ARCHNOPHOBIA TRIGGER

Surprising spider hair discovery may inspire stronger adhesives

Engineers impressed by the functional great diversity of hairs on spider legs

FRONTIERS

Research News

 

IMAGE: SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM) IMAGE OF THE BASES OF PRETARSAL (IE, ON LOWEST PART OF LEG) ADHESIVE HAIRS. (A) ON THE LEFT ARE THE HAIR SHAFTS OF THE ADHESIVE HAIRS... view more 

CREDIT: B POERSCHKE, SN GORB AND F SCHABER

Just how do spiders walk straight up -- and even upside-down across -- so many different types of surfaces? Answering this question could open up new opportunities for creating powerful, yet reversible, bioinspired adhesives. Scientists have been working to better understand spider feet for the past several decades. Now, a new study in Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering is the first to show that the characteristics of the hair-like structures that form the adhesive feet of one species -- the wandering spider Cupiennius salei -- are more variable than previously thought.

"When we started the experiments, we expected to find a specific angle of best adhesion and similar adhesive properties for all of the individual attachment hairs," says the group leader of the study, Dr Clemens Schaber of the University of Kiel in Germany. "But surprisingly, the adhesion forces largely differed between the individual hairs, e.g. one hair adhered best at a low angle with the substrate while the other one performed best close to perpendicular."

The feet of this species of spider are made up of close to 2,400 tiny hairs or 'setae' (one hundredth of one millimeter thick). Schaber, and his colleagues Bastian Poerschke and Stanislav Gorb, collected a sample of these hairs and then measured how well they stuck to a range of rough and smooth surfaces, including glass. They also looked at how well the hairs performed at various contact angles.

CAPTION

SEM images of the microstructure of the adhesive hairs ('setae'). (A) Side view showing the up to 1.8 mm long hair shaft (not shown in full length) and the tip region covered with 'microtrichia' (minute hair-like structures on the hairs proper). (B) Top view of the 'scopula pad' (a dense tuft of hairs) on the lower side of the pretarsus. Covering the tip region of the hairs are spatula-shaped microtrichia, which stick to the substrate during walking. (C) Higher magnification image of the spatula-shaped microtrichia.

CREDIT

B Poerschke, SN Gorb and F Schaber

USAGE RESTRICTIONS

Different types of hair work together

Unexpectedly, each hair showed unique adhesive properties. When the team looked at the hairs under a powerful microscope, they also found that each one showed clearly different -- and previously unrecognized -- structural arrangements. The team believes that this variety may be key to how spiders can climb so many surface types.

This current work studied only a small number of the thousands of hairs on each foot, and it's beyond the scope of existing resources to consider studying them all. But the team expects that not all of the hairs are unique, and that it might be possible to find clusters or repeating patterns instead.

Bioinspired applications possible

"Although it is still very difficult to fabricate nanostructures like those of the spider--and especially to achieve the stability and reliability of the natural materials -- our findings can further optimize existing models for reversible and residue-free artificial adhesives," says Schaber. "The principle of different shapes and alignments of adhesive contacts as found in the spider attachment system can improve the attachment ability of bioinspired materials to a broad range of substrates with different properties."

CAPTION

(A) Downward-facing surface of the tuft of hairs around the claws on the pretarsus (white asterisks mark the two lobes of the hair tuft), which consists of thousands of densely packed hairs. Arrows denote the two claws. (B) Side view of the hair tuft on the pretarsus sticking to a glass slide. (C) Magnified view of the rectangle in the second panel. Note how the tips of the hairs have becomes bent.

CREDIT

B Poerschke, SN Gorb and F Schabe

Compact quantum computer for server centers

Researchers build smallest quantum computer yet based on industry standards

UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK

Over the past three decades, fundamental groundwork for building quantum computers has been pioneered at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. As part of the EU Flagship Quantum Technologies, researchers at the Department of Experimental Physics in Innsbruck have now built a demonstrator for a compact ion trap quantum computer. "Our quantum computing experiments usually fill 30- to 50-square-meter laboratories," says Thomas Monz of the University of Innsbruck. "We were now looking to fit the technologies developed here in Innsbruck into the smallest possible space while meeting standards commonly used in industry." The new device aims to show that quantum computers will soon be ready for use in data centers. "We were able to show that compactness does not have to come at the expense of functionality," adds Christian Marciniak from the Innsbruck team.

