Banana, Bat, and Bacterium

For most people, there is an inexplicable creepiness about bats that is hard to explain. Even once it is pointed out that they do not carry disease, that they do not deliberately get tangled in people's hair, and that almost none of they drink blood, many people approach bats with a degree of uneasiness given to few other mammals. It is precisely this uneasiness that is a significant obstacle to the conservation of bats.

In 2006, a parasitic fungus was observed on colonies of bats in eastern North America. The disease caused by the fungus, which was soon given the rather cutesy name of "white-nose syndrome", has resulted in the deaths of over 5.7 million bats of various species. There is concern, therefore, that if the disease spread around the world it could potentially wipe out bats that are already endangered. 
Fortunately, a possible cure has arrived--from an unexpected source. That source is a bacterium called Rhodococcus rhodocrous, which is commonly found growing on fruit. It releases chemicals that kill off fungi around it, and for this reason it is often used as a food preservative. In trials on bananas, for example, the bananas not only ripened later but had a much lower amount of fungi than those without the bacterium did. Scientists wondered if Rhodococcus might have the same effect on the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome.

The scientists decided to test this idea by treating a sample of 150 bats with Rhodococcus, then releasing them. These bats, when recaptured and studied again, were seemingly cured of their white-nose syndrome. However, it is still far too early to tell if a definitive solution for this disease has been discovered.

                        

A little brown bat displays the characteristic white patches on its face caused by white-nose syndrome. This disease kills thousands of bats annually.

A Ghost Town Under the Sea

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most iconic natural phenomena on the planet, as well as the world's largest coral reef. At more than 1400 miles long, it was visible from space and home to thousands of species of sea life. But that was in its prime. Today, the Great Barrier Reef is a shadow of its former self--so much so that some would argue that has reached a point of no return, where no amount of conservation effort will ever be able to fully restore it.
The reasons for the reef's decline is due to a variety of factors. Certainly water pollution and the overfishing of local sea life have played their parts, but the biggest factor by far is the increase of water temperatures due to global warming. Corals, such as those that make up the reef, cannot tolerate such drastic shifts in temperature. This is because most corals live mutualistically with algae, which feed on sunlight and in doing so provide nutrients to the coral. If the temperature is too high, the algae die, leaving the coral "bleached" and starving to death. As of the most recent survey, more than 50% of the coral in the Great Barrier Reef is completely dead, and 93% of the coral shows at least some signs of "bleaching." Small pockets of healthy coral do remain, but they are unlikely to last for much longer, especially if temperatures continue to rise.
The result of all this is essentially an underwater ghost town: the dead, pale husks of the coral remain attached to the seabed, but most of the other animals that once depended on this for food and shelter no longer live there.
Is it too late to save the Great Barrier Reef? That depends on who you ask and what you mean by "save". Since the Great Barrier Reef is a vast, complex ecosystem and not a single species, there is no single point at which it goes extinct, and no one in-situ conservation plan that works for every component. However, we do have a good idea of what the issues plaguing it are, and if we change our lives to reflect that and cut down on global warming, the Great Barrier Reef may yet rebound.

                                              
The coral on the left in this picture is healthy. The coral on the right has had all of its algae die, and has become "bleached".