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Impact of climate change on biodiversity loss: global evidence

• Research Article
• Published: 03 August 2021
• Volume 29 , pages 1073–1086, ( 2022 )

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• Muzafar Shah Habibullah   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2853-8019 1 ,
• Badariah Haji Din 2 ,
• Siow-Hooi Tan 3 &
• Hasan Zahid 4  

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The present study investigates the impact of climate change on biodiversity loss using global data consisting of 115 countries. In this study, we measure biodiversity loss using data on the total number of threatened species of amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, mollusks, plants, and reptiles. The data were compiled from the Red List published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). For climate change variables, we have included temperature, precipitation, and the number of natural disaster occurrences. As for the control variable, we have considered governance indicator and the level of economic development. By employing ordinary least square with robust standard error and robust regression (M-estimation), our results suggest that all three climate change variables – temperature, precipitation, and the number of natural disasters occurrences – increase biodiversity loss. Higher economic development also impacted biodiversity loss positively. On the other hand, good governance such as the control of corruption, regulatory quality, and rule of law reduces biodiversity loss. Thus, practicing good governance, promoting conservation of the environment, and the control of greenhouse gasses would able to mitigate biodiversity loss.

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The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request

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Habibullah, .S., Din, B.H., Tan, SH. et al. Impact of climate change on biodiversity loss: global evidence. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29 , 1073–1086 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15702-8

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Received : 26 August 2020

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15702-8

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LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY: THE BURGEONING THREAT TO HUMAN HEALTH

"We are losing biodiversity globally at an alarming rate, and we need a cornucopia of different plants and animals, for the planet's health and our own." 1 Daine Ackerman American poet (1948- )

INTRODUCTION

One of the greatest attributes of the Earth is the biodiversity of her ecosystem. The Convention on Biological Diversity (Article 2) defined biological diversity or biodiversity" as the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems" . 2 This is a reflection of the more than 9 million types of living thing which include fungi, bacteria, plants, animals, protists that co-inhabit the Earth with human beings and serves as the bases of the diverse array of organismal, genetic and ecological diversity obtainable on Earth. 3 The complex interplay between this rich array of Earth's inhabitants underpins the proper functioning of the Earth's ecosystem. However, the last few decades, have witnessed a rapid disruption and loss of this rich biodiversity in terms of numbers and variability. Human beings are relentless than ever in eliminating genes, species, and biological traits that constitute the biodiversity via her disruptive activities on the Earth ecosystem.

Effects of biodiversity loss

The pressure from agriculture requirement for crop & animal husbandry has made humanity to convert wetlands, forest, and grassland into farmlands and grazing land, among others. Furthermore, the increasing world human population, which has doubled between 1970 and now to more than 7 billion is the other edge of the sword aggravating the global loss of biodiversity. On the other side are factors are exploitation of mineral resources, pollution, the introduction of exotic species & genetically modified organisms, climate changes and alteration and loss habitats which are all connected with human efforts to care for the growing habitats of the Earth.

Every year, at least a species goes into extinction while many species of plants and animals face extinction across the world according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Report (2019). 4

Sadly, most of the global loss of biodiversity occurs in the Developing World, Nigeria inclusive. 5 Furthermore, the critical 25 hotspots of the global loss of biodiversity include areas spanning the rain forest belt of southern Nigeria although the enormous swathe of territory includes the Tropical Andes in South America and Indo-Burma areas in South East Asia. These hotspots are home to a considerable proportion of Earth's species of plants and animals. The Amazon in the Tropical Andes alone harbours 50,000 species or one-sixth of the Earth's total. 6 Generally, known species are going extinct, 1000 times more than newly discovered ones. 7

The history of medicine and the development of the rich armament of pharmacopoeia to combat diseases are traceable to a great deal to derivatives from flora and fauna whether aquatic or terrestrial in origin that are available across the world from ancient time to the present time. This product includes the ubiquitous aspirin derived from the bark of the willow tree Salix alba , which is no more a mere analgesic rather a useful drug in cardiovascular and haematologic disorders treatment. 8 Digoxin, a great drug in managing heart failure is derived from Foxglove Digitalis purpurea L . 8 Drugs such as quinine derived from Cinchona succirubra , and Artemisin based compounds are made from Artemisia annua and have help combat malaria at various times are derived from plant products. 8 While penicillin derived from Penicillium notatum may not be prominent antibiotics in the last 20 years, the subsequent and related products such as Erythromycin are derived from a microorganism. 8 Other great products that have saved many lives include antimitotic agents such as Doxorubicin from Torreya taxifolia and paclitaxel derived from Pacific Yew Taxus brevifolia . The list of products that have been derived from flora and fauna to help combat human disease is endless.

