A reversible male contraceptive, targeted to the testes with magnets

THERE WON'T BE ONE UNTIL IT IS 100% SAFE

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Women have several choices for long-lasting, reversible contraceptives, but most options for men are either single-use, such as condoms, or difficult to reverse, like vasectomies. Now, in a step toward a safe, long-lasting and reversible male contraceptive, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have developed magnetic, biodegradable nanomaterials that reduced the likelihood of mice fathering pups for at least 30 days.

Elevated temperatures, which can be caused by wearing too-tight pants or underwear, can decrease sperm count in men. Some researchers have explored the more intense heating of nanomaterials injected into the testes as a form of male birth control. However, the injection can be painful, the heating can damage skin, and most nanomaterials tested so far are not biodegradable. Weihua Ding, Fei Sun and colleagues wanted to develop a safe, effective magnetic-thermal approach to male contraception that doesn’t need to be injected directly into the testes.

The researchers tested two forms of iron oxide nanoparticles, which are biodegradable and can be guided and heated with magnetic fields, as male contraceptives. One type of nanoparticle was coated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and the other with citric acid. Although the PEG-coated nanoparticles could be heated to higher temperatures, they were not as easily manipulated by magnets as the other ones. So the researchers injected repeated doses of citric acid-coated nanoparticles into the bloodstream of mice for 2 days, guided the nanomaterials to the testes with magnets, and then applied an alternating magnetic field to the area for 15 minutes. The nanoparticles heated the testes to a temperature of 104 F, shrinking them and inhibiting spermatogenesis before gradual recovery 30 to 60 days after treatment. The mice couldn’t father any pups 7 days after treatment, but they were back to fathering about 12 pups per pregnant female at day 60. The nanoparticles were non-toxic to cells and were gradually eliminated from the body, offering new possibilities for male contraception, the researchers say.

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The authors acknowledge funding from the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China and the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Advanced Display and System Applications of Ministry of Education (Shanghai University).

The abstract that accompanies this paper can be viewed here. 

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

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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JOURNAL

Nano Letters

DOI

10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02181

ARTICLE TITLE

Magnetic Testis Targeting and Magnetic Hyperthermia for Noninvasive, Controllable Male Contraception via Intravenous Administration

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Jul-2021

 

Variations in climate conditions affect reproductive success of Antarctic krill, study finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A GRAVID FEMALE KRILL, MEANING SHE IS CARRYING THOUSANDS OF EGGS AND READY TO TO SPAWN. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY LANGDON QUETIN.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Climate conditions play a significant role in the reproductive success of mature female Antarctic krill and are a factor in fluctuations of the population that occur every five to seven years, a new study from Oregon State University has found.

Environmental factors, including large-scale climate patterns that affect availability of food, influence the females’ overall health during the spawning season. While those climate patterns are natural, they are trending warmer and more intense due to climate change, which is likely to have a negative impact on the krill population, said Kirsten Steinke, a doctoral student working with biological oceanographer Kim Bernard at Oregon State.

“This ecologically important species serves as the base of the food web in the Antarctic peninsula, supporting everything from whales to penguins to seabirds,” said Steinke, the study’s lead author. “Understanding the connection between the environment and population health is critical for predicting future demographic patterns and responses to climate change in the krill population.”

The findings were published recently in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. Co-authors are Bernard, an associate professor in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; and Robin M. Ross and Landgon B. Quetin of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Antarctic krill, also known as Euphausia superba, is a type of zooplankton that can live five to seven years and grow to a length of a little more than two inches.

The western Antarctic Peninsula is home to a significant portion of Antarctic krill biomass. It is also where the bulk of the krill fishery occurs; it is the largest fishery in the Southern Ocean, with an estimated 313,000 tons harvested in 2018. Krill are used as feed for fish farms and as a source of supplements such as omega-3 oil.

“This region is critically important because it is both a popular fishing spot and one of the biggest spots for krill spawning and it is also warming more quickly than other parts of Antarctica,” Steinke said. “There has been a notable poleward contraction of the population and a decrease in population size in recent years.”

Past research has shown that the Antarctic krill population fluctuates on a five- to seven-year cycle. The focus of this new research was to better understand the factors that influence the population fluctuations.

