Conservation efforts directed towards just 0.7% of the world’s land mass could help protect one third of the world’s threatened and unique tetrapod (four-limbed vertebrate) species, new research by Imperial College London, On the Edge, and ZSL appears to show.

The study, led by researchers at Imperial College London and published in early September in Nature Communications, finds that large gains in conservation are possible by focusing on areas home to exceptional biodiversity and species with high levels of evolutionary distinctiveness and global endangerment.

These endangered species include animals like the aye-aye, a highly distinctive lemur found in Madagascar; the long-legged and eagle-bodied secretary bird; the purple frog, which has a nose similar to a pig; and the gharial, a long-snouted and critically endangered crocodile found in the Indian subcontinent.

At present, however, just 20% of the areas identified in the study are under some form of protection, with most areas facing consistent and increasing levels of human pressure.

Lead author Sebastian Pipins, a PhD candidate at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, said: “Our research highlights the regions of the world that are of immediate concern. Furthermore, it shows that in protecting just a fraction of the Earth’s land surface, huge gains can be made for the preservation of nature.”

On the edge of extinction
The project identified specific areas of conservation interest with exceedingly high levels of threatened evolutionarily history that are marked by their concentration of Evolutionarily Distinct (ED) and Globally Endangered (GE) species.

Evolutionary distinctiveness quantifies how unique a species is, with some being the result of long periods of unique evolutionary history with few or no close living relatives. Meanwhile, global endangerment reflects the extinction risk of a species. Species that score highly on both measures are known as EDGE species, while the areas in which these species are found in high concentrations are referred to as EDGE Zones.

Pipins added: “It is crucial to not just consider species diversity in conservation efforts, but also the evolutionary history of diversity, to ensure that large and unique branches from the tree of life are not lost.”

Zones of interest
The study mapped the distribution of almost 3,000 EDGE species, identifying 25 EDGE Zones where conservation efforts can have the greatest impact.
Specific areas of EDGE species richness include large parts of Southeast Asia and the Indo-Gangetic plain, the Amazon basin and the Atlantic Forest, as well as in Hispaniola, the highlands of Cameroon, and the Eastern Arc mountains of East Africa.

The authors found maximum richness within an area of less than 100-square kilometres in Madagascar, which, along with Mexico and Indonesia, contained the highest number of EDGE species.

Underlining the critical importance of national leadership to support conservation efforts, the research also found that 75.6% of EDGE species exist within a single country.

Co-author Dr Rikki Gumbs, from the ZSL’s EDGE of Existence programme, said: “Three-quarters of the world’s most unique animals are able to call only one country home, meaning that action from individual nations will go a long way to protect these incredible species from extinction.”

Very large areas of Southeast Asia have higher levels of EDGE species, which the researchers say reflects how the looming biodiversity disaster in this region is impacting the highly unique and wide-ranging species found within.

Human factors
The scientists also found that the vast majority of EDGE Zones face high levels of human disturbance and that the human populations found within many EDGE Zone countries face deprivation in education, health, and living standards.

Dr Gumbs added: “We’re currently in the midst of a biodiversity crisis, driven by unsustainable use of natural resources; it’s shocking but not surprising that 80% of the zones we identified are under high levels of pressure from human activity.”.

Given these challenges, governments’ limited resources are often prioritised for dealing with human deprivation, leaving less for biodiversity conservation.

Pipins said: “Given the global importance of the biodiversity found within these regions, high-income countries must mobilise funding to facilitate sustainable development that can benefit both humans and nature.”

Global goals
Just 20% of EDGE zones are under some form of protection. As countries look to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030, as per the Convention on Biological Diversity’s target, the authors call for the unprotected portions of EDGE Zones to be prioritised.

Dr Gumbs said: “With the COP16 Biodiversity Conference on the horizon, we need to see world leaders from across the globe scaling up their commitments and resources to support these efforts and restore the natural world that we all rely on.”

The researchers argue that their findings demonstrate that large gains of biodiversity are possible with relatively small additions to globally protected areas. They also argue that their research offers the potential for extending the EDGE Zone approach to other important groups of wildlife, such as plants and fish.

