Ancient megafaunal mutualisms and extinctions as factors in plant domestication

Of the vast diversity of plants on Earth, only a few evolved to become prominent agricultural crops. Scholars now suggest they originally evolved to secure mutualistic relationships with now-extinct megafauna

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY

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IMAGE: MUSKOX (OVIBOS MOSCHATUS) - ONE OF NUMEROUS HERBIVORES THAT ROAM IN THE ENCLOSURE OF THE PLEISTOCENE PARK, NATURE RESERVE IN NORTHERN SAKHA REPUBLIC, RUSSIA. THIS ONGOING GRAZING EXPERIMENT STARTED IN... view more 

CREDIT: FRANK KIENAST

By clearing forests, burning grasslands, plowing fields and harvesting crops, humans apply strong selective pressures on the plants that survive on the landscapes we use. Plants that evolved traits for long-distance seed-dispersal, including rapid annual growth, a lack of toxins and large seed generations, were more likely to survive on these dynamic anthropogenic landscapes. In the current article, researchers argue that these traits may have evolved as adaptations for megafaunal mutualisms, later allowing those plants to prosper among increasingly sedentary human populations.

The new study hypothesizes that the presence of specific anthropophilic traits explains why a select few plant families came to dominate the crop and weed assemblages around the globe, such as quinoa, some grasses, and knotweeds. These traits, the authors argue, also explain why so many genera appear to have been domesticated repeatedly in different parts of the world at different times. The 'weediness' and adaptability of those plants was the result of exaptation traits, or changes in the function of an evolutionary trait. In this way, rather than an active and engaged human process, certain plants gradually increased in prominence around villages, in cultivated fields, or on grazing land.

Grasses and field crops weren't the only plants to use prior adaptations to prosper in human landscapes; select handfuls of trees also had advantageous traits, such as large fleshy fruits, resulting from past relationships with large browsers. The rapid extinction of megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene left many of these large-fruiting tree species with small, isolated populations, setting the stage for more dramatic changes during later hybridization. When humans began moving these trees they were likely to hybridize with distant relatives, resulting, in some cases, in larger fruits and more robust plants. In this way, the domestication process for many long-generation perennials appears to have been more rapid and tied into population changes due to megafaunal extinctions.

"The key to better understanding plant domestication may lay further in the past than archaeologists have previously thought; we need to think about the domestication process as another step in the evolution of life on Earth, as opposed to an isolated phenomenon," states Dr. Robert Spengler. He is the director of the archaeobotanical laboratories at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, and the lead investigator on this paper.

This publication is a result of archaeologists, geneticists, botanists, and paleontologists contributing insights from their unique disciplines to reframe the way scholars think about domestication. The goal of the collaboration is to get researchers to consider the deeper ecological legacies of the plants and the pre-cultivation adaptations that they study.

Prof. Nicole Boivin, director of the Department of Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute in Jena, studies the ecological impacts of humans deep in the past. "When we think about the ecology of the origins of agriculture, we need to recognize the dramatic changes in plant and animal dynamics that have unfolded across the Holocene, especially those directly resulting from human action," she adds.

CAPTION

The wood bison (Bison bison spp. athabascae) of the Ust'-Buotama Bison Park, central Sakha Republic, Russia. In 2006, 35 wood bison were brought from Canada. These megaherbivores adapted to local environment and increased their population. The 100-ha enclosure, where animals live, serves as a study site for ecologists and zoologists and provides an opportunity to trace changes in vegetation associated with herbivore pressure.

CREDIT

Frank Kienast

Ultimately, the scholars suggest that, rather than in archaeological excavations, laboratories, or in modern agricultural fields, the next big discoveries in plant domestication research may come from restored megafaunal landscapes. Ongoing research by Dr. Natalie Mueller, one of the authors, on North American restored prairies is investigating potential links between bison and the North American Lost Crops. Similar studies could be conducted on restored megafaunal landscapes in Europe, such as the Bia?owieski National Park in Poland, the Ust'-Buotoma Bizon Park or Pleistocene Park in Sakha Republic, Russia.

Dr. Ashastina, another author on the paper and a paleontologist studying Pleistocene vegetation communities in North Asia, states, "these restored nature preserves provide a novel glimpse deep into the nature of plant and animal interactions and allow ecologists, not only to directly trace vegetation changes occurring under herbivore pressure in various ecosystems, but to disentangle the deeper legacies of these mutualisms."

CAPTION

While it may just look like a regular field, the plants growing on either side of this bison trail are primarily little barley, one of the North American Lost Crops. This photo was taken during field work by Natalie Muller of Washington University in St. Louis in an attempt to determine the role that bison may have played in shaping the ecology of the progenitors for certain ancient crops.

