Almost a third of tropical Africa's flora faces extinction

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 21, 2019 / comment : 0 Africa, Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Natural Heritage

31.7% of tropical Africa’s vascular plant species could be threatened with extinction, reveals an international study coordinated by an IRD researcher, published in the journal Science Advances. Using a new approach based on the key elements of the assessment process used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), for the first time researchers have been able to assess the potential conservation status of tropical flora on the scale of a continent.

Mountains of the eastern arch of Tanzania. The flora of this region is threatened with extinction [Credit: IRD - Thomas Couvreur]

Given the anthropological and climate threats facing nature, the conservation of tropical biodiversity is a major challenge. To encourage the implementation of better biodiversity management practices, countries and international agreements on biodiversity refer to the assessments of species "at risk of extinction" performed by the IUCN as part of a standardised procedure (See Red List of Threatened Species). This approach remains the most comprehensive and objective means of identifying species in need of protection.

However, while the conservation status of the majority of vertebrate species has been assessed, the same cannot be said for plants, although they are critical to earth ecosystems. This is especially true in tropical regions where the flora is very diverse but remains poorly documented.

In this study, the researchers developed a new fast and automatic approach based on key elements of the conservation assessment process used by the IUCN. Their objective was to provide relevant information on the conservation status of a large number of plant species at broad scales, in the form of Preliminary Automated Conservation Assessments (PACA).

The researchers therefore applied this methodology to the RAINBIO database, which contains over 600,000 georeferenced occurrences of plants in tropical Africa across more than 20,000 vascular plant species.

Infographic of the main results [Credit: Thomas L.P. Couvreur]

After classifying these species into six categories - which include species that are "probably or potentially threatened", those that are "potentially rare" and those that are "potentially not threatened" - they reveal that almost a third (31.7%) of the 22,036 vascular plant species studied are potentially threatened with extinction, and an additional 33.2% are potentially rare (they could be threatened in the near future).

After determining the most endangered species, the researchers identified four regions in Africa that are particularly exposed: Ethiopia, central Tanzania, the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the West African tropical rainforests.

They highlight the advantages of this approach, based on the preliminary automated conservation assessments, in terms of cost reduction, time saving and the potential to carry out large-scale assessments. "This study is the first large-scale assessment of the potential conservation status of the tropical African flora, explicitly using the IUCN's methodology", explains botanist Thomas Couvreur from the IRD who coordinated the study.

"These assessments could provide crucial information for improving biodiversity management and promoting sustainable economic development in Africa. They are, however, not intended to replace the comprehensive assessments carried out by the IUCN which lead to official statuses. The two approaches are complementary, and a significant international effort is still needed to assess all plant species in Africa", he urges.

"These results were possible because the partners involved agreed to share their data", says Bonaventure Sonke, Professor at the Laboratory of Systematic Botany and Ecology of the Ecole Normale Superieure (University Yaounde 1, Cameroon). "This is a strong signal to encourage researchers to share their data, in order to obtain results on a larger scale".

Source: Institut de recherche pour le developpement [November 21, 2019]

Scientists find no evidence for 'insect Armageddon' but there's still cause for concern

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 11, 2019 / comment : 0 Endangered Species, Environment, Natural Heritage, UK, Wildlife

Researchers who set out to test the widespread theory that the UK is experiencing an alarming plunge in insect numbers have found no evidence For "insect Armageddon."

The large emerald (Geometra papilionaria). These moths feed on birch trees, which are very sensitive to dry conditions and drought [Credit: Dr Callum Macgregor]

Instead, the researchers from the University of York found peaks and troughs in moth populations over a period of 50 years. They suggest changing weather patterns and climate change could be an explanation.

The study tracked the amount of moths—which the researchers measured by estimating the combined weight, or "biomass" of all moths in a given area—between 1967 and 2017. The findings reveal there is around twice the combined weight of moths in the present day compared with the 1960s.

While there has been a gradual decline in the amount of moths at a rate of around 10 percent per decade since the early 1980s, this came after a steep increase between the late 1960s and 1982.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Callum Macgregor, from the Department of Biology, said: "Moths are a good indicator of what may also be happening in other insect populations as they are the second most diverse group of insect herbivores, with a full range of species from extreme habitat generalists to extreme specialists.

"Our study does not support the narrative that insects are vanishing en masse before our eyes, because there has been a net increase in biomass over the last 50 years. However, the clear decline we observed since the 1980s is still a cause for concern.

"Moths come in all shapes and sizes, so measuring their combined weight allowed us to analyze changes in their populations that are relevant to their predators and food plants."

Co-author Professor Chris Thomas, from the Department of Biology at the University of York, added: "Biomass is particularly important because it is linked to ecosystem processes, such as the total amount of plant material consumed by insects and food availability for other animals that eat insects.

"Moths provide pollination nocturnally to a wide range of plants, and they provide food for birds, bats and small mammals. Their survival is crucially important to the rest of life on earth."

Better data

The authors investigated the possible reasons behind the fluctuations in insect populations, and why the results of the study might differ from the conclusions of previous research.

Elephant hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor)has declined by 11% over the last 50 years, according to Rothamsted Insect Survey data [Credit: Dr Callum Macgregor]

According to the researchers, the use of better and longer-term data may be part of the answer: To put "Insectageddon' to the test, they analyzed data from "perhaps the best insect population database available anywhere in the world"—the Rothamsted Insect Survey's national network of light-traps.

The data allowed them to estimate the weight of moths caught each year at 34 different sites around the UK between 1967 and 2017. Co-author Dr. James Bell from the Rothamsted Insect Survey explained: "Since 1964, the Rothamsted Insect Survey has been at the forefront of the insect declines research, exploiting the longest standardized terrestrial insect time series in the world.

"Even though we have reported on population change in aphids, moths, ladybirds, wasps and general insect biomasses for decades, this study represents a major advance in our understanding."

Driving force

Two of the most commonly suggested causes of "Insectageddon' are agricultural intensification and, for night-flying insects like moths, light pollution. However, the researchers found no evidence that agricultural practices or urban light pollution are the main driving force behind this recent decline.

The researchers categorized the moth trap sites into four land use types: woodland, grassland, arable and urban, and found that land use type (as well as changes over time in land use) had little impact on the pattern of increase and decline.

Dr. Macgregor commented: "If pesticides were causing the problem you would expect to see the biggest decline in arable landscapes; likewise, if it was light pollution, the biggest decline would be in urban environments. We found neither of these to be the case—in fact, the habitats with the biggest decline were woodland and grassland."

Extreme weather events

Changing weather patterns and climate change could be an explanation, the researchers say. Sharp increases in the amount of moths in the late 1970s came soon after one of the hottest, driest years on record. Disturbance from extreme weather events can sometimes cause equally extreme and unpredictable population changes in insects, including both increases and declines.

Peppered moth biston betularia has declined by 81% over the last 50 years, according to Rothamsted Insect Survey data [Credit: Callum Macgregor]

Whether climate is contributing to the more recent decline requires further investigation; rising average annual temperatures and rainfall patterns did not match up with the peaks and troughs in moth populations, but extreme weather events—from deluge and flooding to heatwaves and drought—are often not reflected in average climate records.

The post-1982 decline appears to be real, but the researchers concluded that the reasons for this ecological decline are not as straightforward as is sometimes suggested.

"There is no simple explanation and more research on long-term data sets is required" added Professor Thomas. "We found that short-term studies and infrequent sampling can give erroneous estimates of biomass change. The complexity of insect population change requires more, better and longer-running data if we are to draw robust conclusions, particularly for parts of the world where insect data are limited."

The study is published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Author: Shelley Hughes | Source: University of York [November 11, 2019]

Miniature fanged 'deer' rediscovered tiptoeing through Vietnam's coastal forests

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 11, 2019 / comment : 0 Endangered Species, Natural Heritage, Vietnam, Wildlife

Global Wildlife Conservation and partners Southern Institute of Ecology and Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research have rediscovered a species lost to science since 1990 called a silver-backed chevrotain -- a deer-like species that is the size of a rabbit, has a silver sheen, and has been hanging on in a region of Vietnam ravaged by poaching by snares. The silver-backed chevrotain, also called the Vietnamese mouse deer, was last recorded more than 25 years ago and is the first mammal rediscovered on GWC's top 25 most wanted lost species in the Search for Lost Species.

This is a camera trap image in Vietnam [Credit: Southern Institute of Ecology/Global Wildlife Conservation/ Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research/NCNP]

The rediscovery in southern Vietnam was published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution and is spurring on efforts to protect the chevrotain and the other mysterious and extraordinary wildlife that shares its home in Vietnam.

"We had no idea what to expect, so I was surprised and overjoyed when we checked the camera traps and saw photographs of a mouse deer with silver flanks," said An Nguyen, associate conservation scientist for GWC and expedition team leader. Nguyen is also field coordinator and PhD student with the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. "For so long, this species has seemingly only existed as part of our imagination. Discovering that it is, indeed, still out there, is the first step in ensuring we don't lose it again, and we're moving quickly now to figure out how best to protect it."

The silver-backed chevrotain was described in 1910 from four individuals collected from southern Vietnam. A Russian expedition in 1990 in central Vietnam collected a fifth individual. Scientists know almost nothing about general ecology or conservation status of this species, making it one of the highest mammal conservation priorities in the Greater Annamite mountains, one of GWC's focal wildlands.

After several interviews with local villagers and government forest rangers who reported seeing a gray mouse deer -- the colour distinguishing the silver-backed chevrotain from the more common lesser mouse deer -- the field team set three camera traps for five months in an area of southern Vietnam where locals indicated they may have seen the animal. This resulted in 275 photos of the species. The team then set up another 29 cameras in the same area, this time recording 1,881 photographs of the chevrotain over five months.


"The rediscovery of the silver-backed chevrotain provides a big hope for the conservation of biodiversity, especially threatened species, in Vietnam," said Hoang Minh Duc, head of the Southern Institute of Ecology's Department of Zoology. "This also encourages us, together with relevant and international partners, to devote time and effort to further investigate and conserve Vietnam's biodiversity heritage."

There are 10 known species of chevrotains in the world, primarily from Asia. Despite their common English names, chevrotains are neither mice nor deer, but the world's smallest small ungulates (hoofed mammals). They are shy and solitary, appear to walk on the tips of their hooves and have two tiny fangs. Chevrotains typically weigh less than 5 kg.

The silver-backed chevrotain is one of a number of fascinating species that live in the diverse tropical forests of Southeast Asia, where some species have been discovered only in the last few decades. This includes the antelope-like saola (the Asian "unicorn"), which was only discovered in 1992 and that no biologist has seen in the wild. Animals in this area of the world, however, are victims of a devastating hunting technique -- the use of cheap and homemade wire snares. The level of indiscriminate hunting in the region has led to the widespread "empty forest syndrome" across Vietnam, pushing numerous Annamite species to the brink of extinction.

A team is now setting out to determine how large -- and stable -- this population of silver-backed chevrotains is, assess the wider distribution of the species and explore the threats to its survival. As part of the first-ever comprehensive survey on the species, the team began camera trap surveys in October in two additional areas. They will use all of the information that they gather to develop a conservation action plan that strengthens enforcement and protection of the species across its range, building on the increased enforcement already put in place at the site of rediscovery.

"It is an amazing feat to go from complete lack of knowledge of the wildlife of the Greater Annamites 25 years ago to now having this question mark of the silver-backed chevrotain resolved," said Barney Long, GWC senior director of species conservation. "But the work is only beginning with the rediscovery and initial protection measures that have been put in place -- now we need to identify not just a few individuals on camera traps, but one or two sites with sizable populations so that we can actually protect and restore the species."

Source: Forschungsverbund Berlin [November 11, 2019]

Unless warming is slowed, emperor penguins will be marching towards extinction

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 07, 2019 / comment : 0 Antarctic, Climate Change, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Natural Heritage, Wildlife

Emperor penguins are some of the most striking and charismatic animals on Earth, but a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has found that a warming climate may render them extinct by the end of this century. The study, which was part of an international collaboration between scientists, published in the journal Global Change Biology.

The fate of emperor penguins is largely tied to sea ice, making them particulary vulnerable to warming [Credit: Stephanie Jenouvrier, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]

"If global climate keeps warming at the current rate, we expect emperor penguins in Antarctica to experience an 86 percent decline by the year 2100," says Stephanie Jenouvrier, a seabird ecologist at WHOI and lead author on the paper. "At that point, it is very unlikely for them to bounce back."

