Fewer than 50 wild tigers left in China: expert

China has an estimated 50 or fewer tigers left living in the wild, but efforts to stabilize one population in the bleak northeast are starting to pay off, a conservationist said on Monday.

Next week, China will start the year of the tiger with fireworks, feasting and a new drive by the government, the World Bank and conservation groups to halt the perilous decline of Asia's most powerful wildlife symbol.

Since the last tiger year, in 1998, the wild population of the animal worldwide has almost halved to about 3,200 due to habitat loss, economic development and poaching for hides and traditional medicine.

China has been among the worst affected. The South China tiger, which has not been seen for many years, is feared to have followed the Bali, Caspian and Java subspecies into extinction in the wild. In the country's north, the population of the Amur tiger – which can grow to three meters in length and 300 kilograms – is estimated at 18 to 22.

Tigers once roamed huge swathes of China, right up to the now booming east coast. Their population has collapsed due to habitat destruction on the back of rapid economic development and poaching for tiger products to use in traditional medicine.

About 10 still live in the southwestern province of Yunnan, some 15 in Tibet, and 20 or so in northwestern Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, said Xie Yan, China Country Program Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The South China Tiger is probably already extinct, she told the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Tiger, which starts on Sunday.

"The number of wild tigers left in China is very depressing," Xie said. "We have less than 50 individuals in the wild. The populations in Tibet and in the south are still dropping.

"The northeast tiger is now stable, and maybe increasing a little, but the number is still very small," she added.

The ­conservation group WWF warns that the animal may be extinct in the wild in China within three decades if current trends continue. The tiger is the group's priority for 2010.


SKIN AND BONES TRADE

Conservationists say the trade in skin and bones is booming in countries such as China, which has banned the use of tiger parts in medicine but where everything from fur and whiskers to eyeballs and bones are still used.

Skins sell as rugs and cloaks on the black market, fetching up to $20,000 for a single pelt.

Activists say tough laws and occasional well-publicized clampdowns cannot compensate for a crucial problem -- the lack of strong and consistent enforcement.

Barely 3,500 tigers are estimated to be roaming wild across 12 Asian countries and Russia, compared with about 100,000 a century ago, conservationists say.


The Indochinese tiger is also on the brink of extinction, with fewer than 1,000 left in the forests of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.

Xie said the Tibetan and Yunnan tigers have the bleakest futures, as their populations are both tiny and isolated.

The northeast tigers, though small in number in China, are far more numerous just across the border in Russia, where around 500 still live in an area with a far lighter human presence.

"We think that the best hope for wild tigers in China is in the northeast, because it is connected to the bigger population in Russia," she added.

"The rest of the populations are too small and not connected," Xie said of the Yunnan and Tibet tigers. Many of the animals are isolated from one another by roads and railways, making it difficult for them to breed.

Last week, the first Asian ministerial conference on tiger conservation, in Hua Hin, Thailand, set a goal of doubling the wild population by the start of the next tiger year, in 2022.

The Chinese government recently issued a directive calling for increased protection of wild tigers through ­habitat management, public education and stronger law enforcement action. In September, Vladivostok will host the first tiger summit, which is expected to be co-hosted by the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick. While disputes remain about Chinese tiger farming and the use of tiger parts in traditional medicine, there are signs of co-operation.

The World Bank, NGOs and the Chinese ­government are discussing a three-stage, multimillion-dollar scheme to protect the Amur tiger. Measures will include acquiring land for expanded reserves, linking tiger communities, relocating residents, training local officials and reconfiguring forestry ­management to allow for sustainable economic use and cohabitation by ­predators and prey species.


Source:
Reuters, "Fewer than 50 wild tigers left in China: expert", accessed February 8, 2010
The Guardian, "China marks year of tiger with drive to save biggest cat", accessed February 8, 2010

Tibet temperature 'highest since records began' say Chinese climatologists

Temperatures in Tibet soared last year to the highest level since records began. Photograph: Dan Chung

The roof of the world is heating up, according to a report today that said temperatures in Tibet soared last year to the highest level since records began.

Adding to the fierce international debate about the impact of climate change on the Himalayas, the state-run China Daily noted that the average temperature in Tibet in 2009 was 5.9C, 1.5 degrees higher than "normal".

It did not define "normal", but Chinese climatologists have previously drawn comparisons with an average over several decades.

"Average temperatures recorded at 29 observatories reached record highs," Zhang Hezhen, a Lhasa resident and specialist at the regional weather bureau told the newspaper. "It's high time for all of us to take global warming seriously and think about what we can do to save the earth."

The average rose in both summer and winter, which is unusual as most of mountain warming has previously been observed in the winter.

A monitoring station at the foot of Mt Everest also recorded a new record high temperature of 25.8 degrees, which was 0.7C warmer than the previous peak.

Amid the worst drought in decades, Lhasa experienced its first temperature above 30C since records began in 1961, the report said. Rainfall in Tibet fell to its lowest level in 39 years, affecting nearly 30,000 hectares of cropland - an eighth of Tibet's arable land.

Xiao Ziniu, director general of the National Climate Center told The Guardian last year that the Tibetan Plateau was particularly sensitive to climate change due to the impact on fragile grasslands, permafrost and glaciers.

Tibet's annual climate report was released at a time of growing international controversy about signs of global warming in the mountain region, where the average altitude is over 4,000m.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was forced to retract a forecast that glaciers in the Himalayas could disappear by 2035. A study by Indian scientists last year found that the rate of glacial retreat was considerably slower than previously estimated.

Chinese experts are debating the subject and have proposed cross-border studies, but most published research in the country suggests glaciers are shrinking, raising the risk of flash floods in the short-term and drought in the more distant future.

Source:
The Guardian, "Tibet temperature 'highest since records began' say Chinese climatologists", accessed February 6, 2010

Arctic climate changing faster than expected

Climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, scientists said on Friday in giving their early findings from the biggest-ever study of Canada's changing north.

The research project involved more than 370 scientists from 27 countries who collectively spent 15 months, starting in June 2007, aboard a research vessel above the Arctic Circle. It marked the first time a ship has stayed mobile in Canada's high Arctic for an entire winter.

"(Climate change) is happening much faster than our most pessimistic models expected," said David Barber, a professor at the University of Manitoba and the study's lead investigator, at a news conference in Winnipeg.


Models predicted only a few years ago that the Arctic would be ice-free in summer by the year 2100, but the increasing pace of climate change now suggests it could happen between 2013 and 2030, Barber said.

Scientists link higher Arctic temperatures and melting sea ice to the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. The Arctic is considered a type of early-warning system of climate change for the rest of the world.

"We know we're losing sea ice -- the world is all aware of that," Barber said. "What you're not aware of is that it has impacts on everything else that goes on in this system."

The loss of the sea ice is taking away areas for the region's mammals to reproduce, find food and elude predators, said Steve Ferguson, a scientist with the Canadian government who took part in the study.

Whale species (below right) previously not found in the Arctic are moving into the region because there is less sea ice to restrict their movements.

Climate change is also bringing more cyclones into the Arctic, dumping snow on the sea ice, which limits how thick it can get, and bringing winds that break up the ice, Barber said.

The study is part of the International Polar Year, a large scientific program focused on the Arctic and Antarctic. The scientists have not yet produced conclusions, but they expect to publish dozens of academic papers.

The cost of the Arctic's rapid melt will be $2.4 trillion by 2050 as the region loses its ability to cool the global climate, the U.S.-based Pew Environment Group said on Friday. The group released a report showing the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet.

Both the Canadian government and the oil and gas industry are keenly interested in the possible environmental impact of development further north in the Arctic, said professor Louis Fortier of Laval University.

