FIU - CASE The Fragile Wild

The Coelogyne Fimbriata Pygmy Marmoset

Fragile Wild

East African Bongo Antelope

SCIENTISTS RACE TO SAVE TROPICAL SPECIES

By JoAnn C. Adkins | jadkins@fiu.edu

Grasshopper Sparrow

T

he Yachang Orchid Nature Preserve is home to 2,400 vascular plants and at least 130 species of orchids.

Rarest among those is the Geodorum eulophioides. Hong Liu will never forget the first time she laid eyes on it.

For more than eight decades, it was believed to be extinct, a victim of human progress. But there it rested in a remote corner of southwest China, not extinct but not exactly safe either.

A few years ago, a local villager illegally cleared a portion of the preserve to plant eucalyptus, an economically lucrative plant in China. With just that single crop, the farmer claimed more than half of the land that hosted the only known viable population of G. eulophioides. Liu knew time was not on her side to save the rare orchid.

She spent the next several years successfully negotiating greater

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Coelogyne Fimbriata photo by Hong Liu.

protection for the orchid, but her efforts are far from finished. She is among the many researchers in FIU’s School of Environment, Arts and Society seeking to preserve plant and animal species that call the tropics and subtropics home.

Home to the International Center for Tropical Botany and the Tropical Conservation Institute, FIU’s geographic expertise in conservation extends from South Florida to the Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa, the Pacific and Asia. These regions comprise the top global biodiversity hotspots — areas of exceptional species richness facing extraordinary threats. Combined, the International Center for Tropical Botany, dedicated to plant conservation, and the Tropical Conservation Institute, dedicated to animal conservation, account for one of the most ambitious efforts in recent years to protect and

preserve some of the most biologically rich and diverse regions of the world.

The International Center for Tropical Botany, a partnership between FIU and the National Tropical Botanical Garden, is headquartered at The Kampong, the historic estate of plant explorer David Fairchild. It brings together FIU’s botanists and the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s research team, their extraordinary tropical plant collections and Pacific Island field programs. The center is supported by a $2.5 million gift from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust and a matching $2.5 million gift from the Batchelor Foundation. FIU’s move to expand its botanical resources comes at a time when botany programs are shrinking all across the world and some are closing altogether. In the United States alone, half of the nation’s top-funded universities have eliminated

their botany programs in the past 20 years. The decision is usually an economic one.

“When threats are so high, it’s amazing that resources are being pulled,” said Christopher Baraloto, who joined FIU in 2015 as the director of the International Center for Tropical Botany.

“The tropics, in particular, have so much diversity that there’s so much we still don’t know. Without that knowledge, we have to ask ourselves, is it worth the risk to stop investing?”

Botany — the scientific study of plants — is important to many aspects of human life including the supply of food, timber, fiber, agriculture, medicine, and cosmetics. Plants support the basic daily functions of human life by providing essential ecosystem services such as the protection of watersheds, the absorption of carbon and the provision Arts & Sciences 2014-2015 | 19

Prosthechea Boothiana

of grazing lands. It’s these fundamental realities that make botany a critical area of study for the world’s growing population.

Mike Maunder, associate dean of research engagement in FIU’s College of Arts & Sciences, has devoted his career to habitat and species conservation. He has been involved with conservation projects in sub-Saharan Africa, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and the United States. Today, he carries many titles. In addition to

associate dean, he is the interim director of The Kampong and co-director of FIU’s Tropical Conservation Institute.

Last fall, Maunder went in search of plants that were known to have once populated Africa’s remote Imatong Mountains, long before war consumed the country known today as the Republic of South Sudan. Maunder and Kenyan botanist Quentin Luke began the long task of finding what remains of South Sudan’s historically rich plant life.

During 30 years of civil war, the African country experienced no conservation biology. No ecology. No biology field studies. The country’s economic infrastructure was destroyed and its universities wrecked.

South Sudan gained its independence in 2011, a welcome change to its violent history. But Maunder knows from experience that the window of opportunity to conserve and protect what remains is very tight.

He’s been there before, only last time it was Somalia.

In South Sudan, the people have begun to rebuild, posing a new threat for the country’s endangered species. A mix of tropical forests within the Imatong and grasslands and swamps to the north, South Sudan is now threatened by largescale habitat loss, falling victim to both traditional and industrial agriculture.

historic shark census catches predators on camera R

esearchers have embarked on the largest-ever attempt to survey the world’s shark and ray populations of coral reefs.

Predators are disappearing from the oceans in alarming numbers with nearly a quarter of shark, ray and skate species threatened with extinction. The lack of comprehensive and up-to-date data on

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species abundance and distribution is hindering efforts to protect and replenish these ecologically important marine animals.

Deploying baited underwater video equipment, researchers hope to catch the ocean’s top predators on camera in their natural habitats. More than 400 reef locations will be surveyed during

The imbalance for conservation isn’t just being felt by South Sudan’s plant life. Maunder says the forests are silent. What wildlife remained after the fighting ended is now being devoured by people starved of protein. Maunder and other conservationists are looking for a solution that allows the people to thrive without destroying the country’s biodiversity. That balance has become a core focal point for both the International Center for Tropical Botany and the Tropical Conservation Institute.

“The advantage of FIU is that we already have a large group of biologists working in the tropics that bring a level of expertise that is urgently needed,” Maunder said. “And we are magnifying those resources through strategic collaborations with our institutional partners.”

Though their work often takes them to far-off places like China and South Sudan, there is plenty of work still to be done much closer to home. Embedded throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, FIU researchers are racing the clock in the Amazon to catalogue species, preserve what remains and begin the arduous journey of restoring populations of plants and animals that have been depleted by humans.

Formed in partnership with the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation

the three-year project dubbed Global FinPrint. The project is focusing on three key geographic regions where data gaps exist — Indo-Pacific, tropical western Atlantic, and southern and eastern Africa and Indian Ocean islands. Mike Heithaus, FIU marine biologist and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, is part of the international team of researchers.

“Recent estimates suggest around 100 million sharks are taken from the oceans every year for their fins and meat.

This is resulting in severe population declines for some species, and many of the species that are in trouble live in coastal habitats like coral reefs,” Heithaus said. “This could be a big problem for

(RSCF), the Tropical Conservation Institute is supported by a $5 million challenge grant from the Batchelor Foundation. From majestic creatures including reef sharks to tiny primates, the institute is one of North America’s only academic hubs for tropical conservation located in a top hotspot. Paul Reillo, RSCF’s founding president and fellow in the School of Environment, Arts and Society, serves as co-director of the Tropical Conservation Institute. For more than 20 years, Reillo has taken a hands-on approach to biodiversity conservation, developing novel husbandry, management and restoration methods for endangered species. The field-oriented population biologist, ecological geneticist and environmental engineer has led a variety of captive breeding programs that are helping to stop extinctions throughout the tropics.

Among the institute’s target species is the pygmy marmoset, the world’s smallest monkey, easily fitting in the palm of a human hand. They are found in the Amazon, living in the rainforest along rivers and streams. While not currently endangered, pygmy marmosets are considered a species of special concern.

Humans continue to encroach on their habitat and the pet trade serves as a major threat. Tropical Conservation Institute scientists are leveraging this tiny

and charismatic species to help protect the vast expanses of rapidly vanishing Amazonian forests in which they reside.

In addition to the pygmy marmoset, ambitious conservation projects are currently under way for the East African bongo antelope, sharks, Amazon parrots and many others. The philosophy is simple — protect and recover flagship species — which helps ecosystems and helps other species and people that live within those ecosystems. Some of the work focuses on captive-breeding programs, but the end goal is fieldbased conservation of wild populations and habitats.

In Florida, the institute recently embarked on a historic effort to save a local species of bird that is fighting extinction. Seven Florida grasshopper sparrows, among the world’s most endangered birds, are under the care of Tropical Conservation Institute researchers. Less than 100 male Florida grasshopper sparrows are accounted for in Central Florida, their only known habitat. Five of the seven sparrows were taken as tiny chicks from nests likely to fail and hand-reared from five days of age. The other two were parent-reared, and all are youngsters from this year’s summer breeding season. These seven tiny songbirds are the first of their kind to be raised in a captive setting.

“The plight of these sparrows is, unfortunately, a common theme throughout the tropics and subtropics,” Reillo said. “The Tropical Conservation Institute is designed to address the critical issues driving wildlife to extinction and declines in biodiversity-rich ecosystems. These little sparrows, and all the species fighting for survival on this changing planet, are why we’re here.”

Researchers throughout the College of Arts & Sciences hope to build a foundation for future scientists that will work to preserve the diversity of life on the planet.

Plant by plant and animal by animal, the teams within FIU’s International Center for Tropical Botany and Tropical Conservation Institute are racing the clock to discover, protect and restore. Their missions are closely intertwined because their subjects are so closely intertwined. Their research and conservation efforts are giving some of the planet’s most vulnerable species a fighting chance at survival.

But even more importantly, these teams of researchers are preparing the next generation — one that will carry the charge of stewarding a natural world

these ecosystems because sharks and rays, which are also in trouble in many places, may be important for maintaining healthy ecosystems. This global survey will fill in data gaps that could help governments, fisheries and others better understand and conserve these important predators.”

The new data will be consolidated with thousands of hours of existing video data to form a single dataset for analysis, producing the first global standardized survey of shark, ray and skates in coral reef environments.

With a $4 million pledge from Microsoft Co-Founder Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc., Global FinPrint is one of

several initiatives within Allen’s portfolio of ocean health programs.

Survey data will be made available in 2018 through an open-access database platform created by Vulcan’s technology development team and will include information on species density, habitats and diversity trends. Researchers,

policymakers, governments and others will be able to use this database to help inform conservation priorities, such as identifying and protecting areas with large or important shark populations, and to better understand the ecological importance of sharks as apex predators. n

shredded by human demand.

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Prosthechea Boothiana photo by Mario Cisneros.

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