The Amazon’s Growth into the Richest Area of Organisms in the World

The Amazon rainforest and the Amazon River support an abundant forest full of biodiversity. Yet, it is still a mystery as to how this region became so rich as it is today. Hoorn et al. (2010) pull together resources from around the scientific community to piece together the history of Amazonia. Their research focuses on the effect the development of the Andes had on the entire Amazonian region. The Andes changed its climate, redirected the water flow, distributed soil and nutrients, and brought a great influx of diverse species from North America down to the Amazon. Over a hundred million years the Amazon rainforest slowly developed into what it is today, but there are still many questions on how exactly this happened. Hoorn et al. attempt to answer some of these questions, while also raising more. What becomes clear is that the development of a large ecosystem, such as Amazonia, is not a simple process, but rather a long, complicated process dependent on many factors. —Mathew Harreld

Hoorn, C., Wesselingh, F.P., ter Steege, H., Bermudez, M.A., Mora, A., Sevink, J., Sanmartín, I., Sanchez-Meseguer, A., Anderson, C.L., Figueiredo, J.P., Jaramillo, C., Riff, D., Negri, F.P., Hooghiemstra, H., Lundberg, J., Stadler, T., Särkinen, T., Antoneli, A., 2010. Amazonia Through Time: Andean Uplift, Climate Change, Landscape Evolution, and Biodiversity. Science 330, 927–931.

Addressing Public Views on GM Plants: How to Bioengineer Non-Pollinating GM Food Crops

With climate change and population growth predicted to place huge pressures on global food production and agriculture, ensuring crop yield growth in the future is of the utmost importance.  Scientific investment into non-technological and halfway solutions to this problem has been exhausted.  The advent of crop rotation, irrigation, and breeding boosted early civilization's yields just as mechanized agriculture, artificial fertilizers, and new pesticides continued to improve our global productive capacity during the green revolution.  Looking to the future, Ryffel Gerhart of the European Molecular Biology Organization performed a survey of current research in order to formulate a strategy for changing negative public opinion on the next generation of yield-boosting technologies--genetically modified food crops.  Using the GM corn MON810, Gerhart posits a route to a more GM friendly future by stopping transgene crossing--the spreading of a GM gene into a traditional crop.  Gerhart sees the threat of cross-pollination between natural and GM plants as the biggest hurdle to widespread GM adoption in commercial agriculture.---Michael Gazeley-Romney

Ryffel, Gerhart U, 2011. "Dismay with GM maize". EMBO reports advance online publication 9 September 2011; doi:10.1038/embor.2011.182.

Ecological Correlates of Distribution Change and Range Shift in Butterflies

Increasing evidence suggests that the worldwide biodiversity loss should be attributed to anthropogenic disturbance, particularly habitat loss and climate change. To conserve biodiversity, scientists must identify the factors driving population decline. The ecological traits of a focal species and the traits of species they interact with have previously been correlated with species’ extinction risks and distribution changes. Mattila et al. (2011) analyzed the distribution declines (area of occupancy) and range shifts (extent and direction) of 95 threatened and non-threatened butterfly species in Finland to identify ecological traits that influence species’ distribution changes and range shifts. These traits included larval specificity, resource distribution, dispersal ability, adult habitat breadth, flight period length, body size, and overwintering stage. The results show that the distribution of Finnish butterflies has declined substantially, with the distribution of threatened species’ declining more so than non-threatened species. Additionally, the authors found that the ranges of butterfly species have shifted in both direction and degree, with non-threatened species shifting more so than threatened species. Ecological specialization at the larval or adult stage, as well as poor dispersal ability and large body size, affect both distribution declines and range shifts. These results suggest that highly dispersive generalists will eventually dominate biological communities as result of climate change and habitat fragmentation. However, both non-threatened and threatened species are prone to extinction since both groups possess traits that make them vulnerable to range shifts and distribution declines.—Megan Smith

Mattila, N., Kaitala, V., Komonen, A., Paivinen, J. Kotiaho, J.S., 2011. Ecological Correlates of Distribution Change and Range Shift in Butterflies. Insect Conservation and Diversity. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-4598.2011.00141.x

Bycatch Governance and Best Practice Mitigation Technology in Global Tuna Fisheries

One of the greatest threats to global marine biodiversity is the overexploitation of bycatch and target species in marine capture fisheries.  The primary mortality sources of bycatch, as well as other linked species like seabirds, sea turtles, marine mammals, and sharks, are due to the purse seine and pelagic longline tuna fisheries.  Substantial progress is being made at identifying gear technology solutions but more comprehensive consideration is necessary to identify conflicts and mutual benefits from mitigation methods.  There is a lack of performance standards along with inadequate observer coverage for all oceanic purse seiners and incomplete data collection, all of which hinder assessing measures efficacy. 