It is interesting to note that only an estimated 10% of the diverse species on Earth have been exploited to combat diseases while a little over 12.5% of the approximately 250 000 species of higher plants have been exploited in the same line. 9 On the other side, only about 1 % of microbial species on Earth are known. 9 , 10

No doubt, the loss of biodiversity does not only threaten new drug discovery especially in the light of emerging and reemerging diseases, but it also threatens the ability to discover a more effective therapy for the burgeoning non-communicable diseases, hence man's quest to stem the tide of this increasing global burden.

Equally threatened is the accessibility to clean fresh water and good quality air. 8 The air and water are greatly more polluted than ever due to human industrial activities, while the purifying capacity of the ecosystem is being lost. 2

Food production is being affected, thereby endangering the nutritional status of the world population, especially in regions where the poorest habit. The economic activities of natural pollinators, e.g. bees which aids our plants to fruits are estimated at approximately $550billion. 11 The aquatic species are being depleted. Fisheries currently provide 16% of the global protein source. The wild flora and fauna could mean alternative access to the nutritious source to the aforementioned is being wiped out.

While the biodiversity is contracting, there is a great danger of emerging and reemerging of infectious agents which threatens global health. The incidence of Lyme disease or West Nile virus (WNV) in humans have been linked to the loss of biodiversity among the animal host. 12

While the loss of biological biodiversity appears to affect significantly human health, it has also been opined to be a significant threat to the attainment of sustainable development goals which is the blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all. 13 Currently it threatens the goal 1; to reduce poverty, Goal 2; zero hunger, Goal 3; good health & well-being and goal 6; clean water and sanitation, Goal 11; sustainable cities and communities, Goal 13; Climate Action, Goal 14; Life Below Water and Goal 15; life on land. 14

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While it may be easier to pass the attempt at the reversal of this loss to the tuft of core conservationists it is necessary to point out that biomedical scientists or researchers and even clinicians who will prescribe the yet undiscovered drugs from flora or fauna have an enormous role to play. In the same vein, the temptation to isolate this discussion to only the conservationist circle, may not be optimal to achieve broad-spectrum coalition for advocacy. Now is the time biomedical scientists join the advocacy to stem the tide of biodiversity loss by joining the luxurious pool necessary for such advocacy.

Conservative efforts should be in the mainstream of discourse in scientific fora of biomedical scientists since this loss threatens the whole capability of modern medicine to keep confronting the burgeoning disease burden.

Furthermore, the least maybe in our local environment we do is to promote and join conservation efforts such as serving as an advocate for the protection of endangered species, increase in protected areas of flora and fauna and exercise high ethics in animal researches involving endangered species.

Indeed, a little there, little here approach may help save the world. A tree or other exotic nurtured in an enforced green space in a rural clinic may be in a right direction and commendable effort at mitigating this ensuing disaster.

There is a need for more interdisciplinary research on the interrelationship of biodiversity loss with medical and medical-related themes. There is also a greater need for inquiries into the usefulness of the numerous natural products in solving human disease miseries. It may be the molecule to cure some of the vast arrays of presently incurable diseases are in some species in the Niger Delta area or Amazon.

Finally, there is a need for the national governments to enact and implement laws to protect the endangered species like the United States Endangered Species Act (1973). It would also be necessary to advocate for domestication locally the Aichi Biodiversity Targets proposed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010, which target 1 explicitly state "By 2020, at the latest, people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably" . 4 , 15

Although we may not be able to save the extinct species with their lockup potentials, we may at least be able to wrestle the endangered & threatened species from similar extinction. Humanity needs to live a life accommodative of other species to promote healthy and robust dynamism among species, thereby sustaining healthy lives for ourselves and healthy interactions with the ecosystems. The ultimate goal, therefore, will be to halt the rate of biodiversity loss and ensure a stable ecosystem as soon as possible.

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In the race to document the species on Earth before they go extinct, researchers and citizen scientists have assembled billions of records. Most records either come from physical specimens in a museum or digital field observations, but both are useful for detecting shifts in the number and abundance of species in an area. However, a new Stanford study has found that both record types are flawed, and the degree to which they are riddled with coverage gaps and biases depends on the kind of dataset.

Barnabas Daru (Image credit: Andrew Brodhead)

Back in Charles Darwin’s day, and up until relatively recently, naturalists recorded the species present in an area by collecting and preserving samples of the plants, insects, fish, birds, and other animals in a region for museums and educational collections. Today, most records of biodiversity are often in the form of photos, videos, GPS coordinates, and other digital records with no corresponding physical sample of the organism they represent in a museum or herbarium.

“With the rise of technology it is easy for people to make observations of different species with the aid of a mobile application,” said Barnabas Daru , assistant professor of biology in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences .

For example, if someone spots an attractive butterfly or plant, they can easily document it by taking a photo and uploading it to a biodiversity app with details such as the species’ name, location, date, and time. This information becomes a valuable field observation.

“These observations now outnumber the primary data that comes from physical specimens,” said Daru, who is lead author of the study, published May 1 in Nature Ecology & Evolution . “And since we are increasingly using observational data to investigate how species are responding to global change, I wanted to know: Are these data usable?”

While other studies have explored global coverage and biases in biodiversity data, this is the first known global assessment of coverage gaps and biases in specimen versus observational records across multiple dimensions.

A digital museum

Using a global dataset of 1.9 billion records of terrestrial plants, butterflies, amphibians, birds, reptiles, and mammals, Daru and co-author Jordan Rodriguez, tested how well each type of data captures actual global biodiversity patterns across taxonomic, geographic, temporal, and functional trait axes.

People trample on ants all the time, but if an elephant were to stroll down the street, everyone would want to know what was going on. —Barnabas Daru Assistant Professor of Biology

“We were particularly interested in exploring the aspects of sampling that tend to bias data, like the greater likelihood of a citizen scientist to capture a flowering plant instead of the grass right next to it,” said Rodriguez, a University of Oregon graduate student who started collaborating with Daru at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as an undergraduate.

For instance, to test coverage of actual biodiversity patterns in taxonomic space, they overlayed grids of different sizes (50, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 km) across a digital map of the world. Within each grid cell, and for each family (e.g., ducks, geese, and waterfowl are one bird “family”), they assessed the number of documented species compared to the expected number of species for that region or family based on expert opinion.

Biases in data collection were assessed by comparing the number of specimens and observations from a grid cell to the expected amount if each datapoint was collected randomly.

Their study revealed that the superabundance of observation-only records did not lead to better global coverage. Moreover, these data are biased and favor certain regions (North America and Europe), time periods, and organisms.

This makes sense because the people who capture observational biodiversity data on mobile devices are often citizen scientists recording serendipitous encounters with species in areas nearby, such as roadsides, hiking trails, community parks, and neighborhoods.

Observational data are also biased toward certain organisms with attractive or eye-catching features.

“People trample on ants all the time, but if an elephant were to stroll down the street, everyone would want to know what was going on,” said Daru.

In contrast, collectors of preserved specimens are often trained professionals who gather samples of plants, animals, and other organisms in remote and wilderness areas as part of their jobs.

A visual representation of the coverage of bird, reptile, and mammals for “voucher” specimens (maps labeled k, n, and q) and observations (maps labeled l, o, r) compared to the expected species richness based on expert opinion for each region of the world. (Image credit: Barnabas Daru and Jordan Rodriguez)

“Henry” the 11-ton African bush elephant has been on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History since 1956. This specimen stands more than 13-feet tall, which is taller than any known living elephant today. It was shot in Angola and donated to the museum by hunter Josef J. Fénykövi in 1955. (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

Biased, but still useful

What can we do with two flawed datasets of biodiversity? Quite a lot, Daru explained.

Go to the web site to view the video.

Barnabas Daru, assistant professor of biology in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, discusses biases in biodiversity data and how to improve data collection in the future with his former advisor Jonathan Davies, professor of botany, forest, and conservation at the University of British Columbia.

Understanding areas where specimen and observational datasets of biodiversity are deficient ­­ – and how they compare with one another – can help researchers and citizen scientists improve the biodiversity data collected in the future.

“Our maps of sampling biases and gaps can be incorporated into new biodiversity tools that are increasingly being developed, such as iNaturalist or eBird ,” Daru said. “This can guide users so they don’t collect more records in areas that are oversampled and steer users to places – and even species – that are not well-sampled. So, I envision an app that you can use, kind of like Pokémon GO to search for rare species.”

To improve the quality of observational data, biodiversity apps can prompt collectors to have an expert verify the identification of their uploaded image, Daru explained.

Preserved specimens, on the other hand, are becoming scarce, and this study highlights their enduring value for biodiversity studies. To further emphasize the potential of this waning practice, the researchers also explained how such specimens are important for new lines of investigation that may arise, such as studying microbial symbionts and emerging diseases that require physical specimens from the past and present.

“It’s such a very useful resource that has been lying in the dark in cabinets across the globe,” Daru said. “It’s so exciting the possibility of things that can be done with these specimens.”

This research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

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‘life in the ocean touches everyone’: u.s. rolls out first national ocean biodiversity strategy.

Coral Reef at Palmyra Atoll. Credit USFWS.

Roughly 2 million species live in the world’s ocean. But scientists have only described a mere 10% of them. With extinctions on the rise and biodiversity threatened worldwide, many species are in danger of vanishing before researchers can identify them or fully grasp the benefits they provide.  

The National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy calls for a stronger, more unified and inclusive approach to ocean conservation. Written by a team led by the Smithsonian and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the strategy was announced by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy June 3. It represents the first nationwide strategy aimed at changing course to save marine life and all the services it provides to people. The plan seeks to improve scientists’ ability to gather and share knowledge and use that knowledge for more effective protections.     

“We are confronting biodiversity loss and its implications for human well-being, alongside the challenges posed by climate change and social inequity,” said Ellen Stofan, Under Secretary for Science and Research at the Smithsonian. “But we hold the power to overcome these obstacles with a united, society-wide effort to preserve nature and its benefits.”

The prosperity and health of the U.S. is inextricably tied to the ocean and its life. The ocean contributes nearly $400 billion to the U.S. economy every year and provides 2.4 million jobs according to NOAA , including fishing, shipping, tourism and energy. And the nation’s ocean waters are vast: The total ocean territory under U.S. management—known as the “U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone”—covers an area larger than all 50 states combined. Much of this prosperity comes from the ocean’s diverse species and habitats.

“Life in the ocean touches everyone,” said Gabrielle Canonico, leader of the U.S. Marine Biodiversity Observation Network at NOAA and co-chair of the team that wrote the strategy. “Every other breath we take comes from the oxygen produced by microscopic ocean plants, and more than a billion people worldwide rely on food from the ocean as their primary source of protein. But these and other benefits will degrade with biodiversity loss, with dire consequences especially for frontline communities .”

Critical gaps remain in the nation’s protection and even knowledge of ocean life. The knowledge scientists do possess about the ocean is often scattered, with many organizations gathering information in different formats that are difficult to share. Many smaller organisms, including those that cause disease, are barely studied at all. Scientists suspect these neglected species contain secrets vital to keeping coral reefs and fisheries thriving and the ocean’s plankton pumping atmospheric carbon into the deep sea. The strategy addresses this challenge with plans to strengthen the nation’s ocean observing system and the information pipeline that delivers knowledge to those who need it.  

“We are advancing frontier technologies for biodiversity science and understanding,” said Sarah Kapnick, NOAA chief scientist. “But it is critical that we come together around the use of evidence-based metrics and indicators for decision making in ocean spaces, and for monitoring, reporting and verification to ensure that investments in conservation or development deliver the desired outcomes while minimizing negative impacts to ocean life.”

“Biodiversity is the beating heart of the ocean that supports society , but it’s in trouble ,” said Emmett Duffy, the other co-chair of the strategy’s writing team and chief scientist of MarineGEO at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center . “ This strategy is our best chance yet to turn the tide . We need to implement it to reach a future where people and the rest of nature thrive together by join ing forces and leverag ing the power of people and technology to understand the living ocean ecosystem.”

The National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy outlines a threefold plan to create a more inclusive, evidence-based network of protection in U.S. ocean waters and the Great Lakes:

• Coordinate ocean research and conservation across the U.S. As a first step, the strategy would bring together federal agencies with ocean-related missions to engage stakeholders, including states, Tribes and local communities, toward co-designed solutions. A key part of this process is documenting the economic and cultural values of the ocean, to reveal the hidden costs of degrading nature and include them properly in economic decision making across government and private sectors.
• Strengthen the information pipeline. The U.S. has a wealth of existing data on ocean life, but much of it is inaccessible to policymakers and managers who are making decisions on the ground. The strategy calls for stronger support of centralized, open-source databases that everyone with a stake in the ocean’s health can find and use. This also requires revamping the neglected field of taxonomy to reveal undiscovered species and harnessing new technologies to track biodiversity, such as environmental DNA (“eDNA”), satellites and artificial intelligence.
• Protect, conserve, restore and sustainably use ocean biodiversity. The strategy’s success hinges on partnerships with all key stakeholders—states, Tribes, local communities, NGOs and the private sector, including commercial and recreational fishers. The strategy calls for listening sessions as a critical starting point for collaborations built on trust. As each group’s needs and contributions are understood, managers can use their continually improving biodiversity knowledge to co-create protection measures that work over the long term, with the benefit of community input.   

Lead authors Duffy and Canonico emphasize that this strategy is a first step—a high-level roadmap to a more sustainable ocean. An implementation plan is currently in development to outline specific actions tailored to region s communit ies based on feedback collected through engagement with stakeholder s .

