Module 1: Ancient genomes suggest woolly rhinos went extinct due to climate change, not overhunting

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200813113157.htm

Ancient genomes suggest woolly rhinos went extinct due to climate change, not overhunting
Date:
August 13, 2020
Source:
Cell Press
Summary:
Although overhunting led to the demise of some prehistoric megafauna after the last ice age, a new study found that the
extinction of the woolly rhinoceros may have been caused by climate change. By sequencing ancient DNA from 14 woolly
rhinos, researchers found that their population remained stable and diverse until only a few thousand years before it
disappeared from Siberia, when temperatures likely rose too high.

The extinction of prehistoric megafauna like the woolly mammoth, cave lion, and woolly rhinoceros at the end of the last ice
age has often been attributed to the spread of early humans across the globe. Although overhunting led to the demise of
some species, a study appearing August 13 in the journal Current Biology found that the extinction of the woolly rhinoceros
may have had a different cause: climate change. By sequencing ancient DNA from 14 of these megaherbivores, researchers
found that the woolly rhinoceros population remained stable and diverse until only a few thousand years before it
disappeared from Siberia, when temperatures likely rose too high for the cold-adapted species.

"It was initially thought that humans appeared in northeastern Siberia fourteen or fifteen thousand years ago, around when
the woolly rhinoceros went extinct. But recently, there have been several discoveries of much older human occupation sites,
the most famous of which is around thirty thousand years old," says senior author Love Dalén, a professor of evolutionary
genetics at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a joint venture between Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural
History. "So, the decline towards extinction of the woolly rhinoceros doesn't coincide so much with the first appearance of
humans in the region. If anything, we actually see something looking a bit like an increase in population size during this
period."

To learn about the size and stability of the woolly rhinoceros population in Siberia, the researchers studied the DNA from
tissue, bone, and hair samples of 14 individuals. "We sequenced a complete nuclear genome to look back in time and estimate
population sizes, and we also sequenced fourteen mitochondrial genomes to estimate the female effective population sizes,"
says co-first author Edana Lord, a PhD student at the Centre for Palaeogenetics.

By looking at the heterozygosity, or genetic diversity, of these genomes, the researchers were able to estimate the woolly
rhino populations for tens of thousands of years before their extinction. "We examined changes in population size and
estimated inbreeding," says co-first author Nicolas Dussex, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Palaeogenetics. "We
found that after an increase in population size at the start of a cold period some 29,000 years ago, the woolly rhino population
size remained constant and that at this time, inbreeding was low."

This stability lasted until well after humans began living in Siberia, contrasting the declines that would be expected if the
woolly rhinos went extinct due to hunting. "That's the interesting thing," says Lord. "We actually don't see a decrease in
population size after 29,000 years ago. The data we looked at only goes up to 18,500 years ago, which is approximately 4,500
years before their extinction, so it implies that they declined sometime in that gap."

The DNA data also revealed genetic mutations that helped the woolly rhinoceros adapt to colder weather. One of these
mutations, a type of receptor in the skin for sensing warm and cold temperatures, has also been found in woolly mammoths.
Adaptations like this suggest the woolly rhinoceros, which was particularly suited to the frigid northeast Siberian climate,
may have declined due to the heat of a brief warming period, known as the Bølling-Allerød interstadial, that coincided with
their extinction towards the end of the last ice age.
"We're coming away from the idea of humans taking over everything as soon as they come into an environment, and instead
elucidating the role of climate in megafaunal extinctions," says Lord. "Although we can't rule out human involvement, we
suggest that the woolly rhinoceros' extinction was more likely related to climate."

The researchers hope to study the DNA of additional woolly rhinoceroses that lived in that crucial 4,500-year gap between
the last genome they sequenced and their extinction. "What we want to do now is to try to get more genome sequences
from rhinos that are between eighteen and fourteen thousand years old, because at some point, surely they must decline,"
says Dalén. The researchers are also looking at other cold-adapted megafauna to see what further effects the warming,
unstable climate had. "We know the climate changed a lot, but the question is: how much were different animals affected,
and what do they have in common?"

