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The biodiversity jukebox: how sound can boost beneficial soil microbes to heal nature

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Tuesday, October 1, 2024

In a race against time, scientists are exploring new ways to restore natural systems. Alongside traditional methods such as planting trees, reducing pollution and reintroducing native species, a surprising new tool is emerging: sound. Ecologists can harness sound to bring life back to degraded ecosystems. On land and at sea, natural soundscapes are being replicated to stimulate growth, reproduction and even communication among species. Sound is already being used to restore oyster beds and coral reefs. In our new research, we found beneficial plant microbes are also receptive to sound. We used high-frequency white noise to stimulate a fungus that promotes plant growth. The noise is a bit like the sound emitted in between channels of an old-fashioned radio. This adds a new dimension to restoration projects. Imagine using tailored soundscapes to restore wetlands, forests or grasslands, simply by artificially amplifying the sonic cues that attract wildlife, stimulate growth and rebuild relationships between species. We see a bright future for this “biodiversity jukebox”, with tracks for every ecosystem. Sound as an ecological tool In healthy ecosystems, everything from animal calls to water trickling underground creates a sonic landscape or “soundscape” that ultimately supports biodiversity. Conversely, the soundscapes in degraded ecosystems are often diminished or altered. This can change the way species behave and ecosystems function. Marine biologists were among the first to explore sound as a tool for restoring Australia’s southern oyster reefs. Intact oyster reefs provide habitat for many species and prevent shoreline erosion. But pollution, overharvesting and dredging almost wiped them out more than a century ago. It turns out playing sounds of healthy reefs, namely snapping shrimp, underwater encourages baby oysters to settle and grow. These sounds mimic the natural environment of thriving oyster beds. The results have been impressive. Oyster populations show signs of recovery in areas where soundscapes have been artificially restored. Similarly, fish support healthy coral reefs by grazing on algae that can otherwise smother corals. Playing the sounds of healthy coral reefs can attract young fish to degraded reefs. This helps kickstart reef recovery. The power of sound in plant microbiology Building on these successes, we ventured into new territory. In our new research we used sound to stimulate the growth of soil microbes. These microbes play an essential role in plant health. Some promote nutrient uptake in plants, others protect against disease. But these communities of microorganisms can be diminished and disrupted in degraded soils, hampering plant growth and ecosystem recovery. We wanted to find out whether specific sounds could encourage the growth of these beneficial microbes. We ran a series of experiments, to test the effect of sound on the growth and reproduction rate of a particular fungus known to stimulate plant growth and protect against diseases. We grew the fungus in the laboratory in 40 Petri dishes and subjected half of them to treatment with sound. We played a sound recording similar to the high-frequency buzz of white noise for 30 minutes a day over five days. Then we compared the amount of fungal growth and the number of spores between the two groups. In technical terms, the frequency was 8 kHz and level was 80 dB, which is quite loud, like the sound of a busy city street or vacuum cleaner, almost loud enough to damage hearing. We used a monotonous sound for experimental reasons, because it is easy to control. But a more natural or diverse soundscape may be even better. We plan to do more research on this in the near future. We found sound stimulated the fungi, increasing the growth rate by more than seven times and the production of spores by more than four times compared to the control (no sound). Why sound works Why does sound have such a powerful effect on ecosystems? The answer lies in the way organisms interact with their environment. Sound travels almost five times faster in water than in air, making it an efficient means of communication for marine life such as oysters, fish and whales. Trees detect the soundwaves produced by running water, and their roots move towards the vibration. We already know sound influences the activity of microbes. We think it stimulates special receptors on the membranes of the microbes. These receptors might trigger a response in the cells, such as switching genes responsible for growth on or off. Is sound the future of restoration? Microbes support plant life, help maintain soil structure, hold water and store carbon. By stimulating beneficial microbes with sound, we may be able to improve large-scale restoration projects. This approach may also support regenerative agriculture, where farming works with nature rather than against it. The author, Jake Robinson, in the field. Flinders University Our next steps include refining the sound patterns that are most effective in different ecosystems. We then need to scale up our research to test different sounds in diverse environments. We envisage creating a “biodiversity jukebox” of beneficial sounds to enhance ecosystem health. It’s clear what we hear – and don’t hear – profoundly influences the environment. So we’re also interested in noise cancellation. By this, we mean barriers to protect ecosystems from potentially undesirable noises. For instance, we’re asking questions such as: do traffic and industrial noises harm the ecosystem? As ecosystems face increasing pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss and habitat destruction, sound can become a powerful tool for restoration. While the science is still in its infancy, it has huge potential. Ultimately, sound-based restoration might offer a low-impact and cost-effective approach to help ecosystems recover. The future of restoration could be as much about what we hear as what we see. Jake M Robinson is affiliated with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change think tank Resilience Frontiers. He receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program for the Restoration by Design project. Martin Breed receives funding from the Australian Research Council, National Environmental Science Program Resilient Landscapes Hub, Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC TiME), Australian Academy of Science, and the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment.

Imagine using tailored soundscapes to restore ecosystems, simply by amplifying recordings of sonic cues that attract wildlife, stimulate plant growth and rebuild relationships between species.

In a race against time, scientists are exploring new ways to restore natural systems. Alongside traditional methods such as planting trees, reducing pollution and reintroducing native species, a surprising new tool is emerging: sound. Ecologists can harness sound to bring life back to degraded ecosystems.

On land and at sea, natural soundscapes are being replicated to stimulate growth, reproduction and even communication among species. Sound is already being used to restore oyster beds and coral reefs.

In our new research, we found beneficial plant microbes are also receptive to sound. We used high-frequency white noise to stimulate a fungus that promotes plant growth. The noise is a bit like the sound emitted in between channels of an old-fashioned radio.

This adds a new dimension to restoration projects. Imagine using tailored soundscapes to restore wetlands, forests or grasslands, simply by artificially amplifying the sonic cues that attract wildlife, stimulate growth and rebuild relationships between species. We see a bright future for this “biodiversity jukebox”, with tracks for every ecosystem.

Sound as an ecological tool

In healthy ecosystems, everything from animal calls to water trickling underground creates a sonic landscape or “soundscape” that ultimately supports biodiversity.

Conversely, the soundscapes in degraded ecosystems are often diminished or altered. This can change the way species behave and ecosystems function.

Marine biologists were among the first to explore sound as a tool for restoring Australia’s southern oyster reefs. Intact oyster reefs provide habitat for many species and prevent shoreline erosion. But pollution, overharvesting and dredging almost wiped them out more than a century ago.

It turns out playing sounds of healthy reefs, namely snapping shrimp, underwater encourages baby oysters to settle and grow. These sounds mimic the natural environment of thriving oyster beds.

The results have been impressive. Oyster populations show signs of recovery in areas where soundscapes have been artificially restored.

Similarly, fish support healthy coral reefs by grazing on algae that can otherwise smother corals. Playing the sounds of healthy coral reefs can attract young fish to degraded reefs. This helps kickstart reef recovery.

The power of sound in plant microbiology

Building on these successes, we ventured into new territory. In our new research we used sound to stimulate the growth of soil microbes.

These microbes play an essential role in plant health. Some promote nutrient uptake in plants, others protect against disease. But these communities of microorganisms can be diminished and disrupted in degraded soils, hampering plant growth and ecosystem recovery.

We wanted to find out whether specific sounds could encourage the growth of these beneficial microbes. We ran a series of experiments, to test the effect of sound on the growth and reproduction rate of a particular fungus known to stimulate plant growth and protect against diseases.

We grew the fungus in the laboratory in 40 Petri dishes and subjected half of them to treatment with sound. We played a sound recording similar to the high-frequency buzz of white noise for 30 minutes a day over five days. Then we compared the amount of fungal growth and the number of spores between the two groups.

In technical terms, the frequency was 8 kHz and level was 80 dB, which is quite loud, like the sound of a busy city street or vacuum cleaner, almost loud enough to damage hearing.

We used a monotonous sound for experimental reasons, because it is easy to control. But a more natural or diverse soundscape may be even better. We plan to do more research on this in the near future.

We found sound stimulated the fungi, increasing the growth rate by more than seven times and the production of spores by more than four times compared to the control (no sound).

Why sound works

Why does sound have such a powerful effect on ecosystems? The answer lies in the way organisms interact with their environment.

Sound travels almost five times faster in water than in air, making it an efficient means of communication for marine life such as oysters, fish and whales.

Trees detect the soundwaves produced by running water, and their roots move towards the vibration.

We already know sound influences the activity of microbes. We think it stimulates special receptors on the membranes of the microbes. These receptors might trigger a response in the cells, such as switching genes responsible for growth on or off.

Is sound the future of restoration?

Microbes support plant life, help maintain soil structure, hold water and store carbon. By stimulating beneficial microbes with sound, we may be able to improve large-scale restoration projects. This approach may also support regenerative agriculture, where farming works with nature rather than against it.

The author, Jake Robinson, crouching near the ground holding some soil while looking at the camera, smiling
The author, Jake Robinson, in the field. Flinders University

Our next steps include refining the sound patterns that are most effective in different ecosystems. We then need to scale up our research to test different sounds in diverse environments. We envisage creating a “biodiversity jukebox” of beneficial sounds to enhance ecosystem health.

It’s clear what we hear – and don’t hear – profoundly influences the environment. So we’re also interested in noise cancellation. By this, we mean barriers to protect ecosystems from potentially undesirable noises. For instance, we’re asking questions such as: do traffic and industrial noises harm the ecosystem?

As ecosystems face increasing pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss and habitat destruction, sound can become a powerful tool for restoration.

While the science is still in its infancy, it has huge potential.

Ultimately, sound-based restoration might offer a low-impact and cost-effective approach to help ecosystems recover. The future of restoration could be as much about what we hear as what we see.

The Conversation

Jake M Robinson is affiliated with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change think tank Resilience Frontiers. He receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program for the Restoration by Design project.

Martin Breed receives funding from the Australian Research Council, National Environmental Science Program Resilient Landscapes Hub, Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC TiME), Australian Academy of Science, and the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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The island that banned hives: can honeybees actually harm nature?

On a tiny Italian island, scientists conducted a radical experiment to see if the bees were causing their wild cousins to declineOff the coast of Tuscany is a tiny island in the shape of a crescent moon. An hour from mainland Italy, Giannutri has just two beaches for boats to dock. In summer, hundreds of tourists flock there, hiking to the red and white lighthouse on its southern tip before diving into the clear waters. In winter, its population dwindles to 10. The island’s rocky ridges are coated with thickets of rosemary and juniper, and in warmer months the air is sweetened by flowers and the gentle hum of bees.“Residents are people who like fishing, or being alone, or who have retired. Everyone has their story,” says Leonardo Dapporto, associate professor at the University of Florence.Giannutri island’s remote location made it a perfect open-air laboratory for the bee experiments. Photographs: Giuseppe Nucci Continue reading...

Off the coast of Tuscany is a tiny island in the shape of a crescent moon. An hour from mainland Italy, Giannutri has just two beaches for boats to dock. In summer, hundreds of tourists flock there, hiking to the red and white lighthouse on its southern tip before diving into the clear waters. In winter, its population dwindles to 10. The island’s rocky ridges are coated with thickets of rosemary and juniper, and in warmer months the air is sweetened by flowers and the gentle hum of bees.“Residents are people who like fishing, or being alone, or who have retired. Everyone has their story,” says Leonardo Dapporto, associate professor at the University of Florence.It was Giannutri’s isolation that drew scientists here. They were seeking a unique open-air laboratory to answer a question that has long intrigued ecologists: could honeybees be causing their wild bee cousins to decline?To answer this, they carried out a radical experiment. While Giannutri is too far from the mainland for honeybees to fly to it, 18 hives were set up on the island in 2018: a relatively contained, recently established population. Researchers got permission to shut the hives down, effectively removing most honeybees from the island.When the study began, the island’s human population temporarily doubled in size, as teams of scientists fanned out across the scrubland tracking bees. Then came the ban: they closed hives on selected days during the peak foraging period, keeping the honeybees in their hives for 11 hours a day. Local people were sceptical. “For them, we were doing silly and useless things,” says Dapporto. But the results were compelling.“‘Wow,’ was my first response,” says the lead researcher, Lorenzo Pasquali, from the University of Florence. When the data came together, “all the results were pointing in the same direction”.The findings, published in Current Biology earlier this year, found that over the four years after the honeybees were introduced, populations of two vital wild pollinators – bumblebees and anthophora – fell by “an alarming” 80%. When the honeybees were locked up, there was 30% more pollen for other pollinators, and the wild bee species were sighted more frequently. Scientists observed that the wild species appeared to take their time pollinating flowers during the lockups, displaying different foraging behaviour. “The effect is visible,” says Dapporto.Global bee battleIn terms of sheer abundance, the western honeybee (Apis mellifera) is the world’s most important single species of pollinator in wild ecosystems.Originally native to Africa, the Middle East and southern Europe, honeybees have been shipped around the planet by humans to every continent except Antarctica. The battles playing out on this small Italian island are likely to be echoed in ecosystems everywhere.While the number of honeybees is increasing (driven by commercial beekeeping) native pollinators are declining globally due to habitat loss, climate breakdown and use of chemicals in farming. But we are only beginning to understand how the great honeybee boom could also take a toll on wild pollinators.In southern Spain, where honeybee numbers have more than tripled since the 1960s, research shows managed honeybees spilling into flower-rich woodlands after the orange crop has bloomed. The result: increased competition with wild pollinators.During California’s annual almond bloom, about 90% of the US’s managed honeybees are recruited in to pollinate, with beekeepers trucking hives across the country to meet demand. “For this approximately month-long period, the impact of honeybees on native pollinators is likely huge,” says Dillon Travis from the University of California San Diego. During the off season – when honeybees are less in demand – beekeepers often keep them in wild ecosystems. “Native pollinators need to compete with millions of honeybees for limited food sources.”If conditions are right, honeybees go feral and set up colonies in the wild. A 2018 study looking at the presence of honeybees in natural ecosystems found them in 89% of sites.In California, feral honeybees are increasingly turning up in vast numbers in natural ecosystems hundreds of miles away from the almond fields.Honeybee takeoversEach spring, after the winter rains, San Diego’s coastal scrub landscape bursts into life. Sagebrush, white sage and buckwheat unfurl their leaves, throwing sweet aromas into the hot air. These sights and smells greeted graduate student Keng-Lou James Hung when he started studying this area of southern California in 2011, aged 22, after a well-regarded biologist told him it was one of the