Ancient mountains recorded in Antarctic sandstones reveal potential links to global events

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN OSHKOSH

 

IMAGE: A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS LED BY UW OSHKOSH GEOLOGIST TIMOTHY PAULSEN ANALYZED SANDSTONE SAMPLES COLLECTED FROM THE TRANSANTARCTIC MOUNTAINS. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF TIMOTHY PAULSEN, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN OSHKOSH

A new analysis of sandstones from Antarctica indicates there may be important links between the generation of mountain belts and major transitions in Earth's atmosphere and oceans.

A team of researchers analyzed the chemistry of tiny zircon grains commonly found in the Earth's continental rock record to determine their ages and chemical compositions. The team included scientists from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Michigan Technological University and ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

The study was published recently in the international peer-reviewed journal Terra Nova, which features short innovative papers about the solid Earth and planetary sciences.

"Mountain building occurs in association with the plate tectonic motions of the continents," said Paulsen, the lead author on the paper. "Geologists have long recognized that the generation of significant mountainous relief has the potential to profoundly influence the chemistry of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere."

Yet there are significant questions about the patterns of mountain building in Earth's past, especially associated with the ancient rock record leading up to the explosion of life about 541 million years ago.

"Mountains tend to be worn down by water and wind that ultimately transports their sedimentary remains to the oceans, leaving an incomplete puzzle for geologists to fit together," said Deering, a coauthor on the paper. "However, there is increasing evidence that missing pieces of the puzzle are found in the sands of ancient beaches and rivers, which are essentially the remnants of mountains produced by weathering and erosion."

The researchers' findings, based on an analysis of a large sample of zircon grains from sandstone recovered in Antarctica, may signify key links in the evolution of the Earth's rock cycle and its atmosphere and oceans.

"We found two primary periods of increased average crustal thickness associated with volcanic chains along convergent plate boundaries, implying an increased proportion of higher mountains at these times," Paulsen said.

"Both episodes occurred during major reorganization of the continents when they separated and drifted on the Earth's surface over time. They also overlap with snowball Earth glaciations--when the whole Earth was frozen over--and associated steps in oxygenation of the atmosphere, which may have been critical for the evolution of life. These correlations suggest an important causal link between plate tectonics and major transitions in Earth's atmosphere and oceans."

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Changes in land evaporation shape the climate

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: TO PRODUCE BETTER CLIMATIC PREDICTIONS, SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE HOW MUCH WATER IS EVAPORATED FROM THE VEGETATED LAND SURFACE view more 

CREDIT: ÁKOS SZABÓ

Accurate estimation of how much water is evaporated from the vegetated land surface is a challenging task. A physical-based method--such as the complementary relationship (CR) of evaporation, which explicitly accounts for the dynamic feedback mechanisms in the soil-land-atmosphere system and requires minimal data--is advantageous for tracking the ongoing changes in the global hydrological cycle and relating them to historical base values.

Unfortunately, such a method cannot be employed with recently developed remote sensing-based approaches, as they are typically available only for the last couple of decades or so.

An international team of Hungarian, American and Chinese scientists have demonstrated that an existing calibration-free version of the CR method that inherently tracks the aridity changes of the environment in each step of the calculations can better detect long-term trends in continental-scale land evaporation rates than a recently developed and globally calibrated one without such dynamic adjustments to aridity.

With the ongoing climate change, the global hydrological cycle is affected significantly. As climate research indicates, wet areas will get even wetter in general, while dry ones drier, which is not the best scenario for the vast semi-arid and arid regions of the globe. In order to produce better climatic predictions, general circulation models need to upgrade their existing evaporation estimation algorithms. A computational method that automatically adjusts its predictions to short- as well as long-term changes in aridity can improve the existing algorithms employed by these climate models.

"By repeatedly demonstrating the superb capabilities of our calibration-free evaporation method in all venues accessible to us, our ultimate goal is to have the climate modeling community take notice and give it a try," explains Dr Jozsef Szilagyi, the lead author of the study. "As it requires only a few, surface-measured meteorological input variables, such as air temperature, humidity, wind speed and net surface radiation, without detailed information of the soil moisture status or land-surface properties, it can be readily applied with available historical records of meteorological data and see if it indeed improves past predictions of the climate or not."

"Any changes in land use and land cover is inherently accounted for by the CR method via its dynamic aridity term that does not even require precipitation measurements--one of the most variable and difficult meteorological parameter to predict," he concludes.

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The study is published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

This research was supported by the Budapest University of Technology Water Sciences and a Disaster Prevention FIKP grant of EMMI, Hungary.

Maldives records highest level of micro plastic pollution on the planet

Micro plastic pollution in the Maldives, a global tourist destination, is amongst the highest in the world

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

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VIDEO: FLINDERS UNIVERSITY MALDIVES RESEARCH VIDEO- DR EMILY FOBERT ON LOCATION. view more 

CREDIT: FLINDERS UNIVERSITY https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/239420.php

The amount of micro plastic pollution in waters around the Maldives, a global tourist destination known for its beautiful coastline, is amongst the highest in the world and has the potential to severely impact marine life in shallow reefs and threaten the livelihoods of island communities.

Microplastics are pieces of plastic waste that measure less than 5 millimetres long, and due to their often microscopic size are considered invisible water pollutants. Small pieces of plastic can break down over time from plastic bottles, textiles and clothing, remain in the world's oceans.

Marine scientists from Flinders University in Australia recorded the levels of plastic pollution in sand across 22 sites off the coast of Naifaru, the most populous island in Lhaviyani Atoll, to determine how much microplastic is present around the island. Microplastic distribution was found to be ubiquitous in the marine environment, with the results published in Science of the Total Environment journal.

Flinders University Honours student and lead researcher Toby Patti says micro plastics are highly concentrated in waters around Naifaru.

"The concentration of microplastics found on Naifaru in the Maldives (55 -1127.5 microplastics/kg) was greater than those previously found on a highly populated site at Tamil Nadu, India (3 - 611 microplastics/kg), and was a similar concentration to that found on inhabited and uninhabited islands elsewhere in the Maldives (197 -822 particles/kg)."

Microplastic concentration map around Naifaru, an island in the Maldives 141 km north of the capital, Malé. It is the capital and most populous island of Lhaviyani Atoll.

"The majority of micro plastics found in our study were less than 0.4mm in width, so our results raise concerns about the potential for microplastic ingestion by marine organisms in the shallow coral reef system. The accumulation of microplastics is a serious concern for the ecosystem and the local community living off of these marine resources, and can have a negative impact on human health."

The high levels of microplastics could have been transported by ocean currents from neighbouring countries in the Indian Ocean like India, as well as from Maldivian land reclamation policies, poor sewerage & wastewater systems.

Professor Karen Burke Da Silva says notorious 'rubbish islands' used as landfill sites are also contributing to the high concentration of microplastic found around the island.

"Current waste management practices in the Maldives cannot keep up with population growth and the pace of development. The small island nation encounters several challenges regarding waste management systems and has seen a 58% increase of waste generated per capita on local islands in the last decade," says Professor Burke Da Silva.

"Without a significant increase in waste reduction and rapid improvements in waste management, small island communities will continue to generate high levels of microplastic pollution in marine environments, with potential to negatively impact the health of the ecosystem, marine organisms, and local island communities."

The researchers are now looking at the stomach content of coral reef fish to see if they have bellies full of microplastics in a follow up study.

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Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accurac

How to predict a typhoon

Researchers develop model that has the potential to predict tropical cyclones 10 to 30 days in advance

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: THE WHITE-DOTTED CURVES ARE THE 2018 TYPHOON TRACKS COLLECTED IN THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC OCEAN AS THE BACKGROUND, WHICH IS THE MAJOR TARGET AREA OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL COUPLED PREDICTION SYSTEM... view more 

CREDIT: ADVANCES IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES

Tropical cyclones, also known as typhoons, wreak havoc in Asia and the Pacific. The storms can be deadly -- in 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest ever recorded, was responsible for 6,340 deaths -- and cost billions in damages. Current forecast models can only predict these storms 10 days in advance, at most, and they cannot precisely predict how intense the storms will become.

