Constantine Alexander's Journal: December 2016

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December 2016

12/29/2016

Bat calls contain wealth of discernible information

Analyzing some 15,000 bat vocalizations, Tel Aviv University researchers identify speakers, objectives and contexts of bat conversations.

Greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus brachyotis) photographed in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka in daylight while it was moving branch to branch. Photo by Anton Croos (CC 4.0).

Bats, like humans, are extremely social mammals. They enjoy an average lifespan of 20-30 years, settle in large colonies, and rely heavily on social interactions for their survival, using vocalizations -- or calls -- for communication. There is very little known about the purpose and content of these noises.

A new Tel Aviv University study published in Scientific Reports extracts critical information from bat vocalizations to offer a rare, informative look into the world of bat communication. The new research, led by Prof. Yossi Yovel of the Department of Zoology at TAU's Faculty of Life Sciences, delves into the veritable cacophony emitted by bats to identify concrete evidence of a socially sophisticated species that learns communication, rather than being born with a fixed set of communication skills.

"When you enter a bat cave, you hear a lot of 'gibberish,' a cacophony of aggressive bat noise - but is this merely 'shouting' or is there information amid the noise?" said Prof. Yovel. "Previous research presumed that most bat communication was based on screaming and shouting. We wanted to know how much information was actually conveyed -- and we wanted to see if we could, in fact, extract that information."

For the purpose of the research, Mor Taub and Yosef Prat, students in Prof. Yovel's lab, recorded the sounds emitted by 22 Egyptian fruit bats in TAU's "bat cave" over the course of 75 days. The authors then assembled a dataset of approximately 15,000 vocalizations, which represented the full vocal repertoire the bats used during the experiment. By analyzing this dataset, the authors found that the vocalizations contained information about the identity of the bat emitting the call and even about the identity of the bat being addressed by the call. Moreover, while most of this species' vocalizations were emitted during aggressive encounters, by analyzing the spectral composition of the calls, the authors were also able to distinguish their specific aggressive context (such as squabbling over food, sleeping spots or other resources).

"Studying how much information is conveyed in animal communication is important if you're interested in the evolution of human language," said Prof. Yovel. "Specifically, one big unknown in the world of animal communication is their grasp on semanticity -- i.e., when you hear the word 'apple' you immediately imagine a round, red fruit. We found, in our research, that bat calls contain information about the identities of the caller and the addressee, which implies that there is a recognition factor. We were also able to discern the purpose and the context of the conversation, as well as the possible outcome of the 'discussion.'"

Due to the difficulty of cataloguing animal calls, these vocalizations are often grouped into one category in acoustic studies. According to Prof. Yovel, the new findings suggest that delving into animal calls could serve a bigger purpose, shedding light on the evolution of communication altogether.

"We generated a massive amount of data -- dozens of calls over three months," said Prof. Yovel. "We have found that bats fight over sleeping positions, over mating, over food or just for the sake of fighting. To our surprise, we were able to differentiate between all of these contexts in complete darkness, and we are confident bats themselves are able to identify even more information and with greater accuracy -- they are, after all, an extremely social species that live with the same neighbors for dozens of years."

The researchers were even able to identify different intonations indicating the greetings of a "friend" or a "foe."

"The last finding allowed us to predict whether the two would stay together or part, whether the interaction would end well or badly," said Prof. Yovel, who is currently researching different bat accents and the assimilation of bats into different social groups.

Citation: Yosef Prat, Mor Taub, Yossi Yovel; Everyday bat vocalizations contain information about emitter, addressee, context, and behavior; Scientific Reports, 2016; 6: 39419; DOI: 10.1038/srep39419.

Contact: George Hunka
Tel Aviv University

Posted at 02:27 AM in Biodiversity, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/23/2016

Global climate target could net additional six million tons of fish annually

If countries abide by the Paris Agreement global warming target of 1.5 degrees Celsius, potential fish catches could increase by six million metric tons per year, according to a new study published in Science.

The researchers also found that some oceans are more sensitive to changes in temperature and will have substantially larger gains from achieving the Paris Agreement.

"The benefits for vulnerable tropical areas is a strong reason why 1.5 C is an important target to meet," said lead author William Cheung, director of science at the Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program and associate professor at UBC's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.

