FERN’s Friday Feed: Shrinking salmon
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
When it comes to salmon, has the Pacific reached its limit?
FERN and bioGraphic
“The phenomenon [Daniel] Schindler and his team are documenting here piles on to years of data showing that Pacific salmon returning to waterways up and down North America are shrinking,” writes Miranda Weiss. “The fish are growing more slowly at sea, and, in many cases, returning to spawn younger than ever before. In some places, the biggest, oldest salmon have completely disappeared. Smaller salmon mean big uncertainties for fishermen, processors, and the communities and ecosystems that depend on these fish.”
The struggle to define what 30 x 30 means
Grist
“The formal adoption of 30 x 30 by nearly all of the world’s governments at COP15 turned it into the official guiding star for the global conservation movement,” writes Blanca Begert. “Now, with negotiators home and a new year underway, countries face the monumental task of figuring out what one of the most ambitious goals in conservation history actually means, in practice … What exactly counts towards the 30 percent? Can certain conservation-minded agricultural methods that protect soil and promote a diversity of crops be included, or do only strictly protected areas like national parks count?”
Saving the tiny empires
OpenMind
“Insects, from beetles to blowflies, keep our environment ticking. They nourish soils, they break down feces and human and animal remains, and they are food themselves for birds, amphibians, and mammals. Globally, some three-quarters of human food crops depend to some degree on pollination by insects. And the problem with insects is not abundance,” writes Oliver Milman, “but worrisome signs of scarcity. Insects around the world are in steep decline, in what may be the most consequential loss of life on earth since the wipeout of the dinosaurs. The tiny empires that prop up terrestrial life are on fire, yet we can barely comprehend the flames licking at our feet.”
Good fences make bad antelope habitat
Nevada Independent
“For nearly a decade, as the high desert sun bore down across a wide expanse of rolling hills, deep canyons and wide valleys within the remote Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, volunteers have labored within a maze of sagebrush to remove large stretches of barbed wire fence,” writes Richard Bednarski. “Fences, despite having become a common part of the western landscape, have long posed a risk to wildlife. For pronghorn who are built for speed, fences shrink their extensive habitat and can be fatal when animals try to cross. But volunteers have started to make it possible for nearly 2,000 pronghorn antelope to roam on roughly 1,000 square miles of fence-free habitat.”
Discovery of ‘holy grail’ wheat gene offers climate hope
The Guardian
“Wheat now provides 20% of the calories consumed by humans every day, but its production is under threat … [t]hanks to human-induced global heating,” writes Robin McKie. “But the crisis could be averted thanks to remarkable research now being undertaken by researchers at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. They are working on a project to make wheat more resistant to heat and drought. Such efforts have proved to be extremely tricky but are set to be the subject of a new set of trials in a few weeks as part of a project in which varieties of wheat — created, in part, by gene-editing technology — will be planted in field trials in Spain.”