The fate of the penguins is largely tied to the fate of sea ice, which the animals use as a home base for breeding and molting, she notes. Emperor penguins tend to build their colonies on ice with extremely specific conditions -- it must be locked in to the shoreline of the Antarctic continent, but close enough to open seawater to give the birds access to food for themselves and their young. As climate warms, however, that sea ice will gradually disappear, robbing the birds of their habitat, food sources, and ability to hatch chicks.

Jenouvrier and her team conducted the study by combining two existing computer models. The first, a global climate model created by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), offered projections of where and when sea ice would form under different climate scenarios. The second, a model of the penguin population itself, calculated how colonies might react to changes in that ice habitat.


"We've been developing that penguin model for 10 years," says Jenouvrier. "It can give a very detailed account of how sea ice affects the life cycle of emperor penguins, their reproduction, and their mortality. When we feed the results of the NCAR climate model into it, we can start to see how different global temperature targets may affect the emperor penguin population as a whole."

The researchers ran the model on three different scenarios: a future where global temperature increases by only 1.5 degrees Celsius (the goal set out by the Paris climate accord), one where temperatures increase by 2 degrees Celsius, and one where no action is taken to reduce climate change, causing to a temperature increase of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius.

Under the 1.5 degree scenario, the study found that only 5 percent of sea ice would be lost by 2100, causing a 19 percent drop in the number of penguin colonies. If the planet warms by 2 degrees, however, those numbers increase dramatically: the loss of sea ice nearly triples, and more than a third of existing colonies disappear. The 'business as usual' scenario is even more dire, Jenouvrier adds, with an almost complete loss of the colonies ensured.

"Under that scenario, the penguins will effectively be marching towards extinction over the next century," she says.

Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [November 07, 2019]

The importance of Madagascar's lowland rainforest for lemur conservation

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 06, 2019 / comment : 0 Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Madagascar, Natural Heritage, Wildlife

Throughout their evolutionary history, animals in regions with limited lowland habitat have evolved to adapt to higher elevations. Although lemurs--among the most endangered mammals on earth--are flexible and can persist at intermediate and high elevations in the Madagascar's eastern rainforest, a new Mammal Review study shows that the few remaining patches of lowland rainforest host the highest levels of lemur abundance for several species.

A new study shows that the few remaining patches of lowland rainforest host the highest levels of lemur abundance for several species [Credit: Marco Campera]

The findings suggest that the rapid human encroachment occurring in Madagascar's coastal areas has disproportionately threatened these primates.

"Very few lowland forests remain in Madagascar, and most of them have been poorly studied compared with areas at mid-elevations," said lead author Marco Campera, PhD, of Oxford Brookes University, in the UK. "Our research group found that the few remaining forests at low elevations host the highest abundance of lemurs,"

"It is crucial to promote research and conservation management in the few remaining patches of lowland rainforests to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the lemurs and to ensure the best possible protection of these unique primates," added senior author Giuseppe Donati, PhD, of Oxford Brookes University, in the UK.

Source: Wiley [November 06, 2019]

11,000 scientists declare climate emergency

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 05, 2019 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Natural Heritage

A global team of scientists including Dr Thomas Newsome at the University of Sydney and international colleagues has warned that "untold human suffering" is unavoidable without deep and lasting shifts in human activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and other factors related to climate change.

Credit: Rui Vieira/PA

The declaration is based on scientific analysis of more than 40 years of publicly available data covering a broad range of measures, including energy use, surface temperature, population growth, land clearing, deforestation, polar ice mass, fertility rates, gross domestic product and carbon emissions.

"Scientists have a moral obligation to warn humanity of any great threat," said Dr Newsome from the School of Life and Environment Sciences. "From the data we have, it is clear we are facing a climate emergency."

In a paper published in BioScience, the authors from the University of Sydney, Oregon State University, University of Cape Town and Tufts University, along with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from 153 countries, declare a climate emergency, present data showing trends as benchmarks against which to measure progress and outline six areas of action to mitigate the worst effects of a human-induced climate change.

"Despite 40 years of major global negotiations, we have generally conducted business as usual and are essentially failing to address this crisis," said Professor William Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology in the Oregon State University College of Forestry and co-lead author of the paper. "Climate change has arrived and is accelerating faster than many scientists expected."

Dr Newsome said that measuring global surface temperatures will continue to remain important. However, he said that a "broader set of indicators should be monitored, including human population growth, meat consumption, tree-cover loss, energy consumption, fossil-fuel subsidies and annual economic losses to extreme weather events".

He said the indicators are intended to be useful for the public, policymakers and the business community to track progress over time.

"While things are bad, all is not hopeless. We can take steps to address the climate emergency," Dr Newsome said.

The scientists point to six areas in which humanity should take immediate steps to slow down the effects of a warming planet:

1. Energy. Implement massive conservation practices; replace fossil fuels with clean renewables; leave remaining stocks of fossil fuels in the ground; eliminate subsidies to fossil fuel companies; and impose carbon fees that are high enough to restrain the use of fossil fuels.

2. Short-lived pollutants. Swiftly cut emissions of methane, hydrofluorocarbons, soot and other short-lived climate pollutants. This has the potential to reduce the short-term warming trend by more than 50 percent over the next few decades.

3. Nature. Restrain massive land clearing. Restore and protect ecosystems such as forests, grasslands and mangroves, which would greatly contribute to the sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas.

4. Food. Eat mostly plants and consume fewer animal products. This dietary shift would significantly reduce emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases and free up agricultural lands for growing human food rather than livestock feed. Reducing food waste is also critical - the scientists say at least one-third of all food produced ends up as garbage.

5. Economy. Convert the economy's reliance on carbon fuels to address human dependence on the biosphere. Shift goals away from the growth of gross domestic product and the pursuit of affluence. Curtail the extraction of materials and exploitation of ecosystems to maintain long-term biosphere sustainability.

6. Population. Stabilise global population, which is increasing by more than 200,000 people a day, using approaches that ensure social and economic justice.

The paper states: "Mitigating and adapting to climate change means transforming the ways we govern, manage, eat, and fulfil material and energy requirements.

"We are encouraged by a recent global surge of concern - governments adopting new policies; schoolchildren striking; lawsuits proceeding; and grassroots citizen movements demanding change.

"As scientists, we urge widespread use of the vital signs and hope the graphical indicators will better allow policymakers and the public to understand the magnitude of the crisis, realign priorities and track progress."

The graphs illustrate how climate-change indicators and factors have changed over the past 40 years, since scientists from 50 nations met at the First World Climate Conference in Geneva in 1979.

In the ensuing decades, multiple other global assemblies have agreed that urgent action is necessary, but greenhouse gas emissions are still rapidly rising. Other ominous signs from human activities include sustained increases in per-capita meat production, global tree cover loss and number of airline passengers.

There are also some encouraging signs - including decreases in global birth rates and decelerated forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon and increases in wind and solar power - but even those are tinged with worry.

The decline in birth rates has slowed over the last 20 years, for example, and the pace of Amazon forest loss may be starting to increase again.

"Global surface temperature, ocean heat content, extreme weather and its costs, sea level, ocean acidity and land area are all rising," Professor Ripple said.

"Ice is rapidly disappearing as shown by declining trends in minimum summer Arctic sea ice, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and glacier thickness. All of these rapid changes highlight the urgent need for action."

Source: University of Sydney [November 05, 2019]

To save biodiversity, scientists suggest 'mega-conservation'

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 05, 2019 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Natural Heritage

While the conservation of charismatic creatures like pandas, elephants and snow leopards are important in their own right, there may be no better ecological bang-for-our-buck than a sound, science-based effort to save widespread keystone systems. And the majestic aspens could be a perfect start for such an endeavor.

Hairy Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus villosus) at the famed Pando aspen clone, Fishlake National Forest, Utah, USA [Credit: Paul C. Rogers, Western Aspen Alliance]

That's the conclusion of the researchers behind the first-ever compendium of world aspen communities. In their new publication, the researchers advance the idea of "mega-conservation," where the conservation of widespread, common, species -- like aspen -- may have a strategic advantage over traditional, single-species conservation.

"The significance of aspen is that they support large numbers of dependent species, meaning aspen are truly keystone species," said Paul Rogers, the director of the Western Aspen Alliance at Utah State University and a co-author of the report. "There are six species of aspen that span much of the northern hemisphere and similarities in these aspen ecosystems allow us to employ continental conservation practices with enormous benefits to world biodiversity."

Aspen forests have been directly and indirectly impacted by human actions, including forest management favoring high-value timber trees, domestic and wild herbivore mismanagement, fire suppression, land development and mining, and extended droughts related to climate warming. A vast array of species depend on intact aspen forests; as aspen thrive or decline, so do those species dependent on their status.

Previous research, for example, has demonstrated localized declines in bird species, insects, lichens, and small mammals when aspen forests are denuded. A healthy aspen forest, on the other hand, can support thousands of other species, forming a "protective bubble," of sorts, around many vulnerable or endangered species at once.

Major world aspen species and ranges. Coloured polygons represent range extent and should not be construed  as tree species coverage densities (i.e., species may be very dense or extremely sparse within colored polygons). Aspen in all regions are known to support relatively high biodiversity of plants and animals [Credit: Paul Rogers]

"While we don't advocate choosing one strategy only, we do suggest considering the broader benefits inherent in preserving world biodiversity by using keystone ecosystems, or mega-conservation," said Bradley Pinno (Univ. Alberta, Canada), another co-author of the paper, which uses regional experts to synthesize the best-available aspen science for use by government, commercial, and non-profit research and restoration institutions.

Fourteen leading aspen ecologists from eight countries across North America and Eurasia were assembled to review aspen science, threats, and restoration practices, including an examination of 200 published papers in the field. In all regions, the group found healthy aspen enhance biodiversity, facilitate rapid recolonization in natural and damaged settings like abandoned mines, and provide adaptability in changing environments.

A key take-home message is that shared cross-border science for widespread keystone systems can facilitate effective, global-scale, biodiversity. "Moving forward, we hope to expand our burgeoning Aspen Conservation Consortium will include more national experts and will continually improve the quality of world aspen science and management," Jan Sebesta (Mendel Univ., Czechia) said, "Using aspen forests as a proxy for a mega-conservation approach, we believe that an internationally focused research and conservation management approach may be the most effective way to preserve total species numbers."

Aspen forests aren't the only potential "keystone communities," Rogers suggests. Other potential widespread keystone communities are sage-steppe lands in Europe and North America, vast taiga forests of Eurasia, or Eucalypt forests across Australia.

The study is published in Global Ecology and Conservation.

Source: Utah State University [November 05, 2019]

Scientists examine reasons for plant extinction in different world regions

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 05, 2019 / comment : 0 Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environment, Natural Heritage

Species have been getting extinct on our planet since the beginning of life on it. However, the rate of extinction considerably increased with the rise of human population. The humans affect the biosphere and causes large alterations in it. These changes destroy habitats, cause the biological invasions into ecosystems, and accelerate the extinction of many species. These processes may differ depending on the region and might affect the plant diversity. In this study a team of researchers from Tyumen State University and their foreign colleagues investigated such differences in world biodiversity hotspots (predominantly regions with Mediterranean-type of climate) and coldspots (predominantly Eurasian countries).

One of the endangered trees, palmate adansonia [Credit: Thomas Marent]

"We demonstrated that currently plants are getting extinct 350 times faster than on average along the studied time span, i.e. 300 years. If we continue ignoring the importance of natural ecosystems and their integrity, this can lead to disastrous consequences, and relationships between plants, insects, and other species may be broken," warned Anatoliy Khapugin, a PhD degree Researcher of the Tyumen State University.

On the basis of the obtained data, the research group studied the tendencies, reasons, and dynamics of plant extinction over the past 300 years. Today's extinction rates of many plants appeared to be higher in the biodiversity hotspots worldwide. However, according to the present study, the extinction rates have recently reduced in all regions. The most threatened species were perennial herb plants growing in temperate regions such as dandelion, crowfoot, and others. In unfavorable conditions, parts of their shoots die out, and remnants remain on the ground level.

The main reasons for plant extinction in both groups of regions are agriculture and urbanization. In hotspot regions, one more threat caused plant extinction were biological invasions of plants and animals penetrated to new habitats and often caused harm to local flora and fauna. In biodiversity coldspots, changes in the hydrological regime of habitats (such as new dams that negatively affect the functioning of water bodies) may also cause plant extinctions.

"To counteract the biodiversity loss, new Protected Areas should be created, and special protection regime should be maintained in these territories to predominantly or completely prevent human activity there. In many world regions, including Russia, both national and regional Protected Area Networks prove to be inefficient. They have to be expanded to protect more habitats of threatened plants and animals," stated by Anatoliy Khapugin.

The study is published in Current Biology.

Source: University of Tyumen [November 05, 2019]

Carbon bomb: Study says climate impact from loss of intact tropical forests grossly underreported

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 30, 2019 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Natural Heritage, Rainforests, Wildlife

A new study in the journal Science Advances says that carbon impacts from the loss of intact tropical forests has been grossly underreported.

Road for oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan, Indonesia [Credit: Rainforest Action Network]

The study calculates new figures relating to intact tropical forest lost between 2000-2013 that show a staggering increase of 626 percent in the long-term net carbon impacts through 2050. The revised total equals two years' worth of all global land-use change emissions.

The authors of the study, from WCS, University of Queensland, University of Oxford, Zoological Society of London, World Resources Institute, University of Maryland, and University of Northern British Columbia, found that direct clearance of intact tropical forests resulted in just 3.2 percent of gross carbon emissions from all deforestation across the pan-tropics. However, when they factored in full carbon accounting, which considers forgone carbon removals (carbon sequestration that would occur annually into the future if cleared or degraded forest had remained intact after year 2000), selective logging, edge effects and declines of carbon-dense tree species due to overhunting of seed-dispersing animals, they discovered that the figure skyrocketed by a factor of more than six times.

Said the study's lead author Sean Maxwell of WCS and the University of Queensland: "Our results revealed that continued destruction of intact tropical forests is a ticking time bomb for carbon emissions. There is an urgent need to safeguard these landscapes because they play an indispensable role in stabilizing the climate."

According to 2013 estimates, 549 million acres of intact tropical forests remain. Only 20 percent of tropical forests can be considered "intact," but those areas store some 40 percent of the above-ground carbon found in all tropical forests.

The authors say that intact forest retention rarely attracts funding from schemes designed to avoid land-use and land cover change emissions in developing nations.

Notably, the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) approach enables developing countries to receive financial incentives for enhancing carbon stocks, or avoiding the loss of carbon that would otherwise be emitted due to land-use and land cover change. Among other activities, REDD+ covers support for conservation of forests not under immediate threat, and was formally adopted by parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2008 at the 14th Conference of the Parties in Poland. Since then, however, financial support and implementation has predominantly focused on areas with high historical rates of deforestation (i.e. 'deforestation frontiers'). This is widely believed to deliver more immediate and more clearly demonstrable emission reductions than conserving intact forest areas. The latter tend to be treated as negligible sources of emissions as a result of the short timescales and conservative assumptions under which REDD+ operates - assumptions which the present study suggests are causing key opportunities to be missed.

Said WCS's Tom Evans, a co-author of the study: "The relative value of retaining intact tropical forest areas increases if one takes a longer-term view and considers the likely state of the world's forests by mid-century - a milestone date in the Paris Agreement. Agricultural expansion, logging, infrastructure and fires reduced the global extent of intact forests by 7.2 percent between 2000 and 2013 alone, yet the eventual carbon emissions locked in by these losses have not been comprehensively estimated."

The authors go on to say that a comparable analysis is needed for intact forests outside of the tropics such as the boreal forests of Canada and Russia, given that approximately half to two-thirds of carbon removals on earth's intact ecosystems occur outside the tropics. Without this global clean-up service, CO2 from human activities would accumulate in the atmosphere markedly faster than it does at present.

Said co-author James Watson of WCS and the University of Queensland: "Clearly, the climate mitigation potential of retaining intact forests is significant, but without proactive conservation action by national governments, supported by the global community, this potential will continue to dwindle.

At least 35 percent of the intact forests studied are home to, and protected by, Indigenous Peoples. Intact forests also provide exceptional levels of many other environmental services - for example they protect watersheds much better than degraded forests, return moisture to the air that falls in distant regions as rain, and help to keep vast numbers of species safe from extinction. When compared to forests that have been degraded by large-scale human activities, intact forests are more resistant to shocks such as fire and drought and usually less accessible to logging and agriculture conversion, making them one of our best conservation bets in the face of a rapidly changing climate.

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society [October 30, 2019]

Insect decline in Germany more extensive than suspected

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 30, 2019 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Germany, Natural Heritage, Wildlife

Compared to a decade ago, today the number of insect species on many areas has decreased by about one third. This is the result of a survey of an international research team led by scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The loss of species mainly affects grasslands in the vicinity of intensively farmed land - but also applies to forests and protected areas.

The Small Gold Grasshopper (Chrysochraon dispar) is one of many insect species which have declined [Credit: Martin Fellendorf/Universitat Ulm]

Various studies have already demonstrated that there are far fewer creatures chirping, buzzing, creeping and fluttering in German meadows today than 25 years ago. "Previous studies, however, either focused exclusively on biomass, i.e. the total weight of all insects, or on individual species or species groups. The fact that a large part of all insect groups is actually affected has not been clear so far," says Dr. Sebastian Seibold, a scientist with the Terrestrial Ecology Research Group at TUM.

In a large-scale biodiversity study, an international research team headed by scientists at TUM surveyed a large number of insect groups in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Baden-Wurttemberg between 2008 and 2017. Now the team has published its analysis in the scientific journal Nature.

Insects affected both in grasslands and forests

The researchers collected more than one million insects at 300 sites. They were able to prove that many of the nearly 2700 investigated species are in decline. In recent years, certain rare species could no longer be found in some of the regions studied. Both in forested areas and grasslands, the scientists counted about one third fewer insect species after 10 years.

"Before our survey it was unclear whether and to what extent forests were affected by the insect decline as well," says Seibold. Since 2008 they measured a decrease of approximately 40 percent in insect biomass in the forests they studied. In grasslands the results were even more alarming: at the end of the study period, the insect biomass decreased to only one third of its former level.

