“We are losing species before we can understand them”, says ecologist – 04/11/2024 – Fundamental Science

According to the United Nations, by 2050 the demand for food will double. And three in four of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators like bees, butterflies, beetles, hummingbirds and bats. “The problem is that we are losing pollinators as a result of habitat destruction and climate change,” says ecologist Emanuelle Brito, postdoctoral researcher at the Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation Laboratory in the Department of Ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj). “Species are losing their interactions [com o ambiente] at very high rates, even before we can study and understand them,” he says.

Pollinators are important not only for food production — which in itself would be reason enough to implement more effective conservation policies — but also for the balance of ecosystems.

But that set is disappearing, and fast. Last year, Brazil saw some bee death events, always on a large scale: in Mato Grosso, more than 100 million died in July. In the same period, there were more than 80 million in Bahia. These are not the highest numbers recorded: between October 2018 and March 2019 more than half a billion bees died in Rio Grande do Sul. The misuse of pesticides is one of the main causes of mortality and researchers are racing against the clock to study bees and other species, and also their interactions with the ecosystems in which they live.

For Brito, it is not enough to look at a species in isolation and think about conservation actions that benefit it. It is necessary to think about the conservation of entire systems to maintain the ecosystem balance that ensures the survival of more species. Each pollinator would be a piece of a complex puzzle that only makes sense when observed in its entirety.

One way to understand this puzzle is to look at the partitioning of resources between species — which is one of the defining elements in the structuring of ecosystems. “Different species go in search of the same foods,” observes Brito. Instead of generating competition that could result in the loss of weaker lineages, this interaction is articulated in a way that guarantees the cohesion of the system and the production of ecosystem services, such as pollination. After all, one species needs the other to ensure the balance of an ecosystem.

Many researchers who came before Brito have already made these observations and ecosystem ecology is a solid area in the field of biology. What the UERJ scientist’s investigation brings differently is the use of mathematics and graph theory to understand these interactions and the attempt to build a bridge between theoretical knowledge and effective conservation practices.

Through direct observations and capture of insects and other animals for analysis, Brito hopes to shed light on the puzzle of pollinators in food crops in the Atlantic Forest, in the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The capture of bees and butterflies, for example, will help feed the research’s mathematical models. “With the analysis of pollen trapped in the body of pollinating species, it is possible to get an idea of ​​where they passed through, which flowers they interacted with,” she explains.

Brito hopes the research will help improve agricultural practices. “We can produce more and better by combining production and conservation strategies,” he says.

Starting her journey in Rio de Janeiro now, the researcher knows that there is a lot of work ahead. Selected in a call for proposals aimed at supporting young black and indigenous ecology scientists, Brito is not afraid of challenges. Her journey was full of them.

“I was born in the interior of Paraíba, in Patos, on a farm in the middle of the Caatinga,” she says. Daughter of an agronomist father and a teacher mother, Brito always had access to education, but not always to the opportunities she wanted. “Being far from major centers greatly limits the possibilities.”

After graduating from the Federal University of Campina Grande and a master’s degree from the State University of Feira de Santana, she completed her doctorate at the Federal University of Goiás — having spent a period of research at the University of Oregon, in the United States. She didn’t realize her background and accent were an issue until she left the Northeast. For Brito, there is a veiled prejudice in academia. “It was common for me to hear ‘did you study this in your undergraduate degree?’, or ‘was there this subject there?’, or ‘I don’t understand when you say it'”, she explains.

The concentration of resources for science is part of the problem. “I love the Northeast, but if I stayed there I probably wouldn’t have so many opportunities. Brazilian science is still very concentrated in the Southeast and South,” he says. The fact that she was a woman didn’t count in her favor either. “We suffer from harassment, from discredit,” he observes — but doing science is proof that “education really has the role of changing our lives.”

And not just hers. “I want to show girls who come from the same place as me that, yes, doing science is really possible.”

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Meghie Rodrigues is a science journalist.

The Fundamental Science blog is edited by Serrapilheira, a private, non-profit institute that promotes science in Brazil. Sign up for the Serrapilheira newsletter to keep up to date with news from the institute and the blog.

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