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Tag: Environmental Science

  • Unique hybrid reefs deployed off Miami Beach

    Unique hybrid reefs deployed off Miami Beach

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    BYLINE: Robert C. Jones Jr. and Janette Neuwahl Tannen

    Newswise — The first piece of a series of concrete structures was lowered into the water off the coast of Miami Beach on Wednesday morning, a massive crane on the deck of a floating barge hoisting the unit into the air and sinking it to the seabed. 

    During the next six hours, crewmembers aboard the barge would repeat that process until the structures, some stacked on top of each other, were settled on the seafloor, 14 feet below the surface. 

    To casual observers onshore, the daylong operation might have seemed routine. But this maritime activity was hardly run-of-the-mill. 

    In a project that could pave the way for greater efforts to protect coastlines from sea level rise and storm surge and serve as an innovative base structure to develop thriving coral reefs, a team of researchers and scientists from the University of Miami sunk 27 interlocking concrete structures that will form two hybrid reef units 1,000 feet offshore of North Beach Oceanside Park, at the northern edge of Miami Beach. 

    The units are the centerpiece of a project called Engineering Coastal Resilience Through Hybrid Reef Restoration, or ECoREEF, which combines cement- and nature-based strategies to foster coastal resilience. Supported by the University’s Laboratory for Integrative Knowledge (U-LINK) and the City of Miami Beach, the project was developed at a time when coral reefs are struggling to survive. A recent study indicates that half of the world’s living coral reefs have died since the 1950s. Meanwhile, other research has shown that healthy and complex coral reefs are able to buffer up to 97 percent of the energy from waves and can also reduce flooding frequency.

    “Coral reefs are disappearing at alarming rates throughout the world as a result of disease and warming oceans, so our reefs have lost a lot of the structure they need to reduce wave energy,” said ECoREEF lead investigator, Diego Lirman, an associate professor of marine biology and ecology at the University’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. “By placing these [hybrid] reefs near the shoreline and planting stress-tolerant corals on them, we hope to recover some of the lost services provided by healthy reefs, such as coastal protection, and to build a habitat for organisms like fish and lobsters.” 

    One of the hollow structures submerged this week was shaped like a trapezoid, with rocks on its outer surface to mimic the texture of coral reefs and to attract marine life. The other unit is a series of hexagons, the iconic honeycomb-like shape that is being incorporated into more and more projects, including the powerful Webb Telescope. Perforated to allow seawater to flow through them, the hollow, hexagonal SEAHIVE structures—tubes that look like honeycomb and each weighing 2,500 pounds—are stacked in a pyramid-like shape and attached to a few solid concrete SEAHIVEs to enhance the stability of the structure. 

    To build the hybrid structures, researchers also used an eco-friendly concrete mixture, with composite reinforcements instead of steel, both for durability and to attract marine life. 

    Haus and Rhode-Barbarigos peer through a six-foot-tall perforated SEAHIVE unit, which they designed with other faculty members, on the barge that lowered dozens of the units into the ocean.

    “Designing structures to dissipate wave energy while providing a hospitable environment for corals has been a challenge,” said Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering, and one of the project’s lead investigators. “There are no design guidelines for nature, but hopefully this can be translated into something bigger and provide novel solutions for coastal protection.” 

    It was Rhode-Barbarigos, along with Lirman, marine biologist Andrew Baker, ocean scientist Brian Haus, sustainable architect Sonia Chao, and communications expert Jyotika Ramaprasad, who joined forces in 2018 to address challenges of coastal resilience. They hope the ECoREEF project will lead to a better understanding of the types of structures that can help protect South Florida’s vulnerable coastline from erosion and storm surge. 

    “We want to see how these two different alternatives for a hybrid, engineered structure and a natural reef compare,” Haus said. “This is a research installation, so we’ll be examining it in a variety of ways.” 

    Corals grown at the Rosenstiel School’s three nurseries will eventually be attached to the hybrid reefs, allowing them to thrive and replace some of the area’s many coral reefs lost to disease and bleaching that is the result of warming ocean temperatures. 

    “We are hoping that we can get baby corals to attach and get a community that looks similar to a natural reef developing on these structures over time,” Lirman said.  

    But for now, the reefs must get acclimated to their new underwater environment. 

    Divers and drones will help monitor the structures; and soon, researchers will install current meters and wave sensors from the U.S. Geological Survey to measure wave energy and flow on the surface of the reefs, according to Brian Haus, professor and chair of ocean sciences at the Rosenstiel School. 

    After two previous attempts to deploy the structures were called off because of inclement weather, ideal conditions—calm waters and little to no wind—made it possible for crews to sink the structures. 

    Onboard the barge which carried the hybrid reefs—after a tugboat had brought them more than 100-nautical-miles from Fort Pierce to Miami Beach—Haus and Rhode-Barbarigos helped orchestrate the deployment, directing the crane that lowered the structures into the water and making sure the reefs were positioned and stacked correctly on the seabed. A diver who patrolled the seafloor ensured the structures aligned properly.

    “We got our hands a little bit dirty today, but it was worth it,” said Haus, who oversees the Rosenstiel School’s 75-foot-long, 38,000-gallon Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. SUSTAIN Laboratory wind-wave tank, which researchers used to test small-scale versions of the hybrid reefs.  

    Should a tropical cyclone threaten or even strike South Florida this coming hurricane season, the hybrid reefs could get their first big test, which is why the team went through a meticulous permitting process, Rhode-Barbarigos said.

    A grant from U-LINK helped jump-start the project, and the group soon partnered with the City of Miami Beach. The U-LINK initiative was founded in 2018 to offer interdisciplinary faculty teams seed funding to devise novel solutions to pressing societal issues. Since then, 40 other teams have been formed, and many of them have garnered additional external funding. Last summer, Baker, Lirman, Rhode-Barbarigos and Haus, among others, received a massive grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a division of the U.S. Department of Defense, to scale up their designs and help protect military and civilian infrastructure along the coast. 

    “This EcoReefs project will give us a test bed for this technology, before we do a deployment of a much larger structure for the DARPA grant elsewhere in Florida,” Lirman pointed out.   

    While the U-LINK project was evolving, Rhode-Barbarigos was also working with Haus and College of Engineering faculty members Antonio Nanni, Esber Andiroglu, and Prannoy Suraneni to develop the SEAHIVE structure through grants from the National Comparative Highway Research Program and the Florida Department of Transportation. Initially created as an alternative to traditional seawalls because of their ability to mitigate wave energy, the honeycomb-shaped SEAHIVE units are also set to be tested at two other South Florida locations. 

    Miami Beach officials are eager to see how both hybrid reefs perform in the waters off North Beach Oceanside Park. 

    “The launch of this experimental [hybrid] reef marks a pivotal moment in our efforts to protect Miami Beach from coastal erosion and restore our coral ecosystem,” said Ricky Arriola, a Miami Beach commissioner. “Not only will this innovative solution help safeguard our shores, but it will also drive ecotourism and further establish Miami Beach as a leader in sustainable coastal management.” 

    Amy Knowles, the city’s chief resilience officer, agreed. “We can’t wait to see how this hybrid reef grows,” she said. “Coral reefs are an important part of marine life, and our coastal resilience to storm surge and sea level rise for Miami Beach and our broader region.” 

    For the faculty members who worked on the project since its inception four years ago, this deployment marked an achievement.

    “It’s been a long adventure, so we’re understandably excited,” Rhode-Barbarigos said. “It’s a milestone moment because we’ll be able to learn from these units both from an engineering and ecological perspective. What we accomplished today is the end of one phase, but the beginning of another.”

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    University of Miami

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  • Blue whale foraging and reproduction are related to environmental conditions, study shows

    Blue whale foraging and reproduction are related to environmental conditions, study shows

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    Newswise — NEWPORT, Ore. – A new study of New Zealand blue whales’ vocalizations indicates the whales are present year-round in the South Taranaki Bight and their behavior is influenced by environmental conditions in the region.

    The findings are a significant advancement in researchers’ understanding of the habitat use and behavior of this population of blue whales, which Oregon State University researchers first identified as genetically distinct from other blue whale populations less than a decade ago.  

    “We went from not knowing 10 years ago whether this was a distinct population to now understanding these whales’ ecology and their response to changing environmental conditions,” said the study’s lead author, Dawn Barlow, a postdoctoral scholar in OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute. “These findings can inform conservation management of this blue whale population and their habitat.”

    The patterns and intensity of the whales’ calls and songs over two years showed strong seasonality in their foraging and breeding behavior, and the vocalizations changed based on environmental conditions such as a documented marine heatwave, Barlow said.

    “During the marine heatwave, feeding-related calls were reduced, reflecting poor foraging conditions during that period,” Barlow said. “But we also saw changes in vocalizations in the next breeding period, an indication that they put less effort into reproduction following a period of poor feeding conditions.”

    The study was just published in the journal Ecology and Evolution. Barlow conducted the research as a doctoral student in the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, led by associate professor Leigh Torres, a co-author of the new paper.

    Blue whales are the largest of all whales and are found in all oceans except the Arctic. Their populations were depleted due to commercial whaling in the early 1900s, and today they are listed as endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

    The New Zealand whales’ habitat overlaps with a wide range of commercial activities, including oil and gas exploration and extraction, vessel traffic, fisheries, wind energy development and possible seabed mining.

    Torres first hypothesized in 2013 that the South Taranaki Bight, between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, was an undocumented blue whale feeding ground. Following comprehensive data collection efforts, and using multiple lines of evidence, Torres, Barlow and colleagues were able to document in 2018 that the population in this region was genetically distinct from other blue whale populations.

    Previous research was primarily based on observations researchers made during visits to the region in the summer months. But the researchers wanted to know more about the whales’ behavior during other parts of the year. They placed five hydrophones – a type of underwater microphone – that recorded continuously between January 2016 and February 2018, with only brief gaps to retrieve data every six months.

    “Unlike many other baleen whales, this population stays in this region year-round,” Barlow said. “That means we can monitor what they are doing from one location. Listening is an effective way to do that.”

    The hydrophone recordings showed that the whales’ “D” calls were strongly correlated with oceanographic conditions related to upwelling in the spring and summer. Upwelling is a process where deeper, cooler water is pushed toward the surface; the nutrient-rich water supports aggregations of krill that the blue whales feed on. The whales’ D calls were more intense during periods of strong upwelling.

    The recordings also showed that the whales’ song vocalizations, which are produced by males and associated with breeding behavior, followed a highly seasonal pattern, with peak intensity in the fall. That timing aligns with past whaling records’ estimates of conception, Barlow said.

    The hydrophone evidence of the breeding behavior and the whales’ presence in the region year-round can influence the animals’ national threat classification status, which impacts management practices, the researchers said.

    Blue whales in New Zealand had been classified as migrant, but as a result of the research by Torres, Barlow and colleagues, the classification of has changed from migrant to data deficient. If the whales are reclassified as a resident population, that could impact management practices, but evidence of breeding in New Zealand is needed for that change to occur, the researchers said.

    “Although no one has actually documented blue whales mating – it is hard to observe that directly – the increase in song during the expected time of mating is a strong indication of breeding in New Zealand waters,” Torres said. “Our study adds more evidence that these are resident New Zealand blue whales.”

    Once the researchers were able to make the link between the whales’ behavior and their calls, they could then look at the calls and behavior relative to environmental patterns. Specifically, they noted how the whales’ foraging and breeding behavior changed during and after a 2016 marine heatwave.

    During the marine heatwave, there were fewer aggregations of krill for the whales to feed on, which the researchers documented in a previous study. The reduction in foraging behavior correlated to less intense D calls during that period, and in the next breeding season, the breeding songs were also less intense.

    The findings raise additional questions about how changing ocean conditions and human activity in the region are impacting the New Zealand blue whale population and reinforce the need for continued monitoring, the researchers said.

    “We have come so far in 10 years in our knowledge of these blue whales – from not knowing this population existed to now understanding their year-round use of this region for feeding, mating and nursing,” Torres said. “New Zealanders should be excited and proud that their country is home to its own unique population of blue whales. We hope our work helps Kiwis manage and protect these whales.”

    Additional coauthors are Holger Klinck, director of the Cornell University K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, who also is affiliated with OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute; Dimitri Ponirakis of Cornell; and Trevor Branch of the University of Washington. The Marine Mammal Institute is part of Oregon State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

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    Oregon State University

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  • The claim that U.S. temperatures are not trending upward is false

    The claim that U.S. temperatures are not trending upward is false

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    Fact Check By:
    Newswise

    Truthfulness: False

    Claim:

    Zero US warming in 18 years, per US Climate Reference Network temp stations. That’s no US warming despite 30% of total manmade CO2. Emissions-driven warming is a hoax.

    Claim Publisher and Date: Steve Milloy on 2023-02-26

    A tweet shared by thousands by Steve Milloy, founder of Junk Science and former member of the EPA transition team under the Trump Administration, says, “Zero US warming in 18 years, per US Climate Reference Network temp stations. That’s no US warming despite 30% of total manmade CO2.” This claim is similar to ones in the past where skeptics of human-caused climate change cherry-pick data (using a fraction of the data to prop up claims that are false globally) to suit their ideology. It is simply false to claim that data from the Climate Reference Network show no warming over the last 18 years. There is a warming trend. Even if it was true, the US represents only 1.9 % of the Earth’s surface. It’s hard to extrapolate much about global temperature change from an 18-year period in 2% of the globe.

    According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), nine of the top 10 warmest years on record for the contiguous 48 states have occurred since 1998, and 2012 and 2016 were the two warmest years on record. Some parts of the United States have experienced more warming than others. According to NOAA, the North, the West, and Alaska have seen temperatures increase the most, while some parts of the Southeast have experienced little change. This warming trend is consistent with the long-term trend of global warming, primarily driven by human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 

    Chris Cappa, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis has this to say…

    As usual, Steve Milloy is contributing to a disinformation campaign about the reality and seriousness of climate change through selective cherry picking of information. He conveniently ignores the undeniable global trend in surface temperatures to mention only the continental US, which is only 2% of the total Earth surface area. He misleads the public here by spinning a tale that is the equivalent of someone living in Chicago and saying they don’t believe that hurricanes are real because they’ve never seen one. Milloy peddles this same nonsense year after year and refuses to engage with the actual science.

    Note to Journalists/Editors: The expert quotes are free to use in your relevant articles on this topic. Please attribute them to their proper sources.

     

     

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    Newswise

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  • 12 exotic bacteria found to passively collect rare earth elements from wastewater

    12 exotic bacteria found to passively collect rare earth elements from wastewater

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    Newswise — Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 chemically similar metals, which got their name because they typically occur at low concentrations (between 0.5 and 67 parts per million) within the Earth’s crust. Because they are indispensable in modern technology such as light emitting diodes, mobile phones, electromotors, wind turbines, hard disks, cameras, magnets, and low-energy lightbulbs, the demand for them has increased steadily over the past few decades, and is predicted to rise further by 2030.

    As a result of their rarity and the demand they are expensive: for example, a kilo of neodymium oxide currently costs approximately €200, while the same amount of terbium oxide costs approximately €3,800. Today, China has a near-monopoly on the mining of REEs, although the discovery of promising new finds (more than one million metric tons) in Kiruna, Sweden was announced with great fanfare in January 2023.

    Circular economy

    The advantages of moving from a wasteful ‘linear’ economy to a ‘circular’ economy, where all resources are recycled and reused, are obvious. So could we recycle REEs more efficiently, too?

    In Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, German scientists showed that the answer is yes: the biomass of some exotic photosynthetic cyanobacteria can efficiently absorb REEs from wastewater, for example derived from mining, metallurgy, or the recycling of e-waste. The absorbed REEs can afterwards be washed from the biomass and collected for reuse.

    “Here we optimized the conditions of REE uptake by the cyanobacterial biomass, and characterized the most important chemical mechanisms for binding them. These cyanobacteria could be used in future eco-friendly processes for simultaneous REE recovery and treatment of industrial wastewater,” said Dr Thomas Brück, a professor at the Technical University of Munich and the study’s last author.

    Highly specialist strains of cyanobacteria

    Biosorption is a metabolically passive process for the fast, reversible binding of ions from aqueous solutions to biomass. Brück and colleagues measured the potential for biosorption of the REEs lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, and terbium by 12 strains of cyanobacteria in laboratory culture. Most of these strains had never been assessed for their biotechnological potential before. They were sampled from highly specialized habitats such as arid soils in Namibian deserts, the surface of lichens around the world, natron lakes in Chad, crevices in rocks in South Africa, or polluted brooks in Switzerland.

    The authors found that an uncharacterized new species of Nostoc had the highest capacity for biosorption of ions of these four REEs from aqueous solutions, with efficiencies between 84.2 and 91.5 mg per g biomass, while Scytonema hyalinum had the lowest efficiency at 15.5 to 21.2 mg per g. Also efficient were Synechococcus elongates, Desmonostoc muscorum, Calothrix brevissima, and an uncharacterized new species of Komarekiella. Biosorption was found to depend strongly on acidity: it was highest at a pH of between five and six, and decreased steadily in more acid solutions. The process was most efficient when there was no ‘competition’ for the biosorption surface on the cyanobacteria biomass from positive ions of other, non-REE metals such as zinc, lead, nickel, or aluminium.

    The authors used a technique called infrared spectroscopy to determine which functional chemical groups in the biomass were mostly responsible for biosorption of REEs.

    “We found that biomass derived from cyanobacteria has excellent adsorption characteristics due to their high concentration of negatively charged sugar moieties, which carry carbonyl and carboxyl groups. These negatively charged components attract positively charged metal ions such as REEs, and support their attachment to the biomass,” said first author Michael Paper, a scientist at the Technical University of Munich.

    Fast and efficient, with great potential for future applications

    The authors conclude that biosorption of REEs by cyanobacteria is possible even at low concentrations of the metals. The process is also fast: for example, most cerium in solution was biosorbed within five minutes of starting the reaction.

    “The cyanobacteria described here can adsorb amounts of REEs corresponding to up to 10% of their dry matter. Biosorption thus presents an economically and ecologically optimized process for the circular recovery and reuse of rare earth metals from diluted industrial wastewater from the mining, electronic, and chemical-catalyst producing sectors,” said Brück.

    “This system is expected to become economically feasible in the near future, as the demand and market prizes for REEs are likely to rise significantly in the coming years,” he predicted.

    ###     

    For editors / news media:

    Please link to the open access original research article “Rare earths stick to rare cyanobacteria: future potential for bioremediation and recovery of rare earth elements” in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology in your reporting: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1130939/full

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    Frontiers

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  • Mysteries of the Earth: FSU researchers predict how fast ancient magma ocean solidified

    Mysteries of the Earth: FSU researchers predict how fast ancient magma ocean solidified

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    BYLINE: Bill Wellock

    Newswise — Early in the formation of Earth, an ocean of magma covered the planet’s surface and stretched thousands of miles deep into its core. The rate at which that “magma ocean” cooled affected the formation of the distinct layering within the Earth and the chemical makeup of those layers.

    Previous research estimated that it took hundreds of million years for that magma ocean to solidify, but new research from Florida State University published in Nature Communications narrows these large uncertainties down to less than just a couple of million years.

    “This magma ocean has been an important part of Earth’s history, and this study helps us answer some fundamental questions about the planet,” said Mainak Mookherjee, an associate professor of geology in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science.

    When magma cools, it forms crystals. Where those crystals end up depends on how viscous the magma is and the relative density of the crystals. Crystals that are denser are likely to sink and thus change the composition of the remaining magma. The rate at which magma solidifies depends on how viscous it is. Less viscous magma will lead to faster cooling, whereas a magma ocean with thicker consistency will take a longer time to cool.

    Like this research, previous studies have used fundamental principles of physics and chemistry to simulate the high pressures and temperatures in the Earth’s deep interior. Scientists also use experiments to simulate these extreme conditions. But these experiments are limited to lower pressures, which exist at shallower depths within the Earth. They don’t fully capture the scenario that existed in the planet’s early history, where the magma ocean extended to depths where pressure is likely to be three times higher than what experiments can reproduce.

    To overcome those limitations, Mookherjee and collaborators ran their simulation for up to six months in the high-performance computing facility at FSU as well as at a National Science Foundation computing facility. This eliminated much of the statistical uncertainties in previous work.

    “Earth is a big planet, so at depth, pressure is likely to be very high,” said Suraj Bajgain, a former post-doctoral researcher at FSU who is now a visiting assistant professor at Lake Superior State University. “Even if we know the viscosity of magma at the surface, that doesn’t tell us the viscosity hundreds of kilometers below it. Finding that is very challenging.”

    The research also helps explain the chemical diversity found within the Earth’s lower mantle. Samples of lava — the name for magma after it breaks through the surface of the Earth — from ridges at the bottom of the ocean floor and volcanic islands like Hawaii and Iceland crystallize into basaltic rock with similar appearances but distinct chemical compositions, a situation that has long perplexed Earth scientists.

    “Why do they have distinct chemistry or chemical signals?” Mookherjee said. “Since the magma originates from underneath the Earth’s surface, that means the source of the magma there has chemical diversity. How did that chemical diversity begin in the first place, and how has it survived over geological time?”

    The starting point of chemical diversity in the mantle can be successfully explained by a magma ocean in the Earth’s early history with low viscosity. Less viscous magma led to the rapid separation of the crystals suspended within it, a process often referred to as fractional crystallization. That created a mix of different chemistry within the magma, rather than a uniform composition.

    Doctoral student Aaron Wolfgang Ashley from FSU as well as Dipta Ghosh and Bijaya Karki from the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University were co-authors of this paper.

    This work was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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    Florida State University

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  • Researchers find several oceanic bottom circulation collapses in the past 4.7 million years

    Researchers find several oceanic bottom circulation collapses in the past 4.7 million years

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    Newswise — Antarctic bottom water (AABW) covers more than two-thirds of the global ocean bottom, and its formation has recently decreased. However, its long-term variability has not been well understood.

    Researchers led by Prof. DENG Chenglong from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators have reconstructed AABW history back to approximately 4.7 million years ago (mya). They found that AABW has collapsed several times and such collapses might have induced moisture transport to fuel the Northern Hemisphere glaciation (NHG).

    This work was published in Science Advances on Feb. 24.

    The study was based on a 36-mm-diameter Fe-Mn nodule from the Eastern Pacific, located 5,050 m below sea level. The nodule was collected by Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, China Geological Survey.

    Magnetic scanning was an important factor in providing precise dating results. “This is a key, though the final dating was obtained by an integration with 10Be/9Be, flux of metal Co, and astronomical tuning,” said Dr. YI Liang from Tongji University, first author of the study and a postdoc at IGG/CAS.

    “Since AABW is the main provider of oxygen in the ocean bottom region, we used various scientific methods to identify the relation between metal accumulation in the Fe-Mn nodule and oceanic redox conditions,” said Prof. DENG. “Ni, Mn, and Cu contents are used to indicate AABW changes.”

    These results show that seawater oxygen has experienced a linear increase in the Eastern Pacific since around 3.4 mya. This trend agrees with the observation of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), suggesting a covariation between them.

    Comparing the AABW record with other geological records from the past million years, the researchers found a glacial enhancement of oceanic bottom circulation. This observation implies that atmospheric CO2 may have been regularly stored in the deep ocean when Earth’s climate was cold, e.g., during past glacial periods.

    The comparisons clearly highlighted seven intervals of poor seawater oxygen, suggesting AABW influence was reduced to a much lower level. These periods are known as AABW collapse and accompanied an enhancement of North Atlantic Deepwater (NADW) as well as key stages of NHG history, such as when NHG became intensified or amplified.

    Although we don’t know what will happen in response to ongoing AIS melting and AABW slowing, AABW collapse might have pulled the Earth into a harsher glacial climate several times in the past.

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    Chinese Academy of Sciences

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  • We cannot predict earthquakes with accuracy, despite claim

    We cannot predict earthquakes with accuracy, despite claim

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    Following the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in early February 2023, claims on social media went viral concerning how a Dutch scientist predicted the disaster days before the first quake that read 7.8 on the Richter scale. See here and here for examples. The claim stems from a tweet by Frank Hoogerbeets, a Dutch researcher from the ‘Solar System Geography Survey (SSGEOS).” On February 3rd, 2023, Hoogerbeets tweeted, “Sooner or later there will be a ~M 7.5 #earthquake in this region (South-Central Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon).” He included a map, showing a red circle on roughly the same area where the quake hit. In the past, Hoogerbeets has been described as a “quake mystic” who believes the movement of planets in our solar system can help us predict earthquakes. However, the USGS, one of the world’s most leading scientific organizations on earthquakes, unequivocally says that no scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake. “USGS scientists can only calculate the probability that a significant earthquake will occur (shown on our hazard mapping) in a specific area within a certain number of years.” Therefore, this claim that Hoogerbeets predicted the earthquake using scientific methods is false.

    While scientists have made significant advances in understanding earthquakes, there is no reliable method for accurately predicting earthquakes with a high degree of certainty. Scientists use various methods to monitor and analyze seismic activity, including seismometers, GPS sensors, and satellite data. They also study the geological characteristics of fault zones and other factors that can influence earthquake activity.

    While these methods can provide valuable insights into earthquake activity, they cannot accurately predict earthquakes. At best, they can provide early warning systems, allowing people to take precautions and minimize the impact of earthquakes. However, even these early warning systems are limited in their ability to provide timely and accurate predictions of earthquakes.

    Prof. Javed N Malik, an earthquake expert at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India has this to say…

    The area where the recent Turkey / Syria earthquake occurred is known for its seismic volatility. The deformation caused due to tectonic activities in the Anatolian plate has been noted for some time now.

    A detailed study of any affected area over a period of time can result in informed speculation about the upcoming activities. These are established with extensive scientific data collection based on multiple aspects like planetary movement, GPS tracking, four shocks theory, animal behavior mapping, electronic reactions and many more.

    However, any of the above can simply result in an approximate and calculated prediction, and not an assurance of the same. In the past, we have witnessed these predictions to have been preventive, but also many a times no activity has occurred as denoted on the dates and numbers.

    Many research groups all over the world are working on methods to better the process, but to my knowledge we have yet to reach a stage where it can be predicted with a 100% certainty.

     Note to Journalists/Editors: The expert quotes are free to use in your relevant articles on this topic. Please attribute them to their proper sources.

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    Newswise

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  • We cannot predict earthquakes with accuracy, despite claim

    We cannot predict earthquakes with accuracy, despite claim

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    Following the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in early February 2023, claims on social media went viral concerning how a Dutch scientist predicted the disaster days before the first quake that read 7.8 on the Richter scale. See here and here for examples. The claim stems from a tweet by Frank Hoogerbeets, a Dutch researcher from the ‘Solar System Geography Survey (SSGEOS).” On February 3rd, 2023, Hoogerbeets tweeted, “Sooner or later there will be a ~M 7.5 #earthquake in this region (South-Central Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon).” He included a map, showing a red circle on roughly the same area where the quake hit. In the past, Hoogerbeets has been described as a “quake mystic” who believes the movement of planets in our solar system can help us predict earthquakes. However, the USGS, one of the world’s most leading scientific organizations on earthquakes, unequivocally says that no scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake. “USGS scientists can only calculate the probability that a significant earthquake will occur (shown on our hazard mapping) in a specific area within a certain number of years.” Therefore, this claim that Hoogerbeets predicted the earthquake using scientific methods is false.

    While scientists have made significant advances in understanding earthquakes, there is no reliable method for accurately predicting earthquakes with a high degree of certainty. Scientists use various methods to monitor and analyze seismic activity, including seismometers, GPS sensors, and satellite data. They also study the geological characteristics of fault zones and other factors that can influence earthquake activity.

    While these methods can provide valuable insights into earthquake activity, they cannot accurately predict earthquakes. At best, they can provide early warning systems, allowing people to take precautions and minimize the impact of earthquakes. However, even these early warning systems are limited in their ability to provide timely and accurate predictions of earthquakes.

    Prof. Javed N Malik, an earthquake expert at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India has this to say…

    The area where the recent Turkey / Syria earthquake occurred is known for its seismic volatility. The deformation caused due to tectonic activities in the Anatolian plate has been noted for some time now.

    A detailed study of any affected area over a period of time can result in informed speculation about the upcoming activities. These are established with extensive scientific data collection based on multiple aspects like planetary movement, GPS tracking, four shocks theory, animal behavior mapping, electronic reactions and many more.

    However, any of the above can simply result in an approximate and calculated prediction, and not an assurance of the same. In the past, we have witnessed these predictions to have been preventive, but also many a times no activity has occurred as denoted on the dates and numbers.

    Many research groups all over the world are working on methods to better the process, but to my knowledge we have yet to reach a stage where it can be predicted with a 100% certainty.

     Note to Journalists/Editors: The expert quotes are free to use in your relevant articles on this topic. Please attribute them to their proper sources.

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  • Cohesion and connection drop in ageing population

    Cohesion and connection drop in ageing population

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    Newswise — Social cohesion and connection decline in an ageing population, according to a new study of one of humanity’s closest relatives.

    For decades, researchers have been observing the rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago (known as “Monkey Island”) in Puerto Rico.

    Recent research showed that female macaques “actively reduce” the size of their social networks and prioritise existing connections as they age – something also seen in humans.

    The new study, by an international team led by the University of Exeter, examines how this affects the overall cohesion and connection of the groups older monkeys live in.

    While the observed macaque populations (which had no more than 20% “old” individuals) were not affected at group level, computer simulations showed higher proportions of old macaques would reduce cohesion and connection.

    “For both humans and macaques, focusing on close friends and family in later life may bring a variety of benefits,” said Dr Erin Siracusa, from Exeter’s Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour.

    “Our study aimed to find out what knock-on effect these individual age-related changes have for how well connected a society is overall.

    “We had information on six monkey groups collected over eight years, representing in total 19 social networks.

    “The first thing we found is that that older female macaques are poor influencers – by having fewer friends, older females are less able to transmit knowledge and experience outside their immediate social circles.”

    The researchers tested whether monkey networks with a greater number of old females (over 18 years old) were less cohesive and connected.

    In the macaque populations observed, they didn’t find a difference between networks that were older compared to those with a greater number of young adults.

    However, no more than 20% of monkeys were old in any given group we studied. It was still possible that even older networks would be affected.  

    So the scientists created a computer model that simulated the effect of higher proportions of old macaques, and found a decline in network cohesiveness and connectedness.

    “We found really substantial consequences for network structure, which could affect useful things like information transmission and cooperation, and could also limit the spread of disease,” said Professor Lauren Brent, also from the University of Exeter.

    “In humans, population ageing is poised to be one of the most significant social transformations of the 21st Century.

    “Our findings suggest this could have far-reaching effects on the structure of our societies and the way they function.”

    With the global human population of over-60s expected to double by 2050, the findings suggest social structures, cohesion and connectedness could all change significantly.

    While the human population is ageing, some animal populations are becoming younger on average – also with potentially serious consequences.

    For example, older male elephants are often targeted by trophy hunters for their large tusks – and a 2021 University of Exeter study found that male elephants are more aggressive to things like tourist vehicles when fewer older males are present.

    The new study was carried out by a team including the University of Coimbra (Portugal), the Technical University of Denmark, Arizona State University, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania (USA).

    Long-term monitoring of the macaques on Cayo Santiago is made possible by the Caribbean Primate Research Center, and this study was funded by the National Institute of Health.

    The paper, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, is entitled: “Ageing in a collective: the impact of ageing individuals on social network structure.”

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  • Slow motion: Scientists investigate tectonic plate boundary earthquake behavior

    Slow motion: Scientists investigate tectonic plate boundary earthquake behavior

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    Newswise — LOGAN, UTAH, USA – Renaissance polymath Leonard da Vinci demonstrated frictional forces slow down the motion of surfaces in contact. Friction, he determined, is proportional to normal force. When two objects are pressed together twice as hard, friction doubles.

    “We see this principle with tectonic plate boundaries,” says Utah State University geophysicist Srisharan Shreedharan. “As surfaces slide against each other, we observe frictional properties, including frictional healing that describes the degree of fault restrengthening between earthquakes. However, we know little about how this phenomenon may affect future slip events, including earthquakes.”

    He and colleagues Demian Saffer and Laura Wallace of the University of Texas at Austin, where Shreedharan was previously employed as a postdoctoral fellow, and Charles Williams of New Zealand’s GNS Science geoscience research institute, publish findings about ultralow frictional healing and slow slip events along the Hikurangi tectonic plate boundary in the Feb. 17, 2023 issue of the journal Science. The team’s research was supported by the U.S. Science Support Program International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour Research Fund.

    “Plate motion on shallow subduction megathrusts, like the Hikurangi Trench east of New Zealand’s North Island, occurs all over the world,” says Shreedharan, assistant professor in USU’s Department of Geosciences. “Our research examined the diverse tectonic slip modes, especially slow slip events, and focused on frictional healing.”

    Slow slip events usually don’t cause great shaking and they generally release pent-up energy in a non-damaging way, he says.  

    “But in areas with clay-rich materials, such as those commonly found in subduction zones throughout the planet, frequent ‘slow motion’ slips may be more common than we think,” Shreedharan says. “We don’t yet know whether these slip events are more or less likely to place nearby populated areas at risk of deadly earthquakes and tsunamis.”

    The behavior of the shallowest reaches of subduction zones during an earthquake determine the nature and size of tsunamis, he says. “Our nation’s west coast is vulnerable to large quakes, so it is important to understand how slip occurs on shallow plate boundaries.”

    The USU geophysicist spent two months aboard the IODP research vessel JOIDES Resolution with a team of geoscientists and drilling engineers that drilled holes for monitoring sites along the Hikugangi Trench.

    “To quantify seismic hazards, you need to collect data from sensors inside the boreholes,” Shreedharan says. “It’s a big undertaking, but the data is critical for monitoring events and Improving early warning systems.”

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  • Strengthening ecology and conservation in the Global South

    Strengthening ecology and conservation in the Global South

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    Newswise — The tropics hold most of the planet’s biodiversity. In order to preserve this fragile and valuable asset, many individuals and communities need to get involved and be well informed. However, tropical ecology and conservation sciences are still often affected by colonialistic and discriminatory practices, which can hamper nature conservation success. An international research team from leading universities in tropical research, including the University of Göttingen, has now proposed how researchers from the Global South, which consists of nations historically damaged by colonialism, could better promote solutions for a sustainable development. Their opinion paper was published in the journal Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation.

    The team of researchers from over 12 countries – across South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America – gathered their experiences working in international collaborations in the field of terrestrial and marine tropical ecology and conservation, and participating in committees promoting the diversification of scientific societies. They suggest ten actions for researchers living in the Global South to promote improvements in diversity, equity and inclusion. These include actions at institutional, national and international levels to guarantee that research teams in the Global South become more inclusive and diverse and are well prepared for equitable international research collaborations that have an impact on nature conservation practices.

    The authors believe that current teams in tropical research often do not fully consider the vast diversity of people and perspectives in tropical regions, which hinders the implementation of scientific practices. However, they recognize the high initial costs associated with establishing schemes for equitable participation: “These actions require hard work and self-reflection from all of us about our actions and attitudes, but we are confident that the benefits are considerable, both for the quality of the science that we do, and the protection of tropical ecosystems,” says lead author Carolina Ocampo-Ariza, Agroecology Group, University of Göttingen.

    Successful conservation actions rely on the participation of local stakeholders, including local governments and communities in rural areas. “We hope to encourage more leadership from those that live surrounded by tropical biodiversity,” says Professor Teja Tscharntke, University of Göttingen. This includes researchers in the Global South increasing outreach and dissemination in research projects, co-developing research goals with local stakeholders such as indigenous communities and local farmers, and taking a leading role in international research teams.

    “The ongoing international discussions about diversity, equity and inclusion will hopefully help us establish more sustainable and fair collaborations in research,” adds Isabelle Arimond, Functional Agrobiodiversity, University of Göttingen.

     

    Original publication: Ocampo-Ariza C et al, “Global South leadership towards inclusive tropical ecology and conservation”, Perspectives in Ecology and conservation: DOI: 10.1016/j.pecon.2023.01.002

    The abstract of the manuscript is available via PDF in 18 languages spoken in the Global South: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2530064423000020#sec0090

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    University of Gottingen

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  • New Way To Predict Deadly Rip Currents At The Beach

    New Way To Predict Deadly Rip Currents At The Beach

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    Newswise — Rip currents are a serious threat to beachgoers at any coast around the world. There are reported number of fatalities caused by rip currents every year in the U.S. and Australia. According to Surf Lifesaving Australia, rip currents were responsible for at least 21 drowning deaths per year.

    Historically, it has been difficult to measure rip currents that are mostly invisible and random in time and location. And its prediction involves limitations due to weather and ocean forecasts as well as the rip current model. In other words, it is difficult to predict its location as well as its occurrence, especially for transient rip currents, so-called flash rips that can be observed in directional random wave environments. Therefore, the prediction of rip currents is still an ongoing issue in the ocean forecasting field.

    The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT, President Kim, Byung-Suk) has announced a new approach for predicting the rip currents. A research team, led by Dr. Junwoo Choi of Department of Hydro Science and Engineering Research, developed a new prediction system which has already been tested at ten beaches in South Korea through a project funded by the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency. Ten beaches including Haeundae beach in Busan, showed higher than 80% of accuracy rate. No fatality has been reported at the beaches during its operation.

    The advanced rip-current prediction system implementing the new approach produces a sequence of rip-current risk index at a specific coast. The prediction system can be operated with an ocean observation system or an ocean forecasting system to support the time-varying inputs of wave height, wave period, wave direction, spectral spreading, and tidal elevation.

    The rip-current risk index is computed by a function of the rip-current likelihoods varied according to the six parameters which are established by utilizing in-advance numerical simulations of rip currents at each individual coast. Note that the six parameters are the input conditions of the wave-current model, FUNWAVE (published by Univ. of Delaware) that was employed because it can solve flash rips induced by phase-resolving directional random waves.

    The performance of the present approach has been checked by operating the rip-current prediction system with a real-time ocean observation system at ten popular beaches in South Korea. Dr. Junwoo Choi said, “The needs of a rip-current prediction system is clear and explicit, and the risk index can help lifeguards and save swimmers in the coast covered by the present rip-current system.”

     

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    The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) is a government sponsored research institute established to contribute to the development of Korea’s construction industry and national economic growth by developing source and practical technology in the fields of construction and national land management.

    Funding was provided by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency of Republic of Korea. The outcomes of this project were published in the journal, J. Korea Water Resources Association, in October 2022.

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  • Scientists find world’s oldest European hedgehog

    Scientists find world’s oldest European hedgehog

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    Newswise — The world’s oldest scientifically-confirmed European hedgehog has been found in Denmark by a citizen science project involving hundreds of volunteers. The hedgehog lived for 16 years, 7 years longer than the previous record holder.

    The European hedgehog is one of our most beloved mammals but populations have declined dramatically in recent years. In the UK, studies indicate that urban populations have fallen by up to 30% and rural populations by at least 50% since the turn of the century (British Hedgehog Preservation Society). To combat this, researchers and conservationists have launched various projects to monitor hedgehog populations, to inform initiatives to protect hedgehogs in the wild.

    During 2016, Danish citizens were asked to collect any dead hedgehogs they found for “The Danish Hedgehog Project”, a citizen science project led by Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen (also known as ‘Dr Hedgehog’). The aim was to better understand the state of the Danish hedgehog population by establishing how long hedgehogs typically lived for. Over 400 volunteers collected an astonishing 697 dead hedgehogs originating from all over Denmark, with a roughly 50/50 split from urban and rural areas.

    The researchers determined the age of the dead hedgehogs by counting growth lines in thin sections of the hedgehogs’ jawbones, a method similar to counting growth rings in trees. The results have been published as a paper in the journal Animals.

    Key findings:

    • The oldest hedgehog in the sample was 16 years old – the oldest scientifically documented European hedgehog ever found. Two other individuals lived for 13 and 11 years respectively. The previous record holder lived for 9 years.
    • Despite these long-lived individuals, the average age of the hedgehogs was only around two years. About a third (30%) of the hedgehogs died at or before the age of one year.
    • Most (56%) of the hedgehogs had been killed when crossing roads. 22% died at a hedgehog rehabilitation centre (for instance, following a dog attack), and 22% died of natural causes in the wild.
    • Male hedgehogs in general lived longer than females (2.1 vs 1.6 years, or 24% longer), which is uncommon in mammals. But male hedgehogs were also more likely to be killed in traffic. This may be because males have larger ranges than females and likely move over larger areas, bringing them into contact more frequently with roads.
    • For both male and female hedgehogs, road deaths peaked during the month of July, which is the height of the mating season for hedgehogs in Denmark. This is likely because hedgehogs walk long distances and cross more roads in their search for mates.

    Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen (based at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit WildCRU, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, and affiliated researcher at Aalborg University), who leads The Danish Hedgehog Project, said: ’Although we saw a high proportion of individuals dying at the age of one year, our data also showed that if the individuals survived this life stage, they could potentially live to become 16 years old and produce offspring for several years. This may be because individual hedgehogs gradually gain more experience as they grow older. If they manage to survive to reach the age of two years or more, they would have likely learned to avoid dangers such as cars and predators.’

    She added: ‘The tendency for males to outlive females is likely caused by the fact that it is simply easier being a male hedgehog. Hedgehogs are not territorial, which means that the males rarely fight. And the females raise their offspring alone.’

    Hedgehog jaw bones show growth lines because calcium metabolism slows down when they hibernate over winter. This causes bone growth to reduce markedly or even stop completely, resulting in growth lines where one line represents one hibernation. 

    The researchers also took tissue samples to investigate whether the degree of inbreeding influenced how long European hedgehogs live for. Previous studies have found that the genetic diversity of the Danish hedgehog population is low, indicating high degrees of inbreeding. This can reduce the fitness of a population by allowing hereditary, and potentially lethal, health conditions to be passed on between generations. Surprisingly, the results showed that inbreeding did not seem to reduce the expected lifespan of the hedgehogs.

    Dr Rasmussen said: ‘Sadly, many species of wildlife are in decline, which often results in increased inbreeding, as the decline limits the selection of suitable mates. This study is one of the first thorough investigations of the effect of inbreeding on longevity. Our research indicates that if the hedgehogs manage to survive into adulthood, despite their high degree of inbreeding, which may cause several potentially lethal, hereditary conditions, the inbreeding does not reduce their longevity. That is a rather groundbreaking discovery, and very positive news from a conservation perspective.’

    Dr Rasmussen added: ‘The various findings of this study have improved our understanding of the basic life history of hedgehogs, and will hopefully improve the conservation management for this beloved and declining species.’

    The study was published in collaboration with Associate Professor Owen Jones at Interdisciplinary Center on Population Dynamics (CPop), Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Senior Researcher Dr Thomas Bjørneboe Berg from Naturama, and Associate Professor Helle Jakobe Martens, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Copenhagen University.

    Notes for editors:

    Images of the research team studying hedgehog jawbones are available on request.

    The study ’Anyone Can Get Old—All You Have to Do Is Live Long Enough: Understanding Mortality and Life Expectancy in European Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus)’ has been published in Animals: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/4/626

    You can learn more about Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen’s work on her YouTube channel ‘Dr Hedgehog’: https://www.youtube.com/@drhedgehog

    About the University of Oxford

    Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the seventh year running, and ​number 2 in the QS World Rankings 2022. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.

    Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.

    Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 200 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past three years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.

    The Department of Biology is a University of Oxford department within the Maths, Physical and Life Sciences Division. It utilises academic strength in a broad range of bioscience disciplines to tackle global challenges such as food security, biodiversity loss, climate change and global pandemics. It also helps to train and equip the biologists of the future through holistic undergraduate and graduate courses. For more information visit www.biology.ox.ac.uk

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  • Fact-checking the reporting of the explosion in East Palestine, Ohio

    Fact-checking the reporting of the explosion in East Palestine, Ohio

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    Five days after a Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride derailed and exploded near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, crews ignited a controlled burn of toxic chemicals to prevent a much more dangerous explosion. Local residents of East Palestine, Ohio are wondering whether returning to the area is really safe. In a report from television station WXBN in Youngstown, Ohio, it was disclosed that additional toxic chemicals have been discovered in the area. A comment made by Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist, was included in the WXBN report. Caggiano said that “We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open.”  The quote has been shared by thousands on social media. Christopher M. Reddy, a Senior Scientist at the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution cautions that this statement may be hyperbole.

    “Do not let the ‘doom and gloom’ overwhelm you,” says Reddy. In response to the Caggiano’s “nuked a town” statement, Reddy says it is “totally irresponsible. A very different situation when perceived by the public.”

    Reddy’s comment on the reporting of the incident:

    I would caution that the outcomes and scenarios available on Wikipedia are often overgeneralized and lack nuance.  I don’t wish to downplay this accident at all. Very different situation. It is very hard to predict the short and long-term impacts of any chemical release with great certainty, but I don’t foresee with the knowledge in hand, significant long-term impacts. All of these chemicals are relatively short-lived and unlikely to persist for many months, and they have a low affinity to bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue.”

    Reddy recommends the following for local residents:

    1. Remain cautious
    2. Do not let the “doom and gloom” overwhelm you.
    3. Ask for the sampling plans. Have samples been collected? When? Where? What is the detection limit?
    4. Ask for laboratory results for the chemicals that were released and their breakdown products.  (Key point—the actual chemicals.) I cannot speak for the level of analyses being performed, but these are complex measurements. Certainly not the equivalent of pH paper.
    5. Seek information from reputable sources.

    Mark Jones, a retired industrial chemist has this to say…

    The chemicals, now four, are all dangerous in multiple ways. They can be acutely toxic, chronically toxic and they are all flammable. The controlled burn takes flammable materials to more benign materials. In the case of vinyl chloride, a product of combustion is hydrochloric acid, itself dangerous but not flammable.

    The comment about a “more dangerous explosion” is a bit misleading. There is a risk to those attempting to clean up the site if there is a reservoir of flammable material. Reducing that risk is one of the reasons to do a controlled burn. There are many ways to do a controlled burn and I don’t know exactly what was done here.

    Two of the materials, vinyl chloride and isobutylene, are quite volatile. Isobutylene handles approximately like butane, the stuff in a lighter. It is a liquid under just a little bit of pressure. Release the pressure and it becomes a gas. Vinyl chloride is similar. When released, both become a gas. They should not persist on the site. They should be swept away in the air.

    The other two materials, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and ethylhexyl acrylate, are higher boiling liquids. Both are flammable. The controlled burn of these materials should destroy them and make only carbon dioxide and water.

     

     Note to Journalists/Editors: The expert quotes are free to use in your relevant articles on this topic. Please attribute them to their proper sources.

     

     

     

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  • Discovery could lead to new fungicides to protect rice crops

    Discovery could lead to new fungicides to protect rice crops

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    Newswise — A fungus that plagues rice crops worldwide gains entry to plant cells in a way that leaves it vulnerable to simple chemical blockers, a discovery that could lead to new fungicides to reduce the substantial annual losses of rice and other valuable cereals.

    Each year, blast disease, caused by the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae, attacks and kills plants that represent between 10% and 35% of the global rice crop, depending on weather conditions.

    University of California, Berkeley, biochemists led by Michael Marletta, professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology, discovered that the fungus secretes an enzyme that punches holes in the tough outer layer of rice leaves. Once inside, the fungus rapidly grows and inevitably kills the plant.

    In a paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Marletta and his colleagues describe the structure of the enzyme and how it works to help the fungus invade plants. Because the enzyme is secreted onto the surface of the rice leaf, a simple spray could be effective in destroying the enzyme’s ability to digest the wall of the plant. The scientists are now screening chemicals to find ones that block the enzyme.

    “The estimates are that if you could knock out this fungus, you could feed 60 million more people in the world,” said Marletta, the Choh Hao and Annie Li Chair in the Molecular Biology of Diseases at UC Berkeley. “This enzyme is a unique target. Our hope here is that we’ll screen to find some unique chemicals and spin out a company to develop inhibitors for this enzyme.”

    This target is one of a family of enzymes called polysaccharide monooxygenases (PMO) that Marletta and his UC Berkeley colleagues discovered a little over 10 years ago in another, more widespread fungus, Neurospora. Polysaccharides are sugar polymers that include starch as well as the tough fibers that make plants sturdy, including cellulose and lignin. The PMO enzyme breaks cellulose into smaller pieces, making the polysaccharide susceptible to other enzymes, such as cellulases, and speeding up the breakdown of plant fibers.

    “There is an urgent need for more sustainable control strategies for rice blast disease, particularly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa,” said Nicholas Talbot, who is Marletta’s colleague and co-author, a plant disease expert and executive director of The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich in the United Kingdom. “Given the importance of the polysaccharide monooxygenase to plant infection, it may be a valuable target for developing new chemistries that could be applied at much lower doses than existing fungicides and with less potential environmental impact. It might also be a target for completely chemical-free approaches, too, such as gene silencing.”

    Marletta and UC Berkeley Ph.D students Will Beeson and Chris Phillips were originally interested in these enzymes because they degrade plant cellulose much more quickly than other previously described enzymes and thus had potential to turn biomass into sugar polymers that can be fermented more readily into biofuels. Fungi use PMOs to provide a source of food.

    He and UC Berkeley colleagues subsequently found hints that some fungal PMOs may do more than merely turn cellulose into food. These PMOs were turned on in the early stages of infection, implying that they’re important in the infection process rather than providing food.

    That’s what Marletta, Talbot and their colleagues found. Led by postdoctoral fellow Alejandra Martinez-D’Alto, the UC Berkeley scientists biochemically characterized this unique PMO, called MoPMO9A, while Talbot and UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Xia Yan showed that knocking out the enzyme reduced infection in rice plants.

    Marletta and his UC Berkeley colleagues have found similar PMOs in fungi that attack grapes, tomatoes, lettuce and other major crops, which means the new findings may have broad application against plant fungal diseases.

    “It isn’t just rice that small molecule inhibitors could be used against. They could be widely used against a variety of different crop pathogens,” Marletta said. “I think the future for this, in terms of drug development for plant pathogens, is pretty exciting, which is why we are going to pursue both the fundamental science of it, like we always do, and try to put together pieces to spin it out as a company.”

    Biofuels lead way to attacking fungal pathogen

    Marletta specializes in identifying and studying new and unusual enzymes in human cells. But 10 years ago, when people got excited about biofuels as a way to address climate change, he was awarded a grant from UC Berkeley’s Energy Biosciences Institute to search for enzymes in other life forms that digest plant cellulose faster than the enzymes known at the time. The goal was to turn tough cellulose fibers into short-chain polysaccharides that yeast could ferment into fuel.

    “I said to two of my first-year graduate students, Chris Phillips and Will Beeson, ‘You know, there’s got to be organisms out there that eat cellulose fast,’” Marletta said. “Those are the ones we want to find, because we know the enzymes that eat it slow, and they’re not particularly useful in a biotechnology sense because they’re slow.”

    Phillips and Beeson succeeded in finding fast-acting enzymes in a common fungus, Neurospora, which is among the first fungi to attack dead trees after a fire and does a quick job of digesting wood for nutrients. They isolated the enzyme responsible, the first known PMO, and described how it worked. Since then, Marletta’s students have identified 16,000 varieties of PMO, most in fungi, but some in wood-eating bacteria. To date, these have had some success in speeding the production of biofuels as part of a cocktail of other enzymes, though they haven’t made biofuels competitive with other fuels.

    But Marletta was intrigued by a small subset of these 16,000 varieties that seemed to do more than provide nutrition for fungi. MoPMO9A, in particular, had an amino acid segment that binds to chitin, a polysaccharide that forms the outer coat of fungi, but is not found in rice. And though all PMOs are secreted, MoPMO9A was secreted during the infectious cycle of the fungus.

    Studies subsequently showed that Magnaporthe concentrates MoPMO9A in a pressurized infection cell, called the appressorium, from which it is secreted onto the plant, with one portion of the enzyme binding to the outside of the fungus. The other end of the enzyme has a copper atom embedded in its center. When the fungus slaps the loose end of the enzyme onto the rice leaf, the copper atom catalyzes a reaction with oxygen to break cellulose fibers, helping the fungus breach the leaf surface and invade the entire leaf.

    “We were curious: ‘Hey, why does this enzyme have a chitin-binding domain if it’s supposed to be working on cellulose?’” according to Marletta. “And that’s when we thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s secreted, but it sticks to the fungus. That way, when the fungus is sitting on the plant, it can have between it and the leaf the catalytic domain to punch the hole into the leaf.’”

    That proved to be the case. Marletta and Talbot are now testing other pathogens that produce PMOs to see if they use the same trick to enter and infect leaves. If so — Marletta is confident that they do — it opens avenues to attack them with a spray-on fungicide, as well.

    “The only place you find PMOs like this is in plant pathogens that have to gain access to their host. So, they’re almost certainly going to be working the same way,” Marletta said. “I think the scope of work to develop inhibitors to this particular PMO is going to be well beyond rice, even though that itself is pretty important. We’re going to be able to use them in other important crop plants.”

    Other co-authors of the paper are Alejandra Martinez-D’Alto, Tyler Detomasi, Richard Sayler and William Thomas of UC Berkeley. Marletta is a member of the Berkeley branch of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3). The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (CHE-1904540, MCB-1818283) and the National Institutes of Health (F32-GM143897).

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  • Expert Available on Earthquakes and Damage in Turkey and Syria

    Expert Available on Earthquakes and Damage in Turkey and Syria

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    Newswise — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Mourad Zeghal, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is available for comment on the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. He can speak on ground motion during earthquakes, soil-structure interaction, and damage to buildings and infrastructure.

    Zeghal’s research interests include geotechnical earthquake engineering, seismic response monitoring, information technology applications in geomechanics, and computational soil micro-mechanics.

    Failure of geosystems due to natural or man-made hazards such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, or terrorist attacks may have monumental repercussions, sometimes with dramatic and unanticipated consequences on human life and the country’s economy. Zeghal’s research focuses on three areas that are central to the national effort to reduce the impact of these hazards: (1) monitoring and testing of  soil systems, (2) multiscale modeling of soil-systems and model validation, and (3) development of improved optimal analysis and design tools.

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    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

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  • The claim that forest trees “talk” through underground fungi is questionable

    The claim that forest trees “talk” through underground fungi is questionable

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    Newswise — The romantic notion that trees communicate and cooperate with each other has been popular ever since the publication of Suzanne Simard’s much-praised book Finding the Mother Tree.  Simard and many ecologists have described a network of underground fungi that connects the roots of different trees (and other plants) to create what’s called a common mycorrhizal network (CMN). However, some scientists, like Justine Karst, an associate professor in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences believe these depictions misrepresent ecosystems. While CMNs have been scientifically proven to exist, there is no strong evidence that they offer benefits to trees and their seedlings. Since scientists have yet to prove this underground network actually helps trees communicate with each other, the claim is half true. 

    “It’s great that CMN research has sparked interest in forest fungi, but it’s important for the public to understand that many popular ideas are ahead of the science,” says Karst.

    In an article published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Karst and two colleagues contest three popular claims about the capabilities of CMNs. They found that one of the claims, that CMNs are widespread in forests, isn’t supported by enough scientific evidence. Not enough is known about CMN structure and its function in the field, “with too few forests mapped.”

    The second claim, that resources such as nutrients are transferred by adult trees to seedlings through CMNs and that they boost survival and growth, was also found to be questionable.

    A review of 26 studies, including one in which Karst is a co-author, established that while resources can be transferred underground by trees, CMNs don’t necessarily bring about that flow, and seedlings typically don’t benefit from CMN access. Overall, their review revealed roughly equal evidence that connecting to a CMN would improve or hamper seedlings, with neutral effects most commonly reported.

    The third claim, that adult trees preferentially send resources or “warning signals” of insect damage to young trees through CMNs, is not backed up by a single peer-reviewed, published field study, Karst and her co-authors note.

    The researchers say overblown information can shape and distort the public narrative about CMNs, and that could, in turn, affect how forests are managed. 

    “Distorting science on CMNs in forests is a problem because sound science is critical for making decisions on how forests are managed. It’s premature to base forest practices and policies on CMNs per se, without further evidence. And failing to identify misinformation can erode public trust in science.”

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  • Record low sea ice cover in the Antarctic

    Record low sea ice cover in the Antarctic

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    Newswise — There is currently less sea ice in the Antarctic than at any time in the forty years since the beginning of satellite observation: in early February 2023, only 2.20 million square kilometres of the Southern Ocean were covered with sea ice. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University of Bremen analyse the situation for the Sea Ice Portal. January 2023 had already set a new record for its monthly mean extent (3.22 million square kilometres), even though the melting phase in the Southern Hemisphere continues until the end of February. The current expedition team on board RV Polarstern has just reported virtually ice-free conditions in its current research area, the Bellingshausen Sea.

    “On 8 February 2023, at 2.20 million square kilometres, the Antarctic sea ice extent had already dropped below the previous record minimum from 2022 (2.27 million square kilometres on 24 February 2022). Since the sea ice melting in the Antarctic will most likely continue in the second half of the month, we can’t say yet when the record low will be reached or how much more sea ice will melt between now and then,” says Prof Christian Haas, Head of the Sea Ice Physics Section at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), with regard to the current developments in the Antarctic. “The rapid decline in sea ice over the past six years is quite remarkable, since the ice cover hardly changed at all in the thirty-five years before. It is still unclear whether what we are seeing is the beginning of a rapid end to summer sea ice in the Antarctic, or if it is merely the beginning of a new phase characterised by low but still stable sea ice cover in the summer.”

    The melting has progressed since December 2022, especially in the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas in the West Antarctic; the former is virtually ice-free. That is also where the research vessel Polarstern currently is, exploring the evidence left behind of past glacials and interglacials. According to expedition leader and AWI geophysicist Prof Karsten Gohl, who is now in the region for the seventh time, having first come in 1994: “I have never seen such an extreme, ice-free situation here before. The continental shelf, an area the size of Germany, is now completely ice-free. Though these conditions are advantageous for our vessel-based fieldwork, it is still troubling to consider how quickly this change has taken place.”

    In the course of the year, the Antarctic sea ice generally reaches its maximum extent in September or October and its minimum extent in February. In some regions, the sea ice melts completely in summer. In winter, the cold climate throughout the Antarctic promotes the rapid formation of new sea ice. At its maximum, the sea ice cover in the Antarctic is generally between 18 and 20 million square kilometres. In summer, it dwindles to roughly 3 million square kilometres, displaying far more natural annual variability than ice in the Arctic.

    Further, Antarctic sea ice is much thinner than its Arctic counterpart and appears only seasonally – which explains why, for a very long time, its development was considered impossible to predict beyond a matter of days. In recent years, however, science has uncovered several mechanisms for predicting the development of sea ice on seasonal time scales. Knowing the sea ice presence weeks to months in advance is of great interest to Antarctic shipping.

    Analyses of the current sea ice extent, conducted by the Sea Ice Portal team, show that, for the entire month of January 2023, the ice was at its lowest-ever extent recorded for the time of year since the beginning of record-keeping in 1979. The monthly mean value was 3.22 million square kilometres, ca. 478,000 square kilometres (an area roughly the size of Sweden) below the previous minimum from 2017. With regard to its long-term development, the Antarctic sea ice shows a declining trend of 2.6 percent per decade. This is the eighth consecutive year in which the mean sea-ice extent in January has been below the long-term trend.

    This intense melting could be due to unusually high air temperatures to the west and east of the Antarctic Peninsula, which were ca. 1.5 °C above the long-term average. In addition, the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is in a strongly positive phase, which influences the prevailing wind circulation in the Antarctic. In a positive SAM phase (like today), a low-pressure anomaly forms over the Antarctic, while a high-pressure anomaly develops over the middle latitudes. This intensifies the westerly winds and causes them to contract toward the Antarctic. As a result, upwelling of circumpolar deep water on the continental shelf intensifies in the Antarctic, promoting sea-ice retreat. More importantly, it also intensifies the melting of ice shelves, an essential aspect for future global sea-level rise.

    Unravelling the geological evolution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, i.e., the massive glaciers that cover the Antarctic continent and fuel the ice shelves, is the proclaimed goal of the current Polarstern expedition. Doing so, it is hoped, will allow us to make more accurate statements on the ice sheet’s future development, and therefore on sea-level rise in the face of constant climate change. For example, the last interglacial, 120,000 years ago, and a prolonged warm period in the Pliocene roughly 3.5 million years ago, are considered analogous to today. In both past periods, the warming was exclusively due to gradual changes in Earth’s orbit – today, these are supplemented by carbon dioxide emissions, which are produced by the use of fossil fuels and accumulate in the atmosphere. The insights gleaned from the ice sheets’ history are intended to help estimate how rapidly and extensively they will melt when certain tipping points of today’s rapid anthropogenic climate change are exceeded. In this regard, researchers use geophysical and geological methods to investigate marine sediments at the sea floor, which, as archives of past ice-sheet movements, hold valuable information.

    Historical records also reflect the tremendous changes. For example, in the Antarctic summer 125 years ago, the Belgian research vessel Belgica was trapped in the massive pack ice for more than a year – in exactly the same region where the Polarstern can now operate in completely ice-free waters. The photographs and diaries of the Belgica’s crew offer a unique chronicle of the ice conditions in the Bellingshausen Sea at the dawn of the industrial age, which climate researchers often use as a benchmark for comparison with today’s climate change.

    You can find more detailed analyses at the Sea Ice Portal: https://www.meereisportal.de/.

    For the latest news from the Polarstern expedition, check out the Polarstern app https://follow-polarstern.awi.de/ or the Polarstern blog https://blogs.helmholtz.de/polarstern/en/ , not to mention the blog on the 125th anniversary of the Belgica expedition (English only): https://125yearsbelgica.com/

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  • New damselfly sharing habitat with UK natives

    New damselfly sharing habitat with UK natives

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    Newswise — A damselfly species that came to the UK from Europe poses a minimal risk to native damselflies and dragonflies, new research shows.

    As tens of thousands of species shift their “range” (the areas they live in) due to climate change, the small red-eyed damselfly has spread northwards from the Mediterranean. It was first observed in the UK in 1999 and has since established itself.

    The new study – by the University of Exeter and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology – used data from the British Dragonfly Society to see if it had caused native damselflies and dragonflies to decline.

    The results showed most native dragonflies and damselflies were either found more often or were unchanged in areas colonised by the small red-eyed damselfly.

    However, two damselfly species might have been negatively affected, and more research is needed to investigate this.

    “With range-shifting increasing globally, we need to understand what impact newly arrived species have on ecosystems,” said Dr Regan Early, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

    “In this case, it seems the small red-eyed damselfly has established itself in the UK without harming similar species.

    “It may be establishing itself most strongly in areas with good habitats, and these biodiverse sites could be important for increasing numbers of range-shifters in the future.”

    Dr Early stressed the difference between range-shifters, which arrive naturally from nearby areas (in this case mainland Europe), and invasive species.

    Range-shifters have typically evolved in similar ecosystems to those they arrive in, and the existing native species have usually encountered similar species before.

    Invasive species arrive by human transportation, often from an entirely different part of the world, and can therefore bring behaviours and diseases that threaten native species (eg grey squirrels in the UK).

    Citizen science

    Using British Dragonfly Society records from almost 50,000 site visits from 2000-2015, the new study focussed on sites where each of 17 native UK dragonflies and damselflies were found in each year.

    Researchers then estimated whether the arrival of small red-eyed damselflies had affected these native species.

    “Our approach allows rapid assessment of how range-shifters are affecting native wildlife,” said Dr Jamie Cranston, also from the University of Exeter.

    “It shows how citizen science can be really powerful, in this case by providing an ‘early warning system’ about possible threats to UK wildlife.”

    Of the two damselfly species that have declined where small red-eyed damselflies have established, one is closely related to the new arrival. Dr Early suggests that similarities between their habitat preferences and flight season could cause the small red-eyed damselfly to outcompete its sister species.  

    However, damselflies eat a wide variety of foods, so competition should be low unless conditions caused severe food shortages.

    Additionally, the UK has a relatively small variety of these species compared to the rest of Europe, so there may be “vacant niches” for new arrivals to exploit.

    The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

    The paper, published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity, is entitled: “Associations between a range-shifting damselfly (Erythromma viridulum) and the UK’s resident Odonata suggests habitat sharing is more important than antagonism.”

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    University of Exeter

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  • A second chance to protect wetlands

    A second chance to protect wetlands

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    Newswise — Wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. A new study, published in Nature, has found that the loss of wetland areas around the globe since 1700 has likely been overestimated. This is good news overall, however, the global picture hides significant variations, with several regions and distinct wetland types under significant levels of pressure. For instance, temperate river floodplains have been highly impacted while remote boreal-arctic peatlands remain comparatively unharmed. While wetland conversion and degradation has slowed globally, it continues apace in some regions, such as Indonesia, where large swaths of land are being cleared for oil palm plantations and other agricultural uses. This new global perspective on wetland loss can help prioritize conservation and restoration actions.

    Historical reconstruction provides new insights
    Now understood to be vital sources of water purification, groundwater recharge, and carbon storage, wetlands were historically seen as unproductive areas teeming with disease-bearing insects and good only for draining to grow crops or harvest peat for fuel or fertilizer. Over time, unrelenting drainage for conversion to farmland and urban areas along with alteration caused by fires and groundwater extraction have made wetlands among the world’s most threatened ecosystems.

    Until now, a lack of historical data has hindered efforts to understand the full global impact of wetland loss, forcing scientists to make estimates based on incomplete collections of regional data. In a first of its kind historical reconstruction, the team, bringing together researchers from Stanford, Cornell, and McGill universities, combed through thousands of records of wetland drainage and land-use changes in 154 countries, mapping the distribution of drained and converted wetlands onto maps of present-day wetlands to get a picture of what the original wetland areas might have looked like in 1700.

    Decline in wetlands – less than previously thought

    The researchers found that the area of wetland ecosystems has declined by between 21-35% since 1700 due to human intervention. That’s far less than the 50-87% losses estimated by some previous studies. The lower estimate likely results from the study’s expanded focus beyond regions with historically high wetland losses, and its avoidance of large and possibly misleading extrapolations. Still, the authors estimate that at least 3.4 million square kilometres of wetlands have been lost globally over the past 300 years—an area about the size of India. Five countries with the highest losses, USA, China, India, Russia, and Indonesia, alone account for over 40% of global losses.

    “Many regions of the world have sustained dramatically high wetland losses, but our results suggest that losses are lower than previously thought once aggregated globally. Yet, it remains urgent to halt and reverse the conversion and degradation of wetlands, particularly in high-loss regions. The geographic disparities in losses are critical because the disappearance of ecosystem services caused by wetland drainage in one location cannot be replaced by the existence of wetlands elsewhere,” said lead author Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, a postdoctoral associate in Stanford’s Department of Earth System Science at the time of the research, who conceived of this study during his master’s degree in McGill’s Department of Geography.

    Another chance to act on wetland loss

    “Wetlands, in their natural state, are among the most important ecosystems to regulate our water resources, which benefits both humans and the environment,” adds coauthor Bernhard Lehner, a global hydrologist at McGill University. “Discovering that fewer wetlands have been historically lost than we previously thought gives us a second chance to take action to ensure wetland cover does not decline further. As part of that, we need to improve our capacity to map their past and current extents and monitor their status using satellites. This will allow us to establish meaningful conservation goals and restoration targets.

    About McGill University

    Founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1821, McGill University is Canada’s top ranked medical doctoral university. McGill is consistently ranked as one of the top universities, both nationally and internationally. It is a world-renowned institution of higher learning with research activities spanning two campuses, 11 faculties, 13 professional schools, 300 programs of study and over 40,000 students, including more than 10,200 graduate students. McGill attracts students from over 150 countries around the world, its 12,800 international students making up 31% of the student body. Over half of McGill students claim a first language other than English, including approximately 19% of our students who say French is their mother tongue.

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    McGill University

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