Currently, development is focused on mainland regions such as the massive gas fields in the Mackenzie River Delta on the Beaufort Sea.
But receding ice levels may make the wider Arctic more accessible to ships and make drilling in more areas possible.

"Conclusions will come later, but ... up to now there's no indication that the impacts would be larger (further north) than elsewhere in the Arctic," Fortier said.

Source:
Reuters, "Arctic climate changing faster than expected", accessed February 6, 2010

Loss of species hits economy; new U.N. goals needed

Losses of animal and plant species are an increasing economic threat and the world needs new goals for protecting nature after failing to achieve a 2010 U.N. target of slowing extinctions, experts said Friday.

Losses of biodiversity "have increasingly dangerous consequences for human well-being, even survival for some societies," according to a summary of a 90-nation U.N. backed conference in Norway from February 1-5.

The United Nations says that the world is facing the worst extinction crisis since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago, driven by a rising human population and spinoffs such as pollution, expanding cities and global warming.

Damage to coral reefs in the tropics, creeping desertification in Africa or felling of the Amazon rainforest were among threats to wildlife and so to human livelihoods.

"Many more economic sectors than we realize depend on biodiversity," the co-chairs of the conference said in their summary.

Apart from food production, less obvious sectors such as tourism, medicines or energy production with biofuels all depended upon nature and diversity of species.

"There is an economic opportunity here," said Finn Kateraas, a co-chair who works at the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management, stated. Protecting species can help safeguard long-term economic growth.

The results of the experts conference will help work this year on setting new goals at a U.N. conference on biodiversity in Japan in October.

"SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION"

A U.N. summit in 2002 set a goal of a "significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity" by 2010. The United Nations says the world has failed.

"Urgent action is needed to address the loss of biodiversity, especially to avoid tipping points," the co-chairs said. Tipping points are thresholds after which damage may be irreversible.

Some coral reefs were on the verge of collapse -- due to factors such as rising sea temperatures, over-fishing or a gradual acidification
of the oceans linked to climate change, experts told the conference.

Johan Rockstrom, director of the Stockholm Resilience Center, said human activities had raised the pace of extinctions to 100-1,000 times the background rate over the Earth's history.

Among worrying signs, he said that the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean were projected to become corrosive to aragonite (right) -- the building blocks of coral reefs -- by 2030-60.

Source:
Reuters, "Loss of species hits economy; new U.N. goals needed", accessed February 5, 2010

Rare cranes in precarious situation

This winter will be a hard one for the whooping crane, one of the most endangered species in the world. The last remaining natural flock of the rare birds took a devastating loss last year at its wintering grounds at the Aransas Natural Wildlife Refuge. The flock lost 23 birds, a heavy blow to a species that only counts an estimated 263.

This November-to-March wintering season is expected to be just as hard on the big birds. At about 5 feet, they are the tallest in North America.

The immediate cause of last winter’s die-off was the scarcity of blue crabs, the chief source of food for the birds during their time along the Gulf Coast. But some environmentalists believe the real cause is far upstream from the coastal marshes where the birds winter.

In December, a coalition of environmentalists filed paperwork in preparation to suing the state, alleging that regulators have allowed too much water to be taken out of the Guadalupe-Blanco river watershed, to the detriment of the cranes.

Developers of subdivisions, industry operators and agricultural interests far from the Gulf Coast — the Guadalupe-Blanco watershed includes parts of the Hill Country may not think of their own water needs as competing with the water demands of whooping cranes. But the survival of the species is connected with the health of the river.

In Texas, where the demand for water is ever increasing from growing cities and suburbs, guarding the downstream flow of rivers is often a thankless task. Even though the Legislature has mandated that river authorities set aside freshwater flows for wildlife needs, to much of the public, water that is allowed to be released from upstream reservoirs is “wasted.” Even in Corpus Christi, whose tourist industry depends heavily on a healthy coastal environment, the release of freshwater from the city’s reservoir at Choke Canyon is still disputed in some quarters. But the necessity of protecting downstream flows is becoming ever clearer as underlined by the stress being placed on the last surviving members of a magnificent species.

Which is not to say that the allegations in the suit will be easy to prove. The scarcity of blue crabs came after one of the hardest droughts in South Texas history. The drought placed stress on every species in the region. And the blue crabs, which help the birds restore their strength from the long migration from Canada, still haven’t come back in the numbers necessary to feed the birds. Some of the big birds already have begun foraging outside the refuge boundaries, using up more of their energy just in finding enough food. Refuge officials have plans to put out food, the same kind that cranes in zoos are fed. But that may not be the answer for a flock that naturally feeds on the rich food of blue crabs.

Defendants in any lawsuit can well point out that the whooping cranes, despite being few in number, have actually increased since their low point in 1941 when only a handful existed. But the species is still in a precarious position. “I feel that we’re probably going to have a die-off,” Allan Strand, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in South Texas, said last week. “It’s conceivable that we could have a significant die-off.”

The species has been hit hard by a drought, a natural occurrence in South Texas. But the big birds’ situation shouldn’t be made worse by being squeezed out of their share of freshwater river flows, if the evidence says that is happening.


Source:
Caller.com, "Rare cranes in precarious situation", accessed February 4, 2010

Scant Arctic ice could mean summer "double whammy"

Scant ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a "double whammy" of powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said on Thursday.

"It's not that the ice keeps melting, it's just not growing very fast," said Mark Serreze, director of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

In January, Arctic sea ice grew by about 13,000 square miles (34,000 sq km) a day, which is a bit more than one-third the pace of ice growth during the 1980s, and less than the average for the first decade of the 21st century.

Arctic ice cover is important to the rest of the world because the Arctic is the globe's biggest weather-maker, sometimes dubbed Earth's air-conditioner for its ability to cool down the planet.

More melting Arctic sea ice could affect this weather-making process; it is unlikely to lead to rising sea levels, any more than an ice cube melting in a glass of water would make the glass overflow.

If Arctic ice fails to build up sufficiently during the dark, cold winter months, it is likely to melt faster and earlier when spring comes, Serreze said by telephone from Colorado.

"We've grown back ice in the winter, but that ice tends to be thin and that's the problem," he said. "You set yourself up for a world of hurt in summer. The ice that is there is also thinner than it was before and thinner ice simply takes less energy to melt out the next summer."

With less of the Arctic sea covered in ice in winter, and with the existing ice thinner and more fragile than before, "you've got a double whammy going on," Serreze said.

This more perishable thin ice is prone to early melting, and when it does, the heat-reflecting light-colored sea ice is replaced by heat-absorbing dark-colored ocean water, which accelerates spring and summer melting in the Arctic.

This winter, there were unusually warm December temperatures in the Arctic due to a weather pattern known as the Arctic oscillation, so ice grew more slowly than normal.

In January, that pattern shifted to produce cooler Arctic temperatures. The ice extent -- the area the ice covers -- was below normal over much of the Atlantic sector, including the Barents Sea, part of the East Greenland Sea and in the Davis Strait.

There was above-average ice extent on the Pacific side of the Bering Sea, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported.

The last three years -- 2007, 2008 and 2009 -- had the lowest level of ice extent since satellite records began in 1979.

Source:
Reuters, "Scant Arctic ice could mean summer "double whammy"", accessed February 4, 2010

FTC warns Wal-Mart, Target, others on bamboo labeling

U.S. regulators have sent letters to Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Amazon and 74 other companies warning them that rayon clothing and other products cannot be labeled as bamboo, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.

The letters, which were sent last week, require companies to distinguish between bamboo and rayon, which can be made from any plant cellulose and is made with harsh chemicals.

"While we have seen action by some retailers to correct mislabeled clothing and textile products, our hope is that these warning letters will serve as a wake-up call to all companies, regardless of their size," said David Vladeck, director
of the agency's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

"Rayon is rayon, even if bamboo has been used somewhere along the line in the manufacturing process," he said.

The letters were sent last week.

Telephone calls to Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon and Sears, which owns Kmart, were not immediately returned.

Source:
Reuters, "FTC warns Wal-Mart, Target, others on bamboo labeling", accessed February 2, 2010

Wolves good for U.S. parks, report says

Wolves should be reintroduced in U.S. national parks to help restore damaged ecosystems, according to a new report.

Researchers writing in the February issue of "BioScience" propose reintroducing small, managed populations in an effort to improve the biodiversity of many natural areas in North America.

These areas, say the authors led by Daniel Licht of the U.S. National Park Service, have been environmentally-impacted by population growth of hoofed mammals, for example elks and deer, which have prospered in the absence of "top-level" natural predators.

More wolves, they argue, would result in fewer hoofed mammals which in turn would lead to greater plant biomass and diversity.

A number of recent studies are cited to back up the report's proposal.

According to a 2004 study of south western Montana by W.J. Ripple and R.L. Beschta, wolves influence the distribution and behavior of elks by reducing the amount of time they spend foraging in woody vegetation.

Furthermore, wolf populations have been found to provide recreational and economic benefits. A 2006 study reported that wolves in Yellowstone National Park increased visitor numbers and expanded eco-tourism spending by $35 million in 2005.

Wolf populations, say the report, should be small, non self-sustaining and be introduced for the sole purpose of restoring ecosystems where adequate numbers of prey already exist and where contact with humans can be managed.

Many of the public's fears about wolf attacks, not only on humans but on livestock, game and pets could be allayed, say the authors, by tagging and tracking them using global positioning system technology.

According to the authors, it's not the first time wolves have been employed environmentally.

In 1960, four wolves were reintroduced to Coronation Island in the state of Alaska to control the deer population. Although the plan was successful, their numbers weren't managed and the population soon increased to 13 before eventually crashing.

Today, public concerns over small populations growing unchecked could also be addressed by surgery or contraception say the authors, although they concede that these solutions remain ethically and environmentally contentious.

The authors also propose the use of barriers, both real and virtual (where collared animals receive an electric shock when approaching a buried wire) to act as a further safeguard to populations running out of control.

"Variations of it [wolf conservation] are regularly and successfully used throughout the world with large predators such as lions and African wild dogs," the authors conclude, but they admit there will be problems convincing many Americans -- who view the wolf as potent symbol of wilderness -- that these changes are desirable.

"The wolf is a passion-inspiring symbol to many people, but the symbolism varies and is polarizing. Restoring and managing the animal under our proposed paradigm appears doable; managing the symbolism remains the challenge."

Source:
Cable News Network, "Wolves good for U.S. parks, report says", accessed February 3, 2010

Using stimulus dollars to push energy innovation

Government researchers and officials are hoping to use a relatively small amount of stimulus dollars to help find new ways for the nation to produce, consume and store energy.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, part of the Energy Department, was conceived during the George W. Bush administration but only got its first funding in the stimulus bill -- to the tune of $400 million.

Agency director Arun Majumdar says that the nation lags in energy security and that his agency is key to helping the country address the problem aggressively. He aims to invest early in ventures that he says could deliver huge gains if they pan out.

He calls it investing in "American pioneers."

"Invest in high-risk, high-payoff R&D to get innovations from the lab into the market," Majumdar said.

So far, ARPA-E has committed to 37 projects worth $151 million after receiving more than 3,000 applications in the areas of renewable power, new technologies and efficiency. The average investment is about $4 million.

Among the programs:

• Researching how to help make plants and their waste easily transformable into biofuels and to reduce the costs of doing so.
  
  
• Developing a new type of high-efficiency wind turbine that could deliver more energy and reduce noise and safety concerns
  

• Creating an all-liquid metal battery that would dramatically increase electrical energy storage

Other projects include one that would split water into hydrogen and oxygen for solar fuel; research into a technology that would use silicon wafers to dramatically cut the cost of installing solar power; and installing magnetic materials that would decrease the weight and increase the efficiency of motors for hybrid and electric vehicles.

After getting more than 500 applications for its second round of $100 million in grants, program directors are deciding which ones will make the cut.

While agency officials hope all of the initiatives they fund will become commercially profitable, they acknowledge the chances of that are very remote.

"Let's say a few of them are successful. They will be game-changing. They'll change the landscape of the energy field -- not just in our country, but globally," said Majumdar, a former associate director at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a former professor at the University of California-Berkeley.

He also believes these investments will help spur innovation and market success that will create a large number of jobs down the road -- ones that, with the Department of Energy's help, will stay in the U.S.

Companies receiving funds say government money is essential for this risky research.

"I think this is just the kind of research the government should be getting behind because it is higher-risk, it has the potential for very high payoffs," said Michael Raab, president of Agrivida, the company doing the biofuels plant project.

"But, particularly in this kind of an economic climate, it is hard to find investors that are willing to invest in high-risk opportunities. And so the government can fund this research and get it to a point where others will invest in it and really push it forward into the marketplace."

Tom Schulz, co-founder of BioCee, which does research in solar fuels, said the program will produce the next "Energy Google."

"We don't know which company of the funded projects it will be, and we don't know when it will 'tip.' However, most of the projects will create only a few (but very qualified) jobs over the next two years," Schulz said. "The real question is how many jobs will be created and saved in 5 to 10 years."

Some critics say, however, that the government should not be investing in particular projects with the aim of getting them to the marketplace.

"Government is terrible at picking winners and losers," said Kevin Book, an energy consultant and former Wall Street analyst.

Book supports government-sponsored scientific research but not having the government trying to help determine which projects should get a financial boost toward the marketplace.

"Turning science projects that nobody wants into products that no one can afford to buy is a terrible idea," he said.

To help make the best decisions possible, ARPA-E has recruited staff from the private sector, including some with hedge fund experience, and also consults with experts in particular scientific fields.

ARPA-E is based on the concept of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which was created in 1958 to push technological research and development after the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite before the U.S. could get off the ground. Among DARPA's accomplishments is helping to spur the creation of the Internet.

Source:
Cable Network News, "Using stimulus dollars to push energy innovation", by Jessica Yellin and Kevin Bohn, accessed February 2, 2010

Utah on Wolves:We Don't Want any of them Here

Help Stop Utah’s Anti-Wolf Bill Donate now to help stop anti-wolf extremists in Utah from shooting wolves on sight. Hysterical anti-wolf hatred has hit a new high in Utah. Spurred on by the so-called “Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife,” anti-wolf legislators are expected to pass a bill as early as this week that would allow state officials to remove any wolves that migrate back to their historic range in Utah. Defenders of Wildlife’s resources are stretched thin with the increasing human threats to these long persecuted animals, but we’re fighting hard to block this outrageous anti-wolf bill. We need your emergency donation of $30.00, or whatever you can afford today to stop the Utah anti-wolf bill from becoming law. Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife is the very same group whose Idaho chapter has been holding wolf-killing derbies to raise funds for anti-wolf litigation. We can’t let these extremists win. Please help us stop this bill, save the lives of our wolves and other imperiled animals in the wild. Working with our allies on the ground, Defenders of Wildlife is fighting hard to block this anti-wolf bill in Utah and to restore federal protections for these magnificent animals. Wolves once roamed freely in Utah, playing an important part in balanced ecosystems in the state. But aggressive hunting, trapping and poisoning exterminated these important animals from the state during the last century. Now there is hope as more wolves migrate from the Greater Yellowstone region into states like Utah. We won’t allow these wolves to be met by a hail of bullets. Can you help us fight for the lives of these wolves? Please donate now. Defenders supporters in Utah have already sent nearly 1,000 messages to state legislators, and we’re gearing up for an intensive effort to stop this bill over the next week. Your caring contribution today will help us fight Utah’s anti-wolf extremists and win our court fight to restore life-saving federal protections for wolves in the northern Rockies -- including and especially in states like Utah, where anti-wolf hatred is running at a fever pitch. We can’t win for wolves without your help. Please help support these vital efforts with your caring donation today. For the Wild Ones, Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife P.S. We can’t allow the anti-wolf group like Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife to dictate the future of wolves in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. Please make an emergency donation on our secure website today or call 1-800-385-9712 to donate by phone. Making a Difference for Wildlife “I emailed Cabela's and told them they had lost my business for good. So did many of my friends.” -- Cindy R. (via Facebook) Since Friday morning, more than 50,000 dedicated Defenders activists have called on outdoor retailers Cabela’s and Sportsman’s Warehouse to stop supporting “predator derbies” that target our wolves.

