Researchers examine refugee children's academic, social, and emotional learning outcomes

Outcomes yield key insights for post-COVID-19 return to school

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT GLOBAL TIES FOR CHILDREN HA YEON KIM view more 

CREDIT: GLOBAL TIES FOR CHILDREN

• Study of more than 400 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon identified significant development and learning difficulties when children are above the regular age for their grade.
• NYU researchers drew insights into potential impacts as children around the world return to school following COVID-19.

Abu Dhabi, July 2, 2020: Researchers at Global TIES for Children, an international research center based at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU New York, examined a variety of post-migration risks faced by Syrian refugee children enrolled in Lebanese public schools and found that students being older than expected for the grade in which they were placed was most consistently and strongly associated with developmental and learning difficulties. As many schools around the world prepare to reopen in 2020 and beyond, the study provides critical insights that can help inform efforts to reintegrate children into schools after significant disruption and time away.

The findings of the study are detailed in a paper published in the Journal for Applied Developmental Psychology and corresponding policy brief released on July 1, 2020. The study collected and analyzed assessment data from 448 Syrian refugee children in November 2016 through March 2017. Researchers found that children who were older than expected for their grade level - so-called "age-for-grade" - had poorer cognitive executive functioning and behavioral regulation skills than children who were placed in a typical grade level for their age. Being overage-for-grade also forecasted decrements in literacy and math skills.

"We embarked on one of the first comprehensive and rigorous studies to look at the interaction between adversities that refugee children face living in middle-income host-countries and learning outcomes, including academic, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral skills and processes," said co-author of the paper and Deputy Director of Global TIES for Children Carly Tubbs Dolan. "As of today, over a billion children worldwide have faced numerous personal and academic adversities and disruptions. This type of research can help inform the design, implementation, and funding of evidence-based programs and policies to ensure children's holistic learning during crisis situations."

School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have left nearly 1.6 billion children and youth out of school around the world, while the cascading economic impacts are anticipated to force millions more to drop out. Recent research indicates that even short-term, 14-week school closures can have significant long-term repercussions on children's academic outcomes.

"Our research suggests that such cumulative experiences of adversity can have repercussions for both children's academic performance and their social and emotional skills," said lead author of the study and a Senior Research Scientist at Global TIES for Children Ha Yeon Kim. "To best support children in returning to school, we recommend that practitioners use differentiated instructional and pedagogical strategies appropriate for children's varying ages, and incorporate evidence-based strategies - such as social and emotional learning (SEL) practices and curricula--into education programming."

In this study, grade level may be associated with cognitive, behavioral, and academic difficulties for several possible reasons. First, being older than expected for a grade can be a marker that a child has faced numerous and cumulative risks earlier in childhood that interrupted schooling or impaired learning. Second, studying in a classroom without same-age peers or developmentally appropriate teaching practices, routines, and learning materials may itself result in cognitive and behavioral challenges. Third, and conversely, there may be a tendency to place older children with lower cognitive, behavioral, and socio-emotional skills in lower grades.

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Global TIES for Children designs, evaluates, and advises on programs and policies to improve the lives of children and youth in the most vulnerable regions across the globe. The study was recently conducted as part of a larger collaboration with the International Rescue Committee and supported by Dubai Cares, the E-Cubed Research Envelope, and NYU Abu Dhabi.

About Global TIES for Children

NYU Global TIES for Children is an international research center embedded within NYU's Institute of Human Development and Social Change (IHDSC) and supported by the NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute and NYU New York. Established in 2014, Global TIES for Children was developed to lead efforts in generating rigorous evidence to support the best and most effective humanitarian and development aid. To date, Global TIES for Children has secured a position at the front lines of advances in methods and measures for assessing child development and for understanding variation in program impacts at multiple levels in low-income and crisis-affected contexts.

About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and science campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly-selective liberal arts, engineering and science curriculum with a world center for advanced research and scholarship enabling its students to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity's shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi's high-achieving students have come from more than 115 nations and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on si

Global threats: How lessons from COVID-19 can prevent environmental meltdown
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS


IMAGE: COVID-19, CLIMATE EMERGENCIES, AND MASS EXTINCTION ALL SHARE STRIKING SIMILARITIES, ESPECIALLY WITH REGARD TO THEIR "LAGGED IMPACTS. " IN EACH, EARLY INTERVENTION CAN PREVENT FURTHER DAMAGE. view more

CREDIT: OPEN SOURCE
Epidemiologists highlighted the dangers of Covid-19 in its early stages, but their warnings went largely ignored until rising infection rates forced policymakers to take action.

Likewise, climate and environmental scientists have warned, for decades, that human activity is triggering global heating and another mass extinction could occur if countries do not enact regulations to reduce their environmental impact.

Covid-19, climate emergencies, and mass extinction all share striking similarities, according to an essay co-authored by David S. Wilcove, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs and the Princeton Environmental Institute at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

Wilcove and his co-authors draw analogies between Covid-19 and environmental threats, especially with regard to their "lagged impacts."

That is, a lag exists between the first few cases of Covid-19 to the worldwide pandemic it has become. The same is true of ongoing environmental crises. Human-induced shifts in climate and habitat can seem minor now but will have catastrophic effects down the road, the authors wrote.

Early intervention is necessary in order to contain them and prevent future damage.

Multiple analyses have confirmed that delaying "stay at home" orders increased the mortality rates due to Covid-19 in many countries. If lockdown had been enacted just one week earlier, there would have been approximately 17,000 fewer deaths in the United Kingdom and 45,000 fewer deaths in the United States, according to the co-authors.

On a global level, the world is on track to experience a net temperature increase of +2.0° C. With early action, this could have been reduced to a net increase of +1.5° C. Although this difference appears insignificant, it has grave ramifications.

Since early intervention was not taken to reduce this global heating, an estimated 62 to 457 million more people will be exposed to a broad range of climate risks. Early intervention is also crucial for species conservation; when action is delayed, species losses increase, and conservation efforts become less likely to succeed.

While intervention is often delayed under the premise that it will interfere with peoples' livelihoods, the researchers posit that the opposite is true.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that economic growth will be lower in countries with higher current rates of Covid-attributed deaths. This means countries that delayed lockdown to sustain their economic stability could ultimately lose out in the end, just as climate change will curtail economic growth as countries delay reducing their environmental impacts.

"The notion that paying short-term costs may be vital to securing longer-term prosperity is echoed in several assessments of the overall economic consequences of responding to the climate and extinction crises," the team wrote. "On both environmental fronts intervening now rather than delaying further is critical to securing our future wellbeing and that of our children and grandchildren."

The magnitude of these issues require policymakers and citizens to look beyond self-interests and make choices that will safeguard society's most vulnerable populations as well as future generations.

"In the Covid-19 crisis, this means young and working people making sacrifices for the older and more vulnerable. For the climate and extinction crises, effective action requires wealthier people forgoing extravagance both for the present-day poor and for all future generations," the team wrote.

In moving forward to address these challenges, it is essential that governments listen to and act in accordance with independent scientists. Their voices have gone ignored by policymakers who can create the changes necessary to avoid global catastrophe, the team believes. This requires coordination and cooperation on the international level, not just local or federal.

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Wilcove drafted the essay, "COVID-19: Analogues and lessons for tackling the extinction and climate crises," with a team of scientists and policy experts from the United Kingdom and the United States including Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge, Brendan Fisher of the University of Vermont, Georgina M. Mace of the University College London, and Ben Balmford of the University Exeter Business School.

The article was made available online June 28 through Cell Press.

'Fang'tastic: researchers report amphibians with snake-like dental glands

Utah State University and Butantan Institute scientists publish evolutionary findings in 'iScience.'

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A MAGNIFIED IMAGE OF THE MOUTH OF A RINGED CAECILIAN, SIPHONOPS ANNULATUS, REVEALS SNAKE-LIKE DENTAL GLANDS. RESEARCHERS FROM BRAZIL'S BUTANTAN INSTITUTE AND UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY SAY THE GLANDS COULD INDICATE... view more 

CREDIT: BUTANTAN INSTITUTE, BRAZIL

LOGAN, UTAH, USA - Utah State University biologist Edmund 'Butch' Brodie, Jr. and colleagues from São Paulo's Butantan Institute report the first known evidence of oral venom glands in amphibians. Their research, supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, appears in the July 3, 2020, issue of iScience.

"We think of amphibians - frogs, toads and the like -- as basically harmless," says Brodie, emeritus professor in USU's Department of Biology. "We know a number of amphibians store nasty, poisonous secretions in their skin to deter predators. But to learn at least one can inflict injury from its mouth is extraordinary."

Brodie and his colleagues discovered the oral glands in a family of caecilians, serpent-like creatures related to frogs and salamanders. Neither snakes nor worms, caecilians are found in tropical climates of Africa, Asian and the Americas. Some are aquatic and some, like the ringed caecilian (Siphonops annulatus) studied by Brodie's team, live in burrows of their own making.

In 2018, the team reported the species secreted substances from skin glands at both ends of its snake-like body. Concentrated at the head and extending the length of the body, the creature emits a mucous-like lubricant that enables it to quickly dive underground to escape predators. At the tail, caecilians have glands armed with a toxin, which acts as a last line of chemical defense, blocking a hastily burrowed tunnel from hungry hunters.

"What we didn't know is these caecilians have tiny fluid-filled glands in the upper and lower jaw, with long ducts that open at the base of each of their spoon-shaped teeth," Brodie says.

His research colleague Pedro Luiz Mailho-Fontana, who studied with Brodie as a visiting graduate student at USU's Logan campus in 2015, noticed the never-before-described oral glands. Using embryonic analysis, Mailho-Fontana, first author of the paper, discovered the glands - called "dental glands" - originated from a different tissue than the slime and poison glands found in the caecilian's skin.

"The poisonous skin glands form from the epidermis, but these oral glands develop from the dental tissue, and this is the same developmental origin we find in the venom glands of reptiles," he says.

The researchers surmise caecilians, equipped with no limbs and only a mouth for hunting, activate their oral glands when they bite down on prey, including worms, termites, frogs and lizards.

The team doesn't yet know the biochemical composition of the fluid held in the oral glands.

"If we can verify the secretions are toxic, these glands could indicate an early evolutionary design of oral venom organs," Brodie says. "They may have evolved in caecilians earlier than in snakes."

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First evidence of snake-like venom glands found in amphibians

CELL PRESS

IMAGE: THIS IMAGE SHOWS A GENERAL VIEW OF THE RINGED CAECILIAN, SIPHONOPS ANNULATUS. view more 

CREDIT: CARLOS JARED

Caecilians are limbless amphibians that, to the untrained eye, can be easily mistaken for snakes. Though caecilians are only distantly related to their reptilian cousins, researchers in a study appearing July 3 in the journal iScience describe specialized glands found along the teeth of the ringed caecilian (Siphonops annulatus), which have the same biological origin and possibly similar function to the venom glands of snakes. If further research can confirm that the glands contain venom, caecilians may represent the oldest land-dwelling vertebrate animal with oral venom glands.

Caecilians are peculiar creatures, being nearly blind and using a combination of facial tentacles and slime to navigate their underground tunnels. "These animals produce two types of secretions--one is found mostly in the tail that is poisonous, while the head produces a mucus to help with crawling through the earth," says senior author Carlos Jared, a biologist and Director of the Structural Biology Lab at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo. "Because caecilians are one of the least-studied vertebrates, their biology is a black box full of surprises."

"It is while examining the mucous glands of the ringed caecilian that I stumbled upon a never before described set of glands closer to the teeth," says first author Pedro Luiz Mailho-Fontana, a post-doctoral student in the Structural Biology Lab at the Butantan Institute.

What Mailho-Fontana found were a series of small fluid-filled glands in the upper and lower jaw, with long ducts that opened at the base of each tooth. Using embryonic analysis, he found that these oral glands originated from a different tissue than the slime and poison glands found in the caecilian's skin. "The poisonous skin glands of the ringed caecilian form from the epidermis, but these oral glands develop from the dental tissue, and this is the same developmental origin we find in the venom glands of reptiles," says Mailho-Fontana. This marks the first time glands of this kind have been found in an amphibian.

Researchers suspect that the ringed caecilian may use the secretions from these snake-like oral glands to incapacitate its prey. "Since caecilians have no arms or legs, the mouth is the only tool they have to hunt," says co-author Marta Maria Antoniazzi, an evolutionary biologist at the Butantan Institute. "We believe they activate their oral glands the moment they bite down, and specialized biomolecules are incorporated into their secretions.

A preliminary chemical analysis of the oral gland secretions of the ringed caecilian found high activity of phospholipase A2, a common protein found in the toxins of venomous animals. "The phospholipase A2 protein is uncommon in non-venomous species, but we do find it in the venom of bees, wasps, and many kinds of reptiles," says Mailho-Fontana. In fact, the biological activity of phospholipase A2 found in the ringed caecilian was higher than what is found in some rattlesnakes. Still, more biochemical analysis is needed to confirm whether the glandular secretions are toxic.

If future work can verify the secretions are toxic, caecilian oral glands could indicate an early evolutionary design of oral venom organs. "Unlike snakes which have few glands with a large bank of venom, the ringed caecilian has many small glands with minor amounts of fluid. Perhaps caecilians represent a more primitive form of venom gland evolution. Snakes appeared in the Cretaceous probably 100 million years ago, but caecilians are far older, being roughly 250 million years old," Jared says.

Very few groups of land-dwelling vertebrates have serpent-like bodies, and this research suggests there might be a connection between a limbless body plan and the evolution of a venomous bite. "For snakes and caecilians, the head is the sole unit to explore the environment, to fight, to eat, and to kill," says Antoniazzi. "One theory is that perhaps these necessities encourage the evolution of venom in limbless animals."

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This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brazil (CAPES).

iScience, Mailho-Fontana et al.: "Morphological Evidence for an Oral Venom System in Caecilian Amphibians" https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(20)30419-3

iScience (@iScience_CP) is an open-access journal from Cell Press that provides a platform for original research and interdisciplinary thinking in the life, physical, and earth sciences. The primary criterion for publication in iScience is a significant contribution to a relevant field combined with robust results and underlying methodology. Visit: http://www.cell.com/iscience. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

How prison and police discrimination affect black sexual minority men's health

Incarceration and police discrimination may worsen psychological and physical health, Rutgers led study finds

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

 

Incarceration and police discrimination may contribute to HIV, depression and anxiety among Black gay, bisexual and other sexual minority men, according to a Rutgers led study.

The study, funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, examined associations between incarceration, police and law enforcement discrimination and recent arrest with Black sexual minority mens' psychological distress, risk for HIV and willingness to take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention.

"Evidence suggests Black sexual minority men in the United States may face some of the highest rates of policing and incarceration in the world," said lead author, Devin English, assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health. "Despite this, research examining the health impacts of the U.S. carceral system rarely focuses on their experiences. This study helps to address this gap."

"We examined how incarceration and police discrimination, which have roots in enforcing White supremacy and societal heterosexism, are associated with some of the most pressing health crises among Black sexual minority men like depression, anxiety, and HIV," English added.

The researchers surveyed 1,172 Black, gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority men over the age of 16 from across the U.S. who reported behaviors that increased their risk for HIV over the previous six months. Participants reported on their incarceration history, experiences of police and law enforcement discrimination, anxiety and depression, sexual behavior, and willingness to take PrEP.

They found that 43 percent of study participants reported police discrimination within the previous year, which was most frequent among those with a history of incarceration. Respondents who faced high levels of police discrimination within the previous year also tended to show high levels of psychological distress and HIV risk, and a low willingness to take PrEP compared with their peers. The study also found that respondents who were previously incarcerated or recently arrested had a heightened HIV risk and lower willingness to take PrEP.

"These findings transcend individual-level only explanations to offer structural-level insights about how we think about Black sexual minority men's HIV risk," says co-author Lisa Bowleg, professor of psychology at The George Washington University. "The study rightly directs attention to the structural intersectional discrimination that negatively affects Black sexual minority men's health."

The article states that the findings support the need for anti-racist and anti-heterosexist advocacy and interventions focused on reducing discrimination in U.S. society, and the carceral system specifically.