"A decline on that scale over a period of just 10 years came as a complete surprise to us - it is frightening, but fits the picture presented in a growing number of studies," says Wolfgang Weisser, professor of Terrestrial Ecology at TUM and a co-initiator of the cooperative project.

Particularly meadows in the vicinity of intensively used agricultural areas suffer from species loss [Credit: Dr. Ulrike Garbe/Landesamt fur Umwelt, Brandenburg]

The decisive factor: the immediate surroundings

Every type of forest and grassland site studied by the team was affected: sheep pastures, meadows that are mowed and fertilized three to four times per year, forestry dominated coniferous forests and even unused forests in protected areas. The researchers identified the biggest losses in grasslands surrounded by intensively farmed land, where the most heavily impacted species were those unable to travel far.

In the forested areas, by contrast, the hardest-hit insect groups were those that cover long distances. "To decide whether it is a matter of the more mobile forest-dwelling species having more contact with agriculture, or whether it has something to do with living conditions in the forests, further study will be needed," said the former TUM researcher Dr. Martin Gossner.

Standalone initiatives have little prospect of success

"Current initiatives to address insect losses are overly concerned with the cultivation of individual plots of land and operate independently of one another for the most part," says Dr. Seibold. "To stop the decline, however, our results indicate that more coordination is needed at the regional and national levels."

Source: Technical University Munich [October 30, 2019]

In Southeast Asia, illegal hunting is a more threat to wildlife than forest degradation

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 30, 2019 / comment : 0 Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Natural Heritage, South East Asia, Wildlife

For decades habitat loss and degradation were considered the important drivers for defaunation in tropical rainforest ecosystems. A new study carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature Vietnam (WWF-Vietnam) and the Sabah Forestry Department of the Government of Malaysia suggests that for ground dwelling mammal and bird communities, illegal hunting using indiscriminate snares may be a more immediate threat than forest degradation through selective logging. The researchers conducted a large scale camera-trapping study to compare several forest areas with logging concessions in Malaysian Borneo and protected areas in the Annamites ecoregion of Vietnam and Laos known to be subjected to illegal hunting. The results, published in the journal Communications Biology, show severe defaunation in snared forests compared to logged forests.

Removing snares in Vietnam [Credit: Andrew Tilker]

While both habitat degradation and unsustainable hunting have long been known to negatively affect animal communities in tropical rainforests, no study had directly compared how these threats compare in their severity in terms of losses of mammal and bird biodiversity at landscape scales. The result was that both logging and hunting negatively affected ground-dwelling mammal and bird communities, and unsustainable hunting had more severe effects on these communities. Overhunted sites in the Annamite Mountains of Vietnam and Laos had a higher proportion of species extirpated than the degraded sites in Borneo. Even species which persisted in the landscape subjected to illegal hunting had smaller distributions than similar species in the logging concessions.

"We had a unique opportunity to investigate the complex mechanisms of these defaunation drivers and compare their relative severities," says Andrew Tilker, doctoral student at the Leibniz-IZW and Asian Species Officer at Global Wildlife Conservation, one of the lead authors of the paper. "Our rainforest study sites in Malaysian Borneo are degraded through logging but have experienced little hunting, whereas our rainforest study sites in the Annamite Mountains are structurally intact but are subjected to extremely high illegal hunting pressure. Because the two study landscapes generally have similar habitats and faunal communities, it was an opportunity for us to investigate to what extent these defaunation drivers differ in their impact on tropical rainforest faunal communities."

Forest degradation through selective logging [Credit: Andrew Tilker]

"These findings are not only interesting from an academic perspective, they also have implications for conservation work", says Dr Jesse F. Abrams, postdoc at the Leibniz-IZW and co-first author. "Our results show that maintaining habitat quality as a means of protecting tropical biodiversity is, by itself, insufficient." The researchers suggest that, whilst both defaunation drivers should be addressed to maintain tropical biodiversity, in some cases it may be more prudent to focus limited conservation resources on addressing overhunting rather than habitat degradation.

Because hunting in the Annamites is primarily accomplished by the setting of indiscriminate wire snares, the findings of the study have implications for other landscapes in Southeast Asia, which currently are facing an ever-increasing snaring "epidemic". In this respect, the levels of defaunation found in the rainforest study sites in the Annamites by the researchers could offer a foreboding glimpse into the future of biodiversity across the wider Southeast Asian biodiversity hotspot. Co-author Ben Rawson, Conservation Director of WWF-Vietnam, says: "Industrial-scale snaring must be addressed if we are to avoid empty rainforests in the region and retain healthy populations of what are now some of the world's rarest species."

The study's findings also have positive implications for conservation. Datuk Mashor Mohd Jaini Director of the Sabah Forestry Department notes, "These results show that logging concessions can be safe havens for mammal and bird communities, particularly if sustainable forest management protocols are applied, following principles of forest certification standards" Dr Andreas Wilting, project leader, agrees. "Incorporating these degraded sites into conservation planning strategies could substantially extend the conservation real estate for the world's tropical regions," he says. "Our study has made it very clear that tropical rainforests must be protected from unsustainable hunting, regardless of whether they are logging concessions or protected areas. We must get ahead of the wave of indiscriminate hunting that is sweeping across Southeast Asia. Only then can we ensure the survival of Southeast Asia's biodiversity heritage".

Source: Forschungsverbund Berlin [October 30, 2019]

Extent of human encroachment into world's protected areas revealed

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 28, 2019 / comment : 0 Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Natural Heritage, Wildlife

A study of human activity within thousands of conservation spaces in over 150 countries suggests that - on average across the world - protected areas are not reducing the "anthropogenic pressure" on our most precious natural habitats.

Forest transition in Cameroon [Credit: Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR]

Protected areas are vital to preserving diverse life on Earth, as well as mitigating climate change by conserving carbon-sequestering vegetation, say Cambridge scientists. They argue that the findings show the effects of chronic underfunding and a lack of involvement of local communities.

"Rapidly establishing new protected areas to meet global targets without providing sufficient investment and resourcing on the ground is unlikely to halt the unfolding extinction crisis," said lead author Dr Jonas Geldmann from the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute.

The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is by far the largest analysis of its kind to date. Scientists used satellite evidence of "night lights" and agriculture, as well as census and crop yield data, to assess levels of human encroachment in 12,315 protected areas between 1995 and 2010.

The scientists matched every satellite 'pixel' (64 square kilometres) of each protected area to a local pixel of commensurate soil type, elevation, and so on - but without conservation status. This allowed researchers to gauge the effect of protected areas when compared to an "appropriate sample" of unprotected land.

The majority of protected areas in every global region had suffered increases in human pressure. However, across the Northern Hemisphere and Australia, protection had - on average - proved effective at slowing human encroachment when compared with unprotected habitats.

In regions such as South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, home to the world's richest biodiversity as well as some of its poorest communities, pressure from damaging human activity inside protected areas was "significantly higher" on average than in matched areas across fifteen years of data.

The researchers found a link between increased human encroachment on protected areas and nations with fewer roads and a lower rank on the Human Development Index.

"Our study suggests that protected areas in more remote and wild parts of the tropics have experienced alarming increases in human pressure since 1995," said Geldmann. "These places house a disproportionately high amount of the Earth's biodiversity, and play an irreplaceable role in maintaining our most threatened species."

Previous studies to compare protected and unprotected land have been limited to forests, and shown that protected areas reduce deforestation. The new research confirms that protected areas are more effective in places like the Amazon, but have struggled to safeguard many other habitats such as savannahs.

Rises in human activity were found to be particularly acute in the protected areas of East and Central Africa. In Sub-Saharan grasslands, for example, cropland inside protected areas had increased at almost double the rate seen in matched unprotected land. In African mangroves, pressure from agriculture had increased by around 13% more inside protected areas than outside.

While in the remote grassland habitats of South East Asia, agriculture had increased by 8% more in protected areas compared to similar non-protected areas. Likewise, some forested areas in South America, particularly outside the Amazon, saw agricultural encroachment increase around 10% more in protected areas.

"Our study shows that agriculture is the driving force behind threats to protected areas, particularity in the tropics," said Geldmann. "Our data does not reveal the causes, but we suspect factors that play a major role include rapid population growth, lack of funding, and higher levels of corruption. Additionally, most unprotected land suitable for agriculture is already farmed."

"We think that what we are seeing are the effects of establishing protected areas on paper, but not following through with the right funding, management and community engagement that is needed," Geldmann said.

"Important ambitions to protect 17% of land by the end of this decade, expected to increase to 30% at a pivotal meeting next year in China, will not mean much if not accompanied by enough resources to ensure the preservation of precious habitats."

The research team argue that protected area designation can sometimes undermine the rights of local communities, which in turn can end up encouraging over-exploitation and paving the way for opportunistic "outsiders". Other studies have shown that supporting indigenous people to manage reserves themselves can reduce habitat loss.

Source: University of Cambridge [October 28, 2019]

An increase in forest fires threatens spruce and fir trees in southeastern Europe

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 23, 2019 / comment : 0 Climate Change, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Natural Heritage, Southern Europe

What our future forests will look like is a burning question not only for fire ecologists. A look back at 12,000 years of forest fire history now reveals: "Climate roughly defines the general trends of fire activity. However, the intensity and frequency of fires also strongly depend on the properties of the predominant vegetation type. While certain species contribute to the occurrence of severe fires, others act more or less as a fire retardant," says Dr. Mirjam Pfeiffer of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Centre, summarizing the results of a recent study.

The study area in the Rila Mountains of southwestern Bulgaria where spruce and whrite fir trees might have a hard time in the future [Credit: Spassimir Tonkov]

The study area is located in the Rila Mountains of southwestern Bulgaria. A sediment core was extracted from a bog at about 2100 m elevation, which documents the wildfire history in this location. The tiny charcoal particles in the sample indicate how often and how intense the fires in the area were during the past 12,000 years. Based on fossil pollen, the scientists were also able to determine which tree species dominated the landscape at various times and which were mostly affected by fire.

The study's lead author, Dr. Angelica Feurdean of the Goethe University, explains, "About 12,000 to 9,000 years ago, the area burned rather frequently; however, the fires usually had a low intensity. This was aided by a climate with hot summers and low levels of precipitation. The fires occurred in an open landscape with birches, alders and pines. These trees are pioneer species that grow back particularly fast after a fire. In addition, pines were able to survive forest fires of low to medium intensity due to their thick bark and their crown structure."

Stereomicroscope image of a charcoal fragment of 1 mm from the sediment core [Credit: Angelica Feurdean]

Rainfall increased and the summers became cooler in the area between 9,000 and 4,000 years ago. The breaks between the individual fire events increased, and weak forest fires occurred in turn with very intense ones. This benefited the trees more sensitive to fire such as spruces and white firs as well the fire-resistant Scots pines, mountain pines and Balkan pines. Birches and other pioneer species began to recede.

Cool and wet summers during the past 4000 years, combined with forest clearing to create pastures, lowered the treeline. With cold climate and less biomass to burn the frequency of fires decreased even more. Today, the fire-resistant pine species dominate the study area, and pioneer species are on the rise. Spruce and white fir have not yet recovered following disturbance by fire and clearing. This forest composition is expected to prevail in the future under increased drought and wildfire risk.

For the authors, the new findings suggest an approach to identify forests best adapted to increasingly frequent fires in the future. Pfeiffer comments, "Spruce monocultures are particularly prone to burning. To meet the challenges of the new fire regime, the replanted forests should contain a mix of fire-resistant species, in order to minimize the risk of extensive wildfires.

The findings are published in the European Journal of Forest Research.

Source: Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum [October 23, 2019]

Humpback whale population on the rise after near miss with extinction

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 21, 2019 / comment : 0 Endangered Species, Natural Heritage, Oceans, Wildlife

A population of humpback whales in the South Atlantic has rebounded from the brink of extinction. Intense pressure from the whaling industry in the 20th century saw the western South Atlantic population of humpbacks diminish to only 450 whales. It is estimated that 25,000 whales were caught over approximately 12 years in the early 1900s.

