Low-education voters disregard policy beliefs at the polls, research finds

Voters who support left-wing social welfare programs vote against left-wing candidates

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE

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IMAGE: LOW-EDUCATION VOTERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO ABANDON THEIR SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY BELIEFS AT THE VOTING BOOTH. view more 

CREDIT: LUIS SANZ / UC RIVERSIDE

Many people who embrace social welfare programs vote against their own interests, according to new UC Riverside research.

The mitigating factor is education: The more education one has, the more likely one is to stick to one's policy preferences.

"It means candidates who employ tactics such as fear and attaching patriotism to certain concepts can persuade people to vote for candidates who are in opposition to their social beliefs," Diogo Ferrari, a professor of political science at UC Riverside, wrote in his recently published paper, "Education, Belief Structures, Support for Welfare Polices, and Vote," published in the journal Education & Society.

For the study, Ferrari looked at public opinion surveys collected in 2016 in more than 30 European, Asian, and North American countries. The surveys included information about peoples' education, and 18 questions gauging attitudes toward social welfare policies including social security, unemployment, education, health spending, industry financing, and income redistribution. Lastly, the survey asked which political party the respondent voted for in the last general election.

Among people with low education, social programs such as old-age pensions and giving financial aid to low-income students are met with support. Unemployment insurance, in particular, is popular among those with low education, defined as having a high school education or less. The program is about three times more popular than among those with high education, meaning at least an undergraduate degree.

"The least-educated support social protection more than the most-educated, as do the poorest groups within the same education group," Ferrari wrote.

But support for left-wing policies among people with low education doesn't translate to support for left-wing parties. It's not just left-wing beliefs and voting that are misaligned among the least educated voters: Attitudes against social welfare don't necessarily align with right-wing voting, either.

"It's only when schooling is high that ... positions are harmonized with the vote for right-wing or left-wing parties," Ferrari wrote. "Less-educated groups contradict, in behavior (vote), their attitudinal tendency to support welfare policies."

Ferrari wrote it makes them prey to the "demagogue candidate" who uses "caricatured notions of right and left to position himself politically before less attentive voters."

That could mean aligning party politics with patriotism, religion, or the promise of eliminating political corruption. And so, voters with low education can end up voting against their own interests.

"The idea is to deviate people's attention from some of the things they care about and focus on their attitudes on other areas," Ferrari said. "A candidate can emphasize anti-illegal-immigration policy, or economic nationalism, or anti-political-elite positions.

"The implication of the study is that, everything else the same, (such tactics) seem more effective among those who are less educated."

More educated voters, meanwhile, are less likely than low-educated voters to sacrifice their policy preferences and vote for parties more distant in terms of policy positions.

Ferrari's findings build on a long-held position among political scientists. In 1964's "The Nature of Belief Systems," political scientist Philip Converse argued citizens can't process large quantities of political information, which leads to a lack of structure and stability in their views. He asserted that, when people are asked to pair the terms "liberal" and "conservative" with ideology, they struggle.

Ferrari's new research qualifies that argument, asserting formal education can prevent that misalignment.

"The idea is that formal education, or schooling, makes people more likely to use broad organizing conceptual schemes such as notions of 'conservatism' and 'liberalism' to evaluate political affairs and categorize political actors," Ferrari said. "The fact is that we can clearly distinguish policy preferences between some social groups, and the match between those preferences and vote is stronger among the most educated, which indicates they are less likely to 'sacrifice' their overall policy preferences in favor of a few other 'issues of the day' when voting."

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Abundant and stable rocks are critical egg-laying habitat for insects in restored streams

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: A RECENT STUDY HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF ROCK CHARACTERISTICS IN STREAM HABITAT, WHICH SHOULD INFORM STREAM RESTORATION EFFORTS. HERE, FIRST AUTHOR SAMANTHA JORDT RECORDS THE PRESENCE OF INSECT EGGS IN... view more 

CREDIT: MICHELLE JEWELL

The abundance and other characteristics of rocks partially extending above the water surface could be important for improving the recovery of aquatic insect populations in restored streams.

Nearly three quarters of stream insects reproduce on large rocks that sit above the water surface by crawling underneath to attach their eggs. Increasing the number of large and stable emergent rocks in streams could provide more egg-laying habitat and allow insects to quickly repopulate restored streams.

"We found that restored streams had fewer emergent rocks for egg-laying and fewer total eggs than naturally intact streams," says Samantha Jordt, first author of the paper and an M.Sc. student at NC State's Department of Applied Ecology.

The study also found that some of the large rocks in restored streams were unstable and rolled or were buried by sediment between Samantha's visits. According to the study, these variables combined-fewer large rocks available for egg laying and that some of those rocks were unstable-may delay insect recovery.

"When a rock rolls, any eggs on that rock will likely be destroyed either by being crushed or scraped off as the rock rolls, being buried by sediment, or by drying out if the rock settles into a new position that exposes the eggs to the air," says Jordt. "You end up with lots of insects laying eggs on the one good rock in the stream, truly putting all of their eggs in one, rolling, basket."

Less suitable egg-laying habitat means fewer larvae or adult insects - both important for the long term health and recovery of restored streams. Aquatic insects provide several ecosystem services, including breaking down leaf litter, consuming algae, cycling nutrients, and being food for fish, salamanders, and birds.

"Many people rely on streams for drinking water, which means they rely on all of the ecological processes that happen upstream before the water reaches them," says Jordt. "Aquatic insects maintain water quality for free. So we develop techniques so that restored streams have habitats that they can rebound and thrive in."

Most stream restoration projects focus on the recovery of physical and chemical aspects. This study highlights how incorporating the natural history of aquatic insects will be another critical tool for both the initial design and the long-term success of restoring streams.

"Unavailable or unstable egg-laying habitat may be a primary reason why biological recovery in restored streams lags decades behind geomorphological and hydrological recovery," says Brad Taylor, co-author of the paper and assistant professor of applied ecology at NC State. "Ensuring stable and suitable rocks for insect egg-laying could be a small design change to increase the return on our multi-million-dollar investment in stream restoration."

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The article, "A rolling stone gathers no eggs: the importance of stream insect egg laying natural history for stream restoration," was published in the journal Ecology on 12 March 2021. The paper is authored by Samantha Jordt and Brad Taylor from NC State's Department of Applied Ecology. The research was funded by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Division of Mitigation Services.

Nurse work environment influences stroke outcomes

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF NURSING

Research News

 

PHILADELPHIA (March 17, 2021) - Stroke remains a leading cause of death worldwide and one of the most common reasons for disability. While a wide variety of factors influence stroke outcomes, data show that avoiding readmissions and long lengths of stay among ischemic stroke patients has benefits for patients and health care systems alike. Although reduced readmission rates among various medical patients have been associated with better nurse work environments, it is unknown how the work environment might influence readmissions and length of stay for ischemic stroke patients.

In a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's (Penn Nursing) Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR), researchers evaluated the association between the nurse work environment and readmission and length of stay for close to 200,000 hospitalized adult ischemic stroke patients in more than 500 hospitals. They found that in hospitals with better nurse work environments, ischemic stroke patients experienced lower odds of 7? and 30?day readmissions and lower lengths of stay.

Their research has been published in the journal Research in Nursing & Health. The article "Better Nurse Work Environments Associated with Fewer Readmissions and Shorter Length of Stay Among Adults with Ischemic Stroke: A Cross?Sectional Analysis of United States Hospitals" is available online.

"The work environment is a modifiable feature of hospitals that should be considered when providing comprehensive stroke care and improving post?stroke outcomes," says Heather Brom, PhD, RN, NP-C, lecturer at Penn Nursing and lead author of the article. "Our findings have important implications for quality improvement initiatives for stroke care management."

Creating good work environments for nurses is especially important so that they have adequate time to spend with stroke patients and can communicate effectively with all team members and feel supported by managers to make decisions about nursing care. "All of these aspects of the nurse work environment facilitate an effective and efficient discharge planning process, which has the potential to decrease delays in discharge and avoidable readmissions," says J. Margo Brooks Carthon, PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Professor of Nursing and one of the co-authors of the article.

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Additional co-authors include Mathew McHugh, PhD, JD, MPH,RN, FAAN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) at Penn Nursing, Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN, founding director of CHOPR, and Douglas Sloane, PhD, Senior Fellow at CHOP

A new view on plate tectonics

Nature study finds transform faults play active role in shaping ocean floors

HELMHOLTZ CENTRE FOR OCEAN RESEARCH KIEL (GEOMAR)

Research News

 

Forces acting inside the Earth have been constantly reshaping the continents and ocean basins over millions of years. What Alfred Wegener published as an idea in 1915 has finally been accepted since the 1960s, providing a unifying view about our planet. The fact that the theory of plate tectonics took so long to gain acceptance had two simple reasons. First, the geological formations that are most important for its understanding lie at the bottom of the oceans. Secondly, forces controlling the processes act below the seafloor and are hence hidden from our view. Many details of plate tectonics are therefore still unclear today.

Today, five scientists from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, the Southern University of Science and Technology (Shenzhen, China) and GeoModelling Solutions GmbH (Switzerland) publish a study in the international scientific journal Nature that questions a previous basic assumption of plate tectonics. It is about so-called transform faults. "These are large offsets in the mid-ocean ridges. So far, they have been assigned a purely passive role within plate tectonics. However, our analyses show that they are definitely actively involved in shaping the ocean floors," explains Prof. Ingo Grevemeyer from GEOMAR, lead author of the study.

A look at a global overview map of the ocean floors helps to understand the study. Even at low resolution, several tens of thousands of kilometres long mid-ocean ridges can be recognised on such maps. They mark the boundaries of the Earth's plates. In between, hot material from the Earth's interior reaches the surface, cools down, forms new ocean floor and pushes the older ocean floor apart. "This is the engine that keeps the plates moving," explains Prof. Grevemeyer.

However, the mid-ocean ridges do not form unbroken lines. They are cut by transverse valleys at almost regular intervals. The individual segments of the ridges each begin or end in an offset at these incisions. "These are the transform faults. Because the Earth is a sphere, plate movements repeatedly cause faults that produce these ridge offsets," explains Prof. Lars Rüpke from GEOMAR, co-author of the study.

Earthquakes can occur at the transform faults and they leave long scars, so-called fracture zones, on oceanic plates. Until now, however, research assumed that the two plates only slide past each other at transform faults, but that seafloor is neither formed nor destroyed in the process.

The authors of the current study have now looked at available maps of 40 transform faults in all ocean basins. "In all examples, we could see that the transform valleys are significantly deeper than the adjacent fractures zones, which were previously thought to be simple continuations of the transform valleys," says co-author Prof. Colin Devey from GEOMAR. The team also detected traces of extensive magmatism at the outer corners of the intersections between transform valleys and the mid-ocean ridges.

Using sophisticated numerical models, the team found an explanation for the phenomenon. According to this, the plate boundary along the transform fault is increasingly tilted at depth, so that shearing occurs. This causes extension of the seafloor, forming the deep transform valleys. Magmatism at the outer corners to the mid-ocean ridges then fills up the valleys, so that the fracture zones become much shallower. Oceanic crust that forms at the corners is therefore the only crust in the ocean that is formed by two-stage volcanism. What effects this has on its composition or, for example, the distribution of metals in the crust is still unknown.

Since transform faults are a fundamental type of plate boundary and frequent phenomenon along active plate boundaries in the oceans, this new finding is an important addition to the theory of plate tectonics and thus to understanding our planet. "Actually, the observation was obvious. But there are simply not enough high-resolution maps of the seafloor yet, so no one has noticed it until now," says Prof. Grevemeyer.

Double-duty catalyst generates hydrogen fuel while cleaning up wastewater

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Research News

 

Hydrogen is a pollution-free energy source when it's extracted from water using sunlight instead of fossil fuels. But current strategies for "splitting" or breaking apart water molecules with catalysts and light require the introduction of chemical additives to expedite the process. Now, researchers reporting in ACS ES&T Engineering have developed a catalyst that destroys medications and other compounds already present in wastewater to generate hydrogen fuel, getting rid of a contaminant while producing something useful.

Harnessing the sun's energy to split water to make hydrogen fuel is a promising renewable resource, but it is a slow process even when catalysts are used to speed it along. In some cases, alcohols or sugars are added to boost the rate of hydrogen production, but these chemicals are destroyed as hydrogen is generated, meaning the approach is not renewable. In a separate strategy, researchers have tried using contaminants in wastewater to enhance hydrogen fuel generation. While titanium-based catalysts worked for both removing contaminants and generating hydrogen, the efficiencies were lower than expected for both steps because of their overlapping reaction sites. One way to reduce such interferences is to make catalysts by fusing together different conductive metals, thus creating separate places for reactions to occur. So, Chuanhao Li and colleagues wanted to combine cobalt oxide and titanium dioxide to create a dual-functioning catalyst that would break down common drugs in wastewater while also efficiently converting water into hydrogen for fuel.

