Capturing the impact of human sewage on Earth’s coastal ecosystems

New worldwide mapping analysis identifies key exposure hotspots in unprecedented resolution

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: A) GLOBAL MAP OF THE TERRESTRIAL SOURCES (GREEN TO BLUE) AND COASTAL DIFFUSION OF INPUTS (YELLOW TO PURPLE) OF TOTAL WASTEWATER N, MEASURED IN LOG10(GN) IN BOTH. COASTAL PLUMES HAVE BEEN BUFFERED TO LINE SEGMENTS TO EXAGGERATE PATTERNS TO BE VISIBLE AT THE GLOBAL SCALE. INSETS SHOW ZOOMED-IN VIEWS OF THE B) GANGES, C) DANUBE, AND D) CHANG JIANG (YANGTZE) RIVERS, SHOWING WASTEWATER PLUMES AT HIGH RESOLUTION. view more 

CREDIT: TUHOLSKE ET AL., 2021, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

A first-of-its-kind, high-resolution mapping analysis estimates the amounts of nitrogen and pathogens released into coastal ecosystems from human wastewater sources around the world. Cascade Tuholske (now affiliated with the Columbia Climate School) and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, present this research in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 10, 2021. The researchers have created a visual representation of this, available here.

Human sewage can introduce disease-causing pathogens and nitrogen into the ocean, potentially impacting human health as well as coastal ecosystems and the communities that depend on them for such purposes as fishing. However, most research into humans’ impact on coastal ecosystems has focused on agricultural runoff, while investigations on human sewage have been limited.

To better capture the impact of sewage on coastal ecosystems, Tuholske and colleagues conducted a novel analysis in which they estimated and mapped nitrogen and pathogen inputs into the ocean from sewage for about 135,000 watersheds around the world at a resolution of 1 kilometer. The assessment employed newly available, high-resolution data on global human populations and modeled how wastewater plumes entering the ocean would overlap with different ecosystems.

The analysis suggests that wastewater from human sewage introduces 6.2 teragrams of nitrogen into coastal ecosystems per year—for comparison, that is about 40 percent of estimated inputs from agriculture. Sixty-three percent of the nitrogen is from sewage systems, 5 percent from septic systems, and 32 percent from untreated, direct input.

Of the watersheds that appear to release the most nitrogen from sewage, most are located in India, Korea, and China, with the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) River contributing 11 percent of the global total. The researchers also identified hotspots for coral reef exposure to nitrogen in China, Kenya, Haiti, India, and Yemen. Seagrass exposure hotspots were found in Ghana, Kuwait, India, Nigeria, and China. The Chang Jiang and Brahmaputra Rivers have the highest input of pathogens.

Further research will be needed to refine the model and its estimates. Nonetheless, this work provides a new resource that could play a key role in efforts to mitigate harm to ecosystems and human health—such as by highlighting locations where tradeoffs between managing nitrogen and pathogen levels are particularly important to consider.

The authors add: "The sheer scale of how much wastewater is impacting coastal ecosystems worldwide is staggering. But because we map wastewater inputs to the ocean across more than 130,000 watersheds, our results identify target priority areas to help marine conservation groups and public health officials to work together and reduce the impacts of wastewater on coastal waters across the planet."  

CAPTION

The global total wastewater input is 6.2Tg N, with 3.9Tg from sewers, 0.3Tg from septic, and 2Tg from direct input. The top 40 countries are shown in the horizontal bar chart; remaining countries are in the pinwheel, grouped by continent or larger geographical region. Values for all countries are also reported in S5 Table in S1 File. Note that the Netherlands is shown in both places (in red) to help connect the scale of the two parts of the figure.

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CAPTION

Maps show where A) coral reefs and B) seagrass beds are heavily impacted (raster cells in top 2.5% of exposure; red dots), not impacted (no exposure to wastewater N; dark blue dots), or impacted but not in the top 2.5% (yellow dots). Raster cells are represented as points which visually over-represents the habitat; red is overlaid on top which makes it visually dominant; blue points are transparent and overlaid on green/yellow points such that higher densities of unimpacted areas are brighter blue.

10.1371/journal.pone.0258898 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Mapping global inputs and impacts from of human sewage in coastal ecosystems

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Nov-2021

COI STATEMENT

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

What’s in the water?

