Animals like roe deer and magpies are not able to adapt quickly enough to keep pace with the changing climate, scientists say.

Although some species respond to increasing temperatures, research suggests these adaptations may not be happening at a rate that guarantees the long-term persistence of some populations.

Populations of European roe deer, song sparrow, common murre and Eurasian magpie were among those at risk.

Temperatures

The meta-analysis published in Nature Communications suggests historical timing of species’ life cycle events (phenology) like migration and breeding is mismatched to current climate.

Scientists say animals can potentially respond by altering their phenology, but only if there is enough genetic variation in their behaviour or development.

The team reviewed 10,090 scientific abstracts and extracted data from 71 published studies that represented 17 species in 13 countries, to assess animal responses to climate change, focusing particularly on birds.

Lead author Viktoriia Radchuk from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Germany, said: “Our research focused on birds because complete data on other groups were scarce.

“We demonstrate that in temperate regions, the rising temperatures are associated with the shift of the timing of biological events to earlier dates.”

Conservation

Co-author Steven Beissinger, professor at the University of California in Berkeley, added: “This suggests that species could stay in their warming habitat, as long as they change fast enough to cope with climate change.”

However, senior author Alexandre Courtiol, also of Leibniz-IZW, said: “This is unlikely to be the case because even populations undergoing adaptive change do so at a pace that does not guarantee their persistence.”

The scientists said it was of greater concern that the data analysed included predominantly common and abundant species such as the great tit, the European pied flycatcher or the common magpie, which are known to cope with climate change relatively well.

Stephanie Kramer-Schadt of Leibniz-IZW concluded: “Adaptive responses among rare or endangered species remain to be analysed. We fear that the forecasts of population persistence for such species of conservation concern will be even more pessimistic.” 

The researchers hope their analysis and the assembled datasets will stimulate research on the resilience of animal populations in the face of global change. They further hope it will contribute to a better predictive framework to assist future conservation management actions.

This Author

Nina Massey is the PA science correspondent.

Animals like roe deer and magpies are not able to adapt quickly enough to keep pace with the changing climate, scientists say.

Although some species respond to increasing temperatures, research suggests these adaptations may not be happening at a rate that guarantees the long-term persistence of some populations.

Populations of European roe deer, song sparrow, common murre and Eurasian magpie were among those at risk.

Temperatures

The meta-analysis published in Nature Communications suggests historical timing of species’ life cycle events (phenology) like migration and breeding is mismatched to current climate.

Scientists say animals can potentially respond by altering their phenology, but only if there is enough genetic variation in their behaviour or development.

The team reviewed 10,090 scientific abstracts and extracted data from 71 published studies that represented 17 species in 13 countries, to assess animal responses to climate change, focusing particularly on birds.

Lead author Viktoriia Radchuk from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Germany, said: “Our research focused on birds because complete data on other groups were scarce.

“We demonstrate that in temperate regions, the rising temperatures are associated with the shift of the timing of biological events to earlier dates.”

Conservation

Co-author Steven Beissinger, professor at the University of California in Berkeley, added: “This suggests that species could stay in their warming habitat, as long as they change fast enough to cope with climate change.”

However, senior author Alexandre Courtiol, also of Leibniz-IZW, said: “This is unlikely to be the case because even populations undergoing adaptive change do so at a pace that does not guarantee their persistence.”

The scientists said it was of greater concern that the data analysed included predominantly common and abundant species such as the great tit, the European pied flycatcher or the common magpie, which are known to cope with climate change relatively well.

Stephanie Kramer-Schadt of Leibniz-IZW concluded: “Adaptive responses among rare or endangered species remain to be analysed. We fear that the forecasts of population persistence for such species of conservation concern will be even more pessimistic.” 

The researchers hope their analysis and the assembled datasets will stimulate research on the resilience of animal populations in the face of global change. They further hope it will contribute to a better predictive framework to assist future conservation management actions.

This Author

Nina Massey is the PA science correspondent.

Animals like roe deer and magpies are not able to adapt quickly enough to keep pace with the changing climate, scientists say.

Although some species respond to increasing temperatures, research suggests these adaptations may not be happening at a rate that guarantees the long-term persistence of some populations.

Populations of European roe deer, song sparrow, common murre and Eurasian magpie were among those at risk.

Temperatures

The meta-analysis published in Nature Communications suggests historical timing of species’ life cycle events (phenology) like migration and breeding is mismatched to current climate.

Scientists say animals can potentially respond by altering their phenology, but only if there is enough genetic variation in their behaviour or development.

The team reviewed 10,090 scientific abstracts and extracted data from 71 published studies that represented 17 species in 13 countries, to assess animal responses to climate change, focusing particularly on birds.

Lead author Viktoriia Radchuk from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Germany, said: “Our research focused on birds because complete data on other groups were scarce.