"Countries in these sensitive regions are highly dependent on fisheries for food and livelihood, but all countries will be impacted as the seafood supply chain is now highly globalized. Everyone would benefit from meeting the Paris Agreement."

The authors compared the Paris Agreement 1.5 C warming scenario to the currently pledged 3.5 C by using computer models to simulate changes in global fisheries and quantify losses or gains. They found that for every degree Celsius decrease in global warming, potential fish catches could increase by more than three metric million tons per year. Previous UBC research shows that today's global fish catch is roughly 109 million metric tons.

"Changes in ocean conditions that affect fish stocks, such as temperature and oxygen concentration, are strongly related to atmospheric warming and carbon emissions," said author Thomas Frölicher, principal investigator at the Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program and senior scientist at ETH Zürich. "For every metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, the maximum catch potential decreases by a significant amount."

Climate change is expected to force fish to migrate towards cooler waters. The amount and species of fish caught in different parts of the world will impact local fishers and make fisheries management more difficult.

The findings suggest that the Indo-Pacific area would see a 40 per cent increase in fisheries catches at 1.5 C warming versus 3.5 C. Meanwhile the Arctic region would have a greater influx of fish under the 3.5 C scenario but would also lose more sea ice and face pressure to expand fisheries.

The authors hope these results will provide further incentives for countries and the private sector to substantially increase their commitments and actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"If one of the largest carbon dioxide emitting countries gets out of the Paris Agreement, the efforts of the others will be clearly reduced," says author Gabriel Reygondeau, Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program senior fellow at UBC. "It's not a question of how much we can benefit from the Paris Agreement, but how much we don't want to lose."

Citation: William W. L. Cheung, Gabriel Reygondeau, Thomas L. Frölicher. Large benefits to marine fisheries of meeting the 1.5 °C global warming target. Science, December 2016; DOI: 10.1126/science.aag2331.

Contact: Lindsay Lafreniere
University of British Columbia

Posted at 06:01 AM in Climate Change, Fisheries, Marine Environment, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/22/2016

Temperature drives biodiversity

The 5,895-m-high Mount Kilimanjaro with its different climate zones is an important research field for ecologists.

The diversity of plants and animals in Earth's arctic regions is moderate. Tropical latitudes in contrast are teeming with different species where new organisms are being discovered all the time.

What is the cause of this uneven distribution? Why are the tropics home to more species than higher latitudes? "This question has intrigued ecologists for some time," says Professor Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter from the University of Würzburg's Biocenter. "Already about ten years ago, the publishers of Science declared this to be one of the 25 most important questions of science to be answered yet."

Several hypotheses circulating

To date, this core question has been subject to controversy. One hypothesis, for instance, is that the primary productivity of a habitat is ultimately decisive for the number of species living there. Simply put: "A larger cake can sustain more species than a small one," explains Würzburg ecologist Dr. Marcell Peters. Another hypothesis assumes that the rate of evolution and speciation depend on temperature. According to this assumption, more species thrive in a warmer climate than in a cold one.

So far, these hypotheses have been examined usually by focusing on selected groups of species: For example, the studies observed only birds, bees, ants or ferns and analysed their diversity in different regions of the world, e.g. in North America, Europe or along elevational gradients in the Alps. "Some studies supported one hypothesis, whereas others backed another assumption," Peters says and states that it is still a long way from establishing a "general rule" which ecologists are aiming for.

Unique study conducted at Mount Kilimanjaro

In the journal "Nature Communications" Peters and the team of the Research Unit "FOR1246" funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) now present a new study which is unique so far and is the synthesis of four years of working: "On Mount Kilimanjaro, one of Earth's largest climatic gradients, we observed so many animal and plant groups in parallel as never before," the researcher says.

Overall, the team examined eight groups of plants and 17 groups of animals, from bees to bats. 38 scientists from Germany, Tanzania and other countries participated in the large-scale study; they were supported by around 50 local drivers, carriers and other assistants. "We had to climb in mountainous areas for several days to reach the highest study sites," Peters says.

The area of study stretched from the savannahs at the foot of the mountain to the habitats at an altitude of 4,550 metres that barely sustain plants. The data across all groups were collected over the same areas and in the same period of time, respectively. "This approach allowed us to not only analyse the biodiversity of each individual group, but also that of whole communities."