To make the catalyst, the researchers coated nanoscale titanium dioxide crystals with a thin layer of cobalt oxide. Initial tests showed that this material didn't produce much hydrogen, so as a next step, the team spiked this dual catalyst with 1% by weight of platinum nanoparticles -- an efficient though expensive catalyst for generating hydrogen. In the presence of simulated sunlight, the platinum-impregnated catalyst degraded two antibiotics and produced substantial amounts of hydrogen. Finally, the team tested their product on real wastewater, water from a river in China and deionized water samples. Under simulated sunlight, the catalyst stimulated hydrogen production in all three samples. The greatest amount of hydrogen was obtained from the wastewater sample. The researchers say their catalyst could be a sustainable wastewater treatment option by generating hydrogen fuel at the same time.

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The authors acknowledge funding from National Natural Science Foundation of China, Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities from Sun Yat-sen University and the Research Fund Program of Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology.

The abstract that accompanies this paper is available here.

For more of the latest research news, register for our upcoming meeting, ACS Spring 2021. Journalists and public information officers are encouraged to apply for complimentary press registration by emailing us at newsroom@acs.org.

New study reveals habitat that could increase jaguar numbers

DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE

Research News

 

Tucson, Ariz. (March 16, 2021) - This week, a new, peer-reviewed scientific study finds that there is far more potential jaguar habitat in the U.S. than was previously thought. Scientists identified an area of more than 20 million acres that could support jaguars in the U.S., 27 times the size of designated critical habitat.

The results, published in the journal Oryx, are based on a review of 12 habitat models for jaguars within Arizona and New Mexico, conclusively identifying areas suitable for the recovery of these wild cats. Based on the expanded habitat area, the authors conclude that findings uncover new opportunities for jaguar conservation in North America that could address threats from habitat loss, climate change, and border infrastructure.

Bryan Bird, Director for Southwest Programs at Defenders of Wildlife and one of the study's co-authors, issued this statement:

"This fresh look at jaguar habitat in the U.S. identifies a much larger area that could support many more of these big cats. This expanded area of the Southwest is 27 times larger than the current designated critical habitat. We hope these findings will inspire renewed cooperation and result in more resident jaguars in the U.S."

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Background

This study was an effort from a multidisciplinary team of scientists drawing from a wealth of expertise in jaguar ecology, including members of the team that worked on the original habitat analysis for the US Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) jaguar recovery plan.

In this study, co-authors took the model previously developed as part of FWS' endangered jaguar recovery plan process, and applied it to all of Arizona and New Mexico, including new habitat area that was not considered in the recovery plan. Using this FWS model and additional habitat models previously done by others, the co-authors determined an area of habitat approximately the size of Rhode Island in the central mountains of Arizona and New Mexico that was not considered by the FWS in its recovery planning. The authors titled the area the "Central Arizona/New Mexico Recovery Area" (CANRA).

According to the paper, extending the area of consideration for restoration to include the CANRA and other previously overlooked smaller areas substantially raised the carrying capacity in Arizona and New Mexico, from six to as many as 151 adult jaguars, using modified models from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

This area of habitat was not considered in the jaguar recovery plan developed by FWS, released in 2019. After 50 years of discussion among FWS and state agencies about whether jaguars were part of the U.S. fauna and their management, jaguars are now federally protected as an endangered species across their range (including the U.S.), and are protected at the state level in Arizona and New Mexico.

Jaguars are usually associated with tropical habitats such as the Amazon and Central America, but historically were found as far north as the Grand Canyon. The last jaguar north of the Interstate-10 highway in Arizona was killed by a U.S. government hunter in 1964. Over the last two decades a number of male jaguars have been photographed in the mountains south of I-10 and most recently in January 2021.

Far removed from the border, the CANRA area of habitat offers new opportunities for the U.S. to contribute to the recovery of these wild cats. The expanded area identified by the co-authors includes federal, state, tribal and private lands requiring support and cooperation from all landowners. This information does not assume that jaguars would be restored on lands without landowner cooperation.

An interactive map of historical jaguar observations in the U.S. and northern Mexico is available to the public at jaguardata.info

Arctic was once lush and green, could be again, new research shows

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

Research News

 

IMAGE: SARAH CRUMP AND HER FIELD PARTNER MANEUVER THEIR MAKESHIFT RAFT ACROSS A LAKE ON BAFFIN ISLAND. view more 

CREDIT: ZACH MONTES ORIJIN MEDIA

Imagine not a white, but a green Arctic, with woody shrubs as far north as the Canadian coast of the Arctic Ocean. This is what the northernmost region of North America looked like about 125,000 years ago, during the last interglacial period, finds new research from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Researchers analyzed plant DNA more than 100,000 years old retrieved from lake sediment in the Arctic (the oldest DNA in lake sediment analyzed in a publication to date) and found evidence of a shrub native to northern Canadian ecosystems 250 miles (400 km) farther north than its current range.

As the Arctic warms much faster than everywhere else on the planet in response to climate change, the findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may not only be a glimpse of the past but a snapshot of our potential future.

"We have this really rare view into a particular warm period in the past that was arguably the most recent time that it was warmer than present in the Arctic. That makes it a really useful analogue for what we might expect in the future," said Sarah Crump, who conducted the work as a PhD student in geological sciences and then a postdoctoral researcher with the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR).

To gain this glimpse back in time, the researchers not only analyzed DNA samples, they first had to journey to a remote region of the Arctic by ATV and snowmobile to gather them and bring them back.

Dwarf birch is a key species of the low Arctic tundra, where slightly taller shrubs (reaching a person's knees) can grow in an otherwise cold and inhospitable environment. But dwarf birch doesn't currently survive past the southern part of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Yet researchers found DNA of this plant in the ancient lake sediment showing it used to grow much farther north.

"It's a pretty significant difference from the distribution of tundra plants today," said Crump, currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Paleogenomics Lab at the University of California Santa Cruz.

While there are many potential ecological effects of the dwarf birch creeping farther north, Crump and her colleagues examined the climate feedbacks related to these shrubs covering more of the Arctic. Many climate models don't include these kinds of changes in vegetation, yet these taller shrubs can stick out above snow in the spring and fall, making the Earth's surface dark green instead of white--causing it to absorb more heat from the sun.

"It's a temperature feedback similar to sea ice loss," said Crump.

CAPTION

The scientists take sediment cores from the lake bottom.

CREDIT

Zach Montes Orijin Media

During the last interglacial period, between 116,000 and 125,000 years ago, these plants had thousands of years to adjust and move in response to warmer temperatures. With today's rapid rate of warming, the vegetation is likely not keeping pace, but that doesn't mean it won't play an important role in impacting everything from thawing permafrost to melting glaciers and sea level rise.

"As we think about how landscapes will equilibrate to current warming, it's really important that we account for how these plant ranges are going to change," said Crump.

As the Arctic could easily see an increase of 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, the same temperature it was in the last interglacial period, these findings can help us better understand how our landscapes might change as the Arctic is on track to again reach these ancient temperatures by the end of the century.

Mud as a microscope

To get the ancient DNA they wanted, the researchers couldn't look to the ocean or to the land--they had to look in a lake.

Baffin Island is located on the northeastern side of Arctic Canada, kitty-corner to Greenland, in the territory of Nunavut and the lands of the Qikiqtaani Inuit. It's the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world, with a mountain range that runs along its northeastern edge. But these scientists were interested in a small lake, past the mountains and near the coast.

Above the Arctic Circle, the area around this lake is typical of a high Arctic tundra, with average annual temperatures below 15 °F (?9.5 °C). In this inhospitable climate, soil is thin and not much of anything grows.

But DNA stored in the lake beds below tells a much different story.

To reach this valuable resource, Crump and her fellow researchers carefully balanced on cheap inflatable boats in the summer--the only vessels light enough to carry with them--and watched out for polar bears from the lake ice in winter. They pierced the thick mud up to 30 feet (10 meters) below its surface with long, cylindrical pipes, hammering them deep into the sediment.

The goal of this precarious feat? To carefully withdraw a vertical history of ancient plant material to then travel back out with and take back to the lab.

