Ecology

Download the Nature Podcast 5 February 2025In this episode:00:45 How arithmetic skills don’t transfer between applied and academic environmentsMathematics skills learnt in real-world situations may not translate to the classroom and vice versa, according to a new study. A team surveyed children in India who work in markets, to see whether the skills they learnt there transferred to the classroom. Although proficient at solving market-based arithmetic problems, they struggled to solve problems typically used in schools. The reverse was seen for children enrolled in schools with no market-selling experience. The authors hope this finding could help adjust teaching curricula and bridge the gap between intuitive and formal maths.Research Article: Banerjee et al.12:38 Research HighlightsWolverine populations rebound in Sweden and Norway, and why wobbly arrows launch faster than rigid ones. Research Highlight: Who’s the new furry neighbour? It might be a wolverineResearch Highlight: How a wobbly arrow can achieve superpropulsion14:59 The unexpected movements seen in super-dense crowdsA study has revealed that when packed crowds reach a certain density, large groups of people suddenly start to move in circular patterns — a finding that could be used to identify dangerous overcrowding. By assessing footage of the densely packed San Fermín festival, a team observed this spontaneous phenomenon, and modelled the physics underlying it. Studying the movements of giant crowds has been difficult, and the team hope this work could help event organizers to identify and respond to situations where people could get hurt.Research Article: Gu et al.News and Views: Crowds start to spin when their densities hit a thresholdSound effects: Crowd Cheering – Ambience by GregorQuendel via CC BY 4.0Cupinzano sounds by Europa Press – Footage News via Getty Images24:00 Briefing ChatAn update on the US National Science Foundation’s scrutinizing of grants to comply with President Trump’s directives, and why scratching an itch may have unexpected antibacterial properties.Nature: Exclusive: how NSF is scouring research grants for violations of Trump’s ordersNature: Why it feels good to scratch that itch: the immune benefits of scratchingSubscribe 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, Spotify, YouTube Music or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too. More

In January, an attempt to illicitly release lynx (Lynx lynx) into the Scottish Highlands failed (see go.nature.com/42nhzqu), with all four animals being captured and one subsequently dying. High-profile illicit releases of now-established beaver (Castor fiber) and pine marten (Martes martes) populations in Scotland have complicated politically sensitive discourses around the reintroduction, translocation and removal of species.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests. More

Those attending the fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a global plastics treaty (see Nature https://doi.org/n2b3; 2024) failed to reach an agreement — largely because of concerns about potential economic losses.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests. More

“Ever since the first time I visited, I’ve been in love with the Sahara. That was in Morocco in 2011, to survey the situation of the Saharan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki). I am a conservation biologist at the University of Granada, Spain, and I quickly realized the importance of preserving these forgotten animals. It’s especially key in the context of climate change, to see how they adapt to drought, for instance.The scientific community has paid little attention to Saharan wildlife. Almost nobody knows about the sand cat (Felis margarita), for example. This beautiful animal highlights the challenges that all ecological research faces in hostile and remote environments, such as the Sahara. My colleagues and I have published the only scientific estimate of the sand cat’s abundance (J. M. Gil-Sánchez et al. Eur. J. Wildl. Res. 69, 20; 2023).It is difficult to work in such an isolated area. We must take a lot of care to avoid landmines left from regional conflict, for example, by using maps and steering clear of the areas that local camel herders also avoid.I’m the chair of the non-governmental organization Harmusch Wildlife Research and Conservation, Ciudad Real, Spain. My fieldwork group is made up of a translator, scientists and wildlife experts. Some of the members also have skills as mechanics. We usually travel in two cars, with eight to ten people in total. Our expeditions last for 10–20 days. We need to carry enough water, food and fuel to see us through. We try to avoid the summer, because it’s impossible to carry as much water as we would need.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00234-9

References

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Conservation biology More

The yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) is a federally listed species endemic to California.Credit: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via GettyPlants and animals that gain protection by US law owe much more to studies published in small, specialist journals than they do to those published in prestigious titles such as Nature and Science. That’s the finding of a study1 that tracked citations linked to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a US law designed to protect and support the recovery of species at risk of extinction.Given that the ESA has the power to halt logging, construction, problematic fishing practices and other human activities that threaten vulnerable wildlife, getting a species added to it can be an important way for a conservation biologist to help protect populations. But publishing in the kinds of journal that are more likely to influence the ESA could set conservation researchers back in their careers, says study co-author Brian Silliman, a marine conservation biologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. For decisions about who gets hired, promoted or funded, he says, a researcher’s impact is too often equated with the number of citations they receive and the impact factor of the journals they’ve published in (the standard way of calculating a journal’s impact factor is by dividing the number of times all the papers it has published in the past two years were cited in the last year by the total number of papers published in those two years.) “When you have graduate students who are trying to get jobs, you generally advise them not to publish in taxon-specific journals, because they’re going to be low impact factor,” says Silliman. “Even if it’s great science and it has applications to other systems, it’s a very limited audience and it’s going to be harder for them to get a job.” This disconnect between what’s valued in academia and what has real-life impact prompted Silliman to ask a graduate class to think of alternative ways to evaluate research. PhD student and co-author Jonathan Choi suggested that they investigate which journals are publishing the studies that are cited in the ESA when new species are added to it.2024 Research LeadersChoi and his colleagues examined documentation for the 260 species that were added to the ESA by the administration of Barack Obama between 2012 and 2016. They counted 4,836 citations for academic papers published in 785 journals. Categorizing the journals according to their impact factor, they showed that only 7% of ESA citations came from journals with an impact factor of more than 9, whereas 87% came from journals with an impact factor of less than 4 or no impact factor at all. Mid-ranking journals accounted for 6%. Journals that have not been given an impact factor by Clarivate — often because they are not considered influential enough — represented 13% of ESA citations. The team also created an “ESA listing impact factor”, which was based on the fraction of papers that a journal publishes that go on to be cited by the ESA. The highest ranked journal was Pacific Science, a regional journal with a conventional impact factor of just 0.74.Collectively, regional journals, such as The Southwestern Naturalist and The American Midland Naturalist, and taxa-specific journals, such as the Journal of the Lepidopterists Society, American Fern Journal and American Malacological Bulletin, were the most important sources of ESA citations, says Choi. Habitat-specific journals such as Coral Reefs and Rangeland Ecology & Management were also important, he adds. The study, published in Conservation Biology, highlights how conservation law relies on the type of rigorous practical work that is typically published in niche journals but is not rewarded by academic promotion and funding systems.Greater support needed for fieldworkChoi is careful to point out that the study’s findings do not devalue the kind of theory-driven science that appeals to high-impact-factor journals. Rather, they emphasize the need to support researchers who want to do other kinds of work, such as long-term population-monitoring studies, without sacrificing their career prospects. “That is really important science when it comes to conservation that we stand to lose if we don’t incentivize this kind of very baseline data collection,” says Choi.

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Victoria, Olivia and Justine (left to right) during one of their field sessions on Sable Island.Credit: Justine AmmendoliaIn 2023 and 2024, the three of us spent two five-week field seasons on Sable Island, a tree-less environment in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It was originally settled in 1801, when a life-saving station was built to aid sailors whose ships had been wrecked. The island consists of grasses and shrubs that sustain a population of around 450 feral horses, descended from an unknown population introduced in the mid-1700s. A meteorological station was established in the 1890s, and biological research began in the 1970s.Two of us (V.C. and J.A.) were there to collect data for our PhD projects. O.A. was a summer undergraduate researcher; V.C. and O.A. research the feral horses and work 16-hour days to conduct field surveys and laboratory work. J.A. collects and processes atmospheric microplastic samples in the mornings and then monitors her equipment throughout the rest of the day.The island is almost 25 times longer than it is wide. Its expansive coastline hosts the largest breeding population of grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) in the world and has a rich biodiversity of seabirds. The weather often changes without warning, from blaring heat to dense fog. There is an average summer population of 15 people, including federal employees, researchers and visiting academics.Our island ‘town’ is Parks Canada’s main station. This cluster of buildings, mostly from the 1940s, includes our shared accommodations. The Visitors’ Quarters building has all the comforts of home. Electricity, running water, Wi-Fi and laundry facilities all make the isolation and long working days easier.We’ve reflected on our shared experiences to compile advice for early-career researchers (ECRs) journeying into the pressure-cooker environment of remote fieldwork, which poses many challenges. These include managing logistics for the first time, fixing damaged field gear and navigating group dynamics at close quarters. We encourage all ECRs going into the field to take initiative. Given that the barrier between work and life tends to dissolve in the field, initiative can take different forms from those that you might be used to. For example, you might offer to cook, or to verify weather conditions for the next working day or even just to sweep up if you notice that it needs to be done.Don’t overcomplicate thingsGetting to your remote field site is hard, typically involving making relevant partnerships, applying for permits and funding, and ensuring that you are prepared to conduct your science in the field. Don’t be hard on yourself. Fieldwork is unpredictable; for reasons from illness to adverse weather conditions, it isn’t always possible to do everything you initially planned. Put your health and safety first, to prevent burnout.We were lucky to spend two periods at our field site, enabling us to better understand sampling protocols and the environment. This helped to reduce the risk of our project not meeting our expectations. For example, V.C.’s work is part of a long-term monitoring project on the feral horses, collecting data through photography and non-invasive faecal sampling without disturbing or handling the animals. Her first field season was spent gaining experience with her study system, which inspired the direction of her PhD project, by asking new questions that use data collected over the past 17 years.Justine Ammendolia processes atmospheric microplastic samples on Sable Island, as part of her PhD project.Credit: Victoria CrozierWith any field project, we suggest working with what’s available. In designing her field programme, J.A. could have collected data anywhere on the island, but instead chose to use existing infrastructure, because it didn’t require any extra construction. J.A. has adapted a localized sampling approach that minimizes island travel and uses the Air Chemistry building in the island’s main town to take samples. And although choosing not to sample at multiple points on the island has reduced the number of variables to measure, by keeping things simple, J.A. has framed her project to have reliable data while minimizing its impact on the environment. Our two projects have taken approaches that support the philosophy of ‘leave no trace’, which should inform our work as field scientists.Capture science in actionWe have supported each other in documenting our fieldwork experiences. This has involved waking up at the crack of dawn to photograph microplastic collections or hiking across the island to document data being collected on feral-horse biology.We’ve invested time in developing stories about our research and filming each other in the field, with the intention of sharing the results with audiences back home through seminars, articles and educational-outreach initiatives. J.A. photographed O.A. and V.C. during their fieldwork; the photos were used in an article celebrating O.A.’s experience as an Indigenous scholar. V.C. and O.A. helped J.A. to document her science for her virtual tour, part of her National Geographic Society grant.Victoria Crozier on Sable Island, collecting data for her PhD project.Credit: Justine AmmendoliaJ.A. shared her knowledge about science communication and photography, and as a group we gained a better understanding of how to develop an impactful story arc and capture complementary footage. As a group, we’ve become better science communicators, working together to capture research in action, so that we can share our science beyond our time in the field. Sharing your research can not only inspire others, but also help to elevate your professional profile and reputation in your field.

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