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Headlines from week beginning 29 February 2016 |
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A round up of the top countryside, conservation, wildlife and forestry stories as chosen by the CJS Team.
Tackling fresh invasive species threat must be a government priority
– National Trust Today (Monday 29 Feb) marks the start of Invasives
Week, which aims to raise awareness of the huge problem of invasive
non-native species like the American Signal crayfish. During Invasives Week conservation organisations led by Wildlife &
Countryside Link will be pressing the UK government to do more to work
alongside other European Union member states to prevent the spread of
invasive species across the continent. According to Dr David Bullock, Head of Nature Conservation, invasive
species are a growing problem for the National Trust. “Dealing with
invasive species at our places costs the National Trust thousands of
pounds every year. As a conservation charity looking after 250,000
hectares of countryside, 775 miles of coastline and hundreds of ponds,
lakes and rivers, we’re very aware of the impact of invasive species on
our native wildlife.” Attempts to control invasive species at National Trust have met with
varying success:
Continuing to keep places like Lundy free of invasive non-native
predators is vital, warns David Bullock.
New breakthrough in fight against lethal amphibian disease –
Zoological Society of London Amphibians have been treated in the wild for the first time against
the global chytridiomycosis (‘chytrid’) pandemic currently devastating
their populations worldwide, as part of a pioneering study led by
scientists from international conservation charity the Zoological
Society of London (ZSL).
Published in the journal Biological Conservation and conducted in
partnership with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the University
of Kent, Chester Zoo and the Government of Montserrat, the paper
describes how the established antifungal drug itraconazole can be used
to treat amphibians in the wild during periods of particular risk from
chytrid outbreaks. Frogs were individually washed for five minutes at a
time in a bag containing the anti-fungal bath. While this measure was
not ultimately able to stop them dying, the paper demonstrates that this
technique has potential to greatly extend the likely time to extinction
for any given amphibian population in the face of epidemic disease. Caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd),
this chytrid variant has so far infected more than 600 amphibian species
globally – causing population declines, extirpations or extinctions in
over 200 of these and representing the greatest disease-driven loss of
biodiversity ever recorded. Whilst captive breeding programmes offer
hope for some, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
currently estimates that even with the cooperation of the global
zoological community, only around 50 species could potentially be saved
from extinction through this approach. Proven, field-based methods will
therefore play a vital role in mitigating the risk posed by this
disease.
Scottish Wildlife Trust & Buglife Scotland call for permanent ban on
damaging insecticides – Scottish Wildlife Trust The Scottish Wildlife Trust and Buglife Scotland are leading a
campaign calling for a permanent ban on three neonicotinoid insecticides
in Scotland because of the detrimental effects on bees and other wild
pollinators. As part of the campaign, a roundtable discussion will be held at the
Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 1 March, sponsored by Graeme Dey MSP,
where speakers will discuss the evidence regarding the harmful effect
certain neonicotinoids can have on bees and other wildlife. The event is intended to inform MSPs of the issues surrounding
neonicotinoids, including how farmers and other commercial growers could
cut down on all pesticide use by moving towards systems that benefit
wildlife, improve long-term farm health and safeguard food production. The Scottish Wildlife Trust, Buglife Scotland and other leading
conservation charities in Scotland have written to the Cabinet
Secretary, Richard Lochhead MSP calling for the temporary EU ban to be
made permanent for all crops in Scotland. A two-year EU moratorium banning three of these neonicotinoid
pesticides is currently being reviewed in light of new research. The
Scottish Government, in its response to the campaign, says that it
supports the EU precautionary approach, but states that it does not yet
have enough scientific evidence at the right scale to know if there is a
strong enough effect on the health of honeybee colonies, the abundance
and viability of wild pollinator populations or the pollination services
they provide. Dr Maggie Keegan, Head of Policy at the Scottish Wildlife Trust said:
“There is a huge body of evidence, which cannot be ignored, showing that
certain neonicotinoids are harmful to bees and other wild pollinators.
Pollinators are invaluable to Scotland’s ecosystems and must be
protected. The Trust believes the most harmful groups of neonicotinoids
– clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam - should be permanently
banned for use on all crops.”
UK river flow data now web accessible – Centre for Ecology &
Hydrology Decades’ worth of river flow data have been made freely available
over the web for the first time on the UK’s National River Flow Archive. The National River Flow Archive has today (29 February 2016) released
an expanded data download facility which allows users to download
Image: CEH Dr Harry Dixon from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Head of the
NRFA, said, “The expanded download facility launched today is an
important step in making our data holdings more accessible to users.
Ever since the first surface water yearbooks were published in the 1930s
by the Inland Water Survey, the national archive has a adopted a
principle of openly publishing high quality river flow data for use by
researchers, practitioners and the general public. Today’s launch of
improved web-access to NRFA data continues this tradition. We are
currently working to develop a set of web-services to provide dynamic
access to our key datasets and hope to launch these later in 2016.”
New
research shows climate change will endanger many species previously
believed to be not at risk – University of Aberdeen New research from the University of Aberdeen has shown that insects
in high-latitude ecosystems such as Scotland are just as at risk from
climate change as tropical species. It was previously believed that insects in the tropics and deserts
were the most at risk species from climate change and that high-latitude
species were not endangered. However a new study, which is published
today in Nature Climate Change, has shown that only recently arrived
high-latitude species, such as agricultural pests and disease vectors,
will be able to withstand future levels of warming at high latitudes. This is because these recently arrived species retain thermal
tolerances to the warmer climates from which they originated. For
example, insects such as fruitflies, mealworm beetles, and invasive
termites have only recently colonized higher latitudes as a result of
human activities, and these insects therefore have broad tolerances to
warming which will buffer them against future climate change. In contrast, species native to high latitudes will in fact suffer
worse declines than comparable species in the tropics, because these
endemic, high-latitude species have very narrow thermal tolerances (very
low warming tolerances), similar to the low warming tolerances exhibited
by threatened tropical species.
Government's £1m funding injection saves wildlife crime unit for next
four years – Police Professional
Livestock Worrying Incidents Highest for Six Years – National
Farmers Union Scotland Industry-wide campaigns to be launched to raise awareness
Has MPA management compromised the fate of the common skate? – Save
Scottish Seas Our campaigners ask whether enough is being done to protect the
refuge of one of the world’s most endangered fish…
Some areas – once identified as potentially crucial to the recovery
of the common skate – will now remain open seasonally to bottom-towed
fishing. These ‘derogations’ were called for mainly by those working in
the mobile sector of the fishing industry. However, they were not
supported by all fishermen and commercial interests. Others –
including static fishermen and scallop divers – had hoped that these
areas would be included in a full ban on mobile fishing to give the
seabed a chance to recover, as well as improving the commercial and
recreational fishing opportunities and access. Amongst these
‘derogations,’ a small group of islands known as the Green Isles (north
of Salen), which are surrounded by fragile underwater reefs, have been
left open to scallop dredging and are just two kilometres outside of the
zone prohibiting bottom-towed fishing – despite serious concerns
expressed via public consultation.
Strong support from South West MPs as threatened species get new
champions - Buglife
Nine MPs from across the South West are lending their political
support to help our region’s wildlife - by adopting threatened species
in a new Species Champions initiative. Iconic and threatened English species are being ‘adopted’ by MPs
across England, who are acting as ‘Species Champions’ to help improve
the species future. From the Skylark to the Shrill carder-bee, 20
English species currently facing significant threats have been
identified and put up for adoption. The initiative was launched this month by the a coalition of seven
nature NGOs - RSPB, Butterfly Conservation, Bumblebee Conservation
Trust, Buglife, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, Plantlife and Bat
Conservation Trust. This follows a successful model in Scotland, and a
trial in the South West of England in 2014.
Scientific publications Davis, C. A., Churchwell, R. T., Fuhlendorf, S. D., Engle, D. M. &
Hovick, T. J. (2016)
Effect of pyric herbivory on source–sink dynamics in grassland birds.
Journal of Applied Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12641
Grogan, L. F. et al (2016)
Endemicity of chytridiomycosis features pathogen overdispersion.
Journal of Animal Ecology DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12500
Holden, M. H., Nyrop, J. P. & Ellner, S. P. (2016)
The economic benefit of time-varying surveillance effort for invasive
species management. Journal of Applied Ecology
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12617
Martinig, A. R. & Bélanger-Smith, K. (2016)
Factors influencing the discovery and use of wildlife passages for small
fauna. Journal of Applied Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12616
Pander, J. & Geist, J. (2016)
Can fish habitat restoration for rheophilic species in highly modified
rivers be sustainable in the long run? Ecological Engineering.
doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.12.006
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CJS is not responsible for content of external sites. Details believed correct but given without prejudice. Disclaimer: the views expressed in these news pages do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of CJS. |
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Mountain
chicken frog (Chester Zoo)
data
from all the gauging stations held on the national archive. Previously,
only data for around 400 gauging stations were accessible for direct
download from the NRFA website, with the remaining 1,100 or so requiring
users to contact the NRFA by telephone or email to retrieve information
and data. The full station data release means river flow records for
around 1,500 gauging stations totalling 59,000 years’ of daily data, are
now available to download directly from the NRFA website.
An
eleventh-hour Government lifeline has saved Britain’s world-leading
police unit dedicated to wildlife crime from becoming an endangered
species. 
Described
sometimes as the Giant Panda of the sea, the Common skate is a
critically endangered species – and one of its last strongholds is in
our deep sea lochs on the West coast. However, the latest Scottish
Government measures introduced to protect this majestic, but sadly
all-too-rare creature, whilst a major step forward, are still at risk of
being jeopardised by short-termist compromise.-John%20Walters-4.jpg)
Image:
Nothophantes horridus 1 (c) John Walters