CREDIT

Natalie Mueller

 

New documentation: Old-growth forest carbon sinks overestimated

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

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The claim that old-growth forests play a significant role in climate mitigation, based upon the argument that even the oldest forests keep sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere, is being refuted by researchers at the University of Copenhagen. The researchers document that this argument is based upon incorrectly analysed data and that the climate mitigation effect of old and unmanaged forests has been greatly overestimated. Nevertheless, they reassert the importance of old-growth forest for biodiversity.

Old and unmanaged forest has become the subject of much debate in recent years, both in Denmark and internationally. In Denmark, setting aside forests as unmanaged has often been argued to play a significant role for climate mitigation. The argument doesn't stand up according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, whose documentation has just been published as a commentary in Nature.

The entire climate mitigation argument is based upon a widely cited 2008 research article which reports that old-growth forests continue to suck up and sequester large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, regardless of whether their trees are 200 years old or older. UCPH researchers scrutinised the article by reanalysing the data upon which it was based. They conclude that the article arrives at a highly overestimated climate effect for which the authors' data presents no evidence.

"The climate mitigation effect of unmanaged forests with trees more than 200 years old is estimated to be at least one-third too high--and is based solely upon their own data, which, incidentally, is subject to great uncertainty. Thus, the basis for the article's conclusions is very problematic," explains Professor Per Gundersen, of the University of Copenhagen's Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management.

An unlikely amount of nitrogen

The original research article concluded that old-growth forests more than 200 years old bind an average of 2.4 tonnes of carbon per hectare, per year, and that 1.3 tonnes of this amount is bound in forest soil. According to the UCPH researchers, this claim is particularly unrealistic. Carbon storage in soil requires the addition of a certain amount of externally sourced nitrogen.

"The large amounts of nitrogen needed for their numbers to stand up don't exist in the areas of forest which they studied. The rate is equivalent to the soil's carbon content doubling in 100 years, which is also unlikely, as it has taken 10,000 years to build up the soil's current carbon content. It simply isn't possible to bind such large quantities of carbon in soil," says Gundersen.

Trees don't grow into the sky

Unlike the authors of the 2008 article, and in line with the classical view in this area, the UCPH researchers believe that old unmanaged forests reach a saturation point after a number of years. At that point, CO2 uptake ceases. After longer periods (50-100 years in Denmark) of high CO2 sequestration, storage decreases and eventually come to a stop. This happens when a forest reaches an equilibrium, whereby, through the respiration of trees and degradation of organic matter in the soil, it emits as much CO2 into the atmosphere as it absorbs through photosynthesis.

"As we know, trees don't just grow into the sky. Trees age. And at some point, they die. When that happens, decay begins, sending carbon back into the atmosphere as CO2. Other smaller trees will then take over, thereby leaving a fairly stable CO2 stock in the forest. As trees age, the risk of a forest being impacted by storms, fire, droughts, disease, death and other events increases more and more. This releases a significant portion of the stored carbon for a period of time, until newer trees replace the old ones," explains Gundersen.

He adds that the 2008 article does not document any mechanism which allows the forest to keep sequestering CO2.

The UCPH researchers' view is supported by observations from Suserup Forest, near Sorø, Denmark, a forest that has remained largely untouched for the past century. The oldest trees within it are 300 years old. Inventories taken in 1992, 2002 and 2012 all demonstrated that there was no significant CO2 uptake by the forest.

Old-growth forest remains vital for biodiversity

"We feel a bit like the child in the Emperor's New Clothes, because what we say is based on classic scientific knowledge, thermodynamics and common sense. Nevertheless, many have embraced an alternative view--and brought the debate to a dead end. I hope that our contribution provides an exit," says Per Gundersen.

He would like to make it clear that this should in no way be perceived as a position against protection of old-growth forest or setting aside unmanaged forest areas.

"Old-growth forest plays a key role in biodiversity. However, from a long-term climate mitigation perspective, it isn't an effective tool. Grasping the nuance is important so that debate can be based upon scientifically substantiated assertions, and so that policy is not influenced on an incorrect basis," concludes Gundersen.

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ABOUT THE STUDY:

* The analysis was conducted by Per Gundersen, Emil E. Thybring, Thomas Nord-Larsen, Lars Vesterdal, Knute J. Nadelhoffer and Vivian K. Johannsen from the Department of Geosciences and Nature Management at the University of Copenhagen.

