Natural solutions to the climate crisis? One-quarter is all down to Earth

by Zhang Nannan, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Agroforestry systems play a critical role in natural climate solutions. Credit: KIB

Joint research conducted by the Nature Conservancy and the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, calculated the carbon-storing power of global soils and showcased approaches like agroforestry designed to capitalise on untapped potential.

A critical, nature-based approach to mitigating climate change has been right at our feet all along, according to a new study reporting that soil represents up 25% of the total global potential for natural climate solutions (NCS) – approaches that absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and lock it into landscapes, including forests, croplands and peatlands.

Representing the first time soil's total global potential for carbon-mitigation across forests, wetlands, agriculture and grasslands together has been cataloged, the study provides a timely reminder not to neglect the power of soils and the many benefits these ecosystems can deliver for climate, wildlife and agriculture.

Published in the journal Nature Sustainability, the study is titled "The role of soil carbon in natural climate solutions." the research also argues that a lack of clarity to date regarding the full scale of this opportunity and how to best capitalize on it has restricted investment.

Lead author Dr. Deborah Bossio, the Nature Conservancy's lead soil scientist, says, "While momentum continues to build behind the role nature can play in the global response to climate change, soils have historically enjoyed less of the limelight as a natural climate solution compared with, say, forests or mangroves. Our study is designed to redress this situation by highlighting the full carbon-mitigation potential of soils across a range of landscapes, but also—crucially—exploring practical mechanisms that already exist for accelerating the uptake of these comparatively untapped approaches, including their integration into burgeoning carbon markets. This is particularly important for agriculture sector, for which more effective management of soils represents the single biggest contribution this industry can make towards mitigating climate change."

Co-author Dr. Robert Zomer of the KIB/CAS says, "Soils and improved soil management have a tremendous potential to store carbon. Agroforestry, and more generally just including more trees in the agricultural landscape, has been shown to be one of the most important approaches to increasing soil organic carbon with substantial global mitigation potential. In addition, highlighting the complimentary beneficial impacts available from improved agricultural production practices aimed at improving soil health, both the increased on-farm bio-diversity and livelihood diversification can enhance farm and ecosystem resilience."

Demonstrating that soil carbon represents up to 25% of total global NCS potential, the paper also estimated that 40% of this potential will be delivered by protecting existing soil carbon reserves, while 60% will come from rebuilding stocks depleted by practices such as over-intensive arable agriculture and the draining of peatlands.

Breaking these data down further, the researchers also showed the share of total NCS potential that soil represents across various, climate-critical landscapes—from a relatively diminutive 9% of forest mitigation potential, through 47% for agricultural lands and grasslands, right up to 72% of total carbon sequestration potential in wetland landscapes.

The study also showed that agroforestry systems can have significant positive impacts on soil organic carbon across specific geographies. Moreover, the majority of other soil carbon pathways tend to be "no regrets" practices that deliver soil fertility, climate resilience and provide other ecosystem services alongside climate mitigation.

"We already know that nature has a powerful role in mitigating runaway climate change," said Prof. XU Jianchu from KIB/CAS, who was not associated with the study. "This study showed the NCS provide pathways for sustainable development that have both climate mitigation and livelihood improvement potential. It is essential that soil health become a central pillar of agricultural production, not just for climate mitigation, but also for both environmental and food security."Restore soil to absorb billions of tonnes of carbon: study

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More information: D. A. Bossio et al. The role of soil carbon in natural climate solutions, Nature Sustainability (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0491-z

Journal information: Nature Sustainability 

Researchers reveal lignin protection mechanism in forest soils

by Zhang Nannan, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Over the course of forest succession, both components of plant residues and the structure of soil microbial communities play important roles in affecting soil aggregates, and thus the sequestration and stability of soil organic carbon. However, up till now there is still a lack of holistic understanding of the interactions among root turnover, microbial community composition, chemical composition of plant residues and different sized soil aggregates.

Feng Yue, Zhang Junhui and other researchers from the Forest Boundary Ecology Group of the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with Prof. Han Shijie at Henan University, quantified lignin phenol composition, concentrations and oxidation levels in macroaggregates, microaggregates and silt–clay fractions in soils at five successional stages of the mixed broadleaf–Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) forests in the Changbai Mountains.

The researchers also measured root biomass and turnover, and microbial biomass, etc. By analyzing data they collected, the researchers explored the mechanism affecting the protection of soil aggregates on plant-derived organic matter during the succession of the type of forest.

As a result, large macroaggregates (2-8 mm) accounted for 45.17—59.87% of the bulk soil dry weight and comprised 40.22—60.89% of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the stands of pioneer forests. There were higher proportion of small macroaggregates (0.25-2 mm) and SOC but lower lignin content and oxidation levels in the bulk soil and aggregates in the mature stands compared to other forest stands.

They found the highest soil carbon and lignin concentrations and that the silt-clay fractions sequestrated 56.18% of SOC and up to 84.17% of the lignin content in the 239 years old forest stands.

The study showed that, along with forest succession and the changes in plant residue chemistry, fine root and microbial biomass, SOC sequestration and lignin protection shifted from large aggregates to small particles of silt-clay fractions. This may lead to the long-term accumulation of SOC in late successional forests.

In conclusion, by quantifying lignin, the researchers of this study revealed the relationship between carbon sequestration in soil aggregates and carbon input from plant residues over the course of vegetation development.

This study has been published in Soil Science Society of America Journal with the title "Variation in soil lignin protection mechanisms in five successional gradients of mixed broadleaf-pine forests."New findings in plant root and fungal interaction help to resolve the complexity of soil carbon cycling

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More information: Yue Feng et al. Variation in soil lignin protection mechanisms in five successional gradients of mixed broadleaf–pine forests, Soil Science Society of America Journal (2020). DOI: 10.1002/saj2.20032

Major advances in our understanding of New World Morning Glories

THEY ARE NOT A WEED THEY ARE A PSYCHOACTIVE DRUG

by Pensoft Publishers

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) growing as a weed in a waste ground, San Ramon, Peru. Credit: Robert Scotland

A major advance in revealing the unknown plant diversity on planet Earth is made with a new monograph, published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PhytoKeys. The global-wide study, conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford, lists details about each of the 425 New World species in the largest genus within the family of morning glories, thanks to an all-round approach combining standard, modern and new-generation identification techniques.


The family of morning glories, also known as bindweeds, whose scientific name is Convolvulaceae, includes prominent members like the sweet potato and ornamental plants such as the moonflower and the blue dawn flower. In fact, one of the key conclusions, made in the present work, is that within this plant group there are many other species, besides the sweet potato, that evolved storage roots long before modern humans appeared on Earth. Furthermore, most of those are yet to be evaluated for economic purposes.

To make their findings, the research team of John Wood, Dr. Pablo Muñoz Rodríguez, Bethany R.M. Williams and Prof Robert Scotland applied the "foundation monograph" concept that they had developed for similarly diverse and globally distributed, yet largely understudied groups. Usually, such groups with hundreds of species have never been surveyed across their entire geographical range, which in turn results in the existence of many overlooked new species or species wrongly named.

As a result, the monograph adds six new to science species and establishes nine new subspecies, previously recognised as either distinct species or varieties. The publication also cites all countries where any of those 425 morning glories occurs. In order to provide detailed knowledge about their identities and ecologies, the authors also produced over 200 illustrative figures: both line drawings and photos.

Professor Robert Scotland with the evolutionary tree of the studied genus -- Ipomoea. The study involved DNA sequencing of 2,000 specimens. Credit: John Baker

John Wood of the Oxford team members collects plants in Bolivia. Credit: BRM Williams

In their study, the scientists also investigate poorly known phenomena concerning the genus. For instance, the majority of the plants appear to originate from two very large centres, from where they must have consequently radiated: the Parana region of South America and the Caribbean Islands. Today, however, a considerable amount of those species can be found all around the globe. Interestingly, the team also notes a strong trend for individual species or clades (separate species with a common ancestor) to inhabit disjunct localities at comparable latitudes on either side of the tropics in North America and South America, but not the Equator.

The monograph exemplifies the immense value of natural history collections. Even though the researchers have conducted fieldwork, most of their research is based on herbarium specimens. They have even managed to apply DNA sequencing to specimens over 100 years old. The publication also provides detailed information about the characteristics, distribution and ecology of all the species. It is illustrated with over 200 figures, both line drawings and photos.

"A major challenge in monographing these groups is the size of the task given the number of species, their global distribution and extensive synonymy, the large and increasing number of specimens, the numerous and dispersed herbaria where specimens are housed and an extensive, scattered and often obscure literature," comment the scientists.

"Unlike traditional taxonomic approaches, the 'foundation monograph' relies on a combination of standard techniques with the use of online digital images and molecular sequence data. Thereby, the scientists are able to focus on species-level taxonomic problems across the entire distribution range of individual species," they explained.What's the story, morning glory? Taxonomy, evolution and sweet potatoes

More information: Pablo Muñoz-Rodríguez et al, A taxonomic monograph of Ipomoea integrated across phylogenetic scales, Nature Plants (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41477-019-0535-4

Telecommuting could curb the coronavirus epidemic

by Mohja Rhoads and Fynnwin Prager, The Conversation MARCH 17, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Recent surveys from both the National Household Transportation Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that around 29% of the United States workforce has the option to work at home, and around 15% usually does so.

Working from home pays a double dividend during a pandemic. First, it can help to limit the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. This supports organizations' efforts to limit travel and major public events, and more assertive efforts by governments in badly affected regions to restrict population movement altogether.

Restricting travel and canceling events have substantial costs at a time when businesses are already dealing with absences due to illnesses. Allowing people to work from home can help cut some of these losses.

There are many jobs that can be conducted only at a place of work. For example, a dentist can perform a root canal only at an office, a bus driver must drive a bus and a longshoreman must travel to a port.

However, recent advances in digital technologies, software and networks have made working from home much easier. Now many can conduct all or a portion of their work at home, and the data show that some workers from all occupations and industries work from home at some point during the week. What this means is that even the most physical of industries have some jobs or portions of jobs that can be conducted remotely, even if part-time.

Researchers estimate that at least 50% of the workforce has a job that is compatible with working at home for a portion of the week, such as those in sales, legal, media and military occupations. This workforce could contribute to the economy and limit their exposure to the coronavirus.

The limited uptake of working at home has more to do with managerial resistance than the type of work itself. When organizations come together and government provides the necessary resources, flexible workplace strategies have been successful in helping ease traffic during major events such as the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and maintaining government services during catastrophic weather events such as Snowmageddon in 2010

Provided by The Conversation 

Coronavirus could spark a revolution in working from home. Are we ready?

by Libby Sander, The Conversation

A dedicated home office is a key strategy to work from home successfully. Credit: Shutterstock

Imagine your employer asking you to work from home until further notice.

As COVID-19 continues to spread, this seems an increasingly likely scenario. "Everyone who can work from home should work from home," said Harvard epidemiologist William Hanage this week.

In China and neighboring countries, millions are doing so for the first time.

In the United States, companies readying staff to work remotely include Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and JP Morgan.

This week, NASA's Ames Research Center in California joined them and declared a mandatory telework policy after an employee tested positive to COVID-19. NASA sites across the country have been testing their work-from-home capabilities.

In Dublin last week, Google sent 8,000 workers home for a day to trial an extended remote-work scenario after one employee came down with flu-like symptoms.

In Australia, Clayton Utz, Cisco and Vodafone temporarily closed offices last week as a precautionary measure.

The likelihood of extended workplace shutdowns seems increasingly likely. So what do we know about the pros and cons of working from home?

How common is working from home?

Perhaps not as common as you might think.

In Australia many companies now offer flexible work arrangements, but that doesn't necessarily mean employees can work from home. Even those permitted to work from home may only be allowed to do so on a limited basis.

As the list of tech companies mentioned may indicate, it is easier to do a job from home if you need only an internet connection and a telephone line.

In building a case for the national broadband network in 2010, Australia's Gillard government set a target of 10% of the workforce teleworking half the time. This was up from an estimated 6% of employedAustralians having some form of regular teleworking arrangement.

Consultancy Access Economics predicted this could save A$1.4 billion to A$1.9 billion a year—about A$1.27 billion of that being the time and cost savings of avoided travel.

Teleworking has many benefits

Governments since Gillard's have been less focused on the idea, to the the extent we lack reliable contemporary statistics for telework in Australia.

But with increased commuting times, caring responsibilities and the stress of modern workplaces, the research says most employees highly value being able to work from home. In fact, a 2017 US study found employees valued the option at about 8% of their wages.

Research has also highlighted benefits including increased productivity, rated by both the employees and supervisors. One study showed a 13% increase in performance for employees working from home.

Part of this may be due to an increased ability to focus and less distraction. My research shows employees who can't focus to complete their work are less likely to perform well.

Working from home usually means employees have greater autonomy over how they do their work, including the hours and conditions of their work, and how they manage their lives and other responsibilities. These benefits of teleworking have been shown to lead to greater job satisfaction, lower absenteesim and turnover, increased commitment to the organization and, importantly, reductions in stress associated with work.

Work-from-home arrangements may also give organizations access to a greater talent pool.

But there are downsides as well

That said, there are challenges associated with working from home that organizations and individuals often do not plan well for.

Studies have shown working from home for extended periods can leave employees feeling socially and professionally isolated.

When we work from home, we have fewer opportunities to interact and acquire information, which may explain why remote workers can feel less confident than their office-based counterparts.

This reduction in interaction and knowledge sharing is a key barrier to the take-up of working from home.

According to a meta-analysis of 46 studies involving more than 12,000 employees, working from home more than 2.5 days a week could negatively affect relationships with coworkers as well as knowledge transfer.

Further, resentment could arise if teleworking was not widely available.

Employees who work from home have also perceived negative consequences for their career. Out of sight can sometimes be out of mind. Research published last month, however, suggests telecommuters are promoted as much as office-based colleagues.

Another significant issue is maintaining boundaries with home life. It can be hard to switch off, particularly when we don't have a dedicated home office. Telecommuters often work longer hours, with 48% of employees increasing their work hours in one study.

How can we make it work?

organizations can increase the success of working from home. Regular communication, particularly using video conferencing, can help ensure tasks are coordinated, knowledge is transferred, and social and professional isolation is reduced.

For organizations used to managing based on visibility and presence, letting go of traditional ideas of how to manage and focusing on outputs will be required.

If schools are also closed, employers will need to be sensitive to the challenges employees face working from home with children to care for and online schooling to incorporate.

Finally, employees need to establish boundaries between work and home life. Being able to switch off at the end of the day is important for both physical and mental health.

With no end in sight to COVID-19, many businesses are developing or implementing work-from-home policies to ensure business continuity. If employees and employers can get the balance right and enjoy the benefits of well-planned telework, this coronavirus outbreak could prove to be the tipping point for remote work arrangements to become the norm.

Facebook shuts London, Singapore offices after coronavirus case

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Fast reconnection in turbulent media

by Lazarian (Cesra), Community of European Solar Radio Astronomers

VELIKOVSKY AND MY PHYSICS PROF (A VELIKOVSKIAN) SAID THE SUN IS ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY WERE CORRECT

Vorticity of flow in the turbulent reconnection region (X is along the reversing components of magnetic field, Y is perpendicular to the current layer). The measured spectrum corresponds to the expectations of the MHD turbulent theory. No plasmoids is seen for the 3D steady state magnetic reconnection. Credit: Lazarian et al, 2020

Solar flares, similar to many other astrophysical energetic processes, are related to magnetic reconnection. During these events magnetic energy is transferred from other forms of energy, mostly heat and energetic particles. Traditionally, the goal of various models of magnetic reconnection was to explain the rate of this energy transfer. However, the flares are just one of the processes that involve magnetic reconnection. If one imagines any complex motion in a highly conducting medium, the magnetic field, which is assumed to be frozen into the fluid as a result of the famous Alfven (1942) theorem, should create intersections of "knots" that have to arrest the motion of the fluid, unless the magnetic reconnection is fast. Turbulent motions, that are ubiquitous for high Reynolds number astrophysical fluids, present a typical example of such complex fluid motions.

The analytical theory presented in Lazarian & Vishniac (1999, henceforth LV99) testify that 3-D MHD turbulence can make the magnetic reconnection fast, solving problems related both to flares and to explaining the dynamics of turbulent flows. The numerical difficulties associated with the simulations of reconnection within 3-D turbulent flows impeded the progress of testing of the predictions of the turbulent reconnection theory. As a result, models that required only 2-D numerical simulations, i.e. the plasmoid reconnection (Loreiro et al 2007), became widely used and compared with observations. The situation has changed recently as higher resolution numerical simulations became available making testing of 3-D reconnection feasible.

A recent review in Lazarian et al. (2019, henceforth LX19) summarizes the theoretical, numerical and observational progress achieved in the field of 3-D turbulent reconnection. Numerical simulations of the scale 2048x8982x2048 are illustrated in Figure 1. The large scale of the simulations is required to have the outflow thick enough to get it turbulent. Those simulations testify that in 3-D the growth rate of the plasmoid instability is significantly less than of the Kelvin-Hemholtz instability of the outflow. Therefore, in 3-D the magnetic reconnection mediated by plasmoids can be expected only at the initial stage of the reconnection, before the turbulent outflow is formed.

For a given level of turbulence, the numerical simulations show the rate of reconnection that is expected from the LV99 theory. As for flares involving reconnection, they have a natural explanation within the turbulent reconnection model. According to the model, the level of magnetic reconnection increases with the level of turbulence. The increase of the matter outflow increases the level of the turbulence and this, in turn, increases further the reconnection rate. This is a runaway process.

One of the most dramatic predictions of the turbulent reconnection theory is the flux freezing violation in turbulent fluids, the effect that was also successfully demonstrated numerically.

The role of the plasma effects is a hotly debated issue in the literature with simulations that account for plasma effects usually showing reconnection rates faster than those in MHD limit. In LX19 theoretical arguments on the decreasing importance of the plasma effects with the increase of the length of the turbulent reconnection region are supported by numerical simulations. The PIC simulations presented in the review provide results that are consistent with those obtained with MHD simulations.

LX19 contains a list of observations that support the turbulent reconnection theory. Those include both solar observations, solar wind measurements, data on the Parker spiral, etc.

Due to the progress of 3-D numerical simulations, the model of turbulent reconnection has demonstrated its validity. The model has a set of predictions that can be tested observationally. Studies of solar reconnection, see Chitta & Lazarian (2019), provide a good way to test the predictions of the turbulent reconnection theory.Mix master: Modeling magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasma

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More information: Based on a recent paper Lazarian et al, Physics of Plasmas, 2020: DOI: doi.org/10.1063/1.5110603

Dams in the upper Mekong River modify nutrient bioavailability downstream

by Science China Press

Dams stimulate phytoplankton production and modify nutrient export downstream in the Lancang-Mekong River Credit: Science China Press

The number of hydropower dams has increased dramatically in the last 100 years for energy supply, climate change mitigation, and economic development. However, recent studies have overwhelmingly stressed the negative consequences of dam construction. Notably, it is commonly assumed that reservoirs retain nutrients, and this nutrient reduction significantly reduces primary productivity, fishery catches and food security downstream. Such perception largely hampers electricity supply and even sustainable socio-economic development in many developing regions such as the Congo and lower Mekong basins.

However, solid scientific support for the widespread belief that dams retain nutrients is usually lacking, because monitoring programs gathering data to establish how nutrient fluxes and phytoplankton production have changed after dam construction are rare. A new article by Qiuwen Chen and his research group at Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, China, together with Prof. Jef Huisman from the University of Amsterdam and Prof. Stephen C Maberly from UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology now provides extensive monitoring data for the upper Mekong River. Their data reveal some surprising new insights.

Contrary to expectation, their study shows that a cascade of reservoirs along the upper Mekong River increased downstream bioavailability of nitrogen and phosphorus. The core mechanism is the synergic effect of increased hydraulic residence time and the development of hypoxic conditions due to stratification and organic matter accumulation. The lack of oxygen results in release of nutrients from the sediment and subsequent accumulation of ammonium and phosphorus in the deeper water layers of the reservoir, which enhances the concentration of dissolved nutrients released downstream from the base of the reservoirs.

Moreover, the longer residence time in the reservoirs strongly increased phytoplankton production, with a shift in species composition from diatoms upstream to green algae in the downstream reservoirs.

Upstream dams are regularly blamed for nutrient retention and consequently the collapse of primary productivity and fisheries, and even human rights of subsistence in the lower Mekong River. This work implies that the fishery decline in the lower Mekong River might be caused by other factors such as over-fishing, habitat modification, disruption of fish migration by dam construction or water quality deterioration from local sources, rather than a reduction in nutrient availability or primary productivity induced by the cascade dams upstream.

This novel perspective on the globally important issue emphasizes the need for dedicated monitoring of the environmental impacts of hydropower dams on nutrient cycling and primary production. The findings are of great significance not only for science, but also for sustainable social-economic development along the Mekong River and other transboundary rivers worldwide.

Thais spike China-led plan to dredge Mekong river

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More information: Qiuwen Chen et al, Hydropower reservoirs on the upper Mekong River modify nutrient bioavailability downstream, National Science Review (2020). DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa026

COVID-19 Edition - LabourNEWS Mar. 20, 2020

During this time of a global health pandemic, we want to stay in touch and share our continued work with you. Below you will find releases from the AFL, as well as, resources to help navigate supports being made available. News Labour's Response Plan for Alberta This week, Premier Kenney rammed through a budget that will result in job losses and further cuts. We are facing a global health pandemic while also suffering from a massive drop in the price of oil. At a time like this, Albertans need our government to step up with support, not step on us with austerity. Yesterday, Alberta labour leaders unanimously supported an 8-point response plan for during this crisis. Taken together, we think our suggestions will help us "flatten the curve" of infection; fortify our health care system; and ward off the collapse of our economy. See Labour's response and proposed approach here. Lack of Surge Capacity As we watch communities around the globe grapple with COVID-19's effects on their health care systems, questions arise about whether Alberta is prepared to handle this health crisis. We are raising the alarm that we do not have adequate resources in place for a surge of patients and we are calling on Premier Kenney to immediately act to address capacity by opening more acute care and intensive care hospital beds. Read our release on a lack in surge capacity here. Kenney Must Provide Paid Sick Leave Albertans need certainty and support during the pandemic caused by COVID-19. If we want Albertans to follow the advice of public health officials and stay home when their sick, they need to know that they will still be paid. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been publicly demanding just that. Last week, Premier Kenney recognized this issue and announced that he would provide Albertans with paid sick leave, BUT unfortunately, this week, he backtracked and announced he would ensure workers have access to unpaid sick leave. We think that the Premier misleading Albertans during a crisis is unacceptable. The Premier needs to act now to fix this, which is why it's an important part of labour's 8-point response plan. Resources Alberta Government COVID-19 Resource: https://www.alberta.ca/coronavirus-info-for-albertans.aspx Alberta Health: Help in Tough Times Resource: https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/amh/Page16759.aspx Government of Canada COVID-19 Programs and Support: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2020/03/canadas-covid-19-economic-response-plan-support-for-canadians-and-businesses.html Take Action Follow Us Online Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more regular updates as issues unfold. We encourage you to share relevant information with your networks.

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Can the coronavirus really live for 3 days on plastic? Yes, but it's complicated.

by Tom Avril

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

For more than a week, people have been sharing an eyebrow-raising report that the novel coronavirus can live for 24 hours on cardboard, and up to three days on plastic and stainless steel. 

It can, but the details are more complicated, according to scientists who published the research behind those figures on Tuesday. The short version: Levels of the virus drop dramatically within a few hours, the authors wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The key is what scientists refer to as a virus' half-life, or rate of decay: how much time it takes for half the microbes in a given sample to die.

When the scientists placed virus-laden droplets on plastic, they found that half of the virus was gone after about seven hours. Half of what remained was gone after another seven hours, and so on. By the end of Day Two, there was less than 1/100 of the original amount, and after three days the remnants were barely detectable.

For stainless steel, the half-life for the virus was five or six hours, and for cardboard it was even shorter: less than four hours.

The surface on which the virus had the shortest duration was copper, which has long been known for its antimicrobial properties. When droplets were placed on the reddish metal, half of the virus died off within 45 minutes.

So what matters is how much virus is there to begin with, said Princeton University researcher Dylan H. Morris, one of the study authors. The more viruses deposited on a surface, the greater the amount that will be left when half of them have decayed.

Why the coronavirus and most other viruses have no cureHad researchers used bigger or more droplets, they would have detected some viruses remaining on plastic after more than three days, in theory.

"The absolute time until virus is undetectable depends upon how much virus you initially put there," said Morris, a Ph.D candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology.

The findings should offer some reassurance to those concerned about touching their mail, said Gregory A. Poland, a vaccine researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who was not involved with the study.

Generally, the smaller the exposure to a virus, the less likely it will develop into a full-blown infection, Poland told Minnesota Public Radio on a call-in show broadcast nationally Wednesday. And when a virus is exposed to sunlight and warmer temperatures, as might be likely with mail, it is likely to decay even faster than what the scientists found in their indoor experiment, he said.

"The fact that you could identify a virus on a surface does not mean it is necessarily infectious," he said.

Still, it can't hurt to wash your hands after taking groceries out of the bag, opening a newly delivered envelope, or retrieving the newspaper. Soap and water does the job.

Morris and his fellow researchers also compared the viability of the new coronavirus on various surfaces with that of a different kind of coronavirus—the one that caused the SARS epidemic from 2002 to 2003. The results were similar, though the SARS virus decayed more quickly than the new virus did on cardboard.

The research team, which also included members from National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UCLA, plans a more comprehensive follow-up study: analyzing the hardiness of the new coronavirus at varying levels of temperature and humidity, as well as comparing it with the flu.

The goal of the first paper was speed, given the rapid growth of the outbreak, Morris said.

"For this paper, we wanted to just move as fast as we could while still getting reliable data," Morris said. "We knew people needed to know this for things like hospital and environmental safety models."

Earthquakes Can Teach Us About Disaster and Resilience
Journalist Jon Mooallem’s new book, ‘This is Chance!’, revives a decades-old story about an Alaskan radio journalist and the biggest earthquake you’ve never heard of—and gives us something to consider when the world is unsteady

Katherine Cusumano
Mar 22, 2020
Along the southern shoreline of Alaska, underneath the Aleutian Trench in the Pacific Ocean, two tectonic plates converge. One presses beneath the other at an annual rate of about two and a half inches, causing a moderate earthquake about once a year. But at 5:36 P.M. on March 27, 1964—Good Friday—the plates slipped dramatically, setting off a violent quake that rippled across the state for nearly five minutes—long enough, according to journalist Jon Mooallem, “for some people to question if it would ever stop.” The great Alaskan quake, as it later became known, hit a record-setting 9.2 on the Richter scale. It remains the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America and the second-largest recorded worldwide.

In Anchorage, just 75 miles away from the earthquake’s epicenter, a main road cracked in half, and the wealthy enclave of Turnagain slipped almost entirely into the sea. Power lines went down. And very little information entered or exited the region until Anchorage’s local radio station, using backup generators, burst back onto the air.

One of its local reporters, Genie Chance, was in her car with her son when the quake struck. After it subsided, and after she got a glimpse of the scale of destruction, she only stopped to drop him safely at home before rushing back into the field to start reporting. “For the next thirty hours,” she recalled later, “I talked constantly.” She quickly emerged as the voice of Anchorage in the wake of the earthquake, dispatching critical updates to listeners across the region. (This included her own relatives: “The Chance family is alright,” she told her parents over the air.) Her programming was picked up by other Alaskan radio stations, then nationally; she later won numerous journalism awards for her disaster coverage. But history soon forgot about the earthquake and the female reporter who covered it best. Chance died in 1998.Small business owners clear salvagable items and equipment from their earthquake-ravaged stores on Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, Alaska, in the aftermath of the 1964 earthquake. (Photo: Unknown/AP)

Decades later, Chance is at the center of Mooallem’s new book, This Is Chance!, which will be published March 24. The veteran journalist first learned about the great Alaskan quake when he spotted black and white photographs of the wreckage from tsunamis caused by the earthquake on the wall of a diner in Crescent City, California. His interest piqued, Mooallem later spent years poring over contemporaneous interviews, news accounts, and scientific research, including a report Chance produced for the U.S. Geological Survey, trying to piece together a cohesive account of that weekend. “No one had written this story before,” Mooallem told me recently.

Before long, Chance herself became the beating heart of the story he wanted to tell. Perhaps intuiting that her records might one day be of historical significance, Chance had sent reel-to-reel tapes of her broadcasts to the University of Alaska, where Mooallem found and listened to them decades later. Her daughter, Jan, also had a separate trove of recordings. As Mooallem writes it, Chance underwent a transformation from a working mom and frontier-town journalist (a typical story of hers might have been on sled-dog races) to the most indispensable voice of a city thrust into disaster. “I was just really moved by the role that a radio person could play in that situation,” Mooallem says, “because that role fundamentally connects other people.”

Mooallem tried to interview as many survivors of the great Alaskan quake as possible, traveling across Juneau, Sitka, Anchorage, and rural Washington State to speak with them. Many people who had lived in Anchorage in 1964 are scattered now, getting old, with their memories failing or already gone. The bulk of his research was archival—he spent a lot of time in the Newark, Delaware, archives of the Disaster Research Center—and Mooallem, who usually reports on more contemporary stories, found the gulf between himself and his subjects strange. “It layered the whole experience with this weird feeling of dislocation, that I couldn’t quite connect with those people,” he says.

Decades of hindsight add nuance to an otherwise straightforward narrative about disaster and recovery, allowing Mooallem to examine social issues that accounts at that time did not. He writes, for example, of the sexism Chance confronted at the radio station, the “persistent, backhanded disbelief that a woman could work so hard and proficiently during a crisis.” When she asked for a raise, she was told she “was already making the highest salary ‘for a woman’”—she wrote later that the station only employed her to begin with “because I worked hard and cheap.” Chance faced similar sexism in her later work in Alaska’s state legislature and endured an abusive, alcoholic husband at home.

Mooallem addresses the “overt racism” some Anchorage residents directed toward Native Alaskans immediately following the earthquake, a “shameful exception” to the narrative of harmony and inclusivity that the city wanted to tell about itself during the crisis. He describes a tense standoff between journalists from the lower 48 who arrived to cover the quake and the Eskimo Scouts, a contingent of the Alaskan National Guard made up of Native Alaskans, who were tasked with securing that area for everyone’s safety. The journalists, hoping to get as close as possible to the disaster zone, soon became antagonistic; one called the Natives “little soldiers” to belittle them.

Genie Chance is the subject of Mooallem’s new book This Is Chance!, which will be published March 24. (Photo: Courtesy Random House)

At its core, This Is Chance! succeeds at creating the first contemporary history of how Anchorage responded to the unexpected crisis, and it paints a picture of a community coming together in the face of tragedy. It seems to offer a blueprint for us now: a possible route forward, when previously unthinkable environmental and political catastrophes seem to have become a daily occurrence.

Earthquakes, by their nature, disrupt something we take for granted as stable: the solid ground beneath our feet. Though that experience provokes a queasy, vertiginous fascination and tons of press coverage, “then, somehow, life stitches back together and you move on,” Mooallem says. “I really wanted to spend time seeing what happens afterward instead of just looking away.”

What he found, when he peered into the void the earthquake ripped open, was encouraging. Sociologists with the Disaster Research Center touched down in Anchorage just a few hours after it ended to study the city’s response. Despite prevailing fears about mass hysteria and stampeding crowds, what they witnessed seemed to demonstrate that people are inclined toward goodness. “Many of us have enjoyed—actually, taken a great deal of pride in—seeing the way the people of Anchorage can rise to the occasion,” Chance said shortly after the earthquake. It supported then controversial social-science theories, which have since been borne out by decades of research, that disasters might actually bring out the best in people.

“I don’t think we have a real way to talk about what happens next in those situations,” Mooallem says, echoing an observation in Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell, a compilation of case studies about how communities respond to catastrophe. “We lack the language for that aspect of our existence, the language we need to describe what happens during disaster,” Solnit writes, describing the compassionate human response that arises in the wake of a catastrophe. “And yet the experience happens anyway.”

Mooallem argues that Chance, for one, provided the language, that her live-broadcast coverage became “not an antidote to that unpredictability, exactly, but at least a strategy for withstanding it.” In moments of chaos and upheaval, strong narratives can make sense of what previously seemed senseless. “The disaster had no narrator,” he writes. That is, until Genie Chance got back on the air.

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