Time for artificial planet coolers? A cooling 鈥渟unshade鈥� for the planet could reduce harmful coral bleaching and the number of hurricanes, which damage reefs.

With the effects of climate change becoming increasingly apparent, the idea of squirting a cloud of sulphate aerosols into the upper atmosphere is being investigated by several groups of scientists. This would scatter some of the sun鈥檚 rays back into space, reducing the rate at which the Earth is warming.

Now a study by at the University of Bedfordshire, UK, and his colleagues examines what this form of geoengineering would do to the Caribbean region and its fragile reefs. 鈥淐orals are the rainforests of the sea, and if you lose them the impacts on ecosystems and people would be complex and far-reaching,鈥� says Crabbe.

The team used computer models to simulate both the changing climate and rising seas between 2020 and 2069. They then modelled what would happen if solar radiation was artificially reduced. 鈥淲e show very convincingly that, by injecting sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere, sea surface temperatures would decrease significantly by 2069,鈥� says Crabbe.

Hold back the hurricanes

When the sea is too warm, corals expel the tiny algae living in their tissues, which feed their hosts through photosynthesis. The corals turn white or 鈥渂leached鈥�. After severe bleaching, most corals starve to death. Keeping temperatures down prevented this in the model.

But bleaching is not the only threat. According to Crabbe, solar radiation management would also reduce the frequency of hurricanes. These intense storms 鈥渄estroy coral reefs, not only by smashing them, but also by limiting their reproduction and recruitment鈥�: drifting larvae cannot attach themselves to a new reef in choppy waters. Crabbe says hurricanes would still occur, but not as frequently, giving the reefs some time to recover.

鈥淥ne of the main concerns with solar radiation management is not necessarily its effectiveness, but its side effects,鈥� says at the University of Oxford. For example, 鈥渋t could disrupt regional weather patterns and monsoons鈥�, which would be a problem because many people rely on predictable seasonal cycles for tasks like farming.

Back to normal

There is also the risk that geoengineering systems could be suddenly turned off. 鈥淲hat if the system was stopped through a terrorist attack?鈥� asks Bellamy. 鈥淕lobal temperatures would jump back to where they would have been without geoengineering.鈥� If greenhouse gas emissions had not been cut in the meantime, 鈥渢hat could be a very sharp rise鈥�.

Crabbe admits that 鈥渨e don鈥檛 know鈥� what would happen to the marine environment鈥� in that scenario. 鈥淏ut the situation is currently so extreme that we have to make provisions.鈥�

at Harvard University has suggested an alternative, less aggressive way to cool the seas: increasing the reflectivity of the oceans with tiny air bubbles that could be delivered cheaply by ships or oil rigs. 鈥淢icrobubble lifetimes听are measured in minutes, as opposed to the months needed to turn stratospheric aerosols on and off, so brightening the water may afford better local control than dimming the sun,鈥� he says.

But this would be a local solution, not a global one.

Other researchers have proposed brightening the clouds over coral reefs, which would cool only that area, and reducing ocean acidification 鈥� another threat to corals caused by greenhouse gas emissions 鈥� by adding minerals to the ocean to neutralise the acid.

A school-age boy has rediscovered an Ecuadorian frog considered extinct for at least 30 years. The animal has now successfully bred in captivity.

The colourful Jambato harlequin frog (Atelopus ignescens) was once so widespread in Ecuador that it turned up in people鈥檚 homes, was something children played with and was used as an ingredient in traditional medicine. Then it was suddenly wiped out, probably by a combination of climate change and fungal disease.

鈥淚t was such a long-standing presence in the Ecuadorian community that we would have never conceived it could disappear,鈥� says Luis Coloma of the .

But it did. Until now, that is.

In 2016, the centre offered a $1000 cash prize for anyone able to find the lost frog, not expecting success but hoping to raise awareness of amphibian conservation.

Against the odds, a young boy and his family found a small colony of Jambato harlequins, securing the survival of the species and funds for the boy鈥檚 education.

The researchers then faced the huge task of getting the 43 individuals rescued from the wild to reproduce in the lab.

鈥淔or several months, the frogs would mate but never lay eggs,鈥� Coloma recalls. 鈥淪o we decided to move them to an outdoor enclosure.

鈥淲hen we finally discovered the eggs, we felt like Thomas Edison must have felt seeing an electric bulb lighting for the first time. It was extraordinary,鈥� says Coloma.

The resulting tadpoles are strong and feeding well. at Southern Illinois University says that the rediscovery of frogs thought extinct has been an encouraging trend over the past few years. However, 鈥渢he population is always small, and this naturally puts its survival at risk鈥�, he says.

He says that despite being a painstaking and expensive job, lab breeding can be the 鈥渓ast resort鈥� against extinction.

Andrew Gray at the University of Manchester, UK, says captive breeding is critical for preventing vulnerable amphibians being wiped out by the next wave of disease or the tiniest change in their natural environment. 鈥淭hese frogs could disappear at any time, so if scientists manage to aid their reproduction, that鈥檚 a safety net for the future.鈥�

Gray says that the team鈥檚 achievement of breeding these frogs is significant and will bolster similar work on endangered frog species all over the world. 鈥淐oloma has been testing different types of tadpole food,鈥� says Gray. 鈥淟earning from their results, we are now able to feed our captive tadpoles, which are also at risk of extinction, with great success.鈥�

A tiny ancient shrimp found only in a single small lake tucked away in the mountains of central Italy could soon disappear, as a combined result of climate change and an earthquake that hit the area last year.

The fairy shrimp (Chirocephalus marchesonii) has evolved from a species native to the Himalayan region. Its ancestors are thought to have reached the Appennine range during the last ice age, after their eggs latched onto the feet of migratory birds.

鈥淥ver the millennia, the shrimp has adapted to the specific environment of Lake Pilato, and its reproductive cycle is in sync with the seasonal hydrologic balance of the basin,鈥� says Maria Gaetana Barelli of the Sibillini Park authority. The species is unique among freshwater shrimps in the area for its Asian origins, offering clues on the movement of animal species in prehistoric times.

Barelli says that to hatch, the shrimp鈥檚 eggs need such a complex combination of environmental parameters that her five-year-long research project wasn鈥檛 enough to make them hatch in captivity. This is why she is concerned that the crustacean may go extinct if the small lake it inhabits undergoes significant environmental changes.

Big shock

鈥淭he major earthquake that struck the region last summer has certainly caused deep shocks in the water system of these mountains,鈥� says Alessandro Rossetti, a biologist with the Sibillini Park authority. 鈥淭he water levels in the basin are abnormally low this year, and we still don鈥檛 know if this is due to a disruption of the aquifer. If that was the case, the lake would permanently dry out and this unique shrimp would disappear.鈥�

A group of scientists flew drones over the lake and analysed its biochemistry, looking at factors such as temperature and acidity to gain insight into the underground water system that feeds the basin. However, more research is needed to establish whether the earthquake has fatally damaged it.

The shrimp can survive long dry spells because it buries its eggs under the lake bed, where they can remain alive and intact for more than a year until conditions are right to hatch. Hikers are the most immediate threat to the eggs, because they kill most of them by walking on dry areas of the lake bed.

However, the scientists鈥� main concern is climate change. 鈥淔rom 1990 onwards, we recorded an increasing number of hot years with abnormally low water levels,鈥� says Rossetti.

Uncertain future

鈥淚 am very worried about the shrimp鈥檚 fate 鈥� it鈥檚 a precious animal,鈥� says Barelli. 鈥淢y concern is that this year, because the water is already so low, the individuals present in the lake might not have the time to mature sexually and lay their eggs before the basin dries out.鈥�

But this shrimp is not the only species here that sees its survival threatened.

In a valley not far from Lake Pilato, another endemic shrimp (C. sibyllae) depends on the regular seasonal cycle of the pond where it reproduces and goes idle for a few months every year. Like C. marchesonii, this crustacean鈥檚 survival is tied to the availability of water when it matures and lays eggs.

Barelli says the risk of extinction would turn into a certainty should the basin fail to replenish for more than a year.

Paolo Guarino, a geologist at the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, says there is a need for more historical data to 鈥渧erify whether the water balance is being tipped 鈥� namely, if more water leaves the area and its basins than enters them鈥�.

A little striped fish that lives among rocks in Lake Tanganyika in East Africa has the unexpected ability to recognise individual faces, which it uses to keep menacing strangers in sight.

The cichlid (Julidochromis transcriptus) identifies unfamiliar individuals by looking at the pattern around their eyes rather than at other body parts such as their fins or trunk, researchers have discovered.

While facial recognition has been tested in some mammals, including apes, and in birds, animals such as fish or wasps were erroneously thought to have brains too simple for the task. After recent research showed that , the Tanganyikan cichlid has now demonstrated how facial recognition is used in the wild.

Because the fish lives in rock crevices hidden by vegetation on the lakebed, only a small part of its body tends to be visible at any given time. This prompted the researchers to investigate which body element most attracts the fish鈥檚 attention.

鈥淚f this fish used only the face to recognise others, that would show that 鈥榝ace鈥� is an important social cue,鈥� says of Osaka City University in Japan.

Wary of strangers

The researchers isolated eight adult males from a group of familiar individuals and placed them in a tank. There they were exposed to digital models of other individuals with a combination of familiar and unfamiliar features on their faces and bodies. 鈥淲e found that our subjects were especially guarded against only unfamiliar face models, regardless of body type,鈥� says Hotta.

The males spent longer following the unfamiliar faces as the model moved around the tank, a sign that they were monitoring a potential threat, using their ability to distinguish unique facial patterns.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not so much the recognition itself that is difficult, but the fact that they use recognition suggests that they are keeping track of relationships with each other and that鈥檚 where things may get complicated,鈥� says of Cornell University in New York. This shows a sophisticated processing ability, he says.

鈥淔ish are generally lowly regarded,鈥� says of the University of Southampton, UK. 鈥淥ne example is the widespread but false notion that goldfish only have a 3-second memory.鈥�

However, much like mammals, fish 鈥渃an have complex lives and consequently need a number of cognitive abilities with which to carry out a range of behaviours鈥�.

Collins notes that the whole field of determining animal intelligence is dogged by a long history of 鈥渋nappropriate testing 鈥榩roving鈥� that one species is more intelligent than another鈥�. This is why, he says, 鈥渢his new research is noteworthy, having devised a valid testing environment extending the recognition capability to a new group鈥�.

Read more: Manta rays are first fish to recognise themselves in a mirror

Building a network of artificial, cool retreats in the forest may be the last resort for China鈥檚 vulnerable giant pandas, as climate change threatens the iconic mammal with extinction.

New data about habitat temperature and panda distribution, collected across six mountains along the Chinese edge of the Tibetan plateau, confirm what climate models have been suggesting for a while: the animal is struggling to survive as its natural habitat gets hotter.

Researchers found that areas within the pandas鈥� habitat, that were exposed to a potential heat stress of up to 30 掳C had increased from 332 to 4482 square kilometres over the past 40 years.

Guozhen Shen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, says previous studies showed that 25掳C is the threshold for giant pandas to suffer heat stress, since they are adapted to cool mountain climes.

A consistently warm environment can cause dehydration and metabolic problems in giant pandas, also affecting their reproduction abilities and their cubs鈥� health. To escape the heat, they have to move to cooler mountainous areas where foraging becomes more difficult.

Bamboo boom or bust?

Their specific bamboo diet could be affected too, although scientists are not sure how this will pan out. While there is a risk that the bamboo might mass-bloom and die, there is also a chance that it will simply grow stronger and more abundant, says Shen.

Artificial microhabitats could shield pandas, at least in the short term, from these and other heat related impacts. According to the researchers, they could look like a patchwork of retreats and maternity dens built close to streams.

The constructions would take advantage of the natural features of each forest patch to protect the animals from the sun and enhance the number and comfort of cool spaces. For example, they could have narrow entrances to keep the heat out and interior chambers offering respite to adults and cubs, which are particularly prone to illness under extreme heat.

The researchers added that planting more trees and bamboo in selected areas could also provide additional food and canopy cover. Building a significant number of such oases around the pandas鈥� distribution area would also allow them move more easily across vast areas.

Facilitating migration is especially important, says Calum Brown of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

Fragmented habitat

鈥淭his species has been restricted to a fragmented series of habitat patches, and numbers are so low that they are at obvious risk of loss of genetic diversity and ability to withstand change,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he existing isolated and partially unsuitable islands of giant panda habitat need to be expanded and connected if the species is to survive.鈥�

However, according to giant panda expert Kati Loeffler, climate change is only one threat to the bear鈥檚 survival. 鈥淭he main challenges remain related to human activity, legal or illegal, throughout the purportedly protected areas,鈥� she says.

This includes the impact of dams, roads mines and even of domestic animals from nearby settlements. 鈥淭he addition of new reserve areas, which are effectively just a few more small islands for a few pandas, will not address the key factors that are compromising survival of wild panda populations,鈥� Loeffler says.

Read more: Giant pandas鈥� secret social life revealed

A newly discovered glass frog species whose beating heart is visible through its chest is already feared to be in danger, because its habitat is threatened by oil exploitation.

The frog (Hyalinobatrachium yaku), identified through a combination of fieldwork in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador and DNA sequencing in the lab, displays unique physical and behavioural traits.

The dark green spots on its back and its call and reproductive behaviour mark it out as different from already known frogs.

鈥淢ales guard the eggs, which are attached below a tree鈥檚 leaves, until they hatch and fall on the below water stream,鈥� says Juan Guayasamin, of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, in Ecuador. 鈥淚 work with frogs every day and this is one of the most beautiful species I have ever seen.鈥�

鈥淣ot all glass frogs have hearts that are visible through the chest. In some, the heart itself is white, so you don鈥檛 see the red blood,鈥� says Paul Hamilton, of US non-profit organisation the Biodiversity Group.

Under threat

It鈥檚 not known why different species have different levels of transparency, but this frog 鈥渨ill help us understand the evolutionary pattern that led to frogs being glass-like鈥�,

鈥淎mphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class on the planet,鈥� says Ariadne Angulo of the amphibian specialist group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 鈥淭he group鈥檚 species richness has not been fully discovered yet. Since 2005, we have been identifying between 100 and 200 new amphibian species per year.鈥�

Far fewer new mammals and birds are discovered, because a higher proportion of species have already been described, says Angulo. However, she adds, 鈥渂ecause there are so many undiscovered amphibian species out there, given our current rate of environmental degradation, some may become extinct before we even know them鈥�.

Glass frogs need pristine streams to breed. 鈥淚f the stream dries up, or becomes polluted, the frogs can鈥檛 survive, and other more resilient creatures may be next,鈥� notes Hamilton.

We don鈥檛 yet know enough about the new species to establish whether it is would be officially deemed as threatened. 鈥淲e do know, however, that its habitat is rapidly disappearing. Oil production has expanded greatly in this species鈥� range, and road building is rampant,鈥� says Hamilton.

He fears that these issues will get much worse. 鈥淲e hope that discoveries like this glass frog can help raise awareness of what more there is to be lost with continued fossil fuel extraction, apart from what we already know about climate change,鈥� he says.

Read more: Incredible shrinking frogs: The price of deforestation?听

The endangered Egyptian vulture, which is disappearing in Europe and globally at an alarming rate, could bounce back thanks to the presence of landfills.

The Egyptian vulture population has declined in places such as the Iberian peninsula, where it has fallen by 25 per cent over the last two decades because of multiple threats such as poisoning, illegal persecution and collision with power lines.

Regulations that prevent farmers from leaving animal carcasses in the open have also deprived the scavengers of their natural source of food.

But in central Catalonia in Spain, the Egyptian vulture is defying gloomy predictions. 鈥淭he birds have been multiplying and even expanding their reach, colonising areas where they were historically absent,鈥� says Joan Real at the University of Barcelona.

Real and his team monitored the birds from 1988 to 2014 in an area covering 10.5 square kilometres. They mapped inhabited nesting sites and identified potential areas for new nests. They then regularly visited the sites in the March-to-August breeding season to determine any changes in numbers.

The team found that between these years, the population leaped from one to 25 breeding pairs, which mostly dwelled and reproduced close to landfills.

Large dump sites are among the food resources that human activities unintentionally provide to animals, but conservation programmes sometimes involve the creation of sites where food is dispensed intentionally, known as 鈥渞estaurants鈥�.

鈥淲e studied the distribution of the nests in relation to landfills and to vulture restaurants,鈥� says Real. 鈥淲e were surprised to discover that the vultures seem to prefer landfills to restaurants鈥�.

Why there?

鈥淰ultures are very sensitive to various toxins,鈥� says Chris Bowden of the vulture specialist group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 鈥淚n a landfill, you would find all sorts of nasty things. It makes you wonder what really makes them so attractive to these birds.鈥�

The team observed that the vultures tend to choose less busy waste dumps where they are not disturbed by people and can nest in the surrounding rocky areas.

However, more research is needed to get to the bottom of this. 鈥淲e know where the birds live, but we still need to investigate their foraging habits and how they use the land,鈥� says Real.

But landfills are disappearing and the European Commission has been trying to halt the building of new open-air ones. 鈥淐arcasses become less available in this more sanitary world, and scavengers increasingly rely on anthropogenic food sources,鈥� says Louis Phipps of the WILD Foundation in Oxford, UK. 鈥淩egulators should look for ways to replace what the Egyptian vultures are getting from the landfills with a more natural food supply.鈥�

Given that in most European countries, Spain included, regulations restrict the distribution of carcasses, he believes that 鈥渁uthorities should look at adapting the legislation within certain areas for the benefit of the species鈥�.

Journal reference: Ibis, DOI: