Horizon Scan for Conservation Issues

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“Almost all of our improvements, so called, tend to convert the country into the town.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.

 

Horizon scanning is a well-established method for identifying emerging threats and opportunities that allows sufficient lead time to develop actionable solutions. The 15^th Horizon Scan for conservation issues was published this year in the high-profile journal, Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 

 

Figure 1: Artificial intelligence (AI) was used to generate some of this year’s issues.

For this year’s horizon scan, Willow Primack and I joined the team to use three AI models-- GPT-3.5 (Open AI), GPT-4 (Open AI), and Claude (Anthropic)-- to generate novel topics in ecology, conservation, and environmental science. After screening them with respect to accuracy, novelty and interest, we forwarded the best 20 issues to the team leaders. They judged five of the 20 to be of sufficient interest for consideration by the larger group. In the end, none of our AI-generated issues made the final list of 15 issues. 

 

Figure 2.  Many of the issues chosen address the climate change crisis. 

Many of the final topics were related to the use of technology to reduce the environmental impact of human activities, including to address the climate change crisis. Some examples include new methods for producing hydrogen fuel for energy; and producing high-protein food from air, potentially decreasing the area of land needed for food production. Other topics are more specific, such as positive benefits that may come from the use of benchtop DNA printers and the need to monitor changes in deep-sea currents which may have profound impacts on marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

 

The full article is available using this LINK. 

 

 

Plant Poster Day

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“I should keep some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir – the reading of which would restore the tone of my system and secure me true and cheerful views of life.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.

In the closing days of my BI 305 Plant Biology course, we had a poster session in which each student presented some aspect of botany that they wanted to learn more about and share with the class. 

Photo 1: Class photo with Prof. Kaufman, who came to view the posters. 

Photo 2: Akiva and poster

Photo 3: Allison and poster (with TF Emily)

Photo 4: Anjali and poster

Photo 5: Ashley and poster

Photo 6: Brooke and poster

Photo 7: Eric and poster

Photo 8: Isabel and poster

Photo 9: Jana and poster

Photo 10: Jessica and poster

Photo 11: Nina and poster

Photo 12: Olivia and poster

Photo 13: Ryan and poster

Photo 14: Sofia and poster

Photo 15: Tsion and poster

During a break from poster presentations, we had a durian party.

Photo 16: Durian party

New USDA Winter Hardiness Map

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“How little there is on an ordinary map! How little, I mean, that concerns the walker and the lover of nature… The wavering woods, the dells and glades and green banks and smiling fields, the huge boulders, etc., etc., are not on the map, nor to be inferred from the map.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “plant hardiness zone map” was updated several weeks ago for the first time in a decade, providing guidance to gardeners and other plant growers about which flowers, vegetables, and shrubs are most likely to thrive in a particular region.

Figure 1: New Plant Hardiness Zone Map

The key information on the map is the lowest likely winter temperature in the various regions, which is important for determining which plants are likely to survive the season. Across the lower 48 states, the lowest likely winter temperature overall is now 2.5 degrees (1.4 degrees Celsius) warmer than when the last map was published in 2012, with over half of the regions having shifted to a warmer plant hardiness zone. 

Figure 2: In coming years, Camellias will be growing in Boston as the climate continues to warm. 

This surprisingly rapid shift in just 10 years is due to temperatures in the winter and at night rising faster than those in the summer and during the day.

As demonstrated by this shift in the hardiness zones, climate change is already having strong impacts on plants and the people growing them in the United States. As the climate continues to shift, it can be tricky for plants — and growers — to keep up. Warmer temperatures may mean that some plants will now die during summer heat waves, and that insect pest outbreaks may become more severe as milder temperatures make it easier for them to survive through the winter. 

For more info on the changes made to the map, see this article: LINK

 

A Plant Experiment in Class

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“I enjoy more drinking water at a clear spring than out of a goblet at a gentleman’s table.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.

 

Over the decades, I have envied professors of Chemistry and Physics who carry out dramatic experiments right in front of students during lecture time. Why can’t Biology professors do this too? So, this semester I attempted to do an experiment in class.  

To illustrate the function of the waxy cuticle of leaves to prevent water loss, I collected six large living Hydrangea leaves. At the start of class, the leaves were labeled with a Sharpie pen, weighed, and then randomly assigned to one of three treatments: control leaves; leaves with a few tears in the leaf surface; leaves with many tears in the leaf surface. No leaf fragments came off during the treatments, which student volunteers carried out.

The hypothesis was that leaves with damage to the leaf cuticle would lose more water than control leaves. 

Photo 1: Students carrying out leaf treatments in class.

Photo 2: Leaves illustrating the three treatments, with one being weighed. A heavily torn leaf is on the left and a lightly torn leaf is on the right. 

Following treatment, leaves were left on a table in front of the class and then weighed after 45 minutes. Not much weight loss had occurred, so leaves were placed on a grill above a warm radiator with the expectation that it would cause greater water loss. 

Photo 3: A control leaf and lightly torn leaf on a radiator.  

After 75 minutes, the leaves were weighed again. Now there was a clear difference among the treatments. While the control leaves had lost 7.5 % of their weight, the heavily torn leaves had lost 15 % of their weight. The lightly torn leaves were intermediate in weight loss.

Figure 1: Results showing a greater loss of water in heavily damaged leaves in comparison with control leaves. 

Photo 4. During the experiment, the results were written on the blackboard, so the students could see the progress. 

Considering that this is the first time this experiment had been tried, it was surprising how clear the results were. Was it worthwhile? Could other experiments be developed for use during botanical lectures?

 

Wildlife Health: Reaching a Wider Audience

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“Your success will be in proportion to your devotion to ideas.” Henry David Thoreau in his Correspondence.

 

Several weeks ago, we had a blog post about an article of ours describing the state of wildlife health in the U.S. using newly-digitized wildlife rehabilitation center data. This past week, two popular articles about this research were published:  

1.    In the BU Brink, an article appeared entitled:

“New Study Identifies Greatest Threat to Wildlife across North America & Canada.”

Photo 1: A new patient at the Northern Colorado Wildlife Center —a snow goose from Timnath, Colorado. These incredible birds are known for one of the longest migrations in the avian world.

 

2.    A second article written by Tara and me was published in the online magazine The Conversation entitled:

     “Digitized records from wildlife centers show the most common ways that humans harm wild animals.”

 

Video 1: A story about how the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota helps save animals.

 

These articles appeared because we pitched story ideas to the publishers, wrote the article for The Conversation, and wrote a press release for the BU Brink.

 

If you want to reach a wider audience with your research, you often have to reach out to the media and do a lot of the writing. But it’s worth the effort!

 

Effects of Climate Change on Bird Migration in Concord

By Amanda Gallinat and Richard B. Primack

 

“I would thus from time to time take advice of the birds.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.

 

From 1851 to 2007, dedicated birders in Concord, including Henry David Thoreau, Ludlow Griscom, William Brewster, and Rosita Corey recorded first-bird sightings—when bird species are first spotted returning in the spring. Analyzing this data revealed that while migratory birds arrive earlier in warmer years, their overall response to climate change is much weaker than that of plants and insects.

 

Photo 1: Observers recording birds at Great Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary.

Recently we spoke to the Nuttall Ornithological Society about the statistical challenges of combining the past records made by a handful of individual observers with the Concord eBird data from 2013-2022 contributed by hundreds of local observers.

Do these eBird records reveal that birds are arriving earlier now? Or are birds arriving at the same time as in the past, but having more observers allows them to be detected sooner? This is what our team is currently investigating. We hope to discover an answer.

 

Photo 2: Richard and Amanda at the Nuttall meeting.

 

Thanks to the Nuttall Club for hosting us and asking lots of thoughtful questions! And thanks to team members Abe Miller-Rushing, Libby Ellwood, Trevor Lloyd-Evans, and Corey Callaghan. 

Autumn River Trip

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“The deep places in the river are not so obvious as the shallow ones and can only be found by carefully probing. So perhaps it is with human nature.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.

 

The changing of leaf color was delayed this autumn due to warmer and more rainy than usual weather. Many leaves simply changed to brown and fell from the trees without first showing off their brilliant coloring. 

On the last Saturday in October, the weather was in the 70s. My son Dan and I went on a long kayaking trip on the Charles River to enjoy the autumn scenery. 

Video 1.  As we launched our kayaks, the leaves were tumbling out of the trees. 

Photo 1.  Many river trees still had their green leaves. 

Photo 2. Oak leaves had either fallen off or were persisting as dead brown leaves.

Photo 3. Shadows on the reeds cast a dark band across the river edge.

Photo 4.  Dead branches of rose mallow topped with capsules emerged from the river margin.

Photo 5.  Beavers left this tree still standing; perhaps they will return the next day to finish their job. 

Open Access Publishing Expands the Reach of Knowledge in Africa

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”  Henry David Thoreau in Walden.

Open Access publishing is the best way to make books available to a wide audience across Africa. Students can download our Open Access book, Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa, for free on a wide variety of devices. Over the last 4 years, this book has been downloaded over 45,000 times and is being widely used for teaching across the region. 

At the August 2023 International Conference on Conservation Biology (ICCB) in Rwanda, Eric Nana, John Wilson (also known as Johnny Birder) and I told hundreds of people about the upcoming second edition and a new French edition. People were enthusiastic about gaining access to such a valuable book without having to pay. 

Photo: Richard Primack, Eric Nana, and John Wilson (Johnny Birder) at the ICCB conference.

We published our Open Access book with Open Book Publishers. Here is link to an interview that we recently did discussing the advantages of Open Access publishing to reach a wider audience: LINK

And here is a link to an article that we wrote about these advantages: LINK

Wildlife Health on X

By Richard B. Primack

“It is well to find your employment and amusement in simple and homely things. These wear best and yield the most.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.

 

Boston University sent out a graphic tweet on X letting the public know about our recent article on using newly-digitized records to evaluate large-scale patterns of wildlife health. It is striking how years of work presented in a lengthy article can be condensed down to a few sentences.

 

Here is a link to the X post: LINK