Category: Geoscience

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How small the harvest

How small the harvest

for sustainability,

this cream-coloured gold.

 

Illegal poaching and the ivory trade have decimated African elephant populations, but could ivory be harvested sustainably at a level to both maintain the species and satisfy the trade?

By modelling a reference population of African elephants, Lusseau & Lee (2016) show that only a very small amount of ivory can be harvested sustainably without endangering the species and that this amount is well below the current demand. They comment that ‘any overexploitation very quickly runs the risk of driving elephants to extinction’.

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No saturation

Aliens spreading,

their invasion continues.

No saturation.

 

Increased globalisation over the past 200 years has helped to spread flora and fauna species around the world, with some non-native species disrupting local habitats to a devastating degree. Despite efforts to mitigate such invasions, the rate of alien species establishment appears to be increasing and no saturation point has been observed. Seebens et al, 2017.

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How safe the trader?

How safe the trader?

The agricultural costs

of invasive pests

 

Invasive pest species threaten global agriculture and can devastate crops. A study of almost 1,300 agricultural invasive species and 124 countries suggests that whilst the biggest agricultural producers (USA and China) “could experience the greatest absolute costs from further species invasion”, their trade patterns mean they are also the greatest potential source of invasive species and so represent the greatest threat to the rest of the world. In contrast, the countries most vulnerable to invasive species were found to be from Sub-Saharan Africa. Paini et al, 2017.