NERC Planet Earth Magazine
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www.planetearth.nerc.ac.uk Winter 2010 How biodiverse is a polar archipelago? Killer whales Splitting continents Winds of change Measuring carbon from space BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER Planet Earth CONTENTS Winter 2010 FEATURES Bringing it all together – 06 Signalling success Lessons in advanced echolocation. integrated environmental 08 Rediscovering the Discovery Historical records of Antarctic investigations. science Alan Thorpe Chief Executive, NERC 10 There are killer whales, and then there are killer whales 10 Diet and DNA highlight differences. t is 45 years since the royal charter have read contributions from many of them in 14 Going underground gave NERC responsibility for funding Planet Earth magazine. Each sector has its own Underground gas storage and energy environmental science research, and distinctive scientific community, and its own security. Ithe world looks very different now. national capability strategy. Environmental science is no longer just about In 2011 NERC will grasp the new 16 The rise and rise of the sea pushing forward the frontiers of human multidisciplinary opportunity by planning knowledge – it is also at the forefront of issues and operating these core national capability Significant sea-level rise on the horizon. that will affect our health, economy and perhaps activities through a single, integrated strategy. our very future. Thisis the next step in delivering NERC’s 18 Winds of change? So in 2011 we stand at a crossroads. strategy, Next Generation Science for Planet What’s behind severe weather events? Environmental science in the UK is mature Earth, and will involve environmental science and interconnected enough that we are poised sectors working together seamlessly and COVER STORY to transform our approach, and make it truly strategically. multidisciplinary. It’s a timely and important It means establishing a common national 20 How biodiverse is a polar change because it will enable researchers to capability that can focus on the big science archipelago? address the major environmental challenges we questions, and be exploited by the whole Surveying the richness of life in the face in a holistic way, be they to do with climate environmental science community. For this South Orkneys. change, biodiversity loss or natural hazards. approach to work, environmental scientists 20 24 Thisisn’t to say that environmental scientists in NERC centres and the wider academic 24 The growing pains of blue tits The UK can lead don’t already work together. Programmes like community will need to collaborate more across Quantifying and Understanding the Earth the traditional disciplinary and organisational Competition starts in the nest. Editors: Adele Rackley, 01793 411604, [email protected] the world by acting System (QUEST) bring together scientists from boundaries. Tom Marshall, 01793 442593, [email protected] many disciplines to build a more sophisticated All this is driven by the needs of the science, Science writer: Tamera Jones, 01793 411561, [email protected] 26 Splitting continents as a beacon for understanding of how the Earth works. This irrespective of our organisational set-up. It will Unravelling a volcanic enigma. includes specialists in areas ranging from the let us tackle the major environmental crises Design and production: Candy Sorrell, [email protected] multi-disciplinary ancient climate to the effects of vegetation on that we face by combining the expertise of ISSN: 1479-2605 28 Brave new reptilian world environmental today’s carbon cycle. But this approach needs to specialists in diverse disciplinary areas – some ‘Island theory’ explains ancient reptile be the rule, not the exception. of which have worked separately until now. The An intrinsic part of NERC’s role is its evolution. science. UK can lead the world by acting as a beacon for NERC scientists: we want to hear from you contribution to the UK’s ‘national capability’ multidisciplinary environmental science. Planet Earth is always looking for interesting NERC-funded science for articles and news stories. If you want to see your – the ships, aircraft, polar bases, monitoring Of course this integration will also help UK research in the magazine, contact the editors to discuss. Please don’t send in unsolicited articles as we can’t promise to Measuring carbon from space publish them. We look forward to hearing from you. 30 and survey datasets, computing capability and environmental scientists work with the other The science and politics of satellites. instruments on which environmental science research disciplines outside NERC’s remit – like relies. Until now this has been delivered within engineering, economics and social science. It Planet Earth is the quarterly magazine of the Natural Environment Research Council. It aims to interest a broad readership in the work of NERC. It describes new research programmes, work in progress and completed projects funded by NERC 32 The future’s bright... if you have the the six separate sectors that NERC supports: will not just transform environmental