* The commentary has been published in the prestigious journal Nature and can be accessed here: https://www.science.ku.dk/english/press/news/2021/new-documentation-old-growth-forest-carbon-sinks-overestimated/

 

Urban 'escalator' means disadvantaged rural students miss out on top universities

Bright but disadvantaged students from urban areas are more likely to enter elite UK universities than similar peers from rural communities due to an urban 'esca

 

Bright but disadvantaged students from urban areas are more likely to enter elite UK universities than similar peers from rural communities due to an urban 'escalator effect', according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Bath analysed data from 800,000 English students commencing university in the years 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016.

They found that while in general rural areas had higher overall progression to university than city centres and surrounding areas, when controlling for factors including socio-economic status, age, ethnicity and sex, disadvantaged pupils from rural areas were less likely to progress to one of 27 'top' UK universities.

The authors suggest the difference is due to a 'vortex of influences' including 'social mix effects' in more diverse urban settings, successive urban-centred policy interventions and the targeting of university and third-sector outreach activities to urban areas.

Although the results reaffirmed that social class remains the biggest predictor of progression to a top university, the researchers say the results highlight drawbacks of existing geographic measures used to identify disadvantage, as they do not account for the diverse nature of deprived areas, and therefore universities risk missing disadvantaged students. Instead the use of more sophisticated measures could help universities target under-represented and disadvantaged students more effectively, and the authors call for a co-ordinated strategic approach to ensure that no areas are missed by universities' widening participation programmes.

The paper is published in the British Educational Research Journal.

Jo Davies, who led the research as part of her PhD studies in the Department of Education, said: "There has been a lot of interest and concern about geographic inequalities in education. Our paper shows that whilst social background is still the most important predictor for progressing to an elite university, there may also be further geographic factors compounding access. We believe that the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping methods, as used within our own research, could enable elite universities to target under?represented students more effectively, especially disadvantaged students living in rural areas with otherwise good progression rates."

The research team, from the Department of Education, used data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) of 800,000 English students beginning university in the academic years 2008/09, 2010/11, 2012/ 13, 2014/15 and 2016/17.

They were interested in progression to 27 'top' UK universities, comprising the Russell Group plus the Universities of St Andrews, Bath and Strathclyde, comparing rates from each Middle Super Output Area (MSOA) in England. Each MSOA, of which there are 6,791 across England, has a population between 5,000 and 15,000, with a minimum of 2,000 and a maximum of 6,000 households.

By analysing progression to these elite institutions after controlling for a factors including education (state/private school education, tariff point score, number of facilitating subjects studied), socio-economic status, age, ethnicity, sex, distance travelled and academic year, the urban escalator effect emerged.

The research was funded by a University of Bath Research Studentship Award. The University currently funds seven PhD students as part of its programme of research aiming to uncover ways in which participation in higher education can be widened and to ensure that no student who has the ability and desire to go to onto higher education is prevented from doing so because of their background.

Dr Matt Dickson, who leads the overall programme for the University's Institute for Policy Research, said: "This research is a great example of the importance of analysis that goes beyond a descriptive picture to understand the key factors that perpetuate inequalities in higher education access. Rather than a simple rural-urban divide, the reality is much more complex and this has important implications for higher education policy."

These lessons are already being implemented at the University of Bath. For example, alongside its existing programme of Widening Participation initiatives the University recently entered into a partnership with Villiers Park Educational Trust to support students from neglected rural and coastal communities to access top universities, such as Bath, through activities including coaching and mentoring for students.

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For more information or to arrange an interview with one of the authors contact Chris Melvin in the University of Bath Press Office on 01225 383941 or cmm64@bath.ac.uk

The paper Geographies of elite higher education participation: An urban 'escalator' effect is published in the British Educational Research Journal and is available online.

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading universities both in terms of research and our reputation for excellence in teaching, learning and graduate prospects.

The University is rated Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), the Government's assessment of teaching quality in universities, meaning its teaching is of the highest quality in the UK.

In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 research assessment 87 per cent of our research was defined as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent'. From developing fuel efficient cars of the future, to identifying infectious diseases more quickly, or working to improve the lives of female farmers in West Africa, research from Bath is making a difference around the world. Find out more: http://www.bath.ac.uk/research/

Well established as a nurturing environment for enterprising minds, Bath is ranked highly in all national league tables. We are ranked 6th in the UK by The Guardian University Guide 2021, and 9th in both The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021 and the Complete University Guide 2021. Our sports offering was rated as being in the world's top 10 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2021.

Arctic sponge survival in the extreme deep-sea

ROYAL NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SEA RESEARCH

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IMAGE: STILL FROM THE FOOTAGE OF THE DEEP-SEA SPONGE GROUND THAT WAS COLLECTED OVER A YEAR. view more 

CREDIT: COPYRIGHT: NIOZ

For the first time, researchers from the SponGES project collected year-round video footage and hydrodynamic data from the mysterious world of a deep-sea sponge ground in the Arctic. Deep-sea sponge grounds are often compared to the rich ecosystems of coral reefs and form true oases. In a world where all light has disappeared and without obvious food sources, they provide a habitat for other invertebrates and a refuge for fish in the otherwise barren landscape. It is still puzzling how these biodiversity hotspots survive in this extreme environment as deep as 1500 metres below the water surface. With over 700 hundred hours of footage and data on food supply, temperature, oxygen concentration, and currents, NIOZ scientists Ulrike Hanz and Furu Mienis found clues that could help find some answers.

Colourful, thriving communities

'The deep sea, in most places, is barren and flat', says marine geologist Furu Mienis. 'And then, suddenly, we have these sponge grounds that form colourful, thriving communities. It is intriguing how this system sustains itself in such a place.' To better understand this unexpected success, the research team deployed a bottom lander equipped with sensors and an underwater camera specially designed for the extreme environment by NIOZ engineers and technicians. The location: an enormous seamount in the Norwegian Sea that is part of the Mid Atlantic ridge, known as the Schulz Bank. A year later they picked it up. What they saw and measured was a world where sponges survived in temperatures below zero degrees Celsius and withstood potential food deprivation, high current speeds and 200-metre-high underwater waves.

Mienis: 'We still don't get why they grow where they grow, but we are off to a good start of a better understanding. Apparently, this seamount and the hydrodynamic conditions create a beneficial system for the sponges.' A major finding located the sponge ground at the interface between two water masses where strong internal tidal waves can spread widely? and interact with the bottom landscape. The data from the sensors showed that the water flow at the summit of the seamount interacts with the seamount itself, producing turbulent conditions with temporarily high current speeds reaching up to 0.7 meter per second, which can be considered as "stormy" conditions in the deep sea.

At the same time, water movements around the seamount supply the sponge ground with food and nutrients from water layers above and below. The team measured the amount of food sinking from the surface to the sponge grounds and found that in this vertical direction, fresh food was delivered only once during a major event in the summer when the phytoplankton bloomed. Hanz: 'This isn't enough to sustain the sponge grounds, which is why we expect that additionally, bacteria and dissolved matter keep the sponges and associated fauna from starving.

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Deploying the NIOZ designed and engineered bottom lander.

CREDIT

Photo: NIOZ

Extreme environment

The long-term record shows that the sponges on Schulz Bank thrive at temperatures around zero degrees Celsius. This is at least 4 °C lower than stony cold-water corals that are also found in the deep sea. Hanz: 'It is striking that they are alive with temperatures at zero degrees or even less. This is quite extreme, even for the deep sea.' In this food-deprived environment, the cold might actually play a role in the sponge's survival by lowering its metabolism. And the cold isn't the only extremity they face. Video recordings of the highest current speed events in winter show that these 'storms' further push the sponges to their limit. Hanz: 'The speeds that we witnessed, might be close to the maximum that they can endure. At the highest speed, we saw some sponges as well as anemones being ripped from the seafloor.'

And the most remarkable thing after watching hundreds of hours of footage? Hanz: 'The image that I started with was almost the same as the image in the end. One year had gone by and everything looked almost the same. It's just so cold out there that no crazy things are going on. The reef is still very pristine.' However, Hanz and Mienis stress that it is a very vulnerable ecosystem. Hanz: 'Sponges can be up to two hundred years old, once damaged it takes ages for them to recover.' And there are potential threats. Hanz: 'Fishery seems to be the biggest one, but there is also the future possibility of deep-sea mining and changes in temperature and turbulence caused by climate change. Mienis: 'It is a fragile equilibrium that consists of many tiny components. Take one of those away and the whole system can collapse.' Their research contributes to a first baseline that might become essential in future protection. Mienis: 'We now identified the first natural ranges, and gathered a bit of the information on how these rich sponge grounds can thrive.'

CAPTION

3D image of the Schulz Bank with bottom located at 1500 metres below the water surface and the summit at 600 metres. Copyright: SponGES project

CREDIT

Copyright: SponGES project

 

Insufficient financial reporting may lead to underestimation of environmental liabilities

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

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European listed companies in the energy and mining sector provide, to say the least, sparse information on future environmental costs in their annual reports. Researchers believe that stricter guidelines are required as the lack of information may lead to underestimation of environmental liabilities, resulting in that future generations may have to bear the burden of cleanup costs.