The individual building blocks of the world's first compact quantum computer had to be significantly reduced in size. For example, the centerpiece of the quantum computer, the ion trap installed in a vacuum chamber, takes up only a fraction of the space previously required. It was provided to the researchers by Alpine Quantum Technologies (AQT), a spin-off of the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian Academy of Sciences which aims to build a commercial quantum computer. Other components were contributed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Jena and laser specialist TOPTICA Photonics in Munich, Germany.

CAPTION

The compact quantum computer fits into two 19-inch server racks.

CREDIT

University of Innsbruck

Up to 50 quantum bits

The compact quantum computer can be operated autonomously and will soon be programmable online. A particular challenge was to ensure the stability of the quantum computer. Quantum devices are very sensitive and in the laboratory they are protected from external disturbances with the help of elaborate measures. Amazingly, the Innsbruck team succeeded in applying this quality standard to the compact device as well, thus ensuring safe and uninterrupted operation.

In addition to stability, a decisive factor for the industrial use of a quantum computer is the number of available quantum bits. Thus, in its recent funding campaign, the German government has set the goal of initially building demonstration quantum computers that have 24 fully functional qubits. The Innsbruck quantum physicists have already achieved this goal. They were able to individually control and successfully entangle up to 24 ions with the new device. "By next year, we want to be able to provide a device with up to 50 individually controllable quantum bits," says Thomas Monz, already looking to the future.

The project is financially supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the Research Funding Agency FFG, the European Union, and the Federation of Austrian Industries Tyrol, among others.

CAPTION

The centerpiece of the quantum computer: the ion trap in a vacuum chamber.

CREDIT

University of Innsbruck

Publication: Compact Ion-Trap Quantum Computing Demonstrator. I. Pogorelov, T. Feldker, Ch. D. Marciniak, L. Postler, G. Jacob, O. Krieglsteiner, V. Podlesnic, M. Meth, V. Negnevitsky, M. Stadler, B. Höfer, C. Wächter, K. Lakhmanskiy, R. Blatt, P. Schindler, and T. Monz PRX Quantum 2, 020343 - Published 17 June 2021 https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.020343

THE ORIGINAL CRYPTID

Coelacanths may live nearly a century, five times longer than researchers expected

CELL PRESS

Research News

 

IMAGE: THIS IMAGE SHOWS ADULT COELACANTH SCALES view more 

CREDIT: LAURENT BALLESTA

Once thought to be extinct, lobe-finned coelacanths are enormous fish that live deep in the ocean. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on June 17 have evidence that, in addition to their impressive size, coelacanths also can live for an impressively long time--perhaps nearly a century.

The researchers found that their oldest specimen was 84 years old. They also report that coelacanths live life extremely slowly in other ways, reaching maturity around the age of 55 and gestating their offspring for five years.

"Our most important finding is that the coelacanth's age was underestimated by a factor of five," says Kélig Mahé of IFREMER Channel and North Sea Fisheries Research Unit in Boulogne-sur-mer, France. "Our new age estimation allowed us to re-appraise the coelacanth's body growth, which happens to be one of the slowest among marine fish of similar size, as well as other life-history traits, showing that the coelacanth's life history is actually one of the slowest of all fish."

Earlier studies attempted to age coelacanths by directly observing growth rings on the scales of a small sample of 12 specimens. Those studies led to the notion that the fish didn't live more than 20 years. If that were the case, it would make coelacanths among the fastest-growing fish given their large size. That seemed surprising considering that the coelacanth's other known biological and ecological features, including slow metabolism and low fecundity, were more typical of fish with slow life histories and slow growth like most other deep-water species.

In the new study, Mahé, along with co-authors Bruno Ernande and Marc Herbin, took advantage of the fact that the French National Museum of Natural History (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, MNHN) has one of the largest collections of coelacanths in the world, ranging from embryos in utero to individuals of almost two meters. They were able to examine 27 specimens in all. They also used new methods, including polarized light microscopy and scale interpretation technology mastered at IFREMER's Sclerochronology Centre, Boulogne-sur-mer, France, to estimate individuals' age and body growth more precisely than before.

While earlier studies relied on more readily visible calcified structures called macro-circuli to age the coelacanths much as counting growth rings can age a tree, the new approaches allowed the researchers to pick up on much tinier and nearly imperceptible circuli on the scales. Their findings suggest that the coelacanths actually are about five times older than was previously thought.