This work was supported by FORMAS, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Carl Tryggers Foundation, the European
Research Council Consolidator Award, and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Cell Press. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

Edana Lord, Nicolas Dussex, Marcin Kierczak, David Díez-del-Molino, Oliver A. Ryder, David W.G. Stanton, M. Thomas P.
Gilbert, Fátima Sánchez-Barreiro, Guojie Zhang, Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, Eline D. Lorenzen, Eske Willerslev, Albert
Protopopov, Fedor Shidlovskiy, Sergey Fedorov, Hervé Bocherens, Senthilvel K.S.S. Nathan, Benoit Goossens, Johannes van
der Plicht, Yvonne L. Chan, Stefan Prost, Olga Potapova, Irina Kirillova, Adrian M. Lister, Peter D. Heintzman, Joshua D. Kapp,
Beth Shapiro, Sergey Vartanyan, Anders Götherström, Love Dalén. Pre-extinction Demographic Stability and Genomic
Signatures of Adaptation in the Woolly Rhinoceros. Current Biology, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.07.046

What environmental issue does the article discuss?

Climate change causing extinction of prehistoric species

Does the article discuss the cause of the issue?

Yes, it mentions that human activities didn’t cause the extinction but it was due to temperature rise

Does the article provide any suggested solutions or approaches to address the issue? If not, use a search engine such as
Google or Bing to see if you can find at least one proposed solution.
No, it only mentions the probable cause of the extinction. Proposed solution – adaptation resilience by minimization of in-
breeding, promotion of cross breeding and genetic engineering.
Can you think of any potential new issues that may result from the proposed solution?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Tuvalu (HUNGRY BEAST)
Real Human Stories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSmN8Eq4qEg

The effects of rising sea levels due to global warming seem a long way off for most of us, but for the people of the small
Pacific island nation of Tuvalu, the threat is more imminent. With water now up to some families' doorsteps during king tides
and a higher water table interfering with food production, time is fast running out for the population of Tuvalu.

List as many environmental problems as you can that face the people of Tuvalu.
What are some of the causes of the environmental problems you listed in Question 1?
Think about each of these problems from the perspectives of environmental science, ecology, politics, economics, and
religion. How might the definitions of the problems and the proposed solutions differ based on these different perspectives?
Low elevation above sea level
Sea level rise – high tide
Changing weather pattern
Increased salinity – agricultural loss
Coral bleaching – fish loss
Waste handling
Land shortage
Rise house, gardens
Mangrove forest planting
Human activities – cc
 RESTLESS PLANET

http://www.schroders.com/en/us/institutional/insights/fixed-income/municipal-credit-risk-and-natural-disasters/
If you could choose anywhere in the world—where would you most like
to live? Where would you build a house?
(Besthotelsaroundtheworld.com, 2018)
(Romero, 2018)
 World population densities

(Worldometers.info, 2018)
World population densities
Why the study of natural disasters is more important than
ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBjy6sPSATo
Now let’s get some of this stuff out of the way!

1. Review the course outline and course

policies.

2. Examine the main theories, concepts and

principles pertaining to natural hazards and
disasters.
 Catastrophe : a momentous tragic event ranging from extreme misfortune to utter overthrow
or ruin Deforestation and erosion can lead to an ecological catastrophe. 2 : utter
failure : fiasco the party was a catastrophe. 3a : a violent and sudden change in a
feature of the earth.

AGENDA
A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth;
examples include floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis,
storms, and other geologic processes. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage
property,[1] and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake, the severity of which
depends on the affected population's resilience and on the infrastructure available

A natural hazard is an extreme event that occurs naturally and causes harm to humans –
or to other things that we care about, though usually the focus is on humans (which, we
might note, is anthropocentric). An extreme event is simply an unusual event; it does not
necessarily cause harm.

Natural disasters have three general types of effects: primary effects,

secondary effects, and tertiary effects.
1. Class 1 take homes:
What is a Catastrophe?
Natural Hazard? Natural Disaster? –
Classifications of Natural Disasters
What types of events MIGHT be classified as natural disasters?
Natural hazards are naturally occurring physical phenomena caused either by rapid or slow onset events which can be geophysical (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic activity), hydrological (avalanches and
floods), climatological (extreme temperatures, drought and wildfires), meteorological (cyclones and storms/wave surges) or biological (disease epidemics and insect/animal plagues).
Technological or man-made hazards (complex emergencies/conflicts, famine, displaced populations, industrial accidents and transport accidents) are events that are caused by humans and occur in or close to human
settlements. This can include environmental degradation, pollution and accidents.Technological or man-made hazards (complex emergencies/conflicts, famine, displaced populations, industrial accidents and transport
accidents)
There are a range of challenges, such as climate change, unplanned-urbanization, under-development/poverty as well as the threat of pandemics, that will shape humanitarian assistance in the future. These aggravating
factors will result in increased frequency, complexity and severity of disasters.
 classification of natural disaaster

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 14

(CC Kids, 2018)

How do we differentiate between natural disasters, natural
hazards and catastrophes?
 Catastrophe

(Agabalyan, 2018)

a sudden, violent disturbance, especially of a part of the

catastrophe

NATURAL EVENT surface of the earth.

A natural event is a catastrophe when it kills or injuries
large numbers of people or causes extensive property
damage
 Natural Hazards:
NATURAL HAZARD

A natural hazard is an unexpected and/or uncontrollable

natural event of unusual magnitude that might threaten
people.

http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geoscience/NaturalHazards/Pages/default.aspx
DISTRIBUTION OF NATURAL HAZARD
 WORLD
TECTONIC
PLATES

http://www.johomaps.com/world/worldtecton.jpg
 Natural disaster

NATURAL DISASTER
(Devictoriaenvictoria.com, 2018)

A natural disaster is an event that is caused by the

natural forces of the earth and results in great damage
and possibly loss of life.
 Natural disaster

(Devictoriaenvictoria.com, 2018)
A natural disaster is defined by its impact on humans, not
EARTHQUAKE
on the phenomenon that caused it.
An earthquake is a natural EVENT. Even a very strong one is
not a disaster unless it causes injury or destroys property.
An earthquake occurring in an uninhabited area is not
considered a disaster.
Natural disasters trends
over time
 TREND OF NATURAL DISASTER

(Devictoriaenvictoria.com, 2018)

(Ccrettraining.com, 2018)
(Labs.densitydesign.org, 2018)
 NATURAL DISASTER - CATEGORIES, TYPES

5
1 2 3
4

6
 FRQUENCY OF DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF NATURAL DISASTER

(Du, 2016)
 Rank Death toll (estimate) Event* Location Date
TEN
1. MAJOR NATURAL
1,000,000–4,000,000 1931 China floods China July 1931
DISASTERS
2004 Indian Ocean
2. 280,000 earthquake and Indian Ocean December 26, 2004
tsunami
1920 Haiyuan
3. 273,400 China December 16, 1920
earthquake
East
4. 250,000–500,000 1970 Bhola cyclone Pakistan (now Banglad November 1970
esh)
1976 Tangshan
5. 242,000–655,000 China July 28, 1976
earthquake
Typhoon Nina—
6. 229,000 contributed China August 7, 1975
to Banqiao Dam failure
7. 160,000[9] 2010 Haiti earthquake Haiti January 12, 2010
1935 Yangtze river
8. 145,000 China 1935
flood
1923 Great Kantō
9. 143,000 Japan September 1, 1923
earthquake
1991 Bangladesh
10. 138,866 Bangladesh April 1991
cyclone
 More info about natural disasters over
time

http://emdat.be/sites/default/files/adsr_2016.pdf
 SCI 219
Dangerous Earth
What are some natural disasters that you can remember from recent
years?

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/94742
What are some natural disasters that happened recently?

2020 North American Wildfire Season. December 7, 2020.

2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season. December 1, 2020.
2020 Monsoon Floods. July 17, 2020.
2020 Spring Tornadoes. January 10, 2020.
2019 California Wildfires. October 10, 2019.
2019 Catastrophic River Flooding. March 14, 2019.
2017 Wildfires. October 11, 2017.
NATHANIEL PHILBRICK
 Worst man made disaster of all time?
Residents of the valley of Vajont in Italy had reservations about a new hydroelectric dam--especially when cracks began to appear in the nearby mountain. Their worst fears
were soon to be confirmed.

On 9 October 1963, during initial filling, a landslide caused a megatsunami in the lake in which 50 million cubic metres of water overtopped the dam in a wave of 250 metres
(270 yd), leading to the complete destruction of several villages and towns, and estimated between 1,900 and 2,500 deaths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkGnnc8Ezlk
 Zamil Khan
MyCourses

H Learning Materials Module 1 INTRODUCTION 1.0 Overview

1.0 Overview

Module banner: The Environment

Introduction

Welcome to THE ENVIRONMENT (SCIE 221). This is a course about

environmental issues that affect our planet and our lives. Throughout the
course we look at a wide range of topics including:

History of the Environmental Movement

Pollution
Consumption
Population
Food
Climate Change
Energy
Biodiversity
Ecosystem Services
Economics
Sustainability

Each week you will be required to work through Learning Materials on one of
these topics, read a selected article or watch a video on the topic, and
complete a Quiz or Discussion Board assignment based on all of the assigned
material for the module. This course is an opportunity to inform your opinion
about the environment.

Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes for this module are:

Explain why you are interested in environmental issues

Document a current environmental issue
Analyze how your own woldlview shapes your opinions on environmental
issues

Session at a Glance

This lesson covers the following topics:

Current environmental issues

Introduction to the topics in this course
Introducing yourself to the class

Required Reading

Article on a current environmental issue (to be determined each

semester). See the Critical Path to access the article for this semester.
 Zamil Khan
MyCourses

H Learning Materials Module 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Environmental Challenges

1.1 Environmental Challenges

Module banner: The Environment

Environmental Challenges: An Introduction and

an Overview
Television and the Internet have brought each of us face to face with
spectacular and often gut-wrenching images of environmental issues. Forest
fires in California, offshore oil spills, explosions at chemical plants, and the
dramatic loss of glaciers are but a few examples of worrisome environmental
change. While scientists acknowledge that the environment is dynamic and in
a constant state of flux, many scientists believe that in the past fifty years we
humans have more fundamentally altered our planet than have all previous
generations of humanity combined (Home, 2009). This is especially alarming
when we consider, as suggested by preservationist John Muir, that "when we
try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the
Universe" (1911; cited in Limbaugh & Lewis, 1980). Through our actions, we
may be sawing off the very limb that we are perched upon.

Photo by Robert Lukeman on Unsplash

Environmental problems can occur at local, regional and international scales

and may impact one or more of the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and
geosphere. Take a moment to consider what types of current environmental
issues are occurring and how they are impacting Earth's spheres.

icon
Grow Your Understanding
Environmental challenges are complex. Sometimes we find what
appear to be obvious solutions, but when we implement them we
create new, unforeseen environmental problems.

Read the current news article assigned in the Critical Path for this
week’s lesson. Then answer the following questions:

1. What environmental issue does the article discuss?

2. Does the article discuss the cause of the issue?
3. Does the article provide any suggested solutions or approaches to
address the issue? If not, use a search engine such as Google or
Bing to see if you can find at least one proposed solution.
4. Can you think of any potential new issues that may result from the
proposed solution?
 Zamil Khan
MyCourses

H Learning Materials Module 1 INTRODUCTION 1.2 Environmental Perspectives

1.2 Environmental Perspectives

Module banner: The Environment

Environmental Perspectives
As more and more people are realizing the effects of human actions on the
environment around us, they are finding that no one particular subject or
discipline has an answer to deal with all environmental issues. So, each
discipline now works to both understand the issues and find solutions to the
problems from their own perspective.

Environmental science combines perspectives from the sciences

(such as biology, physics, and chemistry) with perspectives from the
Environmental
social sciences (such as sociology, anthropology and psychology)
science
to try to find answers to current environmental issues.

Ecology studies the relationships between living organisms and

Ecology their environments.

Politicians are concerned with the laws that protect the environment
while also trying to maintain the rights and interests of the citizens
Politics
of their country.

Economists are concerned with maintaining and creating strong

economies while also trying to determine which environmental
Economics
practices are most cost-efficient and sustainable.

Religious figures and organizations are concerned with

understanding what the proper relationship is between humans,
Religion God, and nature. Moral and ethical issues also raise questions as
to how humans should value nature and the environment.
Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash

Because there is no one single cause of our environmental crises, there are no
single easy answers. All perspectives are working together with various
methods to bring greater understanding and insight to the causes and potential
solutions to environmental issues. As human actions are linked with and
connected to all aspects of the environment, humans are responsible for each
other and for the plants and animals that also rely on the same natural
resources.

icon
Grow Your Understanding

Watch this video (6m 39s) about the environmental challenges facing
the small Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Then answer the following
questions:

1. List as many environmental problems as you can that face the

people of Tuvalu.
2. What are some of the causes of the environmental problems you
listed in Question 1?
3. Think about each of these problems from the perspectives of
environmental science, ecology, politics, economics, and religion.
How might the definitions of the problems and the proposed
solutions differ based on these different perspectives?
 Zamil Khan
MyCourses

H Learning Materials Module 1 INTRODUCTION 1.3 Easter Island

1.3 Easter Island

 Module banner: The Environment

Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

We should perhaps take into consideration what we have learned by

examining past cultures that have destroyed themselves as a result of
‘unlimited growth’. Rapa Nui is one such example.

