Biodiversity faces decline

The number of species in Ireland is declining – and some are facing extinction. Human activitiy is to blame, say biodiversity ecologists, writes ANTHONY KING

IRELAND’S BIODIVERSITY is in decline and changes in land use are primarily to blame. And as species loss accelerates, we will be the losers in the long run.

Changes to the mix of animals and birds and insects are being tracked by the National Biodiversity Data Centre, which provides decision makers with hard information that can detail the effects of development but also climate change.

Its annual report, released last, month describes evidence-based efforts to track human activity and its impact on biodiversity change within Ireland. The centre’s database contains records on some 8,500 species and gives planners a baseline against which future changes can be measured.

“But overall, the conservation status of species in Ireland is declining,” warns Dr Liam Lysaght, director of the centre. “The primary driver is land-use change.”

Lysaght points to the decline in species-rich grassland as especially dramatic. A small farmland bird called the corn bunting went extinct in the 1990s and another, the yellowhammer, has declined rapidly. The specialisation of agriculture and decline of mixed farming is to blame, he says.

While many people engage with biodiversity at an aesthetic level, maybe enjoying watching a kingfisher along a river, we have recently begun to understand the economic importance of biodiversity, says Lysaght.

He emphasises the contribution ecosystem services such as soil fertility and plant pollination make to the economy. “A slide I use is of a woman in Nepal hand pollinating apple blossoms because they’d overused pesticides and killed the pollinating insects,” says Lysaght.

Consider then the significance of research that shows that 30 per cent of bee species in Ireland face extinction.

Soil biodiversity underpins our agricultural sector, yet our knowledge of life in soil is poor, he notes.

“What we’ve found is that every species has a function. There are around 12 species of earthworm and you might think they’re all the same, but recently it’s been shown that each has a slightly different function,” Lysaght says. And the fewer species there are, the less resistant our environment is to knocks like climate change, he adds.

Although we tend to have good information on conspicuous organisms like birds and mammals, there are smaller groups that we know virtually nothing about.

Parasitic wasps and hoverflies perform important functions, such as controlling agricultural pests and pollination, yet we don’t even know how many species there are, Lysaght says.

“If we are serious about wanting to halt the decline in biodiversity loss, we first need to know what species we have, where they are found and what are the threats they face,” says Kevin Smith of the species programme at the International Union of Conservation of Nature.

The Irish data centre aims to increase our knowledge of species but also gather information from government bodies and non-governmental organisations into one place. The scale is impressive, with 1.5 million records and counting. The centre’s maps include 31 species of dragonfly, 100 bee species, 1,000-plus moth species, 43 millipedes, and more than 1,500 plant species, as well as records on mammals such as otters, bats and badgers.

These put an essential tool into the hands of policy-makers, allowing them to track environmental change and undertake conservation initiatives. “Indicator” species that suffer first if there is habitat decline, pollution or climate change are especially useful.

Lysaght says county councils are already using the resource for strategic plans, taking into account what is unique in their area. By seeing a species’ status, they can take measures to protect it or even use iconic species to promote their county.

Ireland’s biodiversity database is unique in Europe, says Lysaght. Our jurisdiction is small enough for us to have pulled all the data into one centre and we have been able to use the newest technology available.

The new database should sound an early warning for declines in biodiversity and give policy makers a heads up on any impending biodiversity slump. “There should be no excuse now,” he says.

See biodiversityireland.ie