richest bee habitats on Earth.The landscape has all the hallmarks of a pristine ecosystem: no tractor has tilled the land, no cattle grazed it; few humans tread here. “You can equate it to primary growth Amazonian rainforest in terms of how intact and undisturbed the ecosystem is,” says Hung.It’s like a local grocery store trying to compete against Walmart. Once they’ve escaped there’s little we can do to stop honeybeesWhen Hung began his research, however, what he discovered flummoxed him. “I got to my field sites and all I was seeing were honeybees,” he remembers. “Imagine as an avid birder: you get to a pristine forest and all you are seeing are feral pigeons. That’s what was going on with me when I set foot in this habitat. It came as a shock.” Honeybees were everywhere – nesting in utility boxes, ground squirrel burrows and rock crevices.In July, Hung – now an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma – published a paper finding 98% of all bee biomass (ie, the weight of all bees) in that area were feral honeybees. They removed about 80% of pollen during the first day a flower opened, according to the paper, published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity.Such high rates of pollen extraction leave little for the more than 700 species of native bees in the region, which need pollen to raise their offspring. Some of those species have not been seen for decades.Hung believes honeybees’ social structure gives them the edge. Using the “hive mind”, they communicate the locations of plants and remove most of the pollen early in the morning before native bees begin searching for food. Most other bees operate as single agents, making decisions in isolation.“It’s like a local grocery store trying to compete against Walmart,” says Hung. “Once they’ve escaped and established themselves there’s very little we can do to really stop honeybees. They’re very powerful and resilient creatures.”In 1956, some experimental “Africanised” honeybees were accidentally released from a research apiary in São Paulo, Brazil, spreading out across south and Central America and into California. Their expansion has been described as one of the “most spectacular biological invasions of all time”.Wider ecological effectsHabitat fragmentation, chemical use in farming and rising temperatures are key drivers of pollinator declines, but in areas such as in San Diego it is likely honeybees are also a significant contributing factor. “It is very difficult to imagine a scenario where a single species can remove four-fifths of all the pollen … without having too much of an impact on that ecosystem,” says Hung.Not only is it bad for native wild bees, it can have effects throughout the ecosystem.Studies have confirmed that plants in San Diego county are less healthy when pollinated by non-native honeybees. Potential impacts include fewer seeds germinating, and those that do may be smaller and produce fewer flowers. “This may create an ‘extinction vortex’,” says Travis, where less-healthy plants breed over generations until they can no longer survive. “I am unaware of any studies that determined that honeybees are beneficial where they are not native, excluding agricultural areas,” he says.In some parts of Australia and America – where honeybees are not native – they can reach densities of up to 100 colonies per square kilometre. In regions such as Europe, where they are native, the picture is different.There are about 75,000 free-living honeybee colonies across the UK, according to research last year, which was the first to quantify the density of these colonies. Based on these estimates, more than 20% of the UK’s honeybee population could be wild-living. “In Europe, the honeybee is a native species and low densities of wild-living colonies are natural components of many ecosystems,” says researcher Oliver Visick from the University of Sussex.Visick has found densities of up to four wild-living colonies per square kilometre in historic deer parks in Sussex and Kent. “At these densities, wild-living colonies are unlikely to have a negative impact on other wild pollinators,” he says.In ecosystems where honeybees are introduced, scientists say there should be more guidance on where large-scale beekeepers keep their hives after crops have bloomed to reduce their impact on native species. In other areas, such as islands, relocation or removal may be feasible.The honeybee-free islandOn Giannutri, when researchers told national park authorities their results they banned bee-keeping on the island.The island, which is part of the Tuscan Archipelago national park, has been honeybee-free for more than a year and may now serve as a cautionary tale to other protected areas planning to introduce honeybees. Since the hives were removed, at least one of the species scientists have been monitoring appears to have slightly increased.The story unfolding on this little Italian island and the scrublands of San Diego shows that honeybees may not be the universal environmental stewards we paint them to be, and challenges the popular view that they are the best way to save nosediving pollinator numbers. Unchecked, they can cast a long shadow over fragile ecosystems that some might believe they help preserve.When the scientists returned to Giannutri, “It was a bit weird to go back to the island this year without the honeybees around. We were used to seeing them everywhere all over the island,” says Pasquali. “I was happy to observe the island in this new condition.”Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage

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Strange Mars Mudstones May Hold the Strongest Clues Yet of Ancient Life

NASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered mysterious mudstones in Mars’ Jezero Crater that contain organic carbon and strange mineral textures. These features, possibly shaped by redox reactions similar to those fueled by microbes on Earth, may represent potential biosignatures. Perseverance Rover Uncovers Organic-Rich Mudstones Images and measurements from NASA’s Perseverance rover indicate that recently identified rocks [...]

An image of the rock named “Cheyava Falls” in the “Bright Angel formation” in Jezero crater, Mars collected by the WATSON camera onboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The image shows a rust-colored, organic matter bearing sedimentary mudstone sandwiched between bright white layers of another composition. The small dark blue/green to black colored nodules and ring-shaped reaction fronts that have dark rims, and bleached interiors are proposed to be potential biosignatures. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSNASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered mysterious mudstones in Mars’ Jezero Crater that contain organic carbon and strange mineral textures. These features, possibly shaped by redox reactions similar to those fueled by microbes on Earth, may represent potential biosignatures. Perseverance Rover Uncovers Organic-Rich Mudstones Images and measurements from NASA’s Perseverance rover indicate that recently identified rocks in Jezero Crater are composed of mudstones containing organic carbon. According to a study published in Nature, these rocks underwent chemical reactions that produced colorful and unusual textures, which may represent possible biosignatures. The research, led by Joel Hurowitz, PhD, an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University, builds on studies carried out since the rover touched down in 2021. The work focuses on reconstructing Mars’ early geological history and gathering samples that could eventually be transported back to Earth. NASA’s Perseverance rover used its Mastcam-Z instrument to capture this 360-degree panorama of a region on Mars called “Bright Angel,” where an ancient river flowed billions of years ago. “Cheyava Falls” was discovered in the area slightly right of center, about 361 feet (110 meters) from the rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSSGeological Survey of the Bright Angel Formation When Perseverance reached the western edge of Jezero Crater, it examined distinct mudstone outcrops in the Bright Angel formation. The Mars 2020 science team performed an in-depth geological, petrographic, and geochemical analysis, uncovering carbon material along with minerals such as ferrous iron phosphate and iron sulfide. Although the researchers are not announcing the discovery of fossilized Martian life, they note that the rocks display features that might have been shaped by living organisms – what scientists call potential biosignatures. A potential biosignature is any element, compound, structure, or pattern that could have originated from past biological activity, but which could also arise without life. The team emphasizes that further evidence is needed before determining whether microbes played a role in forming the textures seen in these mudstones. A Window Into Mars’ Ancient Environment “These mudstones provide information about Mars’ surface environmental conditions at a time hundreds of millions of years after the planet formed, and thus they can be seen as a great record of the planetary environment and habitability during that period,” says Hurowitz, who has been involved with Mars rover research since he was a graduate student at Stony Brook University in 2004. “We will need to conduct broader research into both living and non-living processes that will help us to better understand the conditions under which the collection of minerals and organic phases in the Bright Angel formation were formed,” he explains. Untangling Biological vs. Abiotic Origins More specifically, the researchers concluded the following during their analyses: The organic carbon detected appears to have participated in post-depositional redox reactions that produced the observed iron phosphate and iron sulfide minerals. And these reactions occurred in a sedimentary rock environment at low temperature. Redox reactions are a type of chemical reaction that all living things derive energy from, and in low temperature sedimentary environments on Earth, these redox reactions are commonly driven by microbial life. A review of the various pathways by which redox reactions that involve organic matter can produce the observed suite of iron, sulfur, and phosphorus-bearing minerals reveals that both abiotic (physical not biological) and biological processes can explain the unique features observed in the Bright Angel formation. Their observations in the Bright Angel formation challenge some aspects of a purely abiotic explanation, and thus the researchers suggest that the iron and sulfur and phosphorus-bearing nodules and reaction fronts should be considered a potential biosignature. Next Steps: Unlocking Secrets on Earth Continued research will be done to assess the rocks and mudstone features. For the time being, the researchers ultimately conclude that analysis of the core sample collected from this unit using high-sensitivity instrumentation on Earth will enable the measurements required to determine the origin of the minerals, organics, and textures it contains.” Explore Further: NASA Perseverance Rover’s Stunning Find May Be Mars’ First Sign of Life Reference: “Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars” by Joel A. Hurowitz, M. M. Tice, A. C. Allwood, M. L. Cable, K. P. Hand, A. E. Murphy, K. Uckert, J. F. Bell III, T. Bosak, A. P. Broz, E. Clavé, A. Cousin, S. Davidoff, E. Dehouck, K. A. Farley, S. Gupta, S.-E. Hamran, K. Hickman-Lewis, J. R. Johnson, A. J. Jones, M. W. M. Jones, P. S. Jørgensen, L. C. Kah, H. Kalucha, T. V. Kizovski, D. A. Klevang, Y. Liu, F. M. McCubbin, E. L. Moreland, G. Paar, D. A. Paige, A. C. Pascuzzo, M. S. Rice, M. E. Schmidt, K. L. Siebach, S. Siljeström, J. I. Simon, K. M. Stack, A. Steele, N. J. Tosca, A. H. Treiman, S. J. VanBommel, L. A. Wade, B. P. Weiss, R. C. Wiens, K. H. Williford, R. Barnes, P. A. Barr, A. Bechtold, P. Beck, K. Benzerara, S. Bernard, O. Beyssac, R. Bhartia, A. J. Brown, G. Caravaca, E. L. Cardarelli, E. A. Cloutis, A. G. Fairén, D. T. Flannery, T. Fornaro, T. Fouchet, B. Garczynski, F. Goméz, E. M. Hausrath, C. M. Heirwegh, C. D. K. Herd, J. E. Huggett, J. L. Jørgensen, S. W. Lee, A. Y. Li, J. N. Maki, L. Mandon, N. Mangold, J. A. Manrique, J. Martínez-Frías, J. I. Núñez, L. P. O’Neil, B. J. Orenstein, N. Phelan, C. Quantin-Nataf, P. Russell, M. D. Schulte, E. Scheller, S. Sharma, D. L. Shuster, A. Srivastava, B. V. Wogsland and Z. U. Wolf, 10 September 2025, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09413-0 Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.

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At the bus stop, a living ad for nature

A movement is installing plants on bus shelters, providing habitats for pollinators and countering the urban heat-island effect.

Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience.Bus shelters tend to be practical, utility-oriented, no-frills structures. They offer protection from the elements. Seating for while you wait. Maybe an ad to grab your attention.But a green bus stop movement is seeking to make them something more: Antidotes to the heat-island effect. Habitats for native pollinators. Living advertisements for incorporating nature into the built environment.These installations were first popularized in the Netherlands, which has almost 1,000 of them. They have been sprouting across Europe, as well as in Japan, Singapore and Canada, among other countries. The biggest U.S. collection is in Boston, which fitted 30 bus shelters with green roofs last fall. This year, green bus shelters are planned for two Maryland towns, Bladensburg and Edmonston. There also have been proposals to install them in Arlington, Virginia, and New York.A bus shelter with a green roof in Utrecht, Netherlands. (Bauer Media Outdoor Europe)A green roof bus shelter in the Ville-Marie borough in Montreal. (CNW Group/École de technologie supérieure)Green roofs on buildings have become even more common in many cities around the world, and those larger surfaces stand to have more environmental impact than a relatively tiny bus shelter. But roof plantings are often out of view from the street. Cultivating a garden on a bus shelter can influence how people perceive the world as they make their way around town.Green bus shelters can also add up. The city of Boston estimates that if all 8,000 of its bus stops featured living roofs, it would amount to about 17 acres of green space — that’s the size of nearly 13 football fields.The ingredients of a green bus stopGreen bus shelters typically involve five key components.(The Washington Post; iStock)(Zachary Balcoff/The Washington Post; iStock)1: Rigid structureA green roof structure needs to be able to support a lot of weight — not just soil and vegetation, but water after a heavy rain.So retrofitting an old bus shelter roof may not be sufficient. “You don’t want to put a green roof on a roof that’s, say, 15 to 16 years old. Ideally, you want to put it on a brand-new roof,” said Chase Coard, founder and CEO of Ecospaces, a green roofing company in Washington.2: Root barrierNext comes the root barrier: an impermeable fabric, plastic or rubberized material that will restrict the downward growth of the plants.3: Drainage and retentionOn top of the impermeable layer is the drainage mechanism, designed to collect and store rainwater for the benefit of the plants and slowly release the excess in a way that doesn’t overwhelm city drains.4: SoilThe depth of this layer will determine how many native plant species can thrive and how heavy and costly the green roof will be. The soil for a green roof should be more lightweight and mineral-based than typical house plant soil, to increase rainwater retention, according to the National Park Service.5: VegetationNative plants can help support local biodiversity. Zoe Davis, senior climate resilience project manager for the city of Boston, said their selections have attracted butterflies, bees, birds and squirrels.Probably the most common green roof plants are sedums, which are lightweight succulents. “You can basically toss them into really extreme environments and somehow they’ve found a way to survive and thrive off of little soil and little water at times,” said Larry Davis of Green Mechanics, a Maryland company specializing in ecological design.The impact of green bus stopsOne key advantage of green bus shelters is as a counter to urban heat islands. Living roofs can provide more shade than glass roofs, and they don’t absorb and reemit heat the way a blacktopped roof would. Instead, they can hold water long enough for it to evaporate and have a cooling effect.Jean-Luc Martel, a professor at École de technologie supérieure in Montreal, measured temperatures inside traditional bus shelters and ones with green roofs and found a difference of as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit at peak times.Living roofs have been documented to reduce surrounding air temperatures by up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.A case study in CanadaA thermal-imaging camera deployed in Montreal shows a bus shelter with a green roof is significantly cooler than one without. This study was conducted in August 2024 as part of an experiment by École de technologie supérieure, a local university. (École de technologie supérieure)For Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands, a goal of building green bus shelters was to address a rapid decline in the bee population. Strategically placed living roofs created “bee lines” and helped keep pollinators fed.The installations may have contributed to a steadying of the bee population, as reflected in a “national bee census” (which involves citizens counting the bees in their gardens for 30 minutes on designated days each year).Some of the green bus shelters in the United States are really demonstration projects. In San Francisco, Philadelphia and East Lansing, Michigan, the idea was to provide information about green roof infrastructure that is often hundreds of feet out of sight.Those novelty installations may affect how people think about vegetation in their surroundings. But it’s when living roofs are installed on a larger scale that they may start to have real environmental effects.“It’s the accumulation of those small, small things you will be doing that will have an impact in the long run,” Martel said.About this storyDesign and development by Zachary Balcoff. Editing by Marisa Bellack. Design editing by Christine Ashack and Joe Moore. Photo editing by Dominique Hildebrand. Copy editing by Shibani Shah. Additional support by Emma Kumer and Carson TerBush.

Nature
Climate
Water

Labour housing plans could destroy 215,000 hectares of nature in England, analysis shows

Critics say change in biodiversity protections would harm environmental recovery and make scheme ineffectivePlans to weaken environmental regulations for small housebuilders would allow developers in England to build on an area the size of the Yorkshire Dales in the next 10 years without replacing the nature they destroy, according to analysis.Labour wants to remove the requirement for small housebuilders – those whose sites are under a hectare (2.5 acres) – to replace the nature they destroy under existing rules known as biodiversity net gain. Continue reading...

Plans to weaken environmental regulations for small housebuilders would allow developers to build on an area the size of the Yorkshire Dales in the next 10 years without replacing the nature they destroy, according to analysis.Labour wants to remove the requirement for small housebuilders in England – defined as those whose sites are under a hectare (2.5 acres) – to replace the nature they destroy under rules known as biodiversity net gain.Ministers are consulting on plans to tear up the rules for small developers to boost growth. But analysis of the impacts of Labour’s proposal by environmental economists from the consultancy Eftec, suggests 97% of planning approvals – 76,800 out of 79,300 every year – would be exempt from the requirement to replace the nature that is destroyed if the rules are changed.This would mean an area of more than 215,000 hectares, the size of the Yorkshire Dales, could be built on over the next decade with no requirement for developers to compensate for any of the nature they destroy.The biodiversity net gain rules were brought in to help tackle devastating nature loss. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and the government is signed up to a pledge to boost nature recovery by committing to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.Biodiversity net gain, which requires developers to ensure a 10% increase in biodiversity, came into effect for major developments in February 2024 and for small sites in April 2024. But government plans to scrap the rules for small developers – who dominate planning in England – would render the scheme utterly ineffective, the report says.“Biodiversity net gain is a hugely important principle: industries that harm nature should contribute to its recovery,” said Richard Benwell, of Wildlife and Countryside Link, which commissioned the research with the Lifescape Project. “The proposal to drastically widen the number of exempt small sites from the system would be a return to the bad old days of damaging development and torpedo confidence in private investment in nature recovery.”Biodiversity net gain was supposed to apply to most planning applications but the research found 69,500 out of 80,400 (86%) approved planning applications between March 2024 and February 2025 claimed exemptions, in what the researchers believe could be widespread abuses by developers.Under current rules biodiversity net gain is not required for sites less than 25 sq metres, or those that do not affect protected habitats. But developers are able to “self declare” to claim these exemptions.Economists found a rise in claims for these “de minimis” exemptions, after the rules came into force last year. “The scale of misuse across different sizes of planning applications suggests the de minimis exemption may be being intentionally misinterpreted,” the report said.Joan Edwards, the director of policy and public affairs at the Wildlife Trusts, said the government wanted investment from the private sector to help it meet its binding nature recovery targets by 2030. But changing the system after just 13 months could destroy the biodiversity market.“Scrapping biodiversity net gain for small sites would be a spectacular own goal,” she said. “Nothing undermines private-sector confidence more than a government that chops and changes the rules on a whim.”The economists suggest Labour should instead tweak its changes to improve the efficiency of the system. It suggests excluding only sites of up to 0.1 hectares that align with the government’s proposed new definition of “very small sites”. This would also remove the current loophole that allows some very large sites to sidestep BNG entirely by claiming de minimis exemption.Thousands of individuals and organisations have responded to the government consultation on the changes, which ends on 24 July.Robert Oates, the chief executive and founder of ecological consultancy Arbtech, said: “The government’s proposal to weaken biodiversity net gain for small sites threatens both its goals: supporting nature recovery and accelerating housebuilding.“Small site biodiversity net gain has only been in place for 13 months, yet developers and businesses have spent years preparing for it. U-turns like this create damaging instability. Developers need certainty, not another policy rewrite.”A government spokesperson said: “This government is fully committed to biodiversity net gain and this consultation explores easier, quicker and cheaper routes to deliver gains for both developers and nature. We are also consulting on how biodiversity net gain should be applied to nationally significant infrastructure projects to provide a clear framework that ensures major new developments deliver for nature and contribute to our legally binding targets.”

Nature
Business
Government

‘People can’t imagine something on that scale dying’: Anohni on mourning the Great Barrier Reef

The Anohni and the Johnsons singer is collaborating with marine scientists for two special shows at Sydney’s Vivid festival that will show the reef’s plight Anohni Hegarty is about to go to the Great Barrier Reef for the first time. “I feel like I’m going to Auschwitz,” she says nervously. “On the one hand, I’m so excited to go because the landscape is so beautiful, and I know there’s going to be so much that’s gorgeous. And yet, I’m also scared.”In a week, the British-born, New York-based avant garde singer of Anohni and the Johnsons is flying to Lizard Island, a paradise of powdery sands on the reef, 1,600km north-west of Brisbane. Its luxury villas and bluest of blue waters are a stark contrast to the grim nature of Anohni’s assignment: documenting the current state of the world’s biggest coral reef. Continue reading...

Anohni Hegarty is about to go to the Great Barrier Reef for the first time. “I feel like I’m going to Auschwitz,” she says nervously. “On the one hand, I’m so excited to go because the landscape is so beautiful, and I know there’s going to be so much that’s gorgeous. And yet, I’m also scared.”In a week, the British-born, New York-based avant garde singer of Anohni and the Johnsons is flying to Lizard Island, a paradise of powdery sands on the reef, 1,600km north-west of Brisbane. Its luxury villas and bluest of blue waters are a stark contrast to the grim nature of Anohni’s assignment: documenting the current state of the world’s biggest coral reef.Reefs are hubs of biodiversity, supporting about a third of all marine species and 1 billion people, and crucial to the Earth as both a carbon sink and a home to algae, which produce at least half of the planet’s oxygen. The Amazon rainforest, which produces about 20% of our oxygen, is often described as the Earth’s lungs; being the size of Italy or Texas, you could call the Great Barrier Reef the left lung and the Amazon the right. But the gigantic reef is not well: it has been hit by six mass coral bleaching events in the past nine years, an alarming trend driven by record marine heatwaves. If coral reefs disappear, scientists warn there will be a domino effect as other ecosystems follow – a step down the path towards mass extinction.Tracing the worst coral bleaching event in recorded history – videoAnohni has been thinking about what she calls “ceremonies fit for purpose”, for a loss of this magnitude. When a sudden catastrophe happens, like a terror attack or natural disaster, humanity has worked out ways to process grief and anger en masse: funerals, memorials, protest, activism. But what do we do in the face of a slower death – like the worst global bleaching event on record, which is happening right now and has hit more than 80% of the planet’s reefs?“Where are the ceremonies fit for the purpose of naming and commemorating the times that we’re living through?” she asks. “To see the Great Barrier Reef fall, that’s 10,000 9/11s.”“People can’t really imagine something on that scale dying,” she says.For this year’s Vivid festival, Anohni is performing two shows at the Sydney Opera House, titled Mourning the Great Barrier Reef, featuring songs from across her career and footage of the reef captured at Lizard Island. With the help of Grumpy Turtle, a production company that specialises in underwater and conservation films, Anohni will be directing the scuba team from the surface in her snorkel. The image of such a poised performer, bobbing along in the ocean, seems wonderfully incongruous even to her. “I can’t believe I’m doing it,” she laughs. “I feel so privileged just to go. I’m scared and I’m very excited. But I’m with a great team, and they’re all very knowledgeable, so they’ll help me through it.”Just as a dying star glows more brightly before it goes dark, coral look even more beautiful in distress. Fluorescing – a phenomenon when corals release a garish pigment into their flesh as a sign of heat stress – is deceptively spectacular; and bleaching – when corals expel the photosynthetic algae that give them colour in response to warmer ocean temperatures – turns them a dazzling white.Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef in April last year. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images“It is like when someone’s dying, sometimes they show the gold of the soul,” Anohni says. “They throw their life force into a final expression. That’s what coral bleaching is … she’s saying goodbye.” She describes a conversation she had with a scientist who went out to visit a dead reef with a group of Danish students, “and they were all saying it was the most beautiful thing in the world, because they didn’t even know what they were looking at was a bunch of skeletons”.Anohni has long been singing about the climate crisis, sneaking this bitter pill into her beautiful, otherworldly songs. “I need another world,” she sang sorrowfully on 2009’s Another World. “This one’s nearly gone.” On 4 Degrees, released as world leaders met for the 2015 Paris climate conference, she sang her grim vision of the future: “I wanna hear the dogs crying for water / I wanna see the fish go belly-up in the sea / And all those lemurs and all those tiny creatures / I wanna see them burn, it is only four degrees.”She has grown used to being seen “as a kind of a Cassandra on the sidelines”; the prophet doomed to be ignored. Still, she is “so grateful” for being alienated in a way – as a trans artist, as a climate activist – “because when you have an outsider status, you have an opportunity to see the forest for the trees”.Her songs are often about how everything is connected: patriarchy, white supremacy, late stage capitalism, climate change denial, public surveillance, centuries of extraction and environmental degradation, and societies built on religions that preach that paradise is elsewhere, not here – “all this unwellness that we have woven together”, she says. Naomi Klein recently described Anohni as “one of the few musicians who have attempted to make art that wraps its arms around the death drive that has gripped our world”.It Must Change by Anohni and the JohnsonsAnohni has a special connection to Australia: in 2013 she was invited to visit the Martu people of Parnngurr, in the West Australian desert, “an experience that changed me forever”. When she asked one Martu woman where they believed people went after death: “She just looked at me like I was an idiot and said, ‘Back to country’.”This “deeply shocked” Anohni, from a British and Irish Catholic background. “She had a profound, peaceful acceptance of this animist reality,” she says. “I was raised in a society where they believed that only humans had souls and that this place was basically just a suffering ground where we had to mind our Ps and Qs. I no longer believe that.”In 2015, she played two concerts at Dark Mofo to raise proceeds for the Martu’s fight against a proposed uranium mine on their ancestral lands; the following year she joined them on a 110km protest march in the outback. She even willingly entered Australia’s most hostile environment – Q&A – where she memorably blasted a panellist for opposing wind turbines, telling him: “You’re doomed and I’m doomed and your children are doomed.”“I screamed at those fucking wankers, and made a fucking fool of myself,” she says, smiling, “and I was torn a new arsehole in the Murdoch press.” But at the same time, she was inundated with messages of support from all over the country. “I was proud of the chance to be of service to Australians,” she says.Great Barrier Reef suffering ‘most severe’ coral bleaching on record – videoStill, she agonises over her own impact on the environment, even the decision to go to Lizard Island. She is not assigning blame to anyone else – if anything, her finger is directed firmly at herself. “Just coming to Australia is an intolerable equation – the amount of oil that I burn to get there,” she says. Now if she performs in Australia, she does it for a cause and leaves the proceeds behind “because there’s no way morally to justify it any more”.For the Vivid project, Anohni is also interviewing eight “incredible” scientists about what they have observed on the Great Barrier Reef, including Dr Anya Salih, an expert on reef fluorescence, and the “Godfather of Coral”, Prof Charlie Veron. “They’re the ones who have stewarded the reef, who’ve watched her and cried with her as she’s declined,” she says. She admires that they don’t hide their grief; as Veron told the Guardian back in 2009: “The future is horrific. There is no hope of reefs surviving to even mid-century in any form that we now recognise.”“Australia is pioneering in this oeuvre of environmental feeling,” Anohni says. “It’s could be something to do with the Australian temperament. It’s more expressive. It’s stoic too, but there’s room for feeling. The English scientific community is very, very cruel in that regard – any expression of emotion is grounds for exclusion from any conversation of reason.”It is her hope that her Vivid shows will be fit for purpose – to show people the reality of the reef and give them a space to both marvel and grieve. “But to grieve doesn’t mean that a thing is done – to grieve just means that you’re recognising where we are,” she says.“For an hour and a half you can come to the Great Barrier Reef with me, and we’ll look at it and we’ll feel it. Without understanding what we’re looking at, there’s no hope of finding a direction forward. It’s actually a profound gesture of hope.”

Nature
Water
Climate

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