Trees, from broad-leafed maples to tall oaks, give urbanites a little shade and eye candy. They can also help to freshen a bustling city’s air. But these leafy plants are expensive to sow, and are easily felled by fierce winds, old age and new development. Cities that don’t restock their walnut or cottonwoods may soon begin to run out, say David Nowak and Eric Greenfield at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Northern Research Station in Syracuse, New York.

To see just how well U.S. cities are keeping pace, the researchers turned to a series of wide panoramic shots taken from high above urban areas, including Chicago, New York and New Orleans. These towns differed wildly in their green cover, ranging from Atlanta–whose surface is more than half tree–to Denver–less than 10%. The team poured through the images like before and after weight-loss photos, gauging the growth or spread of shade during the mid-to-late 2000s.

On the whole, tree cover shrank in 17 out of the 20 cities. The losses amounted to about 7,900 hectares of greenery per year or 4 million trees, the researchers report in the current issue of Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. New Orleans had the most fallen timber, they add, for a very obvious reason–Hurricane Katrina. Between 2005 and 2009, close to 30% of the city’s existing tree cover was washed away.

But it wasn’t all bad news. Trees took root across Syracuse’s neighborhoods from 2003 to 2009, covering an extra 1% of the northern town’s area. Most of this bonus shrubbery was dominated by European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), a hedge-like plant newly arrived in the United States. That suggests that the city’s gains may be accidental, not the result of concerted planting efforts, Nowak and Greenfield say.

For many towns, extensive planting may not be an option, the researchers say. Los Angeles, for instance, lacks the water to sustain hundreds of new trees. But a little prevention could go a long way, they add: More responsible grass mowing practices, for instance, can give trees a better shot at surviving their first years. With a little luck, new trees could grow in Brooklyn, after all. – Daniel Strain | February 8, 2012

Source: Nowak DJ and Greenfield EJ. (2012). Tree and impervious cover change in U.S. cities. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 11(1). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866711000999. DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2011.11.005.

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California, known for its unusually craggy geography and productive coastal waters, is salmon country. The state once hosted 32 distinct species and isolated subgroups of salmon and trout, from Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) to the local-only Eagle Lake rainbow trout (O. mykiss aquilarum).

But it’s not all a haven for silver, jumping fish: Wide networks of dams, for instance, put up roadblocks to Coho trying to swim upstream to spawn. And warming waters are tough on developing eggs. The first fish species to fall victim was the bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus), which hasn’t been spotted in California since 1974.

To gauge the future of the state’s 31 other salmon and trout, Jacob Katz of the University of California, Davis and colleagues set out to census the threats facing these fish. There are plenty to go around. In addition to dams and climate change, the team assessed the risks posed by low genetic diversity within populations, alien fish and hatcheries, which spew hundreds of non-wild and often inbred animals into streams.

Salmon seem to be hurting, the group concluded in Environmental Biology of Fish. Twelve populations, including two groups of Coho, are teetering on the brink of extinction, the researchers say. Another 12 have been dropping at alarming rates and could go extinct by the end of the century. Only one population of fish, a coastal rainbow trout, seemed stable in the long-term. Warming waters spell trouble for about 74% of California’s salmon and trout, while close to one-third have been eaten out of house and home by non-wild fish released by people.

The team argues that Californians shouldn’t underestimate how quickly things can turn for these animals. Only about half a decade ago, shiny and humungous Coho overwhelmed Californian streams. Hundreds of thousands swam to and fro in the state alone. Now, there are only hundreds.

But it’s not necessarily a salmon doomsday, the group says. These fish are adaptable, so extensive conservation, including knocking down dams or halting the flow of hatchery fish, could pull many back from the brink. – Daniel Strain | February 7, 2012

Source: Katz J, et al. (2012) Impending extinction of salmon, steelhead, and trout (Salmonidae) in California. Environmental Biology of Fishes. http://www.springerlink.com/content/e732l750m54p5r65/. DOI: 10.1007/s10641-012-9974-

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“Contamination of the environment with nonedible items that mimic food can cause health problems in invertebrates, fishes, reptiles, birds and mammals,” Pieere-Yves Henry of the Natural History Museum in Brunoy, France and colleagues write in Waterbirds. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellies, for instance, but examples from land creatures are rarer. But when it comes to birds, “rubber bands are one of the commonest anthropogenic items ingested… likely because their shape and color mimic prey such as earthworms.”

The gangly White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) is one worm lover. To see if the bird – which is beloved in many European towns – was choking down the strips, in 2003 and 2004 the researchers asked stork banders to survey the debris found in nests in nine regions. Overall, they discovered bands in about 5% of 227 nests – and that just 10% of nests more than 3 kilometers from a trash dump had bands. And after reviewing necropsy records of dead storks, they found that about one-quarter had rubber bands in their stomachs – and that 7 birds had died after bands blocked digestive paths. “Immature birds may be more exposed to rubber band ingestion than adults because of their lower ability at discriminating and regurgitating non-edible items, as well as their higher frequentation of rubbish dumps,” they note.

There was one piece of good news: “The western European population of White Storks is increasing,” the authors write, “hence rubber band consumption most likely does not pose a global conservation problem for the species.” – David Malakoff | February 6, 2012

Source: Henry, P., Wey, G., & Balança, G. (2011). Rubber Band Ingestion by a Rubbish Dump Dweller, the White Stork. Waterbirds, 34 (4), 504-508 DOI: 10.1675/063.034.0414

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The benefits of fresh air and a brisk hike–call it the Thoreau effect–are well known to scientists. In a previous study, for instance, Japanese researchers explored the relationship simply by taking a few urbanites on a walk through a forest. After this Shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing,” the participants’ blood pressures dropped noticeably.

But Catharine Ward Thompson of the University of Edinburgh and colleagues wanted to test how routine, or even chance, brush-ups with greenery might affect the body. To do that, they tracked 35 unemployed people between the ages of 35-55 living in Dundee, just north of Scotland’s capital in the United Kingdom. Specifically, the team monitored daily fluctuations in the Scots’ cortisol levels. This hormone, involved in the stress response, typically peaks in the blood after waking and drops to near zero during sleep.

