tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/species-1752/articlesSpecies – The Conversation2024-02-01T11:45:51Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223352024-02-01T11:45:51Z2024-02-01T11:45:51ZRogue taxonomists, competing lists and accusations of anarchy: the complicated journey toward a list of all life on Earth – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572430/original/file-20240131-23-p66p9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C50%2C3354%2C2494&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's not easy to create a list of all life on Earth. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colorful-aquarium-showing-different-fishes-swimming-80384149">Ingrid Prats via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In our chaotic, rapidly changing modern world, many of us have come to rely on science to provide a sense of order. So it may be disconcerting to learn that there is no single, definitive list of all life on Earth. And there never has been. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we take you inside the world of taxonomy, where competing lists, rogue taxonomists and recent accusations of anarchy have revealed the messy struggle to classify the world around us.</p>
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<p>It’s remarkably easy to name a new species. “You don’t need peer review. You can put it in a book, you can put it in a magazine, so long as you have followed the rules for naming it and it follows the right Latin,” explains Stephen Garnett, a professor of conservation at Charles Darwin University in Australia. </p>
<p>That new name is then accepted until somebody comes along and refutes it, or publishes another name, says Garnett. And he thinks this is a big problem, particularly for conservationists who rely on clear species definitions in their work.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Given how difficult it is to keep up with these publications, particularly if they’re somewhere obscure in a book, it means that some people are following some taxonomy, some people are following others. And you get multiple different lists of species depending on whose taxonomy is followed. </p>
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<p>All this is hampering efforts to create one definitive list of life on Earth. A few years ago Garnett put himself at the centre of a taxonomic controversy, when he co-authored a paper in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/546025a">Nature</a> arguing that, “for a discipline aiming to impose order on the natural world, taxonomy (the classification of complex organisms) is remarkably anarchic”. </p>
<p>What ensued was a scientific spat – albeit a good-natured one – about how to go about putting some order to all these competing lists. And how to ensure that rogue taxonomists weren’t allowed to cause chaos. </p>
<p>To find out what happened, listen to the full episode of <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3128/Taxonomy_Transcript.docx.pdf?1709723586">transcript of this episode</a> is now available. </p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly also features Signe Dean, science and technology editor for The Conversation in Australia. It was written and produced by Katie Flood, with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a project on taxonomic list governance and coordinates the Catalogue of Life Working Group on Taxonomic Lists. </span></em></p>Stephen Garnett takes us inside a scientific spat about how to govern the naming of new species. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172112024-01-03T13:19:05Z2024-01-03T13:19:05ZWhat makes a good bird name?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565789/original/file-20231214-19-rc8tcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5321%2C2818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bird-watcher-silhouette-112279877">Erkki Alvenmod/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I remember my first close encounter with birds. I must have been about three years old and had discovered a <a href="https://ewatlas.net/animalia/turdus-merula">blackbird</a> nest unusually accessible in our garden hedge. Still naked and blind, the chicks had not long hatched and I discovered that if I poked the nest, four little heads shot up – gapes open wide for feeding. </p>
<p>Discovering a natural jack-in-the-box was a delight and gave me hours of fun – so much so that I may have caused the parents’ desertion, since I found the chicks dead the next day. I take some small consolation from the likelihood that this encounter helped forge a lifetime of fascination and involvement <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-over-7-000-english-names-for-birds-heres-what-they-teach-us-about-our-changing-relationship-with-nature-162471">with birds</a>. It may also have contributed to my sense of responsibility to birds and other creatures.</p>
<p>Birds point us to the existence of another world which, unlike the human one, makes no demands of us but to enjoy it and see that it has a future. It is a world that existed before us, into which humans evolved and on which we all <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/biodiversity-and-health">depend</a>.</p>
<p>While not common to all cultures or languages, the distinction between the human and “natural” worlds is deeply embedded in the Anglophone psyche. The importance of birds as a bridge between these worlds is reflected in the names we give them. In the hope of opening that bridge to all, the American Ornithological Society recently announced it would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/01/bird-names-racism-audubon/">replace all bird species named after people</a> in North America. </p>
<p>The decision was spurred by a widely perceived need to distance ornithology from its history of colonial oppression. Several species names, including <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/results?thrlev1=&amp;thrlev2=&amp;kw=Thick-billed+Longspur&amp;fam=0&amp;gen=0&amp;spc=&amp;cmn=&amp;reg=0&amp;cty=0">McCown’s Longspur</a>, <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/townsends-solitaire-myadestes-townsendi">Townsend’s Solitaire</a> and <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/audubons-warbler-setophaga-auduboni">Audubon’s Warbler</a>, evoke men who were involved in slavery and the oppression of the native people of North America.</p>
<p>So, how should these birds be renamed? The history of bird naming in the British Isles offers some solutions.</p>
<h2>It takes a village to name a bird</h2>
<p>Few common names of British birds are eponymous. Only two breeding species, <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/montagus-harrier">Montague’s Harrier</a> and <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/cettis-warbler">Cetti’s Warbler</a>, are named for notable people – the first is rare and the latter a recent colonist to the British Isles. </p>
<p>This indicates that the process of naming was a more organic, “bottom-up” and even democratic process than elsewhere in the British empire. We know of more than 7,000 folk names in English for about 150 species of British bird. Mostly recorded during the 19th century, these names indicate a widespread local naming of birds, such that names might not only be regional but specific to particular villages. For example, the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/grey-heron">grey heron</a> has 180 recorded English folk names, and the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/wren">wren</a> 164. </p>
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<img alt="A grey heron stood next to a stream." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The grey heron, a common sight at streams and ponds, has gone by many different names.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grey-heron-ardea-cinerea-longlegged-predatory-2188499307">Monika Surzin/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Nevertheless, a strong national connection to a species, such as might be created by a reference in Shakespeare, could override local perceptions. Hence, the <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/oxfordshires-lost-voices">nightingale</a> – a common presence in <a href="https://www.birdsofshakespeare.com/birds/common-nightingale">Shakespearean plays and poems</a> – has only two recorded names including nightingale itself, which derives from its Saxon roots meaning “night singer” (from the German <em>nachtigall</em>). </p>
<p>Bird names evoke strong emotional connections – potentially linking us not only with specific encounters with birds, but with the context and people who experienced them. These links can <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/ornithological-masterclass-25-ethno-ornithology">last a lifetime</a>, and English folk names reveal the depth of knowledge of those who coined them. </p>
<p>For example, the name “English mockingbird” for the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/marsh-warbler">marsh warbler</a> refers to the fact that its song consists almost entirely of the <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/oxfordshires-lost-voices">mimicry of other species</a>. It indicates that whoever coined this name recognised that the bird was singing the songs of other, more familiar species – and the namer knew these songs.</p>
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<p>The marsh warbler’s tendency to sing at night – referenced in another name, “fisherman’s nightingale” – may have focused the listener on its song in the stillness of a summer’s evening long ago.</p>
<h2>Passed down with care</h2>
<p>Many of the folk names given to other species were probably coined by or for children. A strong tendency to include a first name in such names as “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/406.php#search:Wren">Katie wren</a>”, “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/347.php#search:Redstart">Fanny redtail</a>” and “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/313.php#search:Motacilla">Bessy-brantail</a>”, suggests an effort to teach a child the common birds around them. </p>
<p>Names like “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/438.php#search:Emberiza">scribble-lark</a>” and “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/445.php#search:Miliaria">scribbling schoolmaster</a>” for bunting species, whose eggs appear to have been written on, suggests (as do many more such names) a fascination with nests and eggs. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five white eggs with black ink-like markings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Inky markings on the ‘scribble-lark’s’ eggs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowhammer#/media/File:Emberiza_citrinella_MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.216_Le_Monetier05.jpg">Didier Descouens/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The preoccupation with collecting eggs (birdnesting) among country children led to a minor rural economy that stocked the mahogany cabinets of Victorian drawing rooms. We know, however, that despite the plethora of local names, they were handed down from generation to generation with great precision. </p>
<p>As ornithologist G.G. Little noted in an 1878 article entitled Provincial Names of British Birds in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoologist">The Zoologist</a> magazine: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Has it struck any philologist that names of animals, particularly of birds, whose names are under the protection of the… birdnesting generation, are more likely to be handed down correctly than perhaps any other words…? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These names were largely collected by ornithologists like Little, who wanted to know what birds were present throughout the British Isles. But the superfluity of names posed a problem. Their solution was to select from among the diverse regional names those which they would agree to hold in common for ornithological discourse.</p>
<p>These became the “common” names, now regarded as the standard names. But they were agreed through consent with no intention, as evidenced through numerous bird books of the time, of these superseding or replacing the local names. </p>
<p>That they generally have done reflects not the imposition of names by committee, but the success of ornithology as a democratised volunteer activity in the UK – a process in keeping with the spirit of recent developments in North America.</p>
<p>However subtly, naming has always reflected a cultural context – and renaming can make a positive contribution. It can only be hoped that renaming birds after their own qualities will help to open the wonder and love of birds to all people.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gosler has received funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>North American ornithologists are seeking to replace all bird species named after people - but what should they be called instead?Andrew Gosler, Professor of Ethno-ornithology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192672023-12-18T16:17:09Z2023-12-18T16:17:09ZHow a Victorian trip to Palestine spurred modern ornithology – and left it with imperial baggage<p>Palestine’s natural splendour offered a landscape ripe for scientific “discovery”, description and expropriation by European imperial powers in the 19th century. And in the 1860s an English vicar named <a href="https://www.sacristy.co.uk/books/history/henry-baker-tristram-ornithology#">Henry Baker Tristram</a> claimed its birds. </p>
<p>Tristram was a co-founder of <a href="https://bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/">Ibis</a>, the ornithology journal published since 1859 by the British Ornithologists’ Union. His articles on Palestinian ornithology began with the first issue, when he contributed a list of birds he’d collected during a brief visit there the previous year. The list included a species previously unknown to western science, which was named in his honour as Tristram’s grackle (now more commonly known as Tristram’s <a href="https://ebird.org/species/trista1?siteLanguage=en_GB">starling</a>). </p>
<p>Tristram made a major contribution to the study of birds. At that time ornithology reflected imperial priorities and was concerned with collecting, describing and mapping. His observations of Palestine’s birds, in particular, laid the groundwork for the modern ornithology of the area. </p>
<p>However, his exploits in Palestine, still honoured in the name “Tristram’s starling”, also show why honorific bird names like this have come under increasing <a href="https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/">scrutiny</a>. </p>
<p>Tristram returned to Palestine for a fuller investigation in 1864. He travelled south from Beirut with a group of fellow naturalists and a large baggage train. The account of his ten-month-long journey was published in 1865 as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Land_of_Israel.html?id=Qd8TAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Land of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>This book, and the several <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Tristram%2C%20H.%20B.%20%28Henry%20Baker%29%2C%201822-1906">others</a> he wrote about Palestine, formed part of a growing wave of popular tourist accounts of the Holy Land. They fed the interest and shaped the perceptions of British readers fascinated by the area’s historical and Biblical remnants, its living inhabitants, and the missionary efforts to achieve conversions to Christianity. </p>
<p>Unusually, Tristram and his companions travelled far off the well-beaten tourist and Christian pilgrimage routes throughout Palestine. The Land of Israel includes detailed descriptions of Palestine’s diverse ethnic groups, their domestic, religious, military and economic traditions and practices, and their relationships with one another. </p>
<h2>Imperialism</h2>
<p>Tristram’s descriptions of Palestine’s people in many ways reflected typical British imperial views of “natives”, not least in his use of the terms “childlike” and “savage”, and his comparison of Bedouins to “red Indians”. His racialising and religious views were also shaped by his inclinations as a natural historian – he categorised those he observed according to type, and deviation from type. </p>
<p>At best, his characterisations are paternalistic; at worst, deeply offensive. The terms “debased” and “degraded” repeat often. Of one group near Jericho he writes: “I never saw such vacant, sensual, and debased features in any group of human beings of the type and form of whites”. </p>
<p>Of some Bedouin further south, he observes that “they were all decidedly of the Semitic type, and, excepting the colour and the smell, had nothing of the negro about them. They must, however, be far inferior to the races they have supplanted.”</p>
<p>Occasionally, he acknowledges Ottoman oppression and neglect as the cause of poverty, but in most cases links it to “Moslem fanaticism” and “Oriental indolence”. Although there are exceptions, Muslim settlements and their inhabitants are almost invariably “filthy”, “squalid” and “miserable”. </p>
<p>Of religious sites, he notes many instances of churches which have been “perverted” into mosques. One of his most offensive observations is of a Bedouin sheikh, Abu Dahuk: “like all his followers, he is very dark – not so black as the commonalty, but of a deep olive brown. This may partly arise from the habit of these people, who never wash. They occasionally take off their clothes, search them, slaughter their thousands, and air themselves, but never apply water to their persons”. The odour, he remarks, “is unendurable”.</p>
<p>Conversion to Christianity appeared to redeem this degradation. In the Galilee he notes: “Christianity had here, as elsewhere, stamped the place and its substantial houses with a neatness and cleanliness to which the best of Moslem villages are strangers”. </p>
<p>Conversion also seemed to him to transform racial attributes. Of two Protestant converts he observes that “so much had religion and education elevated them, that they seemed of a different race from those around them”. Among Bethlehem’s Christians, he particularly admires “the handsome faces of the men and women, and the wondrous beauty of the children, so fair and European-like”. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An old brown book cover with the words The Land of Israel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of Land of Israel 1872 edition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmine Donahaye</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tristram describes Jewish ethnicity in typical missionary terms. The Jews were a “decayed and scattered people”, with “musty and crumbling learning”. At a Protestant missionary tent in Tiberias he notes that “the Polish Jews, very numerous here, were willing to listen … but the native Jews, with whom were mingled a few Moslems, were occasionally very violent in their expressions”. The Jews, he concludes, “are a stiff-necked race”. </p>
<p>During his months in Palestine in 1864, Tristram shot hundreds of birds for his collection, and shot many more during subsequent visits. His surviving collection in the Liverpool World Museum includes, among others, the original 1858 <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/whats-type-guide-type-specimens">type specimens</a> of Tristram’s grackle, and 17 Palestine sunbird skins.</p>
<p>Tristram depended on many people – servants, dragomen, muleteers, cooks, collectors and guards – for their expertise, labour and protection, and sometimes even for <a href="https://newwelshreview.com/book/birdsplaining-a-natural-history-by-jasmine-donahaye">saving his life</a>. He also depended on them for help with obtaining specimens. But for that help with collecting he only names one person: “Gemil, with a little training,” he writes, “would soon have made a first-rate collector.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Those British imperial values that coloured Tristram’s view of Palestine’s people enabled him to name and claim its natural resources for western science, and for personal glory. They also gave him licence to propose that the land itself should be claimed: “Either an European protectorate or union with Egypt seems requisite to save Palestine from gradual dissolution,” he remarked, “unless, which seems hopeless, the Arabs can be induced to cultivate the sod.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Donahaye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>H.B. Tristram was a Victorian clergyman and ornithologist who categorised a list of birds he’d found in Palestine.Jasmine Donahaye, Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152222023-11-21T13:27:15Z2023-11-21T13:27:15ZClimate change is already forcing lizards, insects and other species to evolve – and most can’t keep up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558259/original/file-20231108-29-upppm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C2%2C1615%2C1069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Temperature sensitivity makes western fence lizards vulnerable to climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmoregon/47961427128">Greg Shine/BLM</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change is threatening the survival of plants and animals around the globe as temperatures rise and habitats change.</p>
<p>Some species have been able to meet the challenge with rapid evolutionary adaptation and other changes in behavior or physiology. Dark-colored dragonflies are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101458118">getting paler</a> in order to reduce the amount of heat they absorb from the sun. Mustard plants are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1051">flowering earlier</a> to take advantage of earlier snowmelt. Lizards are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0625">becoming more cold-tolerant</a> to handle the extreme variability of our new climate.</p>
<p>However, scientific studies show that climate change is occurring much faster than species are changing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tiny, royal blue fish with gold stripes looks into the camera. The downward slant of its mouth and shadow at the top of its eye give it an annoyed look." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5599%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zebrafish have evolved to thrive in water a degree or so warmer than normal, but they struggle to survive at higher temperatures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/brachydanio-rerio-royalty-free-image/154930602?adppopup=true">isoft/E+ Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is evolutionary adaptation?</h2>
<p>The word “adaptation” is used in many ways by climate scientists, but it has a very specific meaning to biologists: It refers to genetic changes that are passed on from one generation to the next and improve a species’ ability to survive in its environment.</p>
<p>These genetic modifications make evolutionary adaptation different from “acclimation” or “acclimatization,” which involve advantages that are not passed on to offspring. For example, when people move to high-altitude cities, they <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2013-092840">start producing more red blood cells</a> as they acclimate to the low oxygen.</p>
<p>All over the world, plants and animals have adapted to many different warm and dry habitats, prompting scientists to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0176">question</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1520-9">whether</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14881">species</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1406314111">might</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13862">also</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1063656">adapt</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0608379104">to</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14072">our</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba9287">rapidly</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj7484">changing</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf3343">climate</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2628">too</a>.</p>
<p>Thus far, the answer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.852">seems to be no</a> for most species.</p>
<h2>Evolving, fast and slow</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10924-4">recent study</a> of the populations of 19 bird and mammal species, including owls and deer, shows one potential barrier to adaptation. </p>
<p>In animals that take several years to reach breeding age, the climate has already shifted by the time their offspring are born. Genes that gave the parents an advantage – like hatching at exactly the right time or growing to the best size – are no longer as beneficial for the offspring.</p>
<p>Populations of these slow-maturing animals are adapting to climate change, but not enough during each generation to thrive in the changing conditions. In fact, the rate of evolution is so mismatched to the rate of global warming that the study’s authors estimate that nearly 70% of the local populations they studied are already vulnerable to climate-driven extinction over the coming decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dragonfly with dark bands on its wings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black bands on dragonflies heat up their bodies. Research shows some dragonflies have evolved smaller black bands as the climate warms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael P. Moore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A heat map clearly shows that the dark bands on the wings absorb more heat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this heat map of the same dragonfly, white areas are the warmest and purple areas are cooler. The dark bands on the wings stand out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael P. Moore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Small-bodied animals, such as many fish, insects and plankton, typically mature quickly. Yet, recent research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011419117">small fish</a> and a type of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0542">fast-maturing plankton called a copepod</a> revealed another hurdle for rapid genetic adaptation to climate change.</p>
<p>Many species possess genes that permit them to live in environments that are 1 to 2 degrees Celsius (about 2 to 4 Fahrenheit) warmer than today, but new genetic mutations must arise to enable survival if climates reach 4 to 5 C (about 7 to 9 F) warmer, as is possible in some regions, particularly if greenhouse gas emissions continue at a high rate.</p>
<p>To test species’ resilience, scientists warmed populations of these fast-maturing species over many generations to observe their genetic changes. They found that both the copepods and the small fish were able to adapt to the first couple degrees of warming, but populations soon went extinct above that. This was because genetic mutations that increased their ability to live in hotter conditions occurred at a slower rate than the temperatures rose.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tiny nearly translucent oval creature with a tail and egg sacks trailing behind it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A live copepod with egg sacs at 10 times magnification. These ocean creatures produce new generations quickly, allowing for speedier evolution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/copepod-micrograph-royalty-free-image/170025374?adppopup=true">NNehring/E+ Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cold-blooded species, such as lizards, frogs and fish, are especially vulnerable to climate change because they have a limited capacity to regulate their own body temperatures. Their ability to evolve in response to climate change is expected to be critical for their survival.</p>
<p>However, rapid adaptation to climate change often comes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02984069">at a cost</a>: Populations get smaller due to the deaths of individuals that cannot tolerate new, hotter temperatures. Therefore, even if species do evolve to survive with climate change, their smaller populations may still go extinct due to problems such as inbreeding, harmful new mutations or plain old bad luck, such as a disease epidemic.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1184695">In a now-classic study</a>, researchers studying lizards in Mexico discovered that the high death rates of just the heat-sensitive individuals – representing only a subset of the entire population – caused 12% of all lizard populations in Mexico to go extinct between 1975 and 2009. Even with some heat-tolerant adult lizards surviving in each population under the warmer conditions, the researchers estimated climate change would kill so many heat-sensitive adults within each population that 54% of all populations would go extinct by 2080.</p>