"Despite experiencing a disproportionate burden of violence and discrimination at the hands of the police, and extremely high carceral rates, Black queer men are largely invisible in discourse on anti-Black policing and incarceration," says co-author Joseph Carter, doctoral student of health psychology at the City University of New York's Graduate Center. "Our study provides empirical support for the intersectional health impacts of police and carceral discrimination that have been systemically perpetrated onto Black queer men."

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Climate change threat to tropical plants

UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Tropical plants closer to the equator are most at risk from climate change because it is expected to become too hot for many species to germinate in the next 50 years, UNSW researchers have found.

Their study analysed almost 10,000 records for more than 1300 species from the Kew Gardens' global seed germination database.

The research, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography recently, was the first to look at the big picture impact of climate change on such a large number of plant species worldwide.

Lead author Alex Sentinella, UNSW PhD researcher, said past research had found that animal species closer to the equator would be more at risk from climate change.

"The thought was that because tropical species come from a stable climate where it's always warm, they can only cope with a narrow range of temperatures - whereas species from higher latitudes can cope with a larger range of temperatures because they come from places where the weather varies widely," Mr Sentinella said.

"However, this idea had never been tested for plants.

"Because climate change is a huge issue globally, we wanted to understand these patterns on a global scale and build upon the many studies on plants at an individual level in their environment."

Seeds a key indicator of survival

The researchers examined seed germination data from the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership Data Warehouse, hosted by Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London, to quantify global patterns in germination temperature.

They analysed 9737 records for 1312 plant species from every continent except Antarctica and excluded agricultural crops.

Mr Sentinella said they chose seed data because it was widely available and relevant to the ability of a species to cope with different temperatures.

"With seeds, you can experiment on them quickly, there are a lot of studies about them and importantly, germination directly relates to how a species will survive, because if the seed doesn't germinate the plant won't live," he said.

"So, we collated the data from the Kew Gardens database, examined all experiments on the same species from the same locations, and then determined the range of temperatures each species could tolerate in order to survive."

The researchers also examined climate data for the same locations as the plant species used in the study.

They looked at current temperature - the average temperature of the warmest three months from 1970 to 2000 - and predicted temperature for 2070.

The researchers then compared the temperatures the plants were experiencing now with the forecasted 2070 temperatures.

Tropical plants to hit or exceed temperature limits

The study discovered tropical plants do not have narrower temperature tolerances but were more at risk from global warming, because it would bring them close to their maximum seed germination temperatures.

Mr Sentinella said, on average, the closer a plant was to the equator, the more at risk it would be of exceeding its temperature ceiling by 2070.

"These plants could be more at risk because they are near their upper limits. So, even a small increase in temperature from climate change could push them over the edge," he said.

"The figures are quite shocking because by 2070, more than 20 per cent of tropical plant species, we predict, will face temperatures above their upper limit, which means they won't germinate, and so can't survive."

Mr Sentinella said the researchers also found that more than half of tropical species are expected to experience temperatures exceeding their optimum germination temperatures.

"That's even worse because if those plants can survive it would be at a reduced rate of germination and therefore, they might not be as successful," he said.

"If a seed's germination rate is 100 per cent at its optimum temperature, then it might only manage 50 or 60 per cent, for example, if the temperature is higher than what's ideal."

Mr Sentinella said he was surprised to find that climate change would threaten so many tropical species.

"But our most unexpected discovery was that the hypothesis often used for animals - that those near the equator would struggle to survive the impact of climate change because they have narrower temperature tolerances - was not true for plants," he said.

"We found that regardless of latitude, plant species can germinate at roughly the same breadth of temperatures, which does not align with the animal studies."

The researchers also found 95 per cent of plant species at latitudes above 45 degrees are predicted to benefit from warming, because environmental temperatures are expected to shift closer to the species' optimal germination temperatures.

Findings to help target conservation efforts

Mr Sentinella said it was possible for some plants to slowly evolve to increasing temperatures, but it was difficult to predict which ones would survive.

"The problem with the quick change in temperatures forecasted, is that some species won't be able to adapt fast enough," he said.

"Sometimes plants can migrate by starting to grow further away from the equator or, up a mountain slope where it's cooler. But if a species can't do that it will become extinct.

"There are almost 400,000 plant species worldwide - so, we would expect a number of them to fail to germinate between now and 2070."

Mr Sentinella hopes the researchers' findings will help to conserve plant species under threat from climate change.

"Ideally, we would be able to conserve all ecosystems, but the funding is simply not there. So, our findings could help conservation efforts target resources towards areas which are more vulnerable," he said.

"We also hope our findings further strengthen the global body of research about the risks of climate change.

"Humans have known about dangers of climate change for decades and we already have the answers to tackle it. So, hopefully our study will help encourage people and policy makers to take action now."

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Read the study in Global Ecology and Biogeography: https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.131

Arctic plants may not provide predicted carbon sequestration potential

UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

 

IMAGE: SCIENTISTS DR MIKE BILLETT AND DR LORNA STREET CONDUCT MEASUREMENTS OF ECOSYSTEM LEVEL FLUXES OF CARBON DIOXIDE, IN LIGHT AND DARK CHAMBERS. PICTURE TAKEN IN TALL SHRUB BIRCH COMMUNITIES AT... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

The environmental benefits of taller, shrubbier tundra plants in the Arctic may be overstated, according to new research involving the University of Stirling.

Current ecosystem and climate models suggest that, as the Arctic warms, tundra ecosystems are becoming more productive, with greater photosynthesis resulting in more carbon being removed, or sequestered, from the atmosphere.

However, most models do not consider the transfer and fate of this carbon below-ground, and how this can interact with soil carbon through the activities of soil microorganisms. This is critically important because the vast majority of carbon in Arctic ecosystems is found in soil and 'permafrost' (permanently frozen soil or sediment) in the form of organic matter produced by the incomplete decay of dead plants, animals and soil organisms in cold conditions.

The new research considered the impact of a shrubbier Arctic on soil carbon stocks and the overall carbon sequestration potential of these ecosystems. Significantly, it found that some tall shrub communities stimulate recycling of carbon in soils, releasing it back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide - meaning that more productive shrubs might not always result in greater carbon sequestration.

Professor Philip Wookey of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Stirling led the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded research programme of which this study was a part. Stirling colleague Dr Jens-Arne Subke was also involved in this work.

Professor Wookey said: "While previous studies suggest that a warmer, greener Arctic may increase the rate that carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, our research identified an acceleration in the rate of loss of carbon from soils, back into the atmosphere.

"This may more than offset carbon sequestration and would, unexpectedly, turn these ecosystems into a net source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Significantly, current ecosystem and climate models do not account for this conundrum, which means we may be underestimating future climate feedbacks from Arctic ecosystems."

The study was led by Dr Lorna Street, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, and also involved scientists from the NERC Radiocarbon Facility in East Kilbride, and the Universities of Durham and Liverpool. Further support was received from the Aurora Research Institute, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Montreal, all in Canada.

The fieldwork - looking at how carbon is cycling in plants and soils over the past 50 years - was conducted in 2013 and 2014 in the Mackenzie Uplands of Northwest Territories, Canada.

The team found evidence that birch shrubs in Arctic tundra are strongly linked to the release of old carbon - fixed by photosynthesis more than 50 years ago and stored in soil organic matter. However, this was not true of alder, another type of Arctic shrub.

Dr Street said: "We think this is because, in birch, the products of photosynthesis are transferred to the soil through fungal symbionts, which stimulate the decomposition of soil organic material as a means of releasing the nutrients, like nitrogen, that the birch shrubs require to grow.

"By contrast, in alder, photosynthesis products are mostly retained in plant tissues because alder often has the help of microorganisms in the roots, which are capable of 'fixing' nitrogen directly from the atmosphere.

"These findings indicate that, if - as evidence has suggested - shrub birch proliferates in tundra ecosystems over the next decades, this might directly stimulate the loss, through accelerated decomposition, of pre-existing soil carbon as carbon dioxide."

Uncertainty surrounds the level of potential carbon release from high latitude permafrost systems - with predictions ranging between 0 and 200 gigatons. For context, 200 Gt represents approximately 20 years of current total global carbon emissions, due to human activity, to the atmosphere.

Dr Street added: "If our results apply across permafrost tundra regions, this suggests there is a previously unaccounted for process which could push the system towards the upper end of those predictions. This is hugely important as it means we may need to do more than currently expected, in terms of carbon dioxide emissions reductions, to meet our climate targets."

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The study, Plant carbon allocation drives turnover of old soil organic matter in permafrost tundra soils, is available now.

A Submerged 7,000-Year-Old Discovery Shows the Great Potential of Underwater Archaeology
Stone tools scattered on the seafloor mark the oldest underwater site ever found on the continent.  

Turquoise waters of the Murujuga site. (Flinders University)
By Megan Gannon

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
JULY 1, 2020

Australia has a deep human history stretching back 65,000 years, but many of its oldest archaeological sites are now underwater. In an encouraging sign that Aboriginal artifacts and landscapes may actually be preserved offshore, archaeologists have discovered a 7,000-year-old site submerged along Australia's continental shelf, the first of its kind. Their discovery is outlined today in the journal PLoS One.

At the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago, when glaciers melted and sea level rose, waters inundated one-third of Australia’s habitable land. As part of a project called Deep History of Sea Country, Jonathan Benjamin, a professor of maritime archaeology at Flinders University in Adelaide, led a team that searched for submerged sites off Murujuga (also known as the Dampier Archipelago), a dry and rocky coastal region in northwestern Australia.
This area has a wealth of inland archaeological sites, including more than one million examples of rock art. About 18,000 years ago, the shoreline of Murujuga would have extended another 100 miles further than the current coast. But Benjamin and his colleagues had little to go on when they began to search the offshore territory.

"We were going into an area completely cold in terms of the probability of discovery," Benjamin says. "So we just figured if we could throw every bit of technology and a lot of smart people at the problem, after three years, we should come up with something."

At first, the team used LiDAR-mounted airplanes and sonar-equipped boats to scan the shallow seas around Murujuga for places that might have the right conditions for preservation of artifacts. (They ruled out areas where the seabed is covered in lots of shifting sand, for example.) Last year, divers suited up in scuba gear to survey the identified targets. The first few sites delivered no finds. Then came Cape Bruguieres Channel.

Chelsea Wiseman, a doctoral student at Flinders University, recalls swimming through turquoise water when her colleague, John McCarthy, grabbed her fin and showed her an igneous rock stone tool. "The first one he handed me was just unmistakably a lithic artifact," Wiseman says. "Then we found four or five others."

The team ultimately found 269 stone artifacts at Cape Bruguieres Channel, buried under about eight feet of water. The various tools appeared to be designed for activities like scraping, cutting and hammering, and the researchers found one grindstone that may have been used for crushing up the seeds of Spinifex grass for baking into bread. Based on radiocarbon dating and an analysis of when this spot became submerged, the researchers think the artifacts are at least 7,000 years old. The team also describes a second site, Flying Foam Passage, a freshwater spring about 45 feet below sea level and at least where one stone tool that's at least 8,500 years old turned up.

"A lot of our understanding of Australian Indigenous archaeology is based on sites that would have been significantly further inland,” Wiseman says. “This discovery will help indicate that there is more to be found offshore."
Location of the Murujuga site (Benjamin et. al.)

Marine geo-archaeologist Nicholas Flemming of the U.K.'s National Oceanography Centre, who was not involved in this study, says archaeologists are particularly interested in studying the northern and northwest coast of Australia. Sites like Cape Bruguieres Channel may contain evidence that tells scientists more about how people first crossed the sea from Southeast Asia to arrive in the continent and how they lived in this now-sunken coastal environment. "The discoveries by Benjamin’s team provide the first clues to answering both these questions, and show that the material does survive on the seafloor, and can be discovered and analyzed as accurately as archaeology on land," Flemming says.

Flemming adds that this study marks the first time any marine sites older than 5,000 years have been found in the tropics. Most submerged prehistoric sites are discovered by random chance, he says—by trawlers, dredgers or divers who then report the sites to conservation authorities. "The discovery proves that stone tools do survive on the sea floor in tropical environments,” Flemming says, though these undersea sites are vulnerable to coral growth, algae, mangroves, cyclones and other threats.




"It is a really exciting find, and it just continues to push the idea of submerged continental shelf sites to the forefront," says Amanda Evans, a marine archaeologist with Gray & Pape heritage consultants in the U.S. who also wasn't involved in the study. "Even up until ten years ago, there were just a handful of people who were really actively engaged in this work. These types of discoveries get more people involved and talking."

Indeed, while marine archaeology has long been focused on shipwrecks, the last decade has seen a rising interest in more ancient sunken landscapes with subtler features. The amount of submerged continental shelf around the world constitutes an area the size of Africa, meaning a lot remains to be explored.

Benjamin and his colleagues documented the world's oldest seawall at a 7,000-year-old site off the coast of Israel. Other teams are exploring the west coast of North America searching for sites that may settle long-standing debates about how humans first populated the continent. Evans just got back last week from a six-day expedition in the Gulf of Mexico, where 40 million acres of land that was dry 12,000 years ago is now underwater. She and her colleagues took 40 core samples from the underwater sediment that they plan to analyze for archaeological material.

But if the world’s submerged sites are to be explored, first they must be protected.


Benjamin hopes the finds from Murujuga will impact public policy regarding maritime heritage in places like Australia that have a lot of offshore energy development but haven't given much protection for underwater landscapes with Indigenous archaeology—in part because they haven't been documented yet.

"We have a situation in Australia where a shipwreck that's 75 years old is given automatic protection, but to protect a site of 7,000 years old, we have to ask for ministerial approval," Benjamin says. 

UPDATED 
Protesters In Baltimore Pulled Down A Statue Of Christopher Columbus And Threw It Into The Harbor

The statue is the latest in a list of monuments depicting enslavers and colonizers that have been torn down amid Black Lives Matter protests.

Stephanie K. Baer BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on July 4, 2020,

Protesters tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus and tossed it into the harbor in Baltimore Saturday night in what is the latest monument depicting enslavers and colonizers in the US to topple.

Videos showed demonstrators cheering as they pulled down the statue near the city's Little Italy neighborhood with rope, and later pushing it into the water.



spencer compton@spencercompton
Baltimore just tore down the Columbus statue ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻 #blacklivesmatter12:54 AM - 05 Jul 2020
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Dedicated in 1984, the marble statue is one of three monuments to Columbus in the city, according to the Baltimore Sun. This week, the city council introduced a bill to rename one of the Columbus statues in honor of victims of police brutality.



J. M. Giordano photo@jmgpix
Baltimore’s Columbus statue gets dumped in the harbor01:03 AM - 05 Jul 2020
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Amid a global reckoning over police brutality and violence against Black and Indigenous people, protesters have been tearing down statues of Confederacy leaders, enslavers, and colonizers.

Last month, protesters brought down a bronze statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia, and demonstrators in Boston beheaded a statue of Columbus.


MORE ON THIS
Protesters Tore Down A Statue Of Confederate President Jefferson Davis In VirginiaAmber Jamieson · June 11, 2020

Statues In The US And Around The World Are Being Beheaded And Torn Down Amid Black Lives Matter ProtestsAde Onibada · June 10, 2020

Stephanie Baer is a reporter with BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.

Columbus statue toppled by Baltimore protesters

In this Monday, Oct. 9, 1984, file photo, President Ronald Reagan addresses a ceremony in Baltimore, to unveil a statue of Christopher Columbus. Baltimore protesters pulled down the statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the city's Inner Harbor, Saturday, July 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Lana Harris, File)
BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore protesters pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the city’s Inner Harbor on Saturday night.

Demonstrators used ropes to topple the monument near the Little Italy neighborhood, news outlets reported.

Protesters mobilized by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police have called for the removal of statues of Columbus, Confederate figures and others. They say the Italian explorer is responsible for the genocide and exploitation of native peoples in the Americas.

According to The Baltimore Sun, the statue was owned by the city and dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan.

A spokesman for Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young told The Sun the toppling of the statue is a part of a national and global reexamination over monuments “that may represent different things to different people.”

“We understand the dynamics that are playing out in Baltimore are part of a national narrative,” Lester Davis said.

Statues of Columbus have also been toppled or vandalized in cities such as Miami; Richmond, Virginia; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Boston, where one was decapitated.

The Latest: Confederate statue in Maryland toppled
yesterday

The Latest on protests over racial inequality:

(AP) LOTHIAN, Md. — A privately owned Confederate statue at a Maryland church has been toppled and vandalized, according to police.

The Capital Gazette reports that photos provided by Anne Arundel County police show that the statue at Mt. Calvary Anglican Church in Lothian was ripped off its concrete platform.

The word “racist” was written in red spray paint on the platform and descriptive plaque for the statue of Private Benjamin Welch Owens, who served in a Confederate Maryland artillery unit during the Civil War.

Police said the statue was last seen undamaged late Thursday. No suspects were immediately identified.

People aren’t stupid’: Pence’s virus spin tests credibility

FILE - In this June 12, 2020, file photo Vice President Mike Pence, waves as he arrives to speak after a tour at Oberg Industries plant in Sarver, Pa. As the public face of the administration's coronavirus response. Vice President Mike Pence has been trying to convince Americans that the country is winning even as cases spike in large parts of the country. For public health experts, that sense of optimism is detached from reality. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence has long played the straight man to Donald Trump, translating the president’s bombast into more measured, calming language.

His job has become even more difficult. As coronavirus cases spike across large parts of the country despite months of lockdown, Pence has spent the past week trying to convince the American public that things are going very well, even though they’re not.

“Make no mistake about it, what you see today is that America is going back to work and the American people are finding a way every day to put this coronavirus farther in the past,” he told CNBC the same day the country reported more than 55,000 new virus cases, a daily record.


For public health experts, the optimism has been unmoored from reality.

“It’s almost laughable because it doesn’t pass any test of credibility when we’re seeing spikes in cases, spikes in hospitalizations,” said Larry Gostin, who specializes in public health at Georgetown University Law School. “The American people aren’t stupid. They can see spin when there is spin.”

The most important thing Pence can do, Gostin said, “is to be honest with the American public. ... They need to be told the truth and then they need to be told what America is going to do to turn this around.”

It’s not the first time Pence has been forced to put his own credibility on the line as he serves as Trump’s most loyal soldier. It may be the most consequential.

While Trump has tried to distance himself from what he calls “the plague” as he pursues reelection, Pence has emerged as the public face of this phase of the outbreak, traveling frequently to virus hot spots, coordinating with governors and leading the administration’s coronavirus task force.

The role, according to those close to him, is a natural fit for Pence, a former Indiana governor who sees it as his job to defend the president and reopen the country as safely as possible. But allies are keenly aware that Pence’s political future will hinge on whether Trump wins a second term.

If Trump loses, and Pence makes his own run at the presidency in 2024, he probably would face many candidates from a new generation of politicians. That could include Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said Pence faces a “real dilemma” because Trump’s reelection depends so much on an economic rebound predicated on states reopening during the pandemic.

From a public health perspective, “We’re actually losing again. It’s getting worse. We’re going to have to cut back in the economy,” he said.

After spending time on the road highlighting reopening efforts, Pence traveled this past week to Arizona and Florida, states where cases are surging. He tried to make the case that the country is in a far improved position now than it was early on in the outbreak when testing capacity was dismal and doctors and nurses were desperate for basic protective equipment.

“The American people deserve to know that we’re in a much better place today, thanks to the whole-of-government approach, the whole-of-America approach that President Trump initiated at the very outset of the coronavirus pandemic,” Pence said Tuesday during a task force briefing held not at the White House but at the U.S. Public Health Service headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.

White House officials and allies stress there are positive signs beyond the flow of supplies, with deaths remaining down and several therapeutics on the market. The point of the lockdowns, they stress, was to flatten the infection curve to avoid overwhelming hospitals, not eliminate cases.

To further push that message, Pence is expected to resume campaign travel soon. Campaign officials met by phone on Thursday to map out media markets where they feel he could be beneficial.

While Trump favors large-scale rallies, Pence will continue to focus on more intimate settings, inducing diner visits, bus tours and smaller speaking engagements, especially in front of groups such as white evangelicals and suburban families who may be more receptive to a less hyper-political message.

Pence will focus on swing states by stressing local issues and trying to show voters how the administration has affected their lives for the good. He’s expected to spend plenty of time in states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, as well as Arizona and North Carolina, talking about bringing back manufacturing jobs. It’s a promise Trump made in 2016 that has been largely unmet.

At the same time, however, Trump’s campaign recently disbanded a team of staffers dedicated to Pence, including his communications director, spokesperson and the director of vice presidential operations. Strategy and planning are now being handled by Marty Obst, a longtime Pence adviser who served as his campaign manager in 2016, and Marc Short, his chief of staff.

While some described the move as a natural transition given the vice president already has a full staff at the White House, others said it suggested a diminished role on a campaign that sees Pence more as a surrogate than a principal.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Ali Pardo dismissed that suggestion, saying Pence “has played an integral role in promoting and implementing President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda across the country.”

Pence has made clear he feels this is Trump’s campaign and he has every right to run it how he wants.

Barry Bennett, a longtime Republican strategist who worked for Trump in 2016, praised Pence’s performance.

“He has a very tough job. But so far I think he’s managed to do it with compassion and integrity,” he said. “He’s probably the only that’s come out of the pandemic experience with positive results.”

As monuments fall, Confederate carving has size on its side

By KATE BRUMBACK and RUSS BYNUM

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FILE - This June 23, 2015 file photo shows a carving depicting Confederate Civil War figures Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, in Stone Mountain, Ga. The sculpture is America's largest Confederate memorial. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) — Some statues of figures from America’s slave-owning past have been yanked down by protesters, others dismantled by order of governors or city leaders. But the largest Confederate monument ever crafted — colossal figures carved into the solid rock of a Georgia mountainside — may outlast them all.

Stone Mountain’s supersized sculpture depicting Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson mounted on horseback has special protection enshrined in Georgia law.

Even if its demolition were sanctioned, the monument’s sheer size poses serious challenges. The carving measures 190 feet (58 meters) across and 90 feet (27 meters) tall. An old photo shows a worker on scaffolding just below Lee’s chin barely reaching his nose.

NICE WHITE PEOPLE

Paula and Michael Smith pose for a photo with their 10-year-old grandson, Evan, in front of a giant carving of Confederate figures during a visit to Stone Mountain Park, Monday, June 29, 2020. “The mountain itself is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and the carving is an engineering marvel,” said Paula Smith, a 70-year-old white woman who dismissed talk of removing or altering the carving as an attempt to “steal American history.” (AP Photo/Kate Brumback)

Numerous Confederate statues and monuments to American slave owners have come down across the South amid recent protests against racial injustice. Stone Mountain hasn’t escaped notice.

After organizing a protest where thousands marched in neighboring Atlanta, 19-year-old Zoe Bambara held a demonstration June 4 with a much smaller group — her permit allowed no more than 25 — inside the state park where the sculpture has drawn millions of tourists for decades.

“The Confederacy doesn’t celebrate the South; it celebrates white supremacy,” said Bambara, who is Black. “The people on that mountain, they hated me. They didn’t know me, but they hated me and my ancestors. It hurts to see those people celebrated and a memorial dedicated to them.”

Still, Bambara admits she’s at a loss for what should be done with the massive monument, conceived some 50 years after the Civil War ended but not finished until 1972.

The sculpture’s creators used dynamite to blast huge chunks of granite away from the mountain, then spent years carving the detailed figures with hand-held cutting torches.

Erasing the carving would be dangerous, time-consuming and expensive.

The stone is likely too durable for sandblasting, said Ben Bentkowski, president of the Atlanta Geological Society. Controlled explosions using TNT packed into holes drilled in the mountainside would work, he said.

“With the logistics, the safety aspect of it, you’d have a budget certainly north of $1 million, I suspect,” Bentkowski said. “You’ll need insurance for the project, you’ll need hazard pay for people working on the surface of it. It could easily take a year or more.”
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There’s also a sizable legal obstacle.

When Georgia lawmakers voted in 2001 to change the state flag that had been dominated by the Confederate battle emblem since 1956, language to guarantee the preservation of the Stone Mountain sculpture was included as a bargaining chip.

The law states that “the memorial to the heroes of the Confederate States of America graven upon the face of Stone Mountain shall never be altered, removed, concealed, or obscured in any fashion.”

Ryan Gravel, an Atlanta-based urban designer, noted the law doesn’t mandate maintenance. He suggested allowing nature to take its course, letting vegetation grow over the sculpture from its nooks and crannies.

“I think we’re in a moment where pushing the limits of that law is possible,” Gravel said. “And certainly the scale of the challenge at Stone Mountain warrants that.”

Other ideas — such as adding a bell tower atop the mountain in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — have failed to take hold. And Democratic proposals to strip the protective language from Georgia law have fallen flat with the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Asked whether Stone Mountain still deserves special protection, GOP Gov. Brian Kemp didn’t give a direct answer when speaking to reporters June 26.

“As I’ve said many times, we can’t hide from our history,” Kemp said, while citing the new hate crimes law he signed the same day as a significant step in fighting racial injustice.

Stone Mountain wasn’t a battle site and had little historical significance to the Civil War. But 50 years after the war ended, the exposed surface of the mountain’s northern face sparked an idea among the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

“It looked like a giant billboard,” said Stan Deaton, senior historian for the Georgia Historical Society.

The group hired sculptor Gutzon Borglum — who later would carve Mount Rushmore — to design a massive Confederate monument in 1915.

That same year, the movie “The Birth of a Nation” glorified the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan and Stone Mountain played a key role in its resurgence, marking its comeback with a cross burning atop the mountain on Thanksgiving night.

Budget problems plagued the Stone Mountain project and work on the sculpture languished until the state bought the mountain and surrounding land in 1958 for a public park. Finishing the monument gained renewed urgency as the civil rights movement brought unwanted change to defiant Southern states.

“It became the centerpiece of the park,” Deaton said. “There was never any doubt that the state’s intention of finishing this was of a piece with massive resistance.”

An estimated 10,000 people attended the monument’s dedication in 1970. Another two years passed before its official completion.

Five decades later, the park at Stone Mountain markets itself as a family theme park rather than a shrine to the “Lost Cause” mythology that romanticizes the Confederacy as chivalrous defenders of states’ rights. Its website highlights miniature golf and a dinosaur-themed attraction while downplaying the Confederate carving, Confederate flags and brick terraces dedicated to each Confederate state.

Paula and Michael Smith of Monticello, Georgia, visited Stone Mountain on Monday so their 10-year-old grandson could see the monument for the first time.

“The mountain itself is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and the carving is an engineering marvel,” said Paula Smith, a 70-year-old white woman who dismissed talk of removing or altering the carving as an attempt to “steal American history.”

Jarvis Jones climbs the steep hiking trail on the back side of Stone Mountain several times a week. The 29-year-old Black man said he tries to avoid seeing the carving.

“I definitely understand everyone wants their history to be represented,” Jones said. “But when it comes to the oppression of other people, I think it needs to change.”

___

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writers Ben Nadler and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this story.