Ecuador's newest tarantulas: just discovered, two new species face imminent threats

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

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PSALMOPOEUS CHRONOARACHNE

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CREDIT: PEÑAHERRERA-R. P, LEÓN-E. RJ

In the depths of Ecuador's wilderness, scientists have unveiled the presence of two new tarantula species. Researchers of Universidad San Francisco de Quito found them on trees on the slopes of the Andes in the western part of the country.

Meet Ecuador’s newest tarantulas

One of them was found in late February 2023, 1.5 m above the forest floor in the foothill evergreen forest of the Cordillera Occidental . Just discovered, it is already seriously threatened as people use its habitat for mining and agriculture. Its scientific name reflects this vulnerability: the tarantula is called Psalmopoeus chronoarachne, from the Greek words for “time” and “spider.”

“The compound word refers to the adage that these spiders could ‘have their time counted’ or reduced by impactful anthropogenic activities. The name addresses conservation concerns about the survival and prevalence of spider species in natural environments,” they write in their paper, which was just published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The other newly discovered tarantula has an even more curious name: Psalmopoeus satanas. “It is appropriately named because the initial individual that was collected had an attitude!” says researcher Roberto J. León-E, who first spotted it in a bamboo fence in San José de Alluriquín. The spider immediately exhibited defensive behavior; “this behavior then transformed into fleeing, where the spider made quick sporadic movements, nearly too fast to see.”

It was the first tarantula he ever caught.

“The members of the Mygalomorphae Research Group in the Laboratory of Terrestrial Zoology at Universidad San Francisco de Quito grew very fond of this individual during its care, in spite of the individual’s bad temperament and sporadic attacks (reason for the nickname),” he writes in the paper.

The species, which can be found in in the north of the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes at about 900 m above sea level, is facing serious threats as its habitat is degraded, ever declining, and severely fragmented by cropland and mining concessions and expanding urban and agricultural territories.

Critically endangered: threats to tarantula survival

“It is important to consider that the areas in which these arthropods live are not under legal protection. The implementation of protected areas in these localities is essential to maintain the remaining population of these endangered species and to encourage research on the remaining undescribed or unknown tarantula species in the area,” says Pedro Peñaherrera-R, who led the research on these animals.

This makes the region highly vulnerable to both legal and illegal mining operations that extract metals such as copper, silver, and gold, introducing pollutants to its ecosystems.

The implementation of stricter regulations and penalties for illegal mining or other extracting-related activities, including specimen smuggling, might help these species survive. Likewise, the engaging and educating of local communities about the importance of biodiversity conservation is essential to avoid further extinction.

 “We encourage future work by Ecuadorian and international researchers, organisations, and governments to effectively understand the reality about the threat of tarantula smuggling and the required conservation status of each species in the country.” Says Roberto J. León-E.

Based on initial conservation assessments, both tarantulas meet the criteria for being considered Critically Endangered by International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“It is essential to consider the potential loss of both P. chronoarachne and P. satanas and the ecological consequences that would result from their extinctions. These species may serve essential roles in the stratified micro-ecosystems in their respective areas,” the researchers write in their paper.

The dark side: illegal trade in wild tarantulas

Illegal trade in wild tarantulas as pets is also a latent threat, not only to these two species, but to Ecuadorian tarantulas in general. Many tarantula species can be found for sale online on various websites and Facebook groups. “During the writing of this article and the publication of another article, we found that a species that we described (Neischnocolus cisnerosi) is currently in the illegal pet trade!” says Pedro Peñaherrera-R.

After studying papers on wild-caught pet-trade specimens, the researchers conclude that the issue has been going on for more than 30 years in the country. “Although this series of publications encouraged research on Ecuadorian tarantulas previously ignored for centuries, they also functioned as catalysts within the exotic pet-trade hobby, aiding in obtaining these species and further encouraging people to collect undescribed species,” says Pedro Peñaherrera-R with concern.

Psalmopoeus satanas.

CREDIT

Peñaherrera-R. P, León-E. RJ

Overview of the ecosystem of both species.

CREDIT

Naia Andrade Hoeneisen

Mining concessions in Ecuador.

CREDIT

José Manuel Falcón-Reibán

Original source:

Peñaherrera-R. P, León-E. RJ (2023) On Psalmopoeus Pocock, 1895 (Araneae, Theraphosidae) species and tarantula conservation in Ecuador. ZooKeys 1186: 185-205. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1186.108991

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JOURNAL

ZooKeys

DOI

10.3897/zookeys.1186.108991 

ARTICLE TITLE

On Psalmopoeus Pocock, 1895 (Araneae, Theraphosidae) species and tarantula conservation in Ecuador

 

Study uncovers major hidden human-driven bird extinctions

Scientists say 1 in 9 species have been lost – double the current estimate 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY

 

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AN AI-GENERATED IMAGE OF WHAT THE UNKNOWN EXTINCT BIRDS MIGHT HAVE LOOKED LIKE.

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CREDIT: UKCEH

Humans have wiped out around 1,400 bird species – twice as many as previously thought – with major implications for the ongoing biodiversity crisis, a new study has found.

Many of the world’s islands were previously untouched paradises, but the arrival of people to places like Hawaii, Tonga and the Azores led, over time, to far-reaching impacts including deforestation, overhunting and the introduction of invasive species. Consequently, bird species were wiped out.

While the demise of many birds since the 1500s has been recorded, our knowledge of the fate of species before this relies on fossils, and these records are limited because birds’ lightweight bones disintegrate over time. This conceals the true extent of global extinctions.

Researchers now believe 1,430 bird species – almost 12 per cent – have died out over modern human history, since the Late Pleistocene around 130,000 years ago, with the vast majority of them becoming extinct directly or indirectly due to human activity.

The study, led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and published in Nature Communications, used statistical modelling to estimate the undiscovered bird extinctions.

Lead author Dr Rob Cooke, an ecological modeller at UKCEH, says: “Our study demonstrates there has been a far higher human impact on avian diversity than previously recognised. Humans have rapidly devastated bird populations via habitat loss, overexploitation and the introduction of rats, pigs and dogs that raided nests of birds and competed with them for food. We show that many species became extinct before written records and left no trace, lost from history.”

Dr Søren Faurby of the University of Gothenburg, a co-author of the study, adds: “These historic extinctions have major implications for the current biodiversity crisis.

“The world may not only have lost many fascinating birds but also their varied ecological roles, which are likely to have included key functions such as seed dispersal and pollination. This will have had cascading harmful effects on ecosystems so, in addition to bird extinctions, we will have lost a lot of plants and animals that depended on these species for survival.”

Observations and fossils show 640 bird species have been driven extinct since the Late Pleistocene period – 90 per cent of these on islands inhabited by people. These range from the iconic Dodo of Mauritius to the Great Auk of the North Atlantic to the lesser-known Saint Helena Giant Hoopoe. But the researchers estimated there have been further 790 unknown extinctions, meaning a total of 1,430 lost species – leaving just under 11,000 today.

The scientists say their study has uncovered the largest human-driven vertebrate extinction event in history, during the 14th century, estimating that 570 bird species were lost after people first arrived in the Eastern Pacific, including Hawaii and the Cook Islands – nearly 100 times the natural extinction rate.

They believe there was also a major extinction event in the ninth century BC, primarily driven by the arrival of people to the Western Pacific, including Fiji and the Mariana Islands, as well as the Canary Islands, and highlight the ongoing extinction event, which started in the mid-18th century. Since then, in addition to an increase in deforestation and spread of invasive species, birds have faced the additional human-driven threats of climate change, intensive agriculture and pollution.

Previous research by the authors suggests we are at risk of losing up to 700 additional bird species in the next few hundred years, which would be an unprecedented human-driven decimation of species. But Dr Cooke points out: “Whether or not further bird species will go extinct is up to us. Recent conservation has saved some species and we must now increase efforts to protect birds, with habitat restoration led by local communities.”

The study team based their modelled estimates on known extinctions and the extent of relevant research effort in regions compared to New Zealand. The country is the only place in the world where the pre-human bird fauna is believed to be completely known, with well-preserved remains of all birds there. The fewer studies in a region, the more incomplete the fossil record is expected to be, and the greater the number of estimated undiscovered extinctions.

Ends

Media enquiries

The paper plus illustrations of known extinct birds and AI-generated images of what the other extinct species may have looked like are available on request. For interviews and further information, please contact Simon Williams, Media Relations Officer at UKCEH, via simwil@ceh.ac.uk or +44 (0)7920 295384.

Paper information

Cooke et al. 2023. Undiscovered bird extinctions obscure the true magnitude of human-driven extinction waves. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43445-2
The study involved scientists at UKCEH, the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Uppsala University in Sweden, University College London, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the University of Bayreuth in Germany, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the University of Oxford.

 

About the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a world-leading centre for excellence in environmental sciences across water, land and air. We have a long history of monitoring and modelling environmental change. We identify key drivers of biodiversity change, develop tools and technologies for monitoring biodiversity, and provide robust socio-economic and environmental solutions for restoring biodiversity.  

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a strategic delivery partner for the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

www.ceh.ac.uk / @UK_CEH / LinkedIn: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-43445-2 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Undiscovered bird extinctions obscure the true magnitude of human-driven extinction waves

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Dec-2023

  

The science behind snowflakes

In a study that could enhance weather forecasting, Utah researchers discover that how snowflakes move is astonishingly predictable.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

 

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GRADUATE STUDENT RYAN SZCZERBINSKI EXAMINES INSTRUMENTATION CALLED A DIFFERENTIAL EMISSIVITY IMAGING DISDROMETER, OR DEID, DEVELOPED BY UNIVERSITY OF UTAH RESEARCHERS AND INSTALLED AT ALTA NEAR THE TOP OF LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON. THE EQUIPMENT MEASURES THE HYDROMETEOR MASS, SIZE AND DENSITY OF SNOWFLAKES.

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CREDIT: TIM GARRETT, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

Tim Garrett has devoted his scientific career to characterizing snowflakes, the protean particles of ice that form in clouds and dramatically change as they fall to Earth.

Now the University of Utah atmospheric scientist is unlocking the mystery of how snowflakes move in response to air turbulence that accompanies snowfall using novel instrumentation developed on campus. And after analyzing more than half a million snowflakes, what his team has discovered has left him astonished.

Rather than something incomprehensibly complicated, predicting how snowflakes move proved to be surprisingly simple, they found.

“How snowflakes fall has attracted a lot of interest for many decades because it is a critical parameter for predicting weather and climate change,” Garrett said. “This is related to the speed of the water cycle. How fast moisture falls out of the sky determines the lifetime of storms.”

'Letters sent from Heaven'

The famed Japanese physicist Ukichiro Nakaya termed snow crystals “letters sent from heaven” because their delicate structures carry information about temperature and humidity fluctuations in the clouds where crystal basal and prism facets competed for water vapor deposition.

While every snowflake is believed to be completely unique, how these frosty particles fall through the air—as the accelerate, drift and swirl—follows patterns, according to new research by Garrett and colleagues in the College of Engineering. Snowflake movement has important implications for weather forecasting and climate change, even in the tropics.

“Most precipitation starts as snow. How question of how fast it falls affects predictions of where on the ground precipitation lands, and how long clouds last to reflect radiation to outer space,” Garrett said. “It can even affect forecasts of a hurricane trajectory.”

Also involved with the research are Dhiraj Singh and Eric Pardyjak of the U’s Department of Mechanical Engineering

To study snowflake movement, the team needed a way to measure individual snowflakes, which has been a challenging puzzle for years.

“They have very low masses. They may only weigh 10 micrograms, a hundredth of a milligram, so they cannot be weighed with very high precision,” Garrett said.

Working with engineering faculty, Garrett developed instrumentation called the Differential Emissivity Imaging Disdrometer, or DEID, which measures snowflakes’ hydrometeor mass, size and density. This device has since been commercialized by a company Garrett co-founded called Particle Flux Analytics. The Utah Department of Transportation has deployed the equipment in Little Cottonwood Canyon to help with avalanche forecasting, he said.

For Garrett’s field experiments, his team set it up at Alta, the famed ski destination and Utah's snowiest place for the winter of 2020-21. The instrumentation was deployed alongside measurements of air temperature, relative humidity and turbulence, and placed directly beneath a particle tracking system consisting of a laser light sheet and a single-lens reflex camera.

“By measuring the turbulence, the mass, density and size of the snowflakes and watching how they meander in the turbulence,” Garrett said, “we are able to create a comprehensive picture that hadn't been able to be obtained before in a natural environment before.”

The findings were not what the team expected.

Despite the intricate shapes of snowflakes and the uneven movement of the air they encounter, the researchers found they could predict how snowflakes would accelerate based on a parameter known as the Stokes number (St), which reflects how quickly the particles respond to changes in the surrounding air movements.

When the team analyzed the acceleration of individual snowflakes, the average increased in a nearly linear fashion with the Stokes number. Moreover, the distribution of these accelerations could be described by a single exponential curve independent of Stokes number.

The researchers found that the same mathematical pattern could be connected to how changing snowflake shapes and sizes affect how fast they fall, suggesting a fundamental connection between the way the air moves and how snowflakes change as they fall from the clouds to the ground.

“That, to me, almost seems mystical,” Garrett said. “There is something deeper going on in the atmosphere that leads to mathematical simplicity rather than the extraordinary complexity we would expect from looking at complicated snowflake structures swirling chaotically in turbulent air. We just have to look at it the right way and our new instruments enable us to see that.”

Garrett’s study, titled “A universal scaling law for Lagrangian snowflake accelerations in atmospheric turbulence,” is to be published in the journal Physics of Fluids, published by the American Institute of Physics. Funding came from the National Science Foundation.

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JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids

DOI

10.1063/5.0173359 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

universal scaling law for Lagrangian snowflake accelerations in atmospheric turbulence

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Dec-2023

COI STATEMENT

The DEID technology is protected through patent US20210172855A1 co-authored with D.K.S., E.R.P., and T.J.G. and is commercially available through Particle Flux Analytics, Inc. T.J.G. is a co-owner of Particle Flux Analytics, Inc. which has a license from the University of Utah to commercialize the DEID.

Snowflakes swirling in turbulent air as they fall through a laser light sheet. Credit: Singh et al.

Snowflake accelerations mysteriously follow a predictable pattern.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

 

VIDEO: 

SNOWFLAKES SWIRLING IN TURBULENT AIR AS THEY FALL THROUGH A LASER LIGHT SHEET.

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CREDIT: SINGH ET AL.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2023 – A winter wonderland calls to mind piles of fluffy, glistening snow. But to reach the ground, snowflakes are swept into the turbulent atmosphere, swirling through the air instead of plummeting directly to the ground.

The path of precipitation is complex but important to more than just skiers assessing the potential powder on their alpine vacation or school children hoping for a snow day. Determining snowflake fall speed is crucial for predicting weather patterns and measuring climate change.

In Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Utah report snowflake accelerations in atmospheric turbulence. They found that regardless of turbulence or snowflake type, acceleration follows a universal statistical pattern that can be described as an exponential distribution.

“Even in the tropics, precipitation often starts its lifetime as snow,” said author Timothy Garrett. “How fast precipitation falls greatly affects storm lifetimes and trajectories and the extent of cloud cover that may amplify or diminish climate change. Just small tweaks in model representations of snowflake fall speed can have important impacts on both storm forecasting and how fast climate can be expected to warm for a given level of elevated greenhouse gas concentrations.”

Set up in a ski area near Salt Lake City, the team battled an unprecedented 900 inches of snow. They simultaneously filmed snowfall and measured atmospheric turbulence. Using a device they invented that employs a laser light sheet, they gathered information about snowflake mass, size, and density.   

“Generally, as expected, we find that low-density ‘fluffy’ snowflakes are most responsive to surrounding turbulent eddies,” said Garrett.

Despite the system’s complexity, the team found that snowflake accelerations follow an exponential frequency distribution with an exponent of three halves. In analyzing their data, they also discovered that fluctuations in the terminal velocity frequency distribution followed the same pattern.

“Snowflakes are complicated, and turbulence is irregular. The simplicity of the problem is actually quite mysterious, particularly given there is this correspondence between the variability of terminal velocities – something ostensibly independent of turbulence – and accelerations of the snowflakes as they are locally buffeted by turbulence,” said Garrett.

Because size determines terminal velocity, a possible explanation is that the turbulence in clouds that influences snowflake size is related to the turbulence measured at the ground. Yet the factor of three halves remains a mystery.

The researchers will revisit their experiment this winter, using a mist of oil droplets to obtain a closer look at turbulence and its impact on snowflakes.

Field site near Salt Lake City where researchers battled 900 inches of snow to collect their data.

CREDIT

Singh et al.

The article “A universal scaling law for Lagrangian snowflake accelerations in atmospheric turbulence” is authored by Dhiraj Kumar Singh, Eric R. Pardyjak, and Timothy Garrett. It will appear in Physics of Fluids on Dec. 19, 2023 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0173359). After that date, it can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0173359.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex fluids. See https://pubs.aip.org/aip/pof.

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JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids

DOI

10.1063/5.0173359 

ARTICLE TITLE

A universal scaling law for Lagrangian snowflake accelerations in atmospheric turbulence

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Dec-2023

 

Vervet monkeys follow different social “norms” and respond to “peer pressure,” new long-term study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

 

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THREE VERVET MONKEYS WITH AN ADULT GROOMING A JUVENILE

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CREDIT: CHARLOTTE CANTELOUP

People living in different communities follow different social customs or norms. In some places, for instance, it might be standard practice to greet each person you see on the street, while in others that simply isn’t done. In some cases, such differences may even vary from one neighborhood to the next. Now researchers reporting in the journal iScience on December 19 have found similarly varied social traditions and styles among neighboring groups of vervet monkeys.

“We report the existence of behavioral traditions of social customs in vervet monkeys that are stable across 9 years,” says Elena Kerjean (@KerjeanElena) of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France.

The researchers found that such differences in social traditions set up differences in “social atmosphere” that could be passed on from one generation to the next through social learning. Intriguingly, they also found that dispersing males quickly adapted their social style to that of their new group, suggesting that they may experience a phenomenon akin to social conformity driven by peer pressure.

Kerjean and colleagues including Erica van de Waal and Charlotte Canteloup knew that other animals, like people, follow traditions. But most studies had focused primarily on the presence or absence of traditions such as tool use. They hadn’t explored more subtle, quantitative differences in social behavior that can lead to important differences in a group’s social atmosphere.

To explore further in the new study, the researchers analyzed more than 84,000 social interactions between almost 250 vervet monkey individuals collected over nine years in three neighboring groups. Their analyses revealed an unexpected difference: in one of the groups, dubbed Ankhase (AK), the monkeys were more likely than in the other two groups to trade off when grooming each other.

“We found that individuals in one group—AK—display significantly more affiliative behaviors than in the two other groups, and this difference was stable over 9 years of study,” Kerjean says.

The AK group was not only more social than the other two, but they also exchanged grooming more reciprocally. When a monkey groomed another monkey, that monkey would usually repay the favor. As a result, grooming was exchanged more fairly in AK compared to the other two groups.

“You can think about it like massage exchanges between individuals,” Kerjean explained. “If I give you a massage 100 times a year but you only did it two times, I may feel that our relation is quite unfair. That’s the kind of differences we observed between our groups.”

The researchers also found that six males who moved from one group to another adapted their social interactions to better match their new groups. Those changes were also seen in both directions. Upon moving out of the AK group, males became less social and less likely to groom a partner fairly. Males leaving one of the less social groups for AK showed exactly the opposite trend.

“Males adapted their sociality to the group they integrated with, which we believe is a good example of social conformity,” Kerjean says. “This normative rule—act like others—probably helps them to get better integrated in a new group. This conformity effect had been previously shown through a novel food experiment, but this is the first time that we observed that with social behavior.”

The findings show that groups not only have different social traditions but that those traditions also can be stable over time in ways that are likely mediated socially. The researchers suggest that these differences are passed on through social learning, although they can’t rule out that there may be other differences in the environment at work, too.

Now that they know about the existence of these social traditions, they say they’d like to learn more about how they are introduced and passed on. They note that they’re especially curious to explore the role of key individuals or leaders in pressuring newcomers to follow along.

Three vervet monkeys with an adult grooming a juvenile

CREDIT

Charlotte Cantelou 

iScience, Kerjean et al., “Social dynamics of vervet monkeys are dependent upon group identity” https://cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(23)02668-8

iScience (@iScience_CP) is an open access journal from Cell Press that provides a platform for original research and interdisciplinary thinking in the life, physical, and earth sciences. The primary criterion for publication in iScience is a significant contribution to a relevant field combined with robust results and underlying methodology. Visit http://www.cell.com/iscience. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

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JOURNAL

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2023.108591 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Social dynamics of vervet monkeys are dependent upon group identity

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Dec-2023

Would you like to groom me?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF LAUSANNE

Researchers at UNIL’s Department of Ecology and Evolution reveal the existence of social traditions in vervet monkeys. This work was published in iScience on December 19, 2023.

British tits have learned from each other how to pierce the lids of milk bottles left on doorsteps. On the island of Koshima, Japanese macaques started washing sweet potatoes to rid them of sand. The animal realm is full of examples of traditions linked to food, tool use or hunting techniques that have spread within specific communities. However, few traditions of social nature, i.e. how individuals interact with each other, have been described.

A study led by Erica van de Waal, Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution (DEE) at UNIL's Faculty of Biology and Medicine, and Charlotte Canteloup, a former DEE post-doctoral fellow, documents the existence of socially transmitted customs in three groups of vervet monkeys from the same population.

Erica van de Waal's team has been studying the cognitive and social abilities of these primates for almost fifteen years, as part of the "iNkawu Vervet Project" initiated by the professor. In the field, in South Africa, biologists follow these animals daily, identifying each one, observing them and recording their behaviours. These can be affiliative (so-called "positive" social attitudes), such as time spent sitting side by side or playing together, body contact and grooming. Or agonistic, such as conflicts, threats or aggression.

Genetics and environment out of the equation

First author of the study, Elena Kerjean a former master's student under the supervision of Erica van de Waal and Charlotte Canteloup, analysed 84,702 social interactions involving 247 monkeys between 2012 and 2020. She then calculated a sociality index estimating the propensity of individuals to be rather affiliative or agonistic, an index measuring the reciprocity of grooming and an index quantifying social behaviours between members of the same family.

"The results show that one of the three groups, called AK, was generally more affiliative than the other two, and that grooming was more reciprocal. This was true throughout the nine years of the study", says Charlotte Canteloup, now a permanent researcher at the CNRS and the University of Strasbourg. This observation was independent of socio-demographic variations between the three groups, including sex ratio, number and age of individuals. "Furthermore, as the three groups share a very similar habitat with overlapping territories, and gene flow is ensured by the movement of males between groups, it is highly improbable that these variations in sociality can be explained by ecological and genetic differences only. All this suggests a social origin for these differences", adds Elena Kerjean.

According to the researchers, AK members may have developed a more affiliative "social tradition", under the social influence of the community or specific key individuals. "The monkeys could thus behave like others through a process of behavioural mimicry acting like a social glue", suggests Charlotte Canteloup.

Males embrace their new home’s habits

Interestingly and surprisingly, according to the authors, some animals - in this case six adult males who dispersed to their neighbour groups - adapted their behaviour to match that of their new home. Thus, those who left the most social group to join one of the other two became less social. And vice versa.

In a previous study, the team looked at how a new eating habit spreads and is maintained in vervet monkeys. "We had found that males abandoned their initial preference for one food and conformed to the local dietary norm of their new community. This time, we show that this conformity may extend to social behaviour, which has never been reported before", comments Erica van de Waal.

More generally, the research published in iScience contributes to a better understanding of the traditions of vervet monkeys in their natural habitat, which are far less studied and documented than those of great apes such as chimpanzees. "Primate cultures are made up of a greater variety of customs than what was believed even a few years ago. The more research progresses, the more we discover that 'basic' and universal social behaviours in apes, such as play, body contact and grooming, form the basis of cultures", concludes Charlotte Canteloup.

Links:

• Erica van de Waal's group
• Erica van de Waal’s profil (French)
• INkawu Vervet Project

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JOURNAL

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2023.108591 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Social dynamics of vervet monkeys are dependent upon group identity

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Dec-2023

 

Shipwreck ecology: Sunken vessels are a scientific treasure

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

In a newly published article in BioScience, scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), joined by an international team of ecologists and archaeologists, describe how shipwrecks provide a unique opportunity to study complex ecological processes. The synthesis focuses on a range of fundamental ecological functions and processes and how they manifest on and around shipwrecks.

From large sailing vessels to small dinghies or rafts, wrecked vessels provide artificial structure and materials that are starkly different from the surrounding ecosystem. Scientists have found that shipwrecks offer valuable ecological resources by becoming homes for a wide variety of organisms, from tiny microbes to large marine creatures. Microorganisms, algae, and invertebrates like corals and sponges grow on submerged debris and materials. Small fish and mobile crustaceans often find shelter in the crevices of the sunken material, and larger baitfish and predators use shipwrecks as feeding grounds and rest stops as they swim from one place to another.

"While shipwrecks are well-recognized as cultural icons, they are also ecological treasures because they create homes for underwater life," says Avery Paxton, Research Marine Biologist at NOAA NCCOS. "A stunning diversity of creatures like microbes, corals, and sponges settle and grow upon shipwrecks. We also often see a variety of fish like small baitfish all the way up to large sharks congregating on shipwrecks. These sites are truly alive with life, and so we often call them 'living shipwrecks.'"

There are an estimated three million shipwrecks scattered across the ocean floor, rivers, and lake beds, many of which have been reclaimed by aquatic life. These elusive relics are classified as “Underwater Cultural Heritage” by UNESCO, and they represent tangible remains of past human behavior and cultural heritage. While shipwrecks are well recognized as cultural icons, they are also ecological treasures, because they create homes for underwater life. Across the globe, shipwrecks provide ideal “experimental” habitats that can be studied to address long-standing and intriguing ecological questions. Shipwreck ecology fuses both archeology and ecology and can help expand upon our collective understanding of ecological functions of other submerged human-built structures, such as artificial reefs.

However, the authors caution that despite shipwrecks' notable value as "biodiversity hotspots," careful observation is required, because they can also harbor invasive species, cause damage to existing habitat in the surrounding area, or carry harmful cargo, such as oil. The future of shipwreck ecology may lie in establishing a global monitoring network of shipwrecks ripe for scientific exploration, especially using advanced technologies, to help ensure that shipwrecks remain valued and healthy ecological and cultural resources.

This research was completed by scientists from NOAA NCCOS, Ulster University, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, University of Edinburgh, Cranfield University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and University of Southern Mississippi.

 

A video on from NOAA / GFOE is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx_uzNvNU1s

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DOI

10.1093/biosci/biad084