Hunter in the Colombian rainforest. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
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Protected areas in the world's tropical rainforests are absolutely essential, but one cannot simply set up a new refuge and believe the work is done, according to a new paper in Bioscience. Unsustainable hunting and poaching is decimating tropical forest species in the Amazon, the Congo, Southeast Asia, and Oceana, leaving behind "empty forests," places largely devoid of any mammal, bird, or reptile over a few pounds. The loss of such species impacts the whole ecosystems, as plants lose seed dispersers and the food chain is unraveled.
"In many parts of the tropics, hunting is now the biggest threat to tropical biodiversity," writes the paper's author, tropical ecologist Rhett Harrison. "There is a need to acknowledge the unpalatable but undeniable fact that current tropical conservation efforts are failing."
Currently around 18 percent of the world's tropical forests are under some level of protection, a statistic that is seen as a measure of success by conservationists, however hunting and poaching remain rampant. Although most severe in Southeast Asia and Africa, concerns are also rising in the Amazon as well.
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Barking deer in the Luang Prabang morning market in Laos. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. |
Harrison argues that small protected areas and those that do not possess big charismatic species—such as jaguars or elephants—are especially vulnerable to poaching activities due to long neglect from conservationists and policy-makers.
"Smaller reserves (1000–10,000 hectares) tend to be regarded as being of low conservation priority. However, such reserves are a critical component of protected-area networks in tropical regions with relatively little original forest cover remaining; they make up a substantial proportion of the habitat and biogeographic diversity, and often the only examples of species-rich lowland forest," Harrison explains.
Poaching of big animals such as elephants, tigers, and rhinos often make the most news, but Harrison says smaller, less well-known animals are just as vital to the maintenance of the ecosystem. Hunters often target fruiting trees for their quarry killing off frugivorous (fruit-eating) birds and mammals. These frugivorous species are key to dispersing the seeds of "large-seeded plants, which include many of the slower-growing canopy trees," Harrison notes. The loss of such species in a forest could change the entire plant community. Less slow-growing, big trees may even lessen a forest's capacity to store carbon and other important ecosystem services.
What's become known as the "empty forests syndrome" has been propelled by a number of issues: lack of funding for parks, dearth of wildlife rangers, and new roads and development projects opening up once inaccessible rainforests.
"Reserve-management authorities are often grossly underfunded and, in addition, have to contend with a gamut of secondary problems, such as limited political support, poor infrastructure, overstretched education systems, inefficient legal systems, and corruption," explains Harrison in the paper. A lack of data exacerbates the problem, according to the paper: "Reserve authorities are, of course, reluctant to admit that they have enforcement issues, and extirpations from nature reserves are rarely reported. It is therefore difficult to obtain an accurate picture of how wildlife is faring in most reserves."
Poverty plays a major role in some parts of the world. Communities that do not have easy access to domesticated protein-sources, such as many villages in Madagascar, often turn to bushmeat for protein. But, just as problematically, commercial bushmeat is also becoming a luxury item in some parts of the world. In Ecuador, for example, the bushmeat trade has expanded from sustainable indigenous hunting to a much larger trade serving restaurants along major highways in the Amazon. Bushmeat also makes its way from forest communities to urban areas: a recent survey in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, found that 88 percent of households had bought bushmeat at urban markets. In Southeast Asia, the traditional Chinese medicine plays a major role in emptying out regional forests for target "medicinal" species.
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Indigenous park guard on forest patrol in Suriname. Indigenous tribes are often key players in keeping poachers out of their forests. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
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"Local communities often regard the forest as their birthright and hunting—even of endangered species—as an important cultural tradition," notes Harrison, adding that that in order for subsistence hunting to be sustainable in rainforests "human densities cannot exceed about one person per square kilometer," but that there are already "46 people per square kilometer in the Neotropics, 99 in Africa, and 522 in Asia." While there are remote, largely untouched forests in the Amazon, New Guinea, and the Congo, Harrison fears that even these forests will soon be threatened by hunters as more forests are opened up by roads often built for extractive industries.
Harrison recommends a variety of measures to save wildlife from unsustainable hunting. Number one, the conservation community must stop measuring success by the amount of land set aside as protected. Instead success should be determined by effective enforcement in parks, intact wildlife communities, and the changes in abundance of high-target species. Conservationists must also start thinking outside the box.
"For example," he writes, "in Ghana, it was found that a significant fine applied to the sale of bushmeat in urban markets was sufficient to reduce hunting to sustainable levels." In addition, conservationists should work with logging and energy companies to strictly enforce hunting rules on their concessions. Research has shown that well-managed industrial concessions can still possess a wide-variety of species.
But he notes that the situation is so dire in many protected areas that it's time to consider "restoring" populations of vanished animals; unless this is done, he writes, "it cannot be assumed that so-called 'protected' forests will survive in anything approximating a natural state."
For poor countries, combating poaching doesn't have to be seen as a burden. Instead, governments must see maintaining wildlife as central to their economy.
"Many tropical nations earn large sums of money from nature-based tourism, but governments often remain ignorant of the essential role that wildlife and nature reserves play in underpinning the industry, and prefer instead to invest in golf courses," Harrison writes, adding that "partnerships with tour operators and government tourist agencies may therefore be an effective way of lobbying for improved wildlife management."
Cuscus being sold as meat in the Wamena market. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Iguana killed by hunters in Suriname. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Lizard-on-a-stick in in Chinese market. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Songbirds in the Luang Prabang morning market in Laos. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Severed monkey leg in the bottom of a canoe in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Dried porcupine in a Chinese market. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
CITATION:
Rhett D. Harrison. Emptying the Forest: Hunting and the
Extirpation of Wildlife from Tropical
Nature Reserves. BioScience 919. November 2011 / Vol. 61 No. 11.
Roger Albert Mbete, Henri Banga-Mboko, Paul Racey, André Mfoukou-Ntsakala, Innocent Nganga, Cédric Vermeulen, Jean-Louis Doucet6, Jean-Luc Hornick, and Pascal Leroy. Household bushmeat consumption in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo. Tropical Conservation Science Vol.4 (2):187-202, 2011.
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New rainforest and indigenous reserve established in Peru
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
(02/07/2012)
Aerial photo of Peruvian Amazon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
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On February 4th, the Peruvian government and a small indigenous group created a new Amazon reserve, dubbed the Maijuna Reserve. Located in northeastern Peru, the 390,000 hectare (970,000 acres) reserve is larger than California's Yosemite National Park and over three times the size of Hong Kong.
Connected to the watersheds of Napo and Putumayo rivers, Maijuna reserve will not only protect primary rainforest in the Loreto Region, but also the culture of the Maijuna people who live in the area with a population of less than 200 people. The reserve—officially created by the Regional Government Program for the Conservation, Management and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in Loreto (PROCREL)—also connects to two other existing protected areas, creating a total area of over 1.6 million hectares (4 million acres).
According to Nature and Culture International which works with the Maijuna people and has played a role in the creation of the reserve, the forest is home to a wide variety of Amazon wildlife, including giant river otters (Pteronura brasiliensis) and jaguars (Panthera onca), and large populations of widely hunted animals such as Brazilian tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) and Salvin's currasow (Mitu salvini).
"This new conservation area protects a true jewel: a complex of Amazonian high terraces—a habitat unknown until recent biological inventories—that shelters a flora and fauna with a number of new, rare, and specialized species. These terraces and the adjacent lowland forests are underlain by diverse soil types and give rise to seven local drainages, whose waters support the flora and fauna of the area, as well as its human residents," states the Nature and Culture International website.
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Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
(02/07/2012)
Overlooking rainforest in Guyana. Photo by: Jeremy Hance.
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In a bid to gain legal recognition of their land, the indigenous Wapichan people have digitally mapped their customary rainforest land in Guyana over the past ten years. Covering 1.4 million hectares, about the size of Connecticut, the rainforest would be split between sustainable-use regions, sacred areas, and wildlife conservation according to a plan by the Wapichan tribe that will be released today. The plan says the tribe would preserve the forest from extractive industries.
