Rapidly falling insect populations, said Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, “will make it even more difficult than today to get enough food for the human population of the planet, to get good health and freshwater for everybody.”

Grasshopper. Photo: PublicDomainPictures.net

A leading scientist warned Tuesday that the rapid decline of insects around the world poses an existential threat to humanity and action must be taken to rescue them “while we still have time.”

Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and one of the world’s top entomologists, said in an interview with The Guardian that the importance of insects to the planet should spur humans to take immediate action against one of the major causes of insect decline—the climate crisis.

“Insects are the glue in nature,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “We should save insects, if not for their sake, then for our own sake.”

Falling insect populations around the world is cause for serious alarm, Sverdrup-Thygeson said, given the enormous impact these tiny creatures have on the global ecosystem.

“I have read pretty much every study in English and I haven’t seen a single one where entomologists don’t believe the main message that a lot of insect species are definitely declining,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “When you throw all the pesticides and climate change on top of that, it is not very cool to be an insect today.”

If this decline continues unabated, Sverdrup-Thygeson warned, soon “it will not be fun to be a human on this planet either.”

“[I]t will make it even more difficult than today to get enough food for the human population of the planet, to get good health and freshwater for everybody,” said Sverdrup-Thygeson. “That should be a huge motivation for doing something while we still have time.”

“You can pull out some threads,” she added, “but at some stage the whole fabric unravels and then we will really see the consequences.”

Far-reaching global assessment details how humanity is undermining the very foundations of the natural world

Photo: James Temple

 
 
On the heels of an Earth Day that featured calls for radical action to address the current “age of environmental breakdown,” Agence France-Presse revealed Tuesday that up to a million species face possible extinction because of destructive human behavior.

The warning comes from a forthcoming United Nations report, a draft of which was obtained by AFP, that “painstakingly catalogues how humanity has undermined the natural resources upon which its very survival depends.”

A product of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the landmark three-year assessment was prepared by 150 experts from 50 countries, with additions from another 250 contributors.

As John Vidal wrote in a preview of the study for HuffPost last month, “It is the greatest attempt yet to assess the state of life on Earth and will show how tens of thousands of species are at high risk of extinction, how countries are using nature at a rate that far exceeds its ability to renew itself, and how nature’s ability to contribute food and fresh water to a growing human population is being compromised in every region on Earth.”

Outlining some of the experts’ key findings, AFP reported Tuesday:

The accelerating loss of clean air, drinkable water, CO2-absorbing forests, pollinating insects, protein-rich fish, and storm-blocking mangroves—to name but a few of the dwindling services rendered by nature—poses no less of a threat than climate change…

The direct causes of species loss, in order of importance, are shrinking habitat and land-use change, hunting for food or illicit trade in body parts, climate change, pollution, and alien species such as rats, mosquitoes, and snakes that hitch rides on ships or planes, the report finds.

 Although IPBES chair Robert Watson declined to divulge the new report’s details to AFP, he said that “there are also two big indirect drivers of biodiversity loss and climate change—the number of people in the world and their growing ability to consume.”

“This is the stuff that worries me most. We don’t know what we’re doing, not trying to stop it, [and] with big consequences we don’t really understand.”

The marine insect Halobates sericeus, also known as a “sea skater” or “oceanic water strider.” Photo credit: Anthony Smith.

The first global scientific review of its kind reaches an ominous conclusion about the state of nature warning that unless humanity drastically and urgently changes its behavior the world’s insects could be extinct within a century.

Presented in exclusive reporting by the Guardian‘s environment editor Damian Carrington, the findings of the new analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, found that industrial agricultural techniques—”particularly the heavy use of pesticides”—as well as climate change and urbanization are the key drivers behind the extinction-level decline of insect populations that could herald a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems” if not addressed.

“If insect species losses cannot be halted, this will have catastrophic consequences for both the planet’s ecosystems and for the survival of mankind,” report co-author Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, at the University of Sydney, Australia, told the Guardian. Sánchez-Bayo wrote the scholarly analysis with Kris Wyckhuys at the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing.

Calling the current annual global insect decline rate of 2.5 percent over the last three decades a “shocking” number, Sánchez-Bayo characterized it as “very rapid” for insects worldwide. If that continues, he warned: “In 10 years you will have a quarter less, in 50 years only half left and in 100 years you will have none.”

Isn’t this a bit alarmist? Anticipating that concern, Sánchez-Bayo said the language of the report was intended “to really wake people up,” but that’s because the findings are so worrying.

Not involved with the study, Professor Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex in the UK, agreed. “It should be of huge concern to all of us,” Goulson told the Guardian, “for insects are at the heart of every food web, they pollinate the large majority of plant species, keep the soil healthy, recycle nutrients, control pests, and much more. Love them or loathe them, we humans cannot survive without insects.”

As Carrington reports:

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

Insect population collapses have recently been reported in Germany and Puerto Rico, but the review strongly indicates the crisis is global. The researchers set out their conclusions in unusually forceful terms for a peer-reviewed scientific paper: “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet.”

Doug Parr, the chief scientist for Greenpeace U.K., responded to the reporting by saying these are the climate-related developments that concern him most of all.

“I spend so many hours a week concerned climate change,” he said in a tweet linking to the story. “But this is the stuff that worries me most. We don’t know what we’re doing, not trying to stop it, [and] with big consequences we don’t really understand.”

“Nature is not a ‘nice to have’—it is our life-support system.”

Photo: James Temple

Scientists from around the world issued a stark warning to humanity Tuesday in a semi-annual report on the Earth’s declining biodiversity, which shows that about 60 percent of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been wiped out by human activity since 1970.

The World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Index details how human’s uncontrolled overconsumption of land, food, and natural resources has eliminated a majority of the wildlife on the planet—threatening human civilization as well as the world’s animals.

“We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff,” Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF, told the Guardian. “If there was a 60 percent decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China, and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done.”

Killer whales were named as one species that is in grave danger of extinction due to exposure to chemicals used by humans, and the Living Index Report highlighted freshwater species and animal populations in Central and South America as being especially affected by human activity in the past five decades.

“Species population declines are especially pronounced in the tropics, with South and Central America suffering the most dramatic decline, an 89 percent loss compared to 1970,” reads the report. “Freshwater species numbers have also declined dramatically, with the Freshwater Index showing an 83% decline since 1970.”

Destruction of wildlife habitats is the leading human-related cause of extinction, as people around the world are now using about three-quarters of all land on the planet for agriculture, industry, and other purposes, according to the report.

Mass killing of animals for food is the second-largest cause of extinction, according to the report, with 300 mammal species being “eaten into extinction.”

“It is a classic example of where the disappearance is the result of our own consumption,” Barrett told the Guardian.

The report stresses a need to that shift away from the notion that wildlife must be protected simply for the sake of ensuring that future generations can see species like elephants, polar bears, and other endangered animals in the wild.

Rather, the survival of the planet’s ecosystems is now a matter of life and death for the human population, according to the WWF.

“Nature contributes to human wellbeing culturally and spiritually, as well as through the critical production of food, clean water, and energy, and through regulating the Earth’s climate, pollution, pollination and floods,” Professor Robert Watson, who contributed to the report, told the Guardian. “The Living Planet report clearly demonstrates that human activities are destroying nature at an unacceptable rate, threatening the wellbeing of current and future generations.”

“Nature is not a ‘nice to have’—it is our life-support system,” added Barrett.

Many scientists believe that studies like that of the WWF demonstrate that a sixth mass extinction is now underway—a theory that would mean the Earth could experience its first mass extinction event caused by a single species inhabiting the planet. The loss of all life on Earth could come about due to a combination of human-caused effects, including a rapidly warming planet as well as the loss of biodiversity.

“The Great Acceleration, and the rapid and immense social, economic and ecological changes it has spurred, show us that we are in a period of great upheaval,” reads the study. “Some of these changes have been positive, some negative, and all of them are interconnected. What is increasingly clear is that human development and wellbeing are reliant on healthy natural systems, and we cannot continue to enjoy the former without the latter.”

This work is licensed by Common Dreams under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

“Our message as scientists is simple: Our planet’s future climate is inextricably tied to the future of its forest.”

WASHINGTON – Four commonly used neonicotinoid pesticides can harm bees and other pollinators, according to a new analysis by California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation. The study found that current approved uses of the “neonics” on crops like tomatoes, berries, almonds, corn and oranges exposes bees to levels of the pesticides known to cause harm.

Female carder bee. Photo wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.5

“The more we learn about the toxicity of neonics, the more apparent it is that pretty much any plant with nectar or pollen sprayed with these poisons is unsafe for bees,” said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “This important analysis is further proof that it’s time to ban all outdoor use of these harmful pesticides on crops.”

Recent analyses by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified harms to bees and pollinators from neonics used on cotton, citrus and several other fruits. But California’s analysis indicates neonics can cause much broader harm, including to pollinators commonly found on many types of vegetables, cereal grains, tree nuts, fruits and tobacco.

One of the most important findings of the new California analysis is the discovery of the high risk to bees posed by use of two neonicotinoids, thiamethoxam and clothianidin, on cereal grains like corn, wheat, rice and barley. Late last year the U.S. EPA announced it would consider an application from Syngenta to spray thiamethoxam directly on 165 million acres of wheat, barley, corn, sorghum, alfalfa, rice and potato.

Earlier this year California announced that it would no longer consider any applications by pesticide companies that would expand the use of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides in the state.

“At the same time California is wisely prohibiting new uses of neonics, the U.S. EPA is considering approving the spraying of a neonic known to be harmful to pollinators on an area nearly the size of Texas,” said Donley. “It’s dangerous and it doesn’t make any sense.”

Background

Earlier this year, the European Union banned neonicotinoids for outdoor uses in agriculture. Europe’s decision came after Canada’s pesticide regulatory agency recommended banning imidacloprid, the most widely used neonicotinoid, based on demonstrated harms to aquatic ecosystems.

As other developed nations further restrict the use of these poisons, the U.S. EPA has largely ignored the risks. Last year a rule that would have placed limited restrictions on neonics when commercial honeybees were present in fields was changed from mandatory to voluntary.

The U.S. EPA is currently in the process of reanalyzing neonic impacts to humans and the environment and is expected to re-approve the pesticides by the end of 2018.

California’s pesticide office is in the process of identifying mitigation measures to reduce the risk of neonics to bees, which the agency says will be finalized in the next two years.

Birds — the only surviving descendants of dinosaurs — are used to study a large range of fundamental topics in biology, from understanding the evolution of mating systems to learning about the genetic and environmental factors that affect their beautiful plumages. Although studied often, a complete description of the evolutionary relationships among all 10,560 bird species has not been possible.

Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) Photo: Annetta Hoagland

Now, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), researchers from Louisiana State University (LSU), in collaboration with a number of other institutions, are working to build an evolutionary tree of all bird species using cutting-edge technologies to collect DNA from across the genome. Called OpenWings, the project will produce the most complete evolutionary tree of any vertebrate group to date.

“A better understanding of an evolutionary tree of all birds will be transformative for the fields of ornithology and evolutionary biology, particularly as biologists integrate data to these trees from other large projects like the NSF-sponsored oVert Collection Network, the European Research Council-sponsored MarkMyBird project, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird,” said Brant Faircloth, LSU Department of Biological Sciences assistant professor and an investigator for the OpenWings project.

Data gleaned from the project will be released to the public as they are generated for use by scientists, citizens or professionals for their own research. The data will also be used to evaluate a number of ideas about how, when and where birds diversified and those processes responsible for the current distribution of worldwide avian diversity.

“A complete evolutionary tree constructed with cutting-edge data and all bird species represents an unprecedented resource for the research community. Our understanding of the evolution of birds may be rewritten in the coming years,” said Brian Smith, American Museum of Natural History assistant curator of birds and an investigator on the project.

This research is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (“Collaborative Research: All Birds: A Time-scaled Avian Tree From Integrated Phylogenomic and Fossil Datagrants,” under NSF grants DEB 16-55624, DEB 16-55559, DEB 16-55683 and DEB 16-55736).

Learn more in the LSU news story, Scientists to Build the Avian Tree of Life. (Date image taken: 2014; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: July 20, 2018)

Older than the dinosaurs, turtles have survived this long but their numbers have plummeted due to a host of threats they face daily. Entanglement in fishing gear, poaching and coastal development are just a few of the threats. And of the seven species, six are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

As the turtles’ plight becomes more widely known, opportunities arise for individuals to help, protect and learn about the species. They range from cruises aboard luxury vessels with onboard naturalists to environmentally-aware hotel stays and volunteer stints at research stations around the world.

Cruises

One such cruise line is Ecoventura. The company provides trained, naturalist guides who accompany guest both ashore and in the water, where you can swim with (keeping your 6-foot distance) the Galápagos green turtles. Ecoventura provides luxury cruising in the Galapagos and became the first Carbon Neutral operation in there in 2006. The company is at the forefront of sustainable tourism, signing an agreement with the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Park(GNP) to establish the Galapagos Biodiversity & Education for Sustainability Fund (GBESF) in 2017.

Ecoventura turtle dive

If you’re looking for a smaller group of travelers, Intrepid Travel also provides environmentally-sustainable trips to the Galapagos, with guides onboard and plenty of time to swim and snorkel with the turtles. Intrepid Travel has been a carbon-neutral travel company since 2010 and strictly adheres to all the Galapagos National Park Rules.

The guides are all local galapaguenos (island locals) and are registered and trained in conservation and natural sciences by the Charles Darwin Foundation and licensed by the Galapagos National Park Service. Plus, this year, Intrepid Travel is celebrating World Turtle Day on May 23 with their first-ever Giving Day! Have your gift for Galapagos giant tortoises matched, dollar-for-dollar, up to $15,000 in support of the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative.

Hotel Turtle Conservation Programs

Beachfront hotels and resorts in turtle nesting areas are getting onboard supporting, and often running conservation and protection programs for their local turtles. But before you book your hotel, check that it is sea turtle friendly! This includes things such as lighting, (it should be eliminated at night or at least dimmed to avoid distracting the turtles which can become confused by bright lights) educational activities and support of local sea turtle conservation efforts.

Florida

Florida has numerous turtle beaches, and many hotels operate turtle conservation programs.

Sandpearl Resort, Clearwater Beach, is the first Silver LEED-certified resort in Florida dedicated to preserving the beauty and ecosystems of the Gulf Coast. Sandpearl Resort partners with Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where injured marine life including turtles are rescued and nursed back to health by aquarium staff and volunteers. Hotel guests can visit all the resident sea turtles (including five different species, two of which are endangered) from Stubby, who is missing her front flippers because of severe injuries, to Harold who has helped staff to better understand visual complications on stranded sea turtles. Guests can even adopt a turtle through Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Sea Turtle in the Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Stay & Save the Sea Turtles at Jupiter Beach Resort and Spa

Jupiter Beach Resort & Spa is an idyllic escape for travelers looking to give back, while enjoying the easy beach life. Guests can book the “Stay & Save the Sea Turtles” package and get a portion of proceeds from their visit donated to the local Loggerhead Marinelife Center, adopting a sea turtle in their name. The area is a haven for this endangered species, and travelers can even spot sea turtle hatchings at night on the resort’s beach during nesting season.

Sea Turtle hatchlings on the beach at Jupiter Beach Resort

Learn About Loggerheads at The Resort at Longboat Key Club, Sarasota, Fla.

Longboat Key is a barrier island off the Gulf coast with more than 35 miles of nesting beaches for loggerhead turtles. The Resort at Longboat Key Club is just minutes from the Sarasota Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, which has rehabilitated and released more than 100 sea turtles. With the property’s current “Summer Sun & Summer Fun” package, families can visit the Mote Marine Aquarium free of charge and snag three nights accommodations and daily breakfast.

Farther Afield

Barbados

Barbados has more turtles than any other Caribbean island! Turtle Beach Resort provides an up-close encounter with the native hawksbill and leatherbacks. The property has a 1,500-foot stretch of pearly white sands on the south coast of Barbados. During the summer months, guests are likely to spot hundreds of turtle hatchlings making their way back to the ocean. The resort’s expert team of “Turtle Pioneers” as they’re called, not only teach guests about island conservation, but with the help of the Barbados Sea Turtle Project, help lead the baby turtles to the sea after they’re hatched.

Swimming with turtles at the Turtle Beach Resort in Barbados

Help the Cause in Cancun, Mexico

Perfectly situated on a stretch of bright Mexican Caribbean beach, sister properties, Marriott Cancun Resort & JW Marriott Cancun Resort & Spa feature a sea turtle protection program that saves an average of 3,000 endangered baby turtles each year. From June through September, marine biologists guide the staff in preparing and caring for nesting areas on the beach. Guests at the resorts are invited to participate in the nightly release of the baby turtles and can do so by calling the concierge to find out if turtles will be released on a given night.

