Global warming may have severe consequences for rare Haleakalā silverswords
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| care2.com |
While
the iconic Haleakalā silversword plant made a strong recovery from early 20th-century
threats, it has now entered a period of substantial climate-related decline.
New research published this week warns that global warming may have severe
consequences for the silversword in its native habitat. Known for its striking
rosette, the silversword grows for 20-90 years before the single reproductive
event at the end of its life, at which time it produces a large (up to six feet
tall) inflorescence with as many as 600 flower heads. The plant was in jeopardy
in the early 1900s due to animals eating the plants and visitors gathering
them. With successful management, including legal protection and the physical
exclusion of hoofed animals, the species made a strong recovery, but since the
mid-1990s it has entered a period of substantial decline. A strong association
of annual population growth rates with patterns of precipitation suggests the
plants are undergoing increasingly frequent and lethal water stress. Local
climate data confirm trends towards warmer and drier conditions on the
mountain, which the researchers warn will create a bleak outlook for the
threatened silverswords if climate trends continue.
"The
silversword example foreshadows trouble for diversity in other biological
hotspots," said Dr. Paul Krushelnycky, a biologist with the University of
Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, and
principal investigator for the project, "and it also illustrates how even
well-protected and relatively abundant species may succumb to climate-induced
stresses."
"The
silversword is an amazing story of selective biological adaptation of this
distant cousin of the daisy to the high winds and sometimes freezing temperatures
on the high slopes and thin soils of Haleakalā volcano," said USGS
Director Marcia McNutt. "Despite the successful efforts of the National
Park Service to protect this very special plant from local disturbance from
humans and introduced species, we now fear that these actions alone may be
insufficient to secure this plant's future. No part of our planet is immune
from the impacts of climate change."
The Haleakalā silversword (Argyroxyphium sandwicense macrocephalum) grows
only on a single volcano summit in Hawaiʻi, yet it is viewed by 1-2 million
visitors annually at Haleakalā National Park. Although the decline and
extinction of other rare species with small ranges (and the accompanying loss
of biodiversity) can easily go unobserved and unappreciated, the silversword's
high profile makes it a good example with which to educate the public about
global climate change.
Krushelnycky
co-authored the paper along with Lloyd Loope, scientist emeritus with the U.S.
Geological Survey, and others at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, and
University of Arizona.They explain that although climate change is predicted to
place mountaintop and other narrowly endemic species such as the silversword at
severe risk of extinction, the ecological processes involved in such extinctions
are still poorly understood, and they are hoping to increase this
understanding.
This
report is the first publication to result from a collaborative effort between
research scientists and land managers at Haleakalā National Park seeking to
understand worrying trends for this popular federally threatened plant. The
work was facilitated and funded by the National Park Service, along with U.S.
Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Dr. Krushelnycky and his
collaborators were also awarded a grant by the newly established U.S.
Department of the Interior Pacific Islands Climate Science Center, one of eight
such centers throughout the country, to continue the work.
The full report, "Climate-Associated Population Declines
Reverse Recovery and Threaten Future of an Iconic High-Elevation Plant,"
published in the scientific journal Global Change Biology, is
available on request from the above contacts.
Source: United
States Geological Survey
reca� B n `� P� ld help, Miller-Morgan
said. Consumers should buy only healthy fish; avoid cleaning tanks with open
cuts or sores on their hands; use gloves; immediately remove sick fish from
tanks; consider quarantining all new fish in a separate tank for 30 days; wash
hands after working with fish; and never use antibiotics in a fish tank unless
actually treating a known fish disease caused by bacteria.
"We
don't think individuals should ever use antibiotics in a random, preventive or
prophylactic method," Miller-Morgan said. "Even hobbyists can learn
more about how to identify tropical fish parasites and diseases, and use
antibiotics only if a bacterial disease is diagnosed."
On an
industry level, he said, considerable progress could be made with improvements
in fish husbandry, better screening and handling, and use of quarantines,
rather than antibiotics, to reduce fish disease.
The
ornamental fish industry is large and diverse, including trade of more than
6,000 species of freshwater and marine fish from more than 100 different countries.
About half the supply originates in Asia, and freshwater farming of ornamental
fish is a rapidly growing industry.
Also increasing is the number of trained fish veterinarians, who
can help fish hobbyists to reduce disease loss and save treasured pets. More
information is available from the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association
and the American Association of Fish Veterinarians. A database of aquatic
veterinarians is available online, at http://aquavetmed.info
Source: Oregon
State University
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