Diversity increases with temperature

The study revealed that biodiversity in communities is mainly determined by temperature. The warmer it is, the greater the diversity. "The more groups of animals and plants you investigate in parallel, the greater the significance of temperature for explaining biodiversity, whereas the importance of all other variables decreases accordingly."

The scientists believe that this is strong evidence supporting the assumption that temperature is actually more decisive for distribution patterns of overall biodiversity than productivity or size of habitats.

Citation: Marcell K. Peters, Andreas Hemp, Tim Appelhans, Christina Behler, Alice Classen, Florian Detsch, Andreas Ensslin, Stefan W. Ferger, Sara B. Frederiksen, Friederike Gebert, Michael Haas, Maria Helbig-Bonitz, Claudia Hemp, William J. Kindeketa, Ephraim Mwangomo, Christine Ngereza, Insa Otte, Juliane Röder, Gemma Rutten, David Schellenberger Costa, Joseph Tardanico, Giulia Zancolli, Jürgen Deckert, Connal D. Eardley, Ralph S. Peters, Mark-Oliver Rödel, Matthias Schleuning, Axel Ssymank, Victor Kakengi, Jie Zhang, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, Roland Brandl, Elisabeth K.V. Kalko, Michael Kleyer, Thomas Nauss, Marco Tschapka, Markus Fischer & Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter; Predictors of elevational biodiversity gradients change from single taxa to the multi-taxa community level; Nature Communications 7, Article number: 13736 (22 December 2016); DOI:10.1038/ncomms13736.

Contact: Dr. Marcell Peters
University of Würzburg

Posted at 07:41 AM in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

When the Galápagos Islands developed their unique ecology

The Galápagos Islands are home to a tremendous diversity of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. But why this is, and when it all began, remains something of an open question.

Now scientists may have at least one more piece of the puzzle. According to a new study out today in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the geologic formation of one particular part of the archipelago--the part responsible for the huge biodiversity--formed, approximately 1.6 million years ago.

The lead author of the study is CIRES Fellow Kris Karnauskas, who you might say has a thing for these islands. He's studied them extensively, authoring six peer-reviewed scientific papers with "Galápagos" in the title. But one question in particular kept nagging at him: When did the Galápagos become the Galápagos?

"I asked around and couldn't get a straightforward answer," says Karnauskas, who's also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. "My geology friends said anywhere between half a million to twenty million years ago, depending on what feature we're talking about."

The age of one particular island, or even the whole chain, wasn't quite what Karnauskas was looking for. "I wasn't really interested in when the very first island breached the surface, but when this ecosystem developed," he says. He wanted to put a finger on the geologic event or moment that turned the Galápagos from just another set of ordinary oceanic islands into one of the most biologically diverse spots in the world. "That's not the customary way to ask questions in geology, nor does it lend itself to the usual toolbox."

To start with the basics, the Galápagos sit on the Nazca tectonic plate, off the coast of South America. The plate is slowly moving from west to east (about 4 cm each year), and happens to be traveling over a hotspot, a point at which magma from the Earth's core makes it all the way through the crust, forming volcanic islands. The oldest of the Galápagos islands, now eroded and no longer above water, is millions of years old; the youngest island, farther west, currently sits on top of the hotspot.

Karnauskas and his colleagues hypothesized that the critical event that caused a biological explosion in the Galápagos came about when the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) began colliding with the archipelago. The EUC is a current that, because of the laws of physics--the shape of the Earth and the way it spins--is virtually stuck to the equator. But what happens when something gets in the way?

"That's what occurred with the Galápagos," says Karnauskas. At some point, a large enough island (or possibly a cluster of them) rose high enough from the seafloor to block the current. Today, it's the island of Isabela that serves that role. "It's a pure accident of geography that Isla Isabela is so large and stands right on the equator, right where the EUC is trying to pass through. This is enough to drive cold, nutrient-rich water up to the surface where it can fuel marine productivity. We can easily see it today from space; the water is very cold and productive just west of the Galápagos along the shores of Isabela. It's no surprise that you'll find all the penguins jumping in the water there."

Finding out exactly when the Galápagos blocked the EUC required help from some the paleoceanography community. Karnauskas and his colleagues used previously collected data from sediment cores--deep samples of the sea floor--that had been pulled up from sample sites near the Galápagos Islands and South America. The data files, which are hosted by NOAA Boulder's National Centers for Environmental Information, provided information on changes in sea surface temperatures over millions of years.

Low and behold, approximately 1.6 million years ago, they saw shifts in the chemical composition of the fossil bugs in the sediment suggesting a significant change in those temperatures. Cold water that had once been upwelling off the coast of South America was suddenly upwelling along the western shores of the Galápagos instead. That sounded familiar to Karnauskas and coauthors; they knew from their own model experiments conducted over the past decade that this was the fingerprint of the Galápagos blocking the EUC. Coauthor Eric Mittelstaedt, Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Idaho, then developed a new computer model of the archipelago's geologic evolution; by combining that model with Karnauskas' ocean circulation model, the team was able to independently corroborate the timing.

At that moment in time (geologically speaking, of course), the Galápagos ecosystem was forever changed. Since the EUC could no longer keep going straight toward the mainland, some of it rushed upward, carrying with it those cold, nutrient-rich waters to the surface, and creating conditions in which the fish, plants and penguins that now call the island chain home could thrive.

"Typically, we use known geologic constraints to help explain past changes in the environment such as ocean circulation," says Karnauskas. "In this case, we flipped the problem on it's head, combined models that aren't normally combined, and discovered a new constraint for piecing together the bigger picture of the evolution of, and on, the islands over time. It contributes a unique data point not only for geology but also for ecology and biogeography--where and when life is distributed."

Citation: Kristopher B. Karnauskas, Eric Mittelstaedt, Raghu Murtugudde. Paleoceanography of the eastern equatorial Pacific over the past 4 million years and the geologic origins of modern Galápagos upwelling. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2017; 460: 22 DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2016.12.005.

Contact: Kris Karnauskas
University of Colorado at Boulder

Posted at 07:15 AM in Biodiversity, Environment, Marine Environment, Protected Areas, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/21/2016

Exciting new forms of life discovered on ocean floor

A group of hairy-chested 'Hoff' crabs. Credit: University of Southampton.

Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered six new animal species in undersea hot springs 2.8 kilometres deep in the southwest Indian Ocean.

The unique marine life was discovered around hydrothermal vents at a place called Longqi ('Dragon's Breath'), 2000 kilometres southeast of Madagascar and is described in the journal Scientific Reports.

A research team, led by Dr Jon Copley, explored an area the size of a football stadium on the ocean floor, pinpointing the locations of more than a dozen mineral spires known as 'vent chimneys'. These spires, many of which rise more than two storeys above the seabed, are rich in copper and gold that is now attracting interest for future seafloor mining. However, the spires are also festooned with deep-sea animals, nourished by hot fluids gushing out of the vent chimneys.

The team, which includes colleagues at the Natural History Museum in London and Newcastle University, carried out genetic comparisons with other species and populations elsewhere to show that several species at Longqi are not yet recorded from anywhere else in the world's oceans.

The expedition, which took place in November 2011, provides a record of what lives on the ocean floor in the area, which is licensed for mineral exploration by the International Seabed Authority of the United Nations, before any mining surveys are carried out.

The Longqi vents are the first known in the region and the expedition was the first to explore them using a deep-diving remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

New species of gastropod snail Phymorhynchus n. sp. Credit: David Shale.

The deep-sea animals that are so far only known from Longqi include: a species of hairy-chested 'Hoff' crab, closely related to 'Hoff' crabs at Antarctic vents; two species of snail and a species of limpet; a species of scaleworm; and another species of deep-sea worm. Apart from one species of snail, which has been given the scientific name Gigantopelta aegis, most have not yet been formally described.

"We can be certain that the new species we've found also live elsewhere in the southwest Indian Ocean, as they will have migrated here from other sites, but at the moment no-one really knows where, or how well-connected their populations are with those at Longqi," said Dr Copley. "Our results highlight the need to explore other hydrothermal vents in the southwest Indian Ocean and investigate the connectivity of their populations, before any impacts from mineral exploration activities and future deep-sea mining can be assessed."

The scientists also found other species at Longqi that are known at other vents far away in other oceans. Another new species of scaleworm lives at vents on the East Scotia Ridge in the Antarctic, 6,000 kilometres away, while a species of ragworm live at vents in the eastern Pacific, more than 10,000 km away.

"Finding these two species at Longqi shows that some vent animals may be more widely distributed across the oceans than we realised," added Dr Copley.

Citation: J. T. Copley, L. Marsh, A. G. Glover, V. Hühnerbach, V. E. Nye, W. D. K. Reid, C. J. Sweeting, B. D. Wigham, H. Wiklund; Ecology and biogeography of megafauna and macrofauna at the first known deep-sea hydrothermal vents on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge; Scientific Reports, 2016; 6: 39158 DOI: 10.1038/srep39158.

Contact: Becky Attwood
University of Southampton

Posted at 03:12 AM in Biodiversity, Marine Environment, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/15/2016

Fishery bycatch rapidly driving Mexico's vaquita to extinction

Acoustic network documents 34 percent per year decline of critically endangered porpoise.

One of the most sophisticated networks of acoustic detectors ever developed for wildlife science has documented a devastating 34 percent per year decline of Mexico's critically endangered vaquita porpoise, according to a new study published this week in the journal Conservation Biology. A companion paper published in Conservation Letters uses both acoustic and visual surveys to estimate that only about 60 vaquitas remained, as of last year.

"We are witnessing the end of a species, if the illegal fishing continues," said Armando Jaramillo-Legorreta of Mexico's Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) and lead author of the research describing the acoustic array and its findings. "The acoustic array is a powerful new tool that helps us see the tragic direction of this population by listening for the porpoises' voices."

Intense fishing that began in the 1940s for totoaba, a large fish whose swim bladder is highly prized in China, had driven both species onto the endangered list by the 1980s - the totoaba as the fishery's target and the vaquita as an unintended bycatch.

To save the vaquita, the Government of Mexico has set aside half of the small porpoise's range as a no-fishing refuge and implemented a two-year ban on all gill net fishing in the range of the species. The government is compensating local fishers and related industries at a cost of about $74 million. Scientists and government officials hoped that these actions would reverse the decline.

"The science revealing the decline was key to spurring the Government's emergency actions," said Rafael Pacchiano, Mexico's Secretary of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).

Instead, the new acoustic study found that the decline has accelerated along with a resumption of illegal gillnet fishing for totoaba. Totoaba bladders are now worth up to $5,000 per kilogram and can command as much as $100,000 on the black market in China, according to a report released last month by the Environmental Investigations Agency.

"Long-term monitoring like this is usually about as newsworthy as an annual check-up," said Barbara Taylor, a NOAA Fisheries marine mammal biologist and coauthor of the new study. "In this case the monitoring exposed the shocking degree of illegal fishing that is rapidly driving the vaquita toward extinction. The science is showing us the urgency of the situation."

Unfortunately, vaquitas continue to die in totoaba nets despite the valiant efforts by law enforcement agencies, the Mexican Navy, and conservation groups to prevent illegal fishing since the gillnet ban came into effect in April 2015, immediately before the new acoustic and visual studies were launched. Three vaquitas killed in gillnets were recovered during surveillance activities last spring and alarming quantities of totoaba gill nets have been found and removed in recent months. A new abundance estimate using acoustic monitoring that builds on last year's abundance estimate is expected out soon.

"This pioneering research revealed just how sharply vaquitas are declining, and how urgent the situation has become," said Cisco Werner, director of NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Center. "Science may have bought the vaquita some precious time by supporting the extra protections. But we are now on the verge of losing the species altogether."

Citation: Armando Jaramillo-Legorreta, Gustavo Cardenas-Hinojosa, Edwyna Nieto-Garcia, Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, Jay Ver Hoef, Jeffrey Moore, Nicholas Tregenza, Jay Barlow, Tim Gerrodette, Len Thomas, and Barbara Taylor; Passive acoustic monitoring of the decline of Mexico's critically endangered vaquita; Conservation Biology, 2016; DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12789.

Contact: Michael Milstein
NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region

Posted at 08:31 AM in Biodiversity, Marine Environment, Science, Whale & Dolphin News from Around the Globe | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/10/2016

High lead exposure for griffon vultures in Spain correlates with soil lead and ammunition from game hunting

Griffon vulture, Spain. Photo by Ted van den Bergh (CC 2.0)

By Science for Environment Policy

Maps of the risk of griffon vultures’ exposure to lead in north-eastern Spain have been produced in a new study. High-risk places are mountainous areas where there are high levels of bioavailable sources of lead in the soil, but also where game hunting is prevalent, and carcasses scavenged by the birds may contain lead ammunition.

Lead is a highly poisonous metal that at high exposure levels is fatal to people and wildlife and even at lower exposure levels can cause adverse health effects. For some wildlife populations, such as scavenging raptors, (birds of prey, such as vultures), lead ammunition in the carcasses of shot animals they eat is a major cause of lead poisoning.

In the European Union (EU), there is no harmonised legislation on lead in shot; different countries have different regulations governing the use of lead ammunition for hunting. For example, Denmark and the Netherlands have banned the use of lead shot for all hunting, and the use of lead ammunition is partly or fully banned in wetlands in 14 Member States. The European Commission has requested that the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) assesses the risk of lead in ammunition to human health and the environment, along with the need for EU-wide action beyond any national measures already in place. They have also requested that the ECHA starts to collect information for the assessment of the risk and the socio-economic impact for any other uses of lead ammunition, including hunting in terrains other than wetlands, and target shooting, with a view to preparing, if necessary, another Annex XV dossier for restriction under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) legislation¹.

This study investigated the exposure to lead of griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) in north-eastern Spain. The study area covers almost 50 000 km² and around 21% of the Spanish and 15% of the European griffon vulture populations are found there. The area is characterised by intensive pig, poultry and rabbit farming in the plains, and cattle, goat and sheep farming and big-game hunting in the Pyrenees in the north and Iberian mountains in the south and west.

The threat from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as mad cow disease, has meant that farmers have to remove dead animals from their land that might otherwise have been eaten by the vultures. Conservation concerns for the birds resulted in the authorities setting up 50 feeding stations, which are commonly provided with dead livestock from the area.

To determine the vultures’ exposure to lead, the researchers measured lead concentrations in blood samples taken from 691 vultures, captured year-round at 25 feeding stations during the period 2008–2012. They considered the background concentration of lead in the blood from environmental sources — 200 nanograms of lead per millilitre of blood (ng/ml), according to literature. The researchers also measured the birds’ wing spans and weighed the birds.

The researchers found 310 (almost 45%) of the birds had levels of lead in the blood above the 200 ng/ml background level, 29 (less than 5%) of the vultures had clinically high blood-lead concentrations in the 500–1 000 ng/ml range and 10 (approximately 1.5%) of the vultures were exposed to potentially lethal lead concentrations greater than 1 000 ng/ml.

To trace the source of lead exposure, the researchers also analysed the composition of lead isotopes (different forms of lead atoms that vary in atomic mass) in the blood of 40 vultures. This analysis found that the signature of lead in the blood of birds with blood-lead levels more than 470 ng/ml was similar to the signature of lead found in lead ammunition sourced from different parts of the world.

Isotopic analysis also revealed that griffon vultures with blood-lead levels more than 470 ng/ml had isotope signatures that were consistent with lead from soil sources. Lead is more readily bioavailable in soils with high lead levels or with a low soil pH. Vultures might consume lead from the soil through lead in the grazing livestock they scavenge.

Using their results, the researchers modelled blood-lead concentrations for griffon vulture populations across the region and produced maps to illustrate the risks of lead exposure for the birds. These maps revealed that the highest risk of lead exposure above the 200 ng/ml threshold was in almost 18% of the region and concentrated in the north and central south-west mountain regions. These are the areas that have extensive game hunting. That these high-risk areas also contain soils that have naturally high lead levels and low soil pH is concerning, as point sources of lead from ammunition may add to the burden of lead in griffon vultures.

In contrast, the maps revealed that the plain areas where poultry, rabbits and pigs are intensively farmed had the lowest risk of lead exposure for the griffon vultures. The maps also highlighted that the highest risks occurred in winter, covering almost 44% of the area, where game hunting is particularly prevalent in autumn and winter months.

Griffon vultures are widely distributed apex species. They cover large distances when looking for carrion and eat carcasses, including those from hunting, which other species, such as the threatened Spanish imperial eagle Aquila adalberti, also eat. All these characteristics make griffon vultures useful as biomonitors of lead in the environment. Given their food is subsidised by livestock at feeding stations and hunting carcasses in the field, the researchers say they are particularly suited to identify potential risks to people who eat game meat.