Protecting the Turtles in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa , is located between Banderas Bay and the Sierra Madre Mountains. From June to December, guests can participate in the resort’s turtle protection program and have the opportunity to release newly hatched turtles into the ocean. Since the program started, more than 4,000 nests have been incubated at the hotel’s nursery, and over 1,200 incubated naturally at the beach. Children staying at the resort have the chance to even name their tiny sea turtles and gather at sunset to wish them luck and set them free to return to the ocean. In addition to having the opportunity to release newly hatched turtles, nature-lovers can join the resident biologist for a nighttime stroll along the beach to monitor the nesting turtles. The biologist will provide information about the conservation project and instructions for patrolling the beach.

Hatchlings in the Sea Turtle protection program at the Marriott Cancun Resort

Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteering with sea turtles is a great way to combine your beach vacations with hands-on work to turn them into a truly meaningful experience and make it World Turtle Day, all year long.

All of the seven sea turtle species are endangered which makes conservation projects worldwide all the more necessary. Activities generally include:

• Performing night surveys on the beach to find nesting turtles and help protect them from illegal extraction and predators
• Relocating eggs to the hatchery
• Monitoring nests and baby turtles in the hatchery
• Collecting biometric data on the beach
• Releasing baby turtles into the ocean
• Nest excavation (exhumations)
• Beach cleanup.
• Maintenance of beach and camp

Volunteer World currently lists 52 opportunities to travel and volunteer with sea turtle conservation groups. Locations range from Costa Rica to Madagascar to the Great Barrier Reef.

International Volunteer HQ has turtle conservations listed in Bali and Costa Rica

Working Abroad also has programs in Costa Rica

Photo: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

A small boy hauls enthusiastically on his fishing rod. The line flies up and a needle-spined fish strikes him in the eye. Desperate to stay outdoors, he ignores the pain, but his sight deteriorates over the following months. He continues to pursue his love of nature but, now blind in one eye, he is confined to studying creatures that are easy to see: insects. He grows to become the global authority on ants, and in later life is given the moniker ‘the father of biodiversity’.

The man is E O Wilson, the eminent American biologist. In his book The Diversity of Life (1992), he described biodiversity as an assemblage that ‘has eaten the storms – folded them into its genes – and created the world that created us. It holds the world steady.’ We tend to think of biodiversity as a landscape of teeming jungles and coral reefs, its destruction manifesting as forest clearance and species extinction. However, these images don’t capture the full significance of the equilibrium that Wilson described. Biodiversity is not just the abundance of life on Earth. Rather, it is what maintains the resilience and flexibility of the environment as a whole, so that life can weather the inevitable ‘storms’.

The global Convention on Biological Diversity defines its subject as variability among living organisms at three different levels: within species, between species, and of ecosystems. The first diversity, ‘within species’, is at the level of the gene. A species is made up of individuals. For example, the 10,000 or so species of ant are estimated to comprise a staggering 10¹⁵ individuals. (That’s 1 followed by 15 zeroes!) With the rare exception of twins, each of these individuals will have their own unique combination of genes. If we destroy half of the ants in each species, we will still have 10,000 kinds of ant, but we’ll have lost 50 per cent of each species’ genetic diversity. In recent history, many species have been reduced to far smaller numbers. Pre-Columbus, 25 million bison roamed the plains of North America, but by the late 1880s fewer than 100 remained in the wild. Although conservation interventions have since increased bison numbers to the hundreds of thousands, the genetic diversity that was lost can never be recovered.

We can think about the value of genetic diversity using examples from our own species. Humans have different alleles or gene variants for eye colour, hair curliness, muscle tone and so forth. These alleles can be advantageous in one environment but not in another. In cloudy northern climes, pale skin is good for increasing the uptake of vitamin D, but in sunny regions it’s disadvantageous, as it makes people prone to sunburn and skin cancer. Efficient fat storage will increase your survival on an island where the food supply is unpredictable, but it can be a fast-track to Type-2 diabetes if you follow a sugar-loaded Western diet. A wide genetic diversity gives us more options in the face of rapid environmental change, whether that change is due to climatic conditions, a new disease or an invasive species.