The full strategy is available on the Office of Science and Technology Policy website . For photos or to speak with one of the authors, contact Kristen Goodhue at [email protected] .

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2024 Environmental Performance Index: A Surprise Top Ranking, Global Biodiversity Commitment Tested

The Baltic nation of Estonia is No. 1 in the 2024 rankings, while Denmark, one of the top ranked countries in the 2022 EPI dropped to 10 th place, highlighting the challenges of reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industries. Meanwhile, “paper parks” are proving a global challenge to international biodiversity commitments.

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In 2022, at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP 15, in Montreal over 190 countries made what has been called “the biggest conservation commitment the world has ever seen.”  The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework called for the effective protection and management of 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas by the year 2030 — commonly known as the 30x30 target. While there has been progress toward reaching this ambitious goal of protecting 30% of land and seas on paper, just ahead of World Environment Day, the 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) , an analysis by Yale researchers that provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world, shows that in many cases such protections have failed to halt ecosystem loss or curtail environmentally destructive practices.

A new metric that assesses how well countries are protecting important ecosystems indicated that while nations have made progress in protecting land and seas, many of these areas are “paper parks” where commercial activities such as mining and trawling continue to occur — sometimes at a higher rate than in non-protected areas. The EPI analyses show that in 23 countries, more than 10% of the land protected is covered by croplands and buildings, and in 35 countries there is more fishing activity inside marine protected areas than outside. 

“Protected areas are failing to achieve their goals in different ways,” said Sebastián Block Munguía, a postdoctoral associate with the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) and the lead author of the report. “In Europe, destructive fishing is allowed inside marine protected areas, and a large fraction of the area protected in land is covered by croplands, not natural ecosystems. In many developing countries, even when destructive activities are not allowed in protected areas, shortages of funding and personnel make it difficult to enforce rules.”

The 2024 EPI, published by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network ranks 180 countries based on 58 performance indicators to track progress on mitigating climate change, promoting environmental health, and safeguarding ecosystem vitality. The data evaluates efforts by the nations to reach U.N. sustainability goals, the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, as well as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The data for the index underlying different indicators come from a variety of academic institutions and international organizations and cover different periods. Protected area coverage indicators are based on data from March 2024, while greenhouse emissions data are from 2022.

Estonia has decreased its GHG emissions by 59% compared to 1990. The energy sector will be the biggest contributor in reducing emissions in the coming years as we have an aim to produce 100% of our electricity consumption from renewables by 2030.”

The index found that many countries that were leading in sustainability goals have fallen behind or stalled, illustrating the challenges of reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industries and resistant sectors such as agriculture. In several countries, recent drops in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) have been the result of external circumstances, not policy. For example, in Albania, supply chain disruptions led to more expensive animal feed that resulted in a sharp reduction in cows and, consequentially, nitrous oxide and methane emissions.

Estonia leads this year’s rankings with a 40% drop in GHG emissions over the last decade, largely attributed to replacing dirty oil shale power plants with cleaner energy sources. The country is drafting a proposal to achieve by 2040 a CO2 neutral energy sector and a CO2 neutral public transport network in bigger cities.

“Estonia has decreased its GHG emissions by 59% compared to 1990. The energy sector will be the biggest contributor in reducing emissions in the coming years as we have an aim to produce 100% of our electricity consumption from renewables by 2030,” said Kristi Klaas, Estonia’s vice-minister for Green Transition. Klaas discussed some of the policies that led to the country's success as well as ongoing challenges, such as reducing emissions in the agriculture sector, at a webinar hosted by YCELP on June 3.  Dr. Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Amri, chairman of the Environment Authority of Oman, also joined the webinar to discuss efforts aimed at protecting the county's multiple ecosystems with rare biodiversity and endangered species, such as the Arabian oryx, and subspecies, such as the Arabian leopard. 

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 Denmark, the top ranked country in the 2022 EPI dropped to 10th place, as its pace of decarbonization slowed, highlighting that those early gains from implementing “low-hanging-fruit policies, such as switching to electricity generation from coal to natural gas and expanding renewable power generation are themselves insufficient,” the index notes. Emissions in the world’s largest economies such as the U.S. (which is ranked 34th) are falling too slowly or still rising — such as in China, Russia, and India, which is ranked 176th.

Over the last decade only five countries — Estonia, Finland, Greece, Timor-Leste, and the United Kingdom — have cut their GHG emissions over the last decade at the rate needed to reach net zero by 2050. Vietnam and other developing countries in Southeast and Southern Asia — such as Pakistan, Laos, Myanmar, and Bangladesh — are ranked the lowest, indicating the urgency of international cooperation to help provide a path for struggling nations to achieve sustainability.