The researchers say their maps can help managers to target high-risk areas and take suitable action, such as controlling the use of lead ammunition in these places to minimise exposure of wildlife and people to lead. The researchers further recommend that the presence of lead should be minimised (e.g. in hunting ammunition, mines, etc.) even in those areas where feeding stations have been established to conserve avian scavengers through the provision of alternative and safe food resources.

This study could be useful in the assessment of risks of lead in ammunition to human health and the environment, particularly in light of the ongoing assessment of the ECHA concerning possible REACH restrictions.

Request to the European Chemicals Agency to prepare restriction proposals conforming to the requirements of Annex XV to REACH

Citation: Mateo-Tomás, P., Olea, P.P., Jiménez-Moreno, M., Camarero, P.R., Sánchez-Barbudo, I.S., Rodríguez Martín-Doimeadios, R.C. & Mateo, R. (2016). Mapping the spatio-temporal risk of lead exposure in apex species for more effective mitigation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 283: 20160662. DOI:10.1098/rspb.2016.0662.

Posted at 06:21 AM in Avian, Environmental Disasters, Protected Areas, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/03/2016

Indigenous seafood consumption 15 times higher per capita than national averages

Mothers and children handlining for fish in the evening in Kavieng, Papua New Guinea. Credit: Colette Wabnitz.

Coastal Indigenous people eat, on average, 15 times more seafood per person than non-Indigenous people in the same country, finds a Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program study published today in PLOS ONE. This highlights the need to consider food sovereignty and cultural identity as part of fisheries policy and Indigenous human rights.

"Having access to a global database that quantifies fish consumption specifically by Coastal Indigenous peoples is a critical contribution to Indigenous struggle on a number of fronts," says Sherry Pictou, former Chief of L's?tkuk (Bear River First Nation) and member of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples Coordinating Committee. "Most significantly, the generation of information about the consumption of fish as food marks the critical issue of Indigenous food sovereignty."

The first global-scale analysis of its kind, the authors estimate that coastal Indigenous people consume 74 kg of seafood per capita, whereas the global average is 19 kg. The communities studied include recognized Indigenous groups, self-identified minority groups, and Small Island Developing States. These groups all share similar histories of marginalization and deep social and cultural connections to marine environments.

"The importance of the ocean for coastal Indigenous peoples goes way beyond seafood consumption, even though it's often the main part of their diets," says co-author Yoshitaka Ota, Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program Director of Policy. "For a lot of these communities, the practice of fishing forms a link to their culture that defines them as a people. It's not just about eating fish, it's about maintaining an identity as a distinct culture."

The authors collected observed data and worked with local researchers to build a database of more than 1900 communities who altogether consume 2.1 million metric tonnes of seafood per year.

"This is the first time that Indigenous issues have been viewed in this global light in a quantitative way. If Indigenous people are not nationally recognized, they do not exist at the state level," says lead author Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor, Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program Manager and Research Associate. "A global database shows the scale and the significance, which is extremely important to amplify their voices. It puts the people on the map."

The study highlights:

Authors developed a global database of over 1900 Indigenous communities and estimated seafood consumption at 2.1 million metric tonnes per year or 2% of global catch.
Coastal Indigenous people consume 74 kg of seafood per capita, whereas the global average is 19 kg. Within country populations, Indigenous consumption was on average 15 times more than non-Indigenous.

The ocean provides a vital source of food and economic security for these communities, while also shaping their cultural heritage and spiritual values for millennia. The study's estimates are the base requirements for seafood, as only consumption was included and not employment and economic needs. Due to this reliance on ocean resources, climate and ecosystem changes are increasing the vulnerability of coastal Indigenous peoples.

The authors urge that not only must fish and ecosystems be protected, but also those lives and culture that depend on the ocean.

"Our goal is to provide data and analytical skills but support the community-level initiatives. We looked at this from a global perspective but we don't advocate for top-down solutions," says Cisneros-Montemayor. "Solutions have to come from the communities, they can lean on international laws and policy, but it has to be in a way that is appropriate to their needs and their context."

Citation: Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor et al.; A global estimate of seafood consumption by coastal Indigenous peoples; PLOS ONE (2016); DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166681.

Contact: Lindsay Lafreniere
Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program

The Nereus Program, a collaboration between the Nippon Foundation and the University of British Columbia Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, has engaged in innovative, interdisciplinary ocean research since its inception in 2011. The program is currently a global partnership of six leading marine science institutes with the aim of undertaking research that advances our comprehensive understandings of the global ocean systems across the natural and social sciences, from oceanography and marine ecology to fisheries economics and impacts on coastal communities.

Posted at 05:15 AM in Fisheries, Marine Environment, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

New forecast tool helps ships avoid blue whale hotspots

Satellite tracking informs maps of blue whale density off West Coast.

A blue whale surfaces near shipping traffic off the California Coast. A new forecast system will help identify blue whale hotspots to help ships avoid them. Credit: John Calambokidis, Cascadia Research Collective

Scientists have long used satellite tags to track blue whales along the West Coast, learning how the largest animals on the planet find enough small krill to feed on to support their enormous size.

Now researchers from NOAA Fisheries, Oregon State University and the University of Maryland have combined that trove of tracking data with satellite observations of ocean conditions to develop the first system for predicting locations of blue whales off the West Coast. The system, called WhaleWatch, produces monthly maps of blue whale "hotspots" to alert ships where there may be an increased risk of encountering these endangered whales.

NOAA Fisheries has begun publicly posting the maps on its West Coast Region website each month. A new scientific paper published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology describes the development of the WhaleWatch system and the methodology behind it.

"We're using the many years of tag data to let the whales tell us where they go, and under what conditions," said Elliott Hazen, a research ecologist at NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center and lead author of the new paper. "If we know what drives their hotspots we can more clearly assess different management options to reduce risk to the whales."

Helen Bailey, the WhaleWatch project leader at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and coauthor of the paper, described WhaleWatch as an innovative combination of satellite technology and computer modeling that will help protect whales by providing timely information to the shipping industry. NASA helped fund the project, which draws on ocean observations from NASA and NOAA satellites.

"This is the first time that we've been able to predict whale densities on a year-round basis in near-real time," said Bailey, who specializes in studying the movements of marine mammals and hopes the same approach will be used for other species of whales. "We hope it's going to protect the whales by helping inform the shipping industry."

Blue whales are listed as an endangered species, although their population has increased in recent years. Earlier research has found that shipping lanes to and from Los Angeles and San Francisco overlap with important blue whale foraging hotspots, putting whales at risk of fatal ship strikes.

Studies have found that ships off the West Coast strike an average of about two blue whales a year, although some ship strikes probably go unnoticed.

"No ship captain or shipping company wants to strike a whale," said Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which tracks ship traffic into and out of Southern California ports. "If we can provide good scientific information about the areas that should be avoided, areas the whales are using, I think the industry is going to take that very seriously and put it to use."

NOAA Fisheries has developed a California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment to examine how environmental conditions affect marine resources including whales and other marine mammals. Hazen said WhaleWatch could help evaluate different management strategies to tell whether they are effective in reducing risk to whales.

"This is where science meets management," he said. "Now we have the tools for scientists to predict outcomes of different decisions or choices." As the scientists note in the new paper, the WhaleWatch model "provides a critical step towards developing seasonal and dynamic management approaches to help reduce the risk of ship strikes for blue whales in the California Current."

Maps produced by the model may also prove useful to fishermen who want to reduce the risk of whales becoming entangled in lines attached to crab traps or other gear.

The strength of WhaleWatch is more than a decade of tracking data collected by Bruce Mate of Oregon State University and his team for more than 100 blue whales from 1994 to 2008. Hazen used computer models to look for relationships between the movements of the whales and environmental factors such as ocean temperature, chlorophyll concentrations and other factors.

"Nobody has ever had a database like this for any whale anywhere in the world," Mate said. "These aren't guesstimates of how whales may respond to certain conditions, but actual data on how they did respond, which improves the accuracy of the predictions."

Citation: Hazen, E. L., Palacios, D. M., Forney, K. A., Howell, E. A., Becker, E., Hoover, A. L., Irvine, L., DeAngelis, M., Bograd, S. J., Mate, B. R. and Bailey, H. (2016); WhaleWatch: a dynamic management tool for predicting blue whale density in the California Current; Journal of Applied Ecology; DOI:10.1111/1365-2664.12820.

Funding for the research was provided by NASA, U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Smithsonian Institution Climate and Response Program and by NOAA's Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Program. The tagging of whales was funded through Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute.

Contact: Michael Milstein
NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region