"I believe that the future environmental liabilities such as decommissioning costs are often underestimated and few understand the burden these costs might impose on future generations. If, for example, an oil & gas company fails, it costs an incredible amount to clean up after old oil wells and the risk is great that the taxpayers will have to pay the bill. Therefore, it is important that environmental obligations are made visible to investors, lenders and the public so that we can discuss the problem," says Mari Paananen, associate professor of business administration at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.

In fact, as there is no clear claimant for this type of future obligations, there is little demand for information either.

"The International Accounting Standards Board* needs to provide clearer requirements about what information should be included in the annual reports in order to make it possible to assess environmental liabilities. I think that such guidelines would make companies inclined to disclose more information and would also provide, for example, auditors a mandate to demand specific information," says Mari Paananen.

Using a sample of 164 European listed companies active in oil, gas, energy (nuclear power) and mining, Mari Paananen and her research colleagues have analyzed environmental disclosures in annual reports over a twelve-year period. Specifically, the researchers use computerized text analysis, to examine information on environment-related restoration costs in the notes to annual reports. Among other things, they searched for information about the discount rate and estimated time horizon for payments - key information needed to assess the size of environmental liabilities.

"Even though we could see that the disclosure of environmental information in the annual reports has increased over time, companies are, are on average, not very forthcoming with information. Approximately 60 percent of the companies provided information about discount rates and 65 percent disclosed the time horizon for the expected future cash outflow. On the other hand, only just over a third provided information about both," says Mari Paananen.

The researchers also investigated whether the level of disclosure increased when companies faced media exposure focusing on environmental issues or how companies' take responsibility for the environment.

"We clearly saw that if companies were exposed in the media, the environmental information increased and the companies provided more specific disclosure on environmental liabilities in the following annual report. Above all, there was more information if the media used an uncertain or litigious tone," says Mari Paananen.

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* International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an international organization that works to improve the quality of international financial reporting. They are responsible for the accounting standard IFRS, International Financial Reporting Standards, which are used by listed companies in the EU.

About the study:

Mari Paananen , Emmeli Runesson & Niuosha Samani (2021): Time to clean up environmental liabilities reporting: disclosures, media exposure and market implications, Accounting Forum.

Link to article https://doi.org/10.1080/01559982.2021.1872909

 

Urban agriculture can help, but not solve, city food security problems

PENN STATE

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IMAGE: THIS MAP SHOWS THE DISTRIBUTION OF CROPLAND AND PASTURELAND WITHIN ABOUT 140 MILES OF DOWNTOWN CHICAGO. view more 

CREDIT: CHRISTINE COSTELLO/PENN STATE

While urban agriculture can play a role in supporting food supply chains for many major American cities -- contributing to food diversity, sustainability and localizing food systems -- it is unrealistic to expect rooftop gardens, community plots and the like to provide the majority of nutrition for the population of a metropolis.

That's the conclusion of a team of researchers who analyzed the nutritional needs of the population of Chicago and calculated how much food could be produced in the city by maximizing urban agriculture, and how much crop land would be needed adjacent to the city to grow the rest. The study was the first to evaluate land required to meet food demand while accounting for a range of nutritional needs instead of only calories or quantities.

"There is a tremendous enthusiasm around the country for localized food systems and urban agriculture," said lead researcher Christine Costello, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State. "We wanted to determine how much nutrition urban agriculture really can contribute -- to find out what's feasible -- as well as how much land is required to meet the population's needs."

Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic exposing weaknesses in food supply chains, the focus on localizing food systems has sharpened, especially in and around big cities. Answering questions about how much food urban agriculture actually can contribute is more important than ever, Costello pointed out. For example, a recent study found that 30% of Boston's fruit and vegetable demand could be met in Boston through soil-based and rooftop urban agriculture.

With growing populations and affluence, urban food demand will increase, which presents considerable challenges to achieving economic, environmental and social sustainability, Costello noted. At the same time, more people are living in urban environments. In 2018 in the U.S., 82% of the population lived in urban areas, with an anticipated increase to 89% by 2050.

"Urban agriculture is attractive because it uses land or rooftops not currently used for food production and could increase habitat and biodiversity, enhance stormwater management, and provide fruits and vegetables, resulting in positive nutritional outcomes," Costello said. "However, fruits and vegetables do not contain sufficient calories, protein or other critical nutrients, such as vitamin B12, to support the full range of human needs."

Cultivation in soil on a rooftop typically is limited without significant restructuring of the roof, often making it infeasible, Costello explained. For this reason, hydroponic or vertical farming systems may be preferable. Hydroponic systems are best suited to produce leafy greens, such as kale and lettuce, and herbs.

In the study, researchers calculated the land required to meet the needs of Chicago and adjacent communities with and without urban agriculture food production, which they estimated two ways. One used average yields from urban and conventional farming methods; the other used optimization techniques to produce necessary nutrients using the smallest land base possible.

The team estimated the total nutrient requirements of Chicago's population using the daily food nutrient requirements recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Twenty-eight nutrients were considered. Foods included in the study were selected based on their current prevalence in the American agricultural system and for their nutritional qualities.

The scientists estimated the amount of land required for each animal-based commodity using a formula based on USDA recommendations and prior research done by Costello. The researchers created linkages between crops and livestock in a model and used national inventory data to estimate both cropland and pastureland utilized for each kilogram -- about 2 pounds -- of animal food commodity.

The study used satellite data to define land-type availability and incorporated USDA data on yield for conventionally grown crops over a 10-year period. Soil-based urban agricultural yield data for the 2015 and 2016 growing seasons came from the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, located in Missouri.

The findings, recently published in Environmental Science and Technology, suggested that it is not possible -- using the predominant commodities and common urban agricultural production of today -- to meet the nutritional needs of Chicago within a radius under 400 miles, given the cropland and pastureland available, without fortifying foods with vitamin D and supplementing foods with vitamin B12.

With vitamin D fortification, a common U.S. practice, the radius required is reduced to 110-140 miles. With vitamin B12 supplementation, the radius was further reduced to 40-50 miles. The inclusion of urban agriculture reduced the radius by another 6-9 miles and increased the diversity of foods available.

"This work demonstrates the need to include a full list of nutrients when evaluating the feasibility of localizing food systems," Costello said. "Key nutrient fortification or supplementation may significantly reduce the land area required to meet the nutritional needs of a population."

CAPTION

This graphic shows overlapping land areas the researchers used to estimate the effective population in relation to the land base within a specified radius from the center point of Chicago.

CREDIT

Christine Costello/Penn State

Also involved in the research were Zeynab Oveysi and Ronald McGarvey, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Missouri; and Bayram Dundar, formerly with the University of Missouri, currently at Bartin University in Turkey.

The University of Missouri's seed grant program, Mizzou Advantage, partially supported this work.

Headline: How energy modelling influences policymaking and vice versa

INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES E.V. (IASS)

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Energy models are used to explore different options for the development of energy systems in virtual "laboratories". Scientists have been using energy models to provide policy advice for years. As a new study shows, energy models influence policymaking around the energy transition. Similarly, policymakers influence the work of modellers. Greater transparency is needed to ensure that political considerations do not set the agenda for future research or determine its findings, the researchers demand.

Renewable energies bring many changes, including fluctuations in the energy supply and a more geographically distributed generation system. Despite the myriad uncertainties, politicians must make important decisions around the future development of the energy system. Key issues include the choice of technologies and the location of renewable energy infrastructure, the integration of the electricity, heating, transportation and industry sectors, as well as the balancing of interests of diverse stakeholders and population groups. A team of researchers has studied both the role of computer-based energy models in the political decision-making process and, conversely, how policymakers influence energy modelling.

Energy models inform policy decisions that shape our energy future

The researchers analysed a range of documents, including legislative texts, position papers and progress reports as well as secondary literature on political processes. They also conducted 32 interviews with various actors from politics, science, industry, and non-governmental organisations in Germany, Sweden, Poland, Greece and at the European Union level. "The results of this research clearly show that models help to explore possible energy futures. Their influence on policymaking is growing accordingly: politicians draw on modelling outputs to define energy and climate targets and study policy measures to achieve them," says lead author Diana Süsser.

Likewise, policymakers influence modelling, for example by helping to define research questions and the scope of studies, and by deciding how the results will be used. In interviews, however, policymakers suggested that modelling results were often too general for their purposes and left specific questions unanswered. According to these respondents, models lack transparency, which can undermine the credibility of their results. The respondents said that they would like researchers to engage with them more closely so that models could be developed to address the issues relevant to policy development.

Modelling can help to shape the energy transition

This interest in co-creative cooperation is welcome in principle, says Diana Süsser. Energy models are well-suited to tackle real-world issues and achieve societal impacts. "But it is vital that neither side loses sight of the fact that researchers are committed to generating knowledge, rather than to serving political ends. The transformation of the energy system is a complex challenge and, in terms of scientific policy advice, as much as politicians would like one, there is no 'silver bullet'.