<h2>Evolutionary adaptation isn’t species’ only option</h2>
<p>Another way species adjust to rising temperatures is acclimation, sometimes called “phenotypic plasticity.” For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1157174">great tits in the U.K.</a> – small birds that are common in yards and forests – lay their eggs earlier in warmer years so that their nestlings hatch right as the winter weather ends, no matter when that happens.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A small bird with a yellow body and black head with white cheeks sits on a branch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A great tit – <em>Parus major</em>. In the U.K., these common birds have been laying their eggs earlier in warm years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hedera_baltica/49433487712/in">Hedera.Baltica via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32953-2">recent analysis</a> of more than 100 beetle, grasshopper and other insect species all over the world found that acclimation may not help those species enough. The study’s authors found that the species they reviewed gained an average of only 0.1 C (about 0.2 F) greater heat tolerance when acclimating to 1 C (about 2 F) warmer air temperatures during their development. Thus, the rate of global warming seems to be outstripping species’ abilities to acclimate, too.</p>
<p>Plants and animals could also escape the impacts of global warming by migrating to cooler habitats. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1198-2">global analysis</a> of more than 12,000 different plants and animal species recently showed that many species are migrating toward the poles fast enough to keep pace with rising temperatures, and many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13762">tropical species are moving upslope</a> to higher elevations as well.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, migration has its limits. Research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1804224115">tropical birds that already live high in the mountains could be doomed</a> because there is no room for them to migrate any farther upward. Tropical species, therefore, may be on what the authors call an “escalator to extinction.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A yellow-and-black moth sits on a yellow flower in an alpine field with snow-covered mountains in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police car moths living at high elevations have little room to migrate to escape increasing heat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael P. Moore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>High-latitude and high-elevation habitats also present numerous challenges for species to overcome besides temperature. Our own research across 800 species of insects all over the Earth shows that butterflies, bees and other flying insects are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01794-2">especially hindered from migrating to higher elevations</a> because there is not enough oxygen for them to survive. </p>
<h2>Many species lack obvious climate strategies</h2>
<p>Overall, evolutionary adaptation appears to help lessen the impacts of global warming, but the evidence thus far shows that it is insufficient to overcome current rates of climate change. Acclimation and migration provide faster solutions, but research shows that those may not be enough, either.</p>
<p>Of course, not all evolution is driven by warming temperatures. Plant and animal species appear to be also gradually adapting to other kinds of environments, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14191">human-created ones like cities</a>. But the fast pace of global warming makes it <a href="https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/chapter/8#fig-8-2">one of the major threats</a> that species must respond to immediately.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/chapter/8#fig-8-2">evidence indicates</a> that humanity cannot simply assume that plants and animals will be able to save themselves from climate change. To protect these species, humans will have to stop the activities that are fueling climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From dark dragonflies becoming paler to plants flowering earlier, some species are slowly evolving with the climate. Evolutionary biologists explain why few will evolve fast enough.Michael P. Moore, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Colorado DenverJames T. Stroud, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolution, Georgia Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2160062023-10-30T19:10:53Z2023-10-30T19:10:53ZWe need a single list of all life on Earth – and most taxonomists now agree on how to start<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556256/original/file-20231027-21-nxmtp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=151%2C53%2C4719%2C3316&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/common-kingfisher-alcedo-atthis-wetlands-birdss-2331210013">Sumruay Rattanataipob/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Species lists are one of the unseen pillars of science and society. Lists of species underpin our understanding of the natural world, threatened species management, quarantine, disease control and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13127-021-00518-8">much else besides</a>. </p>
<p>The people who describe new species and create lists of them are taxonomists. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/546025a">A few years ago</a>, a headline in the journal Nature accused the taxonomic community of anarchy for not coordinating a common view of species, leading to confusion about our knowledge of life on earth.</p>
<p>Many in the taxonomic community <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2005075">took umbrage</a> at this. Taxonomists were concerned that the ideas proposed would limit their freedom of expression and they would be tied to a bureaucracy before they could publish new species descriptions.</p>
<p>Taxonomists certainly argue – disputation is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13127-021-00495-y">essential to the practice of taxonomy</a>, as it is to science in general. Ultimately, however, a taxonomist’s life is spent trying to discern order in the extraordinarily diverse tree of life.</p>
<p>The results of a new survey published today in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2306899120">Proceedings of the National Academies of Science</a>, show just how much taxonomists really do like order.</p>
<h2>Hardly a group of anarchists</h2>
<p>The argument was about how to solve disagreements between taxonomists. Eventually, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-scientific-spat-over-how-to-name-species-turned-into-a-big-plus-for-nature-138887">two sides came together</a> to produce principles on the creation of a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000736">single authoritative list of species</a>.</p>
<p>This group then went to the taxonomic community to survey their views on whether a global species list is needed and how it should be run.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-scientific-spat-over-how-to-name-species-turned-into-a-big-plus-for-nature-138887">How a scientific spat over how to name species turned into a big plus for nature</a>
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<p>The newly published results show that a large majority (77%) of respondents – which included over 1,100 taxonomists and users of taxonomy across 74 countries – have expressed support for having a single list of all life on Earth.</p>
<p>They also agreed there should be a governance system that supports the list’s creation and maintenance. Just what that governance system would entail is not yet specified. Deciding that will be the next step in the process.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A small grey animal looking like a cross between a kangaroo and a rat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Understanding species taxonomy is crucial for their management. Knowing the taxonomy of marsupials like this bettong helps identify what needs conserving and where.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bettong-australias-smallest-kangaroo-glances-curiously-1658557687">Tyrrannoid/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Taxonomists propose hypotheses, not facts</h2>
<p>Why is this important? Many may not realise that when a taxonomist names a new species description, they are proposing a scientific hypothesis, not presenting an <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-44966-1">objective scientific fact</a>.</p>
<p>Other taxonomists then look at the evidence provided in the description and decide whether they agree. If people making species lists judge that there is agreement about a hypothesis, the new species goes on their list. </p>
<p>Only after a species is listed can it be protected, studied, eradicated, ignored or whatever else governments decide is appropriate. Scientists and conservation advocates also need species to be listed before they can include them in their work. Until listed, the species remains, for all practical purposes, invisible. </p>
<p>However, not all lists are equally trusted. Very rarely taxonomists do go rogue. One notorious taxonomist has been blacklisted for “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/133/3/645/6240088?login=falsename">taxonomic vandalism</a>”. He published all sorts of new names – some even commemorated his dog – with little justification. If accepted, his field (herpetology) would have been thrown into chaos.</p>
<p>The work of rogue taxonomists wastes everyone’s time and money. In one instance, poor taxonomy has even killed people – an antivenom labelled with the wrong name for a snake was distributed in Africa and Papua New Guinea <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18359053/">with disastrous results</a>.</p>
<p>Even without rogue taxonomists, there is an enormous problem with so-called synonyms – different people giving different names for the same species. Some species have tens of scientific names, not to mention misspellings. </p>
<p>This leaves users uncertain what name to use. Sometimes they use different names but mean the same species; sometimes the same names but mean different species. The only way to clarify this confusion is by having a working master list of species names linked to the scientific literature.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A colourful coral reef with schools of fish and a turtle swimming above it" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Biodiversity is an essential feature of our planet and its ecosystems – but to understand it, we also need to understand the individual species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tropical-fish-turtle-red-sea-egypt-211006552">Vlad61/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Now what?</h2>
<p>The newly released survey shows taxonomists and users of taxonomy have achieved an agreement that good lists need good governance. Species lists need to reflect the best science, independent of outside influence. They need dispute resolution processes. And they need involvement and agreement from the taxonomic community on their contents.</p>
<p>Governance of science does not work unless a large majority of scientists agree with the rules, because participation is voluntary. There’s no such thing as science police. </p>
<p>Agreement and compliance is best achieved if scientists themselves are involved in the creation of the rules. This helps to increase buy-in among the community of peers to make sure rules are kept.</p>
<p>Based on the survey results, <a href="https://www.catalogueoflife.org/">the Catalogue of Life</a> – the group that has the most comprehensive global species list to date, and the one we’re involved in – is piloting ways of measuring the quality of the lists that make up their catalogue. </p>
<p>These are being trialled first with the creators of lists, everything from viruses to mammals. Then, they will be tested with the taxonomic community at large for further feedback.</p>
<p>Good taxonomy is far more valuable than people realise. One recent study in Australia found that, for every dollar spent on taxonomy, <a href="https://www.science.org.au/support/analysis/decadal-plans-science/discovering-biodiversity-decadal-plan-taxonomy#report2021">the economy gained A$35</a>. The value of taxonomy globally is likely to be colossal.</p>
<p>But the value will be higher still if everyone the world over is able to use the same list of species.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-re-counted-australias-extinct-species-and-the-result-is-devastating-127611">Scientists re-counted Australia's extinct species, and the result is devastating</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a project on taxonomic list governance and coordinates the Catalogue of Life Working Group on Taxonomic Lists. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron M. Lien is a member of the Catalogue of Life Working Group on Taxonomic Lists and the Global Species List Working Group. </span></em></p>Only after a species is identified and listed by taxonomists can it be protected. Yet we still don’t have one globally agreed-upon list of every species. A new 74-nation survey points to the solution.Stephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin UniversityAaron M. Lien, Assistant Professor of Ecology, Management and Restoration of Rangelands, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2123082023-10-17T15:29:28Z2023-10-17T15:29:28ZHow animal traits have shaped the journey of species across the globe<p>The devastating <a href="https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/tsunami/event-more-info/5413">tsunami</a> that hit Japan in March 2011 set off a series of events which have long fascinated scientists like me. It was so powerful that it caused 5 million tonnes of debris to <a href="https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/japan-tsunami-marine-debris/monitoring-tsunami-debris-north-american-shorelines">wash</a> into the Pacific – 1.5 million tonnes remained afloat and started drifting with the currents. </p>
<p>One year later, and half a world away, debris began washing ashore on the west coast of North America. More than 280 Japanese coastal species such as mussels, barnacles and even some species of fish, had <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aao1498?casa_token=YwHfCNElf14AAAAA:zJj4eY3uUm2_m4ZH5YzIO6ecvSWdVa_53yZk0ycnxm1Ga3bPLTl5Z6hCbUhvsmA4d0KSPHFPKz84nQ">hitched a ride</a> on the debris and made an incredible journey across the ocean. These species were still alive and had the potential to establish new populations. </p>
<p>How animals cross major barriers, such as oceans and mountain ranges, to shape Earth’s biodiversity is an intriguing topic. And a new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02150-5">study</a> by my collaborators and I has shed light on this process, revealing how animal characteristics such as body size and life history can influence their spread across the globe.</p>
<p>We know that such dispersal events occur in terrestrial species as well. For instance, at least 15 green iguanas <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/26886">journeyed</a> more than 200km (124 miles) from Guadeloupe to Anguilla in the Caribbean in 1995. They arrived on a mat of logs and trees (likely uprooted through a hurricane), some of which were more than 9 metres (20 feet) long. </p>
<h2>The role of animal characteristics in dispersal</h2>
<p>When animals move across major barriers it can have a big impact on both the new and old locations. For example, an invasive species can arrive in a new area and compete with native species for resources. However, those consequences can be even greater over longer periods of time.</p>
<p>The movement of monkeys from Africa to South America around 35 million years ago led to the evolution of more than 90 species of <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102116-041510?casa_token=CZtEoQ5Z9bMAAAAA%3AX9JrgVyGxxegDXgVTUPNHZboMldBec1egagn5S4pLwx4yudreF4L6Q6zG4jUeB9tMxJEIy4q67iX&journalCode=anthro">New World monkeys</a>, including tamarins, capuchins and spider monkeys. And a few chameleons rafting on vegetation from Africa to Madagascar is why we find half of all living <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2013.0184">chameleon</a> species there today.</p>
<p>These events were long thought to be determined by chance – the coincidence of some chameleons sitting on the right tree at the right time. However, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24529638.pdf?casa_token=NyxiUsFXod0AAAAA:9aBvrCPO0om98AjWOfs482QWf5eQxRUwKt95p4S3trPy1CQ2CM4K0AJeMBtsNKwKST8ILswcwdjQBRq8ZpdR5-3KL3gOn9uYZHOjzDdPyTm4R3Dom1o">some scientists</a> have suggested there might be more to it. They hypothesised there could be more general patterns in the animals that reach their destination successfully, related to certain characteristics.</p>
<p>Could body size affect how far a species can travel? Animals with more fat reserves may be able to travel longer distances. Or could it be how a species reproduces and survives? For example, animals that lay many eggs or mature early may be more likely to establish a new population in a new place.</p>
<p>But despite a vigorous theoretical debate, the options to test these hypotheses were limited because such dispersal events are rare. Also, the right statistical tools were not available until recently.</p>
<p>Thanks to the recent development of new <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sysbio/article/69/1/61/5490843">biogeographical models</a> and the great availability of data, we can now try to answer questions about how tetrapod species (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have moved around the globe over the past 300 million years and whether successful species share any common characteristics.</p>
<p>These models allow us to estimate the movements of species’ ancestors while also considering their characteristics. We used these models to study 7,009 species belonging to 56 groups of tetrapods.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>For 91% of the animal groups we studied, models that included species characteristics were better supported than models that didn’t. This means that body size and life history are closely linked to how successful a species is at moving to and establishing itself in a new location.</p>
<p>Animals with large bodies and fast life histories (breeding early and often, like water voles) generally dispersed more successfully, as expected. However, there were some exceptions to this rule. In some groups, smaller animals or animals with average traits had higher dispersal rates.</p>
<p>For example, small hummingbirds dispersed better than larger ones, and poison dart frogs with intermediate life histories dispersed better than those with very fast or very slow life histories.</p>
<p>We investigated this variation further and found that the relationship between body size and movement depended on the average size and life history of the group. Our results show that the links between characteristics and dispersal success depend on both body size and life history, and that these cannot be considered separately. </p>
<p>Groups in which small size was an advantage were often already made up of small species (making the dispersal-prone species even smaller), and these species also had fast life histories. We found this to be true for the rodent families <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/Muridae"><em>Muridae</em></a> and <a href="https://nhpbs.org/wild/cricetidae.asp"><em>Cricetidae</em></a>. </p>
<p>But groups in which dispersers had intermediate body sizes generally had slow life histories (meaning they had low reproductive output but long lifespans). This means the combination of small body size and slow life history is very unlikely to be an advantage for dispersal across major barriers such as oceans.</p>
<h2>It’s not just chance</h2>
<p>It is amazing to think that rare dispersal events, which can lead to the rise of many new species, are not completely random. Instead, the intrinsic characteristics of species can shape the histories of entire groups of animals, even though chance still may play an important role.</p>
<p>At the same time, two of the most important <a href="https://zenodo.org/record/3553579">environmental challenges</a> of our time are related to movement across major barriers: biological invasions and species’ responses to climate change. On a planet facing rapid changes, understanding how animals move across barriers is therefore crucial.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>While working on this study, Sarah-Sophie Weil was affiliated with Université Grenoble Alpes (France) and Swansea University (Wales, UK) who supported her through Initiative d’excellence (IDEX) International Strategic Partnership and Swansea University Strategic Partner Research (SUSPR) scholarships.</span></em></p>New research looks at how different species have managed to cross geographic barriers throughout history and whether their individual traits played a crucial role in these journeys.Sarah-Sophie Weil, PhD candidate, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2125012023-09-19T14:47:51Z2023-09-19T14:47:51ZWhy invasive ants are a silent threat to our ecosystems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548832/original/file-20230918-27-85srij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C3113%2C2316&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) is a notorious invasive ant species.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/yellow-crazy-ant-anoplolepis-gracilipes-1960533274">Lukman_M/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Invertebrates are often described by <a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/timbillo/Readings%20and%20documents/ABRIDGED%20READINGS%20for%20PERU/Wilson_1987_Little_things_that_run.pdf">experts</a> as the “little things that run the world”, and ants are certainly one of the top contenders for this role. Ants help ecosystems to function normally and the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2201550119">total weight</a> of all ants on Earth is roughly equivalent to 1.4 billion people, or 33 Empire State Buildings. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, some ants have become invasive species – organisms transported to a new ecosystem that cause damage. These introductions typically happen accidentally by people but can have dire consequences, as my team’s <a href="https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/icad.12672">new research</a> shows. </p>
<p>Invasive species are thought to be the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-018-1595-x">second largest</a> threat to biodiversity after habitat destruction. They are a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2005.01.003">leading cause</a> of animal extinctions, potentially leading to species extinction and ecosystem failure. </p>
<p>The International Union for the Conservation of Nature includes <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2000-126.pdf">five different ant species</a> on its list of 100 of the world’s worst invasive alien species. But while invasive ants have dramatically transformed some of the areas they have been able to invade, other areas appear to be far less affected, or even totally unaffected.</p>
<h2>How bad are invasive ants, really?</h2>
<p>My team’s <a href="https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/icad.12672">study</a> draws from research conducted around the world to provide a measure of how bad or good invasive ants are for biodiversity loss. The results show us that invasive ants are every bit as bad as we had assumed.</p>
<p>We extracted data from 46 different research articles that studied how animal communities reacted to invasive ants, and combined the results. We only selected research that was done in relatively “undisturbed” natural environments, free from intensive human activity. </p>
<p>These are areas that invasive ants have dispersed to from more degraded habitats or urban environments. This allows us to more confidently claim that any negative or positive effects on animal communities are because of invasive ants, rather than other invasive species or some form of human disturbance such as agriculture or deforestation.</p>
<p>Our results show that animal communities respond overwhelmingly negatively to invasive ants. We found there were on average 50% fewer individual animals and species in areas invaded by ants, which is a dramatic fall in biodiversity. It is also important to remember these results are averages and, therefore, invasive ants may spell doom for some animal communities above and beyond these numbers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A close up of an ant with a large head crawls along a mossy piece of bark." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548020/original/file-20230913-19-n2k3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548020/original/file-20230913-19-n2k3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548020/original/file-20230913-19-n2k3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548020/original/file-20230913-19-n2k3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548020/original/file-20230913-19-n2k3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548020/original/file-20230913-19-n2k3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548020/original/file-20230913-19-n2k3ar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The <em>Pheidole megacephala</em> or big-headed ant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/macro-image-bigheaded-ant-2215004569">Alen thien/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also found that certain animal types, such as birds, reptiles and beetles, reacted more strongly than others. Native ants were the most strongly affected group. </p>
<p>This makes sense because many native ants will not only be directly attacked by invasive ants but they will also need to compete with them for food and nest sites. This is also bad news because of the general importance of native ants to the wider ecosystem. </p>
<p>Other groups that were badly affected were birds, beetles, butterflies, moths and reptiles. </p>
<p>We also found that the number of individuals in one insect group – bugs such as scale insects, aphids and mealybugs – increased. This group forms “mutualisms” with ants, which is where each species has a net benefit. </p>
<p>These insects are sap-sucking and exude a sugary liquid called “honeydew”, which ants love. Ants will defend these insects from their predators and parasites in return for this sugary secretion, enabling their populations to mutually increase. In some cases, these mutualisms can facilitate invasion – and to disastrous effect. </p>
<h2>How can something so small cause such a big problem?</h2>
<p>Although ants are small relative to how people perceive the world, they are numerous and tend to interact with a wide range of other organisms. This means they may be able to influence the ecosystem from multiple angles of attack. Invasive ants probably actively hunt down other species but competition for food or space is also important. </p>
<p>Ultimately, we need more research that can tease apart how ants are interacting with other species when they invade a location. What do they eat? Who do they compete with for food? Which habitats do they prefer and why? These questions urgently need answers so we can understand, prioritise and optimise how to minimise the negative effects of invasive ants.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-red-fire-ants-and-yellow-crazy-ants-have-given-themselves-a-green-light-to-invade-australia-208479">Why red fire ants and yellow crazy ants have given themselves a green light to invade Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Overall, our research is worrying. The reduction in animal diversity may have severe consequences for ecosystem functioning and the long-term future of rare species. Although there are crucial considerations to mitigate or reverse these effects, the conservation implications are not straightforward. </p>
<p>Ant eradication regimes are logistically complex and financially expensive, for example, and more than half <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.03.036">fail</a>. Early detection technology, as well as control measures such as toxic baits, can help conservationists prevent or reverse the effects of invasive ants on our ecosystems.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maximillian Tercel receives funding from Natural Environment Research Council and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.</span></em></p>Invasive ants are a major threat to biodiversity, according to a study.Maximillian Tercel, PhD Candidate in Entomology, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2106622023-08-24T22:28:31Z2023-08-24T22:28:31ZCrowd-sourced science sheds light on how new species form across space and time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543866/original/file-20230822-29-z0p0c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6016%2C4016&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The fall webworm is a moth found from Mexico to Canada.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/crowd-sourced-science-sheds-light-on-how-new-species-form-across-space-and-time" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Imagine a jungle. It’s probably a lush forest, filled with different bird songs and the hum of thousands of different kinds of insects. Now imagine a tundra: barren, windswept terrain with relatively few kinds of plants or animals. </p>
<p>These two places highlight an interesting phenomenon — that some places on Earth have far more species than others. In fact, the distribution of species across the globe follows a curiously consistent pattern: generally, there are more species closer to the equator and fewer as you move towards the poles. This “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.012103.144032">latitudinal biodiversity gradient</a>” can be observed across many different groups of organisms over time.</p>
<p>One possible explanation for the presence of more species closer to the equator is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01020.x">changes in climate from the equator to the poles affects the ability of new species to evolve</a> — a process called <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/speciation-the-origin-of-new-species-26230527/">speciation</a>.</p>
<h2>Diversity in action</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.marshall-lab.com/">Our research team at the University of British Columbia</a> turned to unique tools and species to track exactly how climate influences evolution, and what this means for where new species appear. And we conducted this research while we were stuck at home during COVID-19 lockdowns. </p>
<p>The fall webworm is a moth found from Mexico to Canada (a range of almost 4,000 km) whose caterpillars have either black or red heads. While this might seem like a subtle difference, caterpillars with these different colours seem to have different behaviours and appear at different times of the year, and genetic studies suggest that they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3334">evolving into different species</a>. </p>
<p>This moth is also found throughout vastly different climates, which allowed us to explore how latitude and climate might be affecting their ability to turn from one species into two. </p>
<p>However, we had a problem: with global lockdowns and travel restrictions, we couldn’t even leave our homes, much less sample caterpillars across an entire continent. So, we turned to crowd-sourced science. Some apps and websites use user-uploaded photos or audio clips to identify flora and fauna, creating huge databases of nature observations. </p>
<p>Thanks to backyard observers, we could access thousands of observations across North America from the comfort of our homes to begin investigating speciation on a large geographic scale.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CoyZlV6v6-E","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Birth of new species</h2>
<p>The process of speciation occurs when two groups of organisms belonging to the same species are <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/speciation-the-origin-of-new-species-26230527/">separated by a barrier that prevents them from reproducing</a>. The most well-known way that this can occur is through a physical barrier between the groups, like a mountain range or a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.02907.x">highway</a>. </p>
<p>For the fall webworm, the barrier causing them to become two different species is time. In general, moth species only appear and reproduce during the summer, and when they do, they breed for only a few weeks, at most.</p>
<p>The red-headed and the black-headed fall webworms tend to emerge and reproduce at different times during the summer, and this time gap <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3334">creates a barrier that is causing them to become two different species</a>. </p>
<p>Summers toward the equator tend to be much longer, so the fall webworms go through more life cycles in a year compared to northern populations, which are only able to breed once during short summers. If the red-headed and black-headed fall webworms closer to the equator <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691185491-006">have more flexibility in when they can breed, they may be able to avoid each other in time better</a>, making speciation more effective. </p>
<h2>Caterpillars in a lockdown</h2>
<p>Thanks to the fall webworm’s fluffy appearance and garden pest status, thousands of geotagged and dated photographs were available on the crowd-sourced science site <a href="https://www.inaturalist.org/">iNaturalist</a>. We reviewed <a href="https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/the-great-webworm-hunt">11,000 fall webworm photos</a> from over 7,000 users, manually checking the thousands of photographs for whether the caterpillar was red- or black-headed. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543867/original/file-20230822-15-7ocpm1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a caterpillar on a white wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543867/original/file-20230822-15-7ocpm1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543867/original/file-20230822-15-7ocpm1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543867/original/file-20230822-15-7ocpm1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543867/original/file-20230822-15-7ocpm1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543867/original/file-20230822-15-7ocpm1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543867/original/file-20230822-15-7ocpm1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543867/original/file-20230822-15-7ocpm1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A photograph of a fall webworm caterpillar uploaded by a user in Sydney, N.S., on iNaturalist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/312672658">(Sarah Smith/iNaturalist)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While quite a feat, these methods gave us a window into fall webworm populations from Florida to Ontario. To see how speciation was changing across latitudes, we compiled the times and dates each fall webworm photograph was taken and measured the colours of the caterpillars from each picture. </p>
<p>Using all these observations, we found that in more northerly regions with short summers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288415">the red-headed and black-headed fall webworm caterpillars were forced to breed at the same time and had more similar colouration</a>. This suggests that more breeding was occurring between the groups, and they looked and acted more like a single species. </p>
<p>However, in their southern range, the black- and red-headed caterpillars were able to separate their generations more and had less similar colouration, meaning they may be further along in the process of becoming two species.</p>
<h2>Climate and diversity</h2>
<p>We found that differences in climate from the equator to the poles affect how well species can evolve when time is the barrier, mirroring the latitudinal biodiversity gradient. In short, climate can change how easily species form in the first place. </p>
<p>There are approximately <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-described-species?country=Fishes%7EInsects%7EReptiles%7EMammals%7EBirds%7EAmphibians%7ECorals%7EMolluscs%7ECrustaceans%7EArachnids%7EBrown+algae%7EFerns+and+Allies%7EAll+groups">2.1 million classified species on Earth, and over one million of these are insects</a> (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.333.6046.1083">with many millions more undiscovered</a>), making them the most diverse animals on the planet. </p>
<p>Species are migrating, either as <a href="http://www.iucngisd.org/gisd/">invasive species</a> coming to new places, or <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-04-climate-marine-species-poleward.html">moving poleward to escape warming climates</a>. </p>
<p>Humans have an immense effect on our planet’s ecosystems, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0600">new species may be forming just as quickly as they disappear</a>. So, to understand processes driving biodiversity on Earth, we need to understand how those processes impact the creatures that make up much of that biodiversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210662/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Marshall receives funding from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She is affiliated with with the Canadian Society of Zoologists and the BC Humanist Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Black receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Natural Resources Canada. </span></em></p>Crowd-sourcing images of caterpillars from nature apps allowed researchers to study the emergence of a new species of caterpillar.Katie Marshall, Associate professor, Zoology, University of British ColumbiaEmily Black, Master of Science student, Zoology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2090932023-07-13T13:35:01Z2023-07-13T13:35:01ZChildren have a skewed view of the natural world – but it doesn’t have to be that way<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536877/original/file-20230711-2328-hduubb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1070%2C31%2C5214%2C4626&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/african-american-little-girls-friends-exploring-2187306085">KlingSup/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children’s books and TV shows are full of animals, but how well do kids really know the natural world?</p>
<p>The vast majority of the world’s known animal species – <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-described-species?country=Fishes%7EInsects%7EReptiles%7EMammals%7EBirds%7EAmphibians%7EMolluscs%7ECrustaceans%7EArachnids%7EPlants%7EAll%2Bgroups%7EInvertebrates">96.9%</a> – are invertebrates, such as insects, snails, spiders and worms. But when my colleagues and I asked a large group of children to draw animals from their garden or local park, most of the <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287370">resulting pictures</a> were of mammals or birds.</p>
<p>This suggests there’s a disconnect between children’s perception of the wildlife surrounding them and what is actually there. If we don’t address this, we risk leaving children with a skewed view of the natural world, which has implications for efforts to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Child's pencil drawing with animals such as an owl, hedgehog, blue tit and robin labelled." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536543/original/file-20230710-17-etza9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536543/original/file-20230710-17-etza9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536543/original/file-20230710-17-etza9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536543/original/file-20230710-17-etza9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536543/original/file-20230710-17-etza9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536543/original/file-20230710-17-etza9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536543/original/file-20230710-17-etza9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A child’s drawing of the animals in their garden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Howlett</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We asked over 400 children aged between seven and 11, under the supervision of their teachers, to draw a picture of their garden or local park, and to label all the animals they thought lived there.</p>
<p>We collected 401 drawings in total. We counted how many different types of animal were drawn by each child, and which were drawn the most and least often.</p>
<p>We found that the children’s drawings did not reflect the make up of the natural world very well. We noticed that 80.5% of drawings contained at least one mammal and 68.6% featured at least one bird.</p>
<p>In the outside world, though, just <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-described-species?country=Fishes%7EInsects%7EReptiles%7EMammals%7EBirds%7EAmphibians%7EMolluscs%7ECrustaceans%7EArachnids%7EPlants%7EAll%2Bgroups%7EInvertebrates">4.7% of animal species described by science</a> are vertebrates, such as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A child's drawing of the plants and animals in their garden." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535765/original/file-20230705-15-ey6m80.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535765/original/file-20230705-15-ey6m80.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535765/original/file-20230705-15-ey6m80.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535765/original/file-20230705-15-ey6m80.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535765/original/file-20230705-15-ey6m80.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535765/original/file-20230705-15-ey6m80.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535765/original/file-20230705-15-ey6m80.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A child’s drawing of their garden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Howlett, Turner, 2023, PLOS ONE.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A third of the drawings contained no invertebrates at all. And when asked to name the creatures they’d drawn, the children were far less able to give detailed information about insects and other invertebrates. While they could often give specific species names for mammals and birds, this was not often the case for these smaller, overlooked animals.</p>
<p>For instance, many children were able to identify a bird as being a robin in particular. For insects, the equivalent might be being able to point to a red admiral butterfly. But the children mostly labelled butterflies simply as “butterfly”.</p>
<h2>Biases matter</h2>
<p>This bias mirrors <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10431">those we previously found in nature documentaries</a>, which in turn reflect people’s tendency to <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00229.x">pay more attention to larger, more charismatic species</a> that are more similar to humans than invertebrates.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Child's drawing of a fox, labelled as 'fox' with 'squirrle' crossed out" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535766/original/file-20230705-21-m26a2j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535766/original/file-20230705-21-m26a2j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535766/original/file-20230705-21-m26a2j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535766/original/file-20230705-21-m26a2j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535766/original/file-20230705-21-m26a2j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535766/original/file-20230705-21-m26a2j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535766/original/file-20230705-21-m26a2j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A drawing of a fox.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Howlett</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This can have knock-on effects for conservation funding. The animals we consider more attractive <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969717307726">receive higher levels of support</a>.</p>
<p>Insects and other invertebrates are crucial to the functioning of global ecosystems, and they will need our efforts to protect them as we attempt to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. </p>
<p>We know that when children spend <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.16.1.0001#metadata_info_tab_contents">time in nature</a> they become adults who care about the environment. But many <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10128">children are growing up without</a> a <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.1225">strong connection to the natural world</a>, even though we know spending time in nature is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0885412215595441">good for them</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A child's drawing of their back garden, with animals and plants labelled." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536548/original/file-20230710-23-pdyfuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C3%2C2536%2C1602&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536548/original/file-20230710-23-pdyfuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536548/original/file-20230710-23-pdyfuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536548/original/file-20230710-23-pdyfuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536548/original/file-20230710-23-pdyfuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536548/original/file-20230710-23-pdyfuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536548/original/file-20230710-23-pdyfuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A child’s drawing of their back garden, with animals and plants labelled.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Howlett</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Children in many countries have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14733280500352912">dramatically less</a> freedom than they did in the past to roam and play freely in the area around their homes. In the UK, they now spend <a href="https://www.childinthecity.org/2018/01/15/children-spend-half-the-time-playing-outside-in-comparison-to-their-parents/?gdpr=accept">half as much time</a> playing outside as their parents did when they were young.</p>
<p>It also isn’t inevitable that children have a bias towards mammals, which probably stems from the wider cultural emphasis on mammals and birds. Parents and teachers can help children develop a good understanding of what nature is really like by helping them see more wildlife up close.</p>
<h2>How to introduce children to invertebrates</h2>
<p>When out with your child in your garden or local park, you can help them expand their understanding of the wildlife around them – and set them on the path to being the ecologists we’ll need in the future.</p>
<p>You may be able to spot black, hairy caterpillars on <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/wildflowers/stinging-nettle">stinging nettles</a> around July. These are most likely the caterpillars of the <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/butterflies/red-admiral">red admiral</a>, <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/butterflies/peacock">peacock</a> or <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/butterflies/small-tortoiseshell">small tortoiseshell</a> butterflies. These are some of the UK’s largest, easiest-to-spot butterflies and caterpillars.</p>
<p>Turn over any brick or stone and you are more likely than not to find some <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/crustacea-centipedes-and-millipedes/common-woodlouse">woodlice</a>. The females carry their young around in a pouch on their undersides, just like a kangaroo. And children may be delighted to learn that woodlice can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMB1UEEQwnM">drink through their bums</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/dragonflies">Dragonflies</a> and <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/damselflies">damselflies</a> are easy to spot and impressive, fast fliers. They are also excellent indicators of good water quality. This is because their nymphs – the young larval form – live underwater and need clear water to be able to hunt.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 20,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Howlett does not work for, consult with or own shares in any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. She received funding from the Natural Environmental Research Council via grant NE/L002507/1. She is a member of the Green Party, the Women's Equality Party and the charity Pregnant Then Screwed.</span></em></p>Their drawings did not reflect the make up of the natural world.Kate Howlett, PhD candidate in Zoology, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1930272022-10-27T14:41:14Z2022-10-27T14:41:14ZA new way to name bacteria: 300-year-old system revised thanks to scientific advances<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491680/original/file-20221025-24-jcnb2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prokaryotes are single-celled organisms without nuclei and are commonly known as bacteria.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ichigomaru/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nearly 300 years ago the Swedish botanist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carolus-Linnaeus">Carl Linnaeus</a> secured his place in scientific history when he created what’s known as the <a href="https://byjus.com/biology/binomial-nomenclature/">binomial system</a>. The year was 1737 and, due to the large diversity of plants and animals collected by naturalist explorers in different parts of the world, Linnaeus saw the need to develop a logical system to classify and group this material in a systematic way. </p>
<p>It’s a system that’s stood the test of time – his basic formula is still in use.</p>
<p>The naming convention applies to all biological organisms: plants, animals and bacteria. Each species receives a name consisting of two parts. The genus name is similar to a surname; all species that share this name are closely related. The second name is unique for each species within the genus. This combination creates a unique name for any described organism. Well known examples include <em>Homo sapiens</em> (modern humans) and <em>Escherichia coli</em> (bacteria).</p>
<p>One of the main benefits of assigning universally accepted distinct names is that it helps people, and particularly scientists, to clearly communicate about a specific organism, regardless of language or geographic barriers. Another boon is that unique names link all the available information on a species together. It also helps scientists to understand shared characteristics and relationships between organisms.</p>
<p>Naming decisions are not made in a vacuum. Although ideas of what species are and how to recognise them have developed over the past 300 years, the naming system as proposed by Linnaeus remained unchanged. </p>
<p>There are “rule books” for the naming of organisms, generally referred to as “codes”. There are different codes for naming animals, plants, algae and fungi, viruses and bacteria. The <a href="https://www.iapt-taxon.org/nomen/main.php">Botanical Code</a>, which initially also dealt with bacteria, was first developed in 1867 and is revised every six years during the International Botanical Congress. The Bacterial Code was first published as a separate document in 1947 and was updated this year by the <a href="https://www.the-icsp.org/">International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes</a>.</p>
<p>But the existing code was not enough to deal with advances in technology that have changed how prokaryotes can be studied. So, a new, complementary code has been introduced.</p>
<h2>A stable system</h2>
<p>If the description of a new species meets all the requirements set out in the rules in the relevant code, the name will be validated – made permanent. </p>
<p>Each new species is also linked to type material: something concrete to compare other individuals against. The type <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2052297522000439?via%3Dihub">can be represented</a> by museum or herbarium examples, living cultures or even drawings.</p>
<p>But this system doesn’t work well for prokaryotes. These single cell organisms, which don’t have nuclei, are commonly referred to as bacteria (though they also include the <em>Archaea</em>, a group of micro-organisms that are similar to but distinct from bacteria). Prokaryotes are named under the <a href="https://www.the-icsp.org/bacterial-code">International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes</a>. </p>
<p>Unlike other disciplines’ naming rule books, this code is strict about type material: only a pure culture of the bacterium, available from collections in two different countries, counts as type material. But there’s a problem: most bacteria still can’t be grown in pure culture, on its own in a Petri dish in the laboratory.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/following-a-fungus-from-genes-to-tree-disease-a-journey-in-science-184978">Following a fungus from genes to tree disease: a journey in science</a>
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<p>This means that, under the code, they could not be named.</p>
<p>A new initiative, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-022-01214-9">SeqCode</a>, will change the game by allowing DNA sequencing data to serve as the type. I was one of several biologists around the world involved in creating the SeqCode and I believe it is a great achievement. </p>
<p>A formal and stable naming system for all bacteria will help science to unlock the hidden potential of the planet’s biodiversity and to understand their role in the functioning of ecosystems. It will also help scientists to communicate their findings to each other – a big step towards perhaps identifying the next generation of antibiotics or cancer treatment.</p>
<h2>Genome sequencing</h2>
<p>It’s not known how many prokaryotic species there are – there could be millions or trillions. But so far only around 18,000 have been given <a href="https://www.bacterio.net/">permanent (valid) names</a>. The increasing ubiquity of genome sequencing is an opportunity to change this. Rather than having to grow a prokaryotic species in a laboratory to then study and describe its characteristics, biologists can now sequence the organisms’ DNA directly from an environmental sample to obtain a complete or near complete genome. The genome is the DNA blueprint of the bacterium which encodes all the functions the organism will be able to perform.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-african-scientists-are-studying-the-genes-of-african-species-and-how-they-do-it-180881">Why African scientists are studying the genes of African species, and how they do it</a>
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<p>The sequence data is stable enough and adequate to be used to recognise other members belonging to the same species. </p>
<p>In 2018 an international group of bacterial taxonomists and ecologists attended a workshop in the US, funded by the US National Science Foundation, to discuss the future of bacterial taxonomy. The attendees recognised that genome sequencing was a good, scientifically sound way to give many prokaryotes permanent names. This idea was <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-0733-x">supported</a> by many other microbiologists around the world. </p>
<p>However, a proposal to change the existing code to allow genome sequences as types was <a href="https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijsem.0.004303">not accepted</a> by the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes. With the support of the International Society for Microbial Ecology, some of the meeting attendees began <a href="https://www.isme-microbes.org/seqcode-initiative">discussing other possibilities</a>.</p>
<p>The idea of an entirely separate code for naming genomically described prokaryotes emerged. Wide consultation followed and, in September 2022, SeqCode – or, to give it its full name, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0723202022000121?via%3Dihub;">Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes Described from Sequence Data</a>, was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-022-01214-9">launched</a>.</p>
<p>This doesn’t replace the existing code. Bacteria can still be named under the Bacterial Code when a pure culture is available. </p>
<p>It is possible that, in coming years, similar adjustments might be made to – or new codes created for – naming other genomically described micro-organisms such as yeasts and other fungi.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193027/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanus Nicolaas Venter receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the Water Research Commission.
He is currently a member of the organizing committee of the SeqCode Initiative and a member of the Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes.</span></em></p>A new ‘rule book’ for naming genomically sequenced bacteria is a boon for science.Stephanus Nicolaas Venter, Professor in Microbiology and Deputy Director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1859292022-06-29T13:26:55Z2022-06-29T13:26:55ZClimate crisis: even temporarily overshooting 2°C would cause permanent damage to Earth’s species<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471596/original/file-20220629-18-hj04qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C4002&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/arabian-oryx-white-leucoryx-antelope-distinct-2087644756">Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The history of climate change is one of people slowly coming to terms with the truth. None but a small minority still question whether it’s real and caused by humans. Now most grapple with the reality of trying to slow down catastrophic warming, and the difference between solutions and false hope. The concept of climate overshoot is the next thing we will need to get to grips with.</p>
<p>Unless urgent action is taken, emissions are expected to cause the planet to continue heating rapidly over the next few decades, prompting the global average temperature to overshoot the Paris agreement’s target, which aimed to limit warming to between 1.5°C and 2°C. A period of higher temperatures will occur in the middle of this century as a result. Then, the idea goes, new but yet unproven technologies and techniques for pulling greenhouse gases from the atmosphere will eventually bring temperatures back down to a safer level.</p>
<p>Until now, scientists were unsure what temporarily overshooting (and then boomeranging back below) the Paris agreement’s temperature target would entail for nature. So, for the first time, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0394">we studied</a> the consequences of allowing Earth’s temperature to exceed these precautionary limits, then fall below them again, for marine and land-based life. In other words, we looked at how damaging the journey of overshooting the 2°C temperature target would be, and not just the destination itself.</p>
<p>The results suggest that a temporary overshoot would cause waves of irreversible extinctions and lasting damage to tens of thousands of species. This is what the world can expect if humanity fails to make deep emission cuts this decade, and relies instead on future technologies to remove emissions later.</p>
<h2>Harm arrives fast and leaves slowly</h2>
<p>Our study modelled the impact of global temperatures exceeding 2°C for around 60 years between 2040 and 2100 on over 30,000 species that live on land and in the sea. We looked at how many of them would be exposed to temperatures that could hinder their reproduction and survival, and how much time they would be exposed to this risk.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471416/original/file-20220628-14534-k3n6bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A line graph depicting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471416/original/file-20220628-14534-k3n6bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471416/original/file-20220628-14534-k3n6bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471416/original/file-20220628-14534-k3n6bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471416/original/file-20220628-14534-k3n6bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471416/original/file-20220628-14534-k3n6bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471416/original/file-20220628-14534-k3n6bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471416/original/file-20220628-14534-k3n6bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this scenario in which the world overshoots the 2°C target, emissions do not peak until 2040.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2021.0394">Meyer et al. (2022)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Harm would be fast to arrive and slow to disappear for nature, even after temperatures fall again. Just a few years of global temperatures above 2°C could transform the world’s most important ecosystems. Take the Amazon basin, for example. Some species would remain exposed to dangerous conditions long after the global average temperature stabilised – with some remaining exposed as late as 2300. This is because some species, especially those in the tropics, live closer to the limit of heat they can tolerate and so are sensitive to relatively small changes in temperature. And while global average temperatures may return to safer levels eventually, local temperature changes might lag behind.</p>
<p>The consequences of this exposure could be irreversible and include the tropical forest turning into savanna. The world would lose a critical global carbon sink, leaving more planet-warming gases in the atmosphere.</p>
<p>The Coral Triangle in the western Pacific Ocean is one of the most <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2018.00400/full">species-rich</a> marine ecosystems and home to many reef-building corals, sea turtles, reef fish and mangrove forests. Our modelling showed that in some communities, all or most of the species would be exposed to dangerous conditions simultaneously for at least a few decades and as much as two centuries. As well as disrupting a source of food for millions of people, disappearing corals and mangroves would remove a natural barrier protecting coastal towns and villages from rising seas and worsening storms.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A variety of corals growing in shallow water with a tropical island in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471598/original/file-20220629-20-usuuc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471598/original/file-20220629-20-usuuc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471598/original/file-20220629-20-usuuc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471598/original/file-20220629-20-usuuc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471598/original/file-20220629-20-usuuc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471598/original/file-20220629-20-usuuc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471598/original/file-20220629-20-usuuc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tropical corals exist at the limit of their thermal tolerance and are especially vulnerable to climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/variety-corals-grow-shallow-water-solomon-278424395">Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No way home</h2>
<p>The consequences of overshooting 2°C for the survival of species have been neglected by policymakers. Our analysis indicates that it cannot be assumed that life will simply recover once temperatures fall below 2°C again. We found that 3,953 species will have their entire population exposed to temperatures outside the range they evolved in for more than 60 consecutive years. The Philippine porcupine will be exposed for 99 years, and the Mawa clawed frog for an astonishing 157 years. Surviving this length of exposure is a stern challenge for any species.</p>
<p>Relying on carbon dioxide removal and so-called negative emissions technologies to lower greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over several decades is too risky to contemplate. Some of this technology, like carbon capture and storage, hasn’t yet been shown to <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_SPM.pdf">work at the scale needed</a>. Other techniques have negative effects on nature, such as <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_SPM.pdf">bioenergy</a>, where trees or crops are grown and then burned to generate electricity. Rolling out vast plantations at the same time as temperatures overshoot the internationally agreed “safe” limit would leave species reeling from a hotter climate and shrinking natural habitat.</p>
<p>Delaying drastic cuts to emissions will mean the world overshooting 2°C is a best-case scenario. This overshoot would come at an astronomical cost to life on Earth that negative emission technologies will not reverse. The effort to stop temperatures rising isn’t an abstract attempt at bending curves on a graph: it’s a fight for a liveable planet.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Bentley received funding as a result of a collaboration between the UK Royal Society and the African Academy of Sciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Pigot receives funding from the Royal Society and the Natural Environment Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreas L. S. Meyer received funding as a result of a collaboration between the UK Royal Society and the African Academy of Sciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Trisos is an author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.</span></em></p>Species will endure intolerable conditions long after the global average temperature stabilises.Joanne Bentley, Postdoctoral Researcher in Molecular Ecology, African Climate & Development Initiative, University of Cape TownAlex Pigot, Research Fellow, Genetics, Evolution & Environment Division of Biosciences, UCLAndreas L. S. Meyer, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Cape TownChristopher Trisos, Senior Research Fellow in Climate Change Risks, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1799882022-03-28T19:15:24Z2022-03-28T19:15:24ZThousands of undiscovered mammal species may be hidden in plain sight, new research finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454500/original/file-20220327-15-1aylgdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2366%2C2171&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taxonomy, or the study of classifying species, plays a key role in biodiversity conservation. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/malabar-giant-squirrel-in-a-tree-royalty-free-image/1367823891">Aarthi Arunkumar/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/taxonomy">Taxonomy</a>, the study of how living organisms relate to one another as species, has been around since the 1700s. Though scientists and philosophers have <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/species/">long debated</a> what makes a species a species, taxonomists treat each species as a <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/definition/species-312/">group of organisms</a> that share common biological characteristics. </p>
<p>Discovering and describing new species is essential to biology researchers and conservationists because they use species as a unit of analysis. Species are also economically important to agriculture, hunting and fishing, and have special legal status, such as under the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/law/endangered-species-act">U.S. Endangered Species Act</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this, scientists have been able to formally name and describe only an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syr080">estimated 10%</a> of species on the planet, based on discovery trends over the years.</p>
<p>This gap in knowledge is known as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054400">Linnean shortfall</a>. It remains unclear whether <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054400">poor research methodology</a>, disagreements on <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-44966-1">how to define a species</a>, or other factors are to blame for this gap.</p>
<p>We are scientists in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=s-8juSUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">evolutionary</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3NX7nXIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">biology</a>, and figuring out ways to better identify species is central to our research. Using genetic analysis and artificial intelligence, we were able to disentangle hidden species that have been lumped together in a single group and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2103400119">predict where and what types</a> they might be. Our findings also pinpoint a potential cause for this shortfall in species identification: an underinvestment in the science of taxonomy.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Determining what makes a species can get complicated.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hidden species remain to be discovered</h2>
<p>For <a href="https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2103400119">this study</a>, we chose to focus on mammals. Because of their relatively large size and importance to people as a source of food, companionship and entertainment, we predicted that it was more likely that a large proportion of mammalian species have been already been identified.</p>
<p>Our first task was to identify known species that might actually contain two or more species. To do this, we analyzed 1 million gene sequences from 4,300 named species, identifying clusters of sequences that showed high genetic diversity and fitting the data to an evolutionary model. </p>
<p>We found potentially hundreds of hidden species that were previously classified as a single group. This finding was expected, as it mirrors <a href="https://doi.org/10.1644/06-MAMM-F-038R2.1">results from previous studies</a>, albeit on a larger scale.</p>
<h2>Where and what are these hidden species?</h2>
<p>Once we identified the presence of these potentially hidden species, our second task was to determine what specific traits they have in common. To do this, we used a data science technique called <a href="https://www.section.io/engineering-education/introduction-to-random-forest-in-machine-learning/">random forest analysis</a>, a form of machine learning that draws information from a large number of different variables in order to make a prediction about a particular outcome. It’s similar to the <a href="https://netflixtechblog.com/netflix-recommendations-beyond-the-5-stars-part-2-d9b96aa399f5">technique that Netflix</a> uses to suggest shows you might be interested in watching.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Random forests is a machine learning algorithm that makes predictions using multiple decision trees.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our case, we wanted to predict whether a known species contained hidden species. The predictor variables we used spanned environmental factors, such as the climate of common mammalian habitats, and species-specific factors, such as physical traits, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/species-range/">geographic range</a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/life-history-evolution-68245673/">reproductive and survival patterns</a>. We also included research-based factors on the techniques scientists used to conduct their studies. In total, we collected some 3.8 million data points to build our model.</p>
<p>Based on our model, we found that three types of predictor variables stood out the most.</p>
<p>The first type comprised attributes of the species itself, such as body mass and geographic range. These results suggest that small mammals with relatively large ranges are more likely to have hidden species. This makes sense as, all things being equal, it is more difficult for scientists to recognize physical differences in smaller animals than larger ones. </p>
<p>The second type was climate – there are likely to be more hidden species in wet, warm areas with a large difference in day and night temperatures. This likely reflects the fact that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.012103.144032">tropical rainforests</a> tend to have very high levels of mammalian diversity.</p>
<p>The third type was research effort, including the geographic dispersion of samples in museum collections and the number of recent publications mentioning the scientific name of a known species. This implies that researchers are generally effective in identifying new mammals, as how much attention the scientific community has focused on a specific mammal predicts whether that creature is identified. This is supported by how the general characteristics we’ve identified match new mammalian species described over <a href="https://www.departments.bucknell.edu/biology/resources/msw3/">the past 30 years</a>, as well as the fact that our model recognizes areas that scientists are already investigating for hidden species.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454337/original/file-20220325-25-5knlks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram showing the phylogenetic distribution of various mammals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454337/original/file-20220325-25-5knlks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454337/original/file-20220325-25-5knlks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454337/original/file-20220325-25-5knlks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454337/original/file-20220325-25-5knlks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454337/original/file-20220325-25-5knlks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454337/original/file-20220325-25-5knlks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454337/original/file-20220325-25-5knlks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This diagram shows an estimate of the number of hidden species within known mammals. The relative size of the shadow surrounding each silhouette represents the ratio of predicted total existing species to known species. Striped silhouettes represent mammals with conflicting results excluded from the study.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2103400119">Danielle Parsons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Unknown species face extinction</h2>
<p>At a time when Earth is facing its <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1400253">greatest extinction crisis</a> since an asteroid killed off the dinosaurs, we believe that identifying and describing the many undiscovered species on Earth is crucial to aiding the preservation of its biodiversity.</p>
<p>Even though our study still found a large number of mammals waiting to be discovered, mammalian diversity is already relatively well captured compared with that of other species. We found that roughly 80% of existing mammal species have already been described, a proportion far higher than in nonmammal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127">groups with even higher diversity</a> such as beetles or mites. </p>
<p>Discovering and describing new species, as with all scientific research, takes a village. Natural history museums are largely responsible for collecting the raw data we analyzed, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/">genetic</a> and <a href="https://www.gbif.org/">biodiversity</a> databases provided the infrastructure to make it accessible to us. A culture of <a href="https://openscience.org/about-openscience/">information sharing</a> among peers and <a href="https://www.osc.edu/">large computer networks</a> supported the thousands of hours of computation time we needed. Our work was made possible only by ongoing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/417017a">investments in taxonomic research</a>.</p>
<p>Biodiversity scientists are racing to better understand the processes that create and maintain biodiversity while in the midst of the planet’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1400253">sixth mass extinction</a>, one that is entirely caused by human actions. Taxonomists face the challenge of describing the species around us before they go extinct. As our findings suggest, there is still a long way to go.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryan Carstens receives funding from the National Science Foundation (DBI 1661029 & DBI 1910623) and from the Ohio Supercomputer Center (PAA1174). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Parsons does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Roughly 90% of species on Earth are believed to be undiscovered. Whether researchers will be able to identify them before they go extinct is unclear.Danielle Parsons, PhD Candidate in Evolutionary Biology, The Ohio State UniversityBryan Carstens, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1715692021-11-22T22:10:43Z2021-11-22T22:10:43ZWhat’s in a name? When it comes to human fossils, it’s complicated<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432022/original/file-20211115-13-v8i0ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3400%2C3393&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">_Homo bodoensis_ was named after a skull discovered almost 50 years ago in Ethiopia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ettore Mazza)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Homo bodoensis</em> is the new name given to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21929">a human ancestor who lived half a million years ago in Africa</a>. The species is named after <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils/bodo">a skull from Bodo D'ar, Ethiopia</a>.</p>
<p>The finding was made nearly 50 years ago, and it has been described by several different names over the decades. The new name is the result of a new reassessment of the fossil record. Species names are frequently revised thanks to the complicated nature of biological diversity and the rules constructed to categorize it. But when it comes to human ancestors, species names can carry emotional and political baggage, which the rules don’t easily account for. </p>
<p>Around 100,000 years ago, towards the later part of the Pleistocene epoch, modern humans shared the planet with several other human species. These included our closest relatives, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706426114">the Neanderthals and Denisovans</a>. We all evolved from a distant relative called <em>Homo erectus</em>, and our lineages diverged about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1268">800,000 years ago</a>, in the Early Pleistocene. </p>
<p>The intervening time period — <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/chibanian-age-earths-newly-named-geological-period-180974224/">known as the Middle Pleistocene or Chibanian Age</a> — is particularly important because this is when our species, <em>Homo sapiens</em>, emerged.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing human evolution including _Homo bodoensis_ and _Homo sapiens_" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1360&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1360&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A model of human evolution with <em>Homo bodoensis</em> positioned ancestrally to modern humans (<em>Homo sapiens</em>)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21929">(M. Roksandic, P. Radović, X.J. Wu and C. J. Bae)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unfortunately, the human fossil record from the Chibanian is sparse and poorly understood — a problem paleoanthropologists refer to as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/262331a0">the muddle in the Middle</a>.” </p>
<p>There are several human species named from this period, but since the 1980s, paleoanthropologists have tended to lump most of these fossils under one name, <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-heidelbergensis"><em>Homo heidelbergensis</em></a>. This practice simplified things, but it obscured our understanding of variability in these humans. Many paleoanthropologists agree that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.10.013">it is high time to tackle this head-on</a>.</p>
<h2>The species problem</h2>
<p>Species don’t clearly exist in nature: they’re a scientific construct. This might sound surprising — after all, dogs are dogs and cats are cats. But the closer we look into the details, the more problems emerge. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-species-the-most-important-concept-in-all-of-biology-is-a-complete-mystery-119200">What is a species? The most important concept in all of biology is a complete mystery</a>
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<p>For example, how do we divide species over evolutionary time? Evolution can occur gradually by imperceptible increments, seamlessly transitioning from one “species” to the next. The boundaries between these “<a href="https://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Evolutionary_vs_Chronospecies.html">chronospecies</a>” are inherently arbitrary so taxonomists — biologists whose work involves identifying and categorizing organisms — create rules to help divide living things into species when no natural boundaries exist.</p>
<p>These rules are called <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/evo-eco-lab/species-concepts/">species concepts</a>. The most popular of these, called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/species-concept">the biological species concept</a>, says that species are groups of organisms that can produce fertile offspring with one another, but not with other organisms. Dogs can make puppies with other dogs, but not with cats, so they are different species. </p>
<p>The objective criteria of this concept have made it very appealing to analytically minded scientists. But the biological species concept isn’t perfect. Notably, it only works for sexually reproducing organisms, which excludes the majority of species, including bacteria and viruses. It’s also not very helpful in paleontology, since we can’t really crossbreed extinct animals to see if they were interfertile. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44966-1">Over 30 other species concepts</a> have been proposed, which try to account for these shortcomings. But if species are not natural categories, it probably isn’t possible to create a single concept that applies to every possible scenario. Species concepts are scientific tools, and the best one depends on the questions being asked.</p>
<h2>Strict rules</h2>
<p>Naming species is a whole other issue. It can often be difficult to decide if a new fossil represents a new species or just individual variation within an existing species. The fossil record is constantly being reassessed: different species are combined into one or one species gets divided into two. This can lead to a lot of confusion over species names — different scientists may use the same names to describe different species and vice versa. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.iczn.org/">International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature</a> was established to help mitigate this confusion. The ICZN publishes guidelines for animal names with the goal of promoting clarity and stability in scientific communication. One of the most important ICZN rules states that <a href="https://code.iczn.org/validity-of-names-and-nomenclatural-acts/article-23-principle-of-priority/?frame=1">if there is a conflict between the validity of two or more names, the oldest established name has priority</a>. </p>
<p>This is why, as children, many of us were disappointed to learn that <em>Brontosaurus</em> never existed: several fossils were reassessed and combined into one species, and <em>Apatosaurus</em> had priority. But the same approach <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/">resurrected <em>Brontosaurus</em> after another reassessment in 2015</a>.</p>
<h2>New names</h2>
<p>This brings us back to <em>Homo bodoensis</em>. Under the biological species concept, the new name is moot since we know that <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/fossil-dna-reveals-new-twists-in-modern-human-origins-20190829/">modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans all interbred</a>. The claim that all these groups belong to a single species, <em>Homo sapiens</em>, is valid … <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086190/characters/nm0000027#:%7E:text=When%20that%20happened%2C%20the%20good,A%20certain%20point%20of%20view%3F">from a certain point of view</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CVvbhVOMLJd","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>But a more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21386">pragmatic approach that defines species based on distinctive physical traits</a> can serve us better here. From this perspective, all of the Chibanian fossils which share Neanderthal traits get reassigned to <em>Homo neanderthalensis</em>. This includes <a href="http://efossils.org/page/boneviewer/Homo%20heidelbergensis/Mauer%201">the fossil for which <em>Homo heidelbergensis</em> was named</a> — according to the ICZN, that name becomes obsolete.</p>
<p>The remaining Chibanian humans in Africa and parts of Eurasia, which are ancestral to modern humans, but lack specific modern human traits, become a new species.</p>
<p>What should this species be named? The ICZN is unambiguous about this: the name <em>Homo rhodesiensis</em> has priority, since it was given to <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils/kabwe-1">a human skull found in Zambia in 1921</a>, although the species was poorly described at the time. </p>
<p>However, the name refers to the former British colony of Rhodesia and its namesake, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32131829">imperialist mining magnate Cecil Rhodes</a>. This name should be unpalatable to a scientific community interested in decolonization, but the ICZN has made it clear that it will not make provisions to allow name changes based on <a href="https://profjoecain.net/changing-offensive-names-taxonomy/">perceived offensiveness</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/decolonise-science-time-to-end-another-imperial-era-89189">Decolonise science – time to end another imperial era</a>
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<p>But the ICZN only maintains authority by convention — we respect it because we agree that it works. Researchers and publishers can make their own decisions about which names to accept and which to reject. <em>Homo bodoensis</em> represents a new option in this regard.</p>
<p>In the end, it’s important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Species names are meant to help us understand nature, and when they start to get in the way of that goal it’s time to rethink them. <em>Homo bodoensis</em> may be just a name, but the names we use influence the way we perceive the world. And rules or no rules, the best names are the ones that scientists use clearly and consistently.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Allan Lindal receives funding from NSERC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mirjana Roksandic receives funding from NSERC. She is affiliated with the University of Winnipeg, University of Manitoba, Canada and the DFG Center for Advanced Studies “Words, Bones, Genes, Tools” at the University of Tübingen, Germany</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Predrag Radović receives funding from NSERC. </span></em></p>If scientific research is to take decolonization seriously, names for species should reflect this approach and consider the political, social and emotional implications.Joshua Allan Lindal, PhD student, Anthropology, University of ManitobaMirjana Roksandic, Professor, Anthropology, University of WinnipegPredrag Radović, Research Assistant, Archaeology, University of BelgradeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1698482021-10-18T12:56:17Z2021-10-18T12:56:17ZBiodiversity: world leaders are negotiating new targets to protect nature by 2030 – the story so far<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426946/original/file-20211018-20-5jxvt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5184%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rhinos-558339958">Bassvdo/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Putting biodiversity on a path to recovery is a defining challenge of this decade.” So begins the Kunming Declaration on biodiversity, adopted at the 15th UN biodiversity conference on October 13 2021, otherwise known as COP15. </p>
<p>The purpose of the online gathering was to get governments from around the world to agree a new set of goals for nature over the next decade, replacing the unsuccessful Aichi targets which ran up to 2020. This online event will be followed by an in-person one in Geneva in January 2022, and negotiations will formally end in April 2022 in Kunming, China, where the world will agree a post-2020 global biodiversity framework with targets for the next decade.</p>
<p>Most countries (196 in total, with the US being one notable exception) help fund the Convention on Biological Diversity, a set of agreements designed to protect the variety of life on Earth, from genes and species all the way up to entire ecosystems. Scientists are confident that this biodiversity is now in severe decline, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/revolutionary-change-needed-to-stop-unprecedented-global-extinction-crisis-116166">a report in 2019</a> estimating that one million of the nearly nine million species on Earth could go extinct this century.</p>
<p>Global crises are often discussed independently. There’s the biodiversity crisis, the climate crisis and the air pollution crisis. But in truth, these issues are all interlinked. Treating them as separate overlooks their combined effect on species and, ultimately, humanity. It’s increasingly urgent to set ambitious targets for addressing biodiversity decline, alongside other issues, and to develop credible plans for meeting them. </p>
<p>The world missed a target to curb the rate of biodiversity loss by <a href="https://www.cbd.int/2010-target/">2010</a> and then set 20 targets for <a href="https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/">2020</a>. Although there has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/biodiversity-where-the-world-is-making-progress-and-where-its-not-146782">some progress</a> (for example, in increasing the extent of protected areas to 17% of the world’s land and 10% of the ocean) most of the 20 targets <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbo5">were not met</a>. </p>
<p>This is because countries have failed to address the drivers of biodiversity loss, which include the proliferation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/killer-whales-why-more-than-half-worlds-orcas-are-threatened-by-leftover-industrial-chemicals-104020">harmful chemicals</a> and demand for energy and resources that outstrips renewable supplies. One consequence of this is the destruction of tropical forests to grow palm oil and soya, which is used in many different products.</p>
<p>These systemic challenges demand transforming economies, regulatory systems and the way some people live – from how we travel to the food we eat – particularly in rich countries like the UK. Here’s how leaders at COP15 tried to make progress on this complex problem.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/overseas-trade-has-a-hidden-environmental-disaster-footprint-new-report-169750">Overseas trade has a hidden environmental 'disaster footprint' – new report</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Cooperation</h2>
<p>The convention once expected national governments to implement reforms to meet global targets. But countries have struggled to address problems which transcend borders, such as invasive species and pollution in the atmosphere and ocean. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S146290112100277X?via%3Dihub#fig0020">Planning</a> within countries to meet these global targets has depended on working with civil society groups, businesses and local government, which is often difficult.</p>
<p>In an effort to address these problems, governments have <a href="https://www.cbd.int/meetings/COP-15">consulted</a> with leaders in business and finance, as well as indigenous peoples, youth and women’s groups, at COP15.</p>
<p>Countries spent three to four years following the 2010 conference developing national strategies to meet their targets, with not enough time to actually implement them before the 2020 milestone. Now, 192 countries have national biodiversity <a href="https://www.cbd.int/nbsap/">strategies and action plans</a> in place, and that should allow them to hit the ground running.</p>
<h2>Funding</h2>
<p>President Xi Jinping of China announced a new <a href="https://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2021/pr-2021-10-13-cop15-hls-en.pdf">Kunming biodiversity fund</a> of 1.5 billion yuan (US$233 million) to support projects for protecting biodiversity in developing countries, while Japan extended its own biodiversity fund by 1.8 billion yen (US$17 million). There have been other <a href="https://www.leaderspledgefornature.org/theraceison/game-changing-funding-for-biodiversity-conservation-announced-in-momentous-move-for-a-nature-positive-world/">pledges</a>, including that of the European Commission which plans to double funding for biodiversity.</p>
<p>These are relatively small amounts compared to funds coordinated by the United Nations Development Programme, which has a <a href="https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/4cad/731d/44cc4dadac06042b1cbf6713/cop-15-05-annex-en.pdf">US$3.2 billion (£2.3 billion) portfolio</a> in 138 countries, invested in managing invasive species, combating poaching, restoring coral reefs and maintaining protected areas. In September 2021, nine philanthropic organisations pledged <a href="https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/16685/Private-Funders-of-the-New-Protecting-Our-Planet-Challenge-Announce-5-Billion-Commitment-to-Protect-and-Conserve-30-of-Planet-by-2030.aspx">$US5 billion</a> to protect nature. Another major funding boost could come from diverting subsidies which currently harm biodiversity, such as those supporting intensive food production and fossil fuel extraction (estimated to be worth more than <a href="https://youtu.be/-O1NOyIVkdQ">$US5 billion a year</a>) to renewable energy and nature-friendly farming.</p>
<p>The conference organisers urged countries to integrate biodiversity restoration into all sectors of their economies by, for example, developing farming and forestry policies which restore, rather than degrade, nature. Encouragingly, a coalition of financial institutions with assets equivalent to <a href="https://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2021/pr-2021-10-13-cop15-hls-en.pdf">US$13.9 trillion</a> committed to protecting and restoring biodiversity through their investments at the conference. </p>
<h2>What happens next?</h2>
<p>Protecting biodiversity will be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/15/uk-to-push-plan-to-halt-and-reverse-global-deforestation-by-2030-at-cop26-aoe">a big part</a> of the COP26 climate negotiations in Glasgow. It’s important that both climate change and biodiversity loss are treated as <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-ways-to-tackle-the-climate-and-biodiversity-crises-simultaneously-162631">two connected problems</a>. That’s because action on climate change can actually damage biodiversity. Growing <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-global-carbon-removal-industry-is-coming-experts-explain-the-problems-it-must-overcome-169175?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton">bioenergy crops</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-crisis-what-can-trees-really-do-for-us-168779">managing forests</a> with the single aim of sequestering carbon can mean replacing biodiverse habitats.</p>
<p>Alternatively, nature based solutions like rewetting peatlands (by raising the water table) to absorb carbon and protecting coastal habitats to reduce flooding can also restore biodiversity. President Macron of France and Prince Charles from the UK proposed devoting 30% of the climate funds that will be leveraged from countries and businesses through the COP26 negotiations to contribute directly to restoring biodiversity.</p>
<p>National leaders are more informed of the solutions than ever before. But do they have the political courage to make the necessary changes?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169848/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Oliver has received research funding from BBSRC, NERC and Natural England for quantifying biodiversity change and impacts on humans. He is affiliated with Defra as a senior scientific fellow on their Systems Research Programme, and spent four years with the European Environment Agency on their scientific committee. He is author of a book about human interconnectedness and global environmental change ('THE SELF DELUSION') published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson.</span></em></p>The 15th UN biodiversity conference recently wrapped up the online portion of negotiations.Tom Oliver, Professor of Applied Ecology, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1617932021-06-01T20:12:07Z2021-06-01T20:12:07ZAbout 500,000 Australian species are undiscovered – and scientists are on a 25-year mission to finish the job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403711/original/file-20210601-19-1tnmg7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C6%2C1695%2C1296&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Here are two quiz questions for you. How many species of animals, plants, fungi, fish, insects and other organisms live in Australia? And how many of these have been discovered and named?</p>
<p>To the first, the answer is we don’t really know. But the best guess of taxonomists – the scientists who discover, name, classify and document species – is that Australia’s lands, rivers, coasts and oceans probably house <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/land/nrs/about-nrs/protecting-biodiversity">more than 700,000 distinct species</a>.</p>
<p>On the second, taxonomists estimate <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/science/abrs/online-resources">almost 200,000 species have been scientifically named</a> since Europeans first began exploring, collecting and classifying Australia’s remarkable fauna and flora. </p>
<p>Together, these estimates are disturbing. After <a href="https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/vlamingh-willem.html">more than 300 years</a> of effort, scientists have documented <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-07/75-per-cent-of-species-unknown-fact-check/5649858?nw=0">fewer than one-third</a> of Australia’s species. The remaining 70% are unknown, and essentially invisible, to science. </p>
<p>Taxonomists in Australia name an average <a href="https://www.taxonomyaustralia.org.au/new-species-2019">1,000 new species</a> each year. At that rate, it will take at least 400 years to complete even a first-pass stocktake of Australia’s biodiversity.</p>
<p>This poor knowledge is a serious threat to Australia’s environment. And a first-of-its kind report <a href="http://science.org.au/taxonomyplan">released today</a> shows it’s also a huge missed economic opportunity. That’s why today, Australia’s taxonomists are calling on governments, industry and the community to support an important mission: discovering and documenting all Australian species within 25 years.</p>
<h2>Australia: a biodiversity hotspot</h2>
<p>Biologically, Australia is one of the richest and most diverse nations on Earth – between 7% and 10% of all species on Earth <a href="https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=au">occur here</a>. It also has among the world’s <a href="https://stateoftheworldsplants.org/2016/">highest rates of species discovery</a>. But our understanding of biodiversity is still very, very incomplete.</p>
<p>Of course, First Nations peoples discovered, named and classified many species within their knowledge systems long before Europeans arrived. But we have no ready way yet to compare their knowledge with Western taxonomy.</p>
<p>Finding new species in Australia is not hard - there are almost certainly unnamed species of insects, spiders, mites and fungi in your backyard. Any time you take a bush holiday you’ll drive past hundreds of undiscovered species. The problem is recognising the species as new and finding the time and resources to deal with them all.</p>
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<p>Taxonomists describe and name new species only after very careful due diligence. Every specimen must be compared with all known named species and with close relatives to ensure it is truly a new species. This often involves detailed microscopic studies and gene sequencing. </p>
<p>More fieldwork is often needed to collect specimens and study other species. Specimens in museums and herbaria all over the world sometimes need to be checked. After a great deal of work, new species are described in scientific papers for others to assess and review.</p>
<p>So why do so many species remain undiscovered? One reason is a shortage of taxonomists trained to the level needed. Another is that technologies to substantially speed up the task have only been developed in the past decade or so. And both these, of course, need appropriate levels of funding.</p>
<p>Of course, some groups of organisms are better known than others. In general, noticeable species – mammals, birds, plants, butterflies and the like – are fairly well documented. Most less noticeable groups - many insects, fungi, mites, spiders and marine invertebrates - remain poorly known. But even inconspicuous species are important.</p>
<p>Fungi, for example, are essential for maintaining our natural ecosystems and agriculture. They fertilise soils, control pests, break down litter and recycle nutrients. Without fungi, the world would literally grind to a halt. Yet, <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/science/abrs/publications/other/numbers-living-species/executive-summary#fungi">more than 90% of Australian fungi</a> are believed to be unknown. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-a-hidden-world-of-fungi-inside-the-worlds-biggest-seed-bank-156051">How we discovered a hidden world of fungi inside the world’s biggest seed bank</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="fungi on log" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403713/original/file-20210601-23-i6ddjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403713/original/file-20210601-23-i6ddjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403713/original/file-20210601-23-i6ddjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403713/original/file-20210601-23-i6ddjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403713/original/file-20210601-23-i6ddjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403713/original/file-20210601-23-i6ddjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403713/original/file-20210601-23-i6ddjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Fungi plays an essential ecosystem role.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Mind the knowledge gap</h2>
<p>So why does all this matter? </p>
<p>First, Australia’s biodiversity is under severe and increasing threat. To manage and conserve our living organisms, we must first <a href="https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-australian-lizard-species-are-barely-known-to-science-many-may-face-extinction-161572">discover and name them</a>.</p>
<p>At present, it’s likely many undocumented species are becoming extinct, invisibly, before we know they exist. Or, perhaps worse, they will be discovered and named from dead specimens in our museums long after they have gone extinct in nature.</p>
<p>Second, many undiscovered species are crucial in maintaining a sustainable environment for us all. Others may emerge as pests and threats in future; most species are rarely noticed until something goes wrong. Knowing so little about them is a huge risk.</p>
<p>Third, enormous benefits are to be gained from these invisible species, once they are known and documented. A report <a href="http://science.org.au/taxonomyplan">released today</a>
by Deloitte Access Economics, commissioned by Taxonomy Australia, estimates a benefit to the national economy of between A$3.7 billion and A$28.9 billion if all remaining Australian species are documented. </p>
<p>Benefits will be greatest in biosecurity, medicine, conservation and agriculture. The report found every $1 invested in discovering all remaining Australian species will bring up to $35 of economic benefits. Such a cost-benefit analysis has never before been conducted in Australia. </p>
<p>The investment would cover, among other things, research infrastructure, an expanded grants program, a national effort to collect specimens of all species and new facilities for gene sequencing.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-few-months-ago-science-gave-this-rare-lizard-a-name-and-it-may-already-be-headed-for-extinction-140356">A few months ago, science gave this rare lizard a name – and it may already be headed for extinction</a>
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<img alt="Two scientists walk through wetlands holding boxes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403715/original/file-20210601-25-1yf3pk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403715/original/file-20210601-25-1yf3pk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403715/original/file-20210601-25-1yf3pk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403715/original/file-20210601-25-1yf3pk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403715/original/file-20210601-25-1yf3pk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403715/original/file-20210601-25-1yf3pk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403715/original/file-20210601-25-1yf3pk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Discovering new species often involves lots of field work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Mission possible</h2>
<p>Australian taxonomists – in museums, herbaria, universities, at the CSIRO and in
government departments – have spent the last few years planning an ambitious mission to discover and document all remaining Australian species within a generation.</p>
<p>So, is this ambitious goal achievable, or even imaginable? Fortunately, yes. </p>
<p>It will involve deploying new and emerging technologies, including <a href="https://research.csiro.au/environomics/team-research-projects/high-throughput-collection-genomics-of-highly-variable-dna-samples/">high-throughput robotic DNA sequencing</a>, <a href="https://research.csiro.au/icv/critterpedia-an-ai-powered-app-to-identify-insect-and-snake-species/#:%7E:text=Critterpedia%3A%20an%20AI%2Dpowered%20app%20to%20identify%20insect%20and%20snake%20species,-July%2015th%2C%202020&text=Critterpedia%20is%20an%20AI%2Dpowered,or%20snake%20submitted%20by%20users.">artificial intelligence</a> and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/supercomputer-scours-fossil-record-for-earths-hidden-extinctions/">supercomputing</a>. This will vastly speed up the process from collecting specimens to naming new species, while ensuring rigour and care in the science.</p>
<p>A national meeting of Australian taxonomists, including the young early career researchers needed to carry the mission through, was held last year. The meeting confirmed that with the right technologies and more keen and bright minds trained for the task, the rate of species discovery in Australia could be sped up by the necessary 16-fold – reducing 400 years of effort to 25 years. </p>
<p>With the right people, technologies and investment, we could discover all Australian species. By 2050 Australia could be the world’s first biologically mega-rich nation to have documented all our species, for the direct benefit of this and future generations.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-australian-lizard-species-are-barely-known-to-science-many-may-face-extinction-161572">Hundreds of Australian lizard species are barely known to science. Many may face extinction</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Thiele has received funding from The Ian Potter Foundation and from relevant sector organisations for the work that led to this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Melville does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After more than 300 years of effort, scientists have documented fewer than one-third of Australia’s species. The remaining 70% are unknown, and essentially invisible, to science.Kevin Thiele, Adjunct Assoc. Professor, The University of Western AustraliaJane Melville, Senior Curator, Terrestrial Vertebrates, Museums Victoria Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1556572021-04-08T18:32:19Z2021-04-08T18:32:19ZBiodiversity: we can map the biggest threats to endangered species in your local area<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394020/original/file-20210408-19-1yr4knw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5472%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/snails-polymita-picta-cuban-one-most-1155576940">Mark Brandon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since 1993, 15 species of bird and mammal are thought to have gone extinct, including China’s <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/baiji-extinct-river-dolphin-china-sighting-conservation">Yangtze river dolphin</a> and the <a href="http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/pernambuco-pygmy-owl-glaucidium-mooreorum">Pernambuco pygmy owl</a> from Brazil. But these recent examples are a tiny fraction of what scientists estimate could disappear in the lifetimes of people living today. One million species spanning the full diversity of life on Earth are at <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4">risk of extinction</a>.</p>
<p>Trying to comprehend this scale of loss can make the problem seem insurmountable. Having a plan of action can help overcome that sense of powerlessness, and in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01432-0">new research</a>, we’ve created one.</p>
<p>We developed a tool that can help governments, businesses and even members of the public discover how to halt wildlife extinctions. We worked with an international team of more than 80 conservationists to produce the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric – a number that measures how much certain actions are likely to help reduce the extinction risk for local species. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/endangered-species-could-be-saved-from-extinction-by-mathematical-models-heres-how-110522">Endangered species could be saved from extinction by mathematical models – here's how</a>
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<h2>How it works</h2>
<p>STAR uses data from the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red List of Threatened Species</a> to give each species a score based on their conservation status. Species that are “near threatened” according to the IUCN have a STAR score of 100, while species listed as “vulnerable” have a score of 200. A higher score denotes a species facing a greater risk of extinction. </p>
<p>A critically endangered species, such as the Ka’apor capuchin in Brazil, has a score of 400. Breaking this down reveals which threats most contribute to the species’ extinction risk, using data that quantifies their relative impacts. The greatest single threat to the Ka’apor capuchin is habitat loss due to expanding towns and cities. This contributes half of its extinction risk, and so accounts for 200 of the capuchin’s points. Hunting and the selective logging of fruit trees, which this monkey forages from, make up the remaining 200. </p>
<p>STAR scores for different species living nearby can be added up to give the local area a total score. This represents a combination of how many species are present and how threatened those species are, and it can also be broken down to reveal which threats contribute the most to extinction risks for species in that area. </p>
<p>We applied STAR to all 5,359 amphibian, bird and mammal species on the IUCN Red List and found that halting the destruction of habitat for crop production would reduce their average extinction risk by 24%. Protecting habitats affected by the livestock industry would reduce their risk by a further 9% globally. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A herd of livestock cows and bulls file into a dry and dusty holding lot." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394022/original/file-20210408-17-uy0i9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394022/original/file-20210408-17-uy0i9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394022/original/file-20210408-17-uy0i9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394022/original/file-20210408-17-uy0i9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394022/original/file-20210408-17-uy0i9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394022/original/file-20210408-17-uy0i9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394022/original/file-20210408-17-uy0i9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rearing livestock can consume a lot of land that might otherwise have been natural habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-view-outback-cattle-mustering-featuring-685560532">Hypervision Creative/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The expansion of agriculture plays a <a href="https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/biodiversity/preserving-global-biodiversity-agricultural-improvements/">major role in biodiversity loss</a>, but this doesn’t mean that we should grow less food. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-reverse-global-wildlife-declines-by-2050-146041">Research has shown</a> that combining more land-efficient farming practices with efforts to protect and restore habitats nearby can feed the world’s human population while conserving biodiversity. The STAR metric shows, at a 5km scale anywhere on Earth’s land surface, where the negative effects of farming are likely to be particularly severe, revealing areas that urgently need action to halt habitat loss.</p>
<p>Threats vary between countries, as you might expect. Halting habitat loss from arable and livestock farms in Brazil would reduce the extinction risk of species nationally by 41%, whereas in South Africa, the figure is 17%. One of the major threats to wildlife here is invasive species. Controlling and eradicating non-native species could reduce extinction risk in South Africa by 15%.</p>
<h2>Tackling threats in biodiversity hotspots</h2>
<p>Areas with very high STAR scores have lots of threatened species, and we might consider them particularly important for conservation. The country with the largest STAR score is Indonesia, where eliminating threats from farmland habitat loss, logging and hunting could reduce global species extinction risk by 7%. This is followed by Colombia (7%), Mexico (6%), Madagascar (6%) and Brazil (5%). </p>
<p>These five-highest scoring countries have much in common. In each, habitat loss due to crop production is the biggest threat and contributes at least a quarter of their national extinction risk. But in Brazil and Colombia, the next biggest threat is livestock farming, while in Indonesia, Mexico and Madagascar, it’s logging and the timber industry. </p>
<p>There are schemes already in place in some regions to try to tackle these threats. In Indonesia, <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/palm-oil-and-biodiversity">oil palm plantations</a> can be <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/indonesia-aims-for-sustainability-certification-for-oil-palm-smallholders/">certified sustainable</a> if they meet environmental and labour rights standards. Expanding and effectively implementing these schemes could significantly reduce species extinction risk in these countries, potentially by as much as 30% in Indonesia. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A drone view of a palm oil plantation created through deforestation in Thailand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394021/original/file-20210408-21-5w2p5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394021/original/file-20210408-21-5w2p5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394021/original/file-20210408-21-5w2p5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394021/original/file-20210408-21-5w2p5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394021/original/file-20210408-21-5w2p5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394021/original/file-20210408-21-5w2p5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394021/original/file-20210408-21-5w2p5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palm oil is produced on plantations that often replace tropical forest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/drone-view-deforestation-caused-by-palm-762549322">Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Local contributions to global conservation</h2>
<p>While countries with high biodiversity have high STAR scores, wildlife conservation requires a global effort, and every country has an important contribution to make. </p>
<p>In the UK, there are over 30 birds and ten mammals threatened with extinction. Here in our home city of Newcastle in north-east England, the river Tyne hosts a particularly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/27/geordie-shore-the-kittiwakes-who-call-the-tyne-home-newcastle-gateshead-aoe">important breeding population</a> of the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22694497/155617539">kittiwake</a>, while the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22694927/132581443">bright-billed puffin</a> breeds on the nearby Farne Islands. </p>
<p>Both of these seabirds are classified as “vulnerable” by the IUCN. Overfishing of the puffin’s prey, sandeels, contributes 25% to the species’ extinction risk and a further 22% comes from climate change. This shows how important national and international policies are for strengthening local efforts to protect endangered species.</p>
<p>We can even use STAR to measure local and national contributions towards the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2030 goal of halting biodiversity loss, so that everyone can be part of the global plan for conservation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Mair received funding from Newcastle University and the IUCN. She is affiliated with the IUCN Species Survival Commission Post-2020 Biodiversity Targets Taskforce. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip McGowan has received funding from the IUCN. He is affiliated with the IUCN Species Survival Commission Post-2020 Biodiversity Targets Taskforce.</span></em></p>To get a grip on the biodiversity crisis, we’ll need to understand how wildlife is threatened in our own backyard.Louise Mair, Research Associate in Biodiversity Conservation and Policy, Newcastle UniversityPhilip McGowan, Professor of Conservation Science and Policy, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505982020-11-24T15:00:38Z2020-11-24T15:00:38ZThe world’s newest monkey species was found in a lab, not on an expedition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370884/original/file-20201123-23-1y2ibtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C331%2C3469%2C2324&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Popa langur, photographed in early 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aung Ko Lin, Fauna & Flora International</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The discovery of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54894681">Popa langur</a>, a medium-sized leaf-eating monkey found in central Myanmar, was recently announced by scientists. It is estimated there are just 200-250 of these monkeys, which will likely mean the new species is classed as “critically endangered”. This find was announced just a week or so after <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76364-z">two new species of greater glider</a> – a gliding marsupial – were identified in Australia. But what do scientists mean when they announce the discovery of “new” mammalian species? Were these animals really unknown to science?</p>
<p>While discoveries such as the langur and the gliders are certainly exciting, it is important to clarify that these were not previously unseen species uncovered by some intrepid explorer. Rather, these animals have been identified as a genetically distinct group within an already-known population. In fact, local people have been living with these animals for generations, and have their own ways of identifying and classifying species. When scholars announce a newly defined species based on genetic evidence, it usually means they have elevated an already defined subspecies to the species level. </p>
<p>Species are <a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-is-a-species-107402">not as clear-cut as they seemed </a> when we first learned about them in school. Most scholars use the “biological species concept”, which is based on whether the animals are able to produce fertile offspring together, but there are many other ways to define a species. Like most other recently-described primates, the Popa langur has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-theres-been-a-boom-in-discovering-new-species-despite-a-biodiversity-crisis-99475">identified using genetic information</a>, or the phylogenetic species concept. This is based on how animals relate to other groups in evolutionary terms, essentially defining a species as the smallest group that can be genetically distinguished from another species but still shares a clear ancestor.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371064/original/file-20201124-19-17c2yxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Golden buildings on top of a steep rocky summit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371064/original/file-20201124-19-17c2yxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371064/original/file-20201124-19-17c2yxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371064/original/file-20201124-19-17c2yxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371064/original/file-20201124-19-17c2yxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371064/original/file-20201124-19-17c2yxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371064/original/file-20201124-19-17c2yxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371064/original/file-20201124-19-17c2yxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The monkeys are mostly found on and around Mount Popa, which is also known for its spectacular monastery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Avigator Fortuner / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Elevation of a subspecies to new species based on genetic information can be controversial. Some scholars dismiss these discoveries as “taxonomic inflation”, and worry that changing classifications <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/evan.21387?casa_token=EXPnEmZkSkIAAAAA:KZkyajgfXMe7pLbzyUZXQMIxCfaOlP1esftr5ivYuKC0gcNGxGmulquYz1n88Id2mG74rN_rQNstLw">can confuse conservation efforts</a>. Others note that without a name and reliable population estimate, these little pockets of genetic variation could easily go extinct without notice, and that elevating them to species level <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1693347/pdf/15253356.pdf">ensures that conservation funding and efforts</a> are directed to these at-risk groups. Wherever you stand, it is worth noting that the idea of a species – under any definition – is a human construct to explain variation in the natural world, and no definition will be a perfect representation of biological variation.</p>
<h2>Identifying a new species</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.zoores.ac.cn/en/article/doi/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2020.254">newly described Popa langur</a> was discovered through a phylogenetic study which sought to better understand the evolutionary relationships among the 20 known species of the genus <em>Trachypithecus</em> – known informally as the langurs, lutungs, or leaf monkeys. Scientists used faecal samples from wild langurs and tissue samples from museum specimens to clarify taxonomic relationships across the genus.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370888/original/file-20201123-23-168usze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black monkey with blue face sits on branch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370888/original/file-20201123-23-168usze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370888/original/file-20201123-23-168usze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370888/original/file-20201123-23-168usze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370888/original/file-20201123-23-168usze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370888/original/file-20201123-23-168usze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370888/original/file-20201123-23-168usze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370888/original/file-20201123-23-168usze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phayre’s langur has lost some of its population to ‘new’ species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ezaz ahmed Evan / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One group of langurs stood out – the genetic evidence showed that there were clear western and eastern varieties, but that a central population did not fit into either of these. The western and eastern varieties, which were previously named subspecies of Phayre’s langur, were then elevated to the species level (Phayre’s langur or <em>Trachypithecus phayrei</em> and the Shan State langur or <em>T. melamera</em>, respectively). The remaining population was called <em>Trachypithecus popa</em> – the Popa langur, after nearby Mount Popa. This newly defined species lives in four distinct populations, and is at risk of extinction due to its small numbers, deforestation, and the effects of agriculture and timber extraction.</p>
<p>It may come as a surprise to hear that a newly-discovered species is at risk of extinction, but this is often the case with genetic reclassifications. The two previously named subspecies from which the Popa langur was identified were already classified as “endangered” under the official <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22040/17960739">International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list criteria</a>, which means that these already-threatened animals now have an even smaller population than previously believed. Both of those subspecies – Phayre’s and the Shan State langur, now species in their own right – will need to be re-evaluated for extinction risk. The Popa langur has not yet been classified but the study authors suggest that it should fall under the category of “critically endangered”, due to its small and fragmented population and the limited habitat it has available.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370885/original/file-20201123-23-1xm353m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Small furry creature clings to branch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370885/original/file-20201123-23-1xm353m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370885/original/file-20201123-23-1xm353m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370885/original/file-20201123-23-1xm353m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370885/original/file-20201123-23-1xm353m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370885/original/file-20201123-23-1xm353m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370885/original/file-20201123-23-1xm353m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370885/original/file-20201123-23-1xm353m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aye-ayes are more scientifically valuable than any single species of langur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">javarman / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Genetic reclassifications can be an important reminder to focus conservation efforts at higher taxonomic levels. For example, the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/a/aye-aye/">aye-aye</a>, an odd nocturnal primate found in the forests of Madagascar, represents a monospecific genus – a genus with only a single living species. There is no living creature quite like an aye-aye, so its extinction would be a great loss of genetic, ecological, and behavioural diversity. The Popa langur, by contrast, is one of roughly 20 species in the langur genus <em>Trachypithecus</em>, who all share a relatively recent evolutionary history. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the identification of each new primate species tells us a little more about the diversity of this fascinating order of mammals. By understanding that the Popa langur is genetically distinct from neighbouring populations, we can better prioritise conservation efforts for this group of animals. This new classification will be vital for generating conservation funds to protect this rare monkey and its environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150598/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracie McKinney is affiliated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as part of the Primate Specialist Group Section for Human-Primate Interactions.</span></em></p>How scientists discovered the ‘Popa langur’ was a separate species of just 200 monkeys.Tracie McKinney, Senior Lecturer in Human Biology, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1449762020-09-24T13:40:32Z2020-09-24T13:40:32ZLive fast, die small: how global heating is simplifying the world’s ecosystems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359811/original/file-20200924-25-w4hgdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4928%2C3280&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nature's specialists have few and unique relationships with other species. They are most vulnerable in warming habitats.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-spiderhunter-sucking-nectar-heliconia-flowerpollen-704779711">Noicherrybeans/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global warming is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity worldwide. As temperatures increase, many species are forced to move to new habitats, like <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/feeling-the-heat-warming-oceans-drive-fish-into-cooler-waters">fish fleeing warming waters</a>. While the fish have to adapt to new conditions elsewhere, it’s the effect that their departure has on other species that unpicks the delicate relationships that comprise ecosystems. Seabird colonies which were accustomed to finding fish in a particular place may soon find their food source has moved on to cooler waters further north.</p>
<p>But increasing temperatures have direct effects on individual organisms, too. Metabolism, respiration and reproduction all happen at a faster rate under warmer conditions. This means that animals reach their reproductive age faster and attain a smaller size. The average body size within populations shrinks over time <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate1259">as a result</a>.</p>
<p>These individual changes have ecosystem-wide consequences. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6308891/">Experiments</a> have shown that species don’t tend to get smaller in synchrony across the food web. Instead, prey species shrink faster relative to their predators as habitats warm, and these larger predators need to eat more of a given prey population to maintain their numbers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Australian wedge-tail eagle feeds on a dead kangaroo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359805/original/file-20200924-18-1brrh8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359805/original/file-20200924-18-1brrh8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359805/original/file-20200924-18-1brrh8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359805/original/file-20200924-18-1brrh8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359805/original/file-20200924-18-1brrh8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359805/original/file-20200924-18-1brrh8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359805/original/file-20200924-18-1brrh8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As their prey get smaller, predators will have to eat more to sate their appetite.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/australian-wedgetail-eagle-feeds-on-dead-297280568">FiledIMAGE/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Regardless of changes in body sizes, though, predators also eat more prey and they eat them faster <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2012.0242">as temperatures increase</a>. This is because higher temperatures raise metabolic activity. This acceleration of the economy of life destabilises ecosystems and makes them more fragile to collapse. When predators eat faster, they have a larger effect on the populations of their prey, and can even drive them to extinction. This can come back to bite predators, as it limits the amount of prey available to them in the long term, increasing their own extinction risk.</p>
<h2>Simpler communities, fewer interactions</h2>
<p>Warming also <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2012.0238">reorganises species interactions</a>. As their geographical ranges shift and expand in order to cope with warmer conditions, species encounter new partners in the communities they arrive in. This process favours generalist species – those organisms that can exploit a diverse range of food sources and habitat types without relying on any particular one, such as the North American raccoon, which is at home in forests or large cities.</p>
<p>It disadvantages specialist species with a very limited number of ecological interactions. This includes the koala, which can only eat eucalyptus leaves and live in woodland where these trees are abundant. Warming may force all species in a given area to move somewhere cooler, but only generalists are well suited to outcompeting the different species they encounter in their new home. Over time, the prevalence of generalist species increases, while specialists decline, creating a more homogeneous environment with fewer unique relationships and interactions.</p>
<p>Species within ecological communities interact in more ways than just their choice of food and shelter. Our task is to study how warming affects these intricate connections in particular ecosystems and across different types of interactions. In <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.3165">a recent study</a>, we measured the effects of warm temperatures on species living on rocky shores along the Chilean South Pacific coast. Here, seaweed proliferates with the help of nutrients in cold water upwelling from the ocean depths. Roving creatures eat this and each other, including snails, mussels, crabs and limpets. At different times of day, the entire habitat may be submerged by tides or exposed to the air.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A rock pool filled with orange and purple starfish and bright green anemones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359791/original/file-20200924-21-1jg6evr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4912%2C3264&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359791/original/file-20200924-21-1jg6evr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359791/original/file-20200924-21-1jg6evr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359791/original/file-20200924-21-1jg6evr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359791/original/file-20200924-21-1jg6evr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359791/original/file-20200924-21-1jg6evr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359791/original/file-20200924-21-1jg6evr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rocky shore habitats are dynamic and increasingly favour generalist species as temperatures rise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tide-pool-oregon-coast-filled-colorful-378521797">Dallas Reeves/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that warmer rocky shores harbour a larger number of generalist predators – those which can consume a greater range of prey species. These findings support the idea that we can expect more species with a general diet and fewer specialist consumers <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2012.0238">as environments warm</a>. On rocky shores, this will mean that top predators, such as abalone, will affect the populations of more prey populations than they currently do, such as limpets, mussels and barnacles, and so alter the delicate balance of the ecosystem.</p>
<p>But competition for space between shellfish and seaweed was also lower in these warmer communities. Species have fewer competitors, as a smaller number of species with fewer interactions dominate. Here lies an ironic twist: as species compete with fewer and fewer other species, they tend to develop more intimate competitive relationships with the ones that remain. The generalists effectively specialise and exert more influence over one another’s populations. </p>
<p>Climate change will make the web of life simpler, with fewer but stronger connections between smaller and less picky organisms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miguel Lurgi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We studied a rocky shore to see how global changes are playing out within habitats.Miguel Lurgi, Lecturer in Biosciences, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1388872020-07-26T19:54:37Z2020-07-26T19:54:37ZHow a scientific spat over how to name species turned into a big plus for nature<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349162/original/file-20200723-17-108f6f8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4928%2C3275&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Taxonomy, or the naming of species, is the foundation of modern biology. It might sound like a fairly straightforward exercise, but in fact it’s complicated and often controversial.</p>
<p>Why? Because there’s no one agreed list of all the world’s species. Competing lists exist for organisms such as mammals and birds, while other less well-known groups have none. And there are more than 30 definitions of what constitutes a species. This can make life difficult for biodiversity researchers and those working in areas such as conservation, biosecurity and regulation of the wildlife trade.</p>
<p>In the past few years, a public debate erupted among global taxonomists, including those who authored and contributed to this article, about whether the rules of taxonomy should be changed. Strongly worded ripostes were exchanged. A comparison to Stalin was floated.</p>
<p>But eventually, we all came together to resolve the dispute amicably. In a paper <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000736">published this month</a>, we proposed a new set of principles to guide what one day, we hope, will be a single authoritative list of the world’s species. This would help manage and conserve them for future generations.</p>
<p>In the process, we’ve shown how a scientific stoush can be overcome when those involved try to find common ground. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Baby crocodile emerging from egg." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348831/original/file-20200722-25-hpoxlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348831/original/file-20200722-25-hpoxlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348831/original/file-20200722-25-hpoxlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348831/original/file-20200722-25-hpoxlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348831/original/file-20200722-25-hpoxlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348831/original/file-20200722-25-hpoxlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348831/original/file-20200722-25-hpoxlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists worked out a few differences over how to name species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laurent Gillieron/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How it all began</h2>
<p>In May 2017 two of the authors, Stephen Garnett and Les Christidis, published an <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/taxonomy-anarchy-hampers-conservation-1.22064">article in Nature</a>. They argued taxonomy needed rules around what should be called a species, because currently there are none. They wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>for a discipline aiming to impose order on the natural world, taxonomy (the classification of complex organisms) is remarkably anarchic […] There is reasonable agreement among taxonomists that a species should represent a distinct evolutionary lineage. But there is none about how a lineage should be defined. </p>
<p>‘Species’ are often created or dismissed arbitrarily, according to the individual taxonomist’s adherence to one of at least 30 definitions. Crucially, there is no global oversight of taxonomic decisions — researchers can ‘split or lump’ species with no consideration of the consequences.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Garnett and Christidis proposed that any changes to the taxonomy of complex organisms be overseen by the highest body in the global governance of biology, the International Union of Biological Sciences (<a href="https://www.iubs.org/">IUBS</a>), which would “restrict […] freedom of taxonomic action.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/taxonomy-the-science-of-naming-things-is-under-threat-106691">Taxonomy, the science of naming things, is under threat</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An animated response</h2>
<p>Garnett and Christidis’ article raised hackles in some corners of the taxonomy world – including coauthors of this article. </p>
<p>These critics rejected the description of taxonomy as “anarchic”. In fact, they argued there are detailed rules around the naming of species administered by groups such as the International Commission on Zoological <a href="https://www.iczn.org/">Nomenclature</a> and the International Code of <a href="https://www.iapt-taxon.org/nomen/main.php">Nomenclature</a> for algae, fungi, and plants. For 125 years, the codes have been almost universally adopted by scientists. </p>
<p>So in March 2018, 183 researchers – led by Scott Thomson and Richard Pyle – wrote an animated response to the Nature article, published in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2005075">PLoS Biology</a>. </p>
<p>They wrote that Garnett and Christidis’ IUBS proposal was “flawed in terms of scientific integrity […] but is also untenable in practice”. They argued:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Through taxonomic research, our understanding of biodiversity and classifications of living organisms will continue to progress. Any system that restricts such progress runs counter to basic scientific principles, which rely on peer review and subsequent acceptance or rejection by the community, rather than third-party regulation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a separate paper, another group of taxonomists <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319422386_What_really_hampers_taxonomy_and_conservation_A_riposte_to_Garnett_and_Christidis_2017">accused</a> Garnett and Christidis of trying to suppress freedom of scientific thought, likening them to Stalin’s science advisor Trofim Lysenko.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sea sponge under a microscope" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348826/original/file-20200722-25-11fp31v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348826/original/file-20200722-25-11fp31v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348826/original/file-20200722-25-11fp31v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348826/original/file-20200722-25-11fp31v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348826/original/file-20200722-25-11fp31v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348826/original/file-20200722-25-11fp31v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348826/original/file-20200722-25-11fp31v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Taxonomy can influence how conservation funding is allocated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Finding common ground</h2>
<p>This might have been the end of it. But the editor at PLoS Biology, Roli Roberts, wanted to turn consternation into constructive debate, and invited <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2005249">a response</a> from Garnett and Christidis. In the to and fro of articles, we all found common ground. </p>
<p>We recognised the powerful need for a global list of species – representing a consensus view of the world’s taxonomists at a particular time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/summer-bushfires-how-are-the-plant-and-animal-survivors-6-months-on-we-mapped-their-recovery-142551">Summer bushfires: how are the plant and animal survivors 6 months on? We mapped their recovery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Such lists do exist. The <a href="https://www.catalogueoflife.org/">Catalogue of Life</a>, for example, has done a remarkable job in assembling lists of almost all the world’s species. But there are no rules on how to choose between competing lists of validly named species. What was needed, we agreed, was principles governing what can be included on lists. </p>
<p>As it stands now, anyone can name a species, or decide which to recognise as valid and which not. This creates chaos. It means international agreements on biodiversity conservation, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (<a href="https://cites.org/">CITES</a>) and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (<a href="https://www.cms.int/">CMS</a>), take different taxonomic approaches to species they aim to protect.</p>
<p>We decided to work together. With funding from the IUBS, we <a href="https://www.cdu.edu.au/news/experts-gather-lead-darwin-day">held a workshop</a> in February this year at Charles Darwin University to determine principles for devising a single, agreed global list of species. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Pengiuns embracing each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349297/original/file-20200724-35-rv9gfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349297/original/file-20200724-35-rv9gfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349297/original/file-20200724-35-rv9gfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349297/original/file-20200724-35-rv9gfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349297/original/file-20200724-35-rv9gfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349297/original/file-20200724-35-rv9gfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349297/original/file-20200724-35-rv9gfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sparring scientists came together to develop agreed principles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participants came from around the world. They included taxonomists, science governance experts, science philosophers, administrators of the nomenclatural (naming) codes, and taxonomic users such as the creators of national species lists.</p>
<p>The result is a draft set of ten principles that to us, represent the ideals of global science governance. They include that:</p>
<ul>
<li>the species list be based on science and free from “non-taxonomic” interference</li>
<li>all decisions about composition of the list be transparent</li>
<li>governance of the list aim for community support and use</li>
<li>the listing process encompasses global diversity while accommodating local knowledge.</li>
</ul>
<p>The principles will now be discussed at international workshops of taxonomists and the users of taxonomy. We’ve also formed a working group to discuss how a global list might come together and the type of institution needed to look after it.</p>