Image Credit: CC-BY-SA-3.0-migrated, Files with no machine-readable source

Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) is famous for its large stone
sculptures that decorate the island, and which have led many to wonder how
they got there and what they signify.

What historians have found, however, is that the brilliant culture that created
those wondrous statues caused the destruction of their own culture, through
the complete deforestation of the island in order to build shelters, boats, and
devices to move the statues into place. Once the trees were cut down, they
could not grow back fast enough to keep up with the rising population on the
island, and the increased demand for natural resources. The problem may
have been exacerbated by the accidental introduction of rats to the island, as
they ate the palm tree seeds (Dangerfield, 2007).

Over a few hundred years, the once flourishing culture of 7,000 people on
Easter Island deteriorated to the point where only a few hundred people
survived, and were forced to live in caves because they had no trees to build
their houses. The soil that was once fertile and provided the people with plenty
of food dried up, and with no more wood to build boats to allow them to fish
offshore, the people eventually died out completely.

Through unlimited growth and the resulting deforestation of the island, the
once rich resources there dwindled to nothing, and all that is there to remind
us of their existence are the famous statues that now stand in empty, barren
fields. Is this a lesson for us to learn about unlimited growth? Have we learned
from these cultures of the past who were unable to survive due to their
unlimited demands on their environment? Hopefully we will.

icon
Grow Your Understanding
Go outside or look out a window.

Make a list of the natural resources (such as air, trees, or clay

bricks) that humans need or want.
What might the consequences be if we use any of those
resources faster than nature can replenish them? Try to think of
specific consequences, not just “We’re all going to die.”
 Zamil Khan
MyCourses

H Learning Materials Module 1 INTRODUCTION 1.4 Collapse

1.4 Collapse

Module banner: The Environment

Collapse

In his book Collapse, Jared Diamond (2005) hypothesizes that there are 5
different reasons for why societies collapse:

1. Environmental damage (e.g., deforestation or water pollution)

2. Climate change (e.g., changes in temperature or rainfall patterns)
3. Hostile neighbours (e.g., war)
4. Withdrawal of support from friendly neighbours (e.g., cancellation of trade
pacts)
5. The ways in which a society responds to its problems (e.g., conservation
laws)

Photo by Andrew Ridley on Unsplash

In the case of Rapa Nui, the collapse was unlikely to have occurred from
hostile neighbours or from the withdrawal of support from friendly neighbours.
Rapa Nui is 1,900 km east of Pitcairn Island, and 3,500 km west of Chile, so
they did not have any neighbours to argue or cooperate with.

We also know that deforestation can significantly alter rainfall patterns

(Morello, 2012). It is likely that the collapse of Rapa Nui society was the result
of environmental damage and climate change, combined with an ineffective
societal response to the problem.

icon
Grow Your Understanding
Pick a country with which you are familiar (or choose the entire planet).

Think of at least one example for each of the first 4 reasons for
collapse that your chosen country is currently experiencing.
What would be an effective societal response to each of those 4
problems?
Is your selected country responding effectively to each of those 4
problems?
 Zamil Khan
MyCourses

H Learning Materials Module 1 INTRODUCTION 1.5 References

1.5 References

Module banner: The Environment

References

Carot, D. & Besson, L. (Producers), & Bertrand, Y. A. (2009). Home. [Motion

Picture]. France. Europa Corp.

Dangerfield, W. (2007, March 31). The Mystery of Easter Island. Smithsonian

Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-mystery-of-easter-
island-151285298/

Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse. Penguin Books. New York, N.Y.

Limbaugh, R. H., and Lewis, K. E. [editors]. (1980), The John Muir Papers,
1858-1957 [MICROFORM] Stockton, CA: University of the Pacific.

Morello, L. (2012, Sept. 6). Cutting Down Rainforests Also Cuts Down on
Rainfall. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cutting-
down-rainforests/

Real Human Stories. (2011). Tuvalu [VIDEO]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=DSmN8Eq4qEg
 Zamil Khan
MyCourses

H Learning Materials Module 1 INTRODUCTION 1.6 Checklist

1.6 Checklist

main banner

Module 1 Checklist

For this lesson, please complete the following tasks:

Check the Critical Path to see if your professor has scheduled a mini-
lesson/tutorial in Blackboard Collaborate Ultra

Read Learning Materials, and complete questions

Read the current news article assigned in the Critical Path

Introduce yourself in the Introduction discussion (See Discussion

Board)

Begin Part 1 of the Course Project (See Course Project)