Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Insect conservation stalled by absence of risk assessments

University of Helsinki

image:
Mammals, birds and other vertebrates dominate the IUCN Red List, even though invertebrates are globally much greater in number.
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Credit: University of Helsinki

With just 1.2% of the world’s one million described insect species assessed for extinction risk, biodiversity assessment and conservation measures remain severely constrained. Sufficiently extensive datasets and new statistical methods could enhance the reach of extinction risk classification.

Invertebrates, including insects, are poorly represented on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. The Red List, the world’s most comprehensive information source on global conservation status, is dominated by better-known vertebrates, such as mammals and birds. Researchers find the situation alarming, as the Red List steers conservation measures and priorities.

A study by the universities of Helsinki and Stockholm, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), as well as the Swedish Museum of Natural History, examined ways to extend the reach of classification of conservation status to invertebrates. To do so, the researchers used one of the world’s most extensive arthropod datasets, encompassing over 33,000 species.

They found that attempts to classify rare insect species with traditional methods involve a major risk of misclassification: detecting even a severe species decline is challenging.

“Insects are difficult to observe, and most are also rare. As a result, only limited data have been gathered for most insect species, making it difficult to determine whether their populations are secure or at risk of decline. This makes existing conservation status assesment methods poorly suited to them,” notes Professor Tomas Roslin of the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences.

Roslin explains that unless analysis methods are updated, even the most ambitious observation projects enable extinction assessment for only a fraction of all species.

The researchers suggest three alternative ways to improve classification with new statistical methods. Although the data available for each rare species are limited, analyses can be strengthened by combining data across species. In addition, assessments may be conducted at the level of similar species instead of individually. A third option is to target extinction risk assessment to species communities and habitats.

“The statistical methods of community ecology have made tremendous strides in the past 10–15 years, providing new opportunities to assess extinction risks as well. The consequences have been especially pronounced for insects, with the majority lacking any extinction risk assessment,” says Professor Jarno Vanhatalo of the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Science.

Insects play an important role, as they pollinate plants, recycle nutrients and feed other groups of organisms. They are also the world’s most abundant and diverse animals, constituting 75 to 90% of all known animal species. The number of unknown species is much greater: about 80% of insect species remain undescribed.

Journal

Ecography

DOI

10.1002/ecog.07819

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Moving towards better risk assessment for invertebrate conservation

Article Publication Date

19-Aug-2025

Player position influences risk of ACL tear in the NFL

Wide receivers, tight ends had highest incidence of ACL injuries, while kickers and punters had lowest number

University of Missouri-Columbia

National Football League (NFL) athletes who play wide receiver or tight end may have a higher risk of suffering an injury to their anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, according to a new study from the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

A tear in the ACL is a significant and painful knee injury. Treatment typically requires surgery and at least 9 months of recovery, and even then, some players never return to the field.

“An ACL tear can have major physical, mental and economic impacts to the player,” study author Clayton Nuelle said. “These are significant injuries that require prolonged rehabilitation, so it’s important to determine risk factors and identify any ways to potentially prevent future injury.”

Wide receivers and tight ends often perform rapid change of direction movements and are involved in high-speed tackles and collisions, which likely increases the risk for ACL injury.

“The ACL helps stabilize and prevent excessive rotation within the knee,” Nuelle said. “A tear can occur when the knee is bent awkwardly during a tackle, or during ‘non-contact’ movements, when the athlete plants and pushes off or pivots, putting the ligament under severe stress.”

The study also examined other factors that could contribute to an ACL injury, looking at 520 tears over a ten-year period in the NFL, from the 2012-13 season to the 2022-23 season. 245 tears (47%) were caused by a contact injury mechanism, which means the player had physical contact with another person or object. A third of tears were caused by non-contact mechanisms, like landing from a jump.

Despite past research concluding otherwise, this study did not find any significant differences in ACL tears sustained on natural grass compared to artificial turf. Turf is usually more rigid than grass, which can cause stress on the body’s joints and increase the chance of injury. This finding may be a sign of change.

“Older studies found a higher incidence of injuries on artificial turf, when it was lower quality,” Nuelle said. “Since then, the quality, structure and composition of turf fields has improved, which may explain why this current study did not find a meaningful difference. Future research should continue to examine various injury rates, patterns and the overall safety profile.”

The research also found that an ACL tear was more likely to happen at the beginning of the football season and during a game versus a practice, with 291 tears occurring before week 9 and only 168 tears sustained during practice, compared to 352 while in-game.

Clayton Nuelle, MD is an orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine doctor at MU Health Care, and an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Mizzou School of Medicine. He also serves as the head team doctor for Mizzou Athletics and directly takes care of the Mizzou football, soccer, swimming and diving and tennis teams.

“Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in National Football League Players from 2012 to 2022: A Descriptive Epidemiology Study” was recently published in the Journal of Knee Surgery. In addition to Nuelle, Mizzou study authors include medical students Ashwin Garlapaty, Morgan Kluge and Quin Blankenship; surgical residents Rown Parola and Abdoulie Njai; James Stannard, MD, PhD, orthopaedic surgeon at MU Health Care and Medical Director of the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute; clinical research fellow Caleb Bischoff, DO; James L. Cook, DVM, PhD, OTSC, Vice Chair of Orthopaedic Research and Director of Operations & Research at the Joint and Limb Preservation Center; and Steven DeFroda, MD, orthopaedic surgeon and associate professor of orthopaedic surgery.

Journal

The Journal of Knee Surgery

DOI

10.1055/a-2652-2567

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in National Football League Players from 2012 to 2022: A Descriptive Epidemiology Study

Article Publication Date

23-Jul-2025

COI Statement

J.L.C. reports the following: AANA: Research support; AAOS: Research support; AO Trauma: Research support; Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health: Research support; Arthrex, Inc: IP royalties; Paid consultant; Research support; Gallant: Research support; Journal of Knee Surgery: Editorial or governing board; Midwest Transplant Network: Board or committee member; Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation/MTF Biologics: Board or committee member; IP royalties; Research support; National Institutes of Health (NIAMS): Research support; OREF: Research support; OrthoBio Therapeutic: Research support; PCORI: Research support; Thieme: Publishing royalties, financial or material support; Trupanion: Paid consultant. S.F.D. reports the following: Stryker Corporation: Paid consultant AO North America: Type: Other Professional Activities; Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation: research support; Arthroscopy Journal: Associate editor – Arthroscopy Techniques. C.W.N. reports the following: AAOS: Board or committee member; American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine: Board or committee member; AO Foundation: Other financial or material support; Arthrex, Inc: Paid presenter or speaker; Arthroscopy: Editorial or governing board; Publishing royalties, financial or material support; Arthroscopy Association of North America: Board or committee member; Guidepoint Consulting: Paid consultant; Vericel, Inc.: Paid presenter or speaker. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Are police in schools protecting children - or just policing them?

Police officers in schools may be doing more harm than good when tackling harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) – with girls affected by sexual harm particularly badly served – according to new research from the University of Surrey.

University of Surrey

The study published in Children & Society, highlights the complex role of police officers in schools, raising concerns about how policing approaches may unintentionally undermine trust and limit the effectiveness of safeguarding responses to HSB among young people. Researchers conducted interviews with police officers, school staff, service providers and young people, and found that well-meaning, relationship-based approaches are often situated within broader objectives of intelligence-gathering and surveillance. For example, police officers described having informal chats with young people in corridors or playgrounds to build trust — but these conversations also served to gather intelligence on peer dynamics, risks or incidents. One officer called it a “goldmine” of information, showing how friendly interactions were used to elicit disclosures for safeguarding or enforcement. While intended to protect, this dual role can blur boundaries and damage trust, especially when young people realise those casual chats fed into formal action.

Dr Emily Setty, co-author of the study and Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Surrey, said:

“Young people can become cynical about such conversations and less likely to open up in the future. This not only reduces the chances of identifying and addressing concerns early - potentially allowing harm to escalate - but also fails to model the openness, honesty and transparency that underpin healthy relationships, making the relational dynamics themselves a source of harm.”

This can create tensions between care and control, especially when working with young people who have experienced harm. For girls and others affected by sexual harm, police presence was often linked to discomfort, fear of punishment and a lack of confidence in meaningful support. Relationship-based policing, though sometimes effective, can lose credibility when it is perceived as a tool for enforcement rather than genuine care.

Dr Emily Setty continued:

“We heard from professionals and some young people who recognised the importance of trust and support. But there were also accounts of feeling surveilled or let down when police involvement prioritised intelligence over genuine care. Relationship-building cannot be reduced to a strategy for control. It must be grounded in young people’s rights, needs and lived realities.”

The research looked into how tensions between safeguarding and criminal justice objectives are playing out in schools. Many officers admitted they struggled with the blurred lines between support and enforcement – especially in cases involving image-based abuse or underage relationships, where legal categories don’t match real-world complexities. Officers also admitted that delays, confusion over legal outcomes, and lack of resources leave victims feeling abandoned and perpetrators without proper rehabilitation.

The study recommends:

Shifting police focus from punitive deterrence to genuine support for young people’s sexual development, rights and education - for example, by facilitating relationship and consent workshops, creating safe spaces for disclosures without fear of punishment, and connecting young people to specialist support services.

Developing school environments that prioritise trust and holistic safeguarding over discipline and behavioural management.

[ENDS]

Dr Emily Setty is available for interview, please contact mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk to arrange.

The full paper is available in Children & Society

Journal

Children & Society

DOI

10.1111/chso.12960

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Surveillance or Support? Policing Harmful Sexual Behaviour Among Young People in Schools

Spectral bats greet each other with ‘hugs’ and share food

Video study of wild “false vampire” bats reveals social greetings, food provision and cooperative foraging

PLOS

Cooperative behaviors and social interactions in the carnivorous bat Vampyrum spectrum — image:
Social roosting of the spectral bats (*Vamyprum spectrum*).
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Credit: Marisa Tietge, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The world’s largest carnivorous bat has a surprisingly rich social life, displaying affectionate greetings and providing food to family group members, according to a study by Marisa Tietge at Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Germany, and colleagues, publishing August 20, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Many bats are highly social, living in groups and working together to find food. However, their nocturnal lifestyle makes it challenging to study these behaviors in the wild. Researchers installed a motion-sensitive infrared camera inside a hollow tree in a tropical forest in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, where a family group of four spectral bats (Vampyrum spectrum) were roosting. These carnivorous bats, which can have a wingspan of up to 3ft (1 metre), were previously thought to be solitary foragers.

After three months of filming, the researchers identified that the bats were in fact far more sociable than was previously suspected. They categorized eight main types of behaviors, including social interactions, food provision, and play. Within the roost, bats would often groom each other and make social vocalisations. The videos also revealed a social greeting similar to a hug, where one bat would greet another by wrapping its wings around the returning bat’s body.

Adult bats returning to the roost with prey were observed voluntarily transferring the food to a younger bat in the colony. This behavior may allow adult bats to gradually transition their offspring from milk to a carnivorous diet and help young bats to develop their prey-handling skills before they leave the roost. Although spectral bats were previously thought to be solitary foragers, the researchers recorded bats leaving or returning to the roost together, and prey transfer from the adult male to the lactating female was observed as well, suggesting that they sometimes undertake cooperative foraging trips, perhaps as a way for younger bats develop their hunting skills.

The study is the first to describe food provision and other complex social behaviors in a wild group of spectral bats. The findings suggest that both parents help to care for the young, a strategy that is relatively rare among mammals. The presence of two young bats in the colony — which are likely to be the breeding pair’s pups born in different years — indicates that spectral bats remain in the roost for an extended period.

Together, these observations show that the social structure of this rare bat species is more complex than previously thought. Developing and maintaining strong social bonds is likely to be important for the bat’s survival, the authors say.

Marisa Tietge adds: “Spectral bats exhibit a level of cooperative behavior and biparental care that is rarely documented in bats – a fascinating area for future research.”

“We were astonished by how gentle and cooperative these apex predators are.”

“The most endearing behavior was forming a tight cuddle-ball when falling asleep: each bat wrapping one wing around its nearest neighbor, all snouts touching.”

“Rather than hunting and raising young in isolation, V. spectrum shows complex cooperation behavior, strong monogamous pair bonds, as well as extended parental investment and biparental care—traits highly unusual in carnivorous mammals, especially bats.”

"I was astonished to find that the bats seemed to recognize me after several consecutive weeks of visiting the roost. At first, I was greeted with threat-like calls, and the bats broke their roosting formation to hide in the corners. But over time, their response shifted to just a few curious looks—no vocalizations, and they remained in a relaxed roosting formation. Even after nine months away, they appeared to recognize me immediately when I returned the following season."

Cooperative behaviors and social interactions in the carnivorous bat Vampyrum spectrum [VIDEO] 1

Cooperative behaviors and social interactions in the carnivorous bat Vampyrum spectrum [VIDEO] 2

Cooperative behaviors and social interactions in the carnivorous bat Vampyrum spectrum [VIDEO] | 3

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: http://plos.io/4mCr6es

Citation: Tietge M, Artavia Durán E, Knörnschild M (2025) Cooperative behaviors and social interactions in the carnivorous bat Vampyrum spectrum. PLoS One 20(8): e0321338. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0321338

Author countries: Germany, Panama

Funding: This work was supported by a grant from the Leibniz Foundation (P122/2020) to Mirjam Knörnschild.

Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0321338

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Cooperative behaviors and social interactions in the carnivorous bat Vampyrum spectrum

Article Publication Date

20-Aug-2025

Ad hominem attacks are the most common way users confront content they perceive as wrong in comment sections beneath news videos, with over 40% of analyzed comments relying on reputation-based insults to oppose earlier replies

PLOS

Article URL: http://plos.io/4os0Tkc

Article title: Beyond ad hominem attacks: A typology of the discursive tactics used when objecting to news commentary on social media

Author countries: U.S.

