Category: Habitat Loss

Categories
Biodiversity Blog Climate Change Conservation Global Change Habitat Loss Pollution Research Water

Bye-bye mayfly: Can the burrowing mayfly’s decline serve as a warning system for the health of our environment?

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | February 6, 2020

Sally Entrekin Field
Sally Entrekin samples a stream in search of aquatic insects, including mayfly nymphs.

 

Mayflies have long been indicators of the ecological health of the lakes, rivers, and streams. The more mayflies present in water, the better the water quality.

But scientists from Virginia Tech and the University of Notre Dame recently discovered that a particular species — the burrowing mayfly — had a population decrease of nearly 84 percent from 2015 to 2019. The measurements, using radar, took place during the annual insect emergence events at Lake Erie, when the transition of almost 88 billion insects moving from the waterways to the air marks one of world’s largest annual insect emergence events.

Although it was previously impossible to analyze the emergence of the burrowing mayfly, researchers were finally able to do so by using meteorological radar data and new methods in tracking the presence of airborne creatures. By observing the swarms on a year-to-year basis, the data showed a shockingly simple trend: over the same timeframe and time of year, the mayfly swarms are growing smaller.

“This refined radar technology that allows for tracking and quantifying aquatic insect populations at such a large scale is instrumental in understanding land-water connections,” explained Sally Entrekin, an associate professor in the Department of Entomology in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The finding speaks to more than just the mayfly’s decline: It highlights the growing problem of insect decline and the cascading effects that has on ecosystems around the world.

“Radar technology — coupled with traditional field sampling — can start to address the scope and magnitude of insect declines from global change in aquatic ecosystems,” said Entrekin.

Entrekin and her colleagues, Phil Stepanian, Charlotte Wainwright, Djordje Mirkovic, Jennifer Tank, and Jeffrey Kelly, recently published their findings in the Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences.

The emergence is visually spectacular (where the skies are darkened by the shear mass of flying insects), but this event also represents a new availability of food for many creatures throughout the food chain, providing more than 3,000 tons of insects for consumption by birds and other land-based plants and animals.

Adult_mayfly
An adult burrowing mayfly. Image credit (also header image): Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org

 

Fish, birds, bats, and other animals consume the mayflies as a source of food and nutrients. Some insect-eating birds in these areas have synchronized breeding habits that coincide with mayfly emergence, and they rely on them as a high-quality food source for their young. These bird populations have also taken a downturn, which has been partially attributed to the lack of insects to eat, particularly aquatic insects.

Historically, negative human impacts on mayfly habitat has led to reductions and disappearances of the mayfly swarms. While conservation and habitat rehabilitation have helped to clean up the waterways and bring back the mayflies, in the Mississippi, Ohio, and Illinois rivers, as well as Lake Erie, efforts to bring back the mayfly swarms took nearly 20 years to reach their previous levels. As the research shows, it appears the swarms are once again declining.

Multiple stressors in these waterways attributed to human activity could be a reason for the reduction in mayfly populations. A warming climate puts more stress on certain aquatic environments, leading to decreased oxygen levels, which can result in fewer mayflies coming out of the water. Runoff from rivers into the warmer surface waters of Lake Erie, for instance, can cause algae blooms, which release toxins that these mayflies are especially susceptible to.

Another type of runoff from agricultural land carries commonly applied pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids, which can kill mayflies as immatures in the water. Even when these pesticides are present in nondeadly levels, they can negatively affect mayfly young by stunting their ability to reach adult stage. Many of these factors likely contribute to the decreasing mayfly populations, and policy and conservation efforts will be needed in order to change this trend.

Global insect population decline is an emerging topic that has sparked public awareness, however there are logistical challenges to analyzing these trends. Monitoring the life-cycle of the burrowing mayfly and other aquatic insects offers an early warning system for changes in our ecosystems.

This monitoring system is also applicable in other parts of the world where large aquatic emergence events occur, and it can be useful in pinpointing regions that would benefit from waterway conservation efforts or ecological rehabilitation efforts. With the impact the climate crisis is having on ecosystems, tracking the emergence of certain aquatic insects could serve to motivate and inform the public as to the effect humans are having on their local waterways.

 

Sally_Entrekin_and_lab
Sally Entrekin and her lab on a collecting trip

CONTACT:

James Mason
540-231-6826

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Blog Climate Change Conservation Faculty Spotlight Global Change Grants Habitat Loss

Scientists using collaborative NSF grant to understand hydrologic controls on carbon processes in wetlands

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | November 22, 2019

Wetlands play an important role in the carbon cycle, aiding in the storage and distribution of this crucial energy resource. Now a collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation will allow scientists to research the linkages between hydrological and carbon dynamics taking place in forested wetlands to better understand the role that these ecosystems plays in the export, storage, and emission of carbon.

“Wetlands are productive ecosystems, generating large amounts of vegetation biomass; at the same time, they also receive leaf fall and other carbon inputs from adjacent upland areas,” explained Daniel McLaughlin, assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment and principal investigator for the grant.

“They can then store that carbon in organic soil, emit it as carbon dioxide or methane, or export it as dissolved organic carbon to downstream waters, where it will contribute to aquatic food webs,” he continued. “While these wetland carbon processes are well recognized, less is known regarding how they are regulated by water storage and exchange within networks of multiple, interacting wetlands.”

With wetlands under threat from land use changes, it is crucial for scientists to understand how hydrology influences wetland carbon export and emissions in order to strengthen efforts to conserve and restore wetland ecosystems.

To that end, Virginia Tech scientists will be working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Alabama to study isolated wetlands in the Delmarva Peninsula area of Maryland.

“We’re focused on a particular type of wetland in the Delmarva Peninsula called Delmarva bays,” said McLaughlin, a faculty member in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation and an affiliate of the Virginia Water Resources Research Center. “These depressional wetlands are small and geographically isolated, dotting the Delmarva landscape.”

“This particular wetland-rich landscape is a good representation of other regions where small wetlands dominate, interact, and have a cumulative effect on landscape-scale water and carbon cycling. Our work hopes to broadly inform wetland management in Delmarva and in other wetland-rich regions,” he added.

Co-principal investigator Erin Hotchkiss, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in Virginia Tech’s College of Science, said that the project will use methods and knowledge from multiple disciplines to provide a comprehensive understanding of wetland dynamics.

“I’m excited this project includes collaborators whose strengths are in hydrology, ecology, and biogeochemistry,” said Hotchkiss, an affiliate of the Global Change Center housed in the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. “These fields have great potential to inform one another, but we don’t often collaborate across disciplines. This project is an exciting opportunity to understand how water and carbon move through wetland landscapes through multiple research angles.”

The project will use state-of-the-art sensors to collect data, making simultaneous measurements of water storage and water exchange, dissolved organic carbon, and CO2 and CH4 emissions. These sensors will allow researchers to gather high-frequency measurements that will capture the relationship between carbon processes and wetland hydrology in real time.

Co-principal investigator Durelle Scott, associate professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering, which is in both the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering, said that this effort has broader ramifications for reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

“When we restore wetlands, we’re often focused on restoring the hydrology and the habitat, but it’s important to also consider wetlands as a place for carbon sequestration,” said Scott, also an affiliate of the Global Change Center. “Our work will help inform the practice of restoration so these efforts can be strategic and holistic in terms of taking into account all of the variables we have to consider for successful outcomes.”

Grant funding from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Environmental Biology totaling almost $1 million is split between Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland.

— Written by David Fleming

Related story

CONTACT:

Krista Timney
540-231-6157

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Blog Climate Change Conservation Faculty Spotlight Global Change Habitat Loss

Using data to predict the future of ecosystems

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | November 13, 2019

Through its Data + Decisions Destination Area, Virginia Tech inventively interweaves data science into its curriculum. Meet a faculty member using data in novel and world-changing ways.

During the 21st century, citizens around the world will continue to face grand environmental challenges, including climate change, land use, and invasive species. How we deal with and adapt to these ecological challenges will have global implications.

Associate Professor Quinn Thomas of the College of Natural Resources and Environment is a quantitative ecosystem ecologist using data to tackle these issues. His research focuses on understanding how forests and other ecosystems will respond to global environmental change. By harnessing the power of supercomputers, he is able to combine decades of field observations with mathematical models to forecast how forests will grow in the future.

He’s also leading a team of researchers who will be creating a new Ecological Forecasting Initiative Research Coordination Network, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, which will bring together scientists, government officials, and stakeholders working on environmental issues.

“The end goal is to think about ecological forecasting like weather forecasting. It’s a tool used in decision-making and we want people to be able to rely on it,” said Thomas, a faculty member in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation and a Global Change Center affiliate. “Unlike a long-range climate change model, ecological forecasting models are deliberately built on shorter time scales — daily to decadal, for instance — to help people understand changes and act now.”


Related stories


CONTACT:

Krista Timney
540-231-6157

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Climate Change Conservation Habitat Loss Ideas News

Conservationists get a billion dollars. Here’s how it may help.

From National Geographic
BY SARAH GIBBENS  |  OCTOBER 31

Humans are rapidly taming the world’s wild places.

In the past century, nearly 80 percent of all land has been modified or impacted by human development. As a result, other species have rapidly declined. One study estimates animals are going extinct 1,000 times faster than they would have without human influence.

To fight that growing trend, conservation groups are increasingly turning to converting biologically rich lands into conservation plots like national parks and marine protected areas. Today, the Wyss Foundation, a charity focused on protecting wild places, announced they are donating $1 billion to launch the Wyss Campaign for Nature.

Hansjörg Wyss says the money will go toward a U.N. goal to protect 30 percent of the Earth by 2030. Wyss is partnering with the National Geographic Society, the Nature Conservancy, and Argentine conservation group Fundacion Flora y Fauna.

How will the donation work?

One of the four initiatives under the campaign will focus on empowering local groups to take up stewardship of their land in their region.

Marine protected areas are on the of the most effective ways to protect biodiversity and ensure the health of fisheries. Photography by Tim Calver.

A Nature study published earlier this year showed that indigenous groups, despite only comprising five percent of the global population, manage 38 million square kilometers of land. By empowering these groups, environmentalists say wild areas will be better protected from outside influences like industrial development.

President of Fundacion Flora y Fauna Sofia Heinonen says the group is currently in the process of buying land containing Argentinian mountain glaciers that provide drinking water to those living in the region. With the Wyss donation, the group will also train local community leaders and create more eco-tourism opportunities.

In addition to purchasing biodiverse wilderness areas to be managed by national parks and conservation groups, the campaign will fund science that supports conservation measures, lead awareness campaigns, and lobby international governmental groups to raise targets.

Mark Tercek, CEO of the Nature Conservancy, says these targets will be discussed at the upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity “conference of the parties,” or COP, where these groups set targets.

In addition to a COP coming up later this month in Egypt, Tercek says groups are already looking toward a 2020 COP, when major new targets for the next decade will be set.

“We’re behind schedule,” he says of where conservation should be. “Announcing this [Wyss] campaign should help global leaders at the 2020 COP get serious about meeting targets.”

In an op-ed published this morning in the New York Times, Wyss touted the “Half Earth” campaign created by famed biologist E.O. Wilson. The campaign aims to set aside half the planet for conservation, a move the E.O. Wilson foundation says would preserve species and generate ecological benefits.

Other initiatives under the new Wyss campaign will focus on creating awareness campaigns and scientific research.

Helping people understand why nature is important and having the resources to do so are two of the biggest conservation roadblocks, says chief scientist at the National Geographic Society Jonathan Baillie.

What is there to gain?

Setting aside land for conservation will contribute to fighting climate change, environmental groups concluded earlier this year at a conference in San Francisco. Large, forested regions like the Amazon rain forest act as carbon sinks, sucking carbon out of the atmosphere.

Many of the last remaining wild places are in the far northern reaches of the U.S., Canada, and Russia. Photography by Wiliam Albert, National Geographic.

Wilderness also benefits many species, including human beings.

“The objective is to make sure we don’t have mass extinctions and to make sure we have ecological services,” says Baillie referring to benefits nature can provide like keeping air and water clean.

Earlier this week, a newly published World Wildlife Fund report argued that wildlife has declined by 60 percent globally in the past 40 years. Habitat loss is one of the biggest drivers of that species decline, in addition to climate change and pollution.

By hitting the U.N.’s 2030 goal and ultimately E.O. Wilson’s Half Earth goal, Baillie says conservationists are hoping they can stop that rapid decline.

[hr]