Deafening insects mask true biodiversity assessed via acoustic surveys in Japan

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

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VIDEO: SAMUEL ROSS EXPLAINS THE RESEARCH view more 

https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/248959.php?from=484134

CREDIT: TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN AND OKINAWA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY GRADUATE UNIVERSITY

A collaborative team of ecologists, led by those from Trinity College Dublin, has been using recordings of animal noises to assess biodiversity in sub-tropical Japan. The team assessed how effective these acoustic surveys were for pinpointing Okinawa's wild and wonderful fauna in different sonic conditions--and discovered that the incessant choruses of the local cicadas disguise the true diversity of the region.

The work, just published in the journal Ecological Indicators, underlines the great potential that acoustic surveys have for characterising the biodiversity of habitats while also highlighting some major potential pitfalls.

Many scientists believe we are now living through the sixth mass extinction in Earth's history, which has largely been driven by human actions and our exploitation of the environment, but there is general consensus that it is not too late to halt declines in biodiversity if we act now. However, we need to know which species (and how many) are present in any given habitat before designing conservation programmes.

Acoustic surveys

Acoustic surveys--simple audio recordings of the animal sounds in a habitat--offer the potential to record large volumes of data. They can do this relatively cheaply and easily, given that recording devices can be left unattended once set up. This technique also means researchers need not spend lengthy periods in unhospitable or dangerous habitats, species are more likely to be accounted for as they won't be scared away by human presence, and the data can be very sensitive as each species makes unique sounds.

However, the new research shows that consideration must be given to ambient conditions, with the time of day, season, and proximity to urban areas and human activity all likely to interfere to varying extents with the recordings, such that some species cannot be heard. Interestingly, on the sub-tropical island of Okinawa off the coast of Japan, it is the incessant noise of the cicada insects that have the biggest impact in masking the hoots, clicks and chirps of hundreds of native animals.

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A bird in Okinawa.

Lead author of the study, Samuel Ross, is a PhD Candidate in Trinity's School of Natural Sciences. He said:

"In total, we used about 230 hours of sound recordings from a wide range of habitats across Okinawa to gain insights into the biodiversity of the region, to characterise how it changes near urban areas, and most importantly, to assess how effective the various audio recording and assessment techniques are in extracting reliable information."

"As you'd expect the weather is important, with heavy winds and rain affecting the information we can get from recordings, and human noise pollution is also problematic. However, it's cicadas that really impact the quality of such assessments during Okinawa's summer months."

To date, most bio-acoustic surveys have been conducted in the Tropics but the field is developing quickly and these monitoring techniques will prove useful in Ireland, which provides homes to a number of iconic, endangered animals.

Many of Ireland's creatures have a cultural significance and the ability to soothe and inspire, while other research is opening our eyes to the power of the acoustic environment in influencing mental health.

Samuel Ross added:

"These methods are still relatively new and the prospect that we can monitor biodiversity using only audio recording equipment is really exciting. I see this as the next frontier in assessing the state of the world's ecosystems."

The study was led by Samuel Ross and Ian Donohue, Associate Professor in Zoology, at Trinity, working closely with colleagues at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), including Professor Evan Economo and Dr Nick Friedman, who run an island-wide project to monitor Okinawa's ecosystems using sound.

Dr Friedman added:

"The forests in Okinawa are really noisy when the cicadas are out. The sound they make is so loud, it's at least annoying if not painful. It conceals a lot of different species that are in the forest because they don't really bother calling to each other while the cicadas are going. Knowing this helps us strategise how to use soundscape recordings to measure biodiversity or track the health of an ecosystem."

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A cicada in Okinawan forest

People in developing countries eat less bushmeat as they migrate from rural to urban areas

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE YELLOW-FOOTED TORTOISE (CHELONOIDIS DENTICULATUS), ALSO KNOWN AS THE BRAZILIAN GIANT TORTOISE, CAN BE FOUND IN THE AMAZON BASIL OF SOUTH AMERICA. (PHOTO CREDIT: THAIS MORCATTY) view more 

CREDIT: THAIS MORCATTY

PRINCETON, N.J.-- People around the world, especially in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, consume wild game, or bushmeat, whether out of necessity, as a matter of taste preference, or, in the case of particularly desirable wildlife species, to connote a certain social status. Bushmeat consumption, however, has devasted the populations of hundreds of wildlife species and been linked to the spread of zoological diseases such as the Ebola virus.

New Princeton University research finds that when people in developing countries move from rural areas to cities, they consume less bushmeat over time, perhaps because other sources of animal protein are more readily available. They also found that children in urban areas generally have less of a taste for wild game than their parents. In the long term, this could be good news for conservation.

The researchers traveled to Brazil -- one of many countries worldwide experiencing a dramatic migration from rural to urban areas -- and interviewed thousands of adults and children about their wildlife consumption habits.

The study, published in the journal Conservation Biology, is among the first to explore how the consumption of wildlife changes as countries become increasingly urbanized. The results have profound implications for the rapidly growing wildlife trade, which is a multi-billion-dollar industry that threatens human health, drives species extinction, and damages ecosystems.

"In the Amazon, as in most developing countries, people are leaving rural areas and moving into cities. We find -- for whatever reason -- they are reducing their consumption of wild animals over time, providing a needed break for overhunted wildlife," said study co-author David Wilcove, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute.

"A decline in per capita consumption of wild animals by urban residents gives us hope that pressure on hunted species may decrease over time. At the same time, we don't know whether this decline will be large enough to compensate for an increasing human population in urban areas," said Willandia Chaves, the lead author of the study, who worked on the project as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech.

Wilcove and Chaves conducted the study with Denis Valle of the University of Florida, Aline S. Tavares of the Universidade Federal do Amazonas, and Thais Q. Morcatty of Oxford Brookes University.

The researchers surveyed six small towns, three large towns, and Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon Basin. This included 1,356 households and 2,776 school-age children. They studied the consumption of imperiled tortoises and freshwater turtles, as they are among the top five most consumed and traded species in urban areas in the Amazon. An estimated 1.7 million turtles were eaten in northwestern Brazil in 2018.

While subsistence hunting is permitted, most wildmeat consumption in Brazil is illegal. Moreover, the turtle species that were being consumed where this study took place are highly endangered. For this reason, the researchers had to design a survey that would allow interviewees to honestly answer questions without implicating themselves.

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The yellow-spotted river turtle was the most consumed throughout the Brazilian regions surveyed by Princeton University researchers.

To do this, they used dominoes. The head of each household (whether male or female) was asked a series of questions about their consumption of turtles (illegal) versus cornmeal (legal).

When asked, "Do you consume this item in your house?" respondents would randomly choose a domino from a bag: one dot represented cornmeal, and two dots for turtles. Because the researchers knew the ratio of one-dot to two-dot dominoes in the bag, they could calculate the consumption rates of turtles while protecting participants' responses by not linking the behavior to an individual participant.

While the domino approach is not new, it has rarely been employed in conservation studies, making this study more cutting-edge. "It's also exciting because it gives us much more reliable answers about sensitive activities than direct questioning does," Wilcove said.

Next, the researchers randomly selected 49 middle and high schools (11 in Manaus, 13 in large towns, and 25 in small towns) to study any generational differences in how much they liked and consumed bushmeat compared to adults. At each school, they randomly selected four classrooms and asked the schoolchildren to complete an anonymous questionnaire, with parental consent. This accounted for 2,700 students in 146 classrooms, and schoolchildren varied from 11 to 18 years in age.

First, the researchers found people generally consumed fewer turtles in larger urban areas. This could be because turtles cost more in larger cities than in small towns, and law enforcement also is likely stronger in larger urban centers. In small towns, on the other hand, the rates of turtle consumption are much higher, perhaps because people living there have ready access to wilder areas where the turtles live or perhaps because enforcement of wildlife laws is lax.

Second, children in urban areas are generally less likely to consume turtles than their parents. Social eating norms could play a role. If other children say it's "uncool" to eat turtles, then other kids might follow suit, or vice versa. Perhaps children consider the conservation implications of eating wildlife. Or perhaps it's simply because children's tastebuds haven't been fully developed. The researchers said more studies are needed to understand children's motivations.

"Is it a taste they will develop later in life, like children refusing to eat vegetables, or is it a lifelong switch?" Wilcove said. "We don't know yet, but the answer will mean a lot to the future of wildlife in the Amazon."

The researchers estimated that the overall consumption of endangered turtles in Amazonas state, the largest state in the Brazilian Amazon, is a very alarming 1.7 million turtles per year. Therefore, programs aimed at reducing consumption of illegal wildlife are urgently needed.

Certain towns seem to be "hotspots" for bushmeat consumption, so conservation efforts in those areas could be particularly important. Importantly, conservation education focused on schoolchildren, including increasing awareness regarding the plight of Amazonian turtles, could have long-term benefits if children forgo eating turtles as they become adults.

"Conservation efforts have focused on things like creating protected areas, working with rural communities to better manage wildlife, and improving enforcement - all important actions. However, unless we also target urban demand for wildlife, we will not be able to effectively address this issue," Chaves said.

"The bushmeat trade, both domestic and international has emerged as a massive threat to biodiversity, comparable to habitat destruction for some places. Yet, our knowledge of what drives this trade and how those drivers may change in the future is surprisingly weak. Until we better understand these issues, we are poorly equipped to solve this growing threat to wildlife," Wilcove said.

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The paper, "Impacts of rural to urban migration, urbanization, and generational change on consumption of wild animals in the Amazon," first appeared in Conservation Biology on Oct. 30, 2020. This research was funded by the High Meadows Foundation.

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These yellow-footed tortoises have been captured for human consumption.

Paleontologists uncover three new species of extinct walruses in Orange County

Study gives insight to tusk evolution of the marine mammal

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

Research News

 

IMAGE: MAP & SKULLS view more 

CREDIT: JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

Millions of years ago, in the warm Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California, walrus species without tusks lived abundantly.

But in a new study, Cal State Fullerton paleontologists have identified three new walrus species discovered in Orange County and one of the new species has "semi-tusks" -- or longer teeth.

The other two new species don't have tusks and all predate the evolution of the long iconic ivory tusks of the modern-day walrus, which lives in the frigid Arctic.

The researchers describe a total of 12 specimens of fossil walruses from Orange, Los Angeles and Santa Cruz counties, all estimated to be 5 to 10 million years old. The fossils represent five species, with two of the three new species represented by specimens of males, females and juveniles.

Their research, which gives insights on the dental and tusk evolution of the marine mammal, was published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Geology graduate Jacob Biewer, and his research adviser James F. Parham, associate professor of geological sciences, are authors of the study, based on fossil skull specimens.

Parham and Biewer worked with Jorge Velez-Juarbe, an expert in marine mammals at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who is a co-author of the paper. Velez-Juarbe is a former postdoctoral scholar in Parham's lab and has collaborated on other CSUF fossil research projects. Parham is a research associate at the museum, which provides research opportunities for him and his students.

The researchers teamed to study and describe the anatomy of the specimens, most of which are part of the museum's collection.

"Orange County is the most important area for fossil walruses in the world," said Biewer, first author of the paper who conducted the research for his master's thesis. "This research shows how the walruses evolved with tusks."

Extinct Walrus Species Get Names

Today, there is only one walrus species and its scientific name is Odobenus.

For the new species found in Orange County, the researchers named the semi-tusked walrus, Osodobenus eodon, by combining the words Oso and Odobenus. Another is named Pontolis kohnoi in honor of Naoki Kohno, a fossil walrus researcher from Japan. Both of these fossils were discovered in the Irvine, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo areas.

Osodobenus eodon and Pontolis kohnoi are both from the same geological rock layer as the 2018 study by Parham and his students of another new genus and species of a tuskless walrus, Titanotaria orangensis, named after CSUF Titans. These fossils were found in the Oso Member of the Capistrano Formation, a geological formation near Lake Forest and Mission Viejo.

The third new walrus species, Pontolis barroni, was found in Aliso Viejo, near the 73 Toll Road. It is named after John Barron, a retired researcher from the U.S.Geological Survey and world expert on the rock layer where the specimens were found, Parham said.

Analysis of these specimens show that fossil walrus teeth are more variable and complex than previously considered. Most of the new specimens predate the evolution of tusks, Parham said.

"Osodobenus eodon is the most primitive walrus with tusk-like teeth," Parham said. "This new species demonstrates the important role of feeding ecology on the origin and early evolution of tusks."

Biewer explained that his work focused on getting a better understanding of the evolutionary history of the walrus in regards to its teeth.

"The importance of dental evolution is that it shows the variability within and across walrus species. Scientists assumed you could identify certain species just based on the teeth, but we show how even individuals of the same species could have variability in their dental setup," said Biewer, who earned a master's degree in geology in 2019.

"Additionally, everyone assumes that the tusks are the most important teeth in a walrus, but this research further emphasizes how tusks were a later addition to the history of walruses. The majority of walrus species were fish eaters and adapted to catching fish, rather than using suction feeding on mollusks like modern walruses."

Biewer, now a paleontologist in the Modesto area, also examined whether climate changes in the Pacific Ocean had an impact on ancient walruses. His work suggests that a rise in water temperature helped to boost nutrients and planktonic life, and played a role in the proliferation of walruses about 10 million years ago, which may have contributed to their diversity.

Sidebar:

For the fossil walrus research project, geology graduate Jacob Biewer spent hours in the lab measuring and describing the walrus bones.

"I sat many hours with a handy caliper taking notes on the lengths of teeth and width of skulls, among many other measurements," he said. "Describing bones is much more in depth and meticulous than it sounds. There are traits that the bones of each walrus species have -- the size, shape and number of teeth. I recorded how the bones are different from, or similar to, other extinct walrus species."

Biewer, a paleontologist who lives in Modesto, noted that despite the pandemic, he and Parham worked on the scientific paper with 300 miles of social distancing.

Completing his first journal publication, based on his master's work, and conducting the research project helped him to understand scientific methods and techniques that he now uses in his career, where he monitors construction sites for paleontological resources. He also teaches undergraduate geology courses at Cal State Stanislaus, where he earned a bachelor's degree in geology, and is considering pursuing a doctorate.

"The experiences I had in conducting this research, especially the presentations at national paleontological conferences, led to a big increase in my confidence in my scientific abilities," Biewer said. "I credit my time working with Dr. Parham directly to the achievements in my current employment -- from the skills he imparted to the doors he helped open."

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Key patient insights the missing link in understanding COVID-19 and its mutations

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

Research News

A new study led by Australia's national science agency CSIRO, has found 95.5 per cent of current entries in GISAID, the world's largest novel coronavirus genome database, do not contain relevant patient information -- a critical piece of the puzzle to understand the virus and how it is evolving.

The researchers have used this finding to develop a standardised data collection template, which can be implemented on repositories like GISAID, without identifying the patient and making it easier for clinical teams treating patients to share more of their knowledge.

This enables the scientific community to access important information including symptoms, vaccine status and travel history and in doing so build a more complete picture of the impact of COVID-19 on each patient.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is one of the most sequenced viruses in history, with over 200,000 sequences on GISAID as of 16 November 2020.

The last 100,000 sequences of the virus were uploaded in the past two months, a global record.

The study, a collaboration with GISAID and other academic partners, proposes a standardised data collection method to help scientists and clinicians around the world gather and share vital information in the fight against COVID-19.

CSIRO researcher and senior author of the paper Dr S.S. Vasan, who is also Honorary Professor at the University of York, UK, said it is critical to collect the 'patient journey' in as much detail as possible to understand the impact of virus evolution on the disease and its consequences.

"We urgently need de-identified patient data associated with these virus genome sequences in order to decipher whether disease outcomes are due to a mutation, or multiple mutations, in the virus or host factors such as age, gender and co-morbidities," Dr Vasan said.

"It's very likely this information is known to the clinical teams who treated the patient but does not make its way to public repositories such as GISAID, due to the number of steps involved."

Recognising this need for clinical data, GISAID made 'patient status' a compulsory field for uploading virus sequences since 27 April 2020.

However, the study showed a lack of digital infrastructure for collecting clinical information has hampered progress.

It also identified the need for a standardised vocabulary and mechanism for linking in with health systems as key factors for capturing the necessary information.

Lead author and CSIRO researcher Dr Denis Bauer, who is also Honorary Associate Professor at Macquarie University, Sydney, said with the adoption of the study's proposed data collection template, future sequences shared through the GISAID initiative could contain more meaningful de-identified patient information.

"We have identified steps in the clinical health data acquisition cycle and workflows that likely have the biggest impact in the data-driven understanding of this virus," Dr Bauer said.

"Following the 'Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resource' implementation guide, we have introduced an ontology-based standard questionnaire consistent with the World Health Organization's recommendations."

Barwon Health's Director of Infectious Diseases Professor Eugene Athan welcomed the new data collection template.

"Barwon Health is leading a study on the long-term biological, physiological and psychological effects of COVID-19, in partnership with CSIRO and Deakin University, and we intend to implement this mechanism for our data collection and reporting," Prof Athan said.

"Having a simplified and standardised approach to sharing relevant patient information alongside genome sequences will enable critical research into COVID-19 and comparisons between different studies and population sets.

"I encourage clinicians and scientists around the world to share, wherever possible, de-identified patient information and clinical outcomes using this template to support ongoing research efforts."

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The paper 'Interoperable medical data: the missing link for understanding COVID?19' was published in the Transboundary and Emerging Diseases journal.

Surrey reveals simple method to produce high performing Lithium Selenium batteries

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

Research News

 

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are considered the best hope for next-generation battery technology, thanks to their long-life cycle, high specific power and energy density. However, they have not met the ever-increasing demands of emerging technologies such as electric vehicles. Li-Se battery technology is increasingly considered a real alternative to LIBs because of its high theoretical volume capacity and much higher conductivity.

In the first study of its kind, published by the Nature Communications journal, engineers from Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute (ATI), in collaboration with the team at University Technology of Sydney detail how they used a single-atom catalyst to create highly effective cathodes for Li-Se batteries. They demonstrate that their batteries have a superior rate capability and outstanding long-term cycling performance.

The Surrey team used to delicately control Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework (ZIF) particles that were placed on the surface of polystyrene spheres. The core-shell of the ZIF was then converted into a hollow structured carbon material.

Through further fine-tuning, the team from the ATI successfully produced atomic cobalt electrocatalyst, nitrogen-doped hollow porous carbon, nitrogen-doped hollow porous carbon and cobalt nanoparticles. By embedding selenium in hollow structured carbon particles, carbon/selenium composites were produced.

The atomic cobalt electrocatalysts were used as cathode materials for Li-Se batteries and clearly showed superior electrochemical performance including a superior rate capability (311?mA?h?g?1 at 50?C) and excellent cycling stability (267?mA?h?g?1 after 5000 cycles with a 0.0067% capacity decay per cycle at a current density of 50?C) with the Coulombic efficiency of ~100%.

Dr Jian Liu, one of the lead authors and Reader (Associate Professor) of Energy Materials at the ATI, said:

"We truly believe that our atomic cobalt-doped synthesized material can pave the way for Lithium Selenium batteries to be the go-to battery technology for future generations. While our results are incredibly encouraging, there is still some way to go to make our dream of high-capacity, sustainable battery technology a reality."

Professor Ravi Silva, Director of the ATI at the University of Surrey, said:

"We are incredibly proud of the highly creative and excellent work that Dr Liu's team has produced - a piece of research that may be a defining moment for sustainable battery technology development."

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Better than money? In-kind payments incentivize farmers to conserve agrobiodiversity

An innovative payment scheme for ecosystem services successfully encouraged farmers to cultivate and conserve agrobiodiversity, according to a new study of eight years of implementation in Latin America

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE (CIAT)

Research News

IMAGE: FARMERS' REWARDS INCLUDED MATTRESSES, FARM SUPPLIES, AND OTHER USEFUL ITEMS. view more 

CREDIT: A.DRUCKER

What if you received a new mattress in exchange for planting diverse crops? It may sound unusual, but tangible non-monetary incentives - anything from fertilizer to furniture - may hold significant potential in encouraging farmers to conserve their local agrobiodiversity, which includes a suite of increasingly rare crops and varieties that are often found nowhere else in the world.

"It turns out that a good conservation farmer is a well-rested conservation farmer," said Adam Drucker, a researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.

Drucker and co-author Marleni Ramirez recently assessed eight years of programs that use incentives and competitive tenders in which farmers receive in-kind payments in exchange for cultivating threatened varieties of important crops such as quinoa and maize.

In their article published in Land Use Policy, Drucker and Ramirez analyzed payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services, or PACS, in four Latin American countries between 2010-2018.

Their conclusion: these schemes are very affordable, attractive to farmers and policymakers, and can successfully conserve crop diversity on farms. The programs have been very well-received in Peru, a megadiverse Andean nation with world-famous cuisine and a long tradition of innovation in cultivation.

Award ceremonies for PACS programs are regularly attended by ministers and other high-level officials, and attract media attention. Due to the success of the programs, PACS are also a part of government policy to conserve biodiversity in the country.

The right incentives

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is not a new concept. With over 550 PES programs active worldwide, the model offers incentives for beneficiaries to voluntarily commit to sustainably manage land and natural resources. However, high-priority ecosystem services such as water provision have generally eclipsed biodiversity protection.

The article tracks some of the first applications of PES to agrobiodiversity conservation, with schemes encouraging farmers to conserve 130 varieties of crops (including a colorful diversity of quinoa, amaranth, beans, maize and others) in Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala and Ecuador.

Ramirez explained that PES "really fills a gap" by investing in rural communities and holding them collectively responsible. Rather than hand cash to individuals, the process of tenders arranges in-kind payments to groups who bid for conservation contracts.

The farmers obtain the necessary seeds and are subject to monitoring visits to provide extension support and verify successful cultivation, after which they receive their award in a handover ceremony. Farmers keep what they grow, minus a small amount of seed that is returned to the project for distribution to other farmers during the following planting season. "This is a fair and just way to work with communities for participation, equality and social justice," said Ramirez.

Because the programs use awards that are requested by communities, they create conditions to incentivize extremely high compliance. Monitoring in Peru suggests that five years after intervention and without further incentives during the interim, between 30-50% of participating farmers still maintained the threatened varieties that had been re-introduced. Some 83% of farmers declared willingness to participate in future schemes, even without rewards.

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Peruvian farmers celebrate successful cultivation of traditional crops, such as the diverse quinoa on display.

Seed-saving policy

The researchers emphasize that accessing the seeds, which are threatened and rare, is a persistent challenge. While many farmers were willing to participate simply in exchange for seeds, building up a depleted genetic resource base often means years of work.

An important aspect of the PACS model is the prioritization of threatened crop varieties based not only on their diversity value but also their value to farmers for food security, nutrition, climate change adaptation and cultural uses. In what is becoming a common theme in global biodiversity conservation conversation, "We can't protect everything, so we need to decide how to conserve the most that we can," said Drucker.

Following successful small-scale piloting with an indigenous people's NGO (UNORCAC), Ecuador has also considered a plan and consulted with the authors. Work with another indigenous people's NGO in Guatemala (ASOCUCH) has shown the important role community seed bank institutions can play in facilitating seed access and exchange.

Drucker is confident that the schemes have potential in other countries. Ethiopia, Madagascar and Zambia have all explored PACS at some level. "PACS provide an opportunity for a whole range of institutions including different levels of governments, universities, scientists, national and international NGOs and farmer organizations to partner in implementation," he said.

Beyond Latin America, Ethiopia and Madagascar are exploring possibilities to apply PACS in protected area buffer zones; and Zambia has looked into its use in the conservation of the wild relatives of crops. At the broader level, the model may be able to lay further groundwork for setting global conservation goals, additional monitoring, market development, and school meal programs.

Drucker and Ramirez conclude that, besides being cost-effective and socially equitable, the PACS platform has shown that many farmers are more than willing to cultivate and conserve threatened crops, and the material reward is only an extra bonus.

"This study reveals that farmers are willing to cultivate traditional and endangered varieties even in absence of any reward. They just want the seeds - and once they have them, they keep sowing them," said Carlo Fadda, who leads the Alliance's research area on biodiversity for food and agriculture. "Compared to the $570 billion a year that governments spend to support farmers - mostly at an industrial scale - the investment in PACS is comparatively small and offers a huge return on investment in terms of conservation and livelihoods. I hope Peru's approach is adopted in many more countries."

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Funders: CGIAR Research Programs on Roots, Tubers and Bananas; Policies, Institutions and Markets; and Water, Land and Ecosystems, Peru (Ministry of Environment, Regional Governments of Cusco and Puno, CIRNMA), Ecuador (UNORCAC), Guatemala (ASOCUCH and Universidad del Valle de Guatemala) and Bolivia (PROINPA).

Pesticides commonly used as flea treatments for pets are contaminating English rivers

New research reveals widespread contamination, with two neurotoxic pesticides found in concentrations that far exceed accepted safe limits

UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX

Research News

 

Researchers at the University of Sussex have found widespread contamination of English rivers with two neurotoxic pesticides commonly used in veterinary flea products: fipronil and the neonicotinoid imidacloprid. The concentrations found often far exceeded accepted safe limits.

These chemicals are banned for agricultural use due to the adverse environmental effects, but there is minimal environmental risk assessment for pesticides used on domestic cats and dogs. This is due to the assumption that there are likely to be fewer environmental impacts due to the amount of product used.

But there is growing concern that this assumption may be incorrect. To investigate this, Professor Dave Goulson and Rosemary Perkins from the University of Sussex analysed data gathered by the Environment Agency in English waterways between 2016-18. They found that fipronil was detected in 98% of freshwater samples, and imidacloprid in 66%.

Rosemary Perkins, a PhD student at Sussex and a qualified vet, said: "The use of pet parasite products has increased over the years, with millions of dogs and cats now being routinely treated multiple times per year".

"Fipronil is one of the most commonly used flea products, and recent studies have shown that it degrades to compounds that are more persistent in the environment, and more toxic to most insects, than fipronil itself. Our results, showing that fipronil and its toxic breakdown products are present in nearly all of the freshwater samples tested, are extremely concerning."

According to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), who funded the research, there are 66 licensed veterinary products containing fipronil in the UK, and 21 containing imidacloprid, either alone or in combination with other parasiticides. These include spot-on solutions, topical sprays and collars impregnated with the active ingredient.

While some of these products can be purchased only with a veterinary prescription, others can be bought without a prescription from pet shops, supermarkets, pharmacies and online. Many pet owners receive year-round preventative flea and/or tick treatment from their vet practice via healthcare plans.

Fipronil has a history of very limited agricultural use prior to its ban in 2017. It is also licensed for use in ant and cockroach baits, however only one product is licensed for use by non pest-control professionals. Use on pets seems to be the most plausible source of the widespread contamination of rivers.

The paper, co-authored with Martin Whitehead from the Chipping Norton Veterinary Hospital and Wayne Civil at the Environment Agency, examines the occurrence of fipronil and imidacloprid in English rivers as indicators of the potential contamination of waterways from the use of pet flea treatments.

They found that the average fipronil concentration across the rivers sampled by the Environment Agency exceeded chronic safety thresholds five-fold. The overall pollution levels in English rivers indicate that fipronil and its toxic breakdown products pose a high risk to aquatic ecosystems.

While, in most rivers, imidacloprid was found to pose a moderate risk, in seven out of the 20 rivers sampled there was a high environmental risk.

Co-author Professor Dave Goulson said "Fipronil and imidacloprid are both highly toxic to all insects and other aquatic invertebrates. Studies have shown both pesticides to be associated with declines in the abundance of aquatic invertebrate communities. The finding that our rivers are routinely and chronically contaminated with both of these chemicals and mixtures of their toxic breakdown products is deeply troubling."

The paper, published in Science of the Total Environment, notes that the highest levels of pollution were found immediately downstream of wastewater treatment works, supporting the hypothesis that significant quantities of pesticide may be passing from treated pets to the environment via household drains.

Bathing of pets treated with spot-on fipronil flea products has been confirmed as a potentially important route to waterways for fipronil via sewers, and the washing of hands, pet bedding or other surfaces that have come into contact with treated pets are potential additional pathways for entry to sewers. Other pathways for contamination of waterways includes swimming and rainfall wash-off from treated pets. The strong correlation between fipronil and imidacloprid levels across the river sites tested suggest that they may be coming from a common source.

Rosemary Perkins added: "We've identified a number of steps that can be taken to minimise or avoid environmental harm from pet flea and/or tick treatments. These range from introducing stricter prescription-only regulations, to considering a more judicious and risk-based approach to the control of parasites in pets, for example by moving away from blanket year-round prophylactic use.

"We'd recommend a re-evaluation of the environmental risks posed by pet parasite products, and a reappraisal of the risk assessments that these products undergo prior to regulatory approval."

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POST MODERN ALCHEMY

Cellular powerplant recycles waste gases

Surprising structural differences discovered in enzyme that controls the conversion of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in bacteria

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR MARINE MICROBIOLOGY

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IMAGE: CODH/ACS CRYSTALS OBTAINED WITHOUT OXYGEN. THE BROWN COLOR IS COMING FROM THE NATURAL METALS HARBOURED BY THE PROTEINS (DEPICTED AS ORANGE AND GREEN BALLS IN THE FIGURE 2). view more 

CREDIT: MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR MARINE MICROBIOLOGY/T. WAGNER

Waste gases of many branches of industry contain mainly carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Nowadays, these gases are simply blown into our atmosphere, but this may soon change. The idea is to use the power of bacteria to turn toxic waste gases into valuable compounds such as acetate or ethanol. These can be used afterwards as biofuels or basic compounds for synthetic materials. The first real-size test plants are already under evaluation, using this conversion at an industrial scale, and the stars of these process are bacteria that devour carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and dihydrogen, among which Clostridium autoethanogenum is by far the favorite.

"In this microbe, the main lines of the metabolism used to operate the gas conversion have been characterized," says Tristan Wagner, leader of the group Microbial Metabolism at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. "But there are still a lot of question marks at the molecular level". The one in focus of the scientists from Bremen: How is the toxic carbon monoxide processed by enzymes at such stunning efficiency?

Big surprise in a crystal

The molecular-level knowledge of the carbon monoxide conversion is derived from studies performed in the species Moorella thermoacetica. This is a convenient and well-studied marine model organism but exhibits a poor ability to detoxify waste gases, unlike Clostridium autoethanogenum. Both bacteria use the same enzyme to convert carbon monoxide: the CO-dehydrogenase/Acetyl-CoA synthase, shortened as CODH/ACS. It is a very common enzyme which existed already in primeval times of the earth. "Since both species use the same enzyme to convert carbon monoxide, we were expecting to see exactly the same structure with eventually minor differences," says Wagner.

For their research, Wagner and his colleague Olivier N. Lemaire are studying the bacterium Clostridium autoethanogenum to understand how it can thrive at the thermodynamics of Life, using a metabolism similar to that of the first living forms. Olivier N. Lemaire grew the bacteria and purified its CODH/ACS in absence of oxygen, which is detrimental to the enzyme. The two scientists used the crystallization method to obtain crystals of the enzyme CODH/ACS and determine the protein 3D-structure by X-ray crystallography. "When we saw the results, we couldn't believe our eyes," says Wagner. "The CODH-ACS interface from Clostridium autoethanogenum drastically differs from the model of Moorella thermoacetica, even though it was the same enzyme and similar bacteria".

Same ingredients, different architecture

Afterwards, the two researchers carried out further experiments to prove that the first structure was not an artifact but the biological reality. Following experiments confirmed the initial model. Thus, the discovery clearly proves wrong the previous assumption that the enzyme CODH/ACS always has the same overall structure. "The enzyme of Moorella thermoacetica has a linear shape," explains Olivier N. Lemaire, first author of the study, which was recently published in the scientific journal BBA Bioenergetics. "In Moorella thermoacetica, the enzyme produces carbon monoxide in the CODH and uses in the ACS. Between them, it is trapped and funneled through a sealed gas-channel. ACS will ultimately synthesize acetyl-CoA, a building block further processed into acetate and ethanol. The rest of the cell do not see any carbon monoxide".

But Clostridium autoethanogenum absorbs carbon monoxide directly. "In Clostridium autoethanogenum the enzyme CODH/ACS has not only one opening, but several. In this way it can collect as much carbon monoxide as possible and conduct it into a whole system of tunnels, operating in both directions", says Lemaire. "These results show a reshuffling of internal gas-tunnels during evolution of these bacteria, putatively leading to a bidirectional complex that ensures a high flux of carbon monoxide conversion toward energy conservation and assimilation of carbon monoxide, acting as the main cellular powerplant". At the end of the process also acetate and ethanol are generated, which can be used to produce fuels.

"We now have a picture of what this very efficient and robust enzyme looks like", says Tristan Wagner. "But our discovery is only one step further. Among other things, it is still an open question how the bacterium can survive and use carbon monoxide to feed their whole cellular energy needs. We have some hypotheses, but we are still at the beginning. To understand the whole chemical process of converting carbon monoxide to acetate and ethanol, further proteins need to be studied".

CAPTION

This graphic shows the bidirectionality of the CODH/ACS complex from C. autoethanogenum (CODH in orange and ACS in purple). Under chemolithoautotrophic conditions, the enzyme can transform the carbon dioxide (CO2) in carbon monoxide (CO), sequestered in a gas channel (top). The CO will be turned into acetyl-CoA, the building block of the cell used to obtain cellular energy and build the cell material. During the gas conversion process, the CO released by industrial activity can be very efficiently used by the CODH/ACS (bottom). It is captured by the numerous gas channel and will generate Acetyl-CoA and chemical energy at the same time, allowing the cell to make a life out of CO.

CREDIT

O. Lemaire and T. Wagner. The non-copyrighted image used were obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Pexel photo library (Black Smoker; Image courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas; Factory photography by Chris LeBoutillier

Parasite infection discovery could assist mental health treatments

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

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IMAGE: T.GONDII PARASITES view more 

CREDIT: PLOS.ORG

New research into how a common parasite infection alters human behaviour could help development of treatments for schizophrenia and other neurological disorders.

Scientists say behaviour changes in those infected with T. gondii, which currently infects 2.5 billion people worldwide and causes the disease Toxoplasmosis, could be linked to lowered amounts of norepinephrine, a chemical released in the brain as part of the stress response. Norephinephrine also controls neuroinflammation, the activation of the brain's immune system against infection.

Norepinephrine and neuroinflammation are associated with neuropsychological disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and ADHD.

Although usually considered asymptomatic in humans, T. gondii infection can cause headache, confusion and seizures in others as well as an increased susceptibility to schizophrenia - and can be fatal to immunocompromised patients.

T. gondii can only sexually reproduce in cats. It forms cysts which are shed in the cat's faeces. It makes its way into new hosts through ingestion of anything contaminated by these cysts, such as water, soil or vegetables; through blood transfusions, from unpasteurised goat's milk; eating raw or undercooked meat, or from mother to foetus.

After a few weeks, the infection enters a dormant phase, whereupon cysts form in the brain. They can remain there for many years, possibly for life. It is during this stage that infection decreases the regulator of the brain's immune response norepinephrine.

The mechanisms by which the parasite affects brain function have been poorly understood. But research led by the University of Leeds and Université de Toulouse now suggests that the parasite's ability to reduce norepinephrine interrupts control of immune system activation, enabling an overactive immune response which may alter the host's cognitive states.

The findings - Noradrenergic Signaling and Neuroinflammation Crosstalk Regulates Toxoplasma gondii-Induced Behavioral Changes - have been published in Trends in Immunology.

Glenn McConkey, Associate Professor of Heredity, Disease, and Development at Leeds' School of Biology, who published the research, said: "Our insight connects the two opposing theories for how Toxoplasma alters host behaviour and this may apply to other infections of the nervous system. One school believes that behaviour changes are invoked by the immune response to infection and the other that changes are due to altered neurotransmitters."

"This research will contribute to the great need in understanding how brain inflammation is connected to cognition, which is essential for the future development of antipsychotic treatments."

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