Endangered species: could better tracking methods reduce vulnerability or extinction?

Palau. Image by LuxTonnerre, licensed under Creative Commons.

Guest blogger botanist Craig Costion has written an article on endangered species on Biodiversity Revolution‘s blog which describes a new approach to developing the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) classification for potentially endangered species for which no demographic information is available.

The term ‘endangered species’ refers to species which fall under the IUCN’s Red List, a complete list of all endangered mammals, birds, amphibians, sharks, reef-building corals, cycads and conifers, but only a small percentage of all species of reptiles, fishes, and selected groups of plants and invertebrates have been classified.

Currently the IUCN classifies a species or habitat as ‘vulnerable’ if it has suffered a 30% decline ‘over 3 generations or within 100 years’. The author believes it is important to classify the remaining species to include ‘information on the history of habitat modification and destruction extending over and beyond 100 years’ to obtain a greater understanding of species vulnerability.

The full findings and methods are available in the post entitled Endangered Species by Craig Costion.

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How vulnerable are plant species to climate change?

In a study conducted using the native shrub Needle Bottlebrush, Environment Institute member Prof Andrew Lowe (and others) explore the vulnerability of plant species in the face of climate change in their paper Combining population genetics, species distribution modelling and field assessments to understand a species vulnerability to climate change.

 

The aims of this research were ‘to evaluate ‘the risk posed by climate change on C. teretifolius (Needle Bottlebrush), and identify populations for conservation based on high genetic diversity and predicted persistence of habitat’ by using a number of approaches including field assessments, using data from field assessments, population genetics, species distribution modelling and spatial analysis.

The authors find that ‘temperature and rainfall distribution as a result of contemporary climate change are expected to impose serious challenges on many plant species’, but other factors can have effects on plant populations such as species geographic location and human intervention.

The full findings are in the journal Austral Ecology.

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Animal Evolution in Arid Australia Seminar Friday 3 May

Environment Institute member Professor Steven Cooper will present a seminar on his research ‘A New World Down Under: biodiversity and evolution of subterranean animals from the Australian arid zone’.

About the speaker

Professor Steven Cooper is a Principal Researcher at the South Australian Museum and an affiliate at the University of Adelaide, where he is a member of the Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, associated with the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. His research investigates the diversity, evolution and molecular ecology of Australian fauna, with a strong focus on subterranean and groundwater invertebrate fauna from the arid zone of Australia.

Where: G25 Benham Laboratories, The University of Adelaide
When: Friday 3 May 2013
Time: 12pm-1pm
Cost: free

All welcome!

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Study highlights the viviparous sea snakes as a promising system for speciation studies in the marine environment

A new paper involving Environment Institute members Kate Sanders and Michael Lee (also SA Museum) as well as Arne Rasmussen (The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts), Mumpuni (Museum Zoologi Bogor), Johan Elmberg (Kristianstad University), Anstem de Silva (Gampola, Sri Lanka) and Michael Guinea (Charles Darwin University) has recently been published in the journal Molecular Ecology.

The paper titled ‘Recent rapid speciation and ecomorph divergence in Indo-Australian sea snakes’ investigated recent speciation and eco-morphological differentiation in four nominal sea snake species with overlapping ranges in Southeast Asia and Australia to shed light on the mechanisms underlying sea snake diversification.

According to the researchers, the results highlight the viviparous sea snakes as a promising system for speciation studies in the marine environment.

Read the paper to find out more.

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New study suggests a general predictive relationship between body form and geographical range size in lizards

A new paper involving Environment Institute members Michael Lee (also SA Museum) and Adam Skinner (also SA Museum) as well as Agustin Camacho (University of Sao Paulo) has recently been published in the Journal of Biogeography.

The paper titled ‘The relationship between limb reduction, body elongation and geographical range in lizards’ looked at the relationship between changes in body form and geographical range size across 68 species of Lerista (a species-rich group of Australian scincid lizards).

The authors identify that the results suggest a general predictive relationship between body form and geographical range size in lizards: elongate, limb-reduced lizards tend to exhibit more restricted geographical ranges that may reflect reduced dispersal ability and may also predispose them to greater vulnerability of extinction.

Read the paper to find out more.

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Guest seminar by Simon Baxter on molecular evolution of butterfly mimetic patterns

The Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology & Biodiversity presents Simon Baxter, Ramsay Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide on Friday 15th March 2013.

The seminar is titled ‘Molecular evolution of butterfly mimicry.’ (See abstract below)

Where: B21, Ingkarni Wardli Building, The University of Adelaide
Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm
When: Friday 15th March 2013

REGISTER HERE

All Welcome!

ABSTRACT

Heliconius display bright wing patterns that warn predators of distastefulness and also act as mating cues. The diversity of patterns displayed within and between the hundreds of forms is remarkable, as is the convergence between species onto near-perfect mimetic patterns. Recent field studies have identified a group of populations along the eastern slopes of the Andes that are allied to H. timareta and share wing phenotypes with sympatric H. melpomene. Genomic studies have shown that the populations with similar phenotypes also share allelic variation at wing patterning loci, with adaptive introgression across the species boundary providing the most likely explanation for this pattern.

We sequenced a 600 Kb genomic region that regulates diverse red wing pattern phenotypes, using 80 Heliconius samples. Genomic intervals associated with at least three independent red colour pattern phenotypes were resolved using sequence comparisons that grouped similar wing phenotypes, irrespective of species. By comparing the level of nucleotide variation within each colour pattern interval, we estimate the time in generations when introgression events occurred between H. melpomene and H. timareta. Gene exchange after speciation has resulted in the adaptive spread of colour pattern alleles. Here we have identified narrow genomic regions that must act through different cis-regulatory elements of the transcription factor optix, in order to control complex mimetic phenotypes.

Image: Heliconius melpomene races with different phenotypes, H. melpomene ecuadorensis from Ecuador (left) and H. melpomene melpomene from French Guiana.

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Biodiversity Brief Issue 1 out now!

Conserving biodiversity and dealing with the effects of climate change are two of the biggest challenges facing the world today. Species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, while entire ecosystems are collapsing due to biodiversity loss or the inability of species to cope with a changing climate.

But there are actions that can be taken to ameliorate these effects, and Professor Andy Lowe, Director of the Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology & Biodiversity, and his team,  intend to highlight the issues and discuss possible remediation through the quarterly publication of ‘Biodiversity Brief’.

The first issue of Biodiversity Brief is now available to read. This edition focuses on biodiversity adaptation to climate change.
In this issue:

• Adapt, Migrate or die.
• The new genomics and modeling technologies
• Science, policy, action!
• The end of civilisation!

You can view the e-magazine online here, or download a pdf of the Biodiversity brief from the Biodiversity Revolution Blog.

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New Paper – Leaf morphology shift: new data and analysis support climate link

A new paper involving Environment Institute members Greg Guerin and Andrew Lowe has recently been published in the Journal Biology Letters.

Samples from the Narrow-leaf Hopbush from the State Herbarium (Photo by Greg Guerin)

The paper titled ‘Leaf morphology shift: new data and analysis support climate link’ is following on from a previous paper written by Dr Guerin, Haixia Wen and Professor Lowe (‘Leaf morphology shift in response to climate change’) where the researchers concluded that climate change is changing the width of leaves.

This new research uses alternative data splits and statistical methods to re-test their original findings, including an extra 10 years’ worth of new data on leaf width from extra specimens collected up to 2011.

Read the paper to find out more

Professor Andrew Lowe has written an in depth Blog post about this research on Biodiversity Revolution called ‘First signs that climate change is causing adaptive shifts in plants’

Read an article relating to this research on ABC News

Read the Environment Institute’s previous blog post about this research and see past media coverage

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New Paper – At Limits of Life: Multidisciplinary Insights Reveal Environmental Constraints on Biotic Diversity in Continental Antarctica

A new paper written by Environment Institute member Mark Stevens (also SA Museum), Catarina Magalhaes (University of Porto), S. Craig Cary (University of Waikato & University of Delaware), Becky Ball (Arizona State University), Bryan Storey (University of Canterbury), Diana Hall (Colorado State University), Roman Turk (University of Salzburg) and Ulrike Ruprecht (University of Salzburg) has recently been published in the journal PLoS One.

The area where the research was conducted. (Photo by Mark Stevens)

The paper, titled ‘At Limits of Life: Multidisciplinary Insights Reveal Environmental Constraints on Biotic Diversity in Continental Antarctica,’ furthers our knowledge about why life exists in such an inhospitable location. The study revealed that spatial heterogeneity (a mix of concentrations of multiple species filling its area) and past geological history is fundamental to understanding why certain life exists in Antarctica and where they are found.

Read the paper to find out more.

Read Mark Stevens guest blog post on Biodiversity Revolution to find out what he had to say about the paper.

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NCCARF Fact Sheets – Wildlife corridors and climate change adaptation

The Adaptation Research Network for Terrestrial Biodiversity is one of eight research networks administered by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF). It is hosted by James Cook University in Townsville, north Queensland.

NCCARF are producing a series of information sheets covering different areas of climate change and the environment.

Information sheet number 6 in this series is titled ‘Wildlife Corridors and Climate Change Adaptation’ and Environment Institute member Andrew Lowe was involved in helping to produce it.
The info sheet covers:

• What are biodiversity corridors?
• Corridors and climate change
• Corridor types, design and size
• Implications for managers and decision-makers

Downlad a PDF of this information sheet to find out more.

Other information sheets in this series can be downloaded from the NCCARF website.

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