Co-author Johan Lilliestam adds: "Models help us to understand the impacts of possible goals and policy options. What our study has shown is that they are sometimes also used to legitimise policy decisions that have already been made. Transparency, open data and open models are essential in order to protect the credibility of models and to improve their utility for policy advice." The IASS project "Sustainable Energy Transitions Laboratory," (SENTINEL) is developing a modelling framework for user-friendly models to improve cooperation between science and politics. Used properly, energy models can play an important role in the development and design of our future energy system and help us to achieve ambitious energy and climate goals.

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'Keep off the grass': the biofuel that could help us achieve net zero

EARLHAM INSTITUTE

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The Miscanthus genus of grasses, commonly used to add movement and texture to gardens, could quickly become the first choice for biofuel production. A new study shows these grasses can be grown in lower agricultural grade conditions - such as marginal land - due to their remarkable resilience and photosynthetic capacity at low temperatures.

Miscanthus is a promising biofuel thanks to its high biomass yield and low input requirements, which means it can adapt to a wide range of climate zones and land types. It is seen as a viable commercial option for farmers but yields can come under threat from insufficient or excessive water supply, such as increasing winter floods or summer heat waves.

With very little known about its productivity in flooded and moisture-saturated soil conditions, researchers at the Earlham Institute in Norwich wanted to understand the differences in water-stress tolerance among Miscanthus species to guide genomics-assisted crop breeding.

The research team - along with collaborators at TEAGASC, The Agriculture and Food Development Authority in the Republic of Ireland, and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences in Wales - analysed various Miscanthus genotypes to identify traits that provided insight into gene adaptation and regulation during water stress.

They found specific genes that play key roles in response to water stress across different Miscanthus species, and saw consistencies with functional biological processes that are critical during the survival of drought stress in other organisms.

Dr Jose De Vega, author of the study and Group Leader at the Earlham Institute, said: "Miscanthus is a commercial crop due to its high biomass productivity, resilience, and ability to continue photosynthesis during the winter months. These qualities make it a particularly good candidate for growth on marginal land in the UK, where yields might otherwise be limited by scorching summers and wet winters."

Previously, a decade-long trial in Europe showed that Miscanthus produced up to 40 tonnes of dry matter per hectare each year. This was reached after just two years of establishment, proving its biofuel capacity was more efficient in ethanol production per hectare than switchgrass and corn.

Miscanthus species have been used as forage species in Japan, Korea and China for thousands of years and, due to its high biomass yield and high ligno-cellulose (plant dry matter) content, they are commercially used as feedstock for bioenergy production.

Ligno-cellulose biomass is the most abundantly available raw material on Earth for the production of biofuels, mainly producing bio-ethanol. Miscanthus's high biomass ability makes the grass a valuable commodity for farmers on marginal land but the crop's responses to water-stress vary depending on the Miscanthus species' origin.

The scientists compared the physiological and molecular responses among Miscanthus species in both water-flooded and drought conditions. The induced physiological conditions were used for an in-depth analysis of the molecular basis of water stress in Miscanthus species.

A significant biomass loss was observed under drought conditions in all of the four Miscanthus species. In flooded conditions, biomass yield was as good as or better than controlled conditions in all species. The low number of differentially expressed genes, and higher biomass yield in flooded conditions, supported the use of Miscanthus in flood-prone marginal land.

"The global challenge of feeding the ever-increasing world population is exacerbated when food crops are being used as feedstock for green energy production," said Dr De Vega.

"Successful plant breeding for ethanol and chemical production requires the ability to grow on marginal lands alongside prioritising the attributes; non-food related, perennial, high biomass yield, low chemical and mechanical input, enhanced water-use efficiency and high carbon storage capacity. Miscanthus fulfils these for enhanced breeding - saving money and space for farmers, and lending a hand to our over polluted environment by emitting CO2.

"The research team is in the early selection process of high biomass genotypes from large Miscanthus populations that are better adapted to the UK conditions and require low inputs. The use of genomic approaches is allowing us to better understand the traits that make some Miscanthus species a commercially sustainable alternative for marginal lands and applying this to agri-practices."

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The paper 'Physiological and transcriptional response to drought stress among bioenergy grass Miscanthus species' is published in Biotechnology for Biofuels.

Massive study reveals few differences between men and women's brains

Study by Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science neuroscientists conduct meta-synthesis of three decades of research

ROSALIND FRANKLIN UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE

Research News

 

How different are men and women's brains? The question has been explored for decades, but a new study led by Rosalind Franklin University neuroscientist Lise Eliot is the first to coalesce this wide-ranging research into a single mega-synthesis. And the answer is: hardly at all.

"Men and women's brains do differ slightly, but the key finding is that these distinctions are due to brain size, not sex or gender," Dr. Eliot said. "Sex differences in the brain are tiny and inconsistent, once individuals' head size is accounted for."

The unusually large study of studies, "Dump the 'dimorphism': Comprehensive synthesis of human brain studies reveals few male-female differences beyond size," published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, finds that size is the only clear-cut difference between male and female brains. Women's brains are about 11% smaller than men's, in proportion to their body size. Smaller brains allow certain features, such as a slightly higher ratio of gray matter to white matter, and a higher ratio of connections between, versus within, cerebral hemispheres.

"This means that the brain differences between large- and small-headed men are as great as the brain differences between the average man and woman," Dr. Eliot said. "And importantly, none of these size-related differences can account for familiar behavioral differences between men and women, such as empathy or spatial skills."

This is not the story typically publicized about sex differences in the human brain.

"Since the dawn of MRI, studies finding statistically significant sex differences have received outsized attention by scientists and the media," said Dr. Eliot, whose books include "Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps."

"Researchers have been quietly accumulating massive amounts of data comparing male and female brains, but it's only the differences that get hyped," Dr. Eliot continued. "Unlike other areas of health research, women have been equally included in brain imaging from the outset."

Dr. Eliot and her collaborators -- fourth-year Chicago Medical School students Adnan Ahmed, Hiba Khan and Julie Patel -- conducted a meta-synthesis of three decades of research, assimilating hundreds of the largest and most highly-cited brain imaging studies addressing 13 distinct measures of alleged sex difference. For nearly every measure, they found almost no differences that were widely reproduced across studies, even those involving thousands of participants. For example, the volume or thickness of specific regions in the cerebral cortex is often reported to differ between men and women. However, the meta-synthesis shows that the regions identified differ enormously between studies.

Male-female brain differences are also poorly replicated between diverse populations, such as Chinese versus American, meaning there is no universal marker that distinguishes men and women's brains across the human species.

"The handful of features that do differ most reliably are quite small in magnitude," Dr. Eliot said. "The volume of the amygdala, an olive-sized part of the temporal lobe that is important for social-emotional behaviors, is a mere 1% larger in men across studies."

The study also rebuts a longstanding view that men's brains are more lateralized, meaning each hemisphere acts independently, whereas women's two hemispheres are said to be better connected and to operate more in sync with each other. Such a difference could make males more vulnerable to disability following brain injury such as stroke. Here again, the consensus of many studies shows that the difference is extremely small, accounting for even less than 1% of the range of left-right connectivity across the population. This finding does agree with large datasets that have found no gender difference in aphasia, or the loss of language, following a stroke in the left hemisphere, contrary to long belief.

A last focus of the new study is on functional MRI. This method allows neuroscientists to see areas that "light up" during particular mental tasks and has been widely used to look for male-female differences during language, spatial and emotional tasks.

Across hundreds of such studies, Dr. Eliot's team found extremely poor reliability in sex difference findings -- nearly all specific brain areas that differed in activity between men and women were not repeated across studies. Such poor reproducibility agrees with recent research out of Stanford University demonstrating "false discovery," or the over-publication of false-positive findings in the scientific literature on functional MRI sex difference.

"Sex comparisons are super easy for researchers to conduct after an experiment is already done. If they find something, it gets another publication. If not, it gets ignored," Dr. Eliot said. Publication bias is common in sex-difference research, she added, because the topic garners high interest.

"Sex differences are sexy, but this false impression that there is such a thing as a 'male brain' and a 'female brain' has had wide impact on how we treat boys and girls, men and women," Dr. Eliot said.

"The truth is that there are no universal, species-wide brain features that differ between the sexes. Rather, the brain is like other organs, such as the heart and kidneys, which are similar enough to be transplanted between women and men quite successfully."

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About Rosalind Franklin University

Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science is committed to serving the population through the interprofessional education of health and biomedical professionals and the discovery of knowledge dedicated to improving wellness. The university embodies the spirit of inquiry and excellence modeled by its namesake Dr. Rosalind Franklin, whose Photo 51 was crucial to solving the structure of DNA. The university is currently commemorating the 100th anniversary of the scientist's birth. Recognized for its research in areas including neuroscience, brain-related diseases, inherited disorders, diabetes, obesity, and gait and balance, RFU encompasses the Chicago Medical School, College of Health Professions, College of Pharmacy, School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine. Learn more at rosalindfranklin.edu.