It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Amazon road-building projects would result in deforestation of 2.4 million hectares
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
A team of researchers from the U.S., Bolivia, Brazil, Sweden, Peru and Columbia has found that most of the road projects currently planned for the Amazon rainforest have not been assessed for environmental or economic impacts. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their own assessment of the impact of 75 planned road building projects and what they found.
Despite the critical role that the Amazon rainforest plays in storing carbon, governments in the area continue to approve road building projects, oftentimes without ever assessing the ecological impact of such projects or whether they will even be economically viable. In this new effort, the researchers analyzed 75 road building projects that are slated for the next five years.
The researchers began by noting that the construction of the roads, which together will add up to 12,000 kilometers of roadway, will cost approximately $27 billion. The roads will be built in Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil. They also note that the rationale for building the roads is to promote agriculture and cattle ranching. To assess the impact of the projects, the team chose to constrain their study to 20 years.
The researchers found that building the roads would result in deforestation of approximately 2.4 million hectares of rainforest. Seventeen percent of the projects are in violation of either environmental regulations or Indigenous rights. They also found that the money spent to build many of the roads would not result in economic gain—instead, almost half of them would experience losses. They found that canceling the ones that they project to experience losses would prevent losses of up to $7.6 billion and reductions of rainforest loss by approximately 1.1 million hectares.
The researchers also ranked the roads by degree of environmental (and social) impact and found that if road planners approved those with the least impact and cut the others, they would see a net gain of $4 billion while cutting the amount of rainforest loss to just 10% of original projections. They conclude that proper assessments of road building projects in the Amazon could reduce the amount of forest cut down and the costs involved
More information:Thais Vilela et al. A better Amazon road network for people and the environment,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(2020).DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1910853117
'Fatal attraction': Small carnivores drawn to kill sites, then ambushed by larger kin
A cougar sits over its kill site in northeastern Washington. The photo was captured using a wildlife camera. Credit: Melia Devivo/Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
In many parts of the world, there is an imbalance in the food chain.
Without top predators such as wolves and grizzly bears, smaller meat-eating animals like coyotes and foxes or grazers such as deer and elk can balloon in population, unchecked. This can initiate more deer-vehicle collisions, scavenging by urban coyotes and other unnatural human-animal interactions.
University of Washington researchers have discovered that large predators play a key yet unexpected role in keeping smaller predators and deer in check. Their "fatal attraction" theory finds that smaller predators are drawn to the kill sites of large predators by the promise of leftover scraps, but the scavengers may be killed themselves if their larger kin return for seconds.
The study, published March 18 in the journal Ecology Letters, is the first to examine carnivore killing and scavenging activities in relation to each other across dozens of landscapes around the world. Patterns that emerged from their analysis could be used to make important management decisions about large carnivores worldwide, the authors said.
"I hope this paper will spur researchers to think more holistically about these killing and scavenging interactions, because currently we're not really getting a full understanding of how carnivore communities function by examining them separately," said senior author Laura Prugh, a wildlife ecologist and associate professor in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
Large carnivores such as cougars, wolves and grizzly bears have disappeared from many regions, allowing some smaller carnivores—coyotes, foxes and bobcats, for example—to increase in population. The absence of large carnivores, especially on the East Coast, also has ignited populations of deer and other prey, creating an imbalance in many areas.
A gray wolf in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, shown on a wildlife camera. Wolves and cougars are the top predators in most western landscapes. Credit: Kaija Klauder/University of Washington
But in regions where top carnivores are present, such as the western U.S., their relationship with smaller predators is complex. When they kill deer and other prey, they often leave scraps for smaller predators to scavenge. But larger predators also are known to kill smaller carnivores.
With these dynamics in mind, the researchers wanted to test whether large carnivores serve as an overall net benefit to smaller predators by providing more food supply, especially when other food is scare due to drought, wildfires or particularly harsh winters.
The team analyzed more than 250 earlier papers, looking globally at patterns of killing and scavenging to quantify the positive and negative interactions among top and smaller predators. Overall, they found that large predators generally suppress smaller predators, even though they provide a significant amount of food in the form of leftover prey.
"We initially thought maybe smaller carnivores are scavenging the wolf kills and benefiting," explained Prugh, referencing one of the top predators, wolves, examined in the study. "But then we realized that at these scavenging sites, they might be running into the wolves and getting killed. The scavenging, instead of providing a benefit, could actually be functioning as a trap that's drawing in the smaller carnivores."
The researchers thus developed their fatal attraction theory, which proposes that even though large predators are helpful providers of food, their kill sites ultimately are dangerous for smaller predators, which can then become prey themselves when the top predator returns.
As populations of deer and small carnivores like coyotes have surged in areas without top predators, research has posited that humans might be able to take over the role of large carnivores through hunting activities. But though hunters sometimes leave gut piles after they kill a deer, they certainly don't return to the kill site to hunt smaller predators. The research shows this behavior, not replicated by human hunters, could be an important way that smaller carnivores' populations are kept in check.
A coyote in Zion National Park. Coyotes are drawn to the kill sites of cougars and wolves, where they can then be ambushed and killed when these top predators return. Credit: National Park Service
"If scavenging increases the risk of mortality of smaller carnivores, that might explain why it appears to be very hard for humans to replace the role of large carnivores in a landscape," Prugh explained. "This link between scavenging and mortality might be one of the mechanisms that make large carnivores so effective in controlling smaller carnivores."
From their analysis, the researchers noted these additional findings:
In areas where there were at least three larger predators, smaller predators had more than twice the mortality rates as their counterparts in areas with only two larger predators. This shows that each predator leverages its unique hunting strategy—such as outrunning or stalking prey—and that more predators with different ways of hunting made it much harder for their target, smaller prey, to survive. Having a diversity of larger predators is a good strategy for keeping smaller carnivore populations in check, the authors said.
Large cats such as cougars were "equal opportunity killers," meaning they were just as likely to kill smaller animals in the cat, dog or mustelid families. But large animals in the dog family such as wolves were five times more likely to kill smaller dogs than animals in other families. Big picture, this means that large cats might have a more widespread impact on smaller carnivores, compared with large dogs that mostly target smaller dogs.
"This finding shows that it really is a dog-eat-dog world out there," Prugh said.
Growing fruit and vegetables in just 10 per cent of a city's gardens and other urban green spaces could provide 15 per cent of the local population with their 'five a day', according to new research.
In a study published inNature Food, academics from the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield investigated the potential for urban horticulture by mappinggreen spacesand grey spaces across the city.
They found that green spaces including parks, gardens, allotments, roadside verges and woodland cover 45 per cent of Sheffield—a figure similar to other UK cities.
Allotments cover 1.3 per cent of this, while 38 per cent of green space comprised of domestic gardens, which have immediate potential to start growing food.
The interdisciplinary team used data from Ordnance Survey and Google Earth to reveal that an extra 15 per cent of the city's green space, such as parks and roadside verges, also has potential to be converted into community gardens or allotments.
Putting domestic gardens, allotments and suitable public green spaces together would open up 98 m2 per person in Sheffield for growing food. This equates to more than four times the 23 m2 per person currently used for commercial horticulture across the UK.
If 100 per cent of this space was used for growing food, it could feed approximately 709,000 people per year their 'five a day', or 122 per cent of the population of Sheffield. But even converting a more realistic 10 per cent of domestic gardens and 10 per cent of available green space, as well as maintaining current allotment land, could provide 15 per cent of the local population—87,375 people—with sufficient fruit and veg.
With just 16 per cent of fruit and 53 per cent of vegetables sold in the UK grown domestically, such a move could significantly improve the nation's food security.
The study also investigated the potential for soil-free farming on flat roofs using methods such as hydroponics, where plants are grown in a nutrient solution, and aquaponics, a system combining fish and plants. These techniques could allow year-round cultivation with minimal lighting requirements, using greenhouses powered by renewable energy and heat captured from buildings, with rainwater harvesting for irrigation.
Flat roofs were found to cover 32 hectares of land in Sheffield city centre. While equivalent to just 0.5 m2 per person, the researchers believe the high-yielding nature of soil-free farming means this could make a significant contribution to local horticulture.
The UK currently imports 86 per cent of its total tomato supply—but if just 10 per cent of the flat roofs identified within the centre of Sheffield became soil-free tomato farms, it would be possible to grow enough to feed more than eight per cent of the population one of their 'five a day'. This increases to more than 60 per cent of people if three quarters of the flat roof area is utilised.
Dr. Jill Edmondson, Environmental Scientist at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the study, said: "At the moment, the UK is utterly dependent on complex international supply chains for the vast majority of our fruit and half of our veg—but our research suggests there is more than enough space to grow what we need on our doorsteps.
"Even farming a small percentage of available land could transform the health of urban populations, enhance a city's environment and help build a more resilient food system."
Professor Duncan Cameron, co-author and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield, said: "It will take significant cultural and social change to achieve the enormous growing potential of our cities—and it's crucial that authorities work closely with communities to find the right balance between green space and horticulture.
"But with careful management of green spaces and the use of technology to create distribution networks, we could see the rise of 'smart food cities', where local growers can support their communities with fresh, sustainable food."
Ancient ballcourt in Mexico shows sport much older than thought Ceramic figures of athletes were found in the Mexican highlands near a ballcourt that researchers say demands revisions to the suspected origins of the sport. Photo by Jeffrey Blomster & Victor E. Salazar Chavez/George Washington University
March 16 (UPI) -- New evidence shows that a ball sport was played in Mexico's highlands in 1374 B.C., earlier than previously thought, according to researchers.
A ballcourt found in Chiapas, Mexico, dates to 1650 B.C. and is the oldest found in the lowlands, but researchers from George Washington University found one in the Mexican highlands, in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca state, dating to 1374 B.C.
The finding suggests a reexamination of the origin of the sport is now required, write lead researchers Jeffrey P. Blomster and Victor E. Salazar Chavez in a study published this month in Science Advances.
A sport based on the movement of a ball is part of ancient Mesoamerican culture, with fields of play known as "ballcourts" found in the lowlands Mexico and Central America.
Until the discovery, it was assumed the game was refined in the lowlands before it became popular in mountainous areas of Mexico. A ball used in the game and commonly found by researchers is made of rubber from trees only grown in the Mexican lowlands.
At least 2,300 permanent ballcourts have been discovered by archeologists, many surrounded by statues indicating the sport's importance in local culture. While variants of the game have been found across Mesoamerica, the field of play typically involves two parallel walls and a ball, which is hit with players' hips and not hands.
It is significant that space in communities was reserved for playing the game, researchers say. The ballcourts are generally a part of the local architecture and designed with attention to accuracy.
Until now, archeologists believed that the game only entered the highlands after the lowlands populations essentially refined and popularized the game. The new research also reinforces the assumption that the ballcourts were used not only for sport but as a focus for community politics and rituals.
Ancient ballcourt in Mexico suggests game was played in the highlands earlier than thought
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org
Etlatongo ballplayer figurine. One of numerous ceramic ballplayers from the termination event, front view shows a thick belt or yoke with a loincloth project from it, while the profile view illustrates broken tripod support at bottom, which allowed the figurine to stand, and whistle chamber above it. Credit: Blomster and Salazar Chávez, Sci. Adv. 2020; 6 : eaay6964
A pair of researchers with George Washington University has found evidence of an ancient ball game played much earlier than previously thought in the Mesoamerican highlands. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Jeffrey Blomster and VÃctor Salazar Chávez describe the ball court they found and what it means for one of the iconic features of Mesoamerican civilization.
Anthropologists have known for many years that people living in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago played a type of ball game on specially built ball courts. Approximately 2,300 ball courts have been identified to date across a wide swath of what is now Central America and parts of Mexico—some evidence even suggests both Maya and Aztec people played the game. Until now, though, the oldest ball courts found in the highlands suggested play came to such areas long after the game had already evolved to a mature state in the lowlands. In this new effort, the researchers have found a ballcourtin the highlands that was built much earlier than any other found to date in the highlands, suggesting it was played there much earlier than thought.
The researchers discovered the ball court in the mountains of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. And the researches have dated it back to approximately 3,400 years ago. Its finding challenges widespread beliefs that the ball game was played exclusively in the lowlands during its formative years. As further evidence of the lowlands as the origin of the sport, the rubber used to make the balls came from Castilla elastica—a species of tree that grows only in the lowlands. The oldest ball court in the lowlands is located in Chiapas, another Mexican state in southern Mexico—it has been dated to approximately 1,560 BC.
The newly discovered ball court was uncovered at the Etlatongo dig site in Oaxaca, where the researchers also uncovered ceramic figurines from the sametime perioddepicting ball players in action. The ball court was found situated beneath another ball court. Early players had evidently retired the earlier court and had covered it over with a new one.
The researchers suggest that the history of the sport will have to be reexamined, noting that it now appears likely that the game evolved with influences from both highlanders and lowlanders. They say more work is required to find additional older ball courts in the highlands.Ancient Aztec temple, ball court found in Mexico City
More information: Jeffrey P. Blomster et al. Origins of the Mesoamerican ballgame: Earliest ballcourt from the highlands found at Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay6964
One of Darwin's evolution theories finally proved by Cambridge researcher
Charles Darwin's seminal book On The Origin of Species. Credit: Nordin Catic
Scientists have proved one of Charles Darwin's theories of evolution for the first time—nearly 140 years after his death.
Laura van Holstein, a Ph.D. student in Biological Anthropology at St John's College, University of Cambridge, and lead author of the research published today (March 18) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, discovered mammal subspecies play a more important role in evolution than previously thought.
Her research could now be used to predict which species conservationists should focus on protecting to stop them becoming endangered or extinct.
A species is a group of animals that can interbreed freely amongst themselves. Some species contain subspecies—populations within a species that differ from each other by having different physical traits and their own breeding ranges. Northern giraffes have three subspecies that usually live in different locations to each other and red foxes have the most subspecies—45 known varieties—spread all over the world. Humans have no subspecies.
van Holstein said: "We are standing on the shoulders of giants. In Chapter 3 of On the Origin of Species Darwin said animal lineages with more species should also contain more 'varieties'. Subspecies is the modern definition. My research investigating the relationship between species and the variety of subspecies proves that sub-species play a critical role in long-term evolutionary dynamics and in future evolution of species. And they always have, which is what Darwin suspected when he was defining what a species actually was."
Laura van Holstein in the Old Library at St John's College, Cambridge, with a first edition of Charles Darwin's seminal book On The Origins of Species. Credit: Nordin Catic
The anthropologist confirmed Darwin's hypothesis by looking at data gathered by naturalists over hundreds of years ¬- long before Darwin famously visited the Galapagos Islands on-board HMS Beagle. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, was first published in 1859 after Darwin returned home from a five-year voyage of discovery. In the seminal book, Darwin argued that organisms gradually evolved through a process called 'natural selection' - often known as survival of the fittest. His pioneering work was considered highly controversial because it contradicted the Bible's account of creation.
van Holstein's research also proved that evolution happens differently in land mammals (terrestrial) and sea mammals and bats (non-terrestrial)¬ because of differences in their habitats and differences in their ability to roam freely.
van Holstein said: "We found the evolutionary relationship between mammalian species and subspecies differs depending on their habitat. Subspecies form, diversify and increase in number in a different way in non-terrestrial and terrestrial habitats, and this in turn affects how subspecies may eventually become species. For example, if a natural barrier like a mountain range gets in the way, it can separate animal groups and send them off on their own evolutionary journeys. Flying and marine mammals—such as bats and dolphins—have fewer physical barriers in their environment."
The research explored whether subspecies could be considered an early stage of speciation—the formation of a new species. van Holstein said: "The answer was yes. But evolution isn't determined by the same factors in all groups and for the first time we know why because we've looked at the strength of the relationship between species richness and subspecies richness."
The research acts as another scientific warning that the human impact on the habitat of animals will not only affect them now, but will affect their evolution in the future. This information could be used by conservationists to help them determine where to focus their efforts.
Darwin's hypothesis that was proved by a PhD student at St John's College, Cambridge. Credit: Nordin Catic
van Holstein explained: "Evolutionary models could now use these findings to anticipate how human activity like logging and deforestation will affect evolution in the future by disrupting the habitat of species. The impact on animals will vary depending on how their ability to roam, or range, is affected. Animal subspecies tend to be ignored, but they play a pivotal role in longer term future evolution dynamics."
van Holstein is now going to look at how her findings can be used to predict the rate of speciation from endangered species and non-endangered species.
Notes to editors: What Darwin said on page 55 in 'On the Origin of Species': "From looking at species as only strongly-marked and well-defined varieties, I was led to anticipate that the species of the larger genera in each country would oftener present varieties, than the species of the smaller genera; for wherever many closely related species (i.e species of the same genus) have been formed, many varieties or incipient species ought, as a general role, to be now forming. Where many large trees grow, we expect to find saplings."
Datasets: Most of the data is from Wilson and Reeder's Mammal Species Of The World, a global collated database of mammalian taxonomy. The database contains hundreds of years' worth of work by taxonomists from all over the world. The current way of "doing" taxonomy goes all the way back to botanist Carl Linnaeus (1735), so the accumulation of knowledge is the combined work of all taxonomists since then.Scientists to search for relatives of extinct Galapagos tortoises
More information: Terrestrial habitats decouple the relationship between species and subspecies diversification in mammals, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or … .1098/rspb.2019.2702
Emissions of several ozone-depleting chemicals are larger than expected
In 2016, scientists at MIT and elsewhere observed the first signs of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer. This environmental milestone was the result of decades of concerted effort by nearly every country in the world, which collectively signed on to the Montreal Protocol. These countries pledged to protect the ozone layer by phasing out production of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, which are also potent greenhouse gases.
While the ozone layer is on a recovery path, scientists have found unexpectedly high emissions of CFC-11 and CFC-12, raising the possibility of production of the banned chemicals that could be in violation of the landmark global treaty. Emissions of CFC-11 even showed an uptick around 2013, which has been traced mainly to a source in eastern China. New data suggest that China has now tamped down on illegal production of the chemical, but emissions of CFC-11 and 12 emission are still larger than expected.
Now MIT researchers have found that much of the current emission of these gases likely stems from large CFC "banks"—old equipment such as building insulation foam, refrigerators and cooling systems, and foam insulation, that was manufactured before the global phaseout of CFCs and is still leaking the gases into the atmosphere. Based on earlier analyses, scientists concluded that CFC banks would be too small to contribute very much to ozone depletion, and so policymakers allowed the banks to remain.
It turns out there are oversized banks of both CFC-11 and CFC-12. The banks slowly leak these chemicals at concentrations that, if left unchecked, would delay the recovery of the ozone hole by six years and add the equivalent of 9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere—an amount that is similar to the current European Union pledge under the UN Paris Agreement to reduce climate change.
"Wherever these CFC banks reside, we should consider recovering and destroying them as responsibly as we can," says Susan Solomon, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies at MIT, who is a co-author of the study. "Some banks are easier to destroy than others. For instance, before you tear a building down, you can take careful measures to recover the insulation foam and bury it in a landfill, helping the ozone layer recover faster and perhaps taking off a chunk of global warming as a gift to the planet."
The team also identified an unexpected and sizable source of another ozone-depleting chemical, CFC-113. This chemical was traditionally used as a cleaning solvent, and its production was banned, except for in one particular use, as a feedstock for the manufacturing of other chemical substances. It was thought that chemical plants would use the CFC-113 without allowing much leakage, and so the chemical's use as a feedstock was allowed to continue.
However, the researchers found that CFC-113 is being emitted into the atmosphere, at a rate of 7 billion grams per year—nearly as large as the spike in CFC-11, which amounted to about 10 billion grams per year.
"A few years ago, the world got very upset over 10 gigagrams of CFC-11 that wasn't supposed to be there, and now we're seeing 7 gigagrams of CFC-113 that wasn't supposed to be there," says lead author of the study and MIT graduate student Megan Lickley. "The two gases are similar in terms of their ozone depletion and global warming potential. So this is a significant issue."
The study appears in Nature Communications. Co-authors with Lickley and Solomon are Sarah Fletcher, and Kane Stone of MIT, along with Guus Velders of Utrecht University, John Daniel and Stephen Montzka of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Matthew Rigby of the University of Bristol, and Lambert Kuijpers of A/gent Ltd. Consultancy, in the Netherlands.
From top to bottom
The new results are based on an analysis the team developed that combines two common methods for estimating the size of CFC banks around the world.
The first method is a top-down approach, which looks at CFCs produced around the world, based on country-by-country reporting, and then compares these numbers to actual concentrations of the gasses and how long they persist in the atmosphere. After accounting for atmospheric destruction, the difference between a chemical's production and its atmospheric concentrations gives scientists an estimate of the size of CFC banks around the world.
Based on recent international assessments that use this top-down approach, there should be no CFC banks left in the world.
"But those values are subject to large uncertainties: Small differences in production values or lifetimes or concentrations can lead to large differences in the bank size," Lickley notes.
The second method is a bottom-up approach, which uses industry-reported values of CFC production and sales in a variety of applications such as refrigeration or foams, and estimates of how quickly each equipment type is depleting over time.
The team combined the best of both methods in a Bayesian probabilistic model—a hybrid approach that calculates the global size of CFC banks based on both atmospheric data, and country and industry-level reporting of CFC production and sales in various uses.
"We also allow there to be some uncertainties, because there could be reporting errors from different countries, which wouldn't be surprising at all," Solomon says. "So it's a much better quantification of the size of the bank."
Chasing a lost opportunity
The CFC banks, and the sheer quantity of old equipment storing these chemicals around the world, seem to be larger than any previous estimates. The team found the amount of CFC 11 and 12 stored up in banks is about 2.1 million metric tons—an amount that would delay ozone recovery by six years if released to the atmosphere. This CFC bank is also equivalent to about 9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in terms of its effect on climate change.
Interestingly, the amount of both CFC-11 and CFC-12 that is being emitted from these banks is enough to account for the recently observed emissions in both gases.
"It really looks like, other than the extra amount being produced in China that seems to have stopped now, the rest of what we're seeing is no mystery: It's just what's coming out of the banks. That's good news," Solomon says. "It means there doesn't seem to be any further cheating going on. If there is, it's very small. And we wanted to know, if you were to recover and destroy these building foams, and replace old cooling systems and such, in a more responsible way, what more could that do for climate change?"
To answer that, the team explored several theoretical policy scenarios and their potential effect on the emissions produced by CFC banks.
An "opportunity lost" scenario considers what would have happened if all banks were destroyed back in 2000—the year that many developed countries agreed to phase out CFC production. If this scenario had played out, the measure would have saved the equivalent of 25 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide between 2000 and 2020, and there would be no CFC emissions lingering now from these banks.
A second scenario predicts CFC emissions in the atmosphere if all banks are recovered and destroyed in 2020. This scenario would save the equivalent of 9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere. If these banks were destroyed today, it would also help the ozone layer recover six years faster.
"We lost an opportunity in 2000, which is really sad," Solomon says. "So let's not miss it again."
Common anti-parasite treatments used on cattle have devastating impacts on wildlife
Experts have stressed an urgent need to find alternatives to wormers and anti-ectoparasitic products used widely on cattle, following the findings of a study just published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Researchers from the University of Sussex looked at a body of published evidence into the environmental impact of anthelmintics—products used as wormers and anti-parasitic agents and widely applied across the world. They found that, across all drug classes, the products were having a devastating impact on dung beetles—species that are vital prey items for a range of bat andbird species.
The study conducted by Domhnall Finch and Professor Fiona Mathews also found that some of the products actively attracted adult dung beetles, before impairing the development of their larvae.
Fiona Mathews, Professor of Environmental Biology at the University of Sussex, said: "When compared with controls, we found that dung samples from cattle treated with these products had about a third fewer dung beetle larvae.
"What's particularly worrying is that the beetles actually seemed to be more attracted to treated dung but, because of the toxicity of the chemicals, their larvae have poor survival rates and face impaired development.
"Over time, this reduces the number of dung beetles which is troubling news for a range of bird and bat species—for which dung beetles are key prey items.
"Many of these species are already listed as vulnerable so any decline in prey availability is a serious concern."
Dung beetles are commonly preyed upon by the serotine bat, noted as Vulnerable to Extinction on the new British Red List; the greater horseshoe bat, protected under European Law because of its perilous conservation status right across Europe; and the Nightjar and the Chough, both of which are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The Nightjar has been given an amber UK conservation status.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, highlighted the particularly negative impact on dung beetle larvae of pour-on treatments—the most common form of application. It also revealed that one of the most widely used products, the anti-parasitic agent Ivermectin, is extremely toxic. These treatments are available for purchase in most EU countries without the involvement of a veterinarian.
But the authors stress that more research is needed into the other treatment types and newer drugs in order to determine the exact effects of each.
The results are particularly timely as they come just a few months after the government announced that it would not be funding extensions to higher-tier organic stewardship agreements in England. This means that farms who currently avoid the use of insecticides will be faced with a difficult choice moving forward.
Prof. Mathews explained: "Many farmers are now facing a gap in their income as they have to make new applications. Sticking to an insecticide-free approach may not be economically attractive compared with switching to conventional systems where the routine use of anti-parasitic agents is normal. Once applied, the residues can remain in the soil—affecting a wide range of invertebrates—for months."
"Some of these farms are also critical for British wildlife, particularly rare bats, and the introduction of chemicals could really impact their numbers—as demonstrated in our study."
Dung beetles themselves provide important ecosystem services for farmers. By ensuring that dung is cleared from pasture quickly, they help to control pest flies and also allow for rapid grass regrowth through nutrient cycling, soil aeration and dung removal. The presence of dung beetles has also been shown to reduce the prevalence of cattle nematode infections by 55 to 89% (Fincher 1975) and pest flies by 58% (Benyon et al. 2015). In the UK alone, these services are estimated to exceed £350M per year.
Domhnall Finch, doctoral student at the University of Sussex, said: "Dung beetles are an overlooked but hugely important part of our landscape.
"Studies have proven that they can help to reduce the prevalence of worm infections in cattle, which is ironic when we consider that they're now under threat from chemical products which essentially do the same thing.
"While more research is needed to determine the effects of newer agents, our work has clearly shown that those chemicals which are present in pour-on treatments have a long-lasting negative impact.
Justice Montali conceded that the nuances of PG&E's financing package are “beyond my understanding" CALIFORNIA SHOULD NATIONALIZE PG&E
NOT TOO LATE By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric on Monday won court approval to raise $23 billion to help pay its bills over destructive California wildfires after Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped his opposition to a financing package designed to help the nation's largest utility get out of bankruptcy.
The milestone reached during an unusual court hearing held by phone moves PG&E closer to its goal of emerging from one of the most complex bankruptcy cases in U.S. history by June 30. Newsom has said he fears P&E is taking on too much debt to be able to afford an estimated $40 billion in equipment upgrades needed to reduce the chances of its electricity grid igniting destructive wildfires in the future.
The utility's outdated system triggered a series of catastrophic wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that killed so many people and burned so many homes and businesses that the company had to file for bankruptcy early last year.
But the recent volatility in the financial markets caused by the coronavirus pandemic apparently softened Newsom's stance after PG&E lined up commitments from investors promising to buy up to $12 billion in company stock.Those guarantees are looming larger, given the turmoil that has caused the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index to plunge by roughly 25% during the past three weeks. Because of the company's already shaky condition, PG&E's stock has been hit even harder, with shares losing nearly half their value during the same stretch. The stock fell 12% Monday to close at $8.95, its lowest price since early December.
Given the potential for upheaval in the financial markets to persist, PG&E lawyer Paul Zumbro told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali that the commitments are “critically important.” A representative for Newsom said the governor agreed.
“People often talk tough when there is a level playing field, but in circumstances, almost all people want to make deal," said Eric Snyder, a bankruptcy lawyer who has been following PG&E's case.
Newsom has unusual leverage over PG&E because the company also needs state approval of its bankruptcy plan to qualify for coverage from a wildfire insurance fund that California created last summer.
In a statement, PG&E said it's making “good progress" in discussions with Newsom. The governor's office didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about Newsom's change of heart on PG&E's financing package or other aspects of his talks with the company.
Among other demands that still haven't been addressed, Newsom wants PG&E to replace its entire 14-member of board of directors to help ensure the utility is better managed. The company so far has promised to reshuffle its board but has resisted sweeping out all the directors, including CEO Bill Johnson.
Newsom has intensified his focus on the coronavirus during the past two weeks as the disease's outbreak worsened in California, but that doesn't mean the Democratic governor isn't keeping a close watch on PG&E, said Jared Ellias, a UC Hastings College of the Law professor who has been tracking the case.
“The long-term health of PG&E has to remain a top priority because God forbid if this coronavirus remains a problem heading into wildfire season this summer,” Ellias said.
Besides issuing more stock to raise money, PG&E and its parent company will take on as much as $11 billion in additional debt while refinancing billions in existing loans.
PG&E primarily needs the cash to pay off $25.5 billion in claims as part of settlements reached with wildfire victims, insurers and government agencies. That's a fraction of the more than $50 billion in losses that wildfire victims and insurers had estimated PG&E owed them in the early stages of the bankruptcy case.
Reflecting the complexity of the situation, Montali conceded that the nuances of PG&E's financing package are “beyond my understanding" and put his faith in the parties who put it together that it's now the best option available. The unusual admission came during an extraordinary hearing that had to be held by phone because Montali's courthouse was closed to try to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Russian court backs move to let Putin stay in power despite outcry from some
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Constitutional Court on Monday ruled it was legal to change the country's constitution in a way that could allow President Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2036, less than a week after Putin publicly backed the idea.
The court ruling came hours after thousands of Russians signed a petition urging judges to protect them from what they said was an illegal coup that would allow Putin, who has dominated the Russian political landscape for the last two decades, to subvert the constitution.
Putin, 67, unveiled an overhaul of the constitution in January which the Kremlin cast as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.
He made a dramatic appearance in parliament on Tuesday to endorse a new amendment that would allow him to ignore a constitutional ban requiring him to stand down in 2024.
The move, which must still be put to a nationwide vote due next month, raises the prospect of Putin serving another two six-year terms after 2024, though the Kremlin points out that Putin has not yet said whether he will run again.
The Constitutional Court's blessing was delivered in a 52-page ruling posted on its website on Monday.
'ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL COUP'
The Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday that Putin had signed off on the constitutional changes after both houses of parliament and regional parliaments backed them with lightning speed last week.
Earlier on Monday, more than 18,000 Russians signed a petition denouncing the reform as "politically and ethically unacceptable".
"We believe the threat of a deep constitutional crisis and an unlawful anti-constitutional coup ... is hanging over our country," the petition, signed by prominent scientists, journalists and writers said.
The petition does not have any legal force, but its blunt language shows how strongly some Russians oppose the idea of Putin having the option to run again in 2024.
Putin remains popular with other Russians however who see him as a welcome source of stability after what some recall as the anarchic 1990s following the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Kremlin told reporters it was aware of the petition, but that it had also received numerous messages of support for the change and that it was up to Russians at a nationwide vote to decide whether to back it or not.
(additional reporting by Alexander Marrow and Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Putin’s Aides Shocked by His Presidential Power Play
Evgenia Pismennaya, Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov, Bloomberg•March 17, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Vladimir Putin’s surprise move to allow himself to remain as president until 2036 caught even many Kremlin insiders off guard, leaving some feeling deceived by his motivation for changing the constitution.
His sudden reversal -- approving a plan that he’d long publicly resisted -- was a blow to some senior officials’ hopes that he would find a more elegant way to retain influence once his current term ends in 2024. Some drew parallels to the clumsily announced move in 2011 that saw him retake the presidency from protege Dmitry Medvedev, who had fueled expectations of liberalization that were dashed with Putin’s return.
Putin had probably already formed his plan to stay on as president in January, when he unveiled the constitutional shake-up that seemed to respect term limits, four people familiar with the matter said. The amendments were a “grand deception,” said one person close to Putin, while another called them a “smokescreen” intended to allow him to ditch the term-limit restriction at the last moment to minimize potential opposition within the Kremlin elite.
Putin’s move to allow himself up to two more six-year terms tilts Russia onto a new trajectory of entrenched authoritarianism similar to China, where Xi Jinping has changed the constitution to prolong his presidency. It also puts to rest any questions of whether Putin would step down and allow Russia to evolve into a European-style democracy.
“This is a very different kind of Russian state, unashamedly authoritarian in design,” said Alexander Baunov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. “It sets back any chances of normalizing ties with the West and will halt development at home, most likely intensifying stagnation.”
It also reveals difficulties Putin faced in maintaining a careful political balance as rival Kremlin factions began jostling for position ahead of a succession that was still four years away. The move was seen as a way to end growing uncertainty about the president’s ability to keep control and bring restless elites into line, two senior officials said.
“This was one of the most brilliant special operations of Putin’s rule,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, head of R. Politik, a political consultancy. If he had set out his plan in January, “it would have triggered massive protests and given time to derail the referendum,” she said.
Virus Impact
The national public vote that the president made a condition of the constitutional changes taking effect is scheduled so far for April 22. About the only thing Putin may not have planned for is the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on Russia that may force the Kremlin to delay the vote until June.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Putin carried out the constitutional reforms with the intention of avoiding term limits and that Kremlin officials had been unaware of this, declining to comment further.
For most of his two decades in power, Putin, 67, was a stickler for the appearances of democratic procedure, if not the substance, taking pains to make Russia seem to be playing by something like western rules. While he could choose not to run again for president in 2024, few think he will pass up the opportunity.
The global chaos unleashed by the coronavirus and Putin’s own decision to tear up Russia’s oil-production agreement with OPEC, sending crude prices plunging to the lowest in a generation, offered a “perfect storm” to achieve his objective, said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, who studies the Russian elite at the State University of Management in Moscow. Still, Putin faces risks with many in his own inner circle puzzled over why he chose to strike now. Public anger at his 2011 maneuver to reclaim the presidency helped spark the largest anti-Kremlin protests of Putin’s rule in 2011-2012. A survey of 1,600 Russians published Jan. 30 by the independent Levada Center found that just 27% wanted Putin to stay on as president after 2024, while 25% preferred him to retire from public life. The president’s approval rating with Russians has suffered after years of falling incomes and an unpopular 2018 pension-age reform. An extended period of low oil prices would deal a blow to Putin’s ambition of bolstering living standards during this term by ramping up spending. The central bank warned last year that Russia would slide into recession in 2020 under a “risk scenario” of $25 oil.
In the end, Putin seized his moment with breathtaking speed. He took less than two hours to endorse the surprise proposal by Valentina Tereshkova, a ruling-party lawmaker and the first woman in space, that the lower house of parliament should “set to zero” the term limit for him during final debates on the constitutional changes.
The Kremlin later insisted it had no advance knowledge of her statement and said Putin changed his view on term limits because of the growing turmoil in the world. No ruling-party lawmaker would have made such a proposal without being told to do so by the leadership, two officials said.
Parliament approved the amendments, including Tereshkova’s addition, the next day and Putin signed it at the weekend before asking for a review by the Constitutional Court. The court gave the plan its stamp of approval on Monday.
With Putin able to stay as president, “Western leaders are going to have to get used to the idea that Russia equals Putin and give up any illusions that he’ll be on his way out,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, which advises the Kremlin.
Russia's Putin orders April vote on constitutional changes despite coronavirus
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 17, 2020.
Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a nationwide vote on constitutional amendments, which would allow him to run again for president, on April 22, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, despite the spread of the coronavirus.
The amendments, if passed, would allow Putin to run again despite the current constitutional ban. There had been speculation the vote would be postponed due to the coronavirus.
“And yet, bearing in mind the difficult epidemiological situation in the world... which is not as acute as in other countries, but nevertheless affects our country, we will hold this vote only if this situation allows such event to be carried out,” Putin told Ella Pamfilova, head of the Central Election Commission, at a meeting.
As of now, Putin is required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. The proposed constitutional changes would open the door for him to remain in power until 2036.
Russia has reported 114 cases of coronavirus, but no deaths, and has introduced a raft of economic and social measures to limit its spread.
“You and I see that in those countries where the situation is much more complicated than ours, nevertheless political events of this kind are not abandoned,” Putin told Pamfilova.
Russia will postpone the vote if the situation requires, he added.
Reporting by Polina Devitt and Anton Kolodyazhnyy; editing by Chris Reese and Nick Macfie
