Thursday, June 02, 2022

At least 2,000 species of reptiles are threatened

The first international study of its kind assesses the status of all reptile species:

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

Ophiomorus latastii: Latast's snake skin; Data deficient — IMAGE: OPHIOMORUS LATASTII: LATAST'S SNAKE SKIN; DATA DEFICIENT view more
CREDIT: PROF. SHAI MEIRI.

The first international study of its kind

assesses the status of all reptile species:

At least 2,000 species of reptiles are threatened

50% of all turtle and crocodile species face the threat of extinction

The new assessment will enable researchers to understand the conservation needs of threatened species and find intelligent conservation solutions

A new international study involving researchers from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has found that 21 percent of the reptile species on Earth (one in five species), amounting to a total of about 2,000 species, are threatened with extinction. Experts estimate that there are over 12,000 species of reptiles in the world.

CAPTION

Chalcides ocellatus: Günther's cylindrical skink; Vulnerable

CREDIT

Prof. Shai Meiri.

The findings of the study show that 30 percent of forest-dwelling reptiles and about 14 percent of those living in arid areas are threatened, and that 58 percent of all turtle species and 50 percent of all crocodile species are in danger of becoming extinct. The researchers sadly point out that if all of the 1,829 species of turtles, crocodiles, lizards, and snakes that have been found to be threatened do indeed become extinct in the coming years, the world will lose a cumulative wealth of 15.6 billion years of evolution.

CAPTION

Uromastyx aegyptius; Egyptian mastigure: Vulnerable

CREDIT

Alex slavenko

The comprehensive study, the first of its kind in history, was conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and included 52 researchers from around the world, including Prof. Shai Meiri of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, and Dr. Uri Roll of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The study was published in the prestigious journal Nature.

CAPTION

Telescopus hoogstraali, Desert tiger snake

CREDIT

Simon Jamison

The IUCN is an international body whose role is, among other things, to assess the threat of extinction posed to various species. Each species of animal or plant receives a score on a five-point scale. The purpose of this ranking is to define those species that are the most endangered, thereby enabling decision makers and various bodies, such the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, to outline policies accordingly.

CAPTION

Trapelus savignii, Egyptian sand agama; Vulnerable

CREDIT

Aviad Bar

The IUCN has been working on the reptile report for the past 18 years, having invited experts on this taxonomic group from all over the world to participate. In 2004, the IUCN released a comprehensive report on amphibians, and a few years later it issued reports on birds and mammals.

“In general, the state of reptiles in the world is bad,” says Prof. Meiri. “It’s worse than that of birds and mammals, though not as bad as that of the amphibians. And of course there are a lot of nuances. We see that turtles are in a worse position than lizards and snakes, but that may be because we know more about turtles. Perhaps if we knew more about snakes, we would see that they, too, are in big trouble. Either way, the biggest threat to reptiles is the destruction of their habitats due to agriculture, deforestation, and urban development, and less because of direct hunting, which mainly affects turtles and crocodiles. We created detailed maps of these threats. For example, if a particular species is highly threatened in the Israel’s Arava desert, but not in the rest of its habitat range that may span the entire Arabian Peninsula, then globally it is not considered a threatened species. The new assessments, for more than 10,000 species of reptiles, will allow us to understand their conservation needs, and hopefully enable us to find far more intelligent solutions for them than we have been able to so far.”

CAPTION

Prof. Shai Meiri.

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

Dr. Uri Roll adds, “This is important work that forms the initial basis for risk assessment among various reptiles around the world, but is certainly not the end of the story. We still lack a lot of information about the various risks facing reptiles. For example, climate change is expected to have significant effects on reptiles. The current assessment that has just been published does not yet include these future threats in its reptile risk assessments. We still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Link to the article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04664-7

JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-022-04664-7

ARTICLE TITLE

A global reptile assessment highlights shared conservation needs of tetrapods

Wind turbines operating without curtailment claim many victims among protected bat species in Germany

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR ZOO AND WILDLIFE RESEARCH (IZW)

Killed bat under wind turbine — IMAGE: KILLED BAT UNDER WIND TURBINE IN GERMANY view more
CREDIT: PHOTO: CHRISTIAN VOIGT/LEIBNIZ-IZW