Funding: This research was funded by the National Science Foundation Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (NSF, Funding number: 2106476). Full details at: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2106476&HistoricalAwards=false.

Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0328550

Article Title

Beyond ad hominem attacks: A typology of the discursive tactics used when objecting to news commentary on social media

Article Publication Date

20-Aug-2025

Extreme heat poses growing threat to our aging population

Study suggests many don’t understand the risk as temps rise

Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Older adults often don’t realize how vulnerable they are to extreme heat and most aren’t prepared for long periods of hot weather, according to a review of more than 40 studies.

In the review, researchers found that most studies focused on how older adults react when heat waves strike, such as staying hydrated or moving to cooler locations.

But there is less research on how they plan for prolonged heat events, which may be evidence of low-risk perception, according to the researchers.

“Extreme heat is not often viewed as a weather disaster like hurricanes or floods, but it should be,” said Smitha Rao, co-author of the study and assistant professor of social work at The Ohio State University.

“It is not something that is visible, which is why it is often called the ‘silent killer.’”

The study, published today (Aug. 20, 2025) in the journal PLOS Climate, involved a rapid systematic review of 41 studies about extreme heat and older adults published globally from 2010 to 2024.

Most of the studies – 29 in total – focused on individual coping strategies, such as hydration, environmental adjustments or relocation to cooler spots. One study examined heat preparedness.

“I thought it was interesting that very few studies focused on preparedness,” said co-author Fiona Doherty, a PhD graduate of Ohio State who is now an assistant professor of social work at the University of Tennessee.

“Risk awareness seems to be quite low among older adults and their caregivers.”

The issue has gained increasing importance in recent years for several reasons. For one, older adults are one of the fastest-growing age groups, and people aged 65 and over will outnumber children under the age of five by 2050.

Also, countries worldwide experienced record-breaking heat in 2023 and 2024, with temperatures expected to surge over the next few years. Older adults and their caregivers may not be adequately ready to face these changes, according to the researchers.

“We tend to react based on past experiences in our lives and the reality has changed,” said co-author Holly Dabelko-Schoeny, professor of social work at Ohio State.

“The things that worked in the past to deal with heat waves are not going to work in this new reality. That goes for those who deliver services to older adults and well as to the individuals themselves.”

While the times have changed, Rao said another important point is that individuals themselves go through transformations as they age.

“We may not realize that our bodies’ reactions to heat changes as we age, and older adults and their caregivers may not realize that some of the medicines they are taking or medical conditions they have may make them prone to overheating,” Rao said.

Many heat-related deaths for older adults happen in their own homes and at night, again indicating that they may not have known they were in danger, she said.

In addition to the 29 studies that focused mostly on individual coping strategies, seven focused on service delivery to older adults facing extreme heat, and sometimes other weather disasters. Doherty said that often more attention was paid to protecting individuals from extreme cold, rather than extreme heat, showing again the lack of adequate risk awareness.

The fewest number of studies they found had to do with policy actions to protect older adults. That’s an area that needs more attention to make sure individuals are prepared before an extreme heat event occurs, according to the researchers.

That may involve engaging older adults, learning their specific needs, and tailoring interventions. This could include the weatherization of their homes and providing cooling options for those who can’t afford them.

Another example: In Columbus, the Central Ohio Transit Authority recently changed its policies to make its buses free for everyone during extreme heat events, to reduce heat exposure and ensuring that young and old alike can travel without cost to cooling centers if needed.

“It is good to see policy changes like this that are responding to what our new normal looks like,” said Marisa Sheldon, director of the Age-Friendly Innovation Center at Ohio State’s College of Social Work.

In a related article published recently in the journal Environmental Communication, Sheldon and some of the co-authors of the PLOS Climate study explored preferences and sources of extreme weather information among older adults, especially those who are culturally and linguistically diverse.

“One compelling finding from both studies was the importance of relationship building,” Doherty said.

“Not only connecting neighbors, but also learning what information sources older adults trust and building trust between individuals and community agencies so that community members follow expert guidance and change their behavior when necessary.”

Anthony Traver, a PhD graduate of Ohio State, now at the University of Kentucky, was also a co-author of the PLOS Climate and Environmental Communication studies. Yiran Zhan and Emma Rademacher of Ohio State were co-authors of the Environmental Communication study.

The Environmental Communication study was supported by Columbus City Council and the Central Ohio Agency on Aging.

Journal

PLOS Climate

DOI

10.1371/journal.pclm.0000689

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Extreme Heat Preparedness and Coping Among Older Adults: A Rapid Review