Researchers take a granular look at global inputs and impacts of human wastewater in coastal ecosystems

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA BARBARA

 

IMAGE: EXCESS NITROGEN AND OTHER NUTRIENTS CONTRIBUTE TO HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS view more 

CREDIT: NICHOLAS AUMEN/UCGS

The tendency for most of us when it comes to human wastewater is out of sight, out of mind. Rarely do we consider what happens after we flush that toilet or turn off that tap.

However, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have turned their attention and considerable computational power to the subject and its impacts on global coastal ecosystems. The results aren’t pretty, but they are enlightening.

“The motivation behind this research was a desire to have a fine-grain understanding of how wastewater is impacting coastal waters worldwide,” said Cascade Tuholske, the lead author of a paper that appears in the journal PLOS One. While research on terrestrial threats to coastal marine ecosystems often focuses on agricultural runoff and what happens when fertilizer and livestock waste winds up in the ocean, he said, few studies investigate what happens when human sewage does the same.

“This isn’t the first study to produce a global wastewater model, but it is the first study to map the inputs of nitrogen and pathogens from wastewater across 130,000 watersheds across the planet,” Tuholske said. “And this is important because there are trade-offs in the intervention space.” Information from this model, he added, could make those trade-offs clearer and management decisions easier to make.

The Scale of the Problem
The majority of human wastewater is discharged into the ocean around the world in a variety of treated and untreated states from sewage, septic and direct input sources. Not surprisingly, major human wastewater sources are also places with dense human populations, which tend to aggregate around major watersheds.

“We estimate that 25 watersheds contribute approximately 46% of global nitrogen inputs from wastewater into the ocean,” said Tuholske, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University who conducted this study as a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara. “Nearly half as much nitrogen comes from wastewater as agricultural runoff globally,” he added, “which is a huge fraction.” Coastlines all around the world are affected by increased nitrogen, according to the paper.

Tuholske and an interdisciplinary group of fellow UCSB scientists — Ben Halpern, Gordon Blasco, Juan Carlos Villasenor, Melanie Frazier and Kelly Caylor — have created a data visualization that maps globally the sources and destinations of nitrogen, a common element in both agricultural and human wastewater that causes eutrophication. It’s a phenomenon in which excessive nutrients create phytoplankton blooms just offshore that produce toxins and deprive the waters in the area of oxygen. These so-called “dead zones” not only suffocate the sea life unfortunate enough to be trapped in them, but also can cause problems in the food chain, including for humans.

“Many coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs and seagrass beds, are particularly sensitive to excess nutrients, even if you don’t have a dead zone,” said Halpern, a professor in the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis at UCSB. “The whole ecosystem can tip into a highly degraded state when nutrient levels are too high. Coral reefs can be converted into fields of algae that overgrow and kill the corals below them. Our work here helps map where nutrients from wastewater are likely putting these ecosystems at greatest risk.”

For Tuholske, whose research focuses on food systems, the model puts into stark relief the impact of modern diets on coastal ecosystems.

“What was really surprising through this research is how diets shifting to animal-based proteins are impacting marine ecology,” he said. As countries get wealthier and incorporate more meat into their food systems, he explained, the more nitrogen shows up in the wastewater, in addition to the already high levels generated by agriculture.

“The more burgers people are eating, the more nitrogen is getting into the ocean,” he said.

Two Targets
Excessive nitrogen isn’t the only concern with the growing amount of human wastewater being discharged into the ocean; where wastewater goes, so too go pathogens. But the removal of nitrogen or pathogens can require very different methods, which can make it difficult for decisionmakers with finite resources and varying priorities to weigh their options between improving public health and protecting coastal ecosystems.

With the fine-scale estimates of nutrient and pathogen inputs provided by this model, the aim is to provide information that can lead to local solutions that together can tackle a complex global problem.

“These top-down, fine resolution hotspot maps can be matched with bottom-up approaches, and we can transfer knowledge across geographies,” Tuholske said. “Adaptation and mitigation really come from the bottom up, and having a global map helps to target priorities and share knowledge.

“While we map the scale of this problem, we can do something about it,” he added. “We can protect both public health and coastal ecosystems.”

