Converting the ground under electrical transmission towers into spaces for wildlife can enable fragmented populations to connect with one another, increasing local biodiversity and providing animals around the globe an important tool for adapting to climate change, a new study found.
Converting the ground under electrical transmission towers into spaces for wildlife can enable fragmented populations to connect with one another, increasing local biodiversity and providing animals around the globe an important tool for adapting to climate change, a new study found.
“The most common way species respond to climate change is to try to shift their range – i.e., go live somewhere else,” Oregon State University scientist Virginia Morandini said. “When landscapes become fragmented, usually because of human activity, it greatly hinders animals’ ability to move their range. That’s why it’s so important for biodiversity conservation to try to get their environments connected.”
For this study, Morandini teamed up with scientists from the Estación Biológica de Doñana (Biological Station of Doñana) in Seville, Spain, to plant native shrubs and seedlings under six towers in two 400-kilovolt lines running parallel through cereal cropland in Spain’s Andalusia region. The area of each tower base is 100 square meters.
Compared to each of four control sites – two unmodified tower bases, plus two other unmodified 100-square-meter parcels nearby – the researchers measured increased population density and diversity among the eight arthropods and four species of small mammals, including rats, mice, insects and spiders, that they trapped during the four-year study.
Read more at Oregon State University
Image: Algerian mouse (Credit: Oregon State University)
