from politics to flash from. this is where they are. welcome to the 77 percent. this weekend. they cheer has blessed us with an amazing array of flora and fauna. and researchers around the world are committed to protecting that biodiversity replenishing vital ecosystems and the species that inhabit them means we all have to do our pops. scavengers can play an important role. as can animal droppings small and large. what is scientists doing to counteract the dramatic loss and biodiversity that's our topic coming up.

welcome to tomorrow today the science program on d w. this cells of every organism have a genetic origin which is passed on to the next generation in the case of identical twins to 2 people. when individuals are produced with identical d.n.a. they are called clones 996 or the 1st successful attempt to create a genetically identical copy of a living animal dolly the sheep today researchers hope to use cloning technology to promote and preserve biodiversity. meat caught who's technically been dead for 22 years. you may have guessed it kurt is a clone and he's the 1st white horse ever so. access finnick no and which makes him

quite a big deal. and he wasn't just an experiment scientists are now cloning endangered species to slow down the rate of biodiversity loss and even improve and ecosystems . in one word it's just wow obviously we want to say of a species that we can but how exactly would that work and how realistic is it welcome to the very weird world of wild clones gene banks i'm bringing species back from the afterlife. i am. cloning has been controversial around the world. with legitimate concerns about us playing god creating endless copies of species that wipe out biodiversity.

but focus is the exact opposite to bring diversity back to this population of wild shit vols keys hasse's. so how is a clone which is an exact genetic or b of another animal supposed to bring back biodiversity well bear with me. on do 2000 horses alive today have descended from only 12 wild ancestors to clone could researches use a unique gene that was frozen years ago that would have otherwise been lost from the pool and they use a domestic horse as a surrogate mother. is not the 1st endangered species to be cloned that has even been a clone of an extinct species but with limited success the barony in ibex was cloned 3 years after it went extinct using an old frozen skin sample researchers impregnated over 200. the domestic goat only 7 became pregnant one made it to term

but the baby died minutes suffered was born. less than one percent of wild clones ever survive and the lack of research and access to wild animals makes the entire process especially difficult. with cut looking healthy scientists thought he would be the 1st clone to directly increase the genetic diversity of a population in the wild. and this is really cool because it's this represents a paradigm shift in conservation where we're no longer reacting to crisis but we're getting out to be preventative. that's been know that one of the scientists who cloned could and has been pushing the idea of cloning for conservation. the idea behind it is that we can use cloning in multiple ways to help endangered species either by increasing the size of their populations or by using it

strategically to maintain genetic diversity let's take a closer look at the increasing population numbers can help species recover but scientists only have a limited gene pool to choose from. but the method being use here is to add to the strength of the genetic pool by bringing back genes that it would have otherwise died out this could make populations more resistant to the effects of inbreeding and disease and even make them better at adapting to climate change. biodiversity loss is an existential threat we face it puts our basic resources from pollination water and food at severe risk and poor countries are likely to be the worst hit at 1st. species numbers are in such a free fall that since the 1970 s. species populations have declined by around 60 percent today. we could be losing up

to $150.00 species each. geneticists around the world have taken notice and not collecting and preserving whatever genetic material they can in labs and gene banks. i mean today for many species sure i mean storing the d.n.a. is like a last resort. for their. genetic. ed louis co-founded a british gene bank run by public universities museums and. their consortium has collected over 48000 so far. while the main cloning experiments are taking place in the western world especially the us governments around the world have ramped up their d.n.a. collection. from india to china and in the amazon where researchers like collecting

samples of endangered species banking on the technology to catch up. at least having any information. saving any species. worth. owning is only one part of assisted reproduction which also includes artificial insemination in vitro fertilization and more recently gene editing. over thousands lose and research institutions around the world are working on assisted reproduction of wild animals including for projects devoted specifically to cloning for conservation. that raised chickens of genetic diversity on cloning may well save some species but would cause a long term effect still on conservationists it is much more sensible to focus on

protecting the biodiversity we still have how. could we ever believe there is all that you are losing now. such questions need to drive the technology that is most likely here just. rather than trying to save single species it's better to protect entire ecosystems knowing which plants animals and ecological communities need special protection because regular monitoring until now such monitoring could only provide a momentary snapshot of conditions in a set place and time. but a new method might soon allow us to monitor an entire ecosystem in one fell swoop. this is the airport at the german aerospace center and often near munich a dorney

a 228 is ready for takeoff. it's carrying a hyperspectral camera. ecologists hoped to use the device to help identify the species of flora and fauna and their distribution in a particular ecosystem from the air. after a 90 minute flight the dorney has reached its goal. the varian forest national park in southern germany the ecologist get to work. the hyperspectral camera registers the visible light and other electromagnetic radiation reflected off the forest below something like a regular digital camera. but

a normal digital camera has sensors that are only sensitive to visible light in 3 bands. red green and blue. the hyperspectral camera captures a much wider range dividing it into $250.00 spectral bands it collects lots of images of the same area every substance has its own pattern its spectral signature . taken from a plane or satellite high 1st spectral images can already reveal how much chlorophyll or water there is in a forest canopy or whether pasts have infested the trees. but scientists want to do more international research project in the bavarian forest is taking the next step. is you just put it does this is we want to identify the range of species on the grounds windows and then investigate whether the reflection of sunlight on the ground could be used to identify the species that would lead us most

biodiversity from space if you thought also. first the team of biologists from the netherlands france china and australia. well try to identify all the organisms living in the forest a gargantuan task they take samples of soil which is full of bacteria and other microorganisms and fungi. snails worms spiders and many other species of animal also leave their trace in the soil in the form of d.n.a. . all of these traces will be brought to the lab where they'll be subjected to genetic analysis. then just a few months the team hopes to compile inventory of the entire ecosystem and especially its microorganisms. the ecosystem.

degrading their leader leaves the dead. for. recycling. and. plans to trees grow so. prisons are really important and we can predict and see how. the scientists are also using laser scanners to study 60 distinct areas within the forest different conditions allow different species to thrive so the species will vary if there's a lot of dead what for example. if there's mainly connect or deciduous trees. the biologists are also very interested in leeds. just look forest canopy is also home to insects fungi and microorganisms.

the mix of species living in the canopy can reveal a lot about the health of the forest and the leaves themselves are a kind of mirror of the health of the entire forest ecosystem. the chemistry of the leafs is a presentation of the condition of the tree and quality of the tree is representation of the ecosystem because everything is related to each other and by understanding those relations when a standing how to change 1st locations 1st force 1st the forest is porch and the standing forces are now diverse and forest ecosystem ish. hyperspectral imaging could help identify the chemical composition of leaves in a particular patch of forest. and be not so good at predicting individual species but that's not our goal we want to predict the range of species in

a forest and if we could do that from space identify species by their spectral fingerprint then we could map biodiversity 0 below which stretches of land and also observed changes in that biodiversity. and the health of large scale ecosystems can then be monitored from space in real time and this very in forest is an ideal testing ground although it will take another 3 years until all the data has been gathered and analyzed. greedy insatiable and cruel and many languages someone who behaves like a vulture is someone who is ruthless a true predator. that does a disservice to the savages which make a big contribution to healthy ecosystems. but in recent decades africa's poppy. nation has fallen by some 90 percent bringing them to the brink of extinction. a kenyan conservation group has launched an initiative to protect the

best. over half of africa's 11 vulture species are teetering on the brink of extinction the environmental n.g.o.s kenya has been observing the development in east africa. it's distressing because without these scavengers dead animals would rot wherever they dropped. could upset entire ecosystems. which is a very much important in. cleaning the environment we call them the neutrons and atika the clean the environment all the dead carcasses and by doing these they stop the spread of diseases diseases like. lizzie and all of that nature kenya introduced a vulture conservation program in the muslim are a nature reserve in 2014 saying this to spread awareness of the crucial role

vultures play. by this group of mice i work as nature can use vulture ambassadors they explain to villages that when a dead cow will go to his poisoned with acar chemicals in order to kill predators that threaten their livestock all of the animals that feed on the carcass of poisoned and that includes a lot of vultures. so as i'd like to volunteer i want to go. for example in my location. when there is. that issue before it's place and we actually sometimes take the carcasses of those. and we put them aside and you can. actually talk through there or not i'm not always with. support from villages and their leaders is key to the ngos campaign. the assistant chief of one village tells us that battles between humans and animals

are ongoing issue in the area. there is a lot of conflict animals are being killed by a lie. or less but people are getting killed by elephants and lions. percents a serious challenge for. conflict incident. but all too often the main victims of these conflicts are vultures and that's the environmentalists message. to put an end to their agonizing deaths nature kenya also cooperates with the ranges from the mara reserve. i think the biggest challenge is the issue of reporting like. poisoning we normally don't get a lot of reports from the community because they know that it's a crime and so a lot of this case is go under reported. but reporting the cases would give the conservationists a chance to save the birds. that's why keeping communication channels open

is important. the effort is. basically talking we discussed because we don't assume that they don't know they know something so what we do is to add on the dividing line and. also supported by bird life international the program is focused mainly on east africa because that's where vulture death rates are especially high the campaign's push to improve the exchange of information is now starting to yield results we're getting reports on one human live conflict and also responses to. what is and and by these some voters have been saved because there is. a response protocol that is being followed. close off in the.

incident last year in international initiative was launched with the goal of reducing vulture mortality in africa by 50 percent within the next decade. before it to work its final end of the local communities are also on board. biodiversity has been interim us a decline in recent decades. the trend that is set to continue unless urgent action is taken. there are various steps we can take to stop that development or even reverse it by completely rethinking our consumer behavior as well as supporting ecosystems. functioning ecosystems can sometimes be found in the un likeliest of places.

to keep those in wait 30 centimeters across and 2 centimeters high that's about average for a cow perhaps a single cow produces about 10 of these a day. and the new there is an excellent fertiliser spots on the pasture that get plenty of calcutta are especially lush and green. but cowpats are far more than just fertilizer on this meadow in a nature reserve in southwestern germany and to manage is to you and who is that and biologist have at nicko are looking for fresh samples. here we've got a slightly older cowpat as you can see the surface is dried out and there's a pretty good crossed and you can see how the 1st larvae are already appearing like here. thrive in the dawn and they're prey for other bugs and beetles.

i mean. here is a clown beetle. for us is fairly small but they're also much larger species which are natural born predators cause they're got very big mouth parts which they use to chop up the larvae much like a butcher's knife and then eat them so this is a very complex food web that's. cowpats teeming with life the dung provides thousands of small creatures with food and shelter. before it even hits the ground i can't pat starts to attract dung flies they deposit their eggs in the fresh down. and pretty soon the 1st beetles mavin they dig tunnels for their own offspring which in turn everything by spiders and predatory beetles about 2 weeks later the worms arrive soon the cowpat has vanished but the entire area remains a hive of activity birds and other magic creatures such as lizards dine on the

insects. beetles predatory beetles birds and then birds of prey for example occupying different positions in the food web so you get in the norm is functional complexity from one cowpat if it isn't clear if the cow stays in the barn this doesn't exist. a single free range cal can produce up to a time of dollar amounts. that yields 20 kilos of insects. which can sustain about 10 kilos of birds about 3 stokes all search starlings for example. but that only happens when ecological farming methods he used as on this protected spot of land in the midst of a nature reserve. 40

cows live here on an area of 70 hectares of forest and says he had tens of posture the measure was allowed to run wild it's never moaned. her hair. or hair but nicole wants to see what kinds of creatures a living here he uses a modified leaf blower to suck up a sample and finds more than a 100 different species. it is open as we find a lot of cicadas and bugs but there are also beetles and spiders everything that you'll find top around on the vegetation it's an amazing thing to see there's a diversity of species you'll no longer find on an ordinary meadow and if they get

. this is an ordinary pasture not far away from the meadow was most recently. the biologist takes another sample. he finds less than a dozen creatures. far fewer species and it's a catastrophe for insects and birds there's hardly anything here this is a practice that's been and what about the cow past many farm animals are given substances to control internal parasites that effects by a diversity in the dust as he zenith and i think i don't see a single beetle or a tunnel made by one nothing at all. can hear. back at the meadow in the nature is a habit nicole says the rich diversity of plants in animal life would be easy to

preserve. mandiant our childhood faults and if we had just 5 percent while the meadows or if sense of year round how should i say in germany insect life would benefit immensely on tiny plots of land like this one insect biodiversity can be doubled or even tripled in both absolute numbers and species i've seen it here obviously it is a risk it faces. and the only thing wouldn't be possible without it's countdowns you. pull. it out that is red why are they flatten me they've made it. do you have a science questions you'd like us to answer. if we featured on the show you get a little surprise as a thank you. come on just hours. for

most science stories check out our website w dot com slash science or look for us on twitter. but that's all for now thanks for joining us on tomorrow today will be back next week with more fascinating stories from the world of science and technology until then but i.

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this is g.w. newsline from berlin russian opposition leader alexei now vonnie is arrested in moscow the kremlin critic was detained a possible landing at a moscow airport hours after he departed for lent for he was recovering from a nerve agent attack that almost killed him dozens of his supporters were also arrested. let's back said date and that's the message from this elated nurse who became the 1st person in brazil to receive a coronavirus shot.