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Headlines from week beginning 22 October 2018 |
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A round up of the top countryside, conservation, wildlife and forestry stories as chosen by the CJS Team.
Public to have say on new National Parks -
Defra A call for evidence is inviting views from the public on the future
of our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
For the first time in nearly 70 years, the public will have their say
on how the country’s most cherished landscapes can be enhanced for
future generations. Environment Secretary Michael Gove and writer Julian Glover are today
(20 October) inviting
views on how England’s 10 National Parks and 34 Areas of Outstanding
Natural Beauty (AONBs) meet the nation’s needs in the 21st century
and whether there is scope for the current network to expand. With more than half the population living within half an hour of a
National Park or AONB – and over two million people calling these
landscapes home – a call for evidence will explore how access can be
improved and communities better supported – alongside which parts of the
country could benefit from greater protection. The public will also have input on whether housing and transport in
protected landscapes could be improved, the role they play in our
cultural heritage, and how these iconic areas can boost habitats for
wildlife. The evidence will form part of the recently-launched
review into protected landscapes – led by Julian Glover – which is
ensuring our National Parks and AONBs can be fit for the 21st century.
Reaction:
Government review calls for evidence to inform the future of National
Parks – Campaign for National Parks urges solutions to big
challenges Campaign for National Parks has welcomed the Government’s call for
evidence for the review of England’s designated landscapes, which was
launched today [Saturday 20 October]. The review, which will report 70
years after the 1949 Act that established National Parks, looks at all
aspects of England’s National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural
Beauty (AONB’s). Julian Glover, who recently addressed Campaign for National Parks’
annual parliamentary reception, is leading the review. In his speech he
noted that “we’ve done well but we can do even better” and called for
“interesting and bold ideas” in response to the challenges facing
National Parks.
Heritage Lottery Fund and National Trust join forces to save our
precious parks – Heritage Lottery Fund Open for Expressions of Interest: £10million ‘Future Parks
Accelerator’ initiative to secure future of urban parks and green spaces The National Lottery funding body, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF),
and the National Trust have joined forces to find and back ambitious and
sustainable solutions to protect and enhance public parks and
green spaces. The Future Parks Accelerator (FPA) is a UK-wide £10m strategic
initiative to enable up to eight local authorities and communities to
develop and implement bold and innovative funding and management
solutions for all their green spaces across their place, against a
challenging backdrop of financial uncertainty. The FPA will support places to grow the contribution parks make to
civic life whilst becoming financially sustainable. It will involve
discovering how parks and green spaces could be better used, managed and
funded to serve community needs and aspirations now and over the
next generation. With grant funding and support from a team of experts, the places
chosen to be FPA pioneers will work as a cohort to catalyse and share
innovation, learn rapidly together and build their capacity to lead for
ambitious change both in their place and to benefit the rest of the UK.
It will encourage new partnerships whilst supporting the role of local
authorities as vital owners, funders and co-managers of green spaces. It
will promote an holistic approach, ensuring that all parks and green
spaces in an area are protected and enhanced to deliver quality and fair
access to green spaces for free for everyone.
Albatross-eating mice responsible for two million fewer seabird chicks
on UK island each year – RSPB
New research shows that mice are eating seabird chicks at an alarming
rate, resulting in two million fewer seabird eggs and chicks on a single
UK island each year and putting some seabird species at the risk of
extinction. The study, supported by the RSPB, found that the number of chicks and
eggs surviving on Gough is much lower than it would be if mice were
absent. This environmental catastrophe threatens albatrosses and petrels
with extinction. Mice were accidentally introduced by sailors to the remote Gough
Island during the 19th century. Now, over 100 years later mice have
colonised the entire island, and evolved to be 50% larger than the
average house mouse. They have learned to eat the eggs and chicks of the
island’s once abundant birds.
Large mammals for a better climate - Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences Restoring populations of large mammals in the wild does not only
revitalise the flora and fauna. It can also help in mitigating climate
change, for example by increasing the capture of carbon by ecosystems.
This is the conclusion of ecologists representing several universities,
including Utrecht University, in a synthesis of existing studies. The
researchers published their results in Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society B. During the first half of the twentieth century, the number of
wildebeest in the Serengeti plummeted to an all-time low as a result of
widespread rinderpest. From 1960 the wildebeest population began to
increase once more, and their grazing and trampling led to increased
soil productivity and a reduced incidence of savanna wildfires. An
American study showed that the effect of this was so strong that the
return of the wildebeest resulted in the area turning into a CO2 sink.
Where the vast plains had once been a source of CO2 emissions, the area
now absorbs more CO2 than it emits, so much so that it offsets a great
deal of East Africa's annual fossil fuel carbon emissions. Large animals disperse large seeds "Another striking example is the role of megafauna in the dispersal
of seeds from tropical hardwoods", explains Associate Prof Joris
Cromsigt, ecologist at Utrecht University and SLU and first author of
the publication. "The harder the wood of a tree, the more carbon the
tree captures. But the harder the wood, the larger the seed, and the
greater the tree's dependence on megafauna for seed dispersal. Recent
research shows that the loss of large mammals could be responsible for a
10% reduction in carbon capture in tropical forests in certain parts of
the world. The restoration and conservation of tropical forests is one
of the frequently mentioned strategies for combating global warming, and
it seems that rewilding of the tropical forests can significantly
increase the effectiveness of this restoration."
Microplastics detected in humans for the first time
– Medical University of Vienna In a pilot study conducted by the Federal Environment Agency and the
Medical University of Vienna, microplastics in the human stool was
discovered for the first time – in all of the eight international
participants. Bettina Liebmann from the Federal Environment Agency and
Philipp Schwabl from the Medical University of Vienna have succeeded in
proving this. The results are presented today (23 October) at the
International UEG Gastroenterology Congress in Vienna and form the basis
for further investigations on a larger scale. The participants in the study, five women and three men aged 33-65,
live in Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland,
Russia, Japan and Austria. They kept a nutrition diary for one week and
then gave a stool sample. All participants consumed plastic-packed food
or beverages from PET bottles, the majority of them consumed fish or
seafood, and no one fed exclusively on vegetarian food.
Beavers’ impact on biodiversity revealed –
University of Stirling Beaver-built ponds are far more biodiverse than other wetlands, new
research from the University of Stirling has revealed. The study,
published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, surveyed
aquatic plants and beetles in 20 wetlands in central and southern Sweden
– 10 created by beavers, and 10 that were not. The team, from Stirling’s Faculty
of Natural Sciences, found 33 per cent more plant species and 26 per
cent more beetles in the beaver-created wetlands. Professor Nigel Willby,
who worked on the research with Dr
Alan Law, explained: “We found that the wetland types were very
different to each other, with small-scale disturbances by the beavers –
such as tree cutting and plant grazing – creating a complex, mosaic-like
environment. This significantly benefits biodiversity – with a third
more plant species and a quarter more beetles. These findings highlight
the importance of pond creation by beavers in rewilding our landscapes,
and for sustaining aquatic biodiversity – even in areas that are
naturally rich in other wetlands. Put simply: anyone can build a pond –
but if you want a really great pond, ask a beaver.” Beavers are the only animals that can engineer the environment that
they live in – using sticks to build dams, behind which ponds form.
Beavers do this to raise water levels to avoid predators, such as wolves
and bears: however, other animals also benefit from their work.” Professor Willby continued: “Many organisms benefit from the ponds
that form behind beaver dams – including mammals, amphibians, ducks,
insects and plants – and this has earned beavers the tag of ‘ecosystem
engineers’. Partly to exploit this natural, free ecosystem, beavers have
been widely reintroduced to their native range across the northern
hemisphere – with the Eurasian beaver introduced to more than 25
countries throughout Europe. This research justifies the reasons why
beavers have been reintroduced; they create unique habitats that
massively benefit local wildlife. Humans are not capable of replicating
this.” The study, Rewilding
wetlands: beaver as agents of within-habitat heterogeneity and the
responses of contrasting biota, was a collaboration between
Stirling, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the
Aquatic Coleoptera Conservation Trust.
Urban trees could be answer to hot office block woes
– Forest Research Office workers feeling the heat could benefit from the planting of
nearby trees, a new study by the University of Reading and Forest
Research has found. The paper in Urban
Forestry and Urban Greening has found that air-conditioned buildings
saved energy when they had trees in close proximity, through the
precooling and humidification of the air by trees in a process called
evapotranspiration. Using the new approach to measuring trees’ effect on urban cooling,
the team examined the effect of trees in the case study area of inner
London and observed that air-conditioning unit energy consumption fell
by between 1.3% and 13%. This corresponds to an estimated annual saving
of between £2.1 million and £22 million. Dr Stefan Smith, Lecturer in Energy Systems in the Built Environment
at the University of Reading, said: “We were surprised to see the extent
to which the trees affected energy consumption in air conditioning
units. We designed the study to take away less reliable measures of how
trees cool the urban environment. Large trees were particularly
significant in their cooling effects according to the paper, even
without consideration for the cooling effect that shading provides. We
also found that some small and medium stature trees also had strong
cooling effects, and these species offer the potential to create
evaporative cooling in locations without sufficient space for a large
tree canopy.” Co-author Dr
Kieron Doick, Head of the Urban Forest Research Group at Forest
Research, said: “This work adds to the suite of urban tree benefits that
we can already value. We know that trees remove airborne pollutants,
sequester carbon dioxide and intercept stormwater, and we can value
these services. Trees also contribute to human wellbeing, though we
cannot yet value this benefit. Quantification and valuation of the
ecosystem services provided by urban trees is important as it can help
make the case for protecting tree planting and maintenance budgets and
to integrate building climate change resilience into cities.”
Local businesses invited to join National Park’s ‘Visit, Give, Protect’
community – South Downs National Park
Authority
Image:
South Downs NPA Since May 2018 Deans Place Hotel have asked guests to add an optional
donation of £2 onto their bill as part of the South Downs National Park
Trust’s ‘Visit, Give, Protect’ pilot. They have found that guests are
happy to support the landscapes that they are visiting and have already
raised an impressive £1,394 for the new charity. James Dopson from Deans Place Hotel, said: “We know our visitors care
about the National Park’s special landscapes and we’re proud to show
them that we do too. With just a £2 voluntary donation from each booking
we can help to make a lasting difference to the environment, wildlife
and communities of the South Downs.” The Trust are now inviting more local traders to join the Visit,
Give, Protect community of South Downs businesses who are placing the
National Park at the heart of what they do and showing they support the
landscapes that attract their visitors.
Plastic Oceans: MEPs back EU ban on throwaway plastics by 2021
Single-use plastic items such as plates, cutlery, straws, balloon
sticks or cotton buds, will be banned in the EU under plans adopted on
Wednesday. These products, which make up over 70% of marine litter, will be
banned from the EU market from 2021, under draft plans approved by
Parliament. MEPs added to this list of plastics banned from the EU market from
2021: products made of oxo-degradable plastics, such as bags or
packaging and fast-food containers made of expanded polystyrene. National reduction targets for other non-banned plastics The consumption of several other items, for which no alternative
exists, will have to be reduced by member states by least 25% by 2025.
This includes single-use burger boxes, sandwich boxes or food containers
for fruits, vegetables, desserts or ice creams. Member states will draft
national plans to encourage the use of products suitable for multiple
use, as well as re-using and recycling. Other plastics, such as beverage bottles, will have to be collected
separately and recycled at a rate of 90% by 2025.
Birds startled by moving sticks - University
of Exeter Do animals - like humans - divide the world into things that move and
things that don’t? Are they surprised if an apparently inanimate object
jumps to life? Yes - according to scientists at the universities of Exeter and
Cambridge. The researchers tested how jackdaws responded to moving birds, moving
snakes and moving sticks – and found they were most cautious of the
moving sticks. The study, using remote-controlled objects placed in jackdaws’ nests,
will help scientists understand how birds perceive potential threats. “Although as humans we see the divide between animate an inanimate
objects as an intuitive one, we’ve had very little evidence that wild
animals also see the world this way,” said lead author Dr Alison
Greggor, formerly of the University of Cambridge and now at the San
Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. “Laboratory studies have
shown that human infants and a few other species discriminate between
animate and inanimate objects. This ability is assumed to have evolved
to support social interactions, but its role for wild animals has never
been examined. Our work extends the potential function of this ability
beyond the social realm. It might therefore be a more common ability
than previously thought.” By placing remote-controlled objects in jackdaws’ nests, the
researchers tested how the birds assessed possible threats to their
offspring. Read the paper: Alison L. Greggor, Guillam E. McIvor, Nicola S. Clayton, Alex Thornton Wild jackdaws are wary of objects that violate expectations of animacy R. Soc. open sci. 2018 5 181070; DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181070
Ground-breaking project gets green light -
RSPB Major project to safeguard Orkney’s internationally important native
wildlife wins National Lottery and LIFE support An ambitious project to safeguard Orkney’s world-renowned and
internationally important native wildlife has been given the go ahead
after receiving support from the National Lottery and the EU’s LIFE
programme, it was announced today. The Orkney Native Wildlife Project, a partnership between
RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural
Heritage (SNH), and Orkney
Islands Council, is set to be the largest project of its kind in the
world. It aims to safeguard the unique and internationally important
native wildlife of Orkney now and into the future by addressing the
threat it faces from an invasive non-native predator: the stoat. Thanks to National Lottery players, £3.5 million has been awarded,
through a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to protect Orkney’s iconic
wildlife upon which the county’s thriving wildlife tourism industry
relies. The ambitious five-year project has also received funding of
£2.6 million from LIFE (LIFE17 NAT/UK/000557 – Orkney Native WildLIFE). Orkney is home to internationally important populations of wildlife.
Despite the combined land area of Orkney’s 70 islands accounting for
less than 1% of the UK, the islands are home to nearly a fifth of the
UK’s breeding hen harriers, nationally and internationally important
numbers of seabirds and are one of the few places in the UK in which
waders such as curlews are still a common breeding species.
Michael Gove announces new funding to protect bees
- Defra Environment Secretary Michael Gove has today (25 October) launched a
£60,000 fund to develop and test pollinator habitat mapping –
identifying where new habitats will provide the greatest benefit for
bees and other pollinators. This will help to boost the number of pollinator-friendly landscapes
and protect the health of our bees, wasps, beetles, butterflies, moths
and hoverflies, as set out in the
Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan.
(image: Defra) The project will involve partnering with organisations such as
Natural England, Buglife, The Wildlife Trusts and other bodies working
on habitat mapping and the conservation of pollinators. Environment Secretary Michael Gove said: “Bees and other pollinators
are vital contributors to the beauty of our landscapes, our economy and
our £100 billion food industry. Today’s announcement to fund pollinator
mapping shows our clear commitment to help these wonderful creatures to
thrive by creating wildflower rich areas around our towns and
countryside. Ben Bradley MP has run a brilliant campaign to better
protect our pollinators and to leave our environment in a better state
for future generations. He deserves all our thanks.” The government is also announcing today investment in two projects to
create pollinator-friendly landscapes:
Reaction:
Great news for pollinators Buglife welcomes the funding promised by the Environment Secretary as
a great first step towards securing the future of our precious
pollinators. Coupled with the ban on neonicotinoids this is real
affirmative action in the battle to arrest the decline of bees and other
pollinators and preserve the buzz of life. Public support for the Private Member’s Bill, the Protection of
Pollinators Bill, has helped gain some major concessions from government
who today announced the creation of a £60,000 fund to complete the
mapping of pollinator habitat across England leading to the Bill being
withdrawn. Once mapping is completed more resource will clearly be needed to
deliver the on-the-ground change required to turn the mapped lines into
landscapes full of wildflowers for pollinators. But today is a great day
for our pollinators
Greater diversity enhances public interest in marine habitats
- University of Plymouth The study by Swansea University and the University of Plymouth used
simulated rockpools to assess characteristics which increased interest Greater animal biodiversity can lead to heightened human interest in
marine habitats, according to research published in Scientific Reports. In an online test completed by more than 600 people, the results
showed images in which animals were present generated more than double
the interest than those without. Dr Tom Fairchild, from Swansea’s College of Science, was the study’s
lead author. He said: “We expected that communities that included more,
obviously different, animal species would be more interesting, as they
would contain a greater diversity of body shapes, colours or behaviours.
But rather than a single animal being particularly interesting, we found
that scenes with more, and increasingly different animals, were more
interesting to the people that we asked. This is significant as it is a
clear indication that people will engage more and gain educational value
from areas that are more ‘biodiverse’, further strengthening the growing
calls to protect and restore our native biodiversity.” Despite the importance of interest in determining how we view and
interact with the world, little is presently known about what drives
humans’ interest in nature.
Vanishing Gardens and Landscapes threaten UK Future
- The Royal Horticultural Society For the first time a report by Oxford Economics for the Ornamental
Horticulture Roundtable Group reveals the significant value of the UK’s
ornamental horticulture and landscape industries. In light of its
economic importance, the industry contends that it isn’t being taken
seriously by Government for the immense benefits it delivers. £24.2 billion is the total GDP footprint of the UK’s ornamental
horticulture industries in 2017. Whilst parks, gardens and green spaces provide a £131 billion aggregate boost to Britain’s house prices as part of the appeal of nature, homes being built without private gardens are on the rise. Predictions show that gardens are getting smaller and nearly a quarter of new homes don’t have gardens at all. In 2020 one million more homes won’t have a private garden compared to 1995. Some 568,700 jobs were supported by the industry in 2017, amounting
to 1.6 percent of total UK employment, yet horticulture is hardly
referenced in the national curriculum or promoted as a valued career
path. Despite ornamental horticulture generating £5.4 billion in revenue
for HM Government in 2017, the industry has been largely ignored and
receives little direct support or fiscal incentives. Yet it delivers
exceptional public value in terms of the environmental benefit it
provides to the nation. Access the report here
Oxford-Cambridge Arc puts Birmingham sized area of countryside at risk
– CPRE 27,000 hectares of farmland and woodland threatened by
Oxford-Cambridge Arc, according to CPRE analysis.
The Government is set to accept a recommendation from the National
Infrastructure Commission (NIC), this Monday (29 October), to build 1
million new homes between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge. This
would result in an area of countryside greater than the size of
Birmingham being lost to development, an
analysis by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has found. In September, the Government announced its preferred corridor for a
new expressway that would run between Oxford and Cambridge, as part of a
new development proposal, coined the ‘Oxford-Cambridge
Arc’. The NIC, who are backing the scheme, recommend building 1
million new houses in the Arc by 2050, in order to ‘boost economic
growth’. The Government is due to respond to the NIC’s recommendations on
Monday, alongside the Autumn Budget, despite no formal public
consultation, environmental assessment or parliamentary enquiry about
whether this major development project is advisable or desirable having
taken place. Once accepted however, the recommendations will have a force in
planning policy roughly equivalent to the Government’s National Planning
Policy Framework (NPPF).
The Wildlife Trusts welcome publication of the Fisheries Bill and its
focus on environment and sustainability – The
Wildlife Trusts A healthy and prosperous fishing industry relies on an equally
healthy and thriving marine environment. Today’s announcement of a new
Fisheries Bill, a key part of the legal Brexit jigsaw, includes
important commitments to ensuring a joined-up approach to future
management of fisheries and marine conservation. The new legislation includes commitments to eliminating over-fishing,
looking at the wider impacts of fishing on the marine environment and
basing all decision making on sound science. It also renews the
Government’s commitment to tackling the question of discards, where
perfectly good fish are thrown back into the sea. Joan Edwards, Director of Living Seas for the Wildlife Trusts said
“It is important as we leave the EU that all opportunities are taken to
put future fisheries management on a sound environmental footing.
The strong commitment to reducing the environmental impacts of fishing
we have seen in today’s Fisheries Bill will not only be good for the
marine environment, it will also help ensure the that fishing industry
has more secure future.”
Growing noise in the ocean can cause dolphins to change their calls
– University of Maryland Center for Environmental
Science Helen Bailey and her assistant Leila Fouda studied underwater ambient
noise levels and whistle calls by bottlenose dolphins in the western
North Atlantic, which experiences relatively high levels of vessel
traffic between shipping lanes and recreational boaters off the coast of
Dolphins (Helen Bailey) They found that increases in ship noise resulted in high dolphin
whistle frequencies and a reduction in whistle complexity, an acoustic
feature associated with individual identification. “The simplification
of these whistles could reduce the information in these acoustic signals
and make it more difficult for dolphins to communicate,” Fouda said. Dolphins are social animals, and they produce calls for many
different reasons. They talk to each other to stay together as a group,
they whistle when they feed, and they even call out their names when
different groups of dolphins meet. “These whistles are really important,” Bailey said. “Nobody wants to
live in a noisy neighborhood. If you have these chronic noise levels,
what does this mean to the population?” Normally dolphin calls have a complex sound pattern with rises and
falls in the pitch and frequency in their whistles. The researchers
found that ambient noise had a significant effect on the whistle
characteristics. Bailey and her team analyzed the duration, start and
end frequencies, presence of harmonics, and inflection points. With
background noise, such as the low frequency chug-chugging of a ship’s
engine, their usually complex whistle signatures flatlined.
How people power can track alien species – study
– Anglia Ruskin University Research highlights role of citizen scientists in mapping spread of
invasive ladybird
Image: Anglia Ruskin University
Current approach to protecting England’s coastal communities from
flooding and erosion not fit for purpose as the climate changes
– Committee on Climate Change A new, long-term approach to coastal management in England is
urgently needed given the expected impacts of climate change, the
Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says. Climate change will almost certainly cause sea levels around the UK
to increase by 1 metre or more at some point in the future, and this
could happen as early as 2100 – within the lifetimes of today’s
children. In a new report, ‘Managing
the coast in a changing climate’, the Committee finds that coastal
communities, infrastructure and landscapes in England are already under
significant pressure from flooding and erosion. These threats will
increase in the future. As a result, some coastal communities and infrastructure are unlikely
to be viable in their current form. This problem is not currently being
confronted with the required urgency or openness, the Committee’s report
shows. Long-term action to adapt England’s coasts to climate change in a
sustainable way is possible and could deliver multiple benefits.
However, the Committee finds that plans for the coast are not realistic
about the implications of climate change, and are not backed up with
funding or legislation.
Scientific publications Whiteley, N. M. et al
Sensitivity
to near-future CO2 conditions in marine crabs depends on their
compensatory capacities for salinity change. Nature - Scientific
Reports volume 8, Article number: 15639 (2018) (Open Access) Claireau, F. Bas, Y., Puechmaille Sébastien, J., Julien, J-F.,
Allegrini, B. & Kerbiriou, C. (2018)
Bat overpasses: an insufficient solution to restore habitat connectivity
across roads. Journal of Applied Ecology. DOI:
10.1111/1365-2664.13288 Fernández-Bellon, D., Wilson, M. W., Irwin, S. & O’Halloran, J.
(2018)
Effects of development of wind energy and associated changes in land use
on bird densities in upland areas. Conservation Biology. DOI:
10.1111/cobi.13239
Zijlema, W. L. et al (2018)
Active commuting through natural environments is associated with better
mental health: Results from the PHENOTYPE project. Environment
International. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.10.002 Pauleit, S. et al (2018)
Advancing Urban Green Infrastructure in Europe: outcomes and reflections
from the GREEN SURGE project. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. DOI:
10.1016/j.ufug.2018.10.006
Seward, A. et al (2018)
Metapopulation dynamics of roseate terns: Sources, sinks and
implications for conservation management decisions. Journal of
Animal Ecology
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12904 (open access)
Radford, S. L., Senn, J. & Kienast, F. (2018) Indicator-based assessment of wilderness quality in mountain landscapes. Ecological Indicators. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.09.054 (open access) |
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CJS is not responsible for content of external sites. Details believed correct but given without prejudice. Disclaimer: the views expressed in these news pages do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of CJS. |
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Photo
credit: North York Moors National Park Authority
A new scheme bringing local businesses together to encourage
customers who love the South Downs National Park to make donations to
support it is being launched after the success of a pilot by Deans Place
Hotel in Alfriston.
These
species are critical to our countryside and the food industry through
the work they do to pollinate plants and crops. 
Image:
CPRE
Maryland.
Acoustic recordings were collected using hydrophones deployed to the
bottom of the ocean in the leased Wind Energy Area, approximately 20
miles off the coast.
New
research published in the Nature journal Scientific Data shows how the
public can play a vital role in helping to track invasive species. 