A population of humpback whales in the South Atlantic has rebounded from near extinction, a new study shows [Credit: iStock.com/Martin Hristov]

Protections were put in place in the 1960s as scientists noticed worldwide that populations were declining. In the mid-1980s, the International Whaling Commission issued a moratorium on all commercial whaling, offering further safeguards for the struggling population.

A new study co-authored by Grant Adams, John Best and Andre Punt from the University of Washington's School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences shows the western South Atlantic humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) population has grown to 25,000. Researchers believe this new estimate is now close to pre-whaling numbers.

"We were surprised to learn that the population was recovering more quickly than past studies had suggested," said Best, a UW doctoral student.

The study follows a previous assessment conducted by the International Whaling Commission between 2006 and 2015. Those findings indicated the population had only recovered to about 30% of its pre-exploitation numbers. Since that assessment was completed, new data has come to light, providing more accurate information on catches—including struck-and-lost rates—and genetics and life-history.

"Accounting for pre-modern whaling and struck-and-lost rates where whales were shot or harpooned but escaped and later died, made us realize the population was more productive than we previously believed," said Adams, a UW doctoral student who helped construct the new model.

By incorporating detailed records from the whaling industry at the outset of commercial exploitation, researchers have a good idea of the size of the original population. Current population estimates are made from a combination of air- and ship-based surveys, along with advanced modeling techniques.

The model built for this study provides scientists with a more comprehensive look at the recovery and current status of the humpback population. The authors anticipate it can be used to determine population recovery in other species in more detail as well.

"We believe that transparency in science is important," said Adams. "The software we wrote for this project is available to the public and anyone can reproduce our findings."

Lead author Alex Zerbini of the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Marine Mammal Laboratory stressed the importance of incorporating complete and accurate information when conducting these assessments, and providing population assessments without biases. These findings come as good news, he said, providing an example of how an endangered species can come back from near extinction.

"Wildlife populations can recover from exploitation if proper management is applied," Zerbini said.

The study also looks at how the revival of South Atlantic humpbacks may have ecosystem-wide impacts. Whales compete with other predators, like penguins and seals, for krill as their primary food source. Krill populations may further be impacted by warming waters due to climate change, compressing their range closer to the poles.

"Long-term monitoring of populations is needed to understand how environmental changes affect animal populations," said Zerbini.

The findings were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Source: University of Washington [October 21, 2019]

Large-scale afforestation of African savannas will destroy valuable ecosystems

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 21, 2019 / comment : 0 Africa, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Natural Heritage, Wildlife

The suggested afforestation of large areas of Africa to mitigate climate change will destroy valuable ecological, agricultural, and tourist areas, while doing little to reduce global CO2 levels. This is the view of 46 scientists from around the world - many of whom are leading scientists in Africa - in a Technical Comment published in the journal Science.

The large-scale afforestation of African savannas will destroy valuable ecosystems and related ecotourism sites [Credit: Wits University/Schalk Mouton]

The Technical Comment is a critique of another recent paper in Science, led by Jean-Francois Bastin and Thomas Crowther of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. These researchers, funded by a Dutch non-profit foundation (DOB Ecology), a tree planting advocacy group (Plant-for-the-Planet), and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, claimed that global tree planting could capture 205 gigatons of carbon, or one-third of the carbon dioxide emitted since the industrial revolution, which totals 660 gigatons.

Using remote sensing and machine learning to estimate the amount of atmospheric carbon that could be sequestered by global tree restoration, the Bastin study highlighted large tracts of land in southern Africa - and the tropics in general - as potential sites for large scale afforestation in efforts to fight against climate change. Because the estimate of 205 gigatons of carbon was so large, in July of 2019, headlines around the world declared tree planting to be the best solution to climate change.

"Firstly, their numbers are wrong," said Professor Sally Archibald, co-author of the critique and ecologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. "It is irresponsible to give people false hope that our global change problems can be fixed in this way. Secondly, the impacts on our natural ecosystems in Africa would be devastating."

The technical commentary, led by Joseph Veldman of Texas A&M University, demonstrates that the Bastin study dramatically overstated the potential for tree planting to mitigate climate change, and that planting trees in the wrong places can destroy ecosystems, increase wildfire intensity, and exacerbate global warming.

"Many of the areas suggested for afforestation are areas where ecologists and land managers are fighting bush encroachment," said Archibald. Higher tree cover in Namibian and Botswanan savannas is considered degradation by the people living there. In the Miombo woodlands in Zambia, Mozambique, and Tanzania wood fuels are used as a renewable energy source by millions of people, and no one has considered what alternative energy sources might be required if these important resources are taken away though global tree planting programs.

"While tree planting can be good in some deforested areas, tree planting in Earth's natural grasslands destroys plant and animal habitat and will not sequester enough carbon to compensate for fossil fuel emissions," says Veldman.

African scientists have highlighted a lack of awareness on the part of the European researchers: "This paper shows that the authors have little knowledge of savanna ecology," says Alfan Rija from the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania. "I am worried that these programs could be used by stronger countries - the G20 - to craft global policies to exploit land and forests of the tropical world."

In their critique, Veldman and his collaborators write that the Swiss research had serious flaws that led to a five-fold overestimate of the potential for new trees to mitigate climate change. Among the problems, the original study assumed that soils in ecosystems without trees contain no carbon, when in fact many ecosystems, such as savannas and peatlands, contain more carbon in soils than in the aboveground vegetation.

The Swiss research also neglected the fact that coniferous forests in boreal and high mountain regions absorb more sunlight and emit more heat than treeless areas, and actually exacerbate rather than mitigate global warming. Finally, tree planting in grasslands and savannas, as proposed by the Swiss researcher team, is damaging to the environment as ancient grasslands and savannas contain immense biodiversity and provide services to humanity, such as livestock forage and groundwater recharge.

The group of scientists' main concern is that a myopic focus on tree planting will retract from the real issue of fighting climate change through reducing CO2 emissions and reduce the capacity of people to adapt to climate change while distracting from efforts to conserve intact ecosystems and reduce fossil fuel consumption.

"It is high time we begin to speak for Africa," says Steven Syampungani from the Copperbelt University in Zambia. He and his colleagues across the region believe that ecological restoration involves working to restore not just forests, but also grasslands, savannas, and shrublands.

Source: University of the Witwatersrand [October 21, 2019]