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Tag: Environmental Science

  • Scientists Studying Idalia in Real-Time Available to Comment on Hurricanes and Warming Oceans

    Scientists Studying Idalia in Real-Time Available to Comment on Hurricanes and Warming Oceans

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    Newswise — Is there a connection between the incidence of hurricanes and warming oceans? What do we know?

    Travis Miles and Scott Glenn, physical oceanographers at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, have answers.

    The following quotes from Miles and Glenn are available to the media covering the issue.

    Quote from Miles:

    “Hurricanes draw their fuel from the oceans, intensifying over warm upper ocean features and weakening over cold ones. As our oceans warm ,we expect there to be more frequent major hurricanes with strong winds, as well as increases in precipitation. The impacts of these storms will be further enhanced with increased sea level rise. To better understand and predict the impacts of these storms, we work with a consortia of partners to collect data ahead of and beneath these powerful storms with fleets of ocean robots.”

    Quote from Glenn:

    “Motivated by our shared experience in Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, we continue to build broad partnerships to better characterize the upper ocean heat content well ahead of landfalling hurricanes, and to better understand the rapid co-evolution of the ocean and atmosphere during intense hurricane forcing. Better observations and understanding of these extreme hurricane events leads to better forecasts, and that saves lives.”

     More information:

    • Miles and Glenn are partnering with other institutions to “fly” autonomous underwater robots known as gliders under hurricanes including Hurricane Idalia. This is part of active research in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean to observe what happens to oceans ahead of and during hurricanes.
    • Their research is providing data to the National Weather Service to enable better hurricane forecasting models.

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    Rutgers University-New Brunswick

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  • Researchers Identify Unusually Large Bloom of Brown Algae in Gulf of Maine

    Researchers Identify Unusually Large Bloom of Brown Algae in Gulf of Maine

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    Newswise — DURHAM, N.H.—Researchers at the University of New Hampshire, along with other regional partners, have been monitoring the development of an expansive algal bloom that has formed in the Gulf of Maine—stretching more than a hundred miles from Massachusetts to Maine. The brown, coffee-colored bloom consists mostly of phytoplankton, or microalgae, that is not new to the waters off the coast of New England. However, the scientists all agree this is the first time it has been seen at such high concentrations at this time of the year in the Gulf of Maine.

    The bloom, or rapid growth of the algae, is predominately made up of dinoflagellate phytoplankton Tripos muelleri and has been found mostly in the water column under the surface. It first caught the attention of UNH scientists in April when they noticed significant changes in the ocean carbon dioxide (CO2) and pH levels they regularly monitor off the coast of New Hampshire.

    “We were seeing the lowest CO2 levels and highest pH levels in surface water that we have observed in our twenty years of monitoring samples in the Gulf of Maine,” said Doug Vandemark, research professor at UNH’s Ocean Process Analysis Laboratory. “We thought it might be related to the warming water in the Gulf of Maine and then we started to hear reports about marine filters being clogged with brown algae and other general nuisances from people working along the coast. We knew it wasn’t a coincidence.”

    Even though the bloom species was not known to be dangerous it was unusual, so the UNH team took a proactive approach and began to collect additional water samples to increase their monitoring which included phytoplankton counts, eDNA, nutrients and carbon analyses. At the same time, they started to hear from other local scientists, marine operators and fishermen who were also documenting the unusual conditions throughout the Gulf of Maine. Together they assembled an informal consortium to share observations and data. The group now consists of over a dozen partners from Maine to Rhode Island and beyond. A partial list includes researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), University of Maine, St. Joseph’s College of Maine, University of Massachusetts, Gulf of Maine Research Institute,  Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS).

    According to experts at WHOI’s Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) observing network, the phytoplankton dominating this bloom, Tripos muelleri, does not produce a toxin and doesn’t present any known risks to humans or animals. However, high biomass blooms like this one have the potential to cause low oxygen conditions when they decay. This can negatively affect marine organisms, particularly ones inhabiting bottom waters and sediments. In general, seasonal blooms are a normal occurrence in high latitude marine ecosystems like the Gulf of Maine and are beneficial because the tiny plants provide food for animals and energy that fuels the ocean food web.

    “It’s completely normal to see this species in the waters of the Gulf of Maine but never at this intensity,” said Liz Harvey, associate professor of biological sciences. “At first it was intriguing but then it was larger than any of us had seen before and we thought wait this is different – and as researchers we want to understand the how and why and if it is a signal of a potentially changing Gulf of Maine.”

    Researchers say, in general, the high levels of phytoplankton seen in the spring usually decline in the summer months when nutrients that fuel the growth of phytoplankton decrease and animal populations like copepods, or small crustaceans, graze on them helping to reduce the bloom. However, this bloom of Tripos muelleri did not follow the traditional seasonal pattern. According to satellite imagery provided by NOAA, the phytoplankton bloom has steadily persisted since April and has been widespread, from Penobscot Bay to Martha’s Vineyard. It is still not clear why this bloom formed and how it has been sustained across such a large area. Scientists are considering a number of triggers during the spring including decreased wind, the mild winter and the fact that Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest warming regions in the world. The heavy regional rainfall this summer may have also contributed to the bloom’s uncommonly long duration.

    “We’re still looking for answers and there is more work to do,” said Chris Hunt, research assistant professor at UNH’s Ocean Process Analysis Laboratory. “We’ve documented the massive growth of this species and the resulting changes in oxygen, CO2 and pH, but we are all still working to figure out what the conditions were that triggered this bloom in the first place, allowed it to last for so long and what happens to all the cells and organic matter once the bloom is over?”

    Potential After Effects of the Bloom 

    The consortium of researchers has coordinated efforts to collect more water samples in the region over the coming months. Recent data shows that the bloom may be starting to fade along the shore but they are working to determine if this is also happening further offshore. The team is also attempting to monitor the Gulf of Maine closely for any signs of hypoxia, low oxygen conditions that can affect marine life. As the phytoplankton begins to fade, or die off, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and are consumed by bacteria, which can deplete oxygen and could have an effect on fish, shellfish and lobster. The last known time something like that happened with this same species along the East coast was almost fifty years ago in 1976 over the New York Bight when a large bloom created hypoxic conditions after it died off. This impacted commercial shellfish and fish stocks.

    “It is too soon to tell if this Tripos muelleri bloom might lead to a hypoxia event similar to the one in 1976,” said Vandemark. “What is important now is that we continue to monitor into the fall and then try to understand the bloom, any possible impacts and if we could expect more like it in the future.”

    The multi-pronged effort by the team of scientists to collect data includes UNH, joined by several other regional institutions that regularly collect water samples, to analyze key indicators like water temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, nutrients, CO2 and pH levels; continued tracking of the bloom by using satellite imagery of chlorophyll concentrations from NOAA; oxygen sensors on lobster traps deployed by commercial fishermen participating in the eMOLT program; and the collection of phytoplankton, zooplankton, nutrients, oxygen and carbon samples across the Gulf of Maine by NOAA’s NEFSC Ecosystem Monitoring surveys. The group of scientists will continue to monitor conditions over the next few months and are planning to meet as a working group in the fall to analyze all the data.

    Support for UNH Gulf of Maine monitoring is provided by the Gulf of Maine Marine Biodiversity Observation Network led by NERACOOS and the University of Maine which is funded by NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Additional support is provided by NOAA’s Ocean Acidification program and the Office of Naval research.

    The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. A Carnegie Classification R1 institution, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and received $260 million in competitive external funding in FY21 to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.

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    IMAGES FOR DOWNLOAD

    https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/phytonplankton_tripos_muelleri_002.png
    Caption: Image of phytoplankton Tripos muelleri under 4X magnification from a water sample taken at two meters in the ocean at the UNH CO2 buoy on July 23, 2023.
    Photo Credit: Liz Harvey / University of New Hampshire

    https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/satellite_images_chlorophyll_august_2023.png
    Caption: Satellite images of the Gulf of Maine compare chlorophyll concentrations from August 2023 to those from 2022.  The chlorophyll concentration in the left images shows high concentrations (yellow colors) throughout the region in 2023 (top row). The images of chlorophyll anomalies on the right, show chlorophyll concentrations in 2023 are up to 10 times greater than the long-term July average – indicating that the current concentrations of phytoplankton are unusually high.
    Image credit: Kimberly Hyde / NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center

    https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/water_sample_gom_may_2023_joe_vallino_whoi.jpg
    Caption: A nearshore Gulf of Maine water sample full of Tripos Muelleri collected in May 2023.  
    Photo credit: Joe Vallino / Marine Biological Laboratory

    https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/filters_clogged_with_phytoplankton_credit_katy_mcginnis_noaa.jpg
    Caption: Residue from phytoplankton spring bloom on filters collected in Gulf of Maine near Georges Bank by NOAA’s R/V Henry B. Bigelow in early May 2023.
    Photo credit: Katy McGinnis / NOAA

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    University of New Hampshire

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  • Climate change: Emperor penguin breeding fails due to Antarctic sea ice loss

    Climate change: Emperor penguin breeding fails due to Antarctic sea ice loss

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    Newswise — Four out of five emperor penguin colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica, saw no chicks survive to fledge successfully in the spring of 2022, reports a study published in Communications Earth & Environment. The study suggests that this complete breeding failure is a direct consequence of the unprecedented loss of sea ice recorded in the region in recent years due to climate change.

    Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) colonies generally need stable ice attached to the land between April and January to ensure successful breeding and moulting. Any change in the extent of the Antarctic sea ice can affect their reproduction as chicks do not develop waterproof feathers until fledging.

    Peter Fretwell and colleagues used satellite images covering the period between 2018 and 2022 to monitor the presence of emperor penguins during the breeding season at five colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea in Antarctica. The colonies are known as Rothschild Island, Verdi Inlet, Smyley Island, Bryan Coast, and Pfrogner Point and range in size from around 630 pairs on Rothschild Island to around 3,500 pairs on Smyley Island.

    The authors found that four colonies — Verdi Inlet, Smyley Island, Bryant Coast, and Pfrogner Point —experienced total reproductive failure and were abandoned in the period after the sea ice broke up before the start of the fledging period in December 2022. The authors indicate that it is unlikely that any chicks survived to successfully fledge at these colonies. However, satellite images suggest that chicks did fledge successfully at Rothschild Island colony. The authors note that of the five colonies only Bryant Coast colony had been identified as having experienced total breeding failure prior to 2022.

    This is the first regional breeding failure of emperor penguins observed in the past 13 years in the region, and among the first evidence of the direct impact of Antarctic warming on the viability of emperor penguin populations.

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    Scientific Reports

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  • Could microplastics in soil introduce drug-resistant superbugs to the food supply?

    Could microplastics in soil introduce drug-resistant superbugs to the food supply?

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    BYLINE: Lauren Quinn

    Newswise — URBANA, Ill. — Like every industry, modern farming relies heavily on plastics. Think plastic mulch lining vegetable beds, PVC pipes draining water from fields, polyethylene covering high tunnels, and plastic seed, fertilizer, and herbicide packaging, to name a few. In a new review article, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers say these plastics are now widely dispersed in agricultural soils in the form of microplastics and nanoplastics. 

    That’s not necessarily new; microplastics have been found in nearly every ecosystem and organism on Earth. The twist, according to the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) researchers, is that micro- and nanoplastics in agricultural soil could contribute to antibiotic resistant bacteria with a ready route into our food supply.

    “Plastic itself may not be very toxic, but it can act as a vector for transmitting pathogenic and antimicrobial resistant bacteria into the food chain,” said study author Jayashree Nath, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition in ACES. “This phenomenon is not very well known to people, so we wanted to raise awareness.”

    If the link between microplastics and antibiotic resistance is less than obvious, here’s how it works. First, plastics are an excellent adsorbent. That means chemical substances and microscopic organisms love to stick to plastic. Chemicals that would ordinarily move through soil quickly — things like pesticides and heavy metals — instead stick around and are concentrated when they encounter plastics. Similarly, bacteria and other microorganisms that occur naturally in soil preferentially congregate on the stable surfaces of microplastics, forming what are known as biofilms. 

    When bacteria encounter unusual chemical substances in their new home base, they activate stress response genes that incidentally help them resist other chemicals too, including, sometimes, antibiotics. And when groups of bacteria attach to the same surface, they have a habit of sharing these genes through a process called horizontal gene transfer. Nanoplastics, which can enter bacterial cells, present a different kind of stress, but that stress can have the same outcome. 

    “Bacteria have been evolving genetic mechanisms to cope with stress for millions of years. Plastic is a new material bacteria have never seen in nature, so they are now evoking these genetic tool sets to deal with that stress,” said co-author Pratik Banerjee, associate professor in FSHN and Illinois Extension specialist. “We have also shown bacteria may become more virulent in the presence of plastics, in addition to becoming more resistant to antimicrobials.”

    Gene transfer between bacteria on microplastics has been documented in other environments, particularly water. So far, the phenomenon is only hypothetical in agricultural soil, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Nath and Banerjee are currently running laboratory studies to document gene transfer.

    “Soil is an under-researched area in this field,” Banerjee said. “We have an obligation to understand what’s going on in soil, because what we suspect and what we fear is that the situation in soil could be even worse than in water. 

    “One of the technical problems is that soil is a very difficult medium to handle when it comes to fishing out microplastics. Water is so easy, because you can simply filter the microplastic out,” Banerjee added. “But we have made some good headway thanks to Jayashree and our collaboration with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.”

    The authors point out many foodborne pathogens make it onto produce from their native home in the soil, but nanoplastics and antibiotic resistant bacteria could be small enough to enter roots and plant tissues — where they are impossible to wash away. While nanoplastics have been documented in and on crops, the field of study is still new and it’s not well known how often this occurs. Banerjee’s research group plans to tackle that question as well.

    Ultimately, microplastics are here to stay. After all, they persist in the environment for centuries or longer. The authors say it’s time to understand their impacts in the soil and our food system, raise awareness, and push toward biodegradable plastic alternatives. 

    The study, “Interaction of microbes with microplastics and nanoplastics in the agroecosystems—impact on antimicrobial resistance,” is published in Pathogens [DOI: 10.3390/pathogens12070888]. Authors include Jayashree Nath, Jayita De, Shantanu Sur, and Pratik Banerjee. The research was supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the USDA.

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    College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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  • Venus flytrap heat sensor warns of fire

    Venus flytrap heat sensor warns of fire

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    Newswise — The Venus flytrap can survive in the nutrient-poor swamps of North and South Carolina because it compensates for the lack of nitrogen, phosphate and minerals by catching and eating small animals. It hunts with snap traps that have sensory hairs on them. If an insect touches these hairs two times, the traps shut and digests the prey.

    In its location in the swamp, the carnivorous plant is often not visible because it is overgrown by grass. In summer, the grass dries up. Then it can catch fire from the frequent lightning storms typical of North Carolina – a dangerous situation for the Venus flytrap.

    How does the plant protect its vital snap traps and sensory hairs from fire? Biophysicists Professor Rainer Hedrich and Dr. Shouguang Huang from Julius-Maximilians-University (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, have found out: The Venus flytrap uses special heat receptors in the sensory hairs for this purpose, as the researchers report in the journal Current Biology.

    Carolina bushfire imitated in Würzburg

    “To find out how the flytrap behaves when burning a covering of dry grass, we transplanted plants with open snap traps from the greenhouse to the open field in the JMU Botanical Garden and covered them with hay,” says Rainer Hedrich. “Then we set fire to the hay at one end and forced it to spread to the other end with a fan”.

    After the fire, the plants had closed all the traps. Some traps showed no damage, others appeared to be burnt. After a few days, all undamaged traps were open again and working – they snapped after touching their sensory hairs.

    Hot air makes the fly traps snap

    “We had only recently elucidated the stimulus-response chain during trap closure after wounding. Now the question arose whether the traps might already react to the heat wave in the run-up to a fire,” says Hedrich.

    The JMU researchers were correct in their assumption: a hot air blower directed at the trap was sufficient to cause the trap to close. Next, the scientists conducted heat experiments under controlled laboratory conditions.

    Heat sensor activates at 37 and 55 degrees Celsius

    The catching organ of the Venus flytrap consists of two leaf halves. Dr. Shouguang Huang brought the outside of one half of the trap into contact with a Peltier element – with this electrothermal transducer, he was able to selectively set different temperatures on the trap through controlled current supply.

    He found that when a local leaf temperature of 37 degrees Celsius was exceeded, the heated area of the trap produced an electrical impulse, an action potential that spread across both halves of the trap. “When the temperature increased further to 55 degrees Celsius, a second action potential was triggered and the trap snapped shut,” Shouguang said.

    But the trap’s reaction at 37 and 55 degrees Celsius only kicked in when temperatures increased abruptly, as in a rapid heat wave. If the temperature rose only slowly, as on hot summer days, the traps did not react.

    “In contrast to humans, the heat sensor of the carnivorous plant does not jump when the body temperature is exceeded, but it reacts to the speed of the temperature change,” says Hedrich.

    By measuring the temperature rise on its surface and closing its traps in a fraction of a second, the flytrap’s sensory hairs remain protected from burns. The damp marshy ground further protects them from excessive heat and burns. This allows it to continue hunting for animal food after a fire.

    The heat sensor is located in the sensory hairs

    Each half of the trap has three sensory hairs that are highly sensitive to touch and generate action potentials. The action potentials are generated at the base of the hairs. There, ion channels that get activated by touch allow calcium to flow into the cells. This calcium signal is the trigger and at the same time an integral part of an action potential. Heat jumps cause the same calcium-dependent electrical events in the sensory hairs as touch.

    “To track the calcium signal, we used flytraps that carry a genetically encoded calcium sensor inside them,” Hedrich says. When the cellular calcium levels increase, this sensor begins to fluoresce. “We were quite amazed that when the heat was applied, a sensory hair glowed first,” he said. “This shows that the hairs operate as touch and heat sensors at the same time,” Hedrich concludes.

    Focus on calcium channel from the OSCA family

    “Currently, we are pursuing the hypothesis that a calcium channel is an integral part of the heat sensor, or even the sensor itself,” the researchers said. If this is true, a type of membrane-bound temperature sensor would have been discovered that is still completely unknown in plants.

    So far, research knows calcium channels from the so-called OSCA family, which can be activated mechanically and osmotically. “In the future, we want to test whether there are also OSCAs in the sensory hairs of the Venus flytrap that are switched on by the supply of thermal energy, and which of their protein areas respond to mechanics and which to heat.”

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    University of Wurzburg

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  • Insights from Stanford Research: Meat and Dairy Industry’s Resilience Against Competition from Alternative Animal Products

    Insights from Stanford Research: Meat and Dairy Industry’s Resilience Against Competition from Alternative Animal Products

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    Newswise — The summertime barbecue – an American tradition synonymous with celebrating freedom – may be tainted by a decidedly unfree market. A new Stanford study reveals how meat and dairy industry lobbying has influenced government regulations and funding to stifle competition from alternative meat products with smaller climate and environmental impacts. The analysis, published Aug. 18 in One Earth, compares innovations and policies related to plant-based meat alternatives and lab-grown meat in the U.S. and European Union. Its findings could help ensure legislation, such as the $428 billion U.S. Farm Bill set to expire Sept. 30, levels the food industry playing field.
    (WATCH VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVDhQC17ecQ)

    “The lack of policies focused on reducing our reliance on animal-derived products and the lack of sufficient support to alternative technologies to make them competitive are symptomatic of a system still resisting fundamental changes,” said study lead author Simona Vallone, an Earth system science research associate in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability at the time of the research.

    A growing problem

    Livestock production is the agriculture sector’s largest emitter of the potent greenhouse gas methane, due to emissions from ruminants such as cattle, sheep, and goats. It’s also the main direct cause of tropical deforestation, due to pasture expansion and feed crop production. Numerous studies have demonstrated that dietary changes hold great potential to reduce humanity’s ecological footprint, especially a reduction in red meat consumption. At the same time, Western-style meat-heavy diets are becoming more popular around the world.

    The researchers reviewed major agricultural policies from 2014 to 2020 that supported either the animal food product system or alternative technologies, and compared government spending on both systems. They also looked at related lobbying trends.

    They found that governments consistently devoted most of their agricultural funding to livestock and feed production systems, avoided highlighting food production sustainability dimensions in nutrition guidelines, and attempted to introduce regulatory hurdles, such as narrow labeling standards, to the commercialization of meat alternatives. Major U.S. meat and dairy companies actively lobbied against environmental issues and regulations to tip the scales in their favor.

    In the U.S., about 800 times more public funding and 190 times more lobbying money goes to animal-source food products than alternatives. In the EU, about 1,200 times more public funding and three times more lobbying money goes to animal-source food products. In both regions, nearly all plant-based meat patents were published by a small number of private companies or individuals, with just one U.S. company, Impossible Foods, owning half of the patents.

    Among the anecdotes cited by the study:

    • EU cattle producers were highly dependent on direct subsidy payments, which constituted at least 50% of their income during the study period. Some of these payments incentivized farmers to maintain herd size, keep pasture in production, or increase overall output.
    • In 2017, following a European Court of Justice ruling, dairy terms such as milk and cheese could no longer be used to market most alternative milk and dairy products. Similarly, a proposed amendment to the U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act would prohibit the sale of alternative meats unless the product label included the word “imitation” and other clarifying statements indicating the non-animal origin.

    Restoring competition

    This past June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the sale of lab-grown chicken, the first such authorization to cultivated meat producers in the country. The Stanford study points to recent policy developments as similar glimmers of hope for a shift to more sustainable diets. In the U.S., the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year includes investments in technical and financial assistance to support farmers and ranchers implementing practices to reduce greenhouse emissions or sequester carbon. In the EU, a policy proposal set for debate this fall aims at accelerating a sustainable transition of the food system to support climate mitigation solutions, and reduce biodiversity loss and environmental impacts.

    To ensure a fair marketplace for alternative meat products, policymakers should craft legislation that ensures meat’s price reflects its environmental costs, increases research on alternative meat and dairy products, and informs consumers on alternatives to meat via dietary guidelines, according to the researchers.

    “It’s clear that powerful vested interests have exerted political influence to maintain the animal-farming system status quo,” said study senior author Eric Lambin, the George and Setsuko Ishiyama Provostial Professor at Stanford and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. “A significant policy shift is required to reduce the food system impact on climate, land use, and biodiversity.”

    Pat Brown, the founder and CEO of Impossible Foods, and professor emeritus of biochemistry at Stanford, was not involved in the study.

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    Stanford University

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  • Modeling ocean to understand natural phenomena

    Modeling ocean to understand natural phenomena

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    BYLINE: Space Time Inc.

    Newswise — Associate Professor Yoshi N. Sasaki, a specialist in Physical Oceanography, is involved in research into rising sea levels—particularly in coastal areas of Japan. He spoke about what he has learned so far about the relationship between ocean currents, sea level and climate change, what research he is currently focusing on, and the appeal of research that uses numerical modeling to uncover natural phenomena.

    Understanding future changes in sea level

    It is a common view among researchers that the global mean sea level is rising. The only question now is, by how much will it rise?

    The graph below shows global average sea level, with tide-gauge data since 1880 and satellite data since 1993. It shows that the water level rose at a rate of about 1.5 to 2 millimeters per year in the 20th century, but has increased at a faster rate of about 3 millimeters per year in the 21st century. This speed is expected to increase further in the future as global warming continues.

    Indeed, on the US coast, for example in Florida, many people live on low land, and sea levels are rising faster than in other areas of the ocean. In such areas, dike building and migration are already being considered.

    Researchers are now focusing on detailed predictions of what will cause sea level changes, when, in which areas, and to what extent.

    As this graph is a ‘global average,’ the actual situation at different locations is much more nuanced than this alone reveals. To clarify this, simulations using numerical models are being carried out.

    Sea level is the sum of multiple factors

    Sea level rise does not occur uniformly across the globe, but varies greatly from one ocean region to another. The causes also vary between global changes and changes in some ocean regions.

    There are two main causes of sea level rise on average across the globe. The first is the thermal expansion of seawater due to warming caused by global warming. The second is the melting of glaciers and ice sheets due to global warming. Water that was previously trapped on land as ice flows into the sea, increasing the mass of seawater and causing sea levels to rise.

    There are many different mechanisms by which sea level changes in different ocean regions. To give a few examples: one, variations in ocean circulation. Due to the physics of geostrophic currents, the sea level in the Northern Hemisphere is higher on the right side and lower on the left side in relation to the direction of the ocean currents. Two, changes in atmospheric pressure. Three, changes in the ground—the ground also sinks and rises, which changes the height of the coastal water table.

    In other words, to predict sea level in an area, a combination of these factors needs to be taken into account. Specifically, the effects of each of these factors can be added together to estimate the actual rise in sea level, to some extent.

    Understanding natural mechanisms using numerical models

    My research involves computer simulations, using regional ocean models of the US. In principle, the model can reproduce the state of the ocean by feeding it with observed data such as atmospheric winds and temperatures.

    For example, if we know that a change in water levels is caused by wind fluctuations, we can make predictions of future changes in water levels by knowing what the winds will be like in the future.

    Although I simply said ‘By wind fluctuations,’ it is about understanding the mechanisms of nature. For me, it’s something very enjoyable that satisfies my intellectual curiosity.

    Naturally, it is not a straightforward process. Models are very complex, and to understand the mechanism, the model must first be able to reproduce the phenomena accurately. Once that is done, a ‘simpler model’ that reproduces the same situation can be developed, revealing new principles hidden in nature. We need to look at the results of the complex models to find the essence of what is important.

    When I was doing research in the US, I discovered a new mechanism that changed the ocean circulation. To someone outside the field, it would have looked like just a diagram, but after working on it for a very long time, it suddenly looked like important information that no one had ever seen before. This is the best part of research.

    Water level fluctuations along the coast of Japan

    Water levels along the Japanese coast are also currently rising, but it is known that they did not rise all the way through the 20th century—they peaked once around 1950 and then fell.

    Our research has shown that the peak around 1950 was dominated by wind effects. In particular, it seems to have been caused by fluctuations in ocean circulation due to wind fluctuations from a low-pressure system called the Aleutian Low. On the other hand, the rise in recent years has been found to be primarily due to the effects of heat and other factors at the sea surface.

    Assessing the impact of typhoons and storm surges

    In the future, typhoons and extratropical cyclones are predicted to become stronger. So far, research has been conducted on how sea level changes on long-term time scales of a decade or more, but the possibility that short-term fluctuations, such as storm surges, could cause major damage cannot be ignored.

    In order to assess such impacts, we need to know exactly how typhoons and extratropical cyclones will strengthen in the future, and how this will affect sea levels. I am currently working on this with young students, and we are hoping to get this project off the ground.

    Sea level rise is one aspect of the wider ocean

    Right now, the resolution of ocean models for global warming simulations is approximately 100 kilometers, and can be narrowed down to 10 kilometers at the finest. This may be sufficient for some ocean regions, but it is not sufficient at all for some topographies, so I would like to create more detailed models and incorporate methods such as statistics and machine learning to estimate.

    On the other hand, there is also a conflict between effective measures and the economic aspects. For example, in the US,there were very specific discussions about the cost of migration to avoid the influence of sea level rise and the cost of building dikes, and which is better. Once you know certain things, the rest is no longer in the field of science, but in the field of politics or in the field of society. It’s about how much accuracy society demands.

    I myself would like to go back to the theme of ocean currents and look for more interesting and important phenomena caused by ocean currents once I have gone through sea level rise. I think there are still many interesting phenomena caused by ocean currents, such as ocean circulation. My dream for the future is to elucidate the mechanisms of these phenomena.

    Friendships gained in Hawaii

    After completing my doctoral studies at Hokkaido University, I chose a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Hawai’i in the US as my first job. The University of Hawai’i was one of the world’s strongest universities in marine research, but it was a big decision for me to do research abroad where Japanese was not spoken. It was a tough decision for me, as I was so committed to my research that I felt that if I did not achieve good results in Hawai’i, I would not be able to return to Japan. But it was very rewarding. As well as research, Hawai’i is a tourist destination, so a lot of researchers come here as visitors. I made a lot of acquaintances and connections in this environment, and it still helps me to build an international network.

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    Hokkaido University

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  • The modern sea spider had started to diversify by the Jurassic, study finds

    The modern sea spider had started to diversify by the Jurassic, study finds

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    BYLINE: Laura Thomas

    Newswise — An extremely rare collection of 160-million-year-old sea spider fossils from Southern France are closely related to living species, unlike older fossils of their kind.

    These fossils are very important to understand the evolution of sea spiders. They show that the diversity of sea spiders that still exist today had already started to form by the Jurassic.

    Lead author Dr Romain Sabroux from the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, said: “Sea spiders (Pycnogonida), are a group of marine animals that is overall very poorly studied.

    “However, they are very interesting to understand the evolution of arthropods [the group that includes insects, arachnids, crustaceans, centipedes and millipedes] as they appeared relatively early in the arthropod tree of life. That’s why we are interested in their evolution.

    “Sea spider fossils are very rare, but we know a few of them from different periods. One of the most remarkable fauna, by its diversity and its abundance, is the one of La Voulte-sur-Rhône that dates back to the Jurassic, some 160 million years ago.”

    Unlike older sea spider fossils, the La Voulte pycnogonids are morphologically similar (but not identical) to living  species, and previous studies suggested they could be closely related to living sea spider families. But these hypotheses were restricted by the limitation of their observation means. As it was impossible to access what was hidden in the rock fossils, Dr Sabroux and his team travelled to Paris and set out to investigate this question with cutting-edge approaches.

    Dr Sabroux explained: “We used two methods to reinvestigate the morphology of the fossils: X-ray microtomography, to ‘look inside’ the rock, find morphological features hidden inside and reconstruct a 3D model of the fossilised specimen; and Reflectance Transformation Imaging, a picture technic that relies on varied orientation of the light around the fossil to enhance the visibility of inconspicuous features on their surface.

    “From these new insights, we drew new morphological information to compare them with extant species,” explained Dr Sabroux.

    This confirmed that these fossils are close relatives to surviving pycnogonids. Two of these fossils belong to two living pycnogonid families: Colossopantopodus boissinensis was a Colossendeidae while another, Palaeoendeis elmii was an Endeidae. The third species, Palaeopycnogonides gracilis, seems to belong to a family that has disappeared today.

    “Today, by calculating the difference between the DNA sequences of a sample of species, and using DNA evolution models, we are able to estimate the timing of the evolution that bind these species together,“ added Dr Sabroux.

    “This is what we call a molecular clock analysis. But quite like a real clock, it needs to be calibrated. Basically, we need to tell the clock: ‘we know that at that time, that group was already there.’ Thanks to our work, we now know that Colossendeidae, and Endeidae were already ’there’ by the Jurassic.”

    Now, the team can use these minimal ages as calibrations for the molecular clock, and investigate the timing of Pycnogonida evolution. This can help them understand, for example, how their diversity was impacted by the different biodiversity crises that distributes over the Earth history.

    They also plan to investigate other pycnogonid fossil faunae such as the fauna of Hunsrück Slate, in Germany, which dates from the Devonian, some 400 million years ago.

    With the same approach, they will aim to redescribe these species and understand their affinities with extant species; and finally, to replace in the tree of life of Pycnogonida all the pycnogonid fossils from all periods.

    Dr Sabroux added: “These fossils give us an insight of sea spiders living 160 million years ago.

    “This is very exciting when you have been working on the living pycnogonids for years.

    “It is fascinating how these pycnogonids look both very familiar, and very exotic. Familiar, because you can definitely recognize some of the families that still exist today, and exotic because of small differences like the size of the legs, the length of the body, and some other morphological characteristics that you do not find in modern species.

    “Now we look forward to the next fossil discoveries – from the Jurassic and other geological periods – so that we can complete the picture!”

     

    Paper:

    ‘New insights into the sea spider fauna (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of La Voulte-sur-Rhône, France (Jurassic: Callovian)’ by Romain Sabroux et al in Papers in Palaeontology.

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    University of Bristol

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  • Subaquatic Molecular Exchange

    Subaquatic Molecular Exchange

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    Newswise — Corals and anemones engage in symbiotic relationships with algae and swap nutrients with them. A new study shows how this partnership is regulated at cell level.

    “Eat or be eaten” is not always the way things are in nature. It can be beneficial for different species to team up and pool their capabilities. Cnidarians such as corals and anemones were already committing to this kind of biological joint venture with algae from the dinoflagellate group 250 million years ago. Thanks to these symbioses, both sides are able to flourish in nutrient-poor waters where, in isolation, neither would stand a chance of surviving. Corals can thus lay the structural foundation for the most biodiverse of all marine ecosystems. They protect their dinoflagellate symbionts from predators and supply them with inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Conversely, the algae provide the coral with the products of their photosynthesis: carbohydrates, protein and fat.

    Yet this happy marriage can only work if the ‘barter’ arrangement is precisely regulated. And although a successful exchange of nutrients is critical to the health of the corals and, hence, to the whole of the coral reef ecosystem, the molecular mechanisms that regulate communication within this partnership are still largely unknown. A new study in Current Biology now shows that a signal path from way back in the evolutionary process plays a crucial role in the ‘trade’ that takes place between algae and coral.

    Eaten but not digested

    “Most types of coral have to absorb new dinoflagellate symbionts from their environment in each new generation,” explains LMU biologist Professor Annika Guse, lead author of the new study. The symbionts are initially absorbed like food into the coral’s digestive cavity and from there into the host’s cells. During this process, a kind of bubble known as the symbiosome forms around the algae. The symbiosome is chemically similar to a lysosome – another cell organelle that plays a pivotal role in digestion. “The difference to the lysosome is that, in the symbiosome, the dinoflagellates remain intact,” Guse notes. In effect, the host eats its symbionts without digesting them. “We do not yet know exactly how the algae survive this process.” Inside the symbiosome, the algae then continue to photosynthesize and produce nutrients that they share with their host. All nutrients and communication processes between the partners must therefore penetrate the shell of the symbiosome, which is made up of membranes from both host and symbiont.

    A ‘cell tax’ between symbiont and host

    To do all this, the symbiotic partners evidently use a signal path known as the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), which regulates cellular metabolism in all eukaryotes as a function of environmental factors such as the availability of nutrients. It has already been proven for other species that mTOR is also used for nutritional symbioses: “Various insect hosts use mTOR signal transmission for their bacterial endosymbionts,” Guse says. “Evidence of the same path has also been found for legumes and their fungal partners.” The researchers therefore suspected that mTOR could also be involved in the partnership between cnidarians and dinoflagellates. “We have been able to prove that endosymbiontic corals use the mTOR signal path to incorporate nutrients from the symbionts in the host metabolism.” All the vital components of mTOR exist in both anemones and corals. Annika Guse and her colleagues investigated the extent to which this signal path is activated by the presence of algae partners from the Symbiodiniaceae family at different developmental stages in anemones of the genus Aiptasia. They also tested how inhibiting mTOR signal transmission affected the symbiotic function. “Our findings show that mTOR signal transmission is activated by the symbiosis, and that disruptions to the signal path impair symbiosis at both the cellular and the organismic level,” Guse explains. “With the aid of a specific antibody, we were also able to show that mTOR is localized on the membranes of the symbiosome.”

    Repurposing an age-old signal path

    Studying their findings, the biologists conclude that mTOR is of tremendous importance to the incorporation of nutrients in the host’s metabolism and to the stability of the symbiosis. Given that much of the energy consumed by symbiotic cnidarians comes from their symbiotic partners, it is plausible that the highly conserved mTOR signal path has ultimately been used for efficient nutrient sensing within the framework of symbiosis. Accordingly, Guse and her team propose a model in which the nutrients released by the algae activate mTOR signal transmission in the symbiosome and in the host tissue – similar to the sensing of nutrients from external sources.

    The activation of mTOR signal transmission was probably also an important step in the evolution of this symbiosis, allowing the algae to survive within the host cells. “The mTOR activity controls what is called autophagy, a very ancient immune reaction on the evolutionary scale that is triggered when pathogens penetrate the host and that leads to the destruction of the intruder,” the biologist explains. This, she believes, is the reason why some pathogens – and the bacterial endosymbionts of some insects, too – have developed mechanisms to bypass autophagic elimination. Early symbionts could have been ingested by a cnidarian and absorbed into its cells. Instead of being ejected or destroyed, however, they were retained as they supplied the host cell with nutrients, activating the mTOR signals and thereby stopping the process of autophagy. “We are only now beginning to understand how the complex interaction between host and algae works and was able to develop over a million years of co-evolution,” Guse says.

    https://www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/news-overview/news/underwater-molecular-barter.html

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    Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen (Munich)

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  • Subaquatic Molecular Exchange

    Subaquatic Molecular Exchange

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    Newswise — “Eat or be eaten” is not always the way things are in nature. It can be beneficial for different species to team up and pool their capabilities. Cnidarians such as corals and anemones were already committing to this kind of biological joint venture with algae from the dinoflagellate group 250 million years ago. Thanks to these symbioses, both sides are able to flourish in nutrient-poor waters where, in isolation, neither would stand a chance of surviving. Corals can thus lay the structural foundation for the most biodiverse of all marine ecosystems. They protect their dinoflagellate symbionts from predators and supply them with inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Conversely, the algae provide the coral with the products of their photosynthesis: carbohydrates, protein and fat.

    Yet this happy marriage can only work if the ‘barter’ arrangement is precisely regulated. And although a successful exchange of nutrients is critical to the health of the corals and, hence, to the whole of the coral reef ecosystem, the molecular mechanisms that regulate communication within this partnership are still largely unknown. A new study in Current Biology now shows that a signal path from way back in the evolutionary process plays a crucial role in the ‘trade’ that takes place between algae and coral.

    Eaten but not digested

    “Most types of coral have to absorb new dinoflagellate symbionts from their environment in each new generation,” explains LMU biologist Professor Annika Guse, lead author of the new study. The symbionts are initially absorbed like food into the coral’s digestive cavity and from there into the host’s cells. During this process, a kind of bubble known as the symbiosome forms around the algae. The symbiosome is chemically similar to a lysosome – another cell organelle that plays a pivotal role in digestion. “The difference to the lysosome is that, in the symbiosome, the dinoflagellates remain intact,” Guse notes. In effect, the host eats its symbionts without digesting them. “We do not yet know exactly how the algae survive this process.” Inside the symbiosome, the algae then continue to photosynthesize and produce nutrients that they share with their host. All nutrients and communication processes between the partners must therefore penetrate the shell of the symbiosome, which is made up of membranes from both host and symbiont.

    A ‘cell tax’ between symbiont and host

    To do all this, the symbiotic partners evidently use a signal path known as the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), which regulates cellular metabolism in all eukaryotes as a function of environmental factors such as the availability of nutrients. It has already been proven for other species that mTOR is also used for nutritional symbioses: “Various insect hosts use mTOR signal transmission for their bacterial endosymbionts,” Guse says. “Evidence of the same path has also been found for legumes and their fungal partners.” The researchers therefore suspected that mTOR could also be involved in the partnership between cnidarians and dinoflagellates. “We have been able to prove that endosymbiontic corals use the mTOR signal path to incorporate nutrients from the symbionts in the host metabolism.” All the vital components of mTOR exist in both anemones and corals. Annika Guse and her colleagues investigated the extent to which this signal path is activated by the presence of algae partners from the Symbiodiniaceae family at different developmental stages in anemones of the genus Aiptasia. They also tested how inhibiting mTOR signal transmission affected the symbiotic function. “Our findings show that mTOR signal transmission is activated by the symbiosis, and that disruptions to the signal path impair symbiosis at both the cellular and the organismic level,” Guse explains. “With the aid of a specific antibody, we were also able to show that mTOR is localized on the membranes of the symbiosome.”

    Repurposing an age-old signal path

    Studying their findings, the biologists conclude that mTOR is of tremendous importance to the incorporation of nutrients in the host’s metabolism and to the stability of the symbiosis. Given that much of the energy consumed by symbiotic cnidarians comes from their symbiotic partners, it is plausible that the highly conserved mTOR signal path has ultimately been used for efficient nutrient sensing within the framework of symbiosis. Accordingly, Guse and her team propose a model in which the nutrients released by the algae activate mTOR signal transmission in the symbiosome and in the host tissue – similar to the sensing of nutrients from external sources.

    The activation of mTOR signal transmission was probably also an important step in the evolution of this symbiosis, allowing the algae to survive within the host cells. “The mTOR activity controls what is called autophagy, a very ancient immune reaction on the evolutionary scale that is triggered when pathogens penetrate the host and that leads to the destruction of the intruder,” the biologist explains. This, she believes, is the reason why some pathogens – and the bacterial endosymbionts of some insects, too – have developed mechanisms to bypass autophagic elimination. Early symbionts could have been ingested by a cnidarian and absorbed into its cells. Instead of being ejected or destroyed, however, they were retained as they supplied the host cell with nutrients, activating the mTOR signals and thereby stopping the process of autophagy. “We are only now beginning to understand how the complex interaction between host and algae works and was able to develop over a million years of co-evolution,” Guse says.

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    Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen (Munich)

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  • Combining Rock Placement on Farms with Emissions Reductions Could Assist in Achieving Crucial IPCC Carbon Removal Objective

    Combining Rock Placement on Farms with Emissions Reductions Could Assist in Achieving Crucial IPCC Carbon Removal Objective

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    Key points:

    • Enhanced rock weathering makes use of a natural geologic process to store carbon long term
    • Applying 10 tons of basalt dust per hectare of crop land globally could sequester up to 217 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 75 years, above the IPCC’s lower threshold of carbon dioxide removal needed to reach climate goals, along with emissions reductions
    • Farms in the tropics have the biggest and fastest return on investment

    Newswise — WASHINGTON — Farmers around the world could help the planet reach a key carbon removal goal set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by mixing crushed volcanic rocks into their fields, a new study reports. The study also highlights wet, warm tropics as the most promising locations for this climate intervention strategy.

    The study provides one of the first global estimates of the potential carbon dioxide drawdown from basalt application on agricultural fields worldwide. It was published in Earth’s Future, AGU’s journal for interdisciplinary research on the past, present and future of our planet and its inhabitants.

    This type of climate intervention is called enhanced rock weathering. It takes advantage of the weathering process, which naturally sequesters carbon dioxide in carbonate minerals. The idea is simple: speed up weathering in a way that also benefits people. When used in parallel with emissions reductions, it can help slow the pace of climate change.

    And it may be a safer bet than other carbon drawdown approaches, according to the study authors.

    “Enhanced rock weathering poses fewer risks compared to other climate interventions,” said S. Hun Baek, a climate scientist at Yale University who led the study. “It also provides some key benefits, like rejuvenating depleted soils and countering ocean acidification, that may make it more socially desirable.”

    The new study explores the potential of applying crushed basalt, a fast-weathering rock that forms as lava cools, to agricultural fields around the world and highlights which regions can most efficiently break down the rocks.

    “There’s tremendous potential here,” said Noah Planavsky, a geochemist at Yale University who co-authored the study. “Although we still have things to learn from a basic science perspective, there is promise, and we need to focus on what we can do from market and finance perspectives.”

    A previous study used a separate method of calculating carbon dioxide removal to estimate carbon drawdown by the year 2050, but the researchers wanted to look beyond country borders and further into the future.

    The researchers used a new biogeochemical model to simulate how applying crushed basalt to global croplands would draw down carbon dioxide, to test the sensitivity of enhanced rock weathering to climate and to pinpoint the areas where the method could be most effective.

    The new model simulated enhanced rock weathering on 1,000 agricultural sites around the world under two emissions scenarios from 2006 to 2080. They found that in the 75-year study period, those agricultural sites would draw down 64 gigatons of carbon dioxide. Extrapolating that to all agricultural fields, representing the world’s total potential application of this strategy, up to 217 gigatons of carbon could be sequestered in that time period.

    “The latest IPCC report said we need to remove 100 to 1,000 gigatons of carbon by 2100 in addition to steeply reducing emissions to keep global temperature from rising more than one and a half degrees Celsius,” said Baek. “Scaling up to global croplands, the estimates of carbon removal we found are roughly comparable to the lower end of that range needed to have a fighting chance of meeting those climate goals.”

    Because weathering progresses more quickly in hot and wet environments, enhanced rock weathering would work more quickly in tropical regions than higher latitudes, the study highlights. Farmers and companies looking to invest in carbon drawdown solutions make cost- and carbon-efficient choices by targeting basalt application in tropical fields.

    The model revealed another promising result: Enhanced rock weathering works just as well, if not a little better, in warmer temperatures. Some other carbon drawdown approaches, such as those that rely on soil organic carbon storage, become less effective with continual warming.

    “Enhanced rock weathering is surprisingly resilient to climate change,” Baek said. “Our results show that it’s relatively insensitive to climate change and works about the same under moderate and severe global warming scenarios. This gives us confidence in its potential as a long-term strategy.”

    Farmers already apply millions of tons of limestone (a calcium carbonate rock that can either be a carbon source or sink) to their fields to deliver nutrients and control soil acidity, so gradually changing the rock type could mean a smooth transition to implementing enhanced rock weathering at scale, Planavsky said.

    Enhanced rock weathering has been applied on small scales on farms around the world. The next step is working toward “realistic implementation,” Planavsky said.

    #

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    American Geophysical Union (AGU)

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  • Even treated wastewater affects our rivers

    Even treated wastewater affects our rivers

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    Newswise — Effluents from wastewater treatment plants have a dual effect: Some species disappear, while others benefit. Especially certain insect orders, such as stonefly and caddisfly larvae, are decimated. Certain worms and crustaceans, by contrast, can increase in number. A team from Goethe University Frankfurt led by Daniel Enns and Dr. Jonas Jourdan has corroborated this in a comprehensive study, which has now been published in the journal Water Research. They examined 170 wastewater treatment plants in Hesse in relation to species composition.

    Wastewater treatment plants are an indispensable part of our modern infrastructure; they have made a significant contribution to improving the quality of our surface waters. However, their ability to completely remove what are known as micropollutants from wastewater is mostly limited. These substances include, for example, active ingredients from pharmaceuticals and personal care products, pesticides and other synthetic substances enter waterbodies via the treated wastewater, placing an additional burden on rivers and streams. This exacerbates the challenges faced by already vulnerable insect communities and aquatic fauna. Previous studies – which have primarily focused on single wastewater treatment plants – have already shown that invertebrate communities downstream of such effluents are generally dominated by pollution-tolerant taxa.

    Until now, however, it was unclear how ubiquitous these changes are. That is why a team of biologists from Goethe University Frankfurt has now studied extensively how wastewater from 170 wastewater treatment plants in Hesse has an impact on the species composition of invertebrates. This has prompted a change in the common conception that human-induced stressors reduce the number of species in a habitat and thus their diversity: Rather, the findings indicate that a shift in species composition can be observed. The researchers were able to identify significant shifts in the composition of the species community between sites located upstream and downstream of wastewater treatment plants. Some species were particularly affected by effluents from wastewater treatment plants – such as stonefly and caddisfly larvae, which disappear entirely in some places. Other taxa, such as certain worms and crustaceans, by contrast, benefit and are found in greater numbers. This change can be observed especially in streams and smaller rivers. Overall, wastewater treatment plants alter conditions downstream to the advantage of pollution-tolerant taxa and to the disadvantage of sensitive ones.

    How can we reduce water pollution?

    Modern treatment techniques such as ozonation or activated charcoal filtering can make water treatment in wastewater treatment plants more efficient, allowing a wider range of pollutants, including many trace substances, to be removed from the wastewater before it is released into the environment. Merging smaller wastewater treatment plants can also contribute to reducing the burden on the environment. Whatever measures are taken, it is important to make sure that upstream sections are not already degraded and are in a good chemical and structural condition.

     

    Publication: Enns D, Cunze S, Baker NJ, Oehlmann J, Jourdan J (2023) Flushing away the future: The effects of wastewater treatment plants on aquatic invertebrates. Water Research, 120388. doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2023.120388

     

    Picture download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/141365425

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    Goethe University Frankfurt

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  • Arctic Monitoring Program Plays Vital Role in Global Pollution Reduction Efforts

    Arctic Monitoring Program Plays Vital Role in Global Pollution Reduction Efforts

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    Newswise — Historically, the Arctic was considered a pristine region, but scientific research spanning the last three decades has revealed the harsh reality of long-range transported pollutants reaching the Arctic from different corners of the world. In response to this alarming discovery, AMAP was created with the mission to monitor pollution and its effects on the Arctic environment and human health.

    In a new article published on 26 July 2023, in the journal Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, researchers from Arctic Knowledge Ltd, presents the initiation and implementation of a systematic scientific and political cooperation in the Arctic related to environmental pollution and climate change, with a special focus on the role of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). AMAP’s pioneering approach, with equal participation of indigenous peoples’ organizations alongside Arctic states, seamlessly blending scientific and local knowledge in assessments, has been crucial in understanding the risks posed by persistent organic pollutants (POPs), mercury, radioactivity, and oil pollution, among others. The far-reaching impacts of AMAP’s scientific results are evident as its data played a key role in establishing international agreements like the UN Stockholm Convention on POPs and the UN Minamata treaty, resulting in reduced pollution levels not only in the Arctic but also globally. Additionally, AMAP’s work has inspired initiatives beyond the Arctic, with ICIMOD establishing HIMAP based on AMAP’s model in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKM) region. Furthermore, the proposal for the Antarctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AnMAP) seeks advice from AMAP, extending the program’s influence beyond its original scope. Despite challenges in data sharing and accessing geographical areas for observations, AMAP remains steadfast in its commitment to enhance Arctic monitoring and research data accessibility for international networks and agreements. Given the rapid changes in the Arctic, AMAP’s role in fostering continued collaboration and providing science-based policy advice has become more critical than ever. In this regard, AMAP stands as a powerful example of the potential of international cooperation in addressing global challenges and promoting peace and prosperity through science.

    Highlights

    • AMAP has monitored and assessed Arctic pollution since 1991.
    • The main source of Arctic pollution is long-range transport from lower latitudes.
    • AMAP data have been fundamental in developing international chemical regulations.
    • Food advice has reduced contaminant exposure in local communities.
    • Other monitoring and assessment frameworks have been developed after AMAP’s model.

    In conclusion, AMAP’s systematic scientific and political cooperation has been instrumental in recognizing, understanding, and mitigating environmental pollution and climate change in the Arctic. Its efforts have not only led to significant reductions in pollutants in the Arctic but have also influenced global agreements and inspired similar initiatives in other regions.

    ###

    References

    DOI

    10.1016/j.ese.2023.100302

    Original Source URL

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2023.100302

    Funding information

    The authors wish to acknowledge the scientists and local communities involved in the AMAP monitoring and assessments as well as the reviewers of the scientific assessments. This long-term work would not have been possible without the dedicated contributions from the AMAP Working Group and the Secretariat. The AMAP work benefitted from financial support by the Arctic countries, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) and the Global Environment Facility Programme (GEF).

    About Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

    Environmental Science and Ecotechnology (ISSN 2666-4984) is an international, peer-reviewed, and open-access journal published by Elsevier. The journal publishes significant views and research across the full spectrum of ecology and environmental sciences, such as climate change, sustainability, biodiversity conservation, environment & health, green catalysis/processing for pollution control, and AI-driven environmental engineering. The latest impact factor of ESE is 12.6, according to the Journal Citation ReportTM 2022.

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    Chinese Academy of Sciences

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  • Decarbonizing industry

    Decarbonizing industry

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    Newswise — Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed a training camp to help manufacturing industries reduce energy-related carbon dioxide emissions and improve cost savings.

    As part of the Department of Energy’s Better Plants Program, the Oct. 16-19 Energy Bootcamp will provide hands-on training for energy and sustainability managers, analysts, plant engineers and facility supervisors with industrial plant oversight responsibilities.

    “Petroleum, chemical, iron and steel, cement, and food and beverage manufacturers contribute more than 50% of CO2 emissions in the U.S. industrial sector and 15% of U.S. economywide total emissions,” ORNL’s Thomas Wenning said. “This bootcamp gives plant managers a better understanding of the resources available and approaches for decarbonizing these facilities.”

    The bootcamp will offer training on two ORNL-developed free software tools for identifying and quantifying energy savings — MEASUR and VERIFI — and demonstrate diagnostic tools including infrared cameras, leak detectors and combustion analyzers.

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    Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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  • New recycling process could find markets for ‘junk’ plastic waste

    New recycling process could find markets for ‘junk’ plastic waste

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    BYLINE: Jason Daley

    Newswise — Although many Americans dutifully deposit their plastic trash into the appropriate bins each week, many of those materials, including flexible films, multilayer materials and a lot of colored plastics, are not recyclable using conventional mechanical recycling methods. In the end, only about 9 percent of plastic in the United States is ever reused, often in low-value products. With a new technique, however, University of Wisconsin–Madison chemical engineers are turning low-value waste plastic into high-value products.

    The new method, described in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Science, could increase the economic incentives for plastic recycling and open a door to recycling new types of plastic. The researchers estimate their methods could also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the conventional production of these industrial chemicals by roughly 60 percent.

    The new technique relies on a couple of existing chemical processing techniques. The first is pyrolysis, in which plastics are heated to high temperatures in an oxygen-free environment. The result is pyrolysis oil, a liquid mix of various compounds. Pyrolysis oil contains large amounts of olefins — a class of simple hydrocarbons that are a central building block of today’s chemicals and polymers, including various types of polyesters, surfactants, alcohols and carboxylic acids.

    In current energy-intensive processes like steam cracking, chemical manufacturers produce olefins by subjecting petroleum to extremely high heat and pressure. In this new process, the UW–Madison team recovers olefins from pyrolysis oil and uses them in a much less energy-intensive chemical process called homogenous hydroformylation catalysis. This process converts olefins into aldehydes, which can then be further reduced into important industrial alcohols.

    “These products can be used to make a wide range of materials that are higher value,” says George Huber, a professor of chemical and biological engineering who led the work alongside postdoctoral researcher Houqian Li and PhD student Jiayang Wu.

    These higher-value materials include ingredients used to make soaps and cleaners, as well as other more useful polymers.

    “We’re really excited about the implications of this technology,” says Huber, who also directs the Department of Energy-funded Center for the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics. “It’s a platform technology to upgrade plastic waste using hydroformylation chemistry.”

    The recycling industry could adopt the process soon; in recent years, at least 10 large chemical companies have built or announced plans for facilities to produce pyrolysis oils from waste plastics. Many of them run the pyrolysis oil through steam crackers to produce low-value compounds. The new chemical recycling technique could provide a more sustainable and lucrative way to use those oils.

    “Currently, these companies don’t have a really good approach to upgrade the pyrolysis oil,” says Li. “In this case, we can get high-value alcohols worth $1,200 to $6,000 per ton from waste plastics, which are only worth about $100 per ton. In addition, this process uses existing technology and techniques. It’s relatively easy to scale up.”

    The study was a collaborative effort across a few different UW–Madison departments, Huber says. Clark Landis, chair of the Department of Chemistry and a world expert on hydroformylation, suggested the possibility of applying the technique to pyrolysis oils. Chemical and biological engineering Professor Manos Mavarikakis used advanced modeling to provide molecular-level insight into the chemical processes. And chemical and biological engineering Professor Victor Zavala provided help analyzing the economics of the technique and the life cycle of the plastic waste.

    The next step for the team is to tune the process and better understand what recycled plastics and catalyst combinations produce which final chemical products.

    “There are so many different products and so many routes we can pursue with this platform technology,” says Huber. “There’s a huge market for the products we’re making. I think it really could change the plastic recycling industry.”

    George Huber is the Richard L. Antoine Professor. Manos Mavrikakis is the Ernest Micek Distinguished Chair, James A. Dumesic Professor and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor. Victor Zavala is the Baldovin-DaPra Professor. Other UW–Madison authors include Zhen Jiang and Jiaze Ma.

    The authors acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office under Award Number DEEE0009285; The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the DOE, Office of Science, under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231 using NERSC award BES-ERCAP0022773; The Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Argonne National Laboratory supported by DOE contract DE-AC02-06CH11357; and the UW–Madison Center for High Throughput Computing supported by UW–Madison, the Advanced Computing Initiative, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, and the National Science Foundation.

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    University of Wisconsin-Madison

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  • FSU expert available to comment on how humans are fueling devastating wildfires

    FSU expert available to comment on how humans are fueling devastating wildfires

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    By: Patty Cox | Published: | 4:42 pm 

    In the picturesque paradise of Maui, an ominous pattern of destruction has been unfolding.  

    Devastating wildfires, once considered a rarity on the Hawaiian island, have become increasingly frequent and ferocious. As flames consume vast swaths of land this week, scientists and residents are grappling with the stark realization that these infernos are largely of our own making. 

    Florida State University Professor Kevin Speer studies climate change, from global ocean circulation to the dynamics of hydrothermal plumes. He has been director of the university’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute since 2011. Speer is available to speak to reporters about how humans are contributing to devastating wildfires.

    Speer pointed out four factors that contributed to the disaster in Hawaii this week: 

    Guinea grass: Beneath Maui’s serene exterior, an unwelcome guest has taken hold: Guinea grass. This invasive plant species grows quickly and provides an ideal fuel for fast-spreading fires. Hawaiian scientists have long raised concerns about the dangers posed by the plant’s unchecked spread. 

    Human activity: Human activities play a pivotal role in igniting and perpetuating devastating blazes: 80-90% of wildfire ignitions can be traced back to vehicles, power lines, careless pile burning and other human actions.  

    Land use and zoning regulations: Among the primary contributors to Maui’s wildfire crisis is the failure of land use and zoning regulations to account for the true risks of wildfires by restricting building locations, requiring use of fire-resistant materials in construction and ensuring adequate access for emergency responders. 

    A perfect storm: High winds and dry fuels, combined with low humidity, created an environment ripe for an inferno on Maui. The steep, rugged terrain that defines the Hawaiian landscape further exacerbated the challenge, making access for firefighting efforts a perilous undertaking. 

    For media seeking interviews, Speer is available by email at [email protected] or phone at (850) 644-5594.

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  • Nematodes joy ride across electric voltages

    Nematodes joy ride across electric voltages

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    Newswise — Hokkaido University researchers found that tiny nematode worm larvae surf electric fields to hitch rides on passing insects.

    Many living organisms are known to make use of electric fields. Some fish species use them to detect predators or prey, and insects such as bees use them to attract pollen while foraging. Now, a research group including scientists from Hokkaido University has discovered that juvenile nematode worms can surf electric fields to leap through the air and hitch a ride on passing insects. Their findings have been published in the journal Current Biology.

    Nematodes are one of many species that rely on larger animals to help them travel and disperse, an interaction called phoresy. They have been observed lifting themselves up on the tips of their tails (nictation), thus reducing their surface connection, to make it easier to attach themselves to a passing organism.

    To explore how they achieve this, the research team bred the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans on dog food in a petri dish. They noticed that the larvae of the nematode, called dauer larvae, consistently moved to the lid of the dish. Some of the larvae reached the lid by crawling up the side of the dish, and others appeared on the lid in a fraction of a second.

    “To more directly confirm the leap of C. elegans dauer larvae and to see how the worms leap in the dish and the characteristics of the leaping action, we observed a worm leaping in the Petri dish with a high-speed camera,” says Associate Professor Katsuhiko Sato at the Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, corresponding author of the study.

    This showed that the larvae kept its body quite straight before the leap, and a single dauer larvae engaged in this behavior could also carry several other larvae with it in a leap.

    The research team speculated that the nematode larvae might be using electrostatic forces to travel across the millimeters-wide gap between the substrate and the lid of the petri dish. They set up an experiment using a petri dish filled with agar and studded with tiny glass electrodes, with a separate glass electrode set up parallel to it. The larvae were placed on the agar, and the researchers applied different voltages to the two sets of electrodes to see how the larvae would behave.

    When no electric charge was applied, the larvae did not leap. But when an electric field above a certain voltage was applied, the nematodes leapt from one electrode to another at an average speed just under one meter per second.

    They then performed a second experiment using the bumblebee Bombus terrestris, which is known to use electrostatic charge to help it collect pollen, and saw the same leaping behavior when the bumblebee came with one to two millimeters of the nematode larvae.

    “Although C. elegans has not been reported to attach to bees, it is known to attach to flying insects such as moths and flies in the wild,” Sato notes. “We assume that C. elegans uses electric interactions to attach to insects, including bumblebees, in the wild.”

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    Hokkaido University

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  • Prestigious NSF Grants Awarded to UTEP Early-Career Faculty

    Prestigious NSF Grants Awarded to UTEP Early-Career Faculty

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    Newswise — EL PASO, Texas (Aug. 8, 2023) – Two University of Texas at El Paso researchers have earned one of the nation’s highest awards for early-career faculty in 2023.

    Laura Alvarez, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences, received a $550,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. The funds will support her research in understanding how river landscapes and their ecological and economic values such as hydroelectric power generation, water storage and recreational resources respond to severe droughts, floods, climate change and human interventions.

    Deepak K. Tosh, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, received a grant of $492,000 from the same program. The award will support his work toward enhancing the cyber resiliency of operational technology around critical national infrastructure such as powerplants, refineries and manufacturing facilities. The research also aims to provide a means to achieve global resiliency by sharing information among physically separated entities.

    “CAREER awards are very prestigious,” said Ahmad Itani, Ph.D., UTEP vice president for research. “Earning one is a remarkable achievement for any research institution, and it serves as further evidence of the superb quality of the research and instruction UTEP faculty offer.”

    The NSF CAREER Program recognizes junior faculty who have the potential to serve as role models in research and education. For her part, Alvarez will work with students to develop and implement models that allow the quantification and forecasting of the flow and sediment dynamics in field-scale rivers. The expected societal outcomes of the education component are focused on increasing the representation of women in Earth science and creating new literacy in gender equity.

    “With the support of this grant, my research and educational pursuits find validation, further affirming my dedication as a teacher-scholar. I am excited to embark on this journey, using it as a catalyst to synergize research and education to drive positive transformation within UTEP’s mission,” said Alvarez. “I am profoundly humbled and grateful for being a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award.”

    The education plan in Tosh’s project aims to bolster critical infrastructure security skills among the next generation of engineers via the development of hands-on training modules for undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines, cyber research immersion programs for community college students and summer training sessions for middle and high school teachers.

    “Developing cyber secure operational technology for critical infrastructure has been the core pillar of my research agenda,” said Tosh. “Therefore, this award is an important personal milestone of which I am absolutely proud. I’d like to thank NSF and my colleagues for all their support.”

    Alvarez’s and Tosh’s awards follow the NSF CAREER grant awarded in May to Alexander Friedman, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, in support of his work on the neural mechanisms of decision-making.

    About The University of Texas at El Paso

    The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving University. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 24,000 students are Hispanic, and half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 169 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.

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  • In Papua New Guinea, Inaugl Tribe Members Commit to Legally Protect More Than 12,000 ha (46 square miles) of High Biodiversity Forest

    In Papua New Guinea, Inaugl Tribe Members Commit to Legally Protect More Than 12,000 ha (46 square miles) of High Biodiversity Forest

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    Newswise — Today, in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Indigenous landowners of the Inaugl tribe have joined their neighbours in the Bismarck Forest Corridor to commit to legally protecting 12,241 hectares (46.3 square miles) of forest under a conservation deed. The deed protects this high integrity forest from logging, while allowing for sustainable use of natural resources within marked zones.

    “This conservation deed, which is agreed by all five clans of the Inaugl tribe, meant that the people put aside their differences and are united to work together for common good,” said clan leader, John Kamb Sande.

    The Wildlife Conservation Society PNG program (WCS PNG), with support from the European Union-funded Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme and the USAID PNG Lukautim Graun Program, has been working with the Inaugl tribe members from Gembogl District, Chimbu Province, to empower Indigenous stewardship over their tenured lands. The lands are managed under the oversight of KGWan, a community-based organisation made up of representatives from each of the Inaugl tribe’s five clans, and monitored by local rangers or “Wasman,” who will be trained in GPS software tools to record wildlife sightings and breaches of management rules. Offenders can be prosecuted under village or state courts. Under the SWM Programme and Lukautim Graun Program, local magistrates and the Conservation Management Committee have received training on penalties and mediation processes to enforce conservation deeds.

    WCS PNG Country Director, Jennifer Baing, said that legally binding conservation deeds as community-led governance mechanisms are proving to be effective for sustainable wildlife management and conservation in PNG.

    “This community led approach is effective because it incorporates both social and environmental safeguards, such as rigorous processes of obtaining local Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Through the process of developing conservation deeds, customary landowners are empowered to make decisions on the use of their own resources based on traditional knowledge and the community’s own needs. This is achieved by utilising information on local threats to their natural resources, food security and culture,” said Baing.

    H.E. Jacques Fradin, Ambassador of the European Union to PNG, proudly extends heartfelt congratulations to the Inaugl tribe’s clans for their collaborative efforts in signing a groundbreaking conservation deed.

    “The signing of this historic agreement is a testament to the spirit of cooperation between the local communities, whose ancestral lands are graced with unique and diverse ecosystems. The European Union is proudly supporting the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme and other initiatives committed to fostering sustainable development, enhancing environmental protection, with deep respect for local traditions and knowledge. This milestone serves as a tangible example of how protected areas supported through conservation deeds are proving to be a useful tool to achieve sustainable management of wildlife and natural resources. The European Union is committed to continue the Government of Papua New Guinea, the provincial administrations, local communities, and international partners in advancing sustainable practices and preserving the natural wonders that grace this astonishing country,” said H.E. Jacques Fradin.

    As part of the management plan the community has designated zones within the conservation area to support sustainable traditional hunting. In addition, to increase the supply of protein, two hundred households will receive chickens to set up village backyard poultry farming.

    Jenny Steven, speaking on behalf of women from the Inaugl tribe, said, “Conservation will not be fully achieved in PNG unless people’s livelihoods are integrated.” This integration is a core component of both the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme and Lukautim Graun Program.

    Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Lukautim Graun Program, Tom Pringel said, “Papua New Guinea, land of 840 language and culture is living through a time of environmental degradation which is not only resulting in biodiversity loss, but loss of cultural identity associated with traditional bilas, folklores, songs, areas of cultural significances, loss of water sources, loss of herbal medicine, loss of useful plants, animals, and insects. All living and non-living things in the natural environment are interconnected and form various elements of the ecosystems life supporting systems. With the increase in human population and demand for more resources there is now a greater need to promote biodiversity conservation and environmental protection in PNG. USAID funded Lukautim Graun Program promotes and supports biodiversity conservation efforts by providing alternative solutions to promote biodiversity through livelihood programs, capacity building and training. Additionally, gender equality in PNG is rated as one of the lowest out of the 159 countries, therefore the Lukautim Graun Program also supports and promotes equal participation for girls and women in biodiversity conservation programming and livelihood activities. On this occasion we are proud to be part of the achievement and celebrate a milestone achievement with the Danbalg Community who have taken the initiative to setup the Inaugl Natural Resource Management Area. Congratulations to the Danbalg Community, WCS and everyone who has been part of the journey in creating the Conservation Area.”

    ###

    Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme The SWM Programme is developing innovative solutions based on field projects in fifteen countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. This seven-year (2018-2024) initiative is funded by the European Union and implemented by a unique consortium of four organisations with expertise in wildlife conservation and food security: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). https://www.swm-programme.info/papua-new-guinea

    The USAID PNG Lukautim Graun Program (LGP) The USAID PNG Lukautim Graun Program (LGP) aims to protect Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) rich biodiversity, which is under increasing threat from industrial development, population growth, and other anthropogenic factors. “Lukautim graun” means “protect the environment” in Tok Pisin. The Program aims to improve the conservation of biodiversity and equity among genders in priority terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. www.pnglgp.org

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  • Poaching Risks Kordofan Giraffe Extinction in 15 Years

    Poaching Risks Kordofan Giraffe Extinction in 15 Years

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    Newswise — Poaching of two Critically Endangered Kordofan giraffes per year could result in extinction in just 15 years within Cameroon’s Bénoué National Park without intervention. These are the alarming new findings of a University of Bristol and Bristol Zoological Society-led study published in the African Journal of Ecology.

    One of the last populations of Kordofan giraffes roam Cameroon’s Bénoué National Park in Africa with current estimates indicating there are fewer than 50 individuals left in the park. Bristol Zoological Society have been working to conserve this highly-threatened mammal since 2017.

    While poaching is frequently cited as a cause of population decline, evidence remains mostly anecdotal, with little research into its overall impact. Illegal hunters kill giraffes for their meat but also for their pelts, bones, hair and tails which are highly valued by some cultures.

    Researchers from Bristol Vet School and Bristol Zoological Society sought to analyse the effectiveness of different conservation measure interventions using a population modelling technique. The team compared anti-poaching interventions, population supplementation, and habitat protection. Each intervention was simulated individually and in combination to investigate their relative impact on population viability.

    Their modelling found the removal of one male and one female giraffe every year would result in an average time to extinction of just 15.3 years. The poaching of female giraffes had a more significant impact on population viability than males.

    The team’s findings confirm that conservation management should prioritise strengthening existing anti-poaching activity in conjunction with protecting wildlife corridors to aid dispersal.

    Kane Colston, the study’s lead author, who undertook the study as part of his Master’s degree at Bristol Vet School in conjunction with teaching partners Bristol Zoological Society, said: “Our findings confirm anti-poaching measures appear the most significant for population viability. The extent of poaching in Bénoué National Park is still unclear as far higher giraffe poaching rates have been reported in other national parks, but recent confirmed reports of the poaching of two giraffes in a period of just three months highlight the urgency of conservation intervention.”

    Dr Sam Penny, the project lead from Bristol Zoological Society, added: “These findings really underscore the magnitude of the threat facing Bénoué National Park’s Kordofan giraffe and highlight the importance of our conservation work in the area. We will continue to work with the park’s Conservation Service and our partner NGO Sekakoh to ensure anti-poaching initiatives are prioritised within the landscape.”

    Ends

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