Explosion of rats, clovers, bedbugs, mosquitoes unintended evolutionary consequence of urbanization.
In “Evolution of Life in Urban Environments,” Munshi-South and Johnson show how the study of urban evolution has been documented in cities all across the globe. In this accompanying map, blue silhouettes represent the approximate regions of origin of species that have adapted to humans since ancient times. Black silhouettes represent locations where urban evolution of species have been studied.
The recent uproar about seats on a British Airways flight crawling with bedbugs is only one of the unintended consequences that urbanization worldwide has on evolution, say Marc Johnson, an associate professor of biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and Jason Munshi-South, who is an associate professor of biological sciences at Fordham University.
"As we build cities, we have little understanding of how they are influencing organisms that live there," says Johnson, who is also director of the University of Toronto's Centre for Urban Environments. "It's good news that some organisms are able to adapt, such as native species that have important ecological functions in the environment. But it can also be bad news that the ability of some of these organisms to adapt to our cities might increase the transmission of disease. Bedbugs, for example, were scarce two decades ago, but they've adapted to the insecticides used to keep them at bay and have exploded in abundance worldwide."
In the first study to take a comprehensive look at the way urbanization is affecting evolution, Johnson and Munshi-South reviewed all existing research studies about urbanization and evolution and synthesized the results.
"Traditionally, we've thought about evolution as a long-term process driven by environmental pressures and the interactions between species. But now there is a new driver that is rapidly changing many other species, which is how they interact with humans and our built environment", says Munshi-South. "Humans and our cities are one of the most dominant forces of contemporary evolution now."
The study raises questions about which native species can persist during urbanization and whether those that adapt will influence the health of ecosystems and human beings. Loss of habitat and urban barriers (roads, buildings, etc.) pose challenges to all kinds of species and some may adapt in undesirable ways. The researchers assessed various means of genetic adaptation, such as mutation, the movement of genes through dispersal, neutral evolution and adaptive evolution through Darwinian natural selection, concluding that the urban environment has an impact on each of these mechanisms of evolution.
Their work touches on mammals, plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects and viruses, identifying evolutionary impacts on species as diverse as the common blackbird in Europe to white clovers and white-footed mice in North America. Populations of white-footed mice in New York City, for example, became differentiated from each other after urbanization, due to their isolation in various parks.
"We've created a novel ecosystem that no organism has ever seen before," said Johnson, noting that their study, published Nov. 3 in the journal, Science, is a "wake-up call for the public, governments and other scientists."
He and Munshi-South suggest that we need to think carefully about how we're altering our environment in unintended ways when we build cities, influencing the evolution of species that may, in turn, influence our lives. A number of organisms, such as rats, urban lizards, cockroaches, pigeons and bedbugs, have evolved to depend on humans.
There are now mosquitoes, for example, that have evolved to live in the London Underground stations and adapted so that they no longer need to feed on blood to produce eggs. They also have no need to become dormant during the winter. Unfortunately, these mosquitoes can carry a number of diseases and are now found in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, too. Our healthcare systems may be required to adapt in response.
Johnson and Munshi-South suggest that when we're planning cities, we need to think about the impact our designs have on native species and whether we can design them to "be kinder to ourselves and the environment," considering ways to conserve native species and mitigate the prevalence of disease-carrying pests.
Given that species are evolving so rapidly in response to urbanization, the outdoors also becomes a classroom that offers an opportunity to see examples of evolution firsthand. Urban evolution can be used as a tool to educate city dwellers and others about the reality and importance of evolutionary biology.
"People who don't believe in evolution need not go further than their backyards to see evidence of it," Johnson said.
U of G researchers have developed a model that allows fisheries to net enough to meet rising consumer demand while ensuring adequate income and replenishment of natural stocks.
There are fewer fish in the sea - literally. Consumer demand and inadequate scientific information has led to overharvesting, reducing fish species and fish stocks around the world. But University of Guelph researchers have identified a possible solution. They have developed a model that allows fisheries to net enough to meet rising consumer demand while ensuring adequate income and replenishment of natural stocks. The research was published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We know fish are getting rarer," said John Fryxell, a U of G integrative biology professor and lead author of the paper.
Many commercial fisheries are threatened by overharvesting. For example, the collapse of once-abundant cod stocks in the North Atlantic led to a federal fishing moratorium on the species in the 1990s. Managers and fisheries are hampered by a lack of information, from overall population numbers to data on how fast fish grow and reproduce. As the global population increases and demand for fish protein rises - particularly in developing countries - more fisheries are chasing smaller fish populations in hopes of recouping higher prices for their efforts. This further threatens fish stocks that are already being over-exploited, Fryxell said. Finding the "sweet spot" - where the world's fisheries can function all the while protecting natural fish stocks - was the goal of the new model.
