Dispatches

Abstract

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will soon transform how ecologists conduct species counts, monitor changing environmental conditions, or detect invasive species – and US Geological Survey (USGS) researchers are leading the way. The USGS Unmanned Aircraft Systems Projects Office is exploring civilian applications for UAS, ranging from the 4-pound Raven to the 18-pound Honeywell T-Hawk, originally developed for military use. Until 2014, the team is conducting proof-of-concept flights to determine the capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and safety of using UAS to support US Department of Interior initiatives. For example, conducting a thermal image inventory of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) via UAS costs one-third as much as doing so using manned aircraft. Another project, assessing pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) habitat in Idaho, relies on UAS to document land cover and, by adding a near infrared sensor, also assesses the nutritional quality of the rabbit's plant diet. “The UAS fills the gap between labor-intensive ground measures, which don't provide the landscape heterogeneity detail, and the lower-resolution data available from satellite imagery”, says Jennifer Forbey, a biologist at Boise State University (Boise, ID). “We were able to survey a square kilometer of habitat in just a couple of hours”, she adds. The biggest hurdle, according to Forbey, is getting airtime. UAS images used to distinguish vegetation types around Florida's Lake Okeechobee. “We are seeing a huge increase in interest as word gets out about UAS capabilities”, says UAS project manager Mike Hutt (USGS; Denver, CO), who explains that “the real milestone in taking this technology from proof of concept to use by the everyday ecologist will come in 2015, when the rules, regulations, safety and risk analyses required by the Federal Aviation Administration are all done.” Other USGS researchers have built their own UAS from scratch. Franklin Percival, a biologist with the USGS Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (Gainesville, FL), has spent 12 years testing systems able to take tightly georeferenced, high-resolution imagery needed to effectively detect individual brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) nests. Percival says the technology may not yet be ideal for conducting surveys in topographically complex landscapes or over an extended range, but, he says, the possibilities are endless. “This is tomorrow's tool”, he concludes. At hundreds of US coal-fired power plants, runoff and seepage from coal ash “ponds” frequently pollute groundwater and nearby habitats with selenium, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other contaminants. Since 1967, several devastating accidents have occurred at such impoundments, poisoning hundreds of kilometers of waterways and leading to massive fish kills, local species extinctions, and other harmful consequences. A new study (Environ Sci Technol 2012; doi:10.1021/es301467q) documents the pollutant-related toll on wildlife and urges that new regulations fully consider the ecological effects and ban this means of coal-waste disposal. Currently, power plants must obtain federal permits for operating some 630 coal-waste storage reservoirs nationwide. That waste, however, is not technically regulated as “hazardous”, and environmental monitoring is voluntary. According to Dennis Lemly (US Forest Service, Winston-Salem, NC) and his coauthor, this arrangement has failed to protect natural resources. The latest catastrophe – widely covered in the media – was a 2008 spill in Tennessee that released roughly 4.4 million cubic meters of ash, laden with 3000 metric tons of heavy metals, across the surrounding landscape and into the nearby Emory River. Now, a new policy proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would regulate coal ash waste as hazardous. However, the preferred alternative for disposal would continue to allow surface impoundments, albeit equipped with liners designed to protect groundwater. But, says Lemly, such liners are subject to physical damage and would have little effect on surface leaching, runoff, and discharges to waterways. Moreover, the EPA's cost–benefit analysis of disposal options ignores the related environmental toll. To address this omission, the researchers evaluated ecological impacts over the past 45 years at 21 impoundment sites – a small fraction of the locations where damage has occurred. Their tabulation of the costs of restoring fisheries, aquatic habitats, and other affected resources topped $2.3 billion. The analysis further showed that the economic burden of continuing to allow wet disposal of waste would approach $3.85 billion over the next 50 years – an amount sufficient to construct 257 state-of-the-art landfills, the only safe alternative according to the authors. The electric utility industry vigorously opposes regulating coal ash waste as hazardous and requiring mandatory landfill disposal, arguing that both would be unduly burdensome. “Our commentary is a voice for fish and wildlife in the debate”, Lemly says. “We maintain that ignoring the past 45 years of wildlife poisoning and allowing it to continue is even more unduly burdensome to the environment, and is also unethical.” Member states of the European Union (EU) have until 14 February 2014 to align their domestic laws with new regulations on electronic waste (e-waste), according to an update to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive that took effect in mid-August. The new directive requires that, starting in 2016, EU member states must collect 45% of electronic equipment sold. The collection target will increase after 2019, when member states can choose to meet the requirement of collecting either 65% of equipment sold or 85% of e-waste generated. The directive will also require retail stores to collect and recycle used electronic items, at no cost to the consumer. Although retailers cannot charge consumers directly for collection and recycling of their e-waste, consumers should be mindful of their purchases, warns Joseph Hennon, Environment Spokesman for the European Commission (Brussels, Belgium). “The EU WEEE directive is based on the principle of producer responsibility, to give producers an incentive to take waste costs into account and to design products as sustainably as