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Abstract: For mitigation of the effects of pollution, the media, policy makers and, in turn, the scientific community and industry each provide contributions through development of a sense of urgency, and with guidelines and solutions. For non-indigenous species (NIS) that can frequently have negative impacts on the native biota, this is often conveyed in an emotive way to the general public, who are typically keen to help and to get personally involved. This might be through organization of cleaning campaigns, influence on the media, or collaboration with scientists, to inform them of the local presence and abundance of NIS. Alternatively, they might proactively develop technological solutions themselves. To assess the current state of affairs, we reviewed the presence and effects of NIS in the Mediterranean Sea. As so often, any well-planned and successful activity is directly linked to financing, or a lack thereof, and this leads to sometimes untargeted and sporadic measures that are developed within a project or over a limited timeframe, without any sustainability measures. Therefore, we also assessed the activities and strategies that have been financed in this area of NIS mitigation. Based on this review of the presence and impact of NIS, and previous and ongoing activities, we propose a new paradigm to mitigate such pollution: the 8Rs model (i.e., Recognize, Reduce, Replace, Reuse, Recycle, Recover/Restore, Remove, and Regulate). This model extends from the more traditional 3Rs model (i.e., Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) that is often used and promoted for innovative waste management strategies. Importantly, the 8Rs model can be applied sequentially, for either prevention of NIS introduction, or preparation of mitigation measures. The 8Rs model was constructed based on Mediterranean NIS, although we believe it can be applied to other sources of pollution and other geographic areas. Importantly, the 8Rs model represents a general framework to organize and categorize future pollution mitigation strategies. This approach is essential for development of any action plan to influence the administrative and financial decision makers who essentially enable these activities, and therefore who have important roles in the guarantee of sustainability of these actions, and the creation of innovative societies.
Keywords: non-indigenous species, pollution mitigation, pollution mitigation, 8Rs model, quadruple helix, Mediterranean Sea, citizen science, communication, sustainability
Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 28; Downloads: 8
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Abstract: Many herpetofauna species have been introduced outside of their native range. MtDNA barcoding is regularly used to determine the provenance of such populations. The alpine newt has been introduced across the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland. However, geographical mtDNA structure across the natural range of the alpine newt is still incompletely understood and certain regions are severely undersampled. We collect mtDNA sequence data of over seven hundred individuals, from both the native and the introduced range. The main new insights from our extended mtDNA phylogeography are that 1) haplotypes from Spain do not form a reciprocally monophyletic clade, but are nested inside the mtDNA clade that covers western and eastern Europe; and 2) haplotypes from the northwest Balkans form a monophyletic clade together with those from the Southern Carpathians and Apuseni Mountains. We also home in on the regions where the distinct mtDNA clades meet in nature. We show that four out of the seven distinct mtDNA clades that comprise the alpine newt are implicated in the introductions in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Ireland. In several introduced localities, two distinct mtDNA clades co-occur. As these mtDNA clades presumably represent cryptic species, we urge that the extent of genetic admixture between them is assessed from genome-wide nuclear DNA markers. We mobilized a large number of citizen scientists in this project to support the collection of DNA samples by skin swabbing and underscore the effectiveness of this sampling technique for mtDNA barcoding.
Keywords: citizen science, Ichthyosaura alpestris, invasive species, mtDNA barcoding, skin swabbing
Published in DiRROS: 12.07.2024; Views: 91; Downloads: 52
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Abstract: The bee-mimicking hoverfly species Criorhina pachymera shows pronounced geographical variation in abdominal colour pattern. Based on 218 records from 22 European countries, we describe six abdomen forms divided over two main groups. Group A in western, northern and central parts of Europe contains abdomen forms A1–A3 with slender pollinose bands on the third and fourth tergite. Group B in south-eastern Europe contains forms B1–B3 with broad pollinose bands. These groups are separated by the Alps and the Carpathians, such as the separation of the original distributions of the two main postglacial recolonization lineages of honey bees in Europe. As these honey bee groups differ by the width of the pollinose bands on the third to fifth tergite, Batesian mimicry can explain the group distribution of C. pachymera with slender or broad pollinose bands. The different forms of C. pachymera in both groups are categorised by the extent of orange colouration on the second and third tergite. The darkest form A1, has a widespread distribution in Europe. Intermediate bright forms A2 and A3 occur predominantly in a belt along the southern margin of the group A distribution and in Sweden. Dark form B1 and intermediate bright form B2 occur on the Balkan peninsula and in neighbouring regions. The brightest form B3, is found in Italy, Switzerland (Ticino) and Greece. There is an average increase in the extent of orange colouration on the second and third tergite with decreasing geographical latitude, making temperature a likely additional cause for the described abdominal colour variation.
Keywords: hoverflies, colour variation, biogeography, Batesian mimicry, citizen science data
Published in DiRROS: 28.03.2023; Views: 728; Downloads: 278
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Abstract: The consequences of accelerating climate change for land and sea biodiversity require innovative approaches to research. Interdisciplinary re-search serves to connect natural science, socialsciences and humanities, tech-nology, and engineering, as well as welcoming citizen scientists into the re-search environment. Interdisciplinarity is part of a developing innovative ap-proach to research that emphasizes co-evolution of traditional sciences, with citizen science and participatory engagement in the realisation of research goals and the promotion of climate change mitigation strategies. In this article, through the example of shellfish maricultures we illustrate interdisciplinarity, particularlydemonstrating how marine biology, health and well-being, social science and cultural geography come together at the interface between nature, culture, and climate change mitigation strategies.
Keywords: interdisciplinarity, maricultures, eco-linguistics, climate change, citizen science, ecosystem services
Published in DiRROS: 28.09.2022; Views: 709; Downloads: 341
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Abstract: We envisage a future research environment where digital data on species interactions are easily accessible and comprehensively cover all species, life stages and habitats. To achieve this goal, we need data from many sources, including the largely untapped potential of citizen science for mobilising and utilising existing information on species interactions. Traditionally volunteers contributing information on the occurrence of species have focused on single-species observations from within one target taxon. We make recommendations on how to improve the gathering of species interaction data through citizen science, which data should be collected and how it can be motivated. These recommendations include providing feedback in the form of network visualisations, leveraging a wide variety of other data sources and eliciting an emotional connection to the species in question. There are many uses for these data, but in the context of biological invasions, information on species interactions will increase understanding of the effects of invasive alien species on recipient communities and ecosystems. We believe that the inclusion of ecological networks as a concept within citizen science, not only for initiatives focussed on biological invasions but also across other ecological themes, will not only enrich scientific knowledge on species interactions but also deepen the experience and enjoyment of citizens themselves.
Keywords: alien species, biological invasions, citizen science
Published in DiRROS: 29.10.2021; Views: 1175; Downloads: 714
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