Ecology

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In this episode:00:45 Tree islands bring biodiversity benefits for oil-palm plantationGlobal demand for palm oil has resulted in huge expansion of the palm plantations needed to produce it, causing widespread tropical deforestation and species loss. To address this, researchers planted islands of native trees among the palms in a large plantation, and showed that this approach increases ecosystem health, without affecting crop yields. The team say that while protecting existing tropical rainforests should remain a priority, tree islands represent a promising way to restore ecosystems.Research article: Zemp et al.09:42 Research HighlightsThe oldest identified ‘blueprints’ depict vast hunting traps with extraordinary precision, and fossil evidence that pliosaurs swimming the Jurassic seas may have been as big as whales.Research Highlight: Oldest known ‘blueprints’ aided human hunters 9,000 years agoResearch Highlight: This gigantic toothy reptile terrorized the Jurassic oceans12:08 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, how shredded nappies could partially replace sand in construction, and how CRISPR helped crack the mystery of the death cap mushrooms’s deadly toxin.Nature News: World’s first house made with nappy-blended concreteNature News: Deadly mushroom poison might now have an antidote — with help from CRISPRSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too. More

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Some 0.5 million hectares of offshore wind farms are leased along the US east coast, with more to come. A federal permit from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and state agencies is required to install turbines in leased areas and for selling leases. In my view, the effects on ocean life and fisheries of large offshore wind developments, and of adding yet more turbines, should be evaluated independently and incorporated into decisions over where the turbines can be sited.
Competing Interests
T.G. has acted as a consultant to fishery organizations for mitigation of offshore wind development and has advised the Rhode Island Fishery Advisory Board and Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council. More

This stunning creature is a new species of parachute gecko discovered in India1. Parachute geckos use flaps of skin along their bodies, limbs and tails to glide from tree to tree. Biologists identified the species, Gekko mizoramensis, while surveying gecko populations in northeastern India. The discovery shows that animal and plant life in the region is poorly documented, they say. More

I study sea cucumbers, an economically important species in China that is valued for its nutritional and medicinal properties, and is important for the health of the ocean. It cleans the sea floor by feeding on detritus. Thanks to climate change and overfishing, sea-cucumber numbers are falling.At the Engineering Laboratory for Marine Ranching (ELMR), we study the animals to maximize their contributions to marine ranching — a form of sustainable aquaculture that restocks valuable species, such as the sea cucumber and the Sebastes schlegelii rockfish. First we transplant seagrass, and then we release sea cucumbers to clean degraded habitats. Next, we release fish, clams and other creatures to build a balanced ecosystem. The productivity is much higher than what would result from restoring one species.In this picture, taken in the ELMR, which is in the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao, I am looking at Apostichopus japonicus, the most important sea cucumber in northern China. In our tanks, we control temperature and pH to mimic ocean conditions. We study how sea cucumbers move, eat, interact and reproduce, which has helped us to design artificial reefs for the sea cucumbers we release.A. japonicus has some powers that are almost magical. When the water rises above 23 °C in early June, this species begins aestivation, a summer hibernation. It loses its intestine, and regenerates the entire organ when it wakes up in October.Sometimes, we find white or purple examples of A. japonicus, although it is usually green. The purple one is beautiful and contains beneficial compounds similar to those found in red wine, including astaxanthin, which has potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.I hope that sea cucumbers can help to repair the ocean, and to repair the body. More

Temperatures soared in India in April: heatwaves becomes more likely as the planet heats up. Credit: Sudipta Das/NurPhoto via Getty

There’s a 66% chance that the annual global average temperature will hit 1.5 ºC above pre-industrial temperatures at some time in the next five years, according to a World Meteorological Organization report released on 17 May. Reaching 1.5 ºC of warming in a single year will be a landmark moment for the planet, which in 2022 was about 1.15 ºC warmer than in pre-industrial times. But it’s not quite the milestone most people mean when they talk about 1.5 ºC of warming — for that, we probably have about a decade to go.The famous 1.5 ºC figure, widely quoted as the desired ‘maximum’ for planetary warming, stems from the 2015 United Nations Paris agreement on climate change. This treaty declared the goal of keeping the global average temperature well below 2 ºC above pre-industrial levels, with a preferred limit of 1.5 ºC.The Paris agreement, however, refers to a sustained planetary average of 1.5 ºC warming — not just the average for a single year, which alone could be anomalously hotter or cooler than the longer-term average. The Paris agreement didn’t specify exactly what was meant by 1.5 ºC of warming, but the most recent report of the first working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2021, clarifies that it means the midpoint of the first 20-year period when the average global surface air temperature is 1.5 ºC warmer than the 1850–1900 average.In 2018, an IPCC special report on 1.5 ºC of warming estimated that the world would probably hit the 1.5 ºC threshold at some stage between 2030 and 2052. By 2021, using a different methodology, that had been pinned down to the early 2030s. “The time frame is getting closer and closer,” says geographer William Solecki at City University of New York, an author on the IPCC special report.A massive, two-year ‘global stocktake’ of progress on the Paris agreement’s goals is winding up now, and will be presented at the next UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting (COP28), which will start on 30 November. So far, the stocktake has found that things aren’t going well. For a 50% chance of limiting warming to 1.5 ºC, a stocktake meeting report notes, global greenhouse-gas emissions need to peak before 2025; this hasn’t happened yet, and national emissions commitments aren’t sufficient to keep the planet within the target.The lower the betterThe 1.5 ºC number was chosen in an attempt to limit the severity of the impacts of warming, taking into account factors such as food security and extreme weather events. However, IPCC experts stressed that 1.5 ºC shouldn’t be seen as a “guardrail” below which everything would be fine, and noted that whatever temperature the world’s warming peaks at, the lower it is, the better. “Obviously there’s a continuum,” says Solecki. “The higher the temperature, the worse the outcome.”The 2018 IPCC report on 1.5 ºC of warming notes that effects of reaching this threshold could include: extreme hot days in mid-latitudes that are 3 ºC warmer than in pre-industrial times; sea-level rise of up to three-quarters of a metre by 2100; the loss of more than half of the viable habitat for 8% of plants and 4% of vertebrates; and a decrease in annual global fisheries catches of 1.5 million tonnes.The report also notes that because global warming is uneven, more than one-fifth of the world’s population currently live in regions that have already exceeded 1.5 ºC of warming in at least one season.More important than when Earth will hit 1.5 ºC of warming is what amount of warming the planet will peak at, and when that will happen. “With every tenth of a degree above 2 ºC, you’re looking at more-sustained, more-systemic impacts,” says Solecki.Those numbers won’t be apparent for decades. According to the IPCC’s 2021 projections of global temperature under different emissions scenarios, peak temperature could be anything from 1.6 ºC in around 2050 (if the globe hits net zero emissions by then), dropping to 1.4 ºC by 2100; to, with emissions still climbing, 4.4 ºC at 2100, with the peak still to come.The next few years could bring an anomalously high blip in annual temperatures compared with the longer-term average thanks to an expected El Niño event — a natural climate pattern that brings warmer temperatures to the eastern Pacific Ocean and that tends to warm the planet as a whole. In April, Carbon Brief, a website that reports on climate matters, estimated that 2023 was shaping up to be one of the six hottest years on record, most likely the fourth hottest. And in April, the global ocean spiked at the hottest temperature since records began. More

Credit: Denis Riek, The Global Ocean Surface Ecosystem Alliance (GO-SEA) Field Guide (CC-BY 4.0)

This amazing picture shows the violet sea snail Janthina sp., which builds rafts by trapping air bubbles and encasing them in mucus. Scientists discovered that oceanic gyres concentrate the floating snails in the North Pacific ‘garbage patch’, more famous for accumulating discarded plastic. By bringing them together, the currents could help these and other floating creatures to feed and reproduce. More

I grew up deathly afraid of the ocean. But that changed in 2016, when I began mapping South Africa’s kelp forests for my biology master’s degree. I used satellite imagery to find the kelp; then I assessed the potential environmental threats that the forests face, such as unsustainable offshore mining, pollution and even shadows from coastal development.As I began this survey across the 1,300-kilometre kelp-rich stretch of South Africa’s coastline, I wanted to see the kelp that was below the ocean’s surface. I vividly recall floating on my stomach looking down at this golden, waving forest. I was amazed by the biodiversity that exists underneath this big, blue blanket, including invertebrates, fish and mammals.In this image, taken near where I first encountered kelp forests off the coast of Windmill beach, south of Cape Town, I am looking for the different types of animal, including limpets, sea urchins and octopuses, that live in these forests. In my advocacy work, I use films and social media to educate the public about how, for example, over half of the atmosphere’s oxygen comes from kelp forests.So far, we have mapped only coastal kelp because it is visible to satellites during low tide. We hope to use remotely operated vehicles to map the underwater extent of it.South Africa’s natural kelp forests are among the few that are still expanding. Others around the world are endangered because of over-harvesting or coastal development. In response to increased demand for kelp, for use in products such as toothpaste and possibly as a biodegradable alternative to plastic, my team is building sustainable kelp farms. The government supports a non-lethal harvesting approach in which we collect only the tops of the stalks, allowing the plant to regrow as it continues to provide habitat.Perhaps the kelp forests’ biggest threat is the lack of awareness or appreciation of how many species call them home. It’s a spiritual place. More