"We demonstrated that these circuli were actually annual growth marks, whereas the previously observed macro-circuli were not," Mahé says. "It meant that the maximum longevity of coelacanth was five times longer than previously thought, hence around a century."

Their study of two embryos showed they were both about five years old. Using a growth model to back-calculate gestation length based on the size of offspring at birth, the researchers got the same answer. They now think that coelacanth offspring grow and develop for five years inside their mothers prior to birth.

"Coelacanth appears to have one of, if not the slowest life histories among marine fish, and close to those of deep-sea sharks and roughies," Mahé says.

The researchers say that their findings have implications for the coelacanth's conservation and future. They note that the African coelacanth is assessed as critically endangered in the Red List of Threatened Species of IUCN.

"Long-lived species characterized by slow life history and relatively low fecundity are known to be extremely vulnerable to perturbations of a natural or anthropic nature due to their very low replacement rate," Mahé says. "Our results thus suggest that it may be even more threatened than expected due to its peculiar life history. Consequently, these new pieces of information on coelacanths' biology and life history are essential to the conservation and management of this species."

In future studies, they plan to perform microchemistry analyses on coelacanth scales to find out whether a coelacanth's growth is related to temperature. The answer will provide some insight into the effects of global warming on this vulnerable species.

Current Biology, Mahé et al.: "New scale analyses reveal centenarian coelacanths Latimeria chalumnae" https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00752-1

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

Sorghum, a close relative of corn, tested for disease resistance on Pennsylvania farms

PENN STATE

Research News

 

IMAGE: DINAKARAN ELANGO, RECENT PLANT SCIENCE STUDENT, WITH BIOMASS SORGHUM LINES GROWING IN A RESEARCH PLOT AT PENN STATE'S RUSSELL E. LARSON AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTER, ROCK SPRINGS, PA. RESEARCHERS CHARACTERIZED ANTHRACNOSE... view more 

CREDIT: SURINDER CHOPRA/PENN STATE

With sorghum poised to become an important crop grown by Pennsylvania farmers, Penn State researchers, in a new study, tested more than 150 germplasm lines of the plant for resistance to a fungus likely to hamper its production.

Sorghum, a close relative to corn, is valuable for yielding human food, animal feed and biofuels. Perhaps its most notable attribute is that the grain it produces is gluten free. Drought resistant and needing a smaller amount of nutrients than corn to thrive, sorghum seems to be a crop that would do well in the Keystone State's climate in a warming world. But its susceptibility to fungal disease is problematic.

"In other locations where sorghum has been grown for a long time, it is attacked by a fungal pathogen that causes a disease called anthracnose leaf blight, which diminishes its yield," said study co-author Surinder Chopra, professor of maize genetics in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "We conducted a three-part experiment designed to evaluate the likelihood that anthracnose will be a problem with sorghum production in Pennsylvania, and what plants might resist the disease."

First, researchers carried out field surveys in 2011, 2012 and 2016 in six Pennsylvania locations to monitor the presence of the Colletotrichum fungus that causes anthracnose in commercial sorghum fields. They collected soil samples, plant samples and samples of the debris left by sorghum or corn, looking for the fungus at sites in Blair, Lancaster, Dauphin, Centre, Bedford and Lebanon counties.

Next, researchers grew 158 sorghum lines at Penn State's Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs and tested them for vulnerability and resistance to the natural strains of anthracnose fungus. They obtained plant material for many of the sorghum lines from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, better known as ICRISAT, India.

Other sorghum lines came from varieties Chopra's research group has been breeding in plots at Rock Springs for years and are being tested for stress tolerance in another study. Still others came from sources such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service stations in Griffin, Georgia, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Lubbock, Texas; the Grain, Forage and Bioenergy Research Center, Texas A&M Agrilife Sorghum Breeding Program; and the National Plant Germplasm System.

Lastly, researchers conducted experiments in greenhouses on the University Park campus. They chose 35 sorghum lines that demonstrated resistance to the fungus in field trials and tested their responses after inoculating them with the pathogen. The team evaluated and scored those plants for the severity of anthracnose leaf blight that developed.

In findings recently published in Crop Science, Chopra and colleagues reported that the anthracnose leaf blight symptoms were observed on the older and senescent leaves in Pennsylvania. After evaluating, in field and greenhouse tests, the performance of the 158 experimental lines and commercial hybrids, the researchers noted that they discovered sources of resistance to anthracnose leaf blight.