World Wetlands Day too late for spray toad?

Nectophrynoides asperginis the Kihansi spray toad was originally discovered and described in 1998 . Over time it has evolved to live in this very specific habitat and has even evolved flaps over its nostrils to help it thrive.

The Kihansi spray toad lived in the spray wetland of the Kihansi Falls in the Kihansi Gorge in the Udzungwa Mountains of eastern Tanzania. The Kihansi spray toad is now extinct in the wild.

The serious decline and extinction of this species appears related to the construction of a hydroelectric dam in 2000 upstream on the Kihansi River, which cut off 90% of the original water flow to the gorge, thereby hugely reducing the volume of spray, particularly in the dry season.

The toads became extinct in the wild after the population crashed dramatically in 2003 because

• the sprinkler system failed during the dry season
• the fungal disease chytridiomycosis was found in Kihansi toads
• the dam floodgates were opened releasing sediments containing high concentrations of agricultural pesticide (Krajic 2006)

After this there was a rapid decline in numbers

• August 2003 only 40 toads were found
• January 2004 only five.
• May 2005 a biologist claimed to have seen one individual.

A captive breeding program is ongoing in Toledo and New York Bronx Zoos to try and save the Kihansi spray toad.

Impact of dam

In 2000, the water flow in the area was drastically reduced after a large hydroelectric dam was built. As well as changing the type of vegetation that thrived there, the resulting massive drop in the volume of spray meant conditions were no longer suitable for the toad.

Drop in numbers

The highest counts of individual Kihansi spray toads found around 20,000 on dates before and shortly after the dam was constructed. Then in January 2004 only 3 were seen, with the calls of 2 males heard. In 2005, there was one unconfirmed sighting and since then there have been no sightings in the wild. It has therefore been declared extinct in the wild by the IUCN.

'I was one of four authors who wrote the original description of the Kihansi Spray toad in 1998,' says Natural History Museum frog expert Barry Clarke, who chose the amphibian for Species of the Day.

'We knew then about the hyrdroelectric power scheme putting the toad under threat.

'In a mere 7 years, the toad’s numbers have gone from an estimated 20,000 to a probable 0 due to human activities (power generation and pesticides) and disease (chytrid fungus).

'The American ecologist Rachel Carson predicted that pesticide use would bring about "Silent Springs" among birds in the States.

'The Kihansi Spray toad’s Silent Spring arrived in 2005 in the Kihansi Gorge - no male toad has been heard calling since then.'

Tiny toad and toadlets

The Kihansi spray toad, Nectophrynoides asperginis, is a tiny amphibian with adults typically growing to about 15-20mm in length. Most people think toads produce eggs that hatch into tadpoles, but the spray toad hatches froglets that are about 5mm long.

Vulnerable species

The Kihansi spray toad highlights how vulnerable different species can be to changes in habitat. Humans are the main cause of habitat change, which is a major threat to biological diversity (biodiversity).

Current rates of biodiversity loss, some scientists say, are on a level with the mass extinctions of the dinosaurs, and this year biodiversity is highlighted in the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity.

Irreversible changes?

The Kihansi spray toad also highlights how difficult it can be to try and bring back species after they are extinct in the wild. After the dam construction, an artificial sprinkler system was introduced to the area. However, the toad’s numbers never recovered.

A few hundred individuals were taken into captivity and are now bred in the USA. It is hoped that some may be introduced back into the wild.

Wetlands

As well as providing essential eco-services like coastal protection and nurseries for fish, wetlands are home to a huge variety of biodiversity.

Humans as well as plants and animals depend on wetland habitats and the annual World Wetlands Day aims to raise awareness of their value.

Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, in his message for World Wetlands Day 2010, talks about how caring for wetlands will also help us tackle the effects of climate change.

Source:
Natural History Museum, "World Wetlands Day too late for spray toad?", accessed February 2, 2010

Coral Can Recover from Climate Change Damage, New Research Suggests

A study by the University of Exeter provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. Published Jan. 11, 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE, the research shows for the first time that coral reefs located in marine reserves can recover from the impacts of global warming.

Scientists and environmentalists have warned that coral reefs may not be able to recover from the damage caused by climate change and that these unique environments could soon be lost forever. Now, this research adds weight to the argument that reducing levels of fishing is a viable way of protecting the world's most delicate aquatic ecosystems.

Increases in ocean surface water temperatures subject coral reefs to stresses that lead quickly to mass bleaching. The problem is intensified by ocean acidification, which is also caused by increased CO2. This decreases the ability of corals to produce calcium carbonate (chalk), which is the material that reefs are made of.

Approximately 2% of the world's coral reefs are located within marine reserves, areas of the sea that are protected against potentially-damaging human activity, like dredging and fishing.

The researchers conducted surveys of ten sites inside and outside marine reserves of the Bahamas over 2.5 years. These reefs have been severely damaged by bleaching and then by hurricane Frances in the summer of 2004. At the beginning of the study, the reefs had an average of 7% coral cover. By the end of the project, coral cover in marine protected areas had increased by an average of 19%, while reefs in non-reserve sites showed no recovery.

Professor Peter Mumby of the University of Exeter said: "Coral reefs are the largest living structures on Earth and are home to the highest biodiversity on the planet. As a result of climate change, the environment that has enabled coral reefs to thrive for hundreds of thousands of years is changing too quickly for reefs to adapt.

"In order to protect reefs in the long-term we need radical action to reduce CO2 emissions. However, our research shows that local action to reduce the effects of fishing can contribute meaningfully to the fate of reefs. The reserve allowed the number of parrotfishes to increase and because parrotfish eat seaweeds, the corals could grow freely without being swamped by weeds. As a result, reefs inside the park were showing recovery whereas those with more seaweed were not. This sort of evidence may help persuade governments to reduce the fishing of key herbivores like parrotfishes and help reefs cope with the inevitable threats posed by climate change."

Professor Mumby's research was funded by National Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation.

Reef facts

• A coral reef is made up of thin layers of calcium carbonate (limestone) secreted over thousands of years by billions of tiny soft bodied animals called coral polyps.

• Coral reefs are the world's most diverse marine ecosystems and are home to twenty-five percent of known marine species, including 4,000 species of fish, 700 species of coral and thousands of other plants and animals.

• Coral reefs have been on the planet for over 400 million years.

• The largest coral reef is the Great Barrier Reef, which stretches along the northeast coast of Australia, from the northern tip of Queensland, to just north of Bundaberg. At 2,300km long, it is the largest natural feature on Earth.

• Coral reefs occupy less than one quarter of one percent of the Earth's marine environment, yet they are home to more than a quarter of all known fish species.

• As well as supporting huge tourist industries, coral reefs protect shorelines from erosion and storm damage.

High quality reef videos by Professor Peter Mumby can be viewed at: www.reefvid.org

The main funding for the research came from Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and the Natural Environment Research Council.

Source:
University of Exeter (2010, January 10).
Coral can recover from climate change damage, new research suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 1, 2010.