Gilman, E.L. 2011. Bycatch governance and best practice mitigation technology in global tuna fisheries, Marine Policy 35, 590–509

Future Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Fire Danger in Northeastern China

As a result of global climate change, many areas around the world will be more prone to increased wildfire activity. Wildfires will become more frequent, burn more intensely, and will burn larger areas; additionally, fire seasons (time periods during which fire is most active) will in many cases be observed for longer durations annually. In a study by Xiao-rui et al. (2011), projections of climate change effects on wildfire danger in the boreal forests of northeastern China were made for the remainder of the century. These future effects were weighed against and validated by historical regional climate data for the baseline period of 1961–1990. The purpose of the study was to prove that fire danger, fire activity, area burned, and fire season duration would all increase significantly over the next century. Xiao-rui et al. concluded that the above phenomena would in fact occur under two of four climate change scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) covering the period from 1991–2100.

–Lindon Pronto

Xiao-rui, T., Li-fu, S., Feng-jun, Z., Ming-yu, W., McRae, Douglas J., 2011. Future impacts of climate change on forest fire danger in northeastern Chin. Journal of Forestry Research 22, 437–446.

          The area chosen for this study encompassed three general areas of boreal forest in northeastern China, accounting for about 37% of the total forested area in the country. These areas were the Daxing’an Mountains, the Xiaoxing’an Mountains, and the Changbai Mountain forest region. The overall terrain consists of plains in the central area and mountains in the east and west. The study used a validation period of 30 years based on data available from the China Meteorological Data and Sharing Network, where 107 weather stations were located within the study area. Xiao-rui et al. chose to use the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System to analyze changes to fire danger and the fire season for future periods under IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) models A2 and B2. The FWI is calculated on the basis of six factors that shape the effect of fuel moisture and wind on fire behavior. The two models used from the IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios demonstrate an estimated global average surface temperature warming of 1.4–5.4°C between now and 2100. Both A2 and B2 fall under the “regionalization” scenario (heterogeneous world) where A2 is global temperature increase under a projected approach of regionally orientated economic development, while B2 is a projected approach of localized efforts of environmental sustainability (IPCC, 2007). Additionally projections were made for the overall time periods of a) 2020s, b) 2050s, and c) 2080s; sub-periods examined changes by individual decade. Data sets were illustrated under both A2 and B2 scenarios.

          For the study area, two peak times took place during each fire season. First, an approximately three-quarter percent of annual fires occurred during the spring season from March to May, while in the fall period in October, fewer than 10% occurred but accounted for nearly one-quarter of the annual area burned.  As a result of these findings, the study was adjusted to account for the two separate fire season peaks under both the A2 and B2 IPCC scenarios. The overall historical trend of the Fire Weather Index (FWI) was high in the spring, and relatively low in autumn; this correlates to future FWI projections, with a notable spike in the 2080s. Geographically, heightened FWI and fire activity were predicted for most of the region especially in the southeast, while few and temporary decreases in high risk fire days were observed. The east-central region exhibited the overall highest FWI values under both models by 2080. Also by 2080, the potential burned areas under scenario A2 are expected to increase by 10% in the spring peak and by 23% in autumn, while under B2 an increase of 18% and 35% respectively, was predicted. One of the more critical effects of global warming is the number of days of fire seasons. This study suggests that for northeastern China, the number of days that exhibit high or extreme fire danger may by 2080 increase by more than 20 days in the Daxing'an Mountains and Xiaoxing’an Mountains, and 41−60 days in the Changbai Mountain region. This trend is expected to be most obvious in the southeast and northwest regions.

The three most important factors that drive fire behavior are fuel, weather, and topography. An important element that was not accounted for in this study is the potential impact of 100 years of climate change on fuel type. The authors of this study suggest that in order to gain a clearer understanding for developing a fire management strategy, it is important that future research focus on incorporating additional effects of long-term climate change on successional vegetation changes in burned areas or areas of temperature induced plant regime shifts. In conclusion, Xiao-rui et al. contend that under the temperature increases outlined by the IPCC models, the threat of wildfires will increase, a greater area will be burned, and certain geographic areas will exhibit significantly lengthened annual periods of high FWI values during the peak spring and autumn fire season. The authors hope that this study can aide in shaping future fire management strategy and practice through knowledge of these future climate scenarios, such as through improving elements like prescribed burning and initial attack-phase fire suppression responses.

Other sources:

IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning,Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M.Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.