"It gives fisheries and conservation managers a tool for balancing those competing demands," he said.
They developed the model using information about landed fish catches and prices for any species to determine by how much a given fishery has been overharvested. Basically, the model encourages fisheries to reduce short-term harvests in order to realize higher long-term yields without sacrificing economic return.
"The model is based on the premise that it's just as profitable to have high catches and low prices as high prices and lower catches," said Fryxell.
That strategy also helps ensure a more sustainable fishery over the long term, he said. Supportive policy changes might include introducing tariffs that make it less profitable to fish low-yielding, high-priced species. Or managers might encourage fish farming to provide alternative protein sources and push down prices of wild stocks, he said.
"We'd have a better world where the fishery is making money, and we're feeding more people with more fish in the ocean."
"It's Food From Thought in a renewable rather than a managed context - how choices impact production, how we manage to make production more sustainable and still provide enough food." Co-authors are integrative biology professor Kevin McCann and other researchers at University of Guelph, McGill University, the University of Washington, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
The world's most prestigious award for pioneers in environmental science was given to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber this week in Tokyo.
Kazuhiko Ishimura, Chairman of the Asahi Glass Foundation, and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. Photo: Asahi Glass Foundation
The world's most prestigious award for pioneers in environmental science was given to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber this week in Tokyo. He is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), a member of the Leibniz Association. The Blue Planet Prize, coming along with 50 million yen, honors outstanding thinkers who help to meet challenges of planetary dimensions. It is awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation and handed over in presence of Japan's Imperial Prince and Princess. Schellnhuber received the prize for establishing a new field of science, Earth System Analysis, and introducing most influential concepts including the notion of tipping elements in the climate system. The second recipient is Gretchen Daily of Stanford University, USA, who was honored for her research about biodiversity and natural capital.
"Professor Schellnhuber pioneered a new field of climate science," said Yoshihiro Hayashi, Chairman of the Blue Planet Prize Selection Committee and Director General of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo. The Director of PIK provided "groundbreaking interdisciplinary science," Hayashi said. Furthermore, "one of his greatest successes was communicating the magnitude of the challenge of climate stabilization to a broad public as well as decision-makers," he added, calling Schellnhuber "the father of the 2 degrees limit for global warming". On the same note, the official declaration by the Blue Planet Prize organizers says: "His activities eventually created a torrent of measures against global warming worldwide, resulting in the 2-degree guardrail agreed upon by more than 190 countries at the UN climate summit COP21. Professor Schellnhuber and PIK have played a central role in this field for many years."
"I believe that the two recipients are leading us to a new era of tackling environmental issues," commented Hiroyuki Yoshikawa of the Blue Planet Prize Committee in his speech. He is a Special Counselor to the President of the Japan Science and Technology Agency, member of the Japan Academy, and a former President of both the Science Council of Japan and the University of Tokyo. The committee includes internationally renowned scientists such as Nobel Laureate Ryoji Noyori who met Schellnhuber on the eve of the prize ceremony.
Strong messages from Japan's Prime Minister Abe and the Imperial Prince Akishino
"This prize is said to be the Nobel Prize for environmental research," said Japan's minister of the Environment, Masaharu Nakagawa, in a personal meeting earlier this week. He thanked Schellnhuber "for helping with the long-term strategy of our country. We're in the midst of a broad change." Schellnhuber has visited Japan on a number of occasions for talks with high-ranking officials in the past years. Stabilizing the climate "is a global challenge which requires concerted action by all countries," Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a message congratulating the awardees. "My government remains committed to climate action."
Marking the outstanding significance of the event for Japan, His Imperial Highness Prince Akishino attended the ceremony. "In recent years, we humans have pursued the progress of science and technology," - yet precisely by this way of economic development, "the ecosystems have been affected," said the Prince. He specifically mentioned the increase of dangerous weather extremes. "We need a correct understanding of the human effect on the environment - as well as actions. It is hence satisfying that the laureates have developed the science as well as they have sounded the alarm."
In a congratulatory message His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Charles, emphasized that Schellnhuber's work is important to persuade the world to counter climate change, and to save the planet for our children and grandchildren.
"Germany and Japan must take the lead in this race against global disaster"
Previous recipients of the prize include the godfather of climate modelling, Syukuro Manabe, from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Norway's former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, and Charles Keeling from the University of California at San Diego who gave his name to the famous Keeling curve of atmospheric CO2 concentration measurements.