"Recognition of our rights to control and manage our traditional territory would be one of the best ways of helping Guyana to fulfill its commitments to tackle climate change and meet its obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims to conserve and sustainably use biological resources," said Anglelbert Johnny, community leader of Sawari Wa'o Amerindian Village, one of twenty villages in the territory.
Located in the South Rupununi District of southwest Guyana, the forests are home to giant river otters (Pteronura brasiliensis), jaguars (Panthera onca), and bush dogs (Speothos venaticus), along with endemic birds like the Rio Branco antbird (Cercomacra carbonaria), according to a press release.
"Our land use agreements in our plan have been validated by the communities and include a proposal to establish a large Wapichan Conserved Forest in the eastern and southern parts of our territory as well as numerous plans to protect our sacred sites and local sites important for fish, game animals and wildlife," says Patrick Gomes, Chairperson of the South Rupununi District Tosahos Council. Like many Amazonian tribes, the Wapichan practice small-scale agriculture along with hunting, fishing, and gathering.
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The Wapichan communities held 80 meetings over the last few years to hash out the details of their land-use plan.
"Mappers from our own communities have used GPS technology to map the location of key livelihood, spiritual and cultural heritage sites that hold deep importance to our people and sustain our way of life. After ten years of painstaking work, we are very proud of the end result. We are now keen to share our territorial map with government authorities," says Kid James of South Central Peoples Development Association (SCPDA).
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(02/02/2012)
A landfill in Panama that was once mangroves. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
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Students from Yale University have made the amazing discovery of a species of fungus that devours one of the world's most durable, and therefore environmentally troublesome, plastics: polyurethane, reports Fast Company's Co-Exist. The new species of fungus, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is even able to consume polyurethane in zero-oxygen (anaerobic) conditions, which would be important in eating plastics in the deep dark layers of landfills where little sunlight, water, or oxygen is found.
Polyurethane is used for a wide-variety of everyday products from bedding to foam construction, and surfboards to watch bands. The plastic can often be recycled, but landfills still retain huge amount it, which may persist for hundreds of years.
Pestalotiopsis microspora is an endophytic fungus, meaning it survives on host plants, but does not harm them. The paper suggests that endophytes "are a promising source of biodiversity" for bioremediation, i.e. employing natural processes to deal with pollution.
The discovery was made through Yale's annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course for undergraduates.
"Students will engage in full time research where they will culture endophytic microorganisms growing within the plant tissue," the course description reads. "Organisms will be screened for the production of novel, biologically active natural products."
In this case, the students hit a potential jackpot.
CITATION: Russell JR, Huang J, Anand P, Kucera K, Sandoval AG, Dantzler KW, Hickman D, Jee J, Kimovec FM, Koppstein D, Marks DH, Mittermiller PA, Núñez SJ, Santiago M, Townes MA, Vishnevetsky M, Williams NE, Vargas MP, Boulanger LA, Bascom-Slack C, Strobel SA. Biodegradation of polyester polyurethane by endophytic fungi. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. July 2011, doi: 10.1128/AEM.00521-11.
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Jeremy Hance
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Giant leaf frogs are among the 50 reptiles and amphibian species found in the park. Photo by: Andre Baertschi.
Surveying a little-explored park in the Peruvian Amazon has paid off in dividends: researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have cataloged 365 species that had never been recorded in Bahuaja Sonene National Park. The species new to the park included two bats, thirty birds, and over two hundred butterflies and moths. This was the first time the park had ever been so extensively surveyed.
"The discovery of even more species in this park underscores the importance of ongoing conservation work in this region," Julie Kunen, WCS Director of Latin America and Caribbean Programs, said in a press release. "This park is truly one of the crown jewels of Latin America’s impressive network of protected areas."
Created in 1996, the park is located in the Madre de Dios department in south-eastern Peru and covers over 252,000 hectares. It is now known that Bahuaja Sonene National Park is home to over 600 bird species, 180 mammals, 50 herps (reptiles and amphibians), 180 fish, and 1,300 species of butterfly.
The park contains seven macaw species including red and green macaws. Photo by: Steven Sevillano.
Two hundred thirty-three species of butterflies previously undocumented for the park were found. Photo by: Steven Sevillano.
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Group releases close-up photos of 'uncontacted' tribe in Peru
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
(02/01/2012)
Survival International claims these are most detailed photos ever taken of the isolate Mashco-Piro tribe in Manu National Park, Peru. Photo courtesy of Survival International.
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New photos provide visual evidence of just how close the long-isolated tribe of Mashco-Piro people in the Amazon rainforest are to being contacted by the outside world—a perilous moment for tribes highly susceptible to disease and likely to defend their people and territory with weapons. According to indigenous rights NGO Survival International, the Maschco-Piro tribe has been seen more frequently outside of their forest home in Manu National Park in recent years. Some experts blame illegal logging in the park and helicopters used in oil and gas projects for the sightings.
The photos, which were released by Survival International, were reportedly taken by an anthropologist and a tourist. Their release has led the Peruvian government to warn people not to approach the uncontacted tribe.
"They were known to be a peaceful tribe up until 2001 but there has been an increasing level of violence when they started shooting at people with bows and arrows because they started coming under increasing threat as their land became encroached upon," Rebecca Spooner with Survival International, told Al Jazeera.
To date there have been two reported attacks by the Mashco-Piro people. One wounded a forest ranger, while the other led to the death of an indigenous man, Nicolás "Shaco" Flores, who had been leaving food and gifts for a group of Mashco-Piro people for twenty years. He was found with a Mashco-Piro arrow wound. However, authorities have not confirmed this incident.
"In this tragic incident, the Mashco-Piro have once again expressed their adamant desire to be left alone," Glenn Shepard, an anthropologist wrote in Anthropology News [LINK?]. Leaving gifts, such as clothing for the tribe, is discouraged as it could spread disease and speed-up contact.
Last year, Survival International released video of the tribe taken by tourists. The tourists allegedly attempted to get close to the tribe in their motorboat as the tribe walked along a beach. At one point one of the tribal members prepares to fire at the boat with an arrow.
"First contact is always dangerous and frequently fatal—both for the tribe and those attempting to contact them. The Indians’ wish to be left alone should be respected," director of Survival International Stephen Corry said.
This Mashco-Piro man is holding a wooden-handled knife tipped with a capybara tooth. Photo courtesy of Survival International.
Tribe on riverbank. Photo courtesy of Survival International.
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New meteorological theory argues that the world's forests are rainmakers
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
(02/01/2012)
The Amazon rainforest meets cleared area for cattle pasture. A radical meteorology theory argues that loss of forest, both in temperate and tropical regions, will lead to less precipitation over land. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
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New, radical theories in science often take time to be accepted, especially those that directly challenge longstanding ideas, contemporary policy or cultural norms. The fact that the Earth revolves around the sun, and not vice-versa, took centuries to gain widespread scientific and public acceptance. While Darwin's theory of evolution was quickly grasped by biologists, portions of the public today, especially in places like the U.S., still disbelieve. Currently, the near total consensus by climatologists that human activities are warming the Earth continues to be challenged by outsiders. Whether or not the biotic pump theory will one day fall into this grouping remains to be seen.
First published in 2007 by two Russian physicists, Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva, the still little-known biotic pump theory postulates that forests are the driving force behind precipitation over land masses. Since the biotic pump turns modern meteorology on its head, it has faced stiff resistance from some meteorologists and journals. Meanwhile, it has received little attention in the public or policy-sphere. Yet if Gorshkov and Makarieva's theory proves correct, it would have massive implications for global policy towards the world's forests, both tropical and temperate.
"The biotic pump is a mechanism in which natural forests create and control ocean-to-land winds, bringing moisture to all terrestrial life," Gorshkov and Makarieva told mongabay.com in a recent interview. According to them it is condensation from forests, and not temperature differences, that drives the winds which bring precipitation over land.
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Forest in Big Sur, California. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. |
"The biotic pump concept gives a consistent physical explanation of how this should be interpreted. Rather than focusing on temperature gradients, which are often a consequence rather than cause of the circulation, one should investigate the conditions when condensation is likely to occur to predict changes in atmospheric circulation," they say, adding that recent work has used the biotic pump to quantitatively explain tornadoes and hurricanes.
But such a radical theory does not gain acceptance or even acknowledgement easily.
"The biotic pump theory calls on the meteorological community to admit a possibility that an important atmospheric circulation driver has been overlooked. As long as one continues to ignore the role of condensation in driving winds, one will continue to ignore the real role of forests in the water cycle and climate," Gorshkov and Makarieva say, adding the current underpinnings of meteorology fail to adequately explain drought and flood events around the world. In addition, the biotic pump theory helps shed light on the rise and fall of past civilizations, such as the Nazca and the Maya.
Gorshkov and Makarieva argue that despite skepticism, the biotic pump theory deserves the full consideration of scientists—quickly.
"Given the deforestation threat, there is no time to lose," they say, further noting that only natural forests, and not monoculture tree plantations, are able to act as biotic pump due because of the ecological changes that occur when forest is converted into plantations.
"The biotic pump theory shows that natural forests are indispensable if we want to have rainfall, and, consequently, agriculture on the land where we live. This scientific message has important economic implications," Gorshkov and Makarieva say. "First of all, people and governments worldwide should realize that economic growth cannot occur at the expense of cutting forests either in one's own country or elsewhere. It is undermining the very pillars of our civilization’s existence. When water and food security are at stake, it is not possible for forest industries to focus on growth, just to increase the global production of wrapping and toilet paper. This should be the main topic of environmental campaigns."
It has long been known that the world's forests provide refuge to the vast majority of terrestrial species, store massive amounts of carbon, safeguard many of the world's most important watersheds, and are home to numerous indigenous groups, yet forests continue to fall at staggering rates. If biotic pump theory proves true, it adds a new and vital ecosystem service to the world's forests: rainmakers.
In a January 2012 interview Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva describe the mechanics of the biotic pump theory, the difficulties of gaining notice in the meteorology community, the relation of the biotic pump to climate change, and how deforestation in places like the Amazon and Indonesia threaten precipitation.
A NEW METEOROLOGY: AN INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR GORSHKOV AND ANASTASSIA MAKARIEVA
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva.
Mongabay: Will you tell us how the biotic pump works?
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: The biotic pump is a mechanism in which natural forests create and control ocean-to-land winds, bringing moisture to all terrestrial life. Winds tend to blow from areas of high air pressure to low. But how is a low pressure system created over land? Air pressure depends on the number of gas molecules. When water vapor condenses, it disappears from the gas phase; the number of gas molecules diminishes, and the air pressure falls. Therefore, if we manage to maintain the process of condensation over land, the latter becomes a persistent low pressure zone.
Water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere possesses a remarkable physical property: it is unstable to condensation. This means if an air volume containing a lot of vapor is occasionally displaced upward, the air will cool so significantly that the vapor condenses. Due to this instability, if there is a sufficient amount of water vapor in the warm lower atmosphere condensation will occur.
The green foliage and branches of trees have a much greater cumulative area than that of a tree projection on the ground. Hence, forest evaporation enriches the atmosphere with water vapor more efficiently than evaporation from an open water surface of the same area. Consequently, condensation occurs more readily over forests than over the ocean. Forests, rather than the ocean, become the low pressure zone where the moist winds converge to. Completing the cycle, moisture precipitates over the land and returns to the ocean in the form of river runoff.
Mongabay: Why do you associate the biotic pump with natural forests rather than with trees in general? Could a monoculture tree plantation act as biotic pump?
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A palm oil plantation on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Such plantations may look like 'forest,' but Gorshkov and Makarieva argue that the biotic pump doesn't work over monoculture plantations as well as over natural forest. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler |
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: As with all life processes, the biotic pump is a highly-organized complex process. In order to sustain condensation that keeps the air pressure low on land—so that moist winds blow to land from the ocean—there must be intense evaporation from the forest canopy. But evaporation diminishes the amount of moisture in soil. Moisture is additionally lost from soil by gravitational runoff. If all the soil moisture is gone, evaporation stops, and so does the atmospheric moisture transport. This means that a non-trivial balance must be maintained: forest evaporation must be exactly such that it never fully depletes the soil moisture but at the same time is intense enough to ensure that the amount of moisture brought from the ocean by winds compensates moisture losses in the soil.
Native species that form natural forest communities have evolved a complex set of genetically encoded biophysical and morphological traits that make the biotic pump possible. These traits took hundred million of years to evolve. For example, the root system of forest trees facilitates both storage and extraction of moisture from soil; biogenic aerosols produced by trees control the intensity of water vapor condensation over the forest; the large height of trees determines the vertical temperature gradient under the canopy, keeping soil evaporation under biotic control; tall trees are also essential for surface friction that does not allow extremely high wind velocities to develop. Thus, natural forests not only create an ocean-to-land moist air flow, but also stabilize this flow at an optimum level and prevent its extreme fluctuations like hurricanes, tornadoes, severe droughts or floods. Species other than plants (bacteria, fungi, animals) are essential for the stability of the forest ecosystem itself.
Monocultures or plantations consisting of a random set of plant species do not possess the required set of correlated traits. To give two extremely simplified examples: if one plants cacti, they will evaporate too little and will be unable to keep the atmosphere persistently moist. If one plants eucalyptus, they will evaporate readily but will be unable to prevent soil from drying. In either case, the biotic pump will not work. Generally, information fluxes processed by the natural biota exceed by twenty orders of magnitude the information processing capacity of modern civilization. It is not possible to create a technological analogue of the biotic pump.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE BIOTIC PUMP THEORY
This figure shows the "tug-of-war" between the forest and the ocean for the right to become a predominant condensation zone. In Fig. a: on average the Amazon and Congo forests win this war: annual precipitation over forests is two to three times larger than the precipitation over the Atlantic Ocean at the same latitude. Note the logarithmic scale on the vertical axis: "1" means that the land/ocean precipitation ratio is equal to e = 2.718, "2" means it is equal to e2 ≈ 7.4; 0 means that this ratio is unity (equal precipitation on land and the ocean); "-1" means this ratio is 1/e ≈ 0.4; and so on. In Fig. b: the Eurasian biotic pump. In winter the forest sleeps, so the ocean wins, and all moisture remains over the ocean and precipitates there. In summer, when trees are active, moisture is taken from the ocean and distributed regularly over seven thousand kilometers. The forest wins! (compare the red and black lines) As a result, precipitation over the ocean in summer is lower than it is in winter, despite the temperature in summer is higher. Finally, in panel (c): an unforested Australia. One can often hear that Australia is so dry because it is situated in the descending branch of the Hadley cell. But this figure shows that such an interpretation does not hold. Both in wet and dry seasons precipitation over Australia is four to six times lower than over the ocean. There is no biotic pump there. Being unforested, oceanic moisture cannot penetrate to the Australian continent irrespective of how much moisture there is over the ocean; during the wet season it precipitates in the coastal zones causing floods. Gradually restoring natural forests in Australia from coast to interior will recover the hydrological cycle on the continent. Click to enlarge.
Mongabay: Have there been any significant changes to your biotic pump theory over the last couple years?
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: The physical basis of the biotic pump consists in the statement that winds are driven mostly by condensation-induced pressure gradients rather than by temperature differences (such as warm air rises) as conventionally considered. As we judged from the first reactions to our work, this is the most difficult statement for the meteorological community to accept. Recently we concentrated our efforts on demonstrating the quantitative validity of the proposed mechanism of condensation-induced atmospheric dynamics. We have shown that it quantitatively explains hurricanes and tornadoes, having obtained from theory radial profiles of pressure and velocity that agree well with observations. On the other hand, we criticized some of the existing explanations of the same phenomena arguing that these contain physical errors. A full list of our publications concerning the biotic pump can be found here.
Mongabay: Have you seen wider acceptance in the scientific community for your theory?
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Redwood forest of Russian Gulch State Park in California. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler |
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: Generally, judging from the increasing number of citations of our first biotic pump papers, our work is gradually gaining more attention. The biotic pump theory calls on the meteorological community to admit a possibility that an important atmospheric circulation driver has been overlooked. As long as one continues to ignore the role of condensation in driving winds, one will continue to ignore the real role of forests in the water cycle and climate. Given the deforestation threat, there is no time to lose. So we are undertaking all possible efforts to stimulate a constructive discussion of condensation dynamics by members of the meteorological community.
Still, the progress appears to be slow. In 2010 we submitted an overview of the theory to the journal ACPD, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions that allows for an open discussion of submitted papers: Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Sheil D., Nobre A.D., Li B.-L. (2010) Where do winds
come from? A new theory on how water vapor condensation influences atmospheric
pressure and dynamics. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 10, 24015-
24052.
For six months the editors could not find reviewers willing to publicly evaluate our work. After we informed the wider scientific community of our situation, a leading NOAA hydrologist circulated our work among many of his colleagues-meteorologists. Only one of them considered the possibility of becoming a referee, and he strongly objected to our work. As we have always welcomed any criticism to be put forward openly regarding our work, we suggested that the editor invite the referee even though we knew in advance that he had a negative view of our work. After the negative review was posted, we replied to all the arguments. Since then the paper was suspended, it has now been in open review for over fifteen months and it's been twenty months since our submission. As any scientist will tell you, such extraordinary impediments and delays would discourage any researcher; they are disrupting the normal scientific process. But we remain hopeful that our efforts are not in vain.
Mongabay: Can you give an example of why the current understanding of condensation and precipitation is wrong?
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: Our work was discussed rather widely on the web, sometimes with direct or indirect participation of leading meteorologists. These discussions revealed that the physics of condensation has not been given sufficient attention by the meteorological community, the result being that even some very basic issues remained unresolved and unclear to many. For example, a question that caused a lot of confusion was: if condensation occurs in the atmosphere and some vapor turns to liquid, will air pressure at the surface be affected near instantaneously or only after the raindrops have fallen to the ground? The latter is a common view caused by a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of hydrostatic equilibrium.
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Rainstorm over the Amazon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. |
In hydrostatic equilibrium, air pressure at any height is equal to the weight of air in the atmospheric column above that height. Many meteorologists think that hydrostatic air pressure at the surface is equal to the weight of both air and all the liquid and solid bodies including the raindrops that are in the upper atmosphere. Had this been true, condensation in hydrostatic equilibrium could have never changed the surface pressure prior to precipitation fallout, because condensation of gas (vapor) into liquid does not change the total amount of matter. However, ideal gas pressure depends on the number of particles not their mass. The number of liquid drops is many orders of magnitude smaller than the number of gas molecules that have condensed into those drops. Therefore, condensation immediately lowers air pressure and disturbs the hydrostatic equilibrium. Recently a paper devoted to this question was published in a leading meteorological journal where, with use of numerical modeling, this conclusion was articulated. That a paper with such a basic conclusion has appeared only now—in the second decade of the Twenty First Century—demonstrates that the efforts to study the dynamic effects of condensation by the meteorological community are in their incipient stage.
In the meantime, practically all climate and weather phenomena where condensation and precipitation are involved are challenging modern meteorology. For example, the existing global circulation models do not adequately describe the water cycle in the Amazon, with the modeled moisture convergence being half the actual amounts estimated from the observed runoff values. It is widely recognized that despite the ever-improving observation facilities and the available computer power, there is no progress in predicting the intensity of tropical cyclones.
When analyzing how precipitation changes with time (e.g., in the Amazon or Congo regions) it is common to explore correlations with oceanic temperature anomalies. The conventional logic is that as the ocean becomes warmer, the warm air rises over the ocean and moisture precipitates there rather than over land, hence a drought occurs. However, such logic does not take into account that as the land becomes drier, it also warms significantly. It is unexplainable within the conventional paradigm why the warm air does not rise over the hot and dry land. All heat waves and droughts, like the one in European Russia in 2010 or the one in Texas in 2011, are associated with persistent descending air motion.
Neither are flooding events explained by the conventional paradigm. For example, of the two extreme floods that hit Thailand in 2011, the first one occurred early in the year during the dry season. Then the land is cooler, the ocean is warmer and winds blow from land to the ocean, so that the continent remains dry. In early 2011 the region was struck by an unusual cold wave, which caused this temperature gradient to become even more pronounced. According to the conventional paradigm, this should only strengthen dry conditions. In reality, however, a major flooding happened.
Evidence of this type, which is controversial with respect to the conventional paradigm, is mounting and the biotic pump concept gives a consistent physical explanation of how this should be interpreted. Rather than focusing on temperature gradients, which are often a consequence rather than cause of the circulation, one should investigate the conditions when condensation is likely to occur to predict changes in atmospheric circulation.
REGIONAL EXAMPLES OF THE BIOTIC PUMP
The Maya city of Tulum. Research is adding up that deforestation may have been a large factor in the decline of the Mayan civilization. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Mongabay: Recent evidence has linked the decline and fall of the Maya civilization to deforestation leading to less precipitation. How could the biotic pump theory connect to this?
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: This data, as well as the data on the Nazca civilization in Peru, are in agreement with the biotic pump concept. It is noteworthy that the Yucatan peninsula is a relatively small region with maximum distance from coast never exceeding a thousand kilometers. This means that even so close to the ocean, massive deforestation can cause a significant precipitation decline.
The proposed explanation (see article: Evidence mounts that Maya did themselves in through deforestation) based on a slight change in albedo after deforestation and a corresponding decrease in solar energy available for convection does not make sense to us (although as we understand this work has not yet been published so we could not read it in detail). The power of atmospheric circulation does not exceed around 1 percent of solar power. It is not limited by solar radiation, but by the flux of potential energy available for conversion to the kinetic energy. The conventional paradigm associates this potential energy with temperature-related buoyancy. That is, to put things simply, if you do not have a temperature difference, you do not have a circulation, all other things (including solar energy) being the same. We propose a different source of potential energy associated with water vapor removal from the gas phase: after the Mayan forests were destroyed, evaporation and condensation ceased to occur over the Yucatan peninsula (irrespective of how its albedo changed). The result was that the low pressure zone was no longer there and moist air ceased to come to the Maya from the ocean. Generally, the biotic pump theory calls us to re-analyze the historical evidence associated with land cover change and the changes in the precipitation regime.
Mongabay: How do you see deforestation in the Amazon as impacting regional precipitation?
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: According to recent analyses, during 1973-2003 precipitation in the Amazon River basin was declining at a rate of 0.3 percent annually, which means a trend of about 10 percent for the entire period. This does not include the most recent devastating droughts of 2005 and 2010. In the meantime, deforestation in the basin has amounted to about 30 percent during the same period. Deforestation mostly disturbed southern and south-eastern parts of the basin, where the precipitation/evaporation is less than in the basin core. Assuming that the total biotic pump intensity is a function of the integral of local precipitation over the total forest-covered area, one can conclude that the decrease in precipitation intensity is of the same order of magnitude as the degree of biotic pump deterioration. As deforestation marches to the interior of the basin and affects the ever more productive forests with the most precipitation, the disruption of the water cycle in the basin will increase disproportionately.
Mongabay: How do you think widespread deforestation will effect the hydrological cycle of places like the Indonesian islands? Given their smaller size, do they need the biotic pump?
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Devastated rainforest landscape in Borneo. Indonesia has one of the highest rates of deforestation worldwide. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. |
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: The total area occupied by the Indonesian archipelago, including space between the islands, is quite significant. Open water space between the forest-covered islands can only slightly weaken the biotic pump of the Indonesian forests that likely determine the precipitation regime in the adjacent oceanic regions. Indeed, there is a relatively stable low pressure zone over Indonesia that causes the so-called Walker circulation: surface air moves from the high pressure region of the eastern Pacific ocean towards the low pressure zone over Indonesia. When this low pressure zone diminishes or erodes, the Walker circulation weakens and an El Niño results. When the Walker circulation is strong, we have a La Niña. These phenomena are well-known for their long-range impacts on the climate of the Americas.
The biotic pump theory helps us understand why there is a low pressure system in Indonesia (because of intense condensation associated with forest functioning). Thus deforestation in the region should lead to a weakening of the Walker circulation. While this pattern needs to be further explored, it is worth mentioning that while the period from 1950 to 1975 was largely dominated by La Niña's (strong Walker circulation), starting from the late 70s the frequency of La Niñas dropped. This is in agreement with the idea that Indonesian deforestation over the last 30 years could have modified the large-scale airflow.
Mongabay: Does the biotic pump theory apply to boreal forests, such as those in Russia, as well?
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: Biotic pump of the boreal forest zone is fully responsible for atmospheric moisture transport from the (Atlantic) ocean over several thousand kilometers. Recent deforestation in European Russia is apparently disrupting this mechanism causing abnormal warming and droughts.
Mongabay: Does biotic pump theory modify our current understanding of global climate change?
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: The widespread view is that global climate change is largely due to anthropogenic pollution of the global environment. The main anthropogenic pollutant is carbon dioxide, which is emitted by burning fossil fuels. CO2 is the second most important greenhouse substance in the atmosphere of Earth, therefore its accumulation in the atmosphere is believed to be the main cause of the observed warming and other climatic changes. The main proposed strategy to combat climate change is by reducing carbon emissions.
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Temperate rainforest of Alaska. According to the biotic pump theory, both temperate and tropical forests play a similar role in precipitation patterns. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. |
However, the greenhouse effect on Earth is mostly determined by water vapor and clouds, i.e., by atmospheric moisture, which is the main greenhouse substance. The absorption interval of CO2 molecules covers less than 20 percent of the spectrum of thermal radiation of the Earth’s surface, while atmospheric moisture absorbs thermal radiation rather uniformly over the entire spectrum. Therefore, the impact of increasing CO2 concentrations on the greenhouse effect can be completely compensated by a relatively minor change in the hydrological cycle over land. Such climate stabilization can be performed by natural forests that control the hydrological cycle on land and the adjacent ocean, provided they are allowed to occupy a significant area. Conversely, destruction of forests leads to disruption of the hydrological cycle, which expectedly causes significant fluctuations of the magnitude of the global greenhouse effect, up to complete loss of climate stability and transition of Earth’s climate to a state incompatible with life.
Most modern climate researchers have grown up on computer models of climate and are used to believing in the model output. As illustrated by the discussion of our work, it is rarely appreciated that by artificially setting the needed numerical parameters it is possible to simulate a very broad range of climate scenarios, including those that will agree with observations of the past. The existence of simulations that mimic the past and present reality does not mean that the physics included in the models is correct or that the model can generate a trustworthy prediction.
What is more, modern climate modeling has been traditionally implemented by people with a technological background and little knowledge of ecosystem functioning. Such knowledge is generally poor, too. Thus, the ecological systems are "fed" into the models as a set of geophysical parameters, e.g., albedo, evaporation rate, surface roughness, amount of stored carbon etc. While the numeric values of these parameters are borrowed from reality, they do not represent the ecosystem functioning in very much the same manner as a colored high-resolution digital photo of a dead corpse does not represent a live human being. Without studying the principles of highly-organized functioning of ecological communities, including their genetically encoded ability to respond to environmental perturbations in a non-random compensatory way, the perspectives drawn from global circulation models with respect to the climatic effects of land cover change (e.g., statements like cutting all boreal forests will ease global warming) will continue to lack any resemblance to reality.
Quantitative analysis of ecological and biological variables is a very complicated task due to the complexity of living objects. Consider a flying canon and a flying bird that are both under gravity. A quantitative description of the former is straightforward, while to predict where and how the bird will fly from initial conditions is not feasible. This complexity of living systems and the number of surprises it implies for global environmental research has only recently begun to be gradually appreciated across a number of disciplines, from organismal energetics to soil biochemistry and climatology.
The biotic pump concept (and more generally the theory of the biotic regulation of the environment of which the former is a part) for the first time quantifies the stabilizing environmental function of natural ecosystems with respect to the hydrological cycle and pinpoints the physical mechanism that is responsible for this function. We must elevate the status of ecosystem conservation from a side issue in global environmental talks and treaties (that are exclusively focused on carbon) to an urgent high priority issue. We must also implement targeted research programs to study the stabilizing impact of natural ecosystems, to stimulate public discussion, and to raise people’s awareness of the real value of forests.
THE BIOTIC PUMP AND POLICY
Mongabay: What policy changes does the biotic theory suggest for governments worldwide?
Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva: 1. The biotic pump theory shows that natural forests are indispensable if we want to have rainfall, and, consequently, agriculture on the land where we live. This scientific message has important economic implications. First of all, people and governments worldwide should realize that economic growth cannot occur at the expense of cutting forests either in one's own country or elsewhere. It is undermining the very pillars of our civilization’s existence. When water and food security are at stake, it is not possible for forest industries to focus on growth, just to increase the global production of wrapping and toilet paper. This should be the main topic of environmental campaigns.
There are important branches of human activities where economic growth is not possible: that is, for example, fisheries. Consumption of natural fish products is limited by the rate of their recovery in nature, which is achieved by the mechanism of international quotas. Lack of such regulations could result in transient economic growth, but would ultimately lead to collapse of the entire industry when the fish base is depleted. For a different reason, economic growth is equally not possible based on criminal activities like selling drugs or human organs. Were such activities encouraged, as are other economic activities, this could lead to transient "economic growth" but then to the physical collapse of the population. Where this is understood, people are taking measures against such activities.
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Raw timber lines a port in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. |
The case with the forestry industry is less akin to fishery but more akin to drug and human organ selling. Humanity needs a large territory of natural, intact, undisturbed forests to run the hydrological cycle on land. This strict environmental criterion is incompatible with the criterion of "sustainability" applied in modern forestry, when trees are in the best case cut at the rate at which they regrow and when the majority of trees are cut when they are 50 years of age. Conceptually, this could be compared to growing human beings for organs and killing them when they are, say, fifteen years of age. Such an "economic activity" could be "sustainable" and "profitable" for some, but one cannot expect civilization based on such "economics" to be stable and give birth to Shakespeares, Mozarts, Einsteins etc. Human beings grown for organs cannot live a normal human life, they cannot work creatively or develop. Likewise, trees grown for timber cannot perform their environmental function and stabilize the climate: only a natural ecosystem with a full suite of all the necessary biological species can do this.
In other words, society must urgently take the course of gradually shrinking the forestry industry. Destruction of natural forest ecosystems is a crime against humanity and will be increasingly perceived as such as new knowledge accumulates, environmental literacy increases, and ethical standards change accordingly. Such radical changes have happened in human history: slavery, once perceived as economically prudent and otherwise "normal," was abolished.
We must emphasize that the responsibility for the current situation, where natural forests are being destroyed, rests on all the people of Earth rather than with the forestry industry alone. We are all consumers of timber products. Because many livelihoods depend directly on forest exploitation today, large-scale programs are needed to gradually change the professional occupation of these people, to slow down the forestry industry and ultimately radically minimize their economic scope. In the meantime, government grants should support research aimed at finding new ways of wrapping things without paper or any other tree-derived product.
2. Governments should remember that natural forest recovery takes many decades and even hundreds of years, before the biotic pump acquires its full power. It is much easier to protect forests than to re-grow them. For example, tree planting in China has nothing to do with forest restoration; it is doomed to fail. To completely restore a degraded ecological communities is as difficult as cloning a mammoth in an elephant egg cell. Ecosystem medicine and health care have not yet developed as a science. In the meantime, we should urgently conserve all that we have now.
3. Efforts should be coordinated to protect both boreal and tropical forests. In countries with strong democracy society is more efficient at achieving nature conservation goals. It becomes possible for society to mitigate the negative environmental impact of even large-scale development projects aimed at resource extraction from yet widening areas. For example, in Canada the implementation of Plan Nord aimed at a massive intensification of resource extraction in Quebec was forced by people to include conservation of 50 percent of the affected territory, including a vast area with boreal forests, in an undisturbed state. This positive experience should be studied and shared among nations.
4. In an overpopulated world forests and the environment cannot be saved. Family planning is the main strategic tool to conserve forests and restore environmental sustainability.
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Saving the world's biggest river otter
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
(01/30/2012)
The giant river otter. Photo by: Frank Hajek.
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Behavior and conservation of the Amazon's giant river otter.
Charismatic, vocal, unpredictable, domestic, and playful are all adjectives that aptly describe the giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), one of the Amazon's most spectacular big mammals. As its name suggest, this otter is the longest member of the weasel family: from tip of the nose to tail's end the otter can measure 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. Living in closely-knit family groups, sporting a complex range of behavior, and displaying almost human-like capricious moods, the giant river otter has captured a number of researchers and conservationists' hearts, including Dutch conservationist Jessica Groenendijk.
"Otters have always had tremendous appeal for me, ever since reading Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water, and the idea of a 'giant' otter was entrancing," Groenendijk told mongabay.com in an interview. After obtaining a Masters degree in Aquatic Resource Management from King's College, London, Groenendijk was recruited to become Project Leader of the Frankfurt Zoological Society Giant Otter Conservation Program. "I was very fortunate. Our first encounter with a giant otter family was a deeply impressive experience and I was hooked. This was the start of what I believe, and hope, will be a life-long commitment to the giant otter."
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Jessica Groenendijk walking up a stream in the hope of filming a transient giant otter. Photo courtesy of Jessica Groenendijk. |
Researchers are just beginning to untangle some of the complex familial relations in giant river otter communities, who live together in related groups of around a dozen individuals. These family groups are overseen by one breeding couple, but do pretty much everything together.
"Groups are highly cohesive: they hunt, mark their territories, sunbathe, and sleep together, with bonds constantly reinforced by mutual grooming and play," explains Groenendijk, adding that "a giant otter family has much in common with a human family, which is why observing them over many years has something of the soap opera about it. There’s drama, bickering, unity in the face of a caiman threat, babysitting and shared feeding of the cubs, and, finally, offspring leaving home. If fate is kind, a breeding pair may stay together for up to 10 years."
Researchers have found that these family groups practice alloparenting, which means non-parents also participate in raising cubs, not unlike many human communities. In addition, a recent observation found young otters purposefully feeding an aged matriarch, who likely had difficulty hunting for herself. Even with such insights, Groenendijk says there is much scientists don't yet know about the private lives of giant river otters.
"We know almost nothing of the dynamics of transient animals once they have left their families. Where do they go, how far do they travel, what threats do they face, how are new groups formed? Unfortunately, telemetry in the rainforest is hampered by local conditions: we need to devise innovative ways of radio tracking giant otters."
In addition, researchers are trying to figure out the natural causes behind giant river otter mortality: for example they believe infant mortality is high, but have had difficulty collecting data on it in the absence of bodies. Mating behavior and predator/prey relationships also remain largely obscure.
But even as scientists are making strides in uncovering giant river otter behavior, there is a sense that they are racing against time as the Amazon ecosystem faces changes from deforestation, mining, roads, and climate change. Although the giant river otter is found in ten Amazonian nations, it remains endangered. Almost driven to extinction by the pelt trade, which was banned in 1975, the giant river otter today faces a number of new and rising direct threats tyhat have held back a full recovery. A surge in gold mining, habitat destruction, pollution, conflict between humans and otters over fish resources, and even poorly-managed tourism have all injured giant river otter populations.
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View from the observation tower in Cocha Otorongo, Manu National Park. Photo by: Frank Hajek. |
"Artisanal gold mining is out of control in the Department of Madre de Dios, with all the devastation this implies. The increase in gold-mining activity along the Madre de Dios, Malinowski, and Inambari Rivers has resulted in near local extinction of the species with giant otters only surviving in tributaries and lakes where there is no mining activity," Groenendijk says, adding that this raises the question of mercury pollution from gold mining possibly "bio-accumulating in giant otters and affecting their reproductive health and survival."
Conflict between fishermen and giant river otters is another problem unique to the species. "Giant otters are blamed, with little justification, for declining fish stocks: they are perceived to be competing with fishermen for the same species," says Groenendijk who adds that the most likely overfishing and other environmental problems are behind the decline in fish stocks in some regions, not a few otter families.
Even tourism projects can injure giant river otters by causing stress and destroying habitats, though Groenendijk says there are a number of simple measures to ensure tourists and giant river otters can co-exist, and even benefit, from controlled visits to otter lakes.
As with most endangered species, conserving the giant river otter means more than simply making sure its forests aren't cut down explains Groenendijk: it means dealing with the artisanal, and often illegal, gold mining trade; education and awareness programs for people living near otter families; more research on the ecology of otters and a greater understanding of their habitat and prey requirements; and more and better-managed protected areas. But, in the end, the goal of achieving a thriving giant river otter population will require safeguarding the Amazon basin from a multitude of threats, a task that scientists say would benefit hundreds of thousands of species, both known and unknown, as well as all of human society.
With their playful nature, their dramatic lifestyles, and their large personalities, giant river otters could be great ambassadors for the conservation of the Amazon, both in Amazonian states and abroad.
INTERVIEW WITH JESSICA GROENENDIJK
A giant otter grooming (or praying!). Photo by: Frank Hajek.
Mongabay: What is your background?
Jessica Groenendijk: I'm a Dutch biologist turned conservationist with a Biology degree from Imperial College and an Aquatic Resource Management Masters from King's College, London. Starting as a volunteer, I worked for 4 years at the Netherlands Committee for IUCN as Coordinator of the European Working Group on Amazonia (a network of 300 individuals, NGOs, and governmental institutions involved in conservation and sustainable development in the nine Amazon countries). This led to my becoming Project Leader of the Frankfurt Zoological Society Giant Otter Conservation Project in 1999, implementing applied research and conservation activities for this species in protected areas of the Madre de Dios region of Peru, including the development of site plans for tourism management in giant otter habitats, and education materials that have been replicated in several South American countries. I also monitored demography of key populations of the species and, in my position as Giant Otter Species Coordinator for the IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group, catalyzed the development of monitoring guidelines across the species distribution range, working together with giant otter specialists from 8 countries. By 2005, kids Saba and Luca had appeared on the scene, and after completing our popular/scientific book Giants of the Madre de Dios we moved to North Luangwa National Park, Zambia, where I was Technical Advisor to the North Luangwa Conservation Program of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, responsible for the monitoring of the reintroduced black rhino population, and managing the NLCP Conservation Education Program. In 2008, while in the UK, I began the analysis and write-up of 14 years of giant otter data, with the support of Oxford University's WildCRU. This was temporarily interrupted when we moved to Cusco, Peru at the end 2010. Here since July 2011, I have been working for San Diego Zoo Global as Education and Outreach Coordinator of the beautiful Cocha Cashu Biological Station in Manu National Park. I am responsible for engaging with people from all levels of society—from local school children, to Peruvian and international students and researchers, to Protected Area staff and government officials—towards the research and conservation of tropical biodiversity.
Mongabay: What first attracted you to study giant river otters?
Jessica Groenendijk: While at university, I co-led two expeditions to Manu National Park and the Las Piedras River. We caught brief, tantalizing glimpses of giant otters during both journeys. Otters have always had tremendous appeal for me, ever since reading Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water, and the idea of a 'giant' otter was entrancing. The fact that the species was endangered made our sightings all the more special, and I reported back to my then employers at the Netherlands Committee for IUCN with great enthusiasm and a sense of urgency. When the International Fund for Animal Welfare was looking for someone to carry out a desk study into the conservation status of the giant otter in South America, my boss thought of me. One thing led to another, and within two years of completing the study, I found myself in Peru, newly married, and joint Coordinator of Frankfurt Zoological Society’s Giant Otter Research and Conservation Project. I was very fortunate. Our first encounter with a giant otter family was a deeply impressive experience and I was hooked. This was the start of what I believe, and hope, will be a life-long commitment to the giant otter.
GIANT RIVER OTTER BEHAVIOR
A giant otter cub begging a morsel from older sibling. Photo by: Frank Hajek.
Mongabay: Giant river otters are highly social animals. How is a family group usually structured?
Jessica Groenendijk: A family group consists of a single, monogamous breeding pair plus their offspring of several years, from tiny cubs to adults. Average group size in Manu is about 6, with the largest consisting of 14 members, in Cocha Salvador. Groups are highly cohesive: they hunt, mark their territories, sunbathe, and sleep together, with bonds constantly reinforced by mutual grooming and play. A giant otter family has much in common with a human family, which is why observing them over many years has something of the soap opera about it. There’s drama, bickering, unity in the face of a caiman threat, babysitting and shared feeding of the cubs, and, finally, offspring leaving home. If fate is kind, a breeding pair may stay together for up to 10 years.
Mongabay: How do giant river otters communicate?
Jessica Groenendijk: Loudly and frequently! Giant otters are extremely vocal and use a large number of different sounds to communicate under different circumstances. Anything unexpected or strange will be met by a series of explosive exhalations, while the otters periscope to get a better look. A mother will initiate a new activity with a lilting hum, meaning "Let’s go." Cubs beg for fish from their older siblings with ear-splitting shrieks that can be heard hundreds of meters away. And when one wails a warning, all group members rush together and ululate at top volume, a powerful vocalization that gives me goose bumps.
Mongabay: What is 'alloparenting'? How does this play into the giant river otters' success?
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Giant otter consuming a fish. Photo by: Frank Hajek. |
Jessica Groenendijk: Alloparenting is where individuals other than the parents assist with the rearing of young. In giant otters, older siblings help feed cubs and juveniles by giving them fish (sometimes reluctantly!), by rushing to their defense in the face of danger, by helping to carry them from one den to another, and, occasionally, by babysitting them in the den while the mother hunts with the rest of the group. The larger a giant otter group, the more it is a force to be reckoned with. Group size plays a role in hunting success, defense against predators, and the ability to hold on to a territory. Alloparenting helps to increase the survival rate of cubs and juveniles, and hence increases group size.
Mongabay: A 2010 study recorded young giant river otters giving food to an elderly matriarch. Does this study's findings fit with your own observations of giant river otters?
Jessica Groenendijk: Actually, I believe this is the first time such behavior has been recorded, by Lisa Davenport. I'm familiar with the giant otter group involved. The matriarch was at least 13 years old when she finally disappeared, to be replaced by her daughter. During her last year, she was much less mobile and Lisa witnessed the neat reversal of roles you mention. The male of the group was a relative newcomer and the old female's knowledge of the territory may well have been her only, but significant, contribution to the group's well-being. However anthropomorphic it may seem, I’m sure that strong familial bonds also played a role.
Mongabay: What are some research questions regarding behavior that you would really like to see addressed?
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Black caiman are known to prey on giant river otters. Photo by: Frank Hajek. |
Jessica Groenendijk: Where do I start?! Over the years of giant otter observation, many intriguing questions have surfaced. In fact, the more we learn, the more we wonder! Unfortunately, the most interesting may the most difficult to address. For example, we know very little about natural giant otter mortality factors. Incredibly, during years of research in Madre de Dios, we found only one dead giant otter, a decomposing newborn cub at the entrance of a den. We do know that cub mortality is high, but can only guess at the causes. We have our suspects: attacks by caiman, high parasite load, and abandonment by stressed or inexperienced mothers, amongst others. Incidents in Brazil suggest that conflicts between otter groups or between transient individuals (and groups) may be an important mortality factor.
We know a little now about the ecology and behavior of giant otter groups. However, we know almost nothing of the dynamics of transient animals once they have left their families. Where do they go, how far do they travel, what threats do they face, how are new groups formed? Unfortunately, telemetry in the rainforest is hampered by local conditions: we need to devise innovative ways of radio tracking giant otters.
Another big question concerns genetics. For example, how related are the individuals in a giant otter group? Are the breeding pair really monogamous, or does a transient male occasionally manage to sneak a mating when the resident male isn’t paying attention? Some studies have been carried out using fecal samples, but since group members enthusiastically mix their scat on latrines, it has proved almost impossible to identify individuals. Giant otter researchers are beginning to explore ways around this problem and it will be extremely interesting to see what they find.
Lastly (although if you asked another giant otter specialist the same question, you would get a different list of priorities), it would be useful to learn more about predator/prey relationships. We know that giant otters each consume up to 4kg of fish daily, and we know the species they prefer. But what impact do they have on fish populations, or vice versa? And with artisanal gold mining rife in Madre de Dios, is mercury bio-accumulating in giant otters and affecting their reproductive health and survival?
ENDANGERED: MINING, CONFLICT, AND TOURISM
Aerial picture of gold mining damage in Peru's Amazon rainforest. The gold mining boom is a perilous threat to the giant river otter. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Mongabay: Historically what was the big threat to this river mammal?
Jessica Groenendijk: Hunting for the pelt trade throughout its range was the single, greatest threat to the giant otter and is directly responsible for its current endangered status (although more recent threat factors are contributing to the maintenance of this status). Between 1946 and 1973, 23,980 giant otter pelts were officially exported from Peru alone, excluding those skins which were exported via Leticia, Colombia. The export of pelts from Peru was banned in 1970 and professional hunting of wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon was prohibited in 1973. But it was the inclusion of the giant otter in Appendix I of CITES in 1973, and the coming into force of international trade restrictions on giant otter skins in 1975 that finally ended the economic benefits of giant otter hunting.
Mongabay: What are the major threats to giant river otters in Peru today?
Jessica Groenendijk: Habitat loss, human/giant otter conflict (over fish resources), and contamination of aquatic ecosystems due to gold mining are probably the most important threats right now. Giant otters are blamed, with little justification, for declining fish stocks: they are perceived to be competing with fishermen for the same species. Artisanal gold mining is out of control in the Department of Madre de Dios, with all the devastation this implies. The increase in gold-mining activity along the Madre de Dios, Malinowski, and Inambari Rivers has resulted in near local extinction of the species with giant otters only surviving in tributaries and lakes where there is no mining activity.
Mongabay: Do they face different threats elsewhere?
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Miner pours mercury used in gold mining. Mercury is a toxic substance both to humans and otters. Photo by: Frank Hajek. |
Jessica Groenendijk: No, threats are similar (to a lesser or greater degree) in other countries of the giant otter’s distributional range. It is interesting that human/giant otter conflict is emerging as an increasingly common problem. Although it is true that in some few areas giant otter populations are slowly recovering, the issue is much more likely a product of overfishing by humans themselves. Infrastructure and hydroelectric development is perhaps a greater threat in Brazil. And poorly managed tourism—the subject of intensive effort in Peru by the Frankfurt Zoological Society and their counterparts in Peru’s Protected Area Service (SERNANP)—has been mentioned as an emerging problem in Brazil and Bolivia.
Mongabay: Illegal gold mining has become a major problem on the Madre de Dios. How does this impact giant river otter populations?
Jessica Groenendijk: I recently read in a paper by Swenson et al that the Department of Madre de Dios is Peru’s third largest producer of gold and generates 70% of Peru’s artisanal gold production. Over the last decade, the price of gold has increased 360% with a constant rate of increase of about 18% per year. Peruvian mercury imports have risen 42% between 2006 and 2009 to 130 t/yr, almost all of which is used directly in artisanal gold mining. Forest conversion to mining increased six-fold from 2003-2006 (292ha/yr) to 2006-2009 (1915ha/yr). Gutleb, Schenck and Staib found in 1997 that mercury concentrations in the majority of fish in the area of Manu National Park were higher than what is considered tolerable in the Eurasian otter. But the expected high concentrations of methylmercury in giant otter tissues have not been corroborated due to the difficulty of finding dead giant otters. In any case, habitat destruction is the most immediate and severe impact of gold mining: surveys by the Frankfurt Zoological Society in 2008 and 2010 in areas with gold-mining failed to find any sign of giant otter presence.
Mongabay: What are the best estimates of total population? Why are such estimates so hard to get?
Jessica Groenendijk: I'm reluctant to put forward a best estimate for total population size since we really don't know. Someone once threw the number 5,000 into the air, and this has been cited repeatedly, but I believe it was a rather wild guess. As a result of surveys, we have good estimates for some river systems but not for any country as a whole. Giant otters occur in a wide variety of often remote and inaccessible habitats in the lowland rainforest and wetlands of at least 10 South American countries with complex political realities; these are difficult conditions for obtaining reliable estimates.
TARGETED CONSERVATION AND EDUCATION
Tourists view giant river otters from a fixed observation platform on Cocha Salvador. Photo by: Frank Hajek.
Mongabay: Is tourism a threat to giant river otters?
Jessica Groenendijk: Tourism and giant otters can have a troubled relationship, depending on how tourism is managed (or not). The giant otter is one of very few large, endangered mammals that are relatively easily observed in the rainforest. It inhabits rivers and lakes, the 'highways' of this complex ecosystem, in stable territories that often become accessible, reliable destinations for tourist excursions. Giant otters are highly social, living in vocal family groups that hunt by day. They are attractive and active; in short, this charismatic animal easily becomes a focal point for tourism. But to place too much emphasis on a single species as a tourist attraction is risky; it can result in disappointed visitors if their expectations are not met, in guides who feel pressured to come up with the goods and so may go to considerable lengths to satisfy their customers, and in otters that learn, through bitter experience, to avoid human presence.
Very often, it is a question of misunderstanding. Giant otters react to people as they do to caimans, perceiving us as a potential threat. Their characteristic behavior is one of warning. By approaching rapidly and periscoping around us while repeatedly uttering loud snorts, they are informing us that we are invading their space and that they are alarmed. But we interpret this attitude as one of tameness. If we then fail to acknowledge their warning and row even closer to take the perfect photograph, the otters eventually feel forced to move on. In future encounters, they will learn to steer clear of this 'super predator,' and tourists will no longer have satisfactory viewing experiences. This is just one example of how poorly managed tourism can reduce habitat quality for giant otters. However, not only do we sometimes interfere with their activities on the water, we also build infrastructure and clear paths directly along shorelines, thereby preventing otters from constructing their dens or latrines.
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Environmental education using the giant otter as an ambassador species. Photo by: Frank Hajek. |
A far more serious impact of tourism is lowered reproductive success. The height of the tourism season in Peru is preceded by a few months by a peak in giant otter births; in August/September, most otter families are rearing up to four vulnerable cubs in their den. Giant otters, especially the parents, are much more nervous at this time of year. In zoos, it was discovered to everybody’s surprise that females may fail to nurse their cubs as a result of stress induced by visitors. They are surrounded by people all year round, yet when they have cubs, captive otters become highly sensitive to outside influences.
Experience in Peru has shown that tourism and giant otters can co-exist harmoniously, even thrive together, if the former is managed in such a way as to respect the needs of the latter. Giant otters prefer large oxbow lakes with plenty of fish and high, path-free shorelines for building dens and latrines. If tourism could take these habitat requirements into account, then not only would giant otters benefit by being able to lead uninterrupted lives, their cubs safe, but our chances of observing these wonderful animals for long periods in their natural habitat would be greatly increased since they would feel at ease in our presence. Such an extraordinary experience would bring us back to the rainforest time and again.
So what can we do as responsible guides, lodge owners and tourists? Guides should inform themselves as well as possible about giant otter biology and behaviour. A minimum observation distance between ourselves and the otters should be maintained, and binoculars should be used at all times. Lodges should not be constructed directly on lake shores and paths should be cleared away from the shoreline, at least 100 meters inland. Boats should be rowed slowly and quietly along a fixed route, and a zone in each lake should be set aside as a refuge for giant otters and other animals. In addition to finding alternatives to lake excursions, fixed observation points (hides, towers, platforms) should replace boats as much as possible; these are static, predictable sources of disturbance that do not interfere with otter activities and which the animals can avoid if they wish. But experience in south-eastern Peru has shown that they don't.
Tourism is a rapidly growing economic activity in the Peruvian Amazon, the majority concentrated on its lakes and rivers. But, if well managed, it is also one of the few industries that is ecologically sustainable and that can bring much-needed revenues to Peru’s protected areas. Provided we understand and accept that, like us, giant otters need space and tranquility, my belief is that tourism and giant otter conservation can be compatible.
Mongabay: Why are education efforts with locals important for giant river otters?
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Early morning on Cocha Salvador, Manu National Park. Photo by: Frank Hajek. |
Jessica Groenendijk: A large proportion of Peruvians living in cities and towns, even those in the rainforest like Puerto Maldonado or Iquitos, have little opportunity to experience nature first-hand, while for much of the remaining rural population the pressing struggle of day-to-day life precludes an appreciation or understanding of nature. The resulting negative human perceptions, often born of ignorance—that giant otters are dangerous, that cubs make fun pets, that populations are growing, and that they will eat one out of house and home—can only be modified by communication of the facts obtained through objective research. The importance of environmental education as a conservation tool is often underestimated, yet it is key to influencing human behaviors, with positive outcomes such as reducing human wildlife conflicts and promoting the conservation of biodiversity.
Mongabay: What measures would you like to see giant river otter countries take to save the species?
Jessica Groenendijk: I would like to see them create new protected areas and better manage existing ones, promote the giant otter as an ambassador of aquatic habitats in local education curricula, and generate funds for local giant otter research and conservation action.
Giant otter cubs waiting for the return of the group from a hunting foray. Photo by: Frank Hajek.
Boats used in artisanal gold mining. Photo by: Frank Hajek.
Aerial view of Amazon rainforest landscape scarred by open pit gold mining. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Aerial view of a muddy, mine waste-laden stream flowing into a rainforest river. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Aerial view of Cocha Sandoval in Peru, home to a well-known family of giant river otters. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
Sunset on the Manu River. Photo by: Frank Hajek.
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Big trees, like the old-growth forests they inhabit, are declining globally
Rhett Butler, mongabay.com
(01/26/2012)
Already on the decline, demise of giant trees may be hastened by global warming.
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Already on the decline worldwide, big trees face a dire future due to habitat fragmentation, selective harvesting by loggers, exotic invaders, and the effects of climate change, warns an article published this week in New Scientist magazine.
Reviewing research from forests around the world, William F. Laurance, an ecologist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, provides evidence of decline among the world's "biggest and most magnificent" trees and details the range of threats they face. He says their demise will have substantial impacts on biodiversity and forest ecology, while worsening climate change.
"To persist, big trees need a safe place to live and long periods of stability," he told mongabay.com via email. "But time and stability are becoming very rare commodities in our modern world."
Giant trees offer critical habitat and forage for wildlife, while transpiring massive amounts of water through their leaves, contributing to local rainfall. Old trees also lock up massive amounts of carbon — in some forests they can account for up to a quarter of living biomass.
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Dipterocarps are commonly targeted by loggers in Southeast Asia. This Dipterocarp was photographed in Borneo by Rhett A. Butler.
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But their ability to sequester carbon and render other ecosystem services is threatened by human activities. Some of the world's largest trees are particularly targeted by loggers. The oldest trees are among the most valuable and therefore the first to be cut in "virgin" forest areas.
Big trees are also sensitive to fragmentation, which exposes them to stronger winds and drier conditions. Laurance's own work in the Amazon has shown substantial die-off of canopy giants in small forest fragments. Their susceptibility seems counter-intuitive given big trees' life histories, which invariably include periods of drought and other stress.
"All around the tropics, big canopy and emergent trees are succumbing to strong droughts," Laurance said. "That's been a surprise to me and many other ecologists, because big, ancient trees would have had to survive many droughts in the past."
Forest giants may suffer disproportionately from climate change, writes Laurance in New Scientist, highlighting research in La Selva, Costa Rica by David and Deborah Clark.
"Trees are probably getting a double-whammy when the thermometer rises,' says David Clark. “During the day, their photosynthesis shuts down when it gets too warm, and at night they consume more energy because their metabolic rate increases, much as a reptile’s would do when it gets warmer.” With less energy being produced in warmer years and more being consumed just to survive, there is less energy available for growth.
The Clarks’ hypothesis, if correct, means tropical forests could shrink over time. The largest, oldest trees would progressively die off and tend not to be replaced. Alarmingly, this might trigger a positive feedback that could destabilize the climate: as older trees die, forests would release some of their stored carbon into the atmosphere, prompting a vicious circle of further warming, forest shrinkage and carbon emissions.
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Giant Kapok tree in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.
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Laurance notes climate change is having less direct impacts on forests, including creating conditions for exotic pathogens to thrive. For example, pathogens such as Dutch Elm Disease, introduced by trade or circumstance, can devastate native forests.
All told, the outlook for big trees is not good, according to Laurance.
"The decline of big trees foretells a different world where ancient behemoths are replaced by short-lived pioneers and generalists that can grow anywhere, where forests store less carbon and sustain fewer dependent animals, where giant cathedral-like crowns become a thing of the past."
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