Sometimes you get to travel for your PhD and last week was one of those times for me. This last week I was in France doing fieldwork with my colleague Antonietta Knetge, her co-supervisor Bernard Gomez, and his PhD student Axel Montigny. The purpose of this trip was to collect fossil specimens from Cretaceous localities around Poitiers, from the active quarries of Persac to the beaches of Ile d’Oleron.
Fig. 1: Ile d’Oleron at low tide. Left to Right: Axel, Catarina (me, hi!), and Bernard. Photograph by A. Knetge.
This trip, like all trips, was a learning experience. And everyone loves a list so today we’re counting down the Top 5 things I learned during fieldwork last week.
5. Gear isn’t everything, but it does make a difference
You don’t need to be decked out in Arc’teryx and have the latest in ~geological hammer technology~. However – a solid pair of boots and access to proper tools will absolutely make a difference.
Fig. 2: Drip. Photograph by Antonietta Knetge.
4. Finding Good Rocks is Good Pt.1
The debate of “Good Rock vs Good Stick” has been ongoing for as long as hominids have had the capacity to debate (citation needed). It can be argued that a good stick is more versatile than a good rock, however, in the presence of a large body of water, a Good Rock reigns supreme. Quarries, especially inactive ones, are usually home to small lakes. And paleontological excavations are known to produce some quantities of big rocks, especially if you’re trying to uncover a specific level. The conditions were perfect. If you ever need to raise morale on a dig, Good Rock Thrown Into Lake is sure to do the trick.
Fig. 3: Good rock found and expertly chucked at the Persac Quarry. Photos by A. Knetge, gif editing by C. Barbosa.
3. Wear sunscreen but most importantly cover yourself
The first time I ever did fieldwork, it was an afternoon in mid-June in Lisbon on a southwest facing cliff. This is to say, it was very very hot and there was no shade whatsoever. I wore a tank top and sunscreen but got a peeling sunburn the shape of the top on my back. This is not ideal. This time, I wore longer sleeves when the weather permitted and always had my shoulders covered. Spent the whole week in the sun, only got a little pink in the forearms the first day. I know it’s obvious, but it really can’t be stressed enough.
2. Nutrition
This is another obvious one but bear with me. Watchers of Dungeon Meshi will be familiar with the importance of balanced, tasty, and warm meals to keep your body healthy and yourself happy, but it really cannot be stressed how much eating well (and enough) will affect your mood. Making sure you’re getting enough water (and also electrolytes!) and enough carbs/protein/fats will keep your eyes and mind sharp and keep you motivated throughout the day. Not enough praise can be said for a hearty, warm meal after a hard day’s work.
1. Finding Good Rocks is Good Pt.2
Doing desk work and data analysis is all well and good but nothing beats the rush of cracking open a hunk of clay and finding a perfectly preserved leaf. Venations visible, margins intact, petiole and everything. Effervescent.
Fig. 4: Eucalyptus-like angiosperm leaves from Puy-Puy (Albian-Cenomanian, ~100.5Mya).
We’ve all been there, trying to get some out of reach object only to dejectedly ask for the assistance of another. Turns out, this behavior has been with us for most of our lives. It is known that children as young as 12 months will start to point at certain objects that they desire but are, for obvious reasons, unable to obtain (Figure 2). This behaviour is known as imperative pointing and, as it turns out, you don’t even need to point to be able to do it. In fact, gaze alteration, the process of looking between the desired object and a specific individual, is seen as an analog of this in our four-legged friends, the canines. This behavior has been widely examined in domesticated dogs, who humans have a long history of cohabitation with. Indeed, many of us can probably offer anecdotal evidence of this in our own dogs, be it looking at treats on a shelf, or their favourite toys on kitchen tabletops. However, surprisingly, it has never been studied in wolves, the wild relatives of our beloved pooches. In 2016, Heberlein et al. set to change this, and their findings have some important implications, not least concerning our understanding of the very domestication of dogs itself.
Figure 2: A cartoon of imperative pointing in infants
The experimental premise was relatively simple. A group of grey wolves (subspecies: timber wolf) and a group of dogs (breed not given), were both obtained from animal shelters in Europe and were raised from puppyhood with daily human interaction. When the canines were around 2 years old, the experiment began with a pre-feeding and training phase. This involved an experimental room with 3 boxes (Figure 3), each too high for the canines to reach by jumping, the poor guys. In this phase, food was first shown to the animals, one animal at a time, and then clearly placed in each of the boxes. If the animal looked at the box and then at the human, the human would automatically get the food for them. The wolves and dogs were then introduced to 2 new humans, a mean competitor who would steal the food, and a helpful cooperator, who would share any food the animals identified. This whole process would serve to inform the canines that the humans could provide them with out of reach food, but that only the cooperator would actually give them any of it. Why go through all this trouble you may ask? Well, turns out there were some very clever scientists involved in the experiment. Those involved wanted to avoid the possibility that gaze alteration for food could simply be the result of a food human association, i.e., if I stare at a box and then a human, then the human must give me food. If gaze alteration reflects some true communicative intention on the part of the animals, then one would expect that they should ask for help mainly from the cooperative human, I know I definitely prefer working with cooperative humans. Once trained, the test was ready to begin.
The actual experiment involved a tasty sausage being presented to a lone wolf/dog and then being hidden in one of 3 boxes located in the room, the same room used in pre-training. Then, either the cooperative human or the competitive human, the same humans the animals had been trained with, entered the room. They would passively observe the animal for 1 minute after which they would go to the box they believed the animal was looking at. If correct then the sausage would wither be given to the animal, if the cooperator was present, or eaten by the human, if the competitor was present. The process was repeated a total of 4 times, twice with each type of human.
Figure 3: The experimental setup. Stars represent the food boxes, the circle is where the human was positioned, and D is the rooms door.