Using EDGE zone research
The EDGE Zones identified in this research will guide the activities of the charitable organisation On the Edge, directing their conservation grant-making, regional campaigns, and grantee-led storytelling.

They will also form part of the decision-making for resource allocation for ZSL’s EDGE of Existence programme, which has already funded work on over 50 EDGE species found within EDGE Zone countries, with a particular focus on the Gangetic Plains and Cameroon.

Wild Belfast and Buglife have come together to highlight what they describe as an alarming loss of wildlife-rich brownfield habitat across Belfast. Some brownfield sites in Belfast can support rare and endangered wildlife, including well-loved species such as Red-shanked Carder Bee (Bombus ruderarius), Common Lizard (Zootoca vivipara) and Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus). However, many of these nature hotspots are at risk from being lost to development, as the charities explain.

“The state of Belfast’s brownfields: nature under threat” 2024 report shows that over a seven-year period, 40% of 47 brownfield sites that Buglife had previously identified as important for wildlife in Belfast have been lost, damaged or are in immediate threat. Concerningly, when live planning applications are also considered, over 60% of the total area of this vital habitat has either been lost or is under immediate threat- with potentially profound impacts for nature in the city.

Brownfields can support a huge diversity of wildlife, often providing refuges for species which have suffered population crashes as a result of habitat loss, such as wildflower meadows disappearing from the landscape. They can include quarries, disused railways lines, spoil heaps, even former industrial estates that have been allowed to develop into urban havens for wildlife. Sadly, despite often being the last remaining ‘wild’ green spaces in Belfast’s neighbourhoods, brownfields are frequently targeted for development.

Conor McKinney, Chair of the Wild Belfast community group says, “Now is a critical period for the protection of biodiversity. Our planning system offers the potential to protect and enhance biodiversity- or to destroy it. Despite being a priority habitat our planning system is currently failing to protect wildlife-rich brownfield sites in Belfast, or indeed across Northern Ireland. Nature and planning authorities must seize the opportunities available to them to protect these sites for nature and the communities with which they share these valuable wild urban spaces”.

Buglife has previously identified and measured the extent of brownfields important for invertebrates in a 2017 report- a habitat often referred to as ‘Open mosaic habitat on previously developed land’. Shortly after that report, the habitat was listed as a conservation priority in Northern Ireland. However, this new study that revisits these sites suggests that despite this commitment, these important wildlife sites are still being lost, hindering the city’s nature recovery ambitions.

Jamie Robins, Programmes Manager of Buglife says, “Brownfields which have been reclaimed by nature are becoming increasingly important for our rare invertebrates as the wider countryside is degraded. We need to do more to protect these wildlife havens. The remaining wildlife-rich brownfields should be protected from development and embraced as a key nature recovery solution, and celebrating the role they have to play in giving communities a place to connect with nature.”

The 2024 report suggests that Belfast’s brownfields need to be better recognised and protected by the planning system. It also suggests that the best sites be incorporated into the important Site of Local Nature Conservation Importance (SLNCI) network. In addition, the report looks beyond Belfast and recommends that a Northern Ireland wide inventory of the habitat should be urgently created.

Radiation-resistant microbiome inside microwaves resembles that on solar panels

Since the industrial revolution, microbes have successfully colonized one novel type of habitat after another: for example marine oil spills, plastic floating in the oceans, industrial brownfields, and even the interior of the International Space Station.

However, it turns out that one extreme environment harbouring a specialized community of highly adapted microbes is much closer to home: inside microwaves. This finding has now been reported for the first time in a study in Frontiers in Microbiology by researchers from Spain. It’s not only important from the perspective of hygiene, but could also inspire biotechnological applications – if the strains found inside microwaves can be put to good use in industrial processes that require especially hardy bacteria.

“Our results reveal that domestic microwaves have a more ‘anthropized’ microbiome, similar to kitchen surfaces, while laboratory microwaves harbor bacteria that are more resistant to radiation,” said Daniel Torrent, one of the authors, and a researcher at the start-up Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence SL in Paterna, Spain.

Torrent and colleagues sampled microbes from inside 30 microwaves: 10 each from single-household kitchens, another 10 from shared domestic spaces, for example corporate centers, scientific institutes, and cafeteria, and 10 from molecular biology and microbiology laboratories. The aim behind this sampling scheme was to see if these microbial communities are influenced by food interactions and user habits.

They used two complementary methods to inventorize the microbial diversity: next generation sequencing and cultivation of 101 strains on five different media.

A biodiverse microbiome right at home
In total, the researchers found 747 different genera within 25 bacterial phyla. The most frequently encountered phyla were Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and especially Proteobacteria.

They found that the composition of the typical microbial community partly overlapped between shared domestic and single-household domestic microwaves, while laboratory microwaves were quite different. The diversity was lowest in single-household microwaves, and highest in laboratory ones.

Members of genera Acinetobacter, Bhargavaea, Brevibacterium, Brevundimonas, Dermacoccus, Klebsiella, Pantoea, Pseudoxanthomonas and Rhizobium were found only in domestic microwaves, whereas Arthrobacter, Enterobacter, Janibacter, Methylobacterium, Neobacillus, Nocardioides, Novosphingobium, Paenibacillus, Peribacillus, Planococcus, Rothia, Sporosarcina, and Terribacillus were found only in shared-domestic ones.

Nonomuraea bacteria were isolated exclusively from laboratory microwaves. There, Delftia, Micrococcus, Deinocococcus and one unidentified genus of the phylum Cyanobacteria were also common, found in significantly greater frequencies than in domestic ones.

The authors also compared the observed diversity with that in specialized habitats reported in the literature. As expected, the microbiome in microwaves resembled that found on typical kitchen surfaces.

“Some species of genera found in domestic microwaves, such as Klebsiella, Enterococcus and Aeromonas, may pose a risk to human health. However, it is important to note that the microbial population found in microwaves does not present a unique or increased risk compared to other common kitchen surfaces,” said Torrent.

Parallel evolution
However, it was also similar to the microbiome in an industrial habitat: namely, on solar panels. The authors proposed that the constant thermal shock, electromagnetic radiation, and desiccation in such highly irradiated environments has repeatedly selected for highly resistant microbes, in the same manner as in microwaves.

“For both the general public and laboratory personnel, we recommend regularly disinfecting microwaves with a diluted bleach solution or a commercially available disinfectant spray. In addition, it is important to wipe down the interior surfaces with a damp cloth after each use to remove any residue and to clean up spills immediately to prevent the growth of bacteria,” recommended Torrent.

A new report, Embracing Nature, published on 14 August by The Wildlife Trusts, identifies drought as the current leading threat to their nature reserves for the first time. The Wildlife Trusts, who are among the UK’s largest landowners with 2,600 nature reserves covering nearly 100,000 hectares (ha), also point to pollution, invasive species and habitat fragmentation as high risks. Drought is also considered to be the leading threat for the next 30 years, followed by other climate-driven dangers such as heatwaves and wildfires.

The report focuses on adapting to climate change and highlights that, based on a trajectory of 2°C warming by 2100, almost half of The Wildlife Trusts’ 2,600 reserves will be in areas of extreme wildfire risk, and three-quarters will see summer temperatures rising by an additional 1.5°C in the next 25 years.

Adaptation work is being undertaken across The Wildlife Trusts’ nature reserves to re-connect and regenerate habitats to help nature cope with weather extremes. Peatlands, grasslands, woodlands, freshwater, marine and coastal areas are being restored, and in some cases re-invented, to support species at risk such as curlew, through severe weather. For example:

• The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire has boosted fenland resilience through its acquisition of Speechly’s Farm. 134 ha of former degraded farmland now connects Holme Fen and Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserves, increasing the peatland restored in the Great Fen to 1,900 ha. Effect: improved connectivity and the habitat will retain more carbon stores in times of drought
• Norfolk Wildlife Trust has been working with the Environment Agency to adapt Cley and Salthouse Marshes. They have rejuvenated reedbeds and moved a section of the ‘New Cut’ flood drain to evacuate flood water more effectively and help the marshes maintain freshwater coastal habitats
• Manx Wildlife Trust has planted 8,000 trees to create a new temperate rainforest at Creg y Cowin and they are planning to plant a further 27,000 over the next four years.  Effect: as the canopy closes this will create a cool, damp refuge for animals away from extreme temperatures benefitting birds such as pied flycatcher and wood warbler

The Wildlife Trusts have submitted Embracing Nature to the UK Government under its Adaptation Reporting Power, a provision of the 2008 UK Climate Change Act which allows the government to invite organisations of strategic national importance to report on their adaptation activities. The Wildlife Trusts are the first organisation to report under the latest fourth round, which closes at the end of this year.

Kathryn Brown, director of climate change and evidence at The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“The Wildlife Trusts are taking action to adapt to climate threats across all our land and marine habitats through helping nature to recover, slowing the flow of rivers, and restoring peatlands. This, in turn, supports wildlife and people to be more resilient to drought, wildfire, heatwaves and flooding. Nature-based solutions are now nature-based necessities, and we must all embrace the role that nature can play in enabling landscapes to adapt.

“We’ve seen one climate record after another broken over the past 12 months. The UK’s natural habitats, and the wildlife that depends on them, are under huge pressure so it’s vital that UK Government raises ambition on adapting to climate change.”

The Wildlife Trusts are calling on the UK Government to commit to:

• Report on, and increase where necessary, total investment in adaptation for nature and nature-based solutions to at least £3 billion per year up to 2030. An important component of this should be the continuation of the Nature for Climate Fund and strengthening of partnerships that provide nature-based solutions
• Re-start bespoke adaptation support services for organisations, like charities, who need it – through committing at least £1 million to its arm’s length bodies to provide support
• Move responsibility for the coordination of adaptation policy across UK Government from Defra to the Cabinet Office
• Immediately unblock or enact delayed policies from the last Government that will improve the resilience of the natural environment and its ability to help people to adapt. This includes banning the use of peat in horticulture, enabling wild beaver release licences, incorporating climate resilience in the new land use framework, enhancing regulation and enforcement related to pollution of our water bodies from agriculture and sewage discharges
• Maintain the ban on sand-eel fishing at sea. The ban in the North Sea is a core component of resilience for marine wildlife and we look forward to seeing this upheld

Baroness Brown of Cambridge, Chair of the Adaptation Committee, says:

“My Committee has provided advice to Government on the criticality of adaptation reporting for many years, including on the need to invite more organisations to report and aligning reporting cycles with the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment. Both of these recommendations are now being acted on. We’re delighted to see The Wildlife Trusts’ adaptation report published today which marks the first submission in this new, fourth cycle of reporting that will feed into the next climate change risk assessment. This is the first time The Wildlife Trusts have been invited to report as a major landowner and nature organisation; and we hope to see many more such organisations coming forward in the future.”

Read Embracing Nature – climate change adaptation at The Wildlife Trusts here.

The first continent-wide mapping study of plant life across Antarctica reveals growth in previously uncharted areas and is set to inform conservation measures across the region, says the group behind it.

The satellite survey of mosses, lichens and algae across the continent will form a baseline for monitoring how Antarctica’s vegetation responds to climate change.

Scientists used a European Space Agency satellite to sweep the continent, combined with field measurements taken over several summer seasons, and detected almost 45 square kilometers of vegetation – roughly three times the size of Lake Windermere in the Lake District, UK.

The international team, led by the University of Edinburgh with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, British Antarctic Survey and Scottish Association for Marine Science, found that over 80 per cent of the vegetation growth was contained within the Antarctic Peninsula and neighbouring islands.

The team estimates this growth makes up only 0.12 percent of Antarctica’s total ice-free area, highlighting the importance of monitoring key areas of vegetation abundance, which is inadequately protected under the existing Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) system, experts say.

Antarctic vegetation, dominated by mosses and lichens, has adapted to survive the harsh polar conditions and each type plays an important role in carbon and nutrient recycling on a local level, experts say. Until now, their spatial coverage and abundance across the continent remained unknown.

Previous research has shown that the environmental sensitivity of Antarctica’s vegetative species makes them excellent barometers of regional climate change. Monitoring their presence in Antarctica, a minimally disturbed landscape, could provide clues as to how similar vegetation types may respond to climate in other fragile ecosystems across the globe, such as parts of the Arctic.

Charlotte Walshaw, PhD researcher from the School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, who led the study, said: “Our continent-scale map provides key information on vegetation presence in areas that are rarely visited by people. This will have profound implications for our understanding of where vegetation is located across the continent, and what factors influence this distribution.”

Dr Claudia Colesie, researcher at the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who took part in the study, said: “Lichens and mosses in Antarctica encounter the harshest living conditions on the planet on a daily basis. Only the most resilient organisms can thrive there. Now that we know where to look for them, we can provide more targeted conservation measures to safeguard their future.”

Dr Andrew Gray, researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, who jointly led the study, said: “Remote sensing approaches such as this are low impact methods to study Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem as well as monitor change to its vegetation in the future.”

The research, published in Nature Geoscience, was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and UK Space Agency. Field campaigns were supported by the British Antarctic Survey, Instituto Antarctic Chileno and Antarctica New Zealand.

As the summer holidays begin, the Bugs Matter 2024 survey, led by Buglife and Kent Wildlife Trust, is calling on citizen scientists across the UK to participate in this insect population study.  

Since the first reference survey in 2004 led by RSPB, analysis of records from nearly 26,500 journeys across the UK shows a continuing decrease in bug splats, with the number of splats sampled on vehicle number plates by citizen scientists decreasing by 78% nationwide between 2004 and 2023.

“We’re at a critical juncture in the 2024 survey season,” said Paul Hetherington, Buglife Director of Fundraising and Communications. “The summer holidays present an ideal opportunity for families to contribute to this important citizen science initiative while on their travels. Many people are noticing fewer insects this year so please collect more data over your summer break to help us understand the situation better.”

The 2024 survey began on 1 May, and since then 5,292 journeys have been logged, covering an impressive distance of 146,291 miles, showcasing the collective effort of citizen scientists across the UK to collect valuable scientific data.

Each journey recorded represents a vital contribution to our understanding of insect abundance and the data will help to inform better conservation policy and practice to save our bugs.

Dr Lawrence Ball, Kent Wildlife Ecological Data Analyst Lead shares: “Notably, participants in the South East have emerged as the front runners, having logged an impressive 1,279 journeys over the survey period so far. The East of England and Scotland are not far behind with 1,068 and 472 journeys, respectively, but there is still time for these regions and others to overtake before the end of September!”

A noticeable lack of insects across the UK this summer has been the subject of much discussion across many social media platforms and discussion groups; with individuals and conservation groups expressing their fears about our future if we don’t take action for insects now.

A number of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation charities have recently come forward with anecdotal observations linking to possible declines in insects too. Bat conservation groups across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Worcestershire, Essex and South Lancashire have said that they are seeing an increase in the number of “starving” or “underweight” bats, often juveniles, who need to be rescued and cared for by volunteers. In some places, they are seeing fewer bats than they usually do in the summer.

Similarly, Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue recently shared that “This year has been a true ‘eye-opener’ into the ‘issues’ regarding the lack of insect life and the weather patterns. The direct impact on insectivores/garden birds across various species has been all too clear: failed nestlings, abandoned nests/broods, and emaciation cases.  As well as garden birds, we have taken on the care of 16 juvenile swifts, and many of these admissions have been emaciation cases.”

Conservationists are expressing that several factors may be contributing to the lack of insects, including habitat loss, pesticide use, light pollution, invasive non-native species and changing climate, and the knock-on effects on other species.  Many experts are also advising that the unusual weather conditions of the last two years are an exacerbating factor. With a prolonged wet spring, and colder than usual summer conditions, many insect breeding cycles will have been impacted.

Dr Lawrence Ball emphasises the need for more research: “While these theories are plausible and anecdotal observations are valuable, we need robust data to understand the full picture. That’s why every contribution to the Bugs Matter survey is vital.”

The 2024 survey ends on 30 September 2024. Families, friends and individuals are encouraged to take part in the survey as part of their summer holiday activities. Further details on supporting Bugs Matter can be found at buglife.org.uk/get-involved/surveys/bugs-matter/ 

A new Welsh nursery is at the forefront of a mission to restore the UK’s lost seagrass meadows, says the group behind it. The project aims to equip organisations and communities with the tools to bring back biodiversity and support CO2 removal from the atmosphere by restoring these habitats. As much as 92% of the UK’s seagrass meadows has been lost since 1936.

Salix, an RSK Group company, is carrying out development work near Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, in partnership with Project Seagrass, whose work has attracted support from international environmental and climate change groups and which counts UK band Coldplay among its patrons. The goal is to be able to grow and supply seagrass plants and seed for restoration schemes throughout the UK. There is an increasing realisation that seagrass plays a major role in biodiversity support and alleviating the climate emergency.

The project is taking place in a once-abandoned aquaculture site. Salix and Project Seagrass have invested in establishing the seagrass nursery on an inland site, and the nursery is supported by an Ofwat Innovation project. The UK’s goal is to restore 30 km² of seagrass by 2030, creating thriving seagrass meadows and bringing national benefits, including increased biodiversity, carbon sequestration, improved human wellbeing and cleaner, healthier seas. The availability of seagrass plants and seed is critical, as is advancing the science behind seagrass restoration, if seagrass meadows are to be restored at scale.

Salix Technical Director David Holland said: “A vital part of this ambitious goal to rejuvenate seagrass meadows around our coastline has been the development of a seagrass nursery facility to supply seeds and mature plants to projects throughout the UK. Without a reliable supply of local provenance seed and mature seagrass plants, restoration efforts will be limited.

“Growing seagrass at this scale had never been done before in the UK. We were the first nursery to work in this area, and the project is constantly evolving and expanding. We have housed all the seeds for Project Seagrass projects, and this year (2023/24) we are housing more than 1.4 million seeds from locations around the UK, which will contribute to restoration efforts.

“We have plans to establish extensive seagrass plants in outdoor ponds near our propagation polytunnel and are really pleased with initial successes and thriving adult plants.”

Salix is also growing freshwater pond plants and is the UK’s only nursery growing salt marsh plants on a commercial scale.

David said: “Alongside our own project work, we would like to use the centre to support and help others in their work to restore seagrass. We can do this by supplying seagrass seeds, plants and guidance to other community and institution-led restoration projects across the UK. This will empower other organisations and communities and create a bit of a seagrass movement for the UK. That’s the key to achieving real success at scale, which will help us to achieve really significant climate change mitigation.”

The Project Seagrass vision is to create a hub for international collaboration, research, knowledge sharing and support for seagrass nurseries and restoration. Project Seagrass is a founding member of the Global Seagrass Nursery Network, an initiative that allows it to regularly communicate and contribute to groundbreaking seagrass nursery research, which acts as an open-source guide to developing seagrass nurseries internationally.

Project Seagrass Founding Director and Chief Scientific Officer Richard Unsworth said: “As we lose our seagrass, we lose the species that make this habitat their home, including some of the UK’s largest commercial fisheries species that rely on seagrass meadows as nursery grounds. This nursery gives us an opportunity to reverse the decline and restore this critical habitat, preserving the numerous benefits that seagrass meadows provide to people and the planet.

“The Project Seagrass nursery is now the ‘go to’ for nursery developments elsewhere, with regular requests from international parties for visits to try to improve or set up their own facilities using the same methods.”

Scientists appear to have found that oxygen is being produced in the deep sea through a process associated with polymetallic nodules on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean, in the complete absence of sunlight. This finding challenges what is known about how oxygen reaches the deep ocean and how oxygen is produced. There may also be important implications for how deep-sea mining could impact this extraordinary process, according to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC).

Until now, it has been understood that the deep ocean is oxygenated by the global conveyor-belt-like system of ocean currents that transport oxygen-rich waters from the surface to the deep sea. The findings of a new study published today in Nature Geoscience challenge this notion, documenting oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor. The discovery was made during experiments conducted in the NORI-D license area of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), the first target area for deep-sea mining, at over 4,000 meters below the surface.

While studying biological activity around polymetallic nodules in the NORI-D license area, scientists made the surprising discovery that instead of oxygen levels decreasing over time, in some places they tripled in just two days. Further investigation discovered that these polymetallic nodules may be able to produce enough voltage to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as seawater electrolysis. This phenomenon, never before observed in the deep ocean, appears to be unique to these deep-sea nodules.

DSCC Deep-Sea Mining Global Campaign Lead Sofia Tsenikli said: “The discovery that a process associated with polymetallic nodules is producing oxygen, in an area targeted by the deep-sea mining industry, provides further support on the urgent need for a moratorium. This research emphasizes just how much we still have to discover and learn about the deep sea and raises more questions about how deep-sea mining could impact deep-sea life and processes. It is human arrogance to continue to push to mine these nodules that are producing potential life-sustaining oxygen in an extraordinarily important and unique ecosystem.”

It is currently unknown how the removal or smothering of these nodules from deep-sea mining operations and the associated sediment plumes could influence seafloor oxygen production and what the impacts on deep-sea life and processes, including carbon cycling, could be.

Distinguished Professor Lisa Levin at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography stated: “This is an excellent example of what it means to have the deep ocean as a frontier, a relatively unexplored part of our planet. There are still new processes to discover that challenge what we know about life in our ocean. The production of oxygen at the seafloor by polymetallic nodules is a new ecosystem function that needs to be considered when assessing the impact of deep-sea mining. These findings underscore the importance of furthering independent deep-sea scientific research across the global ocean in order to inform deep-ocean policy.”

The findings may also have wider implications for our understanding of how and where life on Earth began, and whether this process could be occurring on other planets.

Jeff Marlow, co-author of the paper noted, “The fact that oxygen can be made independently of the surface world has a lot of exciting implications for the distribution of animal life, not only in Earth’s oceans, but also, potentially, beyond our planet. Oxygen provides enough energy for big organisms like animals to survive, so a process that makes oxygen without sunlight could allow for larger life forms to inhabit the deep, dark waters of “ocean worlds” like Enceladus or Europa. We’ve typically centered the search for life beyond Earth around microbes using reduced chemicals for energy – that still may be the best approach, but this result shows that it might be wise to expand our perspective.”

On 18 July The Rivers Trust and South East Rivers Trust welcomed the new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed MP to Chamber Mead Wetlands, a demonstration of how nature-based solutions can be improve river health. The Secretary of State was also joined by Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency, and Defra Water Director Sebastian Catovsky.

The Chamber Mead Wetlands were installed by South East Rivers Trust in the Chamber Mead local nature reserve in order to tackle sewage and road run-off pollution affecting the Hogsmill River, a chalk stream. The wetlands will also support biodiversity in and around the Hogsmill and boost the amenity value of this community space with a bridge and informational signage. During the visit, the Secretary of State heard how and why the wetlands were installed, how partners were engaged and funding secured, and how lessons learned from the project could help to remove barriers and facilitate the wider implementation of nature-based solutions across water catchments.

Mr Reed also joined The Rivers Trust and South East Rivers Trust in collecting an eDNA sample as part of the effort to measure the impact of the new wetlands on aquatic wildlife.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed: “The Rivers Trust’s excellent work at Chamber Mead Wetlands demonstrates the vital role nature-based solutions play in cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas.

“The new government has immediately introduced new measures to ensure that investment is ringfenced so that it is spent on projects like these, rather than paid in salaries, bonuses and dividends.”

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of The Rivers Trust: “We are very proud to be able to show the new Secretary of State this project and to discuss ways in which nature-based solutions such as this urban wetland can deliver multiple benefits to society by storing water, purifying pollutants, reducing greenhouse gases, providing space for nature, offering public access and cooling the local air. We need to scale up these solutions, especially to ensure that new developments on housing, planning and transport occur alongside building resilience in our communities to climate change and reversing the steep decline in biodiversity. The Rivers Trust movement stands ready to work in partnership with the government on this aspect of our national renewal.”

Bella Davies, Co-CEO of South East Rivers Trust: “We are delighted to host the Secretary of State at the Chamber Mead wetland today. The wetland tackles sewage and urban road runoff pollution before it enters the Hogsmill River, which is a rare chalk stream, one of around 220 in the world, supporting a unique set of species dependent on the chalk-purified water. We designed the wetland to provide varied benefits, which enabled us to access a mix of public and private funding from many partners. Each partner paid for benefit that most interested them, whether that’s cleaning up sewage, protecting endangered wildlife or improving water quality. Most importantly, the wetland brings a new feature for the local community to relax and enjoy nature. We are glad that the new Government sees the wide benefits of nature-based solutions and we urge them to take action to break down barriers to these kinds of projects and support organisations such as ours to deliver more at scale in the future.”