Protected and rare bats regularly die at wind turbines (WT). This is why the operation of new wind turbines is temporarily curtailed during periods of high bat activity. Old wind turbines run without curtailment, however. A scientific team led by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) has now produced an exemplary estimate of bat fatality rates at such old turbines by systematically recording bat carcasses in the vicinity of the turbines. During two months, 70 bats died on average per wind turbine. Even if these figures cannot be extrapolated one-to-one to all 20,000 old turbines in Germany, there is a considerable need for action. The operation of old turbines should be adjusted to the current regulations for new turbines, the authors argue in an article published in the scientific journal “Global Ecology and Conservation”.

Wind turbines help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, yet they may have unintended side effects on wildlife, as bats of rare and protected species – such as the common noctule (Nyctalus noctula) or Nathusius's pipistrelle (Pipistrellus nathusii) – regularly die when colliding with the rotor blades. The losses contribute to population declines. At new and recently built wind turbines, this grave problem is taken into account by temporarily shutting down turbines when bat activity is high – a measure practiced for only a good ten years in Germany. Older wind turbines, which account for approximately 75% of all onshore turbines in Germany, do not operate under any curtailment regime. “Since we see that these curtailments actually substantially reduce the risk for bats to die at wind turbines, we have to assume that there are considerable fatalities at unregulated turbines and at turbines in unfavourable locations,” says Dr Christian Voigt, Head of the Department of Evolutionary Ecology at the Leibniz-IZW.

In 2021, Voigt and his colleagues estimated the number of bat victims at a wind farm with three turbines that had been in operation since 2001 – with the unpleasant result that in two summer months 70 bats died at each turbine. Extrapolated over the twenty-year lifetime of this wind farm the number of victims at this wind farm is likely to be considerable. In order to obtain these precise figures, the scientific team collected bat carcasses under the three turbines of the wind farm west of Berlin in the months of August and September. “Precise counts of victims are a methodological challenge, as we are far from finding all bat victims – for two reasons,” explains co-author Dr Carolin Scholz. “Firstly, in tall vegetation search teams only find a fraction of the carcasses, and secondly, the carcasses are removed quickly by foxes, crows, birds of prey and other scavengers.” The team therefore conducted an experiment with similar-sized wild mouse carcasses to determine its search efficiency, as mouse and bat carcasses have a similarly high probability of being found. In addition, they determined how long mouse carcasses that were randomly distributed around the turbines remained at each site. “We noted that even experienced search teams only find one in six (17%) bat victims and that just under half of the carcasses were removed by other animals within 24 hours,” says Scholz. “After the first 24 hours, almost all remaining carcasses remained at their spot for about a week. We could therefore generate reliable correction factors for our fatality counts, based on search efforts that took place at an average interval of two days.”

Using both correction factors, the team calculated that a total of 209 bats died at the three wind turbines during two months of the migration period. Although the number of 70 victims per wind turbine per year is high compared to previous numbers, Christian Voigt considers the estimate still to be conservative – because, amongst other things, parts of the migration period did not coincide with the study period. Presumably, the location of this particular wind farm is very unsuitable from the point of view of bat protection, as there are many hedges and bushes near the turbines. “This result is alarming enough, because we have to assume that 20,000 unregulated turbines in Germany will have a high numbers of bat casualties over the course of their lifetime,” says Voigt. “This is unacceptable for endangered species with declining populations such as the common noctule, especially as bats are strictly protected at national and EU levels."

The authors therefore recommend that the operation of old wind turbines should be adjusted to the current regulatory framework for new turbines – for example, with regard to mandatory curtailment at periods of high bat activity. In the case of old turbines located at particularly unfavourable sites, dismantling should also be considered, as the goals of the energy transition to reduce greenhouse gases in energy production should not be achieved unilaterally at the expense of biodiversity.

JOURNAL

Global Ecology and Conservation

DOI

10.1016/j.gecco.2022.e02149

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Wind turbines without curtailment produce large numbers of bat fatalities throughout their lifetime: A call against ignorance and neglect.

Black panther spotting one of the cameras trap (IMAGE)

GERMAN CENTRE FOR INTEGRATIVE BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH (IDIV) HALLE-JENA-LEIPZIG

Zapping orange peel oil into new, pleasant aroma compounds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

As oranges are peeled, they spray a tangy, citrus scented oil into the air. The main compound in the fragrant mist is limonene, which can be collected from discarded peels and used in flavorings, perfumes and all-purpose cleaners. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have treated limonene with electricity and ethanol, transforming it into a mixture of pleasant-smelling aroma compounds, some of which haven’t been identified before.

Limonene is regularly used in its original form, but it can also be the starting platform for other scents. But synthetic oxidation techniques that can perform this transformation have traditionally required environmentally harmful substances, such as strong chemicals and heavy metals. So, Holger Zorn and colleagues tested an environmentally benign oxidation method, mixing limonene with ethanol and applying an electrical current to the solution. The process generated an amber-colored liquid with a pleasant odor and 17 different compounds that had fruity, herbal, citrus and resinous notes. According to the researchers, this is the first time that most of these compounds have been described. The simple, sustainable method could create valuable aroma compound mixtures for flavorings or fragrances, but the compounds must be evaluated for safety before use in commercial products, the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz (LOEWE)-AromaPlus (State Offensive for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence).

The paper’s abstract will be available on June 1 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c01301.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

JOURNAL

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

DOI

10.1021/acs.jafc.2c01301

ARTICLE TITLE

<p>Generation of Flavor Active Compounds by Electrochemical Oxidation of (<em>R</em>)-Limonene</p>

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Jun-2022

D-LIMONENE DISSOLVING STYRENE & STYROFOAM

Scientists call for decision-making to be transformed to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises together

New article published in the journal BioScience with the participation of Victoria Reyes-García from ICTA-UAB and Unai Pascual from BC3.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA

The global scientific community has issued another warning that increasing climate change and biodiversity loss will together reinforce negative impacts on people around the world, including food insecurity, health risks and disrupted livelihoods, as well as involuntary displacements leading to social unrest. The latest assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warn that the window to avoid far-reaching and irreversible impacts of climate change and global biodiversity loss on people and nature is rapidly closing.

Last year about 50 experts nominated by the IPCC and IPBES produced the first-ever collaborative workshop report bringing together the climate and biodiversity science communities (Portner et al., 2021). The report explored the tradeoffs and synergies between climate and biodiversity considerations, and how such interactions are driven by human economic activity, with very serious impacts on society as well. The report provided information relevant to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and the Sustainable Development Goals. The report found that “Simultaneously meeting these agreements relies on immediate and sustained efforts for transformative change which encompass technological and environmental policies as well as changes to economic structures and profound shifts in society”.

Now, a new article published today in the scientific journal BioScience builds on the IPBES-IPCC workshop report. Written by world-leading climate and biodiversity scientists who were also part of the IPBES-IPCC report, it argues that to effectively and equitable address planetary emergencies, it is crucial to activate deep and urgent (“transformative”) changes across economies and societies. They authors claim that such needed changes contrast with policies being currently proposed that focus on incremental changes; that is, changes restricted to actions that are accommodated within existing societal and economic structures and goals, such as those promoting increases in energy efficiency without questioning the paradigm of continuous exponential economic growth.

The authors of the new article argue that incremental changes will not gain sufficient traction to be scaled-up if they are not accompanied by broader system-wide changes and that current incremental changes also risk being too slow to avoid severe negative impacts on people and nature. To illustrate the opportunities and challenges that might be encountered when trying to build more transformative approaches to governing the interactions between climate, biodiversity and society, the article draws on examples from forest ecosystems, marine ecosystems, urban environments and the Arctic.

This new article in BioScience is designed to contribute to the much-anticipated and long-delayed “Paris-style agreement for nature” set to take place later this year in Kunming, China where 196 countries will aim to set ambitious goals for biodiversity. The authors hope that their calls for transformative change will help to better inform the setting of biodiversity objectives, targets, and indicators for the next decade.

According to Unai Pascual, Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Basque Centre for Climate Change, and lead author of the article, “International policy initiatives such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity are surprisingly lagging behind the scientific evidence about the need to integrate a climate-biodiversity-society nexus perspective in their decisions. I hope that the efforts by the global scientific community in this regard will be followed up by action from the policymakers. We need urgent and decisive action amidst the accelerating climate and biodiversity crises”.

Victoria Reyes-García, ICREA Research Professor at ICTA-UAB, one of the IPBES-IPCC report and co-author of this new article states that “It is unlikely that we are able to resolve the climatic, environmental, and social crises that humanity faces today using the same logic that created these challenges. On their own, technological fixes, current governance structures, and economic incentives/disencentives will not suffice to generate the transformative change needed to ensure a future with a livable climate, a rich environment, and just societies. To achieve these goals, we need urgent changes in the way we value nature and govern the rich common heritage of the Earth”.

One of the co-authors of the paper, Professor Robert (Bob) Scholes, passed away before publication. Bob Scholes was a fervent advocate of inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to understanding biodiversity, climate and social interactions, and the article is a tribute to Bob Scholes’ tireless work in the field of sustainability science.

Reference

Pascual, U., McElwee, P.D., Diamond, S.E., Ngo, H.T., Bai, X., Cheung, W.W.L., Lim, M., Steiner, N., Agard, J., Donatti, C. I., Duarte, C.M, Leemans, R., Managi, S., Pires, A. P. F., Reyes-García, V., Trisos, C., Scholes, R.J., Pörtner, H.-O. (2022). Governing for transformative change across the biodiversity-climate-society nexus. BioScience. 72.

JOURNAL

BioScience

DOI

10.1093/biosci/biac031

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Governing for Transformative Change across the Biodiversity–Climate–Society Nexus

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Jun-2022

New virus variant threatens the health of bees worldwide

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MARTIN-LUTHER-UNIVERSITÄT HALLE-WITTENBERG

A honeycomb from a beehive — IMAGE: A HONEYCOMB FROM A BEEHIVE view more
CREDIT: UNI HALLE / MARKUS SCHOLZ

A dangerous variant of the deformed wing virus is on the rise worldwide. The virus infects honeybees, causing their wings to atrophy and the animals to die. The new variant, which has already replaced the original strain of the virus in Europe, is spreading to other regions of the world and causing entire bee colonies to collapse. This has been shown in a study by an international research team led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), which analysed data on the spread of virus variants over the past 20 years. The paper appeared in the “International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife”.

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is transmitted by the parasitic Varroa mite. “These mites not only transmit viruses between honeybees, they also eat the bees’ tissues,” explains Professor Robert Paxton, a bee researcher from MLU. He has been studying the spread of various pathogens in honeybees and wild bees for many years. “Deformed wing virus is definitely the biggest threat to honeybees,” adds Paxton. The original strain of the virus (“DWV-A”) was discovered in Japan in the early 1980s and the new variant “DWV-B” was first identified in the Netherlands in 2001. “Our laboratory studies have shown that the new variant kills bees faster and is more easily transmitted,” says Paxton.

The team led by the zoologist wanted to find out how widespread in nature the new variant has become. To figure this out the researchers evaluated roughly 3,000 datasets for honeybees, large earth bumblebees and Varroa mites from the database NCBI. The datasets contain clues about the genetic material of the viruses. They also investigated the first scientifically documented references to the “DWV-B” variant for numerous countries. “Our analyses show that the new variant has already gained a foothold in Europe and that it will only be a matter of time before it is the dominant form around the world,” says Paxton. In the 2000s, the new variant was mainly found in Europe and Africa, the homeland of the honeybee. It was discovered in North and South America in the early 2010s, and in Asia in 2015. The virus variant has now been detected on all major landmasses with the exception of Australia. According to the researchers, this could be because the Varroa mite has not yet been able to spread widely there.

Evidence of the virus was also found in samples taken from large earth bumblebees. “Whether the virus will have similarly devastating consequences in bumblebees and other wild bees remains uncertain. So far, commercial bumblebee colonies infected with the virus are not dying at a significantly higher rate,” says Paxton. There are various ways to protect honeybees from the Varroa mite and the virus: “The most important thing is to pay attention to hygiene in the hive. Here, simple measures can help to protect not only one’s own colony from Varroa, but also wild bees that no one else is looking after,” Paxton concludes.

As pollinators of many wild and cultivated plants, honeybees play a major role in fruit yields and in preserving biodiversity. The loss of honeybee colonies is therefore viewed with concern by experts around the world.

Study: Paxton et al. Epidemiology of a major honey bee pathogen, deformed wing virus: potential worldwide replacement of genotype A by genotype B. International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (2022). doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2022.04.013

DOI

10.1016/j.ijppaw.2022.04.013

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Epidemiology of a major honey bee pathogen, deformed wing virus: potential worldwide replacement of genotype A by genotype B

Small, rare crayfish thought extinct is rediscovered in cave in Huntsville city limits

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

Dr. Matthew L. Niemiller snorkels in Shelta Cave — IMAGE: DR. MATTHEW L. NIEMILLER SNORKELS IN SHELTA CAVE, WHERE A SPECIES OF CRAYFISH BELIEVED TO BE EXTINCT WAS REDISCOVERED. view more
CREDIT: AMATA HINKLE

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (June 1, 2022) – A small, rare crayfish thought to be extinct for 30 years has been rediscovered in a cave in the City of Huntsville in northern Alabama by a team led by an assistant professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

Dr. Matthew L. Niemiller’s team found individuals of the Shelta Cave Crayfish, known scientifically as Orconectes sheltae, in 2019 and 2020 excursions into Shelta Cave – its only home.

Dr. Niemiller, an assistant professor of biological sciences at UAH, a part of the University of Alabama System, is co-author of a paper on the findings in the journal Subterranean Biology. Besides Dr. Niemiller, authors are UAH’s Katherine E. Dooley and K. Denise Kendall Niemiller, and Nathaniel Sturm of the University of Alabama.

The crayfish’s home is a 2,500-foot cave system that’s owned and managed by the National Speleological Society (NSS) and is unobtrusively located beneath the organization’s national headquarters in northwest Huntsville and is surrounded by subdivisions and bustling roadways.

“The crayfish is only a couple of inches long with diminutive pincers that are called chelae,” Dr. Niemiller says. “Interestingly, the crayfish has been known to cave biologists since the early 1960s but was not formally described until 1997 by the late Dr. John Cooper and his wife Martha.”

Dr. Cooper, a biologist and speleologist who was a member of the NSS, studied the aquatic life in Shelta Cave with particular focus on crayfish for his dissertation work in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Shelta Cave’s aquatic ecosystem was particularly diverse then, with at least 12 cave-dependent species documented, including three species of cave crayfishes.

“No other cave system to date in the U.S. has more documented cave crayfishes co-occurring with each other,” Dr. Niemiller says.

But the aquatic ecosystem, including the Shelta Cave Crayfish, crashed sometime in the early 1970s. The crash may be related to a gate that was built to keep people out of the cave and yet still allow a grey bat maternity population to move freely in and out.

“The initial design of the gate was not bat friendly, and the bats ultimately vacated the cave system,” Dr. Niemiller says. “Coupled with groundwater pollution and perhaps other stressors, that all may have led to a perfect storm resulting in the collapse of the aquatic cave ecosystem.”

Even before the decline in the aquatic cave community, the Shelta Cave Crayfish was never common compared to the other two species, Southern Cave Crayfish (Orconectes australis) and Alabama Cave Crayfish (Cambarus jonesi).

“To the best of our knowledge, only 115 individuals had been confirmed from 1963 through 1975. Since then, only three have been confirmed – one in 1988 and the two individuals we report in 2019 and 2020,” Dr. Niemiller says.

“After a couple of decades of no confirmed sightings and the documented dramatic decline of other aquatic cave life at Shelta Cave, it was feared by some, including myself, that the crayfish might now be extinct.”

While it's encouraging that the Shelta Cave Crayfish still persists, he says scientists still haven't rediscovered other aquatic species that once lived in the cave system, such as the Alabama Cave Shrimp and Tennessee Cave Salamander.

“The groundwater level in Shelta Cave is the result of water that works its way naturally through the rock layers above the cave – called epikarst – from the surface,” says Dr. Niemiller. “However, urbanization in the area above the cave system may have altered rates at which water infiltrates into the cave and also increased rates of pollutants, such as pesticides and heavy metals entering the cave system.”

The crayfish was rediscovered during an aquatic survey aimed toward documenting all life that was encountered in the cave system.

“I really wasn't expecting to find the Shelta Cave Crayfish. My students, colleagues and I had visited the cave on several occasions already leading up to the May 2019 trip,” Dr. Niemiller says. “We would be fortunate to see just a couple of Southern Cavefish and Southern Cave Crayfish during a survey.”

While snorkeling in about 15 feet of water in North Lake located in the Jones Hall section of the cave, Dr. Niemiller spotted a smaller-sized cave crayfish below him.

“As I dove and got closer, I noticed that the chelae, or pincers, were quite thin and elongated compared to other crayfish we had seen in the cave,” he says. “I was fortunate to swoop up the crayfish with my net and returned to the bank.”

It was a female, measuring under an inch in carapace length, and had developing ova internally, so it was a mature adult.

“We noted some other morphological characters, took photographs, acquired a tissue sample and released the crayfish,” Dr. Niemiller says.

“The second Shelta Cave Crayfish that we encountered was in August 2020 in the West Lake area,” he says.

The team had searched much of the area and didn’t see much aquatic life. As they started to make their way out the lake passage to return to the surface, Nate Sturm, a master’s student in biology at the University of Alabama who had accompanied the lab for the trip, noticed a small white crayfish in an area that the team had previously walked through.

“It was a male with thin and elongated chelae,” Dr. Niemiller says. “I had already walked ahead of the area and did not see the crayfish. Thank goodness for young eyes!”

To aid identification, the team analyzed short fragments of mitochondrial DNA in the tissue samples collected.

“We compared the newly generated DNA sequences with sequences already available for other crayfish species in the region,” Dr Niemiller says. “A challenge we faced was that no DNA sequences existed prior to our study for the Shelta Cave Crayfish, so it was a bit of a process of elimination, so to speak.”

While few crayfish are considered single-site endemics, in other words known to exist in just one location, that’s somewhat more common in cave-dwelling species like the Shelta Cave Crayfish, he says.

“A couple other cave crayfishes are known from single cave systems in the United States. A challenge we face when trying to conserve such species is determining whether they really are known from a single cave system, or might they have slightly larger distributions but we are hampered by our ability to study life underground.”

CAPTION

The Shelta Cave Crayfish is known to exist only in Shelta Cave.

CREDIT

Dr. Matthew L. Niemiller

Outside of the dissertation work done by Dr. Cooper, little about the life history and ecology of the species is known.

“The Southern Cavefish (Typhlichthys subterraneus) and Tennessee Cave Salamander (Gyrinophilus palleucus) may be predators of smaller young of the Shelta Cave Crayfish. Larger Southern Cave Crayfish and Alabama Cave Crayfish might also feed on small young,” Dr. Niemiller says.

“We know nothing of the diet of the species, but it likely is an omnivore feeding on organic matter washed or brought into the cave, as well as small invertebrates such as copepods and amphipods.”

Although this research occurred prior to the grant, Dr. Niemiller is currently conducting the first-ever comprehensive assessment of groundwater biodiversity in the central and eastern United States, a pioneering search for new species and new understanding of the complex web of life that exists right under our feet. The research is funded by a five-year, $1.029 million National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award.

He says knowing the health of populations of the tiny creatures that are dependent on groundwater is important.

“Groundwater is critically important not just for the organisms that live in groundwater ecosystems, but for human society for drinking water, agriculture, etc.,” Dr. Niemiller says.

“The organisms that live in groundwater provide important benefits, such as water purification and biodegradation,” he says. “They also can act like ‘canaries in the coal mine,’ indicators of overall groundwater and ecosystem health.”

About The University of Alabama in Huntsville

Launched from America's quest to conquer space, The University of Alabama in Huntsville is one of America’s premier doctoral-granting, research-intensive universities. Located in the second largest research park in the United States, UAH has robust capabilities in astrophysics, cybersecurity, data analytics, logistics and supply chain management, optical systems and engineering, reliability and failure analysis, rotorcraft and unmanned systems, severe weather, space propulsion and more. UAH prepares students for demanding positions in engineering, the sciences, business, nursing, education, the arts, humanities and social sciences.

JOURNAL

Subterranean Biology

DOI

10.3897/subtbiol.43.79993