The results were incredibly interesting. In most cases, the canines, both wolves and dogs, showed the correct food location to the cooperator but not the competitor (P = 0.006) (Figure 4). Importantly, there was no difference between this behaviour between the two species (P = 0.24). As an aside, P values are statistical values that tell you if there is a significant difference between two things. All you need to know is 1) Any P value less than 0.05 means that the event is unlikely to have happened by chance and 2) That scientists are very fond of including them in their papers. In any case, what’s even more interesting is what these results can tell us about their evolutionary histories. While both directed the cooperative human to the food box, wolves spent more time looking at the food itself when compared to the dogs (P = 0.03). This may reflect a higher food motivation present in wolves. Intuitively this makes sense, as, while some of us would surely like them to be, wolves are not pets and so need to hunt for food themselves. In addition, the ability of dogs to referentially communicate with humans was thought to be a result of their domestication and close association with us ever since. The results of this experiment would, however, suggest that this ability was at least present in the common ancestor of the wolves and domestic dogs. Therefore, rather than this communication being a product of domestication, it is more likely that the skill of referential communication had evolved in canines to promote the social coordination needed for group living, i.e., living in their packs. In other words, the common ancestor of today’s canines may have also been a good boy.
Figure 4: A graph comparing the percentage of showing behaviour, i.e., gaze alteration, in wolves and dogs towards competitive and cooperative humans.
In summary, dogs, are not alone in their ability to ability to referentially communicate with us. This ability is shared with the grey wolf and the choice to work with a cooperative human over a competitive one provides evidence that there is some conscious thought in this decision-making process (both in dogs and wolves). While this raises important questions about the evolutionary histories of these animals, more intriguing questions remain. Namely, what other well-known traits of dogs are also present, but undiscovered, in wolves. Personally, I am very much excited to find out.
Figure 5: Grey wolf puppies playing next to their mother.
For more information on this topic, you can read the paper discussed here(free of charge)
Blog written by Niall Moore, a final year undergraduate student, as part of an assignment writing blogs about an animal behaviour paper!
There’s a common perception among environmentalists that farmers are pretty fast and loose when it comes to environmental regulations. Farmers have to follow endless rules on when they can cut the hedges, where can’t they spread slurry and how to apply pesticides. If farmers are drowning in red tape, surely they can’t be following all these rules all of the time?
There’s a particularly large burden of rules when it comes to pesticides. This makes a lot of sense as pesticides are potent chemicals, specifically engineered to be toxic to some kind of life form. When mis-used, pesticides can contaminate food chains, water courses and even cause serious illness in humans. So, if farmers aren’t following the rules on pesticide applications this could have some pretty disastrous consequences for their own health, as well as for biodiversity. We set out to answer this question by surveying Irish farmers and simply asking them if they follow the rules.
The surprising answer we found is that the majority of farmers are following the rules most of the time. When we scored farmers on how well they followed the legally required steps for pesticide applications, the average score was 81 out of 100, which is pretty good! A key question that worried me as a pesticide scientist was whether farmers were spraying their pesticides at the right concentrations, which 96% of respondents said they were. Farmers also reported being very good at disposing of their leftover pesticides i.e., not pouring them down the drain, which is something that worries aquatic ecologists given watercourse pollution is a serious threat to river species.
In fact, in most of the questions we asked, the majority of farmers were following the rules. So, the perception of the average farmer being a rule-breaker and doing whatever they like with pesticides is a myth! That said though, we did see some areas where a sizable chunk of farmers weren’t following the rules properly.
Prior to applying farm pesticides, there’s a mandatory two-day training course covering the basics of how to use the kit and how to stay safe. We found that 1 in 6 farmers who use pesticides professionally admitted to not having taken this course, which both illegal and worrisome.
Beyond training, another key tool in protecting farmers from pesticides is personal protective equipment. Things like gloves, masks and overalls. This is sadly the worst area for compliance with the rules, as around half the farmers in our survey were bad at wearing protective equipment while spraying. This means they are potentially exposing themselves to dangerously high levels of pesticide. Gloves, which are the easiest piece of protective equipment to source and wear were worn by most farmers, but still 1 in 4 ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ wear gloves while mixing and applying pesticides.
Beyond these sizable minorities putting their own health at risk, we also had the odd instance where one or two respondents admitted to some behaviours which could be really bad for the environment. These included reports of dumping of leftover pesticides in ways which would contaminate rivers, or even admitting to buying banned substances like neonicotinoids.
So while the overall picture is that most farmers follow the rules most of the time, there is still some work to be done. Principally in supporting farmers in wearing their protective kit and reaching and educating those few farmers who aren’t following the rules properly.
It’s worth briefly contextualising these results internationally, as the situation in the developing world is very very different. In China, Africa and the middle east, the scale of rule breaking in an order of magnitude greater than among Irish farmers. There are very frequent reports of pesticide overapplication, dumping of pesticides into waterways and little protective equipment being worn. This shows the successes of European and Irish efforts to develop agriculture and to regulate pesticides stringently.
Now having said all that, the obvious response is ‘are you sure the farmers weren’t lying?’. And we can’t directly test this, but there’s actually a wealth of sociology literature which says that if you give people anonymity and a non-judgemental questionnaire, they’ll be surprisingly honest. Among scientists even, if you use a well-designed survey, around 2% will readily admit to making up data (rather scary!). We used an online survey because it allowed us to afford our respondents total anonymity. While our survey is likely to have encouraged honesty, the best evidence for honesty comes from the number of farmers who admitted to breaking some form of rule. If our farmers were all lying through their teeth about not overapplying pesticides or breaking other serious rules, why would they admit to breaking the rules on wearing personal protective equipment?
To conclude, despite popular belief, farmers are good at following pesticide rules. While there are a few rule breakers among them, broadly speaking farmers are using pesticides properly. The main area they struggle in is protecting themselves. Governments should support farmers more in education on why following the rules is important, and should continue to pursue high standards in how they are used.
If you want to read these results in full, see our free to read paper “Self-reported assessment of compliance with pesticide rules” at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.114692. It was as published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, in April 2023.
All references to the color green are impossible to avoid if we want to preserve or improve the environment. It is clear that “going green” is in, but which shade of green should we look at? There is the ‘bright electric green’, commonly posed on renewable energy advertisements and infographics. There is also the ‘deep forest green’ often pledged in biodiversity conservation campaigns. However, the question is, can we generate an environmental plan that actually delivers an appealing blend of both ‘electric’ and ‘deep forest’ green?
