The Calpe Conference 2024: A personal view Part One

By Dr Alex Menez

This year’s Calpe Conference ran from the 4th to the 6th of July at the University of Gibraltar and was the 28th Calpe.

The short title on the logo, “Islands in the Sun,” engendered thoughts of relaxed walks on sandy beaches, perhaps beachcombing, or simply enjoying the colours of the sea and the lapping of waves on the seashore.

The remainder of the title however, “Climate change, ecology and evolution on the Atlantic Islands and its continental seaboard,” focused minds on the extremely interesting themes that would be discussed and tackled over the three days of the conference.

In her welcoming address, Vice-Chancellor of the university Professor Catherine Bachleda said that the “Calpe Conference, as you well know, has the reputation of bringing together some of the leading experts on a given topic,” adding that the university “is extremely proud to host such an exciting conference which provides an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the world-leading specialists in climate change and ecology.”

She then introduced Professor John Cortes, Minister for Education, Public Health, Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change, Heritage, and Culture, who inaugurated the conference.

An ecologist himself, he explained that he had a fascination with islands adding that “I realized at a very early stage in my ecological awareness, that Gibraltar, in many ways, was a de facto island. An island of limestone surrounded by sea, sand, and sandstone, and so in many ways ecologically distinct from the surrounding area.”

He noted that “we all here know that small important habitats and communities defined by altitude, certainly in our latitudes, are all under threat through the effects of climate change.”

I chaired the entire conference this year. The opening keynote lecture was by Professor Robert J. Whittaker from the University of Oxford, and Professor José-María Fernández-Palacios from the University of La Laguna, Tenerife.

Following an overview of the Macaronesian biogeographical region, including the development of the islands and archipelagoes over geological time, and long-term environmental dynamics, Robert explained aspects of climate change noting that it is difficult to predict how it would affect small oceanic islands.

He said that “we can see already evidence that climate is changing… in Tenerife, one manifestation is that warming at the highest elevations is occurring at a greater rate than in the lowlands, this already appears to be having measurable impacts on threatened plant species.”

Next on was Professor Carl Beierkuhnlein from the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Carl explained how lava flows are the major contribution to the development of oceanic islands.

“Layer by layer, they build up the volcano, in many cases over millions of years.”

He described the effects of volcanic eruptions in the context of ecosystems and species. There are negative effects which include “complete destruction of ecosystems by lava… chemical damage of plant tissues by volcanic gases, and possible eradication of small endemic populations.”

Positive effects, he noted, include “creation of heterogeneous surfaces and habitats, provision of fresh nutrients, and stimulation of speciation.”

Professor Julio Peñas de Giles, and Professor Carlos Garcia-Verdugo, both from the University of Granada, explained that “oceanic islands across the globe portray fascinating examples of repeated patterns of plant evolution.”

These patterns include low levels of genetic diversity, propagule dispersal, and loss of defensive traits.

Recent research on Macaronesian plant lineages have shown that some results “do not appear to support some of the general hypotheses typically accepted in mainstream island literature.”

Using the biogeographical framework of Mediterranean-Macaronesian plant lineage distributions and levels of “neutral genetic diversity and dispersal ability,” they discussed “apparently deviating behaviour of Macaronesian lineages,” noting that “island floras encompass different types of lineages,” and that further research on widespread species is required to provide “a more complete picture of biological patterns on islands.”

Following lunch, the next presentation was by Professor Rui Freitas from the Cabo Verde Technical University of the Atlantic, Institute of Engineering and Sea Science.

He explained that Cabo Verde is a “large volcanic system that formed from a hotspot of magna underneath the seafloor… the ten Cabo Verde islands are the tips of this system that have risen above the sea surface.”

There are high rates of endemism and Rui noted that “factors for Cabo Verde’s unique marine fauna… include mainland and inter-island distances, topographic, and depth heterogeneity between island groups,” adding that “Cabo Verde may have been, during the last glacial maximum, an important marine refuge zone in the Atlantic.”

Everyone is aware of how humans impact negatively on environments, animals, plants, climate, and more.

Professor Peter G.H. Evans from Bangor University, has studied marine mammals and birds for 50 years. He has established monitoring programmes for both taxa in the UK, focusing upon tracking their conservation status, identifying human impacts, and investigating measures to protect and conserve species.

I was looking forward to his updates, research, and informed views.

He noted that “more than one-third of the world’s marine mammals inhabit the North Atlantic Ocean,” and described how impact increased; hunting and “other human activities such as fishing, industrial development, and pollution.”

He added that “now humans are affecting the global climate, those are driving change for marine mammals in many different ways as seas warm, become more acidic, and experience greater storm frequencies.”

He provided data for the species most impacted; these data were shocking: “populations of great whales depleted by up to nearly 100%; Sperm whales: 61%; North Atlantic right whale: 97%; North Pacific right whale: 97%; North Western Pacific gray whale: 96%; Bowhead whale: 89%; Southern Hemisphere blue whale: 99.6%; Southern Hemisphere fin whale: 96%; Southern Hemisphere humpback: 89%.”

Peter said that “despite their iconic status as sentient beings with evidence of culture beyond what was apparent to us even just a decade ago, their future now lies firmly in the hands of humans.”

The final talk of the day was by Professor José María Fernández-Palacios, and Enrique Fernández-Palacios, both from the University of La Laguna, Tenerife.

José explained that “Macaronesia is a biogeographical region composed by five volcanic archipelagoes, the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, the Canaries, and Cabo Verde, located in the north-east Atlantic Ocean…with an incredible biodiversity.”

José noted that “the mild affection of ice age glaciations due to the ocean buffer effect, plus vertical migration opportunities to withstand climatic impacts, create refugia for
palaeoendemics that vanished in the continent.”

He noted that humans only colonized Macaronesia around two thousand years ago adding that “the human impact, first of Guanche people on the Canaries and later of Europeans on all the archipelagoes, has profoundly transformed the Macaronesian nature with the collapse of several ecosystems… and the extinction of many endemic species.”