While some of the mud was analyzed at a state-of-the-art organic geochemistry lab in the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community (SEEC) at CU Boulder, it also needed to reach a special lab dedicated to decoding ancient DNA, at Curtin University in Perth.

To share their secrets, these mud cores had to travel halfway across the world from the Arctic to Australia.

CAPTION

One of the sediment cores up close.

CREDIT

Zach Montes Orijin Media

A local snapshot

Once in the lab, the scientists had to suit up like astronauts and examine the mud in an ultra-clean space to ensure that their own DNA didn't contaminate that of any of their hard-earned samples.

It was a race against the clock.

"Your best shot is getting fresh mud," said Crump. "Once it's out of the lake, the DNA is going to start to degrade."

This is why older lake bed samples in cold storage don't quite do the trick.

While other researchers have also collected and analyzed much older DNA samples from permafrost in the Arctic (which acts like a natural freezer underground), lake sediments are kept cool, but not frozen. With fresher mud and more intact DNA, scientists can get a clearer and more detailed picture of the vegetation which once grew in that immediate area.

Reconstructing historic vegetation has most commonly been done using fossil pollen records, which preserve well in sediment. But pollen is prone to only showing the big picture, as it is easily blown about by the wind and doesn't stay in one place.

The new technique used by Crump and her colleagues allowed them to extract plant DNA directly from the sediment, sequence the DNA and infer what plant species were living there at the time. Instead of a regional picture, sedimentary DNA analysis gives researchers a local snapshot of the plant species living there at the time.

Now that they have shown it's possible to extract DNA that's over 100,000 years old, future possibilities abound.

"This tool is going to be really useful on these longer timescales," said Crump.

This research has also planted the seed to study more than just plants. In the DNA samples from their lake sediment, there are signals from a whole range of organisms that lived in and around the lake.

"We're just starting to scratch the surface of what we're able to see in these past ecosystems," said Crump. "We can see the past presence of everything from microbes to mammals, and we can start to get much broader pictures of how past ecosystems looked and how they functioned."

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Additional authors on this study include Jonathan H. Raberg, Julio Sepúlveda and Gifford H. Miller at the University of Colorado Boulder; Gregory de Wet of the University of Colorado Boulder and Smith College; Sam Cutler of the University of California; Beth Shapiro of the University of California and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Bianca Fréchette of the Université du Québec à Montréal; Matthew Power of Curtin University; Michael Bunce of Curtin University and the New Zealand Environment Protection Authority; Martha K. Raynolds at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; Jason P. Briner and Elizabeth K. Thomas of the University at Buffalo.

Mitigating impact of artificial light at night in tropical forests

New findings have major conservation implications for critical insects

SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK

Research News

 

IMAGE: SMITHSONIAN RESEARCHER COVERED IN INSECTS ATTRACTED TO ARTIFICIAL LIGHT AT NIGHT. view more 

CREDIT: SULEMA CASTRO/SMITHSONIAN

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a major factor in global insect decline. In a paper published today in Insect Conservation and Diversity, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) scientists and partners found that using amber-colored filters to remove the blue spectra of light from "warm white" LED (light-emitting diode) lamps drastically reduces insect attraction to nocturnal lighting in a tropical forest. This is the first study to validate quantitative predictions of how lamp color affects insect attraction and provide clear recommendations to mitigate the negative impacts of ALAN on wildlife in rainforest ecosystems.

"While many people aren't necessarily fond of 'bugs,' their importance in our everyday lives is indisputable," said Jessica Deichmann, first author and research scientist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Smithsonian Conservation Commons' Working Land and Seascapes Initiative. "The essential ecosystem services they provide are endangered by nighttime lighting. We shouldn't abandon using LED lights--their energy efficiency is second to none. Our research presents an alternative, especially for outdoor settings. If people everywhere take small steps in our homes, neighborhoods and commercial properties, we can reduce the negative impacts of sustainable LED lighting on wildlife."

In addition to using filtered LEDs that remove the blue light and appear more orange/amber in color, additional ways to support insects include the use of full cutoff fixtures, motion activators and dimmers to ensure light is used only when and where it is needed.

Insects play invaluable roles as pollinators of food plants, regulators of other insect pests, decomposers of waste and sources of food for other animals, like birds. Insects may be directly affected by lights when they suffer mortality from collisions with hot lamps, exhaustion or increased predation due to the attraction of predators and/or increased visibility. Insects affected by artificial lighting may also become disoriented or inactive, leading to a failure to reproduce, and consequently, a reduction of gene flow in the population.

CAPTION

This beautiful lantern fly is known locally as the machaca (family Fulgoridae). These large "true bugs" with a peanut-shaped head are the source of legend in the Amazon and are often attracted to artificial lights.

CREDIT

Sulema Castro/Smithsonian

The study was conducted in lowland rainforest in northern Peru inside a hydrocarbon (oil and gas) concession currently operated by GeoPark Peru. Scientists set light traps in 12 different locations with three different LED lamps with different spectra and a control (no light) to evaluate the number and composition of insects attracted to lamps during two different time periods at night.

Researchers identified 763 unique morphospecies among the greater than 15,000 insects captured across all samples, belonging to 18 different orders. Overall, significantly more morphospecies were captured in the white LED light traps than in either the yellow or amber-filtered traps or the control. Likewise, significantly more individual insects were captured in the white LED traps.

By using amber-filtered LEDs, the number of morphospecies attracted to the light was reduced by 34% and individual insects were reduced by nearly 60% as compared to white LED lamps with reduced blue-light content. In addition, among captured insect families known to contain important vectors of pathogens, bacteria or parasites, 45% of all individuals were captured at white lamps, 41% at yellow lamps and just 13% were found in amber lamp traps.

These results provide essential, tangible and actionable information on how to minimize ALAN, an unavoidable consequence of many types of infrastructure development and urbanization. The paper lays out specific management recommendations for new infrastructure projects in tropical forests that can also be applied to urban and rural residential areas.

CAPTION

The three lamps used in the study: from top to bottom a LED 3000k lamp with a yellow filter, with no filter, and with an amber filter.

CREDIT

Jessica Deichmann/Smithsonian

The paper's other co-authors are Christian Ampudia Gatty, Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas; Juan Manuel Andia Navarro, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Museo de Entomología Klaus Raven Büller; Alfonso Alonso, SCBI; Reynaldo Linares-Palomino, SCBI; and Travis Longcore, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

About the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

The Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute leads the Smithsonian's global effort to save species, better understand ecosystems and train future generations of conservationists. As Washington, D.C.'s favorite destination for families, the Zoo connects visitors to amazing animals and the people working to save them. In Front Royal, Virginia, across the United States and in more than 30 countries worldwide, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists and animal care experts tackle some of today's most complex conservation challenges by applying and sharing what they learn about animal behavior and reproduction, ecology, genetics, migration and conservation sustainability to save wildlife and habitats.

About Working Land and Seascapes

Working Land and Seascapes (WLS), an Action Area of the Smithsonian Conservation Commons, is an initiative that supports Smithsonian science in the service of people and nature. WLS scientists collaborate with partners and communities across 13 countries to conduct interdisciplinary research and inspire action that fosters healthy, resilient and productive landscapes and seascapes.

Losing rivers

Researchers reveal the extent to which rivers across the country are losing flow to aquifers

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA BARBARA

Research News

 

Water is an ephemeral thing. It can emerge from an isolated spring, as if by magic, to birth a babbling brook. It can also course through a mighty river, seeping into the soil until all that remains downstream is a shady arroyo, the nearby trees offering the only hint of where the water has gone.

The interplay between surface water and groundwater is often overlooked by those who use this vital resource due to the difficulty of studying it. Assistant professors Scott Jasechko and Debra Perrone, of UC Santa Barbara, and their colleagues leveraged their enormous database of groundwater measurements to investigate the interaction between these related resources. Their results, published in Nature, indicate that many more rivers across the United States may be leaking water into the ground than previously realized.

In many places surface waters and groundwaters connect, while in others they're separated by impermeable rock layers. It depends on the underlying geology. But where they do intermingle, water can transition between flowing above and below ground.

"Gaining rivers" receive water from the surrounding groundwater, while "losing rivers" seep into the underlying aquifer. Scientists didn't have a good understanding of the prevalence of each of these conditions on a continental scale. Simply put, no one had previously stitched together so many measurements of groundwater, explained Jasechko, the study's co-lead author.

Gaining and losing rivers

Waterways can gain water from the surrounding aquifer or leak water into the ground depending on the conditions.

Typical groundwater studies include water level measurements from a few hundred to 1,000 wells. This study encompasses 4.2 million.

Perrone and Jasechko devoted years to compiling data from 64 agencies across the U.S. and analyzing the results. "Compiling these data was a massive undertaking. We collected millions of datapoints and reviewed hundreds of papers over the course of six years," Perrone said.

The resulting database has precipitated a number of the team's subsequent studies. "We can use this extensive dataset in innovative ways to answer questions that we have not been able to address previously," she added.

For this paper, Jasechko, Perrone and their coauthors compared water levels in wells to the surface of the nearest stream. "We apply a simple method to a large dataset," Jasechko said. "We identify wells with water levels that lie below the nearest stream, implying that these nearby streams could leak into the subsurface if it is sufficiently permeable."

The team found that nearly two-thirds of the wells had water levels below the nearest stream. This creates a gradient that can drive water from the river channel into the aquifer beneath.

"Our analysis shows that two out of three rivers in the U.S. are already losing water. It's very likely that this effect will worsen in the coming decades and some rivers may even disappear" said co-lead author Hansjörg Seybold at ETH Zurich.

"The phenomenon, set in motion decades ago, is now widespread across the U.S. There are far more streams draining into underlying aquifers than we had first assumed," Seybold continued. "Since rivers and streams are a vital water supply for agriculture and cities, the gravity of the situation came as a surprise."

A map of well water levels with respect to the surface of the nearest river. Photo Credit: JASECHKO ET AL.

Rivers were particularly prone to losing water in arid regions, along flat topography and in areas with extensive groundwater pumping, they observed. A prime example of this would be flat agricultural land in semi-arid regions like California's Central Valley. "We are literally sucking the rivers dry," Seybold said.

Losing rivers can impact other water users, downstream communities and ecosystems that rely on surface flows. "Historically, we've often treated these two resources as separate resources," Perrone said. "Our work highlights the importance of considering groundwater and surface water as a single resource where they are connected."

The researchers also found that losing rivers have been widespread in the U.S. for quite some time, present in many places at least as far back as the 1940s and '50s. And while many waterways naturally lose water, the issue can be exacerbated by human activity.

Humans have extracted water from the ground for thousands of years; in America they've been doing so for hundreds of years. The practice accelerated after World War II and has been rampant since the 1970s, accompanied by the undesirable and unintended consequences it entails.

"This isn't a new phenomenon," Jasechko said. "It's been with us for decades."

Water levels do fluctuate over years and decades, and unfortunately the researchers have only one data point for many of the wells in their sample. Other work by the team suggests that groundwater typically fluctuates by no more than a few meters over the course of a year. However, the water level for the many wells near losing rivers was more than two meters below the surface of the nearest stream, increasing the researchers' confidence that leaky rivers are likely widespread.

The sun shines down on a shallow marshy stretch of river bordered by grasses and riparian shrubs. Mountains are visible off to the left against a clear blue sky.

This section of the Santa Ynez river leaks water into the surrounding aquifer.

Photo Credit: DEBRA PERRONE

"We can only observe well water levels where wells exist," Jasechko acknowledged. "It's an obvious but important point. Our analysis is inherently biased to places where wells have been drilled, and therefore also to places where groundwater is pumped."

While the researchers don't see any straightforward way around this in the short-term, they hope their results can inform resource management and monitoring, perhaps informing policies that fund more monitoring wells in under-surveyed areas.

"Big studies like this get people thinking about broader water policy," Perrone said. "And for me, that is why continental scale analyses are important."

"My hope is that this study gets more people thinking about the interconnection of groundwater and surface water where these two resources are connected, and it also gets groundwater policy on the map," she continued. For so long this resource has been literally and metaphorically out of sight.

Perrone and Jasechko plan to expand this type of large-scale analysis to other parts of the globe and see how pumping and losing rivers impact groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Perrone also intends to connect their results back to her groundwater dashboard.

"Losing rivers aren't some hypothetical scenario," Jasechko stated. "They're here and now." They are in part the result of the past century of water use and misuse.

"If we have a better understanding of how widespread this phenomenon is, then we can influence future policy in positive ways," added Perrone. Because society is past the point where it can talk about prevention; we're now talking about response.

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