“You tend to see two years of high krill recruitment, meaning a high proportion of juvenile krill in the population, and then a crash, and then the population starts to rebound again,” said Bernard, who has spent significant time in Antarctica studying krill, including a winter at Palmer Station with Steinke. “Understanding what is driving that cycle is critical.”

Using krill population data from 1993 to 2008, the researchers found a relationship between the condition of the female krill of reproductive age during spawning season and the proportion of juvenile krill the following year; when mature females were in better condition, there were more juveniles in the population the next year.

The degree of krill’s reproductive output is affected by the length of spawning season, batch size per female per spawning event, number of mature females in the population, the presence of older mature females in the population, or a combination of those things.

The researchers also found that fluctuations in large-scale climate patterns and seasonal variations in the climate are the predominant drivers of the health of mature female krill during spawning season.

The climate in the western Antarctic Peninsula is primarily driven by the Southern Annual Mode, or SAM, and the Multivariate El Niño Southern Oscillation Index, or MEI. Both of these climate patterns have the ability to affect the availability of food for Antarctic krill, and in particular, resources for the mature females.

SAM and MEI are natural climate patterns but they are changing as the planet warms. The SAM in particular has been trending positive, meaning it has been warmer and more intense. That positive phase is projected to continue under climate change, Bernard said.

“The SAM was found to be really important to driving the health of the female krill,” she said. “As the SAM continues to trend positive, it will continue to get warmer, and that suggests a negative effect on the overall condition of female krill during their spawning season.”

The researchers also found that seasonal variations in the SAM and the MEI can affect the health of mature female krill. That is likely due to the way that the SAM and MEI are known to affect environmental conditions, Bernard said. Overall, warmer conditions tend to have a negative impact on the health of female krill of reproductive age, but those impacts can vary depending on the season in which they occur.

Understanding those nuances could help fisheries managers make decisions when conditions in spring, fall or winter lead to a less than ideal spawning season. The research underscores the importance of considering the impact of climate change as part of fisheries management for Antarctic krill, Bernard said.

“It is really critical to start including climate change impacts as part of the plan,” Bernard said. “Antarctic krill are a super unique and fascinating species. So many predators feed on them. If you have a collapse of the krill population, you would be putting all of those populations at risk.”

Adélie penguins, for example, feed on the mature, female krill, because they are rich in lipids, a nutritional benefit that helps penguin chicks survive their first year.

“If there are a lot of mature female krill, the chicks can bulk up and survive the winter,” Bernard said. “But the Adélie penguin population has plummeted at the northern parts of the Antarctic Peninsula in recent years, in part because of changes in the krill population.”

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JOURNAL

Marine Ecology Progress Series

DOI

10.3354/meps13720

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Environmental drivers of the physiological condition of mature female Antarctic krill during the spawning season: implications for krill recruitment

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Jul-2021

COI STATEMENT

N/A

Which voices led medical misinformation in the early stages of COVID?

UC study: Researchers unpack how convoluted messaging surrounded a drug therapy early in the pandemic

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

 

IMAGE: JEFFREY BLEVINS, PROFESSOR AND HEAD OF UC'S DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM view more 

CREDIT: UC CREATIVE + BRAND

In the early and thus far most devastating stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists were at a near loss on how to treat the deadly disease. The public was desperate for information. Consequently, two antimalarial drugs ― chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine ― were the subject of a Twitter storm in the marketplace of ideas known as social media. The medication was lauded as a potential cure: There was run on the medication, creating a shortage for those who used it for other medical indications, such as lupus. One person died and another was hospitalized after taking chloroquine as a prophylactic.

Although the drug therapy turned out not to be the magic bullet, researchers from the University of Cincinnati wanted to know what influences caused so many people to believe this therapy was indeed the answer, despite warnings from leaders in the scientific community that the efficacy of the drug was unfounded. Their findings appear in the journal Social Media + Society.

Supported by the UC Office of Research’s Digital Futures Initiative and with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a multidisciplinary team analyzed over 100 million Twitter posts related to COVID-19. By focusing on tweets, likes and retweets citing the drugs by name, the team learned that science and politics were directly competing against each other; and the loudest voice in the social media platform, then President Donald Trump, contributed greatly to the falsehood, even though he was not the originator of the claims. 

“The research attempted to provide more clarity between misinformation, disinformation and b.s.,” says the study’s lead author Jeffrey Blevins, professor and head of UC’s Department of Journalism. The distinction, he says, is that disinformation is an intentional act of deception, misinformation is ignorance of fact, and bull---- is not caring whether the information is true or false based on indifference to the claim or allegiance to its origin. Examples of the latter going around the social sphere were that the virus was caused by 5G wireless, that African Americans were immune and that a certain type of toothpaste was the cure. 

“We have to be aware that there are all sorts of actors on social media, and they are not all credible; just because something is trending or in the echo chamber, it tends to make it sound more credible,” says Blevins. “The sheer volume of the message or the fact that something goes viral doesn’t necessarily make it true,” he says, noting that the drug therapy claims fell into the category of misinformation because there was some evidence based in science that it could be useful.

After all, even the president boasted of taking it without harm. 

However, it was the president’s tweets about the drug therapy and the feedback loop between Fox News and Trump followers, Blevins says, that propagated the falsehood of a potential cure, making it “a political issue instead of a medical issue.” 

Another finding, Blevins says, is that the news media focused more on fact-checking the president for misinformation, instead of the true originators: misguided physicians and conspiracy theorists such as QAnon. “[Trump] got a lot of attention because he was the most significant actor in the spread of misinformation.” But what was ignored by news media, researchers say, was where the misinformation originated. “There wasn’t any real discussion about the truth,” says Blevins.

Additionally, the UC study produced charts and graphs that map out which voices dominated the messaging. “When you see the interrelations of Twitter handles mapped out with color and shape in the network visualizations, you actually perform a type of analysis that couldn't be done before,” says study co-author James Lee, associate vice provost for digital scholarship and director of UC’s Digital Scholarship Center. These visuals, he says, are illuminating: “If you just read the tweets, you do not see the impact. Data visualization really allowed us to hone in on who the real influences were in this case.”

In the past, Blevins says, “the theory of the marketplace of ideas has been that we don’t filter anything and eventually the truth will emerge, but what we are seeing here is that it’s not the case. We don’t have a system to resolve disparate claims about the truth.” 

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DOI

10.1177/20563051211024977

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Shouting Into the Wind: Medical Science versus “B.S.” in the Twitter Maelstrom of Politics and Misinformation About Hydroxychloroquine

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Jun-2021

 

New book helps readers spot online health scams

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

 

IMAGE: UBC PROFESSOR BERNIE GARRETT view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: UBC FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCE

Internet health scams have increased in recent years, often spread through social media and causing untold harm, according to a new book by UBC nursing professor, Dr. Bernie Garrett.

The New Alchemists focuses on some of the many deceptive healthcare and marketing techniques used to mislead people—and offers readers tips to avoid falling prey to scammers.

Dr. Garrett has more than 35 years of experience in nursing and research on health care practices. In this Q&A, he explains why online health scams are so pervasive, shares recent examples, and gives advice to minimize their impacts.

Why is your book called The New Alchemists?

The alchemists are best known for trying to turn metal into gold, but they also sought to develop an immortality potion. These ancient philosophers acquired a reputation for being charlatans and crooks, and so the title fits very well with what we’re seeing today where people are marketing various fake remedies.

Why is it important to understand and detect health scams?

Deliberately selling a product using false marketing or spreading false information can have serious health consequences. Probably the worst examples are the fake cancer clinics that sell remedies or treatments for cancer patients who are desperately searching for solutions.

We’ve also seen hugely deceptive practices in the pharmaceutical industry, such as lawsuits over the mis-marketing of drugs such as OxyContin or Abilify.

Stranger examples include the 18-year-old fake doctor in Florida who operated for a number of years, as well as bizarre fake health machines, and alternative practitioners who market useless therapies using false claims.

Why are people seemingly deceived so easily?

Scam marketers are well-versed in modern advertising techniques and the psychology of persuasion. They know all the triggers that can help sell a product. Examples include making it appear that a treatment is scarce, with language like “supplies are running out” or “buy it quickly now before it’s gone.” They often link their product to positive images, such as photos of mothers, or claim that a product is “healthy” or “natural”.

There are certainly conditions that the medical field does not have good treatments for and so people seek alternatives. Unfortunately, this can also make them easier prey for deceptive practitioner

CAPTION

New book by UBC nursing professor, Dr. Bernie Garrett focuses on some of the many deceptive healthcare and marketing techniques used to mislead people—and offers readers tips to avoid falling prey to scammers.

CREDIT

Photo: Hammersmith Health Books

Have these deceptive practices proliferated during COVID-19?

They definitely have proliferated, and this has been aided by social media. You’ve only got to look at the success of the anti-vaccination campaign, where we see people being falsely advised that they will become magnetic or infertile or claiming vaccines have not been tested. Unfortunately, people can post misinformation on social media with no real consequences.

How can people protect themselves from internet health scams?

As we outline in the book and in previous research, look for trigger words, such as if the marketer suggests that something is only available for a short time or from this one site. Watch for claims that mention “science hasn’t caught up with this” or “amazing results”. Be very wary of claims that are based on personal testimonies or celebrity endorsement.

Check the source of information. Use established, reliable sources such as Health Canada, the World Health Organization or even the FDA in the United States. These type of sources are certainly more trustworthy than a blog post from relatives or friends or people you’ve never heard of on social media.

It’s also important for all of us to lobby for better health regulation and advertising standards of practice.

We do need to take an interest in our health and in what we are being told. Deception is more widespread than people think, but you can take some simple steps to avoid getting caught up in it.

Overall, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Weird, noodle-shaped amphibians known as caecilians found in South Florida canal

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

 

IMAGE: FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE OFFICERS CAPTURED AN AQUATIC CAECILIAN DURING A ROUTINE SURVEY OF MIAMI'S TAMIAMI CANAL. NATIVE TO SOUTH AMERICA, THE SPECIMEN REPRESENTS THE FIRST CAECILIAN RECORDED IN THE WILD IN THE U.S. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF AUSTIN PRECHTEL

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Caecilians have arrived in Miami. Florida Fish and Wildlife biologists captured one of the obscure legless amphibians in the Tamiami Canal, the first example of an introduced caecilian in the U.S.

Florida Museum of Natural History scientists used DNA testing to identify the specimen as the Rio Cauca caecilian, Typhlonectes natans, a native of Colombia and Venezuela. While caecilians – pronounced like “Sicilians” – hunt and scavenge various kinds of small animals, museum experts say it’s too early to predict their potential impact on the local ecosystem.

“Very little is known about these animals in the wild, but there’s nothing particularly dangerous about them, and they don’t appear to be serious predators,” said Coleman Sheehy, Florida Museum’s herpetology collection manager. “They’ll probably eat small animals and get eaten by larger ones. This could be just another non-native species in the South Florida mix.”

Sheehy first learned of the caecilian when FWC officers sent him a photograph in 2019, puzzled at the two-foot-long eel-like animal they had netted in shallow water during a routine survey of the Tamiami Canal, also known as the C-4 Canal. After the caecilian died in captivity, it was sent to the Florida Museum for further analysis. Since then, Sheehy has received several other specimens and reports of caecilians in the canal and will conduct fieldwork in the area to determine their numbers and range.

“At this point, we really don’t know enough to say whether caecilians are established in the C-4 Canal,” he said. “That’s what we want to find out.”

Little is known about this group of reclusive animals. Many caecilians spend their lives burrowed underground while others, including Typhlonectes natans, exclusively inhabit fresh water. Although they resemble worms or snakes, they comprise a separate order of amphibians, distinct from frogs, toads, salamanders and newts. Caecilians can range in size from a few inches to 5 feet long, depending on the species, and have extremely poor eyesight – their name translates to “blind ones.” They also have a pair of sensory tentacles located between their eyes and nostrils, structures that are unique to caecilians and may help them find food.

The northern tip of their range in the Western Hemisphere is southern Mexico, which is home to a group of land-dwelling caecilians, and they’re also found in tropical parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. Fossil remains of ancient caecilian ancestors, dating back more than 170 million years, have been discovered in the American Southwest, but apart from the caecilians recently introduced to South Florida, no representatives of this lineage live in the U.S. today.

“This was not on my radar,” Sheehy said. “I didn’t think we’d one day find a caecilian in Florida. So, this was a huge surprise.”

Typhlonectes natans is the most common caecilian in the pet trade and will breed in captivity, giving birth to live young. Because this species is generally kept in aquariums indoors and can’t easily escape, Sheehy suspects someone discarded their unwanted pets in the canal.

In its native range, Typhlonectes natans lives in warm, slow-moving bodies of shallow water with aquatic vegetation.

“Parts of the C-4 Canal are just like that,” Sheehy said. “This may be an environment where this species can thrive.”

CAPTION

This Rio Cauca caecilian, Typhlonectes natans, was captured in South Florida's Tamiami Canal, the first record of a caecilian living in the wild in the U.S. Originally from South America, the species is common in the international pet trade.

CREDIT

Sheehy published a study describing the discovery in Reptiles & Amphibians.

Other study co-authors are David Blackburn and Marcel Kouete of the Florida Museum and Kelly Gestring, Krissy Laurie, Austin Prechtel, Eric Suarez and Brooke Talley of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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DOI

10.17161/randa.v28i2.15629

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Case study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

First record of a caecilian (order Gymnophiona, Typhlonectes natans) in Florida and in the United States

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Jul-2021

 

Are laundry and dish pods biodegradable? Not exactly, ASU study shows

Outer pod packaging needs a specific environment to completely biodegrade

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A NEW ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH SHOWS THAT AS MUCH AS 75% OF POLYVINYL ALCOHOL (PVA) GOES UNTREATED IN THE U.S. EACH YEAR. THAT AMOUNTS TO ABOUT 8,000 TONS OF THE SYNTHETIC POLYMER BEING RELEASED ANNUALLY ONTO LAND AND INTO WATERWAYS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. view more 

CREDIT: SHIREEN DOOLING

Laundry and dishwasher pods: The simplicity of grabbing a pod and tossing it into a washing machine or dishwasher has made them a popular choice for many consumers for nearly a decade.

Detergent and other ingredients are packaged inside a dissolvable plastic coating called polyvinyl alcohol, or PVA. This synthetic polymer, used since the early 1930s, is water-soluble and breaks apart during the wash cycle, releasing the detergent.

Many companies claim PVA is biodegradable. While it can be fully biodegradable, specific conditions are needed for it to completely biodegrade. These conditions are often unmet. Also, as it dissolves upon contact with water, it can release ethylene, which is a fossil-fuel-based chemical. 

This got two Arizona State University researchers wondering what happens to PVA when it reaches wastewater treatment plants.

“There are very strict conditions needed for PVA to biodegrade, and this is not met within conventional water treatment in the U.S.," said Charlie Rolsky, co-first author of a new study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. "We can look at the literature and assess how much PVA is breaking down, and in what section of the wastewater treatment plant. We can combine that with how much wastewater is generated in the U.S. and how many of these laundry and dish pods are used in the U.S. each year.

“When we put these pieces together, we can project how much PVA goes untreated and is released into the environment,” said Rolsky, a postdoctoral researcher with the ASU Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Material and Manufacturing.

The study, published in June 2021, shows that as much as 75% of PVA goes untreated in the U.S. each year. That amounts to about 8,000 tons of the plastic material being released annually onto land and into waterways across the country.

According to co-first author Varun Kelkar, a PhD candidate and researcher with the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering, as well as a volunteer with Plastic Oceans International, many companies hire outside firms to create specific biological environments suitable for PVA to degrade. By doing so, the company using PVA in its products can claim it’s biodegradable. But, he said, wastewater treatments plants in the U.S. are generally not built to create optimal conditions for this specific polymer. Instead, they are built to treat human waste and other biological matter.

“According to our model, most of the PVA just passes through the treatment plant,” Kelkar said. “And then it depends. It might completely biodegrade if the environmental conditions are met. And if they’re not met, say in a cool area where the bacterial activity is relatively low, it’s unknown what happens to this large amount of polyvinyl alcohol.”

Both researchers say it’s time to take a closer look at what it actually means for a material to be biodegradable, and whether companies should be allowed to claim their products are biodegradable if they only are so under specific conditions.

“A general understanding of biodegradable is that it’s something that can completely vanish. You throw it into the environment, and like food, it should go away without any side effects and be biologically available to microorganisms for fuel,” Kelkar said. “Yet, we know this is not the case with PVA.”

PVA is used in a wide variety of products — it's often found in textiles, paper, adhesives and paints, and it also has medical, industrial and commercial applications. While Rolsky and Kelkar say they do not intend to vilify PVA as a useful material, they do have concerns about what it may be doing, unnoticed, to the environment.

“A lot of companies are claiming that PVA is biodegradable. It’s not fully degrading,” Rolsky said. “And there really isn’t any literature or research on PVA as a pollutant. We know it’s out there, but we don’t know whether it’s causing harm. We know it can sequester heavy metals and leach into groundwater. It can also alter gas exchanges, which can affect aquatic ecosystems, and we know that ethylene, a byproduct of PVA, is a hormone that plants utilize. It’s important that we study this further.”

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JOURNAL

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

DOI

10.3390/ijerph18116027

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Degradation of Polyvinyl Alcohol in US Wastewater Treatment Plants and Subsequent Nationwide Emission Estimate

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Jun-2021

 

Climate adaptation at the department of defense and beyond

New UArizona-led research identifies climate change challenges faced by US Department of Defense facilities, and solutions that might serve as a model for other large organizations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

As climate change continues to pose a global threat, new research from the University of Arizona looks at how it may be impacting the world's largest employer: the U.S. Department of Defense.

A team of University of Arizona researchers set out to understand how climate change might affect Department of Defense facilities and activities across the globe, and what actions the department can take to both respond to climate-related threats and reduce its own contributions to climate change.

With a budget larger than many countries and a huge influence on global politics, the DOD has the potential to serve as an example for other large organizations, or even cities, when it comes to climate adaptation and climate change mitigation strategies, say the researchers, whose results are published in the journal Climate Services.

The team looked specifically at four military bases in the southwestern United States: Fort Huachuca in Southern Arizona, Naval Base Coronado in Southern California, and Arizona's Barry M. Goldwater Range East and Barry M. Goldwater Range West.

They worked with liaisons and personnel at each base to identify potential climate-related threats facing the bases and their operations. Then, through workshops and discussions, personnel at each base outlined adaptation and mitigation strategies that the bases should consider implementing, which the UArizona researchers summarized in their paper.

The impacts of climate change have already been felt by some of the bases the researchers studied. For example, the authors write that fires and post-fire flooding are significant concerns for resource managers at Fort Huachuca, and a small wildfire in 2011 burned a section of Naval Base Coronado. Those types of events are likely at least exacerbated by climate change, the researchers write.

"The DOD will need to adapt to climate to protect its own facilities, activities, resources and infrastructure," said study co-author Don Falk, a professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment.

"There have been a surprisingly large number of forward-thinking policy statements related to climate adaptation within the DOD," Falk said. "The department has recognized for a long time that climate change is serious business."

However, putting policies into action at individual bases is not without challenges, which the researchers outline in their study.

The Challenges

Obstacles such as frequent leadership turnover and base officials' limited access to decision makers in the military hierarchy can make it hard to put climate adaptation and mitigation strategies into action, the researchers write.

In addition, the researchers found that climate change commitments by high-ranking officials don't always get translated to action on the ground.

Another issue is insufficient training, capacity and incentives to integrate climate information into short-term and long-term planning.

High turnover among base commanders can also create an environment in which there's lack of attention to long-term issues such as climate change, the researchers write. In most cases, base commanders are at installations for three years at most.

"This is a problem that's endemic across the climate change issue, including within Congress. Elected officials work within election cycles only a few years long," said Gregg Garfin, lead study author and director of the university's Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center.

The Recommendations

The study authors say that making meaningful changes within the department might start with emphasizing risks to DOD missions.

"The department's way of thinking is all about ensuring mission preparedness, and so that's the doorway to working on climate adaptation strategies with them," said Garfin, who is also the director of science translation and outreach for the Arizona Institutes for Resilience and an associate professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Also important, Garfin said, is finding champions at individual bases to lead climate adaptation efforts.

"These are people who will step up and take on this issue, which we found was really critical," Garfin said.

The DOD also can pursue climate-related partnerships with nearby land owners and other organizations, the researchers write.

"The department can coordinate and learn from other organizations and share their learning with their neighbors as well, so the department doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting," Garfin said. "Building this kind of culture of adaptation to climate change across many entities, I think, will make a large impact."

In addition, the researchers suggest that the department integrate climate considerations into existing plans.

"Instead of putting a new burden on installations to develop a new standalone climate plan, they can incorporate some risk information into existing plans and operations," Garfin said. "That seems to be the major solution."

Some of the easiest changes will likely be operational, say the researchers. For example, aircraft use huge amounts of energy and produce huge amounts of pollution, Falk said, so bases might consider operating solely on electric vehicles.

An existing example of a military base practicing climate adaptation is the solar power plant at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. The base has the Air Force's largest operational solar array, which provides a large chunk of the base's power needs.

The UArizona research team hopes similar measures can be enacted across the country.

"As a climate scientist, it was really refreshing to find that at the federal level, the DOD had made many clear, unambiguous fact-based statements about climate," Falk said. "Their job is to recognize threats and concerns that involve the security of their facilities, activities and the country at large."

The researchers believe their findings can be applied to other large organizations, or even cities, that are facing similar pressures and challenges related to climate change.

"I think the involvement of the Department of Defense could be a true game changer for the whole process of climate adaptation in our society, for at least two reasons," Falk said. "They are so large, with a gigantic energy and resource footprint, and anything they do is going to have a ripple effect. Secondly, the military has credibility. When the military comes around on something, people listen."

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The study was co-authored by UArizona's Katharine Jacobs, Christopher O'Connor, Arin Haverland, Jeremy Weiss, Adriana Zuñiga-Terán and the late Raphael Sagarin, who was principal investigator on the project until his passing in 2015. Additional co-authors are Anna Haworth and Alastair Baglee from the risk management consulting firm Willis Towers Watson in Cardiff, Wales, and Jonathan Overpeck at the University of Michigan. The study was funded by the DOD's Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.

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JOURNAL

Climate Services

DOI

10.1016/j.cliser.2021.100230

ARTICLE TITLE

A new mission: Mainstreaming climate adaptation in the US Department of Defense

 

Managing earthquakes triggered by oil production

Scientists demonstrate safer wastewater disposal method

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE

 

IMAGE: OIL PRODUCTION GENERATES LARGE VOLUMES OF WASTEWATER, WHICH IS OFTEN INJECTED INTO THE GROUND AS A MEANS OF DISPOSAL TO AVOID POLLUTING SURFACE WATERS. THE INJECTIONS CAN CAUSE EARTHQUAKES. view more 

CREDIT: UCR

A team of scientists has developed an approach to disposing wastewater that reduces the danger of triggering an earthquake.

Oil production generates large volumes of wastewater, which is often injected into the ground as a means of disposal to avoid polluting surface waters. However, injections have the potential to cause earthquakes.

A study documenting the method devised by a multidisciplinary team of scientists to avoid such earthquakes has been published today in the journal Nature. Their method was tested in western Europe’s largest onshore oil field, the Val d’Agri field in southern Italy.

Hundreds of small earthquakes were detected there after field operators injected wastewater into an abandoned well in 2006. 

“The earthquakes were detected within hours of injection,” said James Dietrich, study co-author and UC Riverside distinguished professor emeritus of geophysics. “The cause and effect relationship was clear.”

Wanting to learn what levels of injection are safe, the field operators convened a team from UCR, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas. 

Dieterich took data gathered in the field and created models that accurately reproduced seismic events observed between 1993 and 2016. Based on studies conducted in Dieterich’s laboratory, his models help explain how a small change in the amount of stress on a fault can result in a large change in the rate of earthquakes.

The research team then used models to forecast the effects of using three different water injection rates. They determined that a relatively low injection rate was sustainable and should not induce shaking. 

Between January 2017 and June 2019, these projections were tested in the field, and seismic activity was consistent with the predicted levels. The authors suggest that this approach can be used to manage earthquakes generated by other activities, such as carbon sequestration.

This strategy to reduce global warming involves capturing industrial carbon dioxide and putting it into the ground rather than the atmosphere. 

“One of the big impediments to this is that gigantic volumes of fluids injected into the ground will probably trigger earthquakes,” Dieterich said. “How can that be managed? We’ve learned a little here that may help along those lines, and for related problems like fracking.”

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-021-03668-z

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A process-based approach to understanding and managing triggered seismicity

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Jul-2021