"Many of those sorghum lines we tested had been improved in several states in the U.S. and in other parts of the world," Chopra said. "These should be useful in breeding programs targeted for Pennsylvania and for northeastern U.S. climatic conditions. Several lines received from ICRISAT showed the high level of resistance in the field."

The research was done in preparation for widespread cultivation of sorghum in Pennsylvania, at which time anthracnose leaf blight is expected to become a problem for farmers, Chopra explained.

"Our study is the first to investigate the frequency, diversity and distribution of Colletotrichum fungi species on sorghum in Pennsylvania, and the first to look for disease-tolerant strains that will grow best in the Northeast," he said. "Our findings will help develop better recommendations for sorghum growers so they can manage and proactively prevent the buildup of inoculum and resulting disease outbreaks."

Also involved in the research were Iffa Gaffoor, former postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Plant Science at Penn State, advised by Chopra; Germán Sandoya, Everglades Research and Education Center/Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida; Katia Xavier, Lisa Vaillancourt and Etta Nuckles, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky; and Srinivasa R Pinnamaneni, Sorghum Breeding Program, ICRISAT, Patancheru, India.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Fundacion Alfonso Martin Escudero for postdoctoral research provided funding for this work.

CAPTION

Sorghum, a close relative to corn, is valuable for yielding human food, animal feed and biofuels. Perhaps its most notable attribute is that the grain it produces is gluten free.

CREDIT

Surinder Chopra, Penn State

CAPTION

Researchers cultured Colletotrichum strains recovered from sorghum from various Pennsylvania farms (top and middle rows). Spores (bottom row) were collected from the culture plates at 14 days after inoculation.

CREDIT

Chopra Lab, Penn State

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SORGHUM 

Women in science propose changes to discriminatory measures of scientific success

SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Research News

 

IMAGE: ANA K. SPALDING AND 23 OTHER WOMEN SCIENTISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, ADVOCATE FOR A SHIFT IN THE VALUE SYSTEM IN SCIENCE, TO EMPHASIZE A MORE EQUAL, DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE... view more 

CREDIT: JORGE ALEMAN

When Ana K. Spalding, a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and Assistant Professor of Marine and Coastal Policy at Oregon State University (OSU) talks about mentorship in academia, she describes it as meaningful relationship. It goes beyond conversations about research and publications, and into shared experiences. This is just one approach--proposed by Spalding and 23 other women scientists from around the world, in a new article published in PLOS Biology--that calls for a shift in the value system of science to emphasize a more equal, diverse and inclusive academic culture.

The authors came together after reading a paper in Nature Communications that was later retracted, which claimed that women in science fare better with male rather than female mentors. That paper used data on co-authorship among senior and junior researchers and citations as measures of mentorship and success. Yet these metrics are flawed and biased against marginalized groups. The data show that women receive more manuscript rejections and are less likely to be published in prestigious journals than men, while ethnically diverse scientific teams experience lower acceptance rates and fewer citations than less diverse teams.

Meanwhile, productivity is not always a sign of a supportive working environment, and recent studies show that graduate students are twice as likely to experience mental health challenges, compared to the general population with equivalent education. For women of color in STEMM fields, the trend is even more pronounced. They face both systemic sexism and racism, along with daily microaggressions. The situation is not much better for sexual minorities.

Spalding is afro-Panamanian, and a minority among tenured faculty at OSU. According to a 2019 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, less than 1 percent of tenured professors at OSU look like her. In the state of Oregon, things are not much different, where only about 2 percent of the population is Black or African American, per the U.S. Census Bureau. So, around OSU, challenges range from lack of representation in predominantly white spaces where her presence or expertise are questioned, to finding places to get her hair done (where hair, as a representation of Blackness is often questioned or seen as unprofessional).

As a graduate student, she never felt represented. Looking back, Spalding understands how important it would have been to have the kind of support where her identity and culture were considered holistically. In that sense, the PLOS Biology article encourages individuals to explore a variety of mentoring relationships throughout their careers: relationships that may help them achieve their different goals and needs beyond academia. This is one crucial way to promote wellbeing and foster a sense of belonging for mentees with diverse backgrounds, increasing their retention in science.

"Don't think you have to be a certain way to belong," Spalding said. "Feel confident that you belong, but also look for people who accept you as you are."

