Ancient genes vital for dolphin survival

by University of St Andrews

Credit: © Marie Louis, Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)

Ancient genes that predate the last Ice Age may be the key to survival, at least if you are a dolphin, according to new research led by the University of St Andrews.

Genes up to 2.3 million-years-old helped the bottlenose dolphin adapt to new habitats through changes in behavior and may be the secret to their survival and range expansion, according to the new research published in Science Advances.

Understanding the processes that allow species to extend their ranges and adapt to environmental conditions in a newly available habitat, such as coastal habitats at the end of the last Ice Age, is an essential question in biology.

This new international study involving the University of Montpellier, the University of Groningen, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the University of Copenhagen and the University of La Rochelle in collaboration with researchers from Scotland, Ireland, the United States and Switzerland addressed this in the highly social and long-lived common bottlenose dolphin, a species which has repeatedly adapted from being an offshore (pelagic) species to life in coastal waters.

Key to their ability to adapt to changing environments over generations are genes associated with cognitive abilities and feeding behaviors, indicating that bottlenose dolphin sociality has helped them to adapt and survive.

Dr. Marie Louis, visiting scholar in Professor Oscar Gaggiotti's research group in the School of Biology at the University of St Andrews, said: "Old genes were important contributors to bottlenose dolphins' ability to repeatedly adapt to coastal waters across the world.

"Furthermore, several of the genes involved in this repeated adaptation to coastal habitats have roles in cognitive abilities and feeding, suggesting a role of social behavior in facilitating the ability of bottlenose dolphins to adapt to novel conditions.

"Conserving old genes may thus be critical for any species to cope with current rapid global change."

The research team re-sequenced and analyzed the whole genomes of 57 coastal and pelagic dolphins from three regions—the eastern North Atlantic, western North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific—to figure out how the bottlenose dolphin has been able to repeatedly adapt to coastal waters.

The team found that the pelagic and coastal ecotypes from the Atlantic and the Pacific have evolved independently, while those in the Atlantic are partially related.

Scanning the genomes for patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation, the team found that some regions of the genome were under the influence of selection in all three geographically distant coastal populations and were thus likely involved in adaptation to coastal habitats.

Even more striking was the fact that these genomic regions under parallel adaptation, and present at low to intermediate frequency in the pelagic populations, were very old.

This suggests that these old genes have been repeatedly repackaged during the formation of coastal populations, when new coastal habitats opened up, for example at the end of the last Ice Age.

The paper "Selection on ancestral genetic variation fuels repeated ecotype formation in bottlenose dolphins" is published in Science Advances.Dolphins adapt to survive invasive coastal constructions

More information: Marie Louis et al, Selection on ancestral genetic variation fuels repeated ecotype formation in bottlenose dolphins, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg124

Journal information: Science Advances 

Provided by University of St Andrews 

 

A reef in two gears: New patterns of coral recovery discovered

by Queensland University of Technology

A young coral colony (Acropora recruit) on the surface of a reef on the Great Barrier Reef. 

Credit: AIMS

Damaged coral reefs show slower than expected recovery for up to six years before switching to a faster phase of regrowth, according to new research.

This "two-phase" recovery pattern was observed in 60 percent of severely disturbed reefs on the Great Barrier Reef.

The modeling research, involving scientists from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS), pinpoints patterns of reef recovery amid disturbances including storms, marine heatwaves, and crown-of-thorns starfish.

The researchers mapped the presence of the "two-phase pattern" in reef recovery based on AIMS long term monitoring data by modifying data analysis methods used in cancer cell biology.

The findings have been published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Lead researcher, Dr. David Warne, from QUT's Centre for Data Science, said it was a "serendipitous moment in science" that brought together the team involving mathematicians, statisticians, and marine ecologists.

Dr. Warne said the connection between reef research and cancer research stemmed from a seminar at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) with AIMS senior scientist Dr. Juan Ortiz, providing insights into growth patterns of Tabular Acropora.

"The actual growth dynamics of individual coral colonies is vastly different to cancer cells, but the net population level behavior can be remarkably similar," Dr. Warne said.

Dr. Warne said the results of the research provided critical information for the management of the GBR as it identified reefs in need of help, in the same way doctors triage patients to prioritize treatment.

"There was a working assumption that main driver of reef recovery was competition for space, but these results suggest that corals colonies may be growing at lower rates for three to four years after major disturbances," he said.

The researchers also found the two-phase recovery pattern was present in 50-60 percent of the monitored sites that had experienced at least one major disturbance over the past 30 years.

Dr. Ortiz said the research provided detailed insights into the coral growth currently being observed in the field on the Great Barrier Reef.

"It's like starting your car in the wrong gear, you move really slowly until the engine catches up and then you move normally," Dr. Ortiz said.

"Since 2009, the GBR has been hit hard with mass bleaching events, cyclones, and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, reducing coral cover.

"After a window of reprieve from disturbances, AIMS' Long-Term Monitoring team has recently observed strong increases in coral cover.

"We can see those reefs which have experienced rapid increases are now in the second, faster recovery phase."

Dr. Warne said the research emphasized the importance of future studies to understand mechanisms driving the two-phase patterns of coral growth.

The research team involved AIMS' Dr. Ortiz, Kerryn Crossman, Kate Osbourne and Angus Thompson, Wang Jin from the University of NSW as well as QUT's Dr. Warne, Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen, Professor Matthew Simpson, and Dr. Paul Wu, who are also members of ACEMS.

Turning the tables—how table corals are regenerating reefs

More information: David J. Warne et al, Identification of two‐phase recovery for interpretation of coral reef monitoring data, Journal of Applied Ecology (2021). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.14039

Journal information: Journal of Applied Ecology 

Provided by Queensland University of Technology 

 

Studying Terfezia, the mysterious desert truffles, with an eye toward ecology and cultivation

by Pensoft Publishers

Terfezia species collected in the present work A T. arenaria B T. fanfani C T. cistophila 

D T. grisea E T. dunensis F T. extremadurensis G T. lusitanica H T. pini I T. solaris-libera. 

Credit: DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.84.71372

In a caring, symbiotic relationship, mycorrhizal fungi live and feed in the roots of specific plants, while providing water and nutrients to their "companion." In arid and semi-arid environments, mycorrhization processes are essential to the survival of both plants and fungi. Moreover, the fungus' hyphal network, which spreads within the soil connecting several plant individuals, is of utmost importance to enhancing soil quality and fertility.

Researchers of the University of Évora in Portugal, led by biologist Celeste Santos e Silva, worked on Terfezia fungi, the most diverse and species-rich genus among desert truffles. Their study, published in the open-access journal MycoKeys, might prove particularly valuable to rural populations in the Mediterranean basin, where desert truffles, highly valued in local markets, are an important food source. Increasingly turning into an exquisite component of the Mediterranean diet, Terfezia products can also be very profitable. Furthermore, these fungi are essential for soil conservation, preventing erosion and desertification.

After 8 years of exhaustive field exploration in search of desert truffles and many hours in the molecular biology lab, the researchers noted some previously unknown trends in the ecology of Terfezia species. They recorded seven species that were new to Portugal, including two that are new to science—Terfezia lusitanica and Terfezia solaris-libera. This brings the number of Terfezia species known to be growing in the country to ten. Particularly important was the discovery of a broader ecological range for many of the studied species (e.g., Terfezia grisea). Adding valuable information about their possible hosts, symbionts and ecological constraints, these findings help open new opportunities for truffle cultivation.

"It is very difficult to identify all specimens given that the Terfezia species look so much alike, and molecular biology was absolutely fundamental here," explains the researcher. "The technique was essential to update and solve problems about their taxonomy and the relationship between the species in the genus."

Furthermore, the discoveries are also expected to positively impact the local communities by stimulating agriculture produce, business and even employment.

Knowledge gained in this research about the conditions in which different Terfezia species grow is an important step to desert truffle cultivation: the fungi are hard to find in the wild, which is why it would make a big difference—including financially—for local communities if they figure out a way to grow truffles themselves.

Within the project "Mycorrhization of Cistus spp with Terfezia arenaria (Moris) Trappe and its application in the production of desert truffles" (ALT20-03-0145-FEDER-000006), the researchers took a step forward towards achieving mycorrhizal association of desert truffles with perennial plants (rock roses), which would allow their mass production for various sectors such as food, medicine and soil recovery. This new form of production, assures the MED researcher and leader of the project, "will make it possible to create more jobs, reversing the current trend towards desertification in rural areas, while being a great tool for ecosystem recovery and restoration."The early bird gets…the truffle? Researchers show birds hunt for fungi, too

More information: Celeste Santos-Silva et al, Lack of knowledge on ecological determinants and cryptic lifestyles hinder our understanding of Terfezia diversity, MycoKeys (2021). DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.84.71372

Provided by Pensoft Publishers 

 

Imported deforestation: How Europe contributes to tree loss worldwide

by Alain Karsenty, Nicolas Picard, The Conversation

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Forest area is increasing in Europe, mainly because farms are getting fewer and smaller. This should be good news, but it must be put into perspective alongside the loss of forest that the EU's growing agricultural imports cause in third countries. We call this "imported deforestation."

The European Union is the world's main trader in agricultural products with imports totalling €142 billion in 2020. These imports include commodities such as palm oil, beef, cocoa, coffee and soya which are responsible for deforestation in the countries that produce them.

The EU case is not unique. At the global level, tropical areas are losing forests at a rate of 10 million hectares per year according to the FAO's latest report on forest resources, and temperate areas, which are gaining forest area at a rate of 5 million hectares per year.

Of the 10 million hectares of forest lost each year, just under two-thirds can be unambiguously attributed to agricultural expansion, with the remaining third being a combination of forest fires, logging and other factors. About one-third of the forest area lost is linked to international trade. By fighting against imported deforestation, it is therefore possible to make a significant difference in total tree loss worldwide.

Acknowledging its role in imported deforestation, the EU is currently stepping up to reduce the impacts of its imports. After the European Parliament adopted a report on the issue, the EU is heading toward a mix of mandatory and voluntary rules to tackle the problem. Meanwhile, some EU countries, like France, have already set up national strategies to combat imported deforestation.

How to fight imported deforestation

Preventing imported deforestation means knowing how to quantify the phenomenon and monitor it. For example, tropical wood from Africa can pass through China where it is processed before being imported into Europe. This means we need complex traceability chains to track the origin of imported wood with the support of customs services and private companies.

Then there is the question of timing. Should Ivory Coast cocoa from farms that replaced forests destroyed in the 2000s still be counted as a liability for imported deforestation? We need to set a cut-off date after which products imported from an area can be disconnected from deforestation.

It is also necessary to take forest degradation into account. This is the reduction of a forest's capacity to provide goods and services, which is reflected in a reduction in tree density. Countries define forest degradation by setting their own tree cover thresholds, which results in several hundred definitions.

For imported deforestation, the choice of this threshold is critical. If it is low, heavy degradation can occur without this transformation being qualified as deforestation. If it is high, the conversion of vegetation that has all the ecological characteristics of forests into agricultural land might not technically be considered deforestation.

Many sustainable production activities, such as selective logging, lead to forest degradation. But with good forest management, this degradation is limited and reversible.

The same principle applies to certain forms of agroforestry (such as cultivating cocoa under forest shade) or the collection of firewood in dry forests. The challenge, then, is not to avoid all degradation, but to control the factors that cause it in order to keep it within sustainable limits.

These different issues, which at first glance seem technical, refer to political choices that are the responsibility of policy and the law.

Zero deforestation certificates

We believe it is necessary to distinguish between illegal and legal deforestation, building on the EU timber regulation which bans the import of all illegally harvested timber.

Differentiating between legal and illegal is politically more feasible than boycotting agricultural production associated with deforestation that is legal in the producing country but deemed environmentally problematic by the EU.

If legal agricultural production is banned, the EU would risk exposing itself to trade retaliation, not to mention complaints to the World Trade Organisation about trade discrimination.

Ideally, producing and importing countries should agree on common definitions of forest and on cut-off dates. But this will be a long and difficult process.

It seems more realistic to ban the import of agricultural products from illegal deforestation and to modulate tariffs according to the information and guarantees that importers provide to ensure their production can be certified as "zero deforestation." These certifications would be accredited by the public authorities and would be subject to a continuous evaluation process.

Switzerland has just paved the way via for this an agreement with Indonesia that lowers tariffs by 20% and then 40% for certified palm oil across three approved standards.

A fair measure for small producers

In all cases, it will be necessary for importers to comply with the legal requirement for due diligence to ensure that an imported product is not associated with illegal land conversion.

If there is insufficient information regarding the status of the product and the import goes ahead, the importer will not only have to fulfill its due diligence obligation, but will also have to demonstrate that its product is zero deforestation in order to benefit from a favorable customs tariff.

If the due diligence suggests a high risk of illegality, then the responsible importer will not market the shipment. If due diligence is successful and no risk of illegality is found, but the product is not certified as zero deforestation, a higher tariff is applied. If the due diligence is successful and the product is certified as zero deforestation, then it receives a favorable tariff.

Currently, many products such as soy or cocoa have tariffs of 0%. Differentiating between zero-deforestation products and others will require an increase in some of these tariffs.

The additional revenue from this could be used to fund programs to help small-scale producers in exporting countries move toward sustainable practices and become certified. Such an allocation would refute accusations of protectionism and provide a good faith basis for defending this measure at the World Trade Organization.

As with all ecological taxation, the aim of a zero deforestation certification scheme would be for the yield of the import tax to decrease over time. Ideally, Europe would eventually only import certified zero deforestation products, redressing the global imbalance between the parts of the world that are gaining forests and those that are losing them.

Illegal clearing by agribusiness driving rainforest destruction

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

Peatlands protect against wildfire and flooding, but they're still under attack in Canada

by Edward Struzik, The Conversation

Arctic peatland in the Mackenzie Valley. A quarter of all global peatland carbon is found in

 Canada. Credit: Ed Struzik, Author provided

When record-breaking wildfires in western Russia killed 65 people, injured 1,068, destroyed 3,500 homes and caused billions in damages in 2010, it was no longer business-as-usual in Russia's response to the impacts of climate change.

Not only did the Russian government begin investing more in traditional fire suppression, fire science and prevention strategies, it also began, with financial help and expertise from Germany, to restore peatlands that had been badly degraded by agricultural developments and the mining of peat to produce energy for household use and power plants. A fifth of Russia is covered in peat, mostly the northeastern side of the country.

Peat is partially decomposed plant material that builds up over centuries in cool swampy, waterlogged conditions such as bogs and fens and to a lesser extent swamps and marshes. Representing just three percent of the Earth's landscape, peatlands like those in the Hudson Bay Lowlands can store five times more carbon than the Amazon rainforest. Collectively, they store twice as much as carbon than all of the world's forests.

They also play an outsized role in filtering water and mitigating floods, drought and wildfires, such as those that loomed large in British Columbia this year. Had a large fen near Fort McMurray not been drained in the 2000s, it might have slowed the 2016 Horse River fire long enough for firefighters to gain control of it and avoided the evacuation of 88,000 people, according to Sophie Wilkinson, a peatland scientist at McMaster University.

Canada, endowed with more pristine peatland than any other country, has a unique opportunity to preserve, and in some cases restore these ecosystems, found on the tundra, in temperate and boreal forests, in the Rockies and the Great Lakes region such as Georgian Bay.

Not only do they play an oversized role in managing climate change, regulating water and protecting critically endangered species such as caribou and whooping cranes, they offer denning sites for polar bears, turtles and Massasauga rattlesnakes. They also nurture many of the 546 plants that Indigenous people use for medicine.

Global restoration efforts

Russia and Germany are not the only countries investing heavily in peatland restoration. China has successfully done this in the Zoigê Plateau, the most extensive mountain peatland in the world, after 700 kilometers of drainage ditches were dug in the 1960s and 1970s to provide more grazing for yaks. The restored fens now filter and store freshwater for tens of millions of people.

In the United States, the Fish and Wildlife Service is rewetting badly degraded peatlands in the Great Dismal Swamp, a protected peatland on the border of North Carolina and Virginia, and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, in North Carolina, to mitigate wildfires and floods and to keep carbon in the ground.

Great Britain and other European countries are doing the same to restore biodiversity and to meet their climate change goals. The sale of horticultural peat that is extracted from bogs and fens will be banned in Great Britain in 2024.

Peatland under threat

Canada has been slow to recognize the many virtues of peatlands. Oilsands operators continue to drain and clear them to extract bitumen. Hydro projects like Muskrat Falls will flood or disturb them with cutlines. Mining companies, like the 18 that have 1,300 claims in Ontario's so-called "Ring of Fire" in the Hudson and James Bay Lowlands, will dig them up and build roads through them if their developments go ahead. And cities like Calgary have drained peatlands to make way for urban developments.

Calgary recognized this mistake. It paid the price in 2013 when an epic rain-on-snow event in the Rockies sent a wall of water downstream. The worst flood in Canadian history may have been mitigated had there been peat to sop up some of the water. Sphagnum, one of many mosses that are the foundation of peat, holds 15 to 26 percent of its weight in moisture, according to John Pomeroy, Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change from the University of Saskatchewan.

Restoring peatlands in Russia.

But that flood would have been even worse had the beaver-managed Sibbald Fen and adjoining forest in Kananaskis country been degraded, as the southwestern Rockies may be if coal developments there are allowed to move forward. In interviews for my book Swamplands, Pomeroy and his colleague Cherie Westbrook have underscored the need to protect alpine fens and forests.

While other countries, including the U.S. and the Republic of Congo, have mapped out their peatlands, Canada has not. The limited information makes it difficult to protect them.

Peatland maps

Peatland mapping has produced some surprising results, including the discovery of 14 million hectares of tropical peatland in the Congo basin in 2017.

Not all fens cover areas as extensive as those in the Congo and boreal forest. Mountain fens in the U.S. tend to be very small. They cover one percent of the land surface in the Beartooth Mountains of Wyoming and one percent of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado.

In each case, the distinct nature of these mountain fens play an oversized role in supporting insects, plants and animals and in storing water and carbon. Small peatlands such as the 18 inventoried in Wyoming contain 32 threatened plant species, four of which are found nowhere else in the state.

Over the past two decades, David Cooper, a wetland and riparian ecologist from Colorado State has, along with colleagues, identified thousands of high elevation fens that were previously unknown or unappreciated for what they were. The numbers in some cases are mind-boggling.

In the 2000s, 1,738 fens covering 11,034 acres were identified in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests. Ninety percent of these fens were found at elevations ranging from 2,700 to 3,600 meters. Cooper estimates there are more than 2,000 fens in the San Juan mountains alone, ranging in size from 0.2 to 20.5 hectares.

No one knows how many fens there are on the Canadian side of the Rockies because no one, including Parks Canada, has looked as closely.

150 billion tons

Many scientists continue to underestimate the virtues of peatland ecosystems because of the dearth of plant and animal species. This is true if you compare the peat-rich boreal forest region to the Amazon rainforest. But it is a false slight for all the other ecosystem services that peatlands offer.

One to three billion birds fly north to the boreal peatlands of North America each spring to breed, resulting in three to five billion of them migrating back in fall.

Scientists like Mike Waddington at McMaster University, Line Rochefort at Laval University and Jonathan Price at the University of Waterloo, have the expertise to restore Canada's peatlands. David Cooper is helping, as is Dale Vitt, a former University of Alberta botanist who pioneered the art of restoring peatlands. Yet their numbers are few, as are their funding sources.

If Canada wants to change course, it needs to catch up with what the rest of the world is doing in restoring and protecting peatlands. Thirty percent of the world's soil carbon stock is found in the world's peatlands. Canada contains a quarter of that—150 billion tons that are still in the ground.

Valuable peatlands at risk of disappearing

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Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

Study: Polluters sometimes game system to avoid penalties

by Jim Murez, University of Oregon

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Local and state agencies generally monitor air quality on an intermittent schedule, such as once every six days, for example.

But what happens on the days when they don't monitor?

Eric Zou, an assistant professor in the UO economics department, found that companies and in some cases government agencies will do what they can to help their communities' air pollution levels meet federal standards, which he documented in a paper published earlier this year: "Unwatched Pollution: The Effect of Intermittent Monitoring on Air Quality."

Under the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is charged with enforcing a national safety level for outdoor air pollution that all counties are required to achieve.

Enforcement relies on accurate monitoring, but it's costly to gather daily data. Plus, agencies typically are constrained by limited budgets. So the EPA allows them to collect the testing results intermittently. The once-every-six-days scenario, for example, ensures every day of the week is monitored throughout the year. It is intended to be random, but the EPA announces the rotation and start date in advance.

Being able to anticipate regulators' monitoring schedules creates opportunities for some polluters to adjust production and comply when they can, and increase polluting activities when they are not, Zou wrote.

Detecting companies' "strategic responses" to intermittent monitoring is generally difficult, but Zou gathered 13 years of satellite observations from NASA that let him observe air quality during monitors' "on days" and "off days."

He analyzed each pixel in the satellite photos to measure for air pollution levels, and then matched that up against the every-six-days data collected from air monitors. That allowed him to detect strategic responses that are otherwise difficult to observe.

He found a difference, or "gap," of 1.6 percent in pollution levels on monitoring days versus nonmonitoring days. Meanwhile, pollution levels during off-days were generally the same.

And when counties' pollution levels neared allowable levels, Zou found a 7 percent difference in the pollution levels on monitored versus nonmonitored days. Additionally, pollution levels were nearly unchanged during periods of good air quality.

"Part of the paper is trying to think about that we found this phenomenon," Zou said. "And the second part of the paper is trying to figure out what's going on, what potentially could be the underlying cause."

Data suggest that incentives matter: Areas with large pollution gaps had higher pollution levels, a history of receiving penalties for violations, and intermittent monitoring. Moreover, areas with large pollution gaps also tended to be those in which the composition of local industry allowed for strategic responses. He drilled into census data to find industry composition by county.

"There are several sectors that we expect to be driving this that are actually not driving this," Zou said. "For example, I found that power plants are not predictive of where these hotspots are.

"You think of power plants as polluters, but on the other hand, how much they produce is almost entirely determined by how much people need," Zou added. "It's very costly to ramp up and ramp down power plants. And it's also costly to store electricity."

Zou found industries that produced items in bulk and weren't bound by set production schedules were more likely to throttle back output on air quality monitoring days.

"They can put off a giant procedure until the next day," Zou said.

For example, having a high concentration of wood product manufacturers, a highly polluting industry that often operates at partial production capacity, stands out as a strong and robust predictor of large pollution gaps, Zou wrote. He added that while the evidence suggested regulatory incentives to avoid monitoring drove companies' strategic responses, their capacity to respond also mattered.

Zou also found that local governments might be playing a role in the strategic cutbacks in output in certain instances.

The EPA uses monitoring results to determine if counties, rather than any individual factories, are complying with air quality standards. State and local governments are subject to regulatory penalties and want to remain in compliance. So Zou looked at local governments' issuance of air quality advisories in 346 cities and metro areas. He found a 10 percent higher likelihood that an advisory would be issued on monitoring days.

"The strategic use of advisories provided yet another example of gaming during critical times," Zou wrote.

"The ones who bear the cost are not only the polluter but also the state government," Zou said. "They have to come up with a state implementation plan: A proposal that details exactly what they're going to do to get back into compliance."

Those steps could include more frequent inspection or requiring companies to install scrubbers to strip out emissions' particulates, both of which are expensive, or issuing fines.

Zou said one way to ensure communities more consistently meet the Clean Air Act standards and to eliminate pollution gaps is to use automated monitors, which the EPA is gradually transitioning to.

Another option is to use fully random monitoring. However, that isn't always practical because it requires intensive field work involving sampling and laboratory analyses along with the impact a random work schedule would have on an individual.

"It makes perfect scientific sense, but I don't think it's implementable in reality," Zou said.

But Zou wanted to keep the results of his study in perspective: Air quality today is as much as 60 percent better than it was a few decades ago.

"That's one of the biggest achievements in human history in terms of environmental protection," he said. "So I would say, overall, the system works pretty well.

"State and local governments aren't like, "I just don't care about human health. "It's more like, "It's very costly for me," and if the regulation is set up in a way that they have an incentive and a capacity to gain, maybe some of them are going to do that. The cost of further cutting down pollution is pretty high. So you need to weigh the cost and the benefit."

Air pollution data in five Chinese cities differs for local VS US monitoring stations

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Provided by University of Oregon 

 

Study: Cutting carbon emissions and air pollution in cities has the potential to dramatically improve child health

by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Improved air quality in cities resulting from cutting carbon emissions could lead to large reductions in childhood asthma cases, premature births and incidences of babies born at an unhealthily low weight, according to a study carried out by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

The research is part of Children, Cities and Climate, the first global initiative to combine an analysis of the child health co-benefits of radical decarbonisation, an under-explored but growing area of research, with a survey asking young people what they think about the cities they live in and the air they breathe.

The modeling study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, estimates that if the 16 cities included in the analysis reduced air pollution to net-zero levels, more than 20,000 cases of childhood asthma, over 43,000 premature births, and over 22,000 low birthweight births could be averted annually across the 16 cities. This represents almost a quarter of the current number of asthma cases in these cities and a reduction of about 10% for adverse birth outcomes.

At a city level, the results showed:

• Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Manila would see the greatest reduction in childhood asthma annually, with 7,200, 5,700 and 4,000 cases averted respectively.
• 1,700 fewer cases of asthma would occur in London, the third highest number after Los Angeles and Mexico City, when considered in terms of cases averted per 100,000 of the population.
• Dhaka, Manila and Lahore would see the greatest reduction in premature births annually, with 23,800, 7,000 and 4,600 cases prevented respectively. The same cities would see the largest benefits with regard to low birthweight births, with 13,500, 2,500 and 3,100 cases averted.
• Dhaka, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur would see the greatest reductions in adverse birth outcomes, when considered in relation to the number of births each year (cases averted per 100,000 births).

While it could be expected that benefits would generally be larger in more polluted cities, the authors noted that more data are needed to estimate the true scale of the burden in these cities, where underlying published health information is less available or up to date.

Professor Alan Dangour, Director of LSHTM's Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health said, "This research comes at a critical time ahead of COP26 and shows the opportunity we have of improving the health of young people while also contributing to the fight against climate change. The findings serve as compelling evidence of the benefits to the health of our children of actions to reduce carbon emissions."

Dr. James Milner, Co-Investigator of Children, Cities and Climate said, "The health benefits to adults of reducing carbon emissions have been widely researched but there is less evidence available on the co-benefits to children and young people. This analysis addresses a critical knowledge gap in scientific research and serves as a basis for further investigation into the intersection of climate change, urban air pollution and child health."

The team modeled the health benefits across 16 global cities by estimating the burden of various health outcomes caused by air pollution at current levels, and for levels corresponding to a global net-zero scenario. The researchers estimated contributions from various sectors, including domestic energy use, energy generation, industry and transport, to concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and then removed these to represent air pollution levels at net-zero in each city.

Through a literature review, the researchers also identified several other child health outcomes that could measurably improve with cleaner air, including: lung growth, risk of respiratory infections such as pneumonia, and cognitive development.

In parallel with the modeling study, the researchers surveyed 3,222 young people (aged 13–25), parents of younger children and expectant parents from 59 cities around the world and found that:

• Four in ten young people surveyed see air pollution as one of the three worst things about their city, second only to traffic and congestion. Young people blamed motor transport, factories, rubbish burning and construction for the air pollution in their city.
• Four in ten said that their city was becoming a nicer place to live, while a third said it was getting worse.

To help ensure wide-ranging views were captured, the survey was made available in ten languages and promoted through social media posts that were targeted to the same 16 cities as those included in the co-benefits analysis.

Dr. Robert Hughes, Clinical Research Fellow at LSHTM and Co-Investigator of Children, Cities and Climate said: "Alongside trying to understand the science that connects the health of urban young people and the air they breathe, we also wanted to listen to young people as part of this work. First, we modeled a radical, ambitious decarbonisation—something that young people have been advocating for some time now. We then systematically collected the opinions and ideas of young people from around the world.

"It's striking, although perhaps not surprising, how much young people are raising air pollution as a problem. They have also shared a wealth of creative and ambitious ideas for how we can work together to improve our urban environments. Our survey of young people should breathe new life into action on air pollution."

Participants had recommendations to improve city design, urban mobility, health, education and job opportunities. They also highlighted equitable access to basic services as a prerequisite for achieving wider goals, and that inequality, corruption, and lack of climate consciousness are structural barriers that need to be addressed.

In response to the research findings, Jon Bonifacio, Education Coordinator for Youth Advocates for Climate Action (Fridays For Future Philippines), said: "Localized research like this can empower and mobilize young people on climate issues, and validate our everyday experiences."

Ishita Yadav, Co-Facilitator of the YOUNGO Cities Working Group said, "Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to human health and young people are among the most adversely impacted. The mobilization of young people in addressing air quality issues presents a unique opportunity to improve the situation."

The Children, Cities and Climate initiative includes a wide range of activities to engage young people with the research, including a media partnership with Shujaaz Inc. in East Africa, a young scientists program in London and an art, design and music competition in Zimbabwe.

Tino Mavimba, Coordinator of the Art of Health Breathe In competition said, "Young people in Zimbabwe see air pollution as a significant issue but they are contributing to positive change and inspiring others through the creative arts."

The findings are being presented on Friday 29th October at COY16, the youth summit in Glasgow, where young people from around the world will be gathering in preparation for COP26.New research underscores pollution's impact on child health

Provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 

 

Sending up the bat signal on forest use by endangered species

by Lauren Quinn, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Deep in an Indiana forest, a team of scientists skulked atop hillsides after dark. Carrying radios and antennas, they fanned out, positioning themselves on opposite ridges to wait and listen. Their quarry? Endangered Indiana bats and threatened northern long-eared bats.

The goal was to track individual bats from the moment they left the roost at dusk to the time they returned near dawn. Having fitted each bat with a tiny radio transmitter, the scientists traversed the dark forest to triangulate the bats' positions through the night. The work was painstaking, and it took four years to track just 58 individuals.

The results are published in Forest Ecology and Management.

Tracking the bats' movements through Indiana's state forests didn't just provide some of the first descriptions of the foraging behavior and home ranges of these species. It also revealed the animals' preference for certain timber harvesting strategies, such as thinning and patch cuts.

"There's a perceived conflict between forest management and endangered bats. Folks would like to harvest without any restrictions, but because these bats are there, they have to pay attention to when they're present and what kind of habitat they're using, and then potentially change the timing or the nature of harvests or prescribed fires to accommodate for the bats," says Joy O'Keefe, assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois and co-author on the study.

Tim Divoll, a data scientist at SWCA Environmental Consultants and lead author on the paper, adds, "We know a lot about where these bats like to roost, but no one has studied the foraging behaviors in detail when both species share the same forest. That's going to tell us a lot more about how they use these forests and how we might accommodate the variety of behaviors."

The research team was interested in whether timber harvest strategies and other forest management decisions had a positive, neutral, or negative impact on the bats.

"We found, with the exception of larger clear cuts, most of these harvest types are probably neutral for these bats. In some cases, they might even be positive, but we didn't really find any evidence that small patch cuts and thinning are negative. So, I'd say the way they're already managing these forests is compatible with bat conservation," O'Keefe says.

Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats need all the conservation help they can get. Like an increasing number of bat species, both suffer from extreme habitat loss and the detrimental effects of the fungal disease white-nose syndrome.

"White-nose syndrome has really devastated northern long-eared bats in this forest. It turns out we did this study just in the nick of time, because right after we finished the study in 2017, we could no longer catch them out there. Their populations just tanked. Thankfully, my students caught four individuals this year," O'Keefe says. "The results of this study will help forest managers to make decisions that boost bat populations recovering from this disease."

Because the Indiana bat has been on the endangered species list since the law's inception in 1967, it has received a great deal of research attention. The northern long-eared bat isn't as well studied, having only been federally listed as threatened in 2015 due to white-nose syndrome. So, much of what the research team observed for the species was previously unknown.

According to the study, the home range for northern long-eared bats is about half the size of Indiana bats, and they spend most of their time foraging near ponds, in forest sections that were previously thinned, or in patch cuts smaller than 10 acres.

Indiana bats had similar preferences for previously thinned sections and small cuts, but more of them ventured across larger clear cuts.

O'Keefe says the difference in home range size may come down to foraging strategy. Northern long-eared bats are gleaners, meaning they scoop up their insect prey from surfaces, at least some of the time. If they can find enough to eat on the trees near their roost, they don't need to go far to fill up. Indiana bats eat flying insects, so they might have to fly farther to locate swarms of bugs.

Without spending years tracking individual bats, these subtleties might have been lost.

"When you put in the effort to track many individual bats over multiple nights, then you have a much more robust and precise way of assessing how they use habitat," O'Keefe says. "It was a lot of work to get these data points. Every time we tracked one bat, there were four people on the landscape, each with an antenna and receiver, listening for several hours. So, what we did is pretty remarkable."

The researchers' findings were based on a few dozen bats in a specific forest in south-central Indiana, but the patterns likely hold for other forests in the bats' range.

"I think as long as you maintain a heterogeneous forest that has all these different components—mature forest, thinned forest, some openings—they're probably both going to be happy, at least from the foraging perspective," O'Keefe says.

The article, "Endangered Myotis bats forage in regeneration openings in a managed forest," is published in Forest Ecology and Management. Additional co-authors include Stephen Aldrich, Indiana State University; and Scott Haulton, Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The study is part of the 100-year Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment, a partnership of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Purdue University, Ball State University, the University of Indianapolis, Indiana State University, and Drake University. Funding for the project was provided by the Indiana Division of Forestry and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Wildlife Management Institute.

How bats relocate in response to tree loss

More information: Timothy J. Divoll et al, Endangered Myotis bats forage in regeneration openings in a managed forest, Forest Ecology and Management (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119757

Journal information: Forest Ecology and Management 

Provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign