Capturing a true picture of wolves in Yellowstone: Reevaluating aspen recovery

by Utah State University

Previous research showed strong positive growth in young aspens in Yellowstone

 National Park as the elk populations decreased—a welcome result. But new research 

shows aspen recovery is not as robust as previously thought. 

Credit: Lainie Brice

It's an environmental success story that feels like a parable—the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s triggered a cascade of effects that ultimately restored the ecosystem, including the recovery of aspen trees. But like many stories based on ecological realities, it's more complex than at first glance—aspen recovery in the park is not as robust as generally believed, according to new research.

The Yellowstone story is a textbook example of a trophic cascade, in which predators help plants grow by eating or scaring away herbivores that eat the plants. When wolves were reintroduced into the Yellowstone food chain, they helped to reduce numbers of elk, which had been consuming young aspen trees. Previous research showed strong positive growth in young aspen as the elk populations decreased—a welcome result, as aspen forests have been vanishing from the northern Yellowstone landscape for the last century.

But new research from Elaine Brice and Dan MacNulty, from Utah State University's Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center, and Eric Larsen, from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point's Department of Geography and Geology, shows that the effect of wolves on the recovery of aspen has been exaggerated by how it was measured.

Previous studies evaluated aspen recovery in Yellowstone by measuring the five tallest young aspen within a stand. The reasoning was that the tallest young aspen trees represent a 'leading edge' indicator of the future recovery of the entire aspen population. But this is not the case—sampling only the tallest young aspen estimated a rate of recovery that was significantly faster than was estimated by random sampling of all young aspen within the stand, according to the research.

"These are extremely complex systems, and understanding them is a major challenge because they are difficult to properly sample," said Brice. "The traditional method of sampling by only using the tallest young aspen plants to measure growth—which most research currently relies on—doesn't capture the entire picture."

For one, elk are picky about the aspen they consume. They tend to eat plants at shoulder height for which they don't have to crane their necks. As the leader stem (main trunk) of a young aspen grows past the shoulder height of adult elk, it is decreasingly likely to be eaten as it grows taller, said MacNulty. "This means that the tallest young aspen grow faster because they are taller, not because wolves reduce elk browsing," said MacNulty. This finding highlights the complicating fact that height of young aspen is both a cause and an effect of reduced elk browsing.

Taller aspen also thrive because they tend to have the best growing conditions (sunlight, moisture, soil quality). Measuring just the tallest young trees downplays the role of these other factors that have nothing to do with elk or wolf populations. And measuring just the tallest aspen also overlooks the failure of some young aspen to regenerate in the first place.

"That's like calculating a team's batting average without the player who always strikes out," said Brice. Random sampling from the research showed an absence of aspen regeneration in some places, a vital piece missing from the initial measurements.

Understanding how ecosystems respond to changes in large predator populations is vital to resolving broader debates about the structure of food webs, determining species abundance and delivering ecosystem services, said the authors. This study demonstrates how deviations from basic sampling principles can distort this understanding. Non-random sampling overestimated the strength of a trophic cascade in this case, but it may underestimate cascading effects in other situations. Randomization is one of the few protections against unreliable inferences and the misguided management decisions they may inspire, they said.

"The bottom line is that ecologists must stick to classic principles of sampling design, like randomization, to fully understand trophic cascades in complex wildlife systems like Yellowstone," said MacNulty.Aspen is making a comeback in and around Yellowstone National Park, because of predators

More information: Elaine M. Brice et al, Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade, Ecology Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1111/ele.13915

Journal information: Ecology Letters 

Provided by Utah State University 

 

A chunk of Chinese satellite almost hit the International Space Station: The space junk problem is getting worse

by Mark Rigby, Brad Carter, The Conversation

Credit: NASA / Boeing

Earlier this week, the International Space Station (ISS) was forced to maneouvre out of the way of a potential collision with space junk. With a crew of astronauts and cosmonauts on board, this required an urgent change of orbit on November 11.