###

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

How does homeschooling affect adolescents’ character, health and well-being?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: A YOUNG STUDENT WORKING FROM HOME view more 

CREDIT: JESSICA LEWIS, UNSPLASH, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)

Compared to peers at public schools, adolescents who are homeschooled are more likely to report greater character strengths and fewer risky health behaviors later in life, but are less likely to attain a college degree, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tyler VanderWeele of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, US, and colleagues.

School experiences are crucial for shaping individuals’ developmental and well-being trajectories later in life. Past studies have explored associations between types of primary and secondary schools and academic achievement, but outcomes beyond academic performance remain less well understood.

In the new study, researchers used data from 12,288 adolescent children of nurses enrolled in the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS).  In 1999, baseline data, including the type of school a child was attending, was collected on children between the ages of 11 and 19. Data on outcomes were collected primarily from the 2010 wave of the GUTS questionnaire, or, when missing 2010 data, from the 2013 or 2007 questionnaire .

Few statistically significant differences were seen between children who attended public schools, private independent schools and private religious schools. However when comparing students who were homeschooled with those that attended public schools, some differences emerged.  Homeschooled children were more likely to report volunteering activities (β=0.33, 95% CI 0.15-0.52, p<0.002), forgiveness of others (β=0.31, 95% CI 0.16-0.46, p<0.002) and religious service attendance (RR=1.51, 95% CI 1.27-1.80, p<0.002) but less likely to have attained a college degree (RR=0.77, 95% CI 0.67-0.88, p<0.002). They were also somewhat less likely to have used marijuana, had a lower number of lifetime sexual partners, and a greater sense of mission. The results were limited by the fact that the children were all children of nurses and were mostly non-Hispanic White; findings may not be generalizable to other populations.

The authors conclude that the study results might help inform policy-makers, educators, parents and other education stakeholders in their decisions on school policy, especially as homeschooling practices and regulations change in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The authors add: "In a sample of adolescent children of reasonably well-educated parents, we found, on average, little difference in subsequent young adult health and wellbeing outcomes comparing those who attended public schools versus private schools. Those who were home-schooled were less likely to go on to attend college than those in public schools, but they were subsequently more likely to volunteer, to be forgiving, to have a sense of purpose, and to engage in healthier behaviors."

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0258723 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

School types in adolescence and subsequent health and well-being in young adulthood: An outcome-wide analysis

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Nov-2021

COI STATEMENT

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Uncovering racial disparities in nonfatal police shootings

Four-state study suggests disparities in police shootings might be greater than previously thought

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: POPULATION ESTIMATES FOR FL ARE 2010–14 ACS 5-YEAR ESTIMATES. POPULATION ESTIMATES FOR CO, TX, AND CA ARE 2015–19 ACS 5-YEAR ESTIMATES. view more 

CREDIT: NIX, SHJARBACK, 2021, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

An analysis of data from four U.S. states suggests that Black people may be more likely than white people to be nonfatally shot and injured by police in these states, and these disparities are greater than seen for fatal police shootings. Justin Nix of the University of Nebraska Omaha and John Shjarback of Rowan University in New Jersey present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 10, 2021.

Previous research on bias in police use of deadly force has primarily focused on police shootings that killed civilians. However, limited insights can be drawn from data that omit instances in which police shootings result in injuries but not death. Datasets which only include fatalities might be systematically biased by post-incident factors which influence mortality, such as whether police officers administer first aid or whether an adult trauma care center is nearby. However, datasets which include non-fatal shootings will count all shootings regardless of post-incident factors, making data less prone to such biases.

Most states lack publicly available data on nonfatal police shootings. To demonstrate the need for such information, Nix and Shjarback investigated potential bias using several years’ worth of data on both fatal and nonfatal police shootings from four of the few states that compile it: Florida, Texas, Colorado, and California. Statistical analysis allowed them to account for demographics and other factors that could influence shooting outcomes, such as access to a trauma center.

They found that Black civilians were more likely than white civilians to be nonfatally shot and injured in each state, and that these disparities were greater than seen for fatal shootings. For instance, from 2016 to 2019, Black people in California were 3.91 times more likely than white people to be nonfatally shot, and 3.08 times more likely to be fatally shot.

The researchers note some limitations in their study, such as lack of data on the number of rounds fired in shootings, limited information on availability of medical care, and the fact that much of the data used were reported by police. The authors underline the need for more comprehensive data in all states in order to draw reliable conclusions about racial disparities in police shootings.

The authors add: “We currently have no comprehensive national data on police firearm discharges. Our study suggests there are likely hundreds of people nonfatally injured by police gunfire each year – a disproportionate share of them Black.”

 

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0259024 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Factors associated with police shooting mortality: A focus on race and a plea for more comprehensive data

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Nov-2021

Extinction Rebellion targets Amazon in Black Friday protests

Activists from the Extinction Rebellion group protest outside of Amazon's headquarters in central London on Friday (AFP/Tolga Akmen)

Fri, November 26, 2021,
Activists from the Extinction Rebellion group blockaded more than a dozen distribution centres of online retail giant Amazon in Britain in what they called coordinated global Black Friday sales protests.

Dozens of demonstrators from the environmental movement -- known as XR -- blocked the company's largest UK warehouse, in Dunfermline in Scotland, as well as sites across England collectively responsible for around half of its deliveries in Britain.

The group also claimed to have targeted Amazon's distribution sites in the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, on the busiest day of the year for the retail behemoth.


The disruptive protests were "to confront the exploitative and environmentally destructive business practices of one of the world's largest companies", XR said in a statement.

Police made at least 13 arrests at three of the locations.

Five of them were at an Amazon facility in Kent, southeast England, on suspicion of aggravated trespass, while two men and two women were also arrested on suspicion of public nuisance in Manchester.

The activists blocked the entrances to the UK sites using bamboo structures and so-called lock-on devices, to form human chains, and displayed banners featuring slogans like "Amazon crime", "Infinite growth, finite planet" and "Black Friday exploits people and planet".

The activists said they arrived around 0400 GMT at the sites, which include locations in Newcastle, Manchester and Bristol as well as London, and aimed to stay for at least 48 hours.

"The action is intended to draw attention to Amazon's exploitative and environmentally destructive business practices, disregard for workers' rights in the name of company profits, as well as the wastefulness of Black Friday," an XR spokesperson said.

"The blockade is part of an international action by XR targeting 15 Amazon distribution centres in the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands, aimed at highlighting Amazon's 'crimes'."

The protest is the latest by the activist network, formed in the UK in 2018, which regularly uses civil disobedience to highlight government inaction on climate change but has sometimes drawn a public backlash.

Eleanor Harris, from Glasgow, took part in the Dunfermline blockade.

"The era of exploitative throw-away capitalism will soon be over, either by changing to meet the challenges we now face or by the destruction of our global habitats and societies," she said.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company takes its responsibilities, including a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040, "very seriously".

"We know there is always more to do, and we'll continue to invent and invest on behalf of our employees, customers, small businesses and communities in the UK," they added.

jj/pvh

The formation of the North American Monsoon: a unique case in the world

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA

 

IMAGE: DEFLECTION OF THE EASTWARD JET STREAM (ORANGE CONTOURS) FROM THE MIDLATITUDES TOWARD THE EQUATOR, WHERE IT PRODUCES PRECIPITATION (BLUE SHADING, UNITS OF MM/DAY) AS IT THEN ASCENDS OVER THE SIERRA MADRE MOUNTAIN RANGE (OUTLINED BY MAGENTA CONTOUR). view more 

CREDIT: BOOS, W. R., AND S. PASCALE

Monsoons are not found only in South Asia, but they are part of a global-scale circulation that affects almost all tropical regions (e.g. Australian monsoon, African monsoon, etc.). One occurs in North America too, the North American monsoon, which affects western Mexico and the southwestern United States, in particular, Arizona and New Mexico.

To date, this monsoon was considered similar to other monsoons, although smaller. However, new research published in Nature by two scientists from the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and the University of Bologna now provides a new perspective on the processes that drive its formation.

"The results of our study show that the North American monsoon does not originate from the seasonal oscillation of the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone) over continental masses like a typical monsoon. Indeed, its origin represents a unique case as it is strongly influenced by Mexican orography which plays a key role in generating a stationary wave in the extratropical atmospheric circulation and deflecting the jet stream towards the Mexican west coast", explains Salvatore Pascale, one of the two authors of the study, researcher for the Atmospheric Physics Group of the Department of Physics and Astronomy "Augusto Righi" at the University of Bologna and the Centre for Sustainability and Climate Change at the Bologna University Business School. "This new insight into the North American monsoon is relevant for understanding how climate change may affect this monsoon and how rising temperatures may change the extent of these weather phenomena".

Monsoons indirectly influence global atmospheric circulation. They also play a key role in regulating climate in many tropical areas, which usually experience dry winters and wet summers. They are essential in bringing water to regions inhabited by billions of people. The North American monsoon is especially associated with heavy summer rainfall over an area spanning more than a thousand kilometres and it plays a crucial role in the hydrology of western Mexico and the southwestern US.

In the summer season, monsoons generally originate from the rapid warming of tropical landmasses and the resulting transfer of energy to the atmosphere above. In turn, this generates a circulation capable of producing heavy rainfall. Until now, the North American monsoon was thought to originate in the same manner. Thanks to a set of numerical simulations, scientists analysed the origin of this monsoon, showing that the mountain ranges in the region and their interaction with the extratropical circulation are responsible for its formation.

These results have implications for models and types of analyses used to dynamically forecast rainfalls brought by the North American monsoon in the region, especially considering the consequences that climate change could have in terms of droughts or extreme weather events.

The study was published in Nature under the title “Mechanical forcing of the North American monsoon by orography”. The authors are William R. Boos of the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and Salvatore Pascale of the Department of Physics and Astronomy “Augusto Righi” (Atmospheric Physics Group) at the University of Bologna and the Centre for Sustainability and Climate Change at the Bologna University Business School.

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-021-03978-2 

ARTICLE TITLE

Mechanical forcing of the North American monsoon by orography

Psychedelics show promise in treating mental illness

Peer-Reviewed Publication

VIRGINIA TECH

 

IMAGE: DOCTORAL STUDENT BOHAN ZHU WORKS IN THE LAB OF CHANG LU ON PROJECTS THAT COULD LEAD TO NEW TREATMENTS FOR DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER. view more 

CREDIT: TONIA MOXLEY FOR VIRGINIA TECH

One in five U.S. adults will experience a mental illness in their lifetime, according to the National Alliance of Mental Health. But standard treatments can be slow to work and cause side effects.

To find better solutions, a Virginia Tech researcher has joined a renaissance of research on a long-banned class of drugs that could combat several forms of mental illness and, in mice, have achieved long-lasting results from just one dose.

Using a process his lab developed in 2015, Chang Lu, the Fred W. Bull Professor of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering, is helping his Virginia Commonwealth University collaborators study the epigenomic effects of psychedelics. 

Their findings give insight into how psychedelic substances like psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, and similar drugs may relieve symptoms of addiction, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The drugs appear to work faster and last longer than current medications — all with fewer side effects.

The project hinged on Lu’s genomic analysis. His process allows researchers to use very small samples of tissue, down to hundreds to thousands of cells, and draw meaningful conclusions from them. Older processes require much larger sample sizes, so Lu’s approach enables the studies using just a small quantity of material from a specific region of a mouse brain.

And looking at the effects of psychedelics on brain tissues is especially important.

Researchers can do human clinical trials with the substances, taking blood and urine samples and observing behaviors, Lu said. “But the thing is, the behavioral data will tell you the result, but it doesn’t tell you why it works in a certain way,” he said.

But looking at molecular changes in animal models, such as the brains of mice, allows scientists to peer into what Lu calls the black box of neuroscience to understand the biological processes at work. While the brains of mice are very different from human brains, Lu said there are enough similarities to make valid comparisons between the two.

VCU pharmacologist Javier González-Maeso has made a career of studying psychedelics, which had been banned after recreational use of the drugs was popularized in the 1960s. But in recent years, regulators have begun allowing research on the drugs to proceed.

In work by other researchers, primarily on psilocybin, a substance found in more than 200 species of fungi, González-Maeso said psychedelics have shown promise in alleviating major depression and anxiety disorders. “They induce profound effects in perception,” he said. “But I was interested in how these drugs actually induce behavioral effects in mice.”

To explore the genomic basis of those effects, he teamed up with Lu.

In the joint Virginia Tech - VCU study, González-Maeso’s team used 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine, or DOI, a drug similar to LSD, administering it to mice that had been trained to fear certain triggers. Lu’s lab then analyzed brain samples for changes in the epigenome and the gene expression. They discovered that the epigenomic variations were generally more long-lasting than the changes in gene expression, thus more likely to link with the long-term effects of a psychedelic.

After one dose of DOI, the mice that had reacted to fear triggers no longer responded to them with anxious behaviors. Their brains also showed effects, even after the substance was no longer detectable in the tissues, Lu said. The findings were published in the October issue of Cell Reports. 

It’s a hopeful development for those who suffer from mental illness and the people who love them. In fact, it wasn’t just the science that drew Lu to the project. 

For him, it’s also personal.

"My older brother has had schizophrenia for the last 30 years, basically. So I've always been intrigued by mental health,” Lu said. “And then once I found that our approach can be applied to look at processes like that — that's why I decided to do research in the field of brain neuroscience."

González-Maeso said research on psychedelics is still in its early stages, and there’s much work to be done before treatments derived from them could be widely available.

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JOURNAL

Cell Reports

Collapse of ancient Liangzhu culture caused by climate change

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK

 

IMAGE: STALAGMITES IN CAVES LOCATED SOUTHWEST OF THE EXCAVATION SITE SHOW A CLIMATIC CAUSE FOR THE COLLAPSE OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE LIANGZHU CULTURE. view more 

CREDIT: HAIWEI ZHANG

Referred to as "China's Venice of the Stone Age", the Liangzhu excavation site in eastern China is considered one of the most significant testimonies of early Chinese advanced civilisation. More than 5000 years ago, the city already had an elaborate water management system. Until now, it has been controversial what led to the sudden collapse. Massive flooding triggered by anomalously intense monsoon rains caused the collapse, as an international team with Innsbruck geologist and climate researcher Christoph Spötl has now shown in the journal Science Advances.

In the Yangtze Delta, about 160 kilometres southwest of Shanghai, the archeological ruins of Liangzhu City are located. There, a highly advanced culture blossomed about 5300 years ago, which is considered to be one of the earliest proofs of monumental water culture. The oldest evidence of large hydraulic engineering structures in China originates from this late Neolithic cultural site. The walled city had a complex system of navigable canals, dams and water reservoirs. This system made it possible to cultivate very large agricultural areas throughout the year. In the history of human civilisation, this is one of the first examples of highly developed communities based on a water infrastructure. Metals, however, were still unknown in this culture. Thousands of elaborately crafted jade burial objects were found during excavations. Long undiscovered and underestimated in its historical significance, the archaeological site is now considered a well-preserved record of Chinese civilisation dating back more than 5000 years. Liangzhu was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. However, the advanced civilisation of this city, which was inhabited for almost 1000 years, came to an abrupt end. Until today, it remains controversial what caused it. "A thin layer of clay was found on the preserved ruins, which points to a possible connection between the demise of the advanced civilisation and floods of the Yangtze River or floods from the East China Sea. No evidence could be found for human causes such as warlike conflicts," explains Christoph Spötl, head of the Quaternary Research Group at the Department of Geology. "However, no clear conclusions on the cause were possible from the mud layer itself."

Dripstones store the answer

Caves and their deposits, such as dripstones, are among the most important climate archives that exist. They allow the reconstruction of climatic conditions above the caves up to several 100,000 years into the past. Since it is still not clear what caused the sudden collapse of the Liangzhu culture, the research team searched for suitable archives in order to investigate a possible climatic cause of this collapse. Geologist Haiwei Zhang from Xi'an Jiaotong University in Xi'an, who spent a year at the University of Innsbruck as a visiting researcher in 2017, took samples of stalagmites from the two caves Shennong and Jiulong, which are located southwest of the excavation site. "These caves have been well explored for years. They are located in the same area affected by the Southeast Asian monsoon as the Yangtze delta and their stalagmites provide a precise insight into the time of the collapse of the Liangzhu culture, which, according to archaeological findings, happened about 4300 years ago," Spötl explains. Data from the stalagmites show that between 4345 and 4324 years ago there was a period of extremely high precipitation. Evidence for this was provided by the isotope records of carbon, which were measured at the University of Innsbruck. The precise dating was done by uranium-thorium analyses at Xi'an Jiaotong University, whose measurement accuracy is ± 30 years. "This is amazingly precise in light of the temporal dimension," says the geologist. "The massive monsoon rains probably led to such severe flooding of the Yangtze and its branches that even the sophisticated dams and canals could no longer withstand these masses of water, destroying Liangzhu City and forcing people to flee." The very humid climatic conditions continued intermittently for another 300 years, as the geologists show from the cave data.

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abi9275 

ARTICLE TITLE

Collapse of the Liangzhu and other Neolithic cultures in the lower Yangtze region in response to climate change

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Nov-2021

Brazilians find stock exchange bull unbearable, remove it

By MAURICIO SAVARESE

November 24, 2021

Activists paste the Portuguese word "hungry" on the Golden Bull, a replica of Wall street Charging Bull symbolizing the financial market, outside the Brazilian B3 Stock Exchange in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

SAO PAULO (AP) — Many Brazilians felt bearish about the new Wall Street-inspired bull sculpture outside the stock exchange, and didn’t have to wait long for it to crash: The statue has been removed a week after it was installed.

Sao Paulo’s stock exchange had hoped to bestow the rundown city center with a flashy landmark. But its golden sheen was offset by nearby tents for the homeless and the daily line outside a major trade union of people searching for jobs -- any job.

By Tuesday night, it was gone.

Critics said the metal and fiberglass sculpture at the gates of the stock exchange in no way reflects Brazil’s current economic crossroads nor near-term prospects, with poverty and unemployment high and inflation running in the double digits. Local media have shown poor Brazilians in several cities so desperate for food that they rummage through rejected meat scraps.

“It represents the strength and the resilience of the Brazilian people,” Gilson Finkelsztain, the exchange’s CEO, said at its Nov. 16 unveiling. It was sponsored by the stock exchange and investor Paulo Spyer.

Spyer, who owns a consultancy firm named Vai Tourinho (“Go Little Bull” in Portuguese), said he was honored to give “a gift to all Brazilians.” Some locals were keen to snap pictures with the sculpture, which resembles the Charging Bull in Manhattan’s financial district.

But celebration was swiftly met with protests. The next day, a dozen students posted stickers that read “HUNGER” on the bull’s body. After their removal, the nonprofit group SP Invisible, which aids the poor, organized a barbecue beside the bull to feed homeless people. Both demonstrations reverberated widely on social media.

“This bull is suggesting we are experiencing some progress, but it is the exact opposite,” Vinícius Lima, one of the nonprofit’s organizers, told journalists. “Beef prices have skyrocketed. It costs double what it used to. Fewer and fewer Brazilians can afford it. That’s why we came here.”

Over the weekend, the bull’s sponsors attempted to co-opt demonstrations by asking visitors to bring food for donation. Still, the bull continued getting roasted.

City Hall’s urban planning body summoned the sculpture’s sponsors and the artist who crafted it for a meeting. Its main objection with the golden beast was that sponsors didn’t seek approval beforehand and it apparently violated a law limiting what can be displayed outdoors. Sao Paulo limits outdoor advertising.

“There is a law and it must be followed. Everyone has to be aware of the law before doing something,” Viviane Rubio, an adviser to the urban planning body, said during Tuesday’s afternoon meeting. “You needed to let us know before you placed it there,” she said.

The bull’s creator, artist and architect Rafael Brancatelli, expressed contrition.

“I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful or go over anyone’s head. The lesson has been learned,” he said. “In another initiative, we will certainly look for you first.”

Under orders from Sao Paulo’s stock exchange, a crane took away the bull Tuesday night, its head and horns wrapped in plastic.

Maria Gomes, who has worked in the region 30 years, said Wednesday she was pleased by the removal of the sculpture, which she initially thought was an ad for a barbecue restaurant and had deemed “hideous.” Still, she felt the bull may have been unfairly blamed.

“It was a ‘scapebull,’” said Gomes, 67. “Now that it is gone, it feels better. But it is actually the same degraded city center of years ago.”

From serious to scurrilous, some Jimmy Hoffa theories

By ROGER SCHNEIDER

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FILE - This photo shows Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa in Washington on July 26, 1959. The FBI's recent confirmation that it was looking at a spot near a New Jersey landfill as the possible burial site of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is the latest development in a search that began when he disappeared in 1975. (AP Photo/File)



DETROIT (AP) — The FBI’s confirmation last week that it was looking at a spot near a New Jersey landfill as the possible burial site of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is the latest development in a search that began when he disappeared in 1975.

A number of theories have emerged about Hoffa since he was reported missing, though many of them have been tied to book releases. From serious to scurrilous, here are some of the best:

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Theory: Hoffa was killed on the orders of alleged New Jersey mob figure Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano. His body was “ground up in little pieces, shipped to Florida and thrown into a swamp.”