“We demonstrate that in temperate regions, the rising temperatures are associated with the shift of the timing of biological events to earlier dates.”

Conservation

Co-author Steven Beissinger, professor at the University of California in Berkeley, added: “This suggests that species could stay in their warming habitat, as long as they change fast enough to cope with climate change.”

However, senior author Alexandre Courtiol, also of Leibniz-IZW, said: “This is unlikely to be the case because even populations undergoing adaptive change do so at a pace that does not guarantee their persistence.”

The scientists said it was of greater concern that the data analysed included predominantly common and abundant species such as the great tit, the European pied flycatcher or the common magpie, which are known to cope with climate change relatively well.

Stephanie Kramer-Schadt of Leibniz-IZW concluded: “Adaptive responses among rare or endangered species remain to be analysed. We fear that the forecasts of population persistence for such species of conservation concern will be even more pessimistic.” 

The researchers hope their analysis and the assembled datasets will stimulate research on the resilience of animal populations in the face of global change. They further hope it will contribute to a better predictive framework to assist future conservation management actions.

This Author

Nina Massey is the PA science correspondent.

How often have you been a passenger in a car and counted the foxes, badgers, deer and rabbits that you’ve seen (alive or dead) on the roadside? What about all the mammals you’ve seen whilst you’re out on your morning dog walk or weekend stroll?

These sightings feel significant, but how can you report them? The Mammal Society have developed a user-friendly app, Mammal Mapper, that enables you to capture these records on your phone, as you go, recording not only species details but also time and location.

The Mammal Society have just launched a brand new version of their free Mammal Mapper app, with easier recording and merging of the functions of their two older apps, Mammal Tracker and the original Mammal Mapper. The updated app, which previously allowed users to map an entire route and the mammals seen along it, also now allows users to log one-off sightings.

Wildlife conservation

Users of the app are therefore able to build a library of the mammals and mammal signs they have spotted, as well as the routes they have followed. This information can then be submitted to help scientists and data analysts understand more about the distribution of mammals across Britain.

The Mammal Society’s Science Officer Frazer Coomber said: “Feedback from users of both of our apps told us that users wanted to be able to record one off sightings, as well as record mammals spotted along a route.

“On top of this we’ve improved the scope and content of our ID guides to include more information as well giving more sign and observation options which means that people can now record feeding remains, roadkill and other indicators of mammal presence.”

The app also now contains a field to enter a Survey ID meaning that users can take part in dedicated surveys being run by the Mammal Society and essentially become ecologists.

Over the next few months the public are invited to take part in the charity’s “Walk This Water Way” citizen science project. Users of the app are being asked to walk along waterways and use the Mammal Mapper app with “WTWW” as the Survey ID, whilst recording sightings of semi aquatic mammals such as otters, American mink and water voles.

As it’s been ten years since the last National Otter Survey, the charity are particularly keen to re-evaluate otter distribution across the UK and see much of the UK has been recolonised by these animals. Whether you’re on a solo walk or out with the family, this is a fun way of recording what you’ve seen, and even what you haven’t seen, and contributing towards wildlife conservation.

Incredible information 

Frazer explained: “With the data uploaded from the app we can identify where people are actually looking for mammals and where they aren’t.

“At the very least, this tells us that the gaps on our maps don’t necessarily mean that there are no mammals there, but rather people aren’t looking there. This is incredibly useful information and means that users can contribute to conservation efforts at zero cost while simply going about their daily business.”

Do you want to get involved? For more information about the Mammal Mapper App, visit the website. 

Image: tsaiproject, Flickr. 

A new undercover investigation released by animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming has exposed some incidents of EU law infringement in Poland, such as calves completely unable to see and touch each other and calves around three to four months old being kept in pens that were too small for them.

The investigation from five Polish dairy farms also reveals the barbarity of current EU standards for young dairy calves. EU farmers can legally raise calves in small, individual pens, where they are isolated and severely restricted of expressing natural behaviours, including play and exercise, and deprived of social contact which is necessary for their mental and emotional well-being.

The investigations’ film includes footage from Poland (2019), Germany (2018), the Netherlands (2018), Denmark (2015), Italy (2017), and Czechia (2018).

Cages

Compassion in World Farming’s Head of EU Office Olga Kikou said: “This investigation confirms what has often been documented in the last few years: caged systems used in many EU countries are equally cruel.

“Worse still, EU law allows this, despite evidence that group housing from birth can provide welfare and health benefits.” 

Across Europe, around 20 million calves are born to dairy cows each year. Of these, research suggests that 60 percent are confined and spend part or all of the first eight weeks of their lives isolated. This amounts to over 12 million dairy calves across the EU, each year.

Together with over 170 organisations and more than one million EU citizens who support the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative, Compassion in World Farming calls for a Europe-wide ban of all cages in animal farming, including the pens used so unnaturally to isolate young calves.

Olga, who is also a substitute Member of the Citizens’ Committee of the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative, continued: “The footage released today reminds us that the fight to get farm animals out of cages is far from over. We need to ensure the EU institutions realise that EU citizens are repulsed by bad and outdated agricultural practices that the EU endorses.”  

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Compassion in World Farming. Image: Animal Equality UK

Less than two thirds of garden space in Britain’s towns and cities is covered with greenery such as plants, lawns and trees, analysis suggests.

The Office for National Statistics’ Data Science Campus and Ordnance Survey combined techniques to classify images with aerial imagery to test ways to identify the amount of green space in urban residential gardens.

Initial results estimate that 62 percent of garden spaces are covered with vegetation in Great Britain, a finding the Royal Horticultural Society described as “disappointing” as greenery cools cities, curbs flooding and helps wildlife.

Improve

The work aims to give a more accurate report of green spaces than previous estimates which have assumed 100 percent of their area is covered by vegetation rather than factoring in features such as patios and paths.

As part of the project, the team focused on Cardiff and Bristol and found that around 54 percent of Cardiff’s urban residential gardens were covered by greenery, compared to around 45 percent of Bristol’s.

Tom Smith, managing director at the ONS Data Science Campus, said: “Through our work with Ordnance Survey we’ve developed a new tool to provide more accurate estimates of how much of our gardens are covered with vegetation than has previously been suggested.

“This tool is intended to be useful to policy makers when planning a wide range of different measures from flood risk through to estimating the country’s carbon footprint.

“Through our Data Science Campus we are looking at how new cutting edge techniques can help improve the way we look at data. These techniques will help with our mission to mobilise the power of data to help Britain make better decisions and improve lives.”

Control

Hayley Monckton, from the RHS, said: “It’s disappointing that less than two-thirds of gardens are covered by vegetation, when green gardens are so beneficial for our health, for wildlife and for the environment. Plants and gardens can help cool towns and cities and mitigate flooding – things we will see more of as our climate changes.”

The RHS has a “greening Great Britain” campaign which calls on people to plant and grow more plants in their own outside spaces and community areas.

“The trend to pave increases chances of flooding and means you miss out on all the benefits of plants, such as helping to reduce pollution and providing food for our pollinators. We can all make a positive difference one plant at a time,” she said.

Paul de Zylva, nature campaigner at Friends Of The Earth, said: “People’s gardens can be brilliant for wildlife but there is increasingly less space for nature than we might think.

“Covering gardens in artificial grass, concrete, and paving for parking and patios is bad news for nature, for soaking up flood water and for absorbing carbon. Fortunately, gardens also present a clear opportunity for people to help the planet as they are one of the few places where people have direct control.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent. Image: home thods. 

Groundbreaking new research into the soil beneath our feet transforms our understanding of life on land. A study published today in Nature reveals that the world’s largest animal populations are found in high-latitude sub-arctic soils.

The Crowther Lab study is the first to map the global distribution of soil nematodes, tiny creatures also known as roundworms. They make up an estimated four fifths of all terrestrial animals and play a critical role in soil nutrient cycling, plant growth and the climate.

The study provides conclusive evidence that the majority of the world’s animals live in high latitudes: 38.7 percent of soil nematodes exist in boreal forests and tundra across North America, Scandinavia and Russia; 24.5 percent in temperate regions; and only 20.5 percent in the tropics and sub-tropics.

Soil organisms 

The study also calculates that the world’s population of soil nematodes is far greater than previously estimated, with 57 billion for every single human. They have a total biomass of around 300 million tonnes – approximately 80 percent of the combined weight of Earth’s human population of 7.7 billion people.

Dr. Johan Van den Hoogen, lead author of the study, said: “There’s an immense world hidden just beneath our feet that we barely understand. This study fundamentally changes our understanding of the distribution of life on land.

“We were amazed to find that nematodes are so abundant and that there are more animals in the arctic and sub-arctic than in the tropics – the opposite of what we see above ground.

“Soil organisms are the most important but least understood part of the Earth’s biosphere. Protecting biodiversity and developing effective climate change strategies will require us to model biological activity across the world’s soils and plan how best to manage ecosystems.”

Nematodes play a critical role in the cycling of carbon and nutrients and are essential to understanding biological activity in the soil. They feed on bacteria, fungi, plants and other soil organisms, fulfilling key roles in the food web.

They play a significant role in influencing CO2 emissions from soils, determining whether carbon is locked up in soil organisms or released into the soil and the atmosphere. Their activity helps create healthy soils and conditions for plants to grow and capture carbon.