Forget the apple-a-day rule, the authors found. Proximity to green areas, from forest preserves to walking trails and city parks, seemed to be a recipe for better well-being, Thompson and colleagues report in Landscape and Urban Planning. The subjects that lived closer to greenery claimed to be less anxious than their counterparts trapped in the city, according to surveys. And their stress hormones, measured in saliva, also cycled more uniformly. Such ebbs and flow appear to signal good mental health, the team says. In contrast, individuals diagnosed with clinical depression or post-traumatic stress disorder display flattened out levels of cortisol.

One reason green may be a balm, the authors conclude, is that people often meet up with friends in green areas–a sure-fire cure for nerves. Or, like Thoreau, they may just feel more at home with their toes in the grass. Either way, it’s a good lesson for city planners. – Daniel Strain | February 5, 2012

Source: Thompson CW, et al. (2012) More green space is linked to less stress in deprived communities: Evidence from salivary cortisol patterns. Landscape and Urban Planning. http://www.citeulike.org/article/10282677. DOI:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.12.015

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Unlikely, perhaps. But when it comes to preserving old buildings, chairs or paintings, many curators and art collectors haven’t considered an important variable, according to a new study: climate change. Researchers recently probed two historic European castles, now small museums, and found that rising temperatures and humidity could damage priceless collections.

As far as museums go, these buildings–one in the Netherlands and the other in Belgium but neither mentioned by name–are hardly high-tech. In their initial inspections, Zara Huijbregts and colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands found mold growing in one, a clunky Belgian edifice dating back to the 13th century. Only the museum in the Dutch castle, a few hundred years younger, maintained equipment for dehumidifying some of its rooms.

To see how these drafty, stone buildings might fare in the future, the group drew on two types of simulations. The first were climate forecasts, which generally predict climbing heat and specific humidity for Europe. The researchers then combined those predictions with software capable of simulating a building’s indoor environment by extrapolating from a few variables: how thick its walls are, for instance. They looked at four rooms in particular, two in each castle, forecasting heat and humidity fluxes inside these exhibit areas up to 2099.

The results might make a fastidious curator break out in sweat. Humidity is the big worry. Rapid shifts of just 15% in a room’s relative humidity can put a strain on museum treasures like paintings. Under future weather scenarios, each of the four rooms could experience such fluctuations, Huijbregt’s team reports in Building and Environment.

Maybe even worse: mold. The Holland castle, fortunately, usually stays dry enough to keep microbes from spreading across its paintings and furniture. The older Belgian castle, however, might not be as lucky. Under the group’s predictions, mold in one room alone could grow by as much as 9 millimeters per year between 2070 and 2099.

Artificial heating and cooling tools plus dehumidifiers could help a lot, the researchers conclude. But old museums throughout Europe should take note, they warn, lest their artwork begin to sag. The realists would be so mad. – Daniel Strain | February 1, 2012

Source: Huijbregts Z, et al. (2012) A proposed method to assess the damage risk of future climate change to museum objects in historic buildings. Building and Environment. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132312000170?v=s5. DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2012.01.008

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The Netherlands has no shortage of trenches. Nearly 300,000 kilometers of ditches crisscross the country, siphoning off water from roadways and agricultural fields. They’ve largely replaced the nation’s now-rare wetlands, a research team reports in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. On the surface, however, ditches seem like poor excuses for habitats: For starters, they’re sinks for notorious pollutants like chemical fertilizers. Humans, too, regularly churn up these drainages, removing tall plants and even the mud important to some burrowers.

But some researchers wondered if rare animals could still make a go of it in these niches. To find out, Ralf Verdonschot and colleagues at Wageningen University in the Netherlands set out in their galoshes to survey nine ditches and nine lakes, most less than a half-meter deep. They sifted through the muck for small invertebrates, such as gastropods called mystery snails, and even freshwater bivalves. They also caught fish.

Surprisingly, the ditches didn’t seem too Spartan. Although the ditches supported a lower diversity of plants than the lakes, the team collected about different 75 species per drainage system (versus 81 for the lakes). Wriggling fish, too, swam in all but one. But the habitats weren’t created equal, either. More air breathers, such as many dragonflies, tended to live around ditches compared to lakes, perhaps because the water in these narrow communities carried too little oxygen for fluid-breathers.

Verdonschot and colleagues credit the secret bounty of Dutch drainages to the fact that, like the nation’s roadways, they join up, enabling species to move around. Lakes, on the other hand, may be separated by kilometers of farmland–not safe for slow-poke snails. That could make ditches needed reservoirs for bog animals fleeing the loss of wetlands, the group argues. Maybe the finding will usher in a new era of wildlife management: Ditch conservation. – Daniel Strain | January 31, 2012

Source: Verdonschot RCM, Keizer-Vlek HE, Verdonschot PFM. (2011) Biodiversity value of agricultural drainage ditches: a comparative analysis of the aquatic invertebrate fauna of ditches and small lakes. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 21(7). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.1220/full. DOI: 10.1002/aqc.1220.

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“Residential abandonment is on the rise in many urban areas,” Christopher M. Gough and Hunter L. Elliott of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond write in the Journal of Environmental Management. And when residents move out, that means less lawn mowing and trampling – potentially modifying “vegetation structure in a way that alters soil carbon storage, an ecosystem function that many municipalities consider a management objective of growing importance.”

To dig deeper into the implications of abandonment on soil carbon stocks, Gough and Elliott took a close look at 50 vacant and 10 occupied residential lawns located in Richmond, a struggling city of about 200,000. In addition to measuring the percentage and mass of carbon in the first 10 centimeters of soil, they surveyed vegetation and collected socio-economic data on the surrounding neighborhoods.

Not surprisingly, they found that abandoned lawns had less grass and more tall, shrubby plants (in fact, one way they identified vacant houses was by looking for lawn code violations issued by city officials). Carbon measures didn’t differ significantly between the occupied and abandoned lawns – but there were subtle signs that neglect was helping the abandoned lawns store more carbon over time. “Significant, but highly uncertain, increases in soil carbon mass occurred in the first decade following vacancy,” they note. Similar trends have been seen in abandoned farmland, and the results “suggest that a continued upward trajectory of soil carbon mass post-abandonment could result in long-term increases in soil carbon or, alternatively, accelerate the rate at which this carbon pool reaches its maximum.”

The researchers also found that the amount of carbon in lawn soil tends to increase with a home’s age – with lawns annually accumulating about 20 grams of carbon per square meter.

It also turns out that money matters: Wealthier neighborhoods tend to have more carbon in the (soil) bank. “Land value per area, an indicator of neighborhood affluence, is a significant predictor of soil carbon percent and mass, with lawns positioned in wealthier neighborhoods (i.e., census tracts) storing more carbon in soils,” they note. That may be because richer households manage their lawns in ways that promote carbon storage, such as by watering plants or using more fertilizers.The finding suggests that “economic and demographic indicators are promising predictors of ecosystem function in human-dominated ecosystems and may be important components of future ‘carbon footprint’ models for urban areas.”

“Our examination of ecosystem structure and function following diminished human intervention is increasingly relevant as the residential footprint of shrinking cities contracts,” Gough and Elliott conclude. And similar studies could help urban leaders chart a new path for cities, especially as “many municipalities contemplate the economic and social merits of reverting residential property back to its native land-use.” – David Malakoff | January 31, 2012

Source: Gough, C., & Elliott, H. (2012). Lawn soil carbon storage in abandoned residential properties: An examination of ecosystem structure and function following partial human-natural decoupling Journal of Environmental Management, 98, 155-162 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.12.028

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“The Mazurian Lakeland, in northeastern Poland, has been recognized as an important region for many bird species,” a research team notes in Biological Conservation. And until the mid-1980s, waterfowl – including the great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) and the coot (Fulica atra) – nested in droves. In 1984, however, “the first invasive American mink (Neovison vison) was observed in this region, and over the following years the feral mink population increased rapidly.” Soon, researchers began to see noticeable population declines and changes in nesting patterns among the waterfowl – not surprising, given the mink’s appetite for eggs. Coot alone declined by 20-fold in some places.

To better understand the shifts, the researchers carefully analyzed more than a decade’s worth of breeding bird surveys and mink abundance studies done at dozens of regional lakes. They found that mink densities varied from 1.0 to 14.6 individuals per 10 kilometers of shoreline. They were also able to figure out how big a threat the mink posed to eggs, by building artificial nests filled with chicken eggs. Overall, “mink were responsible for the losses of 17–58% of [the] experimental clutches.”

The birds didn’t take the invasion lying down, however. Both species, for instance, began to breed in bigger colonies, apparently finding greater safety in numbers. “Brood losses in birds breeding in colonies were lower than those recorded for solitary breeding pairs,” the researchers report, “by 49% for coots and by 26% for grebes.”

The birds also began to nest closer to built-up areas. Indeed, nesting near somebody’s front “had a strong effect on nest losses: they were reduced by approximately 60% in the case of the coot, and by nearly 20% in case of the grebe.” That’s probably because, according to radio tracking studies, mink don’t like people.

“Human presence and the transformation of natural riparian habitats has enhanced the survival of birds,” the authors conclude. And that is “a paradox,” they add, “in the sense that a man-made habitat change has provided refuge from an alien predator.”

But it may not last, they warn. Minks escaping from farms in western Poland may be more domesticated, and “this influx of mink with low timidity against humans may lead to the colonization of built-up areas, thus reducing the ability of birds to avoid pressure from this predator.” – David Malakoff | January 29, 2012

Source: Brzezinski, M., et al. Numerical and behavioral responses of waterfowl to the invasive American mink: A conservation paradox. Biol. Conserv. (2012), doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.11.012

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To evaluate the sunshade concept, a research team used three types of climate models. One assumed carbon dioxide levels are similar to today’s, the researchers report in Nature Climate Change. A second model doubled those levels, and a third posited doubled carbon dioxide, but with a layer of sulfate aerosols in the stratosphere that deflected about 2% of incoming sunlight away from the Earth. The simulated climate changes were then applied to crop models that are commonly used to project future yields.

The models suggested that a sunshade would lead to increased crop yields in most regions, both compared with current conditions and with the future projection of doubled carbon dioxide on its own. That’s because deflecting sunlight back to space reduces temperatures, but not carbon dioxide. “In many regions, future climate change is predicted to put crops under temperature stress, reducing yields. This stress is alleviated by geoengineering,” says Julia Pongratz of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., one of the authors. “At the same time, the beneficial effects that a higher CO2 concentration has on plant productivity remain active.”

Even if the geoengineering would help crop yields overall, however, the models predict that some areas could be harmed by the geoengineering. And there are other risks that go beyond the direct impact on crop yields. For example, deployment of such systems might lead to political or even military conflict. Furthermore, these approaches do not solve the problem of ocean acidification, which is also caused by carbon dioxide emissions.

“The real world is much more complex than our climate models, so it would be premature to act based on model results like ours,” says Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira, another author. “But desperate people do desperate things,” he notes. That’s why “it is important to understand the consequences of actions that do not strike us as being particularly good ideas.” – David Malakoff & press materials | January 25, 2012

Source: Pongratz, J., Lobell, D., Cao, L., & Caldeira, K. (2012). Crop yields in a geoengineered climate. Nature Climate Change DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1373

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The U.K. moth numbers come from the Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS), a monitoring program that dates back to 1933, and is now one of the biggest and longest-running insect surveys in the world, Richard Fox of Butterfly Conservation in Dorset, U.K. reports in Insect Conservation and Diversity. A 35-year RIS data set, covering 1968 to 2002, found that two-thirds of 337 species of larger “macro moths” had negative populations trends, and 21% had populations that had declined by more than 30% over 10 years. “The causes of pervasive moth declines,” however, “are poorly understood,” Fox notes.

To get a better handle on the issue, Fox reviews a number of potential “drivers,” including habitat loss, chemical pollution, light pollution, and climate change. Although “direct evidence for causes of moth declines is extremely limited,” available studies suggest that habitat degradation (particularly because of agricultural intensification and changing forest management) and climate change are likely to be major drivers. “There is currently little evidence of negative population-level effects on moths caused by chemical or light pollution, non-native species or direct exploitation,” he adds.

Now, Fox writes, the challenge is to expand research on the causes of moth declines – which he calls “one of the clearest signals yet of catastrophic biodiversity loss caused by anthropogenic environmental and landuse changes.” The good news, he notes, is that after years neglect, “ecologists are taking a greater interest in moths.” – David Malakoff | January 24, 2012

Source:FOX, R. (2012). The decline of moths in Great Britain: a review of possible causes. Insect Conservation and Diversity DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-4598.2012.00186.x

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Windcatchers – towers or specially designed roof vents that pull fresh air into a building — aren’t a new idea, a trio of researchers note in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Windcatchers have been “utilized in the hot and arid regions, particularly in the Persian Gulf region… for the past three thousand years, functioning to reduce the building heat load.” And some newer buildings, including government buildings in the United Kingdom and Australia, have borrowed the idea to reduce energy costs.

But “despite the fact that utilization of the passive system is very important for combating the current challenges of the world,” such as greenhouse gas emissions created by burning fossil fuels, the use of windcatchers “is drastically ignored in designing new modern buildings,” they write.

In a bid to give the idea some lift, the researchers review a dizzying array of windcatcher designs, from squat boxes to elegant high-tech cylinders that sit atop pools of water. They also review scientific and engineering studies that quantify air flows and energy use. Some systems can cool buildings by 15 degrees Centigrade, and provide air conditioning to structures of up to 700 square meters.

The results are promising, they conclude. But there’s still plenty to learn. How windcatchers behave in different climates, for instance, needs more study. So does how the public might react to the passive cooling technology. It doesn’t take a towering intellect, however, to see that windcatchers aren’t just hot air. – David Malakoff | January 23, 2012

Source: Saadatian, O., Haw, L., Sopian, K., & Sulaiman, M. (2012). Review of windcatcher technologies. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16 (3), 1477-1495 DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2011.11.037

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“Approximately 50 years ago, Nile tilapia were accidentally introduced to Brazil,” a research team reports in PLoS ONE. The fish has become an important food source – but its appearance often coincides with the disappearance of the pearl cichlid, a native swimmer. And the cichlid’s decline could be bad news for human health, since it eats snails that carry Schistosoma worms, a parasite that can make people sick.

Both fish are plenty feisty. But some researchers have hypothesized that the tilapia’s aggressive personality may explain why it outcompetes the cichlid – even though the tilapia can be smaller. To test that idea, the researchers staged a series of fish fights in small lab pools, pitting juvenile fish that were about 7 centimeters long (2.8 inches) against each other. In some bouts, the tilapia were slightly bigger than the cichlids; in others they were smaller or the same size. During the 30-minute battles, the researchers recorded a range of aggressive and dominance behaviors, from head butts to tail nips.

“The Nile tilapias were clearly more aggressive than the pearl cichlid,” the researchers report. In fact, “body size did not have a strong influence on the outcomes of the fights or the determination of dominance,” they note, with even smaller tilapia dominating the encounters.”These findings reinforce the high aggressiveness of the Nile tilapia and highlight the clear tendency of the Nile tilapia to become the dominant fish.” In the wild, they conclude, the tilapia’s nasty disposition means it may be able to chase cichlids out of their territories – a bit of bullying that conservationists have so far been unable to stop. – David Malakoff | January 22, 2012

Source: Sanches FHC, Miyai CA, Costa TM, Christofoletti RA, Volpato GL, et al. (2012) Aggressiveness Overcomes Body-Size Effects in Fights Staged between Invasive and Native Fish Species with Overlapping Niches. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29746. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029746

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“There are 44,010 airports in the world and 15,079 in the U.S.,” the researchers note in Environmental Management. And the often vast, wide-open landing fields “offer one of the few land uses where reductions in wildlife abundance and habitat quality are necessary and socially acceptable, due to risk of wildlife collisions with aircraft.” As a result, “locating alternative energy projects at airports could help mitigate many of the challenges currently facing policy makers, developers, and conservationists.”

To get an idea of just how much energy production airports could support, the team estimated the amount of grassland at about 2,900 airports in the Lower 48 U.S. states. Overall “these airport properties contain an estimated 3,306 square kilometers of grasslands,” they found, “an area larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island.” And the grassy area could be three times bigger if you count surrounding land that must be kept clear of facilities, such as waste plants, that might attract birds or other animals that might pose a safety hazard to aircraft. “Because airports tend to be located in rural areas on the fringes of urban development, much of the land within the separations distances might be suitable for alternative energy production.”

“Most airports appear regionally suitable for development of at least one major renewable energy source,” they report. Some airports have already installed small wind and solar projects in a bid to supply electricity, they note. And the U.S. Federal Aviation recently published “detailed guidance for installation of solar facilities.” And some strips might even be able to grow biofuels – especially given that just “10% of states had median farm sizes larger than airport grasslands. This suggests that airport grasslands, in size alone, could contribute to the land base needed to supply energy plants.” They’d have to be careful, however, not to plant crops that attract problematic wildlife, the authors caution.

“With careful planning,” the team concludes, “locating alternative energy projects at airports could help mitigate many of the challenges currently facing policy makers, developers, and conservationists.” – David Malakoff | January 18, 2012

Source: DeVault, T., Belant, J., Blackwell, B., Martin, J., Schmidt, J., Wes Burger, L., & Patterson, J. (2012) Airports Offer Unrealized Potential for Alternative Energy Production. Environmental Management. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-011-9803-4

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Biologists have long known that when a habitat gets shaken up–say a forest fire burns through a patch of pine trees–foreign species frequently pop up. Often, these disturbances open up space in a crowded ecosystem, giving invasive plants, such as California’s famous eucalyptus trees, access to sunlight. But researchers led by Angela Moles at the University of New South Whales in Sydney wondered if how fires or floods ebb and flow might be important, too. Plants used to lots of fire, for instance, might fare poorly if those conflagrations drop off, opening the door to invasives.

To test that theory, Moles and colleagues explored green plots across 200 locales from Argentina to Uganda. They carefully tallied the abundances of native and non-native plants in those squares. Then, the team turned to historical data to examine how disturbances, from fires to floods and even grazing pressures from herbivores, had shifted over time.

Change is key, the group reports in the Journal of Ecology. The present levels of forest fires or floods hitting a habitat did seem to encourage the spread of invasive species. But how the intensities or frequencies of fires or floods had fluctuated was nearly twice as important. Grazing, however, didn’t show the same effect.

Moles and colleagues then dug into eight sites across Australia and the United States in detail. Contrary to common thinking, in three of those sites, disasters actually slowed, not sped, the infiltration of foreign species.

Overall, disturbances may not be the biggest force controlling biological invasions, the researchers conclude. In fact, disturbance impacts (both current rates of disturbance and changes in the rate of disturbance) may be relatively paltry – accounting for just about 14% of the differences between habitats in domination by invasive species. Forest fires, then, may not be a tool of the Dark Side, after all. – Daniel Strain | January 17, 2012

Source: Moles, A., Flores-Moreno, H., Bonser, S., Warton, D., Helm, A., Warman, L., Eldridge, D., Jurado, E., Hemmings, F., Reich, P…. (2012) Invasions: the trail behind, the path ahead, and a test of a disturbing idea. Journal of Ecology, 100(1), 116-127. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01915.x 

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Many plants spread their seeds by letting them drift on the wind. But climate change promises to alter wind patterns, and a past study of North American trees suggested that doldrums brought on by climate shifts could alter their ability to adapt to a shifting climate. In the current study, researchers at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, England, dug up how British gusts might or might not similarly halt the flow of seeds.

The researchers first drew on 17 simulations of climate change for the years 2070-2099. They then incorporated demography data from three native British plants exclusive to the south of the island. They also included three non-native species, including the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissimam), a Central European woody plant.

Not surprisingly, the 17 climate simulations tended to vary in their predictions of future wind speeds, the team reports, ranging from a 100% increase in velocities to a 90% slow-down. Wind speeds can be difficult to predict, simply because gales pick up or lose gusto as they flow over small-scale features like glens or hills. But the team spotted what looked to be the signs of an overall slow-down, since the median predictions fell around a 50% decrease in summer wind velocities.

That slow-down would likely be universally bad for the reproductive efforts of British plants, the team concludes. Populations of the lizard orchid, whose short stature means it has difficulty lofting its seeds into the fastest wind currents, for instance, normally shift only 100 centimeters per year. But with a projected wind decrease, that slow migration might squeak to a crawl, dropping to about 3 millimeters per year. And the team suggests that, like the characters in Alice In Wonderland, if the orchid can’t run, it will likely fall behind.–Daniel Strain | January 16, 2012

Source: Bullock, J.M., et al. (2012) Modelling spread of British wind-dispersed plants under future wind speeds in a changing climate [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01910.x/abstract]. Journal of Ecology, 100(1) p. 104-115. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01910.x

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Five years after the Australian government imposed contentious zoning laws that cover one-third of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, fishermen are feeling slighted. In-depth interviews with commercial and charter fishers reveal they feel left out of the process that created large no-take zones in their former fishing spots, according to a new survey – and that controversial compensation payments did little to mollify the fishing community. This discontent illustrates the hurdles that other efforts to establish major marine reserves face in winning support from a key constituency.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park covers 344,400 square kilometers—an area one-half the size of Texas—off the north-eastern coast of Australia. Protecting adequate biodiversity across the reef’s vast range of habitats— the mandate of Australia’s managing agency— resulted in an expansion of the park’s no-take zones from 4.5 percent to 33 percent in 2004. The rest of the park remains open to regulated trawling, reef line fishing and inshore netting.

Fishermen voiced concerns about the expansion during a 7-year planning process, but managers showed little interest in following up, says Stephen Sutton of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland. Sutton also wondered whether media portrayals of fisher’s negative reactions were accurate. To find out, Sutton and his colleagues conducted face-to-face interviews and mail surveys with 114 fishers over more than two years, starting in 2007. The researchers’ affiliation with an independent branch of the university, the Fishing and Fisheries Research Centre, and their strong rapport with fishers, convinced many fishers to disclose sensitive details about their fishing spots and their perceptions of the new zoning restrictions, Sutton told Conservation.

Overall, most of the commercial fisherman surveyed did not favor the rezoning, but recreational fishermen – who do not depend on the park for most their income – were more supportive. And few fishers felt expressly engaged in what Sutton termed a “one size fits all” stakeholder involvement process. Although government planners had requested important fishing locations, for instance, he says many fishermen grew distrustful and didn’t participate fully because officials said little about how they would use the information. Since the sweeping laws were enacted, fishers said their access to productive areas, business profitability, and personal income all have dwindled. But the team also reports in Marine Policy that fishers adapted to new stomping grounds, mainly by moving their fishing efforts closer to home ports.

The study also suggests money didn’t buy much love for the restrictions. To ease the financial pain caused by the expanding no-take zones, a government assistance program for the reef’s displaced industries ballooned from an expected AU$10 million to more than AU$250 million just three years after the restrictions went into effect. Compensation “spiraled out of control” due to election-year politicking and industry pressure, concluded a previous study, published in Ocean and Coastal Management — potentially setting an expensive precedent for future conservation efforts. Sutton’s team was unable to tease out exactly how the “readjustment” payments shifted opinions, but the researchers did conclude that enduring negativity could hurt compliance with the fishing restrictions. Still, the authors project the sour responses should decline over time.

The Australian experience highlights the challenges faced by marine reserve managers in the United States, says Meg Caldwell, executive director of the Center for Ocean Solutions in Monterey, California. “It’s rare that fishermen are cheerleaders for the [reserve] system,” she says. “We may be asking too much of the survey to get positive results.” But the more honest planners are in engaging fishers and other stakeholders, the more straightforward their input will be, Caldwell says.

There’s no evidence, though, that happiness has any impact on whether fishermen comply with regulations, she notes. Instead, she believes “social cohesion” matters more, such as that created by having fishermen police themselves or enforcing strict penalties for violations.

Sutton hopes the study will help conservation managers become “more receptive to what the impacts are and how people perceive rezoning for future management decisions.” Although Australian marine park managers believe they successfully invited public consultation, they should try to understand why dissatisfaction oozes from those who bear most of the rezoning costs, he says. There will be future zoning proposals, Sutton notes, and analysts need pose some tough questions: “Did the process work equally well for all stakeholder groups? Did we get quality information? How can we do it better in the future?” – Amy E. West | January 15, 2012

Sources: Lédée EJ, Sutton, SG, Tobin, RC, De Freitas, DM, Responses and adaptation strategies of commercial and charter fishers to zoning changes in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Marine Policy, Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2012, pp. 226-234. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2011.05.009.

Macintosh, A, Bonyhady, T & Wilkinson, D 2010, Dealing with interests displaced by marine protected areas: A case study on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Structural Adjustment Package, Ocean and Coastal Management, 2010, Volume. 53, no. 9, pp. 581-588. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2010.06.012

Image Amy E. West

The North Sea, which sits northeast of Scotland and west of Scandinavia, is at the northern range of the anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), a little fish prized for its oily, salty taste. Still, the area supported a healthy anchovy fishery in the 19th century and into the 1930s. “In the latter half of the 20th century,” however, “anchovy were only rarely found in the North Sea,” a research team reports in Marine Ecology Progress Series. Then, in the 1990s, there was a sudden and surprising rebound.

Researchers had several theories for the rebound. One was that more southern populations were moving north due to changing ocean conditions. Another was that climate shifts had enabled small remaining resident populations to boom – a homegrown population explosion that didn’t require immigrants.

To test those and other ideas, the researchers took a close look at everything from weather and catch data to anchovy genetics and life history. The most likely explanation, they concluded, is that warmer winters and other climate shifts have helped make the North Sea’s chilly waters more cozy for spawning anchovies and growing larva. As a result, the once small local populations have grown and expanded their range.

The shift may be good news for anything that likes to eat anchovies. But it is also a reminder of how climate change is reshuffling many ecosystems — and the full ecological impacts of the anchovy boom remain to be seen. – David Malakoff | January 11, 2012

Source: Petitgas, P., Alheit, J., Peck, M., Raab, K., Irigoien, X., Huret, M., van der Kooij, J., Pohlmann, T., Wagner, C., Zarraonaindia, I…. (2012) Anchovy population expansion in the North Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 1-13. DOI: 10.3354/meps09451 

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The paucity of tropical studies was “unfortunate given that the majority of all terrestrial species are tropical and the fact that tropical species are predicted to be especially sensitive to climate change,” Kenneth Feeley of Florida International University and the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami writes in Global Change Biology. To close the gap, Feeley combed the world’s herbariums, assembling nearly 500,000 records on when and where botanists had collected 239 species of South American plants. Then, he charted how collecting locations had changed between 1970 and 2009, to see if plants were moving to cooler areas.

He had to be careful, however: Botanists don’t collect plants randomly, but tend to focus on easy to reach areas or particular habitats, potentially skewing the data. Indeed, overall, Feeley found that “virtually all” of the plants “exhibited the predicted cold-ward shifts in their distributions through time. However, for many species these shifts appear to be driven primarily, if not entirely, by changes in where botanists have focused their collection efforts rather than actual changes in geographic distributions.”

Still, after correcting for that bias, 59% of the species exhibited some evidence of moving to cooler climes. Some appeared to be “losers” – expanding into new territory more slowly than they were losing existing range. Others were “winners” – claiming new territory faster than they were losing old. But these “unbalanced shifts” are a cause for concern, Feeley warns, since they could lead to rapid range contractions. Even the winners, he notes, may not be able to keep up with a changing climate for long.

“This is the first study to show evidence for any modern climate-driven species migrations in any lowland tropical species (animal or plant),” Feeley notes. It shows the potential value of using herbarium collections, he adds, although researchers need to be cautious about how they use the data. – David Malakoff | January 11, 2012

Source: Feeley, K. (2011) Distributional migrations, expansions, and contractions of tropical plant species as revealed in dated herbarium records. Global Change Biology, n/a-n/a. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02602.x 

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“The global trade in wildlife has historically contributed to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases,” an international research team notes in PLoS ONE. But although “the United States is the world’s largest importer of wildlife and wildlife products… minimal pathogen surveillance has precluded assessment of the health risks posed by this practice.”

To get a better sense of the risks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) launched a pilot project to survey wildlife products confiscated from travelers at several U.S. international airports, including John F. Kennedy International Airport near New York City, the George Bush Intercontinental airport near Houston and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International. The researchers identified and tested animal “parts originating from nonhuman primate and rodent species, including baboon, chimpanzee, mangabey, guenon, green monkey, cane rat and rat,” they report. And pathogen screening “identified retroviruses (simian foamy virus) and/or herpesviruses (cytomegalovirus and lymphocryptovirus)” in the samples.

“These results are the first demonstration that illegal bushmeat importation into the United States could act as a conduit for pathogen spread,” the researchers conclude.

“Exotic wildlife pets and bushmeat are Trojan horses that threaten humankind at sites where they are collected in the developing world as well as the U.S.,” says W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, one of the coauthors. “Our study underscores the importance of surveillance at ports, but we must also encourage efforts to reduce demand for products that drive the wildlife trade.”

The U.S. is one of the largest consumers of imported wildlife products and wildlife. A previous study by the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance showed that over a six-year period (2000-2006) approximately 1.5 billion live wild animals were legally imported into the U.S. – with 90 percent slated for the pet trade. U.S. Fish and Wildlife records show that more than 55 million pounds of wildlife products enter the country each year, with New York City the most common port of entry, followed by Miami and Los Angeles.

The pilot project involved a collaboration of scientists from the American Museum of Natural History, Columbia University, EcoHealth Alliance, the U.S. Geological Service’s National Wildlife Health Center, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. – David Malakoff & press materials | January 10, 2012

Source: Smith KM, Anthony SJ, Switzer WM, Epstein JH, Seimon T, et al. (2012). Zoonotic Viruses Associated with Illegally Imported Wildlife Products. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29505. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029505

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In January 2010, researchers from Norwegian and U.S. universities launched a robotic submarine into the chilly waters off the high Arctic island of Svalbard, “where the long periods of continuous darkness… create an environment, at least with respect to light, that is similar to the deep-sea,” they note in the Journal of Marine Biology. On board were instruments able to measure the flickers of light produced by bioluminescent plankton, which researchers have speculated use light to do everything from attracting prey to warding off predators.

The sub detected flashes “throughout the water column both night and day,” they report, “with higher bioluminescence at depth during the day and increased surface bioluminscence at night.” That suggests the largest plankton with the brightest flashes were migrating upward during the night. Exactly what triggers the daily vertical migration was unclear, however. Although differences between day and night light levels have been shown to trigger vertical migrations in many kinds of plankton, in this case human eyes could detect no difference in light levels between night and day.

Another mystery is how five kinds seabirds seen by the researchers were finding food. “These seabirds have, to the best of our knowledge, not been reported to overwinter at these latitudes,” the researchers write. “Whether bioluminescence and/or [the vertical plankton migrations] are playing roles in the foraging behavior of these visual predators is an exciting possibility, although still an open question.”

The “results open new lines of enquiry regarding the function and process during a time of year when classical paradigms of Arctic ecosystems postulate that organisms are predominately in a state of hibernation,” the researchers conclude. And the discovery of the natural night lights raises questions about how human activities, such as oil drilling, might affect “the high Arctic, which up until to now has been considered ‘without life’ during the polar night.” – David Malakoff | January 10, 2012

Source: Berge, J., Båtnes, A., Johnsen, G., Blackwell, S., & Moline, M. (2011) Bioluminescence in the high Arctic during the polar night. Marine Biology, 159(1), 231-237. DOI: 10.1007/s00227-011-1798-0

Image Wikipedia Commos/Maria Antónia Sampayo, Instituto de Oceanografia, Faculdade Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa

Winter 2012 / Vol. 12 No. 4

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Discussion Questions

1. Make a list of the environmental pros and cons of increased production and use of rechargeable lithium batteries. What are some ways that these can be balanced?

2. Why have the development and performance of batteries changed so slowly compared to other technologies? How do you envision most people will be powering their portable electronics in 50 years?

3. Compare and contrast the marketing for two companies mining lithium in the altiplano of Argentina: FMC Lithium (http://www.fmclithium.com/) and Lithium Americas (http://www.lithiumamericas.com/). Do they address issues of biodiversity conservation and environmental and social responsibility?

4. Mineral rights in Bolivia are controlled by the government, while in Argentina, private companies can purchase mining leases and concessions. Discuss how you might work within these different systems to promote environmentally sustainable land use practices.

5. Does the information in this article make you more or less likely to buy rechargeable lithium batteries for personal use?

Websites for Further Information

• Flamingo Resource Centre: http://www.flamingoresources.org/basics.html
• IUCN Flamingo Specialist Group: http://cms.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/about_ssc/specialist_groups/specialist_group_pprofiles/flamingo_sg_profile/index.cfm
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Species Profile: http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=B0C0
• American Museum of Natural History notes from the field: http://www.amnh.org/news/tag/andean-flamingo/

Lithium Mining in the News

• Bolivia has lithium, and the president intends to make the world pay for it (New York Times, February 2, 2009)

• Lithium dreams (The New Yorker, March 22, 2010)

• Bolivia holds key to electric car future (BBC News, November 9, 2008)

• Can Bolivia become a green energy superpower? (The Guardian, December 29, 2011)

Peer-reviewed Literature (in addition to the citations listed in the article)

• Holopainen, I.J., A.L. Holopainen, H. Hämäläinen. 2003. Effects of mining industry waste waters on a shallow lake ecosystem in Karelia, north-west Russia. Hydrobiologia 506-509: 111-119.

• Wanger, T.C. 2011. The lithium future-resources, recycling and the environment. Conservation Letters 4: 202-204.

Key Concepts

• Green energy
• Habitat conservation
• Consumerism consequences
• Endangered species
• Powering the future
• Tradeoffs in sustainable development

Winter 2012 / Vol. 12 No. 4

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Discussion Questions

1. What were the unforeseen consequences of the management decision to introduce rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, into lakes in the Sierra Nevada range, where those fish – in some lakes any predatory fish – did not previously exist?
2. What is it about the life history of amphibians, and in particular members of the family Ranidae (i.e., the mountain yellow-legged frog Rana muscosa), that makes them more productive in environments where there are fewer predatory fish?
3. When Roland Knapp began his research he employed several different kinds of study design, including experimental removal studies in some lakes. What was the unifying question of all of his work? Should all of ecology be experimental, or is it important to use both observational and experimental designs?
4. As the article relates, many states are investing in restoring ecological integrity including biodiversity to systems they once oversimplified with projects such as fish introductions. The recent policy shift has been accompanied by disgruntlement on the part of anglers and hunters. Do you think the states and federal government should balance the needs of different natural resource users, or should management be directed to single goals like biodiversity conservation? To you, is the restoration of the Mountain yellow-legged frog more important than a fisherman being able to catch a rainbow trout? In the end of the article, the response by the California Department of Fish and Game is described: how fair do you think this is?

Websites for Further Information

• Report from Roland Knapp on aquatic system impacts of introduced fish: http://www.highsierrahikers.org/issue_fish_main.html
• National Park Service – Yosemite: http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm
• USFWS Species Profile for the mountain yellow-legged frog including listing status: http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=D02H

Frogs in the News           

• Threat to world’s amphibians assessed (United Press International, November 16, 2011)
  

Peer-reviewed Literature

• Knapp, R.A., and K.R. Matthews 2000. Non-native fish introductions and the decline of the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog from within protected areas. Conservation Biology 14: 428-438.
• Knapp, R.A., K.R. Matthews, and O. Sarnelle 2001. Resistance and resilience of alpine lake fauna to fish introductions. Ecological Monographs 71: 401-421.
• Knapp, R.A., D.M. Boiano, and V.T. Vredenburg 2007. Removal of nonnative fish results in population expansion of a declining amphibian (mountain yellow-legged frog, Rana muscosa). Biological Conservation 135: 11-20.

Key Concepts

• Unintended impacts of fish and wildlife management decisions
• Amphibian declines
• Invasive species in aquatic environments
• Conflicts between fishing/hunting interests and non-game wildlife management

Winter 2012 / Vol. 12 No. 4

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Discussion Questions

1. In what ways do the conservation benefits of economic troubles put conservationists at odds with the public? What might be some ways for conservationists to respond to this?
2. In what ways does economic growth contribute to conservation efforts? In what ways does it hurt conservation?
3. What alternatives might there be to economic growth and resource consumption as the dominant global economic paradigm?
4. What changes to economic systems should conservationists pursue as the global economy begins to improve? Why?

 Websites for Further Information

• The Trust for Public Land: http://www.tpl.org/
• Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy: http://steadystate.org/
• Lincoln Institute of Land Policy: http://www.lincolninst.edu/
• Save the Elephants: http://www.savetheelephants.org/
• American Water Works Association: http://www.awwa.org/index.cfm

Economics/Environment in the News

• Global warming and climate change (New York Times, December 21, 2011)
• Peru: mine protest resumes (New York Times, January 2, 2012)
• An epidemic of rhino poaching (New York Times, August 17, 2011)

Key Concepts

• Economics
• Property value
• Mining
• Poverty
• Urban-rural migration
• Poaching
• Water use
• CO₂ emissions

Amphibian populations around the world have been hit hard by chytridiomycosis, a disease caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), Matthew J. Forrest of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California and Martin Schlaepfer of the State University of New York in Syracuse write in PLoS ONE. Past studies, however, have shown that Bd thrives in cooler temperatures, but struggles to survive above 28°C (68°F).

Still, few studies have examined whether frogs living in warmer waters are less susceptible to infections. Forrest, a doctoral student, got interested in the issue while on a class field trip to the Lower San Pedro River in Arizona, where he met Schlaepfer, who was surveying local amphibians, according to explorations now, a Scripps newsletter.

Over the next several years, Forrest and Schlaepfer used swabs to take skin samples from 221 amphibians at 12 sites, including 201 lowland leopard frogs (Rana [Lithobates] yavapaiensis). In cooler waters (less than 15°C), 75% to 100% of the frogs were infected with Bd; in warmer pools (warmer than 30°C), less than 10% of the frogs were infected. The surveys suggest warm waters provide “lowland leopard frogs with significant protection from Bd, which could have important implications for disease dynamics, as well as management applications,” they write.

“Although geothermal ecosystems make up only a small fraction of most landscapes, they may… provide amphibians with even partial protection from temperature-sensitive diseases such as chytridiomycosis during pandemic events,” the authors note. Other studies have found that geothermal ecosystems in Yellowstone National Park appear to be protecting boreal toads from redleg, a potentially fatal bacterial disease.

Although “no methods are currently available to treat amphibian populations against Bd in the wild,” the researchers speculate that it might be possible to warm up waters, “thereby creating Bd-free microhabitats that can provide infected individuals with opportunities to clear themselves of the pathogen. Geothermal watersheds appear to represent habitats of exceptional conservation value for some amphibians,” the conclude, moving threatened amphibians “into suitable geothermal ecosystems could help recover threatened and endangered species.” – David Malakoff | January 4, 2012

Source: Forrest MJ, Schlaepfer MA (2011) Nothing a Hot Bath Won’t Cure: Infection Rates of Amphibian Chytrid Fungus Correlate Negatively with Water Temperature under Natural Field Settings. PLoS ONE 6(12): e28444. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028444

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On New Year’s Day, however, that rite was put to rest. In a major effort to speed up the process of officially recognizing new plant species, botanists will no longer be required to provide Latin descriptions, and publication in online academic journals and books will be considered as valid as print publication.

“These are fundamental changes that are going to facilitate the ability to name and describe new species,” says Miller, who is the lead author of a summary of the new rules in the online journal PhytoKeys. Eliminating the Latin requirement–in place since 1908–and moving to electronic publication “will really expedite and simplify the process of describing the diversity that’s out there.”

The binomial tradition of scientific nomenclature—using two-word Latin names such as Homo sapiens for humans—dates to the 1753 publication of Species Plantarum by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. The new rules, which were approved at a nomenclature conference held in conjunction with the International Botanical Congress last July, are far from academic. Botanists name about 2,000 new species of plants, algae, and fungi every year, Miller and his colleagues note. And “in an age where almost certainly 20 percent of the world’s plant species, and undoubtedly much greater percentages of fungi and algae, remain to be discovered, described and named, this step will hopefully help taxonomists in their race to document biological diversity before it is lost to the deforestation and habitat degradation that threatens their extinction.”

In addition, they note, writing scientifically accurate and grammatically correct Latin descriptions is cumbersome and time-consuming in an age when fewer scientists are comfortable with Latin, once the lingua franca of science. With the new rules, the scientific names for new species will still be latinized, but the description can be in English.

“There’s an urgency in describing the plants of the world,” Miller said. “I don’t think we have any capacity to understand and take care of nature unless we can identify it.” – David Malakoff | January 4, 2012

Source: Miller J, Funk V, Wagner W, Barrie F, Hoch P, Herendeen P (2011) Outcomes of the 2011 Botanical Nomenclature Section at the XVIII International Botanical Congress. PhytoKeys 5: 1-3. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.5.1850

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