We sent out this media release the other day, but it had pretty poor pick-up (are people sick of the carbon price wars?). Anyway, I thought it prudent to reprint here on CB.com.
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Will Australia's biodiversity benefit from the new carbon economy designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Or will bio-'perversities' win the day?
"Cautious optimism" was the conclusion of
I have been preparing to lead a one day workshop on the recovery of the endangered Ohlone tiger beetle. The purpose of the workshop is for all of the managers, land owners, and regulators, such as from the City Parks, State Parks, Fish and Wildlife, to come together to discuss the status, research, management, and future of the Ohlone tiger beetle. That means that I will be presenting ALL of my research to the people that can actually apply the results to protect the Ohlone tiger beetle. In other words, this workshop is more important than my written dissertation or my exit seminar (coming soon!) in regards to the future existence of the beetle.
Ohlone tiger beetles can persist with management
T. Cornelisse
To prepare for the workshop, I have not only created presentations in a way that relates all of my science directly to management actions, but also present realistic actions that can be done by all of the organizations involved. I have been fortunate to work closely with many of the managers, including Santa Cruz City Parks and UC Santa Cruz, to test these management actions and prove their practicality and benefit to the beetle. I also understand what actions they are logistically capable of carrying out. In order to sum it all up, I was able to create a 1 page management guide that hopefully will be a go-to guide for Ohlone tiger beetle conservation. I have found that while human actions caused their endangerment, our actions are the key to their persistence.
I must admit, I am becoming pretty emotional during these last months of my research, leaving behind (Location TBD 
) the fate of the Ohlone tiger beetle into the hands of others. I have worked hard to determine how we can manage the beetle’s habitat and populations and believe I have some solid management recommendations that will do just that. Fortunately, the Ohlone tiger beetle lives in an area with intelligent, caring, and conscientious managers and land owners. Also fortunately, it is federally protected so as long as the Endangered Species Act is in place, the Ohlone tiger beetle will have a chance….and I’ll be back to check on them.
Last month, my partner and I vacationed in one of our favorite places: Hawai’i. We took our first trip to Kaua’i and I was stunned by the natural beauty of the island. Truly remarkable. I was also pleasantly surprised by the number of protected areas and the conservation happening on the island, in addition to the Na Pali coast and Koke’e and Waimea Canyon State Parks. Here are a few examples accompanied by some of my vacation photos :
The birds of Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge
Rock with artificial Shearwater nests
Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge- Kilauea NWR is best known for the historic lighthouse that sits at the end of the point, but the real conservation value of this refuge are the cliffs that attract thousands of migrating and nesting seabirds. We saw many red-footed boobies building their nests in trees, landing on thin, wobbly tree limbs. We also saw Great Frigate birds, Laysan Albatrosses, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Newell’s Shearwaters and Red-tailed tropic birds. Volunteers regularly remove invasive plants from the cliffs and restore native plants to keep the bird habitat open for nesting. In addition to the cliffs, there is a large lava rock off the point, just across from the lighthouse, where they have dumped dirt in efforts to attract nesting birds. Realizing that the semi-permanent Shearwater nests (which are burrows in the ground) were collapsing in the fresh, decompacted dirt, the managers added pipes to form structured burrows and, according to the volunteers, the birds use the artificial nests successfully!
Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge
Nenes!
Black-crowned night heron
Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge: We stumbled on this place accidentally: as we got out of the car to take a photo of beautiful taro fields, a ranger promptly pulled up and said that we were not allowed to get out of the car along the road, unless we were residents (which we clearly were not). After she explained that it was a refuge and that there was a hike with parking a little ways down the road , we went to check it out. After discovering that it was a mosquito filled swamp area, we opted not to do the hike, but we managed to get a few good pictures of the birds- including the Nenes! Nenes are endemic to Hawai’i and are the Hawai’ian state bird. Nenes are the world’s rarest goose and are threatened by introduced predators and habitat destruction. Luckily, because of conservation efforts, including captive breeding, and habitat protection, like the Hanalei NWR, the Nenes are increasing on Kaua’i. There are some 45 additional bird species that use the Refuge, we saw Hawai’ian Coots, Hawai’ian Moorhen, Hawai’ian Stilts and a Black-Crowned Night Heron. Many of these birds use the wetland-like taro fields.
Sign in front of a residence, protesting GMOs on Kaua’i
A’ole GMOs- Driving around Kaua’i, I noticed the many yard signs and bumper stickers that said things like “A’ole GMOs” or “Keep Kaua’i GMO free”. Doing a little more research, I discovered that Hawai’i has become a testing ground for GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), particularly genetically engineered (GE) crops by large corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta. Testing GMOs potentially brings great risk to the environmental and human health, as scientists are unsure about the effects of GMOs on natural plant communities, especially if GMOs breed with non-modified crops. The GMO testing also has brought more pesticide spraying to Hawai’i and the residents are no longer sitting by as their island becomes a testing ground. Hawai’i may well become the first state to pass required labeling of GMO foods with the likely soon-to-pass House Bill 174. Hawai’ians seem especially concerned with keeping their staple crop, taro, unmodified and free from the effects of GMOs. Hawai’ians consider taro as an ancestor and it is an integral part of their culture and family. Thus, any form of GE taro is currently banned.
Monk Seal at Ke’e beach- picture taken with zoom- I didn’t get that close!
Me keeping my distance from this magnificent animal- note the homemade looking sign
Hawai’ian Monk Seal Conservation- Not only are monk seals extremely cute, but their conservation status represents the larger problem of ocean pollution. Hunting nearly killed-off the monk seals by the late 19th century and they are still declining due to a plethora of threats. One of the biggest threats to these critically endangered species is death by fishing gear. Monk seals easily become entangled in fishing debris such as nets and ropes that can strangle them to death or prevent them from eating. Monk seals can also be caught in active fishing nets as bycatch. While efforts to clean marine debris and working with fisherman to reduce bycatch can address thesethreats, monk seals are also threatened by behavioral disturbance (including abandoned pups) and disease caused by interaction with humans on beaches. Managers have addressed this threat by posting signs around Monk Seals whenever they come to shore and, in fact, there are signs at most beaches that can be put up as a seal comes to the shore. To learn more, check out this video on Monk Seal conservation.
When people find out that I study the Ohlone tiger beetle, many of them ask “how many are there?”. This is an obvious and good question to ask, but it is very difficult to answer and actually may not even be that important. Of course, you need a healthy (i.e. large) population size to make sure you have enough individuals to breed and make sure you have a genetically diverse population, but what does that really mean? 50 individuals? 100? 1,000? 10,000? One way conservation biologists figure out if a population is healthy and viable, or will persist in the future, is by using population viability analysis.
Population viability analysis not only tells you if a population is actually increasing or decreasing but it also tells you which stage or age in an organisms life cycle is the one that limits population growth AND you can model extinction probability into the future. On top of all that, you can even add in to population models how different management actions- like creating bare ground scrapes or making bikes slow down- will affect the population growth rate. Pretty cool. Of course, it is a model and so isn’t always entirely accurate, but it is a great tool to look at relative population growth rates.
Me checking to see if a larva transitioned to the next stage- I marked the corners of this gridded quadrat with metal markers, which I later found with a metal detector!
Creating a population viability model is not super simple because it requires a lot of data…a lot. That is because you need information on every life stage or age and how each of those stages grow and survive to be the next stage or age and once the organisms reach reproductive age, how many babies they have and if those babies survive. Whew. Luckily, tiger beetles have a life history that is just begging to be modeled- their growth and survival are so easy to track because once an egg is laid, the larva stays in the same place until it pupates and becomes
1st, 2nd, and 3rd stage (instar) larval burrows!
an adult beetle AND you can tell if it has grown by the size of the burrow opening. So I just marked the areas with eggs and came back every so often to check to see if it was alive and if it transitioned to the next larval stage- of which tiger beetles have 3. Then, I counted the adults and put it all into a matrix model!- yes, it is fancy.
Surprisingly and happily, I found that most (but not all) of the beetle populations are viable and will not go extinct- as long as they continue to be managed- in the near future. Also, it turns out that the survival of the eggs is a limiting factor to Ohlone tiger beetle population growth. I also found that while making bikes slow down does help, creating bare ground habitat for the beetles really increases their population growth.
So yes, there are probably around 2,000 beetles at any given time in the whole of Santa Cruz County (~100-700/population), but the more important question is: will there be more in the future? Let’s hope so.