possible. Nevertheless, producers clearly try to pass on the costs, and that is fair; consumers should feel the burden if buying a very environmentally expensive product and should take that fully into account when making their purchasing decisions.” Tatiana Terekhova, Program Officer for the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions, UN Environment Programme (Geneva, Switzerland), explains that more stringent e-waste recycling regulations will reduce the environmental impacts of poor recycling practices and provide socioeconomic opportunities for proper recyclers, especially in developing countries. “Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) contains hazardous substances as well as materials of strategic value, such as indium and palladium, and precious metals like gold, copper, and silver, which can be recovered and recycled. These materials can serve as a valuable source of secondary raw materials, reducing pressure on scarce natural resources while minimizing the overall environmental footprint. Optimized EEE recycling could be a key area of sustainable e-waste management in that it has the potential to reduce negative environmental impacts, generate jobs, and promote sustainable incomes.” Two new studies examine how various animal species are moving – or not moving – in response to a changing climate. The first focuses on the rapid decline of the Belding's ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi), a burrowing rodent well-known to hikers in the western US (Proc R Soc B 2012; doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1301). According to Toni Lyn Morelli, USDA Forest Service researcher (Kinsasha, DR Congo) and lead author of the study, the Belding's ground squirrel has disappeared from more than 40% of its range. “This ground squirrel is a potential indicator of the health of fragile and ecologically important meadow habitats. Its disappearance from a large portion of its southern range, not from direct habitat loss but apparently due to climate change, is alarming”, says Morelli. Despite the decline, the remaining Belding's ground squirrels have adapted to the changes in small ways. Morelli and colleagues identified “anthropogenic refugia” where the squirrels “were unexpectedly persisting, despite high temperatures, at a few low-elevation sites – such as campgrounds or agricultural fields –modified by people through the provision of food or water”. However, Morelli admits that the squirrels may not be responding fast enough to ensure their long-term survival. The mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides) shifted its range upslope in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains. The second study compared historical and recent surveys of almost 100 different bird species in California's Sierra Nevada mountains, an area experiencing an average 1–2°C increase in temperature over the past century (Glob Change Biol 2012; doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02784.x). The researchers discovered that two opposing influences – air temperature and changing precipitation regimes – impacted the birds' movements. “We found many changes to the elevational ranges of bird species: 84% of all species showed range shifts, but these were split between upslope and downslope directions. Based on the region's actual change in climate over the past 100 years, temperature did not explain all of these shifts”, explains Morgan Tingley, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) and lead author of the study. “Only when we included precipitation did our models adequately explain the movement patterns we observed, with temperature largely pushing species up and precipitation pulling them down.” Overall, the pace of adaptation varied by species and even by individuals within species. Both studies highlight the uncertainty associated with animal adaptation to changing climatic conditions. As Morelli points out, “We know that species are responding in different ways to anthropogenic climate change, and we need detailed studies to predict how ecosystems will look in the future and to help increase species' resilience.” Scientists have struggled to quantify atmospheric CO2 emissions from tropical deforestation. Accurate emissions estimates are crucial to understanding global carbon (C) cycles and creating reliable greenhouse-gas inventories. Now, researchers have combined detailed maps of deforestation and biomass to more accurately predict C emissions from deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The area of forest destroyed annually in Brazil has shrunk from 27 million km2 in 2004 to 7 million km2 in 2010, according to findings reported online in August (Global Change Biol 2012; doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02782.x). “The decline is due to a combination of market forces and government policy”, explains Ana Paula Aguiar, a land-use modeller at the National Instiute for Space Research (São José dos Campos, Brazil) and lead author of the study. Amazon forests account for 10% of terrestrial primary productivity. Experts say Brazil has one of the best satellite-based systems for tracking deforestation. To convert the extent of forest destroyed each year into C emissions, previous studies supplied an average value for biomass as well as the amount of CO2 released when trees burn and the remaining woody debris gradually decomposes. But biomass distribution in the Amazon forest is heterogeneous. “So we decided to take the existing deforestation maps and combine them with spatially explicit biomass maps to get a more accurate estimate of carbon emissions”, Aguiar says. The researchers ran their emissions model with four different biomass maps and found, on average, that C emissions dropped from 1010 Tg CO2 to 543 Tg CO2 between 2004 and 2009. But the annual emissions estimates generated through those maps varied by as much as 20%. “This study points out the need for better biomass maps”, says Josef Kellndorfer, a physical geographer with the Woods Hole Research Center (Woods Hole, MA), a non-profit research organization. The study confirms earlier findings that deforestation is moving into areas of higher biomass. And even though total C emissions are declining, emissions per hectare are increasing, warns Aguiar. If deforestation were to rise again, C emissions could increase faster than they have in the past, she adds. The new data are also helpful for managing C stores by indicating what parts of the landscape are most important to protect if the aim is to prevent C release, Kellndorfer explains. “This paper shows that Brazil is moving in the right direction, by combining deforestation and biomass maps to get a better picture of carbon flux”. Recent outbreaks of zoonoses like SARS and H1N1 have highlighted the risk of disease transmission from animals to humans. But while epidemiologists know that closely related species are more likely to exchange parasites and pathogens, new research is demonstrating that factors other than relatedness can also be important in determining whether an animal species shares its diseases with humans. In a study published online in August (Ecol Lett 2012; doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01858.x), scientists report the results of a comprehensive analysis aimed at estimating the proportion of parasites that several non-human primate species share with humans. Natalie Cooper, an assistant professor at Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) and lead author of the article, explains that the results were surprising: “Although humans share most pathogens with our closest relatives – gorillas and chimpanzees –we share more pathogens than expected with our more distant relatives, the Old World monkeys” (like baboons and macaques). Humans also share fewer parasites than expected with another closely related ape species, the orangutan. The authors suggest that this is because primate species distantly related to humans tend to be terrestrial rather than arboreal, bringing them into more frequent and sustained contact with people. Charlie Nunn, an associate professor at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) and a coauthor of the study, thinks that, “this may reflect that humans have more similar habitats that lead to more overlap with these monkeys than with orangutans. In addition, humans hunt many species of African monkeys for the bushmeat trade, and this increases exposure to infectious organisms found in these hunted animals.” In addition to emphasizing the importance of ecology – and not just evolution – in determining what species share parasites, the study also has important implications for detecting and preventing future zoonotic disease outbreaks. According to Nunn, the results suggest that “we need to be more vigilant regarding diseases in animals that overlap ecologically with humans, rather than focusing exclusively on our closest relatives. Included in this overlap are non-primate mammals, such as rodents and bats. A better understanding of ecological overlap between humans and other animals would go a long way toward targeting future zoonotic disease threats.” At Deception Island – one of the most frequently visited places in Antarctica – the population of chin-strap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) has declined by more than 50% over the past 25 years, according to a study in Polar Biology (2012; doi: 10.1007/s00300-012-1230-3). Under the impression that tourism was to blame for the observed decrease, the island's management group was considering closing the site to tourists. Because reduced chinstrap penguin numbers were found at all sites on Deception Island and not just those visited by the approximately 1354 tourists every year, something else was likely to blame. Heather Lynch, professor at Stony Brook University (Stony Brook, NY) and lead author of the study, suggests that regional climate change is the main culprit, since high temperatures result in loss of sea ice and alter the abundance and distribution of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), the penguin's main food source. This combination of factors makes it harder for the birds to survive and reproduce successfully each year. Penguins are notoriously difficult to survey accurately because most of their colonies are either too large or too remote to study directly. Management efforts also suffer from a lack of reliable information on the current size and status of chinstrap penguin populations. However, Lynch and her team were able to use new methods to accurately match estimates of penguin nests derived from satellite-based images to direct counts of nests in the field, thereby permitting the researchers to study penguin groups subjected to various levels of tourism. This technological advance has major implications for polar conservation because it allows scientists to reliably monitor populations that were previously unreachable. By working closely with the Antarctic Treaty System (www.ats.aq), Lynch ensures that the best scientific evidence is used to craft policy decisions related to wildlife management on the continent. “This is an excellent example of a study that was designed in response to a clear policy and management need”, remarks Lynch. Although the world's largest easily accessed penguin colony at Baily Head, on Deception Island, should remain open to tourists for now, “it's sad that visitors will not be able to see [the colony] in its former glory”. California's plan for balancing renewable energy with wildlife conservation in the desert got poor marks from independent reviewers, who are “deeply concerned” about the plan and doubt its scientific defensibility. Called the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP), the strategy aims to simplify the permitting process for utility-scale solar plants and will cover nearly nine million hectares of the Mojave and Colorado deserts that are home to many at-risk species, including the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia), desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni), and Agassiz's desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). The DRECP is driven partly by a mandate requiring California to derive one-third of the state's energy from renewable sources by 2020. Counties have already issued a large number of desert energy permits and the state intends to begin issuing them by mid-2013. “The plan's aggressive schedule seems to have contributed to shortcuts in applying best available science”, says Wayne Spencer of the Conservation Biology Institute (San Diego, CA), one of the independent reviewers. Desert tortoises may lose valuable habitat under a new renewable energy plan. Critics point out that DRECP lacks an adaptive management plan, which is key to effective conservation, and that it fails to include California's desert-dependent species of special concern, such as the banded Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum cinctum) and the vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus). While not at risk now, such species are meant to be managed so they stay that way. Also in question are the species models used for reserve design. These models generated a composite map intended to protect the most species in the least possible area. But even though some species models seemed to include a good amount of low-value habitat, the map-generating step did not account for differences in habitat value. This could mean losing high-quality habitat for any given species. “You may not be getting the conservation value you think you are”, cautions Steven Schwarzbach (US Geological Survey, Sacramento, CA), who led the independent review (www.drecp.org/documents/docs/Independent_Science_Panel_2012_Initial_Recommendations.pdf). Released in late August, the independent reviewers' initial recommendations are now under consideration by the DRECP planning team, which is led by the California Energy Commission (CEC). “DRECP is committed to applying the best available science and we welcome the panel's review”, says CEC Information Officer Sandy Louey (Sacramento, CA). The reviewers also advise the planning team to seek better scientific input and to ask for independent review more often. “We need a desert plan, so we want it to be the best it can be”, Schwarzbach insists. “Fixes are available and there's still time to get this right.” Members of Vietnam's nouveau riche are driving a rhinoceros poaching epidemic in South Africa, according to TRAFFIC, a non-governmental organization that monitors international wildlife trade. Young Vietnamese mix powdered rhino horn with wine as a hangover cure, flaunting the illegal substance as a show of wealth. TRAFFIC's new report, The South Africa–Vietnam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus (www.traffic.org/species-reports/traffic_species_mammals66.pdf), describes how booming demand for horn, facilitated by international crime syndicates, has escalated rhino poaching in South Africa to a record 448 animals killed in 2011. While Vietnam's rhino population slipped into extinction in 2010, South Africa is home to nearly three-quarters of all wild rhinos worldwide. South Africa has a superlative conservation record; it supports a population of 1915 black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) and 18 800 southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum), explains Jo Shaw, a program officer for TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa (Gauteng, South Africa). Admittedly the country allows regulated sport hunting of white rhinos and, from 1995 to 2011, roughly 1200 white rhinos were legally hunted. Although authorized international hunters can take their rhino trophies home, both South Africa and Vietnam prohibit commercial trade in rhinos and their products. Female southern white rhinoceros with calf. “So far this year, 373 rhinos are known to have died [as a result of unlawful killings] and, at this rate, over 500 will be dead by year's end”, Shaw says. Rhino numbers are still growing in South Africa, but the magnitude of the illegal slaughter leaves no room for complacency, she adds. The 2012 report found that the illegal trade in rhino horn occurs along a chain: beginning with poachers and corrupt officials in Africa, through exporters and couriers, to consumers in Vietnam. “Historically, demand for rhino horn in countries such as Japan, Yemen, South Korea, and Taiwan has created surges in illegal trade and poaching that have later subsided due to legislation, domestic trade bans, and education efforts advocating that it's not cool to consume rhino horn”, Shaw continues. She is optimistic that the current increase in illegal trade can also be stopped. South Africa has stepped up enforcement but success in Vietnam ultimately depends on high-level commitment, effective law enforcement, and campaigns to reduce consumer demand. On paper, it made a lot of sense. Spend AU$24 million of taxpayers' money to buy Toorale, a large irrigation and grazing property in central New South Wales in Australia, and dismantle its six dams. That way, up to 80 billion L more water a year could flow downstream into the Murray-Darling River Basin's degraded lower lakes, located 1000 km away, and help keep the Murray River mouth open. Trouble is, a whole new ecological community has developed around Toorale's dams over the past century, in part mitigating the loss of more than 50% of the former natural wet-lands across the vast Murray-Darling Basin due to over-allocation of water, alteration of river flows, and draining of swamps. Letting Toorale's water go now might help the lower lakes, but at the cost of valuable, scarce habitat for protected water-birds including straw-necked ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis) and brolgas (Grus rubicunda). Partial decommissioning of the dams, on the other hand, means falling short of promises to save the lower lakes. “My big concern is that the government is spending huge amounts of money buying back water across the Murray-Darling and not really understanding what to do with it”, explains ecologist Richard Kingsford (Australian Wetlands and Rivers Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney). “It's a huge worry because most of the water is held in dams, and decisions have to be made. Certainly, there are some dams that are good for some water-birds and fish, but you have to check if they are – and inevitably there is no ‘free’ water in these systems.” The 2008 Toorale purchase was part of a AU$10 billion government program to cut irrigation diversions by up to 30%. Allowing more water to flow into the lower lakes has been an overriding policy objective, but Kingsford warns that each of the major tributaries also has end-of-system wetlands. “Their ecology has value in its own right”, says Kings-ford. “Lots of tributaries are not quite as degraded as the lower lakes but close to it, and they also need water; not all of the water goes to the lower lakes. I think there are a couple of things to think about, and this is a discussion that has to be had in the scientific community as well as more broadly. What is the value of the ecology at a local scale and at a basin scale? And what are the objectives for this system?”