The second layer is diversity ‘between species’. This is the definition of biodiversity with which we are most familiar – the fantastic assortment of animals, plants and micro-organisms in the world. Of the 9 million or more estimated total species on Earth, we’ve described about 1.2 million. We have a good knowledge of birds and mammals, and have documented about 70 per cent of plants. By contrast, a trawl of the deep sea can yield around 90 per cent of unknown species. Species are not evenly distributed across the world. There are multiple hypotheses for what lies behind this trend, but the pattern is clear: species richness increases from the poles to the equator.

Lastly, we have ‘diversity of ecosystems’. Species interact with each other and with the sunlight, air, soil and water to form ecosystems. From the arctic tundra to tropical rainforest, from estuaries to the midnight zones of the deep sea, the Earth houses a wealth of ecosystems. Delineating these zones is not always straightforward. An ecosystem might be as large as the Great Barrier Reef or as small as the community of sponges, algae and worms hosted on a spider crab’s shell. While there is a clear division between a coastal forest and the sea below, there is no distinct point at which a forest ends and a savannah begins.

The species within an ecosystem compete with each other for resources such as light and food – but they also rely on each other. Of the world’s flowering plants, 87 per cent are pollinated by animals, and coral reefs provide shelter for 25 per cent of our marine life. Bacteria recycle dead matter into nitrates, the only compounds from which plants can build proteins. Ecosystems provide ‘services’ that support life both within and beyond the ecosystem. Humans could not live without these services, which include clean air, drinking water, decomposition of wastes, and the pollination of food plants.

One intriguing natural phenomenon is that, in any given ecosystem, a few species will be very numerous, but most will be quite scarce. That is, common species are rare, and rare species are common. Just as genetic diversity provides species with resilience to environmental change, species diversity increases the resilience of ecosystems. For example, there’s a rare species of yeast found in freshwater ecosystems in eastern Pennsylvania. In the presence of mercury contamination, the yeast short-circuits the metabolic pathway by which most species succumb to poisoning. It stores the quicksilver in a vacuole and later deposits it on a surface such as a rock. During this time, the yeast becomes very abundant, but the toxic environment reduces the abundance of other species. Once the yeast has cleaned up the mercury, however, environmental conditions no longer favour it; it declines in number, and those of other species rebound. In the right conditions, it seems likely that any rare species would be able to increase its abundance in an ecosystem. In this way, an ecosystem’s diversity might reflect what’s happened in its environmental past, and indicate its potential to adapt to future change.

The irony is that the word ‘biodiversity’ has currency mostly because humans are in the process of destroying what it refers to. The term was first used at the US National Research Council in 1985, while convening a forum to address concerns regarding biodiversity loss. Following the event, the philosopher Bryan Norton likened the Earth to a patient whose survival is dependent on a life-support machine. Hospital staff enter and announce that, in order to increase the hospital’s revenue, they will be selling a few components of the machine. ‘It’s got so many wires and screws, it can’t possibly need them all,’ they blithely assure the patient. Would you take that gamble? Biodiversity underpins life as we know it. It is the very apparatus that holds us steady.

Elizabeth Boakes

This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons.

Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Midwest

Human personality theory has long revolved around what we know as the ‘Big Five’ – five dimensions of personality that cover a large swathe of how humans behave across time and contexts. These dimensions are conscientiousness (tendencies to be orderly and rule-abiding), agreeableness (easy to get along with), extraversion (outgoing), neuroticism (tendencies to be anxious, depressed or hostile), and openness to new experiences (creative and artistic inclinations). It’s the consistency in our behaviour in different situations that often teases apart why we aren’t all alike.

Just like physical traits, personality traits meet Charles Darwin’s criteria for evolution. First of all, personality traits show variability since the very concept of personality implies that we are all different in specific ways. Second, personality traits are not just influenced by the environment, they are all highly heritable. And finally, in many cases, certain traits make some individuals more likely to reproduce and pass on their genes than others, demonstrating clear fitness benefits.

Because human personality evolved, we should expect to find traces of it in other species. But our understanding of animal personality was stalled for years by both the fear of anthropomorphism among animal scientists, and a lack of consensus on how to describe it. Animal personality is sometimes referred to as ‘temperament’, ‘coping styles’, or ‘behavioural syndromes’ (which always struck me as sounding like more of an illness than a way of being). Often, animals are described simply in terms of their levels of boldness and aggressiveness. More recently, however, scientists have started using the Big Five as a framework for the examination of animal personality.

Conscientiousness as a personality dimension has multiple facets, and typically describes people who plan ahead, who are organised and reliable, hard-working, self-disciplined, and thorough. It can be difficult to see in other animals: right now, I’m looking at my cats lounging in a sunspot on the couch. They’ve been there all day. They might be reliable, but I’d hardly call them industrious. Perhaps the previous research findings are correct: conscientiousness involves traits that are too complex to attribute to animals, or just can’t be found.

But are we just being constrained by our human biases? Are the questions we are asking and the methods we are using really applicable to other species?

Most measures of human personality depend on self-report, where humans rate how well statements describe them, such as: ‘I seldom feel blue’, ‘I have a vivid imagination’, or ‘I often forget to put things back in their proper place’. From these responses, you get a separate score on each of the five personality dimensions.

And most measures of animal personality are also based on reports, not by the animals, of course, but by their owners or caretakers. By relying on human assessment, are we just trying to determine how animals are like humans, rather than what might define ‘personality’ in their own species-specific world?

Wondering if the lack of evidence for conscientiousness in the animal kingdom was due to such potential biases, my colleague, the psychologist Frank Sulloway at the University of California, Berkeley, and I tried a different approach, the results of which were recently published in the journal Psychological Bulletin. We first looked at all the descriptive terms that are commonly used to measure conscientiousness in surveys given to humans. Using this list of 103 terms, we thoroughly searched the literature to see when these terms were used to describe animal behaviour.

There are hundreds of examples of conscientiousness behaviours in the animal kingdom, from tidy fish building nests that attract potential mates, to mice who varied in impulse control or their ability to delay rewards. Some insects were methodical in their selection of a location to lay eggs, while others were not; some guide dogs were easily distracted, while others remained focused. Some guppies were ‘reckless’ in their selection of a mate, and cows showed an increase in heart level when they were successful at learning a new task.

Conscientiousness in animals doesn’t necessarily look like it does in humans. Bees might not make beds, but they vary in their cleanliness and orderliness. Bees who are better undertakers, removing dead bodies from their hives, experience less disease, and produce more and healthier offspring. Spiders who construct tidier webs catch more prey, and lazy birds are tolerated because, in times of desperation, they can provide backup babysitting for their relatives.

When subjected to statistical analyses, our data pointed to two types of conscientiousness in animals – one type related to orderly, industrious behaviour that was more likely to be reported in birds, and, to an extent, insects. The other type described more competent, achievement-striving behaviour, more commonly reported in primates and other mammals. Some species showed evidence for both types of conscientiousness, demonstrating that, just as in humans, conscientiousness in animals could be multifaceted.

However, we didn’t find strong evidence in animals for some aspects of human conscientiousness, such as virtue, traditionalism and self-discipline. These traits often involved a sense of moral obligation, which might just be too difficult to measure in animals, since they cannot communicate their motivations to us.

Although we found ample evidence for conscientiousness in other animals, our research was still limited by the fact that our starting point was lexically based, and still dependent on an anthropocentric launching pad. Perhaps we found more evidence for orderly behaviour in birds and bees because that is what scientists expect to find, whereas they might search for more cognitively complex behaviours in animals that we consider more similar to us.

What would be an even better approach is an overhaul of how we look at personality in all animals (including humans). We don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but the self-report questionnaire is limited in its ability to measure the true range of behaviour across the other 8.7 million animal species with whom we share the planet.

Instead, the psychologist Jana Uher at the University of Greenwich in London has proposed exploring animal personality using a behavioural approach. This means first determining what problems an individual species has evolved to solve, in regards to contexts such as predation, foraging and social interactions. Once those problems have been defined, behaviours, traits and their variability can be assessed in accordance with these problems.

It should not surprise us to find a continuum of all personality traits across the animal kingdom. But what should have surprised us much earlier was the denial of conscientiousness in non-human animals. As much as we like to think we are special and unique, to quote Darwin, the difference between us and other animals, ‘great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind’.

Mikel Maria Delgado

This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons.