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Tag: Biology

Due to Climate Change, More Animals will Become Extinct Outside of Nature Reserves than Within Them

Written by AUFTAU on . Posted in Newsroom.

According to int’l study surveying more than 14,000 species of amphibians and reptiles.

A new international study has found that amphibians and reptiles inhabiting the world’s nature reserves, or Protected Areas (PAs), will be better protected against climate change than species found outside of these areas, but are still likely to be harmed.

The research findings provide evidence, on a global scale, of the crucial role Protected Areas play in conserving amphibian and reptile biodiversity under human-induced climate change scenarios. The study reveals that more animals will become extinct because of climate change outside of Protected Areas than inside them — in the world in general and on most individual continents.

Protected Areas as Refuges

Prof. Shai Meiri of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History took part in the study, in collaboration with leading researchers from 19 countries. The study was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

 

“Approximately 91% of the amphibian and reptile species we examined are protected, to some degree, in Protected Areas, and this proportion will remain unchanged under future climate change.” – Prof. Shai Meiri

 

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of existing Protected Areas in protecting the amphibians and reptiles living within them under future climate scenarios, as well as to identify conservation gaps in order to outline a road map for the development of conservation actions based on the current global network of Protected Areas.

“In this study, we collected distribution data for more than 14,000 species of amphibians and reptiles — about 70% of the known species — to perform a global assessment of the conservation effectiveness of Protected Areas in an era of climate change, using species distribution models,” explains Prof. Meiri. “Our analyses revealed that approximately 91% of the amphibian and reptile species we examined are protected, to some degree, in Protected Areas, and that this proportion will remain unchanged under future climate change. Furthermore, species protected in Protected Areas will lose smaller portions of their distribution ranges inside the nature reserve than outside of them. Therefore, the proportion of species within reserves is expected to increase.”

Relative Optimism

However, Prof. Meiri points out, “We predict that more than 300 of the amphibian species and 500 of the reptile species we studied will become extinct due to climate change in the coming decades, and probably also hundreds of species for which we did not have sufficient data to model. Our research highlights the importance of Protected Areas in providing refuge for amphibians and reptiles in face of climate change and points out areas where there are not enough nature reserves that can better preserve biodiversity around the world.”

 

“Despite the relative optimism emerging from the new research, the models still predict extremely high rates of loss of species and habitats due to climate change. Protected Areas do indeed protect the animals living within them, but nothing is foolproof.” – Prof. Shai Meiri

 

He adds: “We compiled a comprehensive global database with more than 3.5 million observation records spanning 5,403 amphibian species and 8,993 reptile species from online databases, fieldwork data, museum collections, and published references. For all species in our database, we predicted habitat availability according to current (1960–1990) climate data and future scenarios (for the years 2060–2080) at a high spatial resolution (1 km × 1 km) using species distribution models. Then, we evaluated the effectiveness of Protected Areas in conserving amphibians and reptiles by calculating the coverage of their distribution range inside and outside of Protected Areas, as well as the proportion of species for whom a significant portion of their distribution range (for example, 15% or 30%) is protected in PAs under current and future climate conditions (assuming that the future use of the land remains unchanged over the years — that is, that there will be no conversion of nature reserves into agricultural, industrial, or urban areas.)”

Prof. Meiri concludes: “Our evidence shows that the current global network of Protected Areas already plays an important role in preserving the global biodiversity of amphibians and reptiles, and will continue to do so under the expected future climate. However, many species do not live in the existing Protected Areas. These include, for example, many amphibians and reptiles in Mexico, Jamaica, the Andes, West Africa, South Africa, the southern and northern coast of Turkey, Yemen and other places. Moreover, in our study we could create a model for only about two-thirds of reptile and amphibian species. Good models can’t be created for the rarest species, which are known to be more vulnerable to extinction and less protected in Protected Areas. At the same time, it is important to remember that despite the relative optimism emerging from the new research, the models still predict extremely high rates of loss of species and habitats due to climate change. Protected Areas do indeed protect the animals living within them, but nothing is foolproof.”

Research based on a comprehensive study of 8,000 birds in Israel

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Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers say that climate change may be responsible for changes in the morphology of many birds in Israel over the past 70 years. The body mass of some species decreased while in others body length increased, in both cases increasing the ratio between surface area and volume. The researchers contend that these are strategies to facilitate heat loss to the environment.

“The birds evidently changed in response to the changing climate,” the researchers concluded. “However, this solution may not be fully adequate, especially as temperatures continue to rise.”

The study was led by Professor Shai Meiri and PhD student Shahar Dubiner of the School of Zoology, Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at TAU. The paper was published in the scientific journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Professor Meiri explains that according to “Bergmann’s rule,” an ecogeographical rule formulated in the 19th century, members of bird and mammal species living in a cold climate tend to be larger than members of the same species living in a warmer climate. This is because the ratio of surface area to volume is higher in smaller animals, permitting more heat loss (an advantage in warm regions), and lower in larger bodies, minimizing heat loss (a benefit in colder climates). Based on this rule, scientists have predicted that global warming will lead to a reduction in animal size, with a possible exception: birds living in the human environment (such as pigeons, house sparrows, and the hooded crow) may gain size due to increased food availability, a phenomenon already witnessed in mammals such as jackals and wolves.

Relying on the vast bird collection preserved by the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at TAU, the researchers looked for changes in bird morphology over the past 70 years in Israel. They examined approximately 8,000 adult specimens of 106 different species, including migratory birds that annually pass through Israel such as the common chiffchaff, white stork, and black buzzard; resident wild birds like the Eurasian jay, Eurasian eagle-owl, and rock partridge; and commensal birds that live near humans. They built a complex statistical model consisting of various parameters to assess morphological changes — in the birds’ body mass, body length and wing length — during the relevant period.

