrading functions for specific polymer types.

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Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds

Photo, posted June 19, 2013, courtesy of Alan Levine via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Importance Of Urban Green Spaces | Earth Wise

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Projections are that 68% of the global population will be living in cities by 2050.  It is therefore not surprising that urban green spaces are critically important for promoting mental and physical well-being.

An international study, published in Science Advances, took soil samples from different types of urban green spaces and comparable neighboring natural ecosystems in 56 cities from 17 countries across six continents.

The study concluded that even roadside plantings contribute a range of important microbial communities that are critical for sustaining productive ecosystems services, such as filtering pollutants and sequestering carbon dioxide.

Parks and gardens constitute most of the open spaces available for recreational activities in cities and play important roles in curbing pollution, reducing noise, and lowering air temperatures.

In addition, human exposure to soil microbes has been shown to be beneficial to human health by promoting effective immunoregulation functions and reducing allergies. The study found that city parks and even roadside plantings support a great variety of different microbes that are different from natural ecosystems. 

We think of roadsides as being barren but the vegetation along footpaths and roadsides are important microbial habitats.  Some European cities, such as Bern in Switzerland, have instituted policies to protect the natural vegetation along footpaths and roadsides.

The new study is a part of a series of research efforts looking at the important of green spaces for ecosystem health.  As the world becomes increasingly urbanized, every bit of greenery in cities and highways is important and is needed for sustaining a healthy environment.

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Every spot of urban green space counts

Photo, posted June 3, 2013, courtesy of Manuel MV via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plastic Pollution And The Galapagos Islands | Earth Wise

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The proliferation of plastics remains one of the world’s most challenging environmental problems.  Plastic pollution can be found in some of the most remote regions of the planet, including atop the world’s tallest mountains and in the deepest depths of the ocean.  Even the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, are no exception.

According to a new study by researchers from the University of Exeter, the Galapagos Conservation Trust, and the Galapagos Science Center, plastic pollution has been found in seawater, on beaches, and inside marine animals at the Galapagos Islands. 

In the most polluted hotspots, more than 400 plastic particles were found per square metre of beach. The researchers found that only 2% of macroplastic pollution – plastic fragments larger than five millimeters – was identified as coming from the Galapagos islands. All seven of the marine invertebrate species examined – 52% of individuals tested – were found to contain microplastics.

Significant accumulations of plastic were also found in key habitats, including rocky lava shores and mangroves. In fact, plastics were found in all marine habitats at the island of San Cristobal, which is where Charles Darwin first landed in Galapagos.

Most of the plastic pollution in the Galapagos appears to arrive via ocean currents. According  to the research team, the highest levels of plastic pollution were found on east-facing beaches, which are exposed to pollution carried across the ocean on the Humboldt Current. 

The pristine images of the Galapagos, a world-famous biodiversity haven, might give the impression that the region is protected from plastic pollution.  But clearly that is not the case.

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Plastic in Galapagos seawater, beaches and animals

Photo, posted April 12, 2012, courtesy of Ben Tavener via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Assisted Colonization | Earth Wise

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As the pace of climate change continues to quicken, many species seem to be unable to keep up and could face extinction as a result.   There is a potential strategy for people to help species reach places with more suitable physical and biological conditions.  People could carry endangered animals to habitats cut off by mountains, rivers, or human-made barriers.  They could plant endangered trees higher up mountain slopes or to locations further north.  Such actions have been termed assisted colonization.

People have been moving species around the world throughout human history for various reasons either intentionally or inadvertently.  But as a conservation strategy, assisted colonization is quite controversial.

The argument is whether the risk of moving species to more favorable conditions outweighs the risk of inaction.  The salvation of one species could mean the destruction of another.   A species that seems perfectly innocuous when moved to one place can become a rampant invader in another.

An upcoming international conference on Biological Diversity to be held this fall in China may take up the issue of creating a set of guidelines on assisted colonization.   Such guidelines would help people assess which species to focus on; where, when, and how to move them; how to weigh the risks of action and inaction; and how to conduct such actions across international borders.  Assisted colonization may be useful in some instances and not in others.  There needs to be a way for the world to decide whether it is warranted or not.  With climate change posing a growing threat to many of the world’s species, this is an issue that should be addressed.

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Amid Climate Pressures, a Call for a Plan to Move Endangered Species

Photo, posted July 16, 2014, courtesy of Mark Spangler via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Living On Trash | Earth Wise

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Litter is persistent and widespread in rivers worldwide.  The world’s major rivers and estuaries are hotspots for plastic waste.  Trash and microparticles wash down tributaries and build up before rivers enter oceans.

New research published in the journal Freshwater Biology has found that as this waste accumulates, aquatic river species like insects and snails are increasingly choosing to settle on plastic rather than on natural features like rocks and fallen branches.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham in the UK collected plastic waste from three rivers in eastern Britain along with rocks from the same rivers.  Their analysis of all the macroinvertebrates on the items’ surfaces found that the surfaces of plastic waste items had nearly four times the diversity of the small animals as did the rocks.  In addition, the more complex the plastic’s surface was, the higher the diversity.

The growing abundance of plastic waste coincides with a decline in natural habitat features in urban rivers.  This is a result of increasing amounts of sedimentation from development that blankets riverbeds in silt and sand, restricting the supply and movement of rocks, fallen tree branches, and aquatic plants.

Clearly litter can serve as a place for various species to colonize, but trash is not a good environment for them.  Trash can release toxic chemicals and entangle animals.  Microplastics pose risks for the animals if ingested.

Estimates are that between 1.15 and 2.41 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean every year from rivers around the world.  Natural habitats have become rare in urban rivers.  River ecosystems built around piles of trash are not a good thing.

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As Plastic Pollution in Rivers Gets Worse, Species Are Increasingly Living on Litter

Photo, posted August 17, 2010, courtesy of Renee_McGurk via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Carnivores Eating Human Food | Earth Wise

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A recent study by ecologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that carnivores living near people often get more than half of their diets from human food sources rather than from their traditional prey.  This represents a major lifestyle disruption that puts North America’s carnivore-dominated ecosystems at risk.

The researchers studied the diets of seven predator species across the Great Lakes region using bone and fur samples taken from animals from areas as remote as national parks to metropolitan areas including Albany, New York.  What they found – unsurprisingly – is that the closer carnivores lived to cities and farms, the more human food they ate.  Dietary contributions of human food varied with species, but on average was more than 25% in most human-altered habitats.

The researchers studied the diets of carnivores like bobcats, coyotes, red and gray foxes, fishers, and American martens by chemical analysis of samples from Minnesota, Wisconsin, upstate New York, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The diets of the animals could be analyzed on the basis of the carbon content of bone and fur samples.  Human food, heavy in corn and sugar, lends these samples a distinctive carbon isotope signature.  In contrast, prey species confer their own carbon signatures.  The ratio of these isotope fingerprints provides information on the proportion of an animal’s diet that came from human sources.

Relying upon human food increases how much carnivores overlap one another in their competition for food.  Compared to when these predators vie for distinct prey, there can be more conflicts between animals.  Changing how a species gets their food can have far-ranging effects on ecosystems.

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Carnivores living near people feast on human food, threatening ecosystems

Photo, posted August 18, 2007, courtesy of Jitze Couperus via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Native Bees In A Honeybee World | Earth Wise

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There is a great deal of attention on the plight of bees and other pollinators.  Much of that focuses on the problems plaguing the large, domesticated honeybee colonies that are trucked from region to region to pollinate everything from almonds to fruit trees.  Managed bee colonies have recently been losing more than 40% of their population over the course of a year.  But overall, honeybees are still relatively safe. They are a globally distributed, domesticated species and are not remotely threatened with extinction.

But another group of bees – native bees – faces a different range of threats, most linked to habitat loss.   Worldwide, roughly 20,000 native bee species have evolved over millions of years to thrive in countless habitats, where they have specialized in pollinating specific flowers and plants – in some cases just a single plant.

Scientists have estimated that, globally, 1 in 6 bee species is regionally extinct. In the United States there are about 4,000 native bee species, most of which are solitary bees that nest in the ground or cavities, with many that require just one or a few plant species for sustenance. At least 23 percent of U.S. native bees have declined, with bees in areas with heavy commodity-crop production particularly hard hit due to habitat loss and pesticide use. Other threats to native bees include climate-driven sea-level rise and increased temperatures, loss of host plants, and competition and disease from non-native honeybees. 50% of Midwestern native bee species disappeared from their historic ranges in the last 100 years.   Four of our bumblebee species declined 96% in the last 20 years, and three species are believed to already be extinct. 

Native bees are in big trouble.

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Backyard Battle: Helping Native Bees Thrive in a Honeybee World

Photo, posted December 2, 2017, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Beavers And The Warming Arctic | Earth Wise

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Beavers have a remarkable ability to transform landscapes.  Using their sharp teeth, they fell trees and shrubs and build dams, which cause small valleys to fill with water and form new lakes.  Some of these lakes measure five or ten acres in size, or even more.  And beavers are very efficient builders; they often build their dams at precisely those points where can they have the greatest effect with the least effort.

Scientists studying beaver activity in the Arctic regions of Alaska have found that the changing climate is leading to a substantial increase in beaver populations and their effect on the landscape.

In 2018, researchers found that the beavers living in a 7,000 square-mile area in northwest Alaska had created 56 new lakes in just five years.  Thanks to rising temperatures, more and more habitats offer the shrubs that beavers need for food and building material.  In addition, the lakes, which used to freeze solid, now offer beaver-friendlier conditions.  Also, beavers are not hunted as intensively as in the past.

The scientists were surprised that beavers have seized the opportunity so intensively.  There is basically an exponential growth in beaver dams.  This is actually a worrisome situation.  Forming all these new lakes degrades ice-rich permafrost in the area.  In the Kotzebue region of Alaska, the overall water area has increased by more than 8% over the past 17 years, and roughly two-thirds of that is due to beavers.

The degradation of the Arctic’s permafrost is a dangerous situation and it appears that anyone who wants to predict its future has to keep the activity of beavers in mind.

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Beavers gnawing away at the permafrost

Photo, posted June 23, 2018, courtesy of Becky Matsubara via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Oil Platforms And Fish | Earth Wise

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It is well-known that offshore oil platforms become major habitats for fish.  Their support structures rise hundreds of feet through the water column and basically create a prefabricated reef for marine life.   Many of these platforms will soon be decommissioned and government agencies are considering the consequences to undersea life when this happens.

Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara have looked at how various decommissioning scenarios would affect undersea ecosystems. They found that completely removing a platform could reduce fish biomass by an average of 95%.  In contrast, removing just the top part of the rig could keep losses to around 10%.

California is looking at several possibilities for decommissioning 27 oil platforms off of its coast.  The three options are:  leave the platform in place, remove all of it, or remove just the top part of it.  Each option entails its own economic and ecological consequences.

The research team studied the size and composition of fish communities at 24 platforms and created models for each of the decommissioning scenarios.  The partial removal approach involved stripping away all structures within 26 meters of the surface.  This number would eliminate the need for a lighted buoy where the support structure remained according to U.S. Coast Guard guidelines.

For the 24 structures studied, leaving them entirely in place would support over 29,000 kilograms of fish biomass.  Removing just the top 26 meters would support nearly 28,000 kilograms.  Removing the platforms entirely would support only 500 kilograms of fish biomass.

As California weighs how to decommission its oil platforms, studies like this will be critical to making informed decisions.

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Oil Platforms’ Fishy Future

Photo, posted June 4, 2019, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Conservation In Vermont | Earth Wise

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In recent times, Vermont and neighboring states have been losing forest land to development at a rate of almost 1,500 acres per year.  With forest fragmentation gaining ground across New England, conserving land for future generations of people, wildlife, and plants has become both increasingly important and increasingly difficult.

According to a new study published by researchers at the University of Vermont, the state has already protected a third of the highest priority targeted lands needed to protect and connect valuable wildlife habitats and corridors.  The protected lands amount to 1.3 million acres.

Most of the currently conserved lands are forested.  However, there are high-priority targeted surface water and riparian areas – ponds, rivers, shorelines, and wetlands – and not nearly enough of these have been protected.  (Many animals require zones along waterways in which to travel between the habitats they need to survive).

The state of Vermont and a number of partners have laid out a comprehensive and thoughtful vision that would ensure that Vermont remains a good place for all forms of life in the future.  The new study provides a crucial benchmark of current levels of forest protection to help prioritize future conservation actions. 

Three groups dominate in responsibility for the state’s protected lands:  the federal government, the state government, and private non-profit organizations.  (Each of these account for roughly a third of existing protected lands).

Going forward, Vermont’s nonprofits will play an increasingly important role in land conservation, especially in continuing to protect those areas that are rich with species diversity.  Nonprofits are engaging more and more deeply in restoring wetlands that were previously degraded, planting new forests along river shores, and protecting unique natural communities while also protecting working forests and farmland.

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Vermont Has Conserved One Third of the Land Needed for an Ecologically Functional Future

Photo, posted June 15, 2014, courtesy of Wesley Carr via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Devastating Threat To Coral Reef Habitats | Earth Wise

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According to new research from scientists at the University of Hawaii Manoa, the warming and acidifying oceans could wipe out nearly all existing coral reef habitats by 2100.  In fact, the researchers predict that 70-90% of coral reefs will disappear over the next 20 years alone as a consequence of climate change and pollution. 

Some organizations are attempting to save coral habitats by transplanting live corals from labs to reefs.  The idea is that the new young corals will help revive the reefs.  But after mapping where such restoration efforts would be most successful, the research indicates that there will be little to no suitable habitat remaining for corals by 2100.  Small portions of Baja California and the Red Sea are two of the sites that could remain viable by 2100, although neither are ideal due to their proximity to rivers.  Sea surfaces temperature and acidity are two of the most important factors in determining the viability of a site for restoration.  

Warming ocean waters stress corals, which cause them to expel the symbiotic algae living inside them.  This turns the often colorful corals white – an event known as coral bleaching.  Bleached corals are not dead corals, but they are at a higher risk of dying.  These coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent as a result of the changing climate. 

The projected increases in human pollution will only play a minor role in the future elimination of coral reef habitats.  Ironically, that’s because humans have already caused such extensive damage to coral reefs that there aren’t many locations left to impact.

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Warming, acidic oceans may nearly eliminate coral reef habitats by 2100

Photo, posted September 28, 2009, courtesy of Matt Kieffer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Coastal Plants And Climate Change | Earth Wise

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Rising sea levels and the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are leaving observable effects on beaches, cliffs, and coastal infrastructures all around the world.  But a new study suggests that the impact of climate change on coastal plant communities needs more attention. 

According to research recently published in the journal Annals of Botany, coastal plants are a critical element of global sea defense.  But coastal plants are increasingly under threat from flooding, erosion, and other human-induced effects of climate change.  Habitats like salt marshes, mangrove forests, sand dunes, and kelp beds make important contributions  to coastal protection.

The research was led by scientists from the University of Plymouth, in conjunction with researchers at Utrecht University and Manchester Metropolitan University.

The study follows a recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found that anthropogenic climate change poses a severe threat to estuaries and coastal ecosystems.  

Conservative estimates of the capital investments needed to combat rising seas and intensifying storms run into the hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming decades.  However, coastal vegetation could offer a dynamic, natural, and relatively low-cost defense strategy at a fraction of the cost when compared with the cost of so-called hard defenses like concrete walls and barriers. 

According to the research team, identifying the key species and habitats for coastal defense and how coasts can be protected and promoted is critical.  More long-term monitoring is also needed in order to better understand and predict where and how storms and other effects of climate change will impact coastal ecosystems. 

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The gathering storm: optimizing management of coastal ecosystems in the face of a climate-driven threat

Losing coastal plant communities to climate change will weaken sea defences

Photo, posted September 14, 2018, courtesy of Dennis Jarvis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Community Action And Coral Reefs

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Coral reef habitats are some of the densest and most varied ecosystems on earth.  While coral reefs cover just 0.2% of the ocean floor, scientists estimate that nearly one million different species of fish, invertebrates, and algae can be found in or around coral reefs. 

However, climate change is wreaking havoc on the health of coral reefs.  Warming and acidifying oceans are resulting in enormous coral losses.  Overfishing, development, and pollution are also threatening coral reef health.

According to new research, positive community action can help boost fish populations in coral reefs and safeguard future fish numbers.  The paper, which was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, details the social and ecological outcomes of work being done in Papua New Guinea since 2001. 

These communities have established a traditional system of rotational fishing closures in order to manage their fisheries resources.   They ban fishing on part of their reefs for a few years, and then open these closures when village elders believe fish behavior has changed and fish populations have recovered.  They then close a different part of their reefs, and repeat the process. 

The researchers found that these rotational practices resulted in more than twice as many fish on the closed reefs as compared to open ones, and the closures made fish less scared of people and easier to catch.  But the researchers did caution that this short term boost in fish numbers may not be enough to stop the overall impact of fishing.

Globally, more than 500 million people depend on coral reefs for food, income, and coastal protection.  Balancing community needs with environmental needs can be tricky business.  

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Positive community action can help coral reef health

Photo, posted October 11, 2011, courtesy of Paul Toogood via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Frogs Are In Big Trouble

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Scientists first noticed in the 1970s that some frog populations were declining rapidly.  By the 1980s, some species appeared to be extinct.  The loss of frog species was mysterious because many were actually living in pristine habitats that did not face pollution or deforestation.

By the late 1990s, researchers had identified that frogs in widely different places around the world were infected with a deadly fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis – or Bd for short.  The fungus originated on the Korean peninsula, but the pathogen spread throughout the world, probably via the international trade in pet amphibians.  By 2007, researchers speculated that Bd might be responsible for all known declines of frogs that had no other apparent cause – about 200 species.

Recently, a group of 41 scientists published the first worldwide analysis of the fungal outbreak and the devastation turns out to be far worse than anyone had previously realized.  Populations of more than 500 species of amphibians have declined significantly because of the outbreak, including at least 90 species presumed to have gone extinct.  These figures are more than twice as large as earlier estimates.

According to biologists, Bd is now considered to be the deadliest pathogen known to science.  But the decimation of frogs peaked in the 1980s.  Today, although 39% of the species that suffered population declines in the past are still declining, 12% are showing signs of recovery, possibly because natural selection is favoring resistant animals.

There is cautious optimism for the surviving amphibian species, but scientists worry that another strain of Bd or some different species of fungus altogether may prove even deadlier.  The best we can do is not participate in moving pathogens around the world.

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Web Links

The Plague Killing Frogs Everywhere Is Far Worse Than Scientists Thought

Photo, posted June 19, 2010, courtesy of Chris Luczkow via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)