{"id":189101,"date":"2024-12-05T16:05:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T16:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/05\/meet-a-scientist-tracking-cactus-poaching-in-the-atacama-desert\/"},"modified":"2024-12-05T16:05:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T16:05:11","slug":"meet-a-scientist-tracking-cactus-poaching-in-the-atacama-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/05\/meet-a-scientist-tracking-cactus-poaching-in-the-atacama-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet a scientist tracking cactus poaching in the Atacama Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"763\" height=\"456\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/survey_cta_footprint.jpg?fit=763,456&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Meet a scientist tracking cactus poaching in the Atacama Desert\" title=\"Meet a scientist tracking cactus poaching in the Atacama Desert\" \/><\/div> \r\n<br><div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n<p>Pablo Guerrero has been visiting cacti in the Atacama Desert his whole life, first on family trips to the Chilean coast and later as a researcher studying the impacts of climate change and illegal poaching on the fragile flora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The desert, which is the driest spot on Earth beyond the planet\u2019s poles, can be so desolate that NASA uses it to test Mars rovers. But from a young age, Guerrero learned to spot pockets of life hidden within the arid landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.email-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  color: white;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-image: url(\"\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.jpg\");\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"rich-text embedded-conversion-content is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSf83OekELCTbhuYw3Iu-p8OWiE9-uE56ZFNbeTapotBaa1rIg\/viewform?usp=sf_link\">\n  <\/a><\/div><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSf83OekELCTbhuYw3Iu-p8OWiE9-uE56ZFNbeTapotBaa1rIg\/viewform?usp=sf_link\">\n<\/a>\n\n<style><![CDATA[\n#dynamic-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  max-width: 100%;\n  height: auto;\n  clear: both;\n}\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n\n<\/aside>\n\n\n<p>Cacti, a smorgasbord of funky shapes and showy flowers, easily became his favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guerrero began visiting the Atacama as a researcher in the early 2000s and observed the plants of his childhood with a botanist\u2019s eye. Their ability to flourish in such extreme conditions impressed him, and he grew concerned about their ability to continue surviving as humans infiltrated the desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEncountering these plants, especially those facing conservation challenges, was almost an epiphany for me,\u201d says Guerrero, now a botanist at the Universidad de Concepci\u00f3n in Chile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline2.jpg?fit=680%2C510&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"A man crouches down in the desert surrounded by yellow flowering plants\" class=\"wp-image-3146903\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline2.jpg?w=680&amp;ssl=1 680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline2.jpg?resize=511%2C383&amp;ssl=1 511w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline2.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline2.jpg?resize=248%2C186&amp;ssl=1 248w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline2.jpg?resize=263%2C197&amp;ssl=1 263w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline2.jpg?resize=560%2C420&amp;ssl=1 560w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3146903\">Botanist Pablo Guerrero sits amidst blooming, yellow <em>Argylia radiata<\/em> flowers in the Atacama Desert.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3146903\">Pablo Guerrero<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Cacti in the Atacama are particularly vulnerable to disturbances. Many species live in only a few square kilometers. And in the driest reaches of the desert, cacti depend on fog alone for water. But the desert is getting hotter and drier, and in some places, the fog is disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humans\u2019 impact on the desert is increasing too. In Guerrero\u2019s youth and earlier in his research career, the only way to access remote hotspots of biodiversity was to trek through the desert on foot. As the mining and energy industries began to grow, more roads were built, turning hours-long treks into quick drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Litter now pools along the roadside, Guerrero says. Once-bursting spots feel lifeless, haunted by the desiccated husks of cacti. Because the desert is so dry, remains are slow to decompose and linger for years. And many remaining cacti populations are sparse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cComparing today\u2019s populations with historical photos that a botanist took, it\u2019s easy to see the change in the presence of plants,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re much less abundant now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"680\" height=\"602\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline1.jpg?fit=680%2C602&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"A pile of bottles, cans and other trash sits on a desert landscape\" class=\"wp-image-3146904\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline1.jpg?w=680&amp;ssl=1 680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline1.jpg?resize=433%2C383&amp;ssl=1 433w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline1.jpg?resize=508%2C450&amp;ssl=1 508w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline1.jpg?resize=210%2C186&amp;ssl=1 210w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/112224_bd_fog-cacti_inline1.jpg?resize=655%2C580&amp;ssl=1 655w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3146904\">Garbage piles are evidence of the environmental impact that roads, traffic and unauthorized construction projects have on once-remote reaches of the Atacama Desert.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3146904\">Pablo Guerrero<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In recent years, Guerrero began hearing from colleagues about more cacti being seized at the Chilean border. Interest in having cacti as houseplants grew around the world \u2014 and so did cactus theft. From the American Southwest to South Africa, desert plants have been targets of plant poaching. Even the remote Atacama wasn\u2019t safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How, Guerrero wondered, was poaching affecting the desert\u2019s cacti?<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-elements-27c40654034fbeecef6418d6adfe0794\" style=\"color:gray; margin-bottom:0px; font-size:.9rem;\">Sponsor Message<\/p>\n<!-- Tag ID: sciencenews-org_leaderboard_incontent -->\n\n<\/aside>\n\n\n<p>He looked to <em>Copiapoa<\/em>, a diverse genus of cacti found primarily in the Atacama that has been \u201ca hot commodity\u201d in recent years. From his field visits, it seemed obvious that many species were threatened, if not already near extinction. In the most recent assessment, in 2015, 28 percent of <em>Copiapoa<\/em> species and subspecies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/nplants2015142\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">were classified as critically endangered<\/a> or endangered. But nearly half of the 39 known species and subspecies hadn\u2019t been evaluated at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guerrero first set out to correct this, using new evolutionary histories of the species, careful mapping and outside experts to reclassify <em>Copiapoa<\/em>\u2019s extinction risk. The results were stark: 76 percent of all <em>Copiapoa<\/em> species and subspecies are critically endangered or endangered, dramatically more than what the 2015 assessment found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guerrero then analyzed factors of extinction risk, such as landscape condition, human footprint, plant poaching and legal trade to see which factors were most likely responsible for the increased extinction risk <em>Copiapoa<\/em> faces. Climate change played a role, but <a href=\"https:\/\/conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/cobi.14353\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">poaching and trade clearly stood out as significant<\/a>, affecting almost all critically endangered species, he and colleagues reported in the October <em>Conservation Biology<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe situation is really bad,\u201d Guerrero says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Determined to help conserve the Atacama\u2019s cacti, he is researching what keeps them alive in the desert and collaborating on state and international efforts to document poaching. He thinks creating new conservation areas with the greatest biodiversity and training park rangers to identify rare cacti are essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the rapid rise of extinction risk for the Atacama\u2019s cacti alarmed Guerrero. \u201cI\u2019m scared for the future of some of these species.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/cactus-poaching-desert-pablo-guerrero\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pablo Guerrero has been visiting cacti in the Atacama Desert his whole life, first on family trips to the Chilean coast and later as a researcher studying the impacts of climate change and illegal poaching on the fragile flora. The desert, which is the driest spot on Earth beyond the planet\u2019s poles, can be so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/survey_cta_footprint.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[147995,97702,18148,2485,5223,1157,15189],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189103,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189101\/revisions\/189103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}