Martin Richardson

To survive climate change, scientists say protected areas need ‘climate-smart’ planning Protected areas such as national parks, nature reserves and Indigenous lands are the foundation of biodiversity conservation. However, climate change is threatening their effectiveness in…

🌍 Are protected areas ready for climate change?

As ecosystems shift, scientists urge a rapid shift to “climate-smart” conservation. New efforts like the CAPA initiative aim to climate-proof PAs in Africa, Fiji & Belize.

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The invasive species meme. Taking on a life of its own.
“That’s a snakehead catfish kill everyone you find.”

Blue crab management plan revision runs into rough waters | Coastal Review Proposed limits on the commercial harvest of blue crabs faces critics who say the management plan amendment is based on a benchmark stock assessment using data from 1995 to 2016.

Same old story: stock declines, managers respond, fishers object, decline continues…
And sometimes becomes invasive elsewhere.

coastalreview.org/2025/03/blue...

Proposed Fish & Wildlife rules could shake up Vermont’s little-known panfish market - VTDigger Small-time anglers have sold crappies, perch and other small freshwater fish commercially in the state for decades, but Vermont is rare in allowing the practice.

Small scale fisheries in the United States.
vtdigger.org/2025/03/30/p...

And let’s not forget increasing recent connections being formed ever more rapidly, or indeed the separations that are now occurring.

An Italian beach town in Tuscany is invaded by midges. Residents seek emergency declaration to cope Residents of the Tuscany beach enclave of Orbetello are seeking a state of emergency declaration to help combat an invasion of midges that are keeping people indoors and threatening businesses caterin...

Local fishers believe that an irruption of midges affecting the economy of the area is due to fish die-off in 2024.
phys.org/news/2025-03...

Be Part of Glasgow's Nature Story - Join Us! 🌱
📅 Workshop Date: Tomorrow! Thurs, 12th Dec
🕑 3-4:30 PM OR 5:30-7 PM
📍 ARC, Uni of Glasgow
💡 Help design, share ideas, enjoy tea, snacks, & a £10 voucher. Travel/childcare covered!
📸: Charlie, Isaac & Emily
👉 Sign up here: forms.office.com/e/zRzyx5PN25

Avian flu suspected on South Africa’s remote Marion Island Half of world’s population of wandering albatross could be at risk

Devastating effects of bird flu on wildlife on Marion island where one of the most expensive programs to eradicate invasive cats and rodents has continued for decades.
www.nature.com/articles/d44...

What Lives in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Synthetic materials like plastic, abundant since their invention, are generating a new ecological community: the neopelagic. Here, coastal and pelagic species converge, thriving on rafts of litter …

A new marine biome, the 'neopelagoic'. Another dilemma for the invasive species fundamentalists.
novelecology.com/2024/08/31/w...

Loss of migratory fish in rivers worldwide has had wider detrimental effects on biodiversity.

Excellent discussion regarding the effects of some of the thousands of xenobiotics in our waters.

Declines are probably due to many factors. American eel numbers have reduced greatly over the same period.

YouTube video by Lamprey Control A Lampricide Treatment: Up Close

Here’s a homy video by the good folks at the Great Lakes fisheries commission. Don’t drink the yellow water!

youtu.be/xJ80mh2cYWY

How scientists claimed victory over an invasive Great Lakes bloodsucker The invasive sea lamprey was chomping through the North American region’s native fish, until scientists made a fortuitous discovery.

More dodgy ‘invasion science’. They’ll be around for another’50-60’ years according to the article. Doubling down on use of massive quantities of lampricide that is known to affect the ecosystem in several ways in response to pressure from fishers.

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Pollution comes in many forms, sewage, livestock waste, pesticides & fertilizer, landfills, mines, and road runoff Everything ends up in the river. The emphasis on non-native species is used as an excuse by agriculture and other major polluters. www.npr.org/2024/11/29/n...

Confused about climate. Dismayed by dishonest research? This might help youtube.com/watch?v=yULd...

Red Lake Nation and Minnesota DNR disagree on how to combat zebra mussels Until 2018, Upper Lake and Lower Red Lake remained the only large walleye lake in the state still free from zebra mussels. That year the DNR announced it had found zebra mussel veliger — the tiny larv...

www.mprnews.org/story/2024/1...

These types of sites are popular history. There were still extensive freshwater fisheries and fishing communities. However,they do not consider for example the xenobiotics, the vast majority of wich (10s of thousands) are recent and haven’t ever been assessed.

Certainly in rivers in the UK, pollution has reached such high levels in the past that they have periodically been declared ‘biologically dead’. But this is a bit of exaggeration. There are also papers that summarize the effects of other events like sewage releases.

Learnt my first Bluesky lesson today. Got sent the same basic question repeatedly and tried to answer the person as best I could. They then reposted to anew thread and deleted all their posts to try and make it appear as if I was trolling them. My advice is just give up after the first attempt.

Then please don’t propagate science denial. ‘Some rivers are cleaner than they have been for hundreds of years’ is patently false.

Then please don’t propagate science denial. ‘Some rivers are cleaner than they have been for hundreds of years’ is patently false.

captive birds and bird market

Overharvesting of wildlife for trade is a key driver of biodiversity loss. Our new paper besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... led by Harry Marshall explores the efficacy of messaging aligned with people's values in reducing trade impacts through behaviour change #Ornithology 🌏🧪🪶 1/

There really isn't any good reason for the continued used of lead for these purposes. And plenty of evidence for negative health consequences for people as well as being bad news for the rest of nature. So please add your name to this petition.

Livestock grazing is preventing the return of rainforests to the UK and Ireland The meat industry is competing with native forest for the same land.

Great starter pack!
My background is in ecology. I work on behaviour changes towards more plant-based diets for climate, health and biodiversity. Possibly a bit tangential, but if you think it's enough of a fit I'd be delighted to be added!
theconversation.com/livestock-gr...

Based on the authors’ response it looks like it may be more akin to agency capture’ with UKCEH getting in bed with the polluters so to speak. I’ve also heard it called ‘playing the game’. The researcher then gets compensated indirectly by being awarded funding or studenships, etc.

Climate Change Tree Atlas - a tool for assessing tree habitat suitability across the eastern United States search.app/VrEo5XDGMF5i...

I would go as far as to say that in the Anthropocene, we need to redefine what nature means.

I was suggesting that deliberately skewing research to minimize the effects of environmental crimes is bad.

There’s a history of denial going back a few years with statements suggesting the Thames was the cleanest river in Western Europe, another favorite was that the river is supposed to be brown. I wouldn’t call it greenwashing, didn’t you read the definition I posted? Obfuscation is better.