QMUL Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability News

Freshwater methane emissions maximised by global warming

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 23:00:00 +0100

It is not just cows that emit the powerful greenhouse gas methane – microbial emissions from the natural world will inevitably increase as our planet continues to warm. A new study led by Professor Mark Trimmer of Queen Mary University of London, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, explains how increases in natural methane emissions will be maximised under future climate warming. Say 'methane' and most people think of cows, yet nearly half of all methane is produced by microbes in the natural world, especially lakes, ponds and wet soils. How much methane reaches our atmosphere depends on a balance between the production of methane by one type of microbe and the consumption of methane by another type. We know in a simple sense that these methane related microbes are stimulated by warming, but how both types will respond to warming over the next century is unknown. The scientists used a unique natural experiment spanning the northern hemisphere to test the effect of warming on the methane balance over centuries to millennial time scales that is, after plenty of time for the microbes to adjust to climate change. They used samples collected from naturally warmed streams in remote parts of Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard and Kamchatka (Russia). They showed that while methane consuming microbes do work harder under warmer conditions, they cannot fully check the extra methane being produced with warming. Worryingly this new study thus describes a seemingly inevitable increase in methane emissions as Earth continues to warm, building a positive feedback loop through climate change and still higher temperatures. Scientist Dr Sarah Faye Harpenslager (now of B-Ware Research Centre and Radboud University) who led the field work to remote sites near the Arctic said "Doing fieldwork in these remote settings was both a unique and challenging experience. Luckily, we had a great multidisciplinary team of scientists, working together to collect samples and perform measurements under difficult conditions." And Professor Gabriel Yvon-Durocher of the University of Exeter said "What is remarkable is that despite the complexity of microbial processes involved in the emission of methane from natural ecosystems, we find the same strong temperature sensitivity among the diversity of geothermally heated freshwaters across the Arctic region". This methane research formed part of a wider project led by Professor Guy Woodward of Imperial College and Professor Alex Dumbrell of the University of Essex who said: "We have now shown how the combined effects of warming has contrasting effects on microbes that produce methane versus those that consume it - this new insight required a uniquely ambitious genes-to-ecosystems field campaign, which spanned intercontinental scales". The research paper can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02649-2

Behind the research: Freshwater methane emissions maximised by global warming

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 23:00:00 +0100

This "behind-the-research" blog by Mark Trimmer, Professor of Biogeochemistry, takes readers beyond the published findings to reveal the motivations, challenges, and human stories that shaped the study. Say methane and most people think of cows, yet nearly half of all methane is produced by microbes in freshwaters. While we know in a simple sense that microbes are stimulated by warming, it is far more challenging to determine how global warming will affect the release of methane in the long term. How much methane is released into our atmosphere from freshwaters depends on the balance between its production and consumption by two distinct groups of microbes. While we already know that microbes are stimulated by warming i.e., they respire harder at higher temperatures, it is far more challenging to determine how global climate warming will affect the balance between methane production and consumption in the long term. Here we used a unique natural experiment spanning the northern hemisphere to test the effect of warming on methane emissions over centuries to millennial time scales. We used collections of geothermally warmed streams, spanning parts of Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard and Kamchatka. The studied streams are indirectly warmed through the bedrock and so are distinct from the harsh environment of their cousins in Yellow Stone Park, for example. Our natural experiment enabled us to measure methane production, consumption and emission and the associated microbes in an environment where they have had plenty of time "to adjust" to warmer conditions, thereby mimicking the long-term effect of climate change. We show that while warmer methane consuming microbes do work harder, they cannot fully counter the extra methane being produced with warming. Our study thus describes a seemingly inevitable increase in methane emissions as Earth continues to warm, building a positive feedback loop into climate change. The remoteness of our high-latitude study sites ensured we could separate the effect of temperature from, for example, human pollution on methane emissions – but that remoteness came with challenges. While Iceland is a short hop from Heathrow, our sites in Kamchatka, Alaska and Greenland were not just "down the road" and simply getting to these remote locations required combinations of small planes, boats, cars and sturdy hiking boots. Navigating customs to get our equipment crates and samples through could be a challenge, as was the acquisition of chemicals, such as ethanol, nitrogen gas and liquid nitrogen. Although a previous expedition had broadly scouted our sampling locations, the precise location of individual streams was often a bit vague as their GPS coordinates had not been recorded! Rather, in Alaska, we were left to pursue a "treasure map" with streams marked by "landmarks" such as "Mad dog house" and "Man at airport's house"! The physical demand of trekking several miles on rough terrain to sample a stream with heavy field kit was also intense. Besides, working in the Arctic comes with its own challenges. Fingers go numb when working downwind from a glacier in the rain in Iceland. Mosquitos and black flies make life miserable, as every bit of exposed skin is attacked. Bear encounters are a real threat in Alaska, Kamchatka and especially Svalbard. To protect us from polar bears, we had polar bear guards and received rifle training for extra protection. Luckily, we only encountered bears from a safe distance. In Kamchatka, we were stranded on a dirt road with a flat tyre (one of many) while bears had been spotted in the area, but our loud singing must have kept them at bay. In Greenland and Svalbard, a boat was needed to reach our sites but a miscalculation of tide times - was it the Captain? - in Greenland meant being stranded for hours in the cold on a remote beach with minor provisions and limited heat source. On our next outing, we made sure to bring tents and provisions! In Svalbard, we had to navigate our small sailing boat through fields of ice sheets, while on the return journey we were forced to shelter for 8 hours from a vicious storm. At times it could have almost felt too much, but to balance the challenges, we also experienced some wonderful moments. For a group of young researchers, brought together from different disciplines, unknown to each other before travelling to these remote places, and working together under strict time constraints and stressful conditions, somehow, it all worked. The surroundings were often spectacular - from volcanos in Kamchatka to overturning icebergs in Greenland and we often caught sight of incredible wildlife, such as whales, polar bears and curious Arctic foxes. Visiting the Arctic between June and September allowed us to experience both the midnight sun -which plays with your sleep- and the northern lights, which were just beautiful. The locals were welcoming, sharing their stories and teaching us a lot about living in these regions and how climate change is affecting their way of life. We rose to the challenges offered by these remote field settings to deliver research we hope raises awareness of the effects of climate warming on greenhouse gas emissions more highly.

New AI system could help scientists keep up with the explosion of research papers

Wed, 27 May 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Queen Mary University researchers have developed a new AI-powered framework, MetaBeeAI, designed to help scientists review and analyse vast amounts of literature faster, more transparently, and with greater human oversight. Dr. Rachel Parkinson, who is the leading researcher on this project, states that MetaBeeAI could potentially transform how evidence is gathered across fields from environmental science to medicine. It is an intelligence system, that combines large language models with human validation to accelerate systematic reviews of scientific research while maintaining traceability and scientific rigour. As scientific publishing continues to grow rapidly, researchers face an increasing challenge: there are now simply too many papers for humans alone to process efficiently. This means that systematic reviews — considered one of the gold standards of evidence synthesis — can take months or even years to complete, generating a large backlog of information to review. MetaBeeAI was developed to address this problem by helping researchers automatically extract, organise, benchmark, and analyse information from hundreds or thousands of full-text research papers. Rachel Parkinson and her team tested the system using nearly 1,000 scientific papers focused on pesticides and bees — an area of major importance for biodiversity, food systems, and environmental protection. The platform uses AI to identify relevant information within scientific papers, while still allowing experts to verify, correct, and refine the outputs through a transparent review interface linked directly back to the original source text. "The system is not designed to replace scientists. Instead, MetaBeeAI aims to support researchers by reducing repetitive workloads and helping experts focus on interpretation, decision-making, and scientific insight" states Dr. Rachel Parkinson. The study found that the system performed particularly well on factual extraction tasks, such as identifying bee species and pesticide compounds, while iterative expert feedback improved the quality and reliability of AI-generated outputs over time. Researchers are positive that the framework could eventually be adapted for many other scientific domains, including medicine, public health, climate science, toxicology, and education research. They also highlighted the broader importance of transparency and human oversight in scientific AI systems, particularly as concerns grow around hallucinations, reproducibility, and automated misinformation in generative AI. There is great meaning and impact for humans derived from this research. As already stated, scientific knowledge is expanding faster than any individual researcher can realistically absorb, creating a growing risk that important discoveries, environmental warnings, medical evidence, or emerging risks may be overlooked simply because humans cannot process information quickly enough. By helping scientists organise and synthesise evidence more efficiently, systems like MetaBeeAI could accelerate discoveries, improve evidence-based policy decisions, and support faster responses to global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, food security, and public health crises. The research also represents a different vision for AI — one where artificial intelligence works alongside human expertise rather than replacing it. Instead of removing humans from scientific decision-making, MetaBeeAI keeps researchers at the centre of the process, using AI to handle scale while humans provide judgement, interpretation, and accountability. That balance between automation and human oversight may become increasingly important as society navigates how AI should responsibly support science, policy, and knowledge creation in the future.

'Chameleon' bees change colour with the weather

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 23:00:00 +0100

Study reveals some bees shift colour depending on humidity – and may explain why the same species can look different across climates. Some bees really do change colour with the weather, according to new research that shows humidity can temporarily alter the shimmering hues of certain species. In a study published today in Biology Letters, scientists led by Dr Madeleine Ostwald of Queen Mary University of London found that moisture in the air can cause sweat bees to change colour — and then change back again when conditions dry out. Sweat bees are known for their bright, metallic greens and blues. Until now, reports that their colours could shift have been anecdotal. This new research provides the first experimental proof. The team studied museum specimens of a North American sweat bee, Agapostemon subtilior. When the bees were placed in dry air, they appeared deep blue. But when humidity increased, they took on a warmer, copper‑green colour. Once dried again, the bees returned to blue. Unlike most animals, whose colours come from pigments, these bees get their colour from microscopic structures on their bodies that reflect and scatter light at particular wavelengths. The same effect creates the iridescent feathers of hummingbirds and the shifting skin colours of cuttlefish. In some animals, these tiny structures swell slightly when exposed to moisture, causing them to reflect redder colours. The researchers believe a similar process may be happening in bees, although more work is needed to fully understand the mechanism. The scientists also looked at colour changes in the wild. By analysing hundreds of public photos from the citizen science app iNaturalist, they compared bee colour with local humidity levels. While many factors influence a bee's appearance, the team found that bees in drier areas tended to look bluer — matching the lab results. Interestingly, older museum specimens showed the strongest colour changes. The researchers think this may be because bees' outer shells slowly degrade over time, allowing moisture to enter more easily. The findings suggest this colour‑changing effect could be common among bees, which display a wide range of shimmering colours and live in environments ranging from deserts to rainforests. Insects use colour for many reasons, including temperature control, communication, and camouflage. Whether these subtle colour shifts affect how bees behave or survive is still unknown. Dr Madeleine Ostwald, Lecturer in Ecology, Conservation & Biodiversity at Queen Mary said: "When people think of bees, they often picture drab, brown honey bees. In reality, bees are incredibly diverse and colourful — and we're only just starting to understand how their appearance reflects the climate they live in." She added: "Most people associate colour‑change with animals like chameleons that actively control it. These bees aren't choosing to change colour — it's happening passively, simply in response to the humidity around them. That adds a whole new layer of mystery to why these colours evolved in the first place." The study was carried out with researchers Leslie Cervantes Rivera, Jorge De La Cruz and Katja Seltmann from the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "Humidity induces structural colour change and contributes to biogeographic colour variation in sweat bees" was published on 00.05 BST April 22, 2026 in Biology Letters and can be accessed here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article/22/4/20250803/481403/Humidity-induces-structural-colour-change-and

Wasps move in on ant–plant partnership, disrupting a 10‑million‑year mutualism

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 23:00:00 +0100

New research reveals unexpected intruders in a classic tropical tree–ant relationship, raising concerns for forest recovery in human‑altered landscapes. An international team of scientists from Queen Mary University of London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and other institutions has uncovered surprising new behaviour in the tropical forests of Malaysian Borneo. In a study published in PeerJ, the researchers report that predatory wasps are increasingly taking over the hollow stems of the tropical plant Macaranga pearsonii — structures the tree has evolved specifically to house protective ant colonies. For millions of years, these "ant‑plants" have relied on a tightly knit partnership with ants. The plants construct specialised hollow chambers and even provide nutritious food bodies, and in return, the ants aggressively defend their host from leaf‑eating insects such as caterpillars. This mutually beneficial system has helped both species thrive for at least 10 million years. But now, this ancient alliance is being disrupted. Predatory wasps take advantage of plant-made shelters By dissecting young Macaranga pearsonii trees across logged forests and oil palm plantations, the researchers discovered that a species of wasp is co‑opting these hollow chambers for its own use — with significant consequences. Lead author Mr. Lestina explained: "While surveying these ant‑plants, I noticed that many stems had been hollowed out in an unusual way. When we opened them, they were full of flies being eaten alive by wasp larvae. Adult wasps hunt and paralyse the flies, then store them inside the plant's cavities as food for their young." The study found that plants in oil palm plantations were far more likely to house these wasps than plants in logged forest. Crucially, trees occupied by wasps consistently supported much smaller ant colonies, suggesting the wasps may be displacing the ants entirely, although experiments would be needed to test this. Human‑driven habitat change may be helping the wasps spread Co‑author Dr Kalsum M. Yusah explains: "Human activities are transforming habitats worldwide, and this kind of shift in species interactions is exactly what we expect to see. We don't yet know whether this wasp is native or introduced, but its spread is clearly linked to disturbed landscapes." Because Macaranga species are among the first to colonise cleared or damaged areas, weakened plants could impair wider forest regeneration. "If the plants lose their ant defenders and become less healthy, it could hinder forest recovery following disturbance," Dr Yusah added. Long-term evolutionary impacts could follow Senior author Dr Fayle from Queen Mary University of London emphasised the broader evolutionary implications: "When mutualistic benefits break down, it can drive long-term evolutionary change. If these structures become less valuable to the plants because wasps exploit them, the plants may stop investing in them. These subtle, long-term consequences of human activity are far less understood than straightforward biodiversity loss." The ant-plant relationship is one of thousands of tightly linked relationships in tropical ecosystems. If human disturbance allows new "invaders" - even native ones – we may see more mutualisms destabilised which could result in weaker natural defences in plants and shifts in which species dominate forests. This study serves as an early sign of how subtle ecological interactions can unravel long before species are driven to extinction. DOI and weblink. 10.7717/peerj.20984.

Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability presents at QMUL Climate Action Week

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0100

In this year's university-wide climate action week, the Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability (CBS) represented the Faculty of Science and Engineering through the exhibition From London to the White Continent: Cooperation, Science and Climate Action in the Graduate Centre Foyer. The exhibition featured posters of CBS science highlights, various items used by the British Antarctic Survey, and series of photos from Ukraine's Vernadsky Antarctic research base, and a video presentation with interviews of CBS scientists and a live stream to the research base. The exhibition attracted wide interest from visitors of the Climate Action Week, and QMUL staff and students.

New journal Advances in Pollinator Research launched by Centre for Biodiversity and ...

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0100

Pollinators comprise a taxonomically diverse group – including insects, mammals, birds, and more rarely, amphibians, reptiles, and even gastropods – that support wild plant communities and underpin global food production systems. Today, a new journal has been lauched dedicated to the study of this essential ecosystem compoment: Advances in Pollinator Research. CBS member Dr Rachel Parkinson is on the founding Editorial Board Team as Subject Editor, and has been involved with the journal's initiation. The first article in the journal, co-authored by Dr Parkinson, explain how the journal aims to transform how pollinator science is shared and translated into real-world action.

"This engine is grinding to a halt" - Nature slowing down as climate change gains pace

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0100

The Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability recently uncovered a global ecological paradox. While it is widely expected that accelerating climate change will speed up nature's pace—forcing species to replace each other more rapidly—we found the exact opposite. By analyzing a century of data across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, we discovered that local species turnover is actually slowing down. Lead author Dr. Emmanuel Nwankwo uses a striking analogy to explain this: "Nature functions like a self-repairing engine, constantly swapping out old parts for new ones. But we found this engine is grinding to a halt." The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that widespread habitat degradation has depleted the "spare parts" of this engine: the regional pools of species capable of surviving in modified ecosystems. Without a diverse species pool to draw from, the internal dynamics of these communities are seizing up, even as climate change accelerates. Professor Axel Rossberg, co-author of the study, said: "We were surprised how strong the effect is. Turnover rates typically declined by one third." This research highlights the complex, often counter-intuitive responses of biodiversity to human impact. It is just one example of the diverse research we undertake at SBBS, where we combine fieldwork at sites around the world with data science and theoretical modelling to truly understand life in a changing world.

UK Annual Bioenergetics Conference

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Location: Arts 2 Lecture Hall and Foyer Join us for the UK Christmas Bioenergetics Meeting on 15th December! Plenary Lecture: Redox Regulation of Photosynthetic Electron Transport by Anja Krieger (CEA, Sacley, France). Have a look at the preliminary programme to find out more. As usual, there is no registration fee. The event is sponsored by the Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability and the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology at QMUL, as well as the Biochemical Society and PSI. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. To make sure that we order enough food and drink, we'd be grateful if you could fill in registration as soon as possible. Student members of the Biochemical society are welcome to apply for travel support . See you soon!

UK Ash Trees Evolve to Resist Dieback

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 23:00:00 +0100

Research (published in Science) led by Profs Richard Nichols and Richard Buggs has uncovered early-stage signs of natural resistance to ash dieback—a fungal disease expected to kill half of the UK's 80 million ash trees. By comparing the DNA of older trees, present before the fungus arrived in 2012, with younger saplings, the team identified subtle genetic shifts across thousands of locations around the ash genome. These shifts suggest that the natural selection is favouring variants that confer greater disease resistance in young trees regenerating on the woodland flour under the dying mature trees. This adaptive response offers hope that future generations will be able to enjoy ash woodlands, and the research will be used to design human interventions to accelerate the adaptation, including avoiding unnecessary felling to maintain the populations' genetic diversity. The Guardian and the BBC reported on this story.

Old termite mounds help support high insect biodiversity in tropical rainforests

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 23:00:00 +0100

Imagine wandering through the lush Bornean rainforest, past towering trees and vibrant foliage. You might not give a second thought to termite mounds scattered across the forest floor. But what if we told you these seemingly unassuming structures are bustling metropolises for insects, even long after their original inhabitants have moved on? That's precisely what a new study, co-authored by Dr Tom Fayle, has revealed! Published in Soil Ecology Letters, the research uncovered that abandoned termite mounds are critical microhabitats, teeming with diverse insect life, particularly ants, in both untouched and previously logged rainforests. Dr Fayle, Dr Kalsum M. Yusah of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Dr Jiří Tůma of the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, discovered that these unoccupied mounds can host five to nine times more invertebrates than the surrounding soil. This means hundreds of thousands of insects per hectare are finding refuge and thriving in these 'ghost towns' of the termite world! This incredible finding challenges our understanding of rainforest biodiversity and highlights the often-overlooked role of "ecosystem engineers" like termites. Find out more about this remarkable discovery on the main QMUL website: https://lnkd.in/et7VBrUn Or dig into the paper here: https://lnkd.in/e5c8PFxX