Biodiversity loss

Nematodes are generally more active at higher temperatures, so the large nematode populations in the arctic and sub-arctic make these regions very sensitive to warming.

The study states: “These regions compose a major reservoir of soil carbon stocks, and may release much more carbon as a result of increased soil animal activity and a prolongation of the plant-growing season due to human-induced climate change.” 

Professor Tom Crowther, senior author of the study, said: “Predicting climate change requires that we understand global carbon and nutrient cycles. We currently have a great understanding of the physics and chemistry of our planet, but we know far less about the biological organisms that drive these cycles.

“Improving our understanding of these organisms at a global level is critical if we are going to understand and address climate change.

“Healthy soil communities are essential for the stability of ecosystems and the storage of carbon on land. Our research will help scientists to make better predictions about carbon cycling by developing models that reflect the impact of soil organisms. It will also enable land managers to make the right decisions in the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change by identifying soils which need to be restored to health.”

Machine learning

The Crowther Lab is a group of multi-disciplinary scientists studying the ecological processes that influence climate change, based at ETH Zürich, the world’s leading University in Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The study focused on the top 15cm of soil – the most biologically active zone – and calculated that around the world it is home to 4.4 x 10 to the power of 20 nematodes, or 57 billion for each human on the planet.

They took 6,759 soil samples representing every continent, and every environment from arctic tundra to tropical rainforest, and used microscopes to analyse the density of each type of nematode to generate a representative global dataset.

They used machine learning to determine how the abundance of each type of nematodes related to the climate, soil and vegetation at each sample site, identifying 73 different variables. 

They used this information to build models which predict nematode populations for each square kilometer and create the first global high-resolution maps of soil nematode density and functional group composition.

This Author

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from the Crowther Lab. 

Boris Johnson must act swiftly to reduce emissions and put the climate emergency at the centre of his premiership says Friends of the Earth, as he is announced as the UK’s new Prime Minister today (23 July).

The announcement comes as Friends of the Earth has been granted a hearing at the Court of Appeal over the expansion of Heathrow airport on climate grounds.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: “Boris Johnson said he’d ‘lie down in front of the bulldozers’ to prevent a third runway at Heathrow. Now he has the power to cancel this polluting project along with other climate disasters like fracking.

Wildfires

“And he must. The country is united in wanting an urgent response to the climate crisis.”

He added: “Swift government action will decide whether we are a nation with warm homes, clean air, and a thriving renewable industry or whether worsening extreme weather, wildfires and floods cause misery for millions. Prime Minister Johnson, the choice is yours.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for decisive action to address the climate emergency in the first 100 days of the new Johnson administration including passing an emergency climate budget in the Autumn which must allocate billions of pounds of investment in areas like public transport, creating warm homes and planting millions of trees.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth. 

Boris Johnson must act swiftly to reduce emissions and put the climate emergency at the centre of his premiership says Friends of the Earth, as he is announced as the UK’s new Prime Minister today (23 July).

The announcement comes as Friends of the Earth has been granted a hearing at the Court of Appeal over the expansion of Heathrow airport on climate grounds.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: “Boris Johnson said he’d ‘lie down in front of the bulldozers’ to prevent a third runway at Heathrow. Now he has the power to cancel this polluting project along with other climate disasters like fracking.

Wildfires

“And he must. The country is united in wanting an urgent response to the climate crisis.”

He added: “Swift government action will decide whether we are a nation with warm homes, clean air, and a thriving renewable industry or whether worsening extreme weather, wildfires and floods cause misery for millions. Prime Minister Johnson, the choice is yours.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for decisive action to address the climate emergency in the first 100 days of the new Johnson administration including passing an emergency climate budget in the Autumn which must allocate billions of pounds of investment in areas like public transport, creating warm homes and planting millions of trees.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth. 

Boris Johnson must act swiftly to reduce emissions and put the climate emergency at the centre of his premiership says Friends of the Earth, as he is announced as the UK’s new Prime Minister today (23 July).

The announcement comes as Friends of the Earth has been granted a hearing at the Court of Appeal over the expansion of Heathrow airport on climate grounds.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: “Boris Johnson said he’d ‘lie down in front of the bulldozers’ to prevent a third runway at Heathrow. Now he has the power to cancel this polluting project along with other climate disasters like fracking.

Wildfires

“And he must. The country is united in wanting an urgent response to the climate crisis.”

He added: “Swift government action will decide whether we are a nation with warm homes, clean air, and a thriving renewable industry or whether worsening extreme weather, wildfires and floods cause misery for millions. Prime Minister Johnson, the choice is yours.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for decisive action to address the climate emergency in the first 100 days of the new Johnson administration including passing an emergency climate budget in the Autumn which must allocate billions of pounds of investment in areas like public transport, creating warm homes and planting millions of trees.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth.