It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the results of our annual photo competition!
We’d like to start by saying a huge thank you to each and every one of you who submitted your photos. It’s been so wonderful to see such diversity between entries and to get a sneak peek into both your field work and general time you’ve spent in nature. I’m sure all our readers will agree with us how fantastic each photo is, but alas, there can only be one new photo banner!
You are all winners in our eyes but after struggling to narrow it down to our top 5, we couldn’t possibly decide on the winner alone…*Google poll enters the chat*. We had brilliant engagement during the voting process, so thank you to all of you who participated and voted for your favourite. Our winning photo took over 50% of the vote share, with the rest split evenly.
Before revealing our finalists and winner (no scrolling to the bottom yet please), join us while we take you through all of our 2022 entries:
The Entries
Green Shieldbug by Mairéad O’Donnell
This photo of a Green Shieldbug walking along a blade of grass was taken by Mairéad while surveying biodiversity in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. Mairéadwas struck by the water droplet resting on its back.
Mairéad is a PhD student in the Department of Botany. Her Twitter handle is @MaireadODonn
Sugar Kelp and more!by Jean Williams
A mix of kelp species was found during a foraging tour/field trip on Glassillaun beach in Renvyle, Connemara, Co. Galway in August 2020. In the bottom left of the image is Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima), whilst the predominant species in the image is beautiful example of the curled stipe base and holdfast of Furbellows (Saccorhiza polyschides).
Jean is a PhD student in the Dept. of Botany, working with Marcus Collier examining if wild edibles can transition towards a more sustainable food system.
Aminita Muscaria or Fly Agaric by Jean Williams
The Aminita Muscaria or Fly Agaric was found on a foraging tour/field trip in Devil’s Glen Wood in October 2021.
Imagine the noise! by Katrin Schertenleib
Can you spot the fat, fluffy chicks among their parents in this breeding colony of Northern Gannets (Morus bassana) on Great Saltee?
Katrin is a PhD student in Zoology, working in Nessa O’Connor’s lab and her Twitter handle is @KatMarSci
Keep your head down by Mat Cobain
Photo taken at Glendalough in January 2022.
Mat is a postdoc in Zoology and his Twitter handle is @CobainMat
Touch of innocence by Elena Zioga
This picture was taken in North Greece and shows a hoverfly on the stamens of a white water lily. Water lily flowers have a rather strange mechanism to prevent self-fertilisation. They open slightly on the first day as females, forming a cup shape filled with stigma exudates. Insects may enter the flower and often fall into the exudates, which wash off pollen carried from other flowers onto the stigma, and fertilise the flower. On the second and third days the flowers fully open as males and no exudates are produced. Insects that land on the flowers on these days get covered with pollen and transport it to flowers that are just opening, hence receptive to pollination.
Elena is a PhD student in the Botany department and her Twitter handle is @ZioElena
The third wheel by Elena Zioga
How many insects do you see in this picture taken in Northwest Greece? Some male solitary bee species would probably see more than one. To their eyes, the two orchid flowers are potential female partners! Not only because they look like female solitary bees in shape, colour and appearance, but also because these flowers secrete intense chemical pheromones highly attractive for the males. If a male solitary bee was passing by, it would probably try to mate with those orchid flowers. The grasshopper would become a witness to the miracle of pollination, but the male bee would leave rather disappointed afterwards…
The Bee Orchid by Marine Valmier
Bee Orchids (Ophrys apifera) are a real treat for the eyes, native but fairly hard to find in Ireland. They owe their name to their pollination strategy called “pseudocopulation” as they mimic both the scent and appearance of females of a select few species of solitary bee, to attract their males (but can also self-pollinate).
Marine is a PhD student in the Botany department and her Twitter handle is @MValmier
The Bee Orchid by Marine Valmier
The Bog Way is a wet one, as water is the blood that flows in every peatland veins. It is different shades of blue, and loads of green, and some darker secrets. The Bog Way is also a road of light, bringing some hope in the fight against climate change with the rehabilitation and restoration of damaged peatland.
Common blue butterfly by Bea Jackson
The photo is of a common blue butterfly in my parent’s garden.
Bea Jackson is a Research Masters student in Jennifer McElwain’s group and is studying Devonian plant fossils.
A Xylocopa violacea resting on a maple tree branch by Irene Bottero
A Xylocopa violacea resting on a maple tree branch. This bee might look scary because of its huge body size – one of the largest European bees – and because of its intense buzzing hum, but it’s a friendly giant. I spotted this large carpenter bee while I was working from home in Italy during the pandemic.
Irene is a PhD student in Botany working on pollinators under the Poshbee EU project.
A honey bee looking for some food fell into a trap… by Irene Bottero
A honey bee looking for some food fell into a trap…and she became the meal! Can you spot the trap? When I first saw the bee I thought something looked rather strange and it took some time to realise what was happening. The clever…and very sneaky camouflage of a white spider ambushed the hungry bee, just as she lowered her guard.
The Finalists
Lockdown Visitorby Floriane O’Keeffe
A honeybee perches on a fuschia plant
Floriane is a PhD student in Zoology, working in The Parasitology Lab and her Twitter handle is @florianeeok
Making a Mockeryby Floriane O’Keeffe
A Galapagos mockingbird mid call
Ichneumon Wasp on a Holly bushby Mairéad O’Donnell
This photo was taken by Mairéad while surveying biodiversity in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. This is an Ichneumon Wasp on a Holly bush. Mairéad noticed the wasp following her and hiding behind the bush while she was carrying out a survey.
Mairéad O’Donnell is a PhD student in Botany and her Twitter handle is @MaireadODonn
Eggs, Eggs, Eggsby Jason Keegan
A typical view down the microscope as part of my search for Toxocara spp. eggs in the public parks of Dublin City. No Toxocara eggs to be seen in this picture but plenty of other nematode, fungus and plant eggs to behold, all concentrated from just 50 grams of soil. Now when I go for a walk in the park I can’t help but think of how the soil under my feet is teeming with all sorts of eggs!
Jason is a postdoctoral research fellow in Zoology, working in The Holland Lab.
The WINNER!
Lookwhat I’ve brought!by KatrinSchertenleib
Two adult Puffins (Fratercula arctic) at Great Saltee. The left one stopped for a quick rest next to the other, before it hurried into one of the burrows to feed its Puffling. Puffins can hold multiple fish between their tongue and upper mandible while continuing to catch more. The world record is said to be 80 (small larval fish). Larger gulls like this and often try to steal the catch, so the successful hunters stay very alert.
Katrin is a PhD student in Zoology, working in Nessa O’Connor’s lab and her Twitter handle is @KatMarSci
Thank you to all who participated and congratulations to our deserving winner! The EcoEvo blog banner will be updated to Katrin’s beautiful image shortly.
A warm welcome back to all our readers! The new year is now well and truly upon us and we hope you’ve all had a safe and energised return to work. This blog is written by Fionn Ó Marcaigh, summarising his new paper. Congratulations Fionn and we hope our readers enjoy learning about your research as much as we have!So without further ado…
Science is about making observations from the natural world, drawing up hypotheses to explain the patterns you’ve observed, and then testing these hypotheses by experimentation. We tend to imagine scientists in white coats doing experiments in the lab, but our understanding of evolution also owes a lot to work done in “natural laboratories” like islands and other isolated habitats, where evolution has taken place under different conditions. Our new paper, just published Open Access by the International Biogeography Society in their journal Frontiers of Biogeography, has used an important natural laboratory in Southeast Asia to test a classic hypothesis based on a bird called the Island Monarch (Monarcha cinerascens). We’ve made observations that contradict parts of the hypothesis and discovered a possible new species in the process!
Our natural laboratory was a collection of islands around a region known as Wallacea in central Indonesia (see map below). Named after Alfred Russel Wallace, this is where he co-discovered evolution by natural selection while travelling around islands of all shapes and sizes, with the waters around them being so wide and deep that most species have trouble crossing them. Some organisms are better at crossing these barriers than others, with the Island Monarch thought to be particularly adept. As its name suggests, the Island Monarch is one of the kings of small islands. It can be found all the way from the islands off Sulawesi in Wallacea, to the farthest reaches of the Melanesian islands east of Papua New Guinea, but is missing from large islands like Sulawesi and New Guinea themselves.
As 2022 rolls around quicker than any of us could have ever imagined, it’s time to say farewell to our current editors – Erika Soldi and Sam Preston – and introduce our new editing trio.
Many thanks to Erika and Sam for their wonderful contribution to the EcoEvo blog, bringing us all some much needed light in a challenging year. Highlights include advice on how to make your lab greener, the connection between nature and wellbeing, and of course your research (Fungi, Birds , Crabs and so much more!). We wish Erika and Sam the very best for their continued research and hopefully this won’t be the last our readers hear from them!
Goodbyes are always hard, but this year’s is even more so in light of the tragic loss of Dr Aoibheann Gaughran. Before introducing ourselves, we would like to take a minute to extend our condolences to Aoibheann’s loved ones and pay tribute to our wonderful friend and colleague. Below is a beautiful photo of a Brown Hawker Dragonfly taken by Aoibheann and submitted for last year’s photo competition. May it remind us of her and her love for nature.
We would now like to introduce you to your new editors… Lucy Harding, Grace McNicholas and Richa Marwaha. Editing is a new venture for each of us, so go easy! Below is a short intro about us and our research. If you have any questions about our work please feel free to get in touch. We look forward to bringing you new content in 2022 and learning from our fantastic contributors.
Lucy Harding
Hi everyone, my name is Lucy and my pronouns are she/her. I am a 3rd year PhD student in the Dept. of Zoology. My background is in environmental science and marine conservation. Before my PhD, I was working in the Philippines and Fiji teaching children and international volunteers the importance of protecting our oceans. But my heart was always in my hometown, so I swapped tropical life for rainy ol’ Dublin and I now study the thermal physiology and ecology of marine fish, with a focus on warm blooded sharks, under the supervision of Nicholas Payne.
I am a novice when it comes to blogs so I’m very excited to learn a lot over the next year and to hear all of your exciting stories!
Grace McNicholas
Hi all, I’m Grace (she/her), nice to meet you! I recently moved to the Emerald Isle from the UK to start my PhD in the Payne Lab. If you get to know me you’ll soon realise I have a tendency to complicate things for myself, so of course my PhD is no exception and I am actually based in Westport, Mayo not Dublin. The reason being, I work closely with the Marine Institute in their nearby facility, researching the Ecology of Irish Tuna, including their space use and post-release behaviour. Probably a good thing though, as I’m not much of a city girl and since graduating from my MSc I’ve spent most of my adult life running away to remote places – be it the Australian outback or a tiny Bahamian Island!
As with Lucy, blog editing is completely alien to me but I’m looking forward to giving it a go and learning something new!
Richa Marwaha
Hi all, I am Richa working as a post-doc researcher under the supervision of Dr Matthew Saunders in the Botany Department. My project is to investigate the C/GHG dynamics of peatlands using Earth Observation techniques.
My background is in remote sensing and GIS. I moved from India to Ireland for PhD 5 years ago. I recently finished my PhD from Teagasc, Ashtown and UCC. My research was focused on grass growth rate estimation using machine learning and remote sensing.
Outside of work, I enjoy painting, baking and travelling. I am a part of this blog to improve my writing skills and venture into the world of science communication. Looking forward to this new experience and your ideas and research!
Updates:
The annual EcoEvo photo competition is back! For those of you who have been around for a while hopefully you are familiar with the competition, but if not, it’s a chance for our lovely readers to submit and vote on our updated EcoEvo blog photo banner. Keep an eye out for more details in our January post, and in the meantime don’t forget to get out and about in nature this festive season to capture some wintery shots!
We’d also like to take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and we hope you get to spend time with your loved ones after a challenging few years. Christmas can also be a difficult time for lots of us, so please reach out and ask for support if you feel alone.
Nollaig Shona – and we look forward to 2022 and sharing plenty of new blogs with you!
The Invasive Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus): A Model System for Studying Parasites and Ecoimmunology during a Biological Invasion, McManus et al. Animals 2021. Read it here.
Over the past century, there has been an increase in Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs), leading to outbreaks in diseases of zoonotic origin, such as SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, Lassa, Zika, Ebola, HIV, and not to forget the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The increase in these EID events have been linked to the increasing rate of environmental change, including habitat destruction and biological invasions.
While EIDs are considered a major risk to human populations, they can also be detrimental to indigenous wildlife. For example, it has been suggested that the introduced grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), has resulted in the transfer of squirrelpox (Parapoxvirus) to the indigenous red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). Consequently, the introduction of non-native invaders can affect native species through more cryptic means than direct competition, by altering the pathogen communities present in the native species. This can manifest through a number of mechanisms, the most obvious of which is spillover. Spillover occurs when a non-native parasite co-invades with the non-native host species, spreading to the immunologically naïve native (as in the case of the red and grey squirrels). Conversely, a less obvious mechanism by which introduced species affect pathogen communities is spillback. Spillback occurs when the non-native host has an increased competency for a native parasite resulting in an amplification effect: the native parasite multiplies in the introduced species, but the native host suffers more from the increased number of parasites in its environment. Of course, benign impacts on native species’ relationships with pathogens are also possible. The non-native host can also have a lower competency for a native parasite, thus diluting the parasite burden of the native species. (Dunn and Hatcher explain these mechanisms in much more detail here, if you are curious to know more.)
Wild rodents have offered key insights into disease ecology. For example, Laakkonen et al. demonstrated that Eimeria infections in vole populations show seasonal cycles peaking in autumn, while similar studies on Puumala orthohantavirus have shown the virus to cycle in bank vole populations with peak infection occurring in spring. Their worldwide distribution and ability to spread with human activity make rodents excellent models for understanding disease ecology.
In Ireland, the bank vole presents a unique opportunity as a model system. It has a verifiable introduction point in Foynes, Co. Limerick, has been shown to spread by about 2.5 km per year, and has no current eradication plan. Previous studies by Loxton et al. (2016; 2017) and Stuart et al. have studied the parasite species present in the bank vole and wood mouse in Ireland, with the bank vole harbouring fewer parasite species, resulting in “enemy release” (i.e. the introduced bank vole is relatively free of parasitic burden compared to native competitors).
Stuart et al. explicitly demonstrated that the bank vole exhibits enemy release within Ireland, with bank voles at the expansion front were less parasitised compared to their conspecifics in core populations. The bank vole has also caused a dilution effect for the native wood mouse, with the wood mouse showing lower parasite species abundance at the invasion core, compared to populations at the expansion front and in uninvaded sites. Despite this, the wood mouse also showed increased abundances of the nematode worms Syphacia stroma and S. lobata, suggesting while parasite density may be lower overall, some parasite species are taking advantage of this to increase in their native host population.
The bank vole currently occupies about 40% of the island and continues to expand its range. Accompanied by the presence of baseline knowledge and data, as a model system, the bank vole invasion provides the opportunity to further investigate how parasite communities change as the bank vole becomes more established. The presence of uninvaded sites in the Stuart et al.study provides the opportunity to investigate the early changes that occur when the invader first enters the ecosystem.
The addition of a second invader, the greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula), has also presented another avenue to explore, (as shown by Montgomery, Lundy and Reid), it has a positive synergistic effect on bank vole numbers, while causing a negative effect on the wood mouse numbers and local perturbation of the native pygmy shrew (Sorex minutus).
As demonstrated by international studies, wild rodents, due to their ecology and biology, prove to be good model systems for studying disease in wildlife. Likewise, longitudinal studies on the bank vole invasion have the potential to offer key insights into studying disease and ecoimmunology during a biological invasion, with the potential to give a key insight to the changes in pathogen dynamics during the early stages of the invasion.
Ongoing work utilising this model system.
While the paper outlines the need for continuing research into the bank vole model, this has already begun at Munster Technological University with my supervisor Dr. Peter Stuart. Fieldwork has been completed for the spring and autumn seasons with gut dissections well underway to detect the parasites present. Alongside this, our partners in the BioRodDis group are analysing samples we have sent to detect various bacteria and viruses present in Irish rodents, along with samples from around Europe, helping to make a large database of the rodent pathogens present.
Moving from Dublin City to rural Ireland as a child was a bit of a shock to my system. Up to that moment I had grown up surrounded by pavement and tall dull buildings as far as the eye could see, however, now I lived in a house surrounded by fields upon fields of cattle and crops. I thought I lived in an area surrounded by nature, but it wasn’t until I got older that I realised the endless stretches of fields around me all contained the same few species.
As a child, I gave little thought to this homogeneity. The one thing around me that did catch my attention was the large deserted building site at the back of my house. Like many, we moved into a brand new housing estate during the Celtic Tiger, only for the inevitable bust that occurred shortly after we moved in to halt the construction on the rest of the estate. As children, we were always warned to stay away from the empty site. Filled with abandoned equipment and precarious structures, the place was a death trap. For years, despite the odd bonfire on Halloween, the site remained virtually untouched. Forever to be labelled an eyesore. A waste of land.
That was until I went to university to study Zoology and took a module in Restoration Ecology. During this time, I learned that Mother Nature may not have been as idle over the many years that construction companies have been. The term brownfield site came up on my radar and I realised that maybe that eyesore at the back of my estate might hold more value than I previously believed.
On-site images of the Brownfield site. Credit: Aoife Cahill
What are brownfield sites?
Brownfield sites have been defined as “land that was previously developed for housing or industry but has since been abandoned and recolonised by different ecological assemblages” [1]. While these sites are typically described as “dangerous” or “eyesores” and can have negative connotations to them, research has shown that these brownfields are highly important for biodiversity as they are capable of harbouring rich and sophisticated ecosystems capable of supporting rare and threatened species.
While governments are starting to acknowledge the importance of brownfields and the role they play in protecting biodiversity, such as the UK government adding some brownfield sites to its list of priority sites listed in its Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (NERC Act), many of these sites still face threats of development [2].
There are many types of brownfield sites, with the two most important broad categories being described as wetland or dry ground. Wetland brownfields are important as they provide refuge for waterbirds, whose natural habitat availability has been shrinking. Dry ground sites, are typically well-drained, poor in nutrients and sometimes contaminated and have been described by conservationists as highly important for providing havens for rare or endangered species [3].
Why are brownfields important for rural Ireland?
The expansion and intensification of agricultural practices have been closely linked to the depletion of biodiversity. It has been suggested that as much as 23% of species diversity once associated with European farmland has been lost during the period 1970 and 2000 [4]. It has become clear that biodiversity plays a fundamental role in sustainable agricultural systems. It has also been determined that increasing habitat heterogeneity in the rural landscape would play an important role in reversing the decline in farmland bird species. So if it has been agreed that more diverse landscapes in rural Ireland would benefit biodiversity and in turn would have a positive impact on agriculture, perhaps it would be beneficial to not only focus on increasing biodiversity on agricultural land but also factor in the importance of brownfield sites that have become widespread across Ireland since the 2010s when a surge in ghost estates, and in turn abandoned building sites, was seen in rural areas.
Of course, it’s important to stress the importance of protecting and promoting biodiversity on agricultural land, but maybe we shouldn’t ignore the potential biodiversity goldmines that we have potentially been casting scornful looks at for the past decade.
The brownfield site next door
At the beginning of the summer, I contacted Dr Marcus Collier and the Connecting Nature project about summer research opportunities and we got on the topic of the abandoned building site in my estate. We concluded that I had the opportunity to conduct research right on my doorstep. Once we worked through the logistics of the site location we came up with a plan. The plan for the research was to create a habitat map of the site, conduct botanical, invertebrate pollinator and bird surveys, and compare this to similar surveys conducted in a neighbouring agricultural field. This research aimed to bring attention to brownfield sites and to show that they can play an important role in conjunction with sustainable agricultural practices to increase the heterogeneity of the Irish rural landscape to protect and promote biodiversity.
ArcMap 10.7.1 was used to create the habitat map and habitats were classified according to Fossitt (2000) – A Guide to Habitats in Ireland. Once the map was completed, I decided that to get a complete picture of the brownfield site and the potential species it was home to, botanical surveys of multiple habitat types were required. Botanical surveys of grassland (GS2), hedgerows (WL1) and recolonising bare ground (ED3) were conducted. Transect sampling methods were used to record invertebrate and bird species. The same methods were used to study an improved agricultural grassland (GA1) directly beside the brownfield.
Habitat map of the site. Credit: Aoife Cahill
So on a few sunny days in June 2021, I went out into the field with a homemade quadrat, a camera, and a pen and paper to conduct this research.
What was found?
The results of the botanical surveys for each habitat type within the site were interesting because there was minimal overlapping in species types recorded in each habitat.
Each habitat type had a distinct set of botanical species that weren’t found in the others. The recolonising bare ground was recorded to have the highest number of plant species. A survey of a neighbouring agricultural site showed very little diversity in plant species, with perennial ryegrass dominating the majority of the site. Several grass species were recorded in the brownfield site, including Yorkshire fog (H. lanatus) and sweet grass (H. odorata).
Number of plant species found at each habitat type. Credit: Aoife Cahill
The invertebrate pollinator survey also indicated the high biodiversity of the site, in which a range of bees, butterflies, and moths was recorded. Bees were the highest recorded species including the common carder (B. pascuorum), buff-tailed bumblebee (B. terrestris), and garden bumblebee (B. hortorum). Common blue (P. icarus), large white (P. brassicae), and small tortoiseshell (A. urticae) werethe butterfly species identified. One micromoth species, Ancylis badiana, was also recorded. The bird species that were identified included Rooks, Wood pigeons, Starlings, Robins, and Magpies.
Common carder bee (B. pascuorum) (on the left) and common blue butterfly (P. icarus) (on the right) found on-site. Credit: Aoife Cahill
What does it mean?
This field research is important because it could increase community awareness of how important the areas in towns and villages that are deemed to be “eyesores” could unknowingly be. It’s also important because it could be an indicator that brownfield sites could benefit the goal to increase biodiversity in the rural landscape by acting as a mosaic of different habitat types within one site located between large areas of agricultural land. While the main goal would remain to focus on protecting and promoting biodiversity on agricultural land as it makes up the majority of land use in Ireland (roughly 70%), brownfield sites could supplement the actions undertaken. Brownfield sites could benefit rare and endangered species by acting as a refuge when their natural habitats are becoming fewer and further between.
I believe that the potential benefit that brownfield sites could have to protect and promote biodiversity throughout Ireland should be given real consideration. While the land type could be deemed unorthodox, we live in a world that is changing every day and we must keep creating new ways and be open-minded to adapting to this change.
The media love to brand cloning as an apocalyptic threat that involves mad scientists, evil doppelgängers, and mutated monsters like Frankenstein. Thanks to such misconceptions, cloning discussions highly focus on the idea of human clones and what this means for our individual identity. However, much like the Sun does not revolve around the Earth, life is more than mankind. This human self-entitlement draws away from the fact that cloning can be a tool used to right our wrongs, as cloning has the potential to save species that we have endangered or even resurrect species that we have driven to extinction. But before Jurassic Park and Ice Age fans get too excited, I’m here to convince you that we should focus our cloning resources on reverting species decline rather than de-extinction. Read on with an open mind and look past the assumptions that the media have distilled in how we think and understand the science of cloning.
To demonstrate how cloning can successfully save a dying species, I am going to take you on a journey as we explore the life, death and rebirth of a clone named Elizabeth Ann. Elizabeth Ann is a black-footed ferret whose species is native to the United States. In the 1970s, this species was thought to be extinct after farmers and ranchers destroyed the main food source of black-footed ferrets, the prairie dogs.
However, a ranch dog named Shep surprised the world when he uncovered a remaining population in 1981. These surviving black-footed ferrets were monitored intensely and the population seemed to be thriving, up until they were nearly wiped out by canine distemper and sylvatic plague. The very last 18 black-footed ferrets were rounded up and taken by the Fish and Wildlife Service before it was too late. Of the remaining 18 black-footed ferrets, only 7 were successful in breeding and passing their genes onto offspring. As a result, all newborns arose from the same 7 founders, meaning all black-footed ferrets alive today are related. This incestuous existence creates a population with little genetic diversity which can wreak all sorts of havoc on the success and maintenance of a population. You see, differences and variations in genes are what enable a species to fight off diseases and better adapt to their surroundings. Without this diversity, a species is less likely to survive on this ever-changing Earth.
The black-footed ferret cloning process began when forward-thinking conservationists at the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish suggested that the cells of a female black-footed ferret, named Willa, be sent to the Frozen Zoo within the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) when she died in 1988, as Willa had a particularly diverse genome. These cells became one of the 1,100 cryopreserved (frozen) cells of rare, endangered, and even long-dead species who are silently waiting for technology to enable their return. 30 years later, Willa’s frozen cells were used to make Elizabeth Ann, along with the collaborative help from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ViaGen Pets & Equine, Revive & Restore and the SDZWA.
The cloning process involved taking eggs from sedated domestic ferrets (a related species) and replacing the nucleus and genetic material of the eggs with the contents of Willa’s cells (picturing a yolk transplant between a chicken and a duck egg helps me make sense of it). The resulting embryos were implanted into a surrogate domestic ferret and, lo and behold one embryo took and a black-footed ferret foetus was conceived. On the 10th of December 2020, Elizabeth Ann was born via C-section with tests on her 65th day revealing that she is, in fact, of the black-footed ferret species and a clone of the pre-existing Willa. The arrival of Elizabeth Ann brings new hope for the species as a broadening of the gene pool may help black-footed ferrets reproduce more easily and become more resilient to disease and environmental stressors. Therefore, cloning can aid in overcoming the genetic limitations that are disrupting the recovery of the endangered black-footed ferrets. If Elizabeth Ann successfully breeds and provides greater genetic diversity, this will legitimise cloning as a reproductive technology for the conservation management of black-footed ferrets and other endangered species.
Although cloning can be a successful way of saving living species from dying out, cloning specialists at Revive & Restore continue to work towards resurrecting extinct species such as the passenger pigeon and the woolly mammoth. But take note, bringing an extinct species back to life is very expensive, much more complicated, and highly controversial. There’s no knowing if an extinct species could even survive in the climate we have created today. So, let’s stick to what we know can work and clone to save our existing species first.
References: 1. Maio, G. (2006). Cloning in the media and popular culture: An analysis of German documentaries reveals beliefs and prejudices that are common elsewhere. EMBO reports, 7: 241-245 2. Ryder, O.A. and Benirschke, K. (1997). The potential use of “cloning” in the conservation effort. Zoo Biology: Published in affiliation with the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, 16: 295-300.
Based on the ideas discussed in: Shapiro, B. (2017). Pathways to de-extinction: how close can we get to resurrection of an extinct species?. Functional Ecology, 31: 996-100.
Irene Bottero is a 3rd year PhD student in Botany (Trinity College Dublin). She is part of PoshBee project (https://poshbee.eu/) and in her thesis she is evaluating the impact of different habitat types on pollinators, specifically, honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, and butterflies.
Elena Zioga is a 3rd year PhD student in Botany (Trinity College Dublin). She is part of PROTECTS project (https://protects.ucd.ie/) and in her thesis she is evaluating the levels of pesticide residues in pollen and nectar of plants growing in Ireland.
Getting to know them better!
The 20th of May is declared as the ‘World Bee Day’ and its purpose is to acknowledge the importance of bee pollinators in our ecosystem. Animal pollinators play an important role in the reproduction of many plant species (90% benefit from animal pollination – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2010.18644.x), including crops (crops pollinated by animals make up 35% of global food production – https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2006.3721), ensuring the abundance and good quality of fruits, nuts, and seeds, which are crucial for human nutrition. Beyond food, pollinators also contribute directly to medicines, biofuels, fibers (e.g. cotton and linen), and construction materials.
This picture shows Atlantic Bluefin Tunas (ABFT) (Thunnus thynnus) bursting through the surface to feed; just off Donegal (Ireland). ABFT are warm-blooded fish which display many physiological adaptations to regional endothermy in order to warm up their red muscle and increase their swimming performance. Swimming without stopping for thousands of kilometers every year: from spawning in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico to the cold and productive Irish, Icelandic and Norwegian waters. Such is the life history of adult ABFT. Indeed, tunas evolve in a vast habitat where food resources are scarce. The open ocean is the marine equivalent of a desert in terms of the distribution of food resources. To sustain their high metabolic rate, it is in the northern feeding grounds that adults access highly caloric prey such as herring, mackerel and scad. The incredible profile of these powerful fish tells us how crucial it is for them to swim efficiently and minimize their drag and transport costs through morphological and behavioural adaptations.
Tuna are obligate swimmers (ram ventilators), meaning they breathe passively by opening their mouth while swimming. This highlights the importance of such adaptations for the survival of these endurance champions. This picture also illustrates that ABFT are one of the best sprinters of the oceans. By maximising their energetic surplus through behavioural adaptations such as dive gliding when they travel or search for food, they are able to capitalise this energy into impressive speed burst events to catch prey. Reaching speeds of 6 to 8 m.s-1, their fast twitch white muscle allows them to lift their 200 kg out of the water!
A herbarium contains collections of dried, pressed and therefore preserved plant material. Herbaria are amassed primarily for the purposes of understanding plant evolution, biogeography and systematics but are also useful in very many other domains including, for example, pharmaceutics, climate change, ecology and conservation.
The interior of the TCD herbarium (on the left and in the middle) and a typical set of cabinets in the TCD herbarium (on the right) showing the array of preserved specimens in presses. Those specimens in red covers are type specimens – specimens which are the reference specimens for the species.
Whilst the TCD herbarium is internationally renowned it is perhaps not as well know as it should be inside the walls of TCD.
