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News and Opinion

Coverage of keystone species since September 26, 2022.

Massachusetts moves to protect horseshoe crabs during spawning

"...The animals have been declining in some of their range, and theyre critically important as a food source for the red knot, a migratory shorebird listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act..."

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Fighting for Wildlife in a Time of War Hakai Magazine

"...Once common in eastern Europe and central Asia, kulan (Equus hemionus kulan) have been on the International Union for Conservation of Natures Red List of Threatened Species since 1994, with their population now classed as endangered and severely fragmented. The 20 donkeys released onto the steppe in late December 2021 were the second such reintroductionthe first was in May of the previous yearas part of an effort to rewild the larger Danube Delta region in Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. Here, a constellation of organizations, supported by Rewilding Europe, has been working to restore a landscape scarred by industrialization and diminished by overhunting..."

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Advocates press DFO to move faster on plan to phase out B.C. fish farms Globalnews.ca

"...“Canada promotes the ‘Super, Natural British Columbia' brand to the world. we are known for spectacular shorelines and pristine forests,” Jeneen Sutherland, executive director of the Wilderness Tourism Association of B. C..."

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Bear minimums, bear maximums in Quesnel wilderness

"...This grizzly bear study is a priority study for Lhtako because of the cultural importance of bears for the Lhtako Nation, particularly for the bear clan in Lhtako, said Priadka. Bears have always held a strong socio-ecological importance for the Southern Dakelh as a keystone species and as a valued predator for species that are relied on as food, including moose and historically southern mountain caribou. This project provides the Lhtako Dene with the opportunity for autonomous wildlife monitoring of this culturally important species and will support the Nation with decision making in the future for both grizzly bears and caribou..."

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Indigenous and conservation groups urge Ottawa to back land-based B.C. salmon farms Globalnews.ca

"...“I'm a capitalist,” he said. “I can see there's a need there and a business there, but you can't base your business on polluting for free and harming an iconic keystone species. The longer we dither on embracing what's now proven technology and play to our advantages, the more we're likely to squander our first-mover advantage on the Pacific coast..."

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BC environmentalists applaud as global salmon farm company backs land-based aquaculture in Japan

"...Murray announced last February the government would not renew licences for 15 open-net Atlantic salmon farms around B. C. 's Discovery Islands..."

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Saving Salmon is Vital for Ecosystem Resilience and Biodiversity Conservation

"...Those lessons form a core memory for many young British Columbians when it comes to BC biodiversity. Salmons importance to our local ecosystems cannot be overstated. These fish reflect not just local wildlife, but also a nexus between different cycles that support biodiversity..."

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B.C.'s kelp forests battle climate change, offer crucial environmental resources

"...“In the Pacific Northwest, kelp forests are a foundation species. Similar to salmon, they’re important for the health of the coastal ecosystem,” said Ocean Wise Seaforestation Project Coordinator Marissa Ng. “They’re also foundation species because they’re so abundant up and down the coast and much like forests on land, marine forests — kelp forest — they provide food and shelter for thousands of marine species..."

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Microplastics found in naturally occurring slime under Arctic ice cap

"...Now, the tiny bits of plastic have been discovered in a naturally occurring, gooey layer of slime beneath the Arctic ice cap that is made of algae, forms part of the carbon pump and is the driver for the ocean's food web. ..."

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The Greening of the Great Basin

"...To the casual observer, the greening of a desert might not seem like a problematic development. Global efforts like the Great Green Wall in the Sahara and Chinas reforestation of the Gobi suggest that native desert ecologies are precarious and insupportable for human habitation. But desert ecosystems are delicately balanced networks amid the global patchwork of biomes, and exotic vegetation supplanting native biotic communitiesas nonnative grasses in the Great Basin arecan substantially disrupt plant, animal, and human inhabitants..."

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I swam with the salmon they taught me about dignity and strength

"...Juvenile coho stay and grow in freshwater like the Campbell River longer than other species of salmon and seem to be curious about visitors, says photographer Eiko Jones. Photo by Eiko Jones What people are reading Legislation to temporarily hike GST rebate likely to pass this week By Nojoud Al Mallees | News, Politics | October 4th 2022 I’m so wrapped up in the little coho that I fail to notice an undulating wall of adult pink salmon off to my right. I briefly choke on the water that enters my snorkel in surprise..."

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Recommended Reading

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Podcasts

Recent episodes that mention keystone species.

The People Who Give A Dam: Protecting Beavers in Belleville

Duration: 19:02

"...A year after finding a beaver in a trap, residents celebrate in-field solutions and protections for the keystone species in Belleville, Ontario. ..."

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Informative Video

Discussions, Documentaries, and Investigative Reports about keystone species.

Why this killer tree is the lifeblood of the Amazon Rainforest

"...The rewilding membership that restores nature across a wide range of ecosystems..."

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We are Reforesting the Ocean - here's how

"...With us, you will restore nature and fight climate change every month ..."

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Why we released 114 water rats in this farmers field

"...This small mammal is a crucial piece of the wetland ecosystem and it punches well above its weight as it is both a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer with many other wetland species relying on the water vole for their survival..."

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Why we reintroduced these raptors from England to Spain

"...This keystone species fulfils vital ecosystem services as a scavenger and predator, features that have seen them receive both praise and persecution..."

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Academic Research

Recent peer-reviewed papers about keystone species relevant to the latest news.

Legislative hurdles to using traditional domestic livestock in rewilding programmes in Europe

"...Livestock rewilding (LR) is a form of rewilding-lite, that uses livestock landraces as keystone species in the restoration of herbivory (the functional integrity of ecosystems) offering ecosystem services, such as ecotourism and the sale of livestock population surpluses, that can mitigate the economic and social effects of rural depopulation..."

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Leaves of an invasive shrub induce mass mortality of an amphibian apex predator and its macroinvertebrate prey

"...Studies of plant invasions have primarily focused on effects within shared habitats of native and invasive species..."

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An overview of the ecological roles of Mediterranean chondrichthyans through extinction scenarios

"...Fisheries, climate change, and habitat degradation are triggering the depletion of marine animal populations worldwide..."

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Community-based monitoring in the Ponoy River, Kola Peninsula (Russia): reflections on Atlantic salmon, pink salmon, Northern p

"...Two keystone species?the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and northern pike (Esox lucius) as well as an introduced species, the pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), were studied to determine changes to fish and fisheries..."

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Ecosystem service lens reveals diverse community values of small-scale fisheries

"...Fisheries management that recognizes the full range of ecosystem services a species contributes to coastal communities will be better equipped to sustain these diverse values into the future..."

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Effects of Cascade Reservoirs on Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Sedimentary Bacterial Community: Co-occurrence Patterns, Assemb

"...Dam construction as an important anthropogenic activity significantly influences ecological processes in altered freshwater bodies..."

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Betula utilis D. Don: an Ecologically and Economically Important Timberline Species of Himalayan Region in Jeopardy

"...Don (Betulaceae), commonly known as Himalayan Birch or Bhojpatra especially in Indian Himalayan Region is socio-culturally and ecologically valued and considered a keystone species which plays a significant role in the functioning of the timberline ecosystem..."

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Value-conflicts in the conservation of a native species: a case study based on the endangered white-clawed crayfish in Europe

"...The filled Ethical Matrix will highlight several potential conflicts between values such as environmental protection, social and economic interests, animal welfare, cultural and aesthetic value, etc..."

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The effects of flood pulse on multiple aquatic organisms in a seasonal shallow lake

"...This study provides new insights into the holistic response of multiple aquatic communities to flood pulse as well as the role of keystone species in maintaining community stability, which could guide the conservation and management of seasonal lake ecosystems..."

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