To rectify this, an international team of researchers has developed a model that analyzes nearly a quarter of Earth's surface and atmosphere in order to better predict the conditions that birth typhoons, as well as the conditions that lead to more severe storms. They published their results on July 27 in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

"The target problem of this study is how to foretell the genesis of typhoons," said paper author Mingkui Li, associate professor in the Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography in the Ocean University of China and the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM). "We specifically address three aspects: the onset time, central pressure and maximum wind speed."

With those three variabilities in mind, the researchers coupled prediction models of the atmosphere and the Earth's surface covering Asia and the Pacific Ocean. They examined three coupled models, each accounting for a different area depth. The researchers also accounted for the influence of one variable on another, such as wind speed on sea surface temperature, a phenomenon known as coupled data assimilation. This influence is well understood and accounted for in climate predictions and in weather forecasts, but it has not been fully applied in understanding how long-term climate affects day-to-day weather and vice versa, according to Li.

"A fine-resolution ocean-atmosphere coupled model that is initialized by downscaled coupled data assimilation is a key for forecasting the typhoon genesis," said Shaoqing Zhang, paper author and professor in the Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography, QNLM and the International Laboratory for High-Resolution Earth System Model and Prediction (iHESP). "We aimed to provide insights on the time scale that can be used to forecast typhoons in advance, as well as how the resolution of coupled models can affect the prediction of formation, intensity, and track."

From their study, the researchers determined that a high-resolution coupled model with the ability to better understand the relationship between warm sea surface temperatures and weak wind shears -- conditions that favor tropical cyclone formation -- could improve typhoon predictability.

"Although completely addressing these problems, which are important in understanding issues of regional climate and extended-range forecasts, requires plenty of further study, our paper attempts to open the door for it," Zhang said, noting that the team will further improve the physics of the coupled models. "Our goal is to develop a 10 to 30-day extended range prediction system that will ultimately lead to seamless weather-climate predictions."

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This work was supported by the National Key Research & Development Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Shandong Province's "Taishan" Scientist Project. This research is also part of a collaborative project between the Ocean University of China, Texas A&M University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Other contributors include Lixin Wu, Xiaopei Lin, Xiaolin Yu, Xiaohui Ma, Weiwei Ma, Haoran Zhao, Kai Mao and Xue Wang, all of whom are affiliated with the Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography in the Ocean University of China. Qu, Lin, Yu, and X. Ma are also affiliated with QNLM, along with Huiqin Hu, Dongning Jia and Yuhu Chen. Ping Chang and Gohkan Danabasoglu, both with iHESP, also contributed. Chang is also with the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University, and Danabasoglu is also with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. Other contributors include Xin Liu and Guangliang Liu, both with the National Supercomputing Jinan Center; and Youwei Ma, with the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Ocean University of China.

Dozens of pesticides linked with mammary gland tumors in animal studies

Findings have implications for how federal agencies assess pesticides for breast cancer risk

SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE

 

In an analysis of how regulators review pesticides for their potential to cause cancer, researchers at Silent Spring Institute identified more than two dozen registered pesticides that were linked with mammary gland tumors in animal studies. The new findings raise concerns about how the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approves pesticides for use and the role of certain pesticides in the development of breast cancer.

Several years ago, a resident on Cape Cod in Massachusetts contacted researchers at Silent Spring looking for information on an herbicide called triclopyr. Utility companies were looking to spray the chemical below power lines on the Cape to control vegetation.

"We know pesticides like DDT increase breast cancer risk, so we decided to look into it," says co-author Ruthann Rudel, an environmental toxicologist and director of research at Silent Spring. "After examining pesticide registration documents from EPA, we found two separate studies in which rodents developed mammary gland tumors after being exposed to triclopyr, yet for some reason regulators dismissed the information in their decision not to treat it as a carcinogen."

When manufacturers apply to register a pesticide, EPA reviews existing studies and based on those studies assigns the chemical a cancer classification--for instance, how likely or unlikely the chemical is to cause cancer. After reviewing triclopyr, Silent Spring researchers wondered if evidence of mammary tumors was being ignored for other pesticides as well.

Reporting in the journal Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, Rudel and Silent Spring scientist Bethsaida Cardona reviewed more than 400 EPA pesticide documents summarizing the health effects of each registered pesticide. They found a total of 28 pesticides linked with mammary gland tumors, yet EPA acknowledged only nine of them as causing mammary tumors and dismissed the evidence entirely for the remaining 19.

Rudel and Cardona also found that many of the pesticides in their analysis behaved like endocrine disruptors, for instance, by interfering with estrogen and progesterone. "Breast cancer is highly influenced by reproductive hormones, which stimulate the proliferation of cells within the breast, making it more susceptible to tumors," says Rudel. "So, it's important that regulators consider this kind of evidence. If they don't, they risk exposing people to pesticides that are breast carcinogens."

Traditionally, toxicologists focus on whether a chemical causes DNA damage when determining its potential to cause cancer. But recent findings in cancer biology show there are many ways chemicals can trigger the development of cancer. For example, chemicals can suppress the immune system, cause chronic inflammation, or disrupt the body's system of hormones, all of which can lead to the growth of breast tumors and other types of tumors as well.

"In light of our findings, we hope EPA updates its guidelines for assessing mammary gland tumors by considering evidence that more completely captures the biology of breast cancer, such as the effects of endocrine disruptors," says Cardona.

Rudel and Cardona recommend that EPA re-evaluate five pesticides in particular--IPBC, triclopyr, malathion, atrazine and propylene oxide--due to their widespread use and the evidence uncovered in the new analysis. IPBC is a preservative in cosmetics; triclopyr is an agricultural herbicide that is also used to control vegetation growth along rights-of-way; malathion is a common residential and agricultural pesticide and is used in some lice treatments; atrazine is one of the most commonly-used herbicides in agriculture; and propylene oxide is used to preserve food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals, and has many similarities with ethylene oxide, a known human carcinogen.

The project is part of Silent Spring Institute's Safer Chemicals Program which is developing new cost-effective ways of screening chemicals for their effects on the breast. Knowledge generated by this effort will help government agencies regulate chemicals more effectively and assist companies in developing safer products.

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Funding for this project was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (award number U01ES026130), the Cedar Tree Foundation, and Silent Spring Institute's Innovation Fund. The project was also supported by an NIEHS T32 Transdisciplinary Training at the Intersection of Environmental Health and Social Science grant (award number 1T32ES023769-01A1).

Reference:

Cardona, B. and R.A. Rudel. 2020. US EPA's regulatory pesticide evaluations need clearer guidelines for considering mammary gland tumors and other mammary gland effects. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology. DOI: 10.1016/j.mce.2020.110927

About Silent Spring Institute:

Silent Spring Institute, located in Newton, Mass., is the leading scientific research organization dedicated to uncovering the link between chemicals in our everyday environments and women's health, with a focus on breast cancer prevention. Founded in 1994, the institute is developing innovative tools to accelerate the transition to safer chemicals, while translating its science into policies that protect health. Visit us at http://www.silentspring.org and follow us on Twitter @SilentSpringIns.

Ammonia sparks unexpected, exotic lightning on Jupiter

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

ITHACA, N.Y. - NASA's Juno spacecraft - orbiting and closely observing the planet Jupiter - has unexpectedly discovered lightning in the planet's upper atmosphere, according to a multi-institutional study led by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which includes two Cornell University researchers.

The work was published Aug. 5 in the journal Nature.

Jupiter's gaseous atmosphere seems placid from a distance, but up close the clouds roil in a turbulent, chemically dynamic realm. As scientists have probed the opaque surface with Juno's sensitive instrumentation, they've learned that Jupiter's lightning occurs not only deep within the water clouds but also in shallow atmospheric regions (at high altitudes with lower pressure) that feature clouds of ammonia mixed with water.

"On the night side of Jupiter, you see fairly frequent flashes - as if you were above an active thunderstorm on Earth," said Jonathan I. Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and chair of the Department of Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. "You get these tall columns and anvils of clouds, and the lightning is going continuously. We can get some pretty substantial lightning here on Earth, and the same is true for Jupiter."

The research, "Small Lightning Flashes From Shallow Electrical Storms on Jupiter," was directed by Heidi N. Becker, the Radiation Monitoring Investigation lead of NASA's Juno mission. Lunine and doctoral candidate Youry Aglyamov were the two Cornell co-authors in the study.

Previous missions to Jupiter - such as Voyager 1, Galileo and New Horizons - had all observed lightning. But thanks to Juno's Stellar Reference Unit, a camera designed to detect dim sources of light, the spacecraft's close observational distance and instrument sensitivity enabled lightning detection at a higher resolution than previously possible.

Ammonia is the key. While there is water and other chemical elements such as molecular hydrogen and helium in Jupiter's clouds, ammonia is the "antifreeze" that keeps water in those upper atmospheric clouds from freezing entirely.

Lunine notes Aglyamov's ongoing dissertation work focuses on how lightning is generated under these conditions. The collision of the falling droplets of mixed ammonia and water with suspended water-ice particles constitutes a way to separate charge and produce cloud electrification - resulting in lightning storms in the upper atmosphere.

"The shallow lightning really points to the role of ammonia, and Youry's models are starting to confirm this," Lunine said. "This would be unlike any process that occurs on Earth."

Jupiter's wild gaseous world fascinates Aglyamov.

"Giant planets in general are a fundamentally different kind of world from Earth and other terrestrial planets," he said. "There are hydrogen seas transitioning gradually into skies stacked with cloud decks, weather systems the size of the Earth and who-knows-what in the interior."

The discovery of shallow lightning on Jupiter shifts our understanding of the planet, Aglyamov said.

"Shallow lightning hadn't really been expected and indicates that there's an unexpected process causing it," he said. "It's one more way in which Juno's observations show a much more complex atmosphere of Jupiter than had been predicted. We know enough now to ask the right questions about processes going on there, but as Juno shows, we're in a stage where every answer also tends to multiply the questions."

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Funding for the Cornell portion of this research comes from the Southwest Research Institute.

Implanted neural stem cell grafts show functionality in spinal cord injuries

In mouse studies, the specialized grafts integrated with host networks and behaved much like neurons in a healthy, undamaged spinal cord

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

 

IMAGE: COLORIZED SCANNING ELECTRON MICROGRAPH OF A CULTURED HUMAN NEURON. view more 

CREDIT: THOMAS DEERINCK, UC SAN DIEGO NATIONAL CENTER FOR MICROSCOPY AND IMAGING

Using stem cells to restore lost functions due to spinal cord injury (SCI) has long been an ambition of scientists and doctors. Nearly 18,000 people in the United States suffer SCIs each year, with another 294,000 persons living with an SCI, usually involving some degree of permanent paralysis or diminished physical function, such as bladder control or difficulty breathing.

In a new study, published August 5, 2020 in Cell Stem Cell, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report successfully implanting highly specialized grafts of neural stem cells directly into spinal cord injuries in mice, then documenting how the grafts grew and filled the injury sites, integrating with and mimicking the animals' existing neuronal network.

Until this study, said the study's first author Steven Ceto, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Mark H. Tuszynski, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Translational Neuroscience Institute at UC San Diego School of Medicine, neural stem cell grafts being developed in the lab were sort of a black box.

Although previous research, including published work by Tuszynski and colleagues, had shown improved functioning in SCI animal models after neural stem cell grafts, scientists did not know exactly what was happening.

"We knew that damaged host axons grew extensively into (injury sites), and that graft neurons in turn extended large numbers of axons into the spinal cord, but we had no idea what kind of activity was actually occurring inside the graft itself," said Ceto. "We didn't know if host and graft axons were actually making functional connections, or if they just looked like they could be."

Ceto, Tuszynski and colleagues took advantage of recent technological advances that allow researchers to both stimulate and record the activity of genetically and anatomically defined neuron populations with light rather than electricity. This ensured they knew exactly which host and graft neurons were in play, without having to worry about electric currents spreading through tissue and giving potentially misleading results.

They discovered that even in the absence of a specific stimulus, graft neurons fired spontaneously in distinct clusters of neurons with highly correlated activity, much like in the neural networks of the normal spinal cord. When researchers stimulated regenerating axons coming from the animals' brain, they found that some of the same spontaneously active clusters of graft neurons responded robustly, indicating that these networks receive functional synaptic connections from inputs that typically drive movement. Sensory stimuli, such as a light touch and pinch, also activated graft neurons.

"We showed that we could turn on spinal cord neurons below the injury site by stimulating graft axons extending into these areas," said Ceto. "Putting all these results together, it turns out that neural stem cell grafts have a remarkable ability to self-assemble into spinal cord-like neural networks that functionally integrate with the host nervous system. After years of speculation and inference, we showed directly that each of the building blocks of a neuronal relay across spinal cord injury are in fact functional."

Tuszynski said his team is now working on several avenues to enhance the functional connectivity of stem cell grafts, such as organizing the topology of grafts to mimic that of the normal spinal cord with scaffolds and using electrical stimulation to strengthen the synapses between host and graft neurons.

"While the perfect combination of stem cells, stimulation, rehabilitation and other interventions may be years off, patients are living with spinal cord injury right now," Tuszynski said. "Therefore, we are currently working with regulatory authorities to move our stem cell graft approach into clinical trials as soon as possible. If everything goes well, we could have a therapy within the decade."

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Co-authors of the study are Kohel J. Sekiguchi and Axel Nimmerjahn, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Yoshio Takashima, UC San Diego and Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Diego.

Citizen scientists help geologists to identify earthquakes and tectonic tremors

Citizens outperform AI after only one hour of training

FRONTIERS

 

AUDIO: AUDIO FILE OF AN EARTHQUAKE, SPED UP 800 TIMES view more 

CREDIT: THE AUTHORS

It is not yet possible to predict earthquakes, but the analysis of different types of seismic data allows scientists to pinpoint where and when each type of earthquake originated, and hence better understand when and where tectonic slip might occur via damaging earthquakes. Tens of thousands of seismic stations around the world continuously record local seismic activity, with an output that is far beyond what scientists can process. Here, researchers from Northwestern University have called over 2,000 citizen scientists to the rescue for the crowd-based analysis of seismic recordings, rendered into audiovisual format, through the program Earthquake Detective on the Open-Science platform Zooniverse. They show that citizens are at least as accurate as machine learning, and can even identify tectonic tremors, which previously was only possible for trained professionals. The results are published today in Frontiers in Earth Science.

"My aim was to receive help with detections of these special seismic events because I felt overwhelmed by the rapidly growing mountain of data I was investigating for my PhD research," says lead author Vivian Tang, a graduate student at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences of Northwestern University, Illlinois. "With Zooniverse and the Earthquake Detective team, we provide people everywhere with a simple and engaging way to help further scientific research."

After completing a tutorial and practice session, each citizen scientist was asked to listen to a random selection from among 2,467 recordings captured by seismic stations across Alaska, part of the USArray of stations across North America. Visual traces were shown alongside the audio data. Each recording corresponded to the first 2,000 seconds (but sped up 800 times to audible frequencies) after the estimated arrival at each station of the surface waves from one of 30 known major earthquakes that occurred somewhere in the world between between 2013 and 2018. When the wave from a faraway earthquake reaches a seismically active location such as Alaska, where the Pacific tectonic plate slides under the North American, it may trigger local seismic events, such as smaller earthquakes or tectonic tremors, which are series of thousands of slow, tiny vibrations deep inside the Earth's crust that may last for days or weeks. Tremors were first discovered in 2001 and have since become an important focus of study, because they show us where tectonic slip occurs without earthquakes, yet are thought to play a role in the origin of earthquakes.

Each recording was presented to ten different citizens, who had to classify it as an earthquake, tremor, background noise, or none of the above. Sped up, the seismic recordings of earthquakes typically sound like a slamming door, while tremor sounds like a train going over railway tracks, and background noise can sound like whistling wind, crinkling tin foil, or radio static. The researchers used the number of citizens agreeing on each classification as a measure of the degree of consensus. A selection of the dataset was also classified by trained seismologists among the authors, while output from a machine learning algorithm developed specifically by them to identify earthquakes were used as a benchmark for the citizens' performance. Artificial intelligence has not yet been able to identify tectonic tremor, which until the present study where citizens successfully mastered this task, could only be recognized within seismic data by seismologists.

The citizens reached a collective decision for 91% of the tested recordings. There was more consensus when classifying earthquakes (74% of recordings with this collective decision reached the preset threshold of 40% votes for the majority classification) than for tremor (51%) and background noise (66%). When their collective decision was compared to the correct classification, as determined by the professional scientists, the citizens were collectively 85% accurate in identifying earthquakes, higher than the 76% accuracy of the machine learning algorithm.

The authors conclude that citizen scientists can make a major contribution to seismology, allowing scientists to process much more data than they ever could on their own, thus helping them to better understand processes deep inside the Earth's crust and forecast

NEWS RELEASE 5-AUG-2020

How climate change affects allergies, immune response and autism

The changes in the environment and biodiversity brought on by climate change could be responsible for increases in allergies, autoimmune diseases and autism, according to a Rutgers researcher

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: XUE MING, PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY AT RUTGERS NEW JERSEY MEDICAL SCHOOL view more 

CREDIT: RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

Climate change and disruption of the ecosystem have the potential to profoundly impact the human body. Xue Ming, professor of neurology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, who recently published a paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on the effects of climate change on allergies, autoimmunity and the microbiome -- the beneficial microorganisms that live on and inside the human body -- discusses how the delicate balance of the environment affects conditions such as allergies, autism and immune disorders.

How has climate change affected respiratory allergies?

Climate change has worsened respiratory allergic disease and has altered the immune system's tolerance in responding to toxins, which has led to an increase in the prevalence of immune diseases. People with chronic respiratory allergic disease that affects the nose and eyes, such as asthma and allergies, are at particular risk due to increased exposure to pollen and the increased concentration and distribution of air pollutants.

According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology, climate change has both increased the intensity of the pollen season as well as prolonged its duration. Increases in carbon dioxide were shown to lead to an increase in plant reproduction and total pollen levels, especially those plants that thrive at high carbon dioxide concentrations. For example, ragweed pollen has been increasing in concentration, with models predicting that levels will increase by four times within the next 30 years.

Thunderstorms, which have become more frequent due to rising sea temperatures, have been found to increase concentrations of pollen grains at ground level. After absorbing water, these grains can rupture and release allergenic particles that can induce severe asthmatic symptoms in patients with asthma or hay fever.

Climate change has also been linked to increased concentrations and distribution of air pollutants such as ozone, nitric oxide and other volatile organic chemicals. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that these airborne environmental pollutants may be partially responsible for the substantial increase in allergic respiratory disease seen in industrialized countries over the past several decades.

How do changes to the ecosystem affect allergies and respiratory disorders?

Deforestation and over-logging have led to a dramatic decrease in the diversity of plant species. As one species of plant becomes extinct, new species emerge to take their place. For example, as oak trees have been excessively harvested for architectural purposes, new species of trees have emerged. With these new trees come new forms of tree pollen, which are inhaled and ingested by humans on a daily basis.

Similarly, widespread pesticide use has altered the profile of insects, invertebrates and microorganisms with which we come into contact with through our soil and vegetation. As the environment is altered, our bodies are bombarded with novel organisms. The molecules which make up these organisms -- known as antigens -- are recognized as "foreign" by our bodies and create an inflammatory response.

How might a loss of biodiversity due to climate change affect non-respiratory diseases?

According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, with nearly 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction due to climate change.

The loss of biodiversity related to climate change may affect the microbiome, potentially leading to inflammatory, autoimmune and neurologic diseases. Immunologic disorders, such as food allergies, are on the rise. For example, several studies have found that increases in carbon dioxide and temperature are correlated with changes in the composition of the peanut, making it more difficult for the body to adapt immunity.

Could disturbances in gut bacteria affect the autism rate?

Disruption of gut bacteria has been linked to neurologic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, autism and Parkinson's disease. In my own research, I found abnormal amino acid metabolism, increased imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body, and altered gut microbiomes among some patients with autism spectrum disorder.

What steps can be taken to minimize the health risks brought on by climate change?

We must end the destruction of our natural environment, decrease emissions of greenhouse gases and adopt more "green" behavior. With research demonstrating links between the microbiome and autoimmune, inflammatory and neurologic diseases, it is critical that we minimize antimicrobial exposure. This may involve altering guidelines for the prescription of antibiotics by medical professionals. In addition, given that the microbiome is directly impacted by our daily environment it is important to regularly immerse ourselves in nature and familiarize ourselves with biodiverse surroundings.

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