Over the station's 23-year orbital lifetime, there have been about 30 close encounters with orbital debris requiring evasive action. Three of these near-misses occurred in 2020. In May this year there was a hit: a tiny piece of space junk punched a 5mm hole in the ISS's Canadian-built robot arm.

This week's incident involved a piece of debris from the defunct Fengyun-1C weather satellite, destroyed in 2007 by a Chinese anti-satellite missile test. The satellite exploded into more than 3,500 pieces of debris, most of which are still orbiting. Many have now fallen into the ISS's orbital region.

To avoid the collision, a Russian Progress supply spacecraft docked to the station fired its rockets for just over six minutes. This changed the ISS's speed by 0.7 meters per second and raised its orbit, already more than 400km high, by about 1.2km.

Orbit is getting crowded

Space debris has become a major concern for all satellites orbiting the Earth, not just the football-field-sized ISS. As well as notable satellites such as the smaller Chinese Tiangong space station and the Hubble Space Telescope, there are thousands of others.

As the largest inhabited space station, the ISS is the most vulnerable target. It orbits at 7.66 kilometers a second, fast enough to travel from Perth to Brisbane in under eight minutes.

A collision at that speed with even a small piece of debris could produce serious damage. What counts is the relative speed of the satellite and the junk, so some collisions could be slower while others could be faster and do even more damage.

As low Earth orbit becomes increasingly crowded, there is more and more to run into. There are already almost 5,000 satellites currently operating, with many more on the way

SpaceX alone will soon have more than 2,000 Starlink internet satellites in orbit, on its way to an initial goal of 12,000 and perhaps eventually 40,000.

The European Space Agency estimates there are around 36,500 objects larger than 10cm

 in orbit around Earth. Credit: ESA

A rising tide of junk

If it was only the satellites themselves in orbit, it might not be so bad. But according to the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office, there are estimated to be about 36,500 orbiting artificial objects larger than 10cm across, such as defunct satellites and rocket stages. There are also around a million between 1cm and 10cm, and 330 million measuring 1mm to 1cm.

Most of these items are in low Earth orbit. Because of the high speeds involved, even a speck of paint can pit an ISS window and a marble-sized object could penetrate a pressurized module.

The ISS modules are somewhat protected by multi-layer shielding to lessen the probability of a puncture and depressurisation. But there remains a risk that such an event could occur before the ISS reaches the end of its lifetime around the end of the decade.

Watching the skies

Of course, no one has the technology to track every piece of debris, and we also don't possess the ability to eliminate all that junk. Nevertheless, possible methods for removing larger pieces from orbit are being investigated.

Meanwhile, nearly 30,000 pieces larger than 10cm are being tracked by organizations around the world such as the US Space Surveillance Network.

Here in Australia, space debris tracking is an area of increasing activity. Multiple organizations are involved, including the Australian Space Agency, Electro Optic Systems, the ANU Institute for Space, the Space Surveillance Radar System, the Industrial Sciences Group, and the Australian Institute for Machine Learning with funding from the SmartSat CRC. In addition, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has a SMARTnet facility at the University of Southern Queensland's Mt Kent Observatory dedicated to monitoring geostationary orbit at a height of around 36,000km—the home of many communication satellites, including those used by Australia.

One way or another, we will eventually have to clean up our space neighborhood if we want to continue to benefit from the nearest regions of the "final frontier."

Space junk: Houston, we have a problem

Provided by The Conversation 

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

 

More evidence of an evolutionary 'arms race' between genes and selfish genetic elements

by University of Rochester

University of Rochester biologists Daven Presgraves and Christina Muirhead studied the 

genomes of three closely related species of Drosophila (fruit flies) and found further

 evidence of an evolutionary arms race at play. Fruit flies are beneficial model organisms

 because they share about 70 percent of the same genes that cause human diseases and 

are similar to humans on the molecular level. 

Credit: University of Rochester / J. Adam Fenster

The human genome is littered with selfish genetic elements, which do not seem to benefit their hosts, but instead seek only to propagate themselves.

These "parasites of the genome" can wreak havoc at the cellular level by distorting sex ratios or causing harmful mutations, and can even lead to a species' extinction. But, as researchers at the University of Rochester report, species evolve mechanisms to fight back.

In a new paper published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, Daven Presgraves, a University Dean's Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Rochester, and Christina Muirhead, a computational biologist and population geneticist in Presgraves' lab and the first author on the paper, present further evidence of an evolutionary arms race within organisms—and the mechanisms at play in this arms race—to combat selfish genetic elements.

"We have found that an evolutionary arms race has led to a proliferation of meiotic drive genes on the X chromosome and suppressor genes elsewhere in the genome," Muirhead says.

Drosophila is fruitful and multiplies—which is ideal for studying genetics

The researchers studied the genomes of three closely related species of Drosophila (fruit flies). Fruit flies share about 70 percent of the same genes that cause human diseases and are similar to humans on the molecular level. Because fruit flies have such short reproductive cycles—less than two weeks—scientists can create generations of the flies in a short time. These key characteristics make the insects ideal models for learning more about human genetics.

The researchers discovered that each of the species of fruit flies they studied has 5 to 12 meiotic drive genes on the X chromosomes. The meiotic drive genes—a type of selfish genetic element—cheat by getting into more than the typical 50 percent of offspring in the next generation. This allows the genes themselves to spread rapidly through a population

The meiotic drive genes that the researchers studied are related to a meiotic drive gene called Dox—"distorter on the X"—which is found on the X chromosome and kills Y chromosome-bearing sperm. The researchers called their newly discovered genes 'Dox-like,' or 'Dxl' for short. The Dxl genes produce a protein called a histone that disrupts normal DNA packaging in Y-bearing spermatids—immature male sex cells—leading to sperm death. Killing Y-bearing sperm means that subsequent generations will have mostly daughters and few sons.

The Dxl genes work only to propagate themselves, however, and don't "realize" that this may lead them on a path that could eventually take their host species—and themselves—to extinction.

"The drive genes get an evolutionary advantage by killing Y-bearing sperm," Presgraves says. "But the individuals carrying the drive genes suffer reduced fertility, and the population becomes increasingly female-biased, risking eventual extinction."

Duplicate Dxl genes play defense

Dxl genes skew sex ratios to increase the rate at which they get passed on, but the researchers uncovered another surprising dynamic. The species of Drosophila they studied have evolved a defense against the selfish genetic elements. This defense comes in the form of genes that are duplicates of the Dxl genes, but with an important modification. Much like the mythical Trojan Horse, the duplicate genes masquerade as Dxl genes, but contain a stealthy weapon. Instead of expressing Dxl proteins, the genes express small RNAs that silence the Dxl genes via RNA interference.

The research is further evidence that microscopic evolutionary arms races are taking place within organisms: selfish genetic elements evolve to benefit themselves, and the rest of the genome evolves suppressors to quell them. The selfish genetic elements then evolve to overcome the suppressor, the suppressor has to evolve to keep pace, and so on. "Similar repetitive gene copies like the Dxl genes that selfishly bias sex ratios are common to the X and Y chromosomes of great apes and humans," Presgraves says. "These are just one line of evidence that evolutionary arms races have important consequences for genome evolution."What makes two species different?

More information: Christina A. Muirhead et al, Satellite DNA-mediated diversification of a sex-ratio meiotic drive gene family in Drosophila, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01543-8

Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution 

Provided by University of Rochester 

Humans Had Significant Role in the Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth

By UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE NOVEMBER 13, 2021

Woolly mammoths persisted in Siberia until the mid-Holocene. Credit: Mauricio Anton

New research shows that humans had a significant role in the extinction of woolly mammoths in Eurasia, occurring thousands of years later than previously thought.

An international team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Adelaide and University of Copenhagen, has revealed a 20,000-year pathway to extinction for the woolly mammoth.

“Our research shows that humans were a crucial and chronic driver of population declines of woolly mammoths, having an essential role in the timing and location of their extinction,” said lead author Associate Professor Damien Fordham from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute.

“Using computer models, fossils, and ancient DNA we have identified the very mechanisms and threats that were integral in the initial decline and later extinction of the woolly mammoth.”

Signatures of past changes in the distribution and demography of woolly mammoths identified from fossils and ancient DNA show that people hastened the extinction of woolly mammoths by up to 4,000 years in some regions.

“We know that humans exploited woolly mammoths for meat, skins, bones, and ivory. However, until now it has been difficult to disentangle the exact roles that climate warming and human hunting had on its extinction,” said Associate Professor Fordham.

The study also shows that woolly mammoths are likely to have survived in the Arctic for thousands of years longer than previously thought, existing in small areas of habitat with suitable climatic conditions and low densities of humans.

“Our finding of long-term persistence in Eurasia independently confirms recently published environmental DNA evidence that shows that woolly mammoths were roaming around Siberia 5,000 years ago,” said Associate Professor Jeremey Austin from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.

Associate Professor David Nogues-Bravo from the University of Copenhagen was a co-author of the study which is published in the journal Ecology Letters.

“Our analyses strengthens and better resolves the case for human impacts as a driver of population declines and range collapses of megafauna in Eurasia during the late Pleistocene,” he said.

“It also refutes a prevalent theory that climate change alone decimated woolly mammoth populations and that the role of humans was limited to hunters delivering the coup de grâce.”

“And shows that species extinctions are usually the result of complex interactions between threatening processes.”

The researchers emphasize that the pathway to extinction for the woolly mammoth was long and lasting, starting many millennia before the final extinction event.

Reference: “Process-explicit models reveal pathway to extinction for woolly mammoth using pattern-oriented validation” by Damien A. Fordham, Stuart C. Brown, H. Reşit Akçakaya, Barry W. Brook, Sean Haythorne, Andrea Manica, Kevin T. Shoemaker, Jeremy J. Austin, Benjamin Blonder, Julia Pilowsky, Carsten Rahbek and David Nogues-Bravo, 5 November 2021, Ecology Letters.
DOI: 10.1111/ele.13911

Cats found to track owner's movements even when they cannot see them

Fig 1. Arrangement of a testing room. There were slight differences across testing rooms 

depending on cats’ familiar spaces (house or cat café). The Experimenter placed speaker

 1 outside the test room and speaker 2 inside the test room close to another door or

 window leading to another room or outside. Cats were left alone and could move freely. 

Cat behaviors were recorded by video cameras during tests. 

Credit: DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257611

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Japan, has found that cats keep track of where people are in their homes even when they cannot see them. In their paper published in PLOS ONE, the group describes experiments they conducted with cats and recordings of voices and what they learned from them.

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that cats are generally ambivalent to the activities that go on around them when living with humans. Exceptions tend to occur around feeding time. In this new effort, the researchers had a hunch that cats are more interested in their human caretakers than has been assumed. To find out if that might be the case, they carried out a series of experiments that involved placing cats in enclosures fitted with speakers, piping in sounds and observing the cats' reaction.

The experiments enlisting the assistance of 50 domestic cats (and their owners), who were separated into three random groups. Each of the three groups was then further divided into house cats and café cats. Each of the cats was placed inside a room-sized enclosure fitted with a speaker. Another speaker was placed outside the enclosure. The groups of cats were then exposed to different sounds from the speakers—some were the owners' voices calling them by name; others were stranger's voices calling their name; some were random noise.

Next, the researchers played sound in pairs, the first of which was sent to the speaker inside the enclosure; the second was sent to the speaker outside the enclosure. As the sounds were played, the researchers had volunteer observers rate the degree of surprise exhibited by each cat.

In looking at their data, the researchers found that the cats appeared to express surprise when hearing the voice of their owner first inside the enclosure than suddenly outside of it—an event that suggested the human had suddenly teleported instantly from one location to another. That the cats appeared surprised suggested that they were keeping track of where the human was supposed to be by building a mental map of their surroundings, which included the humans that lived with them.Almost a quarter of a million unowned cats estimated in UK urban areas

More information: Saho Takagi et al, Socio-spatial cognition in cats: Mentally mapping owner's location from voice, PLOS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257611

Journal information: PLoS ONE 

© 2021 Science X Network

Tectonic influence on Cenozoic mammal richness

by Thamarasee Jeewandara , Phys.org

Map of the subregions of the Basin and Range in the United States. The Northern (blue),

 Central (red), and Southern (yellow) subregions of the Basin and Range in relation to

 modern geography and paleohighlands (gray dashed lines). Subregion boundaries are

 based on tectonic history and modern topography. The footprint of the Nevadaplano and

 Mogollon paleohighlands follow reconstructions.

 Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh4470

Speciation and sedimentation are driven by tectonic activity, which causes fossil and rock records to share common patterns through time. During the Miocene, the Basin and Range (BR) of western North America arose through widespread extension and collapse of topographic highlands to create basins rich with mammalian fossil records. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Katharine M. Loughney and a team of scientists in geology, ecology and evolutionary biology, and geosciences in the U.S. analyzed patterns of mammalian species richness from 36 to zero million years ago, relative to the history of sediment accumulation. Using the data, they tested whether intervals of high species richness corresponded with elevated sedimentation, accumulation, and fossil burial during tectonic deformation. The sedimentary record of the region broadly determined the preservation of the fossil record, although it did not drive mammalian species richness during the Miocene peak.

The mammalian fossil record

The fossil record is typically linked to the sedimentary record and sediment accumulation rates. Researchers can determine the likelihood of fossil preservation by detecting locations of sediment accumulation based on uplift and subsidence histories. Substantial change in the fossil record is usually credited to tectonics or climate, where intervals of tectonically driven landscape change can alter sediment dispersal patterns via drainage development and the creation of basins. Such conditions can promote speciation and sediment accumulation as well as species turnover, while decreasing species richness. To assess the influence of landscape evolution or the preservation of fossil and rock records. researchers require an extensive fossil record and well-constrained estimates of topographic change through time. The Basin and Range (BR) province of western North America provide a well-documented fossil record and landscape evolution through the Cenozoic. In this work, Loughney et al. studied how the fossil and rock records of the BR tracked its history of tectonically driven landscape change, relative to the mammalian fossil record documented across North America across the Cenozoic period.

Changes in mammalian species richness and landscape evolution variables in the Basin

 and Range region since 36 Ma ago. Number of mammalian species, 

sediment-accumulation rates (SARs) from all sedimentary Macrostrat packages, 

deformation rates, and area-change rates per 0.5 Ma for the entire Basin and Range.

 Eo, Eocene; Plio, Pliocene; Q, Quaternary. Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh4470

Understanding the influence of fossil preservation on species richness

The Basin and Range region of western North America began to form during the Late Eocene following the topographic collapse of montane highlands, the Nevadaplano and Mogollon highlands. The interval of elevated tectonic activity coincided with high mammalian species richness in the region during the Middle Miocene. Researchers linked the species richness to increasing topographic complexity, basin development and sediment accumulation. Loughney et al. tested the sedimentary and mammalian fossil records of the Basin and Range and compared to its history of landscape evolution. To analyze species richness, they compiled, in half-million-year time bins, mammalian occurrences from MioMap and sediment records from Macrostrat relative to sediment thickness and accumulation rates since 36 million years ago. The scientists sought to understand the influence of sedimentation on fossil preservation, and therefore focused on species richness, rather than the origin or diversity metrics. Using change-point analysis, the team detected significant changes in means through time.

Number of fossiliferous units and fossil localities for subregions of the Basin and Range. Number of fossil localities (diamonds) per 0.5-Ma time bin compared to number of fossiliferous units through time. Vertical error bars represent lower 2.5% and upper 97.5% estimates of bootstrapped localities, and horizontal error bars represent average uncertainty of locality ages; age uncertainties are the average of age ranges of all pre-Holocene localities for Northern (1.4 Ma), Central (1.7 Ma), and Southern (1.7 Ma) Basin and Range (BR). Number of localities from the most recent time bin are omitted. Eo, Eocene; Plio, Pliocene; Q, Quaternary. Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh4470

Mammalian species richness and sediment thickness for each subregion of the Basin and Range to 0.5 Ma ago. Number of mammalian species and thickness of nonfossiliferous and fossiliferous Macrostrat packages per 0.5 Ma for the (A and B) Northern, (C and D) Central, and (E and F) Southern Basin and Range. Shading in (A, C, and E) represents lower 2.5% and upper 97.5% estimates of bootstrapped species richness per 0.5 Ma. Eo, Eocene; Plio, Pliocene; Q, Quaternary. Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh4470

Increased species richness and rates of landscape processes during the middle Miocene

Loughney et al. noted a pronounced increase in mammalian species richness across the Basin and Range alongside increased sediment accumulation rates (SAR) and deformation rates between 17 and 14 million years ago. Trends in species richness moderately correlated with deformation rate and the species richness also correlated with the number of fossil localities and number of fossiliferous units, with some offsets in timing between richness and the number of units. Using single-change-point analysis, the team identified significant changes in means for mammalian species richness for the entire Basin and Range region, and most of the landscape variability during the Early and late Early Miocene. The timing and magnitude of species richness and landscape processes also varied among Basin and Range subregions. For instance, in the Northern Basin and Range, Loughney et al. noted how the mammalian species richness and sediment accumulation rates (SAR) were low through the Late Eocene and Oligocene, until they abruptly increased at 17 million years ago. In the Central Basin and Range, the mammalian species richness was low until the Middle Miocene. In this region, the species richness strongly correlated with SAR (sediment accumulation rates) of fossiliferous units and of sedimentary packages. Furthermore, in the Southern Basin and Range, the mammalian species richness was low until the Early Miocene. The changes across time in landscape variables also moderately correlated with species richness.

Lithology of all Macrostrat packages from the Basin and Range since 36 Ma ago.

 Proportion of thickness of all sedimentary Macrostrat packages per 0.5 Ma by lithology. 

Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh4470

Outlook

In this way, Katharine M. Loughney and colleagues showed how landscape features shaped by tectonics and climate played an important influence on species distribution. Fossil preservation depended on increased rates of sediment accumulation which increased species richness of the fossil record through increased fossil productivity. Based on species richness and the indicators of landscape evolution, the scientists noted the influence of landscape change on sedimentary and the fossil records of the Basin and Range region. The data showed how the mammalian species richness increased in the region during two warm intervals of the Miocene and Pliocene, while decreasing during cooling intervals. Tectonic history could also affect sedimentation in many ways, impacting basinal and regional scales differently. The scientists focused on the history of mammalian species richness and sedimentation of the Basin and Range and its subregions during this study to note how landscapes integrated a variety of tectonic and climate-driven processes. These processes influenced the fossil record, while climate-driven effects influenced mammalian richness at regional and subregional scales.Analysis finds species diversity driven by tectonics and climate

More information: Katharine M. Loughney et al, Tectonic influence on Cenozoic mammal richness and sedimentation history of the Basin and Range, western North America, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh4470

Ana Christina Ravelo et al, Regional climate shifts caused by gradual global cooling in the Pliocene epoch, Nature (2004). DOI: 10.1038/nature02567

Journal information: Science Advances  Nature 

© 2021 Science X Network

EU climate boss sees a role for natural gas in the green energy transition

By JOHN AINGER AND EWA KRUKOWSKA on 11/11/2021

(Bloomberg) - European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans gave the clearest signal yet that the bloc is considering a role for natural gas under its green rulebook for investments, setting up a clash with some national governments.

Timmermans said that an exit from coal for some member states, like Poland, would require an “intermediary stage” using natural gas. It would be subject to strict conditions, including pre-fitting pipelines so that they can carry hydrogen and de-carbonized gases after the transition from natural gas ends.

“We will have to also invest in natural gas infrastructure,” Timmermans said in a press conference at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. “As long as we do it with an eye of only doing this for a period, then I think this is a justified investment.”

Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European Commission, speaks as the European Union (EU) unveils a landmark climate plan in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, July 14, 2021. The EU is set to transform every corner of its economy -- from how people heat their home to the cars they drive -- as the bloc uses a massive overhaul of rules to position itself as a global leader on climate change.

Environmental groups have criticized the potential inclusion of natural gas in the EU’s so-called taxonomy, the set of rules determining whether certain investments can be classified as green. They say that it would result in the bloc avoiding its responsibility to keep global warming below 1.5-degrees Celsius, and that it may open the door to also include nuclear energy.

The EU has touted its green regulation as the “gold standard” globally. While the original plan left out nuclear and gas, some countries such as France are pushing for the inclusion of those sources amid a spike in energy prices.

This sets the scene for a potentially fierce fight between member states. In a joint statement issued during COP26, environment ministers from Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Austria and Luxembourg warned against classifying nuclear power as green in the EU’s sustainable investment rulebook.

“It’s a bad decision to put nuclear inside European taxonomy,” Portugal Environment Minister Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes said. “It’s not safe, it’s not sustainable and it costs a lot of money. There are many other options, especially wind and solar.”

JOHN DEERE STRIKE
Wild Bidding Wars Erupt at Used-Tractor Auctions Across the U.S.


Joe Deaux
Sat, November 13, 2021



(Bloomberg) -- No one in America knows the used tractor market better than Greg Peterson. Which, frankly, wouldn’t be that much of a claim to fame -- outside the farming towns of the Great Plains -- in normal times

The used tractor business is quickly becoming a crucial marketplace that’s allowing farmers to keep harvesting corn, wheat and soy day and night at a time of insatiable demand from buyers in the U.S. and abroad. With the four-week-old strike at Deere & Co. factories exacerbating an already acute shortage of new tractors, the used market is the only place for many desperate farmers to turn.

Peterson, known to all as Machinery Pete, says this is the most frenzied he’s seen the market in his 32-year career. At every single auction he’s attended in the past month, records have been smashed on all kinds of makes, models and vintages. Machinery Pete’s Quarterly Used Values Index -- which Peterson created after Wall Street analysts kept calling him for on-the-ground intelligence -- soared to 9.5 in the third quarter, matching record highs set during the commodities boom a decade ago.

The index is up 22% in the first nine months of the year and poised to make its biggest gains yet in the fourth quarter, a boom that’s turning a normally quiet corner of the farming market into Exhibit A of the inflation surge coursing through the U.S. economy. The market has all the ingredients fueling inflation in industries like cars and TVs -- soaring demand from cash-flush buyers, the semiconductor shortage, congested ports and rails -- with the added irritant of the labor stoppage at the world’s largest farm-machine maker.

The match “is now lit,” Peterson says, “and it’s lit while there’s a John Deere strike.”

Inflation in U.S. Builds With Biggest Gain in Prices Since 1990

Peterson, 55, is something of an icon in the tractor world. From his base in Rochester, a city in the southeastern corner of Minnesota, he crisscrosses the Midwest in his Dodge Ram pickup to cover dozens of auctions each year. In the past few weeks alone, he’s hit Sleepy Eye, Minnesota; Cedar Lake, Indiana; Hamilton, Illinois; Keymar, Maryland; and both Calmar and New Hartford in Iowa.

He’s built a little empire out of the business. There’s the Machinery Pete Website; and Machinery Pete TV, a half-hour show airing weekly on YouTube; and the Machinery Pete quarterly industry report that he sells to investors. He even holds some auctions himself, which are called, of course, Machinery Pete Auctions.

His pitch to outsiders: Machinery Pete is to farm equipment what Kelley Blue Book is to cars, a statement that, while perhaps a tad hyperbolic, is broadly echoed by the many farmers who swear by his pricing data. “Over the years, we developed our own marketplace,” Peterson says.

There’s always, to be clear, something of a scramble for farm equipment, new and used, at the end of the year.

The tax code incentivizes farmers who’ve turned an annual profit to use some of that money to upgrade their machinery before the year is out. It’s just that with prices on many grains surging to multi-year highs and crop sizes robust, farmers have raked in the biggest profits in years and yet have limited new supply to invest that cash in.

Peterson doesn’t like to talk much about where his index could wind up in the fourth quarter -- his clients pay to get that information first, he says -- but all the bidding wars he marvels at from the latest auctions indicate it should easily climb from that record-tying 9.5 level reached in the third quarter.

The surge in used prices has gotten to the point now, some farmers say, where it’s starting to make them worry they’ll struggle to find a tractor if they need one for the planting season next year.

One of the records that Peterson saw fall last week highlighted this angst. There was this John Deere tractor up for sale at the auction in Keymar. It was old -- built in 1998 -- but lightly used, having clocked fewer than 1,000 hours, and in pristine condition. The bidding started at $100,000 and quickly shot up to a final sale price of $170,000. That’s $25,000 over the previous record for that specific model. (Brand-new versions start at $205,000.)

The buyer was so desperate to get his hands on a tractor, Peterson says, that he drove all the way in from Illinois to bid on this one. When he won, he loaded it onto a trailer hitched to his truck and hauled it 12 hours back home.

BC

Gidimt’en evict Coastal GasLink from Wet’suwet’en territory

Members of the Gidimt’en clan ordered all Coastal GasLink employees to leave the Wet’suwet’en territory in the interior of British Columbia on Sunday in a move the company said contradicts a court order.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Starting at 5 a.m. Sunday, the clan told workers they had eight hours to "peacefully evacuate" the area before the main road into the Lhudis Bin territory was closed at 1 p.m.

The development comes 50 days after the establishment of Coyote Camp, which halted efforts by Coastal GasLink to build an essential part of the 670-kilometre pipeline that would transport natural gas from Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. to Kitimat in the province's North Coast region.

Sleydo', whose English name is Molly Wickham, is the spokesperson for the Gidimt'en Checkpoint, which controls access to the part of the Wet'suwet'en territory.

She said in a press release that the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have "never ceded, surrendered, or lost title to the territory" and that Coastal GasLink employees have been breaching both Indigenous law and an eviction notice that was issued nearly two years ago.

“They have been violating this law for too long,” she said.

In response to the eviction, Coastal GasLink said in a press release that a B.C. Supreme Court injunction issued Jan. 7, 2020 allows the company to have "continued safe access" to the area.

"This is in the same region where the group has illegally blockaded a Coastal GasLink worksite, in defiance of the B.C. Supreme Court injunction, since Sept. 25," the release said.

"Our primary concern continues to be for the safety of our workforce and the public. Coastal GasLink has continued to seek dialogue to resolve this situation, however, to date these offers have not resulted in any response. We are actively monitoring this evolving situation."

Jennifer Wickham, Gidimt’en Checkpoint media coordinator, said Gidimt’en Chief Dinï ze' Woos was in contact with officials from Coastal GasLink and that the clan had initially anticipated "full compliance."

She said that around the 1 p.m. deadline, the company asked the chief for a two-hour extension for employees who were already on the sites to travel out of the territory boundary, but after two hours, no movement was made.

"I'm not sure what their intention was by asking for more time and then not doing what they said they would," Wickham said. "I'm not sure how that benefits them."

The 20 elected First Nations councils along the pipeline's path approved the project, but Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs from all five clans of the nation claimed the project had no authority without consent through their traditional system of governance.

They issued and enforced an eviction notice against Coastal GasLink, sparking nationwide solidarity protests and paralyzing pipeline work throughout Wet’suwet’en land.

Wickham said Sunday's eviction came with conditions that no RCMP officers travel past the 30 kilometre point on Morice River and that all workers leave peacefully without any violence or harassment.

"If either of those two things are breached, then the road would be closed immediately and they would have to figure out another way to get their employees out," she said.

Dawn Roberts, the director in charge of B.C. RCMP communications, said police are aware of the notice and the situation is being monitored and continually assessed.

"We have had and will continue to have a police presence in the area. The primary responsibility of those officers has been to conduct roving patrols and respond to any complaints, but there has been no indications that I'm aware of that we were doing any enforcement today," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press