“Our findings revealed a complicated picture,” Dubiner says. “We identified two different types of morphological changes: some species had become lighter – their mass had decreased while their body length remained unchanged; while others had become longer – their body length had increased, while their mass remained unchanged. These together represent more than half of the species examined, but there was practically no overlap between the two groups – almost none of the birds had become both lighter and longer.

“We think that these are two different strategies for coping with the same problem, namely the rising temperatures. In both cases, the surface area to volume ratio is increased by either increasing the numerator or reducing the denominator, which helps the body lose heat to its environment. The opposite, namely a decrease in this ratio, was not observed in any of the species.”

These findings were observed across the country, regardless of nutrition, and in all types of species. A difference was identified, however, between the two strategies: changes in body length tended to occur more in migrants, while changes in body mass were more typical of non-migratory birds. The very fact that such changes were found in migratory birds coming from Asia, Europe, and Africa suggests that this is a global phenomenon. The study also found that the impact of climate change over time on bird morphology is 10 times greater than the impact of similar differences in temperature between geographical areas.

“Our findings indicate that global warming causes fast and significant changes in bird morphology,” Dubiner concludes. “But what are the implications of these changes? Should we be concerned? Is this a problem, or rather an encouraging ability to adapt to a changing environment? Such morphological changes over a few decades probably do not represent an evolutionary adaptation, but rather certain phenotypic flexibility exhibited by the birds. We are concerned that over such a short period of time, there is a limit to the flexibility or evolutionary potential of these traits, and the birds might run out of effective solutions as temperatures continue to rise.”

Inventive Study to Develop Biological Solutions for Agriculture

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TAU and ag-biotech company PlantArcBio to collaborate on development of RNAi-based products.

Genetically improved plants can be a real-life magic stick for solving global famine issues. In a first-of-its-kind study, Ramot, the Technology Transfer Company of Tel Aviv University will cooperate with ag-biotech company PlantArcBio to develop innovative RNAi-based biological solutions for agriculture.

RNAi technology enables a temporary external disruption of RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules, diminishing the amount of Messenger RNA (mRNA), thus temporarily reducing the expression of specific genes, without modifying or genetically engineering the organism’s DNA. Externally applied RNAi molecules affect specific genes for a specific time period, as required for positive effects like crop protection and yield enhancement. 

Specifically, the research will focus on testing the joint technology’s contribution to the stability of RNAi-based products and their ability to penetrate plants and insects.

Joining Forces

The first-of-its-kind joint study will examine the efficacy of PlantArcBio‘s RNAi technology for agriculture, combined with the unique lipid-based RNA delivery technology developed by Prof. Dan Peer, TAU’s Vice President for R&D, head of the Center for Translational Medicine and a member of both the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and a pioneer using RNA to manipulate cells in cancer and other immune related diseases.  

 

Prof. Dan Peer

“We see great value in contributing to the development of RNAi-based products addressing global issues and providing an ecological and environmentally friendly solution to the global challenges of sustainability in agriculture and food security,” says Peer.

Keren Primor Cohen, CEO of Ramot, believes there is “extensive commercial potential for this combined technology” and welcomes the collaboration with PlantArcBio.

The research will be carried out both at PlantArcBio‘s Laboratories and at Prof. Dan Peer’s Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine at Tel Aviv University. According to Dror Shalitin, Founder and CEO of PlantArcBio, the results are expected within approximately 12 months.

Tiny insects become “visible” to bats when they swarm

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3-D simulations could provide new insights into the evolution of bat echolocation, TAU researchers say

Bats use echolocation to hunt insects, many of which fly in swarms. In this process, bats emit a sound signal that bounces off the target object, revealing its location. Smaller insects like mosquitos are individually hard to detect through echolocation, but a new Tel Aviv University study reveals that they become perceptible when they gather in large swarms. The findings could provide new insights into the evolution of bat echolocation and explain why tiny insects are found in the diets of bats that seem to use sound frequencies that are too high to effectively detect them. The new research was conducted by Dr. Arjan Boonman and Prof. Yossi Yovel at TAU’s Department of Zoology and colleagues at Canada’s Western University. It was published in PLOS Computational Biology on December 12.

Modeling bat vision

Few studies have addressed what swarms of insects — as opposed to single insects — “look” like to bats. To find out, Dr. Boonman and colleagues combined three-dimensional computer simulations of insect swarms with real-world measurements of bat echolocation signals to examine how bats sense swarms that vary in size and density. They found that small insects that are undetectable on their own, such as mosquitos, suddenly become “visible” to bats when they gather in large swarms. They also discovered that the fact that bats use signals with multiple frequencies is well suited to the task of detecting insect swarms. These signals appear to be ideal for detecting an object if more than one target falls inside the echolocation signal beam at once. “Using simulations, we investigated something that could never have been measured in reality,” Dr. Boonman says. “Modeling enabled us to have full control over any aspect of an insect swarm, even the full elimination of the shape of each insect within the swarm.”

From insects to drones

The insect model the researchers used has a tiny mesh (skeleton) and minuscule legs and wings. “We are still adding new features, such as the bat’s acoustic beam or ears, which were not in the original model,” says Prof. Yovel. “We also developed a faster version of the algorithm. All of this will open a new world for us in which we can get echoes even from entire landscapes, so we can learn what a bat or sonar-robot would ‘see’ much more quickly.” The study could also affect technology being developed to improve defense systems. “The algorithms developed for this study could potentially be applied to radar echoes of drone swarms in order to lower the probability of detection by enemy radar,” Dr. Boonman explains. “Since drones are playing an ever more prominent role in warfare, our biological study could spawn new ideas for the defense industry.”

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