Ultimately, the authors call for the scientific community, in particular those in positions of power and privilege, to take strong action towards helping ensure safe and healthy work environments for scientists from diverse backgrounds, while supporting a more inclusive value system in science that embraces the multifaceted nature of scientific impact. With these changes in place, the scientific world will not only have a greater capacity for innovation, which is essential for addressing the pressing challenges of our times, such as pandemics and climate change, but will be a better place from a purely humanistic perspective.

As an example, Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian scientist who immigrated to the United States, struggled to find a permanent position for decades, relying instead on senior scientists to take her in. Now, her groundbreaking research in mRNA has made possible the development of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines against Covid-19.

"I'm particularly excited about the idea of expanding our definitions of science to be more inclusive of applied and relevant contributions to societal issues such as climate change (which may or may not get into the highest impact journals)," said Spalding. "Furthermore, I am keen on supporting a 'multidimensional mentorship model' that emphasizes mentee wellbeing in academia."

CAPTION

The proposed multidimensional mentorship model goes beyond conversations about research and publications, and into shared experiences. This image is from a dig in Cambutal, Panama, led by STRI archaeologists Ashley Sharpe and Nicole Smith-Guzman who hosted a class of students from the United States and Panama.

CREDIT

Ana Endara

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems.

Mountain fires burning higher at unprecedented rates

Climate change to blame for making high-elevation forests particularly susceptible to blazes

MCGILL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Forest fires have crept higher up mountains over the past few decades, scorching areas previously too wet to burn, according to researchers from McGill University. As wildfires advance uphill, a staggering 11% of all Western U.S. forests are now at risk.

"Climate change and drought conditions in the West are drying out high-elevation forests, making them particularly susceptible to blazes," says lead author Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, a PhD student at McGill University under the supervision of Professor Jan Adamowski. "This creates new dangers for mountain communities, with impacts on downstream water supplies and the plants and wildlife that call these forests home."

Climate warming has diminished 'flammability barrier'

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers analyzed records of fires larger than 405 hectares in the mountainous regions of the contiguous Western U.S. between 1984 and 2017. Their results show that climate warming has diminished the 'high-elevation flammability barrier' - the point where forests historically were too wet to burn regularly because of the lingering presence of snow. The researchers found that fires advanced about 252 meters uphill in the Western mountains over those three decades.

The amount of land that burned increased across all elevations during that period, however the largest increase was at elevations above 2,500 meters. Additionally, the area burning above 8,200 feet more than tripled in 2001 to 2017 compared with 1984 to 2000. Over the past 34 years, rising temperatures have extended fire territory in the West to an additional 81,500 square kilometers of high-elevation forests, an area similar in size to South Carolina.

"Climate change continues to increase the risk of fire, and this trend will likely continue as the planet warms. More fire activity higher in the mountains is yet another warning of the dangers that lie ahead," says co-author Jan Adamowski, a Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University.

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About this study

"Warming enabled upslope advance in western US forest fires" by Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, John T. Abatzoglou, Charles H. Luce, Jan F. Adamowski, Arvin Farid, and Mojtaba Sadegh was published on June 1, 2021 in in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009717118

Managed retreat: A must in the war against climate change

New research finds that moving off the coast and away from floods can expand options

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

VIDEO: NEW RESEARCH FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE'S A.R. SIDERS AND KATHARINE MACH, FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, FOUND THAT MANAGED RETREAT CAN'T BE SEEN AS A LAST RESORT -- IT... view more 

CREDIT: JEFFREY C. CHASE/ UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

University of Delaware disaster researcher A.R. Siders said it's time to put all the options on the table when it comes to discussing climate change adaptation.

Managed retreat -- the purposeful movement of people, buildings and other assets from areas vulnerable to hazards -- has often been considered a last resort. But Siders said it can be a powerful tool for expanding the range of possible solutions to cope with rising sea levels, flooding and other climate change effects when used proactively or in combination with other measures.

Siders, a core faculty member in UD's Disaster Research Center, and Katharine J. Mach, associate professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, provide a prospective roadmap for reconceptualizing the future using managed retreat in a new paper published online in Science on June 17, 2021.

"Climate change is affecting people all over the world, and everyone is trying to figure out what to do about it. One potential strategy, moving away from hazards, could be very effective, but it often gets overlooked," said Siders, assistant professor in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration and the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences. "We are looking at the different ways society can dream bigger when planning for climate change and how community values and priorities play a role in that."

Retreat does not mean defeat

Managed retreat has been happening for decades all over the United States at a very small scale with state and/or federal support. Siders pointed to Hurricanes Harvey and Florence as weather events that caused homeowners near the Gulf of Mexico to seek government support for relocation. Locally, towns such as Bowers Beach, near the Delaware coast, have used buyouts to remove homes and families from flood-prone areas, an idea that Southbridge in Wilmington is also exploring.

People often oppose the idea of leaving their homes, but Siders said thinking seriously about managed retreat sooner and in context with other available tools can reinforce decisions by prompting difficult conversations. Even if communities decide to stay in place, identifying the things community members value can help them decide what they want to maintain and what they purposely want to change.

"If the only tools you think about are beach nourishment and building walls, you're limiting what you can do, but if you start adding in the whole toolkit and combining the options in different ways, you can create a much wider range of futures," she said.

In the paper, Siders and Mach argue that long-term adaptation will involve retreat. Even traditionally accepted visions of the future, like building flood walls and elevating threatened structures, will involve small-scale retreat to make space for levees and drainage. Larger-scale retreat may be needed for more ambitious transformations, such as building floating neighborhoods or cities, turning roads into canals in an effort to live with the water, or building more dense, more compact cities on higher ground.

Some, but not all these futures currently exist.

In the Netherlands, the municipality of Rotterdam has installed floating homes in Nassau harbor that move with the tides, providing a sustainable waterfront view for homeowners while making room for public-friendly green space along the water. In New York City, one idea under consideration is building into the East River to accommodate a floodwall. Both cities are using combination strategies that leverage more than one adaptation tool.

Adaptation decisions don't have to be either/or decisions. However, it is important to remember that these efforts take time, so planning should begin now.

"Communities, towns, and cities are making decisions now that affect the future," said Siders. "Locally, Delaware is building faster inside the floodplain than outside of it. We are making plans for beach nourishment and where to build seawalls. We're making these decisions now, so we should be considering all the options on the table now, not just the ones that keep people in place."

According to Siders, the paper is a conversation starter for researchers, policymakers, communities and residents that are invested in helping communities thrive amid changing climate. These discussions, she said, shouldn't focus solely on where we need to move from, but also where we should avoid building, where new building should be encouraged, and how we should build differently.

"Managed retreat can be more effective in reducing risk, in ways that are socially equitable and economically efficient, if it is a proactive component of climate-driven transformations," said Mach. "It can be used to address climate risks, along with other types of responses like building seawalls or limiting new development in hazard-prone regions."

Globally, Siders said the U.S. is in a privileged position, in terms of the available space, money and resources, relative to other countries facing more complicated futures. The Republic of Kiribati, a chain of islands in the central Pacific Ocean, for example, is expected to be under water in the future. Some of its islands already are uninhabitable.

The Kiribati government has bought land in Fiji for relocation and is developing programs with Australia and New Zealand to provide skilled workforce training so the Kiribati people can migrate with dignity when the time comes. Challenges remain, though, since not everyone is on board with moving.

In a recent special issue of the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, edited and introduced by Siders and Idowu (Jola) Ajibade at Portland State University, researchers examined the social justice implications of managed retreat in examples from several countries, including the U.S., Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Peru, Sweden, Taiwan, Austria and England. The scientists explored how retreat affects groups of people and, in the U.S., specifically considered how retreat affects marginalized populations.

So, how can society do better? According to Siders, it starts with longer-term thinking.

"It's hard to make good decisions about climate change if we are thinking 5-10 years out," said Siders. "We are building infrastructure that lasts 50-100 years; our planning scale should be equally long."

Siders will give a keynote address and research presentation on the topic at a virtual managed retreat conference at Columbia University, June 22-25, 2021.

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THE COMMONWEALTH IS SACRED

Sacred natural sites protect biodiversity in Iran

Research team from the Universities of Kassel, Göttingen and Kurdistan investigate this form of local nature conservation

UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN

Research News

 

IMAGE: HOW MUCH DO TRADITIONAL PRACTICES CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROTECTION OF LOCAL BIODIVERSITY? WHY AND HOW ARE SACRED GROVES LOCALLY VALUED AND PROTECTED, AND HOW CAN THIS BE PROMOTED AND HARNESSED... view more 

CREDIT: ZAHED SHAKERI

How much do traditional practices contribute to the protection of local biodiversity? Why and how are sacred groves locally valued and protected, and how can this be promoted and harnessed for environmental protection? Working together with the University of Kurdistan, researchers of the University of Göttingen and the University of Kassel have examined the backgrounds of this form of local environmental protection in Baneh County, Iran.

"Around the world, local communities are voluntarily protecting certain parts of their surroundings due to religious reasons - be it in Ethiopia, Morocco, Italy, China or India", reports Professor Tobias Plieninger, head of the section Social-ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems at the universities of Kassel and Göttingen. Sacred natural sites are places where traditional myths and stories meet local ecological knowledge and environmental protection. Beyond state-based protection programs, these form a network of informal nature reserves.

In the contested border areas between Iran and Iraq, state-run environmental protection programs are often failing, while natural resources are under a lot of pressure. Even in such areas of conflict, patches of highly biodiverse woodlands still exist thanks to informal conservation traditions - in the form of decades-old sacred natural sites, some of which are known as the 'sacred groves'.

In the Middle East, sacred groves are quite common, but there has been very little research into these biocultural hotspots. They usually belong to a Mosque and serve as village cemeteries, the use of which is strictly regulated. Even though they usually cover only a small area - 1 hectare on average - they are comparatively rich in biodiversity, provide numerous ecosystem services and are of great cultural and spiritual importance to local communities.

Local people regard them as the abodes of their ancestors. Dr Zahed Shakeri, who accompanied the project as a post-doc researcher and grew up in the region himself, reports on the numerous myths and legends that surround these sites and demand a careful maintenance as well as respectful behavior. "Our research group developed a fascination for the botanical treasures of these sites," Plieninger tells. In a vegetation study, they found out that the taxonomic diversity in sacred groves is much higher than in neighboring cultivated lands. The vegetation composition, too, is fundamentally different here.

"The 22 sacred groves examined comprised 20% of the flora of the whole region. Moreover, they host multiple rare and endangered plants, and represent complex niches for threatened animals", Shakeri reports. "Due to this taxonomic diversity, sacred groves can serve as an important complement to formally protected areas in the region, and as baselines in their reconstruction." Today, due to changes in customary rights, population growth and the loss of traditional faiths, the number and condition of such sacred natural sites are decreasing around the world. Thus, local people's perceptions regarding sacred groves as well as the reasons for their relatively good condition in the region were also subject of this research.

On the basis of interviews with 205 residents from 25 villages, the research group identified people's key motivations for the areas' protection: in particular spiritual values, the preservation of cultural and spiritual heritage as well as of local biodiversity played a role here. Furthermore, the importance of taboos became clear, which particularly prohibit the use of natural resources (for instance forest clearance, hunting and livestock grazing) and road construction, but also regulate the general behavior within these sites.

Even though these social values and taboos are considered relatively stable in the province of Kurdistan, the interviewees repeatedly referred to the threatened situation of the groves in the region. Especially elderly and rural people, women and people with traditional lifestyles were regarded as the holders of these values and taboos. "Protection programs could support these groups to defend and revive their customs. At the same time, young and urban people with modern lifestyles represent an important target group for awareness-raising," Shakeri summarizes.

The example of sacred groves demonstrates that social dynamics and especially cultural values deserve greater attention in environmental protection: "Such a biocultural approach to conservation that considers different worldviews and knowledge systems, could translate social taboos and the related land-use practices into socially acceptable and environmentally effective conservation outcomes", Plieninger concludes.

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On the online blog of the research group Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems: https://medium.com/people-nature-landscapes

The (English-language) blog articles:
Sacred Groves in Kurdistan: Biodiversity, Locally Preserved
Sacred Groves as a Safe Shelter for Biodiversity and Culture in Kurdistan

Original publications:Plieninger, T., Quintas-Soriano, C., Torralba, M., Muhammadi Sammani, K., & Shakeri, Z. 2020.Social dynamics of values, taboos and perceived threats around sacred groves in Kurdistan, Iran. People and Nature 2: 1237-1250 AND
Shakeri, Z., Mohammadi-Samani, K., Bergmeier, E. & Plieninger, T. 2021. Spiritual values shape taxonomic diversity, vegetation composition, and conservation status in woodlands of the Northern Zagros, Iran. Ecology and Society 26, art. 30.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12290-260130