In our recent work, we set out to determine what the optimal shade of green for Ireland’s future is. Like many countries, Ireland recognizes the need to urgently transition to a low-carbon economy to avoid the devastating impacts of unimpeded climate change. To meet our decarbonisation goals, Ireland has developed a Climate Action Plan 1. The goal of the Climate Action Plan is to achieve a net zero carbon energy system for Irish society by 2050. Specific actions include increasing the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources from 30% to 80% by 2030, establishing 8,000 hectares of newly planted trees per year, and funding the restoration and rehabilitation of peatlands. So it seems that the solution is quite straightforward – convert all current land uses to renewable energy infrastructure, new forests, and peatlands. Problem solved?!
Not so fast… In addition to the climate crisis, we are also facing an equally urgent biodiversity crisis. These two green problems can’t be solved independently. The biodiversity and climate crises are entwined in a complex system of feedbacks, with biodiversity part of the Earth system regulating climate, and climate in turn determining biodiversity patterns and trajectories. Ireland is a trailblazer in acknowledging that a synergistic solution is needed, and in May 2019, became the 2nd country worldwide to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency (Dáil Éireann, 2019). However, recognizing that climate and biodiversity require a coordinated response is only a first step. Implementation is going to be far more complicated. We need a plan, and we need it fast.
To come up with the plan that would be the best for both climate and biodiversity, we went through the major goals of the Climate Action Plan and reviewed the scientific literature to determine how to meet those objectives in the most biodiversity friendly way possible. We identified the major threats that climate actions, such as increased renewable energy infrastructure, could impose on biodiversity (Figure 1) 2.
Figure 1. Mechanisms for climate actions which impact biodiversity. We outline major mechanisms that could impact biodiversity during the three primary life stages of renewable energy facilities: construction, operation, and decommissioning. From Gorman et al, 2023.
Along the way, we also found that many of the proposed climate actions can be implemented in ways that don’t harm biodiversity, but actually promote biodiversity: our “win-wins”. For Ireland, these include increasing offshore wind capacity, rehabilitating natural areas surrounding onshore wind turbines and limiting the development of solar photovoltaics to where humans have already erected structures, the so-called “built” environment (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Some examples of Ireland’s 2 “win-wins” for climate action and promoting biodiversity.
Ultimately, biodiversity-friendly renewable energy can be achieved by prioritizing renewables that are the least damaging and ensuring that infrastructure development is carried out as sensitively as possible in order to protect, restore, and enhance biodiversity. This could look different depending on where in the environment we are talking about, which is why choosing an appropriate site for each method is critical – we need a plan!
We hope that this work can form the basis for that plan for Ireland and stimulate broader discussions on what this looks like for other countries. By synergistically mitigating both our climate and biodiversity crises, we can ensure that Ireland’s future is Emerald Green.
About the author: Courtney Gorman is a postdoctoral researcher and project manager for the Nature+Energy project at Trinity College Dublin. She has a PhD in Biology from the University of Konstanz in Germany.
References:
1. Government of Ireland. Climate Action Plan. https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/ccb2e0-the-climate-action-plan-2019/ (2021).
2. Gorman, C. E. et al. Reconciling climate action with the need for biodiversity protection, restoration and rehabilitation. Science of The Total Environment 857, 159316 (2023).
Blog amended from first publication on Campus Buzz.
As the semester flies by, the EcoEvo annual Photo Competition draws ever closer!
The 2022/2023 showcasing will be the sixth instalment in the series and if previous years are anything to go by, the judges will have an extremely tough time choosing a winner. Year on year, the bar seems to have risen ever higher so we’re excited to see what you have in store for us!
For those of you in the dark, the EcoEvo Photo Competition is one of the most highly anticipated events of the year for Botany and Zoology, with the winner receiving prestige and respect from the Trinity Natural Sciences cohort. If that isn’t enough for you, the photo that claims first prize also gets to be shown off for year, becoming the new cover photo for the EcoEvo Blog and profile image on all social media pages. This competition gives us all a chance to present the amazing and strange snippets of our research that often miss out on the opportunity to be shared, so send us on whatever you’ve got!
Katrin Schertenleib captured a beautiful moment between two adult Puffins (Fratercula arctic) off the coast of Wexford on the Great Saltee island last year. Currently the poster image for the EcoEvo blog, is it soon to be succeeded by the 2022/23 winner! Clickhere to see the other entries from last year’s Photo Competition
To enter into the competition, all you have to do is send your photo along with a short caption and/or story to the EcoEvo email account (ecoevoblog@gmail.com). Following on from the successful system of previous years, the entries will be anonymized and sent to an unbiased third party to be judged, ensuring that an equal and fair opportunity is given to each and every participant.
Winners From Earlier Competitions
The five previous exhibitions have each produced a fantastic array of photos. With snapshots coming from the corners of Southeast Sulawesi to the Galapagos Islands and even up to high latitudes of the Arctic. Members of Botany and Zoology have brought us to some of the most amazing and beautiful landscapes on Earth.
To see the 2017 Photo Competition entries, clickhere
The winner of the inaugural Photo Competition back in 2017 stole the show with a wandering Alpine Salamander (Salamandra atra). This little guy was captured by Alain Finn high up in the Swiss Alps.
To see the 2018 Photo competition entries, click here
Dr Laura Russo was next to snatch first prize in 2018, with the winning snapshot being taken closer to home. This chocolate mining bee (Andrena scotica) found a comfy spot on Laura in the Trinity Botanic Gardens at Darty.
To see the 2019 Photo competition entries, click here
Jenny Bortoluzzi claimed the 2019 win with an incredible photo from her expedition to the high Arctic where she and her team had the once in a lifetime opportunity to see a female polar bear (Ursus maritimus) in her natural environment. While stunningly beautiful, this image also strikes a chord – a daunting reminder of the uncertain future of the polar regions.
To see the 2020 Photo competition entries, click here
A male Rufous-tailed hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl) snatched the win in the 2020 showcasing of the Photo Competition, and rightfully so! These tiny birds are notoriously difficult to photograph but Floriane O’Keeffe managed to capture one mid-flight, an impressive feat.
We hope that seeing some of the past winners and runners up strikes ambition within you to photograph everything in the natural world around you. With all that said and done we eagerly await your submissions! Please send them in before the end of December. Winner to be announced in the New Year.
We wish you all the best of luck in the sixth annual EcoEvo Photo Competition!
Our understanding of how species interact and evolve depends on accurate knowledge of the species that exist on Earth. There are still many species to be identified, however, even in evolutionarily significant regions such as Wallacea in central Indonesia, site of Alfred Russel Wallace’s pioneering work. Our new paper, completed jointly with researchers from Universitas Halu Oleo and just published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, draws on work carried out in Wallacea to identify multiple unrecognised species in the beautiful sunbird family. Made using modern genetic, acoustic, and statistical techniques, these discoveries add to our understanding of how life evolved in this region and reinforce some of Wallace’s original ideas.
The key discovery is the “Wakatobi Sunbird Cinnyris infrenatus”, a species endemic to the small islands of the Wakatobi archipelago, off Southeast Sulawesi in central Indonesia. The Wakatobi Islands have been separated from other landmasses since they first rose out of the sea, and so there has been plenty of time for their populations to evolve in isolation and produce endemic taxa, found nowhere else on Earth. The Wakatobi Islands have been recognised as a Key Biodiversity Area for their importance to the survival of biodiversity. The Wakatobi Sunbird is the latest endemic species to be identified by our research group, following previous work on the Wakatobi Flowerpecker and the double discovery of the Wakatobi White-eye and Wangi-wangi White-eye. It’s important that we know all of the species of Southeast Sulawesi and the Wakatobi Islands, because this region acts as a “natural laboratory” for the study of evolutionary processes such as cryptic sexual dimorphism, the “supertramp strategy”, and the links between behaviour and population divergence. The Wakatobi Sunbird is currently treated as a subspecies of the widespread Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis), but our findings indicate that the Olive-backed Sunbird is actually made up of at least 4 reproductively isolated species.
Male Olive-backed Sunbirds from Sulawesi and nearby islands. Our new paper supports splitting this population as the “Sahul Sunbird (Cinnyris clementiae)”.
Male Wakatobi Sunbirds. This population is currently viewed as a subspecies of the Olive-backed Sunbird, but the genetic divergence we have found, along with its darker plumage, shorter wings, and different calls, support its recognition as a new species.
Female Olive-backed Sunbirds (“Sahul Sunbirds”) from Sulawesi and nearby islands. Sunbirds are sexually dimorphic, with the feales usually showing simpler plumage than the males.
Female Wakatobi Sunbirds. The analysis of plumage in our study used male birds, following previous taxonomic work on subirds.
The sunbirds (Nectariniidae) fill a similar niche in Africa, Asia, and Australia to the hummingbirds of the Americas. They are small birds with long bills that help them extract nectar from flowers. Like the hummingbirds, many sunbirds (males particularly) exhibit brightly coloured plumage, with beautiful iridescent or “metallic” feathers that reflect the sunlight. In fact, the naturalist William Jardine tells us in his 1843 volume on the sunbirds that sunbirds get their name “from their brightly-tinted dress, appearing in higher splendour when played on by the sun-beams”. For hundreds of years, ornithologists have used the patterns and colours of these feathers to identify sunbird species. Now, however, we can combine multiple forms of data to uncover patterns that weren’t clear from plumage alone. Our paper also looked at the Black Sunbird (Leptocoma aspasia), a species with male plumage that’s hard to examine because it mostly looks jet-black, except when the sun hits it in the right way to reveal other colours. We found a genetic split in this species that had not been suggested by any previous work, probably due to its plumage being less informative.
Male Black Sunbird (Leptocoma aspasia).
Female Black Sunbird (Leptocoma aspasia)
Finding species like these isn’t just interesting for its own sake. It is also our best evidence to understand how evolution produces new species. This is particularly interesting in a region like Wallacea, which played such a significant role in the development of evolutionary biology. The observations that Wallace made around this region led him to discover evolution by natural selection, work which was published jointly with Charles Darwin in 1858 in the same journal where our sunbird paper has just appeared.
One of the observations that inspired Wallace’s evolutionary thinking was the importance of biogeographic barriers. Wallace noticed that the animals found on Sulawesi are markedly different from those on neighbouring Borneo, evidence that species would evolve on one island and then have difficulty crossing over. This boundary came to be known as Wallace’s Line. We now understand that it represents the beginning of the deep waters of the Wallacea region, which persisted even when sea levels were lower, unlike the shallower waters of the adjoining Sunda Shelf which gave rise to land bridges. A similar barrier to the east came to be known as Lydekker’s Line. As seen in the map below, the range of the Olive-backed Sunbird (in yellow) is currently thought to cross both Wallace’s Line and Lydekker’s Line, while the Black Sunbird (in purple) stops at Wallace’s Line but crosses Lydekker’s Line. It’s quite remarkable to imagine these dainty little birds maintaining gene flow across barriers which block so many other organisms! Our work, however, has indicated that the Olive-backed Sunbird populations on either side of Wallace’s Line actually represent separate species. The same is true of Black Sunbird populations divided by Lydekker’s Line. Modern evidence has actually reinforced Wallace’s original ideas, showing once again that these Lines represent significant biogeographic barriers that block gene flow in most animals.
Map showing populations sampled for our new paper. We found evidence that the Olive-backed Sunbird is actually composed of separate species in the Philippines (“Garden Sunbird”). the Sunda Shelf (“Ornate Sunbird”), the Wakatobi Islands (“Wakatobi Sunbird”), and the islands from Sulawesi to the Sahul Shelf (“Sahul Sunbird”). We also found that Black Sunbirds in New Guinea are strongly genetically divergent from those in Sulawesi. These findings reinforce the importance of biogeographic barriers like Wallace’s Line and Lydekker’s Line to evolution.
Both evolutionary biologists and ecologists are gaining new insights from large datasets on the traits and genomics of species. However, as these datasets are organised by species, they rely on our species lists being accurate in the first place. Data from “species” like the Olive-backed Sunbird or Black Sunbird might prove misleading, as each of these actually represent multiple species. Meanwhile, a small population like that of the Wakatobi Sunbird may not be included in such a dataset at all if it isn’t recognised as a species.
To quote an 1863 paper by Wallace, the world’s species represent “the individual letters which go to make up one of the volumes of our earth’s history and, as a few lost letters may make a sentence unintelligible, so the extinction of the numerous forms of life which the progress of cultivation invariably entails will necessarily render obscure this invaluable record of the past”. It is therefore an irrevocable loss to the world, to humanity, and to science when a species goes extinct while still unrecognised, “uncared for and unknown”.
Hoga, one of the Wakatobi Islands where sunbirds were sampled for this study. It has been a privilege to see such beautiful places and animals for this research.
While the Wakatobi Islands are biogeographically “remote” due to their small size and the permanent water barriers that surround them, it is worth noting that they are not the stereotypical “desert islands” Western readers may imagine. The islands have been part of important shipping lanes since at least the 14th century, and the people of the Wakatobi are known for their maritime traditions and unique language. As Dr David Kelly, the second author on the recent paper remarked: “The identification of the Wakatobi Sunbird serves to remind us that biodiversity is everywhere. This bird wasn’t found in a remote rainforest, but along the scrubby margins of busy towns and villages. Let us hope the children of the Wakatobi will be able to enjoy these special birds for generations to come.”
A relief from Borobudur Temple on Java, built over 1000 years ago. The birds in the yellow boxes were identified as Olive-backed Sunbirds by Ashari et al. (2021). Their fascinating paper is available at https://li01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/tnh/article/view/253401
The beauty of the sunbirds has attracted scientists and artists for many years. Elsewhere in Indonesia, Java’s Borobudur (the largest Buddhist temple in the world, constructed in the 8th or 9th century CE) displays carvings of Olive-backed Sunbirds drinking nectar on its walls. The researchers who identified these carvings hypothesise that this symbolises the Buddhist ideal of enlightenment. Over a thousand years later, sunbirds are still enlightening us on the origin of species.
Female (top) and male (bottom) Olive-backed Sunbirds, from Shelley’s monograph, published 1876-1880 and available from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.53516. Our new paper has found that the Olive-backed Sunbird is actually made up of at least four separate species.
An interview with basking shark researcher Haley Dolton
The basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, is the second largest shark in the world and is regularly seen swimming off the coast of Ireland. But how much do we really know about these ocean giants? In this installment of the EcoEvo blog our co-editor, Lucy Harding sat down with PhD candidate and basking shark researcher, Haley Dolton to find out what it’s like studying these enormous sharks.
Lucy: So Haley, what was it about sharks that first got you interested in them?
Haley: I remember first being interested in sharks when I was reading an encyclopedia of animals and I read that sharks were fish! And that kind of blew my mind because of what I knew about sharks, they were more like mammals in my head; really powerful, can birth live young, can be social. So yeah, that really intrigued me. And when I started reading about them (because this was before the Internet!), and learnt more, like that they have these amazing senses, electrical senses, and they’re capable of doing amazing behavioural things, I think that really sparked my interest in sharks.
Three basking sharks swimming together in Irish waters (photo captured by Haley Dolton).
Lucy: What sets basking sharks apart from other large-bodied sharks, for you? Why study them over white sharks for example?
Haley: I know this sounds almost like a throw-away answer but I actually kind of fell into basking shark research, and then I grew to love them! It was the first opportunity that I was given to work in shark research in the Isle of Man, working with Manx Basking Shark Watch, and I just remember the first time I saw one I was like, “Oh my God, what is that?!” and it came right up to the boat, and I remember being shocked by the size of it! Any shark documentaries I’d seen, the only sharks really that were featured years ago were great whites because they’re the most *air quotes* “exciting” shark, but then I saw this basking shark, with the way it swims and what it looks like and I thought “Oh that looks like a great white but it’s massive!”. I think that that really sparked my interest in them.
I learned more about them from being in the field and reading about them, I was trying to figure them out because they didn’t make a lot of sense to me. For example, they feed on zooplankton (so they’re filter feeders) and they’re the second largest shark species capable of undertaking powerful behaviours, but they feed on microscopic prey, all of this got me thinking “How are they doing this?!”. So I got obsessed with how weird they are! Like how are they behaving like they do?! As another example, they aggregate in large numbers, and we don’t really know why!
(Haley scans the water hoping to spot a shark fin. Photo captured by Dr Nicholas Payne).
We think it’s maybe related to mating or for saving energy, as they swim close to each other, but you know seeing that in the wild, for yourself, it really sparks the ideas in the mind and that set me on the path to studying basking sharks over any other shark species. That’s not to say that I’m not interested in other shark species of course, but more that it was just circumstance which led me to basking shark research in the first place, and then I fell in love with how weird they were!
Lucy: Well, that’s a good point you make in that, for research, you don’t always have to follow a particular species or a particular project. If you more follow opportunities, you never know where they’ll lead you to, and it could lead you into something that interests you more than you realised!
Haley: Yeah, that’s it! When I went to the Isle of Man, I learned loads about research and what areas of research there were. So, for instance, we were doing satellite tagging and collecting DNA samples and this is what I actually wanted to go into at the time, I wanted to use DNA to carry out genetic research of shark species and look at the evolution of traits. And so, I originally started off being interested in that question and then when I saw that they were doing this amazing satellite tagging work, with behavioral and social studies, whether that’s on the human side, so looking at the impact of anthropogenic activity on basking sharks, or whether that’s the social side of the fish themselves, studying how they gather in large numbers! So, that’s where I first got introduced into loads of different scientific areas of research which focused on this one species.
“without knowing enough about your study species, you can’t effectively conserve them”
Lucy: So, are basking sharks an endangered species?
Haley: Yes, basking sharks are an endangered species. They’re endangered globally which means that they’re of ‘conservation concern’. The reason that we’re researching them, particularly in the Payne lab at the minute, is because we don’t really know a lot about what makes them tick.
Aerial view of basking shark feeding off the West coast of Ireland. The gills can be seen fanned open as the animal filter feeds (photo captured by Haley Dolton).
We’re trying to learn more about them because without knowing enough about your study species, you can’t effectively conserve them. To give an example, imagine if someone was trying to conserve me and they saw one day – let’s pick a really bad day – where I’ve gone to the pub for hours, then eaten a pizza, and I haven’t really moved a lot. It might make people think, that’s all I do so let’s give her that all the time! Well, I wouldn’t last very long! I’d have a great time, but I wouldn’t be very healthy.
And that’s why we study these animals, to get as much information as possible to really affect conservation policy and change because these are vulnerable species.
There were massive fishing industries for them, including in Irish waters, and although we no longer have those fisheries, they’re still very vulnerable to being accidentally caught in things like pot lines or in other fisheries related equipment. They are a vulnerable species to lots of kinds of anthropogenic activity, making conservation efforts even more important.
Two basking sharks swim underwater, off the West coast of Ireland (photo captured by Haley Dolton).
Lucy: And you said they are filter feeders and very large, so does that make them a difficult species to study?
Haley: Basking sharks are an unusual study species for sharks, in that we can’t fish for them or attract them to the boat, so we can’t research them in the ways we would with other species where you can do that. So, we’re very dependent on where and when they turn up and whether there’s a good weather window for us to get out and study them, which off the Irish coast is quite rare! So, everything needs to come together to allow us to go out and study them and in reality, I only have around six days to get my tags deployed, which just highlights how difficult they are to study.
Lucy: What does your current research on basking sharks focus on?
Haley: My current research really focuses on getting back to basics of what we know about the general biology of these animals. For example, looking at their anatomy, whether that’s the larger structures or microscopic features. I’m looking at how their anatomy can explain their behavior. So, as I said there’s so much we don’t know about basking sharks.
At the minute, off the Irish coasts, we’re getting hundreds of them in the spring and then later on throughout the summer, and they’re displaying this amazing behavior where they all gather and swirl around each other, which we think might lead to mating, but ultimately we don’t really know why they display this behaviour! So, my research is really focused on trying to explain these behaviors by looking at their anatomy and physiology and what we as scientists, the general public, or policymakers, can do to effectively conserve this species in Irish waters.
“it’s a really exciting time to be part of basking shark research in Irish waters”
This is all going on at an exciting time for basking sharks in Irish waters! Recently it was announced that they’ll hopefully gain protection under the Irish Wildlife Act and there’s been incredible public support for this in Ireland so it’s a really exciting time to be part of basking shark research in Irish waters and to hopefully make a positive change within their conservation.
Lucy: And when you’re out in the field, how do you actually study these animals?
Haley: Well, firstly we work closely with other researchers and the general public who very kindly tell us where and when they see the sharks; we’ve had loads of great sightings (and skippering of boats!) from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) and individuals from different tour operators off the Irish coast like West Cork Charters (Dave Edwards) and Nick Masset (also part of IWDG), whose based near the Blaskets in Dingle, and of course, social media, which tells us where and when sharks have been seen. Then, we’ll scramble to get all our field kit ready and head over to the West Coast!
Normally with shark research we go out to a place where people are already fishing for sharks (for catch and release) or where we’re fishing for them for scientific research and this normally involves attracting them to the boat (with bait) but because we can’t do that with basking sharks, we basically drive the boat up and down the coast slowly, surveying with binoculars to try and spot that characteristic fin sticking out of the water.
The dorsal fin of a basking shark breaking the surface. Three other sharks can be seen finning behind also (photo captured by Haley Dolton).
Lucy: And so, when you do spot a fin, what happens next?
Haley: In basking shark research we actually deploy the biologgers without touching the shark at all (apart from the actual deployment itself). We carefully approach the shark in the boat, deploy the tag, and then we’re off again! This all takes a matter of seconds, so that we’re actually only beside the animal for a couple seconds as we deploy the biologger. Some sharks don’t even react at all, they just carry on swimming or feeding at the surface, which is a good indication they haven’t been disturbed.
I should point out that any research we do on sharks is conducted under license from the HPRA (Health Products Regulatory Authority) ethics board for animal studies, as to not cause stress to the animals.
Haley uses a radio antenna to listen for the radio tag they have attached to a basking shark (photo captured by Scott DeGraw).
Lucy: How is your research going so far? What are your plans going forward for the research?
Haley: The research that is focused on basking shark biology, ecology and behavior has gone really well so far and we’ve found out some really, really interesting things which I’m dying to talk about but I can’t at the moment, but watch this space! There’s lots of cool stuff coming soon!
My research interest has grown from my supervisors, Nick Payne, Andrew Jackson and Jonathan Houghton, supporting my curiosity for this species and a collaboration I made when I first started shark research all those years ago (Jackie and Graham Hall who ran Manx Basking Shark Watch). Now this project is growing and we’ve established new collaborations with some incredible researchers from Oregon State University (Big Fish Lab) and Stanford University, who came over this year for fieldwork. Together, we’re trying to collect and analyse even more data about what the sharks are doing and how they’re behaving. There’s been lots of steep learning curves with doing this research as well, but overall, it’s gone really well and we found out some really cool stuff, which will hopefully come out soon!
“if you do see something, take lots of pictures”
Lucy: That’s great, I can’t wait to see what you’ve found out! Well, for my last question, as a lot of our readers may not necessarily be in the scientific field, is there any way they could get involved in conservation efforts or research to help these threatened sharks?
Haley: Yes! People can get involved by reporting their sightings of any sharks to groups such as the Irish Basking Shark Group and Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and these can feed into scientific research. Also, if you do see something, take lots of pictures because then it’s possible to identify individuals by nicks and cuts on their dorsal fin and this is a great example of a non-invasive way of looking at social behavior or whether sharks are returning year on year to an area, indicating it might be an important area for feeding or breeding or pupping.
You can also get involved with any campaigns that you see going on for the protection of these animals. Support from the public, alongside the work and support from Minister Noonan and TD Jennifer Whitmore is actually what was instrumental in the recent campaign to have the basking shark added to the Irish Wildlife Act; it was a great campaign led by the Irish Basking Shark Group to get basking sharks protection in Irish waters and part of that was a petition that was signed by the general public. It gained incredible support from the public, with I think over 20,000 signatures, which is amazing and hopefully they’ll be protected under Irish law soon.
Haley is a PhD student in Zoology at Trinity College Dublin, and you can find her on Twitter @haleydolton. Haley’s work has been funded by the Irish Research Council, with support from the Fisheries Society of the British Isles. Nick Payne is funded by Science Foundation Ireland.
A warm welcome back to all our readers! The new year is now well and truly upon us and we hope you’ve all had a safe and energised return to work. This blog is written by Fionn Ó Marcaigh, summarising his new paper. Congratulations Fionn and we hope our readers enjoy learning about your research as much as we have!So without further ado…
Science is about making observations from the natural world, drawing up hypotheses to explain the patterns you’ve observed, and then testing these hypotheses by experimentation. We tend to imagine scientists in white coats doing experiments in the lab, but our understanding of evolution also owes a lot to work done in “natural laboratories” like islands and other isolated habitats, where evolution has taken place under different conditions. Our new paper, just published Open Access by the International Biogeography Society in their journal Frontiers of Biogeography, has used an important natural laboratory in Southeast Asia to test a classic hypothesis based on a bird called the Island Monarch (Monarcha cinerascens). We’ve made observations that contradict parts of the hypothesis and discovered a possible new species in the process!
Our natural laboratory was a collection of islands around a region known as Wallacea in central Indonesia (see map below). Named after Alfred Russel Wallace, this is where he co-discovered evolution by natural selection while travelling around islands of all shapes and sizes, with the waters around them being so wide and deep that most species have trouble crossing them. Some organisms are better at crossing these barriers than others, with the Island Monarch thought to be particularly adept. As its name suggests, the Island Monarch is one of the kings of small islands. It can be found all the way from the islands off Sulawesi in Wallacea, to the farthest reaches of the Melanesian islands east of Papua New Guinea, but is missing from large islands like Sulawesi and New Guinea themselves.
The Invasive Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus): A Model System for Studying Parasites and Ecoimmunology during a Biological Invasion, McManus et al. Animals 2021. Read it here.
Over the past century, there has been an increase in Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs), leading to outbreaks in diseases of zoonotic origin, such as SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, Lassa, Zika, Ebola, HIV, and not to forget the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The increase in these EID events have been linked to the increasing rate of environmental change, including habitat destruction and biological invasions.
While EIDs are considered a major risk to human populations, they can also be detrimental to indigenous wildlife. For example, it has been suggested that the introduced grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), has resulted in the transfer of squirrelpox (Parapoxvirus) to the indigenous red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). Consequently, the introduction of non-native invaders can affect native species through more cryptic means than direct competition, by altering the pathogen communities present in the native species. This can manifest through a number of mechanisms, the most obvious of which is spillover. Spillover occurs when a non-native parasite co-invades with the non-native host species, spreading to the immunologically naïve native (as in the case of the red and grey squirrels). Conversely, a less obvious mechanism by which introduced species affect pathogen communities is spillback. Spillback occurs when the non-native host has an increased competency for a native parasite resulting in an amplification effect: the native parasite multiplies in the introduced species, but the native host suffers more from the increased number of parasites in its environment. Of course, benign impacts on native species’ relationships with pathogens are also possible. The non-native host can also have a lower competency for a native parasite, thus diluting the parasite burden of the native species. (Dunn and Hatcher explain these mechanisms in much more detail here, if you are curious to know more.)
Wild rodents have offered key insights into disease ecology. For example, Laakkonen et al. demonstrated that Eimeria infections in vole populations show seasonal cycles peaking in autumn, while similar studies on Puumala orthohantavirus have shown the virus to cycle in bank vole populations with peak infection occurring in spring. Their worldwide distribution and ability to spread with human activity make rodents excellent models for understanding disease ecology.
In Ireland, the bank vole presents a unique opportunity as a model system. It has a verifiable introduction point in Foynes, Co. Limerick, has been shown to spread by about 2.5 km per year, and has no current eradication plan. Previous studies by Loxton et al. (2016; 2017) and Stuart et al. have studied the parasite species present in the bank vole and wood mouse in Ireland, with the bank vole harbouring fewer parasite species, resulting in “enemy release” (i.e. the introduced bank vole is relatively free of parasitic burden compared to native competitors).
Stuart et al. explicitly demonstrated that the bank vole exhibits enemy release within Ireland, with bank voles at the expansion front were less parasitised compared to their conspecifics in core populations. The bank vole has also caused a dilution effect for the native wood mouse, with the wood mouse showing lower parasite species abundance at the invasion core, compared to populations at the expansion front and in uninvaded sites. Despite this, the wood mouse also showed increased abundances of the nematode worms Syphacia stroma and S. lobata, suggesting while parasite density may be lower overall, some parasite species are taking advantage of this to increase in their native host population.
The bank vole currently occupies about 40% of the island and continues to expand its range. Accompanied by the presence of baseline knowledge and data, as a model system, the bank vole invasion provides the opportunity to further investigate how parasite communities change as the bank vole becomes more established. The presence of uninvaded sites in the Stuart et al.study provides the opportunity to investigate the early changes that occur when the invader first enters the ecosystem.
The addition of a second invader, the greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula), has also presented another avenue to explore, (as shown by Montgomery, Lundy and Reid), it has a positive synergistic effect on bank vole numbers, while causing a negative effect on the wood mouse numbers and local perturbation of the native pygmy shrew (Sorex minutus).
As demonstrated by international studies, wild rodents, due to their ecology and biology, prove to be good model systems for studying disease in wildlife. Likewise, longitudinal studies on the bank vole invasion have the potential to offer key insights into studying disease and ecoimmunology during a biological invasion, with the potential to give a key insight to the changes in pathogen dynamics during the early stages of the invasion.
Ongoing work utilising this model system.
While the paper outlines the need for continuing research into the bank vole model, this has already begun at Munster Technological University with my supervisor Dr. Peter Stuart. Fieldwork has been completed for the spring and autumn seasons with gut dissections well underway to detect the parasites present. Alongside this, our partners in the BioRodDis group are analysing samples we have sent to detect various bacteria and viruses present in Irish rodents, along with samples from around Europe, helping to make a large database of the rodent pathogens present.
Moving from Dublin City to rural Ireland as a child was a bit of a shock to my system. Up to that moment I had grown up surrounded by pavement and tall dull buildings as far as the eye could see, however, now I lived in a house surrounded by fields upon fields of cattle and crops. I thought I lived in an area surrounded by nature, but it wasn’t until I got older that I realised the endless stretches of fields around me all contained the same few species.
As a child, I gave little thought to this homogeneity. The one thing around me that did catch my attention was the large deserted building site at the back of my house. Like many, we moved into a brand new housing estate during the Celtic Tiger, only for the inevitable bust that occurred shortly after we moved in to halt the construction on the rest of the estate. As children, we were always warned to stay away from the empty site. Filled with abandoned equipment and precarious structures, the place was a death trap. For years, despite the odd bonfire on Halloween, the site remained virtually untouched. Forever to be labelled an eyesore. A waste of land.
That was until I went to university to study Zoology and took a module in Restoration Ecology. During this time, I learned that Mother Nature may not have been as idle over the many years that construction companies have been. The term brownfield site came up on my radar and I realised that maybe that eyesore at the back of my estate might hold more value than I previously believed.
On-site images of the Brownfield site. Credit: Aoife Cahill
What are brownfield sites?
Brownfield sites have been defined as “land that was previously developed for housing or industry but has since been abandoned and recolonised by different ecological assemblages” [1]. While these sites are typically described as “dangerous” or “eyesores” and can have negative connotations to them, research has shown that these brownfields are highly important for biodiversity as they are capable of harbouring rich and sophisticated ecosystems capable of supporting rare and threatened species.
While governments are starting to acknowledge the importance of brownfields and the role they play in protecting biodiversity, such as the UK government adding some brownfield sites to its list of priority sites listed in its Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (NERC Act), many of these sites still face threats of development [2].
There are many types of brownfield sites, with the two most important broad categories being described as wetland or dry ground. Wetland brownfields are important as they provide refuge for waterbirds, whose natural habitat availability has been shrinking. Dry ground sites, are typically well-drained, poor in nutrients and sometimes contaminated and have been described by conservationists as highly important for providing havens for rare or endangered species [3].
Why are brownfields important for rural Ireland?
The expansion and intensification of agricultural practices have been closely linked to the depletion of biodiversity. It has been suggested that as much as 23% of species diversity once associated with European farmland has been lost during the period 1970 and 2000 [4]. It has become clear that biodiversity plays a fundamental role in sustainable agricultural systems. It has also been determined that increasing habitat heterogeneity in the rural landscape would play an important role in reversing the decline in farmland bird species. So if it has been agreed that more diverse landscapes in rural Ireland would benefit biodiversity and in turn would have a positive impact on agriculture, perhaps it would be beneficial to not only focus on increasing biodiversity on agricultural land but also factor in the importance of brownfield sites that have become widespread across Ireland since the 2010s when a surge in ghost estates, and in turn abandoned building sites, was seen in rural areas.
Of course, it’s important to stress the importance of protecting and promoting biodiversity on agricultural land, but maybe we shouldn’t ignore the potential biodiversity goldmines that we have potentially been casting scornful looks at for the past decade.
The brownfield site next door
At the beginning of the summer, I contacted Dr Marcus Collier and the Connecting Nature project about summer research opportunities and we got on the topic of the abandoned building site in my estate. We concluded that I had the opportunity to conduct research right on my doorstep. Once we worked through the logistics of the site location we came up with a plan. The plan for the research was to create a habitat map of the site, conduct botanical, invertebrate pollinator and bird surveys, and compare this to similar surveys conducted in a neighbouring agricultural field. This research aimed to bring attention to brownfield sites and to show that they can play an important role in conjunction with sustainable agricultural practices to increase the heterogeneity of the Irish rural landscape to protect and promote biodiversity.
ArcMap 10.7.1 was used to create the habitat map and habitats were classified according to Fossitt (2000) – A Guide to Habitats in Ireland. Once the map was completed, I decided that to get a complete picture of the brownfield site and the potential species it was home to, botanical surveys of multiple habitat types were required. Botanical surveys of grassland (GS2), hedgerows (WL1) and recolonising bare ground (ED3) were conducted. Transect sampling methods were used to record invertebrate and bird species. The same methods were used to study an improved agricultural grassland (GA1) directly beside the brownfield.
Habitat map of the site. Credit: Aoife Cahill
So on a few sunny days in June 2021, I went out into the field with a homemade quadrat, a camera, and a pen and paper to conduct this research.
What was found?
The results of the botanical surveys for each habitat type within the site were interesting because there was minimal overlapping in species types recorded in each habitat.
Each habitat type had a distinct set of botanical species that weren’t found in the others. The recolonising bare ground was recorded to have the highest number of plant species. A survey of a neighbouring agricultural site showed very little diversity in plant species, with perennial ryegrass dominating the majority of the site. Several grass species were recorded in the brownfield site, including Yorkshire fog (H. lanatus) and sweet grass (H. odorata).
Number of plant species found at each habitat type. Credit: Aoife Cahill
The invertebrate pollinator survey also indicated the high biodiversity of the site, in which a range of bees, butterflies, and moths was recorded. Bees were the highest recorded species including the common carder (B. pascuorum), buff-tailed bumblebee (B. terrestris), and garden bumblebee (B. hortorum). Common blue (P. icarus), large white (P. brassicae), and small tortoiseshell (A. urticae) werethe butterfly species identified. One micromoth species, Ancylis badiana, was also recorded. The bird species that were identified included Rooks, Wood pigeons, Starlings, Robins, and Magpies.
Common carder bee (B. pascuorum) (on the left) and common blue butterfly (P. icarus) (on the right) found on-site. Credit: Aoife Cahill
What does it mean?
This field research is important because it could increase community awareness of how important the areas in towns and villages that are deemed to be “eyesores” could unknowingly be. It’s also important because it could be an indicator that brownfield sites could benefit the goal to increase biodiversity in the rural landscape by acting as a mosaic of different habitat types within one site located between large areas of agricultural land. While the main goal would remain to focus on protecting and promoting biodiversity on agricultural land as it makes up the majority of land use in Ireland (roughly 70%), brownfield sites could supplement the actions undertaken. Brownfield sites could benefit rare and endangered species by acting as a refuge when their natural habitats are becoming fewer and further between.
I believe that the potential benefit that brownfield sites could have to protect and promote biodiversity throughout Ireland should be given real consideration. While the land type could be deemed unorthodox, we live in a world that is changing every day and we must keep creating new ways and be open-minded to adapting to this change.
