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Also read: 10 most successful afforestation efforts that are turning the planet green
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Tag: Nature
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Climate Change Likely to Uproot More Amazon Trees
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Newswise — Tropical forests are crucial for sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But they’re also subject to intense storms that can cause “windthrow” – the uprooting or breaking of trees. These downed trees decompose, potentially turning a forest from a carbon sink into a carbon source.
A new study finds that more extreme thunderstorms from climate change will likely cause a greater number of large windthrow events in the Amazon rainforest. This is one of the few ways that researchers have developed a link between storm conditions in the atmosphere and forest mortality on land, helping fill a major gap in models.
“Building this link between atmospheric dynamics and damage at the surface is very important across the board,” said Jeff Chambers, a senior faculty scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and director of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE)-Tropics project, which performed the research. “It’s not just for the tropics. It’s high-latitude, low-latitude, temperate-latitude, here in the U.S.”
Researchers found that the Amazon will likely experience 43% more large blowdown events (of 25,000 square meters or more) by the end of the century. The area of the Amazon likely to see extreme storms that trigger large windthrows will also increase by about 50%. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications on Jan. 6.
“We want to know what these extreme storms and windthrows mean in terms of the carbon budget and carbon dynamics, and for carbon sinks in the forests,” Chambers said. While downed trees slowly release carbon as they decompose, the open forest becomes host to new plants that pull carbon dioxide from the air. “It’s a complicated system, and there are still a lot of pieces of the puzzle that we’re working on. In order to answer the question more quantitatively, we need to build out the land-atmosphere links in Earth system models.”
To find the link between air and land, researchers compared a map of more than 1,000 large windthrows with atmospheric data. They found that a measurement known as CAPE, the “convective available potential energy,” was a good predictor of major blowdowns. CAPE measures the amount of energy available to move parcels of air vertically, and a high value of CAPE often leads to thunderstorms. More extreme storms can come with intense vertical winds, heavy rains or hail, and lightning, which interact with trees from the canopy down to the soil.
“Storms account for over half of the forest mortality in the Amazon,” said Yanlei Feng, first author on the paper. “Climate change has a lot of impact on Amazon forests, but so far, a large fraction of the research focus has been on drought and fire. We hope our research brings more attention to extreme storms and improves our models to work under a changing environment from climate change.”
While this study looked at a future with high carbon emissions (a scenario known as SSP-585), scientists could use projected CAPE data to explore windthrow impacts in different emissions scenarios. Researchers are now working to integrate the new forest-storm relationship into Earth system models. Better models will help scientists explore how forests will respond to a warmer future – and whether they can continue to siphon carbon out of the atmosphere or will instead become a contributor.
“This was a very impactful climate change study for me,” said Feng, who completed the research as a graduate student researcher in the NGEE-Tropics project at Berkeley Lab. She now studies carbon capture and storage at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University. “I’m worried about the projected increase in forest disturbances in our study and I hope I can help limit climate change. So now I’m working on climate change solutions.”
NGEE-Tropics is a ten-year, multi-institutional project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
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Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and 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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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
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Loss of glaciers faster than expected
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Newswise — How will our glaciers change during the 21st century? In a new study whose findings are published in Science (5 January), an international team1, including scientists from the CNRS and Université Toulouse III–Paul Sabatier, has demonstrated a loss of glacial mass greater than earlier projected—and specifically, 11% to 44% higher than estimates used in the most recent IPCC report. Small glaciers (<1 km2) predominate on our planet, and they are the most impacted by mass loss. In the scenario where global warming is limited to 1.5 °C, 49% of the world’s glaciers, the majority of the small ones , are expected to disappear by 2100, prompting a 9-cm sea level rise. The largest glaciers would also be affected but would not disappear. If, on the other hand, temperatures rise by 4 °C, neither small nor large glaciers will be spared: 83% would disappear and there would be a 15.4-cm sea level rise. To reach their conclusions, the team of scientists relied on the observations of a study that quantified widespread, accelerated glacial mass loss around the world between 2000 and 2019. These earlier data allowed them to calibrate their mathematical model, developed especially for the work presented in their publication, for each and every one of the >215 thousand glaciers on Earth. The model also accounts for processes not previously represented, such as mass loss due to iceberg calving and the effect of a layer of debris on the surface of a glacier. Shrinkage of the greatest glaciers, like those in Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, and around Antarctica, key to future sea level rise, may still be limited if we implement measures to mitigate global warming.
1In France, this study incluted scientists from the Laboratoire d’étude en géophysique et océanographie spatiales (CNRS/CNES/IRD/Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III).
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CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique / National Center of Scientific Research)
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Nature conservation needs to incorporate the human approach
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Newswise — An international study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) stresses the need to apply a biocultural approach in nature conservation programs.
When deciding which aspects of nature to protect, conservationists have largely relied on ecological criteria that define the vulnerability and resilience of species. However, there is a growing call to broaden conservation criteria to include human aspects as well.
A new article led by ICREA Professor at ICTA-UAB Victoria Reyes-García and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) argues that new biocultural approaches are needed to introduce means to connect humans and other components of nature in order to achieve nature stewardship.
“The focus on ecological criteria alone has failed to halt our biodiversity crisis,” says Victoria Reyes-García, who explains that “this has also created unintended injustices on Indigenous peoples and local communities worldwide.
According to the researchers, the purely ecological approach, sans humans, risks perpetuating existing inequalities. For example, while proposals to safeguard 30-50% of the planet against extraction or development is sound conservation math, such proposals “face opposition”, on the grounds that they might increase the negative social impacts of conservation actions and pose immediate risks for people whose livelihoods directly depend on nature”, they say.
“Conservation is designed to reduce or remove human impacts on species to give some breathing room to those species to recover,” noted Ben Halpern, coauthor on the study and Director of UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS). “However, if taking those actions limits opportunities for people to engage with the species that define their culture and their values, the conservation will have no sticking power and can actually harm those cultures and people.”
To help implement this biocultural approach, the research team compiled the most comprehensive list thus far of culturally important species: 385 wild species (mostly plants) that have a recognized role in supporting cultural identity, as they are generally the basis for religious, spiritual and social cohesion, and provide a common sense of place, purpose and belonging.
The list of species is part of a proposed framework and metric — a “biocultural status” — that combines information on the biological as well as the cultural conservation status of different components of nature.
“We realized that prevailing classifications based on how vulnerable species are did not consider any of their cultural importance to people,” says Sandra Díaz, a researcher at CONICET and the National University of Córdoba. “Without the acknowledgement and protection of local, special relationships to nature that sustain some populations — often Indigenous — we risk losing an important dimension of conservation,” she adds.
“When the human cultures that use and value an animal or plant species are lost, a whole body of values, of knowledge about that species is lost too, even if the organism itself does not go extinct. Our relationship with the natural world becomes impoverished,” notes Diaz.
Conversely, according to the authors, recognizing the connections between people and nature and incorporating them into decision-making could enable actions based on both ecological conservation priorities and cultural values, while aligning with local priorities. The study’s focus on culturally important species could pave the way for mechanisms to enable the adoption of biocultural approaches, which has so far proven difficult.
The paper comes at a timely moment, as the Convention on Biological Diversity prepares for the next set of biodiversity goals such as the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
“As the conservation community increasingly seeks to include diverse worldviews, knowledge and values in nature management and restoration, the framework and metric proposed here offer a concrete mechanism that combines local perspectives on which species are culturally important, with scientific assessments of the biological and cultural status of those species,” Reyes-García says. “Together, they provide an actionable way to guide decisions and operationalize global actions oriented to enhance place-based practices, such as those of Indigenous people, that have supported the conservation of social-ecological systems over the long term.” To sustain culturally important species, according to the authors, society will need a more complete list of these species’ conservation status, and ultimately, direct greater support to the cultures that value them.
According to co-author Rodrigo Cámara-Leret of the University of Zurich, one of the most important messages in this study is that conservation assessments have largely overlooked species that matter to local cultures, underscoring a big communication gap between local people and the academic community, and even between the natural and social sciences.
“To close this communication gap and foster more equitable conservation, we need to promote more long-term engagement with local communities to develop and maintain truly collaborative conservation partnerships,” he says. “For this to happen, there are growing calls for academic institutions to recalibrate how they judge impact, and for donor agencies to step up to the challenge of supporting longer research projects that take time, but which are highly effective in knowledge generation and promoting biocultural conservation.”
ICTA-UABs strategic research program, promoted within the framework of the María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence 2020-2023, granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, is structured around 5 interrelated Societal Challenges, focused on Oceans. Land. Cities, Consumption and Policies. Investigating these Societal Challenges is critical to envision a transition towards a sustainable Earth. This research is part of the Societal Challenges Land and Policy.
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Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
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Study reveals the true value of elephants
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Newswise — New research examining the services and benefits of elephants has revealed many values are often overlooked when deciding how they should be protected.
The collaboration between universities in England and South Africa, including the University of Portsmouth, found conservation strategies often have a narrow focus and tend to prioritise certain values of nature, such as economic or ecological, over moral ones.
When looking specifically at elephants, the study found financial benefits including ecotourism, trophy hunting and as a source of ivory or labour, often conflicts with the animal’s ecological, cultural and spiritual contributions.
The authors argue not fully understanding or considering the value systems of all stakeholders involved in conservation, including local people, leads to social inequality, conflict and unsustainable strategies.
Study co-author Antoinette van de Water, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, said: “We chose to look at elephants as the case study because their conservation can be especially challenging and contentious.
“We’re not saying economic contributions aren’t important, but there’s a lot of different values at play and they all need to be considered in conservation strategies if they are going to succeed.”
The study also highlights conservation decision makers tend to take a single worldview when considering the value of nature.
Co-author Dr Lucy Bates, from the University of Portsmouth, explained: “Whether it’s economic, ecological, or social, a blanket approach to values can impact the success of a conservation strategy.
“Consider something like the ivory trade for example. International trade in ivory is illegal, but many southern African countries want to restart the trade leading to contention across the African continent. If you focus less on the potential economic value of ivory, and turn to other ways elephants can support communities, it can be a game-changer.
“On a smaller scale, you can also apply this framework to defining protected areas and what land could be made available to elephants. By listening to those living in these areas, you can get a clear understanding of how decisions will affect human life as well, and work out ways to resolve any issues.”
The paper, published in Ecosystems Services, says nature’s non-material benefits include recreation, inspiration, mental health, and social cohesion.
But it points out broader moral values, such as human rights, environmental justice, rights of nature and intergenerational legacy, also have a big part to play in the success of conservation.
The study recommends incorporating moral values related to biodiversity conservation into the valuation framework to create a positive loop between benefits to humans and to nature.
The researchers believe that this approach will help policymakers and managers have a better understanding of what elephants mean to people, why elephants are important in themselves, and what values and interests are at stake. It can also be applied to other species and ecosystems.
“What is really needed is a change of thinking”, added Antoinette van de Water.
“Conservation policies are often based on price tags. Our pluralist valuation system provides solutions that are not based on economic gains or political status for the few, but instead on long-term common good and the goals and aspirations of societies.”
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University of Portsmouth
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Dynamical fractal discovered in clean magnetic crystal
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Newswise — The nature and properties of materials depend strongly on dimension. Imagine how different life in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional world would be from the three dimensions we’re commonly accustomed to. With this in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that fractals – objects with fractional dimension – have garnered significant attention since their discovery. Despite their apparent strangeness, fractals arise in surprising places – from snowflakes and lightning strikes to natural coastlines.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge, the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, the University of Tennessee, and the Universidad Nacional de La Plata have uncovered an altogether new type of fractal appearing in a class of magnets called spin ices. The discovery was surprising because the fractals were seen in a clean three-dimensional crystal, where they conventionally would not be expected. Even more remarkably, the fractals are visible in dynamical properties of the crystal, and hidden in static ones. These features motivated the appellation of “emergent dynamical fractal”.
The fractals were discovered in crystals of the material dysprosium titanate, where the electron spins behave like tiny bar magnets. These spins cooperate through ice rules that mimic the constraints that protons experience in water ice. For dysprosium titanate, this leads to very special properties.
Jonathan Hallén of the University of Cambridge is a PhD student and the lead author on the study. He explains that “at temperatures just slightly above absolute zero the crystal spins form a magnetic fluid.” This is no ordinary fluid, however.
“With tiny amounts of heat the ice rules get broken in a small number of sites and their north and south poles, making up the flipped spin, separate from each other traveling as independent magnetic monopoles.”
The motion of these magnetic monopoles led to the discovery here. As Professor Claudio Castelnovo, also from the University of Cambridge, points out: “We knew there was something really strange going on. Results from 30 years of experiments didn’t add up.”
Referring to a new study on the magnetic noise from the monopoles published earlier this year, Castelnovo continued, “After several failed attempts to explain the noise results, we finally had a eureka moment, realizing that the monopoles must be living in a fractal world and not moving freely in three dimensions, as had always been assumed.”
In fact, this latest analysis of the magnetic noise showed the monopole’s world needed to look less than three-dimensional, or rather 2.53 dimensional to be precise! Professor Roderich Moessner, Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Germany, and Castelnovo proposed that the quantum tunneling of the spins themselves could depend on what the neighboring spins were doing.
As Hallén explained, “When we fed this into our models, fractals immediately emerged. The configurations of the spins were creating a network that the monopoles had to move on. The network was branching as a fractal with exactly the right dimension.”
But why had this been missed for so long?
Hallén elaborated that, “this wasn’t the kind of static fractal we normally think of. Instead, at longer times the motion of the monopoles would actually erase and rewrite the fractal.”
This made the fractal invisible to many conventional experimental techniques.
Working closely with Professors Santiago Grigera of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, and Alan Tennant of the University of Tennessee, the researchers succeeded in unravelling the meaning of the previous experimental works.
“The fact that the fractals are dynamical meant they did not show up in standard thermal and neutron scattering measurements,” said Grigera and Tennant. “It was only because the noise was measuring the monopoles motion that it was finally spotted.”
As regards the significance of the results, which appear in Science this week, Moessner explains: “Besides explaining several puzzling experimental results that have been challenging us for a long time, the discovery of a mechanism for the emergence of a new type of fractal has led to an entirely unexpected route for unconventional motion to take place in three dimensions.”
Overall, the researchers are interested to see what other properties of these materials may be predicted or explained in light of the new understanding provided by their work, including ties to intriguing properties like topology. With spin ice being one of the most accessible instances of a topological magnet, Moessner said, “the capacity of spin ice to exhibit such striking phenomena makes us hopeful that it holds promise of further surprising discoveries in the cooperative dynamics of even simple topological many-body systems.”
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University of Cambridge
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U.S. Announces Nuclear Fusion Energy Breakthrough
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Scientists have successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a major breakthrough in a decades-long quest to unleash an infinite source of clean energy that could help end dependence on fossil fuels. What do you think?
“It’ll take some pretty big fundraising dinners to stop this.”
Debora Emel, Prank Adviser
“If clean energy is so great, why haven’t we invaded anyone for it yet?”
Spencer West, Chief Filer
“I thought we all agreed Earth was more of a run-out-the-clock scenario.”
Malcolm Gareau, PSA Director
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Plant ecologist awarded NSF grant for restoring the culturally important Emory oak
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Newswise — Assistant professor Sara Souther of Northern Arizona University’s School of Earth and Sustainability (SES) is the principal investigator on a major new project focused on restoring a tree species important to the cultural heritage of tribal communities in the Southwest.
Acorns from the Emory oak tree are a critically important resource for the Western Apache tribal nations—including the Yavapai-Apache, Tonto Apache, San Carlos Apache and White Mountain Apache in east and central Arizona—who use it both for food and cultural and ceremonial purposes. Groves of Emory oak have been declining in health and yielding fewer acorns with each harvest for several decades due to loss of habitat, fire suppression, livestock grazing, groundwater reductions, species competition and climate change.
With $1.5 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, Souther will launch a five-year project starting in March entitled “DISES: Restoration of a southwestern cultural keystone species: Integrating socio‐ecological systems to predict resilience of traditional acorn harvest by western Apache communities.” Co-PIs on the multidisciplinary conservation project, representing SES and NAU’s School of Forestry as well as the departments of biology, sociology and geography, planning & recreation, are associate professor Clare Aslan, Regents’ professor Peter Fulé, assistant professor Alark Saxena, associate teaching professor Amanda Stan, associate professor Diana Stuart, professor Andi Thode and associate professor Amy Whipple.
“I am extremely excited to have the resources to explore this amazing social-ecological system. For a long time, I’ve felt that wild harvest and traditional ecological practices and traditions have been viewed as niche issues within the world of conservation. It is thrilling to see this work elevated by the NSF,” Souther said.
“We are taking a holistic landscape-level approach to understand the threats to these woodlands. Emory oaks are a cultural keystone species for western Apache tribes and the dominant oak in the Madrean oak woodlands, which cover around 80,000 km2 across the Southwest and US-Mexico borderlands,” she said. “Despite this, the Madrean oak system is understudied. In order to conserve Emory oak, we need to quickly learn a lot about this ecosystem, and in particular, we must understand what constrains population growth and viability.”
Souther’s work has always focused on understanding ecocultural interactions, supporting communities connected to these landscapes and conserving land and traditions. This funding will support these goals, providing the opportunity to rapidly learn about the Madrean oak woodlands as a coupled human and natural system, she said.
This project builds on work done through the Emory Oak Collaborative Tribal Restoration Initiative (EOCTRI), a collaborative partnership between NAU, the U.S. Forest Service and five different Apache tribes. Their goal is to restore and protect Emory oak stands to ensure the long-term persistence of Emory oak using tribal traditional ecological knowledge to guide goals and activities. Since 2018, the partners have worked together to identify and assess important Emory oak stands, complete clearances and begin implementing restoration and protection activities for several groves. With this new project, the team’s goals are to expand their knowledge of the Emory oak system, support the goals of EOCTRI—to conserve Emory oak trees and the traditional acorn harvest by Western Apache tribes—and provide knowledge to the EOCTRI group according to the ethics of the Chi’Chil Advisory Committee. Watch this video to learn more about EOCTRI’s efforts.
Souther’s project also is related to an initiative that was launched to better understand how to manage ecocultural resources on public lands—the Tribal Nations Botanical Research Collaborative (TNBRC), a U.S. Forest Service Citizen Science program in which volunteers collect information on traditionally used plants that have cultural, medicinal or economic values important to tribal communities. They record observations of these plants using the iNaturalist app on their cell phones. Scientists gather and analyze the data and use it to shape conservation and land management goals for increased sustainability.
Research related to Souther’s roots in rural Appalachia
“My work with the Emory oak builds on my past research on traditional use plant conservation in Appalachia,” Souther said. “I grew up in West Virginia, which has a rich heritage of harvesting wild plants for food, medicine and other essentials. It wasn’t until I went to Paraguay, as a Peace Corps volunteer, that I realized how much of this traditional knowledge had been lost in Appalachian culture. In Paraguay, small children knew the names and uses of all the plants growing in forests and fields nearby—which meant that most children had a working knowledge of hundreds of plants. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, most of this ecological knowledge was held by the elderly and was not actively passed down to youth. I could see our Appalachian culture disappearing, and for me, this ecocultural erosion was devastating. Harvest expeditions in Appalachia, whether to pick ramps (wild onions), blueberries or pawpaw (a fruit related to custard-apples), were part of the experience growing up in West Virginia and important for connecting with family and the land. More broadly, I feel that maintaining human connections to the land is key to human health and well-being and critical to inspire conservation of our wild spaces.”
Project designed to involve students from underrepresented groups
Souther is dedicated to outreach, mentorship and training to promote the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM, and she is using this project as an opportunity to hire several students. Souther is also a co-PI with Amy Whipple on another project designed to increase diversity in STEM targeting post-baccalaureate training for underrepresented groups, principally Indigenous communities.
“Coming from rural Appalachia, I connect with students who may feel like outsiders in STEM fields. It is extremely important to me to support underrepresented groups as they navigate graduate school and academia. My commitment to increasing diversity in STEM fields is personal, since support from NSF and university faculty launched my career, and also practical, because I believe that the sciences will be strengthened by diverse opinions and thinkers.”
The team will recruit four graduate students for this project as well as undergraduate students to support field work in the summer. Applications are available on the lab website.
“The broader impacts of this project will be to advance understanding and predictive modeling of stochastic drought events, which will likely drive ecological change in the Southwest and other arid regions,” Souther said. “Integrating information from Native American tribal collaborators, we will contribute to diversity and inclusion in environmental resource management, ensuring that Indigenous perspectives and needs are incorporated into decision-making.”
She is also working on a two-year project funded through a $538,203 award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration entitled, “Projecting socio-ecological impacts of drought in southwestern ecosystems to prioritize restoration initiatives.” Stuart and Steven Chischilly from the Navajo Technical Institute are co-PIs on this project.
About Northern Arizona University
Founded in 1899, Northern Arizona University is a community-engaged, high-research university that delivers an exceptional student-centered experience to its nearly 28,000 students in Flagstaff, at 22 statewide campuses and online. Building on a 123-year history of distinctive excellence, NAU aims to be the nation’s preeminent engine of opportunity, vehicle of economic mobility and driver of social impact by delivering equitable postsecondary value in Arizona and beyond. NAU is committed to meeting talent with access and excellence through its impactful academic programs and enriching experiences, paving the way to a better future for the diverse students it serves and the communities they represent.
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Northern Arizona University
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Researcher aims to uncover plant invasions in the tropics
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Newswise — Invasive species of plants have a knack for settling in new settings and making big changes to an ecosystem, even leading to extinctions of native species.
Assistant Research Professor in UConn’s Institute of the Environment Julissa Rojas-Sandoval explains that invasive plants are non-native species that have been introduced into new areas generally as a result of human activities, and that they are actively spreading, causing harm to the environment, the economy, and human health. Invasive plants may have significant long-term implications for the conservation of native biodiversity, but to combat the problem, we need to know which plants are invasive, where they’re from, and how they got there.
Rojas-Sandoval leads an international collaboration including researchers from all Central American countries, working together to compile the most comprehensive databases of invasive plant species in Central America. The collaboration is called FINCA: Flora Introduced and Naturalized in Central America, and their first paper was published this week in Biological Invasions.
The collaboration arose to meet a need, says Rojas-Sandoval. “While we have a good understanding of the processes and mechanisms of plant invasions in temperate regions, there is a huge gap in our knowledge about biological invasions in the tropics, and this lack of information is limiting our ability to respond to invasive plants.”
Remediation and the impact on the conservation of biodiversity is an important focus, but invasive plants also threaten the social and economic impact aspects of the region. Rojas-Sandoval points out that for places like her native Costa Rica, which relies on eco-tourism and agriculture, the impacts of not dealing with the invasive species could be significant.
It has been suggested that the huge diversity of plants in tropical regions may provide resistance to invasions, meaning that these ecosystems could be less threatened by invasive species because of the competition between so many different plants, but Rojas-Sandoval has studied this topic for the last 15 years and says the problem is greater than is widely understood.
“Across the tropics, the acceleration in the rates of introduction of non-native plants, as well as increments in the rates of habitat loss and forest degradation, are transforming tropical forests and making them more susceptible and less resistant to invasions,” she says.
Rojas-Sandoval explains that, as the juncture between North and South America, Central America is a regional hotspot of biodiversity, home to about 7% of the world’s plant and animal species. The region is also very vulnerable to climate change, she says:
“Climate models predict more extreme events for Central America, more and stronger hurricanes, droughts, and other impacts related to climate change. But we don’t know how climate change is already impacting both native and invasive plant species across this region. That information is necessary to be able to start doing something.”
Rojas-Sandoval and co-author Eduardo Chacón-Madrigal from the University of Costa Rica seized the opportunity and decided to start collecting and compiling any available information to make a comprehensive checklist necessary to address the challenges posed by invasive plants.
They also reached out to other researchers from across Central America to see if they would be interested in collaborating and the timing was fortunate, says Rojas-Sandoval.
“Due to COVID, people were stuck at home and, despite the many difficulties, we all had extra time to collaborate revising lists of species and providing crucial information for the project,” she says.
The team gathered data from herbarium collections in Central America and from collections around the world as well as references from existing botanical surveys, lists of alien species, and other literature.
“We compiled all this information into a list and then sent it to the experts in different countries so they could evaluate it. Then we did a second verification process because we wanted to be completely sure that we were dealing with species that were 100% alien to the region and to validate the occurrence and classification performed by the experts.
“We were able to identify that species from all over the world have been introduced to different countries in Central America, and more than 60% of them have been introduced for ornamental purposes. It is good that we can identify those species, so we know where to focus for later studies.”
The team also determined that invasive plants have made their way into all the major habitats in Central America, and the trend is steadily increasing. This information can now be used to generate specific recommendations for the governments or for the local authorities, to use their resources in the best ways possible to have an impact in controlling the invasive species, says Rojas-Sandoval, adding that the best remedy is prevention – alerting people to the issues before the plants even arrive.
For invasive plants that have already been established, it will take education, persistence, and resources to deal with the problem. However, another important aspect of the problem is that developing countries often don’t have the additional resources needed to fully address the situation.
“The local authorities and people in Central America and other regions in the tropics are already dealing with so many issues, including poverty, climate change, pollution, and over-exploitation of natural resources that it is even more important to optimize the use of any resources available to mitigate the impact of invasive species,” she says. “This is more bad news for many people dealing with so many problems, and it is crucial to increase awareness and support for the issue of biological invasions in the tropics.
“The sooner we start doing something, the better the results will be.”
The FINCA collaboration also includes: Eduardo Chacón-Madrigal (Universidad de Costa Rica), Lilian Ferrufino-Acosta (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras), Rodolfo Flores (Los Naturalistas, Panama), Omar López (Universidad de Panamá & Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute), AnaLu MacVean (York College), Indiana Coronado (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua), Pablo Galán and Dagoberto Rodríguez (Herbario Jardín Botánico La Laguna, El Salvador), and Yader Ruiz (Universidad de El Salvador).
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University of Connecticut
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Wildlife disease ecologist launches project to help DoD monitor quality of bird habitats on military installations
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Newswise — The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) owns military installations on nearly 27 million acres all over the country—roughly equivalent in size to Virginia—and oversees these lands through a network of natural resource managers. According to the DoD, the program supports “the military’s testing and training mission by protecting its biological resources… and working to ensure the long-term sustainability of our nation’s priceless natural heritage.” One of the program’s top priorities is monitoring and maintaining populations of threatened and endangered species (TES) of birds—especially those that eat insects and other arthropods like spiders, which have been particularly hard hit.
Monitoring the quality of the birds’ habitats, including their typical diets of insects, is one of the most critical ways scientists investigate declining bird populations. The tools the military land managers use to assess diets and habitats are crucial, but the current methods of measuring habitat quality related to the birds’ food resources are time consuming, expensive and require specific biological expertise.
To this end, associate professor Jeff Foster of Northern Arizona University’s Department of Biological Sciences and the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI) was recently awarded a grant by the DoD for a new study, “Demonstration of Metabarcoding for Monitoring Bird Species Habitat Quality on DoD Installations.” This three-year, $900,000 project will focus on five insectivorous species on four military sites:
- Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) and Black-capped Vireo (Vireo atricapilla) at Fort Hood, Texas
- Least Bell’s Vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) at Camp Pendleton, California
- Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin
- Oahu Elepaio (Chasiempis ibidis) at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
Advanced approach focuses on bioinformatics, metabarcoding
Metabarcoding is a technique that enables scientists to identify multiple species of plants or animals on a large scale based on rapid, high-throughput environmental DNA sequencing, which represents a huge technological step forward.
“We’ll assess habitat quality by using advanced genetic approaches to measure arthropod food resources in bird diets and from the vegetation on which these birds forage,” Foster said. “Our three primary objectives are to demonstrate the effectiveness of metabarcoding of bird diets and food resources; compare this genetic approach to conventional approaches that employ visual identification of arthropods using microscopes; provide user-friendly guidance to military land managers so they can understand the process and use this approach for monitoring in the future.
“The bioinformatics can be challenging and daunting if you’re first getting into DNA metabarcoding, so we’ll provide an established workflow that we can share with the land managers.”
The team will collect fecal samples from the birds (bird poop) and arthropod samples, perform bioinformatic and chemical composition analyses, validate the technology by comparing it to conventional methods, develop guidance documents and lead hands-on technical workshops for the military land managers. This will be the most in-depth diet analysis of birds on military installations done to date.
Foster brings his expertise as well as that of PMI to the project. “There’s much more to metabarcoding work than simply sequencing a gene. And here’s where our team excels. We use tools developed over the past 13 years for analyzing the human microbiome. NAU professor Greg Caporaso and his team at PMI have developed many of these tools, so we have considerable technical expertise in analyses, including understanding reference libraries of sequences and developing the analytical software.”
Collaborators include military scientists and undergraduate researcher
Foster will work closely with co-principal investigators Jinelle Sperry and Aron Katz from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineer Research Laboratory, as well as with collaborators at each of the installations.
NAU undergraduate researcher Hannah Brosius is working on the project with Foster and PMI researcher Alexandra Gibson. Brosius, who will be assisting with the lab work and analyses, said, “I’m excited about this project because the analysis of bird diets from feces will help us figure out why these endangered birds might be at risk. It’s fun to be able to take a fecal sample from a species; you can learn a lot using DNA to understand how an animal lives.”
She is looking forward to her future as a veterinarian. “I’m interested in lab work, which allows me to focus on a project and have results quickly. This research experience will be important for veterinary school and will expand my understanding of biology.”
Project to benefit TES monitoring across DoD sites
The project’s outcomes will have multiple benefits that will help DoD land managers monitor threatened and endangered species.
“It’s an effective and cost-efficient way to measure habitat quality, particularly as it relates to a key factor regulating insectivorous bird abundance—arthropod food resources,” Foster said. “The technology can be deployed at any DoD site where understanding diet or habitat quality is necessary for TES monitoring of vertebrate taxa. Population surveys can assess the current abundance and distribution of TES but determining the specific factors limiting their populations adds additional complexity. This method will not only give DoD natural resource managers the ability to distinguish poor versus high-quality habitat, but will provide critical information about restoration, habitat recovery from disturbance and a baseline of prey availability should arthropod populations decline regionally in the future.”
In addition, numerous other bird species are on the list of DoD Priority Species and could benefit from this technology as well as other taxa such as amphibians, reptiles and small mammals.
About Northern Arizona University
Founded in 1899, Northern Arizona University is a community-engaged, high-research university that delivers an exceptional student-centered experience to its nearly 28,000 students in Flagstaff, at 22 statewide campuses and online. Building on a 123-year history of distinctive excellence, NAU aims to be the nation’s preeminent engine of opportunity, vehicle of economic mobility and driver of social impact by delivering equitable postsecondary value in Arizona and beyond. NAU is committed to meeting talent with access and excellence through its impactful academic programs and enriching experiences, paving the way to a better future for the diverse students it serves and the communities they represent.
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What does Polly say? Community science data reveal species differences in vocal learning by parrots
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Newswise — While most animals don’t learn their vocalizations, everyone knows that parrots do – they are excellent mimics of human speech. But how large is the vocabulary of different parrot species? Do males “talk” more than females? Does a parrot’s vocabulary expand with age? A new study publishing Dec. 5 in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, titled “A survey of vocal mimicry in companion parrots,” adds to what we know about animal vocal learning by providing the largestcomparative analysis to date of parrot vocal repertoires.
The paper documents species differences in vocal mimicry, shows that many parrots use words in appropriate contexts, and highlights the value of crowd-sourced data.
Data were collected as part of a community science project entitled “What does Polly Say?” Humans who live with companion parrots reported on the number of human “words” and “phrases” used by their parrots, as well as human-associated sounds (such as whistling a tune) and contextual use of sounds. This approach allowed researchers to collect standardized data on vocal learning by nearly 900 parrots from 73 species, a sample that would have been impossible to gather on wild parrots.
What researchers from the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ) found:
Species matters — “As it turns out, Polly’s species might have a strong impact on what she says” said co-author Lauryn Benedict, professor and associate director of UNC’s School of Biological Sciences. Some species are much better mimics than others. African grey parrots, long understood to be the best at learning human sounds, were found to have the largest repertoires, averaging about 60 human words. Cockatoos, Amazons, and Macaws also were excellent mimics, with average repertoires of 20-30 words.Most species learned more phrases than sounds, but a few, including Cockatiels and Fischer’s Lovebirds,learned more human sounds than phrases.
Learning over time — The study concludes that age and sex are weak predictors of vocal mimicry. Age-based analyses showed that juveniles expanded their repertoires until they reached maturity, but after that repertoire sizes reached a plateau. Fifty-year–old birds did not have larger repertoires than 5–year–old birds.
Males versus females — Sex-based analyses showed that males and females of most species were equally good mimics. There are, however, some exceptions, including Budgerigars, in which males had larger vocal repertoires, Pacific Parrotlets, among which only males were reported to “talk,” and Yellow-headed Amazons, among which females learned more sounds.
Although most males and females were equally good human mimics, the researchers documented a reporting bias whereby birds of uncertain sex were more often marked as male (74%). They conclude that humans who live with parrots of uncertain sex overwhelmingly, and often mistakenly, assume those birdsare male.
Parrots have timing — Human survey-takers reported that a very high proportion of companion parrots (89 %) spontaneously used human mimicry in appropriate contexts, with most birds doing so frequently. The researchers conclude that parrots learn both what to say, and also when to say it.
“This research highlights just how much parrots still have to teach us,” said co-author Christine Dahlin, associate professor of Biology from UPJ. “Approximately 30% of parrot species in the wild are declining to the point of being threatened, endangered or critically endangered, primarily from poaching and habitat loss. Without conservation of remaining populations, we risk losing the opportunity to understand the evolution of complex communication in these amazing animals.”
As vocal learners, parrots are important research subjects for understanding the physiological, neurobiological, and evolutionary underpinnings of acoustic communication in nature. It is clear that both companion and wild parrots use vocal mimicry to navigate their complex social and cognitive worlds. The species and sex specific differences documented by this research can spur new avenues of research andlead to increased appreciation for parrots.
Anyone who lives with a parrot is invited to join the community science team and contribute to this ongoing research by filling out the survey at this link: https://bit.ly/2S7nx3K.For reference, here are public links highlighting parrots known for their large repertoires: Alex, a Grey Parrot: https://alexfoundation.org/; and Sparkie Williams, a Budgerigar: https://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2017/02/recording-of-the-week-sparkie-williams-the-talking-budgerigar.html
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To save nature, focus on populations, not species
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Newswise — AMHERST, Mass. – Human-released greenhouse gasses are causing the world to warm, and with that warming comes increasing stress for many of the planet’s plants and animals. That stress is so great that many scientists believe we are currently in the midst of the “sixth extinction,” when entire species are disappearing up to 10,000 times faster than before the industrial era. However, scientists have been uncertain which ecosystems, and which species, are most at risk. New research, recently published in Nature Climate Change, is the first to show that the focus on species-level risk obscures a wide variability in temperature tolerance, even within the same species, and that this variability is greater for marine species than terrestrial ones. The findings have immediate implications for management and conservation practices and offer a window of hope in the effort to adapt to a rapidly warming world.
“One of the most important biological discoveries in the last century is that evolution can happen much more quickly than previously thought,” says Brian Cheng, professor of marine ecology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the paper’s senior author. “One of the implications of this is that different populations of the exact same species can adapt to their local environments more readily than traditional biology would have thought possible.”
It turns out that this rapid, localized adaptation may be able to help ensure survival in a warming world.
By conducting a metanalysis of 90 previously published studies, from which Cheng and his co-authors mined data on 61 species, the team was able to construct a set of “upper thermal limits”—specific temperatures above which each species could not survive. However, by zooming in further and looking at 305 distinct populations drawn from that pool of 61 species, they found that different populations of the same marine species often had widely different thermal limits. This suggests that some populations have evolved different abilities to tolerate high temperatures. The key then, is to keep different populations of the same species connected so that the populations that have adapted to the higher temperatures can pass this advantage on to the populations with the lower thermal limits.
In other words, imagine a wide-ranging marine species, such as the diminutive Atlantic killifish, which occurs from the warm Florida coast of the United States north to the frigid waters of Newfoundland, Canada. The northern killifish populations may be better able to withstand warming waters if some of their southern kin are able to naturally shift their range to the north.
“Scale matters,” says Matthew Sasaki, a marine biologist and evolutionary ecologist who completed this research as part of his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Connecticut and is the paper’s lead author. “The patterns you see across species aren’t the same you see within species, and the big-picture story doesn’t necessarily match what is happening on the local level.”
In yet another twist, the team, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and was composed of biologists specializing in terrestrial as well as marine ecosystems, discovered that this intra-species variability was primarily a feature of animals living in the ocean and intertidal areas. Populations of widespread species that live on land or in freshwater exhibit far more homogeneity in their thermal limits, and thus could be more sensitive to rising temperatures. However, on land, plants and animals can take advantage of microclimates to cool down and avoid extreme temperatures, by moving into shady spots, for example.
Taken together, the research suggests that a one-size-fits-all-species approach to conservation and management won’t work. Instead, write the authors, we need to understand how populations have adapted to their local conditions if we want to predict their vulnerability to changing conditions. A more effective approach would include ensuring that marine species can find wide swaths of undamaged habitat throughout their entire range, so that different populations of the same species can mix and pass on the adaptations that help them survive warmer waters. And on land, we need to maintain large patches of cool ecosystems—such as old-growth forests—that terrestrial species can use as refuges.
“The glimmer of hope here,” says Cheng, “is that with conservation policies tailored to individual populations, we can buy them time to adapt to the warming world.”
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Biodiversity in Africa and Latin America at risk from oil palm expansion, new report warns
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Newswise — Zero deforestation commitments may inadvertently leave vital habitats in Latin America and Africa vulnerable to agricultural expansion, a new study has found.
The study highlights how sustainability commitments, which play an important role in preventing the destruction of tropical rainforest, fail to protect nature in tropical grassy and dry forest habitats such as the Llanos in Colombia, Beni savanna in northern Bolivia, and Guinean and Congolian savannas in West and Central Africa.
The research team, led by the University of York, calculated that if oil palm producers cleared these habitats to make way for new plantations, a third of vertebrates on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species could be affected, including the blue-throated macaw in Bolivia, the giant pangolin in Congo, and the Hellmich’s Rocket Frog in Colombia.
For the study, researchers mapped the areas around the globe that are at risk from new oil palm plantations. They identified 167 million hectares that are potentially suitable for the crop while still meeting the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s (RSPO) definition of ‘zero deforestation’. Of those 167 million hectares, 95 million are in grasslands and dry forests, mostly in South America and Africa.
As global demand for agricultural land increases researchers are calling for urgent protections for these habitats, which support a rich array of species and act as an important carbon store.
Co-author of the study, Professor Jane Hill from the Department of Biology and the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity at the University of York, said: “Palm oil is at the sharp edge of debate on how we can balance the need to feed the world and sustain livelihoods, while protecting nature.
“With a yield estimated to be six times higher than many other vegetable oils such as oil seed rape, palm oil is regarded as a miracle crop and it supports the livelihoods of millions of people in tropical countries around the world. So rather than avoiding or banning palm oil, we need to ensure effective international policies and governance to protect, not just tropical rainforest, but tropical grasslands and dry forests too.
“Our study highlights how current sustainability commitments could have the unintended consequence of putting areas of remarkable biodiversity at risk from the expansion of oil palm agriculture.”
Since 2018, many oil palm companies have signed up to the RSPO’s zero deforestation commitments, which means they cannot expand plantations into tropical rainforest or peatlands.
While concern from buyers and consumers about the environmental impact of palm oil has helped to drive membership of the scheme, many oil palm producers are yet to sign up to these commitments.
First author, Dr Susannah Fleiss, who carried out the study while researching her PhD at the University of York, said: “Although we found that oil palm yield in areas currently covered by grassland and dry forest would be lower than in tropical rainforest, these sites would still be attractive for the expansion of oil palm agriculture. We also found that irrigation would improve yield in many of these locations, potentially making them more attractive for expansion.
“Clearing these areas for plantations would have a serious impact on biodiversity, potentially reducing the ranges of one quarter of vertebrate species that are currently threatened with extinction. Plantation development would replace the existing habitat in these areas, disrupting the ability of the species present to find food and water, and affecting their migration routes.
“Large numbers of people live in tropical grassy and dry forest regions, where they often play a critical role in ecological processes such as burning and grazing. The expansion of oil palm agriculture in these areas could lead to a number of interlinked issues for local people and biodiversity.
“Our study highlights the strong need for internationally-coordinated governance to protect these habitats, in addition to the existing global efforts to protect tropical rainforest.”
Co-author Dr Phil Platts, Honorary Fellow at the University of York and Director of Earth Observation at BeZero Carbon, said: “Sustainability guidelines for palm oil were developed in the context of Southeast Asia’s rainforests, and so reflect the structure and function of those habitats. Now expansion is shifting to different ecological contexts, the scope of sustainability commitments must similarly expand, in line with the distinct biodiversity and carbon stocks now under threat.”
The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, is funded by Unilever, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool, Oxford, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Unilever and BeZero Carbon.
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Synthetic fibers discovered in Antarctic air, seawater, sediment and sea ice as the ‘pristine’ continent becomes a sink for plastic pollution
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Newswise — As nations meet in Uruguay to negotiate a new Global Plastics Treaty, marine and forensic scientists publish new results this week that reveal the discovery of synthetic plastic fibres in air, seawater, sediment and sea ice sampled in the Antarctic Weddell Sea. The field research was undertaken during an expedition to discover Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance. The results are published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
Fibrous polyesters, primarily from textiles, were found in all samples. The majority of microplastic fibres identified were found in the Antarctic air samples, revealing that Antarctic animals and seabirds could be breathing them.
‘The issue of microplastic fibres is also an airborne problem reaching even the last remaining pristine environments on our planet’, stated co-author Professor Lucy Woodall, University of Oxford, Nekton Principal Scientist. ‘Synthetic fibres are the most prevalent form of microplastic pollution globally and tackling this issue must be at the heart of the Plastic Treaty negotiations.’ Professor Woodall was the first to reveal the prevalence of plastic in the deep sea in 2014.
A modelling analysis of air trajectories revealed that areas with higher numbers of fibres were associated with winds coming from southern South America. The discovery reveals that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the associated polar front is not, as previously thought, acting as an impenetrable barrier which would have prevented microplastics from entering the Antarctic region.
‘Ocean currents and winds are the vectors for plastic pollution to travel across the globe and even to the remotest corners of the world’, shared Nuria Rico Seijo, Nekton Research Scientist, Oxford, the co-lead author of the research. ‘The transboundary nature of microplastics pollution provides more evidence for the urgency and importance of a strong international plastic pollution treaty.’
The concentration of microplastics was also discovered by the team to be far higher in sea ice than in other sample types. Research indicates that microplastics are being trapped during the creation of the sea-ice layer every year.
‘Sea ice is mobile, can travel vast distances and reach the permanent ice shelves of the Antarctica continent where it can be trapped indefinitely with its gathered microplastic pollutants’, shared Dr Mánus Cunningham, Nekton Research Scientist, Oxford, the co-lead author of the research. ‘We believe the acquisition of microplastics in the multi-year sea ice combined with its seasonal changes could also be considered a temporary sink and one of the main transporters of microplastics within the Antarctic region’, concluded Dr Cunningham.
Extensive research was also conducted on sediment samples retrieved at depths ranging from 323 to 530 metres below the sea’s surface during the Weddell Sea Expedition. ‘Our discovery of microplastics in seabed sediment samples has revealed evidence of a plastic sink in the depths of the Antarctic waters’, said Professor Woodall. ‘Yet again we have seen that plastic pollution is being transported great distances by wind, ice and sea currents. The results of our research collectively demonstrate the vital importance of reducing plastic pollution globally.’
The scientific and forensic experts at Nekton’s Oxford University and collaborating laboratories (Staffordshire University, University of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela University) used a range of investigative methods to analyse the samples in the study. These include optical (Polarised Light Microscopy), chemical (Raman Spectrometry) investigative technologies and even a specialist adhesive “crime scene” tape to identify the polymer type. The modelling analysis used a method called Air Mass Back Trajectory analysis.
‘Our use of forensic science approaches had two important benefits; improved methods for both the reduction and monitoring of possible procedural contamination in the samples, and also more detailed characterisation of the microplastics, beyond just polymer type, allowing for better understanding of the number of possible sources. We would encourage future studies to harness these forensic approaches to ensure more robust data is gathered’ said Professor Claire Gwinnett, Staffordshire University.
According to the research team, the findings add urgency for a binding, globally agreed treaty to prevent microplastics from entering the environment, particularly oceans. Ahead of the Global Plastic Treaty discussions, they call on policy makers to:
- Reduce plastic pollution and production globally, by creating a robust global plastics treaty that builds on national and regional initiatives;
- Align plastic reduction actions with natural and societal targets to achieve multiple positive outcomes for society;
- Empower local communities to co-develop and use programmes that support full life-cycle solutions to plastic waste management.
They add that concerned individuals can also play their part by adopting simple lifestyle habits to reduce synthetic microfibre pollution. These include:
- Fill your washing machine: more space to move around in the wash results in microfibres falling off.
- Wash at 30C: gentle cycles and lower temperatures decreases microfibre shedding.
- Ditch the dryer: tumble dryers generate about 40 times more microfibers than washing machines.
- Microfibre capture for washing machines, e.g. GuppyFriend (https://guppyfriend.com) or Coraball (https://www.coraball.com).
- Choose natural fibres, e.g. organic natural fibres like cotton, linen, hemp.
- Avoid microfibre cleaning cloths – use natural alternatives.
- Wash textiles less!
Source: A Sustainable Life: https://www.asustainablelife.co.uk/7-easy-ways-to-reduce-microfibre-pollution/
Notes for Editors
The Publication: ‘The transport and fate of microplastic fibres in the Antarctic: The role of multiple global processes’ published in Frontiers in Marine Science. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.1056081/full
Research Partners: The international team, led by Nekton and scientists from Department of Biology, University of Oxford, collaborating with experts from UK and South African research institutions including Staffordshire University (UK), Nelson Mandela University, and the University of Cape Town (South Africa).
Video, photographic and infographic content: https://nektonmission.org/about/press-news
Nekton: Nekton works to accelerate the scientific exploration and conservation of the ocean for people and the planet. Nekton is an independent, not-for-profit research institute and is a UK registered charity. www.nektonmission.org
University of Oxford: Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the seventh year running, and number 2 in the QS World Rankings 2022. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer. Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions. Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 200 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past three years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.
Flotilla Foundation: The research was funded by a philanthropic grant from the Flotilla Foundation, a Netherlands based charity that aims to promote the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment, in particularly the ocean.
Weddell Sea Expedition: Led by the Flotilla Foundation and in partnership with Nekton, Scott Polar Research Institute, Nelson Mandela University, University of Cape Town and the University of Canterbury – The Weddell Sea Expedition deployed AUVs and ROVs to investigate life beneath the ice and the potential implications of climate change. 36 scientists, surveyors and technicians participated in the 45-day voyage in December 2019 to January 2020. Whilst in the Weddell Sea, the Expedition sought to locate Sir Ernest Shackleton’s vessel The Endurance. The expedition paved the way for the successful discovery of the vessel in 2022.
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Cultural heritage may influence choice of tools by capuchin monkeys, study suggests
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Newswise — Capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) are among only a few primates that use tools in day-to-day activities. In the Cerrado and Caatinga, they use stones as hammers and anvils to crack open cashew nuts, seed pods of Hymenaea courbaril (West Indian locust; jatobá in Brazil) and other hard foods.
In an article published in Scientific Reports, Brazilian researchers show that food hardness and tool size do not always correlate as closely as has been thought.
In their study, the researchers observed three populations of bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus), measuring food hardness, tool size and weight, and local availability of stones. They concluded that culture, defined as information passed on from one generation to the next by social learning, can also influence behavior in this regard.
“In one of the populations we analyzed, even when they have stones that are suitable for use on a particular food resource, they may use disproportionately heavy tools, possibly evidencing a cultural trait of that group,” said Tiago Falótico, a researcher at the University of São Paulo’s School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (EACH-USP) supported by FAPESP.
The population to which he referred lives in Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park in Goiás, a state in Brazil’s Center-West region. In the study, this population was compared with capuchins living in Serra das Confusões National Park, in Piauí, a state in the Northeast region, and another population that lives in Serra da Capivara National Park, about 100 km away in the same state.
The tools are pieces of quartzite and sandstone found in places referred to as processing sites. The animals frequent these sites solely to look for these stones for use as hammers and anvils. One stone is used to pound a nut or seed resting on another stone used as an anvil.
“In Serra das Confusões, they use smaller tools to open smaller and softer fruit but use large, heavy hammers to crack coconut shells, which are very hard. In Chapada dos Veadeiros, where there are stones of varying sizes to choose from, they use the heaviest ones even for fragile foods,” Falótico said.
Not by chance, it was in this latter park that the researchers recorded the heaviest stone lifted by capuchins. An adult male weighs 3.5 kg on average, and they filmed an individual lifting a hammer stone that was later found to weigh 4.65 kg. “They’re champion weightlifters,” he chuckled.
Measurements
The findings were the result of a great deal of hard work. The researchers documented the kinds of food most frequently found in the processing sites, such as babassu (Attalea speciosa), West Indian locust, cashew, and wild cassava (Manihot spp). They also documented the stones available, as well as the sizes and weights of the tools they found, measured the hardness of each type of food using a special device, and observed and filmed tool usage in each study area.
“We expected to find a very close correlation between the type of food and the size and weight of the tool, but the population in Chapada dos Veadeiros mainly used the larger ones even though stones of all sizes are plentiful and they can choose a smaller size. They probably inherited this habit from their ancestors. It’s a cultural difference compared with the other populations,” Falótico said.
The cultural learning hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that studies in other areas, such as Serra de Itabaiana in Sergipe and Chapada Diamantina in Bahia (both states in the Northeast), involving Sapajus capuchins, stones and the same kinds of fruit and seed have not found processing sites or the use of stone tools for this purpose. In Serra das Confusões, the capuchins use tools to crack open several kinds of food except cashew nuts, which are nevertheless abundant.
“Their behavior isn’t due to the availability of resources but to cultural heritage,” Falótico said.
The researchers are now analyzing the genomes of all three populations to see if the cultural differences can be linked to genetic differences.
The study was also supported by FAPESP via a scholarship awarded to Tatiane Valença, a PhD candidate at EACH-USP.
Human evolution
A paper by Falótico and a team of archeologists from Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, reports the results of field experiments conducted to test the potential for accidental flake production during nut cracking by capuchins using various types of rock as anvils.
Some capuchins ingest or anoint themselves with powder produced by pounding stones. They may also rub the powder on their teeth. Their reasons for doing so are unknown, but the researchers believe one aim may be to combat parasites. In the experiments, flakes were also produced by fragmentation of anvils comprising homogeneous material.
The monkeys did not use the flakes, which closely resembled the lithic tools found by archeologists at digs around the world. The researchers believe the earliest hominins obtained flakes accidentally before their deliberate production for use as tools.
“Capuchins may also use flakes as tools in future if an innovative individual starts doing so, and others learn by observing. These primates can therefore serve as a model to help us understand human evolution,” Falótico said.
A previous study by the same group of researchers showed how lithic tools used by the capuchin population in Serra da Capivara displayed different patterns of wear marks depending on the activities involved (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/35251).
Comparisons of the use-wear marks on tools used by monkeys and hominins could reveal how our earliest ancestors used lithic tools. It may therefore be possible to find out more about human evolution from the study of Brazilian capuchin monkeys.
The article “Stone tools differences across three capuchin monkey populations: food’s physical properties, ecology, and culture” is at: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-18661-3.
About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe
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Sea level rise to dramatically speed up erosion of rock coastlines by 2100
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Newswise — Rock coasts, which make up over half the world’s coastlines, could retreat more rapidly in the future due to accelerating sea level rise.
This is according to new Imperial College London research that modelled likely future cliff retreat rates of two rock coasts in the UK. The forecasts are based on predictions of sea level rise for various greenhouse gas emissions and climate change scenarios.
The study found that rock coasts, traditionally thought of as stable compared to sandy coasts and soft cliffs, are likely to retreat at a rate not seen for 3,000-5,000 years.
At the UK study sites in Yorkshire and Devon, this will cause rock coast cliffs to retreat by at least 10-22 metres inland. The rate of erosion is likely between three and seven times today’s rate and potentially up to tenfold.
Senior author Dr Dylan Rood, of Imperial’s Department of Earth Science said: “Coastal erosion is one of the greatest financial risks to society of any natural hazard. Some rock cliffs are already crumbling, and within the next century, rock coast erosion rates could increase tenfold. Even rock coasts that have been stable in the last hundred years will likely respond to sea level rise by 2030.”
Globally, coasts are home to hundreds of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure like homes, businesses, nuclear power stations, transport links, and agriculture.
The researchers are calling on policymakers, planners, and insurers to take action to classify rock coasts as high-risk areas in future planning for climate change response, as well as to limit climate change through achieving Net Zero as an immediate priority.
Dr Rood added: “Rock coast erosion is irreversible: now is the time to limit future sea level rise before it’s too late. Humanity can directly control the fate of our coastlines by reducing greenhouse gas emissions — the future of our coasts is in our hands.”
The research is published today in Nature Communications.
A rocky road
The new study is the first to validate models of the expected erosion of hard rock coasts from sea level rise using observational data over prehistoric timescales. Previous studies have mostly focused on theoretical models of soft, sandy coasts. The new results suggest that as sea levels continue to rise, the rate of rock coastal erosion will also accelerate.
To study the future rate of erosion, the researchers looked at past and present cliff retreat rates on the coastlines near Scalby in Yorkshire and Bideford in Devon, finding that by 2100 they will likely retreat by 13-22m and 10-14m, respectively.
They collected rock samples and analysed them for rare isotopes called cosmogenic radionuclides (CRNs) that build up in rocks exposed to cosmic rays. Concentrations of CRNs in rock reveal how quickly, and for how long, the rock has been exposed, reflecting the rate of erosion and retreat.
They combined these data with observed coastal topography to calibrate a model that tracks the evolution of these rock coasts over time, before comparing them with rates of past sea level change dating back 8000 years. They found that the rate of coastal erosion on these two sites has closely matched the rate of sea level rise.
The researchers say this is clear evidence of a causal relationship between cliff retreat and sea level from which future forecasts can be made, and that rock coasts are more sensitive to sea level rise than previously thought. The findings, they say, could be applied to rock coasts worldwide because the rock type is common globally, and similar hard rock coasts are likely to respond in a similar way to sea level rise.
Lead author Dr Jennifer Shadrick, who conducted the work in Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering as a member of the NERC Science & Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership, and now works in the marine and coastal risk management team at JBA Consulting, said: “Sea level rise is accelerating, and our results confirm that rock coast retreat will accelerate in line with this. It isn’t a matter of if, but when.
“The more positive news is that, now that we have a better idea of magnitudes and timescales, we can adapt accordingly. The more data we have on the effects of climate change on sea level rise and coastal erosion, the more we can prepare by championing urgent policies that protect coasts and their communities.”
Sea level rise
As the climate warms, sea levels are forecast to rise one metre by 2100 unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
This study is the first to confirm with observational data that the rate of past coastal erosion followed the rate of sea level rise over prehistoric timescales. The researchers say this erosion was driven by waves, which will likely get larger and more forceful as future sea level rises, and more land is given over to the sea.
While this study looked at the effects of sea level rise, it did not account for the effects of stronger storms, which some studies forecast will happen more frequently due to climate change. Next, the researchers will adapt their model to also forecast the rate of cliff retreat for softer rock coasts, such as chalk.
Dr Rood said: “Our study did not account for the effect of increased storms, which may become stronger and more frequent in the future as the climate changes, on wave-driven cliff erosion. However, increased storms would only speed up the cliff retreat even more than our forecasts. This is another angle to the climate crisis we will account for in future studies to give a more complete picture of likely rates of rock coast erosion. We are also looking to improve our models for softer rock coasts where erosion other than by waves is more important.”
Dr Shadrick said: “The findings are a stark warning that we must better adapt to coastal retreat or face the loss of the people, homes, and infrastructure that call coastal areas home.”
Study co-author Dr Martin Hurst at the University of Glasgow said: “The implication is that rock coasts are more sensitive to sea level rise than previously thought. We need to pay more attention to how our rock coasts continue to erode as sea levels rise.
“Heightened erosion risks at our coasts will continue throughout this century. Even if we achieve Net Zero tomorrow, a substantive amount of sea level rise is already baked in as our climate, glaciers and oceans continue to respond to the emissions that have already taken place.”
This study was funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), the British Geological Survey (BGS), and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
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Imperial College London
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Research reveals plant roots change shape and branch out for water
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Newswise — Researchers have discovered how plant roots adapt their shape to maximise their uptake of water, pausing branching when they lose contact with water and only resuming once they reconnect with moisture, ensuring they can survive even in the driest conditions.
Plant scientists from the University of Nottingham have discovered a novel water sensing mechanism that they have called ‘Hydro-Signalling’, which shows how hormone movement is linked with water fluxes. The findings have been published today in Science.
Water is the rate-limiting molecule for life on earth. The devastating impact of climate change is enhancing the effects of water stress on global agriculture. Climate change is causing rainfall patterns to become more erratic, impacting rain-fed crops in particular.
Roots play a critical role to reduce the impact of water stress on plants by adapting their shape (such as branching or growing deeper) to secure more water. Discovering how plant roots sense and adapt to water stress is vital importance for helping ‘future proof’ crops to enhance their climate resilience.
Using X-ray micro-CT imaging researchers were able to reveal that roots alter their shape in response to external moisture availability by linking the movement of water with plant hormone signals that control root branching.
The study provides critical information about the key genes and processes controlling root branching in response to limited water availability, helping scientists design novel approaches to manipulate root architecture to enhance water capture and yield in crops.
Dr. Poonam Mehra, postdoctoral fellow, from the School of Biosciences is one of the lead authors and explains: “When roots are in contact with moisture, a key hormone signal (auxin) moves inwards with water, triggering new root branches. However, when roots lose contact with moisture, they rely on internal water sources that mobilises another hormone signal (ABA) outwards, which acts to block the inwards movement of the branching signal. This simple, yet elegant mechanism enables plant roots to fine tune their shape to local conditions and optimize foraging.”
Professor Malcolm Bennett, co-lead on the research adds: “Our plant research is vitally important for understanding how we can futureproof crops and find ways to ensure successful crop yields even in the most challenging climates. We are already experiencing a hotter climate and designing plants that can still access water in these conditions is vital and this research is an all important step in understanding how to do this”. He continued: “These new discoveries were only possible because of the cutting-edge tools and collaborative approaches of the authors, which involved an international team of scientists based in the UK, Belgium, Sweden, USA and Israel.’”
The research was funded by BBSRC, EMBO and ERC.
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University of Nottingham
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15 ways to reforest the planet
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Newswise — Scientists are calling for a ‘decade of global action’ to reforest the planet, following the overnight publication of a themed international journal led by researchers from Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast.
The landmark issue of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions reveals the latest scientific advances in forest restoration with the aim of benefiting people as well as nature.
“This paves the way for evidence-based, on-the-ground action plans for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration,” said Professor Andy Marshall of UniSC’s Forest Research Institute.
Professor Marshall said it was exciting to see the strong focus on forests at this week’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) underway in Egypt, with Australia joining world leaders in committing to halting forest loss and land degradation by 2030.
He said the recommendations in the new journal issue combined research findings with knowledge and experience from many countries.
“Our goals are ambitious and intend to deliver long-term success by learning from the past – from choosing the right location and restoration method through to mitigating socioeconomic pressures, weather extremes and people-wildlife interactions,” he said.
“Almost 200 authors from 27 countries and the United Nations’ taskforce are working to ensure these findings really make a difference to forest restoration and inspire action around the world, particularly in the developing tropics where much of this research has been undertaken.”
Professor Marshall’s principal paper lists 15 essential advances for science to help restore the world’s forested landscapes.
“Forests are crucial for the health and economies of our planet, but they must be better planned, managed and monitored to ensure sustainable benefits for people as well as nature,” he said.
He said careful planning of future forest projects could boost the biodiversity of species, carbon sinks, economic development and people’s livelihoods.
“The evidence gives scientific backing to campaigns by environmental groups using the banner, Plantations Are Not Forests – acknowledging that tree-planting is not always the correct approach to restoration, and that restoration needs to consider underlying ecology, local people, and the ultimate reasons for planting the trees.”
UniSC is involved in seven of the collaborative articles, leading five of them:
• Fifteen essential science advances for effective restoration of the world’s forest landscapes, by Professor Andrew Marshall and colleagues;
• Monitoring the recovery of tree diversity during tropical forest restoration in Costa Rica – lessons from long term trajectories of natural regeneration, by Professor Robin Chazdon and colleagues;
• Applying a Community Capacity Curve framework to reforestation to support success in the Philippines, by Professor John Herbohn and colleagues;
• A practice-led assessment of landscape restoration potential in a biodiversity hotspot in Tanzania, by Professor Marshall with Abigail Wills of the University of York and colleagues;
• How certified community forests in Tanzania impact forest restoration and human wellbeing, by Dr Robin Loveridge of the University of York with project leader Professor Marshall and colleagues.Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Professor Ross Young said UniSC’s contribution to the journal was an honour and showcased the global relevance and expertise of its researchers.
“The University of the Sunshine Coast was ranked the top Queensland university in the 2022 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.
“This success reflects UniSC’s longstanding commitment to research in sustainability and climate action.”
Selected other papers in the journal:
• Implications of tropical cyclones on damage and potential recovery and restoration of logged forests in Vietnam;
• How animal seed dispersal recovers within 40 years after passive restoration in a forested landscape;
• How restoration success in former Amazonian mines is driven by soil amendment and forest proximity;
• Evaluating tree restoration interventions for wellbeing and ecological outcomes in rural tropical landscapes, aiming to prevent conflicts such as big animals roaming into crops and farms;
• The impacts of wildfires on restoration, particularly in tall, wet eucalypt forests.Professor Marshall is also principal investigator of FoRCE (Forest Restoration and Climate Experiment) and founding director of Reforest Africa.
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University of the Sunshine Coast
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