Who put it forth: Self-described mafia murderer Charles Allen, who served prison time with Hoffa and participated in the federal witness-protection program, told the story to a U.S. Senate committee in 1982.


Outcome: The FBI never found enough evidence to support the claim and questions were raised about Allen trying to sell the story to make money.

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Theory: Probably the most infamous had Hoffa buried under Section 107 of Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Who put it forth: Self-described hit man Donald “Tony the Greek” Frankos in a 1989 Playboy magazine interview.

Outcome: The FBI found nothing to support the claim and didn’t bother to show up when the stadium was demolished in 2010.

“When that information came to our attention we batted it around, but we were all convinced in the end that this guy was not reliable,” FBI agent Jim Kossler said then. “We were able to prove to our mind that what he was telling us couldn’t have happened because he either couldn’t have been there or he was in jail at the time.”

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Theory: Hoffa was abducted by ″either federal marshals or federal agents,″ driven to a nearby airport and dropped out of a plane, possibly into one of the Great Lakes that surround Michigan.

Who put it forth: Former Hoffa aide and strong-arm Joseph Franco in the 1987 book ″Hoffa’s Man.″

Outcome: Other than Franco’s word, there was nothing to support his claim.

A Chicago Tribune review of the book put it this way: “Former New York Times reporter Richard Hammer, who helped Franco with the book, candidly writes in the introduction that the stories have the ‘ring of truth.’ Maybe, but they also reek of something else.”

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Theory: Hoffa was killed by one-time ally Frank Sheeran at a Detroit house. Key parts of the narrative became the basis for the 2019 movie “The Irishman.”

Who put it forth: Sheeran.


Outcome: Bloomfield Township police ripped up floorboards at the house in 2004, but the FBI crime lab concluded that blood found on them was not Hoffa’s.

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Theory: New Jersey mob hit man Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski killed Hoffa in Michigan, drove the body to a New Jersey junkyard, sealed it in a 50-gallon drum and set it on fire. He later dug up the body and put it in the trunk of a car that was sold as scrap metal.

Who put it forth: Kuklinski, who contended in his 2006 book, “The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer,” that he received $40,000 for the slaying.

Outcome: The former chief of organized crime investigations for the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice told The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey, that he doubted the claim.

“They took a body from Detroit, where they have one of the biggest lakes in the world, and drove it all the way back to New Jersey? Come on,” Bob Buccino said.

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Theory: Hoffa was killed and his body was buried beneath a swimming pool in Oakland County’s Hampton Township.

Who put it forth: Richard C. Powell, who used to live on the property and who was serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 1982 homicide in Saginaw County.

Outcome: Police used a backhoe to demolish the pool and dig beneath it in 2003, although no trace of Hoffa was found. At one point, police brought Powell to the scene handcuffed and shackled. Then-Bay County Prosecutor Joseph K. Sheeran told the Bay City (Michigan) Times that Powell “didn’t have any connection to Hoffa at all” and that the convict just wanted a few moments of fame.

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Theory: Hoffa’s killers buried him beneath the 73-story Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.

Who put it forth: Marvin Elkind, a self-described “chauffeur and goon for mob bosses,” in the 2011 book “The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob.”

Outcome: The building, home to General Motors’ headquarters, stands and the claim has never been taken seriously.

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Theory: Hoffa was buried in a makeshift grave beneath a concrete slab of a barn in Oakland Township about 25 miles north of Detroit.

Who put it forth: Reputed Mafia captain Tony Zerilli in the online “Hoffa Found.” Zerilli was in prison for organized crime when Hoffa disappeared, but he claimed he was informed about Hoffa’s whereabouts after his release.

Outcome: The FBI and police in 2013 spent two days digging at the site that no longer had the barn, but found nothing.

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Theory: Hoffa’s body was delivered to a Jersey City landfill in 1975, placed in a steel drum and buried about 100 yards away on state property that sits below an elevated highway.

Who put it forth: Journalist Dan Moldea, who has written extensively about the Hoffa saga, as a result of interviews with Frank Cappola. Cappola, who died in 2020, says his father owned the landfill and buried the body.

Outcome: To be determined. The FBI obtained a search warrant to do a site survey, which it completed last month and is analyzing the data. The agency hasn’t said whether it removed anything from the site.