“Unprecedented” ocean warming could make key habitats “inhospitable” for critically endangered angelsharks, according to new research.
The study, published in Global Change Biology, finds an “abnormal absence” of female sharks in a marine reserve near the Canary Islands throughout the 2022 breeding season.
This occurred during “unusually high” sea surface temperatures across the north-east Atlantic Ocean.
The study notes that the number of days with sea surface temperatures above 22.5C in the reserve nearly tripled over 2018-23.
This is significant, the authors say, because 22.5C is a “possible upper thermal threshold” for female angelsharks to tolerate.
The authors warn that ocean warming has “already altered” angelshark breeding behaviour, adding that the findings show that the species is “more acutely vulnerable” to climate change than previously thought.
Ocean warming
Angelsharks are flat-bodied, ray-like predators that can grow up to 2.4 metres in length.
They are typically found submerged in sandy habitats in the coastal waters of the north-east Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
They are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species.
The authors note that the angelshark population has “declined substantially” due to “overexploitation” and “coastal habitat degradation”.
In the study, the researchers focus on the La Gaciosa Marine Reserve in the Canary Islands – Spain’s largest marine reserve.
The study notes that the Canary Islands are an “especially important region” for the angelshark and are at the “southernmost” boundary of the species’ distribution. As a result, angelshark populations around the islands have a “possibly lower tolerance for environmental change”, it states.
The researchers add that the north-east Atlantic Ocean is “undergoing rapid warming, characterised by exceptionally high temperatures and record-breaking marine heatwaves”.
As the climate continues to warm, extreme conditions are expected to occur more frequently and for longer, causing disruption to marine life.
The map below shows the historic and existing range of angelshark populations, as well as the locations of the acoustic receivers used to detect angelsharks in the study area.
To explore how climate change in the region is impacting the angelsharks, the researchers focus on “range shift”.
Range shift is when a species migrates to either remain in ideal conditions or avoid sub-optimal environments, according to what they can withstand as the climate changes.
It is one of the most “pervasive” consequences of ocean warming, the study authors say.
Tracking angelsharks
To track the movements of angelsharks, the researchers tagged the fins of 112 animals – 38 males and 74 females – over 2018-22.
These “acoustic tags” emit sound that enabled the researchers to remotely track angelshark locations.
The researchers then used this acoustic data to investigate seasonal and annual changes to angelshark presence at the study site, taking into account the contrast between male and female behaviours.
The researchers also modelled changes to the environment over 2021-23 using a range of variables. These included sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, surface wind speed and SST anomaly – a measure of how temperatures differ from the long-term average.
They also looked at concentrations of chlorophyll a and dissolved oxygen, as well as two variables that act as an indicator for levels of desert dust in the air.
The latter were used to incorporate into their model the effect of Calima events – hot and dusty winds that reach the Canary Islands from the Sahara Desert, which raise overall air temperatures.
This “environmental model” allowed the authors to investigate the relationship between angelshark presence within the reserve and changing environmental conditions.
‘Marked absence’
Previous research has linked seasonal angelshark behaviours – such as movement and presence in a certain habitat – to the breeding cycle and, sometimes, environmental factors.
The new study finds that angelshark presence in the study area varies seasonally for both sexes, peaking in November and December. It notes an additional peak in June for female angelsharks, which were also more “consistently present” in the study area throughout the year than males.
Author Dr David Jacoby is a lecturer in zoology at Lancaster University. He explains to Carbon Brief:
“Females will often avoid males outside of the breeding season as mating is pretty violent and energy expensive in sharks. Females consequently are more likely to occur in shallow water [since] males [are more likely to be found] in deeper water.”
The charts below show the relative influence of different environmental variables on predicting male and female shark presence in the study area.
The chart on the left shows how the day of the year has the biggest influence on male angelshark presence, followed by salinity. The chart on the right shows that for female angelsharks, SST – followed by SST anomaly – was the most significant predictor.
The “crux” of the study, according to Jacoby, is that in 2022 – when peak SSTs were higher and those conditions lasted longer – female angelshark numbers were “consistently low”. He tells Carbon Brief:
“The fact that there was this significant warming event in the north-east Atlantic was opportunistic from a research perspective at least, because it provided a natural experiment in which to directly compare behaviour under ‘normal’ versus ‘extreme’ conditions.”
This “marked absence” was especially noticeable during the angelshark breeding season in mid-to-late autumn, the data shows. In contrast, the behaviour of the male sharks did not change.
The charts below illustrate how, in 2022, daily counts of female angelsharks (orange bars in the middle panel) dropped in the unusually warm conditions, while daily counts of male angelsharks (turquoise bars in the bottom panel) remained consistent with previous years.
In the top panel, orange regions indicate periods in which SSTs are between 20.7C and 22.5C and red regions show periods of SSTs above 22.5C.
According to the authors, the presence of female sharks in the study site decreases “rapidly” at SSTs above 20.7C, while the “probability of female presence” is below zero above around 22.5C.
The dotted line at 19.6C shows the temperature of peak female angelshark presence.
The researchers say their findings “strongly” indicate that the low numbers of females during the breeding season in 2022 were linked to the “thermal extremes” that year.
They point to an “upward trend” in peak temperatures and longer duration of hotter periods in their dataset, noting that the number of days where SSTs reached 22.5C more than doubled over the study period.
As a result, the authors identify 22.5C as the “possible upper thermal threshold” for female angelsharks – meaning that the animals will not move into an area at this point.
They warn that regular temperatures of 22.5C could “disrupt” the timing of “key biological events”, such as breeding.
The “unusual” findings, recorded as “disrupted” thermal cues, may be a “window into future climate change impacts”, suggest the authors.
Conservation measures
The authors highlight the need to prioritise further “species-specific” studies that incorporate “real-time environmental and behavioural data” and explore climate impacts by sex.
Improving scientific understanding and prediction of how marine species and ecosystems respond to climate change are “urgent priorities”, they say.
Jacoby adds:
“Angelsharks [are among] the most threatened fishes in the world. Because they rely on the ocean floor to rest and hunt, they are extremely attuned to their local environment. [Ocean warming] could lead to the [local extinction] of this species from the archipelago in a very worst case due to the fact that they are already at their thermal extreme in this location…
“We still don’t really know how warming could impact the complex web of interactions within these coastal ecosystems. It is so hard to engage with a problem if you can’t see it for yourself.”
Dr Hollie Booth is a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biology at the University of Oxford and was not involved in the study. She tells Carbon Brief that although the negative impacts of climate change are “concerning”, overfishing remains “the greatest direct threat” to angelshark populations.
She adds:
“It is good to see empirical evidence of the impacts of climate change on threatened marine species. [The study] indicates how we need to make sure that contributors to climate change are also held accountable for mitigating [these] impacts.”
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Endangered angelshark faces ‘inhospitable’ breeding sites as ocean warms
A first set of biodiversity plans filed by countries to reverse nature loss are “insufficient” to meet this decade’s global targets, including a landmark goal to protect at least 30% of the world’s land and marine ecosystems by 2030, a landmark UN report warned on Thursday.
The State of Biodiversity Action, put together by a panel of technical experts for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), was released in Yerevan, ahead of the COP17 nature talks starting on Monday in the Armenian capital.
Over the next two weeks, governments will for the first time take stock of progress towards the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreed in 2022 – a set of 23 targets also known as the “Paris Agreement for nature” – and will decide on policy guidelines for ramping up ambition before the 2030 deadline. The UN report will be the main basis for these negotiations.
At a press conference in Armenia, UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted that, while there has been some progress on the GBF, the “bad news” is that less than half of country plans are on track to meet its targets.
If current commitments are met by the end of the decade, only 26% of land ecosystems and 12% of marine ecosystems will be protected – falling “real short” of the 30% target agreed in Montreal in 2022, Guterres said. “The war on nature has not yet ended,” he added.
UN Environment chief Inger Andersen said the report “sets the tone for the focus, ambition and urgent action we need to deliver” in Armenia, including by reducing subsidies that harm nature and mobilising new finance for biodiversity. “All leaders and all negotiators must respond to these findings,” she emphasised.
Andersen added that climate change amplifies threats to biodiversity, which makes protection all the more important as global warming is now almost certain to rise above a key threshold. “Exceedence of 1.5C increases the likelihood of forest diebacks, phenological shifts, warming oceans that become more inhospitable to species, irreversible tipping points and so much more,” she said.
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Progress on land but ocean lags behind
The report shows that if countries meet all the biodiversity targets in their plans, this would protect about 27% of the world’s land and sea by 2030, a fivefold increase in the span of ten years.
Progress has been uneven, with most conservation efforts focused on terrestrial ecosystems. The report suggests that currently about 19% of land ecosystems are protected, up two percentage points from 2020, which UN authorities welcomed but said is not a fast enough pace.
However, the real gap is at sea, where only about 10% of the global ocean has some sort of protection. Coastal areas under national jurisdiction have done better, as currently 23% of this marine territory is protected, but the report shows most of the deep ocean is not.
Brian O’Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature, an advocacy group, said the new High Seas Treaty – which entered into force this year and will allow for the creation of Marine Protected Areas in the deep ocean – represents an opportunity, as only about 1.5% is under protection so far.
A group of environmental NGOs including WWF and Bloomberg Philanthropies has issued a call for governments to scale up ocean conservation and to designate $16 billion annually for marine protection measures, up from $1.8bn now.
SE Asia speeds up plan for connected clean power grid after oil shock
Some countries did not set a conservation target at all for both land and sea, the report says, blaming technical challenges like how to account for overlapping protected areas, difficulty recognising protections for private land and land-accounting methodologies changing over time.
A separate report by Campaign for Nature suggests that the 30×30 goal could still be met with “increased ambition and commitment”, and says that around 50 countries have already protected about 30% of their land.
A group of environmental NGOs has warned that, beyond the 30% headline figure, protected areas need to be “high integrity” and recognise the stewardship of local communities and Indigenous peoples.
Developing countries call for finance
Rich countries will arrive at COP17 with shrinking aid budgets and geopolitical preoccupations – yet they will likely hear the same plea they’ve heard for the past few years: stepping up commitments will require finance.
A submission by African countries in August said the “implementation gap” has at its core a shortfall in the provision of funds, and that bridging it will require predictable and accessible finance.
Pacific island nations launched a similar call, arguing there is “a treaty obligation” that developing countries, including themselves, will effectively implement commitments depending on the finance and technology made available by developed nations.
To close this gap, the EU made a proposal at preliminary talks in Nairobi in August to expand the base of donors so that richer developing countries could voluntarily assume donor responsibilities. Saudi Arabia and Qatar rejected the idea, while China said this should not weaken the responsibility of developed nations.
Pre-COP draws attention to Pacific’s climate plight and 1.5C goal
So far, wealthy governments have missed a target to provide $20bn per year in international public finance for nature protection by 2025, reaching only about $16bn per year from 2023 to 2025, according to an OECD report. By 2030, the GBF aims for developed countries to directly transfer $30bn per year, and mobilise $200bn from all sources.
The UN report released on Thursday shows even slower progress in redirecting harmful subsidies such as those which encourage the overuse of fertilisers and the production and consumption of new fossil fuels, and below-market fees that encourage overfishing. UN Environment estimates that for every dollar spent protecting nature, $30 goes on destroying it.
UN biodiversity chief Astrid Schomaker told journalists in Yerevan that “if you hear there is no finance, please do not believe it” because economies are continuing to grow. “It is being spent on activities that harm the economy rather than those that work with nature and sustain life on this planet,” she said.
Guterres said developed countries tend to say they are grappling with budget constraints due to increased defence expenditure, which “in my view does not justify a reduction” in international aid. He added that existing resources can be multiplied if they are used to mobilise private capital.
Campaigners, companies and the Armenian government want to shift the needle on this situation at COP17 by highlighting how positive subsidies help restore biodiversity. They will launch a flagship call to action that will be taken forward by countries and groups working to reform damaging incentives.
Global review: the main act
The Global Review of Collective Progress – a bit like the Global Stocktake for climate action – is set to be the most important outcome from COP17, and it will be the first time this process unfolds at the biodiversity talks. The actions decided in Yerevan will respond to the gaps outlined in the State of Biodiversity Action report and determine whether countries can turn the tide of biodiversity loss this decade.
Overall, the report shows that while countries have taken action to address all 23 targets in the GBF, none “present a fully positive picture”. A target to strengthen the resilience of ecosystems to climate impacts is the only one with high relative progress, the report says, as government have already made effective interventions that show “a positive trend”.
The report assessed each country’s national targets, which define their contribution to the global goals, as well as their separate National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) outlining how they will achieve the national targets.
But it does not paint a complete picture, since at the cut-off date, only 89 NBSAPs and national targets from 162 countries had been submitted, leaving out a couple of dozen plans that arrived late. Pacific island nations said this might undercount commitments.
Many of those lacking an NBSAP are biodiversity-rich developing countries, which say they need financial and technical support to fully develop these plans. Some large nations pending an NBSAP include South Africa, Bolivia and Russia.
Since the GBF was agreed in 2022, governments have mostly focused on developing their biodiversity targets and plans, while the lion’s share of implementation is expected to happen towards the end of the decade, according to UN biodiversity chief Schomaker.
But O’Donnell said “accelerated political ambition” is still needed to improve commitments and translate them into effective protection on the ground or at sea.
The post Countries urged to ramp up “insufficient” nature policies at COP17 appeared first on Climate Home News.
Countries urged to ramp up “insufficient” nature policies at COP17
Countries will meet in Armenia this month to carry out the first global review of progress towards meeting key nature targets by 2030.
These targets – and the wider ambition to halt and reverse biodiversity loss around the world – were agreed in the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022.
But the ambitions will not be achieved in time for the 2030 deadline unless action “accelerates rapidly”, a key UN report found.
It noted that nations are falling short on 22 of 23 nature targets, which focus on restoring ecosystems, increasing nature finance and reducing harmful subsidies.
This report and other findings will inform the global progress review taking place at the COP17 biodiversity summit in Armenia over 19-30 October.
The sections below summarise the report’s findings on where progress has – and has not – been made on each of the 23 targets.
They also rank the extent to which countries have addressed elements of each target on a national basis. Click on each target for more information. Key terms are defined throughout each section and in a glossary below.
The post COP17: Tracking progress towards the UN’s 2030 nature targets appeared first on Carbon Brief.
https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/nature-targets-2030-progress/