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Tag: Environmental Science

  • Study estimates that gray whales near Oregon Coast ingest millions of tiny particles daily through their diet and feces.

    Study estimates that gray whales near Oregon Coast ingest millions of tiny particles daily through their diet and feces.

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    Newswise — CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University researchers estimate that gray whales feeding off the Oregon Coast consume up to 21 million microparticles per day, a finding informed in part by poop from the whales.

    Microparticle pollution includes microplastics and other human-sourced materials, including fibers from clothing. The finding, just published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, is important because these particles are increasing exponentially and predicted to continue doing so in the coming decades, according to researchers Leigh Torres and Susanne Brander.

    Microparticle pollution is a threat to the health of gray whales, in addition to obstacles related to increased boat traffic and loss of prey.

    “These are quite scary numbers,” said Leigh Torres, an associate professor at Oregon State and an author of the paper. “I think they should raise concern for people who care about the marine environment or about their own environment and exposure to microplastics.

    “Little by little we are all getting exposed to more and more microplastics. That’s inescapable at this point across all ecosystems, including right off our coast here in Oregon.”

    Susanne Brander, an associate professor and ecotoxicologist at Oregon State and co-author of the study, said the findings reinforce the need to curb the release of microparticles because of the adverse impacts they have on organisms and ecosystems.

    “This issue is gaining momentum globally and some states, such as California, have taken important steps,” Brander said. “But more action needs to be taken, including here in Oregon, because this problem is not going away anytime soon.”

    The study focused on a subgroup of about 230 gray whales known as the Pacific Coast Feeding Group. They spend winters in Baja California, Mexico and migrate north to forage in coastal habitats from northern California to southern British Columbia from June through November.

    Since 2015, Torres, who leads the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory in the OSU Marine Mammal Institute, and her team, including doctoral student Lisa Hildebrand, have used drones and other tools to study the health and behavior of this subgroup of gray whales off the Oregon Coast. As part of this work, they collect poop samples from the gray whales.

    For the new study, the researchers collected zooplankton, which are an important food supply for gray whales, and commercial and recreational fish.

     

    “We had determined the caloric content of several zooplankton species, so next we wanted to know what their microparticle loads might be to get a more complete picture of the quality of these prey items,” Hildebrand said.

    Brander, Hildebrand and members of Brander’s Ecotoxicology and Environmental Stress Lab analyzed the microparticle loads in 26 zooplankton samples collected from whale feeding areas and found microparticles in all of them. A total of 418 suspected microparticles were identified, with fibers accounting for more than 50% of them.

    Torres and Hildebrand then combined that data with known estimates of energetic requirements for lactating and pregnant female gray whales to quantify how many zooplankton and microparticles they consume in a day. That yielded estimates that lactating and pregnant whales consume between 6.5 million and 21 million microparticles per day.

    “It’s a wake-up call that whales are getting that much microplastic from what they eat,” Torres said. “It’s likely that humans are also getting a lot of microplastics from our own fish diet.”

    Torres notes that the microparticle consumption estimates are likely conservative because they only account for what the whales consume from zooplankton.

    Gray whales likely ingest more microparticles directly from the water and seafloor sediment because they are filter feeders that engulf large amounts of water while consuming prey and also use suction feeding to obtain prey from the seafloor.

    Analysis of the poop samples provided a window to what kind of microparticles these gray whales were digesting. The researchers analyzed five poop samples and found microparticles in all of them. Similar to zooplankton, the majority of the microparticles were fiber.

    The researchers also found that the microparticles in the poop were significantly larger than those found in the zooplankton, leading them to believe the larger particles came from the water or sediment, not the prey (too small to consume these larger particles).

    The findings raise concerns for Torres, whose past research has shown that this subgroup of gray whales is skinnier than other groups of gray whales.

    “These whales are already stressed out with boats driving around all the time and the risk of getting hit by one of those boats,” she said. “They might also have less prey around because of changes in the environment, like less kelp. And now the quality of the prey might be poor because of these high microplastic loads.”

    Brander and Torres are continuing their investigations by studying the effects of microfibers on zooplankton that are an important food source for whales and fish in Oregon waters.

    “That all can lead to being poorly nourished and having poor health,” Torres said, “That can lead to stunted growth, smaller body size, lower ability to have calves and animals not using this habitat anymore. All of those are areas of significant concern.”

    Other authors of the paper are Julia Parker, Elissa Bloom, Robyn Norman, Jennifer Van Brocklin and Katherine Lasdin. They are all from Oregon State and in the colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Engineering and Science. Brander is also affiliated with Oregon State’s Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

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    Oregon State University

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  • Study raises doubts about the effectiveness of controlling sagebrush to protect sage grouse.

    Study raises doubts about the effectiveness of controlling sagebrush to protect sage grouse.

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    Newswise — Efforts to improve sage grouse habitat through conventional management practices may be ineffective — and even counterproductive — according to research by University of Wyoming and other scientists.

    Sagebrush reduction strategies, including mowing and herbicide application, are often employed to enhance habitat for the greater sage grouse and other sagebrush-dependent species. The theory is that clearing large sagebrush shrubs improves food sources in sage grouse nesting and brood-rearing habitats by allowing other, more nutritious vegetation to grow with less competition. This, in turn, should increase invertebrate populations, another food source for sage grouse.

    But a new paper published in the journal Wildlife Monographs suggests these methods may be misguided.

    In a nine-year experimental study, researchers examined how sage grouse populations in central Wyoming responded to mowing and applying the herbicide tebuthiuron to Wyoming big sagebrush. According to their data, these treatments did not benefit the birds.

    “Some managers think, ‘Treating sagebrush for wildlife is how it’s supposed to work, and we’ll keep doing it,’” says Jeff Beck, a UW professor of ecosystem science and management and principal investigator for the study. “Hopefully, this will get people to start thinking, ‘If we’re going to spend money to improve habitat, we’ve got to find some other ideas.’”

    Beck’s co-authors include Kurt Smith, a former UW Ph.D. student who is now an ecologist with Western EcoSystems Technology; Jason LeVan, a former UW M.S. student who is now a range and wildlife conservationist for Pheasants Forever; Anna Chalfoun, a UW associate professor and assistant unit leader of the U.S. Geological Survey Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; Stanley Harter, a wildlife biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department; Thomas Christiansen, a retired Wyoming Game and Fish Department sage grouse program coordinator; and Sue Oberlie, a retired Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wildlife biologist.

    The researchers tracked behaviors and survival rates of more than 600 female greater sage grouse in response to mowing and tebuthiuron application. They also monitored effects on invertebrate populations, sagebrush and herbaceous vegetation. Throughout the study, responses were compared to untreated plots near the treated areas as well as off-site control plots.

    Pretreatment data were collected from 2011-13; mowing and tebuthiuron applications were implemented in winter and spring 2014.

    After six years (2014-19) of post-treatment monitoring, Beck and his colleagues determined that sage grouse responses to treatment were neutral at best.

    “Neither mowing nor tebuthiuron treatments influenced nest success, brood success or female survival,” they reported.

    Furthermore, treatments used to reduce Wyoming big sagebrush coverage resulted in slight avoidance by sage grouse.

    Invertebrates and herbaceous vegetation also did not respond positively to reduction of Wyoming big sagebrush, indicating treatments did not improve the quantity and quality of sage grouse food sources. 

    Instead, reduction of Wyoming big sagebrush cover may negatively impact sage grouse and other species that use sagebrush shrubs to nest and seek refuge from predators, the researchers suggest.

    They predict that expanding experimental treatments to larger areas may reveal greater negative effects of Wyoming big sagebrush reduction on sage grouse populations.

    “Management practices that focus on the maintenance of large, undisturbed tracts of sagebrush will best facilitate the persistence of sage grouse populations and other species reliant on the sagebrush steppe,” they wrote.

    Their results are consistent with many other studies suggesting that controlling Wyoming big sagebrush negatively impacts wildlife. However, they caution, their findings should not be generalized to other sagebrush species and subspecies, such as mountain big sagebrush.

    Rather than removing Wyoming big sagebrush, Beck says, conservation strategies should focus on removing encroaching pinyon and juniper and invasive species such as cheatgrass. These types of vegetation alter the sagebrush ecosystem and influence fire cycles, potentially damaging sage grouse habitat.

    Enhancing wet areas in sagebrush habitats is another promising strategy for improving the quality of sage grouse brood-rearing habitat, he notes.

     

    This research was supported by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Wyoming Sage-grouse Conservation Fund; the Bates Hole, Big Horn Basin, South-Central, Southwest and Wind River/Sweetwater River local sage grouse working groups; the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust; the BLM’s Lander field office; the Margaret and Sam Kelly Ornithological Research Fund; and the Wyoming Reclamation and Restoration Center’s graduate assistantship program.

     

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    University of Wyoming

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  • Soil microbes speed up CO2 emissions amid global warming

    Soil microbes speed up CO2 emissions amid global warming

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    Newswise — The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is a primary catalyst for global warming, and an estimated one fifth of the atmospheric CO2 originates from soil sources. This is partially attributed to the activity of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that decompose organic matter in the soil utilizing oxygen, such as deceased plant materials. During this process, CO2 is released into the atmosphere. Scientists refer to it as heterotrophic soil respiration.

    Based on a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, a team of researchers from ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Eawag, and the University of Lausanne has reached a significant conclusion. Their study indicates that emissions of CO2 by soil microbes into the Earth’s atmosphere are not only expected to increase but also accelerate on a global scale by the end of this century.

    Using a projection, they find that by 2100, CO2 emissions from soil microbes will escalate, potentially reaching an increase of up to about forty percent globally, compared to the current levels, under the worst-​case climate scenario. “Thus, the projected rise in microbial CO2 emissions will further contribute to the aggravation of global warming, emphasising the urgent need to get more accurate estimates of the heterotrophic respiration rates,” says Alon Nissan, the main author of the study and an ETH Postdoctoral Fellow at the ETH Zurich Institute of Environmental Engineering.

    Soil moisture and temperature as key factors

    These findings do not only confirm earlier studies but also provide more precise insights into the mechanisms and magnitude of heterotrophic soil respiration across different climatic zones. In contrast to other models that rely on numerous parameters, the novel mathematical model, developed by Alon Nissan, simplifies the estimation process by utilising only two crucial environmental factors: soil moisture and soil temperature.

    The model represents a significant advancement as it encompasses all biophysically relevant levels, ranging from the micro-​scales of soil structure and soil water distribution to plant communities like forests, entire ecosystems, climatic zones, and even the global scale. Peter Molnar, a professor at the ETH Institute of Environmental Engineering, highlights the significance of this theoretical model which complements large Earth System models, stating, “The model allows for a more straightforward estimation of microbial respiration rates based on soil moisture and soil temperature. Moreover, it enhances our understanding of how heterotrophic respiration in diverse climate regions contributes to global warming.”

    Polar CO2 emissions likely to more than double

    A key finding of the research collaboration led by Peter Molnar and Alon Nissan is that the increase in microbial CO2 emissions varies across climate zones. In cold polar regions, the foremost contributor to the increase is the decline in soil moisture rather than a significant rise in temperature, unlike in hot and temperate zones. Alon Nissan highlights the sensitivity of cold zones, stating, “Even a slight change in water content can lead to a substantial alteration in the respiration rate in the polar regions.”

    Based on their calculations, under the worst-​case climate scenario, microbial CO2 emissions in polar regions are projected to rise by ten percent per decade by 2100, twice the rate anticipated for the rest of the world. This disparity can be attributed to the optimal conditions for heterotrophic respiration, which occur when soils are in a semi-​saturated state, i.e. neither too dry nor too wet. These conditions prevail during soil thawing in polar regions.

    On the other hand, soils in other climate zones, which are already relatively drier and prone to further desiccation, exhibit a comparatively smaller increase in microbial CO2 emissions. However, irrespective of the climate zone, the influence of temperature remains consistent: as soil temperature rises, so does the emission of microbial CO2.

    How much CO2 emissions will increase by each climate zone

    As of 2021, most CO2 emissions from soil microbes are primarily originating from the warm regions of the Earth. Specifically, 67 percent of these emissions come from the tropics, 23 percent from the subtropics, 10 percent from the temperate zones, and a mere 0.1 percent from the arctic or polar regions.

    Significantly, the researchers anticipate substantial growth in microbial CO2 emissions across all these regions compared to the levels observed in 2021. By the year 2100, their projections indicate an increase of 119 percent in the polar regions, 38 percent in the tropics, 40 percent in the subtropics, and 48 percent in the temperate zones.

    Will soils be a CO2 sink or a CO2 source for the atmosphere?

    The carbon balance in soils, determining whether soils act as a carbon source or sink, hinges on the interplay between two crucial processes: photosynthesis, whereby plants assimilate CO2, and respiration, which releases CO2. Therefore, studying microbial CO2 emissions is essential for comprehending whether soils will store or release CO2 in the future.

    “Due to climate change, the magnitude of these carbon fluxes—both the inflow through photosynthesis and the outflow through respiration—remains uncertain. However, this magnitude will impact the current role of soils as carbon sinks,” explains Alon Nissan.

    In their ongoing study, the researchers have primarily focused on heterotrophic respiration. However, they have not yet investigated the CO2 emissions that plants release through autotrophic respiration. Further exploration of these factors will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the carbon dynamics within soil ecosystems.

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    ETH Zurich

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  • New Early Toothed Whale Species Found

    New Early Toothed Whale Species Found

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    Newswise — Have you ever wondered what the earliest ancestors of today’s dolphins looked like? Then look no further, meet Olympicetus thalassodon, a new species of early odontocete, or toothed whale, that swam along the North Pacific coastline around 28 million years ago. This new species is one of several that are helping us understand the early history and diversification of modern dolphins, porpoises and other toothed whales. The new species is described in a new study published in the open access journal PeerJ Life and Environment by Puerto Rican paleontologist Jorge Velez-Juarbe of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

    “Olympicetus thalassodon and its close relatives show a combination of features that truly sets them apart from any other group of toothed whales. Some of these characteristics, like the multi-cusped teeth, symmetric skulls, and forward position of the nostrils makes them look more like an intermediate between archaic whales and the dolphins we are more familiar with,” says Dr. Velez-Juarbe, Associate Curator of Marine Mammals at NHMLAC. 

    But Olympicetus thalassodon was not alone, the remains of two other closely related odontocetes were described in the same paper. The fossils were all collected from a geologic unit called the Pysht Formation, exposed along the coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State and dated to between 26.5–30.5 million years. 

    The study further revealed that Olympicetus and its close kin belonged to a family called Simocetidae, a group so far known only from the North Pacific and one of the earliest diverging groups of toothed whales. Simocetids formed part of an unusual fauna represented by fossils found in the Pysht Formation and which included plotopterids (an extinct group of flightless, penguin-like birds), the bizarre desmostylians, early relatives of seals and walruses, and toothed baleen whales.

    Differences in body size, teeth and other feeding-related structures suggest that simocetids showed different forms of prey acquisition and likely prey preferences. “The teeth of Olympicetus are truly weird, they are what we refer to as heterodont, meaning that they show differences along the toothrow”, notes Dr. Velez-Juarbe, “this stands out against the teeth of more advanced odontocetes whose teeth are simpler and tend to look nearly the same.”

    However, other aspects of the biology of these early toothed whales remain to be elucidated, such as whether they could echolocate like their living relatives, or not. Some aspects of their skull can be related to the presence of echolocating-related structures, such as a melon. An earlier study had suggested that neonatal individuals could not hear ultrasonic sounds, so the next step would be to investigate the earbones of subadult and adult individuals to test whether this changed as they grew older.  

     

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    PeerJ

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  • Gloss is less effective camouflage in beetles compared to matte, according to latest study

    Gloss is less effective camouflage in beetles compared to matte, according to latest study

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    BYLINE: Laura Thomas

    Newswise — When combined with iridescent colouration, a matt target surface appearance confers greater survival benefits in beetles than a glossy surface, scientists at the University of Bristol have found.  

    The findings, published in Behavioural Ecology, suggest that iridescence provides camouflage independent of glossiness, which means that it is the colour of iridescent surfaces and its changeability, that is the most important aspect of iridescence in enabling camouflage.

    Iridescence is a type of structural colouration that produces bright, vibrant hues. These are often angle-dependent, meaning the observed colour appears to change depending on the viewing angle.

    Lead author Dylan Thomas from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “This is somewhat surprising. Recent theories had suggested prey target gloss could be important in concealment, but our findings actually suggest the opposite to be true.

    “In other words, perhaps glossiness isn’t as important to camouflage as had previously been suggested.”

    The team produced artificial beetle targets and pinned these to trees in Leigh Woods in Bristol and observed how well they survived under predation by natural bird predators.

    Half were sprayed with a glossy fixative and half a matt fixative. They were fixed to ivy leaves, placing a mealworm between the target and the leaf, and secured against tree roots or trunks. The targets were checked at 24-hour intervals over a 96-hour period for signs of bird predation – if the mealworm had been eaten, the target was classed as having been predated.

    When collecting targets, they also selected the background leaves for analysis as a previous study had found that background gloss has a significant effect on target survival.

    Dylan explained: “Our results provide further evidence that iridescent colouration can provide effective camouflage.

    “They also support previous findings that background glossiness has a significant effect on target survival – when targets are on a glossy background, their survival is enhanced.”

    Now the team plan to further explore why so many beetle species are glossy, given it is detrimental to their survival when combined with iridescence.

    They will also look at why black targets seem to survive well (second behind iridescence), the effects of background gloss and how lighting conditions affect how iridescence and gloss are perceived.

    Dylan concluded: “Our findings contribute to a widening literature on camouflaging iridescence and help us to better understand the role this distinctive form of colouration can have in concealment.

    “Our findings have also opened many avenues for further research, many of which are important not just to iridescence as camouflage but to camouflage as a whole.”

     

    Paper:

    ‘Interactions between colour and gloss in iridescent camouflage’ by Dylan Thomas et al in Behavioural Ecology.

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    University of Bristol

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  • Researchers to Train Farmers on How to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Improve Soil Health

    Researchers to Train Farmers on How to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Improve Soil Health

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    Newswise — EL PASO, Texas (June 21, 2023) — In 2021, agricultural activities contributed to 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Now, researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso will help reduce these emissions by training farmers across the nation on climate-friendly agricultural practices.

    The project is supported by a new $2 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

    The team behind the Carbon SMART (Soil Monitoring, Assessment, Research and Training) project includes soil scientists and geochemists from UTEP as well as geomorphologists, landscape ecologists, sociologists, and environmental anthropologists from Boise State University in Idaho. The researchers will train farmers and ranchers in Idaho and the surrounding region to monitor carbon levels in soil and practice climate-smart conservation practices.

    Increasing carbon in soil is key to increasing soil health, according to the team. Carbon is a key ingredient in photosynthesis, the process by which plants absorb and convert carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. Once absorbed from the atmosphere, carbon is stored in the surrounding soil as decaying plant matter.

    “On a global scale, soil collectively holds about twice as much carbon as the atmosphere,” said David Huber, Ph.D, the project’s principal investigator and a research assistant professor in the UTEP Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences.

    But certain farming practices, like tilling and lack of cover crops, can disrupt soil structure and cause carbon to be released into the atmosphere faster than it is stored naturally, which contributes to atmospheric warming, climate change and reduced soil health. According to Huber, maintaining stable levels of carbon in soil is in the best interest of farmers and critical to preventing further warming.

    In addition to training producers to measure carbon levels in soil, the Carbon SMART team will monitor the success of various conservation methods at maintaining stable carbon levels.

    “This project will offer farmers and ranchers a practical toolset to assess for themselves the virtues of climate-smart conservation practices.” said Huber. “It will also provide important insight into why producers adopted one set of conservation practices but not others.”

    The team that received the grant will primarily work with farmers and ranchers from underserved communities. They plan to begin outreach with non-governmental agencies that work with these producers, as well as partner with state and federal agencies, state agricultural boards and industrial farms.

    “The Carbon SMART project will generate crucial knowledge about conservation practices that enhance carbon storage in soil and can be used to help agricultural producers improve soil health throughout the western U.S.,” said Robert Kirken, Ph.D., dean of the UTEP College of Science. “I’m very proud of the team for earning this grant that helps prevent further climate change while simultaneously helping historically underserved communities, and I’m looking forward to what they accomplish.”

    Additional investigators on the project include UTEP Professor of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences Lixin Jin, Ph.D. and Boise State University faculty members Jen Pierce, Ph.D.; Jodi Brandt, Ph.D.; Lisa Meierotto, Ph.D.; and Rebecca Som Castellanos, Ph.D.

     

    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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    University of Texas at El Paso

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  • Experts predict ‘average’ Atlantic hurricane season, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be strong storms

    Experts predict ‘average’ Atlantic hurricane season, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be strong storms

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    Newswise — The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season was among the most damaging and deadly in modern history, but that isn’t necessarily an indicator for 2023. According to Virginia Tech meteorologist Stephanie Zick most seasonal forecasts are predicting a near average season, which goes from June 1 to November 30.

    NOAA’s outlook predicts a 40% chance of a near-normal season, with numbers similar to last year. While the total number of named storms may be “average” this season, Zick expects to see a higher than average number of storms going through rapid intensification – similar to Hurricane Ian from 2022 – due to the above average sea surface temperatures. “There is a developing El Niño, which generally leads to above average wind shear that hinders hurricane development and there are above average sea surface temperatures, and generally supports more hurricane development,” Zick explained.

    She stressed that people who live in coastal areas should make preparations now – before a storm hits. “At the coast, the threat is usually the greatest due to higher winds and storm surge flooding,” Zick explained. “Before a storm makes landfall, there is also a higher risk of dangerous surf and rip currents.” 

    Flooding from the rain is possible near the coast, but also inland as the storm moves. “In the past ten years, flooding has caused the most fatalities in landfalling tropical systems,” Zick said.

    Tornadoes are possible, both near the coast and inland. “The hazards associated with tropical storms can occur hundreds of miles aways from the storm center,” Zick said. “Residents in coastal and inland locations need to stay tuned to local weather information before and during these events to be prepared and take action if and when necessary.”

    Zick stressed that during hurricane season, context is important. “A weather app can tell you there is a 100 percent chance of rain, but it won’t tell you about the flooding threat or what to do when there is a simultaneous threat of tornadoes and flooding.”

    “Trusted sources can provide valuable information that you will need to keep your family and property safe,” she said. “I recommend that you have a trusted local weather source, such as a local broadcast meteorologist who you watch on TV or follow on Twitter.”

    Zick said it’s important that no matter where you live, you know your risks, have an emergency plan and put together an emergency kit.

    The National Weather Service has further information about emergency kits, emergency plans, and other hurricane safety measures: https://www.weather.gov/safety/hurricane-plan. 

    About Zick

    Stephanie Zick is an assistant professor of geography in the College of Natural Resources and Environment. Her research areas include tropical meteorology, tropical cyclones, precipitation, numerical weather prediction, and model forecast verification.

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    Virginia Tech

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  • Fungus-Farming Ants Keep Gardens Healthy

    Fungus-Farming Ants Keep Gardens Healthy

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    Newswise — ‘Weed early and often’ is the key to a productive garden. Interestingly, certain species of ants are also avid gardeners, a practice they’ve refined over 50 million years. They too weed their underground fungus gardens, but how they know what to weed out has been a mystery. Now, a multidisciplinary team of scientists report in PNAS on June 15 how ants distinguish the good fungus from the bad.

    People rely on sight to identify weeds but ants grow fungus underground in the dark and must have other ways to sense undesirable garden denizens. A team led by Jonathan Klassen, Ph.D., at the University of Connecticut and Marcy Balunas, Ph.D., at the University of Michigan has found that the ants sniff out diseased fungus by detecting chemicals called peptaibols.

    The team focused on the ant species Trachymyrmex septentrionalis whose habitat follows the pine barren ecosystem from Long Island all the way south to East Texas. Trachymyrmex ants grow their fungus below ground and feed it fresh organic detritus. The fungus acts almost like an external gut for the ant colony; the fungus grows up and around the fresh food laid on top of it in honeycomb shapes, produces digested food for the ants as it grows, and then secretes waste.

    Klassen Lab graduate student Katie Kyle, a co-first author on the paper, experimentally infected ant nests with Trichoderma, a naturally occurring, disease-causing fungus that infects the ants’ gardens and found that the ants began working overtime to remove the infection from the nests, increasing their waste output.

    Over the winter, while the ants were dormant, the team analyzed the fungal biomes of several different ant nests collected from different locations and found Trichoderma in all of them.

    Co-first author Sara Puckett, Ph.D., a recent graduate from the Balunas’ UConn lab, prepared extracts of Trichoderma containing the organic compounds of the fungus to determine if the weeding was triggered by one or more of these compounds or simply by the presence of the pathogen’s cells. 

    “We were curious to see if the ants were weeding because of compounds produced by the infecting fungus,” Balunas said.

    The team found the Trichoderma extract, when applied to the fungus garden, sent the ants into frenzied weeding activity just as actual Trichoderma infections had.

    Working with scientists from University of California, San Diego and University of North Carolina, Greensboro, they discovered the nests contained peptaibols, a family of compounds known to be produced by Trichoderma. However, finding which specific peptaibols were causing ant weeding proved more challenging since these extracts contained many compounds. 

    The researchers tested pure peptaibols, including two new compounds called trichokindins VIII and IX.

    It turns out that all the peptaibols tested caused some level of ant weeding, a finding that implies it may not be one particular peptaibol but rather that the whole suite of peptaibols can induce the ants to weed their garden. 

    “This suite of Trichoderma compounds inducing ant behavior is in contrast to many other natural products whose activity can often be attributed to one compound,” Balunas says.

    Although their data support peptaibols as a signal to weed, it’s not clear what exactly the ants are perceiving. It may be that the invading Trichoderma fungus produces the peptaibols and the ants detect them and then weed, note the researchers. Or perhaps the ants are detecting a secondary response from the fungus garden itself.

     The next step is to figure out those details of ant-fungus communication, Klassen says.

    “Maybe the fungus is signaling ‘I’m sick’. Maybe the fungus is detecting the peptaibols. We need to flesh out the chain of signaling,” Klassen says. 

    The findings highlight one of the few known systems where an animal responds to a disease of its beneficial symbiotic partner instead of a disease of its own body, a phenomenon that Balunas and Klassen are calling an extended defense response, and one that they look forward to continuing to tease apart.

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    University of Connecticut

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  • Fossils Reveal Secrets of Nature’s Spirals

    Fossils Reveal Secrets of Nature’s Spirals

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    Newswise — Leaf arrangements in the earliest plants differ from most modern plants, overturning a long-held theory regarding the origins of a famous mathematical pattern found in nature, research shows.

    The findings indicate that the arrangement of leaves into distinctive spirals, that are common in nature today, were not common in the most ancient land plants that first populated the earth’s surface.

    Instead, the ancient plants were found to have another type of spiral. This negates a long held theory about the evolution of plant leaf spirals, indicating that they evolved down two separate evolutionary paths.

    Whether it is the vast swirl of a hurricane or the intricate spirals of the DNA double-helix, spirals are common in nature and most can be described by the famous mathematical series the Fibonacci sequence.

    Named after the Italian mathematician, Leonardo Fibonacci, this sequence forms the basis of many of nature’s most efficient and stunning patterns.

    Spirals are common in plants, with Fibonacci spirals making up over 90% of the spirals. Sunflower heads, pinecones, pineapples and succulent houseplants all include these distinctive spirals in their flower petals, leaves or seeds.

    Why Fibonacci spirals, also known as nature’s secret code, are so common in plants has perplexed scientists for centuries, but their evolutionary origin has been largely overlooked.

    Based on their widespread distribution it has long been assumed that Fibonacci spirals were an ancient feature that evolved in the earliest land plants and became highly conserved in plants.

    However, an international team led by the University of Edinburgh has overthrown this theory with the discovery of non-Fibonacci spirals in a 407-million-year old plant fossil.

    Using digital reconstruction techniques the researchers produced the first 3D models of leafy shoots in the fossil clubmoss Asteroxylon mackiei – a member of the earliest group of leafy plants.

    The exceptionally preserved fossil was found in the famous fossil site the Rhynie chert, a Scottish sedimentary deposit near the Aberdeenshire village of Rhynie.

    The site contains evidence of some of the planet’s earliest ecosystems – when land plants first evolved and gradually started to cover the earth’s rocky surface making it habitable.

    The findings revealed that leaves and reproductive structures in Asteroxylon mackiei, were most commonly arranged in non-Fibonacci spirals that are rare in plants today.

    This transforms scientists understanding of Fibonacci spirals in land plants. It indicates that non-Fibonacci spirals were common in ancient clubmosses and that the evolution of leaf spirals diverged into two separate paths.

    The leaves of ancient clubmosses had an entirely distinct evolutionary history to the other major groups of plants today such as ferns, conifers and flowering plants.

    The team created the 3D model of Asteroxylon mackiei, which has been extinct for over 400 million years, by working with digital artist Matt Humpage, using digital rendering and 3D printing.

    The research, published in the journal Science, was funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), The Royal Society and the German Research Foundation.

    The study also involved researchers from, University College Cork, Ireland, University Münster, Germany and Northern Rogue Studios, UK.

    Dr Sandy Hetherington, an evolutionary palaeobiologist and the project’s lead at the University of Edinburgh, said:

    “Our model of Asteroxylon mackiei lets us examine leaf arrangement in 3D for the first time. The technology to 3D print a 407-million-year old plant fossils and hold it in your hand is really incredible.

    “Our findings give a new perspective on the evolution of Fibonacci spirals in plants.”

    Holly-Anne Turner, who worked on the project as an undergraduate student at the University of Edinburgh and is first author of the study, said:

    “The clubmoss Asteroxylon mackiei is one of the earliest examples of a plant with leaves in the fossil record.

    “Using these reconstructions we have been able to track individual spirals of leaves around the stems of these 407 million year old fossil plants. Our analysis of leaf arrangement in Asteroxylon shows that very early clubmosses developed non-Fibonacci spiral patterns.”

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    University of Edinburgh

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  • Migrating for Climate Change Success?

    Migrating for Climate Change Success?

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    Newswise — A new study by an international team from Africa, Asia and Europe has put forward three criteria for evaluating the success of migration as adaptation in the face of climate change: well-being, equity and sustainability.

    The study shows that while migration is increasingly recognised as an effective way to deal with climate risks, or a form of adaptation, it is far from a silver-bullet solution.

    For example, remittances – which include flows of money, ideas, skills and goods between migrants and their places of origin – are thought to be key to facilitating adaptation to climate change.

    But, drawing on evidence from every continent for the past decades, this research shows that while remittances help improve material well-being for families and households in places where migrants move from, this often comes at a cost to the well-being of migrants themselves.

    For example, migrants in Bangladesh are not sufficiently considered in planning and policy and remain excluded from urban structures and services.

    This has repercussions for all aspects of their everyday lives in urban destinations such as living conditions, income security, and eventually their ability to keep supporting their families back home. 

    Dr Lucy Szaboova from the University of Exeter, the study’s lead author, said: “The idea of migration as adaptation places the responsibility of predicting and responding to future risks on individuals, and could justify policy inaction.

    “This is problematic, because where migration is not met with appropriate policy support, it can reinforce vulnerability and marginality and ultimately jeopardise the success of adaptation.”

    Tensions in well-being, equity and sustainability

    The study found that migration often leads to tensions within and between well-being, equity, and sustainability. These tensions can create winners and losers.

    Experiences of migration as adaptation are not equal for everyone involved.

    Depending on the context and on people’s social characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, for instance, migration can have different outcomes for different people.

    Some might benefit while others lose out.

    For example, the household overall may be financially better off thanks to remittances from the migrant, but female household members whose work burden increases with men’s migration, may be struggling to maintain the farm and must make tricky choices that can eventually undermine the success of migration as adaptation.

    Dr Mumuni Abu, from the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana, said: “In the absence of equity, migration can exacerbate rather than reduce vulnerability to climate change.

    “For example, in rural places of origin, constraints on gender equity between men and women at the household and community level, often result in the unsustainable use and management of natural resources.”

    Dr Amina Maharjan, of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), added: “Remittances are often lauded for their potential to support development and adaptation, but experiences point to the need to consider their role along longer time horizons.”

    Indeed, the implications of migration for the success of adaptation often unfold over extended timescales, including across different generations.

    Creating an enabling policy environment

    The authors suggest that evaluations of the success of migration as adaptation should, therefore, take into account outcomes for migrants, their households and family members in places of origin, and for the host society.

    They should also recognise that some implications might not be immediately obvious but might unfold over longer timeframes.

    To address tensions that can stand in the way of success, migration as a plausible adaptation option should be made visible in policy and planning.

    Drawing on extensive research with migrants and policy and planning stakeholders in urban migration destinations, Professor Neil Adger from the University of Exeter highlighted potential solutions for creating an enabling policy environment.

    “Migrants in cities are disproportionately exposed to social and environmental hazards which negatively affect their health and wellbeing,” he said.

    “Despite this, they remain largely invisible and voiceless in policy circles.

    “Participatory urban planning and deliberative approaches can support the inclusion of diverse perspectives on building safe, sustainable and resilient cities and can support migration as successful adaptation.”

    The paper, published in the journal One Earth, is entitled: “Evaluating migration as successful adaptation to climate change: trade-offs in well-being, equity and sustainability.”

    It is the outcome of collaboration between researchers from the University of Exeter, University of Vienna, University of Ghana, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

    This research was funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

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    University of Exeter

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  • New beetle species found in Japan’s forests

    New beetle species found in Japan’s forests

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    Newswise — A new weevil species was discovered in Japan’s pristine subtropical forests on Ishigaki Island and Yanbaru National Park in Okinawa.

    Renowned for their remarkable biodiversity, the Ryukyu Islands are a chain of subtropical islands distributed between mainland Japan and Taiwan that boast a relatively isolated evolutionary history, and are home to a distinctive and fascinating insect fauna.  

    Researchers at the Okinawan Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have been placing net traps to monitor insects on Okinawa Island since 2015, and have captured a wide range of insects, including beetles, flies, wasps and bees, which are preserved in ethanol, dried and stored in the OIST insect collection. The newly discovered beetle species, Acicnemis ryukyuana, was successfully identified through microscope analysis and dissection by OIST entomologist Jake H. Lewis, who works as Collection Manager in the OIST Environmental Science and Informatics Section.  

    “When I arrived at OIST in 2022, I dove headfirst into the OIST weevil collection. As I closely examined them, this species immediately caught my eye. It clearly belonged to the genus Acicnemis, but was unlike anything else described from East Asia,” recounts Lewis. “Its elongated scales and unique coloration set this species apart from other known Japanese species.” 

    The genus Acicnemis contains over 180 species, so confirming the discovery of a new species within this genus requires thorough examination of the existing literature and museum collections. As the “type specimens” (the original specimens used for species description) in the genus Acicnemis are housed in European and Japanese museums, Lewis had to reach out to several institutions, including the Kyushu University Museum (Japan), the Natural History Museum in London (UK), and the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute (Germany) in order to authenticate the status of Acicnemis ryukyuana as a novel species.  

    Based on the current knowledge, Acicnemis ryukyuana is endemic to the Ryukyus. The entomologist named this species ryukyuana [from Ryukyu] and リュウキュウカレキゾウムシ [pronunciation: Ryuku-kareki-zoumushi, translation: “Ryukyu dead-tree weevil”] in Japanese to emphasize that it is an endemic element of the Ryukyu biodiversity.   

    Weevils form one of the most diverse animal groups on the planet and generally feed on plants. Some weevil species are highly specialized and have a narrow range of plants they can feed on. The host plant(s) for this new species remains unknown, and Lewis hopes to conduct further field studies investigating this. 

     

    The distinctive features of Acicnemis ryukyuana 

    Acicnemis ryukyuana can be immediately recognized by the yellow bands on its shoulders, and distinct pattern of grey, black and yellow scales on its tough fore wings. Other unique features visible under the microscope include the long scales (hairs) on the back and the shape of the last segment of the leg. 

    “Based on the unique set of features observed in this new species, A. ryukyuana appears to be closely related to some other species in southeast Asia, however DNA analyses will be required to confirm this,” explains Lewis.      

    “I was drawn to Okinawa as there are numerous undescribed weevil species in the region, unlike in Canada, my home country, where weevils have been much more thoroughly studied. Living in Okinawa and having Yanbaru National Park as a backyard is very exciting as it is home to many undescribed, endemic species.” enthuses Lewis. “The Ryukyu Islands offer an irresistible playground for taxonomists, rich in species which you only find here”.  

     

    The beetles’ sensitivity to human presence   

    Although OIST researchers distributed insect traps widely across Okinawa Island including heavily populated and disturbed areas, A. ryukyuana was only captured in a pristine, specially protected part of Yanbaru National Park. The new species was also collected in well-preserved subtropical forest areas on Ishigaki Island; and located by Lewis in the Kyushu University Museum collection. “Based on these collection locations, this weevil species appears to be very sensitive to human disturbance compared to other Acicnemis species commonly found in the Ryukyu Islands.”  

    “This newly discovered beetle might be considered a vulnerable, endemic element of the Ryukyu fauna, similar to the flight-less bird Okinawa rail, the Yanbaru long-armed scarab beetle and the Okinawa spiny rat,” says Lewis. “I am sure that taxonomists, conservation biologists, and local naturalists in Okinawa will be interested in knowing that yet another remarkable species has been discovered in the Ryukyu Islands.”

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    Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University – OIST

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  • Carbon Emissions: How Will a Warmer World Affect Us?

    Carbon Emissions: How Will a Warmer World Affect Us?

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    Newswise — Washington, DC—As the world heats up due to climate change, how much can we continue to depend on plants and soils to help alleviate some of our self-inflicted damage by removing carbon pollution from the atmosphere?

    New work led by Carnegie’s Wu Sun and Anna Michalak tackles this key question by deploying a bold new approach for inferring the temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration—which represents one side of the equation balancing carbon dioxide uptake and carbon dioxide output in terrestrial environments. Their findings are published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

    “Right now, plants in the terrestrial biosphere perform a ‘free service’ to us, by taking between a quarter and a third of humanity’s carbon emissions out of the atmosphere,” Michalak explained. “As the world warms, will they be able to keep up this rate of carbon dioxide removal? Answering this is critical for understanding the future of our climate and devising sound climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.”

    Photosynthesis, the process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria convert the Sun’s energy into sugars for food, requires the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This occurs during daylight hours. But through day and night, these same organisms also perform respiration, just like us, “breathing” out carbon dioxide.

    Being able to better quantify the balance of these two processes across all the components of land-based ecosystems—from soil microbes to trees and everything in between—and to understand their sensitivity to warming, will improve scientists’ models for climate change scenarios.

    In recent years, researchers—including Carnegie’s Joe Berry—have developed groundbreaking approaches for measuring the amount of carbon dioxide taken up by plants through photosynthesis, such as using satellites to monitor global photosynthetic activity and measuring the concentration of the atmospheric trace gas carbonyl sulfide.

    But, until now, developing similar tools to track respiration at the scale of entire biomes or continents has not been possible. As a result, respiration is often indirectly estimated as the difference between photosynthesis and the overall uptake of carbon dioxide.

    “We set out to develop a new way to infer how respiration is affected by changes in temperature over various ecosystems in North America,” said Sun. “This is absolutely crucial for refining our climate change projections and for informing mitigation strategies.”

    Michalak, Sun, and their colleagues developed a new way to infer at large scales how much respiration increases when temperatures warm using measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. These measurements were taken by a network of dozens of monitoring stations across North America.

    The team revealed that atmospheric observations suggest lower temperature sensitivities of respiration than represented in most state-of-the-art models. They also found that this sensitivity differs between forests and croplands. Temperature sensitivities of respiration have not been constrained using observational data at this scale until now, as previous work has focused on sensitivities for much smaller plots of land.

    “The beauty of our approach is that measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from a few dozen well-placed stations can inform carbon fluxes at the scale of entire biomes over North America,” Sun explained. “This enables a more comprehensive understanding of respiration at the continental scale, which will help us assess how future warming affects the biosphere’s ability to retain carbon,” Sun emphasized.

    To their surprise, the researchers found that respiration is less sensitive to warming than previously thought, when viewed at the biome or continental scale. But they caution that this temperature sensitivity is just one piece of a complex puzzle.

    “Although our work indicates that North American ecosystems may be more resilient to warming than plot-scale studies had implied, hitting the brakes on climate change ultimately depends on us ceasing to inject more and more carbon into the atmosphere as quickly as possible. We cannot rely on the natural components of the global carbon cycle to do the heavy lifting for us,” Michalak cautioned. “It is up to us to stop the runaway train.”

    Other members of the research team include: Xiangzhong Luo, Yao Zhang, and Trevor Keenan of University of California Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Yuanyuan Fang of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District; Yoichi P. Shiga of the Universities Space Research Association; and Joshua Fisher of Chapman University.

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    Carnegie Institution for Science

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  • IIASA analysis underpins new 2040 climate targets by EU Advisors

    IIASA analysis underpins new 2040 climate targets by EU Advisors

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    BYLINE: Embargoed until 15 June 2023 00:01 CET

    Newswise — In two new reports, IIASA researchers, with support from colleagues at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), examined the feasibility and fairness of emissions targets and considerations for the European Climate Law. Keywan Riahi, a member of the 15-strong EU Advisory Board and IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program Director, took the lead in conducting the analyses. 

    The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change is an independent board entrusted with the crucial responsibility of providing transparent and scientific guidance to the EU on setting a new emissions reduction target to be achieved by 2040, as well as budgets for greenhouse gas emissions within the EU from 2030 to 2050. This guidance should align with other global commitments, including the Paris Agreement. 

    “The Advisory Board has recommended that the EU should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90-95% by 2040 relative to 1990 levels, having identified pathways that are fair, feasible, and consistent with the EU’s climate commitments. The feasibility and fairness of the Advisory Board’s advice have been substantially informed by two IIASA reports published this week and builds on a long history of hosting climate, emissions, and energy data for the research community, and transparently supporting scientific assessments and policy advice such as the latest IPCC report,” states Riahi, who is also the lead author of various IPCC reports. 

    “From a total of 63 scenarios that were compatible with the target of 1.5°C and the European Climate Law, 27 scenarios were identified with high feasibility concerns. This left us with 36 scenarios that were recommended for further analysis by the Advisory Board,” says author Elina Brutschin, a researcher in the Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program. 

    The database and evaluation of different scenarios form a solid and transparent foundation for the Advisory Board’s recommendations to the EU on reducing emissions. These recommendations are expected to become a part of EU law later this year. IIASA researchers have additionally released a report examining the fairness and equity considerations to the EU’s mitigation challenge. 

    “There are long-standing debates surrounding countries’ historical responsibility for global warming, as well as vulnerability to impacts and the ability to pay for mitigation. The analysis supports a discussion of Europe’s “fair share” and responsibility, that will help determine the EU’s climate ambition both within the EU as well as in international climate negotiations in alignment with the normative principles to which the European Union ascribes,” says Setu Pelz, a researcher in the same group at IIASA. 

    “The findings presented in these reports underscore the importance of ambitious emissions reductions and climate leadership by the EU in responsibly mitigating emissions and limiting the impacts of climate change. This will bring significant and transformative changes to how people live, the economy, and the environment in the EU,” concludes author Edward Byers, a researcher in the Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group.

     

    References

    Byers, E., Brutschin, E., Sferra, F., Luderer, G., Huppmann, D., Kikstra, J., Pietzcker, R., Rodrigues, R., & Riahi, K., 2023. Scenarios processing, vetting and feasibility assessment for the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg.  https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/18828

    Pelz, S., Rogelj, J., Riahi, K., 2023. Evaluating equity in European climate change mitigation pathways for the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg. https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/18830

     

     

    About IIASA:

    The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policymakers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by prestigious research funding agencies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

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    International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

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  • Eddies: Impact on World’s Hottest Oceans

    Eddies: Impact on World’s Hottest Oceans

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    Newswise — Water from the Pacific Ocean flows into the Indian Ocean via the Indonesia Archipelago Seas thanks to a vast network of currents dubbed the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF). The ITF acts as a heat and moisture conveyer belt, transporting warm and nutrient waters. Yet the ITF is neither a steady nor a straight path, but experiences fluctuations and turbulence as it passes through the various sea regions, straits, and passages.

    Currents can sometimes formulate into circular motions, forming a whirlpool-like phenomena. These are known as eddies, and they are prominent in areas where there are strong gradients in temperature, salinity, or velocity. Their rotating motion can cause nutrients from the colder, deeper waters to rise to the surface.

    To investigate the role eddies play in determining the path of the ITF, an international research group has harnessed a high-resolution ocean general circulation model that reproduces eddies. The group featured researchers from Tohoku University, JAMSTEC, Kyushu University, the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, and the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia.

    Details of their research were reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans on May 14, 2023.

    The group’s model enabled them to calculate the transport of simulated particles in a daily-averaged flow field with eddies and a monthly-averaged flow field with smoothed eddy currents, respectively, and estimate the flow rate transported by the simulated particles.

    In the Sulawesi Sea, which is situated along the northeastern coast of Borneo and also borders the southern Filipino island of Mindanao, the Sulu archipelago, and Sulawesi Island’s western coast, the group found that large flow fluctuations occur, and seawater circulates over a wider area for an extended period. Seawater also rises from the middle to near the surface, which may cause significant changes in the water when flowing through due to turbulent mixing.
    On the eastern side of Sulawesi Island sits the Banda Sea, which surrounds the Maluku Islands and borders the islands of New Guinea and Timor. Here, the current fluctuation is slight, and the model predicted negligible influence from the eddies on the Indonesian Current.

    “Our results indicate that the path and residence time of the ITF, along with the mixing process of seawater, must be appropriately reproduced by an ocean general circulation model to gain further insights into and better predict sea surface temperature fluctuations in each region of the Indonesian Archipelago,” points out Toshio Suga, professor of physical oceanography at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Science and co-author of the paper.

    Global warming’s progression is expected to change the ITF. Such changes could have profound repercussions for water temperatures in the Indonesia Archipelago and the Indian Ocean, El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole, and the frequency and scale of marine heatwaves that affect marine ecosystems and local weather. Therefore, it is vital to predict accurately such phenomena.

    Looking ahead, the group hopes to improve the accuracy of future predictions by clarifying the degree to which eddies impact the path and residence time of the ITF, something quantitatively linked to the determination of water temperature in these areas.

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    Tohoku University

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  • How aircraft can fly through smoke-filled skies

    How aircraft can fly through smoke-filled skies

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    Navigating smoke-filled skies may seem like a new challenge to those in the Eastern United States, but aerospace researchers have long been preparing aircraft to fly under just such conditions. Professor Jeffrey Bons of The Ohio State University is an expert in the field of particulate deposition, the study of dust/sand/salt/pollutant build up on aircraft engines. His laboratory is internationally renowned for maximizing the efficiency of gas turbine engines operating in particulate-filled atmospheric conditions, like those occurring downwind of wildfires. While not typical of the skies above most of the U.S., similar conditions are commonly encountered in flights over deserts, active volcanoes and highly polluted areas. Professor Bons can discuss advanced technology used in gas turbine jet engines to mitigate the risks of airborne particulate build up, including decreased performance and engine failure.

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    Ohio State University

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  • Record-high greenhouse emissions fuel unprecedented global warming

    Record-high greenhouse emissions fuel unprecedented global warming

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    • Human-induced warming averaged 1.14°C over the last decade  

    • A record level of greenhouse gases is being emitted each year, equivalent to 54 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide 

    • The remaining carbon budget – how much carbon dioxide can be emitted to have a better than 50% chance of holding global warming to 1.5°C – has halved over three years  

    • Leading scientists have today launched a project to update key climate indicators every year, so people can be kept informed about critical aspects of global warming  

    Newswise — Human-caused global warming has continued to increase at an “unprecedented rate” since the last major assessment of the climate system published two years ago, say 50 leading scientists.   

    One of the researchers said the analysis was a “timely wake-up call” that the pace and scale of climate action has been insufficient, and it comes as climate experts meet in Bonn to prepare the ground for the major COP28 climate conference in the UAE in December, which will include a stocktake of progress towards keeping global warming to 1.5°C by 2050.   

    Given the speed at which the global climate system is changing, the scientists argue that policymakers, climate negotiators and civil society groups need to have access to up-to-date and robust scientific evidence on which to base decisions.   

    The authoritative source of scientific information on the state of the climate is the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) but the turnaround time for its major assessments is five or ten years, and that creates an “information gap”, particularly when climate indicators are changing rapidly.  

    In an initiative being led by the University of Leeds, the scientists have developed an open data, open science platform – the Indicators of Global Climate Change and website (https://igcc.earth/. It will update information on key climate indicators every year.  

    Critical decade for climate change 

    The Indicators of Global Climate Change Project is being co-ordinated by Professor Piers Forster, Director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at Leeds. He said: “This is the critical decade for climate change.   

     “Decisions made now will have an impact on how much temperatures will rise and the degree and severity of impacts we will see as a result.   

    “Long-term warming rates are currently at a long-term high, caused by highest-ever levels of greenhouse gas emissions. But there is evidence that the rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions has slowed. 

    “We need to be nimble footed in the face of climate change. We need to change policy and approaches in the light of the latest evidence about the state of the climate system. Time is no longer on our side. Access to up-to-date information is vitally important.” 

    Writing in the journal Earth System Science Data, the scientists have revealed how key indicators have changed since the publication of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Working Group 1 report in 2021- which produced the key data that fed into the subsequent IPCC Sixth Synthesis Report. 

    What the updated indicators show  

    Human-induced warming, largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels, reached an average of 1.14°C for the most recent decade (2013 to 2022) above pre-industrial levels. This is up from 1.07°C between 2010 and 2019.  

    Human-induced warming is now increasing at a pace of over 0.2°C per decade.  

    The analysis also found that greenhouse gas emissions were “at an all-time high”, with human activity resulting in the equivalent of 54 (+/-5.3) gigatonnes (or billion metric tonnes) of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere on average every year over the last decade (2012-2021).  

    There has been positive move away from burning coal, yet this has come at a short-term cost in that it has added to global warming by reducing particulate pollution in the air, which has a cooling effect.   

    ‘Indicators critical to address climate crisis’ 

    Professor Maisa Rojas Corradi, Minister of the Environment in Chile, IPCC author and a scientist involved in this study, said: “An annual update of key indicators of global change is critical in helping the international community and countries to keep the urgency of addressing the climate crisis at the top of the agenda and for evidence-based decision-making. 

    “In line with the “ratchet-mechanism” of increasing ambition envisioned by the Paris Agreement we need scientific information about emissions, concentration, and temperature as often as possible to keep international climate negotiations up to date and to be able to adjust and if necessary correct national policies.  

    “In the case of Chile, we have a climate change law that aims at aligning government-wide policies with climate action.” 

    Remaining carbon budget  

    One of the major findings of the analysis is the rate of decline in what is known as the remaining carbon budget, an estimate of how much carbon that can be released into the atmosphere to give a 50% chance of keeping global temperature rise within 1.5°C.   

    In 2020, the IPCC calculated the remaining carbon budget was around 500 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. By the start of 2023, the figure was roughly half that at around 250 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide.   

    The reduction in the estimated remaining carbon budget is due to a combination of continued emissions since 2020 and updated estimates of human-induced warming.   

    Professor Forster said: “Even though we are not yet at 1.5°C warming, the carbon budget will likely be exhausted in only a few years as we have a triple whammy of heating from very high CO2 emissions, heating from increases in other GHG emissions and heating from reductions in pollution.  

    “If we don’t want to see the 1.5°C goal disappearing in our rearview mirror, the world must work much harder and urgently at bringing emissions down. 

    “Our aim is for this project to help the key players urgently make that important work happen with up-to-date and timely data at their fingertips.”   

    Dr Valérie Masson-Delmotte, from the Université Paris Saclay who co-chaired Working Group 1 of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment report and was involved in the climate indicators project, said: “This robust update shows intensifying heating of our climate driven by human activities. It is a timely wake up call for the 2023 global stocktake of the Paris Agreement – the pace and scale of climate action is not sufficient to limit the escalation of climate-related risks.” 

    As recent IPCC reports have conclusively shown, with every further increment of global warming, the frequency and intensity of climate extremes, including hot extremes, heavy rainfall and agricultural droughts, increases.  

    The Indicators of Global Climate Change (https://igcc.earth/) will have annually updated information on greenhouse gas emissions, human-induced global warming and the remaining carbon budget.   

    The website extends a successful climate dashboard called the Climate Change Tracker which was created by software developers who took ideas from the finance industry on how to present complex information to the public.   

    What the analysis revealed 

    Climate Indicator  

    Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)  

    Latest value  

    Greenhouse gas emissions (decadal average)  

    53 GtCO2e (2010-2019)  

    54 Gt CO2e (2012-2021)  

    Human-induced warming since preindustrial times  

    1.07°C  

    1.14°C  

    Remaining carbon budget (1.5C, 50% chance)  

    500 GtCO2  

    About 250 GtCO2 and very uncertain  

    Headline results from the paper Indicators of Global Climate Change 2022: Annual update of large-scale indicators of the state of the climate system and the human influence.  “AR6” refers to approximately 2019 and “Now” refers to 2022.  The AR6 period decadal average greenhouse gas emissions are our re-evaluated assessment for 2010-2019. 

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    University of Leeds

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  • Pigeons’ dreamscapes

    Pigeons’ dreamscapes

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    Dreams have been considered a hallmark of human sleep for a long time. Latest findings, however, suggest that when pigeons sleep, they might experience visions of flight. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence studied brain activation patterns in sleeping pigeons, using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

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    Ruhr-Universitat Bochum

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  • Mimetic interactions: Bombardier vs. assassin

    Mimetic interactions: Bombardier vs. assassin

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    Newswise — Animals can defend themselves against their natural enemies in various ways. Well-defended species often share conspicuous body colors with other well-defended or undefended species, forming mimetic interactions. Bombardier beetles eject toxic chemicals at a temperature of 100°C to repel enemies such as frogs, and many have warning body colors that function to deter enemies. An assassin bug, Sirthenea flavipes, exhibits a conspicuous body color similar to the bombardier beetle Pheropsophus occipitalis jessoensis which coexist with the assassin bug in the same habitat in Japan (Fig. 1). The assassin bug can stab with its proboscis, causing severe pain in humans. Although both insects are well defended, the mimetic interaction between the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug remains unclear.

    Japanese entomologists Shinji Sugiura (Kobe University) and Masakazu Hayashi (Hoshizaki Green Foundation) found that the bombardier beetle P. occipitalis jessoensis has a stronger defense against a shared predator compared to the assassin bug S. flavipes. They also showed that both the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug benefit from the mimetic interaction via the shared predator. Their research appears in the 6 June 2023 issue of PeerJ.

    In central Japan, the pond frog Pelophylax nigromaculatus coexists with the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug in the same habitat. The pond frog, which is well known as a predator of various insects, could potentially attack the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug under field conditions. The researchers observed the behavioral response of pond frogs to bombardier beetles and assassin bugs under laboratory conditions (see video). Among the frogs, 100% rejected bombardier beetles and 75% rejected assassin bugs (Fig. 2), suggesting that the bombardier beetle is better defended against frogs than the assassin bug. The researchers also provided a bombardier beetle or an assassin bug to a frog that had encountered the other insect. Frogs that had previously encountered one insect species were less likely to attack the other species (Fig. 3). Specifically, a history of encounter with assassin bugs reduced the rate of attack on bombardier beetles by frogs from 75.0% to 21.7% (Fig. 3). A history of encounter with bombardier beetles reduced the rate of attack on assassin bugs by frogs from 91.3% to 40.0% (Fig. 3). Therefore, the mimetic interaction between the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug may be mutualistic.

     

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    Kobe University

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  • Direct air capture technology licensed to Knoxville-based Holocene

    Direct air capture technology licensed to Knoxville-based Holocene

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    Newswise — An innovative and sustainable chemistry developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory for capturing carbon dioxide from air has been licensed to Holocene, a Knoxville-based startup focused on designing and building plants that remove carbon dioxide from atmospheric air.

    “ORNL is tackling climate change by developing numerous technologies that reduce or eliminate emissions,” said Susan Hubbard, ORNL deputy for science and technology. “But with billions of tons of carbon dioxide already in the air, we must capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow and reverse the effects of climate change.”

    “Direct air capture allows us to collect legacy emissions,” said Radu Custelcean, a scientist in ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division and inventor of the licensed technology. “Our technology is one of the few approaches that can do that. It offers a new, energy-efficient approach to removing CO2 directly from air.”

    In direct air capture, a large fan pulls air through a contacting chamber where the air interacts with chemical compounds that filter and capture carbon dioxide. The CO2 can then be released from the capture material and stored deep underground.

    Holocene’s founder and chief executive officer Anca Timofte said there are several chemical approaches to direct air capture, or DAC, each with benefits and drawbacks.

    “ORNL’s chemistry combines the best features of existing approaches to DAC to create a water-based, low-temperature process,” she said.

    Custelcean’s process uses an aqueous solution containing ORNL-discovered receptors called Bis-iminoguanidine, or BIGs, to absorb carbon dioxide. As this happens, BIGs turn into an insoluble crystalline salt, which can easily be separated from the liquid solution. Custelcean and his research team discovered this new chemistry by chance while conducting fundamental crystallization experiments. The resulting Bis-Iminoguanidine Negative Emission Technology, or BIG-NET, received an R&D 100 Award in 2021.

    The BIGs discovery propelled Custelcean’s research in a new direction.

    “Doing basic research under DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences program, I have the flexibility to change direction if I find something interesting,” Custelcean said. “The basic research allows us to better understand all the elementary reactions and processes involved. But through licensing, we get to see a progression with our partners in the development of the technology. We’re involved in the full spectrum of research.”

    Timofte, originally from Romania, has a background in chemical engineering and worked at one of the world’s first direct air capture companies, Switzerland-based Climeworks. She contributed to the design of the company’s largest plant, which is in Iceland. With a growing interest in the market and finance aspects of carbon capture, she left Climeworks to enroll in the Master of Business Administration program at Stanford University to focus on climate technology and entrepreneurship.

    Timofte avidly followed the published literature around carbon capture. Custelcean’s publications caught her eye — she recognized the name as being Romanian — and she saw how his chemistry could address the major hurdles of the two established direct air capture processes.

    “The more I learned about his research, the more I saw the potential and the more I wanted to start my own company to pursue it,” she said. “With the encouragement of my professors, I founded Holocene and licensed the technology so I could work on it in a lab and think more about commercialization.”

    With Holocene established and the ORNL technology licensed, Timofte is further developing her business plans through Innovation Crossroads, a DOE Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program funded by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, Building Technologies Office and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

    “When you’re in the position of starting a new company, having a group of mentors like the ones at Innovation Crossroads and the ability to work with ORNL is very appealing,” Timofte said. “I was happy to get into the program. It helps with the normal challenges that all startups have, but also very importantly, it connects us with the local ecosystem in Knoxville and gives us access to the scientists who developed the chemistry. We can work together and transfer knowledge — we can learn more about how the licensed technology works, work on features, troubleshoot issues, de-risk and optimize the chemistry. It’s a nice continuation of the collaboration.”

    Innovation Crossroads provides Holocene with a two-year cooperative research and development agreement to continue working with Custelcean and ORNL. Through this partnership, Holocene staff learn more about the science behind the technology, troubleshoot issues in testing and scale-up and connect with mentors at the lab and in the community.

    “Holocene is a great example of how the interconnected climate tech ecosystem can support a new company through the stages of development,” said Dan Miller, Innovation Crossroads program lead.

    Timofte is a Breakthrough Energy Fellow, a program launched by Breakthrough Energy — which was founded by Bill Gates — focused on accelerating innovation in sustainable energy and other technologies to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Holocene is also part of the Spark Incubator Program, an entrepreneurial support program at the University of Tennessee Research Park’s Spark Innovation Center.

    Next up, Holocene and ORNL will conduct bench-scale testing funded by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management with the aim of using ORNL’s chemistry to further develop and deploy direct air capture at a commercial scale.

    ORNL senior commercialization manager Alex DeTrana negotiated the terms of the license. To connect with Holocene, complete this online contact form.

    The invention development team includes ORNL’s Costas Tsouris, Gyoung Gug Jang and Diana Stamberga. Charles Seipp and Neil Williams, formerly of ORNL, also participated. Read more about Custelcean’s carbon-removal research work.

    UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

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  • Reviving Underwater Forest Inspires Global Marine Restoration

    Reviving Underwater Forest Inspires Global Marine Restoration

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    Newswise — Human actions have caused significant harm to ecosystems and biodiversity worldwide, but there is a glimmer of hope for the future through ecosystem restoration. Researchers investigating the rejuvenation of underwater seaweed forests, crucial for nourishing and sheltering various species, have discovered that a decade of restoration endeavors has enabled a damaged forest to recover to a level of abundance and vitality similar to undisturbed forests.

    Dr. Emma Cebrian, the lead author of the study published in Frontiers in Marine Science and affiliated with the Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes, emphasized the significance of macroalgal forests, which are present on more than a third of the world’s coastlines and serve as the foundation for entire ecosystems. The study focused on the restoration efforts carried out in the Bay of Maó, Menorca, in 2011, where a species of macroalgae was reintroduced to its former thriving habitat. The researchers observed that after a decade, the associated algal species returned to the area, accompanied by the reestablishment of ecosystem functions they provide.

    Under the sea

    In their study, Dr. Cebrian and her team employed a trait-based methodology to examine the functional restoration of seaweed forests. They aimed to establish a connection between the restoration efforts and the forest’s ability to function similarly to its pre-damaged state. Specifically, the researchers focused on Gongolaria barbata, a critical “canopy-forming” species that plays a crucial role in sustaining seaweed forests. By investigating five different locations of this species, the team aimed to gain insights into how the restoration of such key species can contribute to the revitalization of the entire ecosystem.

    Cristina Galobart, the study’s first author, who is also affiliated with the Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes, highlighted the significance of canopy-forming macroalgae among all seaweeds. She likened their role to that of trees in a terrestrial forest, as they provide essential structure to the ecosystem. By altering factors such as light and water flow, these macroalgae have a profound influence on the local environment. This, in turn, leads to the creation of ecological niches that can be exploited by other species, allowing them to thrive and benefit from these modifications.

    In the assessment of restoration projects, particularly in marine ecosystems where such initiatives are less established, there is a tendency to focus on short timescales. However, projects involving slowly maturing species require longer durations for comprehensive evaluation. While we have gained understanding regarding the restoration of vegetation structure and species diversity, lingering questions remain regarding how an ecosystem regains its functional capabilities over time.

    In order to assess the functioning of the ecosystem, it is crucial to examine quantifiable traits in the target species that reflect the overall health of the ecosystem. The research team opted to investigate a comprehensive set of 14 traits, including characteristics such as specimen size and the growth rate of species with longer lifespans or slower growth patterns. The presence of species that require more time to mature or grow larger can serve as an indicator of a healthier ecosystem, as it suggests that the environment is better equipped to support their needs.

    The research team examined several distinct locations to gather data for their study. These included an actively restored locality, where restoration activities had been taking place for a decade, a nearby locality where the restored macroalgae had expanded beyond the initial restoration area, a neighboring locality that had not undergone restoration, and two reference localities that had remained undisturbed. Samples were collected from each location for further identification and analysis. Subsequently, the samples were dried and weighed to quantify the abundance of each species present.

    Growing strong

    The team’s findings revealed that the restored locality exhibited a greater diversity of species compared to the untouched locality and the area where restoration efforts had spread beyond the initial boundaries. Interestingly, the restored locality showcased a similar species composition to the reference samples, indicating a successful restoration outcome. Furthermore, the restored locality exhibited a higher level of functional richness compared to one of the reference forests, even though it did not consist of the exact species that the scientists had initially anticipated.

    The study highlighted that restored ecosystems may comprise different species compared to their original counterparts while still fulfilling similar ecological niches and supporting local biodiversity. The restored locality displayed enhanced structural complexity and encompassed species with longer lifespans, indicating a crucial sign of long-term recovery. This aspect is significant as it increases the potential for the seaweed forest to provide shelter and support to other organisms. Moreover, the increased diversity in the restored locality holds promising implications for the future. A more diverse seaweed forest has the potential to better respond to environmental challenges, ensuring its resilience and sustainability.

    “We demonstrated that a single restoration action, plus the removal of the cause of degradation, can lead to the recovery of not only a single species but also the associated ecosystem functions,” said Cebrian. “Adding information from other restoration initiatives will help to completely understand how functionality is recovered in different habitats, species, or environmental conditions.”

     

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    Frontiers

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