<p>We hope by 2030, a scientific debate that began with claims of anarchy might lead to a clear governance system – and finally, the world’s first endorsed global list of species.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The following people provided editorial comment for this article: Aaron M Lien, Frank Zachos, John Buckeridge, Kevin Thiele, Svetlana Nikolaeva, Zhi-Qiang Zhang, Donald Hobern, Olaf Banki, Peter Paul van Dijk, Saroj Kanta Barik and Stijn Conix.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://bushfires2020.netlify.app"><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1103/Explore.gif?1594552012" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from International Union for Biological Sciences, the Australian Research Council and the National Environment Science Program</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les Christidis receives funding from the International Union for Biological Sciences. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard L. Pyle receives funding from U.S National Science Foundation, NOAA (U.S.), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Thomson is affiliated with the Chelonian Research Institute and the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. The first is a not for profit organisation, </span></em></p>A public debate recently erupted among global taxonomists. Strongly-worded ripostes were exchanged. A comparison to Stalin was floated. But eventually, they worked it out.Stephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin UniversityLes Christidis, Professor, Southern Cross UniversityRichard L. Pyle, Associate lecturer, University of HawaiiScott Thomson, Research associate, Universidade de São Paulo (USP)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1287462020-07-23T10:01:39Z2020-07-23T10:01:39ZWe discovered a new species, but war means it may now remain hidden forever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335036/original/file-20200514-77247-1ahbywz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The male specimen discovered in the Natural History Museum, Vienna.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alec Moore</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world has a new species. My colleagues and I were hugely <a href="https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4819.2.8">excited to announce it</a> but, alas, this stingray – a distant cousin of sharks – can’t be claimed to be a particularly spectacular or awe-inspiring animal. It’s small – about the size of an outstretched hand – and, as far as we know, plain, without distinctive markings. But what’s special about this stingray is where it came from, how we came to discover it – and why we may never see it again.</p>
<p>“Discovery” might conjure up images of intrepid marine biologists finding this animal hidden in a remote cave, or while diving into the abyss in a submersible. In fact, many of the sharks and rays discovered in recent years have been found in <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/9/110901-shark-new-species-eaten-science-ocean-squalus-formosus-dogfish/">fish markets</a>. But not this one! We found it in a glass jar, on a shelf, in a museum, in the centre of Vienna.</p>
<p>The new species – to be known scientifically as <em>Hemitrygon yemenensis</em> – is, you’ve guessed it, from Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula. And it comes with quite a story.</p>
<p>In 1902, an Austrian husband and wife team – Wilhelm and Marie Hein – were in the coastal town of Qishn, to study the unique Mehri language. While placed under house arrest by the local sheikh, the Heins busied themselves. Marie, in addition to providing medical treatment to locals, collected over 2,000 botanical and zoological specimens, which, fortunately for us, included two stingrays. These specimens – a male and a female – were preserved and brought back to the Natural History Museum in Vienna where they sat in a glass jar gathering dust for 115 years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335037/original/file-20200514-77239-1m6mpm7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335037/original/file-20200514-77239-1m6mpm7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335037/original/file-20200514-77239-1m6mpm7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335037/original/file-20200514-77239-1m6mpm7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335037/original/file-20200514-77239-1m6mpm7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335037/original/file-20200514-77239-1m6mpm7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335037/original/file-20200514-77239-1m6mpm7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Natural History Museum, Vienna.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alec Moore</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As part of my ongoing research work on the elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) of the Arabian region, I had been aware of the Heins – one of the other fish they brought back was a small shark, which turned out to be a <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/shark-extinct-fish-market/">story in itself</a>. I had been combing through the museum’s list of specimens from the Heins’ expedition when I noticed a mysterious entry – to an old, now obsolete name for a stingray. Further investigation – and preliminary photographs kindly emailed by the museum staff – suggested these were something special we hadn’t seen before, so I packed my bag and headed to Vienna.</p>
<p>On a chilly November morning, deep in the cavernous back rooms of the impressive old museum, the sealing wax on the jar was broken. As I gently drew out the stingrays – pale and shrivelled from a century in alcohol – I wondered if I was the first person to have handled them since the Heins bottled them on a hot, distant, sun-bleached beach so many years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335038/original/file-20200514-77276-1o52qtt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335038/original/file-20200514-77276-1o52qtt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335038/original/file-20200514-77276-1o52qtt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335038/original/file-20200514-77276-1o52qtt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335038/original/file-20200514-77276-1o52qtt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335038/original/file-20200514-77276-1o52qtt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335038/original/file-20200514-77276-1o52qtt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335038/original/file-20200514-77276-1o52qtt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Measuring the stingray specimen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alec Moore</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The painstaking work of measurements, observations and photographs then began – recording everything from the relative size and position of features like fins and gill slits, the shape and coverage of tooth-like “denticles” on the skin, to the angle the snout makes (the first time I had used a protractor since school).</p>
<p>Having this information allowed us to compare the Yemen specimens with known, closely related species – and pick out key features that, in combination, define the new species. This information is published in a “description”, the scientific document (admittedly, a dry one) that officially names the new species and designates a single individual museum specimen as the “holotype” to which all future researchers should refer. The scientific name and description are also the fundamental building blocks underlying all species identification field guides that fishers, divers and scientists might use. </p>
<h2>A mysterious creature</h2>
<p>But what do we know about this species? Sadly, almost nothing – and chances are it will stay that way. Other than the two museum specimens collected over a century ago, the animal is completely unknown to science.</p>
<p>Small stingray species don’t tend to swim far, and often have small geographic ranges as a result – so there is a chance <em>H. yemenensis</em> only occurs in Yemen. Yet research there is almost impossible due to a brutal ongoing war and humanitarian crisis, decades of previous conflict, and it being among the “least developed countries” for indicators like poverty, education and life expectancy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335040/original/file-20200514-77251-96570.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335040/original/file-20200514-77251-96570.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335040/original/file-20200514-77251-96570.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335040/original/file-20200514-77251-96570.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335040/original/file-20200514-77251-96570.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335040/original/file-20200514-77251-96570.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335040/original/file-20200514-77251-96570.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335040/original/file-20200514-77251-96570.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The female specimen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alec Moore</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The intensive, unmanaged and unsustainable fisheries in these areas – <a href="https://theconversation.com/eu-targets-fragile-west-african-fish-stocks-despite-protection-laws-125679">often by foreign vessels</a> – threaten not just unique marine species like our stingray, but the livelihoods of the fishing communities themselves. There is even a chance that our species may have become extinct before we realised it was a new species, like the “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/new-shark-discovery-extinction-lost-borneo-overfishing-carcharhinus-obsolerus-a8711686.html">lost shark</a>” found recently.</p>
<p>We can but hope that Yemen, and countries like it with rich biodiversity, has a brighter future. The formal name of our new species celebrates the country it was found in, but we have proposed the vernacular name “Heins’ stingray” to acknowledge the role of Marie and Wilhelm in helping to document the riches – biological, linguistic and cultural – of this part of the world.</p>
<p>It seems remarkable that the only shark and ray specimens the Heins bought back turned out to be new species, especially as non-specialists with limited access to information. Sadly, Wilhelm died the year after the expedition, at the age of just 42. It is hoped that his stingray has not died out with him.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alec Moore received funding from the Fisheries Society of the British Isles to conduct the museum research. He is affiliated with the IUCN Shark Specialist Group. </span></em></p>The extraordinary story of a stingray, its discovery and its uncertain fate in the Yemen war.Alec Moore, Post-Doctoral Fisheries Scientist, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1284192020-06-18T17:17:11Z2020-06-18T17:17:11ZDebate: Hunting ‘common’ species won’t mitigate epidemics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338923/original/file-20200601-95036-sy11en.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C48%2C1836%2C1003&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Badgers are hunted down as 'harmful' species. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/fr/photos/blaireau-des-animaux-forest-44202/">Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ongoing catastrophes of climate change, <a href="https://ipbes.net/system/tdf/ipbes_global_assessment_report_summary_for_policymakers.pdf">biodiversity loss</a> and the coronavirus pandemic show that politicians are resistant to <a href="https://theconversation.com/scott-morrisons-biggest-failure-in-the-bushfire-crisis-an-inability-to-deliver-collective-action-129437">objective information</a>, especially when economic growth is at stake.</p>
<p>As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to unfold in many countries and our relations to animals are <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-shows-we-must-get-serious-about-the-well-being-of-animals-138872">being debated more than ever</a>, the practice of hunting is part of the heated debate.</p>
<p>According to a 2018 poll in France, 84% of those interviewed stated that they <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/fr-fr/les-francais-rejettent-massivement-la-chasse">disapproved of hunting</a>, even as authorities and nonprofit organisations often face strong pressure from <a href="https://theconversation.com/nicolas-hulot-face-au-mur-des-lobbies-102300">hunters’ lobbies</a>. Such organisations may benefit from <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/hauts-de-france/oise/compiegne/celebre-cerf-foret-laigue-oise-black-ete-abattu-lors-chasse-courre-1772897.html">local politics</a>, and the claim by hunters that that culling “common” game species can help maintain ecological balance, prevent damage the environment and even reduce the spread of diseases.</p>
<h2>Invisible “common” species</h2>
<p>Species often described as “common” include weasels, martens, polecats, foxes, rook ravens, black crows, magpies, jays and starlings, all of which were previously termed as harmful. While the <a href="https://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/animaux-nuisibles-code-environnement-decret-28605.php4">term has changed</a>, the consequences remain.</p>
<p>In fact, most people have never or only rarely seen such “common” species, especially mammals that avoid humans or are nocturnal. One notable example is the badger, which can be hunted in ways that <a href="https://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Societe/One-Voice-revele-l-enfer-sous-terre-de-la-chasse-aux-blaireaux-1683538">strongly diverge</a> from any idealised vision of what “hunting” looks like. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338920/original/file-20200601-95059-185l6ej.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=63%2C35%2C735%2C495&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338920/original/file-20200601-95059-185l6ej.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338920/original/file-20200601-95059-185l6ej.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338920/original/file-20200601-95059-185l6ej.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338920/original/file-20200601-95059-185l6ej.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338920/original/file-20200601-95059-185l6ej.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338920/original/file-20200601-95059-185l6ej.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fox in Chartreuse mountains of France.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Renard_montrant_son_museau.JPG">Brucyn/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In terms of natural balances, the numbers of specimens in a given population of any species fluctuates. Simply said, if there are enough food and water resources and habitat to live in, the population thrives. When these resources dwindle, the population size decreases. There are other factors as well, including predator-prey interactions, local climate, human-wildlife interactions, and pathogens.</p>
<h2>The role of epidemics in regulating populations</h2>
<p>In the case of pathogens, they can influence the population size of any species – that is why we humans fear them as well. Host-pathogen interactions are highly complex, but generally the spread of a pathogen depends on how infectious it is, the size of the population and the interactions between individuals.</p>
<p>This has been recently shown for an amphibian pathogen, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-04-transmission-amphibian-pathogen-bsal.html"><em>Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans</em></a>. Its transmission is dependent on the number of contacts between individuals, which is closely related to the density of a population. Generally, the higher the number of specimens, and the more reduced the living space of that population, the more likely it will be that the pathogen will spread.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338926/original/file-20200601-95009-1t955ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338926/original/file-20200601-95009-1t955ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338926/original/file-20200601-95009-1t955ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338926/original/file-20200601-95009-1t955ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338926/original/file-20200601-95009-1t955ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338926/original/file-20200601-95009-1t955ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338926/original/file-20200601-95009-1t955ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Salamanders are susceptible to catch an amphibian pathogen, <em>Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/fr/photos/monde-animal-nature-des-animaux-3357937/">Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If an infectious disease spreads rapidly, the most susceptible individuals will get infected, and this too varies depending on the nature of the pathogen itself – it may most affect younger, weaker or older individuals, whichever is the most susceptible. In an epidemic, individuals in a good condition can also become infected, but depending on their immune system and the disease itself, they may recover or die.</p>
<p>In short, infectious diseases can <a href="https://www.p3mountains.org/post/pathogens">control the population size of common and not so common species</a>. If culling keeps population size at low levels, however, an epidemic may not occur and therefore will not reduce the number of individuals.</p>
<h2>Is culling really beneficial?</h2>
<p>While the reduction in the populations of common species may be perceived as beneficial, it can in fact lead to a higher diversity of pathogens in a population – unlike pathogens, hunters do not target for weak individuals, but sometimes those that are most fit and in good health. In this way, hunting common species may actually increase disease risks for humans rather than decrease them.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5125688/">2016 study</a> conducted in the United Kingdom looked at the impact of culling wild badgers (<em>Meles meles</em>), which can serve as a host for the pathogen that causes cattle tuberculosis (<em>Mycobacterium bovis</em>). </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xhyI5U8JyBg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bovine tuberculosis explained.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The study confirmed that while large-scale badger culling reduced the incidence of confirmed cattle TB cases, its benefits were undermined by induced changes in badger behaviour. These changes in turn increased transmission among badgers and from badgers to cattle. The reason culling pushes badgers out of the culled areas, as well as expanding badger ranging in and around the areas where culls occurred. Thus, due to changes in badger behaviour in response to culling, such actions actually resulted in the opposite effect of what was desired.</p>
<p>Also missing in the debate precise information about the damages caused by badgers and other common species. In a <a href="https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?idArticle=LEGIARTI000037125721&cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006074220&dateTexte=20180630">2018 text</a>, the French Environmental Code states that many such species are “likely to cause damage”, but provides no further information. What we do know is that common species can play an important role in an ecosystem. This can include wild boars turning soil to find worms, fox catching mice, martens eating the eggs of other species, or all animals simply leaving behind faeces to nourish the soil.</p>
<p>Each species has its role to play in nature and due to the <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/327/5962/154?casa_token=pJ0ORmt42JYAAAAA:GLwYTmP4k907HJBqmsQlsm5_XnCp9kx3ADrtzQRU9jpf9o4QpAP2BKbrY1rVKTWHJOVmm7uG6moPFw">myriad interactions</a> between species, humans still have significant difficulty in understanding the roles that animals play in their environment, even the most common ones.</p>
<h2>Risks to animals and hunters</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338930/original/file-20200601-95054-a32m2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338930/original/file-20200601-95054-a32m2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338930/original/file-20200601-95054-a32m2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338930/original/file-20200601-95054-a32m2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338930/original/file-20200601-95054-a32m2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338930/original/file-20200601-95054-a32m2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338930/original/file-20200601-95054-a32m2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Female starling: this bird is often confused with any other ‘black bird’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hedera_baltica/33673327206">Hedera.Baltica/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Laws are not particular strict regarding who is allowed to take an animal’s life and the choices that they make, intended or otherwise. Risks to <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/wildbirds/hunting/index_en.htm">non-harmful species</a> can easily occur – it’s easy to confuse any black bird for a blackbird.</p>
<p>Hunters themselves can also be at risk. With the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.2736#d2355001e1">Covid-19 pandemic</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3320460/">Ebola epidemic</a>, we better understand how hunting animals can result in the shift of deadly pathogens to humans. While common European species harbour no such diseases, rabbits and foxes can be infected with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2578082">rabies</a>, which can affect humans. </p>
<h2>What can we do?</h2>
<p>In Luxembourg, hunting, trapping and killing foxes has been entirely stopped without any negative effect reported so far on the human or the wildlife populations. The same is true in the <a href="https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2193/0022-541X(2004)068%5B0939:EOHFAF%5D2.0.CO;2?casa_token=6Akq167TthAAAAAA:r7y__gFINRezeD9jAG1DTNxkf_Jmq5Hqk1YAi5IWkoqrOkbLamJCrp2A9JwKeGJ0stu_gOsYY5-0PA">Swiss canton of Geneva</a>. Measures other than culling have been used to mitigate damages caused by wild animals, including such as electric fences against wild boars or equipment that emits warning signals at the approach of deer. These examples show that approaches other than culling are possible.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=158&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310261/original/file-20200115-134768-1tax26b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Created in 2007 to help accelerate and share scientific knowledge on key societal issues, the AXA Research Fund has been supporting nearly 650 projects around the world conducted by researchers from 55 countries. To learn more, visit the site of the <a href="https://www.axa-research.org">Axa Research Fund</a> or follow on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/axaresearchfund?lang=fr">@AXAResearchFund</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128419/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dirk Schmeller a reçu des financements de AXA Research Fund, DFG, European Commission. </span></em></p>All animals plays a role in nature, and in times of biodiversity loss and climate change, hunting “common” species such as foxes and badgers is irresponsible .Dirk S. Schmeller, Professor for Conservation Biology, Axa Chair for Functional Mountain Ecology at the École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Toulouse, Université de Toulouse III – Paul SabatierLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1295312020-05-26T12:20:24Z2020-05-26T12:20:24ZEthicists: We need more flexible tools for evaluating gene-edited food<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336220/original/file-20200519-152284-1xe74ay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C29%2C4947%2C3532&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What determines whether a genetically modified vegetable or fruit is natural?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/strawberry-and-dna-illustration-royalty-free-illustration/1178748888?adppopup=true">VICTOR HABBICK VISIONS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is there now a way to genetically engineer crops to create food that people can confidently consider natural? </p>
<p>Gene-editing technology sounds like <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/future-of-food/food-technology-gene-editing/">it might offer this possibility</a>. By altering an organism’s genetic material, or genome, without introducing genes from other species, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3566">advocates of genome editing argue</a> the technique can <a href="https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/catalog/6518982">sidestep most of the difficult ethical and regulatory challenges</a> plaguing organisms with added “transgenes,” which are genes from other species. Some even argue these “cisgenic” products are natural enough to <a href="https://theconversation.com/organic-farming-with-gene-editing-an-oxymoron-or-a-tool-for-sustainable-agriculture-101585">count as organic</a>.</p>
<p>As ethicists specializing in how technology alters human-nature relations, we can understand why advocates see the ethics this way. If “crossing species lines” is the measure of whether a technique counts as “natural” or not, then genome editing appears to have the potential to pass a naturalness test. </p>
<p>Genome editing, its boosters say, can make changes that look almost evolutionary. Arguably, these changes could have happened by themselves <a href="https://www.synthego.com/blog/crispr-agriculture-foods">through the natural course of events</a>, if anyone had the patience to wait for them. Conventional breeding for potatoes resistant to late blight is theoretically possible, for example, but it would take a lot of time. </p>
<p>Although we understand the potential advantages of speed, we don’t think an ethics hinging on the idea of “cisgenesis” is adequate. We propose a better ethical lens to use in its place. </p>
<h2>Naturalness and species lines</h2>
<p>Our work is part of a <a href="https://www.rewriteproject.net">four-year project</a>
funded by the Norwegian Research Council scrutinizing how gene editing could change how we think about food. The work brings together researchers from universities and scientific institutes in Norway, the U.K. and the U.S. to compare a range of techniques for producing useful new crops. </p>
<p>Our project is not focused on the safety of the crops under development, something that obviously requires concerted scientific investigation of its own. Although the safety of humans and the health of the environment is ethically crucial when developing new foods, other ethical issues must also be considered. </p>
<p>To see this, consider how objections against genetically modified organisms go far beyond safety. Ethical issues around food sovereignty range broadly across <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/22520/1/Genetic_engineering_and_food_sovereignty_reader.pdf">farmer choice, excess corporate power, economic security</a> and other concerns. Ethical acceptability requires a much higher bar than safety alone. </p>
<p>Although we believe gene editing may have promise for addressing the agricultural challenges caused by rising global populations, climate change and the overuse of chemical pesticides, we don’t think an ethical analysis based entirely on “crossing species lines” and “naturalness” is adequate. </p>
<p>It is already clear that arguing gene-edited food is ethical based on species lines has not satisfied all of gene editing’s critics. As Ricarda Steinbrecher, a <a href="https://www.econexus.info/publication/new-breeding-techniques">molecular biologist cautious about gene editing</a>, has said, “Whether or not the DNA sequences come from closely related species is irrelevant, the process of genetic engineering is the same, involving the same risks and unpredictabilities, as with transgenesis.” </p>
<p>Comments of this kind suggest talking about species lines is an unreliable guide. Species and subspecies boundaries are notoriously infirm. Charles Darwin himself conceded in “Origin of Species,” “I look at the term species, as one arbitrarily given for the sake of convenience to a set of individuals closely resembling each other.” </p>
<p>The 2005 edition of the Mammal Species of the World demonstrated this arbitrariness by collapsing all 12 subspecies of American cougars down to one Puma concolor cougar overnight. In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force <a href="https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/32616/A_revised_Felidae_Taxonomy_CatNews.pdf">revised the Felidae family again</a>. </p>
<p>If species lines are not clear, claiming “naturalness” based on not crossing species lines is, in our view, a shaky guide. The lack of clarity matters because a premature ethical green light could mean a premature regulatory green light, with <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-first-gene-edited-food-is-now-being-served/">broad implications for both agricultural producers and consumers</a>.</p>
<h2>The integrity lens</h2>
<p>We think a more reliable ethical measure is to ask about how a technique for crop breeding interferes with the integrity of the organism being altered. </p>
<p>The term integrity already has application in <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-environmental/">environmental ethics</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw037">ecology</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/yea.1785">cell biology</a>, <a href="https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/integrity">interhuman ethics</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-005-0903-0">organic agriculture</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7400659">genetics</a>. </p>
<p>A unifying theme in all these domains is that integrity points toward some kind of functional wholeness of an organism, a cell, a genome or an ecological system. The idea of maintaining integrity tracks a central intuition about being cautious before interfering too much with living systems and their components.</p>
<p>The integrity lens makes it clear why the ethics of gene editing may not be radically different from the ethics of genetic modification using transgenes. The cell wall is still penetrated by the gene-editing components. The genome of the organism is cut at a site chosen by the scientist, and a repair is initiated which (it is hoped) will result in a desired change to the organism. When it comes to the techniques involved with gene editing a crop or other food for a desired trait, integrity is compromised at several levels and none has anything to do with crossing species lines. The integrity lens makes it clear the ethics is not resolved by debating naturalness or species boundaries. </p>
<p>Negotiation of each other’s integrity is a necessary part of human-to-human relations. Adopted as an ethical practice in the field of biotechnology, it might provide a better guide in attempts to accommodate <a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/GLEP_a_00142">different ethical, ecological and cultural priorities in policymaking</a>. An ethic with a central place for discussion of integrity promises a framework that is both more flexible and discerning. </p>
<p>As new breeding techniques create new ethical debates over food, we think the ethical toolbox needs updating. Talking about crossing species lines simply isn’t enough. If Darwin had known about gene editing, we think he would have agreed. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher J. Preston receives funding from The Research Council of Norway's SAMKUL Programme on the Cultural Conditions Underlying Social Change. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Trine Antonsen receives funding from The Research Council of Norway's SAMKUL Programme on the Cultural Conditions Underlying Social Change.</span></em></p>What criteria should be used to determine whether a food is natural? What if gene-editing techniques produce changes indistinguishable from those that evolve naturally? Is the food still natural?Christopher J. Preston, Professor of Philosophy, University of MontanaTrine Antonsen, Research Scientist at NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, University of TromsøLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325472020-02-27T14:28:40Z2020-02-27T14:28:40ZRed pandas may be two different species - this raises some tough questions for conservation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317421/original/file-20200226-24651-1or3uxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Volodymyr Goinyk / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Red pandas are not bears but they do mainly eat bamboo, like their much larger namesake the black and white giant panda. Officially classified as <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/714/110023718">endangered</a>, red pandas live across a stretch of the Himalayas and are in fact part of the same family as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1055790300908194">weasels and raccoons</a>. Now, advances in fancy gene sequencing have allowed scientists to analyse their full genetic make up for the first time – with big implications for conservation.</p>
<p>Previously, scientists recognised two different subspecies. Those pandas to the east of the Nujiang River (also known as the Salween River), with wider cheekbones and redder faces, were classified as the Chinese red panda. Those to the west were the Himalayan red panda. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317433/original/file-20200226-24651-56vc87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317433/original/file-20200226-24651-56vc87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317433/original/file-20200226-24651-56vc87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317433/original/file-20200226-24651-56vc87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317433/original/file-20200226-24651-56vc87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317433/original/file-20200226-24651-56vc87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317433/original/file-20200226-24651-56vc87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317433/original/file-20200226-24651-56vc87.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Red pandas are found in Bhutan, China and Tibet, India, Myanmar and Nepal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/714/110023718">IUCN</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this division into has long been debated. The Nujiang River was perhaps a convenient and seemingly obvious geographical feature on which to place a boundary, but pandas on either side didn’t show a clear difference.</p>
<h2>Two species</h2>
<p>A new study published in the journal <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/9/eaax5751">Science Advances</a> by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences places a firm marker in that debate. According to their work, the pandas do indeed fall into two clear genetic clusters, albeit with the likely boundary between the two actually being the Yalu Zangbu River, several hundred kilometres further west. The two clusters are distinct enough for the researchers to conclude they can be classified genetically as two distinct species. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317592/original/file-20200227-24694-syn4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317592/original/file-20200227-24694-syn4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317592/original/file-20200227-24694-syn4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317592/original/file-20200227-24694-syn4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317592/original/file-20200227-24694-syn4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317592/original/file-20200227-24694-syn4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317592/original/file-20200227-24694-syn4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317592/original/file-20200227-24694-syn4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Threats to the red panda include hunting and deforestation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AB Photographie / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cleverly, the scientists also compared the DNA of female-inherited mitochondria (the “batteries” of cells) and the Y chromosome carried by males. This showed that, as in giant pandas, it is the females that disperse throughout their range, not the males. This is different from most mammals in which it is the males that travel around and spread genetic diversity among different populations. As in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03450.x">giant panda</a> this may be due to competition for dens between females and because of male territoriality.</p>
<h2>What this means for red pandas</h2>
<p>Does any of this matter? After all, such classifications may seem irrelevant and nerdy if we need molecular genetics just to distinguish between two otherwise matching fluffy pandas. But, yes, species (and subspecies) do matter.</p>
<p>First, it’s useful for raising awareness. You may have heard of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/6/120625-lonesome-george-tortoise-last-extinct-galapagos-science-animals/">Lonesome George</a> in the Galapagos, the last surviving Pinta Island giant tortoise. He became famous (and attracted serious conservation attention and popular support) precisely because scientists recognised that giant tortoises were different species or subspecies on different islands. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317420/original/file-20200226-24685-1hlv46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317420/original/file-20200226-24685-1hlv46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317420/original/file-20200226-24685-1hlv46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317420/original/file-20200226-24685-1hlv46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317420/original/file-20200226-24685-1hlv46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317420/original/file-20200226-24685-1hlv46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317420/original/file-20200226-24685-1hlv46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317420/original/file-20200226-24685-1hlv46r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lonesome George lived to at least 101 years old.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">discodollydiva / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Molecular genetics knowledge is also crucial to the survival prospects of red pandas. Knowing past patterns of gene flow and that females were largely responsible means conservationists can plan zoo breeding or translocations of individuals in the wild, in line with population genetics.</p>
<p>The researchers identify three distinct populations within the Chinese red panda and suggest they are treated as separate conservation units. For one of the populations, this would need international cooperation between China, Myanmar and India. Identifying this in the genetics of a cute “<a href="https://theconversation.com/science-confirms-that-red-pandas-cuteness-increases-happiness-4000">flagship species</a>” like the red panda is a promising way to get politicians to work together across borders to protect entire ecosystems, with much wider conservation benefits.</p>
<p>There is limited information on red panda population status but overall <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/714/110023718">assessment</a> is of major declines. Distinguishing two species might allow different levels of vulnerability to be highlighted. Importantly, the Himalayan red panda has very low genetic diversity and carries a high level of potentially unhealthy mutations. In theory, this means scientists could carry out a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/threatened-species-science-genetic-rescue-180963040/">genetic rescue</a> by selectively breeding them with Chinese red pandas.</p>
<h2>Controversial questions</h2>
<p>But this is where different concepts of species as separate entities become controversial. The use of genetics to define a species as a cluster sharing uniform genomes – the “phenotypic species” concept – is increasingly common but still <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/494035c.pdf">contested</a>. One option would be to instead default back to the “biological species” concept, which says animals that can interbreed are the same species and distinctions based on appearance or other characteristics form separate subspecies. On that basis, Himalayan and Chinese red pandas – which are able to breed with each other – are the same species.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1230533890403635202"}"></div></p>
<p>This all raises lots of tricky questions: would we be right to genetically isolate the Himalayan red panda for purity, but risk poor genetic health and a greater risk of extinction? Or should we maximise its survival chances with selective aid of Chinese red panda DNA, even if that means conserving a less “pure” Himalayan “species”? Is maintaining a genetic divide between “species” more important than between “subspecies”?</p>
<p>Deciding the two are separate species may also have unforeseen consequences for conservation administration. Well-meaning frameworks for species protection may limit genetic rescue options for the Himalayan red panda or put paperwork barriers in place between wild populations. Given the blurred genetic boundaries and uncertain geographic separation, perhaps dividing animals into species based on genetics is indeed unhelpful.</p>
<p>We should finish with a word of warning. To most people, a “tiger” is a tiger, but scientists recognise <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-tiger-subspecies-revised-2017/">various subtly different subspecies</a>. That recognition has been central to realising the vulnerability of certain populations and targeting conservation efforts towards the critically endangered subspecies like Sumatran or Malayan tigers. Despite that, however, several subspecies have already gone extinct. Reclassifying a subspecies as a species may help conserve it, but it can’t reverse decades of hunting and habitat loss.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-species-the-most-important-concept-in-all-of-biology-is-a-complete-mystery-119200">What is a species? The most important concept in all of biology is a complete mystery</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132547/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Moolna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Should scientists keep both species genetically-separate and ‘pure’, even if that risks extinction?Adam Moolna, Lecturer in Environment and Sustainability, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1318462020-02-17T16:14:36Z2020-02-17T16:14:36ZMeet the insects that are defying the plunge in biodiversity – new findings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315733/original/file-20200217-10976-1qpvl47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=82%2C53%2C3155%2C2575&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A ruddy darter dragonfly perches on a stalk in Coleshill Park, Wiltshire, UK.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ruddy-darter-dragonfly-perched-on-stalk-701737042">Ian_Sherriffs/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2019, there were <a href="https://theconversation.com/top-five-threats-to-uks-wildlife-and-what-to-do-about-them-new-report-124670">44 million fewer breeding birds</a> in the UK than there were in the 1970s. There are thought to be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/02/last-hedgehogs-in-central-london-survived-by-learning-to-avoid-roads">fewer than one million hedgehogs</a>, compared to <a href="https://theconversation.com/disappearing-hedgehogs-show-familiarity-may-be-a-curse-42914">35 million in the 1950s</a>. Two-thirds of British butterflies have also been on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/08/rare-uk-butterflies-enjoy-best-year-since-monitoring-began">a downward trend since the 1970s</a>, adding to a grim picture for biodiversity in the UK.</p>
<p>“Biodiversity” simply means the variety of life on earth. Simply put, rich and diverse ecosystems are essential to the way we live. Take the way our food is grown. Agriculture depends on <a href="https://theconversation.com/bumblebees-in-crisis-insects-inner-lives-reveal-what-the-world-would-lose-if-they-disappear-131519">hundreds of different species to pollinate crops</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/feeding-the-world-archaeology-can-help-us-learn-from-history-to-build-a-sustainable-future-for-food-117601">help with pest control</a>. A diverse range of animals, fungi and microbes decompose organic matter and enrich the soil with different micronutrients, making the food we grow more nutritious. A variety of plants also store carbon in their tissue at different rates and quantities, which is invaluable for slowing climate change.</p>
<p>That’s why <a href="https://theconversation.com/revolutionary-change-needed-to-stop-unprecedented-global-extinction-crisis-116166">huge declines in biodiversity</a> are so worrying, particularly among insects. They may not be dear to many of us, but they <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-to-the-natural-world-if-all-the-insects-disappear-111886">make up a large proportion of all living creatures</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315737/original/file-20200217-11005-t4r2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315737/original/file-20200217-11005-t4r2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315737/original/file-20200217-11005-t4r2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315737/original/file-20200217-11005-t4r2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315737/original/file-20200217-11005-t4r2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315737/original/file-20200217-11005-t4r2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315737/original/file-20200217-11005-t4r2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Eight-legged friends.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/macro-small-wolf-spider-on-rock-1581059563">L Richardson Photography/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>We’re fortunate in the UK to have very good data on the abundance of some species, particularly birds, butterflies and some mammals. This gives researchers a good understanding of trends over time. But what about everything else? There are many more groups of organisms out there that lack such information. To understand how these less well studied species are faring, we decided to use a different measure – distribution, or where a species can be found.</p>
<p>In our latest <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1111-z">study</a>, my colleagues and I investigated how the distribution of over 5,000 of these UK species has changed over the last few decades, to try and get a broader look at how biodiversity is faring in the UK. </p>
<h2>Little surprises</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0269-1">estimates of species distribution</a> came from observations of species collected by volunteers. These estimates cover more than 5,000 UK species of invertebrates, mosses and lichens and extend back to 1970. </p>
<p>We found that the situation with these groups is more complicated than the average trends of well studied species. Essentially, not everything is declining.</p>
<p>We did find a number of groups, including spiders and freshwater molluscs, whose distributions have declined, which means they’re absent from places they could be found 50 years ago. But overall, the average distribution across the 5,000 species increased by about 11%, with some species expanding into new areas.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/top-five-threats-to-uks-wildlife-and-what-to-do-about-them-new-report-124670">Top five threats to UK's wildlife (and what to do about them) – new report</a>
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<p>When we split these species into groups, we found some very interesting differences. Of the four groups that we assessed, only the invertebrates showed an average decline in distribution. This group included spiders, centipedes, millipedes, slugs and snails, and their average distribution has declined by almost 7%, which means they’re found in fewer places than they were in 1970. </p>
<p>The insect group, which contained over 3,000 species and included ants, ground beetles, soldierflies and fungus gnats, increased its average distribution by almost 6%, although there were considerable variations between species. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315722/original/file-20200217-11000-18qtpd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315722/original/file-20200217-11000-18qtpd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315722/original/file-20200217-11000-18qtpd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315722/original/file-20200217-11000-18qtpd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315722/original/file-20200217-11000-18qtpd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315722/original/file-20200217-11000-18qtpd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315722/original/file-20200217-11000-18qtpd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A caddisfly larvae rests in a cocoon made of tiny pebbles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/caddisfly-larvae-under-water-built-home-1239227623">FJAH/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Perhaps the most intriguing findings were from freshwater species. This group initially declined between 1970 and the mid-1990s, but their distribution has bounced back to near 1970 levels in recent years. The freshwater insects include dragonflies, mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies – groups of species that spend most of their lives in freshwater streams and rivers as larvae. All followed the same U-shaped pattern of decline and recovery.</p>
<p>This reversal seems to coincide with the implementation of the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-urbanwaste/index_en.html">Directive</a>, so it’s possible that freshwater insects have benefited from efforts to clean up the UK’s rivers. </p>
<p>There was also an increase over time in the group containing mosses and lichens. <a href="https://theconversation.com/citizen-scientists-have-a-role-to-play-in-our-woods-and-cities-18584">Both are sensitive to air quality</a>, so their partial recovery might be due to reductions in air pollution. These positive findings are very exciting, as they suggest that a downward trend can be reversed if the causes of the decline can be addressed.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315719/original/file-20200217-11005-1jzikid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315719/original/file-20200217-11005-1jzikid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315719/original/file-20200217-11005-1jzikid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315719/original/file-20200217-11005-1jzikid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315719/original/file-20200217-11005-1jzikid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315719/original/file-20200217-11005-1jzikid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315719/original/file-20200217-11005-1jzikid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The prevalence of moss and lichen on outdoor surfaces can reveal a lot about local air quality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/yellow-tree-lichens-xanthoria-parietina-on-408736705">Olpo/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>It’s important to remember that these are changes in distribution and not the number of individuals in a species. It’s possible that the numbers of the species in the groups studied here have fallen over the same period, but we can’t measure this with the kind of data we used. Spotting the patterns and common responses behind changes in distribution can suggest what the drivers might be.</p>
<p>This research wouldn’t have been possible without all the volunteers that collect the biological records that underpin this study. The UK has a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bij.12575">long history</a> of biological recording and an interest in natural history that stretches back at least as far at the 19th century. It’s one of a few countries that has national recording schemes that include thousands of people with an interest in observing and collecting data on wildlife. </p>
<p>There are over <a href="https://www.brc.ac.uk/recording-schemes">80 such schemes</a> in the UK, collecting data on everything from insects, birds and mammals to plants and fungi. Without all of this information, we would know almost nothing about the state of the UK’s wildlife. While we may worry about the picture we have, we can take comfort in the fact that there are so many who care enough to give up their time to painstakingly record it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlie Outhwaite is currently funded by a UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant (NE/R010811/1). This work was funded by NERC (NE/L008823/1) and conducted in partnership with the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).</span></em></p>While many surveys show the numbers of wildlife falling, there is good news for some species – including pondskaters and various mosses and lichen.Charlie Outhwaite, Postdoctoral Researcher in Biodiversity Change, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1290632020-01-24T02:37:55Z2020-01-24T02:37:55ZWhat we learn from a fish that can change sex in just 10 days<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310086/original/file-20200114-151862-1ffyikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C93%2C3818%2C2491&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The male bluehead wrasse defends his group of yellow females, one of whom has to step-up and take charge if he leaves.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kevin Bryant</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The bluehead wrasse is a fish that lives in small social groups in coral reefs in the Caribbean. Only the male has a blue head – signalling his social dominance over a harem of yellow-striped females. </p>
<p>If this male is removed from the group, something extraordinary happens: the largest female in the group changes sex to become male. Her behaviour changes within minutes. Within ten days, her ovaries transform into sperm-producing testes. Within 21 days she appears completely male. </p>
<p>But how does the wrasse change sex, and why did evolution select this system? </p>
<p>Also, given that fish share sex-determining genes with mammals, would an understanding of this provide new insight into how sex works in humans and other animals?</p>
<h2>How does the transformation happen?</h2>
<p>The trigger for sex change in the bluehead wrasse and some other species <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29304633">is social</a>. When the male fish is removed, the largest female immediately senses his absence and adopts full male breeding behaviours the same day.</p>
<p>How this social cue translates into molecular action remains a bit of a mystery, but it probably involves stress. High levels of the stress hormone cortisol <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28890443">are associated with</a> temperature-based sex determination in other fish and reptiles. Cortisol probably alters reproductive function by impacting sex hormone levels. </p>
<p>Stress could be the unifying mechanism that channels environmental information into a change in sex.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaaw7006">research</a> traced changes in the activity of all 20,000-odd bluehead wrasse genes during the female to male transformation. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-lives-of-reptiles-could-leave-them-vulnerable-to-climate-change-69567">Sex lives of reptiles could leave them vulnerable to climate change</a>
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<p>Unsurprisingly, we found the gene that produces the female hormone (estrogen) rapidly shuts off, and genes responsible for making male hormones (androgens) are turned on.</p>
<p>Hundreds of other genes required for being female (including genes that make egg components) also progressively shut down, while genes required for maleness (including genes that make sperm components) turn on. </p>
<h2>Epigenetics</h2>
<p>We also noticed changes in the activity of developmentally important genes whose roles in sex determination remain unknown. This included genes known to “epigenetically” regulate the activity of other genes.</p>
<p>Epigenetics refers to regulation “above the gene”. For example, there are many fish and reptile species in which the sex of developing embryos is determined <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28804140">by environmental cues</a>, such as the temperature at which eggs are incubated. The sex is not determined by different genes, but by the environment impacting the activity of these genes. </p>
<p>Similar mechanisms regulate adult sex change in fish, so this may be important in translating the social cue into molecular action.</p>
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<p>Surprisingly, we saw the turn-on of some powerful genes that are active in embryos and stem cells. These genes keep cells in a neutral embryo-like state, from which they can mature (differentiate) into any tissue type. They can also revert differentiated cells to an embryo-like state. </p>
<p>This suggests that transitioning from ovaries to testes in wrasse involves reversing the cell differentiation process – something scientists have argued about for decades. </p>
<h2>What are the advantages?</h2>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-2979.2007.00266.x">Researchers have identified</a> more than 500 fish species that regularly change sex as adults.</p>
<p>Clown fish begin life as males, then change into females, and kobudai do the opposite. Some species, including gobies, can change sex back and forth. The transformation may be triggered by age, size, or social status. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-can-tip-the-gender-balance-but-fish-can-tip-it-back-39053">Climate change can tip the gender balance, but fish can tip it back</a>
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<p>Sex change is an <a href="https://ourblueplanet.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=incredible-sex-changing-fish-from-blue-planet">advantage</a> when an individual’s reproductive value is greater as one sex when it is small, and greater as the other sex when it grows bigger.</p>
<p>If females benefit more than males from being larger (because they can lay more eggs), male-to-female sex change is most advantageous. But if (as for wrasse) males gain more from being large, because they can better defend their breeding territories and mate with many females, female-to-male sex change is optimal.</p>
<p>Sex change might also <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/esoa-tao011320.php">advantage</a> a population recovering from overfishing, which often targets larger fish and leaves the population deficient in one sex. Thus, a mechanism for replacing the missing sex would be an advantage.</p>
<h2>Why can’t humans change sex naturally?</h2>
<p>Male and female wrasse differ in size, colour, behaviour, but especially in their reproductive organs – the ovary and testes. </p>
<p>Sex change in the wrasse involves complete remodelling of the gonad from an ovary producing eggs to a testis producing sperm. </p>
<p>This differs from other fish that routinely change sex when they get big enough. Their gonads contain both male and female tissues, and sex change occurs when one outgrows the other. So, fish employ all sorts of strategies to get the most out of sex.</p>
<p>In contrast, humans and other mammals determine sex via a gene on the male-only Y chromosome. This gene triggers the formation of testes in the embryo, which unleash male hormones and direct male development of the baby.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-you-a-man-or-a-woman-geneticist-jenny-graves-explains-102983">What makes you a man or a woman? Geneticist Jenny Graves explains</a>
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<p>The human sex system is nowhere near as flexible as that of fish or reptiles. There is no evidence any environmental factors influence the sex determination of mammalian embryos, let alone cause sex change in adults. </p>
<p>That said, humans share with all vertebrates (including fish) about 30 genes that control ovary or testis differentiation. Mutation in any of these genes can tilt development toward male or female, resulting in atypical sexual development, but never sex change.</p>
<p>Perhaps an understanding of epigenetic changes in fish sex can offer us valuable insight, as we wrestle with new ideas about human sex and gender.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Graves receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erica Todd has received funding from the Royal Society of New Zealand Rutherford Foundation and the University of Otago for work on sex-changing fish. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Gemmell has received funding from the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund and the University of Otago for work on sex-changing fish.</span></em></p>When a male bluehead wrasse is removed from the group he dominates, the largest female changes sex, rapidly transforming ovaries into sperm-producing testes. Molecular research shows how.Jenny Graves, Distinguished Professor of Genetics, La Trobe UniversityErica Todd, Lecturer, Deakin UniversityNeil Gemmell, Sesquicentennial Distinguished Professor, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.