research or carried out by NERC staff. Some of this work may not yet have been peer-reviewed. The views expressed in the articles marine, atmospheric, geological, terrestrial in the UK – the benefits will be felt all over the are those of the authors and not necessarily those of NERC unless explicitly stated. Let us know what you think about resources Planet Earth. Contact the editors for details. Possible futures for the UK. and freshwater, polar, and Earth observation. world, strengthening our already strong track NERC runs six research centres, each focusing record of international collaboration. Front cover: Biodiversity in a polar archipelago – see page 20. on one of these science sectors, and you will Planet Earth Winter 2010 1 News Daily updated news at www.planetearth.nerc.ac.uk IUCN Red List – Some global figures from the latest Red List Surveys don’t tell the Biodiversity – the complex picture In brief crisis and confidence Species assessed 55,926 full story The International Union for Conservation of Extinct 791 DIVERSITAS contributor Professor Georgina NEW Audio diaries Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species Mace, from Imperial College London, warns Extinct in the wild 63 Our science news website is the world’s most comprehensive source of that the way biodiversity surveys average out Planet Earth Online has featured information on the status of plant and animal Critically endangered 3565 trends in population figures can obscure details something new this year: we’ve given species around the world. Endangered 5256 about what’s actually happening. audio recorders to researchers heading Scientists from 115 institutions across 38 ‘Big trends hide the variability which is Vulnerable 9530 off to places like Borneo, Uganda and countries have used the latest Red List for an important for predicting which species might even Antarctica, so they can capture their assessment of 25,000 species of the world’s Near threatened 4014 be at risk in the future and being able to experiences in audio diaries. They’ve vertebrates, which was presented to delegates intervene effectively,’ she says. sent us some fascinating material, and at Nagoya. Mace and colleagues from Imperial College Among the Red List’s threatened species are we’re going to be featuring some of it in The study, published in Science, reported London, the Institute of Zoology and the many of Britain’s butterflies. More than a third future editions of Planet Earth magazine. an extinction crisis, with one in five species University of Queensland in Australia, wanted of our 62 butterfly species have now either In this installment, Tim Cockerill from the threatened by the expansion of agriculture, disappeared from the country or are considered to unpick the species-level data underlying University of Cambridge reports from logging, land-use change and invasive species. threatened, and four species have gone average trends. Their work is published in northern Borneo, where he’s studying But the study is also the first to present clear ‘regionally extinct’. the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal insects in the rainforest. Be warned: it’s evidence of the benefits of conservation efforts The details come from two butterfly Society B. not for the squeamish. Click icon to listen. around the world, highlighting 64 species recording projects: Butterflies for the New The scientists found that most species whose status has improved, including three Millennium, launched by the charity Butterfly showed little variation in abundance or range Sustainable coral research that were extinct in the wild and have been Conservation in 1995, and the UK Butterfly change from year to year. Instead, just a few If you’re one of the world’s two million reintroduced: the California condor, Gymnogyps Monitoring Scheme, run by both the Centre species were experiencing a dramatic decrease aquarium owners, chances are you’ve californianus, and the black-footed ferret, for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) and Butterfly in abundance or geographic range. put some coral in there to make it homely Mustela nigripes, in the US, and Przewalski’s Conservation. Both rely heavily on citizen They also saw that the species showing the for its occupants. But have you ever horse, Equus ferus, in Mongolia. scientists – members of the public and butterfly most marked responses change over time – wondered where it came from? With more So conservation works, given resources and enthusiasts – to record information. The results so as some declining species stabilise others than 2000 species of coral kept in private Biodiversity loss is a big problem, not least because we all depend on the ‘ecosystem commitment, but the study warns that these are published in Insect Conservation and begin to suffer. This suggests that new threats and public aquariums worldwide, and a efforts will need to be scaled up to meet the Diversity. appearing in the environment – like habitat loss services’ the natural world provides us – like a steady supply of clean water from our quarter of the world’s reefs considered to magnitude of the threat.