"The sun first rises in the East," said Schellnhuber at the ceremony. "Philosophers in China and Japan have deliberated upon the harmony between nature and humanity for many centuries." Today, scientists around the world, including those at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research that Schellnhuber founded in 1992, are successfully investigating the nonlinear dynamics of the complex climate system, and religious leaders like Pope Francis - whose green Encyclical Schellnhuber had the honor to present to the world in 2015 - joined in the call for avoiding dangerous climate change. "Yet man-made climate change has roared on, since policy has largely failed us," said Schellnhuber. Now, on the basis of the Paris Agreement to limit temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, a great transformation of the global economy is required. "Germany and Japan must take the lead in this race against global disaster," Schellnhuber said. "They shall become closest partners in sustainable innovation - for the sake of our two nations and for the sake of our Blue Planet."
Environmental disturbances such as El Niño shake up the marine food web off Southern California, new research shows, countering conventional thinking that the hierarchy of who-eats-who in the ocean remains largely constant over time.
The new research published in the journal Science Advances examined the skin cells of common dolphins for chemical clues about the length of the marine food chain, which begins with tiny plankton and continues as species eat them, and other species eat those species. Large predators such as dolphins occupy the top of the food chain, their cells carrying chemical information from all the species beneath them.
Many scientists have long considered the length of the food chain in the open sea to be relatively stable, with roughly the same animal species feeding on each other through time. But the chemical signatures in the skin of Southern California dolphins collected over two decades now show otherwise, report scientists from NOAA Fisheries, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
"We documented for first time marked changes in the pelagic food web length in response to various natural and anthropogenic related stressors," said lead author Rocio I. Ruiz-Cooley, formerly of NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Center and now at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. "This tells us that the food web is very dynamic, and reveals changes with the ecosystem around it."
The finding helps scientists understand the health and resilience of the ecosystem, she said. A longer food chain is more typical, and reflects a relatively diverse community, while shorter chains occur during extreme environmental conditions and suggest a decline in that diversity.
During strong climate perturbations such as the 1997-1999 El Niño Southern Oscillation that included the most intense El Niño event of the century, which brought unusual warming to the U.S. West Coast, the food chain in the California Current shortened sharply, the scientists found. That coincided with declines in ocean productivity such as reduced growth of plankton, declines of some fish and birds and expanded ranges of some species such as jumbo squid, perhaps as they searched for scarce food or followed favorable temperatures.
"These changes in life history traits and population dynamics likely reduced and/or removed populations of many species, including important components of the food web," in turn shrinking the food chain, scientists wrote in the new report. Predators may have exacerbated this impact as they fed on what was left and reduced the length of the food chain that supported them. Although some species such as jellyfish and tunicates such as salp may multiply quickly to fill such gaps, they provide so little nutrition that most predators do not pursue them and the food chain remains short.
The research demonstrates that top predators such as the common dolphin can serve as important indicators of the length of the food chain, which in turn provides insight into the ecosystem, Ruiz-Cooley said. The study drew upon the Southwest Fisheries Science Center's collection of skin tissue samples gathered from dolphins inadvertently entangled in gillnets off Southern California from 1991 to 2008, highlighting the value of that collection over time.
"This research, and the results it has produced, illustrate the great value of this time series reflected in the cell samples," said Lisa Ballance, director of the Science Center's Marine Mammal and Turtle Division, and coauthor on this paper. "As technology advances, we can extract even more information from the time series as a window into the past, and a baseline to address tomorrow's emerging issues."
VaquitaCPR demonstrating success in locating endangered Vaquita Porpoises as field operations continue.
Team members from the VaquitaCPR project lift a vaquita porpoise into a rescue boat. Credit: VaquitaCPR
Scientists with the VaquitaCPR conservation project and Mexico's Secretary of the Environment Rafael Pacchiano announced they succeeded in locating and rescuing a highly endangered vaquita porpoise yesterday, but in an abundance of caution the vaquita, which was a calf, was released. Experts say the calf was being closely monitored by marine mammal veterinarians and showed signs of stress, leading to its release.
"The successful rescue made conservation history and demonstrates that the goal of VaquitaCPR is feasible," said Secretary Pacchiano. "No one has ever captured and cared for a vaquita porpoise, even for a brief period of time. This is an exciting moment and as a result, I am confident we can indeed save the vaquita marina from extinction.
Experts had planned extensively for the scenario that unfolded on Wednesday and every precaution was taken to safeguard the health of the vaquita calf, which was estimated to be about six months old.
"While we were disappointed we could not keep the vaquita in human care, we have demonstrated that we are able to locate and capture a vaquita," said Dr. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, a senior scientist with SEMARNAT, CIRVA and VaquitaCPR Program Director. "We also succeeded in transporting one and conducting health evaluations that are part of our protocols safeguarding the animals' health."
Scientists returned the vaquita calf to the same spot in the Gulf of California where it was originally located and where other vaquitas were observed. Before releasing the vaquita, various tissue samples were taken which scientists will analyze and share with colleagues at other research institutions like the Frozen Zoo in San Diego, California which will conduct genetic sequencing.
The precedent-setting rescue comes as the bold conservation plan led by the Mexican government (SEMARNAT) to save the endangered vaquita porpoise from extinction enters its second week of field operations. During the first three days, scientists spotted several vaquitas using visual search methods and acoustic monitoring. Vaquitas were repeatedly located by the VaquitaCPR 'find' team.
The vaquita porpoise, also known as the 'panda of the sea,' is the most endangered marine mammal in the world. Latest estimates by scientists who have been monitoring the vaquita for decades show there are fewer than 30 vaquitas left in the wild. The vaquita only lives in the upper Gulf of California.
Secretary Pacchiano has visited the VaquitaCPR facilities in San Felipe several times and accompanied scientists during a day of field operations on the Sea of Cortez. "The individuals involved in this unprecedented conservation project are the best in their respective fields," said Secretary Pacchiano. "I've personally witnessed their dedication and incredible expertise. We're all committed to saving the vaquita porpoise and this is the team who can do it."
The project, which has been recommended by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA), involves locating, rescuing and then temporarily relocating the vaquitas to an ocean sanctuary off the coast of San Felipe. The explicit goal of CPR is to return the vaquitas to their natural habitat once the primary threat to their survival has been eliminated. Experts from all over the globe, including Mexico, the United States, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are all working together on VaquitaCPR.
VaquitaCPR field operations, including efforts to locate and bring vaquitas into temporary sea pens, began on October 12 and are expected to continue for several weeks. Windy conditions prevented VaquitaCPR field operations from taking place at sea for three days. When there are sustained winds of more than about eight knots, conditions on the water are too choppy for scientists to visually locate vaquitas. It also could risk the safety of vaquitas during the capture operation.
"We've unfortunately been at the mercy of the weather and were in the position of 'waiting on the wind' for several days," said Dr. Cynthia Smith, VaquitaCRP Program Manager. "However, the time hasn't been wasted, as there has been a tremendous amount of productive discussion at all hours of the day as we continue to refine the process of rescuing the animals. Now that we're back on the water and conditions are better, the entire team is optimistic and working together seamlessly to support the mission."
In an unprecedented move in April of 2015 that demonstrated Mexico's commitment to conservation, President Peña Nieto announced a two-year gillnet ban throughout the vaquitas' range, compensated fishermen and related industries for their loss of income, and enhanced multi-agency enforcement of the ban led by the Mexican Navy.
In June of 2017, the ban on gillnet fishing was made permanent. The government also launched an extensive survey of the vaquita population using an approach that included both visual monitoring and advanced techniques that use sound to locate the animals. All told, the Mexican government has committed more than $100 million in an effort to protect the vaquita and support the local fishing community.
A crucial part of CPR is the acoustic monitoring system that will help to locate the remaining vaquitas. This monitoring has been supported since 2012 by WWF and operated by the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change of Mexico (INECC) to help estimate the vaquita's population, and will continue during the CPR operations. WWF will also continue supporting the retrieval of lost or abandoned "ghost" nets, many of them illegal, which drift aimlessly and continue to entangle and kill vaquitas and other marine species. Both the acoustic monitoring and the net retrieval are conducted with the help and experience of local fishermen.
VaquitaCPR is led by Mexico's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT). The National Marine Mammal Foundation, Chicago Zoological Society and the Marine Mammal Center are primary partners in this extraordinary conservation effort.
VaquitaCPR operates as a private and public partnership, relying on both private donors and government funds. VaquitaCPR has many key collaborators including the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and groups like the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Baja Aqua Farms, and Museo de la Ballena.
As part of VaquitaCPR, large floating sea pens will be anchored off the coast of San Felipe, where veterinarians and animal care experts will carefully monitor the health of any vaquitas that are successfully rescued. The sea pens have been designed and built by Baja Aqua Farms, a fish farm operation based in Ensenada.
The Museo de la Ballena's mission is to promote the knowledge, study and conservation of cetaceans. Since the museum initiated a conservation operation last year, its vessel has succeeded in retrieving more than 900,000 linear feet of 'ghost' and illegal fishing nets. The museum is providing key logistical support for the VaquitaCPR team.
In order to make the Gulf safe for the vaquita in the future, experts agree it's important to prevent illegal fishing of the also-endangered totoaba fish and to support alternative economies for the fishing community.
VaquitaCPR has been adopted by Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) on the recommendation of their expert advisory group, the Comité Internacional Para La Recuperación De La Vaquita (CIRVA).
VaquitaCPR is an international conservation program led by SEMARNAT in coordination with the National Marine Mammal Foundation, The Marine Mammal Center, and the Chicago Zoological Society. Key collaborators in Mexico include Instituto Nacional de Ecología and Climate Change (INECC), Asociación Mexicana de Hábitats para la Interacción y Protección de Mamíferos Marinos (AMHMAR), Museo de la Ballena, and Baja Aqua Farms. United States collaborators include Duke University and the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contributing technical support. World Wildlife Fund is contributing with acoustic monitoring and the retrieval of lost or abandoned "ghost" nets from vaquita habitat. European collaborators include Dolfinarium Harderwijk, Aarhus University, and Fjord&Baelt. Additional support and expertise has been offered from Dolphin Quest, SeaWorld, and the Vancouver Aquarium. VaquitaCPR operates as a private and public partnership, relying on both individual donors and government grants. VaquitaCPR has received generous financial support from the Mexican government, Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Global Wildlife Conservation, Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks & Aquariums, Africam, International Marine Animal Trainer's Association, Waitt Foundation, Disney Conservation Fund, YAQU PACHA, and the Firedoll Foundation.
Newly funded EU Horizon 2020 project CLAIM seeks to develop and apply innovative marine cleaning technologies and approaches.
CLAIM's In-situ testing areas across the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea (Baltic Sea (near Denmark), Lyon Gulf, Ligurian Sea, Saronikos Gulf). Credit: CLAIM CC-BY 4.0
Newly funded, EU Horizon 2020 project targets increasing pollution in marine areas by focusing on the development of innovative cleaning technologies and approaches.
CLAIM: Cleaning marine Litter by developing and Applying Innovative Methods will seek out new strategies for prevention and in situ management visible and invisible marine litter with a focus on the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea.
Recognized as a major environmental problem, the presence and accumulation of plastic debris in the marine environment has seen a substantial increase with global production of plastics increasing twenty-fold in the last fifty years. For 2010 alone, estimations show that between 4.8 and 12.7 million tons of plastic litter entered the marine environment.
"Marine Litter has been detected worldwide in all major marine habitats, in sizes from microns to meters. Especially in the marine and coastal environment of semi-enclosed seas, such as the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea, litter pollution is a challenging restoration and governance issue." comments Co-coordinator, Dr. Nikoleta Bellou, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece.
Five key technological innovations will prevent litter from entering the sea at two main source points: wastewater treatment plants and river mouths.
In terms of waste water treatement an automated cleaning device will be developed and tested to filter out micro-plastic and prevent bigger microlitter from entering marine areas.
On the nano level, a photocatalytic device will use project-developed and validated green nanostructured coatings to degrade common invisible nano-plastics, such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), PVC and nylon, using the power of sunlight.
At river mouths, floating booms equipped with cameras monitoring the collection of litter will be strategically placed to collect visible floating pieces, before or as they enter the sea.
Newly funded, CLAIM offers real-world solutions to tackle marine litter. Credit: Michael Prevenios, HCMR, CC-BY 4.0
The project will demonstrate for the first time a small scale thermal treatment device that uses clean plasma technology to pyrolise floating plastic litter items, producing fuel (syngas) and recoverable heat to be exploited on marine litter-collecting boats and at port facilities.
Among other methods planned by the project is also the development of a new filtering system for detecting micro-plastic in open seas by using ships of opportunity or, FerryBoxes.
Real-world testing will be at the core of the CLAIM innovation cycle with new technologies being tested in-situ in key areas across the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea (Baltic Sea (near Denmark), Lyon Gulf, Ligurian Sea, Saronikos Gulf). Alongside tests, the Europe-wide consortium will seek out new business models to enhance the economic feasibility for upscaling CLAIM innovations.
Data collected during the project will feed into new models determining the concentrations of macro and microlitter on basin scale both in Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea.
"Involving multiple parties and taking up an ecosystems approach will be at the heart of CLAIM's research" explains coordinator Dr. George Triantafyllou, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece. "Apart from introducing innovative technologies we also want to stress on the importance of healthy oceans and seas for ecosystem services and hence also for society's wellbeing."
CLAIM is funded under Horizon 2020 Call BG-07-2017: Blue green innovation for clean coasts and seas, grand agreement No 287600. The project has a duration of three years and brings together nineteen institutions, five of which are small or medium enterprises (SMEs), from across Europe in its consortium. The official project kick-off will take place in November 2017.
Whales and dolphins (Cetaceans) live in tightly-knit social groups, have complex relationships, talk to each other and even have regional dialects - much like human societies.
A major new study, published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution (Monday 16th October), has linked the complexity of Cetacean culture and behaviour to the size of their brains.
The study is first of its kind to create a large dataset of cetacean brain size and social behaviours. The team compiled information on 90 different species of dolphins, whales, and porpoises. It found overwhelming evidence that Cetaceans have sophisticated social and cooperative behaviour traits, similar to many found in human culture.
The study demonstrates that these societal and cultural characteristics are linked with brain size and brain expansion - also known as encephalisation.
The long list of behavioural similarities includes many traits shared with humans and other primates such as:
complex alliance relationships - working together for mutual benefit
social transfer of hunting techniques - teaching how to hunt and using tools
cooperative hunting
complex vocalizations, including regional group dialects - 'talking' to each other
vocal mimicry and 'signature whistles' unique to individuals - using 'name' recognition
interspecific cooperation with humans and other species - working with different species
alloparenting - looking after youngsters that aren't their own
social play
Dr Susanne Shultz, an evolutionary biologist in Manchester's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: "As humans, our ability to socially interact and cultivate relationships has allowed us to colonise almost every ecosystem and environment on the planet. We know whales and dolphins also have exceptionally large and anatomically sophisticated brains and, therefore, have created a similar marine based culture.
"That means the apparent co-evolution of brains, social structure, and behavioural richness of marine mammals provides a unique and striking parallel to the large brains and hyper-sociality of humans and other primates on land. Unfortunately, they won't ever mimic our great metropolises and technologies because they didn't evolve opposable thumbs."
The team used the dataset to test the social brain hypothesis (SBH) and cultural brain hypothesis (CBH). The SBH and CBH are evolutionary theories originally developed to explain large brains in primates and land mammals.
They argue that large brains are an evolutionary response to complex and information-rich social environments. However, this is the first time these hypotheses have been applied to 'intelligent' marine mammals on such a large scale.
Dr Michael Muthukrishna, Assistant Professor of Economic Psychology at LSE, added: "This research isn't just about looking at the intelligence of whales and dolphins, it also has important anthropological ramifications as well. In order to move toward a more general theory of human behaviour, we need to understand what makes humans so different from other animals. And to do this, we need a control group. Compared to primates, cetaceans are a more "alien" control group."
Dr Kieran Fox, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, added: "Cetaceans have many complex social behaviours that are similar to humans and other primates. They, however, have different brain structures from us, leading some researchers to argue that whales and dolphins could not achieve higher cognitive and social skills. I think our research shows that this is clearly not the case. Instead, a new question emerges: How can very diverse patterns of brain structure in very different species nonetheless give rise to highly similar cognitive and social behaviours?"
These whales may use both aerobic and anaerobic respiration to dive for prey.
Beaked whale. Credit: Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization.
Two relatively small beaked whale species took exceptionally long, deep dives while foraging in the Bahamas, confounding expectations that larger whales dive should be able to dive for longer than smaller whales, according to a study published October 11, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Trevor Joyce from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, United States of America, and colleagues.
Most species of Ondotocetes (toothed whales and dolphins) eat creatures found at depths from tens to thousands of meters, and beaked whales dive as deep as 2,992 meters for their prey. Dive capacity in Ondontocetes generally increases with body mass, presumably because bigger bodies have more substantial oxygen reservoirs. However, another hypothesis holds that beaked whales -- a type of toothed whale -- extend the duration of deep dives by shifting from aerobic to anaerobic respiration.
To examine these competing hypotheses, Joyce and colleagues used satellite telemetry and biologging to study dive patterns of five toothed whale species foraging in underwater canyons in the Bahamas. The researchers tagged 17 beaked whales (12 Mesoplodon densirostris and 5 Ziphius cavirostris) as well as 13 melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra), 15 short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), and 27 sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). Data included body weights, concentrations of myoglobin (a muscle protein that binds oxygen), and intervals between deep dives.
The researchers found that the two beaked whale species took very long, deep dives for their size. They also took exceptionally long recovery periods between deep dives. These inter-deep-dive intervals averaged 62 minutes for M. densirostris and 68 minutes for Z. cavirostris.
When taken together, body size and myoglobin concentration explained only 36% of the variance in maximum dive times. However, when inter-deep-dive intervals are also considered 92% of the variance in maximum dive times is explained. Longer inter-deep-dive intervals likely correspond with metabolism of the lactic acid that accumulates during anaerobic respiration, supporting the hypothesis that beaked whales extend their foraging dives by shifting from aerobic to anaerobic respiration.
The researchers suggest that this alternative strategy allows the beaked whales to access deeper prey without growing larger, which fits with the fact that prey is limited at the extreme depths, of up to 1,900 meters, where they forage.
Fewer than 30 vaquitas left; project aims for temporary sanctuary.
An international team of experts has gathered in San Felipe, Mexico at the request of the Mexican government (SEMARNAT) and has begun a bold, compassionate plan known as VaquitaCPR to save the endangered vaquita porpoise from extinction. The vaquita porpoise, also known as the 'panda of the sea,' is the most endangered marine mammal in the world. Latest estimates by scientists who have been monitoring the vaquita for decades show there are fewer than 30 vaquitas left in the wild. The vaquita only lives in the upper Gulf of California.
The project, which has been recommended by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA), involves locating, rescuing and then temporarily relocating the vaquitas to an ocean sanctuary off the coast of San Felipe. The explicit goal of CPR is to return the vaquitas to their natural habitat once the primary threat to their survival has been eliminated. Experts from Mexico, the United States, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom are all working together on VaquitaCPR.
"Rescuing these animals and placing them in a temporary sanctuary is necessary to protect them until their natural habitat can be made safe," said Dr. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, lead vaquita expert and chair of CIRVA. "We realize that capturing even a few vaquitas will be very difficult, but if we don't try the vaquita will disappear from the planet forever."
VaquitaCPR field operations, including efforts to locate and bring vaquitas into temporary sea pens, begin on October 12 and are expected to continue for several weeks.
In an unprecedented move in April of 2015 that demonstrated Mexico's commitment to conservation, President Peña Nieto announced a two-year gillnet ban throughout the vaquitas' range, compensated fishermen and related industries for their loss of income, and enhanced multi-agency enforcement of the ban led by the Mexican Navy. In June of 2017, the ban on gillnet fishing was made permanent. The government also launched an extensive survey of the vaquita population using an approach that included both visual monitoring and advanced techniques that use sound to locate the animals. All told, the Mexican government has committed more than $100 million in an effort to protect the vaquita and support the local fishing community.
"This critical rescue effort is a priority for the Mexican government and we are dedicated to providing the necessary resources in order to give the plan its best chance of success," said Rafael Pacchiano, Mexico's Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources. The plan will be implemented in tandem with ongoing efforts to remove the threat of gillnets in the Upper Gulf of California and eliminate illegal fishing.
A crucial part of CPR is the acoustic monitoring system that will help to locate the remaining vaquitas. This monitoring has been supported since 2012 by WWF and operated by the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change of Mexico (INECC) to help estimate the vaquita's population, and will continue during the CPR operations. WWF will also continue supporting the retrieval of lost or abandoned "ghost" nets, many of them illegal, which drift aimlessly and continue to entangle and kill vaquitas and other marine species. Both the acoustic monitoring and the net retrieval are conducted with the help and experience of local fishermen.
"Although this effort faces a lot of uncertainty and is highly risky, WWF recognizes it as a necessary action to save the vaquita from extinction. WWF supports CPR with the sole aim of returning a healthy vaquita population to the wild, and as such our primary focus will continue to be ensuring a healthy, gillnet-free Upper Gulf of California where both wildlife and local communities can thrive. We remain hopeful that together with all actors, we will see the CPR effort become a success", said Jorge Rickards, CEO of WWF Mexico.
VaquitaCPR is led by Mexico's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT). The National Marine Mammal Foundation, Chicago Zoological Society and the Marine Mammal Center are primary partners in this extraordinary conservation effort.
"The international team of experts that have stepped up to save the most endangered marine mammal on the planet is extraordinary and a project like this has never been tried before," said Cynthia Smith, Executive Director of the National Marine Mammal Foundation. "VaquitaCPR is important because if this conservation model works, we may be able to use a similar approach to save other marine mammals that face extinction."
A floating sea pen is anchored off the coast of San Felipe, Mexico where vaquitas will temporarily be held. Photo by Kerry Coughlin/National Marine Mammal Foundation.
"The rescue project is, quite literally, the last chance to save the vaquita," said Dan Ashe, President and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. "We know and accept that the rescue plan is risky, but if we do nothing, extinction of the vaquita is certain. Zoos and aquariums have a proud history of working to save species from extinction, including black-footed ferrets, the California condor, the Florida manatee and the blue iguana. AZA and its members are proud to stand with the Mexican government and the VaquitaCPR coalition. Together, we will do everything we can to prevent the extinction of the vaquita."
As part of VaquitaCPR, large floating sea pens will be anchored off the coast of San Felipe, where veterinarians and animal care experts will carefully monitor the health of any vaquitas that are successfully rescued. The sea pens have been designed and built by Baja Aqua Farms, a fish farm operation based in Ensenada.
"Baja Aqua Farms believes strongly in the work being done to save the vaquita and we're so glad we are able to help," said Benito Sarmiento, CEO of Baja Aqua Farms. "Our communities all need to work together, not only to protect the wildlife in the Gulf of California, but also to support a sustainable fishing economy in Mexico that can continue into the future.
The Museo de la Ballena's mission is to promote the knowledge, study and conservation of cetaceans. Since the museum initiated a conservation operation last year, its vessel has succeeded in retrieving more than 900,000 linear feet of 'ghost' and illegal fishing nets. The museum is providing key logistical support for the VaquitaCPR team. "The vaquita porpoise is a national treasure in Mexico and we are committed to helping save this species for future generations," said museum Operations Director Diego Ruiz.
In order to make the Gulf safe for the vaquita in the future, experts agree it's important to prevent illegal fishing of the also-endangered totoaba fish and to support alternative economies for the fishing community.
The plight of the vaquita continues to gain increasing international attention after actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim signed an agreement committing Mexico to save the vaquita, identifying specific conservation goals.
VaquitaCPR has been adopted by Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) on the recommendation of their expert advisory group, the Comité Internacional Para La Recuperación De La Vaquita (CIRVA).
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is also trying to protect the vaquita but without removing it from its natural environment. The crews of Sea Shepherd’s vessels M/V Sam Simon and M/V Farley Mowat are patrolling in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, the only waters on Earth called home by the world’s smallest and rarest cetacean. The organization has partnered with the government of Mexico to protect the waters of the vaquita refuge, is patrolling for poachers, is documenting issues facing the endangered cetacean, and is collecting vital data to share with the scientific community. It is also conducting outreach in the region, meeting with marine biologists, researchers and other NGOs working locally to save the vaquita.
The research team sampled eight beaches in Japan within 60 miles of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and found high levels of radioactive cesium discharged from the 2011 accident in the brackish groundwater beneath the beaches. The cesium did not constitute a public health concern, but it showed how radioactive material can be transported far from accidents sites, where it attaches to and is stored by sand grains. Photo by Souichiro Teriyaki, Kanazawa University.
By Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Scientists have found a previously unsuspected place where radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster has accumulated--in sands and brackish groundwater beneath beaches up to 60 miles away. The sands took up and retained radioactive cesium originating from the disaster in 2011 and have been slowly releasing it back to the ocean.
"No one is either exposed to, or drinks, these waters, and thus public health is not of primary concern here," the scientists said in a study published October 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But "this new and unanticipated pathway for the storage and release of radionuclides to the ocean should be taken into account in the management of coastal areas where nuclear power plants are situated."
The research team,Virginie Sanial, Ken Buesseler, and Matthew Charette of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Seiya Nagao of Kanazawa University, hypothesize that high levels of radioactive cesium-137 released in 2011 were transported along the coast by ocean currents. Days and weeks after the accident, waves and tides brought the cesium in these highly contaminated waters onto the coast, where cesium became "stuck" to the surfaces of sand grains. Cesium-enriched sand resided on the beaches and in the brackish, slightly salty mixture of fresh water and salt water beneath the beaches.
But in salt water, cesium no longer "sticks" to the sand. So when more recent waves and tides brought in salty seawater from the ocean, the brackish water underneath the beaches became salty enough to release the cesium from the sand, and it was carried back into the ocean.
"No one expected that the highest levels of cesium in ocean water today would be found not in the harbor of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, but in the groundwater many miles away below the beach sands," said Sanial.
The new study revealed a previously unsuspected pathway for radioactive material to be transported, stored for years, and subsequently released far from the site where it was initially discharged. llustration by Natalie Renier, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The scientists estimated that the amount of contaminated water flowing into the ocean from this brackish groundwater source below the sandy beaches is as large as the input from two other known sources: ongoing releases and runoff from the nuclear power plant site itself, and outflow from rivers that continue to carry cesium from the fallout on land in 2011 to the ocean on river-borne particles. All three of these ongoing sources are thousands of times smaller today compared with the days immediately after the disaster in 2011.
The team sampled eight beaches within 60 miles of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant between 2013 and 2016. They plunged 3- to 7-foot-long tubes into the sand, pumped up underlying groundwater, and analyzed its cesium-137 content. The cesium levels in the groundwater were up to 10 times higher than the levels found in seawater within the harbor of the nuclear power plant itself. In addition, the total amount of cesium retained more than 3 feet deep in the sands is higher than what is found in sediments on the seafloor offshore of the beaches.
Cesium has a long half-life and persists in the environment. In their analyses of the beaches, the scientists detected not only cesium-137, which may have come from the Dai-ichi plant or from nuclear weapons tested in the 1950s and1960s, but also cesium-134, a radioactive form of cesium that can only come only from the 2011 Fukushima accident.
The researchers also conducted experiments on Japanese beach samples in the lab to demonstrate that cesium did indeed "stick" to sand grains and then lost their "stickiness" when they were flushed with salt water.
"It is as if the sands acted as a 'sponge' that was contaminated in 2011 and is only slowly being depleted," said Buesseler.
"Only time will slowly remove the cesium from the sands as it naturally decays away and is washed out by seawater," said Sanial.
"There are 440 operational nuclear reactors in the world, with approximately one-half situated along the coastline," the study's authors wrote. So this previously unknown, ongoing, and persistent source of contamination to coastal oceans "needs to be considered in nuclear power plant monitoring and scenarios involving future accidents."