“The 2024 Environmental Performance Index highlights a range of critical sustainability challenges from climate change to biodiversity loss and beyond — and reveals trends suggesting that countries across the world need to redouble their efforts to protect critical ecosystems and the vitality of our planet,” said Daniel Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy and director of YCELP.

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Saturday Citations: The sound of music, sneaky birds, better training for LLMs. Plus: Diversity improves research

by Chris Packham , Phys.org

In the small fishing village where I grew up, we didn't have much. But we helped our neighbors, raised our children to respect the sea, and embraced an inclusive scientific methodology with a cross section of sex, race and gender among study participants that enriched the results of our research.

This week, we reported on a study that upended previous brain research results by including both men and women. Scientists also report that cuckoos may have a more important ecological function than previously known. Plus a new training modality for LLMs and insights into how people distinguish music from speech.

Jerk birds increase biodiversity

Many cuckoos are brood parasites , laying their eggs in the nests of other birds; when they hatch, the cuckoo nestlings kick the other eggs out of the nest so their foster parents won't be distracted by their own young, feeding their baby parasite for weeks that they could have spent raising their own family.

Songbirds have adapted to reject weird-looking offspring, so bronze cuckoo nestlings have evolved to resemble their host parents. A new study by researchers at the University of Cambridge reports that this co-evolution drives the emergence of new cuckoo species and therefore biodiversity in general.

The researchers conducted a broad-scale analysis across all cuckoo species and found that lineages that are the most costly to their hosts in terms of resources and rearing time have adapted to look the most like their host birds. Dr. Clare Holleley at CSIRO says, "This finding is significant in evolutionary biology, showing that coevolution between interacting species increases biodiversity by driving speciation."

Including women helpful, scientists find

In terms of sex diversity, a lot of science research is stuck in the 1950s, with researchers predominantly recruiting men as subjects for studies and trials with the assumption that the findings are equally applicable to women. Now, Weill Cornell Medicine researchers report the first evidence that astrocyte receptors in the brain create opposite effects on cognitive function between male and female clinical models, suggesting that astrocytes are contributors to sex-specific brain mechanisms. Previous studies of astrocytes on cognitive function considered only males, leading to the widespread assumption that the mechanism was the same across sexes.

Many neurological conditions have known differences between sexes, including schizophrenia, stroke and dementia. Focusing on mGluR3, a glutamate receptor in astrocytes and a top altered gene in dementia, the research team selectively manipulated astrocytes in animal models to examine the effects of mGluR3 on learning, memory and cognitive and behavioral outcomes.

In females, increasing mGluR3 levels enhanced memory in older females, and reducing them impaired memory in younger females. In males, reducing mGluR3 enhanced memory and increasing levels had no effects. "Therapeutics influencing astrocytic receptors may cause sex-specific cognitive effects in part due to the divergent roles of astrocytes in males and females," said Dr. Anna Orr.

Better pedagogy for LLMs

By training LLMs with a new modality similar to language training in the human brain, researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University developed AI models that perform more like humans. Current LLM training is designed around contextual word prediction. The researchers instead investigated next-sentence prediction tasks , simulating discourse-level comprehension in the human brain to evaluate the coherence of a pair of sentences.

They trained two models, one with NSP enhancement and one without. They were also trained on standard word prediction. The researchers compared patterns from the models with fMRI data collected from people reading either connected or disconnected sentences. The model with NSP training matched human brain activity more closely than the LLM with no NSP training. The researchers hope to create new training modalities for LLMs that do not solely rely on an enormous corpus of text to achieve intelligent results.

Music, speech distinguished

Humans are able to distinguish the sounds of music from speech and to focus closely on speech in an environment with music. An international team of researchers has mapped the process in a study that could enhance therapeutic programs that use music to help people with aphasia regain the ability to speak.

The researchers played audio noise clips for study participants, who were told they would be hearing noise-masked speech or music, and asked to distinguish them. As the participants sorted hundreds of clips, the researchers tracked the degree to which speed and regularity features influenced their judgments.

According to the researchers, the brain uses simple acoustic parameters to distinguish speech from music. They found that slower, steadier sound clips of random noise sound more like music, while fast, irregular clips sound more like speech. Specifically, speech is two to three times faster than most music. Additionally, changes in volume (or amplitude modulation , if you're trying to impress a peer reviewer) is steady in music, while the volume of human speech changes frequently.

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How the freshly selected regional centres will bolster the implementation of the Biodiversity Plan

At the fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 4) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Parties selected 18 regional organizations spanning the globe in a multilateral push to bolster the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, also known as the Biodiversity Plan , through science, technology and innovation:

• Africa: The Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), the Ecological Monitoring Center (CSE), the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).
• Americas: The Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD).
• Asia: ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB); IUCN Asia Regional Office; IUCN Regional Office for West Asia (ROWA); Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences (NIES); Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC).
• Europe: European Commission - Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC); IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation; IUCN Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECARO); Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (RBINS).
• Oceania: The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

Here are five facts about the selection of these centres and the way they will bring the Parties to the CBD closer to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 :

1. Nested in existing institutions for efficiency and rapid deployment

The selected centres are hosted by existing institutions that have responded to the CBD Secretariat’s call for expression of interest. The applications received translate a global commitment to implementing the Biodiversity Plan. This global network of centres forms part of the technical and scientific cooperation mechanism under the CBD. They will contribute to filling gaps in international cooperation and catering to the needs of countries in the regions that they cover.

2. One-stop-shop for scientific, technical and technological support

The mandate of the centres is to catalyse technical and scientific cooperation among the Parties to the Convention in the geographical regions they cover. The support they offer may include the sharing of scientific knowledge, data, expertise, resources, technologies, including indigenous and traditional technologies, and technical know-how with relevance to the national implementation of the 23 targets of the Biodiversity Plan. Other forms of capacity building and development may also be provided.

3. Complementarity with existing initiatives

The expected contributions of the centres will constitute a surge of capacity, complementing small-scale initiatives for technical and scientific cooperation among its Parties through programmes such as the Bio-Bridge Initiative . The newly selected centres will expand, scale-up and accelerate efforts in support of the implementation of the Biodiversity Plan.

4. Delivering field support tailored to regional specificities

Countries around the world face well recognized challenges in aligning with universally agreed targets while considering biophysical specificities and national circumstances. The regional centres will provide regionally appropriate solutions.

5. Building on and amplifying existing cooperation

Many examples around the world demonstrate the benefits of transboundary cooperation. In South Africa, the “Black Mambas” Anti-Poaching Unit has benefited from Dutch expertise in fitting rhinoceros with subcutaneous sensors and horn transmitters to track their movements across the Greater Kruger National Park.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, non-governmental organization Corales de Paz (Colombia) shared their “Caribbean Reef Check” methodology and “Reef Repair Diver “programs with Ecuador-based CONMAR. Participants in CONMAR-organized training camps could thus benefit from expertise in coral reef monitoring and coral gardening.

The newly selected centres will seek to expand this constellation of bright spots of cooperation for nature and for people.

Biden admin rolls out first-of-its-kind ocean conservation plan, prioritizing Indigenous knowledge

If you’ve ever found yourself asking if the United States government “has a plan” for something you care about, we’ve got good news for ocean lovers.

To kick off June, the Smithsonian and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the rollout of a first-of-its-kind National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy .

This strategy — an approximately 18-page document written by the aforementioned organizations — calls for a “stronger, more unified and inclusive approach to ocean conservation,” per a press release from the Smithsonian .

Announced by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy earlier this week, it represents the first nationwide strategy aimed at taking action to save marine life — and, subsequently, all life.

“Life in the ocean touches everyone,” said Gabrielle Canonico, leader of the U.S. Marine Biodiversity Observation Network at NOAA and co-chair of the team that wrote the strategy. 

“Every other breath we take comes from the oxygen produced by microscopic ocean plants, and more than a billion people worldwide rely on food from the ocean as their primary source of protein. But these and other benefits will degrade with biodiversity loss, with dire consequences especially for frontline communities.”

According to the Smithsonian, the ocean contributes nearly $400 billion to the U.S. economy every year, providing 2.4 million jobs in fishing, shipping, tourism, and energy.

Plus, the total ocean territory under U.S. management covers an area larger than all 50 states combined. While protections for marine life have increased in recent years, there is a huge chunk of U.S. marine ecosystems and diverse species that remain unprotected or misunderstood.

The strategy hopes to close those gaps by working alongside local and Indigenous stakeholders.

“We are confronting biodiversity loss and its implications for human well-being, alongside the challenges posed by climate change and social inequity,” said Ellen Stofan, Under Secretary for Science and Research at the Smithsonian. 

“We hold the power to overcome these obstacles with a united, society-wide effort to preserve nature and its benefits.”

The strategy outlines a threefold plan to overcome these obstacles and create a more inclusive, evidence-based network of protection in U.S. ocean waters (and the Great Lakes).

As a first step, stakeholders will coordinate ocean research and conservation across the U.S. by bringing together federal agencies, states, Tribes, and local communities.

This process will prioritize the documentation of the economic and cultural values of the ocean to ensure that all costs of a degrading ocean ecosystem are understood and included in decision-making.

“There is a special need for focus on the many audiences, including underserved and inland communities and decision-makers who lack opportunities to explore the benefits of healthy ocean biodiversity and ecosystems,” the strategy explained. 

Following this robust research process, NOAA and the Smithsonian will “strengthen the information pipeline” and provide accessible, open-source databases and educational materials for anyone who has a stake in the ocean’s health.

“Efforts to connect people of all ages and backgrounds firsthand to the often hidden and inaccessible life of the ocean through storytelling and other forms of communication will align with and amplify existing local, territorial, state, and Tribal efforts in ocean education,” the strategy stated.

This process will also include revamping taxonomy and using new technologies like eDNA satellites and artificial intelligence.

Lastly, once data is gathered and shared, the strategy calls for the protection, conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of ocean biodiversity. This will be done through the co-management and co-stewardship of marine protected areas.

“The strategy’s success hinges on partnerships with all key stakeholders — states, Tribes, local communications, NGOs, and the private sector, including commercial and recreational fishers,” a press release shared.

This includes listening sessions and ongoing collaborations, so all stakeholders can better understand each other’s needs and contributions to create long-term protection measures for the ocean.

“We are advancing frontier technologies for biodiversity science and understanding,” said Sarah Kapnick, NOAA chief scientist, in a statement. 

“But it is critical that we come together around the use of evidence-based metrics and indicators for decision making in ocean spaces, and for monitoring, reporting and verification to ensure that investments in conservation or development deliver the desired outcomes while minimizing negative impacts to ocean life.”

As exciting as it is that the U.S. finally has its own plan for ocean biodiversity and conservation, the plan’s authors have made it clear that this strategy is a first step on the journey to a more sustainable and equitable ocean. 

An implementation plan — which will more clearly outline the allocation of funds for these efforts — will soon follow.

“This strategy is our best chance yet to turn the tide,” said Emmett Duffy, the strategy’s other co-chair and chief scientist of MarineGEO at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center .

“We need to implement it to reach a future where people and the rest of nature thrive together by joining forces and leveraging the power of people and technology to understand the living ocean ecosystem.

Header image courtesy of NOAA

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• Published: 28 May 2024

Biodiversity and food systems

Nature Food volume  5 ,  page 341 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Biological diversity and food availability are intrinsically linked, yet trade-offs between them often arise. Further research is needed on the specific issues faced in different contexts and what could help overcome them.

The International Day for Biological Diversity, celebrated annually on 22 May, marks the date when the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted back in 1992. Besides raising awareness around the value and importance of biodiversity, it also fosters actions to protect it.

The sixth edition of the CBD, to be held in Colombia in October, dedicates unprecedented attention to the food–biodiversity nexus. Among the topics that will be covered are (1) ‘Food systems depend on biodiversity and ecosystem services’; (2) ‘Agriculture must be part of the solution, not the problem’; (3) Biodiversity underpins all fishing and aquaculture activities’; and (4) ‘Genetic diversity: the hidden secret of life’. These topics underscore the impact that food production and consumption have on biodiversity while at the same time depending on it, as well as the potential to transform this relationship through regenerative practices with mutually positive outcomes.

The agreement reached in the previous edition of the CBD in Montreal includes targets to protect 30% of Earth, reform US $500 billion (£410 billion) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and address and disclose the impact businesses. While there is no doubt that this is an important advancement, decisions related to policy design and implementation in specific contexts still require a deeper understanding of the issues faced and what is required to overcome them.

Most of the primary research content featured in the May issue of Nature Food — regardless of their primary focus — offers some contribution to the topics listed above. Two articles focus on the impacts of food security on biodiversity. Wen and colleagues show how uneven agricultural contraction within fast-urbanizing urban agglomeration has decreased nitrogen-use efficiency and food system sustainability in China. Nitrogen losses cause air and water pollution, harming life on land and in water. Zhou and colleagues analyse the global dissemination of Salmonella enterica associated with centralized pork industrialization . Intensive farming and global transportation have particularly reshaped the pig industry, leading to the spread of associated zoonotic pathogens that can cause severe food-borne infections.

Three more articles illustrate practices that would reduce the impact of food systems on biodiversity. Gu and colleagues show how selected agricultural management practices in China can enhance nitrogen sustainability and benefit human health. Lynch et al. estimate that the harvest from inland recreational fishing equates to just over one-tenth of all reported inland fisheries catch at a global level, highlighting the potential contribution of inland recreational fisheries to food security. Finally, Simon et al. examine how redesigning food systems according to circularity principles can support current European protein intake levels while reducing land use and greenhouse gas emissions — both vital to fauna and flora.

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Biodiversity and food systems. Nat Food 5 , 341 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-00998-9

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