Some of the most biodiverse regions on Earth have served as a place of respite for thousands of plant and animal species during previous periods of climatic upheaval. New research suggests these former safe havens are now exceedingly vulnerable.

For the new study, scientists analyzed the influence of extreme climate change events on biodiversity hotspots across history. Researchers then compared previous climate change episodes with 21st century patterns.

The results, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, showed the rapid pace of human-caused climate change is likely to erode the mechanisms that previously made biodiverse regions places of refuge.

"Our results show that the magnitude and accelerated rate of future climate change will disproportionately affect plants and animals in tropical regions and biodiversity hotspots," Damien Fordham, an associate professor of global ecology the University Adelaide in Australia, said in a news release. "Worryingly, these are regions on Earth with the highest concentrations of biodiversity."

Traditionally, climate change related to glacial-interglacial cycles occurs over relatively long timescales. During these periods of warming and cooling, old species have found ways to persist in the regions of biodiversity found throughout the tropics. These safe havens have also served as sites of speciation, places where new species diverge.

Modern climate change, caused by human-produced greenhouse gases, is happening at a much more rapid pace. According to the latest analysis, the speed and severity of the environmental changes caused by warming and severe weather is likely to disrupt the ability of biodiversity hotspots to shelter vulnerable species.

Places of climate stability are likely to become increasingly unstable as temperatures rise, researchers determined.

"Disturbingly, our research shows that more than 75 percent of the area of these climate safe havens will be lost in the near future due to 21st century warming," said lead researcher Stuart Brown, professor of biological sciences at the University of Adelaide. "The future is most ominous for species in tropical oceans. Severe negative impacts on the richness of coral species and marine life they support are expected in regions such as the Indo-Pacific. This is likely to cause human hardship for communities that depend on these resources for food, employment and income."

Blinded by the light, firefly species face extinction
Paris (AFP) Feb 3, 2020 - Fireflies are in deep trouble, with many species facing extinction due to habitat loss and exposure to pesticides, according to the first major review of their global status, published Monday.

Adding irony to injury, one of Nature's most entrancing spectacles is also being snuffed out by artificial light pollution, researchers reported in the journal BioScience.

More than 2,000 species of fireflies -- which are, in fact, beetles -- illuminate wetlands, marshes, grasslands, forests and urban parks worldwide.

A few, such as the Big Dipper in the United States, seem to be flourishing.

"Those guys can survive pretty much anywhere," said Sara Lewis, a biologist at Tufts University in Massachusetts and lead author of the study, based on a survey of dozens of firefly experts.

But other varieties -- from the glowworms of southern England to Malaysia's synchronous fireflies and the Appalachian blue ghost, both of which draw tourists -- are being extinguished by humanity's ever-expanding ecological footprint.

"Some species get hit especially hard by habitat loss because they need specific conditions to complete their life cycle," said Lewis.

The Malaysian firefly Pteroptyx tener, for example, lives during its larval phase in riverside mangroves, many of which have been ripped up to make way for palm oil plantations and fish farms.

The glowworm (L. noctiluca) has another problem -- females are flightless, which means that can't simply buzz off to a new location when their habitat is swallowed by a suburb, commercial crop or country road.

Other species of fireflies, which eat only during their larval phase, are "dietary specialists," meaning they subsist on one or two kinds of snail, earthworm or other soft-bodied prey.

When fruit orchards in Mediterranean Spain are abandoned or give way to urbanisation, so too do the snails preferred by aptly named Lampyris iberica, leaving the firefly larva nothing to eat.

- 'Flashing through the gloom' -

Adult Pteroptyx in Malaysia, meanwhile, gather for nightly courtship displays in specific trees located along mangrove rivers. Many of those trees have been cut down.

Of 10 possible drivers of extinction, experts fingered habitat loss as the top threat everywhere -- except east Asia and South America.

In those two regions, artificial light was seen as the biggest menace to the world's luminescent beetles.

"In addition to disrupting natural biorhythms, light pollution really messes up firefly mating rituals," said co-author Avalon Owens, a doctoral student at Tufts.

Many species of firefly depend on their ability to light up to find and attract mates.

To make matters worse, that window of opportunity is very narrow: while the firefly larval phase lasts months to years, adults typically live only a few days.

The twinkling beetles are so focused on reproducing that they don't even eat.

The survey found that fireflies are also being decimated by commonly used insecticides, the third major threat.

"Organophosphates and neonicotinoids are designed to kill pests, yet they also have off-target effects on beneficial insects," the researchers wrote.

Fireflies light up by triggering a chemical reaction -- involving oxygen, calcium and an enzyme called luciferase -- inside special organs in their abdomen, a process called bioluminescence.

Their otherworldly glow has been an enduring source of fascination.

But firefly tourism -- long popular in Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan -- has also taken a toll, with fragile ecosystems damaged by too much foot traffic.

The plight of fireflies at the beginning of the 21st century add a new layer of meaning to lines written more than a century ago by Canadian poet Bliss Carman.

"And the fireflies across the dusk, Are flashing signals through the gloom," he wrote.

While climate change is not seen as a current threat, future sea level rise and drought also could accelerate the drive towards extinction.

The dozen authors contributing to the study are all affiliated with the Firefly Specialist Group -- set up in 2018 -- of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles the Red List of threatened species.

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Relative of extinct tortoise located in Galapagos
Quito (AFP) Feb 1, 2020
A scientific expedition to the Galapagos Islands has discovered a tortoise with a "strong" genetic link to a presumed-extinct subspecies made famous by the popular Lonesome George, national park officials said Friday. George, the last known member of the Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii Pinta tortoise species, died in 2012 in captivity aged over 100 after refusing to provide any offspring. The Galapagos National Parks (PNG) said the expedition had discovered a young, female specimen deemed "a high-i ... read more