How did humans affect nature?

The long-tailed stonefly, whose scientific name is Zelandoperla, has a clever strategy to avoid predation by birds: it mimics the appearance of its poisonous relative Austroperla, which produces cyanide in its body to deter predators. Researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand reported that in deforested forests, where there are no longer many birds of prey and even Austroperlas have disappeared, some Zelandoperlas have changed their appearance, Channel 24 reported, citing an article in the journal Science. .

The data highlighted “the ability of populations to quickly adapt to sudden changes in the environment,” the team of scientists wrote in their published paper.

Although the long-tailed stonefly has no toxin of its own, he was able to convincingly mimic Austroperla by using his genetic toolkit to color some of the insects a deep shade of ebony (somewhere between red and brown). Camouflage helped scare off feathered predators, which couldn’t tell the difference and stayed away from both the poisonous creature and its safe imitator.

Austroperla is a forest creature that lives in streams and feeds on leaves and wood residues. Its prevalence has decreased in cleared forests because its favorite food sources are not sufficient.

Since the advent of humanity, deforestation has led to the extinction of poisonous species. As a result, in deforested areas, imitation species abandoned this strategy because there was no one to imitate. In return [вони] turned into a different color,
says zoologist John Waters.

Scientists used a combination of field observations, predation experiments and analysis of gene maps to see how insects respond to human-caused changes. In experiments conducted on models of two different colors of Zelandoperla, they found the following in nature: Predators only attack individuals that do not mimic Austroperla.

Deforestation in southern New Zealand has been the most intense since the early 1800s, when European settlers arrived here. Although humans have disrupted millions of years of ecological interactions in just a few centuries, new evidence suggests that some species are resilient enough to adapt. Zelandoperla turned black without trees and Austroperla. What’s more, the study notes that the “darkening” of these insects occurred three times, gradually changing their color to fit fewer and fewer trees.

Interestingly, changes in different parts of this species’ habitat occurred independently of each other. This suggests that evolution may be at least a partially predictable process.