As every year since 2009, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI), through its ‘Horizon Scan’ project, The 15 most urgent problems for protection on the planet. 31 scientists and policy makers attended the meeting. Their findings were published in the journal ‘Trends in Evolution and Ecology‘. The 15 themes identified are:
01. New sources of hydrogen to produce energy
The use of hydrogen as an energy source has increased significantly in recent years, creating demand for new resources, transport mechanisms and production methods.
Extraction of natural resources from underground (white hydrogen), Drilling large areas and developing transportation infrastructure in pristine ecosystemsQ. “Building leak-proof infrastructure will be critical to ensuring that the transition to hydrogen economies mitigates climate change,” the report authors say.
02. Production of decarbonized ammonia
Ammonia (NH3) has a high energy density and is the precursor to many nitrogen-containing compounds. It is mainly used as fertilizer and is produced using fossil fuels in an energy-intensive process.
A new and rapid method to create ammonia is to spray its microdroplets onto a magnetic graphite mesh coated with iron oxide and use nitrogen or air as the nebulization gas. This simple and low-cost approach can be applied industrially by decarbonizing ammonia production. But also may have “significant adverse environmental effects”, particularly due to nitrous oxide emissions (N2O) is a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG).
03. Foods derived from autotrophic hydrogen oxidizing bacteria
Food production remains a major driver of global biodiversity loss due to land conversion, greenhouse gas emissions, unsustainable levels of fishing and pollution. Increasing demand for protein-rich foods The environmental footprint of food production will increase in developing economies.
A growing number of companies are working to economically produce proteins with autotrophic hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria. “If the industry can rapidly expand this method of food production, which is generally fossil fuel-free, the increasing demand for protein for human or animal consumption can be decentralized and decoupled from the significant and increasing environmental consequences of its production,” the report emphasizes.
04. Accelerating artificial photosynthesis
The expansion of global agriculture for crop production is a major cause of global biodiversity loss. The production of plant foods is limited to the process of photosynthesis, which is energy inefficient and requires significant amounts of land.
Artificial photosynthesis is an electrocatalytic process in which acetate made from water, electricity, and carbon dioxide replaces the glucose created and consumed during conventional photosynthesis. The process is 18 times more efficient than biological photosynthesis. Using alternative energy sources such as wind will further eliminate the need for sunlight.
05. Carbon mineralization techniques
The widespread application of rock dust, especially basalt, on farmland can take advantage of the high concentrations of CO2 and carbonic acid in soil to mineralize carbon. “Secondary benefits may include reduced acidity of agricultural soils and ocean water, increased diatom production, and reduced eutrophication,” the document states.
But also May cause “heavy metal pollution”Particularly if the dust is generated through construction materials or mine tailings.” They also warn that it “can increase sedimentation and turbidity in freshwater, coastal and marine habitats and negatively impact species adapted to low-pH soils.”
06. Decrease in worm population
Worms are ‘ecosystem engineers’, playing an important role in nutrient cycling, soil fertility and ecosystem conditions, making significant contributions to global food production.
Pesticide use appears to have significantly reduced global earthworm populations.. “Such declines are likely to have significant impacts on soil health, ecosystem structure and function, and the provision of ecosystem services, with possible cascading effects on soil structure, species diversity, and chemistry,” the scientists note.
07. Ecoacoustics to monitor soil ecology
Acoustic technologies are often used to assess the presence of animals on the surface. Soil ecoacoustics is a relatively new use of technology to effectively and non-intrusively monitor the presence, composition or number of soil invertebrates and soil quality.
IScientists consider it necessary to improve and standardize methods. “A more comprehensive understanding of soil community structure and function can be achieved by combining soil ecoacoustics with other monitoring techniques, such as eDNA metabar coding, which provide data on the composition of the soil microbiota,” they add.
08. Forest fires
Land use-related wildfires and biomass burning Produces aerosols that reduce the absorption of solar radiation and affects cloud and precipitation patterns. Global warming increases the number and intensity of forest fires in many parts of the world.
These aerosols can cause climate oscillations, cause changes in the location of high and low pressure systems, and affect the temperature and pressure distribution over large ocean areas; This can affect species in ways ranging from food availability to climate change. extent and quality of living spaces.
09. Desktop DNA printers
Desktop DNA printers in five years would allow pressure sequences equivalent to those of a small viral genome, This brings ecological and ethical risks. Possible indirect effects of desktop DNA printing include inadvertent transfer of genetic material to wild populations, creation of new invasive species, increases or decreases in the conversion of natural areas to agriculture, and reductions in agricultural chemical applications.
Of course, achievements such as improving the thermal tolerance of corals, reducing invasive non-native species, improving innate immunity to disease in threatened species, or creating species that can replace extinct species can also be achieved.
10. Extrapolation of chemical toxicity assessments
chemicals such as neonicotinoids (insecticides) They often cause significant and unpredictable ecological impacts years after initial use.. New mechanisms could eliminate this lag in knowledge by allowing their potential toxicity to be identified before their effects are observed.
Advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning methods can improve the effectiveness of adverse outcome pathways, making it easier to effectively apply agricultural chemicals with lower risk of adverse effects on non-target species.
11. NEOM Linear Skyscraper City
An area of 26,500 square kilometers has been identified in Saudi Arabia for the development of NEOM. The project includes The Line, a single-street linear skyscraper city. It can accommodate nine million people.
Although it is marketed as sustainable, its dimensions (500 meters high, 200 wide and 170 kilometers long), its design (including mirrored facades and possibly wind turbines on the roofs) and its east-west orientation at the head of Red Hill. This means the sea is likely to pose a significant risk to migratory species, particularly songbirds. Water consumption is another challenge.
12. Sea urchin mortality rate
Mortality rate in the Caribbean is as high as 99% antillarum crown (long spiny sea urchin). Significant mortality rates in non-natives have also been recorded in the Eastern Mediterranean. setosum headband (hedgehog sea urchin) on more than 1,000 km of coastline; mortality spread across the Red Sea where it originated.
These two events may suggest a A new threat to tropical ecosystems is emerging worldwide.And if mortality is linked to global warming, widespread outbreaks of marine diseases will also likely become more frequent.
13. Removing CO2 from the oceans
Limiting global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels will require both significantly reducing emissions and removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Because the oceans contain 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere, attention has focused on ocean-based interventions, including fertilizing them, growing and sinking macroalgae, increasing their alkalinity, and injecting CO2 into rock formations.
Neither the effectiveness of these technologies nor the likelihood of harmful environmental consequences is yet clear.Including decreased oxygen concentrations, depletion of macronutrients, harm to marine life, and increased toxicity of trace metals in seawater.
14. Rising ocean temperatures
The twilight or mesopelagic zone, located at depths of 200 to 1000 meters below the sea surface, represents a quarter of the ocean volume. This is a critical area for the global flow of carbon through the biological pump of gas: the downward transport of organic matter and subsequent sequestration of CO2.
The efficiency of the biological carbon pump is predicted to decrease with increasing temperaturesThis will result in higher rates of remineralization of organic matter and a reduction in the availability and quality of food for deep-sea organisms.
15. Melting Antarctic ice
Climate change in the southern circulation of the Atlantic is causing effects such as reductions in water density and salt concentration, which could reduce abyssal currents by 40% by 2050.
These changes can affect nutrient flow. It will have dramatic consequences on land and marine environments by affecting the oxygen levels of the oceans, their capacity to absorb CO2 and the global climate.
Reference report: https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(23)00295-1
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