SPACE

Last segment of the world’s largest telescope mirror successfully cast

ESO

 

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THE PRIMARY MIRROR OF ESO’S EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPE (ELT), KNOWN AS M1, WILL BE BY FAR THE LARGEST MIRROR EVER MADE FOR A TELESCOPE. WITH A DIAMETER OF MORE THAN 39 METRES, M1 IS TOO LARGE TO BE MADE FROM A SINGLE PIECE OF GLASS AND WILL INSTEAD CONSIST OF 798 HEXAGONAL SEGMENTS, EACH ABOUT FIVE CENTIMETRES THICK AND 1.5 METRES ACROSS, WORKING TOGETHER TO COLLECT TENS OF MILLIONS OF TIMES AS MUCH LIGHT AS THE HUMAN EYE. AN ADDITIONAL 133 SEGMENTS HAVE BEEN PRODUCED TO FACILITATE THE MAINTENANCE AND RECOATING OF THE SEGMENTS ONCE THE telescope IS OPERATIONAL. ESO HAS ALSO PROCURED 18 SPARE SEGMENTS, BRINGING THE TOTAL NUMBER TO 949. NOW, GERMAN COMPANY SCHOTT HAS SUCCESSFULLY CAST THE BLANK FOR THE LAST OF THE 949 SEGMENTS, SEEN IN THIS PHOTO. THE M1 BLANKS, SHAPED PIECES OF MATERIAL THAT ARE LATER POLISHED TO BECOME THE MIRROR SEGMENTS, ARE MADE FROM ZERODUR©, A LOW-EXPANSION GLASS-CERAMIC MATERIAL DEVELOPED BY SCHOTT AND OPTIMISED FOR THE EXTREME TEMPERATURE RANGES AT THE ELT’S SITE IN THE ATACAMA DESERT. THE 949TH SEGMENT IS SEEN IN THIS IMAGE BEFORE BEING CUT INTO ITS HEXAGONAL SHAPE AND POLISHED — STEPS THAT WILL BE PERFORMED BY FRENCH COMPANY SAFRAN REOSC.

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CREDIT: SCHOTT

The European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ESO’s ELT), under construction in the Chilean Atacama Desert, is one step closer to completion. German company SCHOTT has successfully cast the blank for the last of the 949 segments commissioned for the telescope’s primary mirror (M1). With a diameter of more than 39 metres, M1 will be by far the largest mirror ever made for a telescope.

Too large to be made from a single piece of glass, M1 will consist of 798 hexagonal segments, each about five centimetres thick and 1.5 metres across, working together to collect tens of millions of times as much light as the human eye. An additional 133 segments have been produced to facilitate the maintenance and recoating of the segments once the telescope is operational. ESO has also procured 18 spare segments, bringing the total number to 949. 

The M1 blanks, shaped pieces of material that are later polished to become the mirror segments, are made from ZERODUR©, a low-expansion glass-ceramic material developed by SCHOTT and optimised for the extreme temperature ranges at the ELT’s site in the Atacama Desert. This company has also manufactured the blanks of three other ELT mirrors — M2, M3, and M4 — at their facilities in Mainz, Germany. 

“What ESO ordered from SCHOTT is more than just ZERODUR©,” says Marc Cayrel, Head of ELT Optomechanics at ESO. “In close collaboration with ESO, SCHOTT fine-tuned every single production step, tailoring the product to meet and often exceed the ELT’s very demanding requirements. The outstanding quality of the blanks was maintained throughout the mass production of more than 230 tonnes of this super-performing material. ESO is thus very thankful for the professionalism of the skilled teams at SCHOTT, our trusted partner.”

Thomas Werner, ELT Project Lead at SCHOTT, says: “Our entire team is thrilled to conclude what has been the largest single order of ZERODUR® in the history of our company. For this project, we successfully concluded the serial production of hundreds of ZERODUR® mirror substrates, when we usually have a single-piece operation. It’s been an honour for all of us to play a part in shaping the future of astronomy.”

Once cast, all segments follow a multi-step, international journey. After a slow cooling and heat treatment sequence, the surface of each blank is shaped by ultra-precision grinding at SCHOTT. The blanks are then transported to French company Safran Reosc, where each of them is cut into an hexagon shape and polished to a precision of 10 nanometres across the entire optical surface — meaning the surface irregularities of the mirror will be less than one thousandth of the width of a human hair. Also involved in the work done on the M1 segment assemblies are: Dutch company VDL ETG Projects BV, which is producing the segment supports; the German-French FAMES consortium, which has developed and is finalising manufacturing for the 4500 nanometric-accuracy sensors monitoring the relative position of each segment; German company Physik Instrumente, which designed and is manufacturing the 2500 actuators able to position the segment to nanometric precision; and Danish company DSV, which is in charge of transporting the segments to Chile.

Once polished and assembled, each M1 segment is shipped across the ocean to reach the ELT Technical Facility at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert — a 10 000-kilometre journey that over 70 M1 segments have already completed. In Paranal, only a few kilometres away from the construction site of the ELT, each segment is coated with a silver layer to become reflective, after which it will be carefully stored until the telescope’s main structure is ready to receive them.

When it starts operating later this decade, ESO’s ELT will be the world’s largest eye on the sky. It will tackle the biggest astronomical challenges of our time and make as-yet unimaginable discoveries.

More information

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society. 

Links

• Find out more about ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)  on our dedicated website and press kit
• More detailed information on M1  
• More information on SCHOTT’s work on the ELT 
• For journalists: subscribe to receive our releases under embargo in your language

 

Ephemeral streams, often overlooked, are major contributors to US river flow and water quality

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

Ephemeral streams – temporary streams that only flow after rainfall or snowmelt – contribute more than 50% of the flow in downstream river systems and likely have a major influence on water quality across the United States, according to a new modeling study. The findings show how important ephemeral streams are for the transport of water and pollution into larger, more permanent water bodies. Excluding these streams from coverage under the U.S. Clean Water Act, say the authors, would significantly limit federal authority to protect downstream water quality. Ephemeral streams, which flow only in direct response to precipitation and are disconnected from groundwater sources, play a crucial role in transporting nutrients, sediments, pollutants, and other materials to larger water bodies. Although these short-lived streams likely account for much of the global river network, research focused specifically on ephemeral streams is limited, and their hydrological contributions to downstream flow and water quality remain largely unknown. Craig Brinkerhoff and colleagues developed a model to quantify ephemeral stream contributions to more than 20.7 million more permanent water bodies in the contiguous US. Brinkeroff et al. combined data from published hydrological datasets to estimate ephemeral stream locations, and when and how much they flow. The authors found that ephemeral streams in the southwest and western US flow less frequently (only 4 to 46 days per year on average) compared to those in the eastern US, where they flow 173 days per year on average. However, despite their infrequent flow, western ephemeral streams contributed more significantly to downstream river flow – as high as 79% on average – than eastern ephemeral streams, which contributed ~50% on average. Combined, the findings show that ephemeral streams contribute, on average, 55% of the flow to the perennially flowing rivers in the contiguous US. According to Brinkeroff et al., the findings show that ephemeral streams are likely a substantial pathway through which pollution enters rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and ultimately the ocean. “Even though the ephemeral channels are often overlooked because of their infrequent flow, they are critical to downstream water availability,” write Judson Harvey and Stephanie Kampf in a related Perspective. “Climate- and land use-driven changes will alter flows and related functions of ephemeral streams in ways that influence future outcomes for water supply, drinking water quality, and the health of aquatic ecosystems in streams and rivers of all sizes.”

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adg9430 

ARTICLE TITLE

Ephemeral stream water contributions to United States drainage networks

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Jun-2024

 

Pacific cod can’t rely on coastal safe havens for protection during marine heat waves, OSU study finds

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

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JUVENILE PACIFIC COD

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CREDIT: COURTESY OF BEN LAUREL, NOAA ALASKA FISHERIES SCIENCE CENTER

During recent periods of unusually warm water in the Gulf of Alaska, young Pacific cod in near shore safe havens where they typically spend their adolescence did not experience the protective effects those areas typically provide, a new Oregon State University study found.

Instead, during marine heat waves in 2014-16 and 2019, young cod in these near shore “nurseries” around Kodiak Island in Alaska experienced significant changes in their abundance, growth rates and diet, with researchers estimating that only the largest 15-25% of the island’s cod population survived the summer. Even after the high temperatures subsided, the cod have yet to return to pre-heat wave size and diet.

The findings, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, may have broader implications for marine fish populations worldwide, as marine heat waves become longer and more frequent with climate change, the researchers said.

“These coastal habitats aren’t supporting fish in the same way that they used to as a result of marine heat waves,” said lead author Hillary Thalmann, a graduate student in OSU’s Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences. “That’s a novel finding, because we don’t always look at the nurseries as a place where size-selective mortality could be occurring rapidly.”

Pacific cod, a popular choice for fish and chips, is the second-largest commercial groundfish fishery off the coast of Alaska. The 2022 commercial harvest totaled 403 million pounds and was valued at $225 million, according to NOAA Fisheries. Cod also has a long history in Alaskan culture and is important to Indigenous communities in the region.

The nurseries are shallow areas along shorelines with lots of aquatic vegetation, including eelgrass, algae and kelp, which attract lots of food for the fish and provide hiding places where they can avoid predators. Typically, they are considered safe havens for small Pacific cod — areas where the fish go at around 3 months old to eat and grow as much as they can during their first summer and fall.

But during the two recent marine heat waves in the Gulf of Alaska, water temperatures were recorded at 58 degrees Fahrenheit, almost 6 degrees above normal. Together, the two heat waves are considered the most extreme warming events on record in the Northeast Pacific Ocean, and the effects on the cod population were so severe that the fishery was closed in 2020 and a federal disaster was declared in 2022.

Previous OSU research has found that the higher temperatures triggered earlier reproduction and high mortality among young Pacific cod. The new study focuses on the physiological disruptions the young cod experienced while occupying the coastal nurseries.

Researchers used juvenile Pacific cod collected by the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center Fisheries Behavioral Ecology program from 16 sites around Kodiak Island in mid-July and late August for the years 2006-2019. This sampling was part of routine population monitoring for the cod fishery.

For the July sample, researchers looked at the fishes’ otoliths, tiny bony structures that chronicle a fish’s growth similar to the rings of trees. Measuring the otoliths allowed researchers to calculate the fishes’ precise rate of growth up to the July sampling date, and then calculate their projected size based on maintaining that same growth rate into August.

However, when they looked at the August sample, the fish were 30% bigger than the size predicted by the established growth rate, and there were almost no small fish present in the sample. The only way researchers were able to account for the size of the fish in August was to remove all the small fish from the July sample and leave just the largest 15-25% of fish following the projected growth rate trajectory.

“If we removed the little guys and grew the big guys — the top 15-25% — through to August based on the growth rates we saw earlier in the summer, then we got the size range that we see in those heat wave years,” Thalmann said. “It’s important to show that with heat events like this, size-selective mortality can continue in the cod population beyond just their early life in the open water,” where the larvae spend their first three months.

Size-selective mortality is the phenomenon of survival being determined by an organism’s size; here, only the biggest fish appear to have survived. 

“We saw these differences in size in the nursery, and we tried to explain them with growth rates and tried to explain them with diet, but we couldn’t explain it all,” Thalmann said. “There was something out there, probably size-selective mortality, that was the major driver for what we were seeing.”

Moving forward, researchers say changing ocean conditions may mean that Pacific cod have to move further north to find optimal growth environments, or there may be a shift toward bigger cod being the only ones to survive and contribute genetic information to subsequent generations.

“If the marine heat waves continue, there will probably be some changes in both the distribution and the quality of these populations,” Thalmann said. “I don’t think it’s the end of fish and chips, but I do think it’s a cautionary tale for climate change and the shifting dynamics of fisheries in warm temperatures.”

Co-authors on the study were Zoe Almeida, Kaitlyn Osborne, Kaylee Marshall and Jessica Miller at OSU and Benjamin Laurel at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Oregon.

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-63897-w 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Marine heatwaves alter the nursery function of coastal habitats for juvenile Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2024

To protect corals from summer heatwaves, we should help their microbial symbionts evolve heat tolerance in the lab, researchers say

CELL PRESS

Most coral reef restoration efforts involve restocking reefs with nursery-grown corals. However, if these corals are of the same stock as their wild counterparts, they will be equally vulnerable to the heat stress that caused the bleaching event in the first place. In a review publishing June 27 in the journal Trends in Microbiology, researchers discuss the potential of improving corals’ chances by inducing the evolution of heat tolerance in their symbionts—the mutualistic microbes that provide corals with nutrients in exchange for shelter and that are expelled during coral bleaching.

“Although heat-tolerant and -sensitive symbiont species occur in nature, even corals that harbor naturally tolerant symbionts have been observed to bleach during summer heatwaves,” write the authors, a team of marine scientists and bioengineers from Australia and New Zealand, including senior author Madeleine van Oppen (@spectacularia) of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Melbourne. “Experimental evolution of Symbiodiniaceae offers a means to shift their thermal tolerance limit upward, increasing host resistance to bleaching.”

To induce the evolution of heat-tolerance, researchers culture coral symbionts in the lab and expose successive generations to gradually increasing temperature, which maintains a selective pressure, so with each new generation, more heat-tolerant individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce.

“A critical decision about the efficacy of this intervention will revolve around determining whether field-deployed corals inoculated with heat-evolved symbionts exhibit greater tolerance to summer heatwaves compared with their native counterparts because all observations so far have been made in the lab,” they write.

Methods for culturing the symbionts will also need to be scaled up dramatically if this strategy is to be used at the necessary scale. “Research cultures are typically in the milliliter to liter volumes, yet thousands of liters would be required to inoculate millions of coral recruits reared from multiple reefs or regions,” the authors write.

The authors note that researchers may fine tune culture conditions for mass production of Symbiodiniaceae by taking inspiration from large-scale culturing of microalgae for biotechnological applications (while preventing yield loss). Experimental evolution of Symbiodiniaceae would be most effective in coral restoration efforts if used in conjunction with other measures, such as assisted gene flow, managed breeding of corals, and manipulation of coral-associated bacteria.

“All these interventions will be critical in maximizing the likelihood that coral reefs persist into the future, but it is imperative that these occur in tandem with significant emissions reductions and science-based reef management,” they write.

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This research was supported by the Australian Research Council, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, and the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Trends in Microbiology, Nitschke et al. “The use of experimentally evolved coral photosymbionts for reef restoration” https://www.cell.com/trends/microbiology/fulltext/S0966-842X(24)00139-2

Trends in Microbiology, (@TrendsMicrobiol) published by Cell Press, is a monthly review journal that provides a multidisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of microbiology—from cell biology and immunology to genetics and evolution—and ranges across virology, bacteriology, protozoology, and mycology. Visit http://www.cell.com/trends/microbiology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.

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JOURNAL

Trends in Microbiology

DOI

10.1016/j.tim.2024.05.008 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The use of experimentally evolved coral photosymbionts for reef restoration

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2024

 

Climate change and sea level rise pose an acute challenge for cities with combined sewer systems

Drexel University researchers provide a detailed look at impending storm water and sewer management problems for cities like Camden and Philadelphia

DREXEL UNIVERSITY

Older coastal cities, like Philadelphia, New York and Boston are at risk of being inundated by untreated sewage during floods. Due in part to the design of their combined sewer systems and in part due to sea level rise, these cities could be facing a growing public health crisis as climate change also drives more extreme precipitation, according to researchers at Drexel University who study urban stormwater management. The group recently published research that modeled the potential extent of the problem in a section of the coastal city of Camden, New Jersey, and the effectiveness of one proposed intervention to help protect these communities.

 

A Compounding Problem

Beginning in 1855 many of America’s coastal communities were designed with a combined sewer system. In these systems, stormwater and sewage are collected using the same pipes. Originally, these pipes discharged to streams and rivers; later they were directed toward wastewater treatment facilities. But the pipes can only convey a certain amount of flow. During wet weather events, to avoid inundating the wastewater treatment plants some portion of the flow still overflows into the natural water bodies through features known as combined sewer overflows – or CSOs.

While the Federal Pollution Control and Clean Water Act has pushed communities to upgrade their infrastructure and take steps to curtail CSOs, climate change brings an entirely new dimension to this regulatory compliance challenge.

When the water level in the receiving water body is high, the CSO flap gates that ordinarily keep river water from backing up into the sewer pipes can’t open as easily. Without these relief valves fully open, the combined sewage generated during wet weather can back up in the system, even spilling out onto the street or into people’s basements.

As climate change brings more heavy rain and higher river levels, the problem worsens and cannot be mitigated with conventional approaches to stormwater management.

“Climate change is making what was already a difficult problem even more challenging,” said Franco Montalto, PhD, a professor in the College of Engineering who led the research. “The combination of sea level rise and precipitation intensification is particularly difficult for urban stormwater managers because it means the combined sewer system is being loaded from both sides. In many cases, there’s no place for the water to go but up and out onto the street creating environmental and health risks.”

Montalto’s team has been working closely with the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA) to study potential solutions to this problem.

 

Looking for a Better Answer

In their research, recently published in the Journal of Water Management Modeling, the group reported on the results of their detailed hydrologic and hydraulic models of flooding and combined sewer overflows in the Cramer Hill section of Camden. This is a flood-prone portion of the city located very close to the largest CSO point on the East side of the Delaware River.

Once they calibrated their models to historical conditions, they used them to simulate how flooding and CSOs would change in the future, as the climate changes. The same models are also being used to evaluate the potential effectiveness of different conceptual solutions.

“CCMUA has been working diligently for years to reduce environmental injustices in Camden,” Montalto said. “It has worked to reduce odors from its wastewater treatment plant and reduce the frequency and pollution associated with CSOs. It’s exciting to work with them now on the development of solutions that can also reduce flooding and make Camden’s neighborhoods more resilient to climate change. Our modeling will support CCMUA as it develops multifunctional infrastructure strategies.”

Drexel’s model is unique because it is an “all-pipes” model built by assembling many different geospatial data sets into one computer model. This allows the team to simulate stormwater flows through virtually every surface, catch basin, and pipe in the area.

To check the accuracy of the modeling program, the researchers compared the model’s prediction of annual combined sewer overflow discharge volume to CCMUA records. Simulated flood patterns were compared to photographs of actual floods taken by the research team during storms over the summer of 2021.

“It was important to perform a thorough validation process because we will be relying on this model to simulate future climate and infrastructure conditions,” Montalto said. “Not every municipality has been making recordings of all the necessary data to build a complete model, so part of this research was showing that the ad-hoc process we developed could reliably validate our model without some of the data it would normally require.”

 

Projecting Future Challenges

Montalto’s team used the validated model to simulate what would happen if precipitation increased by up to 30% and if the sea level rose by up to 1.8 meters. They simulated each of these climatic changes independently, and together.

The model projected that increased precipitation would result in overflow discharges 21-66% above the current annual discharge volume. And, although each of the sea-level-rise scenarios resulted in a reduction in the number of overflow events and annual overflow discharge, the duration of flooding increased with each compounding factor.

 

Testing a Theory

One key strategy that Camden has been considering for Cramer Hill’s water management challenges involves diverting upstream stormwater away from its sewer system. With Drexel’s modeling program, the municipality was finally able to test the idea.

Dubbed the “Pennsauken disconnection,” the suggestion is to divert stormwater generated in the town of Pennsauken, New Jersey, which is immediately northeast of Camden, away from Cramer Hill’s combined sewer system via an intermediary pumping station.

The team found that the disconnection will help under all future climate scenarios. However, even with the disconnection, the impacts of climate change and sea level rise still resulted in an increase in the number of flooding events; and a significant increase in the duration of flooding under the sea-level-rise conditions.

 

Setting a New Course

Overall, the results suggest that increased precipitation events due to climate change will cause more combined sewer overflows. And sea level rise will make it more difficult for these systems to discharge into nearby bodies of water. Some 40 million people currently live in areas served by combined sewer systems, so this is both a pressing issue and one that could affect a significant number of people throughout the country.

Montalto’s group plans to continue refining its Cramer Hill model, as they collect information about water flow through the sewage network and surface flooding. They will also model other infrastructure interventions to manage stormwater.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Water Management Modeling

DOI

10.14796/JWMM.C516 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

ARTICLE TITLE

Opportunities for Leveraging Existing Hydrologic and Hydraulic Models Developed for Water Quantity Management to Mitigate Flooding Due to Extreme Precipitation

 

First of its kind study shines light on LGBTQ+ farmer mental health

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

 

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NEW RESEARCH FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN INDICATES LGBTQ+ FARMERS MAY FEEL A DOUBLE BURDEN OF MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES. 

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CREDIT: COURTNEY CUTHBERTSON, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

URBANA, Ill. -- LGBTQ+ people involved in farm work are over three times more likely to experience depression and suicidal intent and about two and a half times more likely to experience anxiety than the general population. That’s according to a new study led by farmer mental health experts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  

“For several years, I've done work around farm stress and mental health among farmers in general. We’ve found people who work in agriculture have adverse mental health compared to those who work in other areas. Similarly, there are findings that queer folks have worse mental health than their straight and cisgender peers. I was motivated to do this study because there's very little research that looks at the crossover of LGBTQ+ people who work in agriculture,” said Courtney Cuthbertson, assistant professor and Illinois Extension specialist in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at Illinois.

Studies have estimated at least 23,000 LGBTQ+ people are involved in U.S. farming; the actual number is likely higher, Cuthbertson said. The research team surveyed LGBTQ+ farmers across the U.S., asking standardized questions about sexual and gender identity, stress, anxiety, depression, resilient coping, and suicide risk, as well as agricultural commodity type. They received and analyzed 148 responses from 36 states, with greater representation among people in organic production and in California, Illinois, New York, and Texas. 

About 72% of respondents were experiencing symptoms of mild to severe depression; 70% mild to severe anxiety; and 52% were at significant risk of suicide. 

“The percentages that had probable depression and probable anxiety disorder were in alignment with, if not higher than, general farming populations, which would indicate a double burden for LGBTQ+ folks in farming,” Cuthbertson said. “However, the percentage at significant risk for suicide was much lower than in samples of LGBTQ+ people who are not in farming. That leads me to wonder whether working in agriculture could have a protective effect for LGBTQ+ people regarding suicide risk.” 

When the subgroups were analyzed individually, it turned out that a greater proportion of people identifying as men experienced anxiety, depression, and suicide risk compared to non-men, a pattern mirrored in the farming community at large. Cuthbertson said this may be due to norms around masculinity in agriculture.

Further, gay respondents and those working in field crops and beef production were more likely to have probable depression, though beef producers were least likely to have a diagnosis of depression from a medical professional. Generally, more respondents appeared to have depressive or anxiety symptoms than had been medically diagnosed for these disorders. Again, Cuthbertson said that aligns with their research on farmers in general.

“Agriculture is intensive. Someone might feel the time costs to go to a provider come with a financial cost of not being productive during that time,” they said. “And in a lot of agricultural communities, there's a stigma around mental health, where someone might not want their vehicle to be seen in front of the therapist’s office. 

“But for LGBTQ+ folks in particular, there may be concern about whether someone's identity would be validated or whether they would be greeted with the proper pronouns and addressed in a respectful way. They may not have supervisors or managers who are willing to let them take a break to go to therapy. They may also not have health benefits that would include mental health coverage.”

The research team created several fact sheets based on this research, as well as resources for allies in the farming community who want to support LGBTQ+ farm workers. Their advice includes adapting language to be more inclusive of non-cisheteronormative gender and relationship statuses; engaging in allyship or cultural competency trainings; and offering equitable resources and support to everyone.

“It’s important to look at what’s happening in the environment for LGBTQ+ folks, rather than assuming the problem lies with them. When we see things like depression, anxiety, or suicide, these are signs that something is distressing,” Cuthbertson said. “Let’s identify root causes and see what we can do about it, rather than problematizing a marginalized group.”

Cuthbertson stresses that the contributions of LGBTQ+ people in the farming community should not be discounted or dismissed. “There have been so many conversations about making agriculture a more sustainable industry to ensure future food security,” they said. “I’ve made the argument that agriculture can’t be sustainable unless it’s sustainable for the people working in it, which means being attentive to mental and physical health as well as making the industry as inclusive as possible for any and all who want to be part of it.”

The researchers suggest the following resources for LGBTQ+ farmers and for those struggling with mental health:

• The Queer Farmer Network: queerfarmernetwork.org
• The Cultivating Change Foundation: thecultivatingchangefoundation.org
• Concern Hotline, 1-800-447-1985: extension.iastate.edu/iowaconcern 
• Trans Lifeline, 877-565-8860: translifeline.org
• National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 988: 988lifeline.org
• Crisis Text Line, 741741: crisistextline.org

The study, “Mental health among LGBTQ+ farmers in the United States,” is published in the Journal of Agromedicine [DOI: 10.1080/1059924X.2024.2368185]. Authors include Courtney Cuthbertson, Dane Rivas-Koehl, Anisa Codamon, Alyssa Billington, and Matthew Rivas-Koehl. The research was supported in part by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Cuthbertson is also affiliated with the Center for Social and Behavioral Science at Illinois.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Agromedicine

DOI

10.1080/1059924X.2024.2368185 

High-speed internet linked to more farms offering agritourism

PENN STATE

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The availability and adoption of high-speed broadband appears to boost the number of farms offering agritourism activities, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. Their findings, the researchers said, bolster the argument for expanding broadband availability in support of farm operators who want to benefit from the growing consumer interest in on-farm experiences.

“Agritourism operations are consumer-facing businesses that offer activities to farm or ranch visitors, such as farm stands, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hayrides and farm stays. They need to attract visitors, and most of their visitors find them online,” said Claudia Schmidt, assistant professor of marketing and local/regional food systems in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, who led the research. “Ours is the first study to examine the relationship between high-speed internet and agritourism specifically, and demonstrates a clear relationship.”

In the study, published in the Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, the researchers used several data sources — including the 2017 Census of Agriculture and the Federal Communication Commission’s fixed broadband deployment data — to conduct a nationwide, county-level statistical analysis of the relationship between a county’s average adopted broadband speed in 2012 and the number of agritourism businesses in that county five years later, while controlling for other relevant factors. They included the five-year lag due to data limitations, according to co-author Luyi Han, a postdoctoral researcher at the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD) based at Penn State.

“Once high-speed broadband becomes available in an area, it takes time for its widespread adoption and for that adoption to translate into business expansion,” Han said. “For that reason, using agritourism data from the same year as our broadband data in our analysis could be misleading. Since our broadband data is from 2012, we used the next available Census of Agriculture for our agritourism data, which was 2017.”

They found that, on average, U.S. counties that adopted broadband speeds one megabit per second above the national average in 2012 had about 5% more agritourism operations in 2017 than counties who stayed at or below the national average speed. The researchers also conducted a secondary analysis to examine the effects of this relationship across the rural-urban continuum and found it to be more than twice as strong in urban counties with a population of at least 250,000. In rural counties, the relationship was not statistically significant.

Schmidt surmised that this rural-urban difference could be attributed to overall differences in tourism infrastructure, or it might speak to issues of digital equity.

“Many rural areas lack essential services like restaurants and lodging, and as a result, farms may struggle to attract visitors to their operations,” she said. “Similarly, even in rural places where fast internet speeds are available, educational services that entrepreneurs can access to learn how to leverage fast internet for their businesses may not be available. That suggests a real opportunity for land-grant universities  and agricultural service providers to help expand agritourism by offering targeted internet trainings.”

She added that with the newest Census of Agriculture data released just earlier this year, they plan to examine this trend over a longer period of time in a future study.

In addition to Schmidt and Han, Stephan Goetz, Penn State Professor of Agricultural and Regional Economics and director of NERCRD, and Arian Khaleghi Moghadam, professor of economics at Bloomsburg University, also contributed to this research. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Multistate/Regional Research and Extension Appropriations funded this work.

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JOURNAL

Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

DOI

10.1002/jaa2.128 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Broadband access and agritourism operations in the United States

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2024

 

Prenatal exposure to ethylene oxide associated with lower birth weight and head circumference in newborns

The study involving 1,106 newborns from five countries examined the impact of ethylene oxide exposure during the last three months of pregnancy on foetal development and birth outcomes

BARCELONA INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH (ISGLOBAL)

A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, provides new evidence on the adverse effects of prenatal exposure to ethylene oxide (EO) on foetal development. The results, published in Epidemiology, show that increased EO exposure in utero is associated with a reduction in birth weight and head circumference in newborns.

Ethylene oxide is a chemical used in various industrial processes and in hospitals, is known for its mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. Human exposure to EO is mainly through inhalation of tobacco smoke and air pollution produced from various household products, including cleaning and personal care products. Workers in the healthcare and chemical industries are particularly exposed to this substance, which is commonly used in sterilisation processes. Previous studies have found that women exposed to higher levels of EO at work during pregnancy had a higher risk of miscarriage and premature birth than those with lower exposure.

This new study focused on pregnant women and newborns in the general population, rather than a specific population with known high levels of EO exposure. The research team looked at the levels of EO hemoglobin (Hb) adducts in the cord blood of 1,106 newborns from 5 countries: Greece, Spain, Norway, UK and Denmark. This measurement provides valid information on the amount of EO the foetus was exposed to during the last three months of pregnancy, which may help to better understand potential adverse effects on foetal development and birth outcomes.

The study used data from the NewGeneris project, which aimed to study genotoxic exposures in the environment on children's health by measuring several biomarkers in cord blood. Information on birth weight, head circumference, sex and gestational age was obtained from maternity records.

Higher exposure, lower birth weight and smaller head circumference

The results of the study showed that median levels of EO-Hb adducts in the umbilical cord were higher in smoking mothers compared to non-smoking mothers. Higher levels of hemoglobin adducts were associated with lower birth weight. Specifically, mean birth weight decreased by 3.30 grams with each 10 pmol/g increase in hemoglobin adducts. Increasing levels of hemoglobin adducts were also associated with a decrease in head circumference.

“Reduced head circumference has been linked to delayed neurodevelopment, and reduced birth weight increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis,” says Barbara Harding, ISGlobal researcher and first author of the study. 

The team found no evidence of an association between EO Hb adduct levels and the risk of being small for gestational age (SGA), a condition that can compromise a baby's short and long-term health.

"The study results highlight the importance of addressing EO exposure in both occupational and non-occupational settings. Policy changes to reduce EO exposure in vulnerable populations, such as women of childbearing age, could protect foetal health and improve birth outcomes," says Manolis Kogevinas, ISGlobal researcher and senior author of the study.

Reference 

Harding BN, Agramunt, S., Pedersen, M., Knudsen, LE., Nielsen, JKS, Wright, J, Vafeiadi, M., Merlo, DF., Stayner, L., Kelly-Reif, K., Espinosa, A., Bustamante, M., Gützkow, KB., Granum, B., von Stedingk, H., Rydberg, P., Alexander, J., Törnqvist, M., Kogevinas, M. Ethylene oxide hemoglobin adducts in cord blood and offspring’s size at birth: The NewGeneris European Cohort Study. Epidemiology. 2024. DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001767

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JOURNAL

Epidemiology

DOI

10.1097/EDE.0000000000001767 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Ethylene oxide hemoglobin adducts in cord blood and